September 2
Pegasus Wing Airport
11:05 AM
Neptune Mercure
I called Mr. Morix again as I watched my coworkers circle the lot where the airplanes were stored. I could feel my heart pounding noisily in my chest. I was terrified and prepared for this at the same time. We were closer than ever before to finding her. All I needed was another hour. If we could have one more hour, we would be fine.
"Hello?" Mr. Morix asked from the other end. I could hear the edge behind his tone. He was just as nervous as I was. That hadn't been the encouragement I was hoping for, but we didn't exactly have time to relax and talk about this like civilized people.
"I'm close," I told him simply. "We've searched about half the planes here. We were lucky there were only about a hundred. I'm surprised nobody's come to break them down for parts yet, I must say, but it doesn't matter. We'll need another hour at most. They have to be in one of the other planes."
"You have fifty left to look through then?" Mr. Morix questioned. Hope was creeping into his voice. I could only hope I wouldn't be letting him down.
"You got it. We should be done soon. You'll know it when we've found them. So long as you can continue your distraction, I'll be fine. When we find the plane, we won't hesitate to break in and show them what for. We'll have the element of surprise. We can use that to our advantage and lock them up. If we run in there without wasting time, we should be able to take care of things quickly. They won't have time to retaliate," I explained. "Do you see any weapons on the TV they're using?"
Mr. Morix paused. I could tell he was looking as close as he could with the darkness coming from the other end. "They have a knife and a gun. It wouldn't surprise me if they had more. I don't know where the other four members of the group are. I can only see one onscreen. She's the only one we've seen all day," he told me. "Be careful when you go in there. I doubt they'll be prepared for an ambush, but I don't want you putting your life at risk."
"I'll be okay. Promise," I assured him. "Don't worry about me. I'll bring her back as soon as I can. I know you can't exactly communicate with the defense, but if they can keep it up for just a little while longer, everything will be fine."
"I'll tell Ghastly. He can read my lips well enough to get the message that you're close. He's helping them out on the distraction front," Mr. Morix said. "Thanks for the update. I'll wait for your grand entrance. Stay safe, alright? I don't want you dying so soon."
I knew that what he meant by that was 'I don't want you dying before I can question you on how you know so much about our top-secret spy project', but I didn't call him on it. "Talk to you later," I replied instead before powering the phone off and shoving it back into my pocket.
I didn't want to have to explain the truth to him. Ever since he heard that I knew the truth through Chrysalis, which had been shortly after that case on the lake, he had seemed desperate to get me alone and ask questions. He seemed to have given up on trying to keep the truth from me, which I was fine with. There was no point in acting like we both didn't know something we very obviously knew. It was a ridiculous ruse I wasn't behind.
How had I actually found out the truth? It's a long and complicated story I'd rather not get into. I've been living with Buddy—erm, X, for a few months now, and not even he knows. He's fully aware I know the truth behind the project, but he hasn't pressed me on it. I guess he doesn't want to figure it out. I can't blame him. It's risky knowing anything on the matter. He's always been the type to play things safe, so I understand why he would want to keep his distance.
I had invited Chrysalis over to talk about it shortly after the case on the lake. I had seen how rattled she was, even if she was doing her best to hide it. Nobody else seemed to catch on, but I knew she needed someone to talk to. She had been distant at first, holding me at arm's length, but we've grown closer since then. She's told me I remind her of Venus, one of her friends and former coworkers with the Oracle project. Of course, she didn't exactly phrase her relationship with Venus that way.
In fact, she still refuses to tell me anything on the matter. She acts like I don't know a thing. I guess that's just her trying to cope with the fact that some random person she had never met before suddenly knew who she really was behind the mask. I haven't bothered her with it. I don't want to upset her. I got the feeling that poor girl had already been through enough.
I've been doing my best to help her out. When she does ask about Oracle, she wants to know how I know so much. She doesn't acknowledge that it's her, but she does ask. I've told her that I figured it out since I live with the family behind a company working to gather information. With the right information, anybody could put together the pieces. Chrysalis has tried to hide her unease on the matter, but I can still see how nervous she is. She doesn't want anybody else to find out the same way I did. It's her safety that's on the line. I get why she would be so freaked out.
I heard her talking on the phone one time with Mr. Morix though. Apparently, they suspected Cassidy of being a spy who sold them out to me. I can assure you, that is not what happened at all. I found out the truth and brought it up to Cassidy, who happened to be my friend. She told me that she was part of it when I was able to lay out a detailed explanation as to how the project functioned. She seemed suspicious, but at the same time, I had shown her I was trustworthy, so we were allies.
