Author's note: Okay, whewwwww… I have to really give a sigh of exhaustion. This chappie hasn't been very easy to write. A tonne of action, accompanied by a lot of Kira-Athrun interaction. This was a tough one. So, do forgive me for taking so long to write this. There've been a lot of little details to iron out and a lot of oiling the gears in my brain to get this chapter published. So, forgive me! And I have to say, I'm very very happy to hear from so many new reviewers and old reviewers too. Happy to hear from new reviewers because I'm always glad that other readers have found this story worthy of reviewing. And old reviewers because, all I can say is, thank you for sticking by me!
XienRue: As always, thank you very much for your comments and encouragements. I'm glad things were alright with the previous chappie even without the emotional scene and the scenes with Cagalli and Lacus. As for OOC-ness, I'm glad it's in control. And yup, you've guessed it right, the last chappie was the calm before the storm, so this chappie and the next will be the storm! Lots and lots of action to come!
Guest: Thank you thank you! I'm glad the two months hasn't been a hindrance at all! And of course, hoping that this time, this chappie will also make up for the past 1 ½ months that I haven't updated! Glad that the OOC-ness is acceptable in this story too!
ChildOfSea: So sorry, this chappie has taken me quite long to write too, just like the previous, but I hope it's worth the wait! As for how Kira got the IDs, heh, I suppose it's up to your imagination! I've ever thought of writing an interlude about this scene, but that would probably come at the end of the story, that is if I do get an inspiration or an idea to write it. And yup, there's a little badass Kira in this chappie. Hope you'll enjoy that!
hardcoreGSfan: Heh, yup, I intended for Nicol and the gang to be responsible for the rumours. Otherwise they'll be too good and innocent…! As for what Kira did to those employees, it's up to your imagination! Yzak's a funny guy. I think he's got anger management issues. But to be honest, compared to the other GS characters, I don't have as clear an idea about his character, so I do worry that I take his attitude a little overboard sometimes…
HoneyCaramelSwirl: Hello hello! Always excited to hear from new reviewers! Unfortunately, my summer break's over and I'm back in school. –sad face- But oh well… If you love team athrun and kira, this chappie might be a little more interesting for you. Quite a lot of Kira-Athrun interaction here! And as for Kira and the 3 IDS, hehe, you'll have to imagine it!
Xephetox: hello! I'm really glad you like this story! Amazing, 74 chapters in 2 sittings? Glad to hear that the OOC-ness is not an issue. Thank you very very much for your encouragements. I really appreciate it. I do hope that my love for this story and for writing in general will blossom again! So that I can give you the best chapters I can write!
ArcusTenshi: Heh, I'm glad you enjoyed this story so much! Thank you for the compliment about the pairings. I try my best for them, but I haven't written much romance before either, so I'm glad I've worked it out! Nope, I shan't give up on the story and I have no intention to! So hope you'll stay with me till the end.
Jubulicious: I'm really glad you can follow what I'm envisioning. I really try my best because there's so much detail that goes into a crime/action thriller like this. It's not perfect of course, but I just hope I don't lose anyone as the chapter progresses. As for the OOC-ness, I'm glad it works out!
Saishu Purototaipu: heh, don't hate me! Thank you for sticking through all 74 chapters, it must have taken you very long, so thank you! Hope you'll enjoy this chapter as much as you've done the rest fo the story!
The NabooQueen: Thank you very much for your compliment about Lacus. I'm always worried that I don't stay faithful enough to the characters, so I'm really glad that Lacus stays true to the anime. Hopefully I can keep this up in the upcoming chapters. So I'll depend on you to point it out to me if I stray away! Of course, I do want to get back to some KxL fluff, but unfortunately, I don't think it's going to come up in these few chapters though, not until the main action's over.
Kurama's Foxy Rose: Oh my, I've never really thought about that about Kira. I wanted to keep some the innocence and calmness of Kira as in the anime. So what you've said really got me thinking about the Kira in this fanfic. Interesting…
Seiba Artoria: Hello again! Thanks for sticking around even with the two month hiatus. I'm glad the previous chappie was enjoyable, and the action was good. Nah, I'm not good enough for a movie script! But thank you for the compliment. I really appreciate it. And since you're a fan of Kira-Athrun interaction, you might like this chapter a little bit more then!
Cheeseries: Thank you for sticking by me and this story despite how long I take to write it! No worries about the reviews, I'm just glad to know that you like it! So sorry I took so long to update this chappie, but the action was a little complicated to write. Everything's okay; but I just wanted to make sure I do a good job with this chapter! Hope it is worth the wait!
Chapter 74
Sometimes, Kira liked to think of himself as a creature of the night. A predator, an assassin, walking in the shadows. Toeing the line between the dark and the light. But never – never ever – crossing over to the other side.
So he was happy and pleased with the plan to infiltrate the Le Creuset Corporation. Not only because he was the main designer of the whole scheme, the only person crazy enough to propose such a risky plan, but also because it was his territory and he was at home.
As he stripped out of the police uniform he was wearing and pulled on his black gear, he snuck a glance at Athrun Zala, who was doing the same thing on the other side of the elevator. Kira wanted to laugh - wearing the police uniform was the closest he had ever been to crossing that line over into the light. But it was all just for show. He was now shedding that skin and removing that mask, becoming the man he truly was. The creature hidden in the shadows. Always toeing the line, never crossing over into the light.
On the other hand… He watched, from the corner of his eye, the navy-haired detective discard his uniform jacket on the elevator floor and pull the black knitted top over his head. Athrun Zala, the chief of the elite Special Unit, one of the most prized detectives in the police force, was actually crossing the line into the dark. Becoming someone just like him.
Welcome to my world…
As if sensing Kira's gaze on him, Athrun Zala paused, one arm threaded through the sleeve of his black knitted top, and turned to look at him. But the assassin had already glanced away, just in time to avoid the gaze. Lowering his eyes purposefully, Kira crouched and concentrated on exchanging his boots for black sneakers, aware that Athrun Zala was studying him with a long inquisitive look. Moments later, the detective turned away and shrugged into his knitted top.
They continued to dress in silence, then transferred their possessions from their duty belts into the pockets of their black gear. Their radios were switched off and left behind since they were already plugged into headsets, but because it never hurt to have more than less, they took everything else – cuffs, chemical sprays, tasers, pocket knifes, batons, spare magazines and torchs. Everything that could fit into the pockets sewn into the inner linings of their garments without weighing them down. Weapons were removed from belt holsters, checked and double-checked, before they were stuck into their waist bands, covered from view by their bulky sweaters. Athrun had Nicol's standard issue, a semi-automatic Glock, and Kira had Athrun's spare, the Ruger, which had survived the onslaught of bullets that had sent Athrun's convertible to the junkyard.
Finally, they removed from the black package two of the most important instruments they needed – night vision goggles which they strapped on, and a compact little chemical kit that Siegel Clyne had handed them, with which they could run the serum through when they found it to confirm that it was indeed the right chemical. They bundled what they wouldn't be taking with them – the uniforms and the radios – back into the bag. Then Kira, again with the same running leap, hauled himself onto the rail and secured the package back behind the security cameras so that they could retrieve it when they left.
All set to go, Athrun flashed a thumbs-up at the security camera through which Nicol, Lacus and Cagalli were watching them.
