So I feel like I wanna focus more on my writing than my work (haha) so here goes another (short) update on Secrets. ;)
Btw, 'The Scam' and 'Philophobia' have been updated.
xoxo Lexi1989
Previously:
"I'm opening it." She announced to the team with her and for the benefit of the rest listening in on the comms.
Her hand was shaking as her fingers found the zipper and pulled it down quickly. The sight that greeted her made her sick to her stomach and wanting to puke.
Inside the bag was a dead body. Shot straight through the head, disfiguring the face.
CHAPTER 21: A MIRACLE
"What took you so long, Mori?" Rei Serio had a look of unhappiness in his face.
They were waiting at Lahaina, in Hawaii for a short fuel top up before proceeding to Sapporo in Japan. From there, they would "disappear" from radar. Reo gave him a haughty smile before turning to the uniformed men in the vessel.
"We had to drop off some unwanted baggage." He said with a wry smile to which Luna crinkled her nose. Mikan was behind them, hands bound with cuffs and her mouth covered with tape. She had stopped struggling and was seemingly accepting defeat, and her death anytime soon. She was wearing an oversized shirt given that they had located her trackers (the one in her brassiere). She looked totally devoid of life save for the fact that she was still breathing. She had lost all hope.
"Did you get rid of those meddlers?" Luna asked as she pushed Mikan towards the vessel docked at the pier.
"All 3 accounted and done with. There were two pros and one very upset Natsume Hyuuga." Mori said smugly.
Mikan lifted her head up at the mention of Natsume's name. Suddenly a very small amount of fight came back to her and she pushed back against Luna, making the latter teeter off her heels and into the murky water of the dock. Reo couldn't help but laugh at the soaked Luna who was sputtering and spewing out water from her mouth.
"YOU BITCH!" She screamed as their bodyguards strived to pull her out of the water. " YOU'LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID!"
"Now, now, precious little kitten. Be nice. Or else I won't take off that tape from your mouth." Rei scolded Mikan like a little child and pushed her into the vessel where the three masked, uniformed guards were waiting.
There were only six seats underneath the hatch, which would then be occupied by Luna, Rei, Mikan and the three guards. Reo and the driver would be navigating the vessel. Reo addressed the three guards as a now dry Luna and Rei settled with Mikan at the far end of the seats.
"Remember what we talked about. Keep a tight watch on the prisoner." He said lightly and all three nodded in the affirmative.
"Let's get going. We don't want to risk dilly-dallying and getting captured." Rei ordered and Reo nodded, closing the overhead hatch and walking towards the hatch for the driver's seat. He nodded towards the driver and they fired up the vessel, heading East towards Japan in the dead of the night.
"Ogasawara, get forensics ready to do a test to identify the bodies. The secondary flight team is transporting the three recovered bodies to us and will be soon here. Anna, get your team in to be debriefed. Shouda, standby with Yuu." Once her orders were distributed, she turned back towards a grim looking Kazumi.
"What do we do now?" He asked. He felt an extreme amount of guilt for being too busy in Japan to even know that this kind of treachery was happening to his one and only niece.
"We're awaiting information from the primary flight team that tailed Reo and that vessel. Once we know where they are, we can formulate another plan."
"But what about Natsume? Kaoru and Ioran will be devastated." Kazumi put his face in his hands. Everything had blown up in their faces. Yukihira Corps. heir was still in danger and Hyuuga Electronics and Tech International may have just lost their heir.
"It was an unforeseen circumstance. Unfortunate but we will notify the family once we confirm the identities of the bodies." Hotaru said in an emotionless tone.
"How will you find that out?"
"We're a private investigation company. We have a sample of each employee's DNA for purposes like this. By now, it's a 2 out of 3 chance. We don't have Natsume's DNA and there is no feasible way to get one from him except probably his dental records which is in a dentist's office in Japan. So for as long as we confirm 2 out of the 3 bodies, we can tell that it really is them. By now, everything is circumstantial evidence at best. Three gunshots, three bodies, no vitals on our monitors, but we can still rule that out. We just need to wait a day or two for those results."
"And what about my niece?"
"Let's pray for a miracle." She said in a dry tone because she knew they needed one and fast.
The miracle came in the form of an unexpected notification from the first flight team. Sumire and Yuu were at the command center in HQ when the call came in.
"This is Narumi from Flight team 1. Target is heading towards Lahaina port in Hawaii. CC do you copy?"
"Copy that Flight team 2. Please continue to tail target and update when there are status changes." Yuu responded.
