Chapter 7: Well, There's Your Problem

July 14, 6:12 P.M.

Kairi was awakened from her nap by the sound of the room's door closing. She looked up to see Riku walking in, a disappointed air following him. She wanted to inquire about his activities for the day, but decided against it upon seeing the state of her close friend. He collapsed on the bed with a deep sigh.

Kairi stood up and walked over to Riku, who had his arm over his eyes and was breathing through his mouth from exhaustion. She stroked the top of his head as she sat down next to him.

"Tired?"

Riku let his arm flop down to his side as he responded to Kairi's query. "I must've walked up and down every street in this city. The pawn shops here suck."

Kairi's soft expression hardened into a frown at Riku's lie. "Riku. Why are you lying to me? You didn't go to any pawn shops. Even if you had, you wouldn't have gotten so exhausted going to every single one in the city. Where were you really?"

The heat of the day had sapped Riku's strength. He simply couldn't formulate any more lies. "I was looking through all the gun shops in the city." Seeing Kairi's shocked expression, he quickly explained himself. "I thought that if I found the store that sold the gun used against Sora, the investigation would pick up some steam. It's been stalled ever since the fingerprints didn't come out well."

Instead of the angry response Riku had expected, Kairi smiled and stood up. "Aww. That's so sweet, Riku. Sora would be so happy that you're trying to help." She clasped her hands behind her back. "Let's go get some dinner. I'm hungry, and I'm sure you're famished."

Riku sat up with a groan of exertion. "Where did you have in mind?"

Kairi held out her arm to help him up. "I don't know. Somewhere nice. I haven't been to a nice restaurant in ages. What do you think about seafood?"

The mention of seafood perked Riku up a bit. "I haven't had seafood since we left home." He let out a low whistle. "Can you believe we've been here more than a week already?"

"I know. It seems just yesterday that…" She hung her head, remembering the parade.

Riku swung his legs over the edge of the bed and walked to Kairi. "Hey, don't worry about it." He lightly tapped Kairi under the chin with a curled forefinger. "Cheer up. It'll all work out for the best. Now let's go get some dinner. I'll buy."

Kairi lifted her head and smiled. "Okay. I'll go put on something nice." As she walked to the bathroom, she turned back towards Riku. "You should probably put on a suit or something." She giggled as he looked down at his clothes. "You're all dusty and you look like a bum. They'll toss you out a second dressed like that. At least put on a black dress shirt and some slacks. Try to feel pretty."

Riku scowled as Kairi skipped into the bathroom to change. She was always trying to get Sora to wear nice clothes. Riku had been lucky enough to escape her marauding fashion sense until recently, when government representatives from various worlds started contacting them with increased frequency. He used the same counter-argument as Sora, which was a foolish decision. The conversation was always the same.

"Riku, those government people are coming on Wednesday. You should wear something nice."

"What if there's a Heartless attack while we're there? I won't be able to move easily."

"Riku, there hasn't been a Heartless on the Destiny Islands since you left the first time. You'll be fine in a dress shirt and pants."

"But-"

"No 'buts'. Wear something nice."

If Sora was present for the conversation, he would snicker at Riku's lack of success. Kairi had always been somewhat of a mother to the two boys. When she told them to do something in her "mother" tone, they always complied, even if it took a bit of arguing to make it happen. Riku's free spirit was no exception.

Riku looked at his formal wear with derision. Oh well. At least he'd get some good seafood with the deal. He donned the black attire and stood in front of the mirror. He felt as though he was wearing a straightjacket. Everything was so… tight. He was used to loose-fitting clothing that was actually comfortable.

"You look good," Kairi said as she exited the bathroom. "Formal wear really suits you."

"Oh, ha ha. Suits. Very funny. Someone should follow you around with a drum kit. For your information, this is not a suit. It's just a nice shirt and slacks."

Kairi walked up next to him and looked in the mirror. She was dressed conservatively: a simple black dress that dropped just below her knees was accompanied by a gleaming pearl necklace that Riku didn't even know she had. Her hair had been put up in a tight bun. The neckline on her dress was even with her shoulders, which Riku noted with a hint of disappointment before throwing the thought out of his mind.

