Author's note: Happy New Year, one and all! Apologies for the delay! I was hoping to get this out by Christmas but I couldn't. At least I got this out in time for the New Year! Whoop! A warm welcome to 2014!
Hitomi65: Thank you for the compliment! I'm glad you enjoyed the previous chappie! Hope you like this one too!
XienRue: Agree! I think Flay's death is a trigger for Kira. Who knows, maybe the Kira we see in GSD is largely influenced by Flay's death? And so if Flay never died, then perhaps the Kira in GSD would be different? And yup, in this chappie, Kira starts regaining a little of his memory. As for Kira and Athrun's bromance, well, I guess more might be coming up when they work together so do look out for that! I'm of course still considering about the withdrawal. I might have a little too much going on right nnow, even without the withdrawal, so we'll see…!
Kurie-tibiti: It's great that you enjoyed the chapter! Hope you'll enjoy this one too!
hardcoreGSfan: I'm really really impressed and thankful for the review! Honestly, I never realised there was so much to the memory wipes! What you said totally makes sense, and it's helped me look at the rest of my story plot again carefully. I've always tried to draw parallels between this fanfic and the anime, so this is another aspect for me to consider. Thanks very much for drawing this to my attention! Really appreciate it!
FTS-Peace: I do realise that there haven't been many Asucaga moments. I'm sorry, do bear with me. I promise there'll be more coming up in the later chapters!
PinkSugarDust: Thank you for the compliments! I really appreciate that you've returned even after a while; I'm sure everyone's busy with real life, so thank you for coming back to read! I hope you'll enjoy this chappie as well!
Abbyanime17: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy this fanfic! It's something quite different from what I'm used to writing too, so I do hope I'm doing a decent job. Really hope to hear from you again soon!
Moi: Definitely more to come with regards to Kira and Athrun working together. So do keep a look out! To be honest, I'm pretty excited about that too!
Japanje: I'm sorry, I do realise I took quite long to update this chappie and I couldn't squeeze it in before Christmas! Hope you'll forgive me for that! Let this be a New Year gift instead! Glad you enjoyed the previous chappie, I hope you'll like this one too!
Hiyono25518: Thank you! I'm looking forward to Kira and Athrun working together too! Hope it'll be exiciting to read and to write!
AAA: Me too! I'm looking forward to both of them working together!
October Lynx: I know, I know, Cagalli's influence has been rather weak in these few chapters. Unfortunately, she doesn't really have a large part in this chapter either! But, don't despair, I've got the next few chappies figured out, and when the real action begins and the mystery unravels, Cagalli will have a larger role to play! So hope you'll bear with me for these few chapters!
Magus-15IchiGo: Hello! I'm always overjoyed and happy to hear from new readers! Thank you very much for taking time to review, never mind if it's a short review or a long one, I love them both! And though I don't get to see the original long review, let me still thank you for the time and effort you spend reading and reviewing! I really really appreciate it! Glad to hear that you've enjoyed the story thus far! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter too!
Chapter 68
They say that at the end you think only of the beginning.
It wasn't true.
Kira didn't think of beginnings: he didn't think of the day Flay first appeared on his doorstep. Neither did he think about the first time he set foot in the diner.
Instead, he thought only of the last time he had seen her. That memory flooded his mind, every single detail embossed, elaborated and exaggerated. The fluorescent lights overhead in the diner shining with piercing brightness; the gloss of the linoleum countertop blinding white; the metal surfaces of the tables reflecting light like mirrors. Somewhere, a heat generator was humming noisily. There was a bead of sweat trickling down the right side of his face. The spreading warmth of blood soaking the T-shirt he was wearing under his jacket. His hand was clammy, his palm damp against the grip of his gun. Index finger trembling ever so slightly as it hovered out of the trigger guard.
Most of all, he remembered her teary eyes shifting from the gun barrel staring her in the face, to his cold hard amethyst gaze.
A look of resignation and… was his eyes deceiving him? Was there a hint of relief?
He flinched when a hand touched him, jolting him roughly out of the memory. A woman bending over him, pink hair framing her beautiful face. No… not pink hair, but red. Blood-red.
He was still in the nightmare.
"Kira, are you alright?"
He shut his eyes, tried to push the memory out of his mind, tried to swallow the urge to stand up and fling the chair he was sitting on across the room. Tried to forget the teary eyes and the blood-red hair. He didn't realise he was chewing on his lower lip until he tasted the metallic tang of blood, then he opened his eyes again. Saw, this time, the pink hair and the concerned cerulean eyes peering anxiously at him.
