Chương 124: Before the First Needle Touched

The moment Riphiel opened her eyes, she pulled at her wrists. Metal bands fastened them to the chair's armrests. Her ankles were secured the same way. There was no sword. The money in her pocket was gone too. Riphiel looked at the man sitting opposite her. A broad forehead and narrow chin. He had grown a mustache, but its two sides were different lengths.

"Name," he said. A moment later, the translator conveyed the same meaning. Riphiel swallowed the blood still inside her lip.

"Food first."

"Where did you come from?"

"Ice cream."

"Species?"

"Bring the kind I was eating earlier." The man checked the translator.

"Is it translating wrong?" The researcher beside him shook his head.

"It's working normally." Riphiel studied the researcher's face. His glasses had slipped to the end of his nose, and his hair was flattened on only one side.

"Why does your face look like that?" His hand rose to his glasses.

"What?"

"You look as though you were dragged out of bed. Less prepared than your prisoner." A guard behind him stifled a laugh. Riphiel looked his way.

"Your eyebrows are at different heights." The guard shut his mouth at once. The man in charge struck the table.

"Answer the questions." Riphiel looked at his mustache again.

"Trim those evenly first."

The first meal arrived on a plastic tray. Thin porridge and lukewarm water. Riphiel took a spoonful, moved it around her mouth, and swallowed.

"This is not food." The man bringing the meal stopped at the door.

"It's a nutritional meal."

"There is nothing to chew. And no flavor."

"It provides the necessary nutrients--""Do you eat it?" He did not answer. Riphiel pushed the tray with her toes. Her bound ankles kept it from going far.

"Bring ice cream." The supervisor eventually sent someone out. An hour later, ice cream arrived in a paper cup. Foreign lettering covered the lid. Riphiel took a bite with the small spoon. It was cold. But the taste was different. She put the spoon down.

"This is not ice cream."

"Yes, it is."

"The one I had earlier was on a stick, with chocolate on the outside."

"It's a different kind."

"Then you bought the wrong one." Riphiel raised her chin toward the supervisor.

"Go and buy the one I had. Quickly."

"Do you understand that you're a prisoner?"

"Prisoners are fed too."

"Why should we listen to you?"

"That is exactly why all your faces look like that." The room went quiet. Riphiel did not look at the paper cup again. The questions continued. Her home world. Age. Lifespan. The function of her ears. The saber-toothed tiger accompanying her. Why the parents had recovered. She answered every question with criticism of someone's face or a demand for food. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

When a guard shifted his stance, she told him he would be the first to fall if he spread his legs that far. When a researcher tried to touch her hair, she asked whether he handled food with that hand. The supervisor's face grew redder.

"Talking isn't going to work." He stood.

"Check her blood first." A researcher opened a cabinet by the door. Packaged blood collection tubes, needles, and disinfecting supplies stood in rows inside. Riphiel looked at the wrong ice cream on the table.

"Take that away."

"Why?"

"The sight of it makes me angry." The supervisor did not answer. A blood collection kit was set beside the ice cream.

Kichan's mother had cut fruit for Riphiel. The apple peel formed one long strip. At one side of the plate lay tomato slices dabbed with a little salt.

"Riphiel." No answer. She looked into Riphiel's room. The bed was empty, and the sword leaned against the wall. Only the dark green coat was missing.

"Kichan." He looked up from the table.

"What?"

"Where's Riphiel?"

"She's not in her room?" Kichan checked the bathroom and enclosed balcony in turn. Argaon looked under the sofa, and Dust went from one open room to the next. Batu already stood at the entrance. Kichan looked at the small dish on Riphiel's desk. The change from her first grocery trip was gone. He opened the freezer. The back compartment was empty too. He and his mother spoke together.

"Ice cream." Batu scratched the front door.

"When did she leave?" his father asked.

"Nobody saw." Kichan picked up the sword, then put it down. The fact that she had gone without it was worse.

"Mom, Dad. Stay home."

"We should come with you."

"Batu will find her. Lock the door and don't open it for anyone." Without another question, his father pulled a chair over to the inside of the entrance. Batu bounded out.

The scent led straight to the grocery. Batu stopped at the entrance. When he tried to go in, the owner raised both hands.

"No big dogs inside."

"This girl was here a little while ago, wasn't she?" Kichan brought up a photograph of Riphiel on his phone. The owner nodded at once.

"Bought ice cream. She was on her own today."

"How many minutes ago?" The owner checked the sales record. Seventeen minutes. Kichan looked at the freezer, the counter, the door. Riphiel had been here seventeen minutes ago. Home was less than a five-minute walk away.

