Heartshield 01
Chapter 6 - Espionage
Mari
I had been peacefully studying and eating dinner with Youske when the spray of AK-47 bullets were shot into the sky outside of my apartment. I walked out to the balcony that faced the street only to find Hiruma bathed in the glow of a street light. "Fuck, Hiruma! Do you know what the hell a damn doorbell is?"
"I got a job for you, Fucking Eggplant."
I sensitively touched my violet colored hair and pouted. I hated being called eggplant. "Maybe I don't want to work for you."
"Too damn bad. We made a deal, remember? Should I go find my witness?" He looked around. "Rui Habashira?" When he looked back up at me, he was smiling like the Cheshire cat. "You've got thirty seconds to get your slave ass down here…or else."
I didn't feel like wasting the time to ask what "or else" was, so I fucking ran down four flights of stairs. Youske leaned over the balcony to look down at us. "Shoes, Mari." He tossed down a pair of flip flops and smiled flirtatiously. "Have fun." He called in a singsong voice. I flipped him off and looked over at Hiruma.
"I'll explain what we have to do on the way there." He stated as he grabbed my arm and lead me down the street. "First I have to know how good you are at hacking."
"It got me kicked out of school back in Houston…Why?" Now I was worried. What would he make me do? I wondered what he even needed me for. He was able to hack into computers expertly.
"Then I'll pick the locks and keep watch while you hack into someone's computer files for me."
"There's no way I'm doing something like that for you. Why can't you do it yourself?"
"Listen." He put his arm around my shoulder and clamped his other hand over my mouth. "We're breaking into the editor's office of American Football Monthly. I sent in an application there for us to play against an American Team coming to Japan. They say that the winning team was chosen by random lottery, but that's a lie. The results came by way too early for it to be random lottery. So, I'm going to make sure Deimon gets a shot against this team."
"Wait…I seen that article." I said, glaring at Hiruma. The school we'd be playing against is X high, the school where my dad was the football coach. "There's no way I'm helping you now!"
"Ah, ah, ah. Just because you have daddy issues doesn't mean we're going to back down from a chance to get ourselves noticed."
Daddy issues? How the fuck did he know? Then I snorted. "You're one to talk. You've got quite a few daddy issues yourself." Of course I read up all the information I could on Hiruma before I came to Deimon. If he was going to try and blackmail me, I was going to blackmail back.
He glared at me, then pointed a pistol right up under my chin. I could feel the cold metal chilling my skin and giving me goose bumps. "What was your ultimate goal as the quarterback of Harijaku?" He asked me.
I glared back and pulled out my Desert Eagle, pointing it back at him. "What the hell does that matter?"
"What was your ultimate goal as the quarterback of Harijaku?" He repeated. "Answer me, fucking eggplant."
"To go to the Christmas Bowl." I said, looking away from his burning emerald eyes.
"And what would you have done to get there?"
"Anything." I whispered.
"Then you understand why I'm doing all of this. This is my last year to lead Deimon to victory. After the fall tournament, I have to give up football and work on getting into collage. This is your last year to do it too."
He was right…He wanted the Devil Bats to get all of the help that they could get. Playing against the NASA Aliens was going to be a challenge, especially if my father let Panther finally play.
So we approached the building of American Football Monthly and Hiruma picked the lock with his earring. On the side, I managed to put in the correct access code to shut down the security system and we made our way up seventeen flights of stairs to get to the top of the building. When we got to the main office I made my way to the main record computer, hacked through the system and followed Hiruma's heavy direction. I sent a message from the computer to Hiruma's phone stating that the Devil Bats won the random lottery and then we left everything the way we found it.
"I'll help Deimon win at all costs." I found myself saying as we walked home. "I've seen the Aliens play, I know what they can do."
"I know." Hiruma placed his hands in his pocket. "Your torpedo pass is a little bit like the shuttle pass."
I laughed at the memories of Homer Fitzgerald trying to teach me how to throw like him last summer. The look on my dad's face was priceless as the ball soared through the air and right into the hands of Jeremy, who had been just walking out of the house. Of course, in the Apollo/Watt/Tanaka household, moments like that never lasted. I had moved in with my mother not just for the reason of getting better schooling, but because he would beat me. Of course, no one knew that. No one except for Youske…and Fitzgerald. At least he didn't beat me anymore, not since Fitzgerald threatened to quit the team if he ever laid a hand on me ever again.
XxX
The office for American Football Monthly looked a lot different during the day. The editor-in-chief didn't look too happy as Hiruma, Kurita, and I ll sat on the couch squished together (The couch was pretty big sized…but so was Kurita). "If you want the NASA Aliens to play against you at all, I suggest you at least give us the chance to beat the Sphinx. When we win, it'll show we're obviously the better team." Hiruma smiled that devilish grin and crossed his arms.
Harao, the Sphinx quarterback snorted. "What makes you think you have a say in what the Aliens do?"
"Do any of you know Leonard Apollo's daughter?" Hiruma asked. "She has a great deal of say in what the Aliens do."
On cue, I picked up my phone and dialed my father's number. He picked up on the first ring. "Yes, Mari?" He asked. I looked up at the clock and breathed a sigh of relief. It was only about eight at night in Houston.
"Don't you dare play that game against the Taiyo Sphinx." I said into the receiver. "They were picked unfairly and I demand that you call the editorial to fix it."
"What does it matter, Bumblebee?" He said into the phone in a smooth voice.
"I want Deimon High to have a chance to play against you. Call the editor and demand that you want Deimon and Taiyo to have a play-off game to see who deserves the right to play against you. You know what will happen if you don't, right?" Before he had a chance to say something, I hung up the phone and waited.
When the editor's phone rang, he jumped. He answered it and apparently my father was yelling so loud that he thrust the phone away from his ear and shot me a dirty look. He murmured something back and hung up. "Fine. Deimon and Taiyo will have a game to see who deserves the right to represent Japan."
I smiled, stood up and brushed past Harao who slipped something into my hand a I walked past. When we began to walk home I finally looked at the small piece of paper he slipped into my hand. "His phone number?"
"Would you look at that?" Hiruma pulled it out of my hand and ruffled my hair. He pulled out his lighter and caught the paper on fire. When it fell in a pile of ashes on the ground he walked right on through it with his hands in his pockets without ever looking back.
"What was that about?" I asked Kurita.
"I'm not sure. Do you want to go out for something to eat, Mari? It'll be my treat. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be able to have a shot playing against the Americans." He looked around for a good restaurant. When I nodded he looked forward at Hiruma. "What about you, Hiruma?"
"Sure. Why the fuck not?"
