TRIGGER: CH 19

Chapter 19

It was all well for a while; not a hint of anything suspicious going down or anything possibly going south.

The opening ceremony went on smooth without a hitch. Most of the members of the convention are present tonight. The ceremony itself is held at the convention centre's mess hall with members of the press doing coverage. Among the crowds there are many notable individuals within the science field – a continuous feed of important information courtesy of Aguri and Rian keeping standby in the mission room.

Ryuga and Takeru seamlessly mixed in with the crowd while keeping distance and evading the security team to avoid suspicion. Eyes busy scanning the area, mentally taking note of all and any point of interest.

"The security is quite tight tonight." Came Rian's clear voice from the comm device. True enough, he can see many of them scattered throughout the floor. As expected, the security tonight is provided by the Main Division, though they look rather obvious dressed in their tactical uniform in a sea of suits and dresses.

"So far, so good." Takeru reports from the other side of the floor. "-But, man, the speech is taking forever!" The following exasperated exclaim had him laughing in silence.

"Be thankful you never had to endure the Commissioner's speech in the Commercial Crimes department annual dinner." Aguri's deadpanned voice made it worse (he had to stop in his steps to brace himself against the wall, shaking from repressed laugh). He had experienced it once, and he thinks it's enough to last him a lifetime.

Having covered the ground area, he moved to the upper level. There's not as many people here around on the second floor overlooking the main event area. His eyes are still busy looking around, and his earpiece constantly buzzing with random tidbits from Takeru who's just as occupied.

"Ey Ryuga, you don't think this scientist guy looks familiar?" A random question from the other end had him looking towards the stage. There's quite a distance from where he is now so he had to squint a bit to really see. That looks like..-

"-Aguri?" The resemblance is rather uncanny, save for the long hair and grandiose speech.

"Not at all."  Came the man in question sounding unimpressed.

"Yup, that's definitely his doppelganger."

"See. Even Rian agrees."

The little things that sounds like distraction, but that's how they keep alert. It's easier to scan the crowd from his vantage point. The second floor also holds several other rooms, including a conference room. He ought to check those spots out too; with the crowd concentrating in the central area, it's easier to pass under the radar in the peripheries.

 

"You're rather busy tonight."

 

His attention reflexively snapped towards the direction of the voice. And similarly, his hand went up to mute the comm device.

"Jinga? What are you doing here?" Addressing the person the voice belonged to, currently casually leaning against the guard rails looking his way. This is definitely unexpected.

"Why? Can't I?"

"Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that warrant your presence." Somehow the man looks mildly offended at that.

"Excuse me, my businesses are perfectly legal."

"Doubtful."

"In fact, one of my subsidiaries are among the major sponsors of this event."

"Seriously?" The man doesn't seem to be lying, however. For a moment it made sense. Perhaps that's how he found out about that too. "Eh, no wonder you know."

"Told you I have my own ways. By the way, found anything suspicious yet?"

Yeah, you. "Unfortunately, not yet. From how things look; the security is tight, so they probably won't move carelessly in this crowd. They're more likely working in the peripheral area."

Low humming responds. A buzz from his earpiece indicates an incoming communication.

"Ryuga, where are you?"

Tapping on his comm, he gave a quick reply. "Second floor. So far nothing, but I haven't checked the inner rooms yet."

"Have you checked the basement level?" Came from the other man, eyes looking ahead disinterestedly.

"Ok then, I'll leave that to you. I'll go around the basement area."

"Got that." Muting the comm again, he turned towards the man beside him. "Someone's going there, just now." Another speech ended and the crowd breaks into an applause. A flat hum answers.

"What is this event, really?"

"What if I say it's exactly what you thought it is?"

The voices speaking up front fades into the background, other sounds muting itself over their conversation. Another round of applause filled the hall as another person stepped up onto the stage. Looks like it might be closing soon.

"You mean that it's true?"

A pause follows; he glanced to the side - the odd angle of the light that falls onto the other man's face seemed to make his eyes glow. His comm line is similarly silent, feeding into his sense of apprehension. The other broke contact from the current scene, opting to turn around and lean backwards into the railing, facing the darkened inner parts of the floor.

"..Feels like something is going to happen tonight."

And just as the words left him, the light suddenly goes out.

