"Is that it?" Anon asked from the back seat.

"No," Flower answered. "It's further down."

"Are you sure? I swore that rock was there…"

How they could tell the difference between roads in these woods was unknown to me. We had been surrounded by nothing but trees and darkness for hours now. The road beneath us was loose gravel and every road branching off was nothing more than a winding dirt path.

"It's this one," Flower said, turning right onto another road, identical to the ones we had passed before.

Anon seemed unsure. "Okay…"

"When should we ditch the car?" Rin asked. Her expression was hard and determined. She was ready for this.

"I don't know," Flower answered. "We want to get as close as we can without raising alarm. Hopefully, we won't just turn a corner and end up in her driveway."

"Psh," I let out a laugh. "That'd be perfect."

"Yeah. A perfect way to get us killed," Kanon said from the seat behind me. I seemed to be the only one in a joking mood tonight. I guess it was understandable as to why.

The car jumped with every small rock we ran over. Minivans were not meant for off-roading.

Five minutes later, Flower slowed the car to a slow stop.

"What's wrong?" Yuma asked.

Her shoulders slumped. "There's another road. Do we turn or keep going?"

"Shit," Rin muttered. "I knew we were going to get lost."

"We're not lost!" Flower shouted. "I know how to get us out of here! Just… just not how to get us there."

"Keep going straight," Anon suggested. "If we don't find anything, we can always turn around."

Flower sighed. "I guess."

We kept going.

Another few silent minutes passed. There was another road.

"Just keep going," Yuma said.

"Where the fuck do these even go?" Flower said in annoyance. "Who comes out here?"

"I mean, maybe they all lead to Meiko's base. Who knows. She could have seven different buildings," Yuma said.

The idea seemed to frighten Flower. "Kanon, can any of your tech help us find them?"

She let out a sigh. "I mean, I can try. But it's a bit of a risk. They'll probably know if they're being tracked."

"Shit," Flower said quietly. "I don't know what to do."

"Wait wait wait wait-" Rin jumped out of her seat, pointing out the windshield. "Right there! Right there. You see that?"

"See what?" Flower looked at the girl like she was crazy.

"Len," Rin looked over her shoulder at me. "Do you see that?"

Flower halted the car as Rin pointed at a tree next to yet another turn off the road. I leaned forward next to her, between Flower and Yuma's seats, and spotted exactly what she was making such a big fuss about.

Tied around one of the trees was a familiar red cloth.

"Turn here," I said. "It's gotta be here."

"Why? What are you guys talking about?" Flower pulled the car off to the side of the road a few feet past the turn. We were walking from here.

Rin pulled her bag from the floor and opened the door. "We went to the college campus in town. There were these guys wearing armbands just like that and the students there didn't recognize them. They were either dealing to the students or getting… friendly with the college girls."

Flower stepped out of the car. She closed her door quietly, then pulled her bag out from Rin's seat. She glanced at the cloth blowing in the soft wind. "Makes sense. They probably want their girls to find them easily. Red stands out perfect."

It didn't even occur to me that those guys were dealing more than just drugs.

"Did you guys happen to find out if girls disappear from campus often?"

"Oh, Jesus," I muttered.

Rin shook her head. "No. We didn't."

"That's awful," I said.

"Welcome to the Black Market," Kanon muttered sadly as she exited the car.

I sour taste had filled my mouth. Everyone gathered their gear, each of us carrying at least thirty pounds of gear in our bags, and started down the road.

As we passed the tree, Rin glanced towards the cloth one more time. She paused for a moment, then dashed towards the tree and tore it off.

"I have an idea," she said, answering our questioning glances. "You think they make those girls come here?"

"That'd be my guess," Flower shrugged. She led the way down the road, keeping to the left of the path itself and taking us through the wilderness. We skirted the road to avoid being seen.

"How far do you think it is?" Anon asked.

"Can't be that much further," Yuma replied. Six pairs of feet crunched through the underbrush. We had been walking for only ten minutes and I could feel the burs sticking painfully to my clothes.

Flower suddenly stopped, holding a hand up behind her. We froze.

Light was beginning to show through the trees. The light of a building.

