Tornado: You like it! You really like it! I'm so happy! I got four reviews. Thanks to mezu, Li, angelsoul03, and crazytomboy1 for reviewing.
DT: For the record, Tornado updates whenever she gets an idea, but it may take a few days to get it up or complete the chapter.
Tornado: I don't own Yugioh, which sucks because it would have swearing, death, and LEMON!!!!!
DT: You should change your pen name to lemon freak.
Tornado: Nah, because then I'd have to go back and rewrite the chapters I've posted. I already changed my pen name from Tornado to Tornado 666. On with the story.
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Did you ever get that feeling where you know you're doing the wrong thing, but it feels right? Well, that was how I felt now. The more I thought about my life, the more I realized that it was all a lie. I lied to Mokuba constantly so he would never catch on to what I was doing those nights and days that I was away on business or in my office with loads of work to do. Yes, Kaiba Corps really doesn't take much work to run, but my second job does. I work longer on one case than I do in a year at Kaiba Corps. No one knows that of course. With all of the projects that I do, they never raise suspicion on what I work on exactly. Truth be told, my projects don't take that much time at all. I get the blueprints done in a day, and the next I'm well on my way to completing it.
I thought about that all day long. My lies, my secret life, the ways I used people on enumerable occasions, and that's when it hit me…
I wanted out.
I suppose that I had been the real reason that I had agreed to meet with Joey. I wanted this all to come to an end. I realized that this is what I wanted all along, to leave the business. It was extortion, and I knew it. I can't really remember why I hadn't done it sooner. Wait, yes I did. Mokuba. I was afraid to quit because that would mean that I had to explain it to him that I was a killer. What a big brother that would make me. I thought about how I got into this in the first place. Gozaburo had threatened to kill Mokuba if I didn't join him. Well, there was a no-brainer; I had to. Joey had come two years after I did, and we became partners. Secretly I lusted for the boy, but there was one thing that I knew would happen if we became involved: he would become a liability. Say we had a fight, and he stormed off all pissed at me. He loses his head, and contacts the authorities; gives the information he has for immunity. I take the fall alone, and my little brother ends up in an orphanage, heartbroken that his older brother would abandon him. If I was lucky, I would get a life sentence; the chances of that were slim. I knew that if I explained the situation that I had been in I would at least get another few days to live, but it would never over turn my case. I kept my distance from Joey. I stood waiting for him in the dark.
Footsteps approached behind me, and a hand lay on my shoulder. I grabbed the limb, pulling its owner over my head and landing on the ground. The assailant was a manly blonde girl with chocolate eyes. I smiled as I helped her up.
"Either I'm getting good, or you're slipping."
"Your gettin' good. Why did yah wanna meet?"
"Joey, how have we been in this business together?" I asked.
"Bout a year 'n a half, why?"
"In that year and a half, how many lies do you think we've told?"
"You're askin' for a miracle to count 'em all. I think we each tell about ten a day."
"I let info slip at breakfast; Mokuba got curious. I lied, like I always do when he gets too close."
"Seto, I want out," the blonde said. "And I know yah do too."
"We have the fact that we bowled another B over, which makes about five now. Others have only whacked one or two; hell a lot of them have never whacked any. That gives him a reason to let us go."
"Da bastard, probably thinks we're gonna talk."
"Why would we do that? We can't get immunity for both of us."
"Yah never know."
"You haven't been talking, have you?"
"Course not! I'd never sell yah out. So what are we gonna do?"
I extracted a laptop from my briefcase, and booted it up. I impatiently tapped my foot until the desktop popped up. I quickly went into my disguised communications program, and sent an urgent message to the boss: Gozaburo, we want to talk.
Shortly after his reply came with a few errors. He was either drunk or in fear. Wjaht do youo want this time?
We want out.
There was a pause. It was as if the computer took a moment to send the message, but an answer came shortly. Why do you want out?
Too many lies. The heat's on now. We've gotten five Bs and I think it's time that we retire.
Very well. You may get out, but if you talk to anyone; I'll kill you, I'll kill your families, and then I take Kaiba Corps. In the opposite order.
It's understood. I'll delete this program, and anything else that you may have to locate me.
See that you do, and he was gone.
A large increment of weight was lifted from my shoulders to be sunk again. That had been easy, too easy. I began to wonder which of us he would strike. An image of a small wild, raven-haired boy lying dead in his room fluttered across my mind. Got to get home! I jumped up, replacing the laptop in its case. Joey was sprinting toward the exit of the park, and I tore off after him. It was too risky to stay here any longer. Who knew where he would strike.
