The Turn: Chapter Twenty-Four

The Turn

Chapter Twenty-Four

~A Beautiful Performance~

Two Years before The Turn

About five days later, Zara stepped out of a taxi in front of the Tower steps. She walked into the building and passed the reception desk. The same woman took sight of her.

“Hello, this is the Tower, hold please,” the secretary chimed. She suddenly stood in up and extended her arm in a dramatic point, “YOU THERE! WHAT ARE YOU GOING ON TOWER PROPERTY!? GET OVER HERE!”

Zara turned around. She smiled awkwardly and walked over to the circular desk. The other secretaries barely flinched. Apparently this was a usual enough occurrence.

When Zara walked up, the head secretary glared at her, “What are you doing here? Aren’t you on vacation?”

“Well, yeah—”

“So aren’t you FORBIDEN from being within 100 feet from the Tower?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then I suggest, and by suggest I mean “DO IT OR YOU’RE FIRED”, that you leave now.”

“But I left something upstairs and I was hoping to just get it really quick—”

“No.”

“It would take five minutes flat!”

“No.”

“Could you call Sirius and ask if I could?”

“If I had to call Sirius for every Agent that was on Tower property when they weren’t supposed to, he’d never get a break.”

“Come on—” Zara glanced at her name tag, “Bridget!”

“No.”

“PLEASE! It’s really important!”

“No.”

“WHY?!?

The front doors opened and Chaud walked in casually. He walked past the reception desk behind Bridget’s back. He walked up a balcony and down a hallway. Chaud appeared to be counting steps when he came to a broom closet. He walked inside and found a small electrical box. He reached in to his pocket and pulled out an array of cords. He started pulling out cords and replacing them left and right. A small transmitting device flashed silently and showed that it was working. When he was done he closed the box and left the room.

Some ways away, Naru sat at a computer in a library. A lap top lay open beside him. On the library computer, Naru glanced at time at the upper right hand corner. He had an hour and a half, more than enough time. Naru typed in a series of keys and suddenly the screen went black. He waited patiently and the picture came back. The screen read, The Tower: Unauthorized Access.

Naru keyed the name Sirius Galaxy. He then inserted a flash drive into the computer and waited. Once the drive was installed it started figuring out the password. It took a short time for it to figure out the right combination and Naru was in. He navigated his way to the security videos.

Chaud headed down another hallway and entered an elevator. He pressed a button down in the basement. The elevator asked for a name and password. Because Chaud spent so much time watching his family he knew Kaiba’s password. He typed his name and password in. Then the elevator asked for an ID. Chaud opened a small electric box and swapped a few wires. The elevator started moving.

When the doors reopened Chaud entered a dark room. Chaud stood in the dark room.

“Hey, Miwa! You in here?” Chaud called out into the darkness.

For a moment, nothing happened. Suddenly, a single square of blue light turned on in the darkness. Soon more and more squares of lights turned on giving Chaud just enough light to see. Smaller lights turned on on the ground, showing Chaud a single walkway. In the center of the room there was an array of computer screens all showing different things. Cords snaked around the room connecting to different monitors or into the wall. Suspended several feet off the ground surrounded by screens was a human like object. Its gender neutral form glowed a nebulous blue in color as it hung suspended in the air, wires flowing out of it. Chaud walked up and waited.

Blue electronic eyes looked down at Chaud. A smile even seemed to appear on its face. Slowly, the object descended. When its foot touched the floor the cords connected to its body detached. Steam filled the room for a moment as Chaud waited patiently.

A boy around Chaud’s age walked toward Chaud through the steam. He looked different from the glowing humanoid that had descended. He had blond disorganized hair. As for his clothes, he wore a short sleeved red sweatshirt with an orange t-shirt underneath. He also wore tan cargo shorts and sandals.

“It’s been a while, Chaud,” the boy said with a wide smile, “I was beginning to think you forgot about me!”

“You’re a hard person to forget, Miwa,” Chaud nodded. He looked around, “Back in punishment?”