Her death had been a shock. The members of the Oracle project seemed just as rattled as I had been. It really showed how risky all of this was. And yet, even with the dangers, here I was, in an abandoned airport trying to rescue a spy from the clutches of evil assassins. I suppose I'm not the best at self-preservation. I had been loyal up until this point though, and I wasn't going to quit being loyal now. I wanted to help out my friend and to honor the memory of one I had held dear.
I shook off my thoughts as the rest of my party continued to search through the planes. I didn't have time to be distracted. There was a task I had to complete. I wasn't going to be failing this. For the sake of Chrysalis, Mr. Morix, and Cassidy's memory, I had to succeed. It was my only option.
September 2
Courtroom No. 6
Yuri Rinko
11:10 AM
"Is there anything else we can question her on relating to Pieter?" Lily asked.
I shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, she doesn't know where he is. Nobody does. The closest person to figuring it out is sort of out of commission at the moment. I mean, unless you guys have anything to ask her about Pieter, I think we can move on," I answered.
"Pieter... He left because of Natasha Morix's death, yes?" Deirdre questioned. "In that case, let's ask her about that case. GC-9, I think it was. If we can learn more about that, it might help us discover more about Pieter, even if he's over a thousand miles away right now."
"That sounds good to me," I nodded.
"What happened two years ago during the GC-9 incident?" Deirdre asked, looking up to the TV and Ms. Murdayre. I looked past the assassin at O, who was still crying visibly from the revelations about Pieter. I felt really bad for her. I could tell this was hurting her a lot.
"GC-9? Well, I guess I can tell you about it, if you really think it's that important," Ms. Murdayre shrugged. "It was two years ago, as I'm sure you've already heard. The victim was Natasha Morix. You'll hear about that from everybody who knows about the case. However, no official case records state this next part. The culprits were my coworkers and I."
"We heard about that yesterday. Pieter seemed to know that. I guess he recognized the way they did things after having spent so much time with them," I hissed to Deirdre and Lily. "I feel bad for the kid. All he wanted to do was get away from them after all he had suffered through, but he couldn't escape them even with a new family..."
"Why did you go after her?" Lily questioned, playing around with her hair as she spoke.
"The Sparx Factory was working on making a new virtual reality software. We wanted it, but we knew we probably wouldn't be able to get our hands on it legally since it was only supposed to be sold to specific groups. The company had said that much during interviews on the product. We decided to break into the factory when we heard it was working and had been finished. That was when that woman got in the way. She had been working on it when we walked in. She noticed us and tried to call for security," Ms. Murdayre continued. "We couldn't have ourselves getting caught, so we lashed out and killed her. She shouldn't have gotten into our business if she wanted to live. We strangled her to death and hung her body from the ceiling to make it look like a suicide."
"What did you want the virtual reality technology for?" I came in next. "What would you have to gain for it? And why was it only being sold to specific groups anyways?"
"Before we were forced to run away from our old lives, one of our members was a psychologist. I'm sure you remember Tammy Ghunshotte from that case on the lake," Ms. Murdayre replied. "She was always interested in the breaking point of the human psyche. She was curious. Plus, she managed to convince us in other ways to go after the technology. I don't remember the reasoning now. It was a while ago. The point is, we decided to get it no matter what we had to do."
"The breaking point of the human psyche... How were you going to find that?" Deirdre questioned. I got the feeling her interest in psychology had her intrigued by this concept, though I got the feeling it wasn't exactly in a good way. Judging by the hardness that had surfaced in her eyes, she looked angry anybody would even try to find such a thing.
"We set up an experiment, as simple as that. We had a few other psychologists interested in the same thing work alongside us. We took a few students from a boarding school called Ashbrooke and invited them to Sparx with the help of those psychologists, who were working at the factory. We put them into the stolen virtual reality system and tested it," Ms. Murdayre explained.
Across the room, I saw Prosecutor Wood grow tense. She stared down at the desk before her with glassy eyes. She looked ready to scream, cry, or both.
"I don't know what the results were or what happened to those kids. It's not important, if you want my opinion. I guess that they got the answers they were seeking though, as they didn't continue any other experiments relating to that after the fact," Ms. Murdayre shrugged. "I don't know where she got off to. If you have any questions on that, maybe we can ask her. I don't know. Will you even want to do that?"
