Chapter 12: Problems or Solutions?
Harvey and Amara had managed to escape the CIA agents last night and return to their house safely. But the situation had not sit well with them. Amara was currently pacing back and forth with a cell phone in her hand while Harvey lied down on the sofa. She knew Happy Ending would call to see how the job went at some point, and when he did she fully intended to scream his ear off for putting her through that.
"Covert mission; no using our powers? It's like the freak wanted us to fail." Amara muttered while she continued to pace.
The fact Happy Ending had restricted the use of their powers in the first place never sat right with Amara. The Syndicate was never such an organization to care about the means by which a job was done, just that it got done.
Happy Ending took over the Syndicate in order to get at BK-201, but both Amara and Harvey were starting to wonder if there was more than what he let on. Finally, the phone in Amara's hand began to ring, and she didn't waste a second answering.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" She screamed into the receiver, meaning to halfway burst Happy Ending's eardrum.
Little did she know her boss on the other end did not even have the phone up to his ear, but instead held it out in front of him knowing full well Amara would answer with this reaction.
Once her outburst was past, Happy Ending put the phone up to his ear and replied. "If you would relax yourself, Miss Parker, there is no need to shout. Everything went exactly according to plan."
After hearing this, Amara froze completely in place. Harvey looked at her while she was hunched over slightly and had an expression that showed the purest form of being dumbfounded.
"Amara?" Harvey questioned, sounding slightly concerned. Harvey focused on his partner's face as she began to develop a twitch in her left eye and a trembling upper-lip as she breathed in slowly and deeply. "Shit!" Harvey cursed and almost out of nowhere, suddenly jerked up from the sofa and used one hand to snatch the cell phone out of Amara's hand and clasped his other hand over her mouth to keep her from doing what he knew she was going to do. "Sorry, sir, what was that?" He asked Happy Ending in the correct tone one should give to their boss.
"I merely told Amara that she has nothing to be concerned with because everything went according to plan." Happy Ending repeated to Harvey. "The two of you were never supposed to retrieve the file in the first place; but if you had known that you wouldn't have given the performance needed to intrigue the CIA enough for them to do just what I need."
"And what exactly do you need the CIA to do? Just who is Li Shengshun?" Harvey questioned.
"It is an alias that BK-201 used when he had worked for the Syndicate. I needed the CIA to begin looking into him for an important event to take place."
"That sounds awfully complicated; how do you know that the CIA will do exactly what you want?"
"That is not something you need to be concerned with. For now your job is done though, so the two of you may relax until your next assignment comes."
"Is that all?" Harvey confirmed.
"That is all." Happy Ending replied and hung up.
Harvey sighed and put the cell in his pocket. He was still covering Amara's mouth and knew she would still end up screaming despite Happy Ending no longer being able to hear her; so in preparation, he stuck his free hand over his ear, and in the instant he took his other hand off of Amara's mouth, stuck it over his other ear and dove behind the couch.
At that exact moment, Amara released the rage she had been forced to hold in until now. "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" Amara cursed out at the world at the very loudest her voice box would possibly allow her to scream and continued the single syllable for as long as the air in her lungs made physically possible.
When she finally ran out of breath she began huffing and puffing with a very pissed off scowl. Harvey looked over the couch at her and uncovered his ears. "Y-you good?" He asked Amara nervously.
Without looking over at Harvey or removing the dark look in her eyes, Amara spoke in response. "I hate that guy so much…" She growled, and then shifted her eyes to look at Harvey. "I almost got shot because of that freak, and he says he never intended us to get the file in the first place?"
Harvey sighed and stood up. "If it's any consolation, he said the file was the Black Reaper's." He told Amara, who suddenly became interested, although at the same time still obviously pissed. "Li Shengshun was his alias from when he worked for the Syndicate. We didn't know that since we didn't join the Syndicate until 18 months ago. As to the mission failure itself, he said we couldn't know it was supposed to fail in order to give a 'proper performance' in order to make the CIA make the next move. Although how that works is lost on me."
"What kind of B.S. is that; Now he's controlling the CIA?" Amara questioned, although it appeared she had finally calmed down to some extent.
"Who knows." Harvey shrugged. "All we know is that his goal is the Black Reaper, but anything else is just our guess."
Amara plopped down on the couch. "Something to gain…" She muttered softly. "Just what do Contractors like us have to gain when we only think logically?"
"Well there are those 'irregular' Contractors that don't appear to only rely on logic to make their decisions." Harvey noted.
"So we're irregular?"
"I wouldn't exactly say your outburst was purely a 'logical' action."