"I'm fine," he whispered.
He glanced down at the cellphone clutched in his hand, his fingers curled so tightly around the device that there was a bruising pain in his palm. The image of a cab racing across the street drifted into his mind, like he was a passer-by standing along the street. And as the cab shot past him, he saw, in the rear window, Flay turning to glance out at him, and then the window was being wound down, and her slim pale hand extended through the gap and loped the cellphone at him. He didn't want it; he let it fall onto the pavement and staggered off the sidewalk onto the road. He tried to yell at her, to ask her to get out of the cab, to open the door and jump, but his voice caught in his throat. He started to run, but there was an earth-shattering noise and a vibrant white light blinded him. When he could see again, there was nothing left of the cab, the driver or its passenger.
Nothing left at all.
"I'm sorry."
Kira glanced up. Saw Athrun Zala standing over him, the set of his mouth grim and his emerald eyes dull. "I'm sorry," the detective said again quietly, "I should have kept her here."
He shook his head. "You couldn't have stopped them. If you had kept her here, they would have blown the Clyne Mansion instead. It wouldn't make a difference." But I should have done something, he thought to himself, I should have done something to save you. The thought that his own team might have killed Flay sickened him. Even if it hadn't been Stellar, Sting and Auel, it had to be the work of Rau's other assassins. Maybe Orga's team. Either way, this was no accident; it was murder. Plain murder. And it had to be on Rau's orders. He clenched his fingers tight around the cellphone. Imagined it was Rau's neck he was squeezing. Imagined that he was constricting the son-of-a-bitch's windpipe, piling on the pressure until his neck fractured with a loud satisfying snap.
If only I had done something, Flay… If only I had killed Rau Le Creuset…
"Can I have a look at that?" An outstretched hand intruded into his line of vision. The azure-haired detective was reaching out a hand, palm-up, and gesturing towards the cellphone.
Uncurling his stiff fingers from the device, which was still wrapped in its cellophane bag, Kira handed it to Athrun, who scrutinized the message carefully, and turned to him with a thoughtful expression, "Do you know what she's trying to tell you?"
"No."
"This book she's talking about – d'you know what it is?"
Again, Kira shook his head.
"Nicol?" Athrun turned to his green-haired subordinate, "is it possible to check if this ISBN number is valid? And if it is, what book it refers to?"
"I'm on it," Nicol said, extracting a laptop from the suitcase he had brought along with him.
Leaving Nicol to search the national library's database, Athrun turned his attention back to the cell phone and eyed the message again. "25th Street," he read out loud, "That's near the diner, isn't it? Do you know that place well?" He looked at Kira. "What's on that street? And what's three kilometres away from it? The bookstore?"
"25th Street," repeated Kira. "That's two blocks away from the diner. The whole stretch is home to all kinds of stores: takeout restaurants, diners, Laundromats, hardware stores, grocers. I wouldn't be surprised to find a bookstore there."
"Okay. So what we need is a map then."
"I believe we've got a street directory," announced Lacus. She rose from her seat and plodded over to a floor-to-ceiling shelf packed from top to bottom, end to end, with books, their spines turned outwards. She ran a finger along the shelf, paused at the edge of a paperback and drew it out of its line. "Here we go," she muttered as she returned to her seat, flipping the pages with a loud rustle. "25th Street." She laid the street directory open in her lap and jammed her finger against a meandering line that cut across one of the pages. "Is it three kilometres north or three kilometres south?" She glanced up with a puzzled frown.
"Doesn't say."
Athrun plucked a pen and ruler from Nicol's open briefcase. "Draw a three kilometre radius all along the street. That'll cover all directions – north and south – until we can narrow it down further."
He left Lacus and Meyrin to pour over the map, turning his attention back to Nicol instead, "Any news?" The frown on Nicol's face answered his question. "No," he shook his head, "Unfortunately not. There are two ISBN systems, one with ten digits and the other with thirteen digits. The first always starts with 0 and the second always starts with 9. The one in Flay's message begins with 4. There isn't a book in the world with this ISBN code."
A tensed, disappointed silence descended upon the room and its occupants.
Kira glanced at the phone in Athrun's hand. Saw, at the back of his mind, the blood-red hair and Flay's kind smile, which greeted him each time he pushed open the door of the diner. What do you want to tell me, Flay? What is it? He stared hard at the device, as if his very stare could decipher the numbers and the code. But no, nothing came to his mind. Nothing at all.
