November 20th, 2055
NPA, Japan
Waiting patiently for the results, Rain looks over to see the tech guys working their magic on the phone. After finding several illicit text messages on the phones suggesting that the drug traffickers may be overseas, the police got permission to work on tracing the phones, all of the phones.
Now it was just a matter of time. Rain helps herself to a cookies and creme ice cream cone as she sits back.
Gintik Hagmay materializes beside her. "It's always good to have a Yagami part of the police force. After all, Kira is on the side of justice so it is only right that Kira is part of the justice system."
Rain says nothing and continues eating her ice cream cone.
"I'll go take a peak and see how these guys work their magic." Gintik Hagmay tiptoes over to the computer.
Looking over their shoulder, he smiles before giving a thumbs-up to Rain, who stares expressionless at the exchange.
The tech guys get to isolate certain patterns and trace the signal, before making some notes. Right now, they manage to trace the calls from the 'drug trafficker' to Europe. With a little more time, they can track which country.
"Good," Gintik Hagmay tells himself before tiptoeing back. "Not much progress. But, it's in Europe."
Rain has finished half of her ice cream cone already. Licking the deliciousness of the back of her hand, she takes a big bite of the cone, making a loud crunching noise that fills her ears.
Gintik Hagmay looks at his wrist. "Well then, I guess I better get a move on." He goes back to check on the progress made by the others. "Well, well, well, this is getting better and better with each passing second."
The call was traced to England. Where in England, that was going to take some time to find out.
"You know, Shinigami are called 'lazy' if they sleep," Gintik Hagmay reminds Rain. "I mean, there isn't much for us to do anyway so I guess we gotta draw the line somewhere."
Rain is already three-quarters of the way done with her ice cream. Aside from glancing briefly in his direction, Rain does not indicate that she is listening to her Shinigami father. Aww, how Gintik Hagmay missed Rain's poker face back when he was alive.
Gintik Hagmay looks at his wrist again. "Okay, looks like it is time to go check on our friendly neighborhood tracers."
He tiptoes over to the tech guys again. This time, instead of simply looming over and taking a peek over their shoulder, he phased right through the tech guy to get up close and personal with the computer screen. There, there, there, were the final results.
Gintik Hagmay turns to Rain and gives a double thumbs up to his human daughter. "All good, all is right as rain, Rain."
Rain finally finishes her ice cream cone. Robotically, almost methodically, she crumbles the wrapper it came with before tossing it like a basketball player into the trash can…
… and missing by two feet.
Gintik Hagmay hovers over there and, making sure that he isn't in sight of any civilians or cameras, takes the wrapper, flies to Rain's side, and shoots it like a professional basketball player in the trash can.
"Still got the moves, sweetie." He pats his daughter on the scalp.
Rain continues looking ahead, expressionless.
"Done," the analyst yells. "I've traced all the incoming calls from the phones. They all trace back to England."
Rain steps forward and heads over. "Any chance you can be specific or are we going to only get the vague, general answer?"
The analyst laughs. "Okay, I guess I can give you the specific answer. Okay, so, I've traced all the incoming calls to some sort of base in the middle of London somewhere around Buckingham Palace."
Rain tilts her head. "Interesting. So it looks like this is an international drug trade."
"Hahaha," Gintik Hagmay laughs. "Looks like you got confirmation on the headquarters of Hydra, good to know."
"If this is international, we may need Interpol's help," Rain continues."
"And Interpol can use all their resources to take down Hydra," Gintik Hagmay realizes. "Perfect. This Hydra guy is already under investigation for the assassination of the prime minister in Japan so to have them be drug dealers would add more dirt and mud to their name, as well as put more oil on the fire. Whoever Hydra's direct superior is, they'll have no chance but to allow an investigation into Hydra if this evidence shows up, one way or another."
"Keep me updated," Rain sighs heavily before turning around. "And I'll keep my friends updated."
Walking over to her comrades, she sits down next to Tezuka, Saiko, and Murata.
"England," Rain says without hesitation. "The incoming calls were traced to England. At a base near Buckingham Palace. I recognized the base: military."
The three stared at her.
"Don't believe me, go take a look-see for yourself, and for those who have eye problems, make sure you wear your glasses."
Saiko laughs. "Military? What would the military in England be doing with Japanese drug peddlers?"
Rain shrugs. "I can only guess."
"Military bases near Buckingham Palace? When they did build a military base nearing Buckingham Palace?"
Tezuka strokes his chin. "A couple of years ago."
"Oh." Saiko takes out her phone. "Hold on, I'm looking it up right now." After looking something up on her phone, she pauses. "Oh, is... is that..."
"What?" Murata looks over.
Saiko looks up. "The Royal Marines have a military base near Buckingham Palace."
"What?" Tezuka exclaims with wide eyes.
Saiko stands up. "I'm going take this information to the chief."
"You should bring the analyst with you," Rain says, "you know, credibility and all that puff and stuff."
Gintik Hagmay laughs as he sees Saiko walking away. "Nice little trick there, Rain, by having the others conclude that the Royal Marines are responsible for finding this discovery instead of you; allows you plausible deniability."
