The gloomy rain continued into the next day without any sign of stopping, making the already subzero weather outside feel even more bitterly cold.
After spending an unusually uneventful day slacking off at the MPD, Ritsu followed the exact same routine as yesterday as evening approached. He returned to his apartment, removed his disguise, and put on Augier's face before heading to the research institute to perform the final act of his one-man show.
Only this time, there would probably be a few more actors joining the performance, actors with no script who would have to improvise.
Sure enough, as soon as he arrived at the institute, he spotted the black Porsche 356A already parked in the lot.
After parking his own car, Ritsu looked toward Gin and Vodka as they stepped out of the vehicle and smiled.
"You're pretty quick. No mission today?"
Grinning, Vodka walked over and said, "Aniki couldn't wait to see that woman die. She actually had the nerve to halt the experiment. Doesn't she care that her sister, the one who let the rat into the Organization, is going to die because of it?"
The moment he heard the word "rat," Ritsu's expression turned noticeably colder.
His tone became displeased.
"Vodka, you're not taking a jab at me, are you? That rat put three bullets in me."
"Of course not." Vodka rubbed his hands together and breathed warm air into them. "You know how I feel about you. Anyway, aren't we going in? It's freezing out here."
Gin gave a cold snort and headed inside, clearly reminded of that detestable FBI agent.
Once, he had actually trusted that rat.
Just thinking about it made him sick.
His primary target was eliminating Akai.
As for Akemi, who had let him into the Organization, and the woman imprisoned in the gas chamber, they were merely secondary targets.
The lower-ranking personnel stationed at the institute entrance immediately straightened themselves upon seeing the three terrifying figures arrive. They stood as rigidly as the pine trees outside, their attention sharpened to the utmost.
Ritsu led the two men to the entrance of the gas chamber and looked toward the pair of guards who had been standing watch all night.
"You two stayed here the whole time, right? No one went in?"
One of them immediately replied, "Reporting, Mr. Augier, no one passed through here."
"Good. Well done."
The three of them headed toward the gas chamber.
Ritsu removed the iron key hanging on the wall and unlocked the heavy door. But the instant light flooded into the dark room, his eyes widened.
Gin and Vodka, standing beside him, saw it as well.
The abandoned gas chamber... was completely empty.
"W-What?! Where'd that woman go?!" Vodka cried out in shock.
Gin frowned deeply.
As he reached for his Beretta, someone moved even faster.
Ritsu instantly drew his pistol, strode to the doorway, and grabbed one of the guards by the throat, slamming the gun barrel hard against the man's temple.
His crimson eyes blazed with murderous intent.
His hoarse voice seemed squeezed through clenched teeth, filled with barely restrained fury.
"Where is the person who was inside?"
"W-We really stood guard the whole time! We didn't let anyone in! And... and nobody came out either!"
The terrified guard trembled uncontrollably. Had Ritsu not been choking him, he probably would have collapsed onto the floor.
Gin silently holstered his Beretta again and turned his attention to the chamber.
After switching on the lights inside, he found no signs of a struggle nor any indication that someone could have escaped.
Vodka cautiously searched the room as well. He checked every cabinet.
Nobody was hiding.
He even opened the garbage chute, only to discover that there was no way a full-grown adult could have squeezed through it.
"Aniki, there's no way anyone could've gotten out of this room. So how did that woman just disappear into thin air?"
"Check the surveillance footage."
"Yes!"
With both hands in his pockets, Gin walked back toward the doorway and said in a low voice,
"Augier. Take those two to Laboratory One. Then come to the surveillance room. I'm getting curious... just how she managed to escape."
"Got it."
Seeing the two guards try to run, Ritsu knocked them unconscious with two clean punches. Grabbing each by an ankle, he dragged them toward Laboratory One.
He wasn't worried about whether they would survive.
Once that person learned Sherry had escaped, he would undoubtedly order the destruction of the entire research institute.
The APTX4869 data was stored here. He would never allow anyone else to get their hands on it.
He knocked on the door to Laboratory One.
Without bothering to see whether anyone inside had heard him, he left the unconscious guards outside and headed straight for the surveillance room.
"Find anything?"
Vodka shook his head while watching the footage at eight times normal speed.
"No. Nobody went in, and nobody came out. It's like she vanished into thin air!"
Gin's face remained icy as he took out his phone and sent an email. Even he couldn't make sense of it.
Who had rescued Sherry? And how had she escaped that gas chamber without appearing on any surveillance camera?
"You've reported it to the Boss?"
"Yeah. I told him everything."
Ritsu patted Gin on the shoulder and said casually,
"I've thought of a pretty good idea. We can make use of that worthless eldest Miyano sister."
Gin raised an eyebrow.
To his surprise, he and Augier had come up with the exact same solution.
If they used Akemi as leverage, then no matter how far Sherry fled, she'd come back obediently.
"We can use her not only to lure Sherry back," Ritsu said as he idly toyed with his cigarette pack, letting out a light chuckle, "but also to bring that little wildcat all the way back from America. I still owe him three bullets."
He pulled out a cigarette and smiled.
"What do you think? If I married his woman... do you think the wildcat would lose his fur?"
Married.
The moment that word came out, Vodka nearly dropped his sunglasses. His eyes went wide.
"Augier... are you saying you're going to... you know... with that woman's sister?"
Gin shot Vodka a glare for letting his imagination run wild before speaking in his raspy voice.
"It'll work. I think the Boss will approve the plan. But there's still one issue."
"You're talking about whether I should use Augier's identity... or Onizawa's?"
"Mm."
Ritsu slipped the cigarette between his lips and answered lazily,
"Even if she hadn't pulled this stunt, I'd already been thinking about how to use the eldest Miyano to bait that little wildcat."
He deliberately dragged out his words.
"If I marry her as Onizawa, it won't expose anything. The eldest Miyano has always lived an ordinary life, so no one will suspect a thing."
"I'll report it to the Boss. If he approves, I'll let you know."
"Sounds good. I'll head home and wait for orders."
After Augier left, Vodka looked at Gin with concern.
"Aniki... if Augier spends too much time with that woman, what if he actually falls for her?"
"Hmph. That won't happen."
A chilling light flickered in Gin's dark green eyes as he replied in a cold, mocking tone, "A man like him doesn't know how to love. He only knows how to hate."
"Remember one thing, Vodka. The one who turned Macallan into what he is today... was that useless woman's ex-boyfriend."
Realization immediately dawned on Vodka.
Right.
There was no need to worry about that at all.
Augier and Onizawa both existed because of Akai. And the one who had brought Akai into the Organization in the first place was Akemi.
There was no way Macallan could ever fall in love with the woman who had nearly gotten him killed.
Just thinking about the bloodstained scar stretching across Macallan's chest made Vodka feel a dull ache in his own.
"You're absolutely right, Aniki!"
He grinned.
"I can't wait. I really want to see their frozen corpses."
----
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