InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Price of Freedom ❯ Obtaining the Evidence ( Chapter 14 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Disclaimer: don't ask me anymore.
(A/N: Yay! I'm happy! I have a new hamster today! It's escaped twice already - but I am NOT naming him Houdini, ok?)
The Price of Freedom
Obtaining the Evidence
"She's just scared, that's all." Kagome reassured Inuyasha as they headed towards the cities Police headquarters. He seemed quieter than usual.
"I know."
"She doesn't hate you."
"I wouldn't care if she did."
"Yes you would." Kagome said casually as they stopped at the steps of the station. "Ok... here's the plan - you stay here, and I'll sort this out without any of the mothers."
"Ok." Inuyasha said flatly as he sat down on the steps.
"And if anyone comes up to you and asks for your money with a knife - just give it to them." She smiled. "Or beat the crap out of them."
He smiled despite himself.
Kagome made her way through the doors and headed for the front desk - but had to wait in a cue, queue because a lot of people had problems in this city. But she finally made it to the front with a little pushing and eyelash fluttering.
"Hi... I'd like to blow open a huge secret government organisation that is illegally violating human rights in their research." Kagome said casually.
"Right... next please!" the officer called.
"Wait - I'm serious!" Kagome plonked a couple of the files on the desk. "Those are some of the women who have been violated - and there are hundreds more - some of which have been killed as a result."
The man looked at her incredulously. "How am I supposed to believe a kid?"
"Because I'm the only one who's gotten away unnoticed with the information." Kagome told him. "Please... this is serious, I ask for confidentiality, cause this is big."
The officer rifled through the files and frowned. "Damn... this shit is real?"
"Dead real." Kagome nodded.
"Uh, ok... Take a seat in the waiting room and I'll send one of the inspectors to see you." He gestured for her to sit down, and kept the files for himself.
Kagome did as she was told and was sat down for almost an hour before anyone came to see her again. And when they did it was a middle-aged man with greying hair at the temples in a business suit. "Miss Higurashi?"
"Yes?"
"Come with me."
Kagome followed the man into a smaller room... one that looked suspiciously like an interrogation room, complete with mirror.
The man stood for a few quiet minutes while he looked at the files he'd been given. "So... it seems that you've stumbled on a secret military organisation."
"More like it stumbled on me." Kagome said quickly.
"I see..." the man looked uncertain. "These are very serious allegations little lady."
"But they're true - I'm not a prankster."
"How can we be sure?"
"You're holding the evidence." Kagome pointed out.
"These could be faked up." He put them down on the desk between them. "According to these the scientists over there have progressed a lot further than they claim... but that's impossible. No one's ever gotten as far as even cloning a human embryo successfully."
"Cause they've been lying." Kagome shook her head. "They finished cloning like twenty years ago - they started genetic engineering with animals and have been testing the subjects and improving ever since."
"But why? Why would they do that?" the inspector frowned. "It wouldn't make sense."
"I don't know... Dr Naraku has a god complex or something... either that or its all for the military - cause these subjects can be used as lapdogs as well - and they can do things human's can only dream of."
"Like what?"
"Hear a conversation going on in another room, smell what you had for breakfast and their physical abilities are pretty cool too - and they're only the canine attributes." Kagome told him. "They're still doing engineering for experiments because the canines have bad eyesight."
"This is all a little far-fetched." He sighed.
"But can't you at least check it out and prove me wrong." Kagome pleaded.
"I can't authorise it unless there is more conclusive evidence. All this is, is just a claim that there is something going on. I've had someone phone these women and they've denied all knowledge."
"Because they're scared for their lives, Inspector."
"Maybe... but to prove that there is something worth investigating, you would have to bring me more proof. Photographs, reports... whatever... just something more tangible than this."
Kagome groaned. "But I'd have to go all the way down there again."
"Well..." the officer looked thoughtful. "I could arrange to have you flown to the coast. You can gather the evidence and come back the same night."
Kagome perked up. "That's an awful lot to do on my word."
"Between you and me - there's always been something dodgy going on in that place." He told her quietly.
Kagome nodded. "I can do that - apparently I look a lot like one of the Majors there. I can slip in and out without too much trouble."
"Of course you would."
^_^
"Are people meant to talk all the way through the film?" Inuyasha asked as Kagome casually slipped her arm through his as they exited the taxi (not Kagome's mother - the real taxi this time) and headed for the airport entrance.