"Maybe it's not an ISBN number."
He was roused from his thoughts when he heard Cagalli speak. The blonde-haired woman was peering over Athrun's shoulder, a thoughtful expression on her face. "There are many ways of categorizing books, aren't there? The ISBN system is only one way. Maybe Flay was trying to misguide the reader, just in case the phone fell into the wrong hands. What about the Dewey Decimal System? That system's based on three numbers. I'm pretty sure the first three numbers here – 415 – can be found in that system."
"Definitely possible," Athrun nodded in approval. He turned to Nicol, but his subordinate's fingers were already flying across the keyboard, tapping deftly, and seconds later, Nicol was reading off his laptop screen, "The Dewey Decimal Classification separates books into ten classes. Class 400 is related to Language. Underneath this class, you have 410 which contains books about Linguistics, and underneath that, you have 415: Grammar of Standard Forms of Languages."
"What is that?"
"Reference books on English grammar."
They exchanged glances uncertainly, until Athrun turned to Kira. "Why would she want you to have a reference book on English grammar?"
"I don't know," admitted Kira. He glanced again at the cellphone in the detective's hand. His memory, enhanced like the rest of his body, had already memorized the code, and he played it again in his mind. 415-3-34-113344-3. If they had indeed figured out what 415 referred to, then what did the rest of the numbers mean? How could they be related to a reference book on English grammar? His eyes drifted to the street directory that lay open in Lacus' lap. Lacus and Meyrin were still bent over the book, their heads close, pink hair intermingling with scarlet hair, as they traced lines and measured distances.
"Where does 25th Street end?" He heard Meyrin mutter to Lacus, who paused in her measuring and scanned the page. "It should extend to page 32, I guess," she replied.
The code ran through Kira's head again. 415-3-34-113344-3. 415-3-34-113344-3. If 415 referred to the type of book, what if the following numbers told them which book it was, and which page, which lines, which words? What if Flay's real message had to be pieced together using words found in a reference book on English grammar?
"We need to head down to that bookstore," Kira said firmly, drawing the attention of the rest in the lounge. He got up from his seat and strolled over to Athrun, where he could see the message again on the screen of the cellphone. Heads turned in his direction. "We need to find a specific reference book on English grammar. Maybe the third book on a shelf," he pointed at the digit '3' that came after '415'. "Maybe a shelf on the third floor. Whatever. We need to see the bookstore and its layout to confirm. These other numbers," he ran the tip of his finger along the remaining digits. "Maybe they're referring to specific things in the book. Page 34. Line one. The thirteenth word. Whatever. I think what Flay wants to tell us isn't in this message. It's somewhere else. This message only tells us where to find it."
"Okay," nodded Athrun. "I get what you mean. We'll need to find out where the bookstore is. Lacus, any luck?"
"Give me a second." The pen in Lacus' hand finished its last line with a flourish and she lifted the book away from her to take a better look. With a satisfied smile, she turned it around so that the rest of the group could see. Along 25th Street, Lacus and Meyrin had drawn two lines running parallel to it, and within that chosen space, they had circled four bookstores that lay in the three kilometer radius.
"Right, we're going to have to go our separate ways then," said Athrun. "You guys head back. I'll go with him-" He cast a glance at Kira.
"And we're coming with you," Lacus said, nodding towards Cagalli. Athrun didn't get a chance to protest; Cagalli had her amber eyes narrowed and trained on him, as if daring him to object. "Fine," he snapped out. "The four of us will go. The rest of you ought to return to Headquarters."
Shinn studied the map carefully, running a hand through his jet-black hair. "You'll need more manpower to walk through all these bookstores. We can help."
"In case you've forgotten, I'm wanted. You shouldn't be near me, much less help me."
"Well, AC Ramius is here too, so I'll say we're not in that much trouble." That earned Shinn a glare from Murrue Ramius, which he deflected easily with a grin.
"Look-" Athrun began again, but was interrupted by Yzak who snorted haughtily. "You need all the help you can get, so just take it, you asshole. If you were so capable, you wouldn't be in this shit right now. You wouldn't need us to bail you out. So recognize your own limits, Zala." Yzak's criticisms didn't offend Athrun. Heck, the man had worked with Yzak for so long. He knew Yzak's words carried some logic and he could only shake his head in resignation. "Alright," he sighed. "We'll see. Who've we got on our team then?"