Flower bounded forward, her movements suddenly soundless, and peered through the branches. After a few tense minutes, she came back.

We all crouched down, hidden behind some tall bushes.

"It's a fucking mansion," she whispered. "She lives in a fucking mansion."

"Can't say I'm surprised," Rin rolled her eyes.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We can't just go in. There are bound to be cameras everywhere. And I bet they're all streaming to a security room. If we take the cameras out or scramble them with our bags, they're gonna know something is up," Kanon explained.

"So we have to get to that security room," Flower concluded.

"But where is it? We can't send any drones in without being detected, and we can't avoid being detected unless we send drones - or something else - in. How are we supposed to do this?" Anon fiddled with her bag as she spoke.

Rin took a deep breath. "Kanon, do you have those glasses?"

"Which ones? The recording ones?"

"Yeah. Those."

She slowly zipped her bag open. "Yeah, I think so."

"Okay. Here's what we're going to do," Rin started. She set her bag on the ground and zipped it open, pulling a seemingly random array of items from it and putting all that she could fit in her pockets. "Anon, you should stay here. This little clearing will be our meeting place. If anyone gets injured, they can come back here and you can treat them."

She nodded, her brows furrowing in determination.

"I'll wear these," Rin continued as Kanon handed her a pair of glasses that looked normal enough to me. "And I'll go in and scope the place out the best that I can. You guys are gonna have to plan from there."

Flower nodded. "Try to find the security room. If you can lock that place down, we'll be able to move throughout the mansion with you guiding us through the cams."

She nodded.

"Okay, okay, okay," Yuma held his hands up. "It's a good plan. But please don't attack her until we find her office. That's gotta be where her files are. And, also, no shooting. We'll be caught in a heartbeat if anyone hears a gun go off."

"I have the baton," Rin said, tapping her pocket. She gently placed the glasses over her eyes.

"But how are you gonna get in?" I asked.

"Simple," she said, blinking underneath the glasses. They somehow made her eyes look even bigger. "You said it yourself. I look like a college girl."

My shoulders slumped. "But-but who knows what they do in there-"

"I'll be fine," she assured me.

I wasn't convinced. The last time she had gone in alone, it didn't end well.

"Plus," she said, tapping the corner of her glasses. "You guys will see exactly where I'm going."

"And if they take the glasses?"

"Why would they-" she cut herself off with a frown.

Kanon dug through her bag again. "Clip this in your shirt somewhere. We'll be to track you if we need to."

She nodded, taking the small device from Kanon's hand. "Okay."

It made me feel a little better, but not much.

Kanon pulled out a tablet. It was barely larger than the average smartphone. "Just let me connect them real quick and you'll be all set." She booted up the tablet. Suddenly, the screen was filled with all of our faces from Rin's point of view.

She looked in different directions experimentally. The screen followed her every movement.

"Keep your earpiece on," Kanon instructed her. "We'll be able to hear you." She fitted her own small microphone into her ear. The rest of us took the hint and did the same.

Rin took a deep breath and stood. "Okay. Here we go."

I didn't like this plan at all. But it was too late to protest. She wiped the underbrush from her clothes and jumped to the road.

I moved next to Kanon, watching the screen intently.

"She'll be fine, Len," Anon assured me.

I said nothing and continued to stare at the screen.

It wobbled a bit as she walked. She looked up, the grand mansion displayed before her. It was just like movies; multiple stories tall, white columns adorning the clean walls and windows that revealed an interior that matched the grandeur of the exterior. There were people everywhere, including two standing in front of the double-doored entrance. The two guys were each holding a rifle. I gulped.

My heart nearly stopped when they turned their heads towards Rin.

"Well, well. What are you doing out here this late?" One of them asked her as she approached. He wore a sickening smile that made me want to kick his teeth in.

Rin looked down. "I'm… I'm from Fairbanks. I heard about this place from one of the guys there," she said, her voice feigning naivety. "I heard it's always a party."

The other guy wore the same sly smile. "Who sent you, sweetie?"

I let out a huff. Yuma chuckled next to me. "You're funny, dude."

"Quiet, you two!" Flower snapped, watching the screen with us.

"I, uh, I think his name was Ted?" She held out the red cloth. "He gave me this."

