Yami raised his head out of his arms and could feel Seto staring at him.
Joey was gazing hopefully at him, and the other three officers had disgusted scowls directed at him.
They didn't matter.
What mattered now was finding Anzu in the next 2 hours.
And he could do it without drawing a weapon since he had everyone here at his disposal.
"I said I need… all the footage, all the data of her last 2 days, and footage from the facility Marik was being held in," Yami said strongly, rising to his feet because he could no longer stay sitting. When he stood, the officer at his side raised the gun to point it at him again, and Yami lost his patience.
"Last warning on that," Yami tilted his head at the man pointing the gun at his ear. "Assert violence and I will react."
"Our protocol is to treat you with extreme caution," Chief Hemorrhoid replied coldly. "Any sign of hostility, we can put you in a hole and let that criminal lawyer of yours fight it out for a few years, immunity be damned."
Kaiba's heart clenched with fury and the urge to draw his own weapon and shoot the man was high.
Yami's eyes narrowed and he tried to reason with the man one more time.
The nickname was fitting precisely because of this.
"I'm going to attack this officer if you don't command him to stand down," Yami said quietly, already seeing Seto slowly ducking under the table. "My immunity agreement has an updated profile of my mental state whichI know you have access to and probably have read. You have five seconds to lower the weapon."
There was a cold silence.
Dartz took this chance to speak up tiredly, "you're asking my client for input on the whereabouts of another dangerous subject. I have you on recording requesting intel, meaning you assume the risk of working with this asset, who has been evaluated to be unstable and unfit for service. Do what your asset says and he will cooperate accordingly."
No one moved.
"Four…" Yami counted down slowly, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, really on the brink of lashing out.
"...Three…"
This was about Anzu and they were making it about him.
Isono hastily set the tray down and knelt behind the kitchen island. Having lived with Yami during one of his violent episodes in the garden, he did not want to witness this. He gestured for the chef to get down too, so the man knelt down by the stove, still holding an egg in his hand, terrified and confused.
"... Two…" Yami raised his eyebrows, and even Joey ducked under the table too. He'd seen how Atem could kill people in the back of the head from a million miles away.
Being right next to him was practically the splash zone.
Dartz got up to circle the couch and then lay down on his stomach with his hands over the back of his head, in case a chandelier came crashing down along with ceiling plaster.
He knew what was coming.
"Assistant director, what the fuck are you doing?" The chief barked at Joey just as Atem counted down.
"One," Yami said coolly as he shot his arm out to the side to palm the man in the face, making him reel back, and the gun aimed upwards when both his arms went upwards too. Yami looped his arm around the man's stiff elbows and could feel the man wanting to fire, so he grabbed the man's wrist to aim the weapon at Chief Hemorrhoid, and the gun fired.
Kaiba winced and then cursed. Come ON! This was home!
Dartz let his breath out in a slow sigh. Work. This was work.
"Yami… We live here!" Kaiba called over the loud shouting, and the gun fired again, and then again–the loud, unsuppressed sound of gunfire was undoubtedly waking up Mokuba!
He saw the body of the heavily armed officer fall to the ground with an oof! and clutch his bleeding leg. Bleeding all over his dining room rug. Great!
Cop blood on his non-favorite rug.
"Flesh wounds, no one is dying here," Yami replied flatly, stepping on the officer as he walked over the body and hearing the man let out a yell, "ow!"
"Agent Jounouchi, go outside and tell them everything is okay in here," Yami said calmly, then raising his head to peek over at the empty kitchen area. "Isono, a tourniquet kit please, three of them. And Chef Kan, please return to your room and remember you signed an NDA."
Joey scrambled out from under the table and hurried to the door, sweating. Damn.
He figured it would go bad, but he didn't think Yami would shoot more guys.
Whatever.
As long as it got Anzu back safely, he'd do anything. He didn't like those snobby suits anyway.
Isono and the chef made themselves scarce and Seto slowly raised his head to survey the carnage.
A bullet hole in his sliding glass doors.
A bullet hole in the wall right beside the light switch. His custom 3-D printed light switches!
"Are you serious?! Do you have any idea how hard these were to make?!" Kaiba cried, jumping out from under the table and stepping over the bleeding body of the officer who was pressing his palm to his bloody shoulder. "I'll bill all of you! Each custom light switch cover is 2,000 USD!"
