Rose Red: Model 85001

Chapter Twenty

Van heard the blades of Folken's chopper before he saw them. Without hesitating, he threw the rest of his cargo into the back and got in the front seat. Van secured his five-point seat belt, put on his ear phones, and started Escaflowne up.

This was a crappy situation, even before Van realized what Folken was planning on doing; he knew the situation was ugly. It was bad because; a) Van wasn't sure how well the energist working with the fuel tank would function; b) over ninety percent of helicopter crashes are fatalities; c) Van was hoping that Folken wouldn't even see Escaflowne before he got it to town and; d) Van really wanted to talk to his brother. But once Escaflowne's blades were spinning, he got wind of Folken's tactics. He was suspending his chopper above Escaflowne, blocking Van from getting in the air.

Looking up through the top of the windshield he could see Folken and his Top Gun shades staring back at him. His jaw was set and the rest of his expression was ugly. Van glared back at him, stuck his own shades on and got back to the controls.

Even with Folken waiting above him, Van lifted off and hovered a few meters in the air, but Folken wouldn't back off. If Van's blades bashed into Folken's runners, they could both crash, but Folken didn't back off.

Van tried flying close to the ground and like he predicted, Folken kept his chopper overtop of Escaflowne with ease. Van sped up. It was dangerous to fly fast low to the ground. Actually, that was one of the surest ways to end up a bag of bones in the incinerator, but Van didn't know what else to do. He couldn't let Folken get ahold of his chopper or their father's plans. Damn. Van sped up.

Folken had the advantage. The higher he was the faster he could move, so it didn't matter if Escaflowne could go a whole hundred kilometers faster, it was suicide to do it that close to the ground.

Van had to figure out a way to get Folken off his head. He needed a bridge to fly under or a cliff or something to give him a clip-off so he could speed up suddenly, force Folken higher and cut him off to gain some altitude. The only problem was that were in the middle of the driest furthest reaching prairie in the world. Van had no idea where to go other than to point himself towards the mountains, which was in the opposite direction of Hitomi and town.

Later that afternoon, Hitomi sat in a booth at the café with Celena and Dilandau. After Dilandau cut her bracelet off, he went with her to the hospital so she could get tested for M.T.N. Miraculously, she was clean. She didn't understand it. She was sure that cow she had given the PH test to had the virus and she had had its blood on her hands. That would have been enough to spread the disease, wouldn't it? Didn't Van's father get it just by holding hands with his wife?

Now Celena was playing with Hitomi's broken bracelet on the table. "You really shouldn't have cut it off, Dil. It's a felony."

Dilandau grunted. "If you heard the hellish high-pitched hullabaloo, you wouldn't be saying that."

Hitomi shrugged her shoulders. "Van can take me to Sleeping Beauty Inc. to get it repaired or replaced or whatever. It shouldn't be against any law. He told me to go to town. It's not my fault he forgot to fix my perimeter settings. Besides, Van should be here soon."

"Do you really think he's going to make it if you saw Folken's chopper on its way to the house?" Dilandau asked like he thought Hitomi was an idiot. "I'll bet my digits, he won't be here tonight. He's not even answering his cell phone."

"That doesn't mean anything," Hitomi denied. "He never checks his calls or takes calls when he's flying."

Dilandau didn't say anything and instead of fighting with Hitomi concentrated on getting something out of his ear. Celena got up and betook herself to the kitchen, leaving Hitomi and Dilandau to wait for Van.

Finally, Hitomi asked, "When is Dryden supposed to get here?"

"Any minute."

Hitomi sat there and contemplated that if this were a normal romance novel, Dryden or Van would have strode in with a winning smile in under a minute if only to get the story moving, but neither of them showed up and instead Hitomi sat there staring at Dilandau. Eventually, he got tired and yelled to Celena that he was going home.

Hitomi didn't miss him once he was gone, but neither Van nor Dryden showed up and the supper hour came. Celena made Hitomi move to the bar so that there was room for one more group of paying customers. But she gave Hitomi a bowl of powdered onion soup on the house. Hitomi sighed and dipped her spoon into the dark liquid. It was the cheapest thing on the menu.

Partway through the evening, Hitomi got frustrated with sitting still and went into the kitchen to wash dishes and help Celena with the customers. Hitomi always thought they were sparse, until she started cleaning their plates, then they seemed endless.

Dryden did come close to midnight, but Van didn't.

He came into the kitchen and looked and sounded handsome and suave. It really was ridiculous for a man to look so good in glasses. It was just about as ridiculous as how his charms did nothing to turn Hitomi's head. She wished Van had come.

However, she didn't let her feelings of disappointment stop her from functioning or relating what Van had learned about M.T.N., the bull hearts being the cores of energists, and the cows she had met since she got to the cafe.

When she finished, Dryden nodded, "Well, that certainly does raise some interesting questions. I'll go out to the fields tomorrow and see if I can find some cows to test."