"Give me a minute," said Nicol through their earpieces. His voice was replaced by the vigorous rattling of a keyboard as he attempted to hack through the security system controlling the elevators. On the surface, the Le Creuset Corporation was a seventy-storey building with nothing underground, but the truth was far from it. Much was going on beneath the building in its hidden facilities. Kira knew that very well, and he knew also that there was a code that had to be keyed in on the elevator number pad to direct the lift to the basements. Knowledge of the code was restricted. Only those in the senior ranks of the Facility and the scientists who worked underground, literally and metaphorically, for Rau would know the code. Kira himself had no idea what it was and he admitted as much, but Nicol had been confident that he could do something about it.
And he was right.
A minute and a half later, the silence in the elevator was broken by motors spinning to life and the elevator began its descent. "Alright, let's do this," Nicol said, letting out a breath that hissed like static through their earpieces. "Ninety seconds to the basement. Please standby."
Cagalli took over the line. "Guys, we can monitor you right now on the security camera, but when you're down there, we won't be able to keep up the surveillance. You're on your own, so please be careful."
"Both of you," Lacus added.
"We will," Athrun said assuringly. "Just keep a lookout on the other cameras. Let us know if we've got trouble coming our way."
"Roger that."
A pause, and then, "Kira, be careful. Remember what we talked about; get the serum, but leave Rau Le Creuset alone unless you're sure you can get him. Don't put yourself in unnecessary danger because of someone like him." Lacus' voice was calm and smooth, like how she always carried herself, but Athrun could detect the undertone of anxiety despite her attempts to conceal it. He knew that somehow, the whole mission didn't sit well with her. She couldn't shake off the foreboding nugget of doubt. Most terrifying of all, Lacus couldn't seem to forget the sight of Kira bleeding out on her after shielding her from the female assassin's bullet. The way he shook and trembled when she and Flay had tried to dress his wound. The way the crimson blood slicked her fingers, its rusty smell choking the air. It frightened her to think that Kira and Athrun were both walking right into the lion's den.
They waited for some response. But there was none from Kira, and Athrun glanced over at his accomplice questioningly. The brown-haired assassin had his head down, checking his gun for the umpteenth time, before he stuck it back into his waistband and stared straight ahead at the shut metal doors. He made no sign that he had heard what Lacus had said. Athrun stared hard at him, narrowing his emerald eyes into an intense glare that (usually) made his subordinates wilt (with the exception of Yzak Joule). But Kira didn't notice, or pretended not to.
In fact, Athrun found that there was something slightly different about the assassin. It was as if something had slipped over him. Some sort of mask or persona, that was cold and detached. Almost mechanical. Like he was a machine. A killing machine. The thought sent a chill down Athrun's spine, but Athrun had faced cold-blooded murderers dozens of times before in his job so he could ignore those feelings pretty well. Still, there was something much scarier about Kira. He seemed almost emotionless, as if killing was just second nature to him, like eating and drinking and breathing. Even sociopaths did what they did because they were self-serving. But Kira was different: he was so calm, so collected, so utterly removed that it was obvious he wasn't doing the mission because he enjoyed it; neither was it because he was angry and revengeful or because he had to in order to protect someone he loved. It was as if he was doing it simply because… it was a way of life. His way of life. Like eating and drinking and breathing.
All that vulnerability he had seen in this Kira was gone.
Athrun tried to say something, hoping to snap the professional killer out of his reverie and ground him in the present. Remind him that he wasn't the assassin he was. But just as he opened his mouth, he saw Kira close his eyes. And the way he did it, so purposeful and deliberate, made breaking the silence seem like the wrong thing to do. Athrun felt as if he was being chided for misplacing his focus; his attention should have been placed on the mission at hand, not on trying to counsel some psychotic killer. So Athrun reluctantly kept his mouth shut, leaving the heavy silence to hang between them, and turned his own thoughts inwards, running the plan through his mind for the thousandth time.
Having decided on the way they would infiltrate the Le Creuset Corporation, the next problem was how they were going to get their hands on the serum.
They were certain that the serum was being kept in the hidden basements of the Le Creuset Corporation building. Based on logic, it made sense since Rau Le Creuset ran his illegal dealings and experiments there.
And they had evidence to support their deductions. The call from Meyrin had come in a little later than expected, but it did come, and Meyrin had plenty of good news. The disc Flay Allster had tried to hand over to them at the expense of her life had contained several encrypted folders which took Meyrin and the IT experts at HQ some time to crack. But when they eventually did, they found confidential information concerning the hidden facilities under the Le Creuset Corporation, which included a map of its layout. Flay had given them something that would significantly aid in the success of their mission. With the map, the infiltration would go a lot smoother since they weren't walking into the unknown.
Nonetheless, this was easier said than done. There were several other factors that had to be considered. The first was, of course, discreetness. Which was why, at three a.m., just hours before they had had to enter the Le Creuset Corporation, Athrun and the rest of the gang sitting around Mu La Flaga's kitchen table were staring at him.
Well, Kira couldn't blame them. He was the one who strolled in the shadows. They were the law-abiding citizens, and the law enforcers. So, discreetness was more of his specialty. He was, after all, a master of deception. He was a man who didn't exist, who could kill somebody, slip under the radar and disappear before anyone was even aware someone had been there. If he had to, he knew how to blend in with the crowd. He knew how to divert witnesses and confuse targets. But, things were different here. They were infiltrating the Le Creuset Corporation. The headquarters itself. They couldn't let things at the Le Creuset Corporation blow out of proportion; the Police Commissioner and the police would be on their tail in seconds, especially if the Commissioner was, unfortunately, in cahoots with Rau le Creuset. So they needed a distraction, but not a big one. Massacres and bombs and fires and sprinklers and evacuations were out of the question.
Then there was the problem of witnesses. There weren't many people who knew about the underground activities going on beneath the Le Creuset Corporation building. From what Kira remembered, he had only seen scientists, security personnel, Facility trainers and trainees, and Rau himself. All in all, there were probably less than fifty people who knew the place under the Le Creuset Corporation building existed. So they were going to have to sneak into the Le Creuset Corporation without alarming the hundreds of regular employees working their usual nine to five jobs above ground, and at the same time, avoid the less than fifty not-so-regular employees dwelling in the basements. But they couldn't create too big of a diversion, and they had to grab the serum without being seen.
How were they going to do that?
Kira pondered hard. All the while, the conversation carried on across the kitchen table as the rest of the team exchanged ideas, though each plan seemed to boil down to nothing. Kira kept only half an ear on the discussion, and played no part in it. His mind was still racing, still ironing out the details, weighing the pros and the cons, the resources they had and the resources they lacked.
He heard Dearka say, "Why don't we get Rau le Creuset to let us in? We could catch him off guard; see if he slips up and mentions anything about the basements. That way, we can just request a search and walk in unopposed."
Then, Yzak Joule. "Right," his voice dripped with sarcasm. "Rau le Creuset is very likely to have loose lips. That's how he's managed to keep his secret for years."
"How about using disguises again?" offered Nicol. "You could exchange the officer uniform for a lab coat and blend in with the scientists."
Athrun shook his head. "The fraternity's so small I'm pretty sure they know each other. We're gonna stand out like a sore thumb even in those lab coats."
"Then there's no way in," sighed Lacus. "Not unless they're blind. Or, by some miracle, you acquire the ability to turn invisible."
Kira snapped out of his reverie and stared at her with a look of marvel. Like he had thought of something splendid. His sudden change in demeanour had gotten the interest of the others and they turned to him excitedly. Kira directed his attention to Nicol and said, "If you can get into the system, you think you can isolate and shut off the lights for the basement?"
