Chapter 18:
Kira shoved past the nurse who held out the towel and bottle of water to him and flung open the door of the observation room brusquely. The edge of the door collided against the concrete wall with a loud bang as he strolled in. The observation room was another room of concrete, smaller than the previous, with a floor-to-ceiling tinted glass window on one side that overlooked the concrete cell. Through the glass, he saw nurses and paramedics lifting the fallen men out off the room on stretchers, or at least what remained of those men.
Kira scanned the room quickly. It was crowded with half a dozen men in white lab coats, who had frozen in their activities, their faces turned towards him. The expression on their face was one of comical panic. He approached them and noted with pleasure the cringes of fear.
So, that little performance in there had frightened them too. Kira smiled, all the better.
He strode towards the scientists, ripping off the pulse monitor attached to his wrist and the wires and devices under his shirt. He flung them at an alarmed scientist. "Take your toys back," he spat before turning on his heel.
"Hold on."
Two scientists barred Kira's way to the exit and he whirled around to fix an icy stare on the speaker. The scientist who had spoken flinched, but he caught himself and straightened to his full height, hoping to create a more confident, intimidating stance. It didn't work.
"Get the fuck out of my way," Kira hissed dangerously.
They didn't back down. "Y-Your…" the scientist's voice came out as a squeak and he stopped to clear his throat, "Your performance in there needs improvement. We need you to…"
His voice faded into a whisper when Kira took a step towards him and he backed away hastily.
"I said," Kira snarled, advancing on the man, "get the fuck out of my way."
The scientist whimpered as Kira pinned him to the wall. And then Kira saw the change in the man's expression as his eyes darted over Kira's shoulder to glance behind him.
Kira spun around but it was too late. A dozen bodies crushed him to the floor. He started to struggle and kick, then froze when he felt the sharp sting of a needle entering his thigh. "What the fuck did you give me?" He snarled at the scientist who was now standing over him, smirking.
"Nothing serious, Kira," He grinned, "Just a mild sedative. Rau's orders."
"Son of a bitch." Kira spat, but he stopped struggling. No point - he wouldn't be able to fight the sedative. He had learnt that from experience, so he just kept his feral amethyst eyes pinned on the leering man in the white lab coat.
It didn't take more than a minute. The ceiling and the many faces above him began to swim. A wave of dizziness clouded his vision. He saw the bodies atop his ease off, but he couldn't quite feel it. Already, the sense of detachment from his body was starting. Arms lifted his limp body and he felt the darkness start to creep in. The last thing he saw was the smirking face of the scientist lingering above him and he promised himself that he would smash it in one day.
Athrun breezed into the conference room and flung himself into the chair at the head of the table. "Alright, update me."
Lunamaria swiveled around in her chair and shoved a file full of papers in front of her towards the center of the table. "We've managed to contact most of the guests and got their statements. Right now, we've got fifty officers and detectives conducting house visits. We should have a few dozen more statements coming in by the end of today. But no guarantees that we can get all of them. Some of the guests have left for business trips or are still uncontactable."
Athrun nodded, "I'm not expecting statements for all the guests. I'm expecting some not to turn up and I want to know which are the ones that are MIA."
"Got it."
Athrun pointed his pen at Shinn. "Any leads at the crime scene?"
"Not much that you don't already know." Shinn switched on the projector and a photograph of the Clyne Mansion study faded into view on the screen behind Athrun. Meyrin got up to switch off the lights and the photograph appeared much clearer. Athrun swiveled around in his chair so that he was facing the screen.
"Firstly, we've had the lab techs scour the whole room. No fingerprints, or hair. But we did find some scraps of black fabric caught in the bushes." A photograph of the thicket underneath the window came into view, followed by another that showed a close-up of torn fabric caught on the branches of the bush. "This could be where those guys changed into their gear and got into the study."
"We've also got bullet shells," another series of photographs showing the shell casings found at the crime scene. There were three lying on the cracked tiles of the first floor ballroom and another embedded into the wall behind an upturned cocktail bar. Four in total. Just like the first shot they had heard during the party and the triple-tap that had led to the full-blown chaos after that.
