Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh plot or characters.
A/N: Thanks to Sakurelle, Petit Angel, Kasifya, and Sueb262 for reviewing!
CHAPTER FOUR
Morning came eventually. Serenity must have slept off and on, because she was definitely asleep when she heard the alarm clock go off and felt Mokuba wake up and slip out of the bed. He shut off the alarm, and yawned with his arms in the air, then rubbed his eyes. His curly hair was sticking out all over. He bent and picked up the sword.
"Uh oh. I forgot to put Excalibur away. Seto gets mad when I leave things on the floor."
"How mad? What does he do when he's mad?" Did Seto Kaiba abuse his brother? Serenity was working herself up to a rage when Mokuba deflated it.
"Oh, he just stands there and waits until I pick it up before he lets me do anything else." Mokuba shrugged. "I have to use the bathroom." he announced, dropped the sword and disappeared through the door to the left of the writing desk.
Serenity sat up in bed, and moved her left shoulder experimentally. It hurt, as did, to a lesser extent, the cuts on her knees. She looked at her hands. They'd made it through with barely a scratch, only some minor surface cuts. From the bathroom, between the toilet flushing and the faucet going, she could hear Mokuba humming. He was such a happy child. How could the same womb have produced a Mokuba and a Seto? Serenity pulled absently at the ruined sleeve of her nightshirt. She supposed she could sew it up, but would it catch on the stitches if she did? And besides, the blood on it was pretty gross.
Mokuba came out of the bathroom, the ends of his bangs dripping from where he'd managed to get them in the water while washing his face, and grinned. "Your turn!" He announced.
"Mokuba, does your bathroom door have a lock on it?" Serenity asked hopefully.
He crinkled his nose. "Yeah, I think it's on the doorknob, but I won't come in while you're there. I promise."
Serenity smiled. "I might be in there a long time, and you might forget I'm in there. Or someone else could come in and not know I was in there."
Mokuba thought that over. "OK" He shrugged, obviously thinking girls were weird.
Serenity got up. "Can I borrow your shower and hair dryer?"
"Sure" Mokuba found the sword again and was eviscerating an invisible dragon.
With a shower, which she took without a plastic covering (who cared if the wound got wet if she wasn't going to be around long enough for it to heal?), blow-dried hair, and a towel wrapped around her, Serenity felt almost human again. She looked at her bloody T-shirt draped across the toilet and couldn't bear the thought of putting it on again.
"Mokuba?" she grabbed the towel firmly at her breast to make sure it wasn't coming undone, and popped her head cautiously out the door. He was dressed now in jeans, tennis shoes and what looked like a long sleeved rugby style shirt, sitting at the writing desk. When he heard her voice he got off the chair and came over to her.
"Um, do you have anything I could borrow to wear?" As she said it she realized how dumb the question was. Mokuba was a tiny kid. He thought hard about the problem, then his eyes lit up.
"Wait there!" He disappeared into his closet and came out with a dusty box which he opened on the floor to reveal an old football jersey, extra large, and faded, which he brought out with a flourish. "It was my dad's. It used to be my blanket until I outgrew it. Here!"
Serenity was touched. "I'll take it under one condition, that you get me some gauze or something to cover my stitches. I wouldn't want to get blood on it."
"OK" Mokuba ran to the door and was out before she could say another word. As the door closed, she saw the guard outside, still at his post. Serenity retreated to the bathroom. 20 minutes later, after Mokuba had deposited large gobs of polysporan on her wound and covered the area securely if a bit lopsidedly with gauze and tape, she was being pulled down the hall by a determined Mokuba. The football jersey draped generously over her, and it was only a little shorter than the nightshirts she'd been wearing the night before. The guard followed them silently.
In the doorway to the kitchen Serenity stopped cold. Seto was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and reading the Wall Street Journal as a small Hispanic man bustled around the kitchen, cooking. Mokuba let go of her hand and ran to give his brother a bear hug around the waist. "Seto! Look who I found! A lady."
Seto's eyes flicked over the jersey and came to rest on Serenity's face. "So I see. Ricardo?" He called to the Hispanic chef. "Another place-setting at the table please."
"I was thinking…" Seto looked down at Mokuba's upturned face. "Since we have a visitor and all, maybe I should skip school today?"
"Mr. Peterkins will be here at 8:00 as usual, and I want you to be ready for him," said Seto.
"Aw Seto."
"Eat your breakfast." Seto reached over his brother's head and pulled out a chair.