"Uh," Nicol glanced round the table. All eyes were on him. "It's going to be difficult but technically, it's possible."
"I only want the lights in the basements off. Everything else above ground must continue functioning."
"It's technically possible," Nicol said again.
"Okay, here's the plan." Kira scooted forward in his chair and laid both hands on the surface of the kitchen table decisively. "We're going to kill the lights in the basement and sneak in during the panic. This way, they're blind and we're invisible."
His proposition was met only by a stunned silence. Athrun stared at him with utter bewilderment in his green eyes. "But so are we. When the lights go off, we're equally blind and they're equally invisible to us. We'll be running all over the place bumping into each other like fools."
"At least they won't see who they're bumping into. When the lights come back on, they'll think they've been smacking into each other all along. And we'll be gone by then."
Athrun responded with a doubtful raise of an eyebrow.
Shinn said, "You're crazy. How the hell are you going to find the serum? You won't even know you've found it since you can't even see."
"There's an invention called the night vision device," Kira commented mildly. "I'm sure you've heard of it."
The team was silent for a minute, trying to process the truly crazy plan that Kira was laying out for them. To step into the enemy's territory like blind mice seemed a mad idea, but as ridiculous as it sounded, the plan really did achieve its objective, which was to make sure they remained hidden from view while they retrieved the serum.
"But a lot could go wrong," reasoned Cagalli, "if you have all the lights shut off, they can't see you, and neither can we. We can't monitor your movements through the security cameras in the basements, if there are any. You'll be entirely on your own."
"We could sew tracking devices into our clothes. Or you could track us using signals from our phones when we're hooked up on our earphones. We'll have to be in constant communication since you'll be guiding us which way to walk, so we'll still be in the loop. Not exactly on our own."
Kira's response didn't convince them entirely. There was doubt and apprehension written all over their faces, from the worried expression on Siegel Clyne's face to the grim set of Mu La Flaga's lips, from the women's nervous fidgeting to the distracted gazes in the men's eyes. But in Kira's opinion, they weren't important and their consent meant nothing. Only one man and his decision mattered. So Kira turned his gaze onto Athrun Zala. "Time's running out," he said, "it's your call."
Kira knew the answer before the detective even voiced it. He saw the change in Athrun's eyes, the shift from disbelief to concern to finally, resignation. And half an hour later, the team was scrambling all over the place, gathering what they needed for the mission to succeed. They had to make do with what they had, which meant that they only had Nicol's standard issue and Athrun's Ruger and whatever spare ammunitions they could get their hands on for those two weapons. They had the basic stuff that could be found in the duty belts. And Shinn had gone back to headquarters to sneak two night vision goggles from the inventory.
Kira had trouble suppressing his dissatisfaction at the inferiority of the equipment – to some extent, night vision goggles were bulky and obstructed movement. The last time he had had to utilise a night vision device for one of his assigned missions, Rau's people had given him and his team contact lenses that could provide night vision. They were convenient and gave the wearer plenty of freedom to move, even in a fight.
But night vision goggles? Geez, they were a thing of the old. And Kira pointed that out, much to the chagrin of the rest of the team.
"Sorry about that," Athrun commented testily, "we run on tight budgets because we don't have people like you to help us coordinate our illegal dealings and kill the people that go against us." Lacus and Cagalli had both shot him looks of disbelief, but they didn't have to do that. Athrun had already regretted the words the moment they were out of his mouth - it was an underhanded move and an insensitive comment, and a petty thing to do to say the least. It wasn't as if Kira had chosen to work for Rau le Creuset.
But Kira merely gave him a glance and carried on inspecting the gear. As if he hadn't heard what the detective had said.
Or maybe he had, but he didn't care.
Sixty seconds later, the elevator Athrun and Kira were in had glided past fifty stories. Ten more to go, and thirty seconds left.
Both detective and assassin double-checked their weapons, tested their communications and refocused their night vision lenses. They were counting down, waiting. Taking shallow breaths in through their noses and out through their mouths. Slow and steady as they tried to still their beating hearts. For Kira, this was a habit long ingrained; he was the predator getting ready for the hunt, the creature that lurked in the shadows. Quiet, stealthy, and unseen. The best predators were the ones who could slow their heart rates so much they became invisible to their prey. And Kira was one of the best.
Athrun was another predator in his own right. He had the skills and the intelligence. And the resolve. There was so much riding on this mission – his career, his innocence, his team, Siegel Clyne's business, Cagalli and Lacus' lives, Kira's life, and the lives of the millions of other people who would die if Rau le Creuset was mad enough to release a virus into the world. They couldn't afford to take one wrong step. It would cost them too much. He clenched his fists and flexed his fingers. Realised his palms were beginning to sweat. Glancing up at the little digital screen at the top of the elevator, Athrun noted the pulsing red digits. Level five, then four, then three, two, one, and the screen turned dark as the elevator disappeared underground. The air pressure in the lift dropped a fraction and the whispering wind noise that came with the elevator's descent changed into a kind of hollow echo, like the sound you hear in a train rushing through an underground tunnel.
"Counting down," Lacus' voice in their ears. "In ten, nine, eight, seven…"
Athrun and Kira exchanged glances and nods. You ready? I'm ready. And they lined up along the edge of the door frame so that when the doors slid open it would seem as if there was no one inside.
"…six, five, four…"
In the background, Nicol was chanting out technical jargon and computer commands as he worked on shutting the basement lights down.
"…three, two, one…" And right on schedule, the lift ground to a jolting stop and a second later, the lift doors slid open.
They held their breaths. Light continued to stream through the elevator doors. Athrun stayed plastered to the cool metal wall. His heart, despite his attempts to slow it, was beating hard. Across from him, he saw Kira's amethyst eyes fixed on him with a fierce intensity, then they darted towards the open doors and back at him. The move was subtle, but deliberate, and Athrun immediately focused his attention on the open doors of the elevator and whatever that lay beyond it. Which he had never seen before and didn't know anything about. He couldn't risk glancing round the corner of the open doors, so he pricked up his ears, listening hard.
And knew immediately what Kira was trying to say.
There were voices. Soft at first, but growing louder. Two voices conversing. One deeper and gruffer, no doubt a man, and another gentler and sharper, a woman. The voices were steadily increasing in volume, which meant that they were approaching the lifts.
Athrun caught Kira's eye. The assassin was still watching him with that same fierce intensity, as if he wanted to capture Athrun's attention entirely. Athrun didn't know why. Not until he noticed Kira's right hand slipping towards the butt of the Ruger and grasping it slowly and silently. He knew what Kira was telling him: Don't stop me.
Eyes wide, Athrun shook his head vigorously. Kira's eyes narrowed in response. Part annoyance and part exasperation. But his hand didn't relent an inch; it stayed firmly pressed against the butt of his weapon.
No, mouthed Athrun. With a slow purposeful shake of his head. Left, then right. Willing Kira to take the message.
Kira's hand didn't budge.
Dread filled every bit of Athrun. They had talked about it and come to a common consensus that they wouldn't shoot unless necessary. Athrun had been glad, if not a little surprised, that Kira would agree. The objective of the mission was supposed to be retrieving the serum; no one had to die for it. Kira, on the other hand, had agreed simply because the success of their plan depended on their invisibility. The muzzle flash from the guns would light them up like spotlights if they pulled the trigger, announcing their location to the whole wide world. But it seemed now that Kira was having a change of mind.
