Did you seriously think I was going to end it like that? Now why would I leave my readers hanging like that? You know you're awesome, so here you go.
Chapter 35 – Fox Hunt
December 31, 2010 0801hrs Oured, Osea
Everyone was so overcome with grief after the loss of Antonio that no one noticed that I had slipped away from them and headed back into the OR to find the doctor who had broke the news to us. Some of the other surgeons in there were shouting at me that I wasn't supposed to be in here, but I didn't care what they said. The doctor I was looking for wasn't here and one of the surgeons made a grab for me. I got a hold of his hand and bent his finger backward so that I could force him to back off.
"Where is that bald, fore-eyed bastard?" I growled, but he didn't answer. I increased the force on his fingers and he began to shriek even louder. "Don't make me ask you again."
"He's in his office. Out this door and to the right…his office is the fourth one on the left," he said quickly.
I released the surgeon and quickly made my way towards the doctor's office. No one bothered to follow me because I heard one of them call for security as I continued towards my destination. It wasn't until I got to the office door that I stopped and listened intensely to what was going on inside.
"I played it off as best as I could and they took it as well as you'd expect… alright, and I trust the money will be wired to my account?" I heard the doctor say. "Don't worry he's already on his way…Y-yes, I made sure to tell your men. Goodbye."
I heard all I needed to from the doctor before I headed into his office. Needless to say, he was shocked when he saw me enter. My 'yandere' personality that Antonio warned me about, had surfaced again and this doctor was about to be on the receiving end of it. Anyways, the doctor noticed me come in and he looked scared to death at the sight of me. He was holding a cell phone and I knew that it was my only lead to finding out the truth.
"Where is he?" I asked calmly and the doctor began to back away. "Where is Antonio?"
"Listen, you're upset about your friend's death. I understand, but there was nothing that I could've done to save him. I…" The doctor had backed into a wall and I forcefully pinned him against it by placing my foot on his throat. "I'm sorry I couldn't save your friend. There was nothing I could've done!"
"A body prop would be pretty difficult to revive," I growled. "Where is the real Antonio Castillo?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" said the Doctor and I began to press harder on his neck.
"Is refusing to answer my question really worth dying for?" I asked as I pulled a pen out of his coat and pressed its point into his carotid artery.
The doctor knew I wasn't kidding and I could see that he ran the risk of dying later if he told me the truth, but I didn't care. I only wanted to find Antonio and I wasn't going to stop until I did. "I don't know where he is. I was ordered to load him into a van when he got here and I don't know where they took him."
"What can you tell me about the van and the men you saw," I asked.
"It was a black van that had medical equipment inside the back; there was a woman with them with short black hair and blue eyes. The men she was with looked like they were in the military."
"Is that all you remember? Think very carefully," I said as I increased the pressure on his neck even more.
"Wait, one of them said that your friend was alive, but they weren't sure if he was going to make it. The lady said that it didn't really matter just as long as someone named Flemings got what she needed."
I should've known she'd be involved with this. "Last question; who were you talking to on the phone?"
"I don't know. He told me that if I wanted to make some money that I should do what he said."
I released the doctor and took his cell phone out of his hand. "Bitch," I heard him mutter to which I roundhouse kicked him in the head.
"That's the viewing fee for looking up my skirt," I replied and I walked out of the doctor's office.
I was looking through the phone's call log and noticed the most recent number that was dialed. The number had an Erusean area code and that was all I knew about it. Chances were that this number couldn't be traced, nor would the person on the other end answer a returned call. If I was going to find my lead on Antonio, then I was going to need help. However, I couldn't rely on the IOSS because the people who had Antonio would be a lot more careful if they knew an international peacekeeping organization was following them. The only way to find them was through a couple of close friends who knew what they were doing. Lucky for me, they were all in Oured. I pulled out my phone and gave Rico a call. Antonio told me that he was here so I knew that I could depend on him for getting me my equipment.
"Rico, it's Naomi," I said as soon as he picked up the phone.
"Hey," he said in a grim manner. "Listen, I'm sorry about Antonio…"
"I know, but there's something I need to tell you. Meet me at your garage and I'll explain everything. But first I need you to give Neil, Mike, and Megan a call and tell them to meet us there as well."
