Chapter 4: Escape
She's been sitting alone in the kitchen, and realizes it is very late. Mokuba's been locked in his room for an hour. It was right after they left that he shut himself in his room. Ischizu didn't need to have good hearing to be able to listen to his sobs. The poor boy must have thought it was his fault that his brother was taken away. Quietly, she believes that it is not over. That there is much more to those men in their dark suits than it appears to be. Wiping away at her eyes, she proceeds up the stairs and knocks gently on the boy's door.
"Mokuba?" It's quiet in the room, and she hopes that nothing has happened to him since. She realizes the door is unlocked and her eyes settle on his small figure curled up on the bed. Ischizu quietly caresses his hair until she can feel his shoulders move up and down slightly, as if he is shaking. He speaks up, his voice tiny and distant.
"It was my fault," he said, between hiccups, "that they got in. I saw them on the security monitor but I didn't want to bother my brother, so I thought I could set up the provisions between the mansion and the gate. When I did set them up, I found out they had some men already close to the mansion because I'd set up the system too late. It's my fault they took Seto." Ischizu warmly clasps his small hand in hers, and pivots his shoulders so he is facing her.
"It was not your fault. Those men would've gotten in if they had really wanted to, regardless of your security. He went because he wanted to protect you. It is not your fault at all." She says quietly, kissing him on his forehead. "All we have to do is find a way out, and then save your brother." Mokuba immediately gets up, as if he's surprised that Ischizu hasn't given up hope.
"But how? That man did say there were snipers outside, and even if he was bluffing, I don't want to take that chance." Mokuba reasoned, his hands fidgeting with themselves on his lap. She cupped his face into her hands, bringing it slowly to her chest. He remembered, that her touch seemed faintly like his mother's. Except he had never seen his mother. She had died when he was born, but sometimes he could 'feel' her from Seto's stories.
"There is always hope. Snipers will be able to shoot us down if they see us. We have to keep out of their sight," she began to explain, pulling the boy into her lap. "Let's work together and find a way out. We will save your brother if we get out of here first." Mokuba rested his head onto her chest. It was dark and he was tired.
"Come. We will eat some sandwiches first, and then plan." She said, smiling. Mokuba hopped off his bed and they headed off to the kitchen. Now she really wished that she had gone to dinner with Kaiba. Perhaps she would've brought along his brother too, and none of this would've happened. With a sigh, she opened the refrigerator and took out a glass jar of jam and another one full of peanut butter.
She snatched the bag of sliced bread and took out a couple. Mokuba watched as she smoothed out the jam onto one slice and peanut butter onto another. That's exactly how his brother did it, too. Then, much to his surprise, she cut them in triangles. Seto always cut them in triangles.
"I think we need to find out where the snipers are, if there are any, of course," she says, as she hands him a plate with the sandwich triangles on them. She bites into her own sandwich, and eats it a little slowly. "Your brother must have known a way out of here otherwise he would not have agreed to leave if he knew we would not be able to escape. So we have to think like Seto, and we will find a way out." She swallowed that last piece of the sandwich and washed her hands. Mokuba nibbled on one end of his sandwich, deep in thought.
"Remember what you said? About the snipers only being able to shoot us if they saw us? What if there's an underground route to the outside?" Mokuba asked out loud. But he didn't remember his brother telling him about any underground passage, and if there were, he didn't know where it was. He chewed on the last bit of his sandwich thoughtfully.
"Maybe Seto kept plans for it. And if he does, they must be lying around the mansion somewhere, right?" Ischizu asked, pouring orange juice into a tall glass. "At the very least, he will have written something about it somewhere." She dropped two ice cubes into his glass and handed it to Mokuba. "Where does your brother keep his company information?" With a gulp of orange juice, he cleared his throat.
"He keeps his stuff on his computer. If he made a underground passage for the mansion, he would have it on there!" Both of them burst out of their chairs and headed up the stairs to Kaiba's office. Mokuba slid into the chair and turned the computer on. Ischizu leaned forward, her left arm resting on the younger Kaiba's shoulder. As soon as the password screen appeared, Mokuba groaned.
