Title: Sow and Reap

Author: Serena J

Rating: R for use of the f-word and some sexual content

Genre(s): Romance, Angst

Pairing(s): Primary Seto/Joey/Atemu

Spoilers: none

Beta: Mishiko

Disclaimer: Just the words, not the folks.

Summary: When Seto takes an impromptu vacation, he turns everyone's life upside down.

Chapter 6: Let Him Go.

Chapter 6

A teacher with gambling debt found a file identifying half a dozen high profile students. Mokuba happened to be in the right place at the wrong time. KaibaCorp ran better background checks on the full staff and found four others with severe financial issues. In addition, there were several with addictions, two actual pedophiles and a sexual offender. I was appalled that this institution had been entrusted with my brother's safety in the first place.

I'd been in France for four days when the kidnappers called again. We had expected that they would not be timely, but I was getting frantic. My landline was forwarded to my cell and all calls in or out of Father and my networks were being traced.

"Miss me?" The rough voice asked.

"I think it's impolite not to call if you are going to be late."

"There's a bidding war going on. People like pretty little boys with soft skin."

I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle him. I also knew that the longer I kept him on the phone, the more information the call yielded. "He's a small child. I can't imagine he's worth that much." My pager vibrated, telling me that Father was aware of the call and listening.

"The smaller the bag, the bigger the price tag."

"And just how big is this price tag?"

"Forty million."

"Yen? Fine. I'll write a check."

"Cheeky. US. Cash. Be at the airport in Bombay in three days if you want to see him."

"You could let me speak to him now."

"I'll send you a keepsake."

"I won't pay full price for damaged goods." I was sweating, fighting to keep my voice calm. "If you start sending me parts of him, the value goes down."

"You'll get all of him. Eventually."

"Perhaps. But if I can't put all the pieces together, I can't use him, can I?"

"Yeah, you're the bastard's son alright. What would he have paid if I'd snatched you?"

I wondered that myself. "If you are truly curious, try it."

The line went dead.

Two things happened within four hours. Father tripled the security around me and Ryou arrived at the KaibaCorp Paris office with the courier bringing the cash.

I didn't even wait until we were alone to fling myself into his arms. We embraced for too long and a moment longer as I had to pull myself together.

"Status?" he asked with a beautiful, but sad, smile.

"Irrelevant. Where is Anzu? And Joey, Honda, everyone; I'm barred from information about them." He frowned. "Ryou, damn it! Please! I need something."

He nodded. "Anzu was under suspicion because of the amount of force she's used on you over the past year."

"Force!?"

"The promotion, the termination clause, the..."

"She didn't ask for any of that! I did it because she deserved it all!"

"We know that, but Personnel doesn't." He moved toward my office couch. "And Security doesn't believe anything it can't verify twice."

The answer was flawed. "You've gotten almost as many perks."

He hesitated. "My case is different."

"How so?"

"I work for KaibaCorp not KaibaGames. You didn't actually approve my raise or any of my bonuses. And my initial security clearance was more recent."

I thought about that for a moment as I paced the room. I did sign all the paperwork, however, payroll office and work assignment did not always track and employees of one company often did work for both.

But not my personal staff.

"Why were you never shifted to KaibaGames?" He looked away from me. "Regardless of who hired you, when you joined my personal staff you should have been shifted to my budget." He didn't answer and would not look at me. "So who is your supervisor?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Kaiba-sama."

He wasn't a gift, he was a plant.

I wanted to be hurt and outraged, but I didn't have the strength. And frankly, after all I knew about Ryou, even if he started out as my Father's spy, I genuinely believed he no longer was.

"Get Anzu and the others out, Ryou," I said, startling him. "Contact the school, update them on everything you can, see if there is some way we can defer – or preferably eliminate – the missing week of classes. Don't worry about Mokuba – Father and I have that under control. My staff, my friends, and my education. In that order."

He stood and snapped into a bow. "Yes, Kaiba-san."

I crossed the room to him and lifted his face to mine. "If you are ever polite to me again, I'll fire you." I let him go before we both cried.

Anzu arrived in time to go to Bombay with me. Yugi – and, I learned later, his Grandfather the owner of Kame Game Shop – were both released and home the same day. Ryou assured me that neither had been mistreated but I still felt responsible for their being detained and investigated.

