Glitch and his friends entered the main room and saw a row of The Fox’s soldiers lined up next to each other — bound and blindfolded. They were all kneeling down with their heads bowed. Guarding them were about a dozen large men with military-grade weapons.
Aris scanned the crowd, looking for Alex and Mara, and began running as soon as he saw them. Alex was lying unconscious on an operating chair, and had Mara and one other person standing by her side. Aris couldn’t see who the man was, but as he got near, he saw who it was.
“Milo, what are you doing here?” Aris asked.
“Rescuing Alex,” Milo said in a snarky tone.
“Let’s not start this,” Aris said. “What’s wrong with Alex?”
“She’ll be fine,” Mara said. “She was administered a strong dose of anesthesia.”
“It’s nice to see you, Mara.”
“You too, Aris. How’ve you been?”
“I’ve been better.”
“What happened?”
Aris gave a brief summary of their time spent in Tokyo, skipping over some parts that had been made public. He introduced Mara to Glitch and told her how he had helped them escape. He described the men on the bridge and mentioned the name Jaisu several times. After they were taken hostage, Aris said he was held captive in a tiny cell with Glitch, and they had no idea where Alex was or what they were doing to her.
“Which one of you is Jaisu!” Mara asked sternly, as if she was going to beat the man to a pulp. She stood up and followed Aris over to the soldiers on the floor. The men all wore wraps concealing their faces, which was making it difficult for Aris to identity them.
“Jaisu!” Mara called out. None of them moved.
Mara selected one person at random — a scrawny kid who appeared to be the most frightened. She walked over and stopped right in front of him. The man couldn’t see, but sensing her presence, he looked up at her. Mara bent down and grabbed the kid by the jacket and lifted him to his feet as if she had the strength of ten men. Aris looked surprised, trying not to stare at Mara’s lean muscles. She was definitely not a person one would want to mess with.
She pulled down the soldier’s blindfold and asked, “Which one is Jaisu?”
The man looked terrified, but obliged with the request. Reluctantly turning around, the man took his time to carefully study each of his comrades. Without saying a word, he pointed to the soldier at the end. Mara thanked him and reaffixed his blindfold before telling him to sit back down.
Mara walked to the end of the line and ripped off the man’s blindfold. “Jaisu, I presume,” she said. “Get up.” Jaisu rose to his feet, the whole time the defiant smirk never left his face. “Do you know who I am?” she asked.
“Yes, I know who you are.”
“Good. So you know that Alex is my daughter, and as her mother, you can understand how protective I am over her.”
“Sure.”
“You can understand the type of blind rage I’m feeling right now toward anyone who brings harm into her life.”
“Okay.”
“So I’m going to ask you one question, and I don’t want to play any games with you. I want a straight answer.”
Jaisu didn’t answer.
“Where is The Fox?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said smugly.
“Check his wrist,” Aris said.
With the reflexes of a cat, Mara snatched Jaisu’s right wrist and pulled up his sleeve to reveal a fox tattoo. “Interesting tattoo,” Mara said, letting go. “There are about a dozen of your friends here,” Mara said, “and I bet one of them will tell me what I need to know — how else do you think I found you? I thought you would cooperate without playing games since you seemed to be in charge, but I guess I was mistaken.”
Jaisu remained silent.
Mara reached behind her back and pulled out a small calibre gun. She then placed the barrel on Jaisu’s forehead. “I’m willing to make certain concessions to those who help me bring down The Fox. But to anyone who opposes me, I will not hesitate to put a bullet in their head. So what’s it going to be?”
Jaisu hesitated a moment before saying, “I know where he is.”
“Good,” Mara said, retracting her gun, “that’s what I wanted to hear. You’re going to take us to him.”
Mara told Jaisu to sit back down until they were all ready to go. She and Aris walked back to the group.
“This is definitely our equipment,” Glitch said to Mara upon her return. “Did you find the others — Dalia, Yuri, Link, and Taranya?”
“My men searched the entire building, but didn’t find them. I’m sorry, Glitch,” Mara said, “but don’t worry, we’ll get your friends back.”
“Where’s that little weasel?” Glitch asked, looking around.
The scrawny man Mara had picked up earlier was still with his squad. Although he could not see, he heard Glitch asking about him. When Glitch spotted the man, he stomped toward him like a charging bull, causing the man to cower in fear. He nearly soiled himself when Glitch grabbed him and hoisted him in the air.
“Put him down, Glitch,” Mara called out. “We need to set an example of how to act. Without civility, there would be chaos.”
“She’s right, Glitch,” Aris said. “Leave the man alone.”
“You’re lucky,” Glitch snorted as he dropped the man.
“Alright everybody,” Milo shouted amongst the group, taking charge. "I know some of us are reeling with emotions and adrenaline, but that won’t do us any good. We need to stay focused.”