"My brother has a password so nobody else but him could access his files. He never told me his password, either." He slunk slowly into the seat. His own brother's genius was preventing them from escaping! "Maybe I could try some common stuff, I mean, I do know a lot about him." She watched patiently behind the chair as he entered password after password but eventually gave up after the twentieth or twenty-fifth try.
"It is no use. Maybe we can try some dates? Did you try his birthday?" Mokuba nodded to her question. "Do you know any other important dates that Seto might have used?" She asked aloud. Her eyes hurt, immensely. It might have been the white screen but for hours she had not slept, and the later it got, the more sluggish she felt.
"Oh!" Mokuba said, a little slowly, as he entered a set of digits, perhaps an epiphany had occurred to him. 'Password Verified. Welcome, Mr. Kaiba.' He sighed a little. His brother had used the date of his parents' car crash. Why would he possibly want to remember that day? Why would his brother want to keep it as a daily reminder? Perhaps his brother was more depressed than he thought. Mokuba decided to keep this information from Ischizu.
"Now try and search any documents for some keywords related to an underground passage. It is probable there is no passage. Maybe there is another way that we have not found out yet," she said, a little disappointedly. Mokuba clicked to enter the search screen and entered some keywords. He felt Ischizu's head resting slightly on his shoulder. Maybe she was tired.
"Ischizu?" She lifted her head abruptly, as she hadn't realized the extreme lack of cooperation of her body. She answered with a soft 'hm'. "Do, I mean, do you – um..do you like my brother?" He asked, and continued to type as if to shield the pink flush appearing on his cheeks. Ischizu rose from her position and sat on Kaiba's desk, facing Mokuba.
"It is unimportant at the moment. We should focus on escaping." She says, softly. He nods, and perhaps he noticed the slight hitch in her voice as she said so. Maybe she did like his brother! It would be so great to have somebody else in the house besides his brother. And then maybe she could mellow out his Seto, too. He smiled quietly as he searched. Mokuba let out a whispery 'I got it!' as he pointed to the screen.
"Where does it say it is?" Ishizu pondered aloud. It was getting darker and darker outside with every moment. She hoped they could escape before it got so dark they could barely see.
"In the basement. Let's go!" Sprinting off, both headed down to the first floor. In the hallway leading to the kitchen, there was a locked-off door. They didn't have a key, so Mokuba headed off to the small box in the closet that held a wrench. He slammed the wrench against the lock. No budge.
"Here, let me try." Ischizu swung the wrench over her shoulder, and then used one foot as a pivot point to give a greater swing at the lock. With a blundering smash, the lock fell apart to pieces. Mokuba removed the remains of the rusty, very low-tech lock and threw it aside. Swinging the door open, they both clambered down the stairs of the rather clean yet dark basement. Ischizu stumbled about in the darkness until she clasped Mokuba's hand as guidance. The boy had probably been here before.
"Here. It's like a trap door to the outside, but it's not directly above. There's probably about three feet of dirt," Mokuba said, pointing to the small, rectangular shaped opening. It was rather small, and Ischizu doubted whether she could fit in it. The young boy took the wrench from her, and pressing one foot against the opening of the door, and the other firmly on the ground, held the wrench high above his head and then bludgeoned the digital display, which requested a password. There wasn't any time for password guessing. The two needed to get out. Prying open the door, Ischizu saw the mounds of dirt collapse into the clean, marble floor.
"We should get to digging then." She dug her hands underneath the rather fertile soil and began to pull the thick clumps apart. Her fingernails began to get dirt-sodden and even Mokuba's face was matted with dirt and sweat as they managed to get through a foot thick of dirt. The piles of soil began to collect at their ankles. The younger Kaiba dug rapidly through the dirt, hands tearing it apart to get through. Finally, they reached a smooth surface on the other end. Scraping the last of the dirt off the metal on the other side, Mokuba climbed in the passage to get a better look.