Prosecutor Wood looked up with sudden and desperate eyes. "I-I want to!" she cried out.
Ms. Murdayre looked to her and frowned. "Oh. I see... I thought you would want to let it go. Anybody would want to forget about it, but I guess you just want to be special. Is that how you always were, or is that something new? Is it a side effect?" she taunted. I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but I didn't like it.
Prosecutor Wood didn't seem to be fond of it either, as her hands had clenched into tight fists. I could see her shoulders were beginning to shake even from my place on the other side of the courtroom. Ms. Murdayre was talking in mysteries to the rest of us, but it clearly had meaning to Prosecutor Wood.
"Leave her alone," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke cut in, raising one hand to silence Ms. Murdayre. "Let's just move on. Why was the technology only being sold to specific groups? Did the factory have a known reason for keeping it away from the general public?"
"It was made for the sole purpose of repairing trauma. Apparently, some of the people working at the factory thought that a virtual reality could help trauma victims overcome the past and improve their lives again. I don't know what gave them that impression, but they started thinking it," Ms. Murdayre shrugged. "Of course, after we took it, we planned to use it for just the opposite. I suppose you could call it a cruel twist of irony. Its creators meant for it to help people, but we instead used it to create a mental hellscape to torture the people inside into breaking down completely."
"Why in the world did you then take it back to the factory to use against those students from the boarding school?" Chief Prosecutor Bespoke questioned. Prosecutor Wood was still shaking with fury from his side. It wasn't until he put a comforting hand on her shoulder that she managed to calm down slightly.
"It's simple. They had made two versions of the technology, one to remain at the factory and the other to be used for testing outside the factory's walls. We simply took the one that was meant for outside and left the other one. After that, we staged the false field trip and waited until the needed information had been gathered," Ms. Murdayre went on. "I've already explained everything that happened afterwards, so I don't feel the need to go over that again."
"I remember hearing about that when the case was going on. The remaining workers at the factory were in an uproar trying to find the stolen technology. We even got a picture of what it looked like during the murder case so we could search for it," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke said. He was acting like Prosecutor Wood wasn't at all upset beside him. I didn't know how he was doing that. She looked ready to punch a hole through the TV, but he was still keeping his cool. I would be lying if I said I wasn't impressed.
"After we got rid of the intruder, we found that we had attracted other people to the scene. They had heard the commotion and came to investigate. The official case report went over who the victims of assault were," Ms. Murdayre continued. "Yuri Rinko had one eye cut, Sora Lin was hit in the head, Chrysalis Starr was drugged, Anton Burke was hit in the head as well, and Mukuro Erikson passed out from air loss. I can see at least one of them in the courtroom here today... Hello there, Ms. Rinko. How are you doing now that you've lost your sisters?"
I clenched one hand into a fist to keep from screaming in anger. I knew that was what she wanted. She was trying to provoke me by bringing up Venus and Cassidy. While Venus' death hadn't been on them, Cassidy's most certainly had been. It was one of the members of Occisor who had killed her during the case at the carnival. We hadn't seen Masa Stabbin since the day before, which was probably for the best. I had to keep my cool for this case, which I wouldn't easily be able to do if Mr. Stabbin appeared to taunt me.
"I remember I went to check out the case file for GC-9 during the case on the lake. We weren't allowed onto the scene of the crime because of one of the detectives, Tammy Ghunshotte, as a matter of fact, kicked us out. I only read over the first three names on the assault list at the time. I didn't recognize the last name and didn't really acknowledge Anton was on there. I was a bit preoccupied, I suppose," Lily said with a nervous smile.
"I think I remember her telling me about that," Ms. Murdayre commented. She tapped one hand against her chin, her eyes shut as she thought. "Your name is Lily Shield, yes?"
"Um... Yeah. Why do you ask?" Lily asked, a suspicious frown appearing on her face.
"Tammy had something to tell you today, but she seems to be a bit busy, so I'm going to be the one to deliver the message," Ms. Murdayre said. "It's probably not the best thing to hear from me, and I think she should have been the one to explain it, but there isn't much I can do about it now. Oh well. What can you do?"
"What are you on about?" Chief Prosecutor Bespoke demanded, shooting Ms. Murdayre a harsh glare.
