Chapter fourteen: The walk in the park
NaDa’s parting words didn’t help me much. Considering the amount of people I had talked to, both online and offline, especially recently, it was damn near impossible to figure out just who he might be. I was fairly sure he wasn’t Rei, or Dakota, but that was about it. He probably wasn’t any of the girls I had met – he had stated firmly more than once that he wasn’t a girl, after all.
I went for a walk in the early morning hours to clear my head, trying to sort things out. There was too much going on, and the stress was starting to affect my ability to think clearly. Usually I didn’t have any problems with reaching logical conclusions, but this time I was emotionally involved, and apparently, I had been avoiding that up until now for a good reason.
There wasn’t a lot of people around this early in the morning, though as I reached the park there were a few more, as always. I knew why the park was so popular, but I wasn’t here for any of that, even if I got a few offers. I didn’t have the money, or the inclination to take any of the petite boys and girls up on their offers.
For the most part, I hardly looked around me as I walked, breathing in the crisp air and listening to the faint buzz of conversations. However, when I caught sight of a pale woman up by some trees ahead of me, I focused – I had seen that woman before.
Dakota. Even in the near darkness, I was sure of it. Her image had haunted my mind for so long that I was sure I would never forget what she looked like.
Unlike the last time I saw her, I didn’t call out, and instead I approached her quietly. Maybe it would be mean to actually scare the girl, but at least this way I’d be sure that she didn’t have the chance to run away from me. “D-dakota,” I said quietly, and closed my hand around her arm seconds later to prevent her from bolting away.
She had apparently been sleeping, leaned against the tree, because she flinched violently and tried to pull away from me. “Let go,” she hissed, struggling. She was far stronger than I had anticipated, and I nearly lost my grip on her; I had to use both hands to be able to keep holding on. Even then, it was too difficult.
“S-stop, I just w-want to t-talk, I’m not g-going to h-hurt you,” I said, trying to calm her down before she really did manage to free herself.
“I know that, but they will hurt me,” she replied, looking around her as if she expected someone to magically swoop in and beat her up, despite the fact that we were quite alone.
“We-re a-alone, so c-calm down,” I tried, but it didn’t work all that well. Apparently I wasn’t good at calming down hysterical women. Not exactly a huge shock to me, either, but right now it would have come in handy to be able to say and do the right things. “You’ll a-attract more a-attention if you k-keep doing that.”
It worked. Dakota froze and looked around her again with wide eyes, scanning the slight hill down to the pathway. Even if she stood still now, her breathing was quick and scared, and even if I was just holding her wrists, I could tell that she was incredibly tense. This woman was terrified, and I honestly had no idea why.
“Can w-w talk?” I asked quietly, trying to urge her to get in behind the trees so that we wouldn’t be visible from the pathway around the small lake.
Dakota hesitated, but then nodded and followed me, sitting down on the ground with her back against the tree. I followed her example, sitting close to her, but not too close. I looked at her, at the pale face and the features that became more visible as the day grew brighter. She looked exactly like I remembered her, except that she was – if possible – even paler, and that she looked tired, cold, hungry and afraid. Somehow, she reminded me of Rei – they both seemed to be strays, without anywhere they belonged in the world. Much like me, I thought, except that whereas they were uncomfortable with their status as strays, I was perfectly happy with living that way.
“W-who are you? W-why do you k-keep disappearing? W-who will h-hurt you?” I had a dozen questions, at least, but I couldn’t very well ask them all at the same time. Judging by the reluctant look on her face, I wasn’t even sure if I would get answers to any of my questions. “Y-you can trust m-me,” I ensured her, trying to look as trustworthy as possible.
Dakota glanced over at me, and there was a shadow of a smile on her lips. “It’s not you I’m afraid of. It’s the ones that don’t like the idea of anyone close to you who I don’t want to piss off,” she sighed, picking at the grass between us.
“T-tell me w-what’s going on, p-please. I d-don’t like b-being clueless.”
She sighed again, apparently not liking the idea of talking to me. I wasn’t sure just when I had become that dangerous for girls to talk to, but it was kind of annoying. Trying to gain some of her trust, I reached out and took her hand – it was one of the first times in my life that I took the initiative to touch someone else, particularly a girl. Somehow it seemed a lot easier with her than with Maria. I wondered if I should feel guilty about that, but came to the conclusion that holding someone’s hand for comfort was hardly breaking any rules.
“You already know who I am. We’ve met before, remember,” she started, still very reluctantly.
I smiled, giving her hand a little squeeze. “I j-just know y-your name. That’s a-all.”
“And that’s all you should know. But if you must know, I’m a singer at a nightclub during the night, and I do as little as possible during the day. I’m not very interesting.”
“I t-think you are. T-tell me more, w-why did y-you disappear?”
Dakota glanced around, still seeming far too scared. “When I saw you outside of Ixero, I already knew who you were. I’ve noticed you before, in other places, but I’ve never dared talking to you. The disappearance… That wasn’t my doing. There is someone who won’t accept it if you get close to girls.”
