Disclaimer: If I owned Yu Gi Oh!, Seto or Mokuba Kaiba, or any other part of the show… Well, let's just say that things would be very different. (sigh) I can dream, can't I?
A/N: I have no idea if the method Seto uses to find Mokuba would actually work. I know next to nothing about satellites; the little I do know was from a middle school technology class. Do not try this at home; something bad might happen. You have been warned.
On GPS: I actually did research for this section of the story. Y'all'd better appreciate it.
(clears throat) GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It is a system set up by the United States military that tells anyone who has access to it (via a handheld device or some other receiver) their latitude and longitude (a.k.a. wherever they are on the globe). There are twenty-eight satellites in orbit around the earth that are part of the GPS, though only six of them are in operation at any given time. They send transmissions to the receivers, which decipher your absolute location judging on how long the transmission takes to reach the receiver.
It wasn't until a tragedy involving a Korean airplane accidentally flying into Russian airspace and being destroyed (they believed it to be a threat), killing all 260 people onboard, that the military released GPS for civilian use. Nowadays, everything from airplanes to cars to you and me can have a GPS receiver (if you can afford it).
At first, the military intentionally scrambled the civilian signal for security reasons, resulting in a reading that was slightly off (approximately over ten yards – though I say meters in this 'cause it takes place in Japan). In 2000, the scrambling was removed, allowing for more precise readings.
Now, according to my (albeit small) research, Yu Gi Oh! is copyrighted 1996. Since Seto was sixteen in the first episode (at least of the Japanese version, which is of course the only one that counts for things like this), and he is seventeen in this story, than logically speaking Stranger Danger takes place in 1997. Therefore, GPS would still be scrambled. Since Seto's a genius with satellites, however, I'm guessing he would have redesigned his own model.
Wow… That big long explanation for a few paragraphs at the end of the chapter… (anime sweatdrop) Ah, well. Don't you feel all educated now?
"I don't understand, Carlson. What does it all mean?"
"It's simple, ma'am. They used a satellite."
"And…?"
"Mr. Kaiba makes his livin' off of workin' with satellites. It's how Duel Monsters is played nowadays. Kaiba Corp. has numerous satellites up in high orbit; they monitor every duel that's played and send holographic projections of each card that is activated down to the playin' field."
"But how does that help us?"
"Mr. Kaiba designed those satellites personally. He knows satellites, and he knows the systems necessary to do the kind of things that they did. By hackin' into all the satellites in the area, he can pinpoint which ones were used on the car, and which system gave 'em the orders."
"And that will tell us who did this?"
"At the least, it'll tell us which computer was used to access the system, and that gives us a huge lead into this whole mess. If we're lucky, it'll guide us right to their base."
"And thus right to Mokuba?"
"Bingo."
Seto Kaiba sat straight-backed in his laboratory, his every being fixed on the task at hand. His ears dimly perceived the sounds of Carlson explaining their new break to Joan, but their voices were meaningless noises to the CEO. Though he heard every word, his brain gave them no meaning.
He waited impatiently for the computer to give him an analysis of the satellite receiver. Each satellite had a specific signal; as soon as he learned which signals had been sent to and from the receiver, it would be ridiculously easy for him to track where they were had been sent from. While it was possible – even probable – that the kidnappers didn't send the transmission from wherever they were holding Mokuba, it would, at the least, be a clue as to the boy's whereabouts.
It would be more than he had now.
Finally, after what seemed like ages but was really only a few minutes, the scanner turned up a result. His eyes eagerly scanned the data that the monitor was displaying for him. There… and there. A string of numbers that would have been meaningless to anyone else told him what he needed to know.
In a flurry of movement, his fingers began typing commands into the keyboard in front of him. The screens sprung to life as they obeyed his instructions, isolating the string from the rest of the figures and further analyzing it.
Seto studied the information that came back to him. The string was the identification number of the satellite that had been used to relay the commands to the remote, thus allowing the enemy to steer the car and attack his brother. According to the search his own systems had performed, it belonged to a small, nondescript computer company known as Dark Star Enterprises.
He frowned. He had heard of Dark Star only once or twice, and the news was never anything substantial. He wasn't even sure what they're specialties were, who own them, or where their headquarters was based.
He shook his head, shifting to face another of the computer monitors. The satellite's owner didn't matter; the owner wasn't necessarily the one who had used the satellite.
He swiftly hacked into the satellite's system, bypassing the minimal security that had been set up – it was no wonder someone had been able to use it for their own malevolent purposes – and accessed the list of the most recent places to have sent signals to the satellite.
