HA2 2.3 – Improvisation
Inside the room, Hide found Takeshi lay unconsciously on the bed, connected to life support machine. It would only require a snap of finger to kill him. However, two member of Toruma Mafia were guarding him. Both were middle-aged man with sturdy body, and Hide was sure they carried knife.
‘Damn. Takeo didn’t tell me about these two goons,’ Hide muttered as he gently closed the door.
“Who are you?” One of Takeshi’s body guards asked suspiciously.
“I came to check his vital,” Hide replied as he walked over to Takeshi’s bed.
“Where is doctor Matsu?” the other body guard asked as he got up to his feet.
“He has sudden matter to attend.”
Both Takeshi’s body guards immediately frowned before looking at each other, and that’s more than enough to tell Hide that he had said something that uncovered his disguised. Then, almost at the same time, Takeshi’s bodyguards drew out their knife while Hide reached out for his silenced Sieg P35.
Pulling out a knife was much easier then pulling out a silenced handgun, so Takeshi’s bodyguards managed to out speed Hide. However, they had to come closer to Hide, while Hide only had to took aim on their chest.
Be-beeb!! Be-beeb!!
Four rapid muffled sounds were heard, followed by a painful groan as Takeshi’s bodyguards fell to their knee, but Hide didn’t stop. He finished off the two by giving them a headshot, and then he switched his aim to the door.
Normally, people in front of the room wouldn’t hear or notice a single shot fired from a silenced handgun. However, Hide had fired six shots in row and people with keen hearing would definitely notice it. Not to mention, the repeated muzzle flash would be visible through the mosaic glass on the door.
In the end, the worst scenario that Hide wanted to avoid was becoming reality. He could only heave a deep sigh as swift steps closing in to the door. Judging from how they didn’t immediately open the door, Hide concluded they must be metro police’s officer.
Now, they must be leaned on the wall next to the door, with ready to fire gun in their hands. After calling for back up, they would definitely took an action. In short, it just a matter of second before they entered the room using dynamic entry.
Wasting no time, Hide took flashbang from his waist. While maintaining his aim to the door, he removed the safety pin using his teeth but didn’t loosen his gripped on the fuse lever. Then, he fired a single shot at mosaic glass on the door and threw the flashbang.
The flashbang smoothly drew a gentle arc in the air, passed through the big hole in the door, hit the wall in front of the room, and detonated.
BAAAAMM!!
A groan was heard followed by swearing, while a nurse shrieked in the distance. At the same time, Hide put the end of silencer on Sieg P365 just a centimeter before Takeshi’s temple and squeezed the trigger twice. Then, as he put Sieg P365 back into its holster Hide went to the balcony.
By holding on the guard rail, Hide lowered his body to balcony on the second floor, and with a gentle swing he landed on it. It was swift and silent, so the grandma in the room didn’t realize that a stranger had landed on her balcony. She continued watching her favorite historical drama while occasionally wiping her tears.
By using the same method, Hide then landed on the flower bed next to VIP ward. As he assessed situation around him, Hide took the safety ring from his mouth and put it into his pocket, along with his fake glasses and fake mustache. After that, he jogged across the grass field towards laundry area. At the same time, a radio call came in.
[Orange to Apple, do you copy?]
“Loud and clear.”
[Apple, be advised, people with black suit and sport jacket in the lobby and cafeteria are heading to VIP ward.]
“Got it,’ Hide calmly replied before pressing PTT button one more time. “I will try to escape through laundry area, helps me scout the route.”
[Apple, Otsu just went to kitchen a moment ago, be careful, Kibo doesn’t have many CCTV over there.]
“Copy.”
As soon as he reached the corridor to laundry area and kitchen, Hide immediately switched into casual walk. Running alone in the middle of the night in an empty corridor would definitely attract too much attention. Not to mention, laundry area and kitchen were located next to each other and Hide had to be careful of unintentional encounter with Otsu.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Unfortunately, it seemed Hide was run out of luck tonight. As soon as he made a turn in a corner, Otsu’s figure instantly entered his field of view. She was only a few meters in front of him, approaching in casual walk while carrying a cup of coffee in her hand.
And it was too late for Hide to turn back and run, as somehow Otsu immediately recognized him. “Arnulfo Lim, if it’s really your real name.”
Hide almost in reflex drew his Sieg P365 to silenced Otsu for good, but he managed to hold his instinct back in the last second. “What do you mean? It’s my real name.”
