“…Fine.” Echika tried to remain composed, cursing her lack of negotiation skills. “I can get you my father’s software, but I don’t have it on me. Let me go, and I’ll contact you through the bureau when I’m ready.”
“Sorry, but that won’t fly, Echika,” said Kai, casually referring to her by her first name. “I think you have the wrong idea here—this is a personal request from me to you. If you’re going to get the bureau involved, I’m going to have to shoot you right here.”
“What do you mean?” Echika couldn’t understand what he was saying. “I’m going to need a better explanation—”
But then she heard the dry sound of a gunshot echo outside in the distance. Echika and Kai both fell quiet. More gunshots followed in rapid succession, and she heard shouting in Arabic, probably from the fighters she’d seen earlier. Footsteps pattered outside the window.
“Looks like your ride’s here. Be thankful that our security’s flimsy.” Kai swiftly made up his mind. He sighed once and got to his feet. “Remember, this deal is a secret between you and me. Don’t tell the bureau about it, no matter what.”
“No, wait! You’re not getting away!”
Kai quickly turned around and dashed out of the room. She couldn’t afford to let a member of the Alliance escape. Squinting from the dull pain in her stomach, Echika rose from the couch to go after him.
But as soon as she did, the bottle in her hands creaked.
Oh no.
She threw the bottle away, out of reflex more than anything else. The next moment, the bottle ruptured from the inside out. Echika squeezed her eyes shut. Shattered glass went flying, nicking her arms and legs, a few pieces stabbing into her flesh. Groaning in pain, she stumbled where she stood.
Had the bottle exploded because the carbon gas inside it was affected by the difference in temperature? Or was there some kind of explosive involved? Either way, Kai had caught her completely off guard.
She cracked open her eyes. The only thing left was the shattered remains of the bottle. A few of the glass shards were buried in the skin of Echika’s arms and legs, and red was oozing out around them. When she tried to stand, the shards sank deeper, and even more intense pain shot through her. Kai was nowhere to be found…!
“Shit…!”
Overcome by frustration more than pain, Echika slammed her fist against the carpet.
Moments later, she heard hurried footsteps entering the cottage.
“All clear! There’s no one here.”
“This way!”
Those were the familiar voices of her colleagues. A few members of the Special Investigations Unit entered the living room, along with Fokine, holding a gun. Upon spotting Echika, he went pale in the face and hurried over to her.
“Hang on, Hieda.”
“I’m fine. It’s not as bad as it looks.” It did hurt, but all in all, her wounds were light. “Forget me, you have to go after him. There was a member from the Alliance here, a white man named Kai…”
Echika spat the words out quickly, nearly biting her tongue in the process. Fokine instantly ordered the other investigators to search the area. They left the cottage in a hurry. Echika hoped they would find Kai, but…
“What about the lookouts outside? Did things go all right?”
“There were just three of them, not much by way of security.” Fokine took off his nylon jacket and pushed it into Echika’s hands. “Put this on, you’re covered in blood.”
As Echika held the jacket, she watched in a daze as Fokine talked to Totoki over audio call. The only guards here were the men who’d brought her here, it seemed. She did think they’d been sloppy to have not put an isolation unit on her. Was what Kai said true, then? Had they really abducted her just so he could negotiate over Chikasato’s software? Even assuming he did know there was backup coming to help her… She couldn’t quite put it into words, but something felt off.
“Chief Totoki? Yeah, we found Hieda. She’s mostly fine, but she did get injured. We’ll need to call an ambulance for her, too—”
Listening to Fokine talk, Echika managed to stretch out her legs and stand. She approached Kai’s desk. The cigarette butts in the ashtray could be used to gather his DNA. The object she’d thought was a book turned out to be a journal, with most of its pages blank. A few pages were full not of text but of scribbles, and the cover wrapping had a bit of a bulge.
Echika rummaged inside the cover and discovered a card-shaped USB memory device. Echika froze up slightly at the design. Drawn on its surface was an all too familiar illustration of a butterfly.
The Farasha Island logo.
Could it be?
The realization hit her, prompting Echika to start sifting through the desk. She opened the upper drawer and found an old tablet with a converter adapter still attached to it. Maybe it was Kai’s or the property of the TFC; she unflinchingly attached the USB memory cartridge to the adapter. The screen came to life all too easily, no new security clearances or passwords required.
It displayed the files contained in the USB one by one. Echika’s eyes settled on a single line.
brainwash_backup0200…
You’re joking.
She couldn’t believe it. The very thing they’d tried so hard to get their hands on in the last incident, only for it to slip through their fingers, had now fallen into her lap with almost comical ease.
“Hieda, what are you doing?” Fokine walked up to her quickly, having finished his conversation. “We’re falling back. Apparently, the other terrorists are heading here. If you can’t walk, we’ll carry you—”
“I think this is the backup.”
At this point, she’d all but forgotten her aching wounds. She looked up at Fokine, unblinking, and he looked back at her dubiously. She showed him the monitor of the tablet and watched his eyes narrow.
Why had Kai left something this important behind?
“I think we might have just found the backup data for the thought manipulation system.”