Chapter 10 – The Wrong Path Home

Only two more chapters after this one, so we're building up to the finale. Some important discoveries are made and our heroes find themselves walking into danger once again. Sorry about the cliffhanger at the end but, you know, I am very evil, after all. Hopefully, I can finish this before my typing skills give up on me completely.

The chapter has now been beta checked. Thanks, Arnel.

"So, are you going to stand there smirking or are you going to help me up?"

Few people would have described the expression on Hei's face as a smirk, but Misaki had learnt to read his body language by now. What others would have called a blank stare, she recognised as being outright amusement.

Hei reached down and grabbed her hand, pulling Misaki to her feet. No sooner had he done so than she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

"I knew you'd come for me," she whispered in his ear.

"Sorry it took us so long," he replied softly. "Pandora knew we might try a rescue attempt and had laid an ambush for us. We had to wait until they got bored and moved most of their men."

"I know. Nakamura told me."

"Who's Nakamura?" Hei enquired.

"My interrogator. He told me you'd been killed and then injected me with the same drug they used on my father. Don't worry, though, I don't think they gave me enough to get me addicted," she added quickly, noticing the icy look that had appeared in his eyes.

"I'll still kill the bastard," he grunted.

"Only if you get there ahead of me," she retorted. "By the way, your timing is impeccable. Those goons were just about to execute me."

"I know, we've been monitoring Pandora's communications," he explained. "When we heard the order had been given to dismantle the ambush and kill the hostage, we knew it must mean you. We'd been waiting for this moment and were able to mount a snap operation. Kobayahi is outside leading the mercenaries."

"That must explain why they were actually effective this time."

"Yeah. Anyway, we need to get you out of here. Can you walk okay?"

"If it gets me out of here I'll hop while balancing a crate on my head," she confirmed. "Actually, wait a second."

Letting go of her rescuer for a second, Misaki made her way over to the body of one of the Pandora soldiers and picked up his G-36 assault rifle. She briefly fished around in the dead man's chest rig and found a couple of spare magazines which she tucked inside her overalls.

"Ready?" Hei asked.

"Yeah, and I hope one of those Pandora bastards actually tries to stop us. I'm really in the mood to shoot someone."

"Yeah, well, don't get too enthusiastic. You can barely stand as it is."

"I know," she allowed, "but I'm just saying nothing and no one is going to stop me getting out of this hellhole."

"Let's go."

Hei slipped his arm around her middle, supporting some of Misaki's weight. Although her pride wouldn't allow her to admit it, she was nearly to the point of collapse and his gesture was extremely welcome. Together, they made their way out of the warehouse and out into the night.

"There they are!"

They turned their heads to see a group of Pandora soldiers running towards them from the left. There must have been at least two squads of them.

"Give me cover fire," Hei snarled. "I'm sure our snipers will help, too."

With those words, Hei shot a length of cable at the top of the warehouse and a second later vanished into the night. Seeing no immediate cover, Misaki dropped to her belly and took aim at the rapidly advancing soldiers. She fired a short, three-round bust and was gratified to see the man she aimed at fall.

Several more loud cracks could be heard and another Pandora soldier fell. Evidently, the Syndicate's snipers were still active as Hei had suggested, and they certainly seemed to have some skill. Smiling grimly, Misaki took aim at the next target and fired a short burst.

She'd just released the trigger when something blurred on the edge of her vision. Three of the Pandora soldiers, who were now less than one hundred metres away by this point, suddenly fell as a shadow flitted between them. Misaki immediately ceased fire and hoped that the Syndicate snipers would also realise what was happening. The Pandora troops had allowed Hei to get in close and that would be the last mistake they ever made.

To their credit, the men wearing the white body armour immediately reacted to the new threat but as Hei was already in the middle of their group they couldn't use their weapons without fear of hitting their own side. Several men discarded their rifles and drew their knives, only to be instantly cut down by a rampaging black shadow. Misaki watched, almost mesmerised, as Pandora's troops dropped, one by one.

"Misaki!"

A cry made her look around. Running towards her was a large man clutching a rifle in his arms. A smile crept onto Misaki's face as soon as she saw him.

"Goro!" she cried, scrambling to her feet.

Goro Kobayahi came to a halt before her and offered a steadying hand as Misaki's legs nearly gave out underneath her.

"Are you alright, Misaki?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," she replied before grimacing. "Actually, that's a lie. I feel like shit and I'm on the verge of collapse. You're a very welcome sight."