The voices kept coming, and the lights kept working, and Kira's hand kept its grip on the gun. No, Athrun mouthed again.
But Kira didn't look like he was going to obey.
Through his earpiece, Athrun heard frantic voices conversing. "Nicol," he whispered anxiously, "Nicol, what's going on?" The frenzied exchange of conversation on the other end of the line paused and Nicol said, "There's a security system that's preventing me from accessing the electricity generator powering the lights in the basement. I'm trying to hack in. I need some time."
"How much?" Out of the corner of his eye, Athrun saw Kira pull the Ruger free from his waistband. "How much time, Nicol?" He muttered under his breath, all the while shaking his head at Kira, who threw him a casual glance which probably meant he didn't give a damn about Athrun and his disapproval.
Nicol said, "A couple more seconds. I just need a couple more seconds."
"Five seconds, that's all you've got," Athrun whispered, "Five seconds later we're going to abort this mission if the lights are still on." He paused and glared at Kira. "You got it?" The last question wasn't meant so much for Nicol, but more for the assassin. Who acknowledged it with a glare of his own, but Kira didn't say he was okay with it.
"Yeah," Nicol sounded harried, "Okay, come on, come on…"
Athrun tried to pin the assassin down with his narrowed eyes. The voices kept coming closer. And closer. And then the shadow of a man and a woman fell on the elevator floor as they stepped up to the edge of the open doors. Kira moved, arm darting upwards as he lifted the Ruger. For a second, it felt as if time stood still as panic seized thought he couldn't move, but his body was surging forward on impulse, out of his control. Instinctively, he lunged forward, reaching out a hand to thrust the outstretched gun away from its targets, and another hand to hit the lift button and shut the doors.
When all of a sudden, everything turned pitch black.
The sudden darkness was overpowering. It was so dark, so black that Athrun wasn't even sure if his eyes were open or closed. He couldn't see a thing. It was as if he had fallen into a bottomless pit, and the shock of it froze his thoughts and disoriented him so much that for a second, he forgot where he was and what he was doing.
Until the woman began to shriek, and the man began to curse, and Cagalli's voice, somewhat shrill and somewhat panicked, came through his earpiece, demanding to know what was going on and whether they were alright.
Athrun was shaken out of his trance. He groped blindly for his night vision goggles, found it and pulled it over his head and hit the switch. A green film came over his sight. He realised he was halfway across the elevator, directly in the way of the couple and in their line of sight if they had been able to see anything. Kira was still where he was, one hand replacing the gun back into his waistband, while the other adjusted the night vision goggles over his face. He glanced at Athrun, who nodded to indicate that he could see him.
Inches away, the man and woman were groping around wildly. They were both in lab coats and the woman was already starting to turn hysterical, her shrieking so loud that it hurt Athrun's ears. It didn't help too that Nicol, Lacus and Cagalli were chattering continuously through his earpiece, the static rendering the voices high-pitched and piercing. The noise gave him a clamouring headache and Athrun tried to ignore it as best as he could, concentrating instead on avoiding the man, who got into the elevator first, stumbling blindly. "What the hell's going on?" He said out loud to no one in particular. Both his arms were stretched out swinging all around, as if he was trying to feel the walls of the elevator. Athrun ducked away just in time to avoid getting smacked in the face.
"George! George, where are you?" The woman's voice trembled.
"Here," the man snapped.
Even though his response wasn't helpful at all since the woman couldn't see.
Glancing over the top of the man's head, Kira jabbed a finger towards the open doors and Athrun nodded in agreement. They snuck out as silently as they could, slipping past both man and woman easily as they floundered helplessly in the darkness.
Athrun found himself in a narrow corridor, its walls built out of metal sheets and lined with iron doors on both sides. It was empty - for now – and the passageway ran on a little ways before it made a right bend so that there was only one way to go. Overhead, the trail of fluorescent lights in metal cages remained dark and unlit. He glanced round to see that the woman had finally found her way into the lift, stubbing her toe painfully in the process and nearly tripping over the man called George, who was crouched on the floor, running his fingers up the length of the door frame as he fumbled for the elevator panel. Both were cursing at the top of their voices.
Kira waited until they were both safely in the elevator, then poked his head round the open doors, and helpfully hit the 'door close' button. He pulled his head back as the doors slid shut and said, "Nicol, would appreciate if you could help me jam the lift doors and make sure they remain shut." There was a grind and the doors closed over the couple, who looked so comical that if it had been under other circumstances, they would have stopped and laughed. Then Kira pressed a finger to his earpiece and said in a deadpan voice, "And we're alright, so stop yelling."
As if a switch had been flipped, silence took over the line immediately as Cagalli and Lacus quit their frantic shrieking.
"Thank you. Now, let's go," the brown-haired assassin tipped his head towards the end of the corridor.
With him leading the way, both men stepped down the passageway stealthily, black sneakers quiet on the metal floor. The corridor remained silent and empty and Athrun was struck immediately by a sense of claustrophobia. It was like being put into a metal box, or a prison cell, with everything grey and narrow and near, like the walls could close in on you anytime. He moved faster, closing the distance between him and Kira.
And was nearly decapitated by an iron door that swung open inches away from his face.
He stopped in his tracks just in time, and the edge of the door blew past, right before his nose, and crashed into the wall with a loud, resonating metallic clatter. A man, also in a lab coat, staggered clumsily out of the doorway, tripped over the threshold, and fell sprawling to the floor where he laid winded and spewing expletives. Athrun took the opportunity to peer into the room behind the door. It was some sort of lab, with lab benches and glass apparatuses and computers all over the place. There were two more people inside, both men, both in lab coats. They were staring frantically around them, head swivelling right and left, but their bodies remained still as statues and rooted to the spot, as if they were afraid that moving an inch would suck them deeper into a dark abyss. One stood frozen in place with a test tube in each hand, and the other was still in his chair, facing a computer with a black screen. It seemed that Nicol had been smart enough to switch off the power so that everything that could produce light was shut down, thrusting the whole place in a bottomless pit.
Athrun sidestepped the fallen man at his feet, and hurried after Kira, who had paused to wait for him. On each side of the corridor, iron doors began to open one by one, so that the clanging of metal door handles and the banging of metal doors against metal walls filled the entire place. People began spilling out into the corridor, only a handful, all stumbling and fumbling and yelling. Kira and Athrun hastened on, ducking right and left to avoid the people. They rounded the bend and came to a corridor that looked exactly the same as the one they had just passed – all metal walls, and metal doors, and people stumbling all about.
In his ear, Athrun heard Lacus say, "Keep going." And so he did, moving quickly after Kira, who was sliding through the crowd jammed in the corridor effortlessly and gracefully, almost like a snake through the grass. The girls were tracking their movements based on signals emitted from their phones and they were mapping these signals onto the floorplan they had found in Flay's disc. It wasn't an easy job. It wasn't like they had a computer stimulation of the floorplan and they were watching the movements on the screen in real time. There was a lot of presupposition and estimation that had to be done. And a lot could go wrong, judged Athrun as they passed one long corridor after another. All of which looked the same. Same metal walls, same iron doors, same people spilling out into the corridors. He was so disoriented that there was no way he would be able to find his way out without guidance.
So he looked into the rooms instead. Just passing glances as they half jogged, half ran down the passageway, feinting right and left, back and forth. He couldn't help it. It was a habit, especially in his line of work – he had to observe, take in everything around him, identify the threats. But so far nothing looked suspicious. Most of the rooms were labs, and they were different sorts of labs. Some had normal lab benches piled high with equipment; others were like observation rooms, with glass panels that overlooked another space; one looked like a gym, complete with treadmills and weight-training machines. Nothing too dubious.