Mokuba sighed, but walked over and sat down at his place. Ricardo moved to pour orange juice, and quickly set out another placemat and place setting at the space next to Mokuba's.
"Can she stay with us Seto? Please?" Mokuba asked his brother.
Seto's face took on what Serenity saw as a sardonic, amused expression. "Oh I insist that Miss Wheeler stay with us."
"Great!" Completely unaware of the undercurrents, Mokuba grinned at Serenity. "Is that your name? Miss Wheeler?"
"It's Serenity. Call me Serenity." She told him. She'd read somewhere that it was more difficult for kidnappers to kill their victims if they began to think of them as actual people with names and feelings. Somehow she didn't think that would cut any ice with Seto, but it didn't hurt to try. The morning was becoming surreal. The normal family breakfast in the kitchen, the smell of food cooking, Mokuba deliberately slurping his juice and looking slant eyed at his brother to see if he'd noticed. Except for the guard standing at her back, blocking her exit, it could have been any family eating together.
"Well Serenity, sit down and join us." It may have been said in a conversational tone, but the command was clear. Serenity sat.
"Miss, what would you like to have for breakfast?" Ricardo was taking orders. Seto chided Mokuba for slurping and watched to see her answer. "I'll have whatever Mokuba's having." If Seto had told the cook to slip a drug in her food he'd have a difficult time of it if he was cooking for Mokuba at the same time.
"Coffee?" Serenity saw that the pitcher of orange juice he'd poured for Mokuba was still on the table.
"Juice is fine," she answered and she watched Ricardo carefully as he poured it, then followed him with her eyes over to the stove. It looked like she was going to have pancakes.
"He won't let you help cook" Mokuba stage whispered at her. "I ask all the time but he always says no."
"Children and stoves and ovens do not mix." Ricardo threw over his shoulder as he poured another round of batter on the griddle.
Judging by the plate in front of Seto, empty of everything except crumbs, Seto had already eaten; still he stayed at the table and talked to Mokuba until he was done. Serenity, though hungry, picked at the pancakes, only managing to eat one of the three Ricardo placed in front of her. Her stomach was tied in knots as she waited to see what would happen when breakfast was over and Mokuba went off to school.
The doorbell rang, and Mokuba got up. "Mr. Peterkins is here."
"Go to the school room and wait for him."
"School room?" Serenity repeated involuntarily.
Mokuba grinned at her. "I have school here. Mr. Peterkins comes every day. Well, except weekends." He said, and ran off.
Leaning back in her chair, Serenity tried to figure out what that meant for her. Would Seto take her someplace else to torture her? But he'd told Mokuba he meant for her to stay here. Glancing up, she saw Seto watching her, obviously enjoying her discomfort. She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck her chin out, challenging him.
With what sounded suspiciously like a snort, he got up, laid the Wall Street Journal down on the table and began to walk out. "Dan, keep Miss Wheeler here until Angus comes in to take over." He said, and left.
"Where's he going?" Serenity hated how querulous her voice sounded.
"To the office, of course, Miss." Ricardo answered, sounding surprised that she didn't know. He started to say something else, but when the guard, Dan, cleared his throat warningly, he subsided, and went back to clearing up the dishes. Serenity stayed at the table, working herself into a nervous wreck. By the time the sandy red haired man from her apartment last night entered the room she was ready to jump out of her skin.
With a quick glance around Angus nodded at the guard. "Bring her."
Serenity found herself hustled firmly out of the kitchen and pushed down the hallway to a longish unfamiliar corridor, and into a room that appeared to be a small, impersonal office with a desk, and a grouping of small chairs in front of it. The tall man preceded her into the room, pulled two of the chairs away and gestured for her to sit in the remaining one. The guard pushed her forward when she was slow to respond.
I won't scream. I won't cry. I won't talk no matter what. The litany ran over and over through her head as the red headed man proceeded to bark questions about Joey and his discovery at her. He alternated between whispering and yelling. Sometimes he'd lean right into her face, causing her to flinch back, but the expected abuse never came. He never touched her. She kept waiting for it, but he never so much as slapped her. The other guard remained in the room the whole time, sitting quietly in one of the spare chairs as he watched the other man work.
