I felt an extra heavy dose of fear sliding down my throat.
Normally, to spend some of that nervous energy I might shake my leg in place, but I kept myself still as Sakura TV came back from a commercial break. The show was an half hour in and Matsuda was holding his own up in this mock interview.
The earpiece in my right ear crackled to life as a voice buzzed around.
Violet, Higuchi is on his way to Yoshida's, is the file ready for him to find?
I confirmed once again that I had polished up the fake file about Taro Matsui's "real name" to be found at a real talent agency by the Yotsuba Kira as proof for his trial.
Yagami, please go ahead with the plan.
Everyone in this control room, that works with L anyway, has their earpieces and could be contacted as one or a group. The elder Yagami relayed the message to Demigawa, the station's producer, who was short, round, and happy to be used for ratings.
"No, no. We should wait a little longer…"
Yagami nicely reminded him what we were doing here while I was tempted with a more physical approach. With a hit of a button and a few passing words, the opaque partition screen fell with a hard crash and exposed Matsuda to the camera. As the lone cameraman and interviewer rushed to pull the screen back up, I step to the doorway to converse with Yagami.
"It's radio silence on our end."
"We stick to the plan, we only have two hours left before the program ends."
I nodded, hoping that no news was good news. For the first hour, I listened to Matsuda retell the night of drinking with the men of Yotsuba and it was a nice little walk down memory lane.
Yagami brought me a cup of hot coffee from the break room soon after, and it tasted like hot mud. I looked up and he had the same reaction to his drink.
"We got spoiled on good coffee,"
He nodded as I watched him carefully place his cardboard cup down to be forgotten. Was it obvious that the two of us didn't work together too much?
Attention,
My piece buzzes to life in my ear with L's voice.
We're moving forward to the apprehending stage of the plan. Please be advised that Higuchi is now assumed to have the same ability as the second Kira.
Light intervened to tell his father to move into the "seventh scheme" as I informed Demigawa to cut into an early advertisement break.
"No way, it's the last thirty minutes! Ratings are through the roof."
I reminded him that if he didn't, I could make a call and his name and picture would be the next thing Sakura TV would report.
"That's nothing," He retorted, but those tiny beads of sweat spoke louder than any words.
"It holds up, Kira hasn't just been killing criminals lately. Can't make money when you're dead, Demigawa."
He hit a small red button sitting beside his conference microphone, telling the interviewer they're cutting to a break in thirty seconds. I thanked him as the elder Yagami came back in, sounding a little out of breath.
"You okay? Trouble out there?" I asked with flashbacks of his heart attack.
"I'm fine, Wedy has arrived. She's bringing the helmets and Mogi and Aiber are only minutes away according to Watari."
I tell him that we should split up from here, even though it's going against L's strict order to not leave each other's side. We could cover a little more ground if he went to bring Wedy to us instead of letting her wander around. With just a smudge of convincing, Yagami left me to take care of the next pending step before the break was over.
The studio the live interview was taken place was one of the ones that held early morning talk shows. The seating was folded up and kept dark except for the well-lit platform the only other two people left in the room were sitting. The platform was their's but the large semi-circle of thick plastic paneling was what Watari had ordered the day before.
"Plan B."
While I headed back to the control room to wrap up, Matsuda should've been rushing to put the life-like mannequins in place before the end of a long ad break. Unknown to anyone else I had a little business to attend to on L's behalf.
Demigawa was right where Yagami and I had left him, messing with knobs and numbered buttons. He turned his head clockwise, smiling like the cat who got the cream when I slid my hands into a pair of leather gloves.
"Finally, I'm almost done with my part of the deal and you haven't paid up yet."
"Yeah, Yeah. You'll be fine."
I flipped through the large stack of ten thousand yen, counting the money once more to give the heavyset man heart palpitations for the slip of sass I got earlier. When completely satisfied, I placed the payment in his hands.
"A hundred thousand for your subordinate, the rest is your's."
Just as the cash was interchanged, the door behind us opened by Matsuda. I greeted him kindly and asked if he was doing okay as I slipped the gloves off and back into my jacket pockets. He asked why we had switched over to the dummies and I remembered he was the only one of us that doesn't have an earpiece.
