Part 30: Trust Games
The pale screen spewed forth its never-ending parade of numbers and lines, endless abstractions graphing his test subject's mind. Daisuke's thoughts sprawled out in black and white pixels before him, mapping the boy's conscious and subconscious emotions.
Trap turned his grey eyes downward at the stapled heap of paper laid out on the desk in front of him. His thumb wrestled endlessly with the button at the end of his pen, while his other fingers pinned the implement firmly against his palm.
To his trained eyes, the scores stapled in front of him and the ones feeding across his monitor were completely different. With the exception of the faintly tracing line at the base of the readouts that represented the Black Wings's presence in his subconscious, the mental activity between the two sets of data was so changed that it could only belong to an entirely different person.
There were no emotions on the current graph. Not even an undercurrent of stress. The ever-scrolling thought patterns flowed by in a level march.
To actually subdue and alter brainwaves electronically… the technique was groundbreaking. It was probably the pivotal breakthrough of his career. Once perfected, the applications of something like this could be unlimited. What he was looking at now - the mind pattern of a teenage boy in a state of utter calm and peace despite the passing of a loved one - was a first and extraordinarily important step toward those applications. The weight of guilt, the pain of loss, even the unnecessary stress of everyday anxiety could be subdued, now, with this technology.
In a few hours, he would use the same technique to completely diverge two connected minds. He stared at the readout on the screen and thought about that, hard. His grip tightened on the pen in his hand.
Something rose in his stomach, a tense adrenaline like the rush of a pilot just about to crash. Not exactly the sense of triumph he'd expected. Gorudo was keeping things from him, and it was keeping him on edge. Why hold the boy hostage when he'd already obtained the Black Wings? Why lie to him about it? What did he want from this separation procedure, if not Dark?
Just half an hour more. In half an hour, he would have his meeting with the head of the company. He would ask Gorudo the questions he needed to ask to be sure he had control over this project.
The phone rang. Trap jerked as the pen pinned in his hand snapped in half. Cursing, he snatched for the napkins at the side of his desk and rubbed at the ink on his palm while the phone blared at him impatiently.
He finally grabbed the receiver and slammed it to his ear. "Trap," he growled, pinning the device between chin and shoulder as he continued cleaning up the broken pen.
"This is Doctor Trap? Uh, excuse the interruption, but this is the front desk. There's a woman here to see you."
"I didn't make an appointment with anyone," Trap dismissed, preparing to hang up.
"She asked for you specifically, sir. She's saying…she's saying you owe her a bowl of ramen." The man's voice crackled with suppressed laughter.
"She's mistaken me for someone else."
"Sir, it's unkind to break promises to attractive young ladies. Go on, I won't tell anyone you snuck out." He could almost hear the guard wink at the phone. Great, they thought he was being bashful about some girl.
"I'm serious. Turn her away."
"Ms. Harada, it seems he's busy with work at the moment," the guard said away from the mouthpiece.
Trap stiffened, clenching the napkin in his inkstained hand. "Repeat the name," he ordered.
"Risa Harada, she says, sir."
Time froze as he stared at the phone. He'd spent long enough attempting to research the girl Shira had killed to know the name of her twin sister. "I'm coming down." he said, and hung up. He grabbed his coat and slammed his door behind him. Ignoring the elevator, he went for the stairwell.
The stairwell door hissed shut behind him just as the elevator doors opened. Shira stepped out into the empty fluorescent-lit hallway and glanced around before heading straight for Trap's office. She kept an eye out for the cameras on the floor and tried to stay off the radar, knowing she couldn't avoid showing up on some of them. She turned the knob without knocking and ducked into Trap's office.
"Look you, I know you don't want to see me, but there's something we need to talk about, and I'm not going anywhere until we do," she declared as she surveyed the room. There was no one there. A pile of black-stained napkins littered the desk, and the computer wasn't even locked, but there was no sign of Trap. She fought off a wave of disappointment. She worked up all the nerve to come, and he wasn't even here. "Oh, hell," she snarled. "At least lock your office!" She approached the uncharacteristic mess on the scientist's workspace and tilted her head. "Getting sloppy with no woman around?" she muttered, knowing that wasn't the case. Trap was always impeccably neat. She was a slob by comparison. So why so careless?
