He rolled the ring between his fingers for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He had let the memory of it fade but as the weeks passed by, he felt it weighing heavy in his mind. Just the day following Kasumis disappearance, letters arrived. Kolyat, Sarah and Fenix all received one. They were all short but had at least calmed everyone down a bit. She had explained how she needed to get back on her feet by herself, not dragging everyone along anymore. She thanked them all and said she'd be in touch soon. Only, it had been weeks and no one had heard anything from her.
He let the ring dance across the table, making small clinking sounds as it did. Thane caught it before it fell off the table.
"I haven't seen this in a long time.."
Kolyat just nodded at the remark. Most drell didn't keep mementos. They didn't need it, after all. Certain things could mean a lot to them but they rarely served as a way to remember. He couldn't help but to think how the few they kept, didn't necessarily bring out happy memories anyway. He felt it better not to be reminded, but just to choose what to remember instead. At least, that's what he thought most of the time.
"She still haven't contacted any of us"
Kolyat sounded bitter. Thane looked at the ring in his hands and tried to hide a sigh.
"She was stuck for an extended period of time. It did not suit her, so she left. We can't blame her, even if her tactic of doing so was.. strange"
Kolyat stood up in anger at his fathers calm remark.
"Not strange at all! She was hurt. Over and over again. She just kept a brave face and pushed through! And when she was well enough, she ran. She could have told me. Or Sarah. Or Fenix.. or.. anyone! She just left! I haven't been able to sleep properly for weeks!"
He was pacing back and forth, trying to calm down. He was confused. Angry at his father for not understanding her, angry at her for not understanding him. He eventually turned around and slammed his fist into the door. He took a deep breath and turned around, carefully rubbing his fist with his other hand. Thane calmly stood up, took out a small towel and flushed it under cold water before handing it to Kolyat. He let the towel sooth his knuckles for a moment before gesturing that he was fine. Thane sat back down and tried to remain calm.
"Trust that she will contact you. You're among her best friends, Kolyat. So trust her"
Thanes word annoyed Kolyat. He fought hard to push away his anger and sat back down again. He placed the towel on the table and started rubbing away his headache. Thane watched his son fighting his emotions all while he himself had a difficult time to stay calm. This was the first time in a very long time he did not know where she was. He fought memories surfacing of how hard he had tried to keep tags on her when he was in the hospital before the coma. A few details were still slow to arrive to his memory but the frustration wasn't difficult to remember. He shut his eyes and tried to refocus on the moment. He wasn't sure what to say. He felt helpless. But most of all, he felt a heavy defeat.
"Kolyat.." he stood up before trying to carefully choose his next words. "I.. have a couple of jobs on Omega. It won't take long, a few days at the most"
Kolyat just sighed. He tried not to feel selfish about his father departing as well. He knew it was his job. He often left and came back. This time around was just poorly timed. He stood up and tried his best to put on a brave face. Painfully, it reminded Thane of when Kolyat had been a small child, waving as he left for another job off world.
"It'll give you a chance to see if you can find any details about her whereabouts too, right? If someone have seen her.."
Wishfull thinking, he knew. But the thought had to be voiced, he felt. Thane simply inclined his head and Kolyat did the same.
"Before.. you leave.. Did you ever get a chance to give her the letter?"
Kolay stopped in his tracks, back turned to his father.
"I did. But I don't think she read it. Safe travels, father. Please return swiftly"
As he left, Thane let out a sigh and let his arms rest at his sides for a moment before gathering enough strength. He opened up a nearby storage unit and took out a few selected weapons and started the maintenance. He needed to take his mind off of things. He was still unable to convince himself that he had done the right thing back then. Had he listened to his own body, he'd be standing right there with her in an instance. But reason spoke louder. Looking back, he wouldn't have listened to reason.
