Though we try to walk in the light, there is a trail of darkness tailing behind. An immovable remnant of our sins…
Beneath the crescent moon, the defined lines of the concrete buildings stood out against the dark background. The air was cool and still. Running along the walls were black-covered hunters armed with guns, each of them was masked. In single file, they ran up the staircase to the fourth level and positioned themselves outside a door. The leader waved his hand to the right and left. His men automatically stood beside the door in two groups. Treading quietly towards the door, the leader nodded his head to the man on his right. Obeying the command, the man unlocked the door with a duplicated key and kicked it wide opened. The hunters barged into the room, filling the darkness with rays of light, spreading themselves out. Their leader stepped in and examined the apartment – a single bed, table, an empty cupboard and a stove. Removing his mask, he clicked on his walkie-talkie and emotionlessly reported.
"Subject was already left the place. We are now searching at the exterior perimeters."
"Return to home base, commander," answered a heavily accented voice. "This mission is aborted."
"Yes sir."
The commander's superior clicked off, lit a cigarette and inhaled the rich tobacco fumes. Tapping on the steering wheel, he gazed the crescent moon from his windshield. Thin wisps released between his teeth, he grinned to himself as he scratched his hawk nose.
"Nous avons tout notre temps, mon petite ami… (We've all the time in the world, my little friend.)"
"Irrashaimasen (welcome)" greeted Aya, Yoji, Ken and Omi towards the groups of high school girls. Like pins to magnets, the girls went straight to each of their favourite florists. As usual, Aya ignored them, Ken & Omi politely entertained them while they worked and Yoji enjoyed the attention but strictly mentioned that he would date girls above 18 years old. A schoolgirl rushed in and excitedly announced something.
"There is bakery shop down the street that sells delicious Danish pastries!! Plus, the guy selling them is totally drop dead gorgeous!" Her face was blushing continuously.
"Are you sure?" The girl's friends asked skeptically.
"Of course, I am." Holding up a brown paper bag, "Try them for yourselves." The girls popped one into their mouths, their faces widen into a big smile.
"OISHII (DELICIOUS)!!"
"Mase wa doko? (Where's the shop)?"
"Kaimashou! (Let's buy!)"
The boys looked at each other as they watched the girls scurrying out of the florist shop. Women could really adapt to situations when they want to. Yoji amusingly commented that Ken and Omi should go and pay a visit the new store since they won't have business today. Protests rose up from the two younger boys but eventually gave in since they both knew that they wouldn't stand a chance facing Yoji's wits and Aya's couldn't-be-bothered attitude. They didn't spend much time finding the bakery since there was a large group of girls crowding at the counter. Behind the counter was a young man with shoulder-length raven hair contrasting to the fairly creamy skin. His eyebrows were arched and trimmed finely at the far end. His eyes were seaweed green and a soft curved nose in the middle of his feminine face with lips that made every girl had a feverish dream about kissing them.
Dressed in a plain apron and a bakery hat, he silently chopped butter and put them in a pan filled with water. Using a wooden spoon, he stirred till the butter has melted before removing the pan from the stove, which he added flour and heated the mixture once again. The girls paid their utmost attention at him than they did at school. Switching on an electric beater, he poured in a small bowl of lightly beaten eggs in the mixture until it became glossy and thick. With a spoon, he scooped it into a piping bag and piped long thin finger-like pieces onto a baking tray. Bending down, the placed the tray inside an oven. From another oven, he took out another tray, which contained the baked finger-like pieces. Swiftly, he pierced the sides of the pastries, releasing the aroma that made the mouths of the girls watered. Returning to the stove, he melted some dark chocolate and placed them aside. From the refrigerator, he took out a huge bowl of whipped cream. He then spilt the pastries into half and piped white cream onto the bottom half while the top half is covered with a layer of chocolate. The cream-filled bottom half is finally covered with the chocolate coated top half. The baker then placed the pastries onto rectangular paper foils before packing them into boxes. To add the finishing touches, he dusted icing sugar on them. The box is closed and tied with a red ribbon with a tag attached to it. On the tag, printed in cursive handwriting, read the word
éclairs.
