Smuggling

[Madotsuki]

"What kind of sick freak are you?"

"A sick freak who needs a job done. Now do you want to save your friend or not?"

Her hands trembled, contemplating the idea of crushing the device and refusing the guy altogether. How could they think they had the right to take her friend and demand her services in return? They didn't even need to do that! ...Unless the service they needed was... less than pure. In the end, though, they still had Madeline captive; a tantrum was only going to make things worse.

"What do you want from me?"

"I need something delivered."

"And that would be?"

"You don't need to know."

"Where am I meeting you?"

"You're not."

"Then how do you expect me to do this? I'm not a miracle worker-- I can't read your mind through a message."

"You sure you're not a miracle worker? From what I've heard of you, you might be. In any case, I'll be dropping the package off at a specific time in a specific place."

"And that would be?"

"What works for you?"

She paused for a moment, trying to decide the best pick-up point. The only places she knew how to get to were the Song and Dance and the Blue Moon Cafe, so she had two options. Considering that she didn't want to get the Gear Grinders into this mess, the choice was obvious.

"Do you know the Song and Dance?"

An uncomfortable moment passed before the kidnapper responded.

"I do. When you get there, I'll give you directions to the package."

"How will you know I'm there?"

"I have my ways. You have an hour before the package is placed. That should give you plenty of time to get to the extraction point."

"Where am I taking this package to?"

"I'll tell you when you get the package."

"Sounds fair enough." Madotsuki was practically lying through the screen. What about this was fair?

"Alright. And you better do this right, or else your buddy won't be seeing the light of day."

Madotsuki shut off the device and proceeded to scream into the nearest pillow. She shouldn't have to be following directions from that jerk! Yet here she was, about to become Anonymous's delivery girl. There was no way she was going to do this-- maybe she could rescue her another way? But how?

Maybe Crusher could help her?

Movement from the window caught her attention, and she turned to find a shadow floating by the glass. It remained there for a few seconds before hovering out of sight. Rushing over to the window, she flung it open and stuck her head outside, trying to locate where the object had gone. Unfortunately, it had long since disappeared. Shutting the window, she paused for a moment and tried to determine what that thing was. Surely, the fact that it had been watching her while she was talking to the kidnapper was no coincidence. It must've been some sort of camera, because how would they know where she was, otherwise?

Of course, that raised the concern about the guy catching her talk to Crusher. Then again, you couldn't catch someone who was invisible.

Phasing out of both existence and sight, she raced out of the apartment and down towards the elevator to Tier 5.