Hey !
So, time to see if making an alliance with a guy of the BO was a good idea... Well, some of you already guessed this may have not been the best plan of the year...xD
Oh, and 'gratz to Boogum who hit the 100th review plateau for this story ! And also thanks to all the serial reviewers (Laury Rose, emmahoshi, SilverQueen08) and the readers 'in the shadow', you're my fuel^^
o.O.o
SilverQueen08 : Yea, I think it's fun (and that Zombie case, as a Heiji fan, I could only chill with excitement ! :D) but it also means the girls will turn out to be useles^^;; Oh, nice then, I must say I was pretty tired with this fic since I wrote so many mysteries and even a Kid note... Uh, good luck with those, it takes ages to get rid of those parents' rules^^;
emmahoshi : Haha, sorry. And no, I'm not doing it on purpose xD My chapters are a bit shorter now, so the story isn't as long as detective or alliance to be honest. But it still hits the 28 chap marker^^; Yea, that lasted quite a while, poor Hattori :p Hehe, yea, a betrayal isn't far away... ^^ As to my next stories, I can tell you I got more coming : ) I wanted to have a little break but I got 2 plot bunnies tickling me so... The break will be for later ! One will be Hattori-centered and he probably won't be in the other (omg, my first without him o.O), I don't know yet by which one I'll start... We'll see !
Boogum : Not a good idea but yea, their choices were limited... Let's see how they can get out of that mess :p Answer in the next 2 chapters... Went so fast ! o.O
Chapter 25 : Confrontation
The teens carefully followed the man into the ship's depths. With the wideness of the boat, having only eight men on board would mean there wouldn't be a lot of guards in the hallways but meeting one would be enough trouble already, they had to be cautious.
"- How did you find that place by the way ?" Shinichi asked in a whisper to the BO agent just in front of him.
"- One of her underlings preferred my money to hers...
- And you came alone ? " The teen wondered, his suspicion still here, he couldn't picture a BO agent working by himself, not when he convinced the whole Organization his target had to be killed.
"- He decided quite late to betray her so I had to improvise or I would have never been able to get on that ship... Quiet now, we're almost there." Kummel hushed him with a sign of the hand.
The group was now stepping on a staircase leading to a huge storage room that was filling the whole bottom of the ice-breaker, just above the hull.
The stairs were cut in two by a platform leading to a hallway with a series of doors on each side, the crew's cabins probably.
The man, by his gestures, indicated those cabins : if Hikari was somewhere around, it would be there.
And indeed, they were barely reaching the beginning of the corridor that the nearest door opened to reveal the doctor's face.
Feeling he couldn't trust Kummel even with his promise he wouldn't hurt the woman, the azure-eyed detective stepped toward her to lead the conversation.
"- Surrender yourself, Takaishi." He ordered as he took his gun out to point it towards the girl.
"- Didn't your parent tell you to introduce yourself first when starting a conversation with a lady ?" She casually answered, barely flinching at the sight of the weapon. "Mister... ?
- My name wouldn't interest you, it's insignificant, you'd have no use for it." The Tokyoite retorted, not willing to introduce himself in front of Kummel, a member of his worst enemy's team.
"- I do think on the contrary that it could be pretty interesting... Kummel."
A pained grunt forced Shinichi ta have a glimpse behind him with the darkest fears and what he saw didn't comfort him the last.
"- Hattori !" The detective of the East called when he saw his friend was now on his knees, his wind knocked out and holding his side with his hand, while the BO agent was holding him by the hair, a gun stuck against his temple.
"- I think you'll be careful of your manners now ?" Hikari smirked as she stepped towards him, even more comforted in her superiority when Abe came out of another cabin, a gun in the hand and the same smirk on his face.
They had been waiting for them, there was no doubt about it...
"- So, will you answer me ?" She started again, now quite close of him. "Though I have already a pretty good hunch as to what the answer will be... Working with that Hattori... These blue and defiant eyes..." The doctor smiled, now touching his face with her fingertips. "Kudô Shinichi."