 

*

 

He already finished sweeping the ground floor hall area even before the speech ends. Talk about making unnecessarily long speeches.

This far into the ceremony, nothing of particular interest popped up yet. The security is tight with guards at every corner. Closed camera (that they have hacked into) watching their every movement. If anything would happen it'll probably be on the second floor where the security is laxer, or maybe down in the basement area.

There should still be some security down there. The basement floor is currently being used for storage and preparations. Might as well check them out.

Opening his comm, he called for Ryuga. Apparently, he has gone up first, so second floor is covered. And that leave the basement.

"Ok then, I'll leave that to you. I'll go around the basement area."

"Got that."

 

A click signs the end of the call. He went on ahead.

Ryuga sounds...strange. But he couldn't quite put a finger on it. What's wrong with you?

Lightly shaking his head, he set those thoughts aside for the moment. Right now, there's a more pressing matter at hand.

The basement is naturally darker than the ground floor with only minimal lighting is present. But what is this? He's quite far into the floor and yet there's not a soul to be seen. Not even a single guard. Suddenly going on high alert, he trudges on as silent as he can, keeping in mind to avoid being seen by the cameras, just in case.

 

"...--"

Voices? Someone's down here!

 

The voices sound muffled; it came from the inside of one of the rooms. He moves closer to the doors, listening in. Gradually the voice grows louder as he goes from door to door.

 

"...-s always wonderful to meet like-minded peoples. Nevertheless, business is always a smooth sailing around here."

"Such a great setting with that person backing this up. Or rather, enabling this to happen."

 

Two of them? Probably more. The second person have a lilt to his speech - an accent. Likely a foreigner.

 

"I can see that this will be a great relationship in the long run. You should have no worry here. That person controls everything; not even the cops would dare to touch you."

"That sounds greatly promising. It's a pain out there, never knowing who is watching you. Until last week the Interpol are busy sniffing around my vicinity. Had to take care of them first beforehand."

 

The Interpol are in this? And out of the blue, the stake went up to eleven.

For a moment the light flickered, mildly distracting him from his current activity. When the light flashes back on, another person is suddenly standing a short distance away from him.

"-!!!" His heart almost jumped out of his chest. Thank goodness he didn't slip. The other person simply levelled him with a flat look before lifting a gloved finger to their lips in a 'keep silent' gesture.

It was that guy from earlier. What is he doing here?

Then without a warning, the man pulls out a gun from his jacket, installs a silencer, and points it towards the presumably locked door knob.

"-Wait! What're you-" Whether his slightly above whisper exclaim heard or not, the man does not care.

A shot followed by a hard kick on the door. Panicked voices spilled out from the room. Takeru, similarly shocked, followed him in.

 

*

 

Panicked shout echoes throughout the hall when the light suddenly goes out. Similarly, the guards are alarmed. An attack?

"What is going on?"

"Just wait and see."

The light flashed on. The guards remained on high alert, rounding the place, looking for potential threat. He himself started scanning the field for any suspicious movement..

..-Did the number of guards doubled?

 

"Something is not right."

"-I think so too."

The abrupt addition from a foreign voice had him snapping to his left, now seeing another man leaning over the railing while similarly gauging the situation. A hand is raised, running through dark curls in mild exasperation.

"This looks like it'll be messy.."

Right afterward, the loud sound of a gunshot rang.

 

"STAND DOWN OR YOU WILL BE SHOT!" And somehow the whole floor had been taken over by masked, suited men.

 

"What the hell are the guards doing?!" And there they are, beaten down like sacks of sand. Effectively neutralised. The enemy group must've snuck in as the guards; they're dressed in a similar uniform. How the hell did the Main Division missed this?

"Well, the best of luck to you." Was the parting words from Jinga before he slinked away.

"Wait-"

"-You should get going too," He turned back around towards the other man who now has one foot on the railing, preparing to jump over. "-It's not time for your appearance yet." The man finished by looking his way, flashing him a grin, and jumping off.

 

*

 

"What on earth is going on right now? Ryuga, Takeru, status report!"

The one's out in the field are not the only one's frantic in this situation. The venue just got taken over by a mysterious group - fully armed and well prepared.

"How did I miss this?" Exclaimed Aguri who is currently busy going through all and every surveillance data available.