"Bon appétite." He said in smooth quiet way, passing the box to one of the girls, who nearly fainted on the spot. Awes and cries of amazement filled the entire street. Ken and Omi felt uncomfortable standing behind them and waited patiently for the crowd to die down. Throughout the young man worked undisturbed by the girls' noisy commotion, his eyes and hands kept on their tasks. Occasionally, he would give a polite smile to the girls whose hearts leaped a thousand times over. Yet, the masqueraded smile was shielding him from others' pressing questions about him.
"So, you guys are finally back," teased Yoji when Ken and Omi returned. "Did you enjoy the ladies' presence?"
"Very funny," Omi opened a box of éclairs. "But to you, you might like it."
"Omi, my boy. You are still too young to understand the pleasure of being with women," Helping himself to an éclair. "My goodness, it's delicious. I can't believe that he can make this. How old is he anyway?"
"Early twenties, I think," relied Ken, taking a drink. "His name is Andre Masson, half Japanese and half French. His mother passed away and his father is living in France. Andre decided to live in Japan because he likes it here rather than staying in France. The boulangerie (bakery shop) is a temporary working place for him while he studies art and literature at a local university."
"He seems to be quite an interesting person, don't you think so, Aya?"
Aya ate his éclair in silence.
Yoji sighed with annoyance and was tempted to pull Aya under his arm and rubbed his head to rub off some of the icy attitude of his. The idea was dropped because he knew that Aya would probably evade it or would have his revenge on him later. He chuckled at the thought of Aya being less serious. On the other hand, it would be rather creepy. He heard the sound of high heel shoes walking towards the counter. He needed not to look up, as there was only one person who would wear such red shoes. But, it would be no harm to have a peek of her shapely legs.
"This is no time for idling, Yoji," said Manx. "It's time for Weib to hunt those who think that they have escaped the law of justice."
A crumpled dressed man was panicking packing his papers into a leather suitcase. The flapping of papers echoed within the walls of his room, as his fingers shook under the dimly lit room. He kept muttering to himself to be quicker. As the clock chimed the midnight hour, the hairs on his skin stood out and a prickling sensation traveled down his sweaty back. His eyes rolled all the room, wet palms cautiously clicking the suitcase with the least noise as possible. He turned to the window and saw the curtains flapping along with the night breeze. Being extremely careful, he closed the window and locked it. Gulping in down a bottle of alcohol to relieve himself, he proceeded on to leave. Taking out his key, he unlocked the door and was completely stunned to see a figure standing before him. He could vaguely make out a man dressed in shirt and jeans with a jacket. The stranger's gloves had three long pointed blades attached to it, twinkling under the dimly light. A bead of sweat trickled down the man's face as he realized the true occupation of the stranger.
An assassin!
The assassin raised his glove, ready to strike him down. Like a desperate prey, the man whammed his suitcase into the assassin's stomach hard and pushed his way out down the staircase. The assassin cursed as he forced himself to get onto his feet. The prey ran down the staircase, clutching the suitcase close to him. He saw a thin shining line aiming towards him. Within a blink of an eye, he felt the stinging pain of the lines cutting through his skin. Approaching him was a tall stranger with blonde hair. Another predator.
"Your death will be less painful if you don't move so much. Ken, finish the mission and we all can go home in time to watch the late night movie."
"Shut up, Yoji." His companion retorted. "It always has to be me, isn't it?"
Suddenly, the sound of breaking glass shattered the silence. The three men all turned to the source of it. Half hidden by the shadows was a black leather-suited person. His face was covered by a mask that looked like a tribal witchdoctor's mask. Yoji and Ken narrowed their eyes to determine whether this intruder was a male or female. The prey cried out in horror. The intruder walked down the stairs one boot at a time and examined the two unexpected individuals. Ken prepared himself for any surprised attacks from the intruder, who said in an extremely deep accented voice.