"Thin fabric covering her small frame. The smell of newly brewed tea filling the air, cinnamon and lavender filling the room. Toned muscles moving with perfect aim, preparing.. a meal.. Sets the table, humming. Dark eyes meeting mine, smiling. Her hands finding mine, dragging me out of bed. Warm lips on my neck. 'Slept well?'"
He squeezed his eyes shut. Some memories still flushed over him from time to time and it always had him at a loss for a moment. He took a deep breath and brought up his omnitool. He browsed through the details of his hit and kept packing.
She corrected the hem of her sleeve slightly and looked over the edge of the building. The lights were still on, so she had to wait a bit longer. She kept stretching while walking around on the roof, enjoying the views. She peaked over the edge again and saw the lights had been turned off. She activated a small drone and let it carefully make its way down to the windows below to confirm visuals. She let it land against the outside wall and started the pulse scanners. No detectable organic life on that floor. She activated her cloak and easily made her way down to the windows. She placed a small device on the window and waited for it to warm up and activate. She leaned out and sighed, closing her eyes. It felt good to be out and about again, she thought. The device chimed. It had temporary disabled the alarms on the windows. She cut out a small hole in the glass to reach the handle. She pocked the device and made her way inside. She sprayed the glass, creating a thin film that cover the hole. The alarm switched back on. It sent small electric currents through the glass and the thin film. When she was content that the alarm had not been triggered, she quickly spun around and scouted the area. The patch-job would only hold for about 15 min but that would be more than enough for her.
She still had to get down a few floors but this was the only safe entry point. She let the drone leave the side of the building and make its way down one floor, attaching itself to the wall and do another pulse search. She preferred this method as the local pulse search were much more difficult to localise due to the low frequency used. Shepard constantly used a similar method in combat to locate enemies and Kasumi had quickly adapted to that tactic. She quickly browsed the floor for anything useful and then started making her way down the stairs. Three organics detected.
She hid behind a desk and listened for steps. She extended her cloak to another drone. It rolled over the floor, up on a wall and attached itself in the ceiling, in a dark corner. She let the cloak leave it and scouted for the guards through it. She could see two of them, the third one nowhere to be seen. As time was a pressing factor, she moved from cover and carefully made her way into cover closer to the guards. Again, she let the cloak extend to her drone. As not to make a sound it, instead of flying, again rolled across the room to scout for the third member of the guards. When she finally found her, she let the drone record a voice print while she was talking with someone over her omnitool. Once she had hung up, Kasumi threw in a small smoke bomb between the two guards. She moved in, hitting the first guard with a solid fist in his ribs and kneeing the side of his face as he was bending over in shock, knocking him to the floor. The second guard barely had time to react. He pulled out his gun in surprise. Her clone stood in front of him, simply smiling at him and then disappeared. He spun around, trying to catch a glimps of her, and was quickly greeted by a quick slam over his nose, making him loose his balance. A leg from above hit him in the chest, dramatically increasing his speed towards the floor. She finished him off with a slam to his throat, knocking him unconscious.
She could hear the third guard gasp and steps quickening. She ran after her, throwing out a trip wire. She clumsily fell towards the floor knocking herself out in the fall. Kasumi smirked and walked up to her, making sure she was still alive but out cold. She took her card and hat and moved down the corridor.
She had her drone follow her, scouting ahead as she let her pulse drone descend one more floor. She kept several visuals around just in case. She knew they never kept a heavy guard rotation just after hours but the next guard shift would happen soon. She had to hurry.
Without anymore resistance, she made her way to the back office. The extra alarms wouldn't be a problem. She let a couple of optical wires materialise and made sure to pocket away her other gadgets as the wires made their way into the electrical box. She soon had a visual and set a couple of well placed local EMPs. As they went off, she entered the office and quickly scanned the locally stored hardware. She dug out a few names and locations and left the office. She checked the time. She quickly changed her outfit and took out the card she had taken from one of the guards. She opened a door and made her way down to the lobby. A few guards passed her on her way out.
