Chapter 9 (Karmi's POV)
I'd pulled my share of all-nighters. I knew how to keep the fatigue at bay with sheer determination and caffeine. Most of my best breakthroughs came about that way. I knew Hiro wasn't that different. But we weren't kids anymore, and much more was at stake than a good grade on a project.
I didn't even remember what time I'd gotten the text, just that I left work right away. When I reached HQ Hiro was already frantically working. My blood ran cold when I saw the shape Baymax was in. A million thoughts and feelings ran through me like they always did.
Not just worry for Baymax, but the cold realization of how close to danger Hiro must have been tonight.
I wanted to wrap my arms around him, to prove to myself that he was alright. But there wasn't time or space for those feelings, no matter how strongly they burned inside of me. So I just stood there, waiting, watching powerlessly, as the hours slipped away. Before I even knew it, morning was seeping into the cracks behind the window blinds.
The tension that had felt almost tangible culminated into one moment. Breathlessly, Hiro pushed the chip back into Baymax's chest and waited. Waited for any signs of life…
Each second felt like a slow eternity, but our patience was rewarded when Baymax's eyes slowly blinked out at us.
"Baymax, are you…?" Hiro whispered desperately.
"I am…" he hesitated. "Functioning within normal parameters." He tilted his head as somehow emotion filled his seemingly blank eyes. "Thank you, Hiro."
Hiro dove at him, wrapping him in the largest hug he could manage. "Don't do that again, Buddy… Ever."
"I will try."
I sighed in relief as I walked over to join in the hug. "I wish neither of you would do that again."
Hiro turned to look at me, seeming to be the first time he even noticed I was there. I could have felt a little annoyed about that, but I knew how worried he'd been about Baymax. Before I could open my mouth to snark at him he hugged me almost as desperately as he had Baymax.
"I'm so glad you're here…"
"I'm glad you are too…" I whispered, stopping myself from using the word alive.
He pulled away and looked into my eyes. "I am too. It got a little dicey last night."
I gestured toward Baymax. "Clearly. What happened, Hiro?"
He slipped out of my arms and paced across the room. "I told you about Krei's shipment of whatever right?"
I nodded. "Yeah, you were guarding it right?"
"Yeah, but Enkei showed up, or I should say she was there from the start. But she didn't even make a move toward Krei's shipment. Instead, she trashed Baymax and almost made a fool out Big Hero 6, again."
"And what about you," I asked stepping closer. "Were you on Baymax when he took all that damage?"
"Yeah, but I'm fine…"
"I'll be the judge of that!" I snapped as I looked him over. He was a muddled combination of cuts, bruises, and the smell of smoke. Not to mention the dark circles…
"It's not worth it, all for Krei's dumb shipment! What was that anyway?" I asked, still annoyed.
"No clue, Krei hasn't shared any details. He's just overjoyed that Enkei didn't steal it. But none of it makes sense. Enkei sent a threatening message and then let the shipment slip through her fingers. I know we were keeping her busy, but not very well if I'm honest. She had time to take something and run if she really wanted to."
"What's with her and the mind games?!" I scoffed.
Hiro slumped into a chair and spun around to face me. "That's not even the half of it, Karm…"
"Then tell me the whole of and don't you dare leave out any details."
He sighed. "If you insist…" Grabbing a pad and pencil he quickly sketched something. "Look familiar?" he asked as he showed me the symbol he'd drawn.
"Sort of…?" I titled my head, trying to place where I'd seen it before.
"Project Silent Sparrow," he finally whispered.
All at once the pieces fell into place. Every piece right down to Tadashi…
"Enkei burned this symbol into the pier before she fled the scene last night," he explained.
"W-What does she have to do with that…?"
He sighed. "Maybe nothing, maybe everything. We don't have the answers yet. She knows who I really am, she's used my name more than once. So that narrows her possible connections somewhat, but it still doesn't give us much to go on. Either this is just another mind game to get to me, or she really is connected to something to do with Project Silent Sparrow…"
"How could she be connected?"
A dark shadow crept across his face. "There are only two possibilities, Krei or…" he hesitated. "Callaghan…"
I shook my head. "Let's not jump to conclusions, Hiro. There are lots of people in the dark circles of San Fransokyo who might know about you and what happened back then. We just don't have enough to go on yet."
