Happy pt.5

The drive took a relatively long time, when they arrived it was almost dark. But the vans didn't stop with them; they drove past them and then out of sight.

"We are here." Ikeda said.

Lobert followed the man wordlessly into an abandoned building right next to them.

They climbed the stairs to the roof, and there Lobert got a pair of binoculars from Ikeda.

"Here, you can use these to see what's happening."

Lobert looked through the binoculars, roughly in the direction Ikeda was looking at with his binoculars.

Lobert saw an old chemical plant that bordered Central City's lake.

A lot of trucks were parked there. That must have been where the Happy was made.

"So…what now?" Lobert asked.

"Shh, I'm talking right now." Ikeda said.

Lobert was confused; he hadn't heard or seen him talk.

Reiko saw Lobert's puzzled expression and explained, "He's talking using a directocom. Like we are doing right now."

So that's what it's like when someone else is talking with a directocom, as a third party there was no way to know if someone might be talking to someone else right now.

"You watch, we'll do the work." Ikeda said finally.

Lobert looked through the binoculars again.

There were a number of guards positioned around the chemical plant site and Lobert could see them being quietly taken out, one by one.

These people were good at what they were doing.

It didn't take long and all the guards outside were eliminated; now Vinganca's men could enter the actual building.

About ten minutes passed and then there were a few bangs. The unmistakable sound of gunshots echoed through the area.

Right after the gunshots, a few workers ran out of the factory.

"We're done here, let's go join the others." Ikeda announced.

At the chemical plant, Lobert walked past a few of the lifeless guards, it felt strange.

To be so directly confronted with death, to have caused it.

These men may have had families of their own; women preparing dinner, children waiting for their father to return from work.

But you couldn't get rid of viruses without sacrificing a few cells.

Lobert frowned, conflicted.

"Anyone who picks up a weapon is willing to put their life on the line." Reiko stated.

Reiko was surprisingly observant, Lobert thought to himself, she seemed to notice every little thing.

Lobert entered the main building of the chemical plant and a sour smell invaded his nostrils.

Everywhere were containers with some kind of liquids, and equipment that Lobert had no understanding of.

The floor was not completely clean either, with every step some kind of fluid stuck to his shoes.

Until a few moments ago this place was very busy.

Lobert followed the trail of bodies into the manager's office, where some of Vinganca's squad were pinning a man to the floor, twisting his arms and handcuffing him in addition; he looked pretty banged up.

When Ikeda entered the room, all the attention turned to him.

"Mr. Ikeda, we have seized the production manager."

The man they seized was wearing a gray suit, was he perhaps Sirius?

"Here, ask him what you want to know." Ikeda said to Lobert.

Lobert moved to the man and squatted in front of him.

"Are you Sirius?"

"Please don't hurt me! I'll tell you everything I know!" the man pleaded.

"Are you Sirius?" Lobert asked again.

"Yes I am!"

The answers literally gushed from the man, he was all distraught.

"Are you making the happy?"

"Yes!"

"Who do you work for?"

"Daisuke Kirinumi! I produce the Happy for him and distribute it!" the man said in a panic.

Lobert was shocked. The man with whom Lobert was talking reasonably normally just a few days ago is the mastermind? Why would he do this?

"I heard you sell the drug at an enormously cheap price, how do you do that?"

"The cost is paid by Mr. Kirinumi personally, according to his instruction, I should sell the Happy to as many people as possible!"

Mr. Kirinumi...that made no sense. If Mr. Kirinumi didn't want to enrich himself with the Happy, what did he want?

"What does Mr. Kirinumi want?"

"I don't know! I'm just doing what he wants me to do!"

Lobert now knew most of what he wanted to know, but he was still curious about one other thing.

"Why did you claim Vinganca was the mastermind?"

"No one should know that Mr. Kirinumi is behind the Happy, he must save his public image! And by posing as Vinganca's henchmen we had the cops off our backs without paying a damn thing!"

The police didn't seem to want to deal with Vinganca.

The interrogation was satisfactory; even if some questions remained unanswered, he knew who to hold responsible.

"Did you learn what you wanted to know?" Ikeda asked.

"Yes, but it would be better if we can find some proof that Mr. Kirinumi is the one behind this."

"Search the building for evidence!" Ikeda ordered his men.

Except for the people holding Sirius, everyone rushed off to look for evidence.

About half an hour passed and nothing was found.

"Mr. Ikeda, there seems to be no evidence suggesting that Kirinumi is behind this." one of the men reported.

Ikeda turned to Sirius.

"Where is the evidence?" he asked threateningly.

"There is no proof, but I am not lying! Mr. Kirinumi is behind this I am telling you the truth! I told you everything I know, please let me go!" Sirius begged.

Ikeda looked at Lobert for a moment, but Lobert had no more questions.

Ikeda raised his pistol to the head of Sirius and pulled the trigger without showing a hint of emotion.

Bang!

A single shot rang out and Sirius slumped. Blood spread across the floor; it happened so fast.

Lobert winced; he hadn't been expecting that.

The man had cooperated, couldn't they have let him live?

Lobert looked at Ikeda in horror.

"You're naive if you would have let him go." Ikeda said.

"People like that take the first chance to stab you in the back, and he saw your face."

Lobert considered how he could respond to that.

"But the cameras here must have seen me anyway!" Lobert retorted.

"Do you think we're amateurs? We've taken out the cameras and jammed the communications in this area."

Ikeda left Lobert no room to argue.

"But you didn't have to kill him outright, he was unarmed!"

"I can't let someone who drags the name of Vinganca through the mud get away unpunished. That being said, he's still an unscrupulous drug dealer, he was due his just punishment." Ikeda explained patiently.

It looked like Lobert would have to accept death; he would surely encounter more of it in the future.

"We'll clean up here, you can go." Ikeda said.

It was probably time for Lobert to go, he still had to tell Christina about his findings anyways.

Reiko fetched the car and they set off; from the air, Lobert could see the henchmen cleaning up the chemical plant and covering the traces of their presence. The bodies were simply thrown into the lake together with some weights to keep them down.