The Purpose of a Heart
Chapter Ten:
Yami blinked at his reflection on the monitor as his computer started up, and glanced down at the fistful of papers.
"Research." He said aloud, smoothing the sheets out. "What could be the point of trying to research what this is? And how am I even going to figure it out at all?"
After the odd meeting with his former enemy, he'd gone home and surprised himself by turning the computer on. He wasn't sure why he was even paying attention to what Bakura had asked of him. Part of him considered that this might be some kind of joke. Bakura had always been like that, everything he did had another motive behind it. It was entirely possible that all this: his disappearance, his sudden reappearance outside Yami's window, the strange meeting, these papers, his request…that all of it was just a big joke Bakura had thought up out of boredom or spite or both. That was the sort of thing Bakura would do, send Yami off on a wild goose chase just for laughs, or maybe in order to distract him from something else. And then what was the last thing Bakura had tried to tell him? You've got to get out of…? What did that mean? What was he supposed to get out of?
But still, there had been something different in Bakura's voice. Normally sly and almost joking when he was planning something, instead today his voice had been completely serious. No hint of an amused laugh. And what was all this stuff about disguising whatever the research might turn up? Maybe Bakura was in some sort of trouble. Yami found it hard to imagine anyone that could threaten the evil spirit into doing something, but it was possible.
The computer was completely booted, and Yami-against what his reasonable part of his mind was saying-decided to do the research anyway. It might be a joke, but it also might not be. When Mahaado had incarnated him into his own body, he'd asked him to give Bakura a second chance too because he truly thought that, deep down, there was a decent person inside the spirit. But Bakura was never going to feel like a friend unless people put their trust in him, Yami thought. This was his chance to show Bakura that he could count on people.
"Awright Bakura, I'll see what I can do."
Bakura returned to the Compound feeling half exhausted from all the stress, and half gleeful because he knew he'd passed on the information to the best person he could. He was counting on Yami to use that trusting instinct of his and believe him. If he didn't…well, at least the papers were no longer in the building. No evidence, no danger, after all.
"Did everything go well?" Bakura jumped, startled, at the sound of someone's voice beside him. It was the boss, carrying a new sheaf of paper that he shifted to his other arm when Bakura tried to see what was on it.
"Yeah, went fine. Oh…here," he dug the keys out of his pocket and handed them to the man. "These are yours."
"Thank you."
"Hey, I wanted to ask, would it be possible for someone to pick up my mail from my apartment? See, I used to enjoy getting mail and stuff, and I have a lot of magazine subscriptions. I'd like to read them."
"Sure, I'll get someone to pick the mail up for you from now on."
"Thanks." Bakura gave a quick salute and closed the door to his room, curling up on his bed with a sigh. Well, at least now he finally had some time to do that relaxing he'd been wanting to. Maybe later he'd go see about dinner and could search out Louis in the dining hall, to tell him all about what was going on. He'd be glad to know that the papers had been passed onto someone that could research the information and see what they could find. Despite himself, the kid really wasn't that bad, and he was almost rather likeable.
He just got caught up in a lot of stuff that's over his head. Bakura thought. But he's not that bad of a person. He's the kind of guy that Yugi and all them would get along with. And he has been helping me out, which is a nice change.
Closing his eyes, he was plunged into a deep, dreamless sleep within moments. The exhaustion from the past few days was so thick that he didn't wake up until someone shook him bodily.
"Wha-who?" He sat up and smacked at the person, who he then saw was a young woman in a blue jumpsuit. One of those computer-engineer-type people. He thought.
"The boss has called a meeting in the large room on the fourth floor." She said. "He sent me to tell everyone."
"Fourth floor, right." Bakura yawned. "Okay, I'm going."
She left as Bakura got to his feet and ran his fingers through his hair, annoyed about being woken up. But this was the first time a real meeting of everyone in the building had been called, and he was curious about why.
Sauntering into the room, he opted to lean against the wall instead of taking a seat in one of the folding chairs. The room was fairly large, large enough to accommodate everyone. 'Everyone' included the group of blue-jumpsuited people, a few in crisp business suits, and a lot of people in regular street clothes. There were those as young as Louis and others old enough to be grandparents. Lou, Blair, and the boss were nowhere to be found among the group, Bakura noted.
The mystery of the higher-up was solved when he looked to the front of the room and saw the boss standing there, arms behind his back as he waited patiently.