Rico said he'd do as I asked and I was walking down the hall so that I could head to my car, but I noticed that Kei was leaning against a wall when I turned the corner. One thing that caught my attention was that she was no longer dressed in her flight suit. She was wearing jeans, brown boots, and a hooded leather jacket. "There you are," she said. Kei was still hurting over Antonio's death, but she was keeping her feelings from showing. "The others are waiting for us outside. Come on."
I was thinking about what I heard Kei say to Antonio when she was alone with him earlier and it really irritated me. It was like she couldn't make up her mind on how she should feel about the kind of person he was. Even after I told her a little of my history with him, she didn't know how deep it actually ran. Given what Antonio told me about his relationship with Kei, it was clear that she wanted to protect him. Antonio might not have known it, but it wasn't love that bound her to that responsibility. And that was something that Antonio couldn't see. Even though I knew this for a fact and as much as I didn't want to involve Kei with this matter because of my opinion of her at this point, I needed her help. I told her to follow me as I led her back to the room 'Antonio' was being kept in. The other's had already left the area while other hospital staff began the process of sending him to a morgue. Kei just stood in the doorway and gawked at me as I pulled off 'Antonio's' bottom lip with ease.
"What the hell are you doing?!" shouted Kei, but I didn't answer her as I walked out of the room and began to make my way towards my car. "Naomi, what the hell did you do?!"
"I'll explain everything later, but for now just trust me" I said
Kei followed me to my car and we got in. From there, I drove as fast as I could towards Rico's garage. Once we were there, Kei followed me into the place where I met him and the three others I had called about. Mike Brookes was one of Antonio's best friends from high school. It was because of him that I learned how to dance and further my music career. He was also one of the best drivers I knew and he knew this city like the back of his hand. Neil Kelly was a husky looking guy whose family was part of the Iñupiat tribe back on Earth. He was also one of the biggest computer geek that Antonio knew and I found out during college that he was recruited into the IOSS, but he also started his own tech support company that was doing pretty well. The last person I called was Megan. Her real name was Tyler Robinson, but she preferred to be called Megan for specific reasons. She helped me with a lot of my cosplay make up in college, but she was here for a slightly different reason than everyone else.
"Naomi what's going on," asked Kei again.
"Antonio isn't dead," I said as I tossed 'Antonio's' lip towards Megan and she caught it.
"What do you mean he isn't dead?" asked Rico.
"What's going on?" asked Mike.
I gave everyone a quick summary of what happened this morning and how Antonio was involved. "During their mission, Antonio was critically injured and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead," I explained.
"Wait Antonio's dead?!" exclaimed Neil.
"No he isn't."
"Then what's this? And why is my hand itching?" asked Megan.
"That is the lower lip I pulled off Antonio before I left the hospital to come here. The reason you're itching is because it's made out of latex," I said.
"Dammit, Naomi, you know I'm allergic to latex!"
"I know. I only wanted to prove a point."
"How did you even know that?" asked Kei in sudden realization.
"Latex body props are some of the most realistic I've ever seen while I was working with the movie industry. It's also used for makeup and costumes, but I'm getting off topic. The only reason I knew that it wasn't Antonio because Mr. Harkin has the same allergy. Antonio is out there and I need your guys' help to find him," I said to everyone.
"Hold on, why would anyone want to capture him?" asked Megan.
"We haven't been completely honest with you all about who we really are. Rico, Neil, and I are the only ones who really know why anyone would want to kidnap Antonio. And after the fireworks he caused today, they'd want to kill him."
"Someone tried setting that explosion off on the city?!"
"Yes, and now they have Antonio. We have to help him!" I pleaded.
"Tell me what you need me to do," said Rico and everyone else just looked at him. "What? Ya'll seriously expect me to abandon the guy after all we've been through?"
I felt myself smile knowing I had Rico on board with this whole plan. "I need my gear," I told Rico and he headed back into a closet to get my old duffel bag. It had my sneaking suit, my specialized boots and gloves, utility belt, custom rappelling harness, and a dagger that I had specially made from an old family friend. I haven't seen this stuff in a while. Once I saw that everything I needed was there, I looked at the others. They still didn't seem convinced that it was a good idea.
"Naomi," began Neil. "Before I agree to this, why can't you ask the police or IOSS for help?"
"Because, the people we're up against are just as well equipped as they are. If they find out that IOSS is involved, they'll go to ground," I said and Neil thought carefully about what I had just told him.
"Alright, I'll help; just tell me what you need me to do."
"I need Mike on board if you're going to be useful," I said and we all shot a glance at Mike.