At Bombay International, Anzu and I waited in the main terminal with one bag of luggage each. Secreted on both of our persons was a GPS chip to insure that we couldn't be grabbed out of the crowd. Secreted in the crowd were 56 armed security guards, including 25 sharp shooters. We were all waiting for my phone to ring.

At 4:30pm it finally did. "I'm losing my patience with this," I said, letting some of my frustration vent. "For someone selling a product, your customer service is severely lacking."

"He is quite a product," the rough voice said. "You'll buy and sell anything won't you?"

"Games, weapons, people. They are all commodities. Everything has its price and its market. You are about to lose yours."

"Terminal D, Gate 502." The line went dead.

"D, 502," I said aloud as I grabbed Anzu and we ran.

"It's an arrival," Anzu informed me as someone on the headset informed her. "Pakistani Air 1215, in from Istanbul."

"When this is over, he'll have seen more of the world than I have," I tried to joke.

As we neared the gate, my phone rang. "Yes?"

"When the attendant steps away, leave the money on the left side of the desk, near the trash can."

"You never said anything about exchanging the money today." We brought it just in case but he hadn't mentioned it.

"You didn't bring it?" he screamed.

"You said we'd see him today."

"How long will it take you to get the money?"

"Tomorrow at best – unless you'll take half."

"How can you get half?"

"I have resources."

"Wait there."

"Just a moment," I said before he hung up.

"What?"

"I am not infinitely patient. I would prefer my brother, quietly, alive and in one piece. I can provide you half the money, in 30 minutes and we can do this without anyone else involved. But do not think for one moment that if I suspect he is here I would not hesitate to the shut this facility down and search every grain of sand for him. You would be well advised to take the offer." This time, I hung up.

Anzu looked up, excited. "They found someone," she whispered.

We waited.

Then her phone rang. She gave it to me. "Kaiba."

"He's a mouth piece," Father said simply. "They told him where to call from and what to say. He says that the boy was here, but he doesn't know when or for how long."

"Do we have video confirmation yet?"

"No. But soon." He hung up.

They found him on the security tapes. Mokuba looked drugged. He seemed dazed but was moving mostly under his own power and wasn't too thin. They boarded a plane going to Hat Yai on the southern tip of Thailand, a known sex tourism stop.

Anzu and I returned to Paris. We found Honda and Otogi waiting in my office with Ryou.

I embraced them coolly. Yugi was fond of saying that friends stick together through thick and thin, but my friendship had imprisoned them. And even if they were willing to stand by me, what kind of friend would I be to continue to endanger them?

Still, I was grateful to see them. "Where's Joey?" I asked. "Is he taking a later flight?" No one would look at me. "I see." Imprisonment was too thick for some. That was understandable. Joey and I had never made any promises to each other. He wasn't breaking any vows. It had been a long day so I sat down heavily.

"Seto, it's not you." Ryou dropped a folder on my desk. "Joey's father is a 1% owner of MGCo."

"Oh." Father was making the arrangements for our next move; I had already tied up the loose ends at Mokuba's school. There wasn't much to hold my attention for a while. "I see."

"Seto." Ryou gave me a shake. "Joey's still being held by security because of his father's involvement."

"His father's involvement with what? MGCo has nothing to do with Mokuba." Ryou watched my expression as understanding dawned on me. "Get me the MGCo file." He tapped the folder already in front of me.

I flipped through it. We had a list of stockholders as of the time the company folded. There were no 'Wheelers' on the first or second page – the controlling stockholders. I found him on page 5, near the bottom of the list. He owned one share.

I dialed the main security office. "This is Kaiba Seto. Wheeler Joseph is being held for questioning. Release him."

"I'm very sorry, sir. But you don't have that authority."

I hung up. There was no point in terrorizing the man. If I didn't have the authority, only one person did.

I left my office and went to my Father's. I didn't bother to knock or to speak to the insignificant peons in my way. "Why are you holding Wheeler?"

He stood up and slowly, deliberately slapped me hard enough to make my head spin for a moment. "Let's try this conversation with a more respectful tone, shall we?"

I had to take a moment to collect my wits. "All of my friends have been released except Wheeler. Why is he still being held?"

"He's a threat," Father answered simply.

"What threat?"