The comm line reopens and sounds of mass hysteria floods the speaker. A brief static follows.

"--It's an attack! The group probably snuck in disguised as the guards. Just now the security unit starts a counterattack.-"

Immediately Aguri switch back to the hall area; indeed, chaos has broken out. The armed guards are countering. Casualties are starting to build.

"Takeru, where are you?" It took Rian several tries to patch in. Wherever Takeru is, it looks like the connection isn't that good. Once the line opens, loud banging and series of click and snaps mixed in.

"--Basement! Sorry-" another loud crash, and something that sounds like a hard thud. "-Really busy right now!--"

"Aguri, can you see what's going on down there?"

"I've been trying, but the cameras are dead for some reasons."

Damn. The situation worsened exponentially. The terrorist group is now wreaking havoc on the floor, combined with all the fighting and the civilians still trapped inside. It's likely that the escape route has already been blocked as well.

"Are the reinforcement not here yet?"

"Hopefully they're already on their way here." Positive thinking. There are innocent civilians involved, they should at least pay attention to that.

 

*

 

The chaos swept over him like a great wave; the crowd is in mass hysteria, the police are trying and failing to fight back, and the casualties are increasing the longer this goes.

Duck, slide, kick. The assailant fell down with a grunt. He's trying to blend in as much as possible, it won't do him good if his cover got blown now. And silently, in between holding his own ground and keeping civilians out of harm’s way, his eyes searched for the man from earlier.

Who is he? Why is he here? And more importantly, he seems to know what was going to happen. Is he working with Jinga? But they don't look like they know each other, though it could've been a feign.

He moves just as fast as his mind does; running miles per hour, albeit on different matter. A telltale buzz reached him from his intercom.

"--Ryuga! Where are you?" Takeru called, and similarly loud sounds of random violence is coming along from his side as well.

"I'm still on the ground floor. It's a mess up here after the terrorist group came in."

"Wait there! I'm comin' up now!--" A click and the line ends. Looks like there are more of them down there too, and he didn't get the chance to check the second floor. Ah, but he came from there right? But still-

"-Heads up!" And he reflexively ducks to avoid the incoming hit. A hard thud sounded from somewhere overhead and shortly followed by the hostile tumbling over to the floor. He straightened back up only to come face to face with the mysterious guy.

"We meet again, huh. I thought I told you to get out first." It's amazing how the other man remained rather bright in this kind of situation.

"I can't ignore the civilians. Also, my partner is still down there."

The man replied with a hum. "My partner is down there too, so it's fine."

His partner? Then his mind helpfully supplies him with an image from earlier; the encounter just outside their respective rooms. Him.

"Who are you two?"

"Sorry, can't tell yet." His answer came faster than the next opponent.

Bright metallic glint visible from the corner of his eyes. Glancing to that side he saw two gunmen aiming their way.

"Ah, you can't do that." Low mumbling came from the other man. In a blink of an eye, the two gunmen fell. What happened?

Another two round them up from behind. This time he reacted fast enough to see what happened. Within a split second, the man pulled out his weapons, and - was that a shuriken? - throws them at blinding speed, hitting both targets. Is he a ninja?

"-I'm here.-" The next moment, the man is facing away. Sounds like he's talking to someone. "Mm, messy as expected. You did? Great!" He half watches the man talking animatedly while fending off hostiles.

"-Ryuga!" He turned around to meet the caller, who is running towards him. "-Hey, what the hell is going on?"

Takeru's shout was barely heard within the loud chaos that broke around them. Honestly, he’s not entirely too sure.

"I don't know!" Everything progressed a little too fast for him to properly process. "All of a sudden we're under a terrorist attack. It's really strange. Anyways, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. That aside, I have something to tell you-" Just before he could explain further, a buzzing came from their communicator.

"-The reinforcement team is currently on their way here. Get out of there quick."

Reinforcement? "Do you know which squad?"

"Akizuki's. Regardless it'll be less of hassle if we retreat first."

"True enough. Let's get out first, I'll explain more later."

Ryuga gave him a curt nod before turning around to find the other man. Apparently said man had disappeared sometimes during the commotion. For a moment he looked around in mild confusion.

"You okay?" He turned back to catch Takeru looking at him in concern.

"It's nothing. Let's go."