Chapter 7: Navy Hat Silence
I got a soda at one of the stores three blocks up. Drank it in one hand while dangling my shoes in the other. If I got any weird looks at having my pant legs rolled up walking down a sideway with no shoes on, I didn't see any of them. I wasn't about to roll my jeans back down with the itch attack on the back of my calves either. I sat down when I found a park bench, swishing my soda as I rested my forearms on my thighs and started at the cement between my feet.
Yugi was now crossed off my list. The strange encounter with this Yugi Mutou character had proved interesting. I wrote down secret next. The black ink dribbled. I was left looking at it blankly for a few minutes, unthinking, just existing, before finally putting the paper and pen away.
Something had been weird about him.
More than that whole wake up in reality session, I mean. There was something else. I couldn't put my finger on it no matter how many times I tried. It was one of those things were if you tried grabbing it, it would just slip between your fingers like sand and flirt around in your head until you just got pissed at it.
Decided it was better to drop it and enjoy this world's substitute for Coca Cola and ignore the itch of my legs, or it starting to spread over the exposed parts of my skin and the charred parts of my shirt. I admit I was a bit shocked at the damage. While leaning my back onto the bench fully, arms hung over the back of that seat, and watch the sky and the people walking narrow mindedly around each other.
It was the most relaxed I had ever felt in public before. I didn't know if that should scare me or not and didn't really care. I just swished the bubbly liquid inside the can, not thinking about anything. Or trying not to.
I was more bothered by what was going on the inside. I was trying not to go back to that little scene. It had shaken me more that I wanted to admit. I don't think I have ever been so vividly awake in my life before. Even worse, the kid's face seemed to be photographed in my head, and kept popping up like a screen saver.
The more it came up, the more I gritted my teeth at how scared he looked, or the strange curious expression as I left him there, to the point where I slammed the soda down and stood up so quickly I got several strange looks. Fuming already, I yelled some curses that rewarded me with mother's holding their children's ears and running off.
I leaned down to pick the drink back up, deciding in a weird way to toast it. Bang. Needle like pain strikes like a cobra at my neck. At first I thought it was a bee, stumbled forward a bit, then reached up and pulled the thing out. Rubbed it around in my hand before finally figuring out it was a dart. Then, out goes the lights.
Woke up later extremely pissed off and without my gun. They also thought it cute to tie me up in a chair. I was dizzy for a few moments as I picked my head up and winced at my sore neck. They were talking, blah, blah, blah. One male voice, calm, collective, explain, explain, explain. Electrical computer talk that did not help my mood at all.
"Will you shut up?" I snarled. The short silence was bliss, but bliss never lasts long.
"Bright eyed and bushy tailed I see." Another sarcastic voice for my memory, thank you.
"She won't be very accommodating now I don't suppose?" said the male explainer.
"No, I won't think so." Said a very familiar female voice in a seething voice. Oh great, the Kaiba-Baby-Girl was here. Did I do something in a past life to deserve this? I was considering my karma when the sarcastic male replied.
"With you in the room, I doubt it."
"What is that suppose to mean?"
"Harti." Said the explainer.
"Why, I don't know Sibby, you're still hostile from when she talked to your precious little Kaiba Baby sugar coated sweet heart, why should she want to talk?"
"Oh God." Said the explainer, spiraling into doom.
"You don't like him because he disagrees with Yami. If he was friends with him, you'd think he's cool, and you wouldn't be saying a thing about it. That and you're jealous as all hell." Cackling laughter finally brought my eyes up from my feet to the two bickering teens in front of me. The girl had fiery wood colored eyes, and black hair. The boy opposite of her, his arms crossed and looking down at her, gloating with green eyes and dirty brown hair.
"Oh that's it." He said, mockingly. She pointed up at him, considering he had at least a foot on her, and spoke slow and menacing.
"Yeah, that's it! You're jealous because I adore him, and not you! Admit it!" A shift of movement to the side of them was another boy; dark haired and dark eyed with round glasses sitting on the end of his nose, covered his eyes and shook his head, as if they were all doomed. Green eyes rolled them.
"Oh yeah, I want to bow down and worship the ground you walk on and lick the crud of your high heels."
I saw a smile flicker on dark eyes face for a brief second before he turned in his wheelie chair to the computer behind him with hunched shoulders. She, I caught her name as Sibby, looked at him so hard I was sure her face would crack. Green eyes stared back with indifference.
And then I noticed the scribbling. The simple sound of pen on paper. Nearly silent, but scratchy. Only almost silent because it was so close. I looked to my left and nearly jumped out of my skin. Another person sat on the floor right next to my chair. I couldn't see a face, just a wide navy brimmed hat. He/She/ It were pale skinned. Could tell from the fingers gripping the pen and writing fast on the lined paper of a note book.