Miwa shrugged, “Apparently infecting the Tower system with a virus is frowned upon. What can I say? Is it so bad for a humanoid like me to experiment? Anyway, I like it here. It gives me time to think.”

“What have you been thinking about?” Chaud asked.

“Well, usually I think about all the practical jokes I could play when I get out but this time I was thinking about why your team mate Naru would hack into the Tower’s system,” Miwa winked, “What are you up to?”

“How did you know about Naru?” Chaud asked, ignoring the question.

Miwa jerked his thumb toward the array of computers and wires, “I’ve been connected to the system for days. I can feel when someone isn’t where they are supposed to be.”

“I need your help,” Chaud stated.

“Naturally,” Miwa laughed.

“I need you to send a message to the supply craft that’s headed out this afternoon. Tell them that they will be transporting six civilians and quite a few guns and ammo. On top of that, I want the information that was on Naru’s laptop from the mission sent back to him.”

Miwa looked to the ceiling debating the request. He knew Chaud since he had been activated. Together they caused a lot of trouble. A smile spread across Miwa’s face.

“I don’t see why not,” Miwa shrugged.

“I also need you to be my eyes and ears,” Chaud smiled.

“And cover you tracks, right?” Miwa rolled his eyes, “What are you guys going anyway?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Miwa placed his hands in front of him, palm out, “I get it! But you owe me! I need to get out of here and breathe. Then maybe we can see how your brother reacts when his computer suddenly crashes.”

Chaud paused a moment then smiled, “That sounds like fun, actually.”

“Do you need fake ID’s?” Miwa asked.

“We have a friend taking care of that,” Chaud turned around, “I’ll see you around. Do try to get out of punishment while you’re at it!”

Miwa smiled ecstatically, “Oh! This feels even better than the time I made all the computers in the Tower freeze up! Sirius was so ANGRY!”

Chaud walked back the way he came. Zara was still desperately trying to persuade the secretary to let her fetch an item. Momentarily, their eyes met as Chaud walked out the door.

“Fine!” Zara shouted with frustration, “I’m leaving! Gosh!”

“It’s about time too!” Bridget stated, smiling with victory.

Zara walked out the door and down the few steps to the sidewalk.

“We are so getting fired after this,” Zara muttered.

Beside her Chaud shrugged, “Depends on if we do a good job or fail miserably.”

Zara glanced at him, “To think you came up with this way to execute the plan. It’s actually pretty decent.”

Chaud smiled, “See what happens when you give me enough time. I can make wonderful pieces of art. I should have been a movie director.”

“Shall we head for the terminal?” Zara asked.

“Might as well,” Chaud nodded.

IOIOIOIOI

“Is this the place?”

“No! It just says Puppetmaster for effect!”

“Oh, do we go in?”

“Of course not! We just stand out here and wait for something to happen!”

Puppetmaster looked up from his work and looked outside his shop door. He watched for a moment then turned to Shuppet who was sitting by his side.

“Do you think they will ever come in?” Puppetmaster asked.

Shuppet shook its head.

“They are rather loud aren’t they?”

Shuppet nodded.

“Well, we might as well let them in, don’t you think?” Puppetmaster said. He reached up for a thin string, it was barely visible. He pulled it and slowly the door opened putting an end to his visitor’s conversation at the door.

“Hello, ladies,” Puppetmaster smiled.

Vicky and Hina looked into the shop. Vicky entered first while Hina followed after her.

“Hello,” Vicky said politely.

“Good day,” Puppetmaster greeted warmly.

Vicky looked up at the dolls on the shelves. They were all still but they were all looking at her with a certain degree of curiosity.

“Have you sold anything today?” Vicky asked Puppetmaster.

“Four,” Puppetmaster said as he looked down at his newest creation.

“Only four?” Hina raised a shocked eyebrow.

“It’s quite a feat considering that I do barely any advertising,” Puppetmaster laughed.

Shuppet moved suddenly.

“Bless you,” Puppetmaster responded to the sudden jolt.