"No... it's just what they do to be rude." She smiled, but really only to cover her nerves. Last time she'd tried to infiltrate the place she'd met her match, literally, and had barely gotten away. But this time she didn't have Kouga to help her out... which made Inuyasha happy... but it meant that Inuyasha would have to accompany her instead - cause a diversion to give her time to capture some real evidence.
And there was a real fear inside her at the prospect at sending Inuyasha back to a hellhole like that.
"Ok... so we've got the plan right?" Kagome had already been through it several times, but she had to be sure they knew what they were doing. "I go in, posing as Kikyo again - and you go and cause a distraction outside the base - don't go in it! Then I find this... control room thingy and print out surveillance footage. Ok?"
"Jeez, anyone would think you were scared."
"Only a moron tries a harebrained scheme twice."
"Then how come Wile E. Coyote never tries the same tactic thing twice?" he pointed out.
"Watching too much TV lately?" she sniggered at him. "But that's not the point... in real life they might be on the lookout for another spy."
"No, believe me. They never suspect anyone is stupid enough to try it twice - so they won't be expecting you to try it again." Inuyasha shrugged. "Works for me."
"Ok... but we have to be back on the plane before ten o'clock otherwise we have to call my mother again and make her trek all the way back to the coast to fetch us." Kagome warned. "You have been in a plane before, right...?"
"Yep... but I didn't see much because they stuck me in a metal box." And he said that so casually that Kagome had to wonder what he considered 'cruel' anymore.
"I think you'll like going in business class then."
"Is it crowded?"
"No."
"Then I love it!"
^_^
She was on her own again, trying to walk the exact way that she'd seen Kikyo walk and hold the same facial expression as well... which was basically blank and a little apathetic. She'd also used a little extra make- up to make her skin a little paler... and she looked a lot more convincing than last time.
She only had to glare coldly at the men at the gates to make them let her in before proceeding across the walkway to the base entrance where the new shift of guards were a little more careful. "Didn't you just leave? Please show us your identification, major."
Kagome's stomach twisted with nerves and she fixed them both with another soul-piercing glare that would have scared the crap out of her had she looked in a mirror. "Sorry, I left it back inside." She said shortly.
Fortunately they mustn't have noticed the change in clothes Kikyo seemed to have undergone in the last five minutes (they were unobservant men after all) and let her pass without much further hassle.
She had to watch herself after that. People were giving her sideways looks, half expecting for her to have crinkled edges of a mask on or something... and she wasn't really comforted by Inuyasha's statement that they wouldn't expect infiltration twice.
Luckily for the directionally challenged Kagome, there were lots of very helpful signs on the walls as she passed down the corridors and she only had to follow the sign for the control room to find her way. Though it did unnerve her that she kept seeing signs like 'animal testing laboratories' and 'isolation cells'. The thought of Inuyasha spending all his life here was just bone chilling.
What was even more shocking was that she passed a room close to the control room labelled 'the nursery'.
She reached the control room and scowled when she saw that it had to have one of the those security sliding cards to open it. So she just did things the traditional way and just knocked.
"What?" came the curt reply.
"It's Major Kikyo. Did I leave my swipe card in there with you?" she asked in a slightly formal accent that she seemed to acquire out of thin air.
"Um... no..."
"Can I come in and check?"
"Are you sure you're not an impostor?"
"Don't be smart with me boys!" she snapped angrily and there was a scuffle on the other side as many hands scrambled to open the door for her. When it opened she entered calmly and shut the door behind her. "One little incident does not mean you should lose respect." She reminded them calmly as she reached into her handbag and pulled out a can of spray.
They stared at her a moment as she aimed and sprayed... before collapsing into a little organised heap as the little droplets of spray touched their skin. God bless the guy who came up with neutralising spray for the police force!
Kagome dropped her act at once and bit her lip as she edged around the little pile of young men, not really wanting to get knocked out by her own knocker outer, all the way to the console. Then she was faced with the problem of figuring out how to work all these buttons...
There were dozens and dozens of screens around her, each showing some room or corridor within the institute... and quite a lot of images of what was going on in cells.
She stared at each one for quite a long time... seeing each subject for the first time, and realising that not a lot of the subjects had been as successful as Inuyasha or Kouga - cause a lot hadn't even turned out looking remotely humanoid. She could also see what was going on in the labs - and could even see some of the tests that were carried out on the subjects.
