11 THE RECRUITS
Shinsou and Misa spent about a minute looking at the scene, before placing their hoods back on. There was a small house next to them, where the elevator was, but a clump of bushes was hiding them from it. A road led from the house, curving down the mountain, disappearing into the distance. Several large lorries were parked nearby, some empty, some filled with soil and rocks.
They phased underground, going down the mountain, following the road, until they came to a high wall. There was a gate here, and the road led out of it.
"This looks like private property," said Shinsou, "I'm guessing that either the Hikari cult bought this land, or it belongs to some rich Hikari member. They've connected this place to the Kamone house by building that tunnel, and they're building an underground warehouse here. It's located so far in that no one can see any construction going on from the main road. You'd only know by the trucks going in and out."
He looked at his watch.
"Let's get back to our camp," he said, "I want to continue interrogating that fellow Citadel, and there must be others here, like Mole, whom we can interview too. But there's no point trying now, since they're having a meeting. We can do it tonight or during the following nights. If they're building something here, it doesn't look like they'll be going away anytime soon."
However, when they arrived back at the Kamone house and were making their way through the garden, Misa happened to notice through her periscope that there was a minibus in the driveway. She phased them over to a clump of bushes so that they could surface and talk.
"Everything seems to be happening at once," remarked Shinsou, "It's all right, let's go back to our camp and see what the monitoring equipment has picked up. We can come back quickly enough, if we have to."
Back at the camp, the footage showed that there were actually two minibuses and a car which had arrived about half an hour earlier. About twenty people had gotten down from the buses, and four from the car. The people in the buses were wearing a uniform consisting of white shirt and black pants. These comprised twelve men and eight women, some young, some older. The uniformed men had taken two bedrooms and the women one. Two of the men from the car wore a different uniform, in navy blue, and appeared to be in charge of security. They had set up cameras in several areas, including the uniformed group's bedrooms, and were using the outhouse as the surveillance monitoring room.
"It's fortunate they don't seem to have noticed our cameras," said Shinsou, "Magnetron really specialises in invisibility and miniaturisation."
He seemed to be thinking.
"I'm guessing that those people in black and white uniforms are new recruits," he said after a while, "Shibata had just been recruited when we lost contact with him here. The cult probably would have made the recruits remove all communication devices like cell phones. Shibata might have kept his, and been discovered here. That's why his last cell phone signal was recorded here."
"They're keeping the recruits under pretty tight surveillance," said Misa.
"They probably don't want any of them to have second thoughts and begin trying for an escape," said Shinsou.
"So I guess we'll be interrogating them tonight?" said Misa.
"I think they'll be here for a while," said Shinsou, "They're setting up what looks like a propaganda production centre in one of the rooms. I see a lot of brochures and a couple of printers and laptops there."
He paused.
"There are two group leaders, did you notice?" he said, "Wearing white shirts and navy blue pants instead of black, and going around giving instructions to the rest about setting up things. I think we can try interrogating at least one of them tonight. They should be able to tell us what's going on.
"I want to brainwash the surveillance team too," he continued, "and see what their shift is like. If we interview the recruits, it'll have to be at night when they're asleep. We'd have to electronically jam the camera in their bedroom and play a recorded loop so that we won't be seen abducting the recruits. It might be easier to just brainwash whoever's doing the surveillance."
He grinned at Misa.
"I think we should get some rest now," he said, "tonight will be a busy night."
.
.
The recruits went to bed early, around nine in the evening, followed by the group leaders. The servants went to bed at ten, as they usually did.
Shinsou decided they could start moving at around eleven. He had disguised himself to look similar to Akiyama, one of the servants in the house who was quite shy and retiring. Akiyama had about the same build as him, and he was gambling that the newcomers wouldn't be familiar enough with the servants to know the difference. He had gotten Misa to phase over to the kitchen and filch six cans of beer.
Misa left Shinsou at the main house, so that the guard would see him walking over to the outhouse. She then phased herself underground and over to the outhouse.
The guard was waiting at the door with a slightly suspicious expression on his face when Shinsou appeared.
"We thought you might like some beer to help you pass the time during your night shift," he said, bowing deferentially.
"That's kind of you, but – " The guard's face had gone blank.
After quizzing the guard, Shinsou found out that his name was Ito, and that he would be doing the night shifts for the length of his stay there while the other guard did the day shifts. He tried quizzing the guard about the purpose of the cult members' stay here, but the man didn't seem to know. He then waited with the guard and set up the recording equipment while Misa went off to get the group leader.
When she arrived at the group leaders' bedroom, the lights were out, but she discovered that they were lying awake in bed and still discussing something. She silently brought out a canister and began releasing sleeping gas into the room. She had put on a mask herself so that the gas wouldn't affect her.
"I'm beginning to feel quite sleepy," said one of the leaders, after a few minutes, "Let's sleep. We can continue discussing this tomorrow."
"All right," agreed the other.
Misa waited till the first leader's breathing seemed to indicate he had fallen asleep, then phased over to the second and, surfacing near him, phased him under the ground.
