Chapter 10
"I said keep looking! How hard is it to find three people? It's been a week since they disappeared and you have nothing. Isn't this supposed to be a damn spy agency?!" Noah yelled and slammed the phone down on the receiver.
If things didn't change soon, he was going to have to take matters into his own hands…
(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)
Yami blinked wearily as he tried to concentrate on the road. The trees blurred as Yami sped along the highway.
"Let's swap over" Yami announced as he pulled the car over to the side of the road and stopped.
He switched the engine off and turned to face his brothers. Bakura was in the back seat, moodily scanning their surroundings and Marik sat next to him, a map sprawled across his lap.
Littered across the map where little red crosses where the boys had searched within the last week. They had explored the majority of the west side of Domino City including the boys' apartment.
As the week had gone on, the brothers had slowly started to lose hope at finding the other boys and getting answers to the many questions that plagued their minds.
Marik opened the door and swapped seats with Yami, handing him the map.
Yami took his phone out of his back pocket and noticed that there were no new alerts from border security. The brothers had been keeping tabs on the airport and the borders of the city of Domino so that if any of the spies tried to leave, the brothers would be alerted. So far, the alert system had been silent.
Marik turned the car back on and continued along the highway. They travelled for a couple of miles before Bakura broke the silence. "This is useless" he snarled.
"This was your idea" Yami said, looking back at Bakura.
"Well maybe if you could read a map we could have at least found a clue by now" Bakura retaliated.
"Well maybe if you hadn't shot Ryou then maybe we wouldn't be in this mess and they wouldn't have rushed off" Yami yelled back.
Bakura's eyes narrowed and he looked as though he was about to punch Yami in the face from the back seat.
"Will you two shut up?!" Marik yelled and Yami and Bakura immediately went silent.
The car made a beeping noise and Marik looked down to see that the petrol tank was nearly empty.
He pulled over to the closest gas station and parked the car. "I'm going to fill the car up and get something for us to eat. If you two haven't made up by the time I come back then you two will wish you were missing" Marik threatened.
He opened the door and slammed it shut behind him.
Bakura turned to look out the window and ignored Yami in the front. He looked down at the small metal monkey in his hands as his thoughts drifted back to Ryou.
He couldn't believe that Ryou was a criminal; there had to be another explanation. He thought back to the night at the club when he'd held Ryou close. The boy's aura had screamed kindness and whenever he was with Ryou, he felt whole.
But then there were times were Ryou had this far off look in this eyes, as if he had the world's problems on his shoulders. Bakura clenched his hand around the metal monkey tightly. And then he'd gone and shot Ryou. Bakura's heart constricted at the memory of Ryou in his arms and the apologies that had rolled off his tongue.
He looked back out the window and sighed. He hoped Ryou was okay.
(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)
Kaiba entered Millennium Corp and walked in the direction of Yugi, Malik and Ryou's office. He hadn't had any contact from the boys in the last week and there was a part of him, though he'd never admit it, that wondered if the boys were okay.
He also pushed the thought aside that part of the reason he'd come to see if the boys had returned to Millennium Corp was to see if the blonde haired boy was still working in their office.
He entered the room and noticed it was empty. Even the girl that had worked with the agents was absent.
He turned to leave but bumped into Joey.
"Kaiba!" Joey said. He pushed the taller brunette back into the room and locked the door.
"What did you do to Yugi, Malik and Ryou?" Joey demanded.
"What makes you think I had anything to do with where they are?" Kaiba snarled back.
"They've been gone for a week and no one is telling me anything! The directors are overseas on business and everyone is being super silent about it. Something is up and I know it has something to do with you! You came and a couple of days later, they disappeared" Joey accused.
"Stop barking and control yourself" Kaiba hissed. Joey stayed silent but glared accusingly at Kaiba.
"I don't know any more than you do. I actually came to see if they were here" Kaiba half-lied and Joey continued to stare at him, trying to figure out if the man was being truthful.
Kaiba started back at the boy and the air around them grew tense. It was then that Kaiba noticed how close the other boy was standing to him and how deep Joey's eyes were.