So far.
They rounded a left bend, with Cagalli and Lacus's voices rapping out directions in their ear. Then a right, and a left again. Like travelling through a maze. Athrun figured they must have gone much deeper into the hidden facility. Here, there were fewer people and the rooms were mostly closed. He tried one of the door handles. It was locked. Which was a good sign because it meant they were getting to the zone with restricted access and where the serum would most likely be. As to where exactly it was kept, that was going to be a problem and the biggest challenge they would face. They would need time to search the area and time was something they didn't have much of. Athrun glanced at his watch. Saw that they had taken four minutes to get to where they were. They had planned to get in and out in twenty minutes.
Only sixteen more to go and they didn't have a clue where to start looking.
He glanced up ahead at Kira, who was moving fast down the corridor, looking like he knew where exactly they were going. He wondered if the assassin was feeling the same dread that he was.
Time continued ticking by.
All the while, Dearka was listening in on the action. His cellphone was tuned to the same channel Athrun and Kira were using to communicate with Nicol and the girls, and his Bluetooth earpiece was in his ear. So he knew that his chief and the professional killer were somewhere below their feet, more than seventy storeys down. It had been difficult to keep a straight face with all that yelling going on in his right ear. Yzak, on the other hand, looked completely in control – the drumming of his fingers didn't miss a beat and the scrawl on his face didn't ease a fraction – even though he was hearing the same thing. But thankfully, most of the cacophony had died down, and all they could hear were the directions that Lacus and Cagalli were issuing, and occasionally, the mutters of people stumbling around in the dark. Kira and Athrun were completely silent though; there was no sound of their plodding feet on metal floors or their harsh breathing despite the fact that they were moving as fast as they could. Dearka couldn't help thinking that they were perfect predators, silently stalking the deep dark bowels of the building.
Movement across the table caught the blond detective's eye and he looked up, distracted from his thoughts. The woman at the lobby front desk and Rau le Creuset's personal secretary had gotten to their feet. Yzak, who was sitting beside him, glanced over his shoulder, and Dearka followed, and they both saw the newcomer stepping through the doorway.
Rau le Creuset was dressed in a three-piece suit. An expensive three-piece suit, with a sleek black coat, a rich mauve vest, a steel grey dress shirt and a dark orange silk ascot, complete with well-polished leather shoes. All money, class and sophistication.
But there was something more to him. Some sort of mysterious aura that was detectable instantly. There was a slight apologetic smile touching the man's lips, but that was all that could be seen. Everything else above his mouth was hidden from view by a silver mask. Rau le Creuset was pretty renowned, and not just in the pharmaceutical field. Like the Clyne Corporation, the Le Creuset Corporation was a big company. A serious contender in the industry, and a constant rival of the Clyne Corporation. And like Siegel Clyne, Rau le Creuset was a prominent figure - an entrepreneur, a founder, a business magnate, a philanthropist, so everyone more or less knew who he was. That, and because of his silver mask. No one had ever seen Rau le Creuset without his mask. No reporter had ever produced a photograph, and no interviewer had ever convinced him to remove it. And every time someone made a reference to it, Rau le Creuset would merely smile his mysterious smile and change the subject.
And now the same smile was curving the man's lips as he stepped up to their table and reached out a hand graciously. "Rau le Creuset," he introduced himself, his voice refined and cultured, "I apologize very sincerely for making you wait, detectives."
"Yzak Joule," the silver-haired detective said, taking the hand Rau le Creuset offered. He flashed his ID. Dearka did the same and accepted the man's handshake. Rau le Creuset's grip was firm and confident, like the man he was. He nodded once in greeting at the uniformed officers, gestured for Yzak and Dearka to take a seat and dismissed his personal secretary and the receptionist from the lobby front desk. He himself sank down into a leather chair at the head of the conference table and steepled his fingers. "So, how may I help you, detectives?"
Dearka removed the evidence bag containing the scorched ID and handed it over to Yzak, who in turn placed it on the table and spun it around so that Le Creuset could see it. The man glanced down at it, but other than that, he seemed completely expressionless, and Dearka had a feeling that the mask had a lot to do with hiding his reactions so that he looked always composed and collected. A man very much in control. Perhaps even obsessed about it.
"We're investigating a traffic accident that happened earlier in the week. Two nights ago. A taxi collided into the front entrance of a hotel killing eight and injuring dozens," explained Yzak. "This was found at the crime scene. We believe this ID belongs to one of your employees?"
Rau looked at the insignia on the card, which was about the only thing that was left, and nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid so," he replied. "It belongs to one of the deceased? Or to one of the casualties?"
"Neither. We've IDed the victims and none of them are employees of the Le Creuset Corporation. So we have reason to believe that this card belongs to a witness. Or, since we haven't ruled out the possibility that this is a homicide, it could belong to the perp."
"I see," Rau le Creuset paused for a thoughtful second, "Well, I assure you that you will have my full cooperation, as well as that of my employees, so how may we assist your investigations?" Dearka had to give Rau le Creuset credit. On one hand, considering that they had just barged into the man's company uninvited, suggesting that one of his employees was a criminal, the man was calm as ever. On the other hand, if he was the sadistic bastard behind a terrible scheme involving illegal human experimentations and a whole list of other criminal activities, he was a fantastic actor with an award-winning pokerface. He gave nothing away at all.
Yzak dived in right away, taking advantage of Rau le Creuset's readiness. "Let's start with where you were on Sunday night between 3 to 4 a.m." Straight to the point; no beating about the bush.
"Let's see," Rau tilted his head to the side, like he was trying to recall. Then after a short while, said, "Right here. I was in my office catching up on some work."
"On a Sunday night? At 3 a.m.?"
Rau smiled his mysterious smile. "The chairman of a company as massive as this never has day-offs. And besides, I had an interview and a speech to give the next day so I had to complete some last minute preparations."
"Alibis? Anyone to prove you're telling us the truth?"
"No alibis, no. Like you said, it was 3 a.m. on a Sunday night. The office was empty. But the Le Creuset Corporation is under 24/7 surveillance by security guards and security cameras. I'm pretty sure the cameras who have captured me in the building at that time."
"Okay." Yzak nodded at Dearka, who made a note in the notebook he had brought along in his briefcase. Or at least he pretended to, scribbling a sentence that captured the general gist of what the man said. They already knew that they would get nothing helpful out of Rau le Creuset. He was probably telling the truth when he said he was in the building during the time of the accident, since Kira had already explained that his boss never got his hands dirty; he had people to do his dirty jobs for him. So all he had to do was sit and wait for the good news. Of course, the question was whether he was sitting in his office up here, or seventy storeys down in the facility where all sorts of inhumane things went on around him.
Yzak went on with his questions. "Do you know a woman named Flay Allster?"
Another thoughtful pause from Rau le Creuset, then, "No, the name doesn't ring a bell."
Dearka pulled a photograph of the red-haired woman from the briefcase and tipped it at Rau le Creuset, who studied it in detail and shook his head. His eyes remained unreadable behind the mask. No way to tell if he was speaking the truth. "How is she related to the case?" he asked.
"She was the victim in the taxi. What about the driver? Do you know him?" The blonde detective showed him another picture, this one of a man who had died in the driver's seat of the taxi.
"No, I'm afraid not."
"Okay." Another note went into his notebook.
