Xana shook his head.
"I was wondering how much Naomi's suffering right now. Do you think she knows what's going on in that conference room?" Xana stated.
"She probably doesn't even have a clue." Jeremy guessed.
Naomi really didn't have a clue. All she knew was that Mr. Yamato said to her father that he had some important work to do. And he ws hesitant, sitting for a moment longer as if knowing what he needed to work on would result in severe consequences if completed. Naomi realized whatever he had to go through with wasn't going to end well. Naomi tried following him but got caught and was told to turn around. She sat in the break room and waited. She called the group to see if they could keep her entertained for the time being.
"Sh! It's Naomi! everybody act cool!" Odd panicked.
Ulrich laughed.
"You couldn't be cool now matter how hard you tried!" Ulrich cackled.
Odd glared at Ulrich as he pressed 'answer', turning his attention back to his phone.
"Hey Naomi, it's been a while. How are you doing?" Odd greeted.
"Odd, it hasn't even been a full two days." Naomi reminded.
"Do you want to tell her or should I?" Xana pondered.
"Who's that?" Naomi wondered.
"Xana." Odd answered.
"Can I borrow the phone?" Xana asked.
"If you want to tell her we'd better do it on speaker." Jeremy advised.
Odd nodded as Xana put the pone on speaker.
"Okay, so, what exactly is this important news I need to hear?" Naomi questioned.
"Do you know what your dad had to do in such a hurry?" Odd asked.
"No, why? Is something, oh, oh boy. Well that's not good, how bad is it?" Naomi commented.
"You're currently being signed over to the Sumeragi as another piece of their property for experimentation as well as an employee. As of now nobody can do anything about it since the Sumeragi has complete custody of you." Xana announced.
'Am I allowed to visit home?' Naomi panicked.
Naomi shook her head to get rid of the worries swimming in her brain.
"Thanks for the info." Naomi finished beore ending the call.
Deciding she had a right to answers and was going to get them, Naomi began dialing Nova's number.
"Why did you tell the delegates to get a contract signed so I would be tossed around like a piece of abused property!?" Naomi fumed.
"How did you find that out?" Nova queried.
That's when he got a warning, signaling that a hack of the camera feed was ongoing.
"So that's how you found out. You hacked the surveillance system. No matter, you can't do anything about it now. It's too late, the document's been signed. We'll have to do something about your hacking the... wait. Your watch functions were disabled except contacts. You must have requested outside help from QUILL then. No more contact with the outside world. It's far too dangerous, especially after the last run in with QUILL." Nova droned.
"I work for the Sumeragi now so why would I request backup from QUILL? Besides, they wouldn't aid a traitor, it just wouldn't make any sense." Naomi questioined.
Nova said nothing.
"Was a contract like that one signed last time I was here?" Naomi growled.
"It was just so you wouldn't be tampered with. If someone tried, consequences would be sure to follow. Ones that no one would want to be on the recieving end of." Nova explained.
"Did it have to be renewed or did you just want to remember getting your favorite pawn back from your opponent?" Naomi snarled.
"The reason was never made clear to me." Nova answered.
"Do I need to return to Firmament?" Naomi wondered.
"It'd be best if you'd come back now. We can't risk any arising conflicts within the company. Especially over something as futile as this." Nova advised.
Naomi ended the call and texted Jota to see if he was available to walk her back to the orbital elevator. Just in case QUILL decided to make another rescue attempt.
"I'd advise you not to fight in your current condition. I was also ordered to inorm you that you ca't fight for two weeks." Jota warned.
"But it's just in my abdomen. I can still use my arms and legs. Not to mention I can block attacks to that spot." Naomi rebuked.
Jota didn't respond as he knew Naomi was too stubborn to see reason. The ride was silent until the last fifteen minutes.
"Nova told me that you were made aware of the contract due to leaked surveillance footage from a hack. Who was the source of the hack?" Jota questioned.
"I don't know who did it. You can check my contacts, my friends contacted me but I haven't replied back yet." Naomi responded.
"There's no need." Jota assured.
"We were forced to sign contacts already. Why is he signing that contract? So I can become another piece of Sumeragi's property again?" Naomi seethed.
"The information rearding the contract is disclosed only to the signer and makers of the document." Jota informed.
"That's good to know." Naomi commented.
That was said with ten minutes left in the trip. At five minutes till, Naomi got an idea.
'I can't have any outside contacts but I can have inside contacts. And that includes the one signing the contract!' Naomi thought as she happily called S-FIT's Adept Research department line.
""Hello, this is the Sumeragi futures institute of technoloy customer support speaking. How may I help you?" Mr. Yamato spoke.
"I wish to speak with Dr. Kamizono please." Naomi replied.
"I'm afraid he's unavailable at the moment." Mr. Yamato stated.
"Mr. Yamato, you need to stop him from signing that contract! He's signing me over to the Sumeragi as we speak! I'm being signed over like a piece of property!" Naomi protested.
