Chapter 6
Locating Siberian had been surprisingly easy. The idiots who had had him locked away has left a paper trail several kilometers wide making him easy enough to find. He wasn't concerned about the details or why he had been placed there since Mamoru had only asked him to find them. He had found the information, of course, but it was their job to scan through it, not his. Besides, he still had two more of them to locate.
Balinese was something of a mystery since he had been missing for far longer than the other two. It would definitely be difficult to track him, but it was certain that he would have had to have been hospitalized after the explosion, at least according to what Mamoru had previously told him. There was no way he could have completely escaped the blast. He was currently running a check on all the hospitals in the area as he doubted Aya would have taken him very far as he had been. At least, he wouldn't have taken him far if he had valued his life and apparently he did.
It didn't take him long to turn up some add records from the local hospitals. Unregistered patients, amnesia patients that had no identification records. He narrowed his search to within a few days of the explosion.
Then he nodded to himself.
"Name: Unknown Injuries: Severe head trauma, 2nd degree burns, cracked ribs Description: Patient can recall no memories prior to the accident, cannot recall name, occupation, family or friends. Complete memory loss."
He checked further entries on this unknown patient that tracked his rate of improvement and discovered that he eventually choose the name "Takashi" and that he had recently gotten married to -
"Asuka?" His eyes widened faintly. Hadn't she been an assassin in Shireient along with Tot? She had been killed though, he was certain of that! Maybe this was someone else, then. Right, that had to be it.
Nagi frowned and stared at the name some more before making up his mind and running a background check on her, as well. It said she was a nurse at the hospital that Balinese been taken to and that she had helped rehibilitate him during his stay there. Typical story of nurse helping patient, patient and nurse falling in love, and the two getting married. Sort of. The nurse had, apparently, suffered a similar memory loss some time before and also could not recall her own past. She had been admitted to the ICU of another hospital around the time that Shirient had been "destroyed". She had so admired the work of the nurses who had assisted her that she went into training to become a nurse herself.
Meaning it was the same Asuka. And she was now married to Balinese.
Well, wouldn't Omi be interested in this information! Who would have thought she would have survived that? And if she had survived, then had the others?
He searched for amensia patients. There were not that many cases and most were fairly quickly identified by family or friends. Assassins would generally not have been recognized so he threw those results out fairly quickly. Soon he was forced to give up on that search for lack of leads and ended up back at the hosptial that Asuka currently worked at and that Balinese had been admitted to.
Randomly he put in a search for patients whose names were unknown, hoping to find something of interest. Had anyone else in that explosion at the school survived? As he was scanning through the list of unknown patients he tripped over something accidently. It was a recent case. Very recent, in fact. That wasn't what caught his attention, however. It was the description of the individual.
Hair color: red
What were the chances that a red-haired patient's name would be unknown? He focused on that individual immediately. Knife wound, it said. Loss of blood. The attacker was unknown and it said that it could have been a possible suicide attempt, though they rather doubted that. He had been found by some Good Samaritain who had become concerned when they saw him collasped against a mail box and had called the hospital quickly. An ambulance had been dispatched and it listed the time it had left and the time that it had arrived back. Patient had been in critical condition, but had soon been stabalized.
Also in the report they noted that the unknown individual had had many previous wounds, among them injuries caused by gun shots, knives, and possibly a sword or two as well. This was mentioned with some suspicion. All this had taken place only a few days ago, which meant it was likely this person was still in the area. The patient had apparently left without bothering to check himself out. A very Abyssinian like trait, he decided. The final indication: when asked his name he had called himself "Aya" (the doctor could not recall the given name because he had not written it down).
He compiled the information on Balinese and Asuka as well as on Abyssinian, including everything that seemed to be relvant or that might be of interest to Omi. Then he sent the report onto Omi and sat back for a moment, simply staring at the computer, lost in thought. The starting place, most obviously, was the hospital. If it was Abyssinian, then he was still injured, but he doubted that that would stop him for very long. The red- headed assassin had a very one track mind when it came to, well, anything, and he doubted that this would be the acception.
So, perhaps, his first stop should be the target's residence. He sat up again and called up Abyssinian and Siberian's last mission target and all the details of that. They had lost track of both of them during that time, he knew, and their mission had been left undone. The hospital report on Abyssinian had been fairly vague but he gleaned from the report that it had been a fairly serious injury and that the patient would not have been released at the time when he had left.
He frowned slightly, wondering if he should check to see the locations of the safe houses in the area, just in case. Technically, Omi had not given him access to those files, but technicalities could be overlooked easily enough. Omi had, after all, asked him to find them and if that included needing a little bit of extra information then he was sure he wouldn't complain too much about it.
Being an experienced hacker himself, Omi's computer system was extremely well guarded, but not so well guarded that someone who was a hacker, plus knew the basics of how Omi's mind worked (more or less) couldn't get in. He found the files, with a title that was completely irrelevant to anything and that most people would have overlooked, but exactly what he would have expected Omi to call them. A quick check showed three locations in the area.
Fine then. He had a plan. Now it was only a matter of time. It would probably be wise to call him and update him on the situation, but he figured that since he had already sent him an update that that should be enough. If he discovered anything else, then he could call. This was, after all, extremely important to him and he was certain that he would only want to report if he had found some solid evidence. Even if it would be nice just to hear his voice.
Going to the hospital turned up nothing, as he had assumed. Still, it never hurt to check. Next it was a matter of locating the target's residence, which was not at all difficult. Once there he noticed the absoulte quiet of the place and was immediately suspicious and on the alert. What he found as he wandered around was only bodies. The work of a well trained assassin. No sloppy job here, nothing but the best. He checked on the target and found him, like the guards, was equally disposed of. He cleared the premesis quickly.
Several blocks away he paused and placed a call on his cell phone. It took him longer than usual to answer, which wasn't surprising considering that it was nearly three AM. At least that meant he had gotten some sleep tonight.
"Nag - ?"
"The target was eliminated."
He heard a rustling sound on the other end and could almost see Omi sitting up abruptly, his eyes widening in that oh-so expressive way of his as he switched the phone to his other ear. "What?"
"I checked. The target was eliminated. Abyssinian is around here somewhere and I'm going to find him."
"Balin - ?"
"I sent you information on him, as well. Shall I bring them both back?"
There was a hesitation and he knew the delimia that he faced. "Not if they don't want to come back. Just find them. As for Abyssinian, is he - he is hurt?" That was the only explanation for his disappearance.
"Yes. Knife wound. I don't have all the details, but he was apparently well enough to complete a mission."
A snort from the other end. "He would complete a mission even if he wasn't well enough to do so."
He nodded in agreement, even though he knew Omi wouldn't be able to see it. "I will update you as soon as I find out more."
"Thank you." Nagi was about to hang up when he heard a very soft, "I miss you." He bowed his head, closing his eyes.
"I'll be back soon." He couldn't bring himself to say that he missed him, too. Omi understood, though. He broke the connection and turned his attention to the location of the first safe house.