Chapter 48:
The greasy spoon was a narrow little place, with a Formica counter running along one side, separating the kitchen from the cramped booths where the customers huddled around aluminum tables. It was still early and the place was empty of customers. They found Flay Allster behind the Formica counter, rubbing down some glasses with a rag. She had already recognized Athrun through the glass windows and there was an anxious expression plastered across her face when both of them stepped into the diner.
"Is it Kira?" She said, putting down both glass and rag. "Is he alright? Did something happen to him?"
"No, he's fine," Athrun said smoothly. He felt Cagalli take a step forward at the mention of the name 'Kira', and he touched her arm gently to restrain her. "I'm so sorry to disturb you again so early this morning, Miss Allster, but I just have a question." He was interrupted by a man who poked his head out of the kitchen first before stepping out. "Can we help you?" the newcomer said, running a hand through pale brown hair, bemused eyes staring from behind auburn tinted glasses.
"Oh," Flay Allster said, stepping away from the counter. She beckoned towards the man and said to him, "This is Detective Athrun Zala. He's the one who's got news on Kira." Turning to Athrun and Cagalli, she gave a smile, "Sai Argyle, my fiancé. We run this place together." Athrun introduced Cagalli and they shook hands with Sai over the counter.
"Right," Athrun said, drawing them back to the conversation, "Just a quick question, Miss Allster. I'd like to find out if you know of someone who cleans up Mr. Hibiki's apartment. Does he hire a housekeeper or something?"
Flay Allster paused for a while before she answered, twirling a lock of blood-red hair between her fingers. "No," She shook her head, "Not that I know of. Kira's never mentioned hiring one." She glanced over at her fiancé who shrugged his shoulders.
"Have you seen anyone entering or leaving the house?"
Another long pause. "No, I'm afraid not."
"Okay." Athrun exchanged a glance with Cagalli, then nodded his appreciation. "We'll get a move on then, Miss Allster. We've got some other work to get done. Very nice to meet you, Mr. Argyle."
"You'll call when Kira's ready to meet us?" Flay Allster asked again.
Athrun nodded, even though it was an outright lie. "Will do," he said, already backing towards the exit of the diner, Cagalli a step behind him.
He was on his way back to the hideout, when he received the call from Stellar. After she told him that Athrun Zala and Cagalli Yamato had left the diner, he instructed her to keep him posted, then hung up and replaced the cell in his jacket pocket.
Things were looking bad. And Kira figured that they could only get worse. All his missions were like that – the longer you dragged it out, the more potential there was for things to blow up in your face. And no one said kidnapping was done in a matter of minutes. Time was ticking. He racked up his left sleeve and checked his watch. 6:30 a.m. They had only twelve and a half more hours to go. But if Yuna Roma Seiran had been frightened enough to take his advice, then he could wrap this all up in less than five.
Unless, of course, Athrun Zala did something to sabotage his plans. Which at this point in time, seemed very likely.
Kira realized, as he strolled down the street at a steady pace, hands jammed deep into his pockets, that he had miscalculated. He had thought that the news report was a salvageable mistake, but no. Someone had turned up and offered Athrun Zala a clue on a silver platter, and he hadn't expected that person to be Flay Allster. In fact, it hadn't even crossed his mind that someone would respond to the news report. As far as he knew, Kira was 'invisible' – no one knew him, no one cared. There was nothing to his name, which meant that there was nothing that could trace back to him. He was unknown to the rest of the world. He was always moving in the shadows. He belonged to a completely separate world. That was him; that was how he led his life.
At least that was what he thought.
Kira hastened his pace. The neighbourhood was waking up. The previously empty street he had seen when he stepped into the phone booth and talked to Yuna Roma Seiran was not so empty anymore. People were opening up shop; passers-by were streaming out onto the sidewalk, some taking a morning stroll, some hurrying off to work. In these not-so-good circumstances, it was better if he limited his exposure, so he tucked his chin in and moved quickly, cutting through the increasing stream of people on the streets.
He was an avenue away from the vacant industrial warehouses, and could already see the top of the rusted fence bordering the area over the roofs of the dusty shops on his right, when he sensed someone fall in behind him. He kept walking, footsteps even on the concrete pavement, and the stranger stayed with him, always two steps behind. So Kira chose the nearest grocery store that was already open for business and stepped into it. After all, his team needed breakfast.
