Chapter four
Isono was already standing outside Kaiba Corp. when Jou arrived. Along with Seto's chauffeur, three police patrols, a fire truck, and a sea of reporters who threw themselves at Jou as soon as he stepped out of the car.
"Mr Jonouchi! Mr Jonouchi, what is the reason for this unexpected lockdown of Kaiba Corporation?"
"Is there some new, unique game that Mr Kaiba is trying to keep a secret until they're done testing it?"
"Is there some kind of threat against the company? Is that why Mr Kaiba have activated it? Mr Jonouchi, are we dealing with some sort of terrorist attack here?"
"Have you had any kind of contact with your husband since the lockdown was activated?"
"What about the people inside the building? Will they be able to reach their close ones?"
"Mr Jonouchi, is it true that once lockdown has been activated, KC stays completely isolated for twelve hours?"
The questions flew like bullets on a battlefield during World War II, and were accompanied by sharp flashes as photographers tried to get a shot of the young man. Jou felt a bit woozy for a moment, and then Isono grabbed him and pulled him from the mob of journalists to the area the police had bared. They weren't allowed there.
"They're like hungry wolves," Isono muttered and brushed some dust from his suit. "This is not the kind of publicity Kaiba Corp. needs. Mr Kaiba will not find this amusing at all. It's obvious that someone's made a mistake- Mr Kaiba would have told me about this otherwise- and when mistakes lead to incidents like this one, heads are going to roll, for sure. We will have to come up with some sort of excuse of course, but there will be people who are going to look deeper into this, and if some idiot have screwed up-"
"Isono," Jou interrupted. "My whole family is in there."
Isono nodded and turned around to look up at the huge skyscraper.
"I know, Mr Jonouchi. Mr Kaiba informed me about that small detail this morning. But as you know, we have no possible way of getting into the building during the next…" he glanced as his watch, "ten hours and fifty minutes. But don't worry: I'm sure Mr Kaiba will keep and eye on them."
"No, you don't understand!" Jou moaned. "Neither you nor Seto know how wild they can be. They attract trouble ten times more than a normal kid. And there are three of them! Thirty times the trouble, Isono! And Seto doesn't know that!"
Isono stared at him with a blank look for a moment, and the, very slowly asked:
"You think they caused this lockdown?"
"I know they did!" Jou pulled a hand through his hair and gave an exasperated sigh. "And it's my fault entirely. I knew about the chaos that ensues when they're around, and still I let Seto take them. Poor, poor Seto."
Isono actually patted him on the back.
"Mr Jonouchi, pardon me for saying this, but…" he hesitated for a moment, "I think you are overreacting. Natani, Kiichi and Aiko are four years old. I highly doubt that they would be able to cause much trouble in a place like Kaiba Corporation. And I also think you should put a little more faith in Mr Kaiba. He will not let something like that happen." He took a step back and almost smiled at Jou. "And now, if you excuse me, sir, I will have to make a statement in Mr Kaiba's place. We can not let these harpies believe that we do not have full control of the situation."
Jou watched him turn around and walk away. Part of him desperately wanted to believe Isono, but Jou knew that Isono was as oblivious to the things the triplets could do as Seto. Maybe even more.
Ten hours, Seto, he thought and looked up at the skyscraper with worried eyes. You only have to hold on for ten more hours.
That really wasn't a comforting thought.
Kyoshi, the chief of security, put down his cell phone and turned to the people around him. He, Mr Kaiba's secretary, a few leading scientists and some of his security guards had gathered in the cafeteria on the orders of Mr Kaiba himself. Fortunately, even thought cell phones didn't work to contact people outside the building, they were still useful to contact other people inside of it, giving their CEO the chance to call up his secretary and call them to a meeting in the cafeteria. A team of technicians were getting him out of the elevator right now.
"Rimuta just called," Kyoshi informed the people around him. "He and Tomoki have found one of the boys. They're getting him here right now."
"Thank god!" Mrs Yamuru, Seto's secretary, breathed. "I was so worried. KC is no place for children, and I was so afraid that they would come to harm, all because of my stupid phone call."
