Chapter Twelve - A cog missing

Michael looked up from his computer and gave a little frown to himself, the silence that hung in the room was disturbing him somewhat. He felt oddly restless, radically different from his usual layed back behavior. He could not help but look up high at a large clock that hung on the wall next to the full window. Reading where the hands were pointing at, it read that it was passing nine in the evening.

His face turned grim looking, as he seemed to be almost dwelling on the clock. He did not once take his eyes off of the clock for quite awhile, intently watching the second hand make it's way around the off white colored face as it counted off each moment. He seemed absorbed by the time passing his gaze, but it was not out of fascination that he sat there and watched. There was a foreboding reason for it

Miho was sitting off to one side of the room, quietly she had been working on her computer for some time. The woman happened to glance over at the lad, and saw that Michael was sitting there and almost staring a hole right through the clock.

The woman tightened her lips, as she watched the computer lad's expression change a little bit as he watched the clock with almost a unblinking stare. She sighed, as she could read the expression that was there.

" Are you wondering the same thing as I am?" She asked, breaking the stillness..

Michael snuffed slightly as he seemed to have broke the trance he had been in.

" If you mean that I am starting to really wonder where Nagira is..." He slowly started, his eyes moving from the timepiece on the wall and going in the direction of the one who spoke to him.

" That has been where I have been... were you?"

" That would be a yes." He said, his face void of any fluctuation in it. " I would be lying if I said no..."

The woman nodded. It seemed that she was waiting for those words to come from the technological youth. She absently smoothed her hair as she locked her eyes onto Michael.

" It's been almost a full day since he has left..." She pointed out. " You must be curious..."

" He could be tracking down some information..." Michael speculated, averting his gaze to his monitor. " Something that we might be needing..."

" He is... such a free spirit..." She said back. " He does things by his rule book, not by anyone else's way... not even by how we do things. Maybe your right."

" I am sure that he is just out there, gathering up every piece of information he could dredge up..." The lad put in.

" But you are not totally convinced either... right?" Questioned the pretty dark haired hunter-woman. " You think he has simply taken off or something like that?"

The computer whiz paused, and took a long breath of air into his lungs. He facial expression show that he was already disagreeing with her.

" Not a chance in hell!!" The youth replied, after a few seconds of pondering over Miho's questioning tone. " Nagira would never leave Robin in a lurch like this... No damned way!"

" Then... Are you thinking that he might be in some sort of trouble?" She said, dropping her previous thought.

" That is not out of the realm of possibility." Michael said, his admission was hard for him, judging by his face. " I have tried his cell phone on more than just a few times...no answer, and now it is going straight to voice mail." Michael said, his flatten words coming out with a great effort. He paused and wet his lips a little. " Has Robin asked you where Nagira is yet."

Miho shook her head in answer.

" She has not asked me anything about Nagira directly... but I can see that look in her eyes... she has been asking herself the same thing as we are... Where is Nagira." She sighed, and rubbed her bloodshot looking eyes.. " Hell, even I have been wondering where that man has gone to."

As the two spoke, the became aware of a figure in the room. They turned to see that it was Father Juliano who had joined them. By his own face, the man had heard the conversation.

" I too... am worried about Nagira..." He said, taking a few steps closer to the two. " And for my Granddaughter as well. With all that has gone on, losing Nagira would be hard on her and this mission might hit a snag that we cannot leap over.."

" We are as well..." Miho agreed.

" What do we do then?" Michael asked the priest. " I can access only certain things on this computer... Nagira is not one of them."

Father Juliano stood there, his mind processing the youth's very straightforward question for a moment.

" Unfortunately we have to wait for Mr. Nagira to come back and hopefully have some information as well for us..." He said. " While we wait, all we can do is keep Robin safe and go along to the best of our abilities..."

" We don't even know where he went for this information." The spiky haired lad said.

" Precisely why we have to simply sit and wait... as hard as that may be to do." Wisely said the clergyman.

" And what if we end up finding out that something has ended up going very wrong?" Michael said, his voice volume was very soft.

The priest looked at the two, knowing full well that was a very appropriate thing to be asked about. He thought on the question for a second, knowing an answer was needed.

" That will have to wait until we are confronted by such things, I am afraid." The priest replied with great wisdom, then added. " If something has happened to Nagira when he had gone for the information... we are still going to be needed to be able to go on to find the factory at all costs. The ramifications if we don't finish this and allow the Factory to become completely operational again, that would end up costing so many lives and shifting the very fabric of world politics and assuring the very ending of our own lives in that circumstances."