Eventually everyone that was going to show up must have shown up, because the room quieted down. Bakura noticed with an uneasy feeling that everyone in the room seemed…subdued almost. As if they expected something bad. He wondered what it was. And where the hell was Louis, anyway?
"My valued workers." The boss began. Bakura rolled his eyes, and wondered if he'd get in trouble if he slipped out and went back to bed. "You've all been called here today, because of something that happened. Now, all of you are important to this project. And yes, some of you are much more informed on the master plan than others. But I trust you all to keep your places, and to not betray me. Sadly, someone did betray me."
Great, I bet this is about that office break-in. Bakura thought.
"I've warned you all time and time again about the dangers of stepping out of line. Some of you joined me willingly, but others, yes, I've forced you to stay here, and to do your jobs. I made a certain threat to keep you here, and I always make good on my threats, if I have to. Today, I had to. So I've called you all here to remind you that, as long as you work for me, you must not try to cross your boundaries. And this young man, has learned the hard way."
The door beside Bakura opened and Blair strode in, something slung over his shoulder. There was a collective group gasp. Bakura blinked in shock, frozen to the spot. Now he knew why his get-away driver was absent from the room. The college student was now draped limply over Blair's shoulder, a large hole in the side of his head, blood drenching his torso, and a rather surprised look forever imprinted in his unblinking eyes.
A few people stood up right there, and made a run for the door, hands clamped over their mouths, as Blair dumped the body on the floor beside the boss and folded his arms.
"Louis Taque out stepped his place as a get-away driver." The boss pronounced his last name like 'tock'. It occurred to Bakura's suddenly numbed mind that he'd never known the kid's last name before. "He went searching in a place he never should have known about, and he paid the price I told him he would. Now, I don't know what made him do something so foolish, but let this be a lesson to you all: Don't repeat his mistake. You are dismissed."
The room emptied out in about three seconds flat. Only a few people were left behind, staring in morbid fascination at the body. Bakura was among them, but he wasn't looking at Louis. He was instead staring at the floor blankly, his mind replaying the short time he'd known the student.
"My parents…they've got to be really worried about me. I feel bad about what I might be doing to them. I'd really like to see my family again."
"I'm really not brave or anything…"
"That's a noble cause…you're a good friend."
Beside him, the boss left the room with the remaining people, followed by Blair, toting Louis's body. Out of sight of his superior, Blair gave Bakura a look and whispered,
"He was searching in a place he wasn't supposed to know was there."
Bakura narrowed his eyes. Blair raised his eyebrows, and let the door slam behind him. The room was now empty. Bakura clenched his fist.
This is my fault. I told him about that basement. I bet that's where he was.
Before his incarnation, before Yami had been so kind to him that day, the death of someone he was using for his own benefit wouldn't have fazed Bakura in the least. He would have been rather entertained, in fact. Letting people down had been fun, back then.
Now, he suddenly felt guilt so deep, it scared him. Sure, maybe Louis was a hyperactive college student that memorized too many random things for his own good, but he had been a decent person. All he'd wanted was to get out of this job and see his family. He'd looked up to Bakura, in fact. He'd trusted him to help him find a way out. He'd even helped save Yami's life by scrambling those dates on the cameras. Maybe he could be irritating at times, but he had still been one of the only people who hadn't treated Bakura like the scum of the Earth. He hadn't deserved to die.
"Dammit…this is my fault, if I'd never told him about that basement, if I'd never asked him to get involved…" Bakura grit his teeth. "One more person I've killed…and this wasn't even a stranger. Lou was nice to me. Yami could never forgive this." I'm not even sure I can forgive this.
He sunk to the floor, his guilt giving way to anger. The past events were so fresh in his mind that it all felt like a dream. But it was no dream, he knew it. And now that what had happened, happened, he also knew that sulking about it wasn't going to help anything. Rather like back at Kuru Eruna. That time, he'd chosen to be impulsive and get revenge, and had, he reflected, gotten himself stuck inside a piece of metal for 5000 years, among other things. And this time there was more at stake. Though blasting the heads off of Blair and the boss would be an excellent way to inflict Lou's revenge, it wasn't practical. One mistake, and Yami could be dead. Which left him with only one choice: put Louis's death behind him and worry about getting the student's revenge later. He didn't like the plan, but Louis was dead and nothing would change that, so he could wait.