"He has a history of violence. He has a sister with an expensive medical condition. His father is a shareholder in a rival-now-defunct company. Frankly, son, you could not have designed a worse choice of company to keep."

"None of that matters, Father, you know that."

"I know that one of my sons has been kidnapped and the other has been threatened on multiple occasions. What kind of father would I be not to take preventive actions?"

What kind of argument could I make against that? "How long do you intend to keep him?"

He shrugged. "When the family is together and secure."

Mokuba first. I nodded. "Agreed. What's our next move?"

We discussed Hat Yai. A security detail was already in the city, but really we were waiting for the sellers to contact one of Father's 'associates'. There wasn't much preparation that could be done. Those that were going needed to be ready at a moment's notice.

I didn't need to tell Father that list included me.

By the time I made it back to my hotel room, Anzu, Ryou and several boxes were waiting for me.

Anzu barely gave me time to close the door. "Tell me you're not going with them, Seto."

"It's late, Anzu, you should get some rest. Go be with Honda."

She ignored me. "This isn't dueling, Seto." They both watched as I opened my gear. "This is dangerous."

A ballistic vest. Two high-powered assault rifles, both my preferred design. I thought of what I would need in a weapon – size, caliber, and accuracy – and built that. They had never been a mass selling item but they were often special ordered by sharp shooters and other specialists. The boxes also contained a pair of boots, a helmet and other sundries.

"Can you even use that?" Ryou asked.

"Of course." I checked the sight. "I designed it."

At 1am, I got the call. I carried what I couldn't wear and joined security. We convoyed to a private airstrip and violated several air rights agreements. We landed a few miles outside Hat Yai and took several jeeps to the location.

We arrived at a whorehouse that sat alone behind high walls.

"They consider themselves exclusive," Father scoffed.

Inside the gate, our team began taking custody of young women, quickly and quietly. Very young. Not women, girls.

Father and I entered together. The Madam quickly jumped up to greet us and was abruptly stopped by a vivid red splatter.

"She took custody of him when he got here," Father said. We moved past her. I could hear screaming and gun fire all around us. We went upstairs.

It was quieter; the noise downstairs didn't seem to carry up for some reason. He signaled me to search the rooms to the left while he searched to the right. Each had a child and an adult engaged in acts that had nothing to do with childhood. I had no hesitation when I pulled the trigger on four separate occasions. I moved quickly down the hall. The fifth door I opened lead to a hallway. There was one door at its far end.

Inside, I noticed that the décor was superior to the rest of the dismal surroundings. In the center was a table with a tea set in disarray. Beside it lay a dead man. I moved into the room, stepping wide away from the door. It turned out to be a wise precaution because someone jumped out from behind the door and I was just far enough away to miss his first strike.

I didn't quite have time to register before he flung himself at me, but this time it was as his knife clattered to the floor.

"Nii-sama!" and then we were both on the floor, crying and laughing.

I pulled him roughly away from me. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" He was splattered with blood but none of it seemed to be his.

"No," he shook his shaggier than normal head. "I'm ok." He turned and spit over his shoulder at the corpse beside us. "Told you," he said with some satisfaction.

"Was he one of the men who took you?"

"He used to teach at my school. I think he set it all up but I didn't see him until I got here. He used to catch boys in the locker room after gym and get all touchy-feely. I told him if he ever touched me, I'd stab his eyes out." He looked at me again. "Is Dad here?"

Father himself answered that as if on cue. Mokuba squirmed out of my arms and sprang on him. For once I didn't begrudge my Father the moment. I stood up again and turned the body over. There were two bloody holes where his eyes should be. There was too much blood everywhere else to confirm what killed him. I could not stop myself from smiling wickedly. He may be young, but Mokuba is still a Kaiba.

Over my brother's shoulder, Father looked at me, then the body, and non-verbally asked if I had done it. I shook my head and indicated Mokuba. Father tightened his grip on my brother. I found the knife, tore some fabric from the 'victim' and wrapped it. One of them would likely want to keep it.

When we left the house of ill repute, we took everyone under the age of 18. Then we torched the building. Father, Mokuba and I returned to Paris. On the plane – for the first time ever – the three of us fell asleep with my Father holding us both. For a moment, it was believable that he loved me, wanted me to be happy, and wanted the best for us both.

He called the office and ordered Joey's release before we landed.