"I'm just glad Hei was able to find you so quickly," the large man replied. "Indeed, it looks like the Black Reaper has disposed of Pandora's lackeys."

Look behind her, Misaki saw Hei had indeed polished off the few remaining troops and was jogging back towards them.

"Your snipers earned their pay," Hei told Kobayahi as soon as he arrived.

"Yes, I was pleased with their performance," he confirmed. "Oreille has many talents, but picking capable fighters isn't one of them. I was glad I was able to put my own crew together for this operation."

"Yeah, but I think we need to get out of here… fast."

"Agreed," Kobayahi said with a nod before reaching for the handset of the small, digital radio he carried. "All units; orange blossom. I say again; orange blossom."

"I take it that's the signal to withdraw," Misaki noted wearily.

"Yes, and not a moment too soon. You look dead on your feet," Kobayahi noted.

"Don't worry, I'll carry her," Hei offered and, before she could say anything, Misaki was swept up into his arms.

"Excellent. Well, let's get the hell out of here!"

A small part of Misaki's brain bitterly resented being carried out of the compound like a small child, but the larger part of her was grateful. She had been convinced that she was going to die, either with a bullet through the back of her skull or in lingering agony as Pandora's abhorrent truth drug ravaged her body. Now, she knew her friends hadn't abandoned her and she was cradled in the arms of the man she loved.

Frankly, there was no place on the earth that she felt safer.

Misaki awoke with the smell of coffee in her nostrils. She opened her eyes to see Hei standing by her bedside with a cup in hand.

"Morning," he greeted her. "Oreille's here and she wants to see you."

She took the coffee and took a grateful sip.

"Has she found something?"

"Yeah, she thinks so."

It was four days since The Syndicate had freed her from the insidious grasp of Pandora and Misaki was finally starting to feel like her old self again. Of course, she'd been examined by friendly doctors and had taken numerous blood tests, but they had assured her that there would be no permanent side effects of her incarceration.

For the last few days, they had been deposited in another safe house, this one in Meguro, while she recovered. Hei seemed to hover over her every waking moment, but she wasn't going to complain about all the attention he was giving her. Kobayahi and Oreille had visited several times, mainly to quiz her on every aspect of incarceration. Misaki had provided all the information she could remember, particularly on her mysterious interrogator, the dubious Mr. Nakamura. Oreille had left promising to see what she could dredge up about the man. Presumably, she had found something.

Misaki quickly drank her coffee, before pulling on some clothes. She found Oreille in the front room of the tiny house, reclining on the single sofa and looking like she owned the place which, Misaki realised, she probably did.

"Ah, Misaki, glad to see you're looking a little brighter today," Oreille announced by way of a greeting.

"Yeah, I'm feeling much better."

"Good, well, I have dug up some information that will make you feel even better," Oreille informed her. "For one thing, I've found out who your interrogator actually is."

"Really?"

"Yes, his real name is apparently Than Shwe, although I'm not one hundred per cent certain of that," she explained. "He is from Myanmar originally, although his mother was probably Chinese. He's worked as a low-level operator for Pandora for some years and never uses the same name on any two missions he undertakes. He's stayed off my radar simply because I didn't think he was particularly important. After I realised he was the man you described, I reviewed my files on him and I've been forced to change my mind. It appears this man is extremely skilled in hiding his involvement in all manner of schemes. I discovered a pattern where on the face of it he was dealing with some trivial, run of the mill problem for Pandora, whilst he was actually pulling the strings behind much more grandiose projects."

"It sounds like this bastard is important," Hei noted.

"Oh, I think we can definitely agree on that," Oreille confirmed. "Once I appreciated our friend was more than he appeared, I engaged a considerable amount of assets to investigate him and discover his current location. As it turned out, I didn't have very far to look. Mr. Shwe is apparently a regular visitor to the Ohara research facility, just twenty kilometres south of Tokyo. Again, I never paid the place much attention as I believed it was involved in work on military communications. Having scratched under the surface, however, I think there's more to the place than meets the eye. For instance, you'll never guess who I discovered was also paying visits to Ohara."

"Who?" Misaki asked.

"Why, our Dear Professor Schroeder, that's who."

"Schroeder!" Misaki gasped.

"Well, that fits into the story Nakamura, or whatever his real name is, told you about wiping out us Contractors," Hei pointed out. "I might have guessed that scrawny little rat was involved in this, somehow."

"So, Pandora is up to their same old games, are they?" Misaki snorted. "You would have thought they would have learned by now."