She leaned over to peek at his desk calendar. "Gorudo 12:00" was written and circled in the same black ink that was smeared all over the desk. She narrowed her eyes and backed toward the door. She hadn't found Trap, but she had found her opportunity to find out just what the hell was going on here. She grinned smugly at Trap's office before letting herself out. She didn't like being kept in the dark. Fortunately, she had herself a flashlight.
-o0o0o0O-o-O0o0o0o-
Trap ignored the fascinated looked the guards cast him as he crossed the marble-tiled lobby toward the front desk. All his focus went to the girl turning toward him, brown-eyed and miniskirt-clad. She smiled at him sweetly as he approached. "Jeez, Trap, don't keep me waiting so long! You're always so busy when you're at work. All these guards are going to think I'm some kind of stalker," she giggled sweetly. She turned an energetic bow toward the guards. "Thanks for your help! You guys are sweethearts!"
The men blushed a little at her praise. "Go on," one encouraged, shooing them.
Risa met Trap's concrete gaze. "Time for some ramen!" The playfulness in her voice didn't reach her eyes.
"I have an appointment," he said, sizing her up. There was no doubt about who she was, but what was she doing here?
"This won't take long." Her expression hardened as she walked toward the front door.
He didn't have much choice but to find out what she wanted. His hand found the pocketknife in his back pocket and held it concealed under his coat as they headed out into the street. He focused on following her through the crowded street and into a small ramen house. They made their way through the busy shop to a table for two in the back of the restaurant. She sat down first, casually. He grasped the back of his chair with one hand and sat slowly, watching her every move.
A waitress came up almost immediately. "Do you know what you'd like to order?" she asked.
"Tea for me. He's fine," Risa said.
The waitress nodded and rushed off.
Trap studied her. "I thought you wanted ramen."
"Are you offering to buy me lunch, Trap?" she asked darkly. Her right hand let go of the magic stone in her pocket. Sorry, Dark. I need to focus on this for a minute.
"Who are you?" Trap's gaze was gray ice freezing into her.
"I think you know who I am," Risa said, crossing her arms. "My name seemed to get your attention well enough earlier."
"You're mistaken."
"You know me, and you know about my sister. It makes no difference to me whether you admit it or not. You and I need to have a chat."
"How do you know my name?" Trap demanded.
"I might tell you, if you answer my question first."
"What is it?"
She leaned forward on her elbows and sized him up sternly. "What did you do to Daisuke?"
Trap's pupils shrank to dots as he stared at her. "Who is Daisuke?"
"The boy you threw my sister off a cliff to kidnap."
Something real flashed in his eyes for a split second. Pity? No. Guilt. Shira hadn't told him yet that she was still alive. The flicker of expression was gone too soon for her to figure it out.
"Sister? You seem to be confused about something…" The words tasted flat in his mouth.
"Give it a rest. I have ears inside the building. I know what you've been doing. I know about Shira, and Dark. What I don't understand is what's wrong with Daisuke."
A long pause sat between them. What was this girl trying to do? "The boy is safe," he said clinically. "His injuries from his arrival have nearly healed. Remarkably fast.
"I didn't ask if he was harmed. I asked what you DID to him," she snapped.
"That is classified."
"Every word we've already spoken has been classified. You need to explain. Or are you really just some slimeball corporate scientist who doesn't care who he has to hurt?"
Risa's tea came and was set on the table between them in silence.
Trap was about as readable as a glacier. "How do you know so much about this project?"
"I said, you first."
He examined her like she was a rubik's cube. "Selective neural modification."
"In English."
"Using a machine, certain types of brainwave patterns are reduced or transformed."
"Why use that on Daisuke?"
"To separate his thought patterns from the Black Wings."
"That hasn't happened yet. Why is he already different?"
Instead of answering, Trap analyzed her all too patiently, like he could see her thoughts in waves and dots in front of her face. Back in his lab, he probably could. But not here. She reminded herself that she had the upper hand. He needed to know how much she knew, and until she told him, he couldn't walk away.