She tugged at his arm. "Come on, let's go. I'm hungry."

8:55 P.M.

Local time.

Dennison sent an electronic copy of the purchase record and security video to the Forensics department back in Comberth Harbor. He then downloaded the files to his personal jump drive. Jonas Jr. then sent a copy to the local police department as well. Dennison slipped the drive into his coat pocket and headed back out to the car.

"Be sure to update me on this case!" Jonas Jr. shouted after him as he left. Only if this video provides us with a decent lead, Dennison thought. The video was their last clue. If it didn't nail down a suspect, the trail would go cold. SWAT had finished combing the rooms of the Hotel Regal about ten hours ago, recovering only shell casings that had been flushed down a toilet. Any fingerprints or DNA that remained had been washed away. The lieutenant cringed at the thought of rooting around raw sewage.

His car pulled away from the Jonas Armories building and turned towards the Gummi Hangar. Commissioner Hewitt poured himself a glass of bourbon and offered it to Dennison, who politely refused. The Commissioner shrugged and downed the drink himself. He winced at the burn and spoke to Dennison.

"If you need to come back here, all the resources of my force are at your disposal. You need anything, I mean anything, just give me a call. I'll send in the cavalry." He smiled and poured another glass of liquor.

Dennison replied amiably. "I hope I don't need to take you up on that offer, but it's certainly welcome."

The car sped down the highway and took the exit towards the Gummi Hangar. The Commissioner handed Dennison a folder. "This contains your ticket and papers to get you through security without being subject to their humiliation. Your flight leaves at ten o'clock. It's an eleven-hour flight with this ship, and you usually have to wait a half an hour for takeoff clearance. You should arrive in Comberth Harbor Gummi Hangar at 6:30 P.M. local time."

The reprieve from security was a welcome one. Dennison hated being searched almost as much as he hated the smell of vinegar, and he abhorred the smell of vinegar. It smelled like liquid pain.

The car finally pulled up to the curb at the Gummi Hangar. Dennison walked through the glass doors into the large atrium with ticket and baggage counters ringing the edges. As he approached the security station, he handed the Commissioner's papers to the guard. He looked the documents over for a few moments before waving Dennison through a small lane towards the edge of the checkpoint with no scanners.

Dennison walked to his terminal, sat down, and checked his watch. Four minutes. A new record. He kicked back and waited for the Gummi ship to arrive.

6:48 P.M.

The walls were closing in.

Sora tried to push them back, but it was no use. They continued inward, their progress inexorable. The Keyblade ripped through the drywall, but posed no threat to the concrete underneath. He began to panic. His room became smaller by the second. His bed was caught between the walls. It held for a second, then bowed upwards and snapped with a loud crack! The walls continued.

Sora could touch all of the walls now. His table had been consumed alongside the TV. He scrunched himself together, trying to escape the crushing concrete. He screamed, but no help came. The door had vanished long ago. He continued screaming, a high-pitched metallic cry for help. He closed his mouth, but the screaming continued.

He awoke to his door being opened. A mercenary walked in holding a tray with Sora's dinner on it. The smell of grilled salmon wafted into the room. Sora's heart raced; the memory of his dream was still fresh in his memory.

He gave a half-hearted thanks to the mercenary, who grunted and shut the door loudly as he left. Sora stared into the distance, panting. He was losing his mind. The isolation was driving him insane. He couldn't be here in this cell any longer. He couldn't be away from Kairi any longer. There was no end in sight to this torture. He couldn't fight it. There was no gauge of progress. It was maddening.

Sora sat down to his dinner. As he ate, a rogue thought embedded itself in his mind and wouldn't leave. No matter Sora's attempts to dislodge it, it remained firmly entrenched in his brain. Sora slowly came to accept it.

I have to escape.

6:54 P.M.

"I'm sorry, but there's no tables open anymore. We just reserved the last one."

Kairi's shoulders sagged as Riku tried to negotiate a price for one of the tables. He kept raising his offer until the restaurant owner walked into the lobby to see Riku and Kairi standing there, offering five thousand Munny just to be seated. He quickly walked up to the maître d and chastised him for letting a couple of celebrities like Riku and Kairi stand in the lobby without being served.