I slammed the accelerator on my Porsche Carrera, and sped from the parking lot. My tires squealed as I took off down the street. I had driven this way many times before, sometimes escaping security. I found my mansion to be quiet as usual. The lights were all turned off, there was not a thing out of place, but most importantly, there was no deathly smell. Still, I crept to my brother's room, drawing my gun as I did so. My Smith and Wesson gleamed in the moonlight, appearing as deadly as it could in my hands. I cracked the door open to find my brother sleeping peacefully in his bed. There was no copper smell or crimson liquid that I had become accustomed to. I still pointed my gun at all angles of the room, finding it empty. I even checked the closet and the adjoining bathroom, but still found nothing. I walked over to my sleeping sibling, half expecting him to be colder than ice. His skin was hot to the touch almost as if he had a fever, but that was just my brother.
I sat in the chair beside his bed, and watched the small child sleep. I remembered one trip to England where the CEO of a French wine company had mistaken him for my son. In a way, I guess he is. Then again, he'll never be. My protectiveness over him is way too strong for that of a father. My brother can't go anywhere with a tracking device or me. That was just the way it worked. Mokuba knew that I worried about him so much, so he thought it was best just to cooperate with me. It was better to be safe than sorry as my mother had once said, but that was long ago. I thought that it was rather funny that I could remember more about my mother than my father, yet he lived longer. I knew that after my mother died I had become withdrawn from the world, even more so after I was adopted.
I had been in the room for a half an hour when my cell phone rang. The sleeping boy stirred, and rolled over to face me. He was groggy. I said nothing to him as I whipped up the phone and barked: "Kaiba."
"Shit just hit da fan," a male voice said.
"Fuck, what happened?" I snapped.
"Tristan. He- he was shot."
I sinking sensation came to me. Gozaburo had indeed picked a target, one that we were sure not to protect.
"Where's Yugi?" I asked suddenly.
"I thought of dat too. He's here wit me, but I need yah ta come over here. He may strike again."
"Who all is there?"
"Everybody except Mai, and I just called her. She said dat she was on her way."
"Call her back and tell her that I'm going to meet her at the north bridge."
"Yah got it," he said calmly before hanging up.
This had to be hard for him. He hadn't said any specifics, but I knew that the chances weren't good. There was so much going through my head when a small, groggy voice asked: "Big brother?"
"Get dressed, Mokuba. We have to go to the hospital."
He said nothing as he got out of bed and dressed. I never let him out of my sight, which caused him to worry. I gave him a reassuring hug before ushering him out the door. We slid into my Silver Mustang Cobra before speeding toward the north bridge. Mai was already there when we arrived, and she looked suspiciously at me as she jumped into the back. The moment she was sitting I floored the car, and was on a flat out dash to the hospital. She didn't squeak about the speed. She seemed to know that there was definitely something amuck with the whole situation.
We entered the pristine hospital lobby, and approached a very old woman who was sitting behind the desk.
"May I help you?" her drawled voice asked.
"Could you tell me the room of Tristan Taylor?" I asked attentively.
"He's still in surgery. The waiting room is on the second floor. Tenth room on the left," she informed after a short computer check.
I nodded, directing the other two to the elevator. Joey knew that it had been Gozaburo, and he had expected it. I had a hunch that he was denying the severity of the wound. Mai was silent along with Mokuba. Hell everybody was silent. We entered the waiting room, causing a few people to gasp. There was a couple huddled together. The woman had deep brown hair and black eyes, while the man had pointed blonde hair and hazel eyes. They stared up at me.
"Are you one of Tristan's friends?" the woman asked.
"Kind of. I'm here for a different reason," I answered, and it confused them.
"Kaiba is here ta help us find out who shot Tristan. I think he may know something," Joey explained.
Their expression turned from confused to angry. "What have you done to our son?" the man shouted.
"Look," I replied calmly. "This has nothing to do with Tristan."
"If this has nothing to do with Tristan, than why was he shot?" the woman asked.
"Tristan was a…" I hesitated.
"A sacrifice," Joey finished.
"Not exactly. More like a, um, a trigger."
"A trigger for what?"
"An emotional trigger. I suspect that who ever did this will have a target on the others," I said motioning to the other occupants of the room.
Joey and I were the only ones who seemed to understand this. I glanced at Mokuba. He was in deep thought about something. I knew that he would figure this out before the night was over.
"Who would do such a thing?" the woman asked.
"I'm not sure," I lied.
"We aren't sure," Joey corrected. I let it ride.
"You two are going to investigate this?" Tea asked.
"Leave that to the police guys!" Yugi exclaimed.
"Yug, it ain't dat easy."
"You guys know something that you're not telling us," Mai stated. The others nodded in agreement.