"I have no idea about half the stuff you talking about, but shoot, you know I got my boy's back," said Mike.
"Alright, Mike, what's the fastest way to get out of the city from Oured Memorial Hospital?" I asked.
"All the roads are closed due to the New Year's festivities except for emergency services. If your guys are smart, they wouldn't transport him out of the city using an ambulance so they'd have to find another way. Air traffic's been stopped and the only mode of transport that's still active is the subway systems. There are three entrances to it around the hospital that would make sense if anyone wanted to use them."
"Neil can you access the CCTV footage from the hospital?" I asked.
"I'd need a computer first," he said and Rico led him into a room that he used for vehicle diagnostics on his computer. Rico told Neil that he could do just about anything on it and Neil got to work. "What am I looking for?"
"A black van that was at the hospital between 7 and 8am," I said and Neil quickly got to work. While he was doing that, I quickly got changed. I was putting my blouse back on by the time he was able to hack into the hospital's network and pull up the footage we were looking for. "That's him!" I exclaimed as I watched the footage. Antonio was being loaded into the van while several others stood around and kept watch. "Neil…"
"I'm way ahead of you. I've got the footage from several other street cameras and traced them into the Horizon Street station at 8:32," said Neil.
I looked at my watch and saw that it was 0844hrs. "Mike, do you know the train schedule for that station?"
"The next train won't get there for another six minutes," said Mike. "If your boys are smart, they'll wait for the 9:00 train to move Antonio. That one goes from Horizon to Trenton nonstop."
"Trenton is at the far Northern part of Oured Bay," said Megan. "If they were going to smuggle him out of the city-"
"They're going to ship him out by sea," said Kei.
"Horizon station is an eight minute drive from here under normal traffic conditions. If we're going to intercept that train, we need to get moving now," said Mike.
"Let's go," I said and Mike and Kei followed me to my car.
Mike peeled out of the parking lot and sped as fast as he could towards Horizon Station. He was drifting around every corner to maintain his speed as we continued to head for Horizon station and he ran every red light along the way. I had just received an e-mail on my phone letting me know that my license was now revoked, but I didn't care at the moment. When we arrived at the train station, Kei and I quickly jumped out.
"Wait, what am I supposed to do?" asked Mike.
"Just be ready in case we need your help," I replied as I tossed him an earpiece and ran into the station after Kei.
The place was more crowded than I thought. People were coming from all over Oured for the New Year's festival. It was 0856hrs and I was scanning the crowd frantically to find the people who took Antonio. Kei was on the overhead walkway so that she could get a better view of everyone in the station. Nothing seemed out of place in the crowd. Then again, why would anyone push around a heavily injured man into a public area?
"Kei, do you see him?" I asked over my earpiece.
"No, I can't see anything," she said. "Dammit, where could they be hiding him?"
"Maybe in one of the maintenance tunnels," I said. "It'd seem kind of weird for a group of people to transport him on a stretcher in public."
"Well it's the only place that makes sense. I'll take a look. In the meantime, keep a look out in case you were wrong," said Kei and I saw her rush towards the maintenance tunnel.
I was making my way towards the train platform in preparation for the train to arrive, but I was still on the other side of the station. An announcement came over the intercom saying that the train to Trenton was now arriving. The station was still crowded and I was pushing my way through the crowd as quickly as I could. Station security began to push people back to the point where Kei was blocked inside of the maintenance tunnel she entered. I continued to make my way towards the platform, but I was running out of time. I was close enough to the platform that I could see a group of people pushing someone in a wheel chair that had a bunch of monitors on it. That's how they kept him blended into the crowd. The train began to move once Antonio was on board and the station security was still keeping everyone back, but that didn't stop me. I had finally made it through the crowd and began to run as fast as I could to catch the train, but the security guards tried to stop me. I evaded their attempts to hold me and continued to chase the train. The last car was quickly approaching and it soon began to pass. In a desperate attempt to catch it, I quickly jumped and grabbed onto the back door of the car.