Rain feigns nodding by lowering her head and shutting her eyes.
England
With Hydra
"Get a look at this," the tech guy says as he looks over the current Hydra's phone. "The app I installed in the phones is going off."
Hydra steps forward. "And pray tell for all the maties here, what does that mean?"
"It means the phone is being traced." The tech guy smiles. "But, with a little tweaking on my computer, I can trace the person tracing us. If we can't have any privacy in our bloody location, then nobody can."
"Get to work on it, matie," Hydra orders.
Hydra goes back to his chair and sits down. "In the meantime, the trackers on all of our subjects, still in jail?"
A captain approaches him. "Affirmative, Brigadier General Hydra."
Hydra smiles. "So, going by what my predecessors believe and what they're saying, it seems that Kira is in cahoots with the police, especially the Yagami family because they got IV Yagami to do the voices for our insiders and now they're having the police force trace us. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Kira is doing everything in his power to make us out to be criminals and get Interpol to turn on us." Hydra smiles behind his mask. "But that's not going to happen, not to me, not to the Hydras before more, or to the Hydras who will succeed me." He puts his combat boots on the table... then puts his feet up. "I don't know what Kira's next tactic is but I think it is time to instill a sense of unease into Kira. A little psychological warfare." He looks at them. "What do you maties say?"
The captain nods. "I'm up for it, Brigadier General Hydra."
"Just Brigadier Hdyra," he corrects, "please, it has a nicer-sounding ring to it."
"Yes sir."
"Thank you, matie."
Hydra strokes the chin of his mask. "I think I have an idea. It'll be the first step but... is there any way we can send some of our Royal Marines to Japan?"
"Why is that?" the captain asks.
"Because... I want Kira to know that we can reach them, even from the comforts of our own homes. We want to let Kira know that we're onto them and we're upping the ante. Also, when we send our friends, be sure to tell them to always wear a mask around the targets, understand? I want them all to be wearing a Hydra mask."
The captain smiles. "Right away, sir."
"Good," Hydra smiles. "Now, let's see Kira weep in their pants now, maties."
November 21st, 2055
Japan
With Rain
"It's done," Rain says as she sips her cranberry juice in the bar. She sits in a corner booth with her twin brothers. "The phone calls have been traced back to Hydra's base in England. We now have confirmation that the Royal British Marines are involved in the drug trafficking concerning our stalkers. Interpol is getting to work on Hydra."
Archer smiles. "Good." He sips from grenadine.
Angel drinks from his grenadine before pausing. "You know, I've been thinking of something. These Hydras, all these people, they have to come from somewhere, as well as the people they sent after Kira." He looks around, making sure no one is looking in their direction. This corner booth Rain picked out offered them the best privacy by being far away from any intruding ears. "All these people, especially those who willing showed their faces to Kira to show their defiance, people don't just give up their lives that easily, at least not so calmly."
Rain looks at her brother. "True. When I saw them make their declaration of war, I noticed that most of them were completely, utterly calm, despite knowing that death was practically certain for them."
Angel nods. "Yeah. It makes me wonder who these guys are. Obviously, there are not all generals in the Royal Marines because there are too many so maybe they're decoys but decoys willing to allow themselves to be killed by Kira?"
"Good point," Archer nods. "Looks like something good happens when you take a moment to think."
"You should apply that same logic when you're playing another losing game of chess with me," Rain snarks. "It's kinda boring knowing the outcome every time." She sips from her cranberry juice again. "So, these guys have a source. I don't know which one is the real brigadier general if any of them are brigadier generals, but what we should focus on is the source. These people are way too calm about being killed by Kira so... either they're brainwashed into not caring about their lives or..." She narrows her eyes. "They're part of a cult. Maybe a suicide cult."
"That's an interesting thought." Angel choked on a thought crossing his mind. "I can't stomach the idea of people being so okay with killing themselves."
"No, not killing themselves, allowing themselves to be killed by Kira. What they're doing, while it practically is suicide - going up against Kira with your face exposed - is not suicide in an actual sense. One, they're not taking their lives, two, they're dying for a legitimate cause than for some religious reason, three, they have some connection to the military. They're not a suicide cult, they're people who aren't afraid to die because they expect to die."
Archer's eyes widen. "Terminal patients."
"Maybe." Rain narrows her eyes again, sipping her drink. "If the people behind Hydra's mask are terminal patients, then it explains their lack of fear of death. they know that they're going to die anyway from cancer, a disease, what-have-you, and it doesn't phase them that Kira will kill them because Kira killing them would simply mean a quick, painless death." Rain strokes her chin. "Terminal patients." She rests her hands on the table. "When I get the chance, I'm going to do some investigative work and see if there are hospitals for terminal patients nearby. After that... I think we might be a step closer to taking down Hydra."
As Rain lifts her cup to satisfy her tastebuds with more cranberry juice, she spots something in the corner of her eyes. Someone in the corner booth on the other side of the bar was wearing Hydra's mask.
For the first time in a long time, Rain's hand trembles... and it's not from the two cookies and creme ice cream cones she had twenty minutes ago.
A/N: The Hydra people are NOT from a suicide cult.