My heart was slamming in my chest. I was uncomfortable. I hadn't noticed her until now. Usually, I can tell when someone is that close to me, even from behind. It just freaked me out. I was trembling all over in a matter of minutes. Even worse I couldn't figure out why I was freaking out. Scribble, scribble, scribble.
My fingers fluttered, gripped the knotted smooth lace around my wrists. Felt the knot with the tips of my nails. Weren't amateurs. It was just out of reach. Tried shuffling a little but the thing wasn't going anywhere. I let out an annoyed snort. It was unnoticed in the continuing argument. Bicker, bicker, bicker. Dark eyes were trying to smooth it all over.
"Guys, we have other things to worry about right now, and we put this to rest and concentrate on helping the Pharaoh?" My ears perked. Fingers punched keys. I could hear the clicking distinctly.
"The Pharaoh? What about Kaiba? Someone tried shooting him yesterday! He could be in danger!" Girly-girl Sibby said. I rolled my eyes, kept feeling the knot, pulling and shuffling. Picked at the nylon.
"Kaiba this. Kaiba that. Kaiba, Kaiba, Kaiba! That's all you worry about! This world is getting ripped to shreds by a couple of over analyzing computer freaks- no offense Tabber-"
"None taken, Harti." Said dark eyes, pushing his glasses up, still typing furiously.
"-that think a bunch of random codes are fun to screw around with. Your little Kaiba sweetie is not the main concern."
"He is part of it! He helps too! It's not all Pharaoh and company, you unfeeling bastard!" Sibby screamed, slamming her foot down, before spinning and storming away through a door in the far corner of the room. I was rolling my eyes again. Scribble, scribble, scribble.
"Women." Harti said in a disgusted tone, before sitting heavily into a wheelie chair and throwing his legs up onto the table next to Tabber's monitor. He glanced when he stopped typing for a moment, before continuing. Harti placed his hands behind his head, closing his eyes.
"They're hyped up on hormones." He muttered. Then:
"Have you taken control of the mainframe, yet?" Tabber shook his head.
"No, they still have bits of it. I have the personality files, building codes, nature codes all that stuff."
"What don't you have?"
"Game controls. The cheats. They're very untrusting."
"And the 'corrupt file'?"
"Still can't find him." I lowered the knot, and started picking at it with my nails. I was in business. Looking around, I spotted my bag, a black lump, on the desk to the side of them. Way I could see it, if I was quiet enough, I could sneak over and grab it, maybe even sneak out. I glanced at the navy hat perched on the person's head next to me. Still scribbling. It would be hard. Knock 'em out maybe? With what?
Looking around the dusty computer-part littered floor, I found none of it close enough to grasp. How very convenient for them. Pulling, jiggling. It was coming loose. Maybe I could just shove them, grab the bag, pull out the gun, and make an escape. I was almost there, I found feel the rope lacking, when there was movement next to me.
Navy Hat got up. Note pad and pen were placed gently on my lap as I looked up. She was a girl about my age, silver-eyed with brown hair with no expression. I felt the floor shake in the chair as she walked behind me. I grabbed the knot in my hands and didn't let go. I wasn't going to let her at them, not after all that work. I gritted my teeth hard enough to ache.
She uncurled my fingers. I held in a shaky agitated breath. The ropes were moved. Plan A was gone down the tubes. Plan B was slamming a chair against the wall and arm myself with a chair leg. I was placing my feet so I could spring up and take her unaware.
The ropes fell from my wrists and my arms left to my sides. I looked behind her, a little startled. She came back around and took the note pad and pen from my lap and started to write again. I looked up at her warily, stood, didn't move for a few moments. Glance. Harti had his eyes closed and appeared to be sleeping. Tabber was staring contently at the screen. Navy Hat simply kept writing.
I grabbed my bag off the table quietly and replaced the gun on my person, replaced a pen behind my own ear then looked back. Navy Hat still hadn't moved, or spoken, or do anything to grab my attention. She stood there and kept writing. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen. Strange enough to keep me there, leaning against the wall, watching the three of them. Perhaps they weren't as good as I thought.
Sibby came back irritated. Seemed she didn't get everything off her chest. The irritation turned to shock when she saw me. I pointed my gun at her. Navy Hat still didn't move. Tabber kept typing. Harti kept sleeping. Sibby glared venomously. I yawned.
"Guys." Sibby said.
"Hm?" Tabber asked distractedly.
"Do you know Drayce has escaped?" Harti opened his eyes and looked at the both of us the same time Tabber spun around. Navy Hat still kept writing.
"I have a couple of questions." I said. Harti stretched, sat up, and looked at us boredly.
"Yeah?"
"Who is she?" I jerked the gun at Navy Hat. Tabber looked a little surprised.
"You mean Silence?"
