DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY DEAD OR ALIVE CHARACTER. THOSE CHARACTERS BELONG TO TECMO, LTD. AND TEAM NINJA. I AM IN NO WAY INTENDING ANY COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND I'M NOT MAKING A PROFIT FROM THE USE OF THESE CHARACTERS. ANY CHARACTER NOT A PART OF DEAD OR ALIVE IS MINE AND MINE ALONE.
Chapter Eleven
Saturday, December 17
6:19 A.M.
Forest Park
Smith watched from the cover of the forest as the police processed the crime scene. He didn't want them knowing he was involved in any way or that he was the one who made the anonymous tip.
He wondered what they would make of the extra blood at the scene. He would need to find some new people to work with, since Duncan has died and Shark has turned against him. The entire situation had become so out of control and it was all that little brat's fault. If she had just told him where to find her pathetic little home, this would've never happened and she'd be dead now. But there was no use in dwelling on it.
He knew of a man he could call, but it would cost him much more money. Well it didn't matter, as long as he got what he wanted. and when he found that village, there would be more than enough money to pay him back with. He would have to do the interrogation himself this time, but that wasn't going to be a problem.
After a few minutes of watching, Smith snuck away from the scene and back to where he had hidden his truck. He started the small pickup and drove back to his hidden compound, knowing that he needed a new subject to torment for answers.
He would be watching the news carefully and see where this investigation went. He thought about the Shinobi girl Duncan had captured for him earlier and decided he would need to see what happened to her. If she was dead, all the better, although it was unfortunate that he didn't get to see the look of complete hopelessness as her last breath escaped her. But if she was still alive he would have to find her and finish the job. Now he wasn't going to kill her for the fun of it alone. She was now a liability, for she was the only one who knew what he looked like, or that he was involved at all.
There was a total of three hospitals in the town and he was going to have to search every one of them. The files on the patients were classified, but he had a way around that. There's always a loophole, you just had to know the right people. He would need to keep an eye on the city morgue as well, in case her body was found or she died in the hospital. He would also need to find another Shinobi to capture, but that shouldn't be too difficult since he had a whole list of them.
The first thing he decided to do was to get a new team assembled, so he could continue his billion dollar search.
Thomas Wilson chugged his beer as the loud music of the nightclub boomed around him. The place was becoming very empty and as he looked around he only noticed about four of five people in the room. He glanced at his watch, which read six thirty, and decided to leave when his cell phone rang in his pocket. The tiny glowing display showed an old number he hadn't seen in a very long time.
"Wilson," he said with an English accent.
"I have a job for you. Are you interested?" Smith asked.
"I can't believe you're still alive. You've got some nerve if you think I'm going to do you any favors. Especially after what you pulled, you stupid ass."
Smith paused on the other end of the line. "You still holding a grudge, Tom?"
"You're lucky I don't kill you myself, you lying son of a bitch!" he said threateningly into the receiver.
Thomas remembered the last job Smith had given him. Smith had gotten himself arrested for murder and the entire case depended on one person who had seen it all from a hotel room across the street. He promised him a million pounds if he and his team could get rid of the only material witness against him. But another man by the name of Duncan had undersold him, saying he would get rid of Tom and the witness for a mere five hundred thousand. Tom and his team had survived Duncan's assault, but only by the narrowest of margins. It was true what they say about the element of surprise.
"I need someone good to do this. It's a simple kidnapping job and I'll pay you twice as much as I was paying Duncan," Smith said convincingly.
"What happened to Duncan?" he asked.
"He's dead. He was shot in the chest earlier tonight."
Tom laughed. "He's dead? I guess that's one less person on my list of people to eliminate. So how much were you paying him?"
"I was paying him five million American dollars, but I'm offering you ten." It was the total amount he would have been paying anyway, but Shark had left.
Tom whistled. "Ten million dollars?! I'd get rid of the Queen of England for that much money. What did you have in mind?"
"I need you to meet me at the docks. I'll be at warehouse eighteen. We'll discuss the details there."
"What time?" he asked.
"Seven o'clock tonight. Don't be late." With those words Smith hung up the phone.
Saturday, December 17
11:32 A.M.
Charity Medical Complex
Jack awoke late Saturday morning with a sore neck and a slight headache. Kasumi was still sleeping underneath the big blue electric blanket, and to his relief she was still alive. He was glad to see the color was returning to her face, even though she was still chilly. It was a very good sign. He got up and looked at his jacket, which was lying on the carpet, cached with blood. He would definitely need a new one, but he could take care of that later. It wasn't important enough to care about now.
