The Shadow Chasers

Chapter 8

Tatsumi Port Island, Apartment Building

The trio soon arrived at the grey concrete building, and landed behind it to change back to casual wear. They walked to the front entryway and searched the names listed at the call box. Alex pressed a square black button that matched the text on her X-Powder.

After a moment, an elderly male voice replied. "Yes?"

"Hi, I'm a friend of Kaito. Is he in?" she asked casually, the WOOHP translator device working nicely.

"Friend?" the voice replied, surprised. "No, he's not in."

"Oh, well I've got a USB drive of his from work I wanted to return," she said, trailing off, following the plan they'd come up with earlier that morning.

"Come on up," the man said, and an electronic buzz indicated the front door had unlocked.

"Thanks!" Alex replied, and they went through the door to a flight of stairs that took them to the second floor. Alex led them to the slightly worn brown apartment door, where she rang the doorbell.

The door opened a crack, and the face of an elderly man peered out surprised at the three foreign girls.

"Who are you?" he asked in surprise over the faint sounds of a television show's chatter.

"I'm Alex, and this is Sam, and Clover," she replied, indicating each of them in turn. "We met at work before Kaito left, but he forgot to take his USB drive," she said, holding up a small black stick. "Oh yeah, and do you mind if I use your restroom really quick?" she asked sheepishly.

"Oh, no problem, young lady," he replied, undoing the door chain. He waved them in, and Alex handed him the device, then took off her shoes after noticing the shoe rack nearby.

"Thanks so much. So um-" she said. She then pointed to a hall branching off from the living room.

"Eh, right down there. Oh, I'm Yoshide," he replied, blinking at the unusual visitors.

"Good to meet you. Ok, thanks. Be right back!" she replied.

"Yes, thanks Mr. Shirato. We must've had an outdated phone number or we'd have called ahead," Sam explained to the man clearly.

"Your Japanese is amazing," the Yoshide said. "When I opened the door, I was surprised," he confessed, then turned down the TV's volume with a remote. "If you want his phone number..." the man trailed off.

He then walked towards an end table with post its, mail, and a framed photo of himself and an older woman. He looked at a small note, then wrote on a post it for a minute. Sam had her X-Powder out, pressed a button to record audio, and closed it up to put it in her pocket.

Yoshide returned slowly. "Here," he said, and handed over the paper to Sam.

"You've been a big help. Thanks," Sam said, and looked to Yoshide gratefully.

"Thank you," Alex said, as she returned to the others. They went back out the front door, and gave a small wave to Yoshide.

"Goodbye," she old man said, and closed the door.

Alex looked to Sam and Clover with an intent expression. "Guys, I found Kaito's room while I was gone, and guess what I found?" Alex said as they walked to the stairs leading back to the bottom floor.

"A funky-looking spider robot thing. It's gotta be what was used at the police station," she added, showing Sam and Clover a picture she'd taken on her X-Powder of the machine.

She closed up her X-Powder and stashed it.

"Great work, Alex," Sam replied, as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "Now how about we make a call to Kaito, and trace his location?" she asked the others, her own X-Powder open. Alex and Clover nodded slightly in response.

They found a bench in the small lobby along the side wall. Alex, (whose hiragana deciphering skills were a little rusty) took Sam's X-Powder, and with the help of the WOOHP text translator, entered in the number. She looked to Clover and Sam for confirmation before hitting send. Sam held up an index finger as a signal to wait, then pressed a few buttons to change the caller ID of the X-Powder to the home phone of the Shirato residence. She then pressed a button which caused a lighter blue tint to the top screen of the device, one more to cause a green rectangular light to appear on the console section, and pressed the send button.

"Hello? Dad? What're you calling for?" a male voice gruffly inquired.

"Just checking up on you. Everything ok- son?" Sam said, her voice modulated to match that of Yoshide, thanks to her recording, and the X-Powder's voice modulator.

"You're acting weird. Relax. I'll be back later. 'Bye," he said curtly.

"Bye," Sam said quickly before Kaito ended the call. She looked to Alex and Clover triumphantly.

"Used a voice modulator to sound like his dad," she explained. "And got a trace," she said, excitedly, pressing a button to switch the screen to show a map with a red blip indicating their destination.

"Great job, Sammy," replied Clover.

"Right on!" enthused Alex.

Sam closed up the device, and they left the building, then hurried to the nearby alley.

"Jetpacks again?" Clover inquired.

Sam and Alex gave a nod, and they pressed X-Powder buttons to change back to spy garb, then activated their jetpacks to take to the skies again.

A/N: Once again, thank you for reading this story. Please feel free to comment and vote.