The wrinkled old man behind the cashier glanced up at Kira with a bored and uninterested expression when he entered, then turned back to the newspapers sprawled out in front of him. Kira mingled among the shelves, moving from one aisle to another, amethyst eyes running over the assortment of products, ears straining to hear the familiar footfall of his new companion. The man hadn't followed him into the shop. Which was fine by Kira – it gave him some time to get breakfast, before having to deal with his new 'friend'.
So Kira picked out a loaf of bread, some sandwiches and a five-gallon bottle of water and returned to the counter. He waited as the old man took his time to fold his newspapers. "Thirty bucks," the old man drawled out eventually, with a smug tweak at the corner of his lips. Kira understood – none of the shops in the neighbourhood played nice. None of the prices in the stores were fixed. Depending on who entered the shop, prices could be exorbitant, and there was nothing you could do about it, because most of these shopkeepers kept guns under their cashiers. If you played dirty, these shopkeepers played dirtier.
Kira smiled and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a wad of crumpled bills and peeled off a fifty. "Tell you what," he said, tipping the bill towards the old man, "I'll let you keep the change, if you'll let me use your backdoor."
The old man stared at the creased bill, then raised his eyes to Kira's face. He glanced over at the front entrance and grinned. "Hiding from someone, son?"
Kira just smiled.
"Alright," the old man nodded. He took the bill and dumped it into a drawer, then packed Kira's groceries into a plastic bag and led him towards the backdoor of the shop. Kira ducked through the doorway and found himself in a narrow side alley between the grocery store and a hardware shop. He inched his way towards the main street, back against the brick wall, and found the person he was looking for. The man who was tailing him was standing in front of the grocery store, eyes fixed on the entrance. His back was towards the side alley and Kira couldn't see his face. But then again, he didn't need to – the man was soon to be dead and corpses didn't look pretty lying in alleyways.
Kira left his bag of groceries in the alley and strolled out onto the main street, right hand dipping into the inner pocket of his jacket. Two feet away from the man, he pulled out his gun and pressed the barrel of the silencer into the man's back. He closed up the rest of the distance, until the butt of his gun was flushed against his own stomach and threw his left arm over the other man's shoulder, as if they were buddies.
The man froze.
"Move, and I guarantee that you'll be lying in a bed for the rest of your life," Kira said into the man's ear, jamming the gun barrel into the man's spine for emphasis. "That is, if the doctors can put your spinal cord back together."
"Don't shoot!" the man gasped. He moved his hands, lifting them away from his body to show that he was unarmed, but not high enough to attract the attention of the pedestrians strolling around them. Kira took them as some sign of cooperation. He tugged the man against him and hauled him into the alleyway, back into the shadows. "Give me a reason why I shouldn't."
The man reached a hand into his pocket, and Kira shoved the gun barrel hard into the man's spine. The man groaned and stopped in his movements. "Rau sent me," the man whispered, voice thick with pain.
Kira paused. This was unusual. Rau's men always found ingenious ways of getting orders and messages to him, none of which involved a man tailing him. Kira knocked back the safety catch and poised his finger over the trigger. He had a silencer screwed to his gun; this wouldn't take long, and wouldn't draw anyone's attention.
"No, I'm telling the truth," the man said quickly, "Rau sent me to give you a message. He said it's important. That's why I came personally. He knows that Athrun Zala's been to your apartment."
The last sentence made Kira stop, and the man took advantage of it, digging quickly into his pocket and pulling out a folded envelope before Kira could change his mind. And when Kira saw the insignia on the envelope, Kira let the gun fall to his side, for he recognized it instantly and knew the man was telling the truth. He received it in his left hand and watched as the man scurried out of the alley, narrowly colliding with a couple that happened to be strolling by.
Now alone, Kira pocketed his weapon and slid a nail through the fold of the envelope. It was glued shut and it took a little while for Kira to work it open. Inside was a sheet of card stock, and on the back was a single line written in Rau's handwriting.
Get rid of all the evidence before Athrun Zala gets there, and that includes eliminating Lacus Clyne.
Athrun's phone began to buzz as soon as they stepped out of the greasy spoon. He fished it out of his pocket and held it to his ear, "Zala speaking."
Meyrin's voice transmitted into his ear and said, "Chief, I've managed to track down the owner of the apartment as requested." Athrun lifted the cell from his ear and switched it to speaker mode so that Cagalli could hear the message too. "It belongs to a man named Brad Harvey."