I frowned, wondering if my hunches could possibly be true. “T-the Four S-sisters?”
She nodded. “Just one of them, but yeah. I was expelled, and given a warning that if I ever got caught talking to you, I’d be punished, and not just in Tagetes.”
“B-but… How c-can they h-have the power to h-hurt you outside of Tagetes?” I asked, more than a little bewildered. It seemed like this was far bigger than I had originally thought. Maybe I had been underestimating The Four Sisters.
Dakota sighed and pulled her hand away from mine, getting to her feet again, as if she didn’t dare staying too long in the same place. “I don’t know, but they do. I lost my job and my apartment all in one week, and my puppy---”
Her voice broke and she shook her head; I wasn’t sure that I wanted to hear the rest of that sentence. Instead I got up as well and took her hand again as we started walking around the small lake. “Y-you could c-come live w-with me,” I suggested, not even knowing where the courage to say something like that came from. It wasn’t as if my apartment was really girl friendly, and I had a feeling that Maria would definitely object to it if I suddenly told her that I was living with another girl. But somehow, I hardly even thought about Maria right now – I was too focused on Dakota to think about the girl who was supposedly my girlfriend.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea, but thank you,” Dakota replied, lowering her head slightly so that her hair fell in front of her face, hiding her from my view.
For a while, we walked in silence, and I watched as the sky turned from dark blue to light blue, breaking in yellow and orange as the sun rose, bathing the park in light and warmth. Most of the seedy individuals disappeared gradually, and instead the park was filled up with teenagers holding hands and families eating breakfast outside. It was idyllic. Perfect.
“I r-really like you,” I said suddenly, not even knowing where the words came from. They were true, however – there was something that pulled me towards Dakota. Ever since I met her, she had been like a song on constant playback, coming back to me again and again. It wasn’t an infatuation, like with Maria, a distant admiration that grew over time. No, this was unlike anything I had felt before.
Dakota turned her head to look at me, and slowed her pace, almost stopping. “I really like you too,” she replied, smiling faintly. “I wish I didn’t like you, it would make my life a lot easier, but I can’t choose this. Especially not if you like me too.”
We stopped altogether and I looked into her violently pink eyes, seeming even more intense by how much eyeliner and eye shadow she was wearing. She was still far from beautiful, but I wanted her nonetheless, and still without knowing where I got the courage from, I closed the slight distance between us and kissed her. Dakota tensed slightly, probably from fear that someone would see, but then I could feel that she smiled.
I didn’t have much experience with kissing girls, and I was pretty sure that I wasn’t particularly good, but it didn’t seem to matter. I was kissing her, and even if it was too dry and too clumsy, it still felt better than any other kiss I could remember having in the past.
When we broke apart, my arm was around Dakota’s waist and her arms were linked behind my neck, her fingers toying with my hair. I smiled at her, slightly bashfully, and got a soft laughter in return. “This won’t be easy,” she said, but I couldn’t understand what she meant. I was lost in her closeness, not registering anything or anyone around us.
I felt stupid, but I couldn’t help it. I had always seen myself as too cynical and logical to be blindsided by romance, but this girl…
This girl.
Quite frankly, I didn’t want to say goodbye to her – Dakota did have this habit of disappearing on me, after all, and I didn’t want to risk her disappearing again. I held her hand tightly and shook my head when she tried to pull away from me.
“I can’t stay with you, Kai. It’ll be too dangerous for both of us. I don’t know for sure, but I think that The Four Sisters might go to drastic lengths to get what they want.”
“B-but we’re not in Tagetes n-now, they c-can’t possibly k-know if we’re t-together,” I said eagerly, refusing to see reason. It hadn’t happened to me often, and I didn’t quite know what to do with it or how to deal with it.
Dakota laughed and kissed the corner of my mouth. “I know where you live, I’ll get in touch with you, I promise. I don’t want to lose you, and I certainly don’t want to disappear, but for now I think we both need to lay low. You don’t want The Four Sisters to mess your life up as well, do you?”
I sighed, but I had to admit that she was right. We couldn’t stay together, especially not if her problems were related to me, and The Four Sisters. I didn’t particularly want to, but after kissing her again, I let go of her. Dakota smiled sadly too me, whispered a “see you later” against my lips, and then she broke away from me and walked hastily out of the gate to the park and down the street.
I wished that she’d turn back to look at me, just once, but she didn’t.
“Well, f-fuck me,” I muttered to myself, and turned to walk back home. Suddenly that idea didn’t seem all that appealing anymore.
It was proving very difficult to think logically – all I could think about was Dakota and how she had felt, pressed close to me. How her lips felt against mine, how her smile made me smile, how intense her eyes were, how I wanted to run my fingers through her hair, how I wanted to hold her hand and walk through the park again, how she---
“Of course,” I said suddenly, so loudly that several people on the street turned their heads and looked at me. I didn’t care, for once, and turned around to head down a different direction, hurrying along.