Only when she was finding it difficult to tap the print button did she realise that she was shaking so badly and had to turn her eyes away to keep a hold of herself. It made her so angry!
Then she spotted a glimpse of white on one of the screens showing the exterior of the base and looked up with surprise. How the hell had Inuyasha gotten on to the roof?
It was a blessing she'd found the control room so fast, otherwise these unconscious guards may have triggered an alarm right now.
A couple more minutes were spent on printing out more pages which she quickly stuffed into her bag and tapped the console impatiently, half watching Inuyasha creating a diversion with the guards and half watching out for Kikyo...
Suddenly the lights dimmed around her and red lights started to blink around her as a siren rose up. She jolted upright and looked around. Someone had triggered the alarm anyway... but she hadn't thought that Inuyasha had been spotted yet... had he?
Then she saw something, which nearly made her slip off her chair all together. Kikyo, the witch bitch herself was storming down the entrance corridor, straight towards the control room. She had been the one to start the alarm!
Kagome frantically flew to the door and threw the bolt down in place, seconds before Kikyo tried to open it. She was trapped now... completely... and she glanced back at the monitors to see that guards had now spotted Inuyasha's diversion and were giving chase in a rather more strategic way than she'd given them all credit for.
The last page was still printing and she hopped from foot to foot as the machine churned out one little bit at a time.
Finally it finished and she all but snatched the paper out of the printer before it had been released... inadvertently ripping it in half. She swore angrily at the waste.
The door cracked open and Kikyo entered with a murderous expression. "Some people never learn!"
Kagome stumbled back, tripping over the bodies of the men on the floor and falling against the control panel behind her. She took a moment to glance over her shoulder and saw to her dismay that Inuyasha had been captured, caught and pinned against a wall by so many men she could barely see the white of his hair anymore.
"I think I'm going to have to teach you a lesson, girl." Kikyo began to advance... and Kagome's hand accidentally slipped against a glass slide that covered a red button... like a fire alarm. The glass cracked and cut her hand while pushing the button beneath.
Then the whole situation turned from bad to worse.
(A/N: Ok, I'm going to play with my new hamster now. Bye! Next chapter - 'Wasted Efforts'.)
(A/N: Yay! I'm happy! I have a new hamster today! It's escaped twice already - but I am NOT naming him Houdini, ok?)
The Price of Freedom
Obtaining the Evidence
"She's just scared, that's all." Kagome reassured Inuyasha as they headed towards the cities Police headquarters. He seemed quieter than usual.
"I know."
"She doesn't hate you."
"I wouldn't care if she did."
"Yes you would." Kagome said casually as they stopped at the steps of the station. "Ok... here's the plan - you stay here, and I'll sort this out without any of the mothers."
"Ok." Inuyasha said flatly as he sat down on the steps.
"And if anyone comes up to you and asks for your money with a knife - just give it to them." She smiled. "Or beat the crap out of them."
He smiled despite himself.
Kagome made her way through the doors and headed for the front desk - but had to wait in a cue, queue because a lot of people had problems in this city. But she finally made it to the front with a little pushing and eyelash fluttering.
"Hi... I'd like to blow open a huge secret government organisation that is illegally violating human rights in their research." Kagome said casually.
"Right... next please!" the officer called.
"Wait - I'm serious!" Kagome plonked a couple of the files on the desk. "Those are some of the women who have been violated - and there are hundreds more - some of which have been killed as a result."
The man looked at her incredulously. "How am I supposed to believe a kid?"
"Because I'm the only one who's gotten away unnoticed with the information." Kagome told him. "Please... this is serious, I ask for confidentiality, cause this is big."
The officer rifled through the files and frowned. "Damn... this shit is real?"
"Dead real." Kagome nodded.
"Uh, ok... Take a seat in the waiting room and I'll send one of the inspectors to see you." He gestured for her to sit down, and kept the files for himself.
Kagome did as she was told and was sat down for almost an hour before anyone came to see her again. And when they did it was a middle-aged man with greying hair at the temples in a business suit. "Miss Higurashi?"
"Yes?"
"Come with me."
Kagome followed the man into a smaller room... one that looked suspiciously like an interrogation room, complete with mirror.
The man stood for a few quiet minutes while he looked at the files he'd been given. "So... it seems that you've stumbled on a secret military organisation."