"Be careful not to approach a bull by accident," Celena said vaguely from the corner of the kitchen. "They're vicious."

"Right. I need to find solitary cows," Dryden said cheerfully.

"Can you go out to Van's house, too? He may have ended up back there and it would be good to find out if who's there. Can you?" Hitomi asked quietly.

Dryden smiled like the tawny rogue that he was. "Anything … for a lady."

Hitomi blinked at him.

He sighed. "Not in the mood?"

"Not really."

That night Hitomi and Dryden bunked up at Dilandau's house. Dryden made a bed on the living room floor since he was too tall to lie comfortably on the crumbling compact couch. Hitomi tried sleeping on it, but it was no picnic for her either, since she couldn't stretch out on it either – her feet stuck out over the armrest. In the end, she rammed herself up on her side in the fetal position and looked at the top of Dryden's head.

After Dilandau, Celena and Merle went to bed, Hitomi and Dryden were all alone. It was summer and the crickets outside the open windows were chirping. Hitomi looked out through the crack where the window's grime couldn't touch and looked at the liquid navy sky and the two or three white stars she could see twinkling from there. Mercy, she hoped Van was all right.

"Hey Dryden," she whispered. "Are you awake?"

"It's only been about three minutes since we shut off the lights. Of course I'm awake. What do you need?"

"Can I borrow your cell phone? I want to try calling Van again."

He forked it out and Hitomi tried Van's number three times before she dropped it on Dryden's pillow with a quiet, "Thank you."

"What's so great about that guy anyway?" Dryden asked as he reached his hand into his pants' pocket to pull out his lighter. When Hitomi didn't answer him, he began flicking a tiny flame on and off like he was full of tension.

"Do you need a smoke?"

"Not really."

The moment lasted. It was a moment where Hitomi hoped that Dryden would let his question slide without pressing her for an answer.

But he did press. "Is it too uncomfortable a question for me to ask? I notice you're without your bracelet. Did he set you free or something? Is that why you're so worried about him?"

"No," Hitomi admitted. "Dilandau cut it off me with a pair of bolt cutters."

"Which is illegal."

"Yeah," Hitomi said before she explained the deafening buzzer that wouldn't stop. "Besides, I'm not going to run away, so it doesn't matter?"

"Why not? If I were you, I'd run away." Dryden's voice sounded full of melancholy and deep despair in the darkness.

She had to make him understand. "You know, I imagine that most guys who would buy a girl would be sleazy, but Van's not. In the case of belonging to him, it's really not that different from being employed by him."

"Really?" The tones were sarcastic and unbelieving.

"Yeah. He wants me to marry him."

Dryden let out a puff of air from his mouth like he was smoking. "Well, I guess that's that. He couldn't be a bad guy if he wants to marry you. That at least gives you a few rights when you've already voluntarily signed them away." He paused and still lying down, he began rummaging through his things. "You know, I really could do with a smoke."

He sat up and took the cigarette in his hands. He lit it and just as he did, Hitomi saw the light from the fire glean off something on his wrist. Hitomi glanced at it and then she stared. He was wearing a long sleeved white collared shirt, and for the most part, it covered a very thick linked chain that was very tight around his wrist. It could only really be one thing. People didn't wear wrist watches anymore. Everyone had the time on their phones, but Hitomi had to see it up close to make sure.

After Dryden finished his smoke, he put it out and rolled over to go to sleep. He slept on his left side, which was the same side that Hitomi wanted to check. So instead of going to sleep, she kept her eyes open and waited for him to turn onto his other side.

It felt like she waited forever before he finally did it.

When he did, Hitomi slid off the couch and tiptoed alongside him in her ankle socks. Then she crouched next to his hand and tugged gently on his sleeve.

And BOOM! Dryden snapped both her wrists into death grips and slammed her on the floor under him.

There was one breathless moment where they stared into each other's eyes and their bodies touched before his wristband started giving him electric shocks. He flew off her and gripped his burning wrist with his free hand. It was so violent, he was vibrating. Hitomi wanted to do something, but couldn't. If she touched him again, it would no doubt trigger another shock. She could only stare at him in horror.

When it was over, Dryden wiped his sweaty face with the sleeve of his shirt. "Find out what you wanted to know?"

"Does Princess Marlene own you?" Hitomi whispered.

"I work for her in name only. In actuality, I am owned by her younger sister, Princess Millerna."

Hitomi swallowed a knot in her throat. "I'm sorry it's so awful."

"Awful? You haven't seen the half of it. My bracelet—" He showed it to Hitomi freely now. "Makes a report and sends it to her. It'll say something like, 'Model 2098 was approached by free woman at eleven hundred hours.' Then it'll make it sound like we almost had sex before it put the buzzer on me. Bastard."

"But we didn't almost have sex. The thought never crossed my mind. Did you think of it?"

He didn't answer her, but instead said, "I'll tell you one thing. You are damn lucky that you weren't wearing your bracelet because if you were, it would have connected you with the incident and sent a report to Van."