"Shut… UP!" The director from the ground growled, hating how the CEO cared more for the decorations than the humans bleeding. "Call a doctor. I'm apprehending him."
"You can't. You incited the reaction, which violates his contract. In fact, you violated it three times and I have it all on my recording," Dartz droned from his corner of the living room, and the officer on the ground with the leg wound whimpered, "I-I'm bleeding a lot!"
Joey came running back into the dining room and announced breathlessly, "told 'em they were shots to make ya shut up and do what we're saying. Now what?"
"Assistant Director! Whose side are you on!" The chief called from the ground, and he was ignored.
"All of Anzu's movements. Whatever they have on their laptops about Marik," Yami swept his hand over the bleeding agents on the ground. "And I'd like an agency encrypted laptop, satellite phone, and someone to reheat my coffee. I'll find Anzu in an hour, that's my personal guarantee."
"Thanks bud, I'll go grab'em," Joey nodded and walked over to the officers to pat them down for their keys, deaf to their furious sputtering.
"And I will be calling the glass company for a replacement," Kaiba snarled as he pointed at the 9mm bullet hole in the sliding door. "Don't do this again, and pick up the shells!"
Yami shrugged and sat back down to sip his cold coffee.
"Isono will find it when he sweeps," came the careless answer, and Kaiba let out a sigh. Alright.
There was a tense silence while they waited and the officer from the ground spoke up, "Mr. Kaiba. Is this man living here against your wishes? We can remove him accordingly."
Kaiba's ears hummed and he finally lost his patience. He knelt beside the chief and looked him right in his old face, taking in his beard shadow, his dark hair and narrow eyes.
"Are you married? Have kids? ….Maybe a dog?" Kaiba asked genuinely, and he heard Yami call out from the other side of the table. "Seto, leave the officer alone. I know you're mad about the door. Don't take it out on him."
The chief blinked at him and growled, "no. Why?"
"Just making sure," Kaiba replied with a bright smile before he slammed his palm down onto the man's hand which was clamped tightly over his injured shoulder, making him push the bullet further into his flesh while the man let out a pained yell and thrashed his legs response, trying to kick at him, but Kaiba merely leaned his elbow down on the man's shoulder and heard Yami's deep voice carrying over the pained cries, "Seto! ….Enough!"
"Just a flesh wound," Kaiba jeered, standing slowly and feeling the blood drying on his palm, itching to stamp his foot down on the man's ugly face. "Fuck you."
Yami hurried to Seto's side and pulled him away from the officer, knowing Seto had been clenching his fists under the table the entire time the man had been talking.
"Your job is to get some rest, go to bed, wash your hand," Yami instructed, leading Seto back to the stairway and feeling him resist.
"No, let me help with surgery," Kaiba replied earnestly, and Yami gave him a tired smile.
"Bed. Now," Yami said as he led Seto up three steps and gave him a push, seeing the shadow of Mokuba dashing by in the hallway upstairs. "And check on Mokuba."
Aw, fuck, Kaiba grit his teeth and nodded. Fine.
Yami watched Kaiba head up the stairs and turned to walk back to the dining table, sitting down in front of the 3 heavy-duty laptops that were being arranged in front of the seat while Isono and Joey were helping the officers on the ground apply tourniquets to their wounds.
He eyed the security footage of Marik pacing his cell like a madman, and felt a twinge of something in his chest. Fear? Pity….?
Sympathy?
Unable to explore it further, Yami turned his attention to doorbell cam footage of Anzu being dragged into a car right on her street and she had put up a valiant fight until he saw one of Marik's men empty a syringe into her arm and she went still. Oh shit.
Okay. The urgency of finding her just went up.
He picked up the satellite phone and dialed for Mahad, hoping he would pick up.
Isono appeared by his side and bent down to whisper, "I've called for the family doctor to arrive. Is this fine?"
"Yes, clear it with the officers at the front," Yami said as he listened to the rings in his ear, and he realized that was a stupid thing to say because Joey had the clearance to the gate already. The benefits of working as a team, with his team.
Anzu should be found within 30 minutes then.
Maybe even less.
The phone rang a few more times, and to his surprise, another familiar voice answered.