The men exchanged grins. "Right this way," said the one on the left, leading her up the marble steps to the front doors. He pushed them open and Rin stepped inside.

The floors were polished marble tiles with gold patterns interspersed among them. They had walked into an elegant living room, filled with some very inelegant people. To the right was a matching marble fireplace with a blaring TV hanging over it. Beyond the living room was a hallway extending to what looked like a kitchen. To the left stretched another hallway, with a curving staircase extending next to it. The stairs wrapped around a thick white column, leading to a single set of double doors. An insignia with a fancily drawn M adorned the doors.

Rin looked at them for a long time.

"That must lead to Meiko's living quarters," Yuma said. "Her office has to be in there."

"Wow~" she gazed intently around the room, letting us see the entirety of her surroundings. What's up there?" Rin asked innocently, pointing at the top of the stairs. She ignored the curious glances of the others from the couch.

The guy waved her off. "Nothing fun. Come on - Ted's down here." He walked ahead of her, leading her down the left hallway. She passed the staircase.

Flower looked up from the screen, gazing at the mansion in front of us. "That would mean all the windows on the top floor lead to Meiko's quarters."

The guy opened a door at the end of the hall, revealing a staircase into the basement. He went in first. Rin followed him.

"How many floors are there here?" Rin asked in wonder, still looking around. They had entered another living room, this one empty. Another hallway extended across the room from them. The guy headed towards it.

My heart was pounding with worry.

"Just three," he answered. "The basement, the main floor, and upstairs."

They entered the hallway. Their footsteps tapped against the marble floor. There were several doors spread throughout the hall, most of them closed. As they passed each one, Rin looked in intently.

The third door they passed was open. She glanced inside and froze. It was a dark room with TV screens stretched across the wall opposite the door. Another guy sat in a chair, his back to Rin, watching the screens.

It was the cameras.

One showed the front entrance, guarded by only one guy now. Another showed the living room they had entered through. Then there was one aimed directly at the stairs leading to the double doors.

Rin's eyes hovered on one camera specifically.

It was Meiko. She was sitting on a white couch, a huge TV screen in front of her. Her back was to the camera.

We found her.

"Wow~" Rin sang again, stepping into the room. "You guys have your own security?! This place is awesome."

The guy in the chair turned to face her. He wasn't armed.

"Yeah, but this isn't the place-" the guy with the gun stepped in behind her.

Rin turned, planted her hands on the rifle, and kneed the guy in the crotch.

"Fuck!" He screamed, stepped back. "You bit-"

He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence. Rin gripped the barrel, swinging the butt of the gun right into his temple. He fell to the floor. She turned to strike the other guy just as he rose from the seat.

She hastily closed the door and propped the two bodies up against it.

"Fuckin' creeps," she muttered, sitting in the swivel chair before the cameras. "We're clear."

"Kára, the office," Yuma said. "Where's the office?"

She looked through the cameras. "There," she pointed. The room looked more like a library than an office. Tall bookshelves rose from the ground to the ceiling, reading chairs dispersed throughout the room. There was a single computer at the end in front of a large paneled window. "East end of the building. Second floor."

Yuma turned to me and Flower. "Us three. We're going for it."

"Okay," I nodded, just relieved that Rin wasn't at the mercy of those guys anymore.

"What about me?" Kanon furrowed her brow.

"You need to stay with Anon. In case someone finds her," he explained.

She glanced at her sister with a nod.

"Helgi, Odin and I are going to circle around," Yuma explained. "We'll rappel up to the second floor and go in through the window."

"And what about the rat?" Rin asked with a sneer.

Yuma sighed. "If we really have to take her out, I'll have Helgi do it after we get the info we need."

"I want to do it," she said.

"You need to watch the cameras."

"I think I can disable all of them. I'll lock the door on my way out so no one can get in. We'll be long gone before they get in here."

Yuma shook his head. "And how are you going to get past all those guards on the main floor?"

"I'm sneaky."

"Just stay down there," he insisted.

"No."

On the screen, she glanced down at the computer-like keyboard in front of her, clicking away at the screens and sabotaging the cameras one-by-one.

"Dammit," Yuma uttered.

"I'll meet you guys up there," she promised.

