Chapter 20: Escapee
08:45 AM (Paris Time), Thursday January the 10th…
"… Excuse me."
Jerome walked over to the reception desk of the "Napoleon Hotel".
"What might I help you with, Monsieur?" A clerk asked.
"DCPJ: Captain Jerome Blux. I am investigating a customer." He announced as he took out his ID.
"Another Monsieur was here yesterday with a search warrant..." The clerk remembered.
"Exactly. Is he still in the hotel?" He asked.
"No, Monsieur. He left about two hours ago towards the Charles de Gaulle Airport. He paid in cash." The clerk replied.
"Good. Thank you. Have a nice day."
"Oui, Monsieur."
Jerome walked out of the hotel and climbed inside of a patrol car without looking concerned.
"Go to the Charles de Gaulle Airport." He ordered the policeman on the driver's seat.
"Oui, Capitaine."
"Huh? Phone call… Francois?"
"Oui. So?"
"Our bird is heading for the airport. I've warned them." Jerome reported.
"Let them swim: we want to get an idea of where they originate from since their passport shows that it's a fake and they're not really a King Land citizen to begin with."
"Delighted. Later."
08:52 AM (Japan Time)…
"… We are currently calling all passengers of flight DA156 with destination Atlanta which departs at 09:55 AM. All passengers please report to Gate C16."
Vincent, still disguised as Kenneth Onderson, walked towards the queue which was forming on the gate.
Heh, heh, heh.
He showed the clerk his boarding pass, and he then boarded the airplane: he got a right – side seat next to the window: the person at his left looked like a French businessman.
Let's see… Mr. Onderson's instructions went like this: "Once you pass passport control in Atlanta, pick your luggage and leave the arrivals zone. Find a restroom, and change into the other identity I've provided you with. Then you'll be able to catch the plane straight to Mexico City. When you reach Mexico City, your role will have concluded. Farewell, Señor Vincent "Red"."
"Please fasten your seatbelts, place the seats in the upright position and close the trays. Switch off any electronic devices." The captain announced through the PA system.
"We are closing main cabin door."
Vincent calmly placed the seat in the correct position and fastened the seat-belt as the plane got slowly pushed away from the terminal and carried towards the main track.
Heh, heh, heh! Well! It was fun. I finally got to SHINE! Shine, shining, shining shines of shinning! I'll patent this rhyme! And Uncle Maligno will praise me!
The plane waited in the queue for take-off and finally got their turn so it stopped, accelerated the engines, raced across the track and finally took off into the skies.
Adiós, muchachos! I win this round! I'm INVINCIBLE! Heh, heh, heh!
09:04 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Francois? Me. Jerome."
"What became of our sly fox? Where are they flying to?"
Le Count was distractedly tapping his marble desk while he heard to Mr. Brown's report.
"He's flying towards Atlanta as we speak!"
"Is that so? Don't make any moves yet: let's let him be for a while and try to keep an eye on his movements. He may unwillingly lead us to his hideout." Le Count requested.
"Yeah. That's what we'd agreed upon anyway. Bye"
"Good-bye."
Le Count placed the receiver on its place and took out a cell phone from his suit's chest pocket to dial a number.
"Messier Vadous? It's me: Le Count de Rivalou." He announced.
"Messier Le Count. So… What happened with that guy?"
"He's flying to Atlanta." He replied.
"Hum! So they're in Ameroupe after all, then." Vadous muttered while sounding slightly satisfied.
"Madame Argad called an acquaintance of hers at the NSA to give us a hand in tracking him." Le Count announced while he toyed with his pen.
"Excellent. He stepped into the golden cage." Vadous sounded amused.
"True. I'll explain to it Doctor Spimer as well."
"Perfect. Good-bye !"
Le Count pocketed the cell phone and brought a hand to his chin.
So! Kenneth! You want a trap? You will have one! And you'll tell us why Anaya Maria labeled you "trustee" to begin with.
14:45 PM (Atlanta Time)…
"… Jessica? It's me: Jacinta Secreta."
A person had phoned Ms. Argad: she was using her cell phone to speak with the caller while standing on her company's HQ roof: she was smoking a cigarette while speaking as well.
"Jacinta. What's up? Where did Onderson go to?" She calmly asked.
"Truth is… We were monitoring the surroundings and the insides of Atlanta International Airport, but…" She trailed off.
"But…?" Ms. Argad frowned.
"He vanished! And he didn't take a taxi, a private car and neither the rail train service! We searched all of the exits!"