"We've had the shells sent to the lab. It's proven they were fired from a gun similar to that of the infiltrators of the Clyne Mansion. So it's them alright."
"We've also got three blood samples, as you already know. One of them has been confirmed to be Officer Zachary Jones'."
Shinn paused as the photograph of Zachary's body flickered onto the screen. There was a grim silence in the room as they remembered the death of one of their comrades.
Athrun cleared his throat to break the uncomfortable silence. Shinn took his cue and launched back into his report. "The second," another photograph of the strewn books and their blood-soaked pages, "has been confirmed to be Yzak's blood."
Athrun glanced over his shoulder at Dearka and raised his eyebrows questioningly.
"Yzak's fine," Dearka reassured the team, "he's a terrible patient, but he's healing well."
Relieved nods went around the table.
"Now, the third blood sample has been brought to the lab and it's been confirmed that it doesn't belong to Yzak or Zachary," Shinn continued, "so we have reason to believe that one of the perpetrators was injured. According to Yzak's statement-" The black-haired officer paused to flip through his file and began to read off it, "when he tackled one of the guys to the floor, he was actually pointing a gun at someone else in the room. Not Zachary, because the position of the body was not in his line of fire. So this means," Shinn glanced up as he close the file, "that there was some internal strife within the gang. That blood stain could belong to one of the guys injured during the confrontation."
"The crime scene lab has sent us the DNA profile of the guy and Nicol is running it through the system." He ended his report and glanced over to Nicol, who sat up in his chair as everyone turned to look at him expectantly.
"Nicol? Any news?" Athrun asked. He couldn't stop the expectant and hopeful tone that crept into his voice.
"Well, the criminal database didn't turn out any results." Nicol offered unhelpfully. The wave of disappointment that swept through the room was hard to miss.
Meyrin shook her head dejectedly, "So the guy doesn't have a criminal record. Does that mean we're back to square one?" She glanced around the table at the equally frustrated faces of her colleagues.
Nicol smiled, "well, not quite. The criminal database didn't work out, but I got some information from another database. The DNA from the blood analysis matches the subject 100%."
Chairs scraped the floor as their occupants swiveled around to stare at Nicol. He brandished a manila file in their direction and slid it across the table. Athrun flipped it open and glanced down at the documents.
The National Database for Unidentified Decedents and Missing Persons.
He raised his eyes unbelievingly at Nicol but he just nodded and shrugged, "our guy is apparently a missing person with no identification whatsoever. In fact, he's been declared dead in absentia."
Rau was smiling to himself as he hummed. He put a finger on the top of the globe on his desk and began to spin it around. He had smashed the old one when Kira had told him about Orga's flight, but he had got it replaced with a bigger, better one – with a gold axle and gold inscriptions of the names of countries. It had cost a bomb, but it would be nothing compared to the amount entering his bank account when work on that drug began.
He would get his scientists to alter the drug. Its unstable chemical makeup would be easy to manipulate and he could get it changed into a virus, or disease. Then they could work out an antidote and he could get the patent for the cure. Rau watched the globe spin around and around on its gold axle. Where would he release the virus first? Probably in a metropolitan city – many people, lots of money and plenty of suckers willing to pay for a cure. Rau could jack up the price to an exorbitant sum, because he would be the only one holding on to its key. And who wouldn't pay for their life?
He was still indulging in his fantasy, when he heard an urgent knock on his door. But his mind dismissed the urgency quickly. Things were going great, and they would only get better. Nothing could bring his mood down. His people were always in a hurry, always panicking over the smallest of things. Dumb fools, Rau mused.
"Come in."
The door burst open on its hinges and a man in a white lab coat stood in his doorway. His hair was disheveled and he was panting hard from running. "Sir! The chemical analysis for the drug is complete. But…" He paused, as though struggling to find the correct word, "But the drug… it's chemical makeup doesn't add up. This drug… it's fake!"
Author's note: K, next chapter's out. Finally. Hope this explains a little about the fight from the previous chapter, moi :D I realised that I should have uploaded this two chapters together. May have cleared things up a bit then :) Anyway, don't forget to review, review, review. Next chapter should be up soon!