Chapter Three
Yami Bakura growled when the Big Five's car slowly made its way back down the driveway and out the gate. Somehow he sensed that things weren't right, and he was proven correct when the vehicle pulled up in front of his rental van. As he rolled down the window, Lector did likewise.
"How did it go?" Yugi asked, leaning forward from the middle seat.
"My father doesn't feel any better towards me," Lector said matter-of-factly.
Yugi's shoulders slumped. "I'm really sorry."
"Well, that doesn't matter," Lector said gruffly. "In other news, we've most likely discovered how the vodun priest connects with this mess. He's tormenting my family. My father wants me to talk to him."
"That seems rather odd, doesn't it?" Yami Bakura grunted. "Especially if your father still hates you."
Lector gave a weary sigh. "It does," he admitted, "except that he's threatening to put my family into what sounds like augmented reality. My father felt I would know what to do to prepare them should I be unable to talk sense into the man."
"Oh wow." Yugi looked down. "That's not good."
"Here's his address." Lector held up the business card. "I'll drive there now and you can follow behind me."
Yami Bakura silently memorized the address. "Very well."
"We should also find out if any of the others are sightseeing in that area," Atem said. "They may be able to help."
"I'll call them," Yugi said, getting out his phone.
xxxx
As it turned out, Duke, Serenity, and David were right on the block in question and promised Yugi they would stay there a while longer. When the Big Five pulled up at the knick-knack shop, they were just down the street.
"Excellent timing," Duke smirked. "Especially since now I don't see Yami Bakura's van. They must have got stuck in traffic somewhere."
"So what's the plan?" David wondered. "Are we just observing or are we going in with them?"
"Maybe we should pretend to be tourists and just wander around the shop while trying to keep an eye on them," Serenity suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Duke said.
But all thoughts of that plan were immediately put on hold as the Big Five exited the rental car. They were stepping onto the sidewalk in front of the shop when something caused Lector to look up at the balcony on the second floor.
"Look out!" he yelped. He pushed two of the other four to the ground and jumped down himself. The remaining two, seeing a large, cement pot falling from the balcony, leaped to join their friends. The pot hit the sidewalk near them, shattering into pieces of all sizes.
"Oh my gosh!" Serenity shrieked. She ran over. "Are all of you okay?!"
Lector shakily knelt on the sidewalk, followed by the others. "Yes," he said, "but just barely."
"What on Earth caused that to fall?!" Gansley snarled. "There was no one up there!"
Serenity gulped. "Maybe it was pushed with magic?" she quavered.
David cringed. "As much as I don't want to have to believe something like that, on this case it's probably possible."
The Big Five slowly got up, Gansley leaning heavily on his cane. "Well, let's go inside and see what this Dr. Raven has to say for himself," he said darkly.
Everyone was in complete agreement.
xxxx
Inside, in a back room, Dr. Raven was observing them all through the large green crystal on the top of his staff. "Ah, I see," he sneered, focusing on Lector. "I tried to crush the wrong man. You look so much alike, I thought you were your daddy. Instead, it looks like Daddy tricked you into coming in his place. That's a real loving father you've got there, deliberately setting you up as a scapegoat."
A young girl standing next to him frowned. "What are you going to do?" She shifted nervously, the pink boa-like material around the collar and sleeves of her dress casting strange shadows on the wall courtesy of the crystal's light.
"Well, first let's get the run-down on all of these people who are coming in," Dr. Raven said. His eyes glinted as his crystal showed him images and short scenes for each visitor. "That man there is Démas Leichter . . . oh, pardon me, he spells it Lector. He made his daddy real mad about that too. And his betrayal of his boss made Mr. Leichter even more furious. What's this? He abandoned Démas when he fell into a coma? Disowned him altogether, in fact. And Démas still came to try to help him. That poor fool."
"His father really doesn't care about him?" the girl said sadly.
"I don't know, but he sure doesn't care about playing with his life, and does that sound much like there's any kind of caring going on to you, Angelique?"
She looked down. "No. . . . Not if he really realizes what could happen. . . ."
Dr. Raven was already moving on to the next one. "Robert Nesbitt," he mused. "A research engineer who always preferred machines to people, until he met these four. He's come to love them more deeply than life itself, which still stuns him. And what have we here? He's going through a lot of grief and guilt because somebody mind-controlled him into trying to hurt his friends. Well, isn't that just too bad. Who's next?"