"WHAT?" She exclaimed.
"I'm serious, Jessica! The guy simply vanished into thin air!" Jacinta exclaimed.
"… I was expecting that to happen. No way it'd be so easy to catch them to begin with." Ms. Argad sighed.
"We're running a covert investigation: maybe he had accomplices on the inside which helped him escape via another exit." She sounded defeated.
"He could've disguised." Ms. Argad calmly suggested.
"Oh! We hadn't thought of that one." Jacinta admitted.
"Search the litter! I'm sure there must be a plastic mask on it."
"Leave it to us. Nobody fools the NSA and gets away with it."
"The politicians do." Ms. Argad sarcastically replied.
"Hey! What was that for, Jessica?" Jacinta sounded offended.
"I was being sarcastic, Jacinta. You know me."
"Ah! I like that better. Back to work for me. 'Bye!"
05:45 AM (Japan Time), Friday January the 11th…
"… Boss… You're already awake? It's not even 06:00 AM…"
"I'm impatient."
"I can see that."
Omega had come into the command bridge and found Vadous sitting on the armchair while drinking some hot coffee: he looked surprised and Vadous did look impatient: his cell phone rang.
"Finally." He muttered.
He picked it up and opened the lid.
"Mr. Vadous? Have I woken you?" Chief Lezareno asked.
"No. What's up?" Vadous asked.
"Onderson vanished in Atlanta. But Ms. Argad believes he disguised to leave or pick another flight. The problem is… Without any criteria, it'll be impossible to know which flight… He could've picked a man on his 60s look, too…" Lezareno reported.
"… I see. Good work. But now we know his aim was to toy with us by showing up and vanishing…"
"Hmmm… Disguise…? Where does that ring a bell?" Omega brought his right hand to his chin.
"Mr. Omega has an idea?" Lezareno asked.
"Wait… Atlanta… Hmmm… No… Ah… Say… How much time do you need to travel by plane from Atlanta to Mexico City?" Omega asked.
"1:30 hours, more or less…" Lezareno replied.
"Mexico City…? Ah! Vincent!" Vadous realized.
"Vincent, you say! Of course…! He was trained by the CIA! He could've posed as "Onderson" to fool us into trying to catch him!"
"Yeah. I'm sure that the mask in Atlanta will have some traces of him."
"Then we have to get into movement ASAP: we must question Vincent as to how he was approached." Lezareno rallied.
"Wait, wait. That's too obvious. Onderson knew we'd find it out in less than 24 hours. He surely left a dead end on place." Omega warned.
"I don't care: we need to keep the guy under check or the next time he's gonna stir up chaos inside of our ranks." Vadous replied.
"Fine… Maybe Colonel Talos will have an easier time handling the guy, given their common base…"
"I'll suggest it to him once he comes to the office. Good morning, gentlemen."
"Later."
Vadous sighed in defeat and lazily attached the cell phone to the belt before rolling his eyes.
"I'm off to the bed. You're in charge." He told Omega.
"Roger."
"If you wanna play, make sure to start an empty file." Vadous warned.
"Gotcha."
Vadous ran off the command bridge while Omega sat down, moved the chair forward, and began to type into the keyboard.
"Let's play for a while…" He muttered.
He brought up the game and began playing while humming a tune: a beep suddenly rang out all of a sudden so Omega stopped the game and had a look at one screen.
"What! Spy program…! And the latest update picked it up? This would explain why they were always steps ahead of us: they listened into all of our conversations and phone calls… But this is as far as it comes. Maze Program: Engage!" Omega gasped.
He grinned and inputted some commands into the keyboard…
05:56 AM (Japan Time)…
"… W-what's that?"
Sidier was looking at what seemed to be live feed from the spy program: walls had formed around it and it seemed to be walking around a real maze.
"A maze…? Where did it come out from…? Crap." He muttered.
Alarms rang out on Sidier's end: Sigma had showed up in front of the program and was grinning.
"Come at full power!" He challenged while swinging his sword and making a boasting gesture.
He suddenly warped and reappeared behind the program: he gripped it with his free hand and turned it around to look directly into: his face looked extremely creepy when seen at close-quarters.
"Hah, hah, hah! Struggle in despair! Useless! You're in my hands! Freeze Man! You've fallen into a bottomless pit! Game Over!" He laughed.
"At least they still think it's the work of Freeze Man and "Kenneth Onderson"…" Sidier muttered.
