Chapter VI - Hostage Part Two

Slick malachite walls and black marble floors, heels clicked against stone as coat-edges rustled in the wind of a brisk stride. A phone vibrated in the coat pocket and the wearer halted. Sliding a finger across the screen interface in a complex yet impossibly imperceptible expert movement the cell unlocked.

The information is in file 927. -M1

The black-haired girl smiled faintly and responded back.

About time.

Proceeding to place the phone back into her pocket another message quickly followed.

Heyy~ you just asked me 37 hours ago! >.<

Grinning she replied again to remark on the speed of his messaging.

Ever on your devices aren’t you?

Seconds later another reply.

Meanie. I have to have my free time as well you know!

To which she concluded.

Be that way so-called genius hacker.

Returning the cell to its pocket she continued on her way when once again she was interrupted by her phone, but this time it was the three beep setting of the house alarm which indicated that there was someone other than family standing at the entrance.

“Seems like we have visitors,” she said under her breath to then adjust her route in the labyrinth corridors of the Agency.

Making her way to what seemed like a blank wall but was in fact an elevator, she pressed onto invisible keys that glowed upon her touch. The wall split and she stepped in, the opening noise which most elevators greet passengers with missing from this disguised lift. It moved silently and swiftly, traveling several stories in a matter of two seconds. The doors opened and she stepped upon sienna plush. A few strides and she was at the inward entrance of her study. She swung, passed through and closed the door as if she was always on the opposite side and proceeded to the main entrance of the house.

The opening of the house door revealed a girl of oddly coloured hair who seemed rather nervous or no, was that… fright?

“Is something the matter?” Esteire asked the skittish visitor.

The girl looked towards her in alarm as if she hadn’t noticed the other girl’s presence until she spoke.

“Oh!-Yes, that is..! Who’re you? Oh no, that’s rude. I’m sorry; is this the house of Elisabeth Andrews?” the girl stuttered indecisively.

Esteire rose an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering if her sister had made a new friend already.

“Why yes; is something the matter?” she repeated her initial question once again.

“Oh!” the girl seemed to realize, “Yes! Elisa got kidnapped!”

If this had been some other situation, namely a normal situation in which the older sister would laugh at the ridiculous statement and the speaker would laugh along knowing she got the joke, that’s exactly what Esteire would’ve done.

“What?!” said Esteire with her voice pitching higher than usual.

“She went over to my house today because some guy was stalking her supposedly but then she got kidnapped when she offered to take out the trash! I mean I didn’t want her to take it out since she was staying over but she felt obliged to do something and-!”

Realizing that continuing would get the explanation nowhere the girl stopped with a faint shade of colour in her cheeks.

“I see… I didn’t realize this would advance so quickly,” the older girl responded with a look of bothered pensiveness.

The visitor looked her intrigued, wondering just what this person knew.

“Are you the sister?” she suddenly asked as if realizing how important that was.

Esteire studied her momentarily and slowly responded, “Yes. And you are?”

“Vivianne,” the girl replied, “A friend of Elisabeth.”

The darker haired girl nodded as if understanding by the matching colour of the friend’s hair.

“Now, tell me in detail where, how, and why she was at your house.”

The yellow lined lanes streaked by as the black mercedes made its way towards Vivianne’s house. As the building came into view Esteire began to speak.

“Go into your house and do not come out until I come by again later this day. I don’t want you involved in this so forget that anything happened after today.”

The purple-haired girl furrowed her eyes in disagreement.

 “I can’t do that! I might’ve only met her today but a friend of mine’s in danger! I can’t just forget that she got kidnapped because of me!” she protested.

The car slowed down in front of the house shingled with beige tiles.

“It’s not your fault. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

Vivianne’s expression deepened in apprehension and intrigue. Just what is going on?

“Please exit the car and do what I told you,” Esteire urged, “Please.”

Vivianne’s stomach twisted in unease.

“Okay.”

Once the girl exited the vehicle sped away, seeming to know exactly where to go despite the girl not knowing, and wondering---where?

“M1, I repeat M1, what is the status update?” Esteire said into empty air.

“E3 I have bad news. I can’t find her location,” returned a voice coming from the front of the car as if coming from the radio.

“WHAT?!” came Esteire’s initial response of disbelief before she composed herself and continued, “How can F.R.I.E. conceal her with the underground spectators around?”

“Because they’re out of their range,” the voice returned regrettably.

“But they span over four hundred miles across Europe and Asia! Unless… They infiltrated the Underground?!”

“No,” the voice assured, “That would impossible anyway, or a one in two million, seven hundred and sixty-five thousand, nine hundred and forty-eight---the point is, they’ve either discovered a new means of transportation that delivered them over three-hundred miles from France, or a device six generations ahead to hide her. While both are unlikely the most probable is the former.”

Esteire paused for a moment.

“But that would mean a fuel more effective than the energy of nuclear fission and they can’t possibly have used fusion.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know anymore Esteire, I nor anyone here can fathom how.”

“Nicolas!”

