A/N – Thanks again for all the reviews! Very much appreciated. I'm afraid this is just a connecting chapter really, to set things up for the final scenes. Enjoy it anyway though.
Twenty-Three
Erina was a hot-head by nature. When things started to go pear-shaped, she would sooner burst into a fit of anger than shrivel up in hopeless despair. Rage was much more effective for getting people to set things right again, while misery accomplished nothing. In spite of that, right now all she wanted to do was curl up in the corner and cry her heart out.
She had arrived at the building this morning at nine o'clock sharp and had barely sat down at her desk before Akatsuki had called her into his office. An early meeting was usual enough to set the agenda for the day, so at first she was oblivious to its true purpose. However, she soon detected something was amiss when she entered the chairman's office. Although he seemed calm enough, Erina read his air and detected something dangerous in it. No doubt about it, something had happened. Something bad.
After greeting him with a respectful bow, she'd taken her seat and rested her hands on her lap. She'd kept her expression neutral, ready to mould into whatever expression the situation demanded. Her employer had leaned forward towards her, his fingers interlocked and his mouth, a grim set line.
"Last night, I had a rather interesting meeting with someone you know," he'd said.
"I didn't think you had anything scheduled for yesterday evening," Erina had said tentatively. She'd known that for a fact. She was his secretary after all.
"Oh no, it was quite unexpected," he'd said, his voice perilously low. "In fact I thought you might be able to shed some light as to how it came about. You see, it mystifies me as to how an eleven year-old girl, who just yesterday you assured me was dead, could break into my office and threaten me with a God-damned pistol!" By the end of the sentence he'd been shouting.
"No, that's impossible!" she'd protested. "It can't be! My source informed me! Ruri was…"
"Clearly not as dead as you thought!" Akatsuki had snapped. "Thanks to your incompetence she lived to endanger both myself and the company. And do you know what the best thing is?!"
Erina couldn't bring herself to ask. Akatsuki had inflicted the answer on her anyway.
"While in the building she accessed our network, including some of our most secret files. She sent out a few e-mails and now every high-ranker in the UEAF knows about the Nergal Five project!"
"No!" Erina had gasped in defiant disbelief. "That can't be! How did she…?"
"That is precisely what I'd like to know!" roared the chairman of Nergal, rising up towards her with the full force of his temper. His fiery eyes had burnt her like the coals of hell as she sat there as a helpless victim to his wrath.
From there the conversation had gone downhill.
He'd inflicted his rage on her for another five minutes before eventually dismissing her with a fatal wave of his hand. To her credit, Erina had held her tears in until she had reached the safe refuge of her own office, but once she'd closed the door behind her, she'd fallen to her knees and wept like a child. And now, an hour down the line, she was sitting at her desk with head in hands, her face horrific with tears and smeared make-up.
Just a moment ago, the head security guard had reported to her, informing her of the exact details of Ruri's infiltration. As it turned out, she'd entered the basement through the sewer beneath the building and then set up her laptop in a storeroom so that she could hack into the Nergal mainframe. From there, she'd subtly tampered with aspects of the security system, disabling every motion sensor in the building and causing many surveillance cameras to display pre-recorded footage, rather then any live material. Then, she'd ascended to the right floor using the fire escape before using a ventilation shaft to access Akatsuki's office and threaten him with a pistol she'd acquired from the armoury on the fifth level. Every step had been so simple, but all together they had formed a brilliant process.
To be honest, she'd never expected Ruri to do something like this. She'd known the girl – she was incredibly skilled at what she did, but she'd always had a kind of comforting predictability about her. She did her job with efficiency, but not imagination, making her seem harmless in Erina's eyes. In truth, she'd thought Akatsuki had been overreacting when he'd wanted her killed, but this incident had proved her wrong. More wrong then she could have ever thought possible.
She knew the key rule of success in the corporate world well, since it dominated her life. You ascended with results, not effort. It didn't matter that she'd everything in her power to do her job. It didn't matter that it had been the incompetence of her hired assassin that had allowed Ruri to live. It was only the fact that she had survived to threaten his person and the company that Akatsuki saw. And hell, why shouldn't he be mad? Erina's efforts hadn't killed Ruri, they had served to provoke her into taking action against Nergal, like a wasp that stings if you don't crush it with your first slap. And now, the Nergal Five project was hanging by a thread, all thanks to her failure to do her job.
"How on Earth did this happen to me? Why has everything gone wrong?"
Well, the answer to that was clear. Turned out Ruri had more mettle then she'd given her credit for.
Damn her.
Though currently distressed, Erina was not weak and certainly not one to throw in the towel. She was already taking steps towards her redemption. It was obvious what her first move should be – completing the job she should have done in the first place. Akatsuki would never forgive her until she presented him with Ruri's head on a silver platter. Though circumstances would make it trickier then before, it was still within her ability and that meant she had to try. As it had turned out, locating her was no problem at all. Through her whole well-crafted plan, Ruri had overlooked one thing.
The tracer in her Nadesico communicator.
Through her blurred vision, she'd watched as the blinking red dot had slowly moved across her computer screen, matching what would be Ruri's movements across the city. The signal emitted by the beacon was strong, allowing Erina to trace her as accurately as to the nearest building. She had been watching patiently for a half-hour now, and now, finally, the red dot had stopped moving. Ruri had reached her destination. The Nergal secretary noted it and rebuked herself for not guessing it beforehand.
Ruri had returned to the Nadesico.