He was very drowsy, but still awake, which suited her otherwise they'd have to wait for him to wake up for the interview. He started flailing about weakly when he realised someone was abducting him, but since he was in phase mode, he couldn't grasp anything. Misa dragged him underground over to the outhouse. It was a bit like dragging someone underwater, and she was thankful he wasn't too large a man.
She surfaced with him inside the outhouse, but only let his head emerge, so that his body was still bound. Shinsou immediately blindfolded the man before he could take a good look at them.
"Don't struggle," said Shinsou, "We won't hurt you."
"Who are you?" asked the man weakly, before falling silent.
The surveillance guard was sitting in a corner, blank-faced. Misa moved over to the surveillance monitors to keep watch while Shinsou did the interrogation.
"My name is Iemasa Suzuki," said the group leader, in response to Shinsou's questioning, "We've arrived here in Kamone for the initiation of the new recruits."
"When will that be?" asked Shinsou.
"In two days' time," said Suzuki, "Ogawa-san will be coming to conduct it."
"Who is he?"
"He is the one of the leaders of our Hikari house in Shizuoka," answered Suzuki, "He goes by the other name of Graveyard."
Misa remembered the horrible, corpselike face of the villain, the one who could kill people by dissolving their flesh.
"Tell me about the Hikari house in Shizuoka," said Shinsou.
"It is a house in Ematsu in the mountains," said Suzuki, "I serve there with twenty other members. We work to produce materials to promote the beliefs of Hikari."
"So there are only twenty Hikari members in the house?" said Shinsou.
"There are twenty working with me," answered Suzuki.
"What else is done in that house besides producing materials?" asked Shinsou.
"I do not know," said Suzuki.
"Is Ogawa the only person in charge there?"
"There is also Uchida-san, sometimes called Cyanide," said Suzuki, "and Noguchi-san, who is called Maniac."
"Why don't you hold the initiation at Ematsu, then?" asked Shinsou.
"I do not know," said Suzuki.
"Who is the top leader in Hikari?" asked Shinsou.
"I do not know his name," said Suzuki, "except that he is called the Enlightened One."
"What is your task here in Kamone, then?"
"To train and discipline the recruits," said Suzuki, "To keep them busy with tasks, and prepare the initiation room for the ceremony."
Shinsou tried several more questions, but nothing else very useful came up. Suzuki did not know anything else about the Enlightened One, he did not know what else Graveyard and the other leaders did, he did not know anything about the other operations of Hikari, and he could not even remember his own personal history.
At this moment, Misa suddenly said, "Shinsou-san! The other security guard has left his room. He's walking through the parlour."
"Is he coming here?" asked Shinsou. He had started keeping away the recording equipment.
"It looks like it," said Misa, "He's holding something. Maybe he wants to give it to our guard here."
"Get into the wardrobe with Suzuki and the equipment, will you?" said Shinsou. There was a wardrobe in one corner of the room, probably for guests who wanted to use the outhouse as a bedroom.
Shinsou ordered Suzuki to walk over to the wardrobe and hide inside. He then hurriedly opened the cans of beer and emptied them into the bushes outside, placed the empty cans on the table inside the surveillance room, then made Ito sit at the table and lay his head down on it.
He went over to the wardrobe and squeezed in together with Misa and Suzuki.
"Awaken," he called out to the guard.
Ito stirred, and sat up. He blinked several times, looked at his watch, and then saw the empty beer cans next to him on the table. His eyes widened in horror.
"No," he said to himself, "I could not have drunk so much beer and fallen asleep …"
At this moment, the other guard came in. He laughed heartily when he saw all the cans of beer on the table.
"I came because I woke up and realised I forgot to pass this to you," he said, holding out a desktop calendar with a picture of a woman in a bikini on it, "but I see you've found other forms of entertainment."
Ito looked grumpy. "You could just have brought it over in the morning."
The other guard was still laughing.
"I didn't know you could drink so much." He turned to leave, "Don't fall asleep, mind."
"Of course not!" Ito looked defensive.
"Now what?" whispered Misa, once the second guard had left.
"Well, we're about done with this chap Suzuki, anyway," whispered Shinsou, "I don't think we're going to get anything more out of him. But I want to interview a few of the recruits tonight."
"Then you've got to brainwash the guard again," whispered Misa, "but it'll be really odd if you appear and offer him more beer."
"Can you check if that other guard has gone yet?" whispered Shinsou, "And get us another four cans of beer from the kitchen."
Fortunately, the kitchen had become well-stocked with several different brands of beer because Fukuda must have made an extra trip to town to buy supplies for the initiation. Obviously the Hikari members were fond of beer. Misa came back with the cans, and then phased Shinsou and Suzuki through the rear of the wardrobe and the wall of the outhouse back into the garden. Shinsou then made Suzuki hold the cans of beer and walk round to the outhouse door and knock on it.
Ito opened the door cautiously. He was obviously wondering how anyone had managed to reach the outhouse without having been detected on the cameras.
Suzuki, holding the cans of beer, bowed low. Shinsou, who was standing just behind the door with Misa ready to phase him into hiding if necessary, said clearly, "Ito-san."