His eyes glinted as the next images started. "Thomas Johnson, a very crooked lawyer. Such a bad boy. But he loves this group too. It seems he thinks he should be the one taking the brunt of the punishments heaped upon them, instead of poor Lector suffering so. And not just that, but he's carrying a heavy guilt for putting down two of his friends in the past and not thinking anything of it at the time. Oh, and they don't know what he said about them? It could really hurt when they learn he called them 'useless' . . . even though he only said it to try to pacify someone who was going to kill them all."
Angelique looked towards the black curtain separating their part of the building from the shop. "Don't you think we should get out there?" she said. "They're probably getting impatient. What if they come back here?"
"Oh, I'm sure they're being kept occupied. We'll be ready in a minute." Dr. Raven looked intently into his crystal. "Charles Gansley, the leader of the group. Very business-oriented; he even looked at his marriage as a business decision. No wonder that didn't last!" he laughed. "But . . . he no longer looks at his friends in that light. He will do anything for them. And he feels he must always be strong for them no matter what happens. He can never break. Oh, but don't you realize, Mr. Gansley, that those are the people who break hardest?"
Images of Crump flashed across the crystal next. "Now this one's a character. Adrian Randolph Crump III. That's a mouthful for you. He's trying to encourage all the others to open up and not keep their pain locked inside. He has better success with some than others. And he loves penguins and pretty, young girls, eh?" A cruel smirk. "He should be a perfect target for you to focus your charms on, Angelique."
Angelique didn't look pleased. "We're going to go after all of these people? But they're not part of this. We have no quarrel with any of them!"
"Mr. Leichter is trying to worm out of this by tricking his poor, disowned son into taking the fall for him," Dr. Raven said. "I intend to take that as far as I can. Maybe then he'll get the message that no one is safe—not his son, not his son's friends, and not him."
The images continued to flash through the crystal. "Duke Devlin. . . . A young businessman who has already suffered deep emotional scars in his life. His mother deserted him and his father was crazy and eventually disowned him before dying. . . . Oh, he blames himself for his best friend's death? My, the things teenagers deal with these days.
"David Tanaka. . . . So he is Mr. Devlin's friend, returned to life. A skittish coward who prefers to stay out of trouble, yet is always willing to get into it to protect his loved ones. How nice to know that there are still noble people in this cold world." Dr. Raven's voice dripped with cruel sarcasm.
"And Serenity Kawai-Wheeler, Mr. Devlin's girlfriend. A very sheltered girl who loves and idolizes her older brother, who is also in the city. She is braver than she believes herself to be and will always step in to help her loved ones when she can.
"Hmm, I wonder how these clean-cut kids ended up with such dark characters as these five men." Dr. Raven's eyes glinted as new images appeared. "Ah, they aren't just random tourists who witnessed my deathtrap. They came here actively hoping to protect Démas and his friends, collectively known as the Big Five. Apparently they have a history with them through a mutual acquaintance, Seto Kaiba. And . . . what's this? There are others?" Every member of the large group flashed across the crystal. "Hmm." His cruel smirk deepened. "We can use all of them to send our message." He stood. "Come, Angelique; we must tend to our guests."
Worried and hesitant, the girl followed him out of the back room and into the shop.
xxxx
Dr. Raven was definitely right that the group had been kept occupied while he researched them. As soon as they entered, Serenity spotted the tiki masks hanging on the wall and went over for a closer look. "Cool!"
Duke had to smirk. "Joey would have exactly the opposite reaction."
"Me, I can't blame him," David said. "Those things are freaky."
Serenity quickly sobered, looking around with worried eyes. "I don't see anyone here. . . ."
"There's gotta be someone here," Crump insisted. "Maybe in the back. . . ." He started towards the curtain, but found himself tripping and falling instead. "What the heck?!" he yelped.
Lector cringed. "What happened?" He came over to make sure Crump was alright.
Crump was kneeling up on the floor by now, shaking the stars from his vision. "I don't know!" he cried. "There wasn't anything there and I still wiped out!"
Gansley came over, tapping the area with his cane. "It's some sort of invisible barrier preventing anyone from going through that curtain to the back room," he realized.
"If they're that serious about keeping people out, I wonder what's really back there," Duke frowned.
"Merely more knick-knacks for your buying pleasure," came a deep, smooth voice. A man carrying a strange staff emerged from behind the curtain, accompanied by a worried young girl with frightened eyes. "I've been having so much trouble with new shipments never reaching me that I wanted some extra protection for what I still have in stock."
"You're Dr. Raven?" Lector asked.
"Indeed," Dr. Raven nodded. "And this is my niece, Angelique."
The girl gave a small curtsy and a wave. "Hello. . . ."
Crump's eyes gleamed. "Hello."