Kaiba broke the eye contact and turned around. He unlocked the door and walked out without saying another word.
Joey stayed still as he watched Kaiba leave. He still didn't know if he trusted the guy but there was something about him which left Joey wanting to know more.
Before Joey could change his mind, he ran to the elevator and took it down to the ground floor. He looked outside and saw Kaiba throw something into his car before he walked over to pay for parking at the ticket machine on the other side of the car park.
Here was his chance! Joey ran to Kaiba's car and opened up the boot to see if there were any clues to the other social media reps whereabouts. The boot was empty so he opened up the back seat to see if there was anything there. Again he was disappointed by the empty back seat. He didn't know what he expected to find.
He looked up quickly and saw Kaiba walking towards the car, his head face down as he messaged someone on his phone. Joey freaked out and jumped into the back seat, closing the door behind him. He looked around for someone to hide but was reminded once again, how clean the car was.
'Shit' he thought. He then had an idea. He opened the compartment in the back seat which led to the boot and squeezed his body through the gap and shut the flap behind him. Not a moment later, he heard the front door open and close and the car was brought to life. Joey didn't dare to breathe too loudly.
The car ride was silent and lasted for about 20 minutes however Joey could have sworn it was longer.
He heard the front door open and waited a couple of minutes before it was safe to come out. He crawled back out the way he'd come from and got out of the car.
He took in his surroundings and noticed they had arrived at a private hospital. He saw the back of Kaiba's trench coat turn down into a corridor through the glass and quickly followed him inside.
Joey didn't even know what he was expecting to find anymore but his curiosity had gotten the better of him. He watched Kaiba turn into a room and waited a couple of minutes before he peered through the window of the room Kaiba had entered.
What Joey saw was not what he expected. Inside he saw Kaiba sitting next to a hospital bed. The occupant of the bed was a black haired boy, probably no older than 12 or 13 years old. Kaiba was holding the boy's hand and speaking softly to the boy.
The whole situation reminded him of him and his younger sister before she had had her eye operation.
Joey knew he was looking in on a private moment and quickly took a step back away from the window. In his haste, he bumped into a trolley which fell over with a bang.
Kaiba's head immediately sprang up and made contact with Joey's eyes.
Joey gulped and went to leave quickly. Before he had a chance to run, he was pushed up against the wall and was once again face-to-face with Kaiba.
"What are you doing here?" Kaiba snarled.
"Umm" Joey said. He was at a loss for words. What was he supposed to say? That he had hidden in Kaiba's car and followed him into hospital? He didn't think that was going to go down well.
"Well?" Kaiba said, inching closer to Joey's face.
"Is that your brother?" Joey answered, trying to change the topic. Wrong answer. Kaiba's eyes narrowed.
"How do you know who he is?" Kaiba growled.
"Woah, it was just a guess. You reminded me of myself when I visited my little sister in hospital but she's a bit older now" Joey rambled but was silenced when he noticed that Kaiba had not loosened his grip on Joey's collar.
"You don't know what I'm feeling" Kaiba said but loosened his grip slightly.
"Sorry, I wasn't trying to say I did" Joey responded and Kaiba finally let go of him.
"Just leave" Kaiba sighed and took a step back from Joey.
Joey nodded and quickly left the hospital.
Kaiba leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. The boy was so infuriating but had a strangely addictive something about him.
From inside the room, Mokuba's hand twitched.
(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)
Malik wandered the aisles of the small convenience store, lost in his own world. The others were in the car, waiting for him to grab some supplies before they headed off onto their next destination.
They had been moving from place to place each night, sleeping at random motels or in their car. They hadn't been able to use their credit cards because they knew the cards would immediately be tracked and their last bit of cash was running out.
They didn't have a plan and they were taking each day as it came. They couldn't leave the city because KaibaCorp would immediately track them down and they couldn't keep going from motel to motel because of the shortage of money and Ryou really needed a proper place to rest and recover.
Also, as much as it was selfish to admit it, he really missed Marik. He knew there was no way the spies could meet up with the brothers unless they had a death wish, so they were stuck in this endless loop.