"This time, though, they seem to have a different motivation," Oreille pointed out. "What your helpful interrogator said about tapping the gates as an energy source might have some substance to it. A lot of people around the world have suddenly become interested in the gates again, including the United States Department of Energy. Why would they become involved unless there was some potential benefit that could be extracted from the gates? No, America and China have put too many resources and taken too many risks for this to just be about Contractors. I'm not saying the two issues aren't linked, but there's more going on here than we know."

"I guess I'm going to be paying a visit to this Ohara research facility, then, aren't I?" Hei noted.

"I'm coming too," Misaki quickly added.

"Misaki, I…" Hei began.

"No," she cut him off. "We're together in this now. Look what happened to me when we split up. For good or bad, we're staying together from this point."

"Naughty boy," Oreille scolded him. "Fancy suggesting running off and leaving your lovely little Misaki behind. Shame on you!"

"I guess I'm outvoted," Hei allowed grudgingly. "Okay, so both of us are going in. Any plans on how to get in there, Oreille?"

"But of course!" she confirmed smugly.

"Somehow, I thought you might," he replied.

"But before we go into that, don't you think it's time you introduced Misaki to our visitor?"

"Visitor? What visitor?" Misaki enquired.

"She's been with us since we raided the Toshogu Shrine," Hei revealed. "Hasn't said a word to any of us, though."

"I think she's been waiting for you to arrive, Misaki," Oreille added.

Frowning, Misaki let herself be led out of the room and down a narrow corridor. Hei guided her to a closed door and knocked on it once. Without waiting for an answer, he opened the door and gently pushed Misaki through it.

The room was dark as the curtains were drawn. Nevertheless, she could make out a small, hunched figure sitting at a small table. The person made no effort to look around to see who had entered but remained where she was, perfectly still.

Frowning, Misaki slowly walked towards the figure, intent on not startling the person. As she stepped towards the person, recognition began to dawn on her.

"Madam Stargazer!" Misaki gasped. "You found her!"

"Hello, child," the woman whispered, a small smile on her lips.

"Well, that's the most she's spoken since she arrived here," Hei noted.

"The players are all assembled and the board is laid out ready," Hoshimi announced. "We are ready to begin the ending. Who will win? Will the old stars return or the new ones remain? Who can say, for blind chance now plays its hand and the path of the Gods is unclear."

"Madam Stargazer," Misaki began. "I'm glad to know you're safe. Is there anything you can tell us about the Ohara research facility?"

"Giants waken from their slumber and seek to claim their prize. The Devil lays his breadcrumb trail but only the stars know the true path. You must grab the Devil by the tail even if he leads you down the wrong track. All paths are interlinked, so who is to say that the wrong path will not lead you home."

"Sounds like gibberish," Hei scoffed.

"Shush!" Misaki scolded him before turning back to the old woman. "Who is the Devil, Stargazer, and where is home?"

"Follow the path that you must, dear child, and everyone will find their rightful place. The stars will change and that which was created in error will be corrected. The time is coming and we will greet the old stars like long, lost friends."

"Madam Stargazer?"

"I will say no more," the old woman murmured and was still.

Hei signalled to Misaki for her to follow before he led her out of the room.

"Did you understand any of that?" he enquired.

"No, other than I think she just wants us to carry out our current plans. That was really all I could get from that."

"Maybe," Hei allowed, "but I don't like this talk of the Devil and his breadcrumb trails."

"Neither do I, but what choice do we have?"

"None at all," he agreed, "and that's exactly what I don't like."

Wearily, Hei made his way to the room he and Misaki shared. He'd left her talking with Oreille about their plans and the supposed meaning of Madam Stargazer's garbled message. He, however, was fed up talking and just wanted a few moments of peace to process everything. Things were coming to a head, he knew, and he had other things to consider.

It was only a slight surprise when he opened the door to the room that he found a young girl with beautiful blonde hair sitting on the bed.

"Hello, Ama," Hei greeted her. "I wondered when you would be putting in an appearance again."

"I had to wait until you were alone," the girl responded. "Really, it's quite sweet the way you spend all your time with Misaki."

"What do you need?" he asked, suddenly feeling very tired.

"Close the door and come and sit down," Ama instructed. "I have some important things to tell you."

Hei did as he was told.

The truck pulled slowly up to the gates of the research facility. Certainly, it was nothing for the guards stationed there to be concerned about as that very truck made deliveries there every week. The fact that the driver and his assistant were unfamiliar faces was no cause for suspicion, either. They had the correct ID and the same crews rarely made the trip two weeks in a row, anyway. The truck was waved in without ceremony.