"I'm sure that anybody who has been involved in legal affairs for quite some time will have heard of the murder of Talon Shield many years ago. He was a famous judge at the time. He was known for giving out countless guilty verdicts, but one day, he was found shot to death in a courtroom shortly before a trial. Nobody knew who the culprit was. There weren't any suspects. No culprit was ever caught. All people who might have had a motive also had alibis," Ms. Murdayre explained. "In other words, it was going to be nearly impossible to find out who had killed him. In the end, the case was dropped. Nobody bothered to pick up the case again. There simply wasn't enough evidence."
"Do you know him?" I questioned, turning to Lily.
"He... He was my father, actually," Lily told me softly. "I was about thirteen when he died. At the time, I had been with my mother and brother. I never knew much about the case, if I'm being perfectly honest. Since I was so young, people tried to keep details from me for my own mental health. When I got older, I told myself I would look into the case, but I guess I kept on holding it off. Part of me didn't really want to learn the truth. I was scared of what I might find."
"That day, he was trying to figure out who had killed a mentally ill patient living at a mental hospital. He was about twenty-five and was recovering from severe trauma following a plane crash. He was randomly found dead in his room with no explanation. There wasn't a suspect there either, but they had to press on with the trial. Talon Shield was the judge. Afraid he would find out the truth, Tammy Ghunshotte tracked him down before the trial began. At the time, she was under her real name. She was the first of us to commit murder. She killed the patient in her own unique ways. I mentioned she was a psychologist before. She had pressured him to the point that he mentally snapped. He was one of her experiments. Thinking Talon Shield would find out the truth, she shot him to death shortly before the trial," Ms. Murdayre told us.
"No way..." Lily whispered with wide eyes. Her hands flew to her face to cover her mouth. I saw her eyes glass over with tears.
"That's horrible," I murmured, placing one hand on Lily's shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss, Lily... I..."
"Don't be... I never really got along well with my father, if I'm being perfectly honest. We never stopped arguing... There are other people who deserve your words much more than me," Lily said with a smile, but I could sense the sadness behind her gaze. She wiped at her eyes. "I always wanted to know the truth behind my father's death. I didn't understand why our family had been broken down so soon, but now... I know who did it and why... But I still feel somewhat empty..."
"I can't believe you found out this way... I mean, on one hand, I'm glad you got to hear about it. If you hadn't, you probably never would have known what happened. However, I can definitely understand that it would be overwhelming. It makes you feel mad, doesn't it?" I asked Lily, rubbing one hand on her shoulder.
Lily rubbed at her eyes and nodded slowly in my direction before focusing her attention back on Ms. Murdayre. "Why didn't she mention this before? I was on the defense last time she killed somebody. I exposed her for killing that private investigator, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she ran off like nothing had happened, like we didn't have any sort of connection," she frowned.
"I don't know what her reasons were. I guess she just didn't want to explain it out of fear you'd get mad at her... Then again, she isn't exactly the remorseful or fearful type... Don't ask me. I don't know the way she works. She's a master manipulator. She knows what she's doing, and she's sort of crazy. Okay, very crazy. But then again, how sane do you think somebody who experimented on children can really be?" Ms. Murdayre scoffed.
"Come to think of it, that makes sense... I couldn't really describe it during the trial, but I was getting an off feeling about Detective Ghunshotte. The way she was behaving during the second session... It was subtle, but she was certainly manipulating people," Deirdre remarked. "I guess that holding off on telling you about her link to your father was part of her plan. Maybe she was going to use it against you at some point in the future. It would make sense. Our agency had been a thorn in Occisor's side for a year. We had exposed two of its members at the time. Maybe they wanted some control over us for the future."
"Of course, that didn't end up being necessary. They got what they wanted through this case anyways," Lily said with a shake of her head. "It's all gone downhill so much since then... So much has happened relating to Oracle. I can't say how things are going to turn out after this case, but I know that things will never be the same again. Call it a gut instinct or something along those lines."
"There is one more question I have, if you don't mind," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke came in, tapping his fingers mindlessly against the prosecution bench before him. "It's not exactly related to anything we've discussed so far, but I would like an answer before the trial is done."
"And what question would that be?" Ms. Murdayre questioned, staring at him with dark and inquisitive eyes. "You won't get anywhere if you go around it like you've been doing thus far, you know."
"Why have you been talking to us all this time?" Chief Prosecutor Bespoke asked. "Yesterday, you made it seem like you wanted an answer as soon as the trial started, and yet, you haven't asked about what we decided on once. Do you have a reason for talking to us for so long?"