I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that I had made it and began to pull myself up so that I could enter the train car. Once I was up I could see several men inside the train looking at me, but one of them pulled out an MP7 from under his jacket. The man sprayed a bunch of rounds in my direction and I quickly ducked out of the way. Bullets shattered the door's window and soon the man stuck his arm out so that he could shoot me. I quickly grabbed his arm while I opened the door so that he was pulled out of the car. The man fell onto the train tracks while I held onto the door for dear life. More men in the train were looking at me through another window and I quickly climbed on top of the car. Bullets began to fly up from the roof from every direction as I rolled out of the way. If the space between the train car's roof and the tunnel's ceiling weren't as narrow, I probably would've stayed on here for the entire ride. However, as weird as it may have sounded, it was probably safer inside with all those gun touting assholes. I rolled off the train car's roof, grabbed the edge, and swung myself into the car through a window. I was close enough to one of the men so that I could run up to him and toss him to the ground once I got hold of his gun.
When Antonio and I flew together for ISAF, we made a promise that we wouldn't kill anyone unless it was unavoidable. We both did our best to keep this promise, but sometimes our emotions would get the better of us. The first time I killed someone out of passion was when she nearly killed Antonio. It wasn't like he didn't see it coming, but the way she tried doing it was what really set me off.
I was now armed with a SPAS-12 and was standing in front of a group of six men. The look of surprise on the first man was my opening to quickly deal with all of them. I quickly ran towards the closest man and ran my knee into his chest as hard as I could so that he fell onto two of his allies. I then brought up my weapon to shoot two of the others before I rushed the last man and hit him in the head with the butt of the shotgun. The other three were still trying to get back on their feet, but I ignored them and entered the next train car. I used the shotgun to bar the door and I proceeded towards the front of the train. The car I had just entered was empty, but something was off. Even if they were trying to extract Antonio out of the city, I'd figured that they'd have a contingency in case something went south. It was when I thought of this that I began to think that they were on to me. I quickly headed towards the next train car only to see that a couple of men trying to detach it. I quickly drew my dagger and dealt with both of them before I continued into the next car. One guy hid against the wall and tried to grab me when I entered. I ducked just in time and spun around him so that I could wrap my arm around his neck and drew his pistol. Several more men appeared and tried to shoot me, but I got all my shots off first before I threw the man towards a window and kicked him out of it.
It wasn't until I looked towards the front of the train that I noticed that it was rigged to blow. I ran towards the front of the car and tried opening the door to the next one, but it was barred. I quickly broke a window so that I could climb out of it and jump over to the next car. There was nothing that I could grab onto and I was lucky that the train car's plating was weak enough for me to stick my dagger through it, yet strong enough for it to support my weight. Not even two seconds later did the train car I jumped out of, became engulfed in flames. The shockwave from the explosion almost made me lose my grip and I tried to break through another window, but someone sprayed a bunch of bullets at me before I could do anything. One of them hit me in the boob and I quickly swung myself onto the train car's roof. As soon as I was on top of there, I rolled onto my back and pulled open my jacket to see that my suit had stopped the bullet, but it still hurt like hell. If my suit wasn't composed of Kevlar, modified Carbon nanotubes, Gore-Tex, and several other space-age materials I'd probably be dead.
"She's on the roof!" I heard someone shout.
I looked back and the guy who shot me was leaning out of the window and he tried bringing up his gun, but I quickly kicked him in the head so that he lost his balance and fell off the train. Once he was taken care of, I began to crawl towards the front of the train while more bullets flew up from around me. Fortunately for me, these guys were idiots. They were spraying down the center of the roof and I was hugging the left edge of the car.
"Naomi, where the hell are you?!" exclaimed Kei into her earpiece.
"I'm on the train headed for Trenton, but they know that I'm here. I'll see what information I can squeeze out of these people if I can't get to Antonio in time. Regroup with Mike and haul ass towards Trenton," I said.
"Roger, don't lose him!"
I continued crawling towards the front of the train while I avoided gunfire from below. They were shooting further ahead of where I was and one of their bullets must've hit something flammable because an explosion tore a hole into the roof of the train car, but I soon realized that they had done it on purpose so that they could climb up and see if I was still up here. There was only one guy who poked his head out, but my dagger was the last thing he saw. More bullets flew through the roof and I rolled off the edge of the train car again and swung through another window. There were only two men standing there and I took advantage of their obliviousness to quickly snap the first man's neck. After he fell, I quickly deflected the second man's weapon, punched him in the face, kneed him in the balls, and hit him in the head with his weapon. With no one else to hinder my progress at this point, I ran towards the front of the train car, but I was intercepted by someone who was hiding behind the door. They had wrapped their arm around my neck and tried to put me in a sleeper hold.