The owner then turned to Riku and Kairi with a smile. He escorted them to a table near the middle of the room, stealthily removing a "Reserved" sign and placing it in his pocket. He pulled out their chairs for them and apologized for the rude treatment they had received and promised that the man responsible would be reprimanded.

Kairi watched as the short, round man stormed off towards the lobby. As bad as she felt for the unfortunate maître d, she was glad to have a table. She looked around at the restaurant, its frescoed walls lit by soft yellow lights in small ornate chandeliers hanging above each table. It was a truly upscale restaurant. The rich and famous of Comberth Harbor ate here regularly.

In a matter of minutes, a waiter arrived with glasses and an ice-cold pitcher of water. He poured the two teens glasses while they perused the menu. Kairi considered the choices she was presented with, impressed. The stock of fish here was even more expansive than on the Destiny Islands. There were some fish she hadn't even heard of before. She found herself torn between grilled salmon with a lobster tail or crab legs with a bowl of clam chowder. Maybe Riku would be of some help.

"What do you think, Riku?"

Riku was distracted by the menu, but he muttered a slow response. "Well, they don't have surf 'n turf, so I don't think they can call themselves a seafood restaurant."

Kairi sighed. It was a mistake to believe that Riku could have any taste when it came to fancy eating.

"You should try the grilled shrimp with the seaweed salad. It's supposed to be delicious."

Riku grimaced at Kairi's suggestion. "No thanks. Sora told me about that stuff after you made him eat it. He said it was like slimy lettuce."

She rolled her eyes. It was so like Sora for him to exaggerate things he didn't like. "Sora says a lot of things. Two months ago he said there was a ninja in his closet and refused to open it. I had to come over to show him that it was just a poor little trapped bird."

"Yeah, but still… It's seaweed. Is it even safe to eat?"

Kairi giggled. "Would they serve it here if it wasn't safe?"

Riku reluctantly conceded the argument to Kairi as he picked up the wine list. Noting Kairi's disapproving look, he spoke up, not looking away from the list. "The drinking age here is eighteen, and I'm uncomfortable around these people and in these clothes. Now, I gotta find something fairly hard."

Kairi returned to the menu. They'd be taking a taxi back to the hotel tonight.

After a few minutes, another waiter came to take their order. Kairi decided on the salmon and lobster tail. The waiter quickly jotted her order down and turned to Riku, who had a frustrated look on his face.

"And you, sir?"

Riku looked up from his menu and ordered without hesitation. "I'll have the snow crab legs with the grilled shrimp and a seaweed salad."

"Anything to drink, sir?"

"Glass of Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay, please."

Kairi stared at Riku, mouth agape. "You knew exactly what you were going to order, didn't you?"

He allowed a mischievous smile to play across his face. "Before we even left the room."

"You've been playing me the whole time!"

"I have."

"You actually like seaweed salad?"

"I do."

She failed to suppress a smile as she scowled at him. "You're evil, Riku."

"I know."

7: 45 P.M.

The sergeant loaded one bullet into the contraband rifle as he prepared to fire.

His target was a test dummy seated behind a glass windshield that was identical to the one Sora had sat behind the day he was shot. The sergeant was on a raised platform at exactly the height of the eighth story of the Hotel Regal. The target was exactly one hundred and twenty-five yards away. The whole test was in a roped-off sports field surrounded by police cars and caution tape.

Dennison stood next to the police sharpshooter, wearing hearing protection and his bulletproof vest. The sharpshooter was firing without either of them, opting instead to exactly recreate the shot. He peered down the scope and centered it on the dummy's head, which was perfectly positioned in the exact way Sora had been.

He breathed slowly as he rested his finger on the trigger. When he was ready, he held his breath, fired, and exhaled slowly. There was almost no sound. The silencer on the end of the barrel masked the normally loud report of the rifle. Dennison didn't even hear it through his ear protection.