Only when Hei gently pulled away from the gate did Misaki begin to relax. Thanks to Oreille's meticulous research and planning, they had discovered that the same catering firm made weekly deliveries to the Ohara research facility, taking the same route from their depot to the camp at around the same time every Tuesday. It had not been hard to infiltrate the company, gather information, and then ambush the delivery truck en-route to the facility. Hei and Misaki, both dressed in white overalls and matching caps they had taken from the bemused crew who had been led away to a safe location with the promise that they would be released in a day or so if they didn't cause trouble.

"So far, so good," Misaki noted as Hei carefully drove the truck along the narrow roadway.

"Don't jinx it," he retorted. "This almost feels too easy. I suspect we haven't even begun to encounter the real security yet."

"True, but we're well prepared," she countered. "We ditch the truck up near those buildings, don't we?"

"Yeah," Hei agreed. They had managed to conduct a pretty through drone survey of the exterior of the camp and had their movements planned to the finest detail, at least for the exterior of the establishment.

They left the truck in the location they had planned and, ditching the overalls of the catering company, revealing Pandora uniforms beneath. They hid their old garments away out of sight, locked the lorry securely, and headed towards a large, two-story building around a hundred yards to their left. It was there that they believed they would find answers. Before he shut up the van, however, Hei retrieved a small bag which he slung over his shoulder.

"What's in there?" Misaki asked.

"Just something that's got me out of a few sticky situations in the past," he revealed, walking towards the building.

Their luck held as they entered the building. A Pandora technician who was going out at the same time even went as far as holding the door open for them. They found themselves in a nondescript corridor that featured a few noticeboards stuck on the walls and three doors at the end. Naturally, they had no idea which way to go so they picked the left-hand door at random. This, in turn, led to a larger room containing what looked like power generators. Deciding to explore more, they entered.

"This looks like a lot of capacity," Hei noted. "You could power a small city with all this."

"Yeah, but do you have any idea why they need that much electricity?" Misaki asked.

"No clue," he admitted. "I guess we keep looking."

They followed a service path between the large, humming machines and Misaki noted that they were walking on a downward slope. Soon, they reached a metal platform which had stairs that led downwards. Seeing nothing else for it, they descended further down into the facility, Misaki cringing at the metallic clucking sound she made with every step she took.

The steps eventually led to a large, hanger-like space obviously used for storage. The dim strip-lights gave the place an eerily glow.

"This place is much bigger than we thought," Misaki noted.

"Yeah, kinda makes you wonder what they're doing down here and why they need to generate so much power."

"Let's press on," she insisted.

The large space proved to be more of a gigantic corridor than they had at first thought. As they walked through the echoing structure they became aware that it continued back far further than was first apparent. Indeed, the hallway curved and they were soon confronted by a huge passageway that stretched out beyond sight.

"Okay, this is creepy. This place must lead to the outskirts of Tokyo," Misaki muttered.

"Maybe not quite that far," Hei corrected before pointing ahead. "Look, to the left, there's a side passage. Let's check it out."

It took them several minutes to reach the spot Hei had indicated. It proved to be an inset doorway rather than an actual passageway, but the 'no entry' sign mounted above it was enough to capture their interest.

"It's locked," Misaki informed him after trying the door. "Do you think you can get it open?"

"It seems to be linked to an electrical circuit," he announced after a brief examination. "That means…"

He placed his hand on a keypad mounted next to the door and shot a bolt of electricity into it, frying the circuits instantly. It still required a good kick from him to get it open, but the door obligingly swung open, anyway.

Peering in, they could see another, huge, empty room. On the far side, however, was a metal stairway that led to a gantry that ran all along the walls of the room, a good twenty feet up. More promising was the fact that there were various doors mounted at regular points all along the gantry.

"Going up?" Hei inquired.

"Better than walking down that damn corridor forever and a day," she responded.

They entered the room and headed towards the stairs. They had reached the middle of the huge space when one of the doors above them opened and a man in an immaculate suit emerged. He paused at the railing and looked down at them.

"Miss Kirihara, so good to see you again," he called, "and BK-201, no less. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Nakamura!" Misaki cried out in horror.

"Indeed, although I assume by now that you understand that is not my real name. However, for the duration of this operation, it is what I would like to be known by, so I will crave your indulgence and ask you to continue to refer to me by that name."

"So, you saw us enter, did you?" she challenged.