Miriallia raised her hand. "Much as I would like to help, I can't. I really must get back to the lab before someone finds out I've taken the evidence out without permission. But my cell will be switched on, so just call."
"Right. Thank you. I appreciate it." Athrun tipped the cellphone in its evidence bag towards Miriallia, only to be stopped by a hand that clamped around his wrist, stilling his movement.
"No," Kira said, "the cellphone has to stay here."
"What?"
"You bring it back, and they will go after that book too. We have to get it before they figure out what the code means."
"They?"
Kira said nothing.
"This evidence belongs to the police. You can't keep it," Miriallia shook her head, brown tresses brushing against her shoulders. "And besides, all evidence is locked up until the trial is over, or the case is closed. Then it's transferred to the archives. Until then, we've got the evidence watched twenty-four hours. Those assassins aren't going to get it."
"They're not the ones who will get it," snapped Kira. "Right now, the most dangerous place to keep the evidence is the Headquarters."
"What are you talking about?"
Athrun eyed Kira carefully. Saw the agitation in his amethyst eyes, and Flay's words drifted into his mind. They're everywhere. Even your superiors aren't who you think they are. What makes you think your Witness Protection Program can keep me safe? And she had been right to a certain extent. She had been in far more danger than they had expected. She had died the moment they had gotten wind of her betrayal. What good was the Witness Protection Program?
What good was the police force if the man that was leading it, wasn't the man they all thought he was?
He pictured the Police Commissioner in his mind. The man had always been more respectable than his nephew Yuna Roma Seiran. He was firm to his subordinates but kind and reasonable, though some had lamented the fact that he tended to be a little more lenient towards Seiran. Nonetheless, everyone believed that the he deserved his post.
But what if he didn't?
Athrun recalled what Murrue Ramius and Mu La Flaga had said. Someone had notified the Commissioner about his breaking-in, but the Commissioner had been adamant about revealing who the caller had been. Why the secrecy? What if the Commissioner was answering to someone higher?
"Maybe he's right," Athrun said. "We can keep the cellphone for the time being, can't we?" He turned to Miriallia.
"Well," the brown-haired forensic scientist screwed up her face in distaste. "I really- I don't- Oh fine! I suppose so. Headquarters mustn't know it's with you, of course. But I suppose no one will be missing it anytime soon since there's been only one request to see it, and I had to fulfil that request before I could bring it to you."
"Who?"
"The Commissioner himself. He said this was a serious case and he wanted to personally see what evidence the cab passenger left behind."
The wheels of the sedan they were in screeched in protest as Athrun floored the accelerator.
"Athrun, maybe you ought to slow down a little," Lacus urged as they turned a corner, the car careening wildly as the rubber tires fought to retain their hold on the asphalt. "If we get stopped by the police, that'll just be another nail in the coffin for us."
"It's fine," assured Athrun. "Most of the officers have been called to the site of the accident. Nicol's tracking the other officers on his computer. He'll warn us if there's an officer coming up." He spun the wheel and turned another corner, wondering to himself if the Commissioner had rallied all the police officers to the collision site as a distraction. He hoped not. He didn't want to think about the possibility that the Police Commissioner was just another corrupted man.
So he simply depressed the accelerator further and let the car rev into the night. Let the speed and the thrill of the ride blur the thoughts in his mind.
Glancing sideways, he observed the quiet brown-haired man sitting in the passenger seat. Kira – could he call him that? – hadn't said a word since getting into the car. He knew the news of Flay's death still troubled the young man; he could still see the haunted expression in his amethyst eyes, even if it had faded a little as the initial shock ebbed away to be replaced by the immediate urgency of unravelling Flay's message.
Such irony, a voice in his head mocked, he was doubting the Police Commissioner, the epitome of justice and the law; and at the same time, he was running all over the city with a murderer, trying to piece together a message left behind by a dead woman. Just who in the world was on the side of good? Who on the side of evil?
And where did the man sitting beside him belong?
"Those people who broke in just now and tried to kill us – are they the ones who killed Flay too?" Athrun asked softly, breaking the silence.
A long pause and finally Kira muttered, "I don't know."
"There're more of you, aren't there? Flay told us about the Facility. How many of you were trained in there?"
Kira's head snapped up and amethyst eyes narrowed with dangerous suspicion at the detective. "What do you know about the Facility?" he said sharply.