"Ever been to The Sunday Diner where Flay Allster works?"
"Where is it?"
"On the outskirts of town."
"No, I'm afraid not," Rau le Creuset said again with an apologetic smile. "I don't travel very often to the outskirts."
"Yes, I don't suppose you do," Yzak said mildly, "You probably have breakfast at 5-star hotels."
Dearka raised his leg under the conference table and gave his companion a stomp on the foot. Yzak didn't react, and neither did Rau le Creuset really, despite the fact that he had just been insulted. His lips merely curled again in that mysterious smile. It wasn't a forced smile, but one that seemed to indicate that he was genuinely amused by what Yzak had said.
"Well, anyway," the silver-haired detective continued relentlessly, "let's change the subject. How well do you know your employees?"
"I try my best, but it really depends."
"Let's say your personal secretary. How well do you know her?"
Dearka knew Yzak was now just coming up with a random assortment of questions to occupy Rau le Creuset. That was essentially their job – they were going to distract him in all ways necessary so that Athrun and Kira could get their job done. He glanced subtly at his watch. The second hand was ticking by agonizingly slower than he thought it should, which didn't make any sense. In his ear, Lacus and Cagalli continued relaying directions that didn't make any sense to him either. All Dearka could do was hope and pray that Rau le Creuset, the man with utter control over himself and others, didn't lose his patience with Yzak's antics.
They had taken a flight of stairs, the only flight they had encountered so far, so that they ended up deeper underground. Which made Athrun experience the claustrophobia a little more intensely. He wasn't usually claustrophobic; he had once climbed into a hole in the ground to rescue a little girl about to be buried alive and he hadn't hesitated one bit. But this place felt different. It felt almost… almost dangerous. Athrun hastened on, trying to ignore the feeling of the walls closing in. They were moving a lot faster now, since there weren't many people stumbling around the corridors and crossing their path. Here, they met only one or two stragglers feeling their way along the walls.
Athrun had completely given up on trying to remember the way they had taken in. Everything around him looked the same, especially now that the row of iron doors along each side of the corridor remained closed and locked so that there wasn't a single thing they could use as a landmark. Of course, it seemed like Athrun was the only one concerned about this; Kira continued on his way like he didn't have a care.
Or so Athrun thought, until he heard Lacus command a right turn, saw Kira obey and disappear around the bend, then, just as he was about to follow suit, found himself being thrust backwards unceremoniously by a powerful arm as Kira barrelled backwards into him. Pushing him so that they retreated several paces back the way they had come, before Athrun whispered, "What?"
On the other side of the line, there was silence as Lacus and Cagalli sensed the ricocheting tension and paused in issuing directions.
Kira put his head closer and said in a voice much softer than Athrun's, "We've got company. Two guards in front of a door. Around the bend, approximately four metres away. On the right hand side. They're armed, and they have flashlights, but no night vision devices."
"Okay." Athrun nodded his understanding. For a second, he marvelled at the assassin's abilities. Just a second's look around the corner and Kira had already registered so many details. Despite the fact that Athrun and the Special Unit he headed was the cream of the crop of the police force, he felt certain that none of them would be able to match the professional killer's skills. Imagine if Kira hadn't come onto their side. What the hell would they be up against? Athrun shook that thought out of his mind; it was a terrible thing to think about while they were in the midst of a crucial mission. "Okay," he said again, to ground himself in the moment, "we should be able to immobilize them easily."
Kira expressed his consent with a nod too, then both men, plastered to the cold steel wall, slowly and silently sidled up to the corner. Kira was in front, so he did the countdown by raising a hand, fingers up and palm out. He glanced at Athrun - You ready? I'm ready – and closed his hand into a fist. A signal that meant 'go'. Without looking to see if the detective was following, Kira lunged round the corner. Athrun followed hot on his heels and saw the two men exactly where Kira had described them to be. They seemed a little lost in the darkness, not totally alert, their torchlights dangling absently in their hands, the weak beams forming small little faded yellow circles on the ground.
Kira got there first and dove for the guard closer to them, tackling him to the ground, which made the other guard farther away on the other side of the door turn with an utterly bewildered expression on his face. Athrun guessed that it must have been frightening: to be standing in this primeval darkness, taking comfort from the weak light and the knowledge that you had a companion right beside you, suddenly realising that someone, or something, had just attacked them. That had to scare the living daylights out of anybody, which would explain the look of horror on the guard's face. But it gave Athrun a perfect target, so he leaped over the tangle of limbs on the floor and sank his right fist into the middle of the guard's face before he could even raise his torch. The man's head snapped back, then forward again and his whole body sagged. Overall, it was a good attack strategy.
The only problem was that the guard was still holding on to the torch, so that when he blacked out, his limp fingers released their hold immediately. Athrun sprang forward and grabbed it before it could clatter noisily to the metal floor. Then, not a moment too soon, he caught the guard under the arms as the man's knees buckled, and, half staggering under the weight, lowered the unconscious man to the ground. He switched off the torch, laid it by the man's side, and put two fingers to the guard's neck, just to make sure that he was still breathing. He was, and Athrun let out a sigh of relief.
Which Lacus, Cagalli and Nicol took to be a cue that they could speak again and the first thing they asked was if everything had gone on alright.
Athrun didn't reply yet. He straightened and looked down at the man he had just knocked unconscious. The man's nose was broken and blood was spilling out of his nostrils and down the cleft of his upper lip. Athrun pried his mouth open so that he wouldn't suffocate. Then finally nodded, pleased. "Yeah, I think so," he muttered softly into the mike clipped to the high collar of his turtleneck. He was certain Kira would have his own victim sorted out no problem too. He turned round, expecting to see a similar outcome.
Only to come face to face with the shocking sight of blood arcing through the air.
As if in slow motion, the droplets of blood curved through the air, one after another, like little red beads falling from a broken necklace. Landing in a neat line inches away from the guard's still unmoving body, which lay on the floor in a puddle of blood, a dark slit across his neck. His eyes were closed, which meant that he was already unconscious when his throat had been sliced open. By a blade that was being wiped clean against his own shirt. By the man who had just killed him without batting an eyelid.
Athrun stared.
In complete, utter disbelief.
It was like being in a nightmare, the kind of nightmare that you wake up from, shaking and sweating, but knowing it's only a dream because the extent of the horror exceeds the boundaries of normal belief. The kind of nightmare you laugh at after a while because it was just too unbelievable.
But there was nothing to laugh at here. This wasn't a dream. He was actually awake, completely awake, without a question or a doubt, with his emerald eyes fixed on the gruesome sight, unblinking and unable to shift away.
Kira stood, rising from his crouch by the body. The pocketknife remained in his hand. The look on his face was one of complete nonchalance, like it was no big deal at all that there was a man covered in blood at his feet, a man who was dying. No, not dying. But dead, dead already. And it had happened within his reach. It had happened right before him. It had happened when he could have stopped it.
Athrun felt a rush of lightheadedness. Everything around him looked unreal. Like he was seeing things through a telescope, all rounded and glassy and distorted. And there were voices in his head. Wait, they were not in his head. It was Cagalli and Lacus and Nicol who were demanding to know what was going on. They must have seen how their phone signals had stopped moving, which meant that they were still in the same place.
"Athrun, what's going on? Answer me, Athrun!" Cagalli's voice pleaded in his ear.