"HellooOooo? Why is Nan's Pizza calling?"
"Because it's a fake, scrambled number, Pegasus," Yami said in English with a small smile, and he heard the man yelp on the other phone, so he continued talking. "Mahad. Is he there? ….I assume you are both still together then. Good."
Pegasus had put him on speaker because Mahad was breathless on the other end.
"A-Atem! Is everything alright?!"
"Are you mad at me?" Yami asked, first needing to establish this baseline, and to his relief, Mahad laughed and replied, "no, not at all. Pegasus has been …very illuminating–is this a secure line?"
"It always is," Yami said smoothly, aware that all the officers on the ground, including Joey and Isono were watching him with wide eyes. "I need a favor. Your location?"
"We're back in Egypt," Mahad said quietly, sounding a bit guilty, and Yami wanted to push past it, knowing exactly why but choosing not to address it, but Mahad elaborated in the way he always did, because he was honest to a fault. "Pegasus…he wanted a tour. Of our–my country. He's charming in a sweet way."
"I have a fun inter-agency date idea for you," Yami said evilly and he heard a long silence on the other end. Good. "Find a woman named Isis… Her last name is either Fouad or Attia, both of which are aliases. When you find her, ask her nicely to make a…fun…" Yami hesitated before he found the right words, "ransom video with you. With her as the captive. Have her in pajamas and some makeup smearing would be nice too. Gag her with one of her own panties for a nice visual effect."
Isono couldn't really understand what Yami had said, but the agent under his care tensed so much, he bled through 3 layers of bandages.
Joey tending to another officer beside him had an unreadable expression of eerie calm.
"What if she refuses?" Mahad asked, in that innocent tone Yami was familiar with, and he had to elaborate further.
"Then it'll be more realistic if you force her," Yami said calmly. "Marik wants to be vulgar and possibly play 'trade the woman' later. So, I'll play, except my card will be higher. Like usual. Call me back in 12 minutes with an update. This is actually urgent because Marik has an agent as a hostage."
"Understood," Mahad said loyally, and he hung up first.
Somewhere from the floor, a phone was trilling, so Yami pinched his brow, feeling a headache coming on as he shouted, "pick it up!"
He was irritated and furious.
At everyone and everything.
His queen had been taken.
By low level scum like Marik.
One of the injured officers fumbled for the phone and dropped it onto the floor with a clatter. Hissing in anger, Yami rose to his feet and stomped over to pick it up, seeing all three officers on the ground flinch when he approached. Only Dartz didn't move, because he was taking a nap at the far end of the couch.
Swiping the phone from shaking hands that unlocked it for him with an authorized finger pad scan, Yami answered the call, forgetting to change languages and speaking Arabic as he hissed, "what."
A Japanese person on the other end stammered, "s-sir? A call came in! A ransom demand! For Miss Mazaki! ….He's demanding we give him our asset, Atem, in exchange for our agent."
Yami blinked once and reminded himself to speak Japanese as he replied, "Atem will agree, because this is him speaking right now. I will text you a number, and tell Marik to call it. We'll have a nice face-to-face video call so I can get proof of life. Because I also have something to show him."
He hung up, and just in time, heard the laptop and satellite phone trilling with a call.
Mahad. With good news hopefully.
All of this could be resolved without leaving his 1st floor kitchen.
He strode back over to the dining table and bent over the laptop to tap a button and accepted the satellite call, speaking fast in Arabic, "Tell me you found her."
"Found herrrrr!" Pegasus sang in his ear in English, and Yami had to lean his head away from the phone. Ugh. Great.
"Now make her cry, and get ready to start a livestream on an encrypted feed," Yami snarled back in English, and was about to hang up when he heard panicked gasping on the other end, followed by a shrill scream, muffled instantly. Good.
Seto had walked right in on him when he'd heard Yami say that, and wondered if he really should've just stayed in bed. Who was crying on livestream?
"Seto. Visual to the TV please," Yami gave him a command and hefted a heavy laptop over to him, shoving it into his chest with a dark look on his pretty face. "Now. Since you're out of bed, disobeying, you can work too."
Fuck. I did that to myself, Kaiba balked as he walked the heavy computer over to their TV and passed Dartz who was napping peacefully in an upright position on the couch. Lucky bastard.