"Hating and acting on that hate are two different things. I haven't done anything that would obviously bring me harm. I've noticed for a long time my emotions didn't disappear when I became a Contractor, I just stopped making decisions because of how I felt."
"Well maybe that's it; most Contractor's don't even show their emotions at all, but you show them freely without any regard to how another might take them. Of course even with that said the question of what we have to gain still stands."
Amara thought for a second, but then sighed and stood up. "Screw it, if I waste anymore time thinking about it I'll get a migraine; I'm going to bed." She told Harvey and then walked up the stairs to her room.
Back at the police station, Misaki and Goro stood on the outside of their interrogation room. Inside the room was Mina Hazuki, who they had apprehended thanks to a mysterious letter left for them to find. Misaki was certain the letter was sent by December, the man pulling all the strings for a 'novel' he was working on.
However, Hazuki's ability to energized anything she touched into a lethal weapon was a potential problem with her interrogation, Misaki didn't believe she would try anything, but since she was a Contractor after all, anything was possible.
Finally, Misaki entered the interrogation room and Hazuki looked over at her. Her eyes were emotionless, just like a Contractor's should be, with complete indifference about the situation she was in.
"Make sure to keep your hands on the table. And don't even think about using your Contractor powers." Misaki warned Hazuki.
"Don't worry, I have no intentions of escaping." Hazuki replied, although there was no reason she couldn't be lying.
"I believe you, it's just protocol, you know that." Misaki told her, then got strait to the point. "Where were you on the night of August 18th?" She asked.
Hazuki knew exactly what Misaki was getting at. August 18th was the night Happy Ending had called her and sent her to get Amara and Harvey who had been tied up in front of the police station. Happy Ending had told her the results of that day and sending Misaki on her trail was a necessary part of his story, this must have been the result he was talking about. And if everything else he had said held true, then she could follow her instincts during the interrogation and everything else would fall into place.
"Exactly where you suspect I was; in front of the police station." Hazuki answered.
"What were you doing there?" Misaki asked the follow up question. Actually, Misaki hadn't expected Hazuki to admit to being at the police station so easily. If she was alright with revealing this fact, she must have been confident nothing she did that night had been against the law.
"I was dealing with Contractors." Now Hazuki dropped into lies. Although technically that was only half a lie. She had certainly 'dealt' with Contractors Amara and Harvey, it just wasn't in the sense she was letting on.
"Contractors? I'm going to need more details." Misaki told Hazuki, giving her a very serious look.
"It has to do with Genma Shizume's killing of Youko 7 months ago." Hazuki began, choosing her words carefully. If her luck didn't hold, they might submit her to a polygraph asking her to repeat everything she has said to the letter. She was making sure that if she did have to do that, nothing she said would be caught as a lie.
Misaki was caught by surprise with this fact. "What do you mean?" She asked.
"I discovered that it was not Genma's independent decision to kill her. Whoever he had been working for in the CIA gave him that order. For what purpose I can't yet say, but that is precisely what I intend to find out when I figure out who it was."
"What did you intend to do when you found this person?" Misaki asked.
It was a fair enough question. Genma was a double-agent for the CIA, but that meant whoever he worked for is also part of the CIA, Hazuki wouldn't be able to simply attack this person, especially not without proof they were actually connected to Yokou's murder.
"Whoever it was is guilty of conspiracy for murder, right? I intend to get them to confess." Hazuki told them.
At this Misaki slammed her hands down on the table, Hazuki's answer didn't get to the part she wanted to know. "And then what!?" She shouted. "Your killing Genma Shizume is justified because of the circumstances, but unless you are given reason, you can't kill the one who ordered him to kill Yokou without breaking the law."
Misaki pointed all this out even though Hazuki knew it all very well. For a moment there was silence as Hazuki chose how to answer. "Revenge does not always mean killing." She said. "I will bring this person to justice when I find them."
Misaki calmed down with her response, although wasn't entirely convinced with that. She knew Hazuki well enough to know she wouldn't be completely satisfied until the person behind Yokou's death was dead himself. Also, because she knew that, if she had found this out from fighting Genma, it made sense why she disappeared, because it meant she would eventually commit a crime.
For now though, she got back to the original problem. "What happened to the Contractor's you were fighting that night?" She asked.
"The Contractors from that night got away. I don't think they had been involved with my target, but the circumstances required me to act." Hazuki answered.
"I understand, well then I'll be leaving now." Misaki told her and left the interrogation room to Goro.
"Well, what do you think?" Goro asked.
"I think we can trust her, at least for the most part." Misaki answered.
"So how do we handle this?"