"Oh, come on," she growled. "I heard his conversation with Dark. That wasn't Daisuke talking. He would never say those things. How did you make him like that? Why did you turn him into an insensitive jerk?"
"To make it easier for him," the scientist replied.
That stopped her dead. "What?"
"He was kidnapped and shot. He was left to guess at his girlfriend…your sister's safety, and then learned she was killed. He has no one to confide in for the time being. That type of stress can damage a human mind. I need him undamaged."
"So you used the machine to block it off." Risa couldn't quite believe what he was saying. As warped as the reasoning was, was this guy actually trying to protect Daisuke? "And you think knowing that he abandoned his soulmate will be an easy thing to throw onto the pile of things he needs to cope with when this is all over?"
"The Black Wings is not a soulmate. It's an artificial brainwave pattern bound to a human mind."
"Dark's as human as we are," she growled. Trap seemed unmoved.
"He only seems human because he is connected to Daisuke's thoughts and emotions. Once parted, the similarity will only be skin deep.
She rolled her eyes. "You really have no idea what you're dealing with." She fought back the sneaking fear that he might somehow be right.
Trap's eyes narrowed. "I answered your question. Now tell me how you know all of this." He wondered if he would have to take her into custody to keep her from spreading what she knew. She had every reason to interfere with the project.
"I have ears inside the building."
"Where?" his eyes narrowed.
"You won't be able to find the transmitter."
"You seem very knowledgeable about the Black Wings," Trap studied her.
"More than you," she scoffed. She thought a moment later that it might be a dangerous thing to brag about."
"You didn't answer my first question, so I'll take a second. Do you know anything about a white-winged angel that's been seen in the city recently?"
"Why?"
"I'm curious," he said with all the emotion of a granite cliff.
She weighed her thoughts. "Krad?"
"Krad?" he repeated. "That's 'Dark' backwards."
"Yeah, that about sums him up," she dismissed. "Trap, listen to me. You're dealing with something you don't understand and can't control, and Daisuke's life will be in danger if you continue."
"My equipment is harmless," Trap said, gnawing back frustration at the change of subject.
"There are a lot of scarier and more powerful things in that building than your equipment, and you can't control all of them."
"What?" Trap looked down at his watch and twitched. Damn. "We're done talking." He handled the knife in his pocket and thought about taking her with him. His meeting with Gorudo was in five minutes. There wasn't time, and he needed this meeting, now more than ever, to get his questions answered. "If you interfere with this research, you will be eliminated. Understand?" he said, standing up.
"Tell me, Trap, is it fun being the bad guy?" Risa snapped. This had to be the most insensitive person she'd ever met.
Trap ignored her and turned for the door. Risa followed him out to the street.
"Put him back to normal," she demanded as the crowd milled past them on the sidewalk.
He paused and looked at her. "I'm very serious. Stay out of the way," he warned.
"I mean it too, let him think for himself!" she called after him, but he was already walking away toward the front doors of the Gorudo building.
-o0o0o0O-o-O0o0o0o-
Dark was lying on his cot with arms crossed behind his head when the door to his cell slammed open.
"How'd it go?" he asked casually as a grim-faced Shira pounded into the room
Shira threw her gun and bag onto the folding chair in the corner and whooshed across the cell to stand before Dark.
"You said you know how to get through this whole building, right?" she asked.
"Shira, cameras," Dark warned, sending a sidelong glance at the lens that was trained on them both for the viewing pleasure of the control room next door.
"I sent them out to lunch," she said, dragging his attention back to her. "The top floor, the big office there, did you go there too?"
Dark narrowed his eyes. "Why? Did you even speak properly with your boyfriend?"
"He wasn't there, and we are not like that," Shira said. "He's going to Gorudo's office at noon.
"For what?" Dark said.
"I don't know. It was on his calendar." She paced the room. I need to know what those two are talking about. Something is wrong here."
"You want me to spy on their conversation?" Dark asked, feigning horror.
"Not you. Me. Just tell me how you got up there."
"No offense," he said, "but I'm kind of a professional. You're not going up there."