Otsu walked closer until she was only one step away in front of Hide and said, “It’s rather weird that in the night you showed up, HR people had a glitch in their computer and had to re-input lot of name manually.”
“Glitch in computer is normal occurrence.”
Hide tried to provide reasonable explanation, but it was easy to tell that Otsu didn’t buy it in the slightest.
“Surprisingly, after I cross checked Arnulfo Lim’s data, I found no one know him, including the professor who was being listed as sponsor for his scholarship.”
‘Fuck. This chick has nasty attention to the detail.’
Hide couldn’t help but curse inwardly. At the same time, two men in sport jackets approaching from a distance. As soon as they arrived before Otsu, they immediately show their badge.
Then, one of the men said in a serious tone, “Miss, we have a killer on the run in the vicinity. You should return to your station and stay put over there until we ensure everything is alright.”
Otsu immediately asked, “Who is the victim?”
“Son of mob’s head, he is a scumbag but we can’t just let the killer escape.”
After giving Hide a careful look for a moment the other men added, “The killer is young and wearing doctor coat. He is armed and danger, so you two should return to your station immediately.”
“I see, and thank you for the warning.” Without delay Otsu then said, “Arnulfo, we better return to lab now.”
“Okay.”
Hide obediently followed Otsu. He had no other choice. However, he had a hunch why Otsu didn’t hand him over to metro police. So, maybe he didn’t need to kill Otsu to silence her.
---
As usual, at night TDRC Lab was as quiet as haunted cemetery. Then, as soon as Otsu locked the door Hide immediately said, “I don’t have the dope anymore.”
“Have you sold all of it?” Otsu casually asked, “The premium dope you make in this lab.”
“Yeah.”
“But you can make it again, can’t you?”
“As long as I have the ingredient and equipment, and for the record I can’t use this place anymore. My face had become too popular here.”
After pondering for a moment Otsu asked again, “Where you sold it?”
“Don’t ask a merchant about the secret of his lifeline.”
“Fine.” Otsu was upset, but she got it over in a flash. “I have my own product, ready to use. Can you sell it to your buyer? I can give you a nice incentive.”
“Nope,” Hide flatly rejected.
“Why?”
“My buyer has specific customers. Those people need pussy, booze, and dope to ensure their sanity is in check after they carry their nasty job. It’s easy to get the first two as many as they want. But for the dope, in long run human body had its limitation and if you cross it you will have overdose and arrive in afterlife. So….”
Otsu took a deep breath and then said, “Your buyer only accept premium dope like yours.”
“Yeah.”
Actually, Hateur Formula was not just premium dope. It had one unique character. If an adrenalin junkie consumed it in a certain interval, their body would never developed immunity to it. They would always got sensation as if it was their first time. However, Hide chose not to explain it for now.
“How about this?” Hide tried to propose an idea. “Get me the equipment and ingredient, I will produce some and sell it, and we split the money 50:50.”
Otsu nodded and said, “You can use my personal lab. It’s only 25 minutes by foot from here. I can take you there now.”
“Not now, take me there on Thursday night.”
“Okay.”
Hide couldn’t believe Otsu immediately agreed. She didn’t even show suspicion that he maybe would run away and didn’t come back. But turned out, Otsu already prepare a way to ensure he wouldn’t run
“Show me your fingers, both hands.”
Hide didn’t argue and put his hands in front of Otsu. After peeling off transparent insulation tape from Hide’s finger tips, Otsu recorded his fingerprints on her smartphone, wrote a few notes on it, and then saved it in her cloud’s account.
“If you don’t show up, I will send your fingerprints to metro police along with your fake profile and my testament that you are the killer they are looking for.” Dangerous glint was reflected in Otsu’s eyes as she continued, “If you kill me, in two days the same package will automatically be sent to metro police from my cloud account.”
“Ma’am, yes Ma’am.”
Hide obediently complied, but inwardly he didn’t feel comfortable. He couldn’t just let someone who knew some of his hidden activities had his fingerprints as bargaining chip. However, for now escaping from Kibo was his highest priority and he would need Otsu’s help to do that.
For the dangerous bargaining chip on Otsu’s hand, he would deal it on their next meeting. A few minutes later, with Otsu’s help Hide managed to slip through metro police’s check points that tightly sealed Kibo Hospital.
*****