Malik reached over to grab a packet of chips and bumped into someone else's hand.
"Sorry" Malik apologized and looked up. To his horror, Marik was looking back at him, eyes wide in shock.
'Crap' Malik thought. He dropped the chips and ran out of the store, running towards his car.
Marik ran after him out the door as the sales attendant yelled at Marik to pay for his petrol.
Malik had a good 2-3 seconds head start ahead of Marik and got to the car first, locking the doors and yelling at Yugi to drive.
Yugi looked out the window and saw Marik approaching. He quickly drove out of the parking spot and turned left onto the busy road.
Marik cursed to himself and ran back to his car. He jumped in and revved the engine, before following the silver car Malik had jumped into.
"What's going on?" Yami asked, holding onto the handle of the car as Marik sped up trying to catch up to the other car.
"Malik was in the store!" Marik answered, swerving through traffic as he tried to find where the silver car had disappeared to.
"What?!" Bakura responded from the back. He leaned over Marik's seat and looked out the front windscreen.
"I think I see fresh skid marks turning over there" Bakura said, pointing about half a mile ahead.
Yami and Marik followed Bakura's line of vision and saw skid marks leading to the left and into an empty building's garage with a large 'For Sale' sign in the front of it.
They followed the skid marks and parked in front of the building where they saw the silver car half hidden by some trees.
They quickly got out of the car and went up to the silver car. The car was empty apart from some old bandages that had some blood on them.
"This has to be them" Yami said. The others nodded and they ran towards the building.
(S)(P)(I)(E)(S)
Yugi led the way as the trio ran through the empty building. By the looks of the property, no one had been in there for ages. The walls were covered in dust and the floors creaked beneath them.
Ryou trailed behind the other two, his lack of energy from his bullet wound slowing him down.
They ran towards some stairs and Yugi and Malik started climbing them. Ryou noticed a small door under the stairs.
"Guys hide upstairs without me. I'm going to hide under here until the coast is clear" Ryou called and the other two nodded.
As Yugi and Malik reached the top of the stairs they heard the front door slam open and three pairs of feet run in.
The two went to run into a spare room but the floor beneath Yugi gave way and Yugi fell through the floor of the second story.
Yugi quickly managed to grab hold of an old pipe on the ceiling but it creaked under Yugi's weight.
"Yugi!" Malik called. He tried to reach down to pull Yugi up but couldn't quite reach his hand.
"I can't hold on" Yugi exclaimed and the pipe gave way.
Yugi fell and fully expected to hit the floor with a splat but instead fell into two strong arms.
Yami's legs gave way as he caught the falling boy in his arms and they both landed on the floor with a thud.
They looked into each other's eyes and for a split second it was as if everything had been a dream. However the moment passed and Yugi's eyes widened in alarm as he tried to get to his feet.
Yami held onto him and Yugi looked around and noticed he was surrounded by Marik and Bakura as well.
Malik hurried back down the stairs but stopped when he noticed that Yugi was surrounded.
Marik looked back at Malik and Malik felt a twinge of electricity pass between them.
"We want answers" Marik said, directing the statement at both Malik and Yugi.
"Where's Ryou?" Bakura added in, his eyes scanning the room for any signs of the white haired boy.
"I'm here" Ryou said as he came out of his hiding spot under the stairs.
Bakura looked at the boy and saw that his arm had been bandaged up. Although he looked much better than he had last time he had seen him, Ryou was deathly pale and had a layer of sweat shined across his forehead.
Bakura took a step forward but Marik stopped him. "We want to know everything, so come with us and explain everything from the beginning" Marik continued.
The three spies remained silent, not knowing what to do.
"Look think about this logically. If we wanted to hurt you, we would have done it by now. Though something makes me think that you're not as innocent as you look" Marik said, looking in particular at Malik. "And if you come with us, we can give you food and change Ryou's bandages because he is looking a little worse for wear" Marik emphasized.
The three spies looked at each other. Something passed between the three of them and Yugi nodded slightly and spoke up on behalf of them.
"Fine" Yugi agreed and the others nodded.