The sharpshooter ejected the magazine and looked down the scope at his handiwork. He raised an eyebrow at the result. "Check this out, sir." He handed the lieutenant a pair of binoculars. Dennison accepted them and sighted the test dummy. The bullet had gone through the windshield at an oblique angle, deflecting slightly, but just enough to hit the dummy in the left shoulder.

The sergeant looked away from the scope and let out a low whistle. "I sighted him on his head, sir. That shot went low and away. The weird angle on the windshield deflected it some more. There's either something wrong with this rifle or the scope."

Dennison sat on a folding chair in the eight-story high as the sergeant replaced the scope with a brand-new assembly. The sergeant explained his actions.

"This scope has been calibrated on an exact duplicate of this rifle. It's dead on-target. If this shot misses, the rifle is messed up. If it doesn't, the problem is in the scope."

The sharpshooter loaded a second bullet into the rifle. He sighted at the dummy, who was sitting behind a replaced windshield. Dennison didn't bother with hearing protection as the rifle fired with a suppressed cough. He looked at the target with his binoculars.

The bullet had hit the windshield directly perpendicular to the surface, proceeding through with zero deflection. It continued into the dummy's head, destroying it on impact. Rubber and metal bounced off every surface in the target car. The dummy slumped over on the console.

The sergeant handed Dennison the old scope with an expressionless face.

"Well, there's your problem."

7:57 P.M.

Kairi's assumption that she would be taking a taxi home with a drunken Riku was unfounded. They were walking home amongst a crowd of people in tuxedoes and evening gowns. Kairi assumed there was a formal event somewhere that these people would be attending. She noted Riku's swagger as the crowd acknowledged the two teens with stares and turned heads. He had always been a tad egomaniacal.

The sun was still setting over the mouth of the harbor as they neared their hotel. The stars hadn't quite come out yet, and the top of the sky was still a shade of indigo. The western horizon was painted with beautiful strokes of orange and yellow fading into purple and violet higher in the sky. It reminded her of the evenings she had spent on the island with Sora.

They entered the hotel as a small commotion erupted in the lobby. A middle-aged man began shouting at the receptionist for failing to have their room ready. His family huddled together a few feet away, embarrassed at the conduct of their patriarch. The receptionist calmly told the man that their room would be ready in about a half an hour.

The man wasn't having any of it. He was enraged that he had just gotten off a ten-hour Gummi ship flight and they didn't have his room ready. Riku, his face dark, walked up behind the man and cleared his throat. The angry man whipped around and quickly recoiled, not expecting to be face-to-face with the famous Riku.

Riku stood exactly eye to eye with the man. They both knew, however, that Riku would be the easy winner in any altercation. Riku exploited this fact.

"Come on. Give her a break. So you gotta wait for thirty minutes. Big deal."

The man wasn't backing down that easily. "Stay outta this. It's none of your business." He tightened his hands into fists.

Riku raised his strong hand just enough to be obvious. His hand was open, ready to summon the Keyblade. "There gonna be an issue here?"

The man saw Riku's subtle actions and reluctantly backed down. "Fine. We'll just wait over here…" He mumbled to nobody in particular as he shuffled over to a group of easy chairs in the lobby.

Kairi, who had been observing the whole incident, watched Riku walk back with a sense of admiration. Sora had a similar sense of justice. It was one of his endearing qualities. A quality that Riku obviously shared.

She stopped her mental comparison of Riku and Sora. It could only lead to more of the misery she had been put through over the past few days. They had just eaten a nice dinner in a formal restaurant; a dinner during which she had absolutely no romantic feelings for Riku whatsoever. She wanted to think the worst was over. But she obviously wasn't over him just yet.

They rode the elevator back to their room, both slightly upset for different reasons. They shared the hope that talking to Sora would relieve their tension. They didn't talk to him yesterday, and he was undoubtedly lonely. Even the extremely limited Morse code conversations had to work wonders for his sanity.

They reentered their room and waited for darkness to fall as they changed back into casual clothes. After about an hour, Kairi grabbed the flashlight as Riku turned off the lights. She turned the flashlight on and off in three-second pulses. After about a minute, Sora's small window matched her pattern. She began the conversation.

How R U?

The reply was sloppy and slow. Bad.

