I keep forgetting to update this regularly, so I think I'm just gonna post the rest of the chapters in one day. Sorry again guys! I've been in a pretty sucky writing slump and I'm still trying to get over it. Thanks for being patient with me! :)
With Miku guiding us, we were able to exit the building with only a few odd looks from the employees and security. No one questioned her about where she was going or when she would be back. Which was good for us. She most likely wasn't coming back.
When we got back to the cottage, they put her in one of the double bedrooms on the first floor. Flower insisting on sitting inside with her. The poor girl didn't resist, didn't argue, didn't say a single word as she entered the room and chose to lay down on one of the beds.
"What now?" Kanon asked as Flower sat on the floor in Miku's room. She left the door open.
"Let's, uh, take a quick breather. It's not even lunchtime and this whole thing just got way more complicated. I want to sit down for a little," Yuma answered, ruffling a hand through his hair and watching Miku curl up on the bed. Her breathing was uneven. She was probably crying again.
It was understandable. There were many things to cry about in her situation.
Rin looked at the girl with nothing but disgust. "She's in our fucking house," she muttered to me. Kanon and Yuma each sat down on the couch while Anon set her bag on the counter and inspected it.
"Flower's watching her," I assured her. "We're fine."
"We won't be if she's bugged or being tracked. What if Luka finds out she's with us?"
Kanon had already taken precautions against that possibility, scanning Miku with her tech to find any sign of a microphone or camera. It came back clean.
I sighed. "I think you're being paranoid. Look, just chill out for a little bit. You wanted to finally get somewhere with this and we finally found a lead. Relax while you still can."
She didn't respond. Her eyes narrowed at Miku through the doorway. Her back was to us. "Fine," she finally said through gritted teeth. "I'm going back to bed."
I nodded. "There you go."
She hesitated, her anger fading as she turned away from the door.
I patted my stomach. "I'm starving. I gotta eat something."
That seemed to answer her unspoken question. With a softened expression, she turned away from me and ascended the stairs.
"So," Yuma said, sitting down at the head of the table and folding his arms. "Where do we start?"
Our little break had lasted longer than intended. The sun was setting outside, most of us had spent the day either sleeping, eating, or staring blankly at the TV. Now, we had all gathered in the dining room once again. Rin leaned against the wall nearby, her face soft and her eyes still heavy from the long nap she had taken. Everyone else, Miku included, sat at the table. It was time to plan.
"Do you have any paper?" Miku asked in a small voice. She had recovered a bit since we'd arrived home. But not completely. Her cheeks were still tinged red. "Let me draw out the base for you."
Yuma pulled a pen and paper from his bag and slid it across the table to her.
She took a deep breath, squeezing the pen in her hand, and began to draw.
"The whole base is a traditional Japanese-style house, basically. All the walls are made of wood or paper. It gets really hot in the rainforest, so she usually leaves the doors open."
We all listened intently. Whether she was telling the truth or not, we had no choice but to trust her.
Even in Rin's sleepy state, I could tell she was extremely put off by the girl speaking.
"Even though it's all traditional," Miku continued, still drawing a crudely-sketched map on the paper. "There are cameras everywhere. The security room is in the basement. There's no way we'll be able to sneak in without them seeing us."
"Why can't we just go in with you?" Kanon asked. "You seem to have some… authority in this little business of yours."
"L-she can't know I'm there," Miku stammered. "I'm supposed to be looking over the offices. If I show up, she'll know something is going on. And the only advantage we have over her at this point is the element of surprise."
"So we can't sneak in," Flower repeated. "We can't walk in. How do you expect us to get in at all?"
Miku circled a point on the map towards the back of the building. "This," she said, turning the paper towards Flower. "This is the kitchen. A delivery guy comes once a week to drop off food for the chefs."
"Chefs?" Anon let out a huff of amusement. "Secret, personal chefs. Wow."
Miku nodded. "The shipments come from the markets downtown. One of you has to take over the truck headed to her base, come pick us up, and then we'll all drive there together."
"And when we get there?" Kanon prodded.
"When we get there, the driver is going to be dressed like their normal delivery guy. They'll drop us off close to the base, drive up like normal, and begin unloading the food into the kitchen. There will be people there and they will see the driver. But they won't think twice about it as long as they're in uniform."
Yuma nodded. "And then?"
"Around lunch time, the entire kitchen staff will clear out to the dining room to serve the food. L...Luka will be there. The driver will let us in through the kitchen-"
"But you said there were cameras everywhere." Flower narrowed her eyes. "How are we supposed to get inside without seeing them?"