"Can I see the camera footage?" In the video, Riphiel was alone. She bought four and opened one right outside. No Batu. Nobody followed her out. The camera in front of the store showed her turning into the alley on the right. She never appeared on the next building's camera. Batu lowered himself as he entered the alley. Melted ice cream spread across the ground. The bag was torn, and a stick had rolled near the wall. Kichan crouched. A dark green thread clung to the white stain. The same color as Riphiel's coat.

Batu's nose swept the ground. Riphiel's scent. Four strangers. Rubber and chemicals. A low sound came from the tiger's throat.

"They took her," Kichan said. Argaon shed his cat form. The small dragon's red eyes swept both ends of the alley.

"A vehicle's scent remains." Dust slipped into a drain. A moment later, it emerged carrying a small metal terminal in its mouth. A fitting from the end of an electrified net. Valkyrie pushed away a thin layer of melted ice cream and water used to wash the alley. Two tire tracks reappeared beneath the hastily cleaned surface. Kichan checked the building cameras one by one. At the mouth of the alley, only the back of a black vehicle appeared. Its plate was covered, but white cold vapor clung beneath the bumper.

Argaon wrinkled his nose.

"Expensive coolant."

"Can you find it?"

"If it's close." Batu sniffed the place where the vehicle had stopped once more, then headed toward the road. On the main road, the scent mixed with that of other vehicles. They lost it two blocks later and caught it again at the tollgate approach. Dust found another piece of the same alloy by the roadside. Kichan marked the camera times and direction of travel on his map. Beyond the tollgate, he narrowed the search to outlying places with cooling facilities that could be reached in the available time.

One remained. A research facility below a low mountain. He turned off the map. Batu was already looking that way.

"Let's go."

Inside the facility, the supervisor looked down at the blood collection kit.

"Remove her clothes first. Prepare for a full-body examination."

The research facility had almost no windows in its outer walls. It was a gray building cut into a low hillside. No company name marked the front gate, only a cooling-system inspection sheet. Batu passed the gate. Nose to the ground, he rounded the building. He stopped under a vent and scratched the wall with a forepaw. A green thread caught on the grille. From Riphiel's coat. Kichan touched a screw securing the grille.

"She's inside." Dust climbed down over the back of his hand. As its small body slipped between the screw heads, metal pins pushed out one by one. Valkyrie climbed the wall to a cooling pipe. A transparent body seeped inside. Argaon surveyed the parking lot with red eyes.

"A lot of people."

"Can you draw them to the other side?"

"Once."

"Once is enough." Argaon's eyes flashed briefly. Glass shattered on the far side of the building. Alarm lights came on, and the parking-lot guards ran toward them. Kichan pulled the grille. The vent opened. Batu lowered himself first.

Riphiel's coat was pulled off. The hood and shirt followed.

"Do not touch me." Her bound wrists twisted inside the metal bands. The chafed skin reddened. Two guards braced the sides of the chair. Riphiel lifted one leg and kicked the nearest man in the chest. The ankle band caught beneath the chair before she could fully extend it. Even so, his chin snapped back.

"More restraints." A narrow strap pressed across her chest. Only a thin examination drape covered her. Her shoulders, arms, and sides were exposed to the cold air.

"Even doing this, you still look appalling."

"Shut her up."

"You cannot even buy the right ice cream, and you expect to handle my blood?" The supervisor turned his head.

"Sedative."

"It will affect the readings. After the first blood draw." The researcher put on fresh gloves. He took a needle from its clear packaging, set a collection tube in the rack, and swabbed the inside of Riphiel's arm. She twisted it away.

"Keep still."

"Untie me before you say that." A guard pressed down above her elbow. She bent forward to bite his hand. The chest strap pulled taut, and the chair scraped the floor.

"Beginning recording." The camera's red light came on. The supervisor checked the screen.

"Otherworld doll. Biological specimen. First blood draw." Riphiel raised her head.

"Who are you calling a doll, you ugly--" The facility's corridor monitors went dark together. Valkyrie forced coolant into the surveillance equipment. Water spread over black screens. Dust pulled a pin from one door lock and ran to the next. Batu hurled himself at a guard blocking the corridor. Armor struck the wall with a crash. An arm holding a gun was pinned to the floor. Kichan ran. One door. Two. Riphiel's scent mingled with disinfectant in the air. The last door was thick. Her voice came from inside.

"Let go!" A metal chair scraped the floor. Kichan pressed his palm to the door. Not the lock. He caught the joints of the entire frame. Four points bent at once. The door crumpled inward. Inside the examination room, the researcher expelled air from the needle. A clear drop gathered at its tip. His hand lowered toward Riphiel's arm. The needle was just about to touch her skin.