His choice made, Bakura got to his feet and walked back to his room, and pulled out the Uzi from under the bed. "You and me are on our own now." He told the gun quietly as he pulled out the separate pieces and spent the next two hours polishing it for therapy.
Two weeks passed without any other incident. Bakura spent most of his time in his room. To his surprise, he actually missed Louis. Maybe the goody-goody companions of Yami had a point, he reflected, when it came to having friends. It could be sort of lonely without someone to talk to. He didn't try to return to any rooms he wasn't supposed to be in, and amused himself by watching TV and taunting Blair. That was the only thing fun anymore.
One morning, the door opened and someone Bakura didn't recognize tossed him a magazine in a plastic wrap. "Your mail." He said without any ceremony, and shut the door. Bakura recognized it as one of his favorite machine-gun magazines, but he wasn't in the mood to read it. He wasn't in the mood to do much of anything. He was sulking, bored, and irritated by his lack of doing anything worthwhile. So he dropped the magazine, still encased in its plastic, into a drawer and left the room to see if the dining hall still had any hot ramen. And it wasn't till that evening before he finally opened the magazine to see if it had an order form for bullets in it, because he needed some more, and the magazine would sell them by bulk. Tearing off the plastic, he opened the magazine to the center fold, and an envelope fell out.
"Huh?" He picked it up of the floor and turned it over. There was no writing on it. He wondered if maybe it was some type of promotional thing. In curiosity, he ripped off the top and pulled out a single sheet of notebook paper, and felt his heart leap. It was the results of Yami's research! He recognized Yami's handwriting right away. Fumbling for the plastic wrap, he now saw the razor-thin cut that had been made in it, and then sealed with a thin strip of glue.
"I knew he'd come through." Bakura muttered to himself, impressed. He turned his back to where he knew the video camera was installed in his room, reading the note feverishly. When finished, he sat down on the bed, struck into shock once again. Now he knew what Louis must have figured out.
Yami's letter was brief and to-the-point, just the way the guy himself often was, and spared no time for introductions: Where the hell did you find these prints? They're for a high-powered laser that was rumoured to be in development by a top-secret American military base. A few years ago, a tabloid announced that the plans had been stolen by someone, but this was never proven. The laser, when completed, is supposedly powerful enough to wipe out a decent-sized country very quickly.
To Be Continued…
Author's Notes:
This chapter was…interesting to write. I had to kill off Lou, which was sad because I liked the guy. He was a likable OC, and since I created him, it was difficult to kill him. But, it had to be done. For the sake of the fic, I will do anything… Anyway, It was also difficult to write for a guilty Bakura. Let's face it, he's not often sunk in guilt over people's demises. I think I did well enough. The end too, was hard because I wanted it to be serious, but not so serious it was stupid-sounding. So really, the whole chapter was a rather new thing for me. I hope I did okay! I'm really glad this is starting to move along. Yay! Another layer! Now we can be pretty sure that whatever these guys plan to do with that laser, it's not a good thing. But still, go Yami! Not bad Internet researching for a 5000 year old spirit…
And now there's an added emotional issue for Bakura as well. Someone that actually treated him nicely and who has helped him out has been killed, and you can bet it has to be leaving some type of effect on him. And what would Yami think if he knew?
Replies!
Hershey-Kiss: Dang, you're fast. Are you online all the time? It seems like you're right on top of when I post. Ugh, a head cold on your vacation? That sucks! I hope you're feeling better. Oh, I think I know who you're talking about…I can't spell his name either. I like him though, he's cool, he'd be a good mental image to use. Well…would have been, anyway. I'm glad you like my mysteries, they're fun to write. :niko:
You Know Us: It was rather short…but importantly short! Eee…yes, poor Louis-chan didn't make it to see chapter ten unfortunately. But at least things are moving along now, Yami came through, and new information is out. Oh…the Bakura-being-able-to-get-mail-and-his-manager-seeming-to-not-know-who-he-is bit is explained in the next chapter, don'cha worry. And yes Michelle, Yami said he missed Bakura. :laughs: Ahh, romance. Yes, you all must wait. Wait and suffer, syahahaha…ack, okay, that was Shad-kun talking.
Soooo, at least this chapter was a bit longer than the last. This is a plus. I hope you have all enjoyed it! Catch you later, for I am off to collapse. So...much...homework. :spazzy:Jaa!