I elbowed the person in the ribs a couple of times so that their grip loosened and grabbed their arm so that I could toss them to the ground, but they flipped and landed on their feet so that they could attack again. My attacker turned out to be a butch looking woman wearing combat gear. She was one of the most muscular women I've ever seen in my life and she hit hard. I felt myself stagger against the wall and she tried to run her foot into my head, but I managed to avoid it and see that she left a huge dent in the metal plating. I countered with several quick punches and kicks to her face and legs, but she was hardly fazed by them. The woman tried to swing another punch at me and I countered by leaning out of the way and quickly landing a left open palm strike to her face, a hard left punch to her sternum, a left kick to her right leg, and a left chop to her throat. I then tried to land a hard right cross to her jaw, but she caught my hand and bent it backwards until I was forced onto my knees. The woman quickly kneed me in the head and picked me up by my throat. I was positive that she could've killed me just by crushing my neck, but she just threw me out a window.
I quickly grabbed onto the window's ledge and tried to pull myself back inside, but the butch lady grabbed me by my wrists and pulled me up before she dropped me. I quickly stabbed my dagger into the side of the train car to save myself and quickly swung myself on top of the train car again. With nothing else for me to do at the moment, I got settled in and rode the rest of the way towards Trenton as I just laid there.
1036hrs Trenton, Osea
The train was slowing down and it wasn't long until it came to a full stop. When it did, I slowly got up from my spot and climbed down from the train car. No one knew I was still here, but I had to be careful if I was going to rescue Antonio. I snuck around to the front of the train and peeked around the corner to see what was happening on the train platform. As soon as I saw a group of people in lab coats push Antonio out on a Stretcher, there was no doubt in my mind that I had been on the right track this whole also confirmed that these people wanted him alive. However, the one thing that surprised me was that his leg was starting to heal. I thought his healing factor had been nullified.
"Keep applying those sedatives regularly until we make it back to the Calypso," said one of the men.
"What about his blood loss? He'll be in a coma if we don't get him some transfusions soon," said another.
"He's already healing thanks to the blood the Freak gave him. He'll recover."
"At least we know she's good for something," said a scientist as she glared at the woman who threw me out of the train.
I only saw ten people on the platform, but more armed guards came down the stairs to join them. If it weren't for them, I would've rushed to subdue everyone. However, this situation called for extreme subtlety.
"Who the hell are you?"
I turned around to see a guard pointing a suppressed pistol at me. I quickly grabbed it and chopped them an in the throat so that I was able to take his gun away. Once I had it, I quickly pulled out my dagger, stabbed him in the throat, and grabbed him before he hit the ground so that I could hide him under the train. After I hid him, I waited for the rest of the platform guards to disperse. The people who were looking after Antonio had finally gone up the stairs and now only three men were on the platform. They were talking to each other as they stood in a small circle. There wasn't any way for me to sneak around them without drawing their attention, so I took a magazine off the guy I knocked out and threw it towards the wall on the far side of the platform. The guards heard, but they didn't pay any attention to in until I threw another one. They all had their attention focused away from me and I used this opportunity to sneak by. After I got past them, I slowly made my way up the stairs. Everything was quiet which meant that they knew I was here and were waiting to ambush me, or it meant that nobody was here. It wasn't until I reached the final set of stairs that I learned it was the latter. Everyone had pretty much vacated the place and I headed back up to the surface to find Antonio.
The only thing between me and the station entrance was a long hallway and three more guards. This was where everyone was and they were looking over the area. I was carefully studying these men and their equipment so that I could form some kind of strategy based off what they had. SPAS-12 shotguns, M416s assault rifles, USP .45s, and frag grenades… I can do this. I quickly back tracked towards a maintenance closet that contained an electrical box for the lights in the corridor. There wasn't much I could do in terms of long term damage, but I could shut off some of the lights for about a minute before the backup generators kicked in. This would give me a small window to sneak past the guards. They didn't have flashlights or NVGs so sneaking past them shouldn't be a problem. I yanked out a couple of wires until the lights went out. My eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light and I made my way out of the closet and back towards the corridor.
"What the hell? What happened to the lights," shouted one of the guards.
"I don't know."
"I can't see shit!"