"No! It's locked!" She heard him sniffle. Handing him the wrench, they desperately tried to unscrew the thick bolts, but to no avail. Smashing the screen wouldn't help either. Ischizu gave a long, hard sigh. Seto would not have left them here alone in the mansion if there were not a way out. Maybe it wasn't a route out that they needed – it was a plan.
"Come on out, Mokuba. There is no use." She placed her head in her hands, even though they were clearly dirt-streaked. Mokuba sat quietly next to her. Their only means of escape was gone. He leaned his head on her shoulder.
"The phone lines are out. Snipers are outside. There's a big, annoying metal door at the end of that passage, and I'm tired. I miss my brother." The young Kaiba said. It was almost one A.M. in the household. If his big brother had known there was a way out, why didn't he tell him? He sighed. But wait – maybe it wasn't just this route. Maybe Kaiba knew that Mokuba would be able to figure out how to get out of there, using the exits given to him. Maybe it wasn't just a matter of staying out of the snipers' sights. Perhaps it was a matter of making them believe they saw them.
"Ischizu!" He shook her shoulder. She looked up at him, her lips glued together in a thin line. Her entire body ached. "I know a way out! Just listen to me!" Leaning towards her ear, he explained his wonderful plan to her. A small smile graced her lips.
The snipers on top of the roof were rather tired. They had been taking pills to keep their hands steady for hour after hour, even though there were clear limits on how many dosages were possible in a given day. Their leader, Giovanni, had ordered them to execute anyone who tried to step out of the door. The smallest sniper shrugged his shoulder and wiped the sweat off his cheek. It had been a long, boring night. They were wearing heat vision goggles to detect even the smallest trace of human life. They had taken Giovanni's orders seriously. The sniper's eye twitched as he looked down the long barrel. What!
A small, heat trace had flattened himself against the Kaiba mansion. The sniper smirked. That must be that Seto Kaiba's brother! Popping a white tablet into his mouth, he began to grind his teeth rapidly to keep his hand steady. The little bugger moved across the field pretty fast. Predicting that the boy would head for the trees, he aimed slightly above him. His finger rested on the trigger, and he slightly depressed it…
His heart lurched as he noticed there was another heat sign. Swinging wildly around, there was a taller figure towards the middle of the field, going the opposite way. Not knowing who to shoot first, he guessed that the boy would be more important and swung the gun back to its' original location. Huh? The boy had disappeared. Three more heat traces appeared on the field.
The snipers on the roof began to panic. Dozens of people were sprouting out of the building. They began to shoot them, one by one; their bullets were strangely not hitting their targets, even though their aim was near perfect. The snipers began shooting wildly, managing to hit some of the people. They collapsed and rather content, until another surge of people began outpouring from the entrance. What the..?
Mokuba hid behind the tree, his chest pounding. Ischizu was further ahead, motioning for him to come. Leaping into her arms, they crouched behind a thick brush of trees for a couple of minutes, trying to regain their breaths. With a small smile, he looked up at Ischizu. Clasping his face in her hands, she kissed him tenderly on his cheek. Blushing, he snuck his head around, trying to make sure they had made it to the woody area behind the mansion.
"You are a genius," she breathed, kissing him again. He smiled shyly. The holograms had definitely been useful. They ordinarily lacked body temperatures, so he merely added a temperature setting to all of the holograms to make them more life-like. Kaiba had employed this precaution of putting heat signs because they might be mistaken for real humans. Then, he had programmed the holograms to collapse after two bullets would graze the volume or surface of the hologram image to keep the snipers busy. It had been quite impressive.
"Now," she began, whispering rather quietly, "We will head to Yuugi's. I will explain to him what has happened so far. Perhaps he can help us. Saving your brother right now is impossible because we do not know where he is. Let us focus on getting more information on who kidnapped him first." Mokuba nodded, and both headed off into the darkness of the night.