"Well as far as we can tell, she hasn't committed a crime yet. But I'm afraid revenge will prove too tempting for her if we simply let her go and she keeps searching for this person." Misaki said, looking through the one-way glass at Hazuki. "Perhaps we can arrange for her reassignment into our division? If we do that we can keep an eye on her."
Given this option, Goro thought on it for a second. "It's possible, but she'll have to agree to coming back." He answered.
Hearing this, Misaki smiled. "Leave that to me then." She said, and then left to go handle the situation.
It was noon and Hei and the others were eating lunch. Since Irene had attack them a couple nights ago, nothing had happened to them. Hei was getting impatient waiting for this person that was pulling the strings to show himself, and he didn't even know what his goal was in all of this.
And the only thing he had to guess by was what Hazuki had told him in China. "The events of six months ago are not over. Izanami and Izanagi have yet to fulfill their prophecy." From this, Hei could infer the goal of the man behind all this could lie in making them meet to finish what was started. But Izanami was…
Hei glanced over at Yin who was calmly eating her soup. Izanami had been a part of Yin that had steadily gained control over her body in order to kill Contractors. The prophecy of Izanami and Izanagi stated that a great tragedy would befall the world when they met. At the Gate 7 months ago, Hei had attempted to end her. If the prophecy was unfulfilled, did that mean that there was a piece of Izanami left inside Yin that would grow until it overtook her again? Hei was worried if that might truly be the case. At one time, he had stated that he didn't want to lose anymore friends, but if Izanami still existed inside of Yin after that, it may be that it was actually impossible to get rid of her completely. And if Izanami at one point became too powerful, the only option left would be what Hei wanted to avoid the most.
Suddenly, Hei's thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Everyone stopped for a moment, but considering the fact whoever it was was knocking meant it was safe to assume they hadn't been sent by the Syndicate. "Ignore it, they'll go away." Mao said, but the person at the door then knocked a second time.
They were probably just making sure if anyone was inside or if they just didn't hear the first knock, so Hei and the others continued to ignore it. But when the third knock came, the person pounded on the door as if to tell them they knew they were there and to open up already. Because of this, they all became suspicious and took out one of his knives.
"Stay put, I'll get rid of them." Hei told the others and stood up to walk to the door.
At the door Hei hid his knife behind his back and opened up the door slowly until he could look through with one eye. But when he did, he suddenly froze in shock at who it was.
"Hi BK-201," The person on the other end of the door was Madam Oreille, a CIA agent that he once worked for, standing there with a natural grin and holding a briefcase in one hand. "Mind if I come in?" She asked Hei in a nonchalant tone, as if she were just here visiting a friend.
"What are you doing here?" Hei asked, tightening the grip on his knife behind his back. He didn't think Oreille would attack him or anything, but if law enforcement people knew he was here, it spelt trouble for him.
"I'm here to ask for your help. May I come in?" Oreille asked again, this time putting an air of importance in her voice.
Hei thought about it for a second while giving the CIA woman a cold look. He wasn't sure what she wanted, but knowing her, it probably was important. Thinking that, Hei opened up the door and let her in.
Hei walked back into the dining room first and the others looked up at him. "Well, are they gone?" Mao asked.
"We may have a bit of a problem." He replied, which confused Mao until Oreille walked out from behind him.
"Oh, you're here too, Ricardo?" Oreille asked, recognizing him immediately.
Upon seeing Oreille, Mao straightened out in surprise. "W-w-w-w-w-what are you doing here!?" He stuttered, not expecting this at all.
Ignoring him for the moment, Oreille looked at July and Suou. "July, Suou, nice to see you two again after all this time." She told them, although it seemed as though she were lying for some reason.
"Enough formalities; why are you here?" Hei urged Oreille to get to her reason for coming.
Madam Oreille sighed and turned to face Hei. "Can we discuss this in private?" She asked.
Hei nodded and led her upstairs and closed the door behind them. "Now spill it." Hei commanded, obviously not happy with this surprise visit.
"Last night, two people broke into a CIA building and attempted to steal a file we had. And before you go off asking why that has anything to do with you, I'll tell you it has everything to do with you because the file they attempted to steal was your file."
When Oreille told him this, Hei gave a look of mild surprise. "Who were they?"
"Not so fast, BK-201." Oreille said, holding out one finger at him. "This information is technically classified, I shouldn't have even told you this much already. So before we get any further, I told you I came here to ask for your help; If you want to know more, I need you to agree to work for the CIA again." She told him, getting down to the 'condition' that always seemed to follow the giving of information.
"Why should I?" Hei asked.
"Whoever these people are they're after you. Is it not enough reason to have an idea of who is trying to find you?" Oreille questioned with a stern look, needing him to agree to this. "Also, I'll have you know that Chief Misaki Kirihara already knows you're here as well. If what I've told you so far isn't enough, maybe I can keep your situation with the law from becoming a problem. The choice is yours, but you should realize which decision is more beneficial to you."