"Sigma. Quit dramatizing and bring that over for analysis." Omega's voice rang out with a hint of annoyance.
"Roger."
"I won't let it." Sidier grinned.
He snapped his right hand's fingers and some "WARNING" screens popped out: some purple streaks of light began to be emitted by the program and Sigma made a grimace.
"Shit! Didn't we complete that self-destruction prevention system, Commander Omega? This thing is about to do that!" Sigma called out.
"Crap." Omega muttered.
"Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh… No pain, no gain… Bye-bye, guys…"
06:04 AM (Japan Time)
"… Damn. No matter how further I look… There's not a bit or byte of data left! Bothersome Freeze Man!"
Sigma was patrolling the HQ's Cyber World and seemingly looking for any leftovers of the spy program.
"That damned Killer Eye blew up and left nothing behind!" He grumbled aloud.
"I see. Pity… We got distracted and didn't finish the nullifier… We should really work on it. Go back to sleep, Sigma. Blood will take care of the escorting in an hour's time." Omega sighed.
"Roger."
Omega slapped his face and then resumed playing while looking like he wanted to shake his frustration off.
"Grrr! Bothersome guys! I'd like to bring out a mushroom, grow, and throw fireballs at 'em! And make the castle crumble on top of them, too… That'd be lovely." He muttered while making a grin.
"… Man. I get woken up in vain. I better nap for some hours."
Sigma stepped into a room containing three cylinder-shaped capsules with half-sphere ends: they were inclined and aligned near the wall: each one had a control panel in front of it with wires linking to it.
"Huff."
The rightmost one was larger and wider than the other two: both the centermost one and the rightmost one's covers were open while the leftmost capsule's cover was still closed.
"Blood will do fine." He muttered.
He climbed into his capsule and pulled the cover down using a handle built inside: he looked out through the small glass rectangle before relaxing: some compartments opened and a few wires connected to some ports on his body: the redness on his eyes faded and he seemed to fall asleep…
07:45 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Good morning."
"'Morning…"
"Hello."
The twins met up with Meiru on the institute's entrance: Yaito's limo pulled over: she climbed out while Dekao and Hikawa rushed over there.
"Let's go…" Netto yawned.
"Netto – kun… Please make sure to wash your face: you look like a troglodyte!" Saito grinned.
"True!" Meiru grinned.
"Man. You guys win…" Netto grumbled.
A teacher unlocked the front entrance and they all headed into their classroom: Saito checked his Link PET and spotted Blood Shadow inside of the device.
"What happened with Onderson?" Saito asked.
"It turns out it was Vincent: the real guy hired him. And they'd put a spy program in the HQ, too, but it blew up." Blood Shadow sighed.
"I knew it was too good to be true!" Netto grumbled.
"In short: we're stuck."
"Lovely way of starting the day…" Hikawa muttered with obvious sarcasm.
"Yeah. Guess so." Meiru muttered.
"Devil! I'll boycott their business!" Yaito fumed.
"Yeah! I'll smash them!" Dekao got cocky.
"Find them to begin with. And try to survive." Saito grumbled in clear annoyance.
"YIKES!"
"Aha-hah!" Meiru grinned.
"Man."
"By the way! Tooru – kun!"
"What now, Yaito – chan?" Hikawa rolled his eyes.
"Bring me some exotic ice next time around. Tee, heh, heh." She made up some silly request.
"Sure, sure. And where do I find that?" He groaned.
"Dunno. Maybe in Ice Man's hood…"
"Desu? My hood…?" Ice Man wondered.
"What's a hood, de guts?" Guts Man wondered next.
"No way…" Roll looked skeptical by now.
"He doesn't know what a hood is!" Glyde gasped.
"Ops… Trouble… I guess…" Dekao trailed off.
"Sure thing… Dekao! When will you try to upgrade Guts Man?" Netto asked with rising annoyance.
"Shaddup! Guts Mans' invincible and he'll beat those punks!" Dekao got arrogant again.
"Try to face a mass-produced Metal Gear RAY! And live to tell it!"
"YIKES!"
"Aha-hah! Not so "overwhelmingly strong" anymore! Eh?"
"Yikes! Meiru – chan! Please don't make that creepy grin!"
"It keeps guys like cha at bay to begin with so I won't give it up."
"Man. Today's not my best day… I'm cursed!"
"Oh! I know! I'll invent the Ice Milk: only for cool people!"
Yaito giggled and the others sighed in defeat at her random jokes…