I ran as quickly as I could past the men. The boots I was wearing had cushioned heels and my footsteps were a lot quieter than they already were. This made it easier for me to get past them without them hearing me, but someone was coming down the stairs into the corridor. They had a flashlight mounted on their weapon and there was no place for me to hide, so I stuck to the shadows up until the last second. When the man spotted me, I was already within arm's reach of him. I drew his pistol with my right hand while I stopped him from bringing his weapon up with my left. He didn't have enough time to stop me from violently jamming the barrel of his pistol into his throat several times. After he was down I quickly ran up the stairs to see several people looking down into the station entrance. There was no way for me to get out of here without them seeing me. However, the sound of screeching car tires was enough to draw their attention. Shots rang out and everyone who was looking into the station entrance had now run off to investigate the gunfire. I quickly ran up the stairs and peeked to see what was going on.
There were eight men converging together and I poked my head out to see my car being shot to hell. Mike and Kei had bailed out on the passenger's side while they were being shot at. I have to save them. The eight men didn't see me sneaking up behind them and I quickly got off eight kill shots so that Kei and Mike were clear. Mike was the first one to poke his head out and he quickly came out to greet me as Kei tailed him.
"Naomi, I know I said I'd help my boy out, but shit… I didn't know I was going to be shot at!" he shouted.
"I know, Mike, but right now I need to find Antonio. Did you see anyone suspicious drive past you when you came?" I asked.
"No, we didn't."
Dammit… I took a look around the area and tried to get a bearing on where we were. I had never been to Trenton before and this place looked more deserted than I thought. This part of the city was a ghost town and was located on a hill that overlooked a larger part of the city. Unlike Oured, traffic was flowing and people were carrying on with their daily routines. When I looked out towards the harbor, I could see numerous ships at the dock and the harbor facilities were bustling. I didn't know where Antonio was and I had killed the only people who knew anything. That's what I thought until the men I slipped past earlier came rushing out of the station and pointed their weapons at me.
"Don't move!" they shouted and Mike immediately threw his hands up. I took a glance behind me to see that Kei was gone. If Antonio was telling the truth about her being part of Pitbull, then she was already in the process of dealing with them. "Hands up, bitch," they shouted again.
I glared at them because I knew I needed to buy Kei some time, but she jumped the gun and charged the men from behind one of the remaining vehicles that were left behind. Kei vaulted over the hood and kicked one of the men's guns away only for him to shoot and kill three of his allies. He was distracted long enough for me to pull out my pistol and shoot the remaining two in the kneecaps while Kei hip tossed the third man to the ground and held him at gunpoint. I ran over as well so that I could restrain the remaining two in case they tried something. Once all of them were restrained, we stood over them. I needed information and I was going to get it one way or another.
"One of you is going to tell me where your friends went with my friend, or you will die one at a time. Do you understand?" I warned.
"Fuck you! I'm not telling-"
I didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence before I ran my dagger into his throat. Everyone looked at me in terror as I pulled out my blade and pointed it at the next guy. Mike couldn't stomach what I had done and walked away and Kei just stood there in shock. The other two captives began to tremble in fear as I glared at them.
"Do I need to ask you two again? Because whoever doesn't tell me what I want to know is going to have another hole to breathe out of," I growled. Both of them hesitated and I was growing more impatient the longer I waited. "Am I gonna have to cut something off one of you?"
"They're taking him to a ship that's moored out in the bay. There's a helicopter on top of Kadokawa hospital that they're going to use it to take him there," said one of the men.
"You wouldn't be lying to me now, would you?" I asked as I placed my dagger under them man's chin.
"I swear that's all I know!" he screamed.
I didn't say anything as I sheathed my dagger and walked towards my car, but then I suddenly turned around and shot both of them. "Naomi, what the hell?!" shouted Kei.
"I'm not leaving any loose ends that could warn those people that I'm coming for them," I growled.
"You didn't need to kill them! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
"I don't care about these people!" I shouted as I turned to glare at her. "The only thing I care about is getting Antonio back alive and I don't care who I have to go through to make sure he's safe! If you won't help me, then I'll do this alone."
"You're not doing this alone," said Mike as he walked back towards us. "I'm gonna need some time adjusting to all of this, but I'm with you all the way if you need me, Naomi."
"Mike-"
"You don't have to say anything. After I've seen how close you both became over the years, I know that there ain't nothing you'd do for each other."
"How can you be so calm after she just killed several people?" exclaimed Kei.
"Because I know how deep her feelings go for my friend," said Mike and I lowered my head. "Naomi would do anything for Antonio, Kei. She's not doing it out of some kind of sense of obligation."