"Here, take this."
I offered up, telling him about Higuchi as I unstrapped my handgun from the holster on my hip.
"I'm not a police officer anymore, I can't take that."
I understood all that, Japanese law and whatnot, but this was not the time to draw any lines in the sand. Forcing the gun onto him, I told Matsuda to be careful on my way out.
Slipping through the studio's exit, I could see both Yagami and Wedy in position. I slithered myself in between the two to catch my breath.
"Where have you been, Miss. Petrillo?" The man to my right asked in a hushed voice.
"Tying up loose ends is all. How longer until Kira gets here?"
"Last update said ten minutes, so any time now."
Wedy sighed softly, pushing her sunglasses higher up on the bridge of her nose.
"I can't be the only one armed here, here take this, Mr. Yagami."
She held out her hand that cradled a good old fashion Smith & Wesson .38 special. It looked brand new, with no visible damage to the barrel or hammer.
"Ooh, Give me. I just gave mine away."
I began tinkering around with the weapon, noticing the serial number on the bottom of the handle had been tampered with so it couldn't be traced back to anyone. A quick swing of the chamber showed six bullets laying idle, ready for use.
"We're all citizens here, none of us should be carrying any type of weapon."
"Yes, but I'm not facing Kira without something."
After getting the last word, Yagami and myself plopped our helmets with heavily tinted visors. The rhythm of my heartbeat was racing out of control, thumping against my chest like a snare drum. Heat cooked my ears when I heard the door to the studio creak open, and the automated message ending the televised show and shutting down the camera filming.
Heals clicked closer, echoing throughout the place and my skull. Higuchi's interjection to the setup was our cue to stand up. The three of us stood in front of the bright stage, while Mogi and Aiber closed him in from the camera's side.
"There must be some misunderstanding, I have a meeting with Demigawa on behalf of Yotsuba's development lab."
"Don't move, you can see you're surrounded," Wedy said calmly, as I pulled the hammer back for quick action.
"I have my business card right here,"
Higuchi slipped his hand into his leather bag, and I had to take a soft swallow. In one blink he was retrieving his hand and in the next, the barrel of the gun was pointed in our direction. Putting a finger softly on the trigger, I aimed at his torso. Ringing stung my eardrums, but not long enough to keep me incapacitated. Yagami ended up crumpled on the ground, his left hand painted red from the hole in his right bicep. I fired with a cool demeanor, but the gun jammed each time.
"Ryuzaki," I spoke into my earpiece, leaning down to drop the useless gun and move on to Plan B.
"Higuchi had a gun on him, shots were fired and Mr. Yagami got hit."
"I'm sorry, Ryuzaki. It's just a scratch we can still catch him."
"I'm sending Aiber and Mogi on ahead to catch up to Higuchi. Wedy and I are going to patch up Mr. Yagami and then join the pursuit."
It took a few seconds to get a response back, but once word from higher up came back positive we scattered.
Hopefully, Mogi and Aiber remembered to drag Matsuda along with them.
"I'm sorry Mr. Yagami but I need the keys." I apologized, reaching my hand into his front pocket.
I led the way to the back of the building, where crew members park for work. The bleeding man asked not to be taken to the hospital, and I glanced over at Wedy just for a second. I gave him my word as I unlocked the sleek black Toyoda, tossing the keys to Wedy as I slid into the backseat with Yagami.
"Hey, before you take off hand me that package in the glove box."
Inside, besides the box I'd asked for, was a loaded Beretta .40. Against Mr. Yagami's disapproving groans, I told her I packed it for an emergency. I ripped the box open, throwing the lid to the ground to be cared for later. Inside, was a handkerchief, hair tie, those little packets of rubbing alcohol pads, and latex gloves.
"When we get back with the group, Watari will have something to keep infection away."
I said, starting by putting my hair up into a tight ponytail. Nothing of worry or fear colored my mind as I've done this a handful of times on myself, another helpful skill Watari taught me as a young woman so I could avoid "Unnesisery" medical trips (his words, not mine.) Snapping on the same white glove doctors use, I asked the man bleeding to my right to pull off his jacket.
"Miss. Petrillo, what are you up to?" He asked through pained, clenched teeth.