"Don't get too relieved," Mr Quinn, one of the scientists, sneered. "One is still on the loose, and Mr Kaiba will surely be in a bad mood once the tech team gets him out of that-"
"Mr Kaiba!" called Kyoshi. "At last."
Every pair of eyes in the room fixed on the young man in the cafeteria entrance. Seto Kaiba was standing before them, his hair a little bit messier than usual, his trench coat wrinkled, his face set in a scowl and one of his three sons on his hip.
Never had any of them seen a man looking so furious.
"Where…" His voice was so cold that most people took a nervous step backwards, "…are my children?"
Kyoshi gulped and tried to pull himself together. It was a very hard thing to do when he had goose bumps all over and his knees were shaking. He had long since gotten use to the feeling of being put down by a man half his age, but he had never been as afraid of Kaiba as he was right now. The man had been scary even at the age of seventeen. The scariness had not disappeared with age.
"A-a team of security guards have found one of them," he stammered. "Th-they are bringing him to us right this moment."
"Which one?" Seto asked.
"I-I-I don't know, Mr Kaiba. They couldn't tell."
"And the other?"
"They… they'll tell us once they get here, sir."
Seto's eye narrowed, but he forced himself to stay calm. Half of him was furious, and the other half a mix of panic and fear that he had never felt before. Being locked up in an elevator, waiting to be freed, had definitely not been good for him. After a while, his finger had been itching, and a dull ache had formed in his head, and it was only because of Kiichi that he had stayed calm.
Now, finally free, he was not going to hold back.
"Good," he snapped. "Now when that has been taken care of- or almost at least- let us sum up the situation thus far."
Still with Kiichi in his arms, Seto slowly started to walk over the floor, glaring at each and every one of his employees, and then turned and walked back in the same manner. A kind of slow, slow pacing.
"For the last two hours, two of my sons have been missing, my company has gone into complete lockdown, and I have been stuck in an elevator." People were staring to shiver under the force of his glare and the iciness of his voice. Some stared at the floor like small, ashamed children.
"Once I get out of that elevator, I find three fourths of my staff running around like idiots in panic, and my children still missing. As if that is not enough, the lockdown have surely roused every single new paper in town, and they are probably waiting right outside the building for an explanation to all of this." He spun around. "Have any of you got an explanation? Have any of you thought about what we are going to tell the journalists. Or did all of you think that we were going to walk out there and tell them that we went into complete isolation for twelve hours because of a four-year-old?"
No one answered. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the floor.
"And here I thought I had actually hired some intelligent people." Seto hissed and turned his back to all of them.
Complete silence passed for a few minutes, and then Mrs Yamuru cleared her throat.
"Mr Kaiba, I don't think-"
"You want to know what I think about all this." Seto turned around again, and now his voice was strong, dark and dangerous. Mrs Yamuru took a frightened step back. "No you don't, not really, but I am going to tell you anyway. There is only one question running through my mind right now. Only one. How could two four-year-olds get passed over a thousand grown people, out-smart security, and press the one button that no one is allowed to touch?"
They were all as pale as white sheets by now, and Seto was shaking with rage. Despite this Kiichi was dosing comfortably in his daddy's embrace, knowing that none of the harsh words or cold looks were directed at him.
"Well?" Seto asked at last. "Can any of you answer that?"
His employees were spared from answering, because right that moment, the door to the cafeteria slid open and a child's voice could be heard from outside. A voice which made Kiichi sit up straight and blink happily at the door, and Seto's face relax a bit in relief.
"I won't go down without a fiiiiiiiiiight!" Natani cried as he was practically dragged into the room by two burly security guards. He was trying to dig his heels into the floor and rip his small hands from their firm grip. "If you're going to eat me, I'll take a few of you with me down, you big, lumpy, giant-like-"
"Natani." Seto's voice sounded a lot more relieved and tired, and a lot less stern, than he would have liked it to sound. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Behave."
Natani stopped his ministrations and looked up at the well known voice, his whole face lighting up as he recognised his father.
"Dad!" he cried and rushed up to Seto, not even noticing that the guards were letting go of him at last. He hugged him tightly around the waist- or rather legs, since he was way to short to reach Seto's waist. "I'm so glad to see you! These guys were going to do something terrible to me! I was really scared!"
