Chapter 5 Plans and Setbacks:
"We're going to Africa."
Sesshoumaru's announcement made everyone pause. Sitting at his desk, Sesshoumaru had thought about the best possible solution to the situation. Getting Moriko back alive was the priority. Stopping Lenka was secondary. Going to Lenka was the fastest way to find Moriko.
InuYasha considered what his brother said. It wasn't an option; it was what they were going to do. He just had to find the quickest, safest way to go.
Sherrin sighed. She hoped Sesshoumaru hadn't meant right away. She was tired and ready for some much needed sleep.
"InuYasha, you go through all the information we have so we know what we're facing." Sesshoumaru nodded at Sherrin. "You are going home to sleep." While Sesshoumaru was a man of action, he wasn't insensitive to Sherrin's needs.
Sherrin smiled thankfully.
"Hikaru, you help InuYasha. Find the fastest route to Africa, the closest place to land at Lenka's place."
After Sesshoumaru and Sherrin left, InuYasha and Hikaru got busy. Unlike Sherrin, they didn't need the rest she did. They could keep going for a few more days before needing sleep if they had to. Food on the other hand was a different matter. Even a half youkai needed to eat. Telling Hikaru to find food, InuYasha listed everything Kouga had told him about Lenka.
Hikaru headed for the kitchen area. The little kitchen was situated on the main floor, in the back. Coming out of the stairwell, Hikaru walked past the main desk and was greeted by the secretary, Yumi. She was a bright, cheerful person, slim with short black hair, dark laughing eyes and an inquisitive mind. However she was not normally a nosy person, she didn't usually ask what was going on. But she was concerned about the comings and goings of the company's owners and how everyone seemed tense.
"What's going Mr. Takashi?"
Hikaru paused before answering. Of the several humans working here, Yumi was the most knowledgeable of them. She had to know the ins and outs of the company, the schedules, time tables and routines. She knew the Takashi's were a close knit family and didn't divulge much of their private lives, so she wasn't aware of the true nature of the family's origins. Hikaru knew he had to be careful what he said.
"Moriko hasn't been to her classes; we are all looking for her."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do?" Yumi hadn't considered something like that. Moriko didn't strike her as one to ditch classes and go off somewhere.
"Thank you, but no. Uncle Inu is making inquiries." Hikaru gave her a small smile and went on to the kitchen. He found some ramen noodles and made enough for the two of them and headed back up to the security office.
"I told Yumi that Moriko hasn't been to her classes," Hikaru told his uncle as he set the food down.
"I've told some of the security guards the same thing." InuYasha wolfed down the noodles. "I also called Detective Yaro at the police station. He'll have some of his men keep a look out for her, but all they know is she hasn't been to her classes."
Hikaru nodded. "Good idea." This way, there was a show to the authorities that the company was a concerned and law-abiding member of the city, but not to the point of the authorities too involved in the case and learn something they didn't need to know.
Hikaru slowly ate his own noodles, mulling over what he knew. Moriko had not indicated she was in any immediate danger. This most likely meant that she was needed alive for something.
"If Father is correct," Hikaru thought out loud, "and this has something to do with the company, then Moriko is being used as some sort of bargaining chip."
InuYasha thought of what Kouga had mentioned. "Most likely, this guy has an 'accident' planned."
Hikaru frowned. "What do you mean?" Though he had a pretty good idea what InuYasha meant.
"This Lenka likes things nice and neat." He held up papers Kouga had sent over while they were out at the docks. "If you cause him trouble, you have an 'accident'." He handed one paper over to Hikaru.
Hikaru read the paper, a list of all Lenka's competitors who had "accidents", and shook his head. Even in this "civilized" century, there were humans who used the "kill the competition" as the rule rather than exception.
" You'd think the authorities would make a connection to all these 'accidents'." Hikaru commented as he handed the paper back.
"Unless of course the authorities are on Lenka's payroll." InuYasha read through some more of the papers. "It seems Lenka is used to getting his way, and makes sure the authorities agree with him." InuYasha considered Lenka and others like him and compared them to Sesshoumaru and himself. People like Lenka thought that money was the key to power and that everyone responded to money. This has proven to not always be true, and can cause the downfall of such people like Lenka. Lenka was overconfident everything would go his way; this thinking was his weakness.
Sesshoumaru on the other hand, had learned the hard way that not everything will go his way. He had also learned to expect the unexpected and has the ability to adjust to situations accordingly. Nor has he been interested in power for power's sake. For a long time, he had wanted to prove he was more powerful than any other. He had since learned that being more powerful doesn't always make you a better person. He had learned that humility and compassion added to strength, and that's what made you a better person.
InuYasha, having learned the same thing, felt fairly sure they would get Lenka in the end, but whether or not they got Moriko back, he wasn't so sure.