There were two of them. The first was Dark Star Enterprises' headquarters; he paid this one no mind. The second…
Was from a handheld device that had, at the time of the call, been located several miles away from the outskirts of the Domino City. In other words, in the middle of nowhere. The perfect place to hide a kidnapped twelve-year-old. He leaned back in his chair in satisfaction, smirking.
"Sir?" Carlson stepped up behind him, looking at the screen and then down at his employer's face.
"Carlson." The CEO gestured at the screen. "Mark those coordinates and prep the limo. We're going for a ride."
Seto frowned in frustration, gritting his teeth together. It didn't make sense.
He was standing on the edge of an old cornfield that, from the looks of it, hadn't had anyone caring for it in years. According to the satellite, somewhere in that field – near the exact middle, unless he was mistaken – was where the signal had been sent from.
He had been expecting to find, somewhere in the midst of all that wasted agriculture, a building, a warehouse, an old farmhouse, something that might be being used to hold his brother. There was nothing. They had already searched the field twice, and, though probing through corn higher than one's head was admittedly difficult, their efforts had turned up no results.
"Mr. Kaiba?" Carlson came up behind him, looking weary. He was followed by Joan and Willy, who both looked just as tired. Seto had refused to allow more people to come. Mokuba's kidnapping had been the result of corruption somewhere among his staff in the form of an agent placed there specifically for that purpose. He didn't want to take even the slightest risk that that would happen again during their rescue attempt.
The teenager turned to face them, his trench coat flapping – it was extremely windy – and raised his eyebrows at them.
"What do we do now, sir?" Carlson asked, correctly translating the look into, "What do you want?"
"We keep looking, Carlson," the CEO replied, his tone flat. "Until we find something. Anything."
The goon traded a look with Joan. "Sir… I don't think there's anythin' to find."
Seto glared. "What are you insinuating? That there was something wrong with my analysis?"
"No, sir, I think the lead was right enough. But it's a dead end. There's nothin' here."
"It's the only lead we have, Carlson. There must be something – at least another lead," Seto said quietly. "We're just missing it." He whistled, calling Willy to his side, and trudged back into the cornfield.
The wind died down as soon as he was fully in the field, the corn protecting him from its fierce blowing and giving him a minor relief. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the GPS he had brought. The GPS, or Global Positioning System, was a small device only slightly larger than his cell phone that could tell him his exact position in the world at any given time. He switched it on and began to determinedly stalk towards the coordinates the signal had been sent from.
Though most GPS's were purposely set up to give coordinates that were a few meters off from where the holder really was (supposedly for security reasons), Seto, who was never satisfied with "almost," had long ago reprogrammed the device. Before long, he was standing in the exact spot that his enemy had been over a month ago as they plotted his brother's downfall.
Someone had clearly been there. The corn was trampled from where they had walked, as well as from the two times that Seto had stood here before. The problem was that this was the only sign of their presence.
Seto looked around despairingly. He was losing hope. The chances that this was a dead end were high, and he wasn't naïve enough to not acknowledge that.
He was also determined that there was something he was missing. He might not be naïve, but he also refused to give up on his brother.
His blue eyes narrowed as he carefully searched every bit of ground around them. He had followed the trampled paths his adversaries had left behind already, but he combed them over yet again.
There was one thing that was troubling him. He followed a line of broken cornstalks away from the small, manmade clearing that they had sent their signal from. This was the third time he had walked this path. Every single time, it had ended in the middle of the cornfield. Just like that: as if the men who had made it had been beamed up by aliens. There was no trail connecting them to the edge of the field.
He reached the end of the trail, kneeling down to get a better look at the faded tracks. Willy began sniffing in the cornstalks around him. Joan walked quietly up behind him. He could hear Carlson searching somewhere in the distance.
"What are you looking at?" Joan asked.
"…It doesn't make sense," he finally muttered.
"…I know you were counting on this lead, Seto, but–"
"It's not that," he interrupted. "It's… this." He gestured. "This trail. It doesn't make sense. It just ends. Where did they go?"
His mother frowned, her eyes narrowing. "That is odd." She came forward, treading carefully along the path.
She walked past where he knelt, up to the area Willy was so interested in. Suddenly, she froze as a hallow sound filled the air.
Seto stiffened, his eyes widening slightly. He leapt to his feet, whirling around to face her.
The sound had been caused by Joan's foot hitting the ground, a sound that should not have been heard on the solid earth of this field.
"Do that again," he ordered.
Slowly, Joan raised her left foot, bringing it down hard against the ground. The same hallow thunk reverberated through the air… as if the area beneath her feet was not earth at all.
Seto gave her a slow, triumphant smirk, then turned to summon Carlson. "Carlson!" he beckoned the goon. "Come here!
"We've found it!"