Chapter Fourteen

Rescue Plans

He should've expected it. Sousuke had driven with Rin before and he knew that Rin had a weakness for fast cars and reckless driving but then he'd not expected him to have driven a red Maserati sports car to the "secret" location. Rin had pointed out that Makoto had been taken at this point so being secretive was moot but still Sousuke bumped his shoulder with his none injured one in annoyance before he walked around to the passenger side of the sports car, his large frame struggling to get in due to the injury and his somewhat limited movement.

Rin drove fast and Sousuke appreciated it as he sat flicking through the tablet Rin had brought with him. His shoulder was still in pain, as were his feet but he'd gingerly put on sneakers and was ignoring it. Rin had offered him some painkillers which Sousuke guessed were not legal but he declined them. He didn't want anything that slowed his reactions, that made him sluggish or made him sleepy. He didn't plan on sleeping again until he had Makoto back and safe.

"So the house…" Sousuke began as he flicked past another floor plan to some photographs, seeing the custom made and architecturally unique building, the large glass panels, the metal and chrome, the mix of woods and marble.

It was an expensive property. And one that one of the co-founders of Iwatobi Corp. had built himself. It was intended to be beautiful and Sousuke guessed it was if buildings were your thing. But Sousuke only saw the money and looked to the plans to try and analyse the security system – expensive as the rest of the property. And try to figure out a way to enter it and find Makoto without being detected.

"You're 100% sure he's there?" Sousuke asked and Rin made an annoyed noise.

"I checked. I hacked their security feeds. Don't question me on this shit. And don't ask me how I do it either."

Sousuke snorted as Rin was very precious about his skills and his abilities and liked to think of himself as the best in the business with computers. So Sousuke had insulted his pride. Only briefly. But Sousuke would've felt more comfortable if he'd seen the same image of Makoto that Rin had but then Sousuke had been attempting to clean up the blood at that point, attempting to look like he'd not just been shot. Which he had. And Rin hadn't had time to do a screen grab or something, afraid that the man's security system would pick up on his intrusion in his system and move somewhere else. Move Makoto somewhere where they'd struggle to find him.

The man's name was Rei Ryugazaki and he had been a founder of Iwatobi Corp. but acted as a "silent" partner. So silent that in fact employees didn't know about him. So silent that he was able to embezzle funds from the Corporation without anybody being able to track it or question it. So silent that only when Nagisa Hazuki had noted something wrong in the accounts did he ask Makoto to look up the files and it led to… Rin had explained that there was some "history" between the two men, the two founders of the company but Sousuke had only half listened, his mind on Makoto and not some twisted tale of money and greed and falling out.

Sousuke wasn't sure how much Makoto knew – if he'd found out about the money, if he'd followed it as Sousuke had never had much time with him to ask. And Makoto had been too shocked by his life being turned upside down, by his entire world being changed in the blink of an eye that maybe he did not quite understand what he saw. Or what it meant. But Sousuke did.

"How are we getting in?" Sousuke asked as he flicked to an image of a vault and then flicked to view the aerial shot of the location that indicated the house stood alone, walled and overlooking the ocean.

"Don't tell me you doubt me, Sousuke? Not after all these years?"

While usually Rin's confidence was annoying, right now it was fucking infuriating and Sousuke was tempted to hit him hard. He would've if not for the fact Rin was driving and driving far too fast. And also his shoulder hurt – Sousuke didn't want to cause himself more pain just to stop Rin being annoying. Otherwise a punch to the arm would've been the response.

"Then how are we getting in, wise master?" Sousuke asked, sarcasm dripping in every syllable as he looked sceptically at the tablet.

"Well… we're going to pick someone up. Our way in."

Sousuke glared and was going to ask more but clearly Rin was enjoying being a cryptic asshole and so he sat back in the seat, leaving the tablet on his knee and trying to sit back in the passenger seat, each little move creating ripples of pain that he tried to ignore, biting his lip and stoically folding his arms across his chest. As potentially Makoto could be in a lot more pain – maybe being tortured to find out what he knew. Sousuke tried not to think about that and only focus on the important part – the rescue.

"Do I want to know?" Sousuke asked for a moment. "The plan you have?"

"Probably not," Rin said, winking and Sousuke decided he could hit him in the arm then, if only lightly, as the stretch of road was empty apart from them and it was unlikely Rin would crash. Rin made a mock noise of pain and then sighed. "I found someone who works for Iwatobi who can get us close enough. Who helped design some of this dude's security network. And the guy knows Makoto… so wants to help."

"Can we trust them?"

Rin shrugged and it was not the response he wanted as Sousuke did not want to trust some random person he didn't know with Makoto's life – he didn't want the shrug. He wanted certainty. "Hey… at this stage what choice do we have?"

The words were not comforting and Sousuke scowled, his eyes turning to look at the road, at the passing world and he hated that it had come to this. He had failed to protect Makoto, seen him taken away, injured in the process but he was not going to fail at getting him back. He'd do whatever it took. And if trusting some random guy was what they had to do, then he'd do it.

He picked up the tablet from where it rested on his knee and flicked it open again.

"Who's the guy?" Sousuke asked, ready to do a little research on their new accomplice.

"They call him Nanase."