"Slow night, huh?"
The guard at the gate commented and nodded at her. She pulled down her cap slightly. She activated her voice concealer with the voice print she had picked up earlier.
"You wouldn't believe! I'm so happy it's the end of my shift"
She had no problems sounding relaxed. The guard scoffed.
"I wish I could say the same! Mine just started"
She took out an energy bar and tossed it to him.
"Good luck, friend" she said and waved as she left.
Later that same evening, she sat down in the dark rental room and browsed through the information. She smiled and added the useful bits to her library. She brought up a small VI.
"Pod, could you please dig through this and see if there's anything I forgot to add? Also, run a scan on possible nearby locations. I don't want to have to come back here again"
"Affirmative"
She scoffed. She always found it difficult to distance herself from tech. They were always so closely entwined with her that she easily credited them with personalities. At least she didn't feel alone with them around. She stood up and stretched her muscles. She took some extra time to stretch her back and legs. She soon spread out on the bed and relaxed. She closed her eyes and tried to rest a bit.
Moments later, the VI chimed her awake.
"Miss, I've found one more possible location but it's dated quite some time ago. Would you like me to add it to your omnitool?"
She sat up and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
"Yes, please do that"
She quickly got up and left the room.
It had taken all of his efforts and still, he had only found a few possible trails of her every now and then. Kolyats worries of her whereabouts had affected him more than he wanted to let on, trying his best to stay strong for his son. She had been missing for a little more than a month now. He had at one point or another made use of all his contacts to try to find her but to no avail. Any suspicious trail could easily be credited to anyone. Even if he use to know her footprint very well, she was one to change tactics often to avoid detection. On top of always finding new technology to assist her, she was also quick to cover her tracks or even lead potential stalkers on the wrong route. Not even Fenix knew how she moved anymore. No one knew. She had been immobile for such a long time, she would have had to find a new way to execute her heists, to move forward. And she was never one to stand still. He knew that.
He let his fingers rest on the letter on the counter for a few minutes longer. He wasn't sure why he was still writing these. He was convinced she didn't read them. His desperate hopes to stay in touch with her seemed pointless but he still kept writing them. In a way, it made him feel closer to her. He left his apartment and made his way to the bank. He visited almost daily and tried to always speak to the same employee. She simply nodded at him and opened a door for him. He followed her down a corridor to a safe deposit box. He placed the letter inside and closed it. Nothing more was said and he inclined his head in thanks and left.
He soon found himself in front of Kolyats apartment. He took a deep breath before entering. Kolyat was sitting in the kitchen with a small box in front of him. He stood up as his father entered and offered him a seat. He seemed nervous.
"Have you heard anything?" Thane offered to break the silence.
"No, I.. nothing.. but something felt strange" He hadn't have the time to sort his thoughts yet so he simply handed his father the box. "Before leaving, she asked me to throw these out. I didn't have the heart to do it so I kept them.." He sat back down. "I just credited my suspicions back then to her being upset that.. well, you, hadn't shown up at the meeting. But now I'm.. having this feeling that maybe there's more to it"
Thane gave him a strange expression before opening the lid. He respectfully took out a couple of letter and turned them over in his hands.
"These are.."
"Yes, the letters you sent her. She asked me to throw them, but.."
Thane started opening the letters, skimming through them, one after one. He stood up and started placing the letter on the counter. He let his mind wander for a moment, remembering all the letters he had written her.
"Well? Why did she want me to throw these? Is it just me or.. is there something to this? Am I overreacting?"
Thane stood silent for a moment before voicing his thoughts.
"It's not a matter of why she wanted you to throw these but why she kept the others"
"What? Why-Why did she keep the others?"
"Because all the remaining letters contained possible information to locate me"
"Locate you? She didn't even know who she was writing to"
He squeezed his eyes shut and leaned up against the counter, visibly frustrated.
"She's trying to find out"
