No!
“Wait! Freeze where you are—!”
Echika hurried after him, but Greg wasn’t inclined to listen. The Volvo sped off and left the roundabout, passing through the unobstructed driveway and heading for the main thoroughfare. If she knew this was how it would turn out, she would have cuffed Greg the moment she saw him.
Echika gritted her teeth and ran toward the parking lot where her car was parked.
But then, upon hearing the cacophonous screeching of car brakes, she froze, startled. She turned to look and saw that a car that had just turned in from the thoroughfare was facing Greg’s Volvo. They’d stopped a moment away from a head-on collision. The other car was a silvery-gray van, and based on its license plates, she could tell it was a share car. Greg aggressively blared his horn at the other vehicle, but it didn’t seem inclined to move. In fact, the man and the woman driving the car stepped out of it.
Echika went rigid with shock. She recognized the people who’d exited the car—it was none other than Fokine and Totoki. Both were in casual wear, and Totoki had on sunglasses. Greg lowered his car window and started arguing with them.
Was this the “mousetrap” Harold had been referring to?
Echika felt all the tension drain from her body. Harold must have had Totoki and Fokine staying on standby this whole time. And sure, Echika may have been working with Investigator Gardener, who’d needed to be kept in the dark about this, but surely Harold had time to send her a message and explain. He really did have zero faith in her poker face.
“Why is Chief Totoki here?”
Echika broke from her thoughts. Turning around, she saw Investigator Gardener step out to the roundabout. He knew Totoki was suspended, of course, which meant the situation had just gotten complicated for them.
“Isn’t she suspended?” Gardener looked at Echika. “What’s going on here?”
“Well—”
“I’d worry about yourself at the moment, Investigator Gardener,” said Harold as he appeared, seeming cool and collected. Gardener was on the verge of arguing back but stopped himself somehow. Unable to remain composed, he flitted his eyes repeatedly from his father—who was being dragged out of his car by Totoki and Fokine—to the Amicus standing before him.
From the look of it, while Greg was clearly guilty, his son really didn’t know anything.
“Your father is part of the Alliance,” Harold declared. “And they’ve infiltrated the bureau. They incriminated Chief Totoki, who I assume your father is quite familiar with.”
“No! This has to be some kind of mistake.” Gardener looked terribly upset. “I mean, Chief Totoki planted the USB, right? She had plausible cause! Why would you think the Alliance did this?!”
“We have proof. And if you promise to help us, we can show you.”
“None of this is making any sense! You guys are just out to get Chief Smith because you don’t like how he’s running thin—!”
“This is your last warning. You’d do well to worry about yourself at the moment.” Harold ruthlessly cut him off. “Now that your father is in custody, you, as his son, aren’t safe. Sooner or later, the Alliance will try to do something about this.”
“I’m telling you, my dad has nothing to do with this! You really are malfunctioning, aren’t you?! Investigator Hieda, say something!”
Gardener looked at Echika desperately. He must have really believed Harold was only acting this way because he’d glitched out, but the cold truth was that Gardener’s father had attempted to flee from them when they showed him the schematics. There wasn’t much Echika could say.
“Investigator, I understand you’re upset, but… Please, calm down and listen to what he’s saying.”
Gardener’s expression twisted with despair.
“Look, I’m sorry, but you guys are mental. I’m reporting you to Chief Smith.” He backed away from Echika, frightened. “You won’t get away with this nonsense!”
With that shortsighted remark, Gardener ran out of the parking lot. Echika considered going after him but decided against it. He wasn’t going to listen to her, the way he was now. She glanced at Totoki and Fokine. Greg seemed to have resigned himself to his fate and let them carry him into their van.
What now, then?
“It seemed I misread Investigator Gardener,” Harold said, walking up to Echika’s side. “Given his personality, I assumed he would cooperate with us to ensure his personal safety.”
Echika gritted her teeth. She didn’t know how much of this he’d predicted ahead of time, but—
“You could have gone about this another way. You could have persuaded Investigator Gardener to our side somehow.”
“According to my system, what I did was the ideal plan.” Harold’s voice lacked any and all warmth. “We should wait for the right time to call him over to our side again. For now, we have other priorities.”
Indeed, things had just gotten much worse—if Gardener reported what happened here to Chief Smith, sooner or later the insiders in the bureau would hear about it. And once the Alliance caught wind of this, it would try to interfere with their plan in some way.
Before that happened, they had to make their play.
“Well, on the bright side, you don’t have to come up with a reason to walk out.”
With that remark, Harold strolled over to Totoki’s side. Echika just stood there and watched him walk away; the wind toyed with his blond hair, and his coat flapped with every step.
The changes he’d undergone were more vividly apparent than ever before. At this point, he was going back to the way he used to be, when he’d only seen human beings as pawns on a chess board.
Echika only knew one thing. She was no longer in a position to influence him.