Sherrin made some tea and poured herself a cup. As she turned around, a small black dragon suddenly appeared from nowhere. Startled by the sudden appearance, she dropped her cup as she cried out in surprise.
Sesshoumaru came into the kitchen to see what was wrong. Spotting the black dragonette, he held out his arm for the little creature to land on.
"This is Kodo," Sesshoumaru introduced the little dragon to Sherrin. The little dragon's eyes whirled in various shades of blue as he chirped softly at Sherrin. Sherrin extended her hand, letting the dragon get her scent.
"Isn't there another one? A white one?" Sherrin had a memory flash of two little ferrets, one black and one white, stealing a staff.
"Hi'Iki sent this one," Sesshoumaru said as he took a piece of paper from the little black dragon. He read the note and showed it to Sherrin.
It read "Not easy to find. Will let you know."
Frowning, Sherrin asked, "What's not easy to find?"
"There was the scent of a male feline youkai at the dock. Hi'Iki is looking into who it was and what his plans are." Sesshoumaru looked intently at the little dragon. "The sooner the better." The dragon chirped and was gone.
Sherrin went back and made another cup of tea after cleaning up the cup she dropped. "You have some idea who this youkai is?" Sherrin sat down at the table with the new cup.
"He may be from a group of youkai living in the remote parts of Russia. Hi'Iki is going to find out."
Sherrin finished her tea. She wasn't hungry, just really tired. It wasn't actually that late, only about nine o'clock, but with the time change, jet lag and stress of everything that had happened, made her want to curl up in a warm bed and forget about everything, at least for a while. She rinsed out her cup and left it in the sink and headed for the bedroom. As she got ready for bed, she asked, "You think this youkai has something to do with Moriko's disappearance?"
"I don't know. His scent was mixed in with hers only at the dock, not at her house." Sesshoumaru sat on the bed.
Sherrin, now in a pink night shirt and pink flowered flannel pants, sat next to Sesshoumaru. She wrapped her arms around him and snuggled close. "I'm sure we'll discover answers in Africa," she said as her eyes drifted close.
With the rhino hunt set to begin in two days, Lenka made plans for his "guests". A canned lion hunt gone wrong sounded like an ideal way to get rid of unwanted visitors. He would make it look like he invited the head of the Takashi family to discuss business and take a little hunting trip. He first made arrangements to get a lion and have it sent to the estate. On the few occasions that he entertained foreigners, they usually stayed at the estate and there was no need to make arrangements. To make it look like he was actually entertaining a business associate, he let his company know he was making a business deal with the owner of a Japanese shipping company.
After that was taken care of, he sat down and made a list of questions he needed to ask the unexpected hostage. Committing the questions to memory, he carefully burned the list, tossing the burning paper into the fireplace.
He was just sitting down to lunch when his cell phone rang.
"It better be good news," he growled into the tiny speaker. He was not happy to learn that the plane was delayed due to a storm. "How much longer?"
"About an hour" the crisp clear voice on the other end said.
"Very well. I'll meet you at the estate in an hour." Lenka put his cell phone away. He decided to go over shipping rosters for the next hour until it was time to leave.
Lenka drove carefully up to his estate, going over in his mind things he needed to do. He was totally unprepared for the sight that greeted him when he reached the little airstrip at the back of the property: utter chaos. Men were running around trying to put a fire, the plane was a wreck, and three men were lying on the ground, not moving.
Unable to believe what he was seeing, Lenka got out of the car and slowly made his way over to the mess.
Seeing his head man searching the ground around the plane, Lenka called the man over. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Lenka asked "What happened?"
Killian, the gunman with the athletic build, explained about the plane going down. "The storm caused us to go farther than expected and we ran out of fuel." Killian dabbed a cloth at the blood seeping from a gash on the side of his head. "The prisoners are gone. I can't find any trace of them."
"What!" Anger getting the best of him, Lenka started yelling at Killian. "How the hell do two people just disappear from a plane crash? Why wasn't there enough fuel! Damn-it, I can't trust anyone to do anything right!" Lenka looked mad enough to hit something. Killian shook his head and backed up a step. "I'm sorry sir. The plane was fueled. We didn't know the storm used up all the fuel."
Ignoring this explanation, Lenka demanded to know about the two prisoners.
"Everyone was thrown around when we crashed. They probably got thrown out of the plane." He indicated where one body was lying on the ground. "Gunther went through the window, killed on impact. Mac and Warin are in serious condition, they need a doctor." Killian watched his boss to judge what the response would be. Lenka didn't always care about what happened to his men, but Gunther, Mac and Warin were among his best bodyguards.