After a while, Serenity realized that she wasn't going to be tortured. She didn't say a word. Watching all those spy shows and reading all those murder mysteries really paid off. She know that once a suspect began talking it was all over, so she bit her lip and never answered no matter how insulting or outrageous he got. It seemed like hours passed until finally the man stopped, straightened and turned to look at the door. A moment later Serenity heard Mokuba's voice calling her name, and doors opening then closing down the corridor. Then Mokuba stuck his head in the door.
"Oh, there you are. Hi Angus. Hi Dan. It's time for lunch."
"We're a little busy here, Mokuba." The red haired man stepped to block him as the child tried to dodge past him. Stymied, Mokuba tilted his head back to look up into Angus' face
"But you've got to have lunch sometime, and Mr. Peterkins only gives me half an hour!"
A phone shrilled in Angus' pocket. He whipped it out, listened for a minute, face coldly expressionless, then said, "Yes, I'll go now." And put it back. He motioned to the guard, Dan, "Take her back to the kitchen for lunch. Watch her."
He placed his hand on Mokuba's head, rumpling his hair, making it sound like the last command was for him, though his eyes were on the guard as he said it.
Mokuba rolled his eyes, grabbed Serenity's hand and pulled her down the hallway to the kitchen. And just like that, the interrogation was over.
o-o-o
Seto leaned back in his leather chair in the executive suite of his office building downtown and templed his fingers. He'd spent a very productive morning; speed working, as he liked to call it. He could make his mind work at a frenetic pace when he wanted to, letting instincts take over when it came to decisions.
The reason he was able to do so was the quality of his employees. Seto made sure that they were all competent, but more importantly that they were 100 committed and loyal to him. No longer did he blindly trust the workers who had come with the company when his father's death forced him to take over the reins early, much too early. He'd been so naïve when he started, full of the fairy tale business ethics and philosophy his college professors were intently stuffing into him. Now he made sure he'd tried and tested all those remaining old guard employees, and put each new employee through rigorous tests before hiring them. Angus had streamlined the process for him, making concrete protocols out of his desired outcomes. Angus was a godsend. If it hadn't been for him, this situation with the girl would be a mess.
Angus had cobbled together a false voice message using recordings from the phone tap as Seto watched, fascinated by the technical expertise of his security team. It took most of the night, and Seto had given up and gone home before the long process was complete. He'd also missed the Scotsman's efforts to find a shill, an out of work actress willing to take Serenity Wheeler's ID and suitcase on a flight to L.A. the next morning. The suitcase was now in a storage locker at LAX and the actress, using her own name this time, had booked a flight back after a week's vacation in L.A. paid for by Seto. Assuming anyone at Serenity Wheeler's work bothered to check out her phone message, the trail would lead to L.A.
Seto remembered getting the phone call in the sound studio last night, and hearing about Serenity's suicide attempt. He wasn't usually a profane man, but when he heard about his brother's part in the fiasco he'd sworn then. He should have put her in the office area of his penthouse. Instead he'd gone soft and placed her in one of the guestrooms a few doors down from Mokuba, thinking that the sedative Angus had injected in her would last all the way until morning. It hadn't, and she'd tried to throw herself from the window.
Mokuba had heard the glass breaking and ran in past the guard he'd posted down the hall, who'd just got the door's keypad unlocked. From what Angus said, Mokuba accidentally elbowed the guard in his haste to see what was breaking the glass. Mokuba was so short that his raised elbow was at groin level. That was why he'd been able to reach the girl first. According to the guard's report, Mokuba pulled the girl away from the window just in time.
Seto's heart went cold at the thought of Mokuba falling down to the pavement, dragged down by that…he stopped, and forced himself to take a deep breath. There was time enough to deal with Serenity Wheeler later. The tournament wasn't for another week and a half. It would be interesting to see if Angus got anything out of her. He glanced at the phone, then his watch. Even with traffic, Angus should be here any minute. He'd got a call that one of Angus' men had located Larson in a flophouse, high on drugs and looking to be about ready to die of an overdose. When Seto realized that Wheeler paid Larson off for the gamechip he knew the man would use the money to buy drugs and was probably on his way to chemical nirvana. It took precious days to track down the rumors of whom Larson had or hadn't talked to about the one gamechip left from his theft of the Minoan excavations.
It would have to be Joey Wheeler who turned out to be the one in possession of the chip, Joey who was so methodical, so mathematical in his strategies. He was known as the player who never cracked, a perfect, poker-faced game master. He was a very worthy opponent, and in their tournaments together Seto never fully figured out Joey's strategy.