He cleared a spot on the mantle under the floating screen and synched the laptop to it, seeing a darknet livestream room appear where 2 watchers were waiting.
…..What?
The screen split when someone joined the stream, and the image of Anzu hanging from a metal rafter with her arms chained above her head gave him a shock. H-Holy shit.
Her head was dropped to her chest, clearly having been sedated…or something.
"Fuck, she better not die," Kaiba muttered, turning around to find Yami, but realizing he'd disappeared, and only the four frightened faces of the cops were turned towards him, their eyes fixed to the screen over his shoulder in silent horror.
"A-Anzu…" Joey was taking it the hardest, having fallen to his knees and staring at the screen until his eyes watered. "...Yer gon-gonna be …o-okay…"
Marik's sharp face dipped into view, his hair silky and smooth, with two golden beads in the center of each braid draping down the sides of his eaes, looking healthy and well-fed, like he'd been living in luxury for a while.
Kaiba recoiled and had to step away from the screen. Yikes. Scary.
"AaaaTEmMmMMm!" Marik sang as he waved a long metal skewer in front of the camera. "I'm waiiiiting! And for every hour you don't show up, I'm going to stick one of these! Into her!" Flecks of spit flew from his mouth as he pointed the skewer at the barely conscious agent.
"Is she your girlfriend? Is that why you're helping her? What's going on here?" Marik jeered, tapping intrusively at his camera. "SHOW YOUR FACE, COWAAAARD!"
"FUCK YOU! LET'ER GO!" Joey jumped to his feet to yell, and Kaiba had to growl back, "He can't hear you! You're not connected to the feed!"
The feed on the bottom flickered and a man wearing a kitsune mask appeared, and Kaiba's breath hitched. That was… a festival mask they'd gotten for free at an event during one of his company parties.
Yami's spiky hair could be seen sticking out from the sides, and a pad of paper was held up to the screen, displaying English words written in bold marker.
"She can wipe identities and vanish criminals seamlessly. Release and receive a new life."
Marik read it quickly and narrowed his eyes, still grinning evilly, "so what I'm hearing… is that she's valuable. I KNOW THAT ALREADY!" The man shrieked, and Kaiba had to plug one of his ears, hoping Mokuba wouldn't come running downstairs to eavesdrop.
"You killed Odion! My ONLY FAMILY in this WORLD!" Marik yelled at the camera so much, it shook and the feed blurred. Kaiba had to take more steps back away from his screen. Gross.
Judging by Yami's background, he was sitting in the tool shed in the garden, with a wood pattern that was common and unidentifiable. Smart.
Especially since this was being broadcast on the darkweb.
There were 2,345 watchers. Sickos.
Yami flipped the pad and the next message written there was, "I knew you'd be upset. I didn't kill Odion. An agent named —- did," And the name was scribbled out with a black marker. "I was there. I saw it, and I recorded it. Truth."
Marik let out a shallow huff and Kaiba swore he saw the man's eyes grow more bloodshot as he raged, "TELL ME WHO DID IT! And I won't...stick another hole in her. She's due for another one. At 4 AM!"
Kaiba bit back a shiver when he watched Yami flip the pad again.
Yami had…pre-written these!
He wasn't writing them right now!
He had predicted how this entire exchange would go, and had prepared every…single…reply.
In order! How was that possible?!
"I sent that very agent (yes the one who killed Odion) to check up on the last person in the world who cares about you. SURPRISE!"
Yami held it up for a second longer before the feed darkened, and Marik stared blankly at his screen. There was a tense silence.
Then a video of another woman sitting in a plain nightgown with a strap that was slipping off her shoulder appeared on the screen, giving Kaiba another fearful shock.
This woman had dark makeup smeared down her cheeks from crying, and her hair was half-slipping out of her hijab while she was gagged with three pairs of what looked like her own underwear…around her mouth.
H-HOLY SHITTTTTTTTTT!
Where was this woman?!
Not somewhere on his property right?!
Reeling, Kaiba had to sit down.
Isono had to leave the room and decided to stay upstairs with Mokuba.
Joey was gaping at the screen while the other three officers were blinking in shock.
The doctor had arrived a couple minutes ago, unnoticed by all, and wasn't looking up while he was using tweezers to pick a bullet out of a man's leg.
