Chapter Six
"Some white suits plot a malicious deed in earnest"
Near Cheat Lake, West Virginia
Wednesday 30th December 1931
20:15
As Yuya and company were having fun in the dining car, down in second class, a pair of siblings were waltzing to music playing on a gramophone; one with joy, then other looking like she was about to murder her partner.
"Isn't this such a wonderful night, Serena?" the boy declared delightedly "Truly a perfect evening."
"No, a perfect evening would be me, alone, back in Chicago, listening to that lovely new wireless I bought" Serena retorted "Or alternatively in a fight to the death against a dozen men who look suspiciously like you. Both options are kinda appealing right now."
"That's it, dear sister" her brother beamed with delight "Channel that murderous rage – you'll be needing it tonight."
"Yuri, the only reason I haven't stabbed you yet is because you promised me blood and shiny things" Serena informed him flatly "I like shiny things, especially when I can use them to buy myself more things I deserve. If they come covered in blood, then no one's around to whine about missing them."
Yuri now grabbed Serena by the chin, forcing her to lean in so their faces were not even inches apart. "That, my dear sister, is why I love you."
The clock on the mantlepiece rang out, indicating it was quarter past the hour.
"It's almost time, which means it's almost time for their lives to end" Yuri was practically shivering with delight "I don't think I'll sleep a wink tonight!"
"Well, if you're that excited about it then you probably should've gone first" Serena pointed out smugly, know the effect this statement would have.
Yuri's eyes went icy as he flew into an impressive sulk. "I can't. I lost the draw. And if I pull rank now, I'll have three angry sisters who hate me, two I'm not even related to."
"If you're that scared of them, I guess I'll have to protect you from their fury then" Serena joked.
"Really?" Yuri raised an eyebrow "Two minutes ago you were threatening to kill me, now you want to protect me. How very indecisive of you, dear sister."
Serena scowled at him. "No, I do want to kill you. But first I have to kill everyone who might stop me, or take issue with me about it later. Then I'll gladly spend the rest of your life killing you slowly and painfully. Which will probably not be for a while yet."
"Why, Serena, if you keep talking like that I'll start blushing" Yuri seemed touched at this admission.
"Until then" Serena suddenly switched their positions in the waltz and all but forced Yuri into a dip that was more of a chokehold than a dance move "Don't you even think about letting someone else kill you. I'm the one who's had to put up with your sadistic ass of these years, I'm the one who gets to end it."
"And to think, Mommy called you the nice one" Yuri just smiled up at her.
Before Serena could unleashed any more death threats, the door of the suite opened to the face of one Gloria Tyler.
"If you two are done flirting" she remarked cheekily "Grace is practically chomping at the bit to get started."
Serena simply let go of Yuri, letting her brother drop to the floor in an ungraceful heap. Not that Yuri seemed to care, as he covered his eyes with one arm and pounded his other fist against the floor of the carriage. "Damn it, I envy Grace, I really do! There is no god in this cruel, cruel world anymore!"
"Great, now he's having a temper tantrum" Serena sighed with exasperation, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Grace went and killed him earlier, I just know it!" Yuri continued to whine, banging his fist on the floor at a practically staccato rhythm.
Serena and Gloria exchange a look before Serena decided to end this tomfoolery once and for one. "Well, how about, instead of bothering me, you actually go and see what's going on out there?"
Yuri paused, then jumped to his feet with a joyful grin back on his face. "Of course! I agreed she could take the lead, but I could still go with her! And if someone just so happened to jump in the way of my fist, then so it is! Brilliant! And here I was thinking I'd have to behave myself!"
He tried to ruffled Serena's hair, only for her to duck and slap his hand away for his effort. Yuri just shrugged it off, picked up his jacket and left the suite.
"I'll be back!" he called back to the girls, just in time for him to be barrelled into by some guy running in the corridors.
"Sorry!" the man…boy maybe?...squeaked in apology.
Aggravated at the intrusion, Yuri grabbed the idiot's arm before he could get far, forcing him to stop in place for one second.
"Watch where you're going!" Yuri warned him with a death glare.
He'd intended to follow this warning up with some genuine threats as to what would happen to this moron who thought running around the corridors was a smart idea, but before he got the chance to, the other guy started rambling at him.
"I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to!" the man, who had a large tattoo down the side of his face, insisted, wrenching his arm out of Yuri's grasp in an impressive show of strength. "You see, everyone here is in grave danger, so I was in a hurry! I need to find the conductor because I think he can help!" He took off running again. "I'm sorry, I've gotta go!"
For a moment, Yuri was taken aback. This kid wasn't a part of his crew, so how would be know about the mission? Had somebody squealed?
But as he sifted through his mental catalogue over who could've spilt the beans, an image kept coming to mind in his head. In Chicago, a wanted poster hung on street corners. A man with a tattoo, wanted for an extortionate amount of money.
"Hey, aren't you…?" Yuri paused to think about it for a moment, then trusted his judgement "It must be." He leant back into the suite to talk to the girls. "I'll go after Grace and the others. You dolls head back to the conductor's compartment. And if you see some skinny kid with a tattoo, snatch him will ya?"