"Let's move. Now," Flower said, standing. "I want to get out of here asap."

"Agreed," I said, lifting my bag, and, after a quick glance, Rin's as well. I hung one on each shoulder.

They didn't question me. Flower and I followed Yuma through the woods. We skirted the mansion. Several other guards patrolled the edges, but none of them caught onto us. We left Anon and Kanon in the clearing alone.

Yuma stopped once we circled to the back of the mansion. He pointed to a window on the second floor. It was the same shape and size of the one Rin had seen on the cameras. Two statues of menacing gargoyles stood on either side of the window. Old-fashioned, I commented to myself.

The three of us paused, waiting for another patrol to pass by. The seemed to walk in a predictable pattern. Every four minutes or so.

"I'll go first," Flower whispered. She pulled a small device out of her bag and set it between her teeth. It looked like a large exacto knife.

"I'm right behind you," Yuma said.

"I'll drop the rope when I get up top," she told him.

"Can you climb it?" Yuma asked me over his shoulder.

"I'll be fine."

"Okay." He turned back to Flower. "On your call."

She turned her head from side to side, watching a pair of loudly-talking men pass underneath our destination. As soon as they turned the corner, Flower made a run for it. Yuma crawled forward and watched her.

Flower reached the wall, pulling a rope out of her bag and throwing the knotted end up at one of the statues skillfully. She roped it on the first try. Pulling it tight, she began to ascend. After a few heart-racing seconds, she pulled the exacto knife out from between her teeth and drew a human-sized oval in the glass. The panel fell into the room. Flower caught it, keeping it from shattering on the marble floor, and let out a small yelp.

"Is she okay?" I asked Yuma.

He frowned. "I think so."

She guided the glass cutout into the room and gently to the floor.

"Now," Yuma said, jumping from his hiding position. I followed him.

We sprinted from the woods, across the well-kept grass, towards the rope. Yuma jumped onto it first. The rope swung wildly below him as he climbed.

I heard faint voices around the corner.

"Hurry!" I stage-whispered up to him. "They're coming!"

He pulled himself into the room. I jumped onto the rope after him.

The voices were growing louder, nearing the corner. I could hear three distinct laughs. And each of them surely had a gun.

"Helgi, let's go!" Flower poked her head out of the window and held a hand out towards me. I scrambled up the rope and grabbed it just in time. She pulled me up and shuffled the rope into her hands.

We disappeared into the dark room just as three figures emerged from around the corner. They didn't pause as they passed below us.

"Thank God," Yuma whispered, pulling his laptop out of his bag and setting it on the desk. He booted up Meiko's computer. "Just stay quiet. This is gonna take me a few minutes."

Flower stared out the window, looking for any signs of distress from the guards. There were none.

"Updates, guys," Kanon said through our comms.

"We're in the office," Flower said. "Loki's setting up the hack now."

"I'm almost done with the cameras. No one's bothered me yet," Rin said.

"Psh," Yuma let out a laugh. "You'd think she'd have a password for her computer. Fucking idiot. I'm in."

"What can you find?" Flower asked, leaning over his shoulder to see the screen. He connected the two computers together with some wires I didn't understand. I watched from the other shoulder.

Yuma clicked through her files. "Client list. Locations to… somewhere. Ah, here," he clicked on a file. "Suppliers. Luka's the only one."

"What's it say?" Rin asked.

He furrowed his brow. "...Nothing I understand. It's all written in some sort of code."

"We don't have time to decipher it now. Can you just download it so we can get the hell out of here?" Kanon asked.

"I'm in the process. But it's going to take a few minutes to get everything. There's a lot on here."

"See what else you can find," Flower said.

"Cameras are gone. I'm on my way upstairs."

"Be careful, K," I said.

"Mhmm."

"Let's see…" he searched through some other files. "Shipment dates, supply lists… here's her account history." He clicked. "Holy shit. I'd assume it's Luka depositing all this money into her account. Well," he chuckled. "Now all into our account."

Flower let out a laugh. "Suck on that, bitch."

"And there we go," he said, clicking on the new addition to Meiko's recent transactions. "We're gonna live long, happy lives, guys." His brow furrowed. "Wait. What's that?" He pointed to the corner of the screen. "Tanana, Alaska, US. Is that where we are?"