"Pardon the intrusion, gentlemen but the subject is my target and no one else is allowed to have him."
Springing forward, he placed his gloved into Ken's claws and instantly, bright blue lights sparkled into Ken's body. Ken cried out in agony and collapsed onto the stairs. Yoji released his hold on the prey and aimed his string towards the intruder, who leaped down the staircase, slide behind Yoji's back and did karate chop on his neck. The intruder grabbed hold of the frightened prey and pulled him towards the main door. The prey struggled for his life against the intruder who pinned him to the wall and pressed his glove onto the prey's mouth.
"If you wish to live, follow me. Take your suitcase with you" The deep voice hissed. "Listen, there are two more assassins outside the perimeter. When I count to three, you run to the car beneath the Sakura tree and start the motor. I'll fend them off just long enough to get us both out of here."
The prey nodded his head in compliance, knowing that the present choice was better than the last one. The intruder held out 3 fingers, folding them one by one slowly. At the last finger, he kicked the door opened. As predicted, a couple of arrows landed at their feet. The intruder pushed his subject out of the way into the direction of the Sakura tree. More arrows shot out from the darkness. The intruder dodged them skillfully, keeping a sharp lookout for the last assassin. A red haired man in black trench coat with a Japanese sword raced up to strike him down. The intruder took out his metal equipment and blocked the deadly blow. The red haired man, Aya, widened his eyes at the recognition of the metal equipment and jumped backwards. He turned and saw Omi running towards the intruder, with his crossbow in its aiming position.
"Omi! Don't!" Aya yelled out a warning.
The intruder released a ray of sparking blue light at the unaware Omi, whose high-pitched screams filled the air. Steams rose from his falling body. Aya gnashed his teeth for being too late.
"The electric charge is set to stun mode. The health status of your comrades will not be affected." The intruder said, walking towards the car. "Let this be the first and last time we see each other." Aya watched the car disappearing into the darkness. Frowning with uncertainty, he set on to check on his friends.
The car drove down into an empty parking lot, the man kept his eyes on the stranger, not sure whether to name him his saviour. Still holding on to his suitcase, he murmured.
"Merci beaucoup. (Thank you very much)"
"Ca ne m'a pas du tout derange (It was no trouble at all)"
"Parlez-vous francais? (You speak French?)"
"Peut-être…. (Maybe…)"
"Qu'est-ce que tu veux dire, au juste? (What do you mean by that?)"
"J'ai peur (I'm afraid…)" The intruder turned his head at him and said coldly. "Il y a eu un malentendu… (There has been a misunderstanding…)"
"ITAI!! (OUCH!!)," groaned Yoji, pressing an icepack on the dark purplish bruise on the back of his neck. "I feel like a thousand ton of lead is upon me."
"At least, you didn't get electrocuted unlike Omi and I," Ken swallowed a pill. "My head is killing me."
"Luckily, it was set to stun mode," Manx paced about the room. "Otherwise, you'll be toasted like our intended target, Jean Lebo" She went up to the computer on the desk and clicked on the keyboard keys. The screen revealed a charred body. "He was reported electrocuted to death by the autopsy at least 3 hours you boys have left the scene."
"That person was after him for some reason," Aya commented. "Initially, this mission was to assassin Jean Lebo because he was involved with a murder of a journalist, Seta Sakimoto."