The captive woman on the screen blinked and blinked again, shaking her head and outwardly crying while a gloved hand reached into the frame and poked her with the butt of a knife while Marik had a meltdown.
"FUCK YOU! LET HER GO! HOW DID YOU GET HER! She DOESN'T EXIST! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL THIS AGENT!"
The feed of the woman shrank into a small icon in the corner, still broadcasting live, while Yami in the kitsune mask appeared, again with the pad with more writing.
"RELEASE HER" Was written in bold, all-caps English. "Show my inside agent mercy and I'll leave your sister alone. You wanted to play, this is how we play, Marik. Give me your location and I'll come to you, if you dare look me in the eye and live to blink twice afterwards."
"Inside agent, huh?" Marik breathed so closely to the camera, it fogged. "So… Strings, that was probably arranged too! …You're the real puppetmaster, huh Atem? You think you're the king?"
Kaiba watched in mild horror and amusement as Yami had to uncap a marker pen and write a response, holding it up to the camera to show his cheeky answer, "I am the king. Correct."
And Kaiba had to laugh. Sheesh.
Then Yami flipped the pad and held it up until it blocked his face. "Agree to the terms. Agent is untouchable. Kill her and don't expect to live until next week. I will kill Isis slowly in front of you too. For fun. I'll always find another agent to corrupt. Goodbye."
"NOW WAIT!" Marik hissed into the camera, waving the skewer so close to his face, it was giving Kaiba anxiety because it looked like he might poke his own eye out. "...Fine. You leave my sister alone, and I'll drop this agent off back to her friends. I'm not done with you, ATEM!"
And the feed shut off, leaving Atem and the crying woman in the lower left corner on the screen.
Yami in the kitsune mask enlarged to fill the space, and the watchers for the stream had suddenly increased to 12,000. He raised the pad that had another pre-written message, and Kaiba watched, fascinated, and really glad he could read English.
"I AM ATEM :) " Yami wrote in bold, and he had drawn a hostile smiley face at the end.
The pad flipped and another message was shown.
"I am not dead and my activities have not stopped. Quite the opposite."
The stream numbers were exploding, and Kaiba watched in pure awe as the numbers jumped past 150,000 and suddenly went to 200k. Holy shit!
"The agency heads all dance FOR me," Yami had written. "Including…A certain international Chief Hemorrhoid who I put a bullet in today, for disobeying me. Photo pending."
The pad was flipped.
"The chief who is a Director now.
You know what this means?"
Yami paused for effect, noting the numbers for the stream were rising to 210,000.
Nice. His message was being heard.
He held the paper up again.
"Means I have access to all your dirty secrets," he threatened.
He knew he was threatening the world with a false status, but he didn't care if it meant it would keep more hostile hands off of Anzu, and by extension, Seto Kaiba and Mokuba Kaiba.
"And I will utilize them all to my own whims," the pad read, and Kaiba felt another chill go down his spine. Oooo…Sexy.
Yami could utilize him to his own whims…
"You, viewer, and you too, three-letter pigs, are all my lovely dildos which I use to fuck other people with," Yami had even drawn a crude penis at the end, making Joey let out a strangled huff which sounded like laughter.
"I have plans for the world, and if you get in my way, you'll no longer be IN this world. That is all," Yami's final message was another threat, and Kaiba had to admire that.
Yami reached his arm forward and the camera feed went dark.
The captive woman's tear-stained make-up-streaked face was the last image to remain enlarged on the TV before that stream went dead too, and the final watch-count was 32,000.
Awesome.
320k criminals and some secret intelligence agents saw that stream.
Kaiba curled his fingertips over his knees, feeling hot all over.
Yami was so fucking cute. He should've saved that video to re-watch.
Someone had probably been screen recording on the darknet, someone always was.
He'd find it sometime.
Yami came walking back into the dining room like nothing had happened, and he approached the bandaged director on the ground, instructing him to stand up and move to the grass outside so they could have a photo of his shoulder with the bullet wound.
To Kaiba's surprise, the man stood and obeyed silently.
"You know you work for us, right?"
Kaiba heard the director try to confirm with Yami, and he had to let out another laugh.
Yeah no.