"I chose the kitchen," Miku explained patiently. "Because there are blind spots in there. The chefs always hang out and work in the blind spots so that the guys down in security don't tell Luka they're slacking off. We're going to have to take a very specific path, but we'll be able to get here without being spotted if we're careful."
"Where is here?" Anon leaned towards Miku to get a better look at her drawing.
Miku flipped the paper over and began drawing a more detailed version of the kitchen. "At this wall right here," she tapped an area of the kitchen near the exit. "There's a lever behind the counter right here. It's the end of Luka's emergency exit. The tunnel behind it goes straight to her living quarters. Into her bedroom. Once we're all inside, we're going to run through this tunnel and come out in her bedroom. The dining room, where she'll be sitting, is in the next room. You open the door, you… do your thing, and then we run out the same way we came in."
Yuma nodded. "When's the next delivery?"
"The truck is going to leave the market tomorrow morning."
A quiet moment passed as we all thought over the plan in detail.
"Sounds too easy," Rin finally said quietly.
Miku shrugged. "If everything goes by the plan, maybe it will-"
"You're fucking with us," Rin cut her off, crossing her arms. "I don't believe any of what you just said. Not a word."
Her shoulders slumped and her eyes lowered to her drawing.
"There's no way you just changed your mind like that. One day you're happily dealing all of your girlfriend's drugs, paying all of her customers, basically running her entire business for her and the next day you want her dead? No way-"
The entire table jumped as Miku suddenly balled her fists and slammed them on the table. Flower leaned forward with the reflexes of a cheetah and reached for the gun tucked in the waistband of her jeans.
"I'm sick and tired of being a puppet!" Miku screamed, rising from the table and glaring at the girl across the room. "She used to love me and now she's just using me! And I'm fucking sick of it, okay? I'd rather die than live another day lying to all those honest people trying to just make a living and support their families at Skye! I'm sick of it!"
Rin's expression did not waver. But it was clear from her silence that Miku's outburst had taken her by surprise.
"I'd rather die-" Her voice choked again and she rose a hand to cover her mouth as she suppressed a sob. For a moment, I was sure she was going to disintegrate back into her hysterics, but she composed herself with a deep breath. "Whatever happens tomorrow, it'll all be over for me." Her voice was barely over a whisper. "Finally."
Rin frowned, her own eyes lowering to her feet.
"So who's our driver?" Flower asked, only then relaxing her reach for the gun.
"Len," Yuma answered right away.
I furrowed my brow. "What? Why me?"
"You're the only person she hasn't seen. She'll recognize any of us."
"B-but why would Luka be in the kitchen?"
Kanon shrugged. "She might be sitting outside when you drive up. She might be looking out the window when you park in the back. It has to be you."
I frowned. Being the new guy still sucked. "Okay."
"Another thing," Miku said, sitting back in her chair and avoiding our eyes. "We can't have any radios or trackers when we go in."
Kanon's eyes bulged. "What?! How the hell are we supposed to-"
"She has sensors for that kind of stuff. Especially in the areas where people move in and out of the base from the city. We get anywhere near those sensors with any kind of tech, they'll go off and alert the whole base."
Kanon shook her head. "Fuck."
"When you go in," Miku looked towards me. "You'll have to leave the back door open. Once the dinner bell chimes, we'll move in and meet you at this wall."
I took a deep breath.
"We'll go over the whole plan again on the ride there," Flower suggested.
"Well," Yuma said. "Everyone start packing. We leave in the morning."
Flower stood. "You. Up."
Miku stood with her, walking back into her room like a prisoner. Flower followed her in.
"This is really it," Kanon stared thoughtfully at the table in front of her. "This is really the end."
Rin let out a laugh from the wall. "Hey, don't get your hopes up. That's what we thought last time."
It was a joke, and everyone but me laughed at it. I took a sudden interest in my shoes.
"I'm sorry," Kanon glanced up at me from across the table. "For what I said back there. It really… There was no way you could have-"
I held up a hand to silence her. "It's fine. I know I fucked it all up for you guys," I said with a light chuckle.
"And now you're going to fix it all," Rin added with a grin.
"If you say so."
"Come on," Yuma tapped his hands against the table and rose from his seat. "Let's get packing."
Like always, Rin and I were the first ones to finish packing. Also like always, she slipped out into the backyard when no one was looking. Except for me, of course.
After a few minutes of sitting on the stairs, watching with bored eyes as the others scrambled to gather their belongings, I decided to follow her.
It was almost ten pm. The sun had long since set, the bugs had retreated home for the night, the air had finally cooled to a comfortable temperature, and crickets were chirping relentlessly in the shrubbery surrounding our temporary backyard. Rin sat in her pajama shorts, the only one to have changed so far, with her legs submerged up to her knees in the pool water. She had given up on sitting near the Amazon.