A nurse walked in the room. She was a young redhead with emerald eyes. She looked at everyone in the sullen room. Her expression was grave. "We lost him," she whispered.
There was a moment of hush before the sobs erupted. I had thought that Joey and I would be the only ones not crying, but it turned that I was the odd one out. Joey was in fits, and I could see that I was on my own with the interrogation of the doctor. I pulled the nurse close and whispered in her ear, "Can speak to the operator?"
She nodded, and led me out of the white and blue waiting area. It took several minutes for us to reach the doctor's office. We strode in and a dark-haired man in green surgical scrubs was sitting at his desk. His fingers rested on the bridge of his nose.
"Dr. Rendell?" the nurse asked, and the man looked up. "This man would like to talk to you about the boy you just operated on."
He eyed me up before motioning for me to sit and the nurse to leave. We sat there for several moments before he spoke, "It's a shame for that kid. What do you need, Kaiba?"
"Information."
"Right. The bullet entered his chest, clipping pericardial sac, causing a large supply of blood to leak into the space between his heart and the sac. The EMT had trouble locating his vital signs. We had to open his chest, but the bleeding was so severe that he never made it through surgery. A screw up that got lucky if you ask me."
"He doesn't hire screw ups."
"Newbie. Someone who is still working on their shot. Missed it. I don't understand why they didn't take the head."
"You're probably right with the newbie thing. Or, here's another theory. He was told to take the guy in the chest, but not kill him immediately. Now, we're talking about professionals."
"Speaking of professionals, you'll love this. I got the bullet."
"You're the best."
"You'll be interested in this. From the few years that I did in the military, I know this one big-ass gun. Check it out," he said withdrawing a small plastic bag from his lab coat.
I took it out and studied the casing. "Looks like a forty caliber. Those are semi-hard to come by."
"I know. I own one, and it's a pain in the ass to get. Where do you think it came from?"
"Gozaburo has a guy he gets his weapons from. Sells him everything without getting it licensed. Probably there."
"Wait a minute, you're assuming that it was Gozaburo. What if it wasn't?"
"Tonight we retired."
"Shit. That would do it. He picked the most unlikely target, your partner's friend."
"Yeah, and since I only really care about Mokuba, I'd be sure to have security for nuclear missile silos."
"Which is comprised of one man, right?"
"And a whole shit load of guns."
"You did the right thing by getting out. He probably would have turned on you anyway."
"I know. Now the problem is how do break this to Mokuba?"
"You're on your own. I can't help you with that."
"Forensics here yet?"
"They don't even know he's dead. What should I do with the bullet?"
"Give it to them. See what they come up with."
"Zero."
"Right. If they do, it's either a plant or a some pissed off bitch."
"Take care of yourself man. I know I won't see you for god knows how long. Before you go, talk to the cops."
"I know. This may be a two-sided effort. One of us going after the guy directly, the other gathering the info."
"Yeah. You going to tell the family what happened?"
"Might as well. I'm going to have to tell Joey anyway. Better now than later. Thanks, Ed," I said before leaving.
The waiting room was still sobbing their eyes out, but it was not as hard as when I had first left. When I entered they looked at me expectantly. I took a deep breath before saying, "The bullet entered his chest, clipping pericardial sac, causing a large supply of blood to leak into the space between his heart and the sac. The EMT had trouble locating his vital signs. They had to open his chest, but the bleeding was so severe that he never made it through surgery."
"Fuck man," Joey said.
He had calmed down considerably, and was now into the raging state. I knew that there were some things that were going to be coming out of his mouth that would make him sound like a raving drunk.
"Before anyone thinks about ranting and raving that they're going to get the guy that did this, there is something we need to discuss," I continued.
"Like what?" Mr. Taylor asked.
"For starters, the forensics. You need to be calm and collected with them. I know your son was just killed, but ranting like a lunatic will only raise questions on your standpoint. They may suspect that you're adding what never occurred. Most importantly, tell them the truth. They'll be asking each and every one of us a question so be ready. Secondly, we may be dealing with a professional here."
"What do you mean a 'professional'? You mean like an assassin?" Mrs. Taylor asked.
"Remember what I said about Tristan being a trigger? Well, my conclusion from the medical report is that it was planned that Tristan would make it to the hospital, and maybe live, more as a warning than a trigger, or a bit of both."
"What do they want though? I mean the killers."
"Probably me," I said quietly.
"Kaiba how do you link to Tristan?" Mai asked. "The two of you never liked each other. Hell, you never liked anybody in our group besides Tea."
"Ask no questions and you'll hear no lies."
"That's comforting. How do we know that you're not in on this?" Taylor asked.
"Why would I be in one this?"
"Mai said you never liked him…"
"She also said that I didn't like anybody," I cut. "Trust me, I have better people to kill than your son. People I hate worse."