If that man could have seen the way Yami had converted straight-laced mega-suspicious Anzu, followed by Joey and then Pegasus, then Yami really was out here corrupting agents for his own gain. Good for him, and good for them both.
A photo was snapped with flash and one without, and Yami even instructed the man to lie down and close his eyes, pretending like he was passed out.
"This will get Mazaki back and keep anyone who contacts me safe. That includes you, since I named you publicly. Do it. It's only a photo," Yami's deep voice commanded him to lay down, and Kaiba watched the director lay down obediently in the grass, and a flash followed.
Then Yami walked back in to sit down at the computer to upload the photos.
Joey was hugging himself while pacing in one spot, frantic with stress. "So… What now? Will he let her go?" He aimed this question at the room, but Yami answered him with a calm nod.
"Yes, have medic teams on standby at all the hospitals near her apartment, and three cities over. He shouldn't have taken her far, but I'm worried for her health. I want first responders to run a blood test on her first thing."
"Okay," Joey nodded vigorously but received pushback from an injured chief on the ground, protesting.
"Who are you to say what medical attention she gets?!" The man barked, and Atem ignored him, still typing on the laptop with an impassive expression.
Yami was re-watching the footage of Marik in the cell, and when Kaiba drifted over to rest his hand on Yami's shoulder, an officer from the ground commanded him, "don't touch the asset!"
Kaiba lost his temper and finally wanted to reach for his gun and point it at the man, but somehow, Joey beat him to it.
"Give it a….REST!" Joey shouted, drawing his gun backwards with his hand over the top of the barrel, pointing the butt of his weapon at the injured officer. "You're lucky he didn't shoot'ya dead earlier! And he even called a doctor for ya! He's over therestill helpin, and Anzu is all that matters right now! You need to be nicer to him or you're gonna die from a bullet that won't come outta his gun!"
Stunned, Kaiba and Yami stood there, staring at Joey, their appreciation for him rising simultaneously.
Nevermind, I was wrong about him, Kaiba thought cheerfully, watching the interpol chief turn red in the face, clutching his arm in a sling while spluttering, "a-are you threatening me, assista–"
"Yeah I am, and I tell ya to call me Jou or Joey, and you keep ignorin' my request fer that," Joey replied flatly, knowing he was untouchable when Kaiba and Yami were both in the room with him. "One second. Getting a call. Probably the ambulance."
He lowered his gun to tuck it back into his belt holster and answered his vibrating phone, hearing chaos on the other end.
"This is medic team 2-2-3-7 enroute to Domino's downtown hospital with Mazaki Anzu. She is conscious and told me to call you first, Katsuya-san."
Yami perked up when he saw Joey sink into a sitting position and mumble, "oh thank god…"
So he strode over to wiggle his fingers, asking for the phone, which Joey willingly gave, and then Yami pressed it to his ear, hearing sirens trilling on the other end as he spoke to the first responder on the other end, "her vitals, please. And a blood test. I want you to test for these specific poisons… Ready?"
Joey blinked incredulously as Yami listed a bunch of medical mumbo jumbo–names of medicines, where to poke Anzu for the test, and another long list of substances that had names in English. What the heck was Paracitin? Parox-toxin? Fent-abitol?
Yami narrowed his eyes in annoyance when the person on the other end stammered, "p-perhaps you could come in to identify these yourself? Are you cleared with the bureau? I can give you her suite number when we arrive."
Sighing, Yami lowered the phone to ask Joey, "they want me to be there in person and am I cleared 'with the bureau'?"
All heads on the ground nodded, so Yami didn't even bother talking to the person on the other end anymore. He handed the phone back to Joey while it was still in the call and went back to the laptop to continue watching footage of Marik.
The most troubling part of the escape was the person who helped him.
It was another ghost freelancer like himself, except this person was more of a myth.
A blacksite extractor by the name of Master Shin–real name, face, gender, all unknown.
Crud, Yami clenched his fist and stared at the footage, his eyes watering. He didn't have time to deal with this right now! He needed to check on Anzu, and that meant giving up every precious minute he could be using his hands to find Master Shin and Marik.
Dare he utilize Seto? Yes. Because this was urgent.
Yami sent the footage to his own email and lowered the lid of the heavy laptop to look at Seto, who was sitting silently beside Dartz and the doctor, having a quiet conversation about his police escorted trip to the hospital.