"Not enough," he replied truthfully, "Flay wouldn't tell us much. But you can."
Only a stony silence answered his question.
"The 'Facility' – what is it? Where is it? Who runs it? What do they do to you?"
The last question seemed to amuse Kira because a sardonic smile curled the edge of his lips. "You don't want to know what they do to us."
The sneering smile reminded Athrun of Flay's words. It's a cruel place. That was how Flay had described the Facility. Was it cruel enough to damage someone's mindset so that he remained loyal despite the abuse imposed upon him?
Well, he would only find out by testing the waters.
"You're no longer one of them, are you?" Athrun said, deliberately piling on the pressure.
Still no response from Kira.
"You knew those assassins. That's why you wouldn't let me take any fatal shots. You're one of them. Or rather, you were one of them. You're trying to keep them alive, but they were out to kill," Athrun said. He paused again but there was no expression on Kira's face. No indication at all that he was listening. Athrun floored the accelerator and jumped a red light. Ignored a blaring horn from an offended driver. He continued as if nothing had happened, "I noticed that they didn't shield their faces. They didn't mind us seeing their faces because they were going to kill us all. You included. Why? How did you fall out of favour?"
Silence.
The silence persisted for so long, that Athrun thought maybe Kira hadn't been listening after all and he was about to tear his gaze from the windshield to look at him when he heard Kira say, "I was supposed to kill Lacus Clyne but I didn't."
The tension in the vehicle rose. Athrun glanced into the rear-view mirror and caught Lacus' eye. She didn't look surprised, just grim.
"I kinda guessed," Athrun admitted, "Cagalli and I found the warehouse and the blood splatter pattern. You were trying to fabricate her death, but there wasn't enough blood. I also had Miriallia test the DNA; and it wasn't Lacus'." He stopped there, not wanting to reveal so soon that the blood sample had been tested against Cagalli's and proven to be close enough that they were related by blood. "I should thank you," he said sincerely, "for taking care of her, even though I really want to put a gun to your head for kidnapping her in the first place."
Kira responded with a derisive snort of laughter.
Sensing the ice breaking between them, Athrun pressed on, "they abandoned you. They're treating you just like a chess piece. And Flay too – she was a chess piece that had to be sacrificed." Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed the stiffening of Kira's shoulders, but Kira remained quiet.
"You and me, all of us, we're next on the list to go. And let's face it, when your friends have exhausted their worth, their names will be on that list too," Athrun said. "Tell me who's the mastermind, who runs this Facility."
"No."
"Why?" demanded Athrun, as a wave of frustration surged through him. He didn't understand. Why would Kira be willing to defend the person who was using him as a tool? "Both you and Flay are just chess pieces to him. He's already discarded Flay and you've become disposable to him too. Why won't you tell on him?"
"You don't know who you're dealing with."
"So tell me!"
Only silence met his outburst, and it annoyed Athrun more than if Kira had said 'no' repeatedly. He risked a glance sideways even though he was travelling at an alarming speed. Saw, to his utmost frustration, that Kira was gazing out of the side window. The message was clear: the conversation was over. Tightening his grip on the steering wheel, Athrun closed his eyes and took a deep breath. No point pushing. No point pushing. Now that Kira was on his side, whether willing or not, he wasn't going to go about upsetting him and turning him back into the enemy. He left his fury to fester and steam under the surface, and concentrated his attention on the road ahead.
Which was why he was surprised a few minutes later when he heard Kira speak. "Who is 'Kira Yamato'?"
Athrun stared at him. Saw only a curious expression on the man's face. Nothing derisive, scornful, or mocking. It was a sincere question. He faced front again and took a turn by spinning the wheel. "He's a friend," he replied softly, "a long-lost friend."
"And my brother," whispered Cagalli.
Athrun couldn't help it. He glanced up into the rear-view mirror when he heard the anguish in her voice, and saw her watching Kira steadily. Almost hopefully. "My brother's name is Kira Yamato. We're twins. He was kidnapped fifteen years ago. I saw him taken but I couldn't stop them. We haven't heard from him since."
They came to a traffic stop and though Athrun wanted to race through the junction, he couldn't because a heavy trailer rumbled past. He eased the sedan to a screeching halt and punched a grudging fist into the steering wheel to vent his frustration. Taking the opportunity to glance over at the passenger seat and study the man sitting beside him, Athrun was taken aback to see Kira's head against the glass, his eyes shut, and a hand pressed to his brow, as if he were trying to stem a headache. Sweat trickled down the sides of his face.