Ito looked shocked. "Suzuki-san?" His face went blank.
Shinsou ordered the brainwashed Ito to sit down. He decided it would be odd if Ito's breath didn't smell of beer when there were so many empty cans next to him, so he made the guard drink the beer. He looked tipsy after the third can, so Shinsou emptied the last can into the bushes outside.
In the meantime, Misa had begun leading Suzuki back to his bedroom. She then removed the sleeping gas canister from his room; she had left it there to make sure his roommate wouldn't wake up and look for him.
She brought the canister over to one of the recruits' bedrooms, and similarly abducted one of them.
They managed to interview three recruits that night. Misa brought the second one over when Shinsou was only halfway through the first interview, to give the recruit time to wake up. She blindfolded and bound him, and when he woke up, Shinsou immediately brainwashed him. They let him sit there, brainwashed, until Shinsou had finished with the first recruit.
They did the same with the third recruit. Misa used up a few canisters of gas because she had taken the recruits from the three different rooms. She felt it was better than to take all three from the same room, only to have them all wake up in the morning exchanging notes on how they'd all had the same peculiar dream of being abducted during the night. She placed listening devices in all the bedrooms.
Shinsou discovered that the three recruits were all highly educated. One was a medical doctor, the second had a Doctorate in genetics, and the third was a physicist. One had been recruited at a Hikari centre but the other two appeared to have been headhunted at their workplaces. They were unable to tell Shinsou anything about their past, except for their academic qualifications. They knew they had to follow the Enlightened One but they did not know who he was. When Shinsou asked them if it was odd they were following someone whom they did not know, they did not think this strange. They said that they would be given their specific tasks after the initiation, and all believed Hikari was the way to a new world and a bright and glorious future.
Shinsou woke Ito up again before they left. Misa almost felt sorry for the poor man. He looked absolutely horrified and incredulous when he saw the extra cans of beer on the table, and he promptly hid all the cans in a plastic bag, obviously planning to discreetly dispose of them.
Dawn was approaching by the time they arrived back at their camp. Shinsou told Misa to get some sleep first, and that he would rest later when she got up. He didn't appear tired, though, when she woke up later that morning. He had been busy monitoring the recruits' activities.
"So far, so good," he said, when he saw that Misa was awake, "Ito had breakfast in the kitchen and has been looking extremely uncomfortable every time he sees Akiyama and Suzuki, but I haven't actually seen him speak to them. When Suzuki woke this morning, he told his roommate he'd had an odd dream last night but that was about it. The physicist said something similar to one of the other cult members, but the other two recruits didn't say anything."
"That's good," said Misa, "Aren't you going to get any rest?"
"In a while," he said, "I normally don't sleep much."
They spent the rest of the day monitoring the recruits. Some were busy in the propaganda room, printing and folding brochures. Some were cleaning and decorating the basement room, and it looked as if the initiation ceremony was going to be held there. Some were doing chores around the house, while the rest were using the library.
That night, they interviewed another six recruits. Shinsou disguised himself as Akiyama again, and turned up at the outhouse with more filched beer. Ito tried to vigorously refuse before becoming brainwashed again.
The night went off uneventfully. Shinsou got Misa to put sleeping gas in the other surveillance guard's room too, in case he woke up and came over to talk to Ito again. The recruits this time were a mixed bunch. Three again were highly educated: another geneticist, a doctor and an engineer. The other three were a graphic designer, a university student whose Quirk allowed her to mould rock, and a wealthy businessman. The former three had been headhunted at their workplaces, while the latter had been recruited at various Hikari centres.
After noon the following day, Graveyard arrived together with an entourage of six other cars. He was accompanied by two others in his car. Misa recognised one of them as Carousel, the blue-skinned villain whose Quirk could disorientate people. The other man had a hyena's head. After listening to some of the conversation in the parlour, they discovered that his name was Maniac.
The other occupants of the cars appeared to be cult members who were present to provide extra security and take part in the ceremony. They were wearing uniforms similar to Suzuki, white shirts with dark blue pants. Graveyard and the other two villains wore ordinary clothes.
In the late afternoon, Shinsou went off to get a bit of rest, and Misa took over the monitoring. She watched as Fukuda served the villains drinks in the parlour. The servant stumbled while holding the tray, and the drinks spilled onto Maniac.
Misa could not see Graveyard's face clearly, but she saw him get to his feet. Fukuda was bowing and profusely apologising. She looked at Graveyard coming over to her, and fell in desperation at his feet.
Graveyard reached a hand out, and Fukuda backed away. Turning, she would have run from the room, but Maniac and Carousel jumped up and restrained her. Misa watched in horror as Graveyard placed his hand on the woman's face.
She turned the volume of the listening equipment down so that she would not hear the woman's screams. The other two villains were laughing. Some of the cult members were standing nearby, watching.
Misa averted her eyes from the monitor, feeling sick. She could see Graveyard's hideous, corpselike face in her mind. They would be interrogating him later that night, and she was not looking forward to it at all.