Gansley elbowed him in the ribs.
"It's your trouble with your new shipments that we've come to talk with you about," Lector said. "I'm representing my father, who has a business arrangement with you."
"Yes, I know," Dr. Raven said.
"And do you also know that he was nearly killed by a flying cement pot as soon as we arrived?" Nesbitt spat.
"That is most unfortunate," Dr. Raven said. "I am very sorry that such an incident happened on these premises."
"I'll just bet you are," Nesbitt growled.
"Someone has been stealing your shipments from my father before they can ever get to you," Lector said. "He said he's tried to tell you this but he doesn't get a very good reception from you."
"Well, it is hard to believe that someone as successful as your father would have so many problems with his shipping department," Dr. Raven said.
"I would guess there's someone on the inside stealing packages," Lector said.
"Perhaps so, but that doesn't return my stolen items any better than before, does it?" Dr. Raven said.
"If you'll pardon me, Sir, threatening to trap the whole family in a video game will help you?" Lector frowned.
"Maybe it has. Your father sent for you, did he not?" Dr. Raven sneered. "The one member of the family who no longer lives in the area."
"Just what are you getting at?" Lector's eyes narrowed. Everyone else tensed.
"You are an outcast in your own family," Dr. Raven said. "Yet you are foolish enough to heed your father's desperate plea for help and even to involve yourself in a fight that did not concern you in the least?"
"My family may have rejected me, but I still love them," Lector said coolly. "I don't want them to be hurt. I've come to plead for their safety while we try to get to the bottom of this mess about your packages."
"Hmm." Dr. Raven mused. "Well, I suppose I could give you 24 hours."
"Just that?!" Crump yelped.
"I have many people demanding the merchandise that was supposed to come in those packages," Dr. Raven shrugged. "I need to make an example of someone and let them know that if this persists, there will be consequences."
Serenity stepped forward. "But if you hurt them, how will you ever get your merchandise back?"
"Serenity!" Duke hissed. "We don't know what the deal is with this guy yet!"
"The young lady does have a point," Dr. Raven mused. "But I have given Mr. Leichter many chances and he has failed to produce either the merchandise or anyone who could have stolen it. After 24 hours, I will take more drastic measures."
"If that's your final answer, then it will have to do," Lector said coolly. "I'll see what can be done within that amount of time."
"You do that." Dr. Raven looked to the others. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"I don't think so," Duke said in disgust. "Come on, guys, let's go."
They all trooped out of the shop.
"Does anyone else get the feeling that there's something more going on here besides missing packages?" David said.
"I sure do," Lector said. "But I can't imagine what."
"I'm wondering if he's gonna put a voodoo hex on all of us," Crump gulped.
"I'm sure the danger will be far worse than some nonsense like that," Gansley retorted.
"Honestly, Crump, you're starting to sound like Joseph," Johnson said.
"Well, when it comes to the creepy stuff, maybe he's got a point," Crump scowled. "I tripped on something that wasn't there!"
"It could have been science that made that barrier, not magic," Gansley said. "Although I'll admit we've discovered that some forms of magic are real, such as the Infinity Items."
"Nevermind that now," Duke said. "What are we going to do?"
"All I know to do is go out to my father's warehouses and question the workers," Lector said. "And maybe poke around in case the crates are still there, but hidden."
"We can do that," Duke said.
"That girl seemed rather concerned about something," Johnson mused. "Maybe even reluctant?"
Gansley nodded. "As much as I never thought I'd say this, why don't you try to find out what you can from her, Crump? If she truly doesn't want to be part of a scheme to hurt us or Lector's family, she may open up without too much difficulty."
"I'll be happy to give it my best shot," Crump exclaimed.
Duke silently twirled a piece of hair around his finger. He was sure he would have a better chance at it, but he would rather not do it. He had only flirted with all the girls in school as a facade, and ever since Serenity had appeared on the scene, he had lost interest in that. He didn't want to do anything that could hurt her.
The Bakuras' van pulled up at last, with Yami Bakura looking completely aggravated. He rolled down the window as the group came over. "Did you find anything out?"
"Some," Lector said.
"Not to mention he was almost killed as soon as they showed up," Duke frowned. "But we should probably talk about everything away from here."
"Fine," Yami Bakura grunted.
David picked up a long streamer from the hood of the van. "What happened?"
"Well," Bakura chuckled awkwardly, "we got caught in a sudden parade and had to find a detour." Sobering, he added, "I hope we weren't badly needed here. . . ."