"Hey, you alright?" Athrun muttered, unable to hide the alarm in his voice.
Kira opened his eyes, and for several seconds, all he could see were dark shadows swarming in and out of his vision. There was a hand reaching towards him. A small hand. A girl's hand. He tried to reach out to her, but then another hand, this one larger and stronger, clamped around his mouth. An arm was slung around his throat, grasping him in a stranglehold, and he was dragged into darkness, the shadows closing over him like the lid of a coffin being lowered and sealed shut. The last thing he saw was the little blonde girl crying. And then there was a barrage of images cluttering his mind.
A closed cell without windows. Water, lots of water. And strangers, men in white lab coats.
Slowly his vision began to clear and he could see again. There was the windshield that faced out onto the dark streets; the dashboard; his own trembling hands; concerned emerald eyes watching him. Kira swallowed hard and realised his throat was dry and parched. "I'm fine," he said, even though there was a headache that pounded away inside his skull, threatening to split his head in two. He turned his head towards the side window to avoid the detective's watchful gaze.
The light turned green. Athrun punched the accelerator again and the sedan shot forward.
Kira glanced into the side mirror. He could just see the faint outline of Cagalli Yamato, sitting behind him. He studied the woman's face, which was lit up by moving bars of light that fell from the overhead street lamps. Was she really the blonde girl he saw in his dreams? Was she the reason why he had been fallen unconscious back at the theatre? The headache battered against his skull as if his brain was expanding. What did it all mean?
He was jolted from his thoughts by the dialling tone emitting out of Athrun's cellphone. He glanced round to see that the detective had hit the call button. The phone droned on for a few seconds before it got through, the ringing replaced by the voice of a very harassed Yzak Joule.
"Stop calling me," the silver-haired detective snarled through the phone. "Dearka and I just got to the bookstore. We've already called the owner and he's agreed to get his ass over here and open up. So quit calling. I'll call you when we get in." The line went dead and silence descended upon the car.
"Well, that went well," Athrun said sarcastically, reaching one hand for the phone to dial Shinn's cell, while the other remained on the wheel. He got Shinn after several rings.
"Bad news, Chief," his subordinate said the moment he had picked up. "Lunamaria and I found the address, but it's no longer a bookstore. It's a 24-hour convenience store. We talked to the owner and he told us that the bookstore had closed down a month ago, so he bought the place. It can't be this address then."
"Alright. Why don't you and Luna head back to Headquarters and join Miriallia, Meyrin and Nicol? I'll call if there're any updates."
"Right. Good luck on your side."
When Shinn had hung up, Athrun dialled Mu La Flaga's cell.
"Yup?" the senior agent chirped as the line got through.
"Any luck?" Athrun asked.
"At the moment, no. Murrue and I managed to get a hold of the owner and he's let us in. Man, this place is swarming with books. It's like searching for a needle in a haystack. You know how many reference books there are about English grammar?"
"Use the rest of the code," said Kira, speaking loud enough so that the speaker function on Athrun's cell could capture his voice. "Try the third shelf. Or the third book on that shelf. Or if the bookstore's got several levels, try the third level. Or if Class 415 is subdivided, try 415.3 or 415-3. Whatever. It should be related to the rest of the numbers."
"Yeah, alright. Makes sense. But even then, you do realise you've listed more than one way of interpreting the code, and if we use each way, we'll be bringing back a whole stack of these reference books. So you've gotta give us time, and the effort better be worth it."
Kira was about to comment that they didn't have a choice, when he was interrupted by Athrun who said simply, "Um, Mu, it's fine. Your job over there's done. You and Murrue can just head back to HQ."
"What?" Kira tossed a glare at the detective, the same time that Mu uttered a bemused 'huh?' through the phone.
"I think we've found the right bookstore," Athrun winced, pointing towards a line of low stores and apartments. "And we're a little too late."
Kira understood why the moment they drew up alongside the bookstore.
It was housed in a low single-storey building. A neatly embossed signboard hung over the entrance, and a large store window faced out onto the street. Blinds had been pulled over the glass and through the gaps between the slates, they could see only darkness. The lights inside were turned off. There was no sign of anyone about.
But the door stood ajar.
Author's note: Well, what do you think? Is this chappie good or bad? Exciting or boring? Don't forget to review, review, review and tell me all about it! And of course, once again, Happy New Year to one and all!