I felt my heart skip a beat. He couldn't really be doing this, right? He was putting everybody at risk by getting testy with her! She had power over us because of the hostages hidden wherever they were camping out! Unless he had a plan that he was sure would work, he was taking risks I knew he shouldn't have even thought about.
Ms. Murdayre shrugged to herself. "The others had business to attend to regarding the hostages. I didn't want to do anything until they got back. I could have easily taken all the glory for myself, but I know how they work. They would have just killed me for getting in the way of their shining moment. If you ask me, Tammy is probably at work trying to find out more about the human mind. We've already been over this, but she's pretty curious about all that," she replied.
"I understand," Chief Prosecutor Bespoke nodded. I saw his gaze briefly dance up to the area above us in the gallery. I knew for sure he was looking at Mr. Morix. While none of us had talked extensively about it, we had come to an unspoken agreement that Chief Prosecutor Bespoke was communicating subtly with Mr. Morix, who was communicating over the phone with Neptune to try and find Chrysalis and the other people being held hostage.
"Speaking of the hostages, who are they?" I couldn't help but ask. "You said yesterday that you weren't going to be telling us since we could figure it out on our own or something, but I still haven't heard a thing about who the hostages are. Would you mind opening up and explaining that to us? Please?"
Ms. Murdayre eyed me for a moment before letting out a harsh bark of laughter. "I'm sure that you of all people would really want to know who we have with us," she commented. "It'll change everything you thought you had come to know over the last few months since Occisor came back into the eyes of the public. You were probably sure of some things, or at the very least, you thought you were sure of them. However, that's all going to change when you learn who we have hiding alongside us... I wish I could see the look on your face when we finally tell you..."
My eyes went wide. "What in the world is all that supposed to mean?" I asked. I didn't know of anybody aside from Chrysalis who had been taken. I was sure my mother would have told me if an extended family member or friend was being held hostage. Part of me was sure she was just on a tangent, the same routine most killers went through before being caught, but I was still a bit nervous about it. She was holding back something, but what was it? What did it have to do with me of everybody present?
"You'll figure it out soon enough. I don't think it's something I should be explaining right now. Others have more of a right to explain it to you," Ms. Murdayre replied. "I don't want to take away their thunder. That's not exactly something that's safe when you're working with a group of murderers, no matter how much you think you know or trust them."
I glanced around in confusion at the people around me. Deirdre and Lily looked just as confused as I did. I checked out Chief Prosecutor Bespoke and Prosecutor Wood next. The latter had decided to start shifting through her papers once again, clearly embarrassed over her outburst from a little while ago. I still didn't know what that had been about. She had been nervous and anxious, that was for sure, but I didn't know why. It was probably unimportant anyways. If I got really curious, I could just ask her about it after the trial. It would be fine.
Chief Prosecutor Bespoke, however, was doing something much more interesting. He was looking up at Mr. Morix with a frown. I turned around to stare at Mr. Morix, who held up two fingers. What in the world did that mean? Two what? Two hours? Two people? Two assassins? Two Interpol agents? Two murders previously committed by Tammy Ghunshotte?
Chief Prosecutor Bespoke seemed to understand what he was saying, however. I frowned at him, hoping he would give me some hint as to what he and Mr. Morix were on about. He met my eyes for a brief moment, but he gave no hints as to what he and Mr. Morix had been communicating over.
"Who do you have held hostage?" Deirdre asked after focusing back on the task at hand. Her sudden interruption snapped me from my daze. I had been too focused on the two men in the courtroom to remember we were supposed to be pestering Ms. Murdayre for more details on the hostage situation. I ultimately decided to leave Mr. Morix and Chief Prosecutor Bespoke alone for now. They seemed to know what they were doing, so it was probably okay if I left them to their own devices for the time being.
Ms. Murdayre opened her mouth to speak, but she was cut off when light suddenly flooded the room she was in. O looked up with hope in her eyes. Both started at something offscreen. They seemed to be surprised, but I didn't know what was happening. The camera only showed the courtroom so much, unfortunately.
I might not have known what was going on, but I did know one thing.
Whatever was about to happen was going to be big.
We're so close at this point. It feels weird to think about.
I've typed the next chapter in advance but I'm spacing them out so I'll have enough to post the final chapter on April 11th. It's going painfully slow for me, but that's because I'm already on part nineteen on my own typing. Rip.
-Digital