Lenka walked over to check on Mac and Warin. Both appeared to be in bad shape. The afternoon heat didn't make it any better for the men. Lenka pulled out his cell phone and called his own private doctor. Because of Lenka's uncaring habits, he needed a doctor on the payroll that didn't ask questions and cared only about the money. He had managed to find one in Johannesburg. After the doctor acknowledged that he was on the way, Lenka then told Killian to do a quick search around the area for signs of the missing prisoners.
Taking a couple of men with minor injuries, Killian walked around the entire estate, starting at the plane and walking out in ever widening circles. The area around the plane was a mess of his men's tracks, the plane's skid marks and debris. Apart from the tracks his men left, there was nothing. He finished as the doctor showed up.
Lenka was pacing back and forth as the doctor took over the two seriously injured men. Killian sent two men to get rid of the body before reporting to Lenka. "Sorry sir, nothing."
"Nothing?"
"No sir, not even a scuff mark."
Frowning Lenka asked "How can that be?" He worried about what the two people knew and where they had gone. He didn't need any unexpected visitors showing up asking incriminating questions.
"We need to do a more thorough search." He ordered Killian to round up enough men and go over every square inch of land in the surrounding countryside. "Find them!"
"It'll be dark before we're done."
"I don't care if you have to search in the dark! Find them!"
Nodding, Killian reluctantly agreed. He gathered what men were available and headed out. He would need more men and considered who he could call on short notice and was close enough to arrive before dark. Flipping open his cell phone, he made several calls as he walked.
Lenka now had to reconsider his plans. He would still contact Takashi and give him the ultimatum, but he'd just leave out the fact Takashi's daughter was missing. He'd go ahead with the original plan and adjust it to suit the new circumstances. He would use the dockhand as an excuse for Takashi's daughter disappearing into the bush. He felt he could make it work.
Leaving the clean up to his personnel, he made his way back to his car and drove back to the estate. Parking the car in the shade of an umbrella acacia tree, he went into the house. The house was nearly mansion size. There was an entryway, a short hallway with three doors and an open archway leading into a large livingroom. The first door led to a bathroom, the second to the kitchen and the third to a den. To the left of the archway was a staircase that led to the upper floor. Lenka went into the den. There was a desk, bookcases, a computer on the desk, an end table and couch by the only window. The room was done in browns and beige, with the carpet and walls in the beige colors and the furniture in browns.
After a quick search at the desk, Lenka found Takashi's office number and made the call.
"Hello?"
"Hello, I'm calling to talk to Mr. Takashi please."
"I'm sorry; Mr. Takashi is out. How can I help you?"
Lenka wasn't pleased to get some underling at the office. "When he gets in have him call this number and ask for Mr. Lenka."
"I'll give him the message."
In his frustration at the current events, he had forgotten about the time difference in Japan. He put the cell phone down on the end table and sat on the couch. Chances were Mr. Takashi wouldn't be in until the morning. He'd simply have to wait. He went to the kitchen and made himself a drink and something to eat, as the staff was out cleaning up after the accident. He went back to the den, shut the door and sat on the couch, waiting for Takashi to call him.
InuYasha had sent Hikaru home and stayed late at the office to prepare for the flight to Africa. He was surprised when the phone rang. "Hello?"
"Hello, I'm calling to talk to Mr. Takashi please."
"I'm sorry; Mr. Takashi is out. How can I help you?"
"When he gets in have him call this number and ask for Mr. Lenka."
"I'll give him the message." InuYasha was surprised at the request and was certain it was Lenka himself who had called. He called Sesshoumaru.
"So you think it was Lenka himself?"
"Yeah. Didn't sound like some secretary asking to speak with you; more of a demand." InuYasha's voice should what he thought of people demanding things from him.
Sesshoumaru gave a little grunt of agreement. "I'll head over there now."
He first checked on Sherrin. She was sleeping soundly. Moose was laying on the floor next to the bed. He looked up at Sesshoumaru. "Keep an eye on her." Sesshoumaru told the big dog. Moose waved his tail and stayed where he was.
As he went into the livingroom, Sesshoumaru paused to tell Hikaru where he was going and to be alert to any thing strange.
"Something happen?" Hikaru knew his Father wouldn't leave Sherrin unless it was important.
"It seems Lenka may have called." Sesshoumaru left without saying more. Hikaru correctly guessed that his Father was going to call this Lenka guy back.
Notes:
I know both Sessh and Inu would prefer to go rushing headlong into danger using their abilities, but in the modern world, this would not be advisable if they wish to keep their true natures a secret.
I just want to add here, thanks for all the reviews of my stories. I hope I have gotten a little bit better at writing. If you have any tips about making my story better, please feel free to do so- I know I'm not the best writer. As stated before, I prefer writing when no one else is around, which is not often. I also have to be in the mood for writing.