Now Joey was dead, and his sister was probably the only person left in the world with the missing piece of the puzzle, for Seto had come to realize that the Minoan game was more than just a game. There were indications that others had come to the same conclusion, and Seto was willing to risk everything to beat them to the punch. He glanced down at the paperwork on his desk. He was done with corporate business for the day. Shoving his desk chair over to one side of the desk, he accessed the encrypted program on his laptop that was running the diagnostics on the gamechips he'd acquired so far. Adding the silver one he'd taken from Serenity Wheeler was causing the computer to work overtime finding the vital patterns, but there was still missing pieces. That there were patterns, patterns unrelated to the slick strategies needed to win tournaments was unarguable, but what did they mean? Seto now knew more than he ever wanted to about the Minoans, including the theory that they'd been descendants of the legendary race of people known as Atlanteans, a theory heartily scorned by current historical scholarship.
Angus Kaiba walked in on cat's feet. "Larson's dead." He stated baldly.
"How?"
"The hospital's calling it overdose related complications."
"But you don't think so."
"No. My man at the hospital saw several hospital staffers going in and out of the room, but had no way of knowing which if any belonged there. I say it's too convenient."
Seto nodded. "Agreed. Try to get the body. We'll have it autopsied."
"It'll be expensive." Angus warned.
"Perhaps" Seto grinned inwardly. Angus may be a top-notch security chief, but he was still Scottish to the core when it came to spending money. "Still, it's better to know for sure what we're up against."
Angus nodded to the laptop computer, humming away on the desk. "Has yon gizmo come up with anything yet?" Angus, an expert on all security related technology pretended disdain for things mechanical, maintaining that it was a man's eyes and brain that made the real difference in the field. The CIA couldn't be more cutthroat than the world of industrial espionage at times.
"No, did you find out anything from the Wheeler girl?" Seto neatly turned the question around.
Angus frowned. "No. She wouldna' talk at all."
"Hmm." Seto digested that. "Determined is she?"
"Terrified more like. If I'd wanted to play by rules and regulations, I could have joined the coppers." Angus met Seto's eyes. "It wouldn't take much to break her if ye'd let me."
"No!" Seto regulated his voice. "Until I know how deeply she's involved in this…conspiracy, I won't cross that line."
"Is that remorse I hear laddie?"
"Not at all. Mokuba's decided she's his pet project. He grows on people. Perhaps we can use that later if we give it a chance to develop."
Angus gave a bark of laughter. "I should have known you had a plan. Wheels within wheels, that's you m'lad."
Seto merely smiled.
o-o-o
Angus hadn't returned by the time lunch was over. Mokuba had persuaded Dan, the guard watching her, to let Serenity sit in on his tutoring session. In the schoolroom, which was located at the other end of the penthouse, Serenity sat self-consciously at an empty desk (there were three) while a highly disapproving Mr. Peterkins gave his history/literature lesson on the renaissance. Between pulling the jersey down over her knees every five minutes and concentrating on listening quietly and politely, without letting Mokuba be distracted by her presence, Serenity was busy not giving the teacher any more reason to dislike her presence. She had to admit he knew what he was doing, challenging Mokuba to ask intelligent questions, and reason out his responses. However, when the lesson turned to renaissance music, and Peterkins put on a CD of Pachelbel's cannon, all Mokuba did was give monosyllabic replies and roll his eyes as soon as the music began playing. Peterkins cut that part of the lesson short.
Soon after that lessons were over for the day. Mokuba pulled her into the playroom and tried to teach her the Minoan game.
"Oh Mokuba, I've tried to play this game before in college. I'm no good at it." When word got around that she was Joey Wheeler's sister, lots of guys tried to challenge her to play. Since she knew she wasn't nearly as good as her brother, Serenity always declined.
"That's why you have to practice, Serenity! No one's good when they first start."
So Serenity sat on a very comfortable sofa upholstered in what felt like a soft chenille bedspread, with the child's plastic version of the Minoan gameboard and gamechips spread between them. She played the game with Mokuba, who beat her soundly nine games out of ten. He had an endless fascination for the game. He also had a tendency to bite the tip of his tongue when he was concentrating that she found completely endearing. After the game playing was over, she watched a video with Mokuba, some ultra fantastic tale loosely based on the King Arthur story. Mokuba, who'd obviously seen it many times before, was delighted.