"You don't want to go to the hospital, but I can't leave that bullet in. It didn't hit an artery so we can fix it here and now."
Rolling up his blood-soaked sleeve, since he wouldn't take the jacket off, I wanted a decision. The first time is always the worst, so I held my tongue in kindness. Nonetheless, if he wouldn't let me do it then I'd have Wedy drive to the closest hospital.
"They'll call your wife and daughter. If I did this, you can hide it."
The muscle under his jaw twitched and I knew I had hit a nerve. The strain of worry he was causing his family was part of why his hair had turned gray. Mr. Yagami said nothing, just stared ahead, a sight I took to continue.
Gently holding his arm in place, I began by wiping dry blood and any germs away with alcohol pads. The chemicals reacted and make the cab stink of ruby copper, enough to need a window rolled down.
"I am so sorry you got hurt. If that useless piece of metal I was given had worked we could've stopped Higuchi."
"Hey, are you blaming me?"
"No, Wedy, I'm blaming whoever you stole that gun from."
"Watch it, I'm not some common thief. I won it in a poker game."
I couldn't help but chuckle.
"Okay I'm ready to go, but don't you want the radio on? You know, to take your mind off things?"
By "things" I meant burning pain, it doesn't ache it burns like fire.
"Only thing on the radio right now is this car chase with Kira." Wedy pointed out and that's when I realized we were on the highway.
If I had the minute I would have tried to listen for the whirling of helicopter blades.
"Silence is better anyways."
I dropped the subject, fiddling around the box until my layered fingertips felt cloth. I asked Mr. Yagami to open his mouth and was meant with expected criticism.
"Listen to it to her, it's so you don't bite your tongue,"
With a face full of heavy emotions, he complied with my request. I didn't think odd of his reactions to any of this, he only knew me as a computer expert and not the other skills I carried. Normal officers and law enforcement don't have to dig shells out of body parts once in a blue moon like Wedy and me.
Gag in place, I checked the affected area one more time. The bullet wasn't deep, only a few inches in, and my fingers were slender. No countdown, no warning before I slipped the tips of my thumb and forefinger around the bottom of the bullet. I had to warn the man to keep still as the muscle contracted in pain, or we could cause another bleed.
I was surprised that nothing audible came out, not even when I finished up and begin to clean and wrap with the bandage. The first time I had to do this to myself I cried the whole time, tears blurred my sight opaque.
"Hey, you two, Higuchi's car is in sight."
After rolling down the backseat's window and sticking my head out, the red convertible with the matching license plate number I'd burned into my brain was in fact up ahead of us and doing at least a hundred and fifty kilometers.
I reported our location in the chase to L, cutting it short to pull myself back in before getting knocked off by a rushing, blazing cop car going by. A sickly feeling of adrenaline startled my stomach and stained my tongue, a chemical reaction I used only to get as I teenager risking my life for the jet-black hair boy I had a crush on.
"Don't let anyone else pass us, Wedy, I want to watch," I said softly as I quickly climbed over to the front passenger seat.
She only asked me to light her a cigarette in return, which was easy-peasy since everything I needed was laying in the cupholder between us.
The low hum of the radio was smothered still by an overbearing noise and I was glued to my car window like a child. A black helicopter took our lead, riding close to the road when a figure cloaked in black leaned out aiming a sniper rifle toward the vehicle in front.
"I didn't know Watari could do any of that," Wedy noted, using her half-smoked cigarette to point at the scene playing out.
Even though only the eyes were exposed, it was quite easy to see it was Watari who had just shot the closet tire. Smoke and that choking smell of burnt rubber filled our cab as we had to slam on our breaks or crash into Higuchi. The fear of almost crashing and excitement of finally facing this Kira head-on made my fingers inch, thinking of the gun just sitting idle in the glove compartment.
Nobody moved, wise enough to wait for the following instructions.
Higuchi's pitiful cries to stay away while waving his gun close to his temple were the only thing going on outside. For that split second, I thought he'd do himself out of desperation but dropped the idea once a planned bullet graced his hand forcing him to lose the last bit of hope to make it out on Higuchi's terms.
"Okay, we can get out now."