“Sorry ‘E3.’” A sigh came from over the hidden speaker.

“No, I apologize, I shouldn’t be nit-picking over something like that, but if you can’t solve this then how..?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Nicolas repeated, “I can’t help this time; I’m sorry Esteire but you’re going to have to go without my backup. Darren and his apprentice will be there though, but be careful; whatever it is it must be dangerous to have eluded my team.”

Esteire heaved a great sigh and gripped the steering wheel more firmly.

“Thank you… Nicolas.”

“No problem. Over and out.”

~Forever Waiting~

“Lucien!” Vivianne called.

A tall boy with silvern hair tipped in ebony turned his gaze towards the girl.

“Yes Vivianne?” he queried in that deep dulcet voice of his.

“I’m not supposed to talk about it but it’s been bothering me since she left me at my house yesterday and I think I can trust you to tell it without anyone else knowing!” she said in a frenzy.

Lucien furrowed his brows in concern and replied calmly, “Let’s go somewhere else so you can compose yourself and then tell me.”

“Okay,” Vivianne returned demurely.

They found themselves an unpopulated area of the courtyard hidden behind some trees and Vivianne began her story, recalling everything from meeting Elisabeth to everything that her friend had told her to her encounter with her sister.

“The exchange students huh?” Lucien thought out loud, “I had a feeling about them when they came. Just the other day I discovered a note that said, ‘Don’t tell them I’m gone.’”

“Yes! I forgot!” Vivianne recalled, “Elisabeth told me about having receiving that message! But I didn’t know she lost it.”

“Ah, that’s because she dropped it without knowing and I picked it up,” Lucien explained with a tense but imperceptible tone to the oblivious Vivianne.

“I see. … What do you think that means? Maybe it could lead us to why neither of them showed up today!” continued Vivianne.

He shook his head in uncertainty, “I don’t know but I noticed Esteire leave homeroom the first day, yet no one else seemed to notice, even her sister beside her.”

“How very strange…” Vivianne pondered.

“It was puzzling though; there seemed to be some sort of mist around her,” Lucien added.

“A mist?! Do you think it was something to make her invisible to others?!” she exclaimed excitedly.

“That seems highly unlikely, but it seems that way,” he replied pensively. 

“Haha, you probably were able to see it because of your eyes,” teased Vivianne suddenly as the connection came into her head.

A rosy hue appeared on the boy clad in victorian attire.

“I hardly believe that,” he said dismissively.

Vivianne paused for a minute in thought, in total concentration that she didn’t notice the faint rustle of someone nearby. Lucien however, detected the shift in movement, but feigned ignorance. 

“That’s it!” Vivianne called out excitedly.

“Hey! Not so loud!” Lucien scolded and clamped her mouth shut in reflex.

Vivianne’s cheeks reddened but she hastily threw his hand away and continued in a quieter voice.

“She must be a spy,” she said covertly with eyes gleaming in triumph.

The boy almost laughed in amusement. “What?”

“I mean it! She had this slick black car like in the movies; she even dresses the part! I saw her with a tench coat, but I guess she takes it off for school,” insisted Vivianne.

Lucien coughed to cover up his laugh before replying, “Well something strange of the sort is happening.”

Vivianne made a face. “But I can’t think of anything I can do for her! After entrusting me with it all and then letting her get actually kidnapped!” She gave a whimper in her speech. “I’m a terrible friend.”

Her companion sighed in amusement mixed with sympathy. “No you’re not. You did your best and that was right of your to confide in someone else. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about what you told me.”

Vivianne brightened. “Thank you! Well we should probably go before class starts. Coming?”

He smiled but shook his head. “No, I’ll stay here a bit longer and come later.”

“Oh, okay,” she responded but didn’t persist for the reason and left.

Once she was out of sight Lucien spoke out loud to their eavesdropper.

“You can come out Mikael.”

A rustle from behind a tree with bushes preceded before the person stepped out.

“How did you know it was me?” the boy, Mikael, asked.

“I’ve heard your snicker enough times to know,” Lucien simply said.

“Oh, so you heard that too. She was a bit too much though, don’t you think? I didn’t realize that quiet girl could be so excitable. I don’t see how you put up with her, but then again, I could say the same about me,” Mikael smirked.

Lucien sighed. “Ever the same I see. I guess summer vacation didn’t teach you politeness one bit?”

“Nope,” the red-haired boy smiled. “Do you believe her though?” he continued curiously to his tall friend.

“Yeah,” Lucien replied, “Since I saw it too.”

“Oh well, Amorei has always been such a boring school, perhaps this’ll make things more interesting,” Mikael said nonchalantly.

His well-mannered friend shook his head at the statement. Seeing the disapproving gesture Mikael defended himself saying, “What? I don’t know the girl, why should I care? People get kidnapped.”

“That’s a rather ignorant statement,” commented Lucien.

Mikael scoffed dismissively and stalked away in that characteristic gait of his, one hand in the pocket, leisurely and assertive. Under his breath he wondered out loud, “Who are these Elisabeth and Esteire people anyway?”