Chapter Nine:

"Not Boring At All"

An hour later, Light's phone vibrated in his hand. He jolted awake and he fumbled with it—almost dropping it. He had put his phone on vibrate, so no one would hear it when he got a message.

He blinked and rubbed his eyes. Had he fallen asleep? He must have been more tired than he thought. He looked at his watch, it was just past five o'clock in the morning.

He put in his phone password and brought up the text message. It had an attachment.

It included a picture that confirmed the person he wanted data on was indeed Icarus. Along with a basic profile of bodily dimensions, age, nationality, and known cohorts, with a long list of crimes. Yet the only thing that was missing was a name. He couldn't believe his contract on Dark Web couldn't get him the only piece of information Light truly needed to kill Icarus, as Kira needed both a name and face to kill.

He was about to send a reply and ask why a real name didn't follow when an emoji appeared with the information of two "eyes" which meant his contact was still looking. Followed by another emoji of two hands "praying", but his contract was actually asking for forgiveness for not getting a name.

Light could understand the issue. In this new age of Kira, real names were scarce to find if the person had a criminal background, and even police used pseudonyms for them. They didn't want Kira to kill the bad guys before they had their day in court and basically hide everyone from social media. But when good journalists did their due diligence, he thanked them secretly.

He found the Criminal Underworld had almost conducted a sweep of all personal information on themselves. There were cache's of information on the internet, but if someone had enough influence, money, and knowhow, they could virtually erase themselves from existence. He sent an emoji of thanks, then ended the conversion, then erased all data after memorizing the information sent.

Light yawned and his eyes drooped, but he couldn't sleep now. He still needed more information about Icarus, and if he had to chance it, he would enter police databases to find it.

"Hey Light," Ryuk said, the god of death suddenly stood above his seat in the aisle.

Light started, his heart skipped a beat. Then he calmed down. A normal person would freak out about seeing a creature such as Ryuk standing in front of him. He was like a demonic creature from the bowels of Hell. Well, Ryuk did look like an anorexic, sadistic clown, from someone's demented imagination, so frightening someone to death would no be out of the range of possibility to someone else.

Over the past year since Light acquired the Death Note, the god of death's face and appearance was a normal sight, although every time Light saw Ryuk, it reminded him of an old horror move.

Light eyed him.

"You've been sleeping for the last hour like a baby, it was kind of cute." Ryuk chuckled. Light's left eye twitched annoyed. Ryuk cleared his throat. "Anyway, that flight attendant came around and checked up on you," the god of death continued. "I watched her lean over and steal a kiss from you as you slept. She also stole something else from under your jacket and then quickly left. I think it was your gun."

Light quickly ruffled through his jacket on his seat and found that his gun was missing from his holster.

Someone once told him he needed to find a gun that was not only light weight, but best suited to his grip. Like guns, people had specific grips based on bone structure and muscle density. Strengthening a grip took hard work. And none were alike. Light chose a Beretta M9 with its durable lightweight aluminum alloy frame. It was an American standard handgun used by a lot of police forces. The normal Japanese pistols were just too bulky for his, sad to say, delicate hands.

"Oh no," he said under his breath. Everything else was where it should be, including his carry bag, which was now on the floor. His tablet was still there as well. "Why would she…"

"I think you need to know something else," said Ryuk. "I was wandering around the plane hoping to see if another Shinigami was onboard because of that Icarus guy, no such luck yet. But I did see that the U.S. Marshal was out of his seat and Icarus gone. I didn't see them anywhere in the main areas."

Suddenly Matsuda snorted, and sheepishly said, "It's Kira! Watch out!" Then went back to sleep. Light looked at him, but ultimately decided it was just a dream the idiot was having.

Ryuk gave a soft throaty chuckle.

"Want me to go look for Icarus, Light? Yeah, okay…you can't talk to me. Be back soon."

Ryuk vanished, leaving Light alone.