Michael nodded, then had a huge smile slide onto his face. The others noted the suddenness of the youth change, and gave each a very questioning look to the lad.

" What is it?" Asked Miho who was now excited, knowing that look was a look of pure inspiration

" I just thought of the Master at Harry's. He might be able to get some information on who Nagira was going to meet... he has gotten us tips like that before." Posed the lad, his smile now very large.

" Oh... I never thought of him..." Said Miho, grasping the young man's idea.

" Harry's?" Asked Father Juliano, not knowing what the youth was suggesting. " Who is this Harry?"

Michael chuckled, realizing the Priest would have no idea about the relationship that the STN-J and the owner of Harry's had going. He turned to the old priest so as to face hi.

" This man has been a friend the STN, of Amon's and had been very close to Robin. He owns a restaurant near here, and has helped us out on quite a few hunts over the years..." The whiz kid explained. " The reason I thought of him was other than Nagira and Amon... he always was the one that could dig up a whole lot of information for us in a very short amount of time."

" Would this Master help us find Nagira?" Juliano asked, then added. " Could he help us with finding the Factory as well?".

" I am sure that Master help out with that as well." Michael said without hesitating. " In fact, having him also helping, that would help out with both of our problems." He smiled, looking glad that he had thought of it. " If we hurried... we could be there and back in about twenty minutes."

" Would Robin be safe here to be left alone for even that short of a time?" Miho asked, her mind always thinking..

Michael looked at the lady, and smiled

" She is probably already has been asleep for awhile by now..." Said a very confident Michael. " As long as we don't stay very long with Master, we could be certain that she would be safe."

" She would be safe..." Juliano vouched with his own confidence. " She can take care of herself, if need be."

" Then I say lets do it... It's better than just sitting here and waiting." Pointed out the youth.

The priest smiled. It seemed like he was agreeing with the plan, after hearing all of the background information.

" It is a very sound suggestion." He smiled. " You lead on, My son."

" Lets just go and head back real quickly then... Master might be out ticket to finding Nagira."

Quickly, the three left Raven's Flat and hurried down the block to where Harry's was. The three of them knew at this might have been a heck of long shot to take, but each one knew it was necessary to try it. With Nagira disappearing like this, they needed all of the help they could get..

By the light of a single small lamp, Robin sat in her bed reading a large book that was propped up on her knees. She had gone off to bed rather early this evening to try and read for awhile, as the pressure of waiting for any sign of the missing Nagira was rising to the point of almost being too much to bare.

Even as she sat there in the quiet dimness, How Robin was reading that book was the ruler by how she actually was coping with it all. Clearly the tawny haired girl's mind was in anyway close to being fully fixed on the book, it was clearly still solidly locked on her missing friend.

Even tough no one was actually saying it, everyone at the STN-J seemed to be concerned with the fact that Nagira had not came back from his little errand. It was painted on everyone's face that he had not even called yet.

That much of concern by everyone made it very crystal clear, for the stubbornly independent but always reliable Nagira would never just disappear like this. He had always stuck at Robin's side... that alone was seen a huge clue that something was very wrong... He would have never just up and left, that was not his style

Nagira was on her mind while she tried to read, his image captured like a snapshot and now held in her mind's eye. She tried not to think on it, or about the growing concern that was building inside of her. Fear of some type of harm had befallen the man battled her thoughts, what had happened to Amon was fueling her worrying. Her very own imagination was now running excessively wild at that moment, despite the printed words in front of her..reading was not quite working to distract herself.

Trying to clear her worrying out of her thoughts for awhile, she turned her head to the side to distract herself, but it did not help as she stared off. Her gaze went to the time on the digital clock beside her bed, it was coming up to nearly twenty four hours since the lanky man had left on his little mission.

The girl put her book down on the bed beside her and closed her eyes to try and calm everything down. She found herself becoming more than just very worried, her heart could not stop her thinking about the man. She sat up more in the bed, her mind churning hard on the last time she had seen Nagira.

With the little information they had, the others had began to search for where the new Factory was, and also try to establish just who the fringe SOLOMON people are that were building it back.

At this point, there was no real clues to anyone involved, or just who exactly was actually the person in charge of The Factory and it's apparent resurgence in the continuing development of the ORBO. They all had started to explore each scrap of clues in order to locate the rebuilt dream of Zaizen's. Nagira was the one who had put out so many feelers for this information out on to the streets and back roads of the underground, and was seemingly getting responses back from his queries.