I knew Mike's words would trigger Kei in a way that she wouldn't show, and I knew that this would be on her mind up until we found Antonio. As much as I wanted to tear Kei a new one on her obligation as Antonio's wingman and her personal feelings towards him, I had to keep my mouth shut.
"I'm going to do anything and everything I can to find him, Kei," I said as I looked back at her. "And you'd better be prepared to do the same if you want to see him again."
I didn't say anything else as I walked back to my car with Mike and it took Kei half a minute to come along. The three of us quickly ran towards my car and got in so that we could peel out and head towards the hospital. Mike was moving as quickly as he could while trying not to draw attention to ourselves, but a car riddled with bullet holes was already suspicious looking as it was. We quickly ditched my car in a car park and began to run towards the hospital. It was a couple of miles away and Mike was already having trouble keeping up with us. He told us to go on ahead and that he would try to catch up if he could. We didn't stop to worry about him. In fact, I was relieved to have to leave him behind. Knowing the possible dangers that lied ahead of us, I felt better knowing that Mike wouldn't be involved. As we got closer to the hospital, I could see a helicopter sitting on top of the roof. It wasn't preparing for takeoff and I couldn't see anybody around it from where we were. Why haven't they left yet?
"Don't you find it kind of odd that the helicopter hasn't taken off yet?" asked Kei.
"I was just thinking the same thing," I said and I paused to think. These guys always go over their plans with everyone who's involved. "Those guys at the train station weren't told the full plan."
"They were fed misinformation?"
"Yeah, they took Antonio somewhere else," I said glumly. These guys at the hospital wouldn't know anything if we interrogated them and I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration because I didn't know what else these people might try in order to smuggle Antonio out of the city.
"…hear….come on…. Say something, Naomi," said a voice over my earpiece. "Naomi, are you there?"
"Rico," I asked.
"Finally," said Rico. "Neil was able to boost our communications somehow and he tapped into the surveillance network around Trenton. Have you found him yet?"
"No, we lost him at the train station and we tried following a lead that turned out to be a dead end. Can Neil gain access to Trenton's old train station's security cameras?" I asked.
"Sorry, he can't. That network's been shut down."
"See if you can retrieve the footage of all traffic coming from the southern section of the city," said Kei.
"Standby….. The only vehicle that came from there was a milk truck that we traced back to the docks," said Rico.
"Hey, Naomi, my dad works on those docks and is in charge of freight oversight," said Megan.
"Meaning…" I asked.
"He keeps track of all ships and their cargo that come through. His name is Chase Arber and he's usually hold up in his office on the west side of the docks."
"That's going to take us a while to get there," said Kei.
I felt myself frown and I decided that it was better to dig myself into more trouble than let these people get away with kidnapping my best friend. The thought of the police getting involved didn't stop me from running my fist through a car's window. Kei was about to say something, but she held her tongue and got in. More memories of Antonio began to flood my mind because he taught me how to hotwire a car. As soon as we began to head out, Mike had finally caught up to us. He didn't say anything as he got in and guided us towards the docks. It was a rather slow drive, but we still managed to make it before any of the ships left the port. The only down side to this was that we couldn't just waltz onto the docks. Security was tight for a shipping yard. Hell, we saw that there were more armed guards here than there were at the hospital when we drove by the front gate.
"It figures that this wouldn't be easy," I muttered. We were standing in a parking lot that had a narrow view of the ship yard, but we could see a lot of activity from where we were. "Well, we better get started."
"Hold up, am I gonna have to come with you again?" asked Mike.
"If you want," I shrugged. "We have to be careful and avoid getting caught."
"Alright, I'll wait out here if you need me."
Kei and I headed towards the ship yard and hopped the fence when we were sure that no one was watching. Sneaking through here was going to be challenging in broad daylight, especially with Kei. It was easier infiltrating places on my own, even if my partner was experienced. Anyways, we stuck to the shipping containers as much as we could. There were points along the way where the enemy had extremely narrow blind spots. Except for a couple of close calls, we had managed to reach our objective without being seen. The office Megan's father worked in was a doublewide trailer and it was in a pretty wide open area. We could see people walking back and forth in the windows and it looked like no one was guarding it. Kei was about to jump the gun, but I stopped her before she could dart towards the building. She was about to say something, but I cautiously poked my head around the container to take a gander of my surroundings. Around the corner of the container, I could see several gantry cranes off in the distance. Not only that, I could see a couple snipers looking over the area from on top of them.