"Well, if you knew that all that was going to happen then why didn't you push me off or slap my hand? Why did you drag me under you?"

Dryden turned his head and stared off into nowhere rather than look at Hitomi. "I'm very attracted to you tonight."

Hitomi stared. "That came out of nowhere."

"It is out of nowhere. I have met hundreds of purchased women. Mostly, they are totally despicable people who would do anything for their fee. They dress like whores and push four hundred pound men around in wheelchairs. I have never once thought that one of them was an unfortunate person. And I myself am not a particularly unfortunate man." He suddenly turned to face her and looking directly at her, he asked, "Do you know me? Do you know how I ended up like this? I bet you do – guess."

Hitomi thought about what she knew about him. He described the purchased women he knew as looking like whores and for a guy, he didn't fall too short the mark. But everything else about him seemed to point to him being a legitimate private detective. Once she got that sorted out she made what she felt was a guess. "You were working as a private detective, but your business wasn't doing so well. That was why you knew Dilandau – because you were in similar circumstances. Then one day, just after Princess Marlene got sick, someone from Princess Millerna's staff came to see you. They interviewed you a few times, and eventually you were invited to meet the princess herself. She offered you the job of hunting up information on Allen, but only on the condition that she would own you for five years? Did it go like that?"

Dryden's shoulders sagged and he rubbed his forehead with the palm of his hand. "You're nearly on the money. Except that she didn't hire me for five years. She purchased me until I figure out three things."

"What are they?"

"The first thing I have to do is to prove how Marlene got the virus in the first place. Secondly, I have to figure out a way to prove that Allen's responsible so he can be prosecuted for it. Lastly, I have to bring her an energist."

"Do you think you can do all that?"

"If I can then I'll earn fifteen million dollars and if I can't, I'll be working for Princess Millerna for the rest of my life. But you see, I think that I can to trump her list if I can figure out a way to save Marlene's life."

"You're thinking of figuring out a way to cure M.T.N.? Holy cats! You're ambitious!"

He shook his head. "I don't think it's ambitious at all. Animal testing has been done away with for ages, but I after what you said today, I plan to reinstitute it. I bet we could learn a lot from cutting just one cow open."

"You can't! It's illegal. Besides, why do all that for them? I thought you wanted to run away."

"Of course I want to run away. It wasn't that I liked my old life either. Both roads are hard."

Hitomi frowned. "Don't cut open a cow. I don't want to see you get in trouble."

Dryden stared at her. "Yeah, it's illegal, but look what you and Dilandau did when the circumstances suited you. You should have gone to the police and got them to override the system."

The idea of going to the police had never occurred to Hitomi. Now she wanted to smack herself in the head.

Luckily, Dryden went on before she could interrupt. "And besides, people like Marlene and Allen and Millerna eat beef sometimes and they never get in trouble for it. If I got called in for questioning about killing a cow, I could just send it back to Millerna's court. She could handle it and if it brought me closer to figuring this mess out then she would highly approve."

"They eat beef? All of them?"

"All of them."

Hitomi looked around the room awkwardly while she thought. "Do you think that was where Marlene got the M.T.N.? Do you think she ate its heart while everyone else was eating its flanks?"

Dryden gasped and sputtered, "Maybe that's possible. I never even thought of that when you were telling me that story about yellow cud. You're a genius, Hitomi. I'll call Millerna in the morning and see what she knows."

"Okay. We've got a plan," Hitomi said. Then she stood up and went back to her place on the couch. She scratched her head and rested it on the pillow, this time with her back to Dryden.

Then she felt his voice slipping over her shoulder like a hand. "I heard that Van pretty much gave up everything he had to buy you. It really was no mistake. A girl like you is worth everything a man has."

Hitomi sighed into the darkness. "I really love him, you know."

"I know, but tonight, I can't stop being attracted to you."

Van tried to get comfortable in the pilot's seat in Escaflowne, but it was no use. This vehicle just wasn't designed to be slept in. His engine was silent and the power was off. There was still a bit of gas in the tank, but for now, it was better to keep everything off to let the energist charge.

He'd lost Folken. It was nothing shy of a miracle, but now, he had no idea where he was and he dared not send any messages to the satellites or take any. In the morning, using the old ways, maybe he could figure out which direction to go to get back to town.

And Hitomi … he hoped that she was all right.

Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who reads and reviews. One of my friends who reads these posts likes my author's notes. If you knew me personally, you'd know that I like to quote things. It's honestly amazing that I can book over 600,000 words here of somewhat original fiction since half of my conversation is mish-mashed quotes from who knows where. So today I'm going to do three and not say where they're from. Good luck guessing where they're from. 1. "I have a crush on every boy!" 2. "Weaseling out of things is what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel." 3. "If you keep talking to yourself, people will think you're crazy." - Thanks for the tip!" - "I wasn't talking to you." Have a great week!