Vicky looked confused, “What?”

“Can we have the fake ID’s now?” Hina asked, “We’re on a tight deadline.”

Puppetmaster pulled out a wooden box similar to the ones that he placed his sold dolls in. He handed it to Hina. She looked inside with Vicky looking over her shoulder. Hina held one up to the light and whistled.

“These are really good,” she stated, “I mean they aren’t Tower good but they are up there.”

“Where did you get them?” Vicky asked Puppetmaster.

“You know that mansion up the ways a little? Nice people. I think they used to work for the Tower at one point,” Puppetmaster shrugged, not giving it a second though.

Hina placed the ID inside the box again, “Thanks! We’ll be seeing ya!”

She turned around and headed for the door. Vicki hesitated a moment. She bowed her apology silently before following behind Hina.

Puppetmaster smiled and waved after them, “They are going to get in so much trouble.”

Shuppet nodded as it waved as well.

“I really need to make dolls out of them,” Puppetmaster chuckled to himself, “The trick is getting their hair.”

In the library, Naru typed away at the library’s computer. He had five minutes left to finish what he needed to. His laptop chimed suddenly. He looked over at it. Computer gibberish scrolled across the screen followed by an animated character carrying a note. It had blond hair and wore a red sweater and cargo pants. The character opened the letter and disappeared.

“Chaud said you would need this! X3”

Naru smiled. With that done, he closed out of his computer and walked off with his laptop under his arm.

IOIOIOIOI

Deontay headed toward a large plane. People were already loading large crates of things into the plane. He smiled slightly as he saw the crates. Hopefully Chaud was able to get some weapons on the plane.

He walked closer and smiled at the pilot who was telling people where to put different boxes, “Hey! Need any help?”

The pilot looked at him, “Who are you? You one of the people I’m supposed to drop off?”

“That we are,” Zara said as she and Chaud walked up.

The captain looked at them all skeptically, “There were six of you, right?”

“They’ll be here in a bit,” Chaud answered.

“They better be,” the captain said through clenched teeth, “We leave in ten minutes.”

After the captain walked away, Naru walked up a satchel bag over one shoulder carrying his laptop. Soon after, Hina and Vicky showed up with a wooden box. The captain called them into the airplane and the six of them sat in the cargo section of the plane. The plane took off and the six of the teens dealt with the annoying air pressure building up in their ears.

“Alright,” Chaud said, looking at his watch, “I think it’s been long enough.”

“You think?” Zara asked.

“What do you expect of me? I can’t help it if the captain flies off course 10-15 miles! It’s all about the air currents!”

Zara rolled her eyes. She glanced over at Deontay. He stood up and walked toward the captain’s door. He hit in in a way that it would be very difficult to open again. The captain could be heard yelling at them but they ignored his cries.

Hina opened one of the crates. She handed out parachutes to her other team mates.

“I don’t need one,” Zara said, she looked at Chaud, “You had better catch me.”

“Believe me, I want to. I can’t imagine the torment I would suffer if I let you die,” he rubbed the back of his head, “The worse thing would be I couldn’t fight back. Ghosts are kind of hard to hit.”

“Grab some weapons,” Zara said.

Naru opened one of the boxes and gripped one of the sniper rifles. He looked through the scope for a moment before taking it off and throwing it back into the box. Deontay shook his head and muttered something along the lines of ‘Show off’.

Zara walked to the back of the plane and pressed a button. The back of the plane opened, revealing the sky and the ground far below. She looked down briefly before turning to the others.

“Okay,” she started, “as of now, we have to assume that the Tower is after us as well as the New Order. We’re going to have to be very careful, more careful than usual. Our goal is to find out as much as we can about the New Order and find them before the Tower finds us. Ready?”

She got confident looks from everyone. Zara nodded satisfied and turned around. She jumped off. One by one, the others followed after her. Chaud was the last one. He looked around himself for a moment and nodded.

“Don’t think anyone else in the family could have done better,” he said admiring his handy work. He walked off the edge and followed the others.