"More like it stumbled on me." Kagome said quickly.
"I see..." the man looked uncertain. "These are very serious allegations little lady."
"But they're true - I'm not a prankster."
"How can we be sure?"
"You're holding the evidence." Kagome pointed out.
"These could be faked up." He put them down on the desk between them. "According to these the scientists over there have progressed a lot further than they claim... but that's impossible. No one's ever gotten as far as even cloning a human embryo successfully."
"Cause they've been lying." Kagome shook her head. "They finished cloning like twenty years ago - they started genetic engineering with animals and have been testing the subjects and improving ever since."
"But why? Why would they do that?" the inspector frowned. "It wouldn't make sense."
"I don't know... Dr Naraku has a god complex or something... either that or its all for the military - cause these subjects can be used as lapdogs as well - and they can do things human's can only dream of."
"Like what?"
"Hear a conversation going on in another room, smell what you had for breakfast and their physical abilities are pretty cool too - and they're only the canine attributes." Kagome told him. "They're still doing engineering for experiments because the canines have bad eyesight."
"This is all a little far-fetched." He sighed.
"But can't you at least check it out and prove me wrong." Kagome pleaded.
"I can't authorise it unless there is more conclusive evidence. All this is, is just a claim that there is something going on. I've had someone phone these women and they've denied all knowledge."
"Because they're scared for their lives, Inspector."
"Maybe... but to prove that there is something worth investigating, you would have to bring me more proof. Photographs, reports... whatever... just something more tangible than this."
Kagome groaned. "But I'd have to go all the way down there again."
"Well..." the officer looked thoughtful. "I could arrange to have you flown to the coast. You can gather the evidence and come back the same night."
Kagome perked up. "That's an awful lot to do on my word."
"Between you and me - there's always been something dodgy going on in that place." He told her quietly.
Kagome nodded. "I can do that - apparently I look a lot like one of the Majors there. I can slip in and out without too much trouble."
"Of course you would."
^_^
"Are people meant to talk all the way through the film?" Inuyasha asked as Kagome casually slipped her arm through his as they exited the taxi (not Kagome's mother - the real taxi this time) and headed for the airport entrance.
"No... it's just what they do to be rude." She smiled, but really only to cover her nerves. Last time she'd tried to infiltrate the place she'd met her match, literally, and had barely gotten away. But this time she didn't have Kouga to help her out... which made Inuyasha happy... but it meant that Inuyasha would have to accompany her instead - cause a diversion to give her time to capture some real evidence.
And there was a real fear inside her at the prospect at sending Inuyasha back to a hellhole like that.
"Ok... so we've got the plan right?" Kagome had already been through it several times, but she had to be sure they knew what they were doing. "I go in, posing as Kikyo again - and you go and cause a distraction outside the base - don't go in it! Then I find this... control room thingy and print out surveillance footage. Ok?"
"Jeez, anyone would think you were scared."
"Only a moron tries a harebrained scheme twice."
"Then how come Wile E. Coyote never tries the same tactic thing twice?" he pointed out.
"Watching too much TV lately?" she sniggered at him. "But that's not the point... in real life they might be on the lookout for another spy."
"No, believe me. They never suspect anyone is stupid enough to try it twice - so they won't be expecting you to try it again." Inuyasha shrugged. "Works for me."
"Ok... but we have to be back on the plane before ten o'clock otherwise we have to call my mother again and make her trek all the way back to the coast to fetch us." Kagome warned. "You have been in a plane before, right...?"
"Yep... but I didn't see much because they stuck me in a metal box." And he said that so casually that Kagome had to wonder what he considered 'cruel' anymore.
"I think you'll like going in business class then."
"Is it crowded?"
"No."
"Then I love it!"
^_^
She was on her own again, trying to walk the exact way that she'd seen Kikyo walk and hold the same facial expression as well... which was basically blank and a little apathetic. She'd also used a little extra make- up to make her skin a little paler... and she looked a lot more convincing than last time.
She only had to glare coldly at the men at the gates to make them let her in before proceeding across the walkway to the base entrance where the new shift of guards were a little more careful. "Didn't you just leave? Please show us your identification, major."
Kagome's stomach twisted with nerves and she fixed them both with another soul-piercing glare that would have scared the crap out of her had she looked in a mirror. "Sorry, I left it back inside." She said shortly.