What was she doing here? How had she got so comfortable with this child, the brother of her enemy? Dinnertime came as a relief, until she saw that Seto was there. The food was served in an actual dining room, and Serenity was reassured when all three of them were served from the same soup tureen and serving dishes. She kept quiet, and let Mokuba talk about his day, noticing that he kindly refrained from calling her hopeless when he described how he'd beaten her at the Minoan game. Seto pretty much ignored her throughout dinner, until Mokuba brought up the game. Then he'd stared at her for a long time.
"So she lost to you, did she? Interesting."
Serenity felt a blush rising. Did he think she faked losing? Why would she? "There are other things in life besides playing the Minoan game." She bit out.
"There are indeed Miss Wheeler."
Why was Seto looking at her so intently? Serenity became very interested in her dessert, strawberries and with a crème anglaise sauce.
Eventually, Mokuba was sent to brush his teeth and get ready for bed. The Kaibas ate late. Serenity rose from her seat to go with the boy, only to be told to stay when Mokuba was sent to his room. All her fears came rushing back. She hadn't exactly been cooperative that morning. How would Seto retaliate?
Seto got up from his chair and came around to stand behind her. She would NOT give him the satisfaction of twisting around to look at him, she decided, sitting stalk still, back rigidly straight. She left her hands on the tablecloth, clutching her dessertspoon. The ache in her shoulder wound, forgotten for a time, came throbbing back.
"We need to have a little chat, Miss Wheeler."
"What about?" Serenity was glad to hear that her voice didn't shake as much as she was shaking inside.
"You know what I want. Information. Information that your brother entrusted to you."
"Never."
She felt his breath brush the top of her head. Sighing in exasperation?
"Are you planning to stab me with that?"
"What? Oh!" Serenity dropped the spoon she'd been gripping so hard that it was about to bend, feeling like a scolded child. It was time to attack.
"You'll never get away with this, you know." She said conversationally. "You can't just kidnap a person and expect no one to notice."
"And who exactly would notice? Your boss thinks you were called away suddenly to L.A. on family business."
Did the man think of everything? Serenity remembered hearing him say that he was going to cobble together a message for her boss's machine when he'd taken her from her apartment. She remembered too, being wrestled by him and bound. She cringed a little. He was so strong and so fast. Those self-defense classes in college hadn't helped her a bit. Why hadn't she kept them up? She lived in New York, after all. The only thing keeping her alive was Mokuba's presence. If he hadn't found her she'd probably be dead by now. Mokuba seemed to be the man's only soft spot.
"Besides," Seto's silky voice continued, "if I know that Joey had the gamechip and the information, so do others. How long do you think you'd last if I let you loose? The international tournament is in little over a week."
The tournament? Thought Serenity incredulously. This was all about winning that stupid tournament? True the grand prize was reputed to be a million dollars this year, but Kaiba was a multi-millionaire. What did he need with more money? If he thought the information she had would just help him win a stupid game, maybe he didn't know how important it was. Serenity decided to test her theory.
"You think what I know will help you win the game?" She put as much disbelief in her voice as she could.
Her chair was swung around forcibly, and Seto Kaiba was in her face, trapping her by placing his hands on the armrests. "Not just a game, THE game. The Tokyo tournament determines who will be the champion of the most challenging, mentally demanding game in the world."
"Then I hope you lose!"
Kaiba's eyes narrowed to slits, and Serenity flinched, convinced she'd gone too far, but he just laughed shortly and stepped away. "Tell me what you know, and after the tournament, I'll let you go."
Like that was going to happen. What was he going to do? Let her go to tell the press that he'd kidnapped her? How stupid did she think she was? Very stupid, apparently, but she decided to play along.
"Let me go now, and I won't tell the police what you've done."
"Exactly what have I done? Even if you could prove you'd been here, you're a family friend deranged with grief over your brother's death. You have to be watched to prevent another suicide attempt," he said flatly.
Serenity felt her eyes welling up. That creep! Using her brother's death, Joey's murder against her. She found herself on her feet, yelling. "How dare you? Leave my brother out of this you murderer!"
And there he was, in her face again, a breath away, eyes like flint. "If you're so convinced that I killed your brother, what makes you think I'll spare you if you don't talk?"
Her legs went out, and Serenity found herself back on the chair. She'd pushed him too far; reminding him that he was capable of murder was a huge mistake. Forcing herself to hold his gaze she said, "Then kill me if you're going to, because I will never tell you anything."
Seto stared back at her coldly. "There's plenty of time before the tournament for you to reconsider," he told her, and with that parting shot, he left.