Rose Red: Model 85001
Chapter 21
In the morning Hitomi rolled over, off the couch and onto Dryden's face.
"Ack!"
After that, they didn't talk until they sat across from each other in the café eating the hash browns and toast that Celena brought them. She heard the screaming too that morning and her expression spoke of annoyance.
Dryden lit his cigarette and rubbed the crud out of his eyes.
"So," Hitomi wondered. "Where are you going to start? Have you got a plan?"
He glared at her. "My plan consisted of sleeping for another hour."
"Can I borrow your cell phone to call Van?"
Dryden took out his phone and looked at it sleepily. "That's would be one place to start. I can think of a better one. I'll call Millerna." He pressed two buttons and had her video feed projected onto the wall of the booth where we were sitting.
A grouchy blond butler answered. Hitomi was stunned. He didn't look older than thirteen. "This is Chid. Who's calling?"
"It's Detective Fassa? Is Millerna available? I've got to speak with her urrgennttllly." The last word was drawn out because Dryden was yawning.
When Chid saw him, he yawned too. "She's eating her breakfast, but I think I could manage pointing the camera towards her."
He moved the camera and for a second, the screen was blurred as it was moved to a different location. Millerna came into focus. Hitomi was stunned. The princess had bed head. There was a smudge of leftover makeup under one eye and she was stifling a yawn, but she still looked like a billion bucks. That was royalty for you. Her breakfast plate was in front of her and she delicately chewed a blackberry speared on her fork.
"Do you have news?" she asked.
"Yes." Dryden pointed towards her with his thumb. "This is Hitomi Kanzaki. She's been most helpful, so I was hoping she could sit in on our meeting."
"That's fine."
"Good. She and Van discovered a secret lab under the floor in Van's hanger. They found out that energist technology is tied to M.T.N. and beef."
"What?" she asked, as she rolled something brown she was chewing into her cheek.
"Energists are made out of fetal bull hearts. That's their core. Hitomi did a PH test on a cow she met on the road yesterday. The test suggests that cows might be carriers for the M.T.N. virus."
Millerna spit what she was eating into a napkin. "Bring me a PH test!" she shrieked. "Hurry!"
Dryden and Hitomi waited while Millerna did the test on herself and ordered all the food off the table at once. Hitomi groaned. The princess was eating beef for breakfast – ew!
When Dryden was again able to talk to her, he asked, "Where do you get your beef?"
"My father has a supplier in Montana," she said with a PH test sticking out of her mouth.
"Does Allen have anything to do with what meat is shipped in?"
"No," she pouted.
Dryden sucked in his breath. "That could mean that he isn't responsible for Marlene contracting the disease."
Millerna looked so vehement that she might spit. Hitomi hoped it wouldn't be yellow.
"I have a question." Hitomi interjected. "Folken and Allen have at least three energists. Is there any possibility that Marlene touched one of those out of its glass case?"
Millerna shook her head. "I don't know the answer to that. I'll have to go see her and ask."
"When you talk to Marlene, be sure to ask her if she's ever eaten a cow heart. We believe that's where the greatest concentration of the disease would be present. Can you do that?"
"Sure," Millerna said acidly.
"Great. Then we'll stop our meeting there. Millerna, Van and Hitomi have samples in the lab at her place. I think we should go out there and see if we can dig up a sample energist for you – like you wanted. Then I'll have done all three things you asked me to do."
"What? No you haven't," she denied.
"What haven't I done? First, you wanted me to tell you how Marlene contracted M.T.N. I've done that. If she didn't get it from touching an energist directly, then it's quite possible that she got it from eating flesh from an infected animal. Secondly, you asked me to prove to you how Allen was responsible. Depending on Marlene's answers to those other questions – that should clear that up quite nicely. And now, I'm on my way to get you a sample. Our contract is almost complete. Once I get the energist, I'll come back. See you probably either tonight or tomorrow morning."
Hitomi couldn't help but notice how sorry Millerna looked. She looked distinctly pained before she turned off her phone and the wall went dark.
Hitomi turned to Dryden and said, "Look, I didn't want to make you lose credibility in front of Millerna, but I don't know if you can get an energist back at the hanger. Van changed all his codes. And even if I could get into the basement, I'm not sure that Van would want me to let you have one."
Dryden didn't flinch. "Who else were you and Van planning to give your findings to? Princess Millerna desperately wants to save her sister's life. If we can find a way through examining the deconstruction of an energist, don't you want that too?"
"Yeah, but—"
"But nothing. There's no one else you can trust and Millerna has loads of money. She can afford to pay scientists to do the leg work. Trust me, okay?"
Hitomi frowned. "All right, but first let's go see how Van's place has held up. Maybe the Schezars robbed the place last night and then blew it to smithereens." She downed the rest of her orange liquid and got ready to go.
Hitomi felt nervous as they got closer and closer to the house. There was one nice thing to look forward to though. There was no way that someone could hide a vehicle on Van's property. If a chopper landed, than there were no trees to hide it. Except for a few decorative saplings in the garden, the place was flat ground.
When they got there, Dryden drove his Jeep in a figure eight around the house and then around the hanger. Then Hitomi got out and opened the big doors on either side of the hanger and it too looked completely deserted.
"Great," Dryden said as he got out and came into the garage. "Let's get to the lab."
Hitomi went over and punched in the appropriate numbers, and the doors to where Van usually hid Escaflowne came open. The two of them slid down the rope ladder before stopping in front of the entryway to the lab. Hitomi put in the digits code she knew and nothing happened.
"I told you Van changed the password," she stammered.