Light's right foot suddenly hit something on the floor next to him. He looked down and saw a pair of handcuffs. But they weren't his. He didn't bring his on the flight. He picked them up and looked at them closely, examining all aspects of them. They had been used frequently and were pretty scuffed up. Whose were they? And why were they here?

Light sighed. He was in big trouble.

Losing one's gun came with serious consequences, but having it stolen was another matter altogether. Why would Astuko take his gun? He had to get it back.

A thought raced through his mind, but he didn't want even want to think it was true. Was she a plant to help Icarus escape on board this flight? Inconceivable, he thought. But it was not out of the realm of the plausible. Like all robberies, per se, there was always a "spotter", someone within the background to look out for any trouble, and also to help in case there was any trouble. Could Astuko be Icarus's accomplice? He did tell her that he was a cop and Icarus didn't seem surprised to see him outside of the washroom. He even winked at him, as if to say, "I know what you are."

He couldn't believe it. What they did was real. There was a passion and unbridled animal attraction. There was no faking it. There had to be another reason?
Seconds later, Ryuk popped back into existence.

"Found him!" he said, almost joyfully. "And, oh, you're gonna love this! Icarus is in the lower storage compartment, and he's done something naughty." The Shinigami chuckled under his breath.

"Show me," said Light quietly, and got out of his seat, slipping the handcuffs into his right pants pocket.

Light put on his jacket. He did so purposefully. Inside one of the jacket pockets was another weapon, an extendable baton. It was a secondary weapon that his defence trainer at the police academy advised him to carry. Normally a law enforcement officer had a secondary weapon, in case their first weapon was rendered inert. But since he wasn't fully certified, still on probation, but still deputized as a member of the Kira Task Force, he was allowed to carry one handgun.

He followed Ryuk into Second Class, glancing at the row of designated seats Light had seen occupied by the U.S. Marshal and Icarus previously; but were currently empty. The rest of the passengers, the section was two-thirds full, were sleeping. He came to a door at the next service station near the washroom where he saw a male flight attendant resting in a chair with his eyes closed.

Ryuk took him to a door, but it was locked. The Shinigami reached through the handle and disengaged it. Light gave him a thank-you nod. At least he was being useful.
No one was around to see Light enter, he closed the door behind him. He retrieved the baton from his jacket pocket, but didn't extend it to its full length of three and half feet as he descended a set of metal stairs. The problem with batons was once they were extended, they remained such unless properly retracted. And it wasn't easy to do.

He descended to the lower storage compartment. There was a noticeable and regulator hum from the operation of the plane and it made it a little noisy. The lights were dim to save energy. The moment he stepped down onto the floor he could feel a more notable vibration from the plane and it went through his entire body. He compared it to one of Misa's pleasure toys. She had quite a collection.

Most people didn't pay attention to where their luggage was stored as long as it was on board, he thought, but the truth of the matter is there is a large storage depot below their feet, at least in this case, because of the size of the plane it included—

He exhaled stunned when he saw a brand new sleek yellow Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder sports car with its wheels locked to the metal grating so it wouldn't roll. The price tag was $200,000. There was also a shipping tag for the receiver: T. Claw. Obviously this was the "special cargo" that delayed boarding.

He stumbled slightly as his left foot hit something. He looked down and saw the body of the U.S. Marshal behind the trunk of the Lamborghini, his back leaning up against a metal storage cage. His eyes were poked through with two chopsticks with blood already coagulating from the sockets.

Light figured he must have been killed a little less than an hour ago when he accidentally dozed off. Icarus had escaped down here sometime within that time frame.
"The 'naughty' thing Icarus did?" Light said to Ryuk who stood beside him.

The Shinigami had to lean over due to the ceiling only being a little more than six feet in height. "Yup," said Ryuk. "This is going to be problematic for you. And I thought things were going to be boring?"

"Indeed," replied Light. The flight had been anything but and not boring at all. Light actually found it exciting in a contorted sort of way.

To be continued...