"Copy that CC. Narumi over and out."
They told Hotaru about the information the flight team gave and they were told to await further updates. There was not much they could do until there was confirmation of Mikan's presence there. It would only entail another wild goose chase and possibly the loss of other valued team members.
Thirty minutes later, the news they were waiting for broke.
"This is Narumi from Flight team 1. Target is docked at Lahaina port and it seems like there are new passengers embarking on the vessel. Mini drone has been deployed and will be transmitting photos to your database, ETA 1 minute." Sumire called Hotaru who was quickly followed by Kazumi to the command center.
The photos were uploaded and shown on the main screen. It was the scene on the dock where Mikan was bound and pushed towards the vessel.
"It's Mikan! Thank Kami she's alive!" Kazumi couldn't help but feel relief that his niece was still alive albeit in the hands of his traitorous adopted brother and his girlfriend. Hotaru was about to call in Anna and other agents when the captain of the flight team once again gave a report.
"Vessel appears to be topping up on fuel and new passengers have embarked. Target 3 (Reo Mori) has been seen. Awaiting your orders to engage."
"Do not engage. I repeat. Do not engage. Continue to tail. I'm processing clearance for the A+ team for travel in international waters. Then I'm sending them out in the next half hour. Report back with coordinates in thirty minutes Captain Narumi." Hotaru said.
In less than ten minutes, she had her best agents assembled. Sumire, Anna, and a few others who were suited up. The secondary flight team would take them out to the coordinates and from there they would try to intercept Reo, Rei and Luna to get Mikan back.
"Target is headed towards the East. Currently in open ocean. Coordinates have been passed to secondary flight team."
"Shouda? Did you get the coordinates?"
"Yes. Flight team 2 is now proceeding to location."
"Good. Continue to monitor and tail. We're setting up an engagement plan by sunrise. Our mission now is to retrieve Mikan at all costs." Hotaru said grimly as she walked towards her office.
"Copy that. Shouda, over and out." The room was suddenly filled with silence as the transmission was cut and all they could hear was the humming of the super computers and machines.
"Why can't we just blast the damn boat from the air?" Kazumi asked out loud, a bit irritated that they knew where Mikan was but could do nothing about it.
"Because that would put your niece in danger sir. We focus on completing our mission with violence being only a last option." Yuu said politely while focusing on the task provided by Hotaru regarding their extraction plan.
A beeping sound filled the air while a notification blasted on Yuu's computer. A few quick taps later, Kazumi witnessed a flustered looking Yuu running towards Hotaru's office. They returned seconds later, hunched over the command center.
"What is it?" Kazumi couldn't quite wait for anyone in the room to explain the beeping sound.
"It's an encrypted transmission coming from the boat's coordinates." Yuu said, his eyes focused on the screen.
"And why do you look so flustered then?"
"Because we are using a closed frequency, one that is exclusive for us only. For them to find our frequency is dangerous. They could have been listening in all along to our comms. Which is why they may have intercepted Natsume and Shouda's team. Yuu, did you close our comms to Shouda?" Hotaru looked wearily at Yuu. This was definitely bad. It was the first breach they had.
"Just did, Hotaru. But I'm receiving another transmission from the vessel, but it's in analog form. It looks to be morse code."
"Decode it immediately."
"On it."
The team in the command center was silent and only the tapping on the transmission could be heard along with Yuu's hands typing away on the keyboard. Their eyes followed the words forming in the screen as the transmission came to an end.
"Imai, this is Mori. We need to talk."
END OF CHAPTER 21
So Narumi makes an appearance. XD
And what do you think Reo wants with Hotaru?
Stay tuned to find out!
Anilissa – yeah he is a good guy. Guess you'll have to find out in the next chapter on the three dead bodies confirmation of identities.
pennYnnep – Yeah well by this chapter, all their vitals are gone. :( Stay tuned for the next update on this though. Forensics take a couple of days to finalize haha.
YoNaMe – I'm twisted like that. If you venture far enough into my bio, try reading Sakuras & Swords (if you haven't already) then it's sequel Crimson Rose. You'll see how twisted a writer I really am. Hahaha
RavenAcA3 – Ally-chan! I missed you! It's been awhile! And thank you! I'm glad you've caught up! And yeah well, you've been with me since I started so you know how twisted I can be with these things. No vitals now for the three so it could only mean…. (I'll let you finish that sentence) haha.
NEW STORY CYCLE:
Fairie Tales - Starting Over Again - The Scam - Philophobia (New!) - Secrets
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Ja Ne!
xoxo Lexi1989