Sitting in a conference room, Danny stared at his hands. A long time ago, he had decided that he would dedicate his life to the Kumegava family, but when the family head asked him to do something, he faltered. There were a lot of things going through his head at that moment, it is just that he didnt know how to process any of it.
It was then that the door of the room swung open and the mercenaries, Axiom and V, walked in. They both took a seat beside him, and the man straightaway put his head down on the table and closed his eyes. The girl, on the other hand, kept staring at him.
"What?" he asked, annoyed by the gaze.
"It is not your fault," the girl said. "You just gave your loyalty to a man who didnt deserve it."
Danny scoffed, "I dont need a lecture from you."
It is then Axiom sat up straight, "Then allow me," the man said. "I have killed many people in my life. And I have faltered just once. I had my gun pointed at a man who killed our mother. He was within my sights…"
Axiom then stood up and depicted how he held a rifle, ".. It would have taken just the squeeze of the trigger to kill the man. Just one squeeze… And you know what… I couldnt."
He then sat down again, "And I couldnt kill him because that man.. Was someone that I once called my brother. I have learned everything I know from him." Then Axiom tapped him on the shoulder, "You are not alone. There are times when the best of us also stumble,"
Danny then asked, "What happened to the mother's killer?"
It is when V decided to speak up, "He vanished. Some of us feel that he passed away in oblivion, while there are some who believe that the man is still out there," she said while eyeing Axiom.
"You knew him," Axiom simply said, "He is a tough fucker to kill. He is not going to die in a ditch."
It was then that Danny made the connection, "So.. You guys are… siblings? And there are more of you?"
V answered, "We are not related by blood, if that is what you are asking. But yeah.. We are brothers and sisters,"
"We?" Danny asked. Because right now, he could only see two of them.
Then Axiom chimed in, "You didnt think that old man Kumegava would only hire two people for the job this big, would he?"
It is then that Riku and some of her men entered the room. They took a seat on the other side of the table. Riku had a creepy smile on her face when she said, "Let's start. I will be overseeing this matter from onwards."
The old man gave her the reins.. Maybe he gave her the reins to the whole District 21. Danny thought.
"Sure," V said, and the holographic projector of their table came online. "Let's start from the beginning. On the morning of 11th Feb, the EMP bomb made by the Kumegava family was supposed to be transported to a secure location." The holographic display changed into cars of the convoy, ".. The convoy, having 3 dozen soldiers, two SUVs, and a cargo bus didnt arrive at the destination,"
Retro-style enemy soldiers appeared on the hologram, and they started shooting at the convoy. It is from here that Axiom took over, "We know that the people who ambush the convoy were the members of Red Hawk gang, a low-level gang whose members are known to have red mohawks as their hairstyle."
Then the hologram changed, and the abandoned subway line under District 21 came to picture. Axiom continued, "Those guys took the crates containing the precious cargo through these tunnels. And with it they were able to get past the Kumegava personnel and able to get out of the city."
"How did they access those tunnels?" Riku asked, "We know about those tunnels. And they have been sealed shut, and to open them one requires at least a dozen access codes."
Axiom nodded at V, then she took over, "Someone hacked into Kumegava's servers. The access codes were present in the less-encrypted cloud server. Thanks to your nephew, they were able to get the access codes without raising an alarm."
"Takeshi, relocated those access codes.. Why didnt I hear anything about this?" Riku asked the men accompanying her, but no one had any particular answer for it.
"It was.. Takeshi…" one of them said, "He was known to beat up people whenever they refused to do something for him. Some poor chap was probably forced by him,"
Riku gritted her teeth, "Find me the person responsible," her men nodded.
"Well… to be fair," Danny said. "The Red Hawks' plan was so perfect that they could have easily run away if it werent of insights of your team doubling the autonomous drone activity around the District. It is because of that we were able to track them in the first place," He thought it would earn him some brownie points, but instead Riku gave him a murderous look.
Axiom then added, "And you have done a great job till now. And it is here that we would come in. We will take it from here."
V nodded, "Yes. From here onwards, our team will take control of the scene. We will locate the lost items and give them to you, District."
Clearly, Riku and his men were not happy with the presence of the siblings, evident from their faces, but none of them voiced out any opinions on it. Danny understood that this might have been because of old man Kumegava. But still, there was a glaring detail that his brain could not figure out.
The rest of the meeting was spent with him lost in his thoughts, without exchanging of much of a dialogue.
The siblings gave their analysis of the theft and identified potetial suspect. It was all thorough and all, but they didnt have a smoking gun that could point out exactly who was responsible for this. It is when the meeting was over that Danny asked, "Riku-san," he said in Japanese. "Can I have a chat.. Alone,"
The siblings were the first to take off, followed by Riku's men. It is when they were alone, Danny said, "Riku.. I think we are going to be working from now on."
She raised her eyebrow, "Is this what you wanted to talk about?"
He shook his head, "Considering you know from childhood, you know my nature. I'm good at what I do; that's why I was with Hiroshi for such a long time. It is because of my abilities that Koichi-sama had not thrown me out,"
"What are you getting at?" She asked, raising her eyebrow.
"What am I trying to say is…" He took a deep breath and asked, "I cannot work until I know the full picture. Think of it as my personal pet peeve. And if I were to work with you on this, I need to see the big picture,"
She raised he eyebrow, "What are you getting at, mutt?"
He asked, "Why are the siblings here? I think you and I are enough for the job. But Koichi-sama not only brought them inside the estate, but he also shared his secrets with them. Why?"
She chuckled, "That…" she took a deep breath, "If you had paid attention to the meeting, then you would have known why those guys were here,"
He raised his eyebrows, "Why? What did I miss?"
"What was the name of the prime suspect of the heist?"
He couldnt recall, so he just shrugged. Which is when Riku replied, "The prime suspect is Darius Kincaid."