"I'm professionally trained as well, and a lot smaller than you," Shira said.
"Why don't you let me go, and I'll tell you what I hear?"
"There's no way in heck I'm falling for that. You could tell me anything. Hell, you could just leave the building. I'm hearing this myself. Are you going to tell me how to get there, or should I just guess?"
Dark rolled his eyes. "If I wanted to leave the building, I'd be gone. You're not equipped to do something like this on your own. If you grab the wrong handhold or make a wrong turn, you'll collapse through the walls or even fall out of the building, never mind the fact that you'll be discovered."
She locked stares with him and finally sighed. "Will you show me, then?"
Dark's eyes glowed with anticipation. It had been some time since he'd put his skills to use, and if there was one thing he had in common with Shira, it was that he wanted to figure out what Gorudo was up to. "I suppose I could help you out," he smirked.
Shira took a step back as Dark stood up from the cot and cast her a measuring look. She kept forgetting how tall he was, especially with the wings. The angel seemed to notice her discomfort, but he refrained from teasing her, turning his attention instead to the ceiling. He jumped upward and dislodged one of the ceiling tiles, shoving it off to the side. He hopped to grab the steel frame around the missing tile and swung easily up into the ceiling, perching along the metal beam.
She just stared at him. "No wonder you do so many sit-ups."
"Nah, that was just to show off," he winked, crouching to look down at her.
The words sent the soldier blushing to her ears. "Pull me up," she snapped.
He obliged her, grabbing a beam for leverage and reaching below for her hand. A metal device latched around his wrist instead. "What's this?" he demanded, peering down skeptically.
She reached her own wrist up and showed him a similar unit. "In case you try to pull something. Help me up, I'm not that tall." She threw her hand into his.
Dark rolled his eyes and tugged her up through the ceiling with him. "I'm hurt, where is the trust?" he taunted, studying the labyrinth of beams, pipes, and wiring above them. "Stay on the beams, the tiles won't hold you."
"Fine. What are we doing?"
Dark grabbed a flashlight out of her belt before she could protest otherwise and shined it upward at a column of metal rungs rising up a thick pillar. "Up that, to the very top. I hope you've been doing your pull ups."
"And then?" she grimaced.
"Then things get fun," the angel smirked. There's some freestyle climbing involved to get below the penthouse floor. Then we listen through the vent."
"Hold on a sec. You said vents were dangerous and noisy."
"They are," he said, eyes twinkling darkly.
She looked skeptical about his apparent glee at this assignment. "You get off on this stuff or something?"
"Do you even watch the news?" he scoffed, taking hold of the first rung.
"Sorry about this, then," she said.
Dark had a moment's realization to let go of the metal rung before a bone-jarring shock jumped from the device on his wrist through the rest of his body. He jerked backward and crashed through the ceiling to land hard on his side on the floor of the cell. He struggled onto his back and a second pulse tore into him. "S-…hira," he growled up at her between sucking air back to his lungs.
"Sorry, hon. I work better alone," she said. "Hold your wrist still, and you won't get zapped. It won't be pretty if you move," she warned.
"…'much juice this thing hold?" he strained, squinting up at her.
"Enough. Lie still. I'll be back."
"I didn't tell you everything!" he rasped.
"Sure you didn't. About time someone conned you, huh?" She disappeared from his sight and started up the pillar.
"No, I'm serious! Shira!" Dark groaned urgently as her footsteps faded into the ceiling. Shit. The security system…
He glared at the device she'd planted on his wrist and rolled stiffly onto his side to inspect it. He wasn't familiar with the lock on it.
Well. No time like the present.
-o0o0o0O-o-O0o0o0o—
To be continued!
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I'm sooooo sorry for taking so long with this part! I got engaged and it took a huge chunk of my time over the last few months. It will probably continue to do that until the wedding in September, but I'm determined to carve out time for this story too!
Coming up – Gorudo's motives are revealed, but at a price to those involved. Dark will need every ounce of his wiliness and strength to avoid the worst and keep his own captor safe. And there will be…. An important twist!
To those who left me reviews, thank you soooooo much!
Please let me know what you think!
-Kat