He reluctantly agreed. "Yeah, it's just hard to keep my emotions out of it."
"I know…" I whispered. "That's how I feel each time I see you get hurt."
He looked up at me, the emotions in his eyes earnest but hard to place. "Karmi I…"
But anything he wanted to say was cut off by the sound of his phone ringing. He flipped it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. Judging by how fast he rolled his eyes, it wasn't good news.
"Krei," he mumbled in annoyance before he answered.
"Put it on speaker," I insisted. After all, if necessary I wanted to be able to give Krei a piece of my mind.
"Hello…"
"Hiro, are you up yet, you sound horrible?"
"I never went to bed, things didn't exactly go according to plan last night."
"Well, you could have fooled me, my shipment is safe and sound!"
"Great, so glad to hear it…" Hiro muttered sarcastically.
"You bet. And as a big thank you, I want to give Big Hero 6 a sneak peek at just what you were protecting. It's going to blow your mind! Pun intended."
I knew no one was all that enthused after what had happened, but it could be important to the mission all the same. I figured Hiro already knew that. "Okay, we'll be there."
"Great, I'll have Judy order a few fresh espressos, you really sound like you could use it!"
"Great…"
After everyone else checked in on Baymax we shared the news about Krei. I wasn't sure if it was relevant or just more corporate stupidity, but I wasn't going to miss out on this either. So the seven of us headed out for the meeting.
"So we have another date with a corporate bigwig?!" Fred had asked excitedly as he stared up at the spectacle that was Krei Tech.
Gogo scoffed. "Just one more fate worse than death…"
"Who knows, it might be an important innovation," Honey Lemon suggested hopefully.
"Or it could be just another display of how corporate greed is rewarded by the mindless consumer spirit," Wasabi added more realistically.
"Or that…" she agreed, deflating a little.
"Greed can be quite hazardous to health," Baymax added as an afterthought.
"So can Krei," Gogo muttered. "Let's just get this over with."
Hiro seemed to agree with her sentiment because he wordlessly led the charge inside. This wouldn't be my first time meeting Alister Krei, but something told me he wouldn't really remember me regardless. He had a way of only noticing the people who were useful to him at the moment, after all. But as absent-minded as he could be, he could count at least. Because as soon as his haggard assistant led us in he noticed me.
"Hiro, when did you become Big Hero 7, it's throwing off my established image for your little gang."
Since when were we in a gang…? He made it seem like we were still kids instead of the ones constantly saving his butt.
"Oh, uh this is Karmi, I'm pretty sure you met before."
His face lit up. "Oh, I remember now, Hiro, she's your cousin right?"
"Wife, Krei, wife…"
"You married your cousin?!" he gasped
"She's no one's cousin!" Hiro shouted. "We literally look nothing alike…"
"Oh, right that was Judy's cousin I was thinking of, he was-
"Judy married her cousin?!" Fred exclaimed adding to the madness.
Krei laughed. "No, nothing like that, but it was a funny story. You see he makes an amazing Pad Thai and I-"
"Can we please cut to the chase?!" Gogo begged on the edge of sanity.
He seemed a little disappointed but agreed. "Fine. And if by chase you mean the greatest advancement the human race has ever known, then yes let's get to it." He smiled, pride radiating off every inch of his face.
"Follow me!"
The greatest advancement in human history was quite the claim. I figured I'd be the judge of that, and I wasn't easily impressed.
He led us toward a bookshelf, and like the oldest trick possible, he pulled back a certain book. I was expecting some sort of secret passageway to open, but instead, a retinal scanner appeared on a nearby wall. Once it registered Krei's eyeball, wait for it…then a secret passageway opened.
"Right this way!" he excitedly shouted.
We followed him into what appeared to be a vault of some sort. Clapping on the lights, he gestured in wonder toward a sealed case.
"You've had a breakthrough in briefcases?" Gogo quipped dryly. "Congrats."
He rolled his eyes. "It's what's in the case! This is just a sample, the rest of the prototypes unloaded last night are being kept in an even more secret secure location."
Why did I doubt it was that secure…?
Popping the latches on the briefcase he revealed a smaller glass container inside. But what it held was almost too small to see.