Kairi's heart beat faster. Y?

Losing my mind.

She quickly glanced at Riku, whose face was unreadable in the darkness. Unable to glean any information, she signaled her reply. What's happening?

Nitemares. Paranoid. Room closing on me.

Hang in there.

Dunno how much longer I can.

Kairi felt her heart reaching out to him in his cell. He was losing his mind in his cage and there was nothing she could do to help. In her distraction, she hardly noticed Riku prying the flashlight from her small hands. He quickly sent a new message.

Riku now. What's going on now?

Bad dreams. Bad news on TV. There was a slight pause. Good food, tho.

Kairi smiled at the last comment. Even in his fragile mental state, he had his signature optimism. She felt a wave of relief as she realized Riku didn't share that trait. Good. One more Sora characteristic to hold on to.

Riku continued the conversation, unaware of Kairi's newfound happiness. Small cell, good food. Who's running that place?

My Head of Security is Dylan Maxwell. Jerk.

They chuckled at Sora's terse description. They were unaware that the man monitoring their conversation had been waiting for that exact topic to come up. He wrote the name down and sped off into the evening traffic, ready to report back to his employer.

February 21, 6:22 P.M.

Five months ago.

A flush in diamonds was pretty good, but Harris had lost on four of a kind earlier that evening. He pushed four thousand Munny's worth of chips to the center of the table. He hoped he could sell his hand for everything it was worth.

The man opposite him on the repurposed kitchen table raised an eyebrow at the unexpected move. He glanced at his cards and matched the bet. The trap was set. Harris re-raised, putting another four thousand Munny in the pot. His bet was called. Harris and his opponent put their cards down.

The table erupted with laughter Harris' opponent looked at the flush with dismay. Almost ten thousand Munny richer, Harris leaned over the table and scooped his winnings into a big pile, ready to be sorted by value. He was just about to sort the five-hundred Munny chips when his doorbell rang.

One of the men at the table groaned. "Aw, don't tell me that's your crazy ex, Harris."

Normally, Harris hated answering the door for his virulent ex-wife. But today, well, today was different. Today Harris had a plan. He had confidence. He had leverage.

He grinned and stood from the table. "Watch this. Nobody better steal my chips."

He walked to the door and opened it, revealing a slightly attractive woman wearing too much makeup. She had an irritated air about her as she began to speak to Harris.

"Brian, you're supposed to send me my child support money by at least the tenth of the month."

Harris feigned surprise at the insinuated news. "Oh, did I send it late? My humblest apologies. It won't happen again."

His ex-wife became more irritated at his sarcasm. "Dammit, Brian, you have to send me that money. How am I supposed to support my child without child support money? It's not like she doesn't cost anything to care for."

Harris continued with his rehearsed script. "Well, I'm sorry, but all my money goes to food, taxes, and alimony." He looked wistfully off into the distance and sighed. "If only my ex-wife didn't demand so much money…"

The anger was obviously rising as his ex-wife continued. "You have a legal obligation to send me those checks! Do you remember the settlement? You agreed to send me alimony and child support. It's in legal writing." She held up the copy of their settlement that she took every time he fell behind on his payment.

Anticipating this move, he took the papers and scrutinized them for a moment. "I see. This is very legal writing right here." He turned the paper around and pointed to a sentence. "You can tell because it uses words like 'jurisdiction' and 'postnuptial' and 'fudge'." Harris looked at the paper in mock confusion, then laughed. "Oh. It says judge, not fudge. What was I thinking?" He chuckled to himself.

His ex nearly had steam coming out of her ears at that point. She began screeching at him. "Brian, you'll pay on time or I'll drag you into court again!"

He smiled at the furious woman. "You'll have to start working out if you're gonna do that. You look like you've put on a few pounds."

She couldn't take it anymore. With a grating shriek, she slammed the door in her ex-husband's face and stormed off to the stairwell. Harris turned around to see his poker buddies gawking at him, mouths agape. One of them snapped out of their amazement to speak.

"Damn, man! Where'd that come from?!"

He sat down in his seat again and began to deal the cards, grinning form ear to ear.

"I've got a new friend."