"Silence?"
"Yeah, we call her Silence because she never talks. We don't even know her name. She's never said a word. It was Tabber's nickname." Harti said, yawning, "Why?" I looked at Navy Hat. Her eyes stayed down and she continued her scribbling.
"Ever read anything she's written?" I asked.
"No." Harti replied, "She doesn't let us near her note books." I considered this.
"You mentioned the Pharaoh. Where is he?"
"Can't tell you that." I sighed, thought about giving her a bullet in the arm to get them talking, but decided against it. One of them was the good shooter. One of them was bound to have a gun. Odd that they hadn't pulled it out yet. Shrugged.
"Ah well. Back to the Mutou." I muttered, heading towards the door, and then stopped at all the wide-eyed expressions. Silence kept writing.
"You know Yugi Mutou?" Harti asked, eyes gleaming. I looked at him warily.
"Yeah."
"Pale kid? Spiky yellow, red, black hair? Short? Purple eyes?"
"Yeah, I met him." Harti looked at me with a twisted expression.
"Wait, you spoke to him?" Tabber asked. He looked shocked.
"Yeah…why?" The three of them suddenly found the walls interesting.
"No reason." Said Sibby. This was suspicious, obviously. Scribble, scribble, scribble. Tabber watched me closely.
"A friend of his, Rebecca, took me to his house," I said casually, not looking at them, "Got burned in a fire. We spoke briefly, and then I left. I got a soda, then you darted me."
"What did you talk about?"
"Not much. He said he couldn't tell me about the Pharaoh. A secret of his, I assume. I have an idea of where to start looking. What happened to the six other players? I know you know…" Tabber looked at the floor while Harti stared interestedly at her.
"They were killed." Harti said bluntly. Silence's pen stopped moving for a moment.
"I know that. How were they killed?"
"In a duel. They got a gun instead of a deck of cards. The monsters killed them. Why aren't you dead?" I shrugged.
"Don't know, don't care. I have business to attend to, however." I motioned with the gun for Sibby to move as I walked towards the door. She was staring at me seething. I gave a smile in return, watching all of them at once. I opened the door and felt wind at my back, took a glance and saw the docks that went with a huge ocean. Good.
"I'd appreciate not getting shot at, tied up, or followed anymore, by the by. Next time, I will do something about it." I shut the door softly, backing away from it before walking quickly down the paved away between the building and the wooden ports. Ships bobbed quietly in the water with the swells. I walked along the line of warehouses, that's what I was in; warehouses were the smell of fish was strong with the salt.
It took awhile, but I found the way back to the city. I had to walk about a mile through the little maze the place created, and my feet hurt, but I found it. I penned down Harti, Tabber, Sibby, and Silence down on my paper. It was getting pretty crumpled now. I had the names of the Hackers now, so when I finished I could report them. Until then, I just hoped they didn't screw around too much.
Harti claimed the place was going to hell, torn into tiny pieces by 'a couple of over analyzing computer freaks'. I assume he means my employers. I knew some of their work was weak. It had been far too easy for them to hack in, that's for sure.
I also assumed he was a hot shot with a pistol. Surprised he didn't try to keep me there. They went to all the trouble of tying me up, you'd think they'd take out a gun and try to stop you; maybe he just likes to sneak up on people. I glanced over my shoulder and found no stalking figures.
But there was Silence. She was standing there, her hat shielding her eyes from view, and the pen still scribbling on paper. She was walking towards me, I watched her do it casually. She stopped next to me. Still scribbling. I noted the choppy shuffled old look of the note book, her hands holding it like a feather, tilted up so I could not see her words.
"They send you to follow me?" I asked.
Scribble. Pen in. Sketch, dribble, scribble. I shoved my hands into my pockets, and couldn't help but smile a little bit before starting to walk again.
"Alright, just keep up with me." I said over my shoulder. Soon I heard her footsteps behind me, a bit closer than before, and then I could see her in the corner of my eye, walking just to the side of me.
We walked. Hours ticked by. The sun sunk lower into the concrete forest. The windows glistened like melting ice, glows red like liquid fire. The people jostled, moved like a stream, opposite directions. Businessmen, school girls, late waitresses, whooping teenage boys, and old ladies out shopping. The sidewalk is its own eco system.
I pulled out the crumbled paper, trying to think. Going to see Yugi again would be idiotic. Tight-lipped, he'd be on guard when I got there. Joey Wheeler seemed like a good choice, and seemly enough like a moron to perhaps get something out of 'em. Then there was this Bakura. I hadn't heard anything about this kid, hell; I didn't have his last name. And what kind of name is Bakura? Sure, Yugi is pretty god damn weird, but Bakura? That took another notch up on the strange scale.
I decided to hunt him down first.
Better to leave the easy stuff last.
Believe me on that.