But Athrun couldn't speak. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to explain what he had just seen. He wanted to get out of there, to get out of this terrible metal enclosure. He wanted to crawl right through the wire of his earpiece so that he could see the familiar faces of his teammates again. Of Lacus and Siegel Clyne. Of Cagalli. He wanted things to go back the way they had been, before all this had happened. He stood there, dumbfounded, watching as Kira stepped around the body and came towards him. But the assassin's eyes were not on Athrun; they were fixed on the guard lying at Athrun's feet, the guard with the broken nose, and before Athrun could stop him, he had drawn the knife across the man's neck.
Something in Athrun snapped. Something scary. He realised he was yelling, but he didn't really know what or why, and by the time he came back to his senses, he was standing over the guard's body, holding Nicol's Glock in trembling hands, its barrel pointed at the assassin. "Put the knife down!"
Kira didn't move.
"Now!" Athrun flicked back the safety lever of Nicol's gun. He wasn't sure if he was going to shoot. Or if he could stop himself when he really did.
Kira didn't drop the knife. He glanced down at the dead men. "You can't keep them alive," he said quietly.
"Why?" Athrun felt his voice catch in his throat. It hurt to speak. "Why the fuck did you do it?"
"Do what?"
A powerful surge of anger rose within the detective and he wanted to pull the trigger. He really did, but thankfully, the years of training and instinct kept his index finger out of the trigger guard. "Kill them," he cried, unable to control the frustration and hatred. "Why did you kill them? They're innocent! They weren't doing us harm; they didn't even see us coming!"
Kira paused for a moment, head cocked thoughtfully to the side, but Athrun couldn't see his amethyst eyes which remained covered by the night vision goggles. He wished he could see them. He wanted to see if there was any remorse. But then Kira spoke, and there wasn't a tinge of regret or guilt in his voice at all. "There's no such thing as 'innocence'. They're either on our side, or they're not."
Athrun stared, unable to believe what he was hearing.
"It's simple deductive reasoning," Kira commented dryly.
"It's not! They're people, damn it. They're human beings. They're not chess pieces on a board that you can sacrifice based on your fucking deductive reasoning."
"But you are," Kira snapped, suddenly stepping up to close the gap between him and the gun barrel so that the cool metal barrel was flushed against his chest. "You're a chess piece and I'm a chess piece. And Flay is a chess piece. And Lacus and Cagalli and Siegel Clyne and every one of your fucking teammates. We are all chess pieces, on Rau le Creuset's board. So there's no place for you to play fair. You want to play nice, then it's your funeral. I'm not planning to die yet. Not as long as Rau le Creuset is still breathing."
"I don't care!" hissed Athrun, "Our aim is to get the serum. These people are just doing their job and obeying orders. I'm not going to let you leave this place in a massacre!"
"And I'm not going to let you stop me. So you might as well kill me now."
Eyes locked, Athrun and Kira glared at each other, separated by nothing but a loaded gun. "Boys, please," Cagalli's voice interrupted, "You need to move."
They didn't budge.
Kira kept his gaze on the detective steadily. Athrun Zala knew nothing - he had no idea what it was like to survive in the Facility, to deal with people like Rau le Creuset. Kira had learned many things, and one of the things he had learnt was that when your enemy was down, you strike them again and again and again until you're certain that he, or she, won't ever get back up. You can't leave loose ends because eventually they're gonna come back and bite you in the butt. Kira knew all that, but Athrun Zala didn't, and Kira wasn't about to let one man's naivety ruin him. He could feel the gun barrel pressing hard against his chest. A little more to the left and the bullet would pass clean through his heart. Athrun Zala seemed so mad that he looked like he would really pull the trigger.
"Athrun, Kira, please," Lacus's voice scratched through their earpieces.
And Kira finally stepped back. It wasn't that he had backed down, or that Athrun had convinced him, and he didn't really care if Athrun pulled the trigger. (Athrun would perhaps be doing him a favour if he did.) But Kira figured that it made no sense for them to continue this ridiculous standoff in the middle of enemy territory. It was one thing to be ruined by Athrun's naivety, but it was another thing to be caught because of a stupid dispute. So he said, "Fine", and shrugged, pocketing the knife. "It's your call."
Athrun let the Glock fall to his side. His hands were trembling. He tightened his grip on the Glock to still the tremors and activated the safety catch. The wave of fury that had gushed through him subsided like an ebbing tide, so sudden and quick that it left him feeling worn out and miserable. Getting Kira over onto his side didn't feel like a victory. Not with two dead bodies lying on the floor. He found himself staring at them. Unable to look away. Who were they? What were their names? Why were they working for a monster like Rau le Creuset? Was it because they needed money? Because they had children to raise? Parents to look after? Families to feed? Would their bodies ever be returned to their families?
"Are you coming, or not?"
Athrun turned.
Kira was standing in an open doorway. He had found the access pass in one of the guards' uniforms and had used it to open the locked door they had been guarding. "Are you coming, or not?" he repeated, and when Athrun just stared at him, he shrugged and stepped through the doorway without a second glance.
The navy-haired detective glanced back at the bodies lying on the metal floor, their blood turning cold.
"Athrun, please. You need to get a move on. You can't do anything for them anymore," Cagalli said in his ear. She must have seen how their phone signals had separated. But despite the anxiety she must have felt, her voice was gentle and understanding throughout, and Athrun wanted nothing more than to hold her close and forget the nightmare.
"Athrun, listen," she said, "what happens in the past. But you can still save others; you can still save us. The serum's the goal, Athrun. You said so yourself. You need to carry on."
She was right. As painful as it was, he had to keep going. He had a responsibility to Siegel Clyne, his team, and his job. He took one last look at the dead men, and forced himself to turn away. The heavy iron door remained open, almost inviting, and Athrun stepped through the doorway, deeper into the facility and deeper into the nightmare.
Rau le Creuset was indeed a man of patience. Dearka had to give him that. Because no one in the world would be able to withstand Yzak Joule's attitude. The blond-haired detective tried to suppress a wince as Yzak asked if Rau le Creuset had a chauffeur (which obviously he had and didn't really need to be asked), then made a snide remark about it. It didn't help too that in the background, they could hear the intense spat between Athrun and Kira through their earpieces, and had to pretend that they didn't. The tension was so tightly wound in Dearka, he thought he might explode. So he put his head down and concentrated on making another note in his notebook.
The conversation between Yzak and Rau le Creuset carried on for a little while more before it was interrupted by the sound of the conference door opening wide. All three men glanced around at the newcomer.
It was a man in a neatly cut suit. With lime-green hair and almond-shaped eyes. He flashed them a charming smile. "My apologies for this interruption, Mr Le Creuset, detectives," he nodded a greeting at Yzak and Dearka. "But the ambassadors that you have been expecting have arrived. I think it would be more polite if you could meet them right away."
"Ah, yes," Rau le Creuset nodded, his lips curling into a pleased smile. "Of course we should." He turned back to Yzak. "I'm sorry about this, but these are important people we've been expecting for a long while now. Will you still require my assistance?"
"Well yes," replied Yzak bluntly. "We're not exactly done."
"I see," said Rau le Creuset again and it looked like he might agree to stay, but the newcomer chimed in, "If you could spare Mr Le Creuset a half hour or so, it would be nice if he could meet the ambassadors and settle them in first before coming back to you. In the meantime, the rest of us will be available if you require our assistance."
"That's right," Rau le Creuset agreed. "You mentioned that you would like to speak to the rest of my employees? I'll get my personal secretary to arrange it. How about speaking to the HR department first? They'll have the details of every staff member in the Le Creuset Corporation."