There was no way of knowing what she hoped to gain from returning to the decommissioned ship, but if she intended to stay there, Erina had a clear shot at her life. Even though she was within that UEAF facility, she was an easy target so long as she stayed put. But only if she acted now, before the UEAF found her first.
The biggest challenge wasn't the process of assassinating her – that could be accomplished easily enough – it was overcoming the emotional torment of having to make this decision again. It had been difficult enough before, but now it was really tearing her up inside. Because this time, it truly was her choice to make. She would be the murderer, not Akatsuki. This time she could walk away without anyone blaming her for it. She shook her head in exasperation, as if trying to shake all her doubts out of her mind. How could she turn away from her one chance of regaining favour with Akatsuki?
Her jeopardised career versus a child's life. It was a contest Ruri could not win.
More tears welled up in her eyes as she opened the communication channel. No matter what the circumstances, this was one thing that didn't get easier with experience.
* * *
"What do you mean not good enough!?" Matador had screamed in fury. "She's dead! There was no way she could have survived in that river!"
The woman's voice on the other end of the line had replied with professional calmness. "You have not provided satisfactory evidence of her death. Our contract clearly stated that payment was on the condition of provision of photographic evidence. Furthermore our sources report that her body has not yet been found,"
"You have to be fucking kidding me!" he'd raged.
"I apologise, but you have not met with our conditions. There is nothing more for me to say to you. Goodbye."
"No! Don't you hang up on me you evil bitch!" he'd shouted. But she already had.
He remained by the communicator, breathing heavily for four full seconds. That was as long as he could contain his fury. Then, with a frenzied yell, he'd shoved the communicator off the table, and unleashed a storm of profanity to the heavens. Unable to control himself for extreme frustration, he wreaked havoc on the wall of his apartment with his fists, until both his energy and rage were spent. Then a surprising calm had come over him as he sat back, anxiously lit up a cigarette and waited for the Ferzas to come for money which he didn't have.
And come they did, right on the stroke of midnight. Naturally they weren't too thrilled to hear that he wouldn't be able to pay them due to his client's refusal to cough up the cash. He'd pleaded with them for more time – had even got down on his knees. After that hadn't impressed them, he'd offered them what little money he did have - all that remained of the up-front payment. This had cut a bit more mustard with them so they'd been lenient with him. They'd only broken two of his ribs in the savage beating they'd given him.
That had been yesterday night.
Morning light poured mercilessly through the gaps in the blinds, painfully confirming his shattered reality. Matador, slouched in the corner of the room, grasped his face with his hands and moaned in anguish. He really didn't want to face the day.
Forcing himself to stand, he lugged his battered body through the sea of broken furniture and into his tiny kitchen. He snatched up a milk carton and drank straight from it, cringing as the liquid flowed down his damaged throat, before throwing it behind him and plunging his face down against the table in despair.
It shouldn't be like this. If things had gone to plan he would have killed the girl, got the money, repaid the Ferzas and be living the high life. As it was he was raw from beating, penniless, his apartment was trashed and he no longer had vision in his right eye. All because the girl had died on her own terms. He immediately threw that notion from his mind. He was a danger to himself when he thought like that.
He rose again, dragged himself into his bathroom and stood before the sink, staring vacantly at his reflection in the cracked mirror. His face, once youthfully handsome, was now marred by his wounded eye, which was swollen shut and turning a revolting shade of purple. Not only had it been blinded, but it burned hellishly every time he touched or tried to open it. It had done ever since that girl had rammed that shard of glass into it. Fuck, did all his suffering lead back to her?!
Against all common sense he reached up and touched the hideous wound. In retaliation his eye discharged some white pus, which ran down onto his cheek. Matador scowled in disgust. "Damn that bitch to hell!" In utter repulsion at his own image, he drew his fist back and inflicted seven years bad luck on himself.
He returned into the main room, grimacing as he picked splinters of glass out of his bloodied fist. He'd barely taken two steps inside when a high pitched beep emitted from across the room. Matador moved his gaze over to his communicator, still on the floor where he had thrust it the night before. The green light on top of it was flashing recurrently, indicating an incoming transmission. Instantly curious, he picked it up, set it back on the table and accepted the call. Hell, there was no way it could make his life worse, no matter what it was.
The screen that flashed up displayed nothing but static. The voice wasn't much clearer either – it was deep and distorted, with a kind of mechanical tone.
"Ruri Hoshino is on the Nadesico." it stated.
"Hoshino?" Matador thought. Of course, that had been the girl he had failed to kill. "Who is this?!" he demanded, leaning in closer to the device.
No answer came. Instead the voice repeated its phrase in exactly the same tone as before. "Ruri Hoshino is on the Nadesico."
"Hoshino. On the Nadesico?" Matador said aloud, registering the words this time. All interest of the caller's identity faded as he realised what he was being told. That girl was alive. Somehow, she was alive. And he'd just been informed of her exact location.
"Ruri Hoshino is on the Nadesico."
Suddenly overcome with purpose, he darted into his sleeping room and hurriedly kitted himself out in his dark assassin gear. With excited haste, he bandaged his injured fist, tied a black bandana around his head to cover his ruined eye, shoved his trusty pistol into its holster and shouldered his assassin's pack. He was ready within ninety seconds.
With a snarl of passion, he bolted from his apartment with only one destination in mind. He no longer cared about his injuries, nor that this tip-off could be part of a well-crafted trap. All he knew was that the source of all his sorrow was still in this world and as long as she was, there was no way he could find respite. He would never forgive himself if he allowed her to get away this time. By the Gods, once he found her, he would kill her a million times!
No-one was lucky thrice…