"Oh, it's sea monkeys, isn't it!?" Fred gasped.
Gogo looked torn between rolling her eyes at him and thinking it was a good guess. We were talking about Krei, after all.
"Oh please!" Krei scoffed. "That was so last year. No, this is none other than the bridge between human and artificial intelligence!"
Hiro sighed, seeing where this was going. "That bridge wouldn't happen to involve neural implants, would it?"
"Brain chips!" Fred gasped again. "Wow, this plot just took a dark turn…"
"Not just any brain chips, Krei Tech brain chips!" Krei proudly confirmed.
Not even Honey Lemon could find the bright side of this, she looked more than a little horrified at the thought of Krei doing anything with brains. Especially given the problems with his own…
"You weren't the one who invented these, were you, Mr. Krei?" she tried to ask tactfully.
He smiled. "Hardly, I'm a businessman, not an egghead. But the good thing about being rich is you get your name on the box!"
"Then whose work is this?" Hiro asked carefully.
"Oh, what was her name… Uh something Wakoto, or was it Makoto? I'm not good with names honestly. Anyway, the inventor isn't what's important, what matters is what it does! After all, marketing claims are what brings in the big bucks."
This was going about how I expected...
"Imagine a world where you can get a text message directly into your…brain!" he said with a dramatic pause. "But that's only the beginning! Direct computer interfaces would be possible with only a thought. With enough time and development, we could augment human intelligence to the point that stupidity could be virtually wiped out!"
Gogo shifted awkwardly, I could sense the burning quip she was fighting to hold back. I on the other hand didn't hold back. "I don't think any technology has that much power. Frankly, I think you're underestimating the degrees of stupidity that exist."
Krei laughed, not realizing he should be offended. "That's funny! But you're underestimating my genius!"
"You mean the inventor's genius?" Gogo added simply.
"Yes, yes, same difference. The point is our tests have gone unbelievably well, get this, we've taught a monkey to read full sentences!"
"And how is that monkey now…" Wasabi questioned dubiously.
"Very much alive," Krei added. "And in time probably moving on to Shakespeare!"
Try as we might, we couldn't get any useful details out of Krei. Not how the chips actually worked, or even the full name of the inventor. Frankly, I didn't think he even understood half our questions. Once we'd taken all we could stand, we met back up at HQ.
"So, let's review," Gogo began. "Krei is throwing sacks of money at a scientist he can't even remember, so they can stick chips in people's brains. What could possibly go wrong here…?"
Fred scoffed. "When you've watched as many sci-fi movies as me quite a few possibilities come to mind."
"No kidding…"
"Agreed," Hiro added. "But at least they haven't reached the human testing phase. That's something at least. Right now I feel like the bigger question is whether or not this is related to Enkei in any way."
"Well, she was there at the docks," Wasabi mentioned. "Plus she's probably the one behind the threatening message Krei received, right?"
"Most likely," Honey Lemon agreed.
"But why didn't she steal at least part of the shipment…?" Hiro whispered thoughtfully. "None of it makes any sense. What has she gained from any of the crimes she's pulled off? Nothing monetary, that's for sure."
"It's not always about the money, Hiro," Fred added ominously. "With the real villains, it's much more…personal."
"But what personal connection does she have to Hiro?" I asked, feeling a little defensive. "To any of us?"
The question hung in the air around us, all of the dark possibilities unfolding silently. All the names we dared not to say. All the old enemies we'd made over the years. The faces that still haunted us when we closed our eyes…
But of all those names, there was one I hadn't expected to hear that day…
The sudden sound of Hiro's phone cut through the silence. Pulling it out of his pocket he glanced down at the screen.
"Chief Cruz…" he whispered, before laying the phone down and setting it to speaker.
"Yes Chief?"
"Hiro!" the Chief's voice boomed. "This is a code red, there has been a major breach!"
We knew what that meant, a breach at the maximum security prison.
"What kind of breach?!" Hiro shouted back.
I thought I could already guess the worst.
"An escape, that's what!"
"Who?!"
But I was wrong… because that name, it wasn't who I was expecting...
"Callaghan," he shouted into the stunned silence. "Robert Callaghan is gone!"