"That place is being guarded," I told her. "I'll take out the sniper and you head over there when it's clear."
Kei nodded and I headed off towards the crane. There were a lot of blind spots around them and I didn't have any trouble making it onto the crane. When I got there, I stuck behind one of the snipers for a good five minutes until he checked in on his radio. It was easy enough to remember his call sign and I proceeded to knock him out and take up his rifle. The rifle was a suppressed DSR-1 and I began to look over every aspect of the rifle; the ammunition, the scope specifications, and the maintenance of the weapon. After I did that, I shouldered the weapon, adjusted the scope, and took aim at the other two snipers. Another smile formed on my face as I took into account the factors a sniper needed to calculate a shot. I used to be a terrible shot when it came to long distance and Antonio almost lost his mind when he found out, but he taught me everything he knew the next day. Anyways, I waited for the next check in to go off so that I could pose as the other snipers once they were dead. When they responded, I popped off two shots and took them both out. I should've considered myself lucky that the place was so busy and the surrounding noise drowned out my shots.
"Kei, you're clear," I said into my earpiece and I watched Kei dart towards the trailer.
Kei carefully walked into the building and I didn't hear from her for a few minutes. I kept checking in with the other patrolling guards when they asked for an update. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I saw all of the guards leave their post and begin moving towards the other side of the dock. Where are they going?
"All units, rendezvous at point echo for extraction," said a voice over the radio.
"Kei, these guys are moving out. Have you found anything?" I asked.
"I'm looking through the ship docking manifest, but there are a couple ships here that aren't on the list. Their affiliation, destination, and cargo are unknown," she replied.
"Do either of the ships have characteristics that stand out?"
"Only one of them does. It's a salvage ship that arrived earlier this morning. That's the only one that would make sense for them to use."
"Why?" I asked.
"The impact of the SOLG would've left a crater close enough to Oured Bay for it to become flooded. More than likely they would've used the ship to recover anything of value from that wreckage. There's also the possibility that they'll try to recover Bishop's plane. I'm betting they took Antonio aboard to save themselves the resources of using a couple different ships."
"Do any of the ships have the name Calypso?"
"Searching…. Negative."
"Then how can you be sure that he's on there?" I asked.
"How do you know we've been following the right people this whole time?" she asked.
"Fair enough," I sighed. "If we're going to get on that ship, we'd better move now. The guards are on the move."
I slung the sniper rifle across my back and stuck as much of the guy's ammo into my pockets before I climbed down the crane and met up with Kei. When we finally met back up, we headed towards the area the guards had gathered. They didn't seem like they noticed us following them, but I made sure to be ready in case they spotted us. When they had all finally regrouped, they immediately boarded a ship so that they could leave. As soon as the last man was aboard, the ship began its preparations to depart. A small crew of people began to undo the mooring lines of the ship and I rushed towards one that hadn't been undone yet. Kei followed me as closely as she could and she undid the line before she followed my lead and grabbed the mooring line. We quickly climbed up the rope and it only took us a few seconds to reach the stern rail of the ship, but we were still within view of the people on the dock. I didn't want to take any chances and I shimmied over to the port side of the ship. When I was out of their field of vision, I peeked over the railing of the ship to see if the coast was clear and climbed aboard when no one was watching.
"We're a little too exposed out here," said Kei and she quickly darted towards a hatch on the side of the ship's superstructure. Now that we were inside the ship, we ran a higher risk of being caught and we took cover inside of a room that looked to be unoccupied. It was dark and there was a lot of junk piled in here.
"Do you have any bright ideas on how we can move about the ship without anyone knowing that we're here?" I asked.
"I thought you'd come up with something since I was following you," replied Kei.
I wasn't the one who decided to go INSIDE of the damn ship! "I'm making this up as I go," I muttered. Kei was glaring at me as I thought about how we could sneak around the ship. The only thing I could think of right now was to cause a big enough racket to get captured. However, I needed to confirm that we were following the right people. "Stay here and wait for my signal. When I set it off, try and find me and don't look back. If you don't hear from me within an hour, get back to the others and tell Mr. Harkin about what happened."
"What are you going to do?" asked Kei.
"With luck, I'll be able to find out who's heading this whole operation. The only thing you can do is just trust me," I said and I walked out of the room. I pulled my hair back into a pony tail and took a few deep breaths to prepare myself for what I was about to get into. Hold on, babe, I'm coming for you.