The Tokyoite stepped back to get away from her touch and looked away, not wanting his eyes to betray him in front of someone so good with reading the others' hearts. But it was already too late.
"- Looks like I'm right ! " She softly laughed. "I see you've managed to get your figure back quite quickly, I must say I'm quite interested in knowing how...
- You're manipulating Kummel." Shinichi stated out of the blue, wanting to change the subject.
"- Yes... He was starting to be quite the stalker so I had him think one of my men betrayed me and told him where to find me... He had quite the surprised face earlier when he saw not only me but also a few of my men. Well, I knew he'd be of some use later so I didn't kill him...
- Ya were expectin' us... ?" Heiji wondered, now that he was able to breathe again despite his uncomfortable position.
"- Maa, I was expecting some visitors... When Abe explained to me what happened at the hospital, it sounded quite like a diversion, the chances to have some mice at the back of his helicopter were quite high... " Takaishi explained, still smiling, sure of herself and her reasoning. "So I ordered Kummel to hide at the back of the ship and let the area voluntarily without surveillance. Any unwanted guest would think it was the safest place to hide... Kummel had the orders to help them, by whatever means, and lead them here.
- I can' believe ya..." The Osakan didn't want to accept, shaking his head in disbelief. That woman was so...
"- You should start to get used to it, Hattori, this is not the first time I outsmart you..." The doctor pointed out with an arrogant smirk.
"- Ya damn..."
The dark-skinned teen's insult got lot in his grunt when Kummel pulled his hairs harder, feeling the teen wanted to move.
"- But this will be the last time..." Hikari concluded, her smile disappearing to leave her face expressionless apart from her cold eyes. "Your friend still amuses me but you don't... Kummel."
Shinichi had been quiet and still at the moment but he wasn't going to stay inactive while they tried to kill his best friend !
He turned on himself quickly and pulled the trigger of his weapon after pointing it at the BO's agent. The Tokyoite was expecting for something to happen but that something wasn't what he was expecting at all : his weapon just as blew up in his hands in a cloud of white smoke, forcing him to let it go in a coughing fit, the metal burning his hands and the smoke burning his lungs.
"She even planned this..." He hissed as he clenched his teeth to control the pain, understanding now why the man had been so quick to give them a gun, no wonder since it was booby-trapped...
But the small explosion had been distracting enough and the criminal seemed a bit disoriented so Shinichi jumped at him as he could to free Heiji, half-knocking the man when his weight sent them both on the floor.
He was finishing him with a punch in the face when he heard Hikari's voice.
"- Kill just the dark-skinned one, Abe !" She was ordering as her accomplice probably got his weapon out.
"- I can't guarantee a perfect accuracy in that fog, ma'am..." He retorted with a voice half pissed off, half ironic.
Taking advantage of the fact the smoke wasn't dissipating too fast, the azure-eyed rushed to his friend and was starting to help him on his feet when he felt his own legs were wobbling like jelly.
"- Thanks... Oy, Kudô ! " The Osakan asked with urge when he felt that he was now more supporting Shinichi than he was supporting him.
"- That smoke... I bet it was some sleeping powder..." The Tokyoite managed to say despite the feebleness of his whole body. He turned his head to look at the detective of the West and locked his eyes in his. "Just leave me and run...
- The hell... " The dark-skinned denied with bored eyes, unable to believe his friend even proposed this solution to him.
"- That's not me they want to kill, you baka !" The azure-eyed retorted, putting as much force as he could in his voice and in his arms when he pushed Heiji towards the stairs.
The other teen was still looking at him with startle : running away and leaving a friend behind to come back later had never been his philosophy...
But the fog was now fading and the first bullet brushed his cheek, under Shinichi's panicked look.
"- Hattori, now !" He ordered once again, though his voice was starting to sound like a whisper.
He had just bitten his lower lip to stay awake but his eyes were too drowsy, he barely delayed his fainting by a handful of seconds.