He walked back out to the lobby to get another cup of coffee when the morning receptionist spotted him.
"Are you Mr. Wallace?" she asked politely.
She looked shocked at his appearance, but he didn't blame her. He probably looked like something the cat dragged in, ate, and then coughed up. "Yeah, how did you know who I was?"
She cleared her throat. "It said so on the form you handed in earlier. Doctor Nikata wants to take a look at your shoulder before you leave. Wait a moment while I go get him."
Jack nodded and sat down. He had to admit that his shoulder was really starting to bug him now that last night's adrenaline had worn off. Doctor Nikata must have been the surgeon he talked to earlier. Jack spotted the surgeon as he came out of the now familiar double doors behind the receptionist's desk.
"Come with me. We need to get your shoulder sewn up before you get an infection," he said.
After Jack had been treated, he decided to go home and take a shower. He could use a shave too.
When he arrived at home, he noticed that his apartment looked almost as bad as he felt. The fern was still lying on the floor from when the 'wind' knocked it over, making a mess of dirt on his carpet. There was a dark stain on the rug where he had spilled his coffee by the couch when he leaped into the wall after Hayabusa, and the mug was still on the floor.
After his shower and shave Jack felt much better. He put on a clean blue shirt and some black jeans, immediately feeling more refreshed. After eating a quick breakfast, he decided to go to Myamoto's and see if his hacker friend had found anything new. Jack doubted he had, but it was all he had to go on and there was nothing else for him to do at the moment. He had to find the people who did this to Kasumi, and make sure it never happened to anyone else.
On the way to Myamoto's, Jack thought for the first time since finding Kasumi, about Hayabusa. The man had obviously found something in the woods last night, but he didn't know how to contact him to find out about it. All he could do was wait.
When he arrived at Myamoto's, Jack remembered the pictures he had taken of the strange symbol on the garage floor. Hayabusa had said it was nothing more than simple graffiti, but Jack had his suspicions about that statement. He grabbed his camera and walked towards the apartment building. If the symbol had anything to do with the Shinobi, Myamoto would know it.
Jack knocked loudly on Myamoto's door. He heard some scrambling inside the apartment and then the door opened sharply.
Myamoto quickly waved him inside and slammed the door behind him. "What's going on?!" he said angrily.
Jack was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Don't play stupid, Jack. First, you find the mysterious disc with proof of the existence of Shinobi on it, and it almost destroys my computer. On top of that, you end up at the hospital in the middle of the night, and then this happens!" he yelled. "You're not telling me the whole story on what happened last night are you?"
"What happened?" Jack asked with genuine interest.
Myamoto turns on his television. "See for yourself."
Jack watches as the eleven o'clock news appears on the dusty screen. "...police are now investigating the murder of a local park ranger that occurred sometime last evening. There are no suspects at this time, but the police think that the perpetrator may have been injured by the ranger prior to the crime. If you have any information on this crime, call..."
Myamoto muted the television and glared at Jack. "I recorded this almost an hour ago. Did this have anything to do with Kasumi?"
Jack cleared his throat. "It's a long story."
Myamoto sat down at his computer desk and turned his chair to face him. "So?"
"Look, this is bigger than you realize. I was only trying to help her--" Jack was interrupted.
"So you did kill him! You're in deep shit now, man."
Jack glared at his colleague. "Let me finish. I found Kasumi around one this morning. Actually, she found me, and it was very hard for her. " Jack paused. "You should have seen what they did to her. It was hard for me to see, and I've seen some gruesome things."
"What happened to her?" Myamoto asked.
Jack looked down at the floor. "He hurt her, Myamoto. Hurt her bad. I was running towards her when this park ranger came out of nowhere and shot her. Twice. She almost died last night. But she was injured in so many other ways....I can't even begin to describe the pain she must've been feeling."
"I'm sorry, Jack. What about the dead park ranger?"
"He was the one who shot her," Jack shook his head and looked back up at Myamoto. "You know what ticks me off the most? He shot her in the stomach and laughed about it. If I had been a second slower, we'd be seeing her murder investigation on the TV. I just lost it, and I couldn't stop pulling the trigger."
Myamoto nodded. "So you killed him."
Jack nodded darkly. "And I'd do it again."
"They're saying you're some kind of cold blooded monster. I don't think they know what happened to the girl," Myamoto pointed out. "You have to tell them the whole story before they haul you off to jail."