"We had it covered," Duke said. "Let's drive up the street a few blocks and park to talk."
xxxx
Joey, Tristan, Mokuba, and the Ishtars, meanwhile, had gotten caught up in the same parade as it passed by the street where they were exploring.
"Alright!" Joey exclaimed, pumping the air with a fist. "Some action!"
"Now this is what going to New Orleans should be about, not chasing down creepy voodoo priests," Tristan grinned.
Gold coins, stuffed animals, and strings of beads flew through the air, thrown by people on the various floats. People in the crowd leaped to catch them.
"Are the beads all green, purple, and yellow?" Marik blinked.
"Those are the colors of Mardi Gras!" Tristan grinned.
Mokuba ran over to pick up one fallen strand of beads. "No sense leaving without a souvenir!"
"Mokuba, be careful!" Marik exclaimed.
Mokuba snatched the beads, barely missing having his hand trampled on by two other people in the process. As he straightened, somewhat shaken, he locked eyes with a young boy near the curb. The boy stiffened, looking caught.
"Hey!" Mokuba called. "What's wrong?"
The boy abruptly turned, fleeing into the crowd.
Mokuba stood, blinking in confusion. "Well, that was weird. . . ."
"You think that kid was spying on us or something?" Tristan frowned.
"I don't know, but he sure acted funny when I saw him," Mokuba said.
Marik sighed. "There's no way we'll find him now. If he's important, he's sure to turn up again."
"Yeah. . . ." Mokuba looked down, biting his lip. "Would there really be a kid that young mixed up in this? He looked about the same age as me."
"It's possible," Marik said carefully.
"Or maybe we're all just paranoid!" Joey cut in. "The kid could have just felt guilty because he was always told not to stare at people! Come on, let's forget about voodoo priests and weird stuff and just enjoy the parade!"
"Well, you're sure all into it," Tristan commented.
"Yeah, because I haven't seen anything creepy in it!" Joey shot back.
Mokuba laughed a bit. Hopefully Joey was right and there was no need to worry.
xxxx
Seto frowned, leaning back as he stared at the laptop's screen. He had been researching Lector's family and their influence in the city ever since the groups had left the hotel. So far he had learned that Lector's father had the same kind of clout that Seto had back in Domino City, only on a somewhat lower level. Rumor had it that he was looking to change that and had been taking on more and more business deals of late. Some succeeded, but two of the most potentially profitable ones had fallen through, leaving him owing thousands of dollars and being forced to deal with angry stockholders and his board of directors. All of that on top of many of his shipments mysteriously disappearing.
Seto pondered the problem. Would he really stoop to stealing his own shipments, hoping to get the insurance money plus money from selling the contents of the shipments to interested parties on the black market? If so, he had really dug himself into a hole. What had he wanted with Lector? Yugi had called to tell him how Lector's meeting with the man had gone, and it didn't sound promising.
He clicked to another website. This one was an interview Mr. Leichter had had several weeks ago with a reporter named Lana Allisen. One particular section caught his eye and he scrolled down to it. In spite of himself, he was chilled by what he read.
Lana: Mr. Leichter, it's common knowledge that your son Démas has been in a coma in Domino City for over a year. He recently came out of it and has been in reportedly excellent physical condition. Has he contacted you at all?
Mr. Leichter: I don't see what that has to do with anything.
Lana: Why, people in New Orleans remember him, Sir. And they know it must have been a heavy burden for you to bear, knowing that a member of your family was so gravely ill.
Mr. Leichter: Let's get one thing straight. I have no son named Démas.
Lana: I know he made mistakes, but you really don't care about him anymore?!
Mr. Leichter: No. He is dead to this family and has been since before he fell into that coma. And he will continue to be dead, no matter what he does.
Seto slumped back. The man was risking bad publicity by announcing of his disowning of his son. Some people might agree with him, but Seto was sure that the majority of the people would find him callous and cruel, especially given Lector's coma and his reviving from it. For the man to feel so hateful that he didn't care if he publicly admitted it, what kind of person was he?
"There's more going on here than meets the eye," Seto growled. "And I doubt any of it is good."
The telephone on the nightstand rang and he snapped it up. "Kaiba."
He was surprised by the timid voice on the other hand. "Mr. Kaiba, my name is Evangeline Leichter."
"Leichter?!" Seto echoed.
"Yes. I . . . I shouldn't be calling you, but I'm afraid my daddy's going to get my brother Démas killed. I need to talk to you."
"I can talk right now, but how do you even know about me?" Seto demanded.
"I'll tell you that when we talk. Come to a diner called Angelique's in twenty minutes." The phone went dead.