It was so early that the police station hadn’t even opened for visitors yet, but I convinced them to let me in – there was no way in hell I was going to wait. I had to know if my hunch was right. Maybe I should have gone home and asked online, but I was far too impatient for that.
“Y-you’re him,” I said breathlessly, almost collapsing down onto the chair in front of Janson’s desk. I had walked so quickly that I was flushed and warm, despite the chilly morning.
Janson looked at me with a small smile, not saying anything for a while, waiting until I was able to actually breathe again. “Took you long enough. I had expected you to make the connection sooner.”
I almost felt offended, but now, looking back, the connection did seem to be fairly obvious. NaDa had said that the bones weren’t the point, the police station wasn’t the point – it was merely a clue. Just like saying that he had talked to me before. NaDa was Janson. The reason why I hadn’t deduced it before was probably because it seemed so utterly insane.
“Is it for r-real?” I asked, still having problems with believing it.
Janson nodded. “You bet it is. I was almost expecting you to get in touch with me sooner. You’re being more than a little ambitious, you know, it’s attracting a lot of attention in certain circles.”
It was difficult to find words, any words. On one hand, this could prove to be highly helpful to me, and I had to admit I loved the idea of the hacker most hunted by the police being a police officer himself, but on the other hand; wasn’t the fact that he was a police officer who knew exactly what I was up to a bad thing for me?
“It’s okay, I’m not going to arrest you or tell anyone about your identity,” Janson said calmly, as if he could read my mind. Though I supposed that my mind wasn’t all that difficult to read at the moment. “I normally wouldn’t tell anyone who I really am, but I have to admit, I like you. You’ve got more style than anyone I’ve seen in years.”
“M-more style?”
Janson grinned and poured us both a cup of coffee. I thought that maybe we shouldn’t be talking about these kinds of things in the middle of a police station, but on the other hand, maybe it was safer than talking about it anywhere else – nobody here would suspect that we talked about anything illegal.
“The majority of the hackers I’ve seen over the past ten years have mostly been crude. They don’t play, they don’t take their time. They’re not elegant or sophisticated. You, on the other hand, you take your time. You’re slow and methodical and careful. You want things to be done right, instead of just being done. I like that. It’s how I was when I was younger, and how I got to where I am now,” he said, taking small sips of his coffee. I wasn’t quite sure if the description fit me, but considering that it was so complimentary, I chose not to object.
“I’ve been watching you for a while,” Janson continued. “I know what you’re doing, though I don’t think you’ll be able to. So you were right in approaching me. I don’t think you can possibly do it all on your own. You’re attracting a bit too much attention for that, but I don’t think that’s your fault.”
“I k-know. The Four S-sisters have a p-personal interest in m-me. I d-don’t get w-why. D-do you know t-their identities?” I asked – maybe I should be more apprehensive about trusting Janson, but it seemed impossible not to trust him. I had admired him as NaDa for years and years, and I had liked Janson in person since the first time I met him.
He shook his head, sighing. “I’ve been trying to find that out for a long time, but they’re extremely good at covering their tracks. You’d think it would be possible to find at least one of them, but despite trying for months, I haven’t been able to. What I do know, however, is that The Four Sisters aren’t actually sisters.”
“T-they’re not?”
“As far as I’m aware, they’re not related at all. In fact, one of them is a man, not a woman. Though I guess that The Three Sisters and the Brother would be a bit too long.” Janson grinned, clearly knowing far more about this than I did. Probably not so strange; it seemed like he had been investigating it for a lot longer than me. “I’ve been able to find out their names in Tagetes, but not everyone use their real name, so it’s not much to go on, I’m afraid.”
I took a sip of my coffee, nodding almost absentmindedly. “O-one of them is C-chiyo-sama, r-right? And… J-jensen?”
Janson actually looked vaguely impressed. Maybe he hadn’t expected me to find out even that much. “You’re right. Chiyo-sama is the youngest, as far as I know, and the most spoiled. She has often acted out of her own selfish needs, no matter what the rest of them say. Jensen is the oldest, and quite possibly the richest, but he’s not in charge.”
“H-he’s not?”
“No, the one in charge is called sdfasd. She’s the second oldest, but definitely the one who makes all the decisions, good and bad. I’m fairly sure that she’s the one who founded Tagetes and came up with The Four Sisters in the first place. The last one is asdasdas. Compared to the three others she’s not really a force to be reckoned with. To me it seems like she’s just there to mediate when the three others argue. A motherly figure, you know?”
I nodded, trying to digest all this new information. It was funny how my days were monotone and boring for so long, and then they suddenly exploded with information and things that happened. “I’ll f-find out w-who they r-really are,” I said, and drained the rest of my cup before getting up.
Janson looked up at me with mild amusement. “You may be good, but you’re still young,” I remarked. “Don’t risk anything, don’t go poking around and get yourself caught. What makes you think that you’ll be able to find these things out when I haven’t been able to?”
“I h-have m-my methods,” I replied, giving him a wave before I walked out. I could hear him laugh even as I walked out the door.
~tbc~
No comments:
Post a Comment