Captives

Ko and I were both forced to the ground as the guards locked cuffs tightly around our wrists. They took our masks and weapons, leaving our faces both exposed and our defenses lost.

It was hard to say if these were government men or not. At first I thought they were, but they didn’t have any identifying marks or emblems on them. And they certainly weren’t those men in black.

A guard took the lead, dragging us into an empty part of the warehouse and pulling out his phone.

“Hey, it’s me,” He said. “We had a situation, send a bus for…”

The guard leading us dropped like a rock to the floor as if he'd tripped.

Someone went to inspect him, but then they fell over too.

Both of their faces were frozen in an eternal state of shock. A red liquid spilled from their foreheads and pooled over the concrete.

“Ambu…!” Before a third guard could call out, he too fell to this mysteriously silent bullets.

A rain of swift death pelted each of our captors, quickly dropping them all into their untimely demise. I would have kept my head down, but Ko more then confidentially stood tall.

“Whatever you do, stay calm, and follow your instructions.” Ko said, quietly.

“I don't understand…”

“You won't yet, and that's what they want until we meet him.”

Meet who? She was being so cryptic. My mind went toward the worst possible scenario, that perhaps, she'd betrayed us.

“Are you the rat?” I almost shouted.

“Quiet!” she growled. “Please, trust me just a little longer.”

Ripples appeared in the air like distortions in reality. They were approaching from every corner of this empty warehouse room.

One of them came closer than all the rest. The distortions in the air turned into a mess of pixels and lines, until finally revealing a blanket-like ghillie suit that covered over a man in military gear.

He removed a gas mask from his head. He was a gruff man, scars all over his face and he had an eyepatch.

“Shit,” he spat in disbelief. “He said you'd be a kid, but this is ridiculous.”

“I imagine it seems that way.” She turned and held up her cuffed arms as if the man was supposed to free her.

The man motioned for one of his subordinates to unlock her shackles, but nobody came for mine.

“And who's this guy?” The man pointed to me. “What is he, your Onii-Chan?” he mocked in an awful little girl's voice.

He was pissing me off, especially with how much disrespect he sent my way.

“If you have a question, ask me yourself,” I barked.

The man chuckled, then sent the butt of his gun right into my side, causing me to collapse to my knees.

“He's got balls,” he commented. “Be careful where you go dragging em’, boy.”

Now I was livid, ready to retaliate.

I lifted my foot, attempting to kick him, but the man merely slapped me away. I was back on the ground.

“A bullet between the eyes should calm you down.” He cocked his pistol gun, then aimed it at me, finger on the trigger.

All I did was glare at him. Challenging his one good eye with my own two. If he wanted to kill me, then my ghost would love to haunt him all the way to his grave.

“Heh. Lucky for you, I have to bring you in warm.” He holstered his gun. “What is your name then, boy?

“Call me Kitsune,” I replied.

“He's my plus one,” Ko added, elbowing me.

“Oh yeah, the boss did say another kid would be here.” He motioned for all his invisible allies to follow him. “Let’s go. We want to have you both there before the boss is ready.”

With the exchange of hands, nothing felt much different for me. We were still just being taken somewhere against our will. Or at least I was. Ko had a completely different agenda on her mind. She kept begging me to trust her, so there was very little choice in the matter. The least she could do was give me a little info on who we were dealing with.

“Who is this guy? Who is he taking us to?” I whispered to Ko.

“They call him Nikolai, the One Eyed Bear. He’s a mercenary. Legends in the underworld have it that he lost his eye in a fight with a grizzly in Siberia.”

Now that I got that bit of history, the man probably could have passed for a bear with a little more hair on his face.

“Is that lollygagging I hear back there?” Bear turned back to us. “Keep quiet until we get where we're going.”

A few of the invisible men behind us were sure to prod us with their guns. It kept us marching if we were falling behind.

I wish Ko had gotten to my second question. I had a feeling she wouldn’t have answered it anyways, but I had to know what was going on here. Hopefully more pieces of the puzzle would show soon.

Bear shuffled us down into an underground tunnel and had us walk to what appeared to be a tram car. Despite being underneath dingy warehouse, it looked very high tech and well maintained.

A lady in a white maid outfit was standing there. A little girl was by her side, holding a basket full of papers. It might have been odd, but the child reminded me of…

I stopped dead in my tracks, kneeling down to look at her closely, even against the protests of Bear.

The little girl rook a step back from how close I got to her, but was encouraged to go back to her proper place by the maid.

“Welcome, esteemed guest.” the maid said to Ko and I, bowing to us. “We humbly request that you board the tram, courtesy of our master. We look forward to…”

“Yeah yeah…” I interrupted her. Some guest I was, still handcuffed.

Could this have been the little girl from the auction? She looked just like her, but with a little more makeup and fancy clothing. Her skin appeared far more full and healthy too.

“Excuse me sir…” the little girl spoke up, trying her best to keep eye contact with me, but clearly uncomfortable. “Do you find something about me interesting?”

Her tone wasn’t as dry as someone who was on their pills. The same goes for her discomfort. She sounded like she was just acting polite.

“Kitsune, I know what you're thinking," Ko said. "That is the same girl we saw before."

“If she’s here, then does that mean we're going to see that billionaire man?” I concluded, standing up and looking seriously at her.

The maid spoke up before Ko could answer. “Our master is delighted to see you both. He seems to think very highly of you.”

"Highly, eh?" I was skeptical, but that man definitely struck me as the type who knew things he shouldn't have. He might have even known our real identities.

 Anticipation was building as I thought we'd be meeting with that him again. The same man who bought a child for 50 billion. Yet, here was said child, clearly in better condition then when I last saw her.

“Boy, get in the damn vehicle already…” Bear growled. “I don’t get paid by the hour.”

It wasn’t his orders that provoked me to get inside the tram, rather Ko who clearly looked me in the eyes and pleaded I follow with a silent breath.

I boarded the tram along with her. The maid in white and the child stepped in after Bear. None of the mercenaries men came in here, as far as I could tell at least. The seats circled around the center of the tram, so we all sat around and stared uncomfortably at each other. The maid was the only one to keep her peppy smile the whole time.

The longer things stayed silent, the more my anger turned into confusion. If this man really wanted to see us, what was his game, and why was Ko more in the know then I was?