Fortunately they mustn't have noticed the change in clothes Kikyo seemed to have undergone in the last five minutes (they were unobservant men after all) and let her pass without much further hassle.
She had to watch herself after that. People were giving her sideways looks, half expecting for her to have crinkled edges of a mask on or something... and she wasn't really comforted by Inuyasha's statement that they wouldn't expect infiltration twice.
Luckily for the directionally challenged Kagome, there were lots of very helpful signs on the walls as she passed down the corridors and she only had to follow the sign for the control room to find her way. Though it did unnerve her that she kept seeing signs like 'animal testing laboratories' and 'isolation cells'. The thought of Inuyasha spending all his life here was just bone chilling.
What was even more shocking was that she passed a room close to the control room labelled 'the nursery'.
She reached the control room and scowled when she saw that it had to have one of the those security sliding cards to open it. So she just did things the traditional way and just knocked.
"What?" came the curt reply.
"It's Major Kikyo. Did I leave my swipe card in there with you?" she asked in a slightly formal accent that she seemed to acquire out of thin air.
"Um... no..."
"Can I come in and check?"
"Are you sure you're not an impostor?"
"Don't be smart with me boys!" she snapped angrily and there was a scuffle on the other side as many hands scrambled to open the door for her. When it opened she entered calmly and shut the door behind her. "One little incident does not mean you should lose respect." She reminded them calmly as she reached into her handbag and pulled out a can of spray.
They stared at her a moment as she aimed and sprayed... before collapsing into a little organised heap as the little droplets of spray touched their skin. God bless the guy who came up with neutralising spray for the police force!
Kagome dropped her act at once and bit her lip as she edged around the little pile of young men, not really wanting to get knocked out by her own knocker outer, all the way to the console. Then she was faced with the problem of figuring out how to work all these buttons...
There were dozens and dozens of screens around her, each showing some room or corridor within the institute... and quite a lot of images of what was going on in cells.
She stared at each one for quite a long time... seeing each subject for the first time, and realising that not a lot of the subjects had been as successful as Inuyasha or Kouga - cause a lot hadn't even turned out looking remotely humanoid. She could also see what was going on in the labs - and could even see some of the tests that were carried out on the subjects.
Only when she was finding it difficult to tap the print button did she realise that she was shaking so badly and had to turn her eyes away to keep a hold of herself. It made her so angry!
Then she spotted a glimpse of white on one of the screens showing the exterior of the base and looked up with surprise. How the hell had Inuyasha gotten on to the roof?
It was a blessing she'd found the control room so fast, otherwise these unconscious guards may have triggered an alarm right now.
A couple more minutes were spent on printing out more pages which she quickly stuffed into her bag and tapped the console impatiently, half watching Inuyasha creating a diversion with the guards and half watching out for Kikyo...
Suddenly the lights dimmed around her and red lights started to blink around her as a siren rose up. She jolted upright and looked around. Someone had triggered the alarm anyway... but she hadn't thought that Inuyasha had been spotted yet... had he?
Then she saw something, which nearly made her slip off her chair all together. Kikyo, the witch bitch herself was storming down the entrance corridor, straight towards the control room. She had been the one to start the alarm!
Kagome frantically flew to the door and threw the bolt down in place, seconds before Kikyo tried to open it. She was trapped now... completely... and she glanced back at the monitors to see that guards had now spotted Inuyasha's diversion and were giving chase in a rather more strategic way than she'd given them all credit for.
The last page was still printing and she hopped from foot to foot as the machine churned out one little bit at a time.
Finally it finished and she all but snatched the paper out of the printer before it had been released... inadvertently ripping it in half. She swore angrily at the waste.
The door cracked open and Kikyo entered with a murderous expression. "Some people never learn!"
Kagome stumbled back, tripping over the bodies of the men on the floor and falling against the control panel behind her. She took a moment to glance over her shoulder and saw to her dismay that Inuyasha had been captured, caught and pinned against a wall by so many men she could barely see the white of his hair anymore.
"I think I'm going to have to teach you a lesson, girl." Kikyo began to advance... and Kagome's hand accidentally slipped against a glass slide that covered a red button... like a fire alarm. The glass cracked and cut her hand while pushing the button beneath.
Then the whole situation turned from bad to worse.
(A/N: Ok, I'm going to play with my new hamster now. Bye! Next chapter - 'Wasted Efforts'.)