"The Big Five," Mokuba whispered.
"And more. I wouldn't waste my time with your son."
"Kaiba, what can bout dat bullet?" Joey asked.
"Forty caliber."
"Aren't those a bitch ta come by?"
"Yeah, which is why I suspect a professional."
There was a knock at the door. Two women stepped in. Both were your average height, except one had brown hair while the other had blonde.
"You must all be the friends and family of Tristan Taylor? I'm Katherine Willows and this Sarah Sidel, we're with the Domino city crime lab," the blonde said.
"Crime lab?" Mai asked.
"Forensics," I said.
"Could you please tell me your name?" the brunette asked.
"Seto Kaiba, and was a… distant friend."
"If you're a 'distant' friend, why are you here?"
"The vic was my girlfriend's friend."
"He has a name you know!" Mrs. Taylor stated.
"We're aware of that, Mrs. Taylor?" the blonde asked.
"Yes."
"We're going to want to question all of you."
"I'm sure there's better places than this to interrogate," I said. "Perhaps you may want to leave the parents alone, since they do need to make arrangements."
The women eyed me. The brunette had hint of interest in her eyes while the blonde was more questioning.
"I'm not a suspect, and I have a perfectly good alibi for where I was."
"We never accused you," the blonde said with even more suspicion.
"Look, I've dealt with cops enough to know how they think. I gave your looks my side of it. At one o'clock I was sitting my brother's room, and I have video tapes to prove it."
"Why are you telling us this?"
"So you get off my back and I can leave."
"Well you're digging yourself a deeper hole," the brunette informed.
"That's nice. Now can you please get your interrogation started? I don't want to be here all night."
"You look like you've been awake for a while," Willows commented.
"I work late at night," I shrugged.
"Do you have a gun?" she asked.
"Smith and Wesson thirty-eight."
"Really? Do you have it on you?"
"Why?"
"I love Smith and Wessons."
"That is the biggest load of shit I have ever heard, but go ahead and check for GSR. You won't find any and the chamber is filled."
"Right. Sarah go check if the doctor recovered the bullet please, and interrogate him as well."
The brunette nodded and left the room. The woman stared at me as if she was trying to determine why I was doing this.
"You're either incredibly smart, incredibly helpful, or incredibly stupid," she said.
"I vote for da last one," Joey said.
"Shut it mutt. You're pretty damn lucky I'm in a good mood today."
"What about the police officer standing right in front of you?" Willows asked.
"What about you?"
"You realize how suspicious you look?"
"You want to know something? I. Don't. Care. Period."
"Well, you should. If that turns out to be a thirty-eight, you're being carted down-town."
Sidel returned. "It was a forty caliber, and have it right here."
"You don't happen to own a forty do you?" Willows asked.
"One of the only I don't; they're a bitch to get."
"Well, I'm sorry to keep you. One last question: how did you and Tristan get along?"
"The same way I get along with everyone: badly. Let's go, Mokuba."
"Dat jerk! Look, I'd love let yah question me, but I gotta get home. Here's my phone number when yah need it."
"We'll be in touch."
"Serenity, Mai, come on. Let's go home," the blonde said before saying to the Taylor's, "I'm sorry for your loss. Tristan was like a brother ta me."
I had been waiting outside, listening in on the conversation. The trio came out with solemn looks on their faces. Joey looked at me, allowing me to glimpse the tears that now threatened to roll down his cheeks. I said nothing in the elevator or when we separated to go to our cars. Something caught my attention. A black box extruded from the car. Mokuba had also seen the box, and was backing away from the car. I saw a similar one on Joey's car, but it had gone unnoticed by him.
"JOEY!" I screamed.
He looked over, and I made the universal gesture for bomb. He threw Mai and Serenity out of the car, and began running away. A huge explosion sent Mokuba and I flying backwards, sending me into a wall. Mokuba landed next to me, thankfully away from the bricks. I looked over to Joey and the others. Mai was in a motionless heap, probably knocked out from hitting the cement so hard. Joey was lying against the wall like me, Serenity in his arms. I looked down at Mokuba. His eyes were watering as he looked up at me.
"Big brother, I won't tell," he whispered.
He had figured it out. He was definitely my baby brother. I hugged him close to my body, and for the first time in nearly ten years, I cried.
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Tornado: *in tears* Why is the world so mean?
DT: Because you make it mean.
Tornado: Shut up! I wanted to add the fact that I don't own CSI either. I couldn't think of names for the detectives.
DT: I don't think there's anything original in this chapter.
Tornado: I borrowed Ed Rendell's name from that guy that governs my state. At least we get slot machines now. Anyway R&R.