"I think it's the closest town," Flower answered.

"...So her tech tracks her bank activity?"

Flower shrugged. "I guess it does."

He clicked to a different one. "Look," he said. "This is the one from the China job. The client gave her eleven mil. And then the deposit into our account. That one," he said with a grin. "Isn't tracked. Luckily, she hasn't been able to get through my security."

"But what about the client? Wasn't it Luka?"

"We can guess," he said, typing away. "Guys. We have a location."

"Where is it?" Anon begged for an answer.

"Brazil. This place called Manaus, Brazil."

"But what if the contract wasn't Luka? Try some others," Kanon suggested.

He did as he was told. Every single deposit into Meiko's account over a couple million dollars was from the same city.

"That has to be her," he said, his voice rising with hope. "That has to be!"

A door open and closed gently from the hall on the other side of the door. The three of us froze, but the footsteps were too quiet to be any of those thugs downstairs. They walked right past the office.

"K," I said in my mic. "You passed the office."

"I know," she whispered.

I glanced at Yuma and Flower before sneaking to the door and opening it. I stepped into the hallway.

Rin stood in front of me, her back to me. Beyond her was Meiko's living room. The woman herself sat on the couch, just where we saw her on the cameras, her eyes glued to the screen in front of her. She was completely unaware of our presence.

I took a silent step forward, causing Rin to jump a bit as I brushed against her arm to let her know I was here. She shot me a determined look before snapping her gaze back to the girl in front of us. I transferred her bag from my shoulder to hers.

The remote for the TV was on the kitchen counter directly to our right. Rin grabbed it and pressed the power button.

Meiko sat up as the screen went black, then cursed under her breath. "Where's that damn-"

"Looking for this?" Rin asked.

She froze. Slowly and shakily, Meiko turned her head towards us. Once her brown eyes landed on us, she shot up from the couch. "How the fuck-"

"Did you really think," Rin said, setting the remote back onto the counter. "That you could get rid of me that easily?"

Meiko's eyes flickered between us like a deer in headlights. She was scared. "R-Rin, please. You have to understand. It was business! I have to do what I have to do-"

"So is this," she responded, reaching into her bag and pulling out her pistol.

Yuma said no guns. I remained silent. He was almost done with the computer. Then we'd be gone.

Meiko's eyes fluttered to the gun in terror. "What… what do you want from me?"

She smirked. "Oh, we already have what we want." She pointed over her shoulder towards the office. "How's it feel being broke?"

Meiko's movements were robotic and panicked. "What? No-"

"Your office had some pretty interesting info on a mutual acquaintance of ours," Rin explained as she loaded her gun.

She shook her head furiously. "No! No, Rin, please. She'll kill me-"

"I don't think it's her you need to worry about."

She held her hands up in defense. "Look, we can work something out here," she begged. "We can - we can start working together again! And I'll get you twice as many contracts as before, I swear! And Luka can go fuck herself, okay? I'll stop all contact! I promise-"

Rin let out a laugh. "You expect me to trust your word after you tried to have me killed?"

"It was business!" Meiko wailed. "I swear! I would have never done it if Luka-"

Rin rose her gun. "No one lives long in this business," she said slowly. Anger flared in her eyes and triumph in her smile. "See ya, Meiko."

"Hack is done," Yuma said through the mic. "Leaving now-"

"Rin, wait-"

Meiko never got to finish her sentence. A loud bang sounded throughout the entire house, surely heard by everyone both inside and outside. Blood splattered on the TV behind her and Meiko fell to the ground. She didn't move.

"K?! What the fuck! We said-"

"Let's get out of here," Rin said, turning back to the office. Someone yelled from the floor below us.

I cast one last look at Meiko's lifeless body. I almost felt guilty. But then I remembered her snide plot in London, her malevolent dealings with Luka, the terrible acts her guys were committing.

"Bitch," I muttered as I followed Rin into the office. Flower and Yuma were long gone, but they had left the rope for us.

We jumped out of the window and descended into the night without a word.


Ah, Vocaloids. Gotta love taking them and writing them so they kill each other.

Thanks for reading :)