"They weren't going to harm you, Natani," Seto sighed. "They were supposed to bring you and Aiko to me, whole and clean."
Natani looked up at him. He looked truly surprised.
"Really?"
"Of course."
"Oh."
Seto stared down at him. There was something in Natani's tone that gave Seto chills. That hadn't been an I-just-happened-to-brake-dad's-favourite-computer kind of Oh, neither had it been the I-understood-something-that-I-have-never-understood-before kind of Oh. No, that had been the I-just-beat-up-a-guy-for-screwing-with-my-sister-and-then-found-out-I-picked-the-wrong-guy kind of Oh. The worst kind.
Slowly, Seto put Kiichi down beside his brother, kneeled before the two boys, and looked Natani deep in the eye.
"What did you do?"
Natani shuffled his feet and looked at the floor. There was a huge knot forming in Seto's stomach by now. Slowly, he raised one hand and squeezed Natani's shoulder lightly.
"What… did… you do?" he asked again.
And suddenly Natani grasped his hand and started blabbering as if he thought his life depended on it.
"It really wasn't my fault, dad! They scared me shitless, and I was simply trying to get me and Ai to safety. How was I supposed to know they were trying to help? Please don't be mad at me dad, I really didn't mean to cause any trouble, it's just that those men were chasing us and had us cornered and I had no idea what we were supposed to do, and then I saw that hole in the wall-"
"Hole in the wall? What hole?" Seto interrupted. He squeezed Natani's shoulder a little tighter. "Natani Katsuya Kaiba," it always worked when Jou called them by their whole name, "where is your brother?"
"The… the hole… I pushed him into it, but I was only trying to save him from those men! Dad… I… dad, I'm sorry!"
And then he threw his arms around Seto's neck, pressed his face into his shoulder and sobbed violently. From beside him, Kiichi almost grinned. He himself was not half bad at faking tears, but Natani was simply the best. Seto didn't notice though; he simply stroked his back consolingly and turned to the two guards which had brought Natani to him. They looked very nervous.
"What hole is he talking about?" Seto asked calmly. They almost ran away screaming.
One of them, Rimuta, muttered something while keeping his eyes on the floor, but no one caught what it was.
"Do I look like I have time for you hesitation?!" Seto snapped. "Tell me what the hell he is talking about, so that I can go and get my son!"
Kiichi giggled and whispered "dad swore" to himself, but no one heard it since the guard cleared his throat loudly.
"Yes, of course, sorry sir," he said stiffly, and took a deep breath. "The other boy escaped through one of the refuse chutes which have been installed on all the office-floors. We couldn't stop it sir."
People were gasping and looking shocked. Kyoshi looked deathly pale, Quinn like he might puke, and Mrs Yamuru promptly fainted. Kiichi shot and impressed look at Natani, whom grinned back, but no one noticed.
"Impossible," someone behind Seto whispered to the person next to him.
But it was possible. Very much possible. The triplets were small, even for their age, and he didn't doubt that the refuse chutes were big enough for them. Weren't those child proof, though? Hadn't he thought of that when he installed them? Hadn't someone thought about it? No, of course not, because no one brings children to Kaiba Corp.
"You only see our kids when you get home at midnight. You have no idea what they are like during the day."
Jou had told him. He had told him! And he hadn't believed him! Oh, god, how could he have ever questioned Jou's efforts? Never again would he claim to be the only one in the house working. And how could he have believed the triplets were easy to handle? Had he truly known so little of his children?
Seto carefully pulled free from Natani's arms and sunk down on the closest chair. He hid his face in his shaking hands, and for a moment, the room was completely silent.
After a few minutes, Seto lifted his face and stood up again. A new determination was growing inside of him. He could flip some other time. Right now, he had a child to find. He turned to the Kyoshi.
"Get me to the garbage room."
It sure as hell went faster to get my reviews this time! YAY! Could it be because you liked the last chapter? I really hope you liked this one too! There's only one chapter left now, and I really wanna get this baby done!
Only 8 more, folks! You know what to do! (And even if I've gotten my 8 reviews, you're of course more than welcome to review anyway!)
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