"Jean Lebo formally work for a company named Âme, which was shut down by the French government over ethical and moral issues 10 years ago. Originally, Âme specialized in genetically modified animals and plants. Rumours have it that Âme was illegally involved in experiments on genetically modified human beings. Its victims were convicts on death payroll or the homeless. Sakimoto, who was living in Nice, discovered this while investigating a story on some French actress. He published his findings on the local newspapers because he knew that the local police were probably bribed and wouldn't lift a finger about it. To them, it was the most convenient way to get rid of the unwanted," continued Manx, placing a bundle of thick files onto the coffee table. "Sakimoto died under mysterious conditions 6 months after the shutdown of Âme. The police have declared it closed until Persia learnt about it from his sources. These are the files, which Persia managed to get from the confidential room. Apparently, these files were supposed to be going into the shedder." She walked towards the winding staircase. "I'll leave you boys to rest as you try to interpret the data."
Omi stretched his hand over to the coffee table, took one of the files, untied and read its contents. "Oh no!" he moaned, "It's all in FRENCH!"
"So, that is what she meant by 'interpret' the data," Yoji bent over, his hand still holding onto the icepack. "Good luck to you, Omi." He picked up a zip disc from one of the files. "Maybe this one will be in Japanese."
"Ha ha," Omi feeling very much to hit Yoji on his injured area. "Very funny."
Aya took the files from the coffee tables. "I'll translate them for you," he said quietly and went straight to his room. Yoji, Ken and Omi looked at each other in surprise.
Omi blinked his eyes a couple of times, "Does Aya know French?" He asked Ken.
"Beats me," Ken shrugged his shoulders. "But I do know that he studies German."
"If Aya is unable to translate them, the least we will ask Andre to do the translation for us."
Both Ken and Omi glared at Yoji intensely.
"Just kidding…"
Meanwhile, the intruder who attacked Weib flung a leather suitcase onto a bed, took out a toolbox beneath the bed and chose a screwdriver to unlock the suitcase. His fingers browsed through the papers, which mainly consisted of traveling papers and money. He placed them in neatly into two separate piles and looked at the empty suitcase. Tilting his head, he rubbed his fingers along the inner corners of the suitcase. With a sharp knife, he silted a thin line across the inner leathery layer and wedged the loosened layer up. Taped at the hidden bottom of the suitcase was a cobalt blue CD-rom disc. He removed the tape carefully and inserted the disc into his laptop, waiting patiently for the laptop to process the data. Within a few minutes, the screen displayed a list of names. Scrolling down, he clicked onto the word, 'Âme'. The screen changed, displaying 3 other word surrounding 'Âme' in a triangular position.
Naissance
Âme
Pierre Tombale Longévité
He then clicked onto the 'pierre tombale' section and the screen showed an extremely long table of names. A majority of them were highlighted in red save for a few in dark brown. The intruder typed onto the keyboard. Instantly, the screen shows 3 names.
Subjet 9374
Subjet 9377
Subjet 9379
He proceed on to click on 'Sujet 9377', a small table was shown next.
Sujet 9377
Date de creation - 12th Juin 1979
Gendre - Mâle
Âge - 20
Emplacement actuel - Tokyo, Japon
Statut - Tres Dengereux
Chasser - Général Beniamin Gloven
"Général Beniamin Gloven… en mettant les choses au pis… (If worst comes to worst)…"
"Welcome, General Beniamin Gloven," greeted Manx, dressed in dark red business suit, shaking hands with a clean shaved man whose height towered over hers. The General was attired in a three-piece tuxedo, his bushy eyebrows shadowed over his deep-sunken eyes. The half-grayish hair was cropped, enhancing his rectangular face twice the original size. In his other hand was a lit cigar.
"Mademoiselle (miss) Manx," spoke the General, sitting down onto a velvet chair. He crossed his legs and inhaled the smoke deeply. "Forgive me for not informing you for my arrival. My superiors would like to keep this incident under wraps for security reasons."
"I understand your delicate position, General," Manx poured coffee into a cup. "With sugar and milk?"
"Yes, please." The General took the cup with both hands. "Let's us get to the bottom of this pressing issue, the late Jean Lebo was murdered in the most uncivilized manner. I appreciate the effect that you kept this from the reporters. His death was a shock to me and my people."