He began heading up the train towards the dining car, a calculating grin on his face.
"This just got a lot more interesting."
On the connecting platform between the first two second-class carriages, Noburu was still just stood there, hands still clenching around the air Yuya's shoulders had taken up only a few seconds ago. He was so surprised by the events that had just taken place that he almost forgot to move aside for a young man in coveralls who wanted to move between the carriages. He muttered an apology and stepped to the side, allowing the man to cross the connecting point to the next carriage. The man then held the door open for two women Noburu knew well to come through as well.
He wasn't quite to surprised to see Yuzu – if Yuya was having one of his panic attacks it was usually Yuzu who was left with the task of calming him down. However he was surprised to see Meiru, who was supposed to be serving diners in the dining car, last he checked.
"There you are, we thought you'd fallen off the train, you were taking so long" Meiru joked.
"You seen Yuya?" Yuzu asked, seeming a little resigned to the whole matter.
"Yes, he ran that way" Noburu pointed over his shoulder "He was screaming about the conductor I think."
"Noburu, come with me, we're going to go and check out the freight hold before we bring Yuya back in" Yuzu sighed, then turning to Meiru "Meiru, while we're doing that, you take care of the dining car."
The two proceeded forward down the train, leaving Meiru stood there, a little uncertain about what to do.
"Take care of the dining car?" she wondered aloud "You mean, keep serving them or…"
'Meiru, while Noburu and I check out the freight hold, you go to the dining car and make sure everyone's okay.'
"Possibly that's what she meant" Meiru frowned, so distracted she didn't notice a woman in white passing her and heading up the train "Or maybe…"
'When we're doing the robbery we can't let anyone know or they may cause a scene, possibly even stop the train. So Meiru, I need you to head to the dining car and make sure the people in there stay quiet, you got it?'
"I got it, boss!" Meiru declared, hand reaching into the pocket of her coat where she kept one of her knives "Nice and quiet for you."
In the dining car, a blonde woman named Grace Tyler was practically squealing with delight, overjoyed at having been given such a pivotal role in the hijacking. She remembered what her sister had said though – make sure everything and everyone is as they should be, or else the whole job could go sideways and Mr Yuri would probably go from wanting to kill everyone on the train to wanting to kill her.
With that knowledge in mind, she began assessing the carriage, her eyes dancing from person to person as she wondered who she should kill first. Not the senator's daughter or her husband; she'd been lectured on that one for so long she was falling asleep just thinking about it. The boy who was sitting with them was probably off limits too – Yuri liked to deal with the children personally. Maybe the wanna-western couple sat near them, or the chef standing behind the bar waiting for orders? The bartender had left her post, which was a shame. She could probably let out some amazing screams.
There was only one person who gave her cause for concern – a young man in coveralls, sat by himself in the corner of the carriage. He was suspiciously on guard to the point of overcaution and seemed increasingly uncomfortable every time he met Grace's gaze. That was a man who didn't belong, and he set Grace just a little on edge.
Still, he was one man. What could he do to stop her?
The clock began chiming, just as three men in black with violin cases stood up from their table and left the dining car towards the first-class carriages.
"Well then" Grace's face broke out into a grin "I guess I better get started then."
She reached into her white coat and pulled out two revolvers, pointing them in opposite directions up and down the car.
"Alright, hands in the air!" she demanded.
However, her demand was partially lost in the sound of two sets of people entering the carriage from two different ends, both demanding different things.
"Everyone on the ground!" a man in a black suit, one of the three who had left just moments earlier, stormed into the room from the first-class carriage, brandishing a tommy gun. His two fellow suit wearers were just a moment behind him.
"Nobody move!" the ginger bartender now burst in from the second-class carriage, wielding a distinctly less impressive pocket knife.
The three hijackers just stared at each other, blinking uneasily as they wondered what to do. The passengers just looked between all three, torn between being scared out of their minds or wondering if this was a pantomime for their entertainment.
The only ones who had moved were Zarc, who had thrown himself over Ray and Reira like a protective blanket, and Yugo and Rin, who had raised their hands and hit the deck before not moving from that position, something that made an odd amount of sense under the circumstances.
"Well…which one should we do?" someone in the carriage finally had the courage to ask.
"They're after the senator's daughter!" somebody else yelled "You take her! Go on! Just leave us be!"
Nobody moved or said anything after that, the hijackers more concerned with themselves than any outbursts from frightened passengers.
Meiru looked at the hijackers, then at the passengers, then at her little knife.
Well, Mama Hochun had always told her one thing – pick your battles wisely.
This was not a wise battle at all.
"Um…sorry for the confusion" she stuttered out, before hastily exiting the dining car and slamming the door behind her.
Yuya had finally find it to the caboose, but wasn't exactly jumping for joy at what he found there.
Instead of two perfectly healthy conductors, he discovered one corpse with half its head blown off slumped in the corner and another with what looked like one of its arms and part of its face missing lying in the middle of the floor. Both were wearing conductors uniforms.
Yuya very nearly threw up, shaking in fright.
"I'm too late!" he gasped "It's already here! And it's already started killing people! The Rail Tracer is here!"