"- Raaaah, damn ! I'll be back, ya better stay alive !" The Osakan yelled with rage before letting him go and starting to run down the stairs, zigzagging as he could to avoid bullets more and more precise with every second.
"- Get him and kill him !" Hikari ordered to Abe, anger on her face.
The Tokyoite did as he could to put himself in the man's way, blocking his line of fire with his body so the man wouldn't be able to shoot it but it didn't last long : unable to resist anymore, he drifted towards unconsciousness.
o.O.o
Heiji closed his eyes with frustration when he heard a thud that was probably the noise of his friend falling on the floor but didn't dare to turn to look at him, he knew he wouldn't be able not to run back to him if he saw him knocked out on the ground.
A bullet scratching deeply his shoulder reminded him he also had his own problems to take care of. Abe was still up the stairs he just ran down but his past as a mercenary was clearly visible at how precise he was with a gun.
Pushing on his body as he could, the dark-skinned ran straight to the storage zone they had seen from above and did his best to go as deep as possible in this maze of boxes. He paused a little bit when he felt he was far enough, trying to catch his breath, his eyes looking by reflex at the labels on the boxes in front of him.
"Meds... I guess we know how she exports those ta Russia now..." He concluded, glad to have this information but it wasn't his first priority right now. Though, with a closer look at the molecules' name, a grin appeared on his face... "Diazepam ? I indeed know one or two here who'd need ta relax... "
Quickly tearing the paper box in front of him, he pocketed as much boxes as he could before starting to move again, not wanting to stay immobile too long despite his exhaustion, not with a killer on the loose in the warehouse.
The Osakan headed as he could on a side of the storage room, doing his best not to think about his best friend, knowing he couldn't allow himself to, it would disturb him too much in his task. Once he finally reached the hull, he stopped once again and put his handkerchief on the floor to crush some tabs in it with his shoe, trying to get a powder thin enough for his opponent to be able to breathe it.
"Let's hope this will still be efficient like that..." He wished, not absolutely sure the meds would work through the lungs and knowing it could affect the time span needed for them to have any effect...
The dark-skinned was pocketing his precious cargo when a faint noise informed him he wasn't alone anymore in the area. As discreetly as he could, he climbed a few boxes to wait for Abe to pass near of him.
And that wasn't long, barely a few instants later, the former mercenary was just in the hallway below him, unaware of the presence of the teen only at a few inches on his side.
Taking the opportunity that was so luckily offered to him, Heiji jumped from his hideout and tackled the man, sending his weapon away by the shock. Seeing the criminal had his wind knocked out since he landed on his stomach, the Osakan took his handkerchief out and blew it in his face when he breathed in once again.
Apart from the coughing fit it triggered, the tabs' powder had barely any visible effect and the green-eyed sweat-dropp-ed when he noticed that fact. Quickly, he tried to get away from the man but a strong hand grabbed him by his collar and slammed him on the ground, fingers around his throat.
Noticing what was remaining of the dark-skinned bandages as the teen was only wearing his jacket, Abe smirked and started to punch conscientiously the spot that was already wounded.
The detective of the West struggled as he could but each blow was blurring his vision more and more, a metallic taste now in his mouth. He was starting to lose consciousness when suddenly his opponent's eyes rolled back into his skull and he fell on the ground just near him.
The snores were loud enough to inform Heiji the man was clearly down for a while and that allowed him to breathe a little bit, his back on the floor, not daring to move yet, closing his eyes with relief.
But his break turned out to be the short one as the Osakan felt he was starting to doze off so he forced himself to move. He couldn't just sleep there on the floor, while his best friend was in that Takaishi's hands and prisoner in a ship filled with only hostile people.
Using the nearby boxes as a support to get up, the dark-skinned quickly looked around him and saw what he was looking for : Abe's gun. Trying to ignore the painful spikes every of his movements sent to his wounded side, he bent to retrieve it.
"Just hold on a little bit longer, I'm comin', Kudô." He promised with a determined face as he stuck the weapon in the back of his trousers.