"Saw you? My dear lady, I've been engineering your arrival here since before you landed in China all those weeks ago. I must say, Madam Oreille does have a fearsomely efficient intelligence network, but mine is better."

"To what purpose?" Hei demanded. "Why did you want us here? Is it something to do with all those generators?"

"Ah, BK-201. I have to say, your looks really don't match up to your reputation," Nakamura stated smugly. "Of course, I'd be the first person to say that you should never judge a book by its cover. No, my reasons for wanting you here are nothing to do with generators or anything else in this facility. My reasons are more to do with what's not here."

"Explain," Hei snapped.

"Oh, you want the classic villain's exposition, do you? Well, I'm afraid I will have to stop short of that. I will offer you a little clue, however. There is absolutely nothing of value or use to you in this entire complex, which is why I lured you here."

"What are you talking about?" Misaki yelled.

"It's just what I say," Nakamura explained amicably. "I am a man who likes to research his opponents carefully and also learns from the mistakes of others. Pandora has suffered some major setbacks in recent years that have cost us greatly. These defeats have all had one thing in common – the involvement of the man standing next to you."

"Hei?" Misaki gasped.

"Ah, he's calling himself that at the moment, is he? Fine, I'll go with that. Yes, your friend Hei has been involved each time Pandora have encountered defeat in recent years. From our efforts to wipe Contractors and Dolls from the face of the planet to our plans to take control of Hell's Gate, he has always been at the heart of our downfall. Ironically, the only time our operations went unhindered was when he was working for us, admittedly indirectly through what was the old Syndicate. As I was tasked with ensuring our latest project was successful, I decided that the only way I was going to make sure BK-201 didn't get involved was to make sure he was working for us again."

"What?" Misaki exclaimed.

"I would never work for you people again," Hei snapped. "You bastards tried to kill me. You took Yin away from me!"

"Oh, we didn't tell you that you were working for us, but that's what you've been doing, in effect, for some time. Miss Kirihara there, too."

"You bastard! I would never…" she began.

"We've been drip-feeding you information ever since the pair of you arrived back from South America," Nakamura revealed. "Since previous attempts to kill BK-201 had proved unsuccessful, I decided that misdirection was a better idea. First, I let slip to Oreille's network where your father was being held, Miss Kirihara, and then made sure that Naoya Kirihara was bound to mention Madam Stargazer, whom we had placed at Toshogu Shrine. Capturing you was actually a bonus, as that had not been our real intention. Still, it worked perfectly, as I could reveal myself and then, in turn, lead you here. My plan has worked to perfection."

"What possible purpose could you have for dragging us around by the nose like this?" Hei demanded.

"Quite simply, you filthy Contractor, I was simply making sure that you and your whore there were kept as far away from our real operation as possible."

"What?" Misaki gasped. "All this effort… all this manoeuvring… just to distract us? Why didn't you just try to kill us instead? You had plenty of opportunities."

"Yes, and we have made numerous attempts on BK-201's life in the past, and he's still here and all the people we sent after him our dead." Nakamura pointed out. "If I believed in such things, I would almost say that he is being watched over by some divine power. No, it was better to lead you here and let you waste your time running around these big, empty halls while elsewhere we complete our final preparations. Very soon, every Contractor and Doll in the world will be gone, as will those infernal gates."

"But you said you needed the gates as an energy source," Misaki protested.

"Yes, I did say that, didn't I?" Nakamura confirmed with a smirk. "It's not just you two that I've been misleading, I'm afraid. Do you really think that the governments of the United States and China would devote so much time and resources to this project unless they thought they were getting something out of it? No, they will shortly be in for a rude awakening, too. Nothing will be Pandora's fault, of course. In fact, the way this has been set up the two superpowers will end up blaming each other for the gates' destruction. Who knows, it might even end up in a war, but that is of no concern to us, and you two won't be in a position to care, either."

As soon as the words had left Nakamura's mouth, the various doors situated along the gantry were flung open and armed Pandora troops stormed out. Their boots rattled loudly on the metal walkway as they fanned out and occupied every foot of space. Misaki guessed there must be fifty or sixty of them, and they all had their rifles pointed at Hei and herself.

"I know that you're good, BK-201, but I really can't see how you can possibly get out of this situation. Still, console yourself that even if you weren't about to die in a hail of bullets now, that you'd be dead in an hour or so, anyway, as will every Contractor on the planet. Goodbye, BK-201 and Miss Kirihara. It was nice knowing you."

The Pandora troops all opened fire as one.