"It is part of my duty to keep the national peace between both countries. I'm sure that most men like yourself would prefer to spend the rest of your days in his homelands."
"That is my wish, Mademoiselle Manx. Unfortunately, I have to settle this before I can enter retirement. Back to the main issue of our discussion, I'm most certain that you are aware of the connection between Jean Lebo and a Japanese journalist whose death was classified 'under mysterious conditions'."
"The journalist's name was Seta Sakimoto. He did publish a disturbing article about Âme's illegal involvement of genetically modified human beings on 24th October 1989, which lead to an uproar in the government. He returned to Japan 5 weeks later, followed by his death on 29th May 1990. The autopsy couldn't find the cause of his death and all presumed that he died naturally. The case is closed and locked away. No investigation is allowed till today and even if permission is granted, Sakimoto's body had been cremated. Therefore," Manx took a sip. "The cause of his death will never be determined. Nevertheless, the motive of his death is very clear and I think that we both know that without doubt."
"Revenge," General Gloven rubbed his double chin thoughtfully. "Âme does have a substantial amount of financial sources to carry out its work although the government has shut the company down. Its founders are still able to find buyers to purchase their 'products' at a price that could outlive a million lifetimes worth of salary that you and I are earning now."
"And this 'product' would be the genetically modified human beings?" Manx stirred her coffee nonchalantly.
General Gloven laughed softly. "That is impossible. Genetically modified animals and plants, yes… but human beings. In theory, it does sound logical but in practice, absolutely impossible. The human body will naturally reject the foreign substances in the end and the ill fated will either die or be retarded for the rest of his life."
"Then, why was Jean Lebo killed?" Manx pressed forward. "He was one of Âme's founders. Why was he killed?"
"Like you said, Mademoiselle Manx. Revenge."
"By who and why? General Gloven."
"I'm afraid that I don't have the answers. Naturally, the whole thing was set to rest when Âme was shut down…"
"Do the rest of Âme's founders know about Jean Lebo's death? Monsieur Gerald Hermil, the president of Âme. The co-president - Jeremy Jorom and his wife, Lilia Jorom. Including Jean Lobe and his three fellow colleagues, Nicolas Numasm, Phile Raginwald and Fideline Josette. Are they informed of this? This is a grave matter, General. Whatever these people have created, it is something not to be taken of lightly."
General Gloven pressed his lips tightly before giving a sigh of submission. "You are right, forgive my manners, I do not mean to hide anything from you. My superiors would like to do this discreetly. To be honest, the president, co-president and his wife are decreased 5 years ago. The four remaining founders spilt up, taking with them a portion of their research along with them. From our sources, we discovered that they did create successful genetically modified human beings. The amount and their capabilities are still unknown. We managed to track down Jean Lebo here in Tokyo. But alas, he is dead!"
"And you assumed that whatever they have created had killed him for revenge."
"Who knows?" General Gloven threw up his hands to the air. "Âme shut down so quickly and abruptly that they could have destroyed any evidence. But there is one thing is for certain, Mademoiselle Manx. That thing that killed Jean Lebo may be still in Tokyo and who knows what it might do."
The afternoon sun was burning hot upon the streets of Tokyo. From her windowpane, Manx watched the huge burley General Gloven being lead into his car and drove down to the main road. "So, what do you think of him?" Manx asked Persia who merged out from his hiding place after General Gloven's car had left the building. "If you ask me, he's pretty easy to squeeze."
"Maybe too easy," said the moustache man, joining Manx at the windowpane. "Seems like he is saying things that both of us want to hear. It was wise of you not to mention Sakimoto's files. He would have flipped."
"Still, he is fearful of the things that Âme have created… That cannot be confirmed until Aya and the rest have translated what Sakimoto had written in his journal and all the related documents that the police had found."
"It would take time since he written it all down in French."
"The boys can handle this. But I wonder if…" Manx's eyes narrowed. "Seta Sakimoto would want us dig up what he hoped to be buried."
À Suivre