"I can't. If I go to the cops, they'll put me in jail until they can prove she was attacked by the ranger. That would leave Kasumi vulnerable to another attack."
"I can see where that might be a problem." Myamoto said.
"Anyway, the reason I came here in the first place was to see if you'd found anything new. Have you?"
Myamoto shook his head. "Nope. I tried really hard to trace the signal after I called you, but it was no use. I was actually hoping you had found something."
"No..." Jack suddenly remembered the symbol in the parking garage. "Wait a minute." He grabbed his small silver camera from his pant pocket and gave it to Myamoto.
"Take a look at this," Jack said. "I think you'll find the last few pictures most interesting."
Myamoto curiously took the camera and plugged it into his computer.
Saturday, December 17
12:14 P.M.
Adjacent From Jack's Apartment
Hayabusa decided to leave town and return to the village. He needed to show Hayate the cameras he had found in the forest last night. It was roughly noon now, so he should get to the village by seven or eight this evening. He didn't know if the enemy had listened to his warning or not, but he hoped they had.
Hayabusa was concerned about Jack. If he had killed that ranger last night, it would be disastrous for his cause. Hayabusa needed Jack's information and skills to make any sense of these cameras or where they came from. Of course if he could figure out where Jack was getting his information it wouldn't matter.
In fact, it could be a good thing that Jack was tangled up in this situation. Then he wouldn't have time to look too closely at the Shinobi. Hayabusa collected his things and put on his usual black ninja suit. He was beginning to tire of wearing the inconspicuous clothing he had been dressing in before and felt much more comfortable in his familiar garments.
Jack's Jeep was still missing from the parking lot across the street. He had noticed earlier when Jack had returned, but it had only been for half an hour or so before he left again. Hayabusa was going to ask him about the previous night, but he decided to wait until there was more time to talk about it. Hayabusa resolved to ask Jack about what had happened when he returned from the Shinobi village.
He knew Hayate would only send him back to town because of the importance of Jack in this situation. The only reason he was going back at all was to give a progress report and see if anything else had happened at the village since he had left.
With all of these cameras lying around, something was bound to happen. He hoped that none of them were close to the village, but he doubted they were, or the village would have already been compromised.
As Hayabusa walked through the woods he kept an eye out for any more cameras. He didn't want the enemy too know where in the forest he was, or which direction he was going. This wasn't going to be a pleasant trip.
Saturday, December 17
12:22 P.M.
Myamoto's Apartment
Jack knew Myamoto was very enthusiastic about the Shinobi. He was the equivalent of a nerd at a comic book convention. If there was anything to know about the Shinobi, Myamoto was the expert. So giving him the pictures was probably the best thing he could do at the moment.
The image of the red symbol appeared slowly on Myamoto's computer screen. "Where did you get this?!"
"I found it at the place where Kasumi was staying before she came to my place. What is it?" Jack asked.
"This sign appears frequently around the sights of abductions. Supposedly, these signs are used by the Shinobi warriors to mark an area where they have been, but that hasn't been proven."
Jack nodded. "Kind of like spray painting a tree so you don't get lost."
"Exactly. No one knows exactly why they make these signs, but maybe you're friend knows something."
"Kasumi? I don't think so. Besides, I think she's been through enough without us bugging her about some myth," Jack said. "Let's just leave her alone."
Myamoto nodded. "Maybe you should go back to the hospital and keep an eye on her."
"That's a good idea. I want you to do some research on the Internet about the Shinobi. Call me if you find anything." Jack walked out of the door.
He started his Jeep and proceeded to return to the hospital. When he passed a local mall, he decided to do some errands before going back. There was a lot of things he needed to buy, and he knew Kasumi would be pretty safe in the hospital by herself.
He parked his Jeep and grabbed Kasumi's old picture from out of his wallet, thinking about her condition and whether he should find Ayane and tell her about Kasumi's current circumstances. But he figured that Ayane would simply blow him off, or say something that would only piss him off more than he already was. Still, he felt the urge to make some way to get her to the hospital, knowing it would be important to Kasumi to have her there.
About an hour later he walked back out to his Jeep donning a brand new leather jacket and holding a large plastic bag in one hand and some bright pink roses in the other. He had no idea when Kasumi would wake up, but he wanted to be there when she did.
If she woke up alone, who knows how she would react to what was happening. Jack wanted to be there for her and find some way to ease her mind off of the misery she had just experienced, but he had a feeling in his gut that the past week would be affecting Kasumi deeply in the near future.