Yzak exchanged glances with Dearka. Both men – boss and subordinate – hadn't given them any opportunities to raise objections. And already, Rau le Creuset was rising from his seat. Dearka winced. Not even Yzak and his lousy attitude would stop Rau le Creuset from leaving now, not unless he threw one of his fits. But Yzak didn't, or rather, couldn't. There was no possible reason for him to raise his temper. He could come up with a series of stupid questions and sarcastic remarks, but he was in no position to detain Rau le Creuset, so he pursed his lips and nodded.
"Many apologies for making you wait. Again," Rau le Creuset said, his signature smile at his lips. "Orga here – he's my personal assistant – will make the arrangements for you. Make sure HR gets here as soon as possible so we don't waste Detective Joule and Detective Elsman's time."
"Certainly, sir."
And then both boss and subordinate disappeared and the conference room door shut behind them. Yzak and Dearka exchanged glances. So much for distracting Rau le Creuset.
They were in some sort of lab. One that was much larger than the others they had seen so far, and one that looked different. The moment Athrun passed through the doorway, he was impressed by the sheer size of the room. He wasn't even sure that he could call it a room – it looked more like a warehouse, and while it didn't have the soaring height of the typical warehouse, it sure had the space. And this space was taken up by row after row of refrigerators and freezers. One row after another so that they formed the walls of a maze.
Astounded, Athrun stepped up to one of the refrigerators, which towered over him, and with his gloved hand, cleared the condensation on the glass door. He peered in. Tray after tray of chemicals in beakers and test tubes and flasks filled the racks. Walking down the line, he examined the other refrigerators. They all contained the same thing – tray after tray of chemicals.
"Where are you, guys?" Nicol's voice said in his ear.
Athrun glanced round, but all he could see were the towering appliances. No sign or indication of where they were. "I have no idea," he admitted. But a second later, he heard Kira say, "We're in some kind of storage area. Where they keep their chemicals and samples." Athrun heard the voice in two ways: one transmitted through his earpiece, and the other coming from somewhere behind a row of refrigerators. So he followed it until he found the brown-haired assassin.
"How in the world are we going to find the serum in here?" Athrun said, both to Kira and to the others on the other end of the line. "There must be thousands of chemicals in this place."
"It's not going to be among these chemicals," said Kira, bending close to take a look through the glass door of a refrigerator. "It's one of Rau le Creuset's top priorities. He's not going to leave it here for anyone and everyone to access it."
"So where's it kept?"
Kira said nothing. Instead, he straightened and glanced down the aisle between refrigerators and freezers, his head tilted to the side a little thoughtfully. Athrun followed his gaze and for the first time since stepping through the metal door, saw the bank of rooms lying on each side of the 'warehouse'. Rather than solid metal walls, there were squares of glass windows that overlooked into smaller rooms. Curiosity seized him and before he could stop himself, he was walking towards the windows.
These rooms were small. Not much bigger than a garden shed, and mostly empty. Like little cells. In the first, there was a treadmill, and a low bench with monitors and wires. Nothing much else and certainly nowhere for the serum to be kept. Athrun moved on to the next, glancing in through the square glass window.
And felt a chill run down his spine.
The second cell was empty, save for a metal table like those used for autopsies. But this one had leather cuffs dangling off the edge. For people who were alive, who could run and escape, Athrun thought to himself. Certainly not for dead bodies. And he could think of no ethical reason for someone to be bound to such a device. What sort of place was this? What sort of hell were they walking through?
A warm breath licked the back of his neck, and Athrun leapt back, right hand automatically jumping to the butt of his gun. For a second, he saw nothing and heard nothing, except the blood pounding in his ears. Adrenalin rushed through his veins. He felt like he was a string pulled so taut that he was going to break anytime.
But a moment later, his night vision goggles picked up the image before him, and he saw only Kira.
No one else around. No enemies, no threats.
He released his grip on the gun and sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves and slow his thundering heart. The assassin had been walking past, heading on to the next room in line, but now he paused and gave Athrun a strange look, as if wondering if the detective had lost his marbles (which Athrun thought he might soon), then carried on his way without a second glance. Like he hadn't seen the metal table with the leather cuffs. Or maybe he had; just that he felt nothing against it.
Athrun stared after him in bewilderment. The sight of the table made Athrun cringe; he couldn't imagine how someone could react with such nonchalance after seeing it. Did Kira really feel nothing? Was he incapable of emotion? A frightening thought entered Athrun's mind, and he glanced up quickly at the assassin, wondering if those crazy bastards had ever strapped him down to such a table and did crazy things to him.
How could someone survive in a place like that?
It took Athrun a great deal of strength and willpower to get his legs to move again, and to take one plodding step after another, down the row of square glass windows and the cells that lay beyond the glass. It was a nightmare all over again, and with each room that he peered into, he felt himself being sucked deeper into the terrifying dream. The metal table with the leather cuffs was only one of many. Nearly all the rooms had one, some had many, and those that didn't have it made up for the horror in other ways. One had an electric chair; another had a device with arms that ended in little needles. There were metal poles with IV bags, and huge cages that could no doubt fit a human being with his legs curled in, and a tonne of other things that could make Athrun shudder when he looked at them.
Athrun had seen many terrible things in his line of work. He had seen gruesome murders, he had seen crime scenes bathed in blood. But somehow, this place was something else entirely. It was like a cross between a laboratory, a torture chamber and a hospital. It didn't have the kind of brutality and crudeness of a murder crime scene. The whole place was clean – squeaky clean – and so well-polished and sanitized that it seemed all the more frightening. Because it was like a mask, hiding hundreds of horror stories.
Flay Allster's words kept coming back to him. Running through his mind over and over again. It's where they're taught all they know, where they're experimented on like animals. It's a cruel place.
Could this be where Kira had grown up? Could this be what had made Kira the killer he was?
Several paces ahead of him, Kira marched on, completely oblivious and indifferent, focused entirely on locating the serum. In his ear, Cagalli, Lacus and Nicol were chattering on, but only Kira was replying them, updating them about where he was and whether he had a clue yet about where the serum was. Athrun couldn't. His throat was dry. And if it wasn't for the thought that a crazy man like Rau le Creuset could do so much damage if he still had the serum, Athrun didn't think he could have continued on with the mission, not in a place like that which smelled of danger and death.
He steadied himself against the wall and hastened after the assassin, deliberately keeping his head down and his eyes straight so he didn't have to look at the frightening devices. As he finally caught up to Kira at the very last cell, he saw the assassin halt abruptly and turn to face the glass window. Athrun had a feeling that Kira had located the serum, so he quickened his pace until he was jogging and came up alongside the brown-haired assassin. Glancing through the glass window, he stared into the room, which looked very much like the others he had passed. And there was the same metal table with the leather cuffs. But this one wasn't empty - there was someone lying on it.
Author's note: There! The next chappie's finally up! Ahahaha! Sorry guys, I simply couldn't resist the cliff-hanger. So I know some people are going to hate me for it. But cliff-hanger aside, I'm very interested to know what you guys think about the rest of the chappie. I have to say, it's a lot, a lot of action, and the story plot isn't perfect and perhaps not even realistic. I've had a hard time trying to craft the whole thing here, with the whole lights-out, and the night vision goggles, and the guards etc. etc. Whew… I thought I would never get this chappie out. Might be a little bumpy, but I'm hoping it still gets you pumped up and excited! So, what do you think? Review, review, review and tell me, tell me, tell me!