"Well, what would he have changed it to?"
Hitomi screwed up her face. "I have no idea."
Dryden popped the cover off the number panel and hooked his phone up to it, using a red wire and a yellow wire.
"Wow," Hitomi said as she watched him work. "I didn't even know you could still do that."
"It's only for emergencies and I won't be able to find out what the code is, just what kind of code it is."
"What do you mean?"
"You know. If it's all numbers or all letters, or a combination of the two, and how many characters it is all. There we go. I got it. It's five numbers long. Does that narrow it down any for you?"
"No."
"Wait a second. What's your number?"
"I don't have a number."
"Yes you do," Dryden grumbled, like he couldn't believe she didn't know what he was talking about. "What's your model number? The one Sleeping Beauty Inc. gave you?"
"85001."
"That's it." He punched it in and the hatch swung open. "Didn't you know that all females sold have a five digit number assigned to them and all men have a four digit number?"
Hitomi rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm not a private detective. Duh."
"Are you coming down?" Dryden asked as he lowered another rope ladder.
"No thanks. I'll stay up here."
Dryden dropped down. Hitomi watched him get his bearings and begin poking around.
"Be careful," she called.
"Or you might get M.T.N.," a voice said from above Hitomi's head.
Her chin shot up and she was staring at Folken. Hitomi was stunned at how old he looked. She had last seen him five years ago. He didn't get face lifts like Allen and the skin around his eyes and mouth was wrinkled. His hair was cut painfully short, but the mole on his cheek that looked like a teardrop was still there.
Hitomi stared at him. "How did you get here? We checked the place. I didn't hear a chopper just now."
Folken gawked at her. "This is my own house. You think I don't know where to hide a chopper. It's in the coulee." He pulled a gun out of the back of his pants and came down the rope ladder.
"What are you doing here? Didn't I get you what you needed when I worked for Allen?" Hitomi asked, keeping an eye on the barrel of his gun.
"Unfortunately no, and when the first energist I stole stopped working, I had to use one of the ones you stole. Then it wore out and now I'm on the third, which means I need another one."
Then they heard the sound of an engine outside.
"Is that a chopper?" Hitomi asked in a whisper.
"No," Folken said, rushing to the controls to close the trap door over their heads. "It's a truck." It went shut with a clang. And in the next second, Folken had his gun to Hitomi's head and his hand over her mouth. "Don't move."
Over their heads, Hitomi heard someone come in the hanger. "Anybody here?" it was Van.
Folken muscled Hitomi over to the trap door and let her go. Pointing the gun at her head, he hissed, "Don't make a sound, or I'll shoot. Get down there."
That pit was Hell and Hitomi didn't want to go, but that gun made her.
After she was down, Folken came down at lightning speed, pulling the hatch closed with him. Now it was completely dark in the lab. There were only four pinpricks of light that came from the corners of the trap door over their heads.
Where was Dryden? Hitomi couldn't sense him anywhere.
Then she heard Van. "You think you can hide down there? Idiot." The top hatch came open. Then the lab door opened.
Folken was caught red handed as Van stared down at them in the hole. Van had a double barreled shot gun pointed at Folken's head. "How could you take Hitomi back down there when she took PH tests every five minutes for two days after being down there for an hour? Monster."
"Look," Folken said evenly, but not dropping his gun. "I just came to get a couple old energists."
"To power your chopper?"
"Yeah."
"Then you figured out that the crappy ones work, too? I know you guys are desperate for them, but do you want them only to power a chopper? Are you sure you don't want to use them to infect the world with M.T.N.?" Van questioned sardonically.
"What are you talking about?" Folken snarled.
"I've been thinking about this and I don't get it. If all you wanted to do was power a helicopter, why keep the reason a secret from me? Why not just show up, tell me what Dad was up to in his lab and ask me for the energists? Or even stranger, why send Hitomi to steal the energists all those years ago?"
"Dad wasn't selling. It wasn't my idea to send Hitomi to steal that stuff."
"Then why not just ask me for them now that he's gone."
Folken bent his head and lowered his gun.
Van waited and then finally answered his own question. "Because it was your fault that Mom got infected and you thought Dad told me. Were you fighting over the energists with him and broke one on her?"
Folken didn't answer.
"Drop the gun and get out of the hole," Van ordered.
Folken dropped the gun and at the moment the piece hit the floor, Dryden whacked him over the head with a steel rod. Folken fell to the floor like a wash basket full of dirty clothes, skidding his face on the cement.
"I sent a text message to the police. They're on their way," Dryden said.
Van put down his gun and helped Hitomi climb out of the hole. She threw her arms around him. "Thanks so much for coming."
"I made it to town this morning, found the truck and drove out after you and Dryden. Maybe now we can arrange a few things to suit us without worrying about the crazies from your past … and mine."
"That would be good," Hitomi sighed.
"And you'll marry me?"
"Yeah," she nodded.
They were kissing when Dryden called up, "Can you two stop macking and help me get these things out of here?"
Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who is reading and reviewing. I plan for one more chapter after this one, so next week - I will release the final chapter for 'Rose Red: Model 85001'. I will also start re-releasing 'Dragon's Moon' under the title 'Mark of the Dragon' on fictionpress. A few weeks ago I sent everyone to make fictionpress accounts and sign up for my alerts. Quite a few people did. Thank you for that. Everybody else - and you know who you are - get to it. I promise - I worked so hard on this and it is truly WICKED. You don't want to miss it. Love is all around the world. Look forward to much gushiness in the world of 'Rose Red' next week. It's a romance novel so gotta love the gush. LOVE!