Irium

"Yes, I found a lot of things, Danny." Roswaisa answers with a bit of a sarcasm, "I found everything that won"t be useful to us."

"Yeah, okay. Chill with the sarcasm!" I say as I stare out of the shop"s transparent gla.s.s gate, "We still have a lot of time to stop that guy."

"Provided he actually waits till the time he gave us and doesn"t just blow this place up before then."

I can certainly see how much she is starting to suspect the possibility of the note being a hoax to set us up. It"s not like I am not starting to suspect the same thing but I"m just not sure that this is all a setup.

"Um, sir?" The guy at the counter comes to me and hands me a phone saying, "It"s for you."

I take it and bring it to my ear and the first thing I hear from the other side is, "I see that you consider stopping me more important than finding Cartel."

It"s a voice I have never heard before but I can guess who it belongs to. The person I am speaking to right now is the one who destroyed one of Grey and Jessica"s shops and said that the shop we are in now would be the next.

"Well, it"s not that we consider it more important, it"s that it is part of the process." I say, sounding more nonchalant than I myself realized.

"And what does that mean?"

"You certainly have a history with that man seeing as how you are so intent on getting him killed. That means that taking you in custody and questioning you can give us some clues as to where he is right now. See? It"s two birds with one stone this way."

With a light m.u.f.fle, the voice from the other end becomes a bit sardonic, "You won"t be catching me, Mr. Tamer. Even with your DemiG.o.ddess friend, you can"t get to me. However, if you want information on him from me, I can give it to you. Just ask your questions."

"Oh? You sure?" I ask in a mocking voice.

With a click on tongue, the reply comes. "Yes, Mr. Tamer. I am sure."

"Fine, then let me call you back." I say and move my fingers to end-call-b.u.t.ton.

"Wait! What the h.e.l.l! I am sure you would be capable enough to tell that I am not calling from a mobile of my own. I am calling from "

"Telephone booth?" I interrupt and say, "I know. And you better stay there so when I call that telephone booth back, you can pick it up and help me find Cartel Hopkins."

I say and cut the call, not giving the person on the other end to do anything about it. I am not 100% sure they would really stay there but I am sure enough to take this chance.

"You mind explaining what just happened?" Roswaisa asks with a curious expression.

"Well, other than the fact that the person we are searching for just called me and found out from her voice that she is a woman, I made a deal with them to call them back telephone booth they are on."

And that"s about all that happened.

"So," Roswaisa asks with a smile, "I am a.s.suming you expect me to have some ability to get to the telephone booth through some ultrsensory ability I would have."

"Pretty much." I reply with a smile.

"Well," she says, "you are in luck."

*****

Outside, merely five minutes later, I call her back from my car. To be fair, I am calling a telephone booth but oh well, after the call connects, it doesn"t take too long for the person on the other end to pick it up and say,

"The next time you try to boss me around, I guarantee that I will be your doom."

I look at Roswaisa as an indication to start with searching the location of the phone booth as I reply in an easy-going voice, "The next time you bring any harm to me or anyone I care about, I guarantee that I will make you regret ever being born. As a side note, I know a good many people who wouldn"t care for your gender – at all."

Of course, those people would call it "being truly gender-equivalent" or "following Kazumsan" or whatever. Yeah, I am taking about Irium here.

"Tsk!" –comes the annoyed clicking of tongue from the other side. At the same time, Roswaisa flies off in a direction I a.s.sume she would have spotted the telephone booth to be in.

That"s good. I just need to keep this woman on the phone long enough for Roswaisa to get to her.

"But anyway, let"s get back to the topic." I say. "Are you really willing to answer my questions about Cartel Hopkins?"

"Yes, I am." Her tone is as annoyed as it could be.

"Then, how do you know him? Who is he to you?"

"…" As expected, this question isn"t very easy to get an answer to. I guess I"ll need to try to-

"He is nothing to me," She suddenly says, "nothing except the man who murdered my fiancé."

… well, I don"t know which part of this should I be more surprised on.

"So, this is revenge." Well, the whole thing obviously smelled of revenge so I am not surprised that the reason she wants Cartel caught and killed is for something like this. Still, I kinda was not expecting "killing the fiancé" type story.

"Yes, it my revenge against him. Is that a problem?"

"Not particularly." I say and continue, "So, why did Cartel kill your fiancé?"

"…" And I hope she starts suddenly answering like the last time-

"I don"t want to answer that."

Oh well, and here I was expecting this question will be easy to get an answer to.

"Okay, when did he kill your fiancé?"

"I … don"t remember." She answers. What the h.e.l.l is up with this story? I am starting to think she lied about "killing the fiancé" thing. Like, how can you not remember something like this?

"Wait! You tricked me!" Then, suddenly, she starts screaming that at me from the other end. I a.s.sume that Roswaisa is there.

"I would have tricked you if I ever said anything like "I wouldn"t try to catch you" or something but I never did." By the time I finish saying that, I realize that she has already dropped the telephone and ran out of there. Fortunately for me, just a couple second later, the DemiG.o.ddess answers from the other end saying, "I got her."

*****