Now with Nagira gone, missing or worse, it was throwing the entire investigation into a downward spiral. Luckily, Robin had found out in a very roundabout way where Nagira had gone off to meet with his informant. The girl had overheard Nagira when she had passed the well room and he had been talking on his cell with whoever this person was. She had overheard that the place was a gaming parlor that was located on some skid row street near the Walled City, and the place was called simply the Albatross.

She knew nothing more than that, but she was now clearly focusing on what she had heard. Robin knew that she should have told someone exactly what she knew, but she had not. Robin was confused by just why she had not done that in the first place. It was like something inside of her did not want to share the knowledge, even though logically it was the right thing to do.

Sitting herself up in bed again, she continued to debate with herself for a long time on whether she should tel someone or not.

Robin then thought on someone she never had considered before. It was clear now that she needed to be telling the whole thing to the one person she knew and trusted the most, her Grandfather. Knowing that with his experience and the long time that he had been with SOLOMON, he would know just what to do with what she knew.

It was a no brainer to decide on that course of action. Robin got herself out of bed quickly and dressed herself. She was wanting to do this before her mind would backtrack again and stop her from saying. She kept reminding herself, that this was the only way to find out just what had happened to her friend.

Leaving her temporary bedroom, the young hunter girl went on her own mission as she hurried to find her grandfather.

The main computer room was oddly quiet when she exited the elevator. To her surprise, she found that there was no one in the room. Even predictable Michael, who was usually glued to his computer, was not at his workstation. With just the silence to greet her, it made her a little frantic when she was standing there.

Not finding any of her fellow hunters around, Robin hurriedly searched the rest of the building in a few short minutes, only to still ending up finding absolutely nobody there. She was now starting to think that she was fully alone in the building, and that no one had even left her a message to explain things

She tried to calmly tell herself that they could not too far away, and they would return. She felt like she did not have the time to wait around to tell anyone what she knew, time was an enemy for Nagira.

" I can't just sit here..." She thought to herself. " Nagira... he might be in trouble or hurt... I cant just stay here to wait!"

Making a decision, Robin felt that she had to do something, and quickly. Heading down to the basement, where the parking garage was, she was hoping to find out if they still kept her beloved Vespa to use. With no time to spare, she had to get down to that part of town... and to see if she could find Nagira. She hoped that they had kept her little vehicle, and that it still was working

The garage had not changed one little bit since she had last been there. Dank and drab with the unnerving echo that sent chills up Robin's back, it always had been her least favorite place to be in the STN-J headquarters. She took a look around the parkade for the Vespa, noting as she did that she found that both Miss. Karasuma's and Miss. Dojima's cars were still parked there.

Beside a concrete pillar just a few yards from the elevator, the girl spotted her beloved Vespa which was parked in the shadows. She smiled on seeing the tiny Scooter, very glad that it was still being kept there after all of the time that had passed by. She hurried herself across the cold concrete floor and over to where it sat, running like if the Vespa was some kind of long lost friend.

In checking the Vespa over, the girl could not help but break a relieved smile. She discovered that the Vespa looked to be in great shape, but it also had three quarters of a tank of fuel left and her keys still dangled out of the ignition. Taking a deep breath, she said a small prayer of thanks for this little blessing.

Donning her helmet that she found was hanging off of the right handlebar, she mounted her motor scooter and fired it up. She could not help but feel ever more grateful than she already had been feeling, as the small thing had smoothly came to life and now was gently vibrating under her. She listened to the engin for a moment, and could hear that it had been taken well care of even though she was thought to be dead.

Within a sixty seconds of starting the little engin, Robin had drove out of the parking garage and headed out on the main road that would lead her into the very heart of Tokyo itself. Her destination was the desolate slum area that skirted the fringes of the Walled City itself, her self- made mission was having the chance of finding the tall thin man Called Nagira Syunji.

She knew the area from forays with Amon when they had been hunting Witches in the area in question, and had the barest clue on where this Albatross was. She was certain that she had to follow it.

She knew that this idea of hers was a very bold and very stupid all at the same time but it seemed to be the thing to be doing. Through the doubt and nerves she had as she sped down the road to that part of the city, she could only tell herself that Nagira just might not have very much time left... the fear was that she could already be too late.