"Seto, impromptu day off for you today," Yami said as he rose to his feet, anxious to get moving. "Upstairs, please. You need to rest."
Kaiba glanced up to meet Yami's angular gaze and his heart skipped a beat.
"I want to make sure she's okay too," Kaiba began, mainly wanting to supervise Yami's transport to the hospital, since the last time he let the feds take Yami, they'd put him in a hood and he killed a commander. "No bullshit. They're not putting you in cuffs either."
"If they cuff me, hood me or continue pointing their weapons at me, that violates my immunity agreement, and she dies," Yami said emotionlessly, pointing over his shoulders at the stairs. "Time is of the essence. Please come upstairs. Now."
Kaiba stood quietly and followed Yami up the stairs, wanting to argue about being left home, but Yami turned to grab him by the wrist and pulled him into the 4th floor study, then turning to him with breathless, wide eyes he was familiar with. This was Anxious Yami.
"You need to find and track Marik to make sure he doesn't try to come here," Yami said with a nod, pulling out his phone to text Isono instructions while still raining orders down onto Seto. "You'll stay home, and Mokuba will stay home. Security will triple, and you will follow any leads you have on a man named Master Shin."
Kaiba blinked and his head spun. Wait. Hold on.
"Master Shin is a dangerous blacksite extractor, you heard that right," Yami nodded, seeing Kaiba's eyes widen at the corners. "If he's in, he's in. If Marik is a blunt force hammer, then Master Shin is a mythical ghost with the master key to every lock in the world."
Isono knocked and edged into the room with four heavy laptops from the basement, so Seto rushed to help offload the computers and set them all down on the desk while Yami continued to talk.
"I connected their databases and satellites to yours, with a backdoor key, I'll write it down," Yami said absently, picking up a pen from Kaiba's desk and began steadily writing the numbers onto the pad with the KC logo printed on the lower corner. "Your eyes are their eyes. I used to have an old key in place but …they coded me out because a high-level hacker switched sides," Yami paused thoughtfully, and then set the pen down.
"You will obviously not let them know that you know where Marik and Master Shin are once you find them," Yami said with a nod. "And if either target comes here to harm you or Mokuba, tell me immediately. Master Shin is to be captured alive because his brain holds the key to many ghost-sites that supposedly don't exist, but he's been to them, so I must know."
Kaiba's knees weakened and he sat down behind his desk. Okay. Cool.
He was background support. He could do this.
"YAMI! …Hospital! They got Anzu in a bed!" Joey shouted from the hallway, making Yami tense in annoyance and then call back over his shoulder, "COMING!"
"Love you, you will find them," Yami said with a confident nod for Seto. "See you soon. 3 hours, if nothing goes wrong."
"Love you too, and if something goes wrong?" Kaiba asked hoarsely, and Yami had an answer for him.
"5 or 6." Yami was halfway out the door. "Pray for Anzu if you believe in God."
"I don't!" Kaiba called after Yami's shadow. "But she's your friend, not mine!"
Yami felt himself smile as he jogged down the stairs, with Joey joining him for the last two flights, rapidly briefing him as they hurried out the doors and into the back of a reinforced police van, "...They said she's conscious and found all the areas where Marik skewered her, and she doesn't remember if they did poke her while she was out. But she's awake and talkin'... Yami? You okay bud?"
Yami was glancing around the van, looking for Dartz and the doctor.
"My lawyer and Kaiba's doctor?" Yami prompted, knowing he needed proper representation now after the hood fiasco.
"Car behind us, you gotta transpo in this vehicle but I said I'd ride with ya," Joey said with a serious nod. "Just in case they wanna get at ya, this is a super reinforced vehicle."
Yami rolled his eyes. Sure. Super reinforced, but still susceptible to the laws of gravity like everything on this planet. Idiots.
Joey noticed the eyeroll and cracked a smile, "yeah I know. I did that too. So, Anzu?"
Yami nodded and gave Joey a reassuring smile. "She'll be okay. I'll make sure of it."
Joey mirrored Yami's nod and his heart calmed down a little bit.
He knew Anzu was in good hands with Yami.
Author's note:
A few chapters left! this story is almost at an end!