"There any snails in there?" I asked, causing her to jump slightly as I sat next to her. Not wanting to get my uniform wet, I opted to cross my legs under me instead.
She ignored my question. "Three months ago I could hear you coming from a mile away and now you're sneaking up on me."
I shrugged. "Guess training did me well."
She let out a huff. "Too bad it's all over."
It's all over. Well, it wasn't quite yet. But after tomorrow, whether we lived or died, it definitely would be. I pushed the thought out of my mind, asking the first thing that popped up to take its place. "Have you talked to Yuma about your new life yet?" As soon as the words left my mouth, my stomach dropped. You idiot. Now you have to talk about it.
Now or never, I guess.
"Not yet," she answered with a sigh.
Just take a deep break. You act like you forgot how to talk to her. "Why not?" I commended my voice for remaining steady.
She shifted uncomfortably. "I… I don't know where I want to go."
"You must have some idea," I said, leaning back with my hands planted in the grass for support.
She hesitated. "I guess. I was thinking somewhere in Europe."
I raised an eyebrow. "Europe, huh? What made you choose there?"
"I want to go to college," she said, looking away in embarrassment. "And we can't go back to the States. I feel like Europe will be the closest thing."
My heart had nearly stopped halfway through her reasoning. "We?" I asked quietly.
Her eyes widened like a deer in the headlights. Dropping her gaze to her lap, she joined her hands together and fiddled with them nervously.
Though the unease surrounding the events of the next day still lingered inside me, it felt like, at that moment, my biggest worry had been solved, and I was perfectly at ease. I shifted to face her, slipping my hand left hand into her right and intertwining our fingers together. She froze.
"Where in Europe?" I asked with a smile.
A small, nervous laugh left her lips. "Um…" It took her a second, but she finally found the courage to meet my eyes. "Definitely not London."
I chuckled. "Understandable."
"...Isn't there, like, a really fancy college in Europe, though?"
I shrugged. "There are a lot."
She furrowed her brow. "Maybe Yuma could help me find one."
"What kind of house do you want?"
The deeper into the conversation we went, the wider her smile grew. She never let go of my hand. "A big one."
"Mansion?"
"Maybe not that big. And a dog. I want a dog. And maybe a cat, too."
"I'm allergic to cats," I advised her.
"Well, it's a good thing we'll have a big house so you two can avoid each other."
I chuckled. "I'll just spend my entire life running from the cat. Got it. What else do you want?"
"A giant library."
"In the house?"
She nodded. "In the house. I want the same office Meiko had, but, like, five times the size."
"And you expect the cat to not rip up all your books?"
"Fuck off, Len. We're getting a cat whether you like it or not."
I held up my free hand defensively. "Okay, okay. Fine."
"I'll name the cat, you name the dog."
"Deal. What's the cat's name?"
She shrugged. "I'll have to see it first. It has to fit them. What kind of dog should we get?"
"I like big dogs," I admitted. "Never got to have them before."
"Can it be, like, really fucking fluffy?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"So it can cuddle with me!" She reasoned. "Like… what're those big cloud dogs? The white ones?"
"Samoyeds?"
"Yes! That one. I want one of those."
"We're gonna have to vacuum every day to get its hair out of the carpet."
She waved a hand at me. "No, no. Hard floors. Duh."
I cast a glance over the water. Beyond the pool was the river itself. It flowed steadily past us, casting the dim light of the moon on its surface.
"I'm excited," I said.
"Me too."
A moment of silence passed as we watched the water flow.
"...but I'm scared, too," Rin said. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I… I don't want you to drive there."
"What? Why not?"
"I don't want you to go in there alone."
"I'll be fine," I assured her.
"This isn't even your fight," she said with a pained expression. "This is something that you just got dragged into out of nowhere. Something that you don't have any part in other than showing up at the wrong place at the wrong time. How can you be so… okay with this?"
The answer wasn't hard to find. "I'm with you guys now. Any problem of yours is a problem of mine."
She let out a deep breath as if releasing some tension built up in her. Her eyes lowered to our joined hands. "Len?"
"Yeah?" I couldn't bring myself to tear my gaze away from her eyes.
She furrowed her brow, refusing to look up from our hands. "When are you gonna kiss me?"
I blinked once, then twice as time seemed to stop. Rin breathed slowly and deeply, waiting for an answer and unable to meet my eyes while doing so.
Instead of responding with words, I rose my free hand to cup her cheek. My thumb brushed slowly over her soft skin. Even in the dark, the blush on her face was obvious.
My eyes fluttering shut, I pulled her in, and kissed her.
Jesus, Len. It's about time.
Thanks for reading :)