"And who is he?"
"I'm thinking you won't be surprised by what I'm about to say. He's an employee of STAN Labs. And after some really intensive trawling through the system, we found out that it's part of DEX Enterprises' property."
"Right," Athrun said, glancing at Cagalli, who was staring at him wide-eyed. "Thank you very much, Meyrin. I'll appreciate it if you could send Mr. Harvey's particulars. And how are things on Seiran's side? Have Nicol and Dearka checked in?"
"Nicol called in about ten minutes ago. He said that Dearka is still playing Seiran, but Seiran doesn't seem to be taking it very well."
"Okay," Athrun said, "what about Miriallia? Any news about the DNA profile?"
There was a clatter on the other end of the phone and Miriallia came onto the line. "I'm right here," she said, "and no, the test is still running. This isn't fast food, Athrun, you need to give it time."
"Right," Athrun said again, "but in case you haven't noticed, time isn't exactly on our side right now."
Nicol had just hung up from the call with Meyrin when he heard shouting from the Clyne Mansion study. He ran across the hallway and into the room and found Dearka and Seiran in the midst of a struggle.
"What in the world's going on?" He insinuated himself between the two squabbling man to break up the fight. Behind them, Siegel Clyne looked helpless and distressed.
"I told you to call Detective Joule, but you didn't!" Seiran yelled, which was almost a shriek. He pointed a trembling finger at Dearka. "I talked to my subordinate at the safehouse. He told me that no one called up, and Detective Joule's been in the safehouse all morning!"
Nicol shot Dearka an alarmed glance but Dearka ignored it. "With all due respect, sir," he spat out, "withdrawing the team is exactly what the kidnappers want. Next minute, they're going to storm the safehouse and take the serum and there won't be a single soul to stop them."
Seiran drew himself up, chest out and shoulders pushed back in a defiant posture. "I'm not stupid," he declared. "Of course I know the kidnappers are going to head for the safehouse. I didn't say leave the serum behind. Ask the team to take it with them when they withdraw. And when the fools break in, we'll just turn back and round them up."
"Oh come on," Dearka breathed out, "you don't think the kidnappers are amateurs, do you? They're not going down so easily. And besides, how does that ensure Lacus' safety? The kidnappers' request is utterly unreasonable. It's obvious that if we concede to their request, we're never getting Lacus back."
"He said we'll see Lacus after we withdraw the men."
"Right, and kidnappers are honourable people who keep their promises," Dearka snarled.
Seiran looked as if he had been slapped. His face reddened with anger, his eyes livid. The next moment, he dove for his jacket, which was slung over the armrest of the couch and snatched for his phone. Before Nicol and Dearka could stop him, he had dialed the number to Yzak Joule's line and Yzak picked up after a single ring.
"This is Yuna Roma Seiran, chief of this operation. New orders have been passed down. You are to withdraw all the men from the safehouse and take the serum with you immediately."
Dearka wrestled the phone from his hand, but it was already too late.
Miles away, the elevator doors grated open and Kira lunged onto the fourth level of the warehouse, the card stock imprinted with Rau's message clenched tight in his hand. He couldn't believe what he had just read – killing Lacus Clyne had never been part of the plan. His mind was racing. For once, he felt confusion cloud his judgment. For once, he felt the orders he had been given were wrong. But before he could even work out the flashing thoughts in his mind, the devices Sting had hooked up began to beep earnestly and lit up the gloom in harsh white light.
"Seiran's phone has connected with Yzak Joule's," Sting said, swinging around in his chair to check the computer screens. "We've got a lead on Yzak Joule's location."
Author's note: So what do you think? Things are getting exciting now and I'm working up to the meeting between Athrun and Kira, so stay with me guys! I feel as if the characters are becoming way too OOC. What do you think? Am I deviating too far from the original characters? Hmmm… I hesitated a little about Kira's encounter with the man, because it's so unlike him. But then again, if I wanted Kira to be a ruthless killer in this AU, I can't have him all nice and gentle… hmm… And Dearka's being so… outspoken… Oh boy… Please do review and let me know what you think about the characters. If it's getting a little out of hand, it'll be nice if you guys remind me and drag me back into the universe of GS and GSD before I spoil these beloved characters! So what can I say but review, review review!