Hei considered this for a moment. So far they had to stay out of sight to keep the police from finding them, because he knew they would find him if he became to integrated into society again. "Fine, I'll work for you, what do you have?" Hei agreed.
It was the best decision for his situation, it would allow him a little more freedom so he, Yin, and the rest wouldn't be as restricted in their movements. They would still have to be careful, but it was better than nothing.
Satisfied, Oreille bent down and opened the briefcase she brought with her. "Luckily, the one who handled the file didn't wear any gloves, so we got her prints and came up with a name." As she told Hei this, she took a file out of the briefcase and handed it to Hei to look over. "Her name is Amara Baxter." She said, although as Hei opened up the file he stopped and looked at the photograph attached. The photograph was of the woman who had been originally sent by the Syndicate to attack him after the hit for his head went out. "Her maiden name is Parker, and she was married to a man named Harvey Baxter. The two of them lived in North America until a few years ago when they immigrated to Japan. However…"
"However?"
"As of 18 months ago, the two of them seem to have disappeared completely without a trace. All money was drawn from their bank accounts and they stopped showing up to their jobs without even a notice of resignation to their bosses. It is unknown what happened to them, and had been a big deal when it first happened, but since has become a cold case and they were never found. The only other thing about them I could dig up was that they had an adopted daughter, but she died before they moved here, so I couldn't get any information on her."
"Do you have the file on the husband?" Hei asked. Since Amara was the woman that attacked him, If both of them had vanished at that time, then it was possible the man that was with her that time was also her husband.
"Yes, I brought his file as well. I'm sure you're thinking the same thing I am, he might be the second person that was with this Amara who was trying to steal your file." Oreille said and took out a second file and handed it to Hei.
When Hei opened the file he looked at the photo and saw that his suspicions were correct. The picture of Harvey Baxter was that of the man who had attacked him that night. "The second person was him." Hei told Oreille with confidence.
"What, how do you know?"
"I've already met these two. I didn't know their names at the time, but they attacked me. They're members of the Syndicate."
At the mention of the Syndicate, Oreille froze. "The Syndicate? But..."
"That organization apparently wasn't destroyed, but were simply forced to go even further underground than they were before. To those living everyday life, the organization appeared to disappear."
"Really, so that thorn in our side is actually still around?" Oreille asked rhetorically with a sigh. She had wanted to believe the Syndicate was really gone, but it wasn't surprising they still remained, even if it was a smaller scale. "So, what happened to them after that?"
"I defeated them and then tied them up in front of the police department after getting them to give me information on a person who put a hit on me. They said he called himself 'Happy Ending'. Other than that no one in the Syndicate had ever met the man, and he had only contacted them by phone." Hei told Oreille this much, but left out the part about the mastermind who was setting everything up and got him to come back to Japan. Thinking about that now, Hei wondered if the mastermind had anything to do with Oreille's finding him like this. "Although, if they snuck into the CIA building just yesterday, they must have escaped from the police."
"I see, well then let's get down to business. I want you to hunt down these two and bring them in for a questioning."
"So you'll want everyone else's help as well." Hei made sure, since it would be difficult to locate people from an organization as well-hidden as theirs without using Dolls.
"How I'm a bit reluctant, I do want to ask for their help as well." Madam Oreille answered. "Of course they'll have a choice whether or not to cooperate, and I don't really expect Suou would be willing to." Oreille told Hei, but when she did the door was suddenly thrown open and Suou rushed in, evidently having eavesdropped on everything they had said.
"No!" Suou shouted to deny what Madam Oreille had assumed. "If someone if trying to find Hei, I want to help too!" She blurted out without really thinking. "Even if it's only a little bit, I want to help Hei if I can."
"Suou…" Oreille muttered, half surprised by Suou's passion in her words.
"Please," Suou begged.
After another second, Oreille sighed and smiled. "Well, it's your decision. If you want to offer your assistance, I'll take it."
Suou gave a large sigh of relief and looked at Hei, who was looking at with an expression that didn't let on how he felt about this. Nevertheless Suou was glad that she would be able to help him in this way.
Madam Oreille stood up and lead Hei and Suou downstairs to discuss the matter with Mao, Yin and July. The three of them agreed easily enough, and then Oreille gave her contact number to Hei for when they found Amara and Harvey to contact her using a payphone.
With that, Oreille took her leave after thanking them all for their help. Once she was gone, Hei and the other returned to their meal and waited for nightfall before they would begin their search for the two Syndicate members.
