Ramochis knew that he would have a hell
of a time explaining it to Dr. Balkus and Commander Gyou if he
was spotted by some kid, so he made sure to be absolutely silent
as he made his way through the wet forest. In some ways,
Ramochis was glad to have the cover that the rain provided for
him. Peeking over the tops of the bushes that stood in his way,
Ramochis finally caught sight of the thing that had made the
zipping noise.
It was a small tent, only big
enough to hold one person, and the way it had been carefully and
artfully concealed led Ramochis to suspect that the kid really
was
the only one inside it. Who
would leave a kid that young out in the woods like this?
-Who indeed?-
Ack! Dr. Balkus, I didn’t know you were
still watching.
-I concealed my presence rather well,
then. I have been observing though you ever since you found the
boy. I must say that the child seems remarkably well adjusted
for someone who is so alone.-
Yeah, he does.
Ramochis continued watching the tent, waiting to see if the kid
would come out again. And also waiting for any more orders from
Balkus. Dr. Balkus, doesn’t
this kid look a little familiar to you? Or am I just seeing
things?
-Yes, now that you mention it, the child
does rather resemble someone…-
Balkus’ telepathic voice faded out
again, and Ramochis wondered what the doctor would want him to
do. A second later, Ramochis got his answer:
-It’s not enough of a concern to have
you stay out here. Come back to Relics Point. I will give you
further instructions when you arrive.-
Ramochis nodded, in spite of the rather
obvious fact that Dr. Balkus was unable to see him at the
moment. Knowing that the rain would probably keep the kid from
going outside again, or at the very least keep him from straying
too far from the shelter of his tent. Still crouching to lessen
the chances of being spotted if the kid looked outside for some
reason, Ramochis moved away from that particular tree and back
out into the forest.
Standing up once he was far enough away,
Ramochis turned and walked in the direction of Mt. Minakami. It
was hard not to wonder where the kid had come from, not to
mention who he was. But those kinds of thoughts could wait until
some other time. Right now, Ramochis had no choice but to report
back to Mt. Minakami for further orders from Dr. Balkus.
xXxXx
Kenji was just starting to doze, when a
sharp crack of thunder startled him back into full awareness.
"Oh, shut up," he grumbled to the storm
at large.
Times like this, Kenji really
wished that he had a second pillow, so he could block out at
least some
of the noise that storms made. The only thing he could really do
in this situation, the only thing that would have any real
effect on the loud noise of the thunder, was to take the heavy
raincoat his dad had given him and pull it up over his head.
And, sitting up, Kenji did just that.
Thick as the coat was, even it
didn’t block out all of the noise. Kenji huffed, annoyed, he
could sleep though a lot of things but even
he
had to able to relax first. Turning over on his left side, Kenji
arranged the coat on top of himself, closed his eyes, and made a
concerted effort to ignore the loud blasts of thunder.
Eventually, he was successful.
xXxXx
Back in the cabin, behind the thick
beams of wood that insulated those inside from the storm, Masaki
Murakami sat up in his bed and listened to the raging tempest.
He wondered how his son was doing. Kenji was a resilient person,
to be sure; a lifetime on the run giving him access to reserves
of strength that most people never tapped in all their lives.
But Masaki knew that his son was still
young, and very lonely at times like this. So Masaki decided to
break one of his rules, just this once: he would go and visit
Kenji early tomorrow. Normally, Masaki tried not to go off to
see his son more than once a month, to keep anyone that might be
tailing him from finding out that he still had a family.
Any connections that he seemed to have
could be easily used against him by Chronos, Masaki knew this
with the utmost certainty. So his decision to go and look in on
Kenji wasn’t one that Masaki had made lightly. The mental
welfare of his son had had to be weighed against his ultimate
physical safety. And in the end, Kenji’s mental state had won
out by only a very narrow margin.
As Masaki lay back down, he hoped that
this visit wouldn’t somehow cause more problems for Kenji than
it solved.
xXxXx
Back inside Mt. Minakami at last,
Ramochis headed into one of the elevators that would take him
down into Relics Point. He passed a great many Zoanoid
processing-tanks on his way. Most of them were holding half
finished Zoanoids, some contained humans who were only just
starting to show signs of becoming Zoanoids, and a few even held
Zoanoids who looked as if they were just about ready to be
released.
If he had cared, Ramochis might have
taken the time to wonder how many of those in the
processing-tanks were Sleeper units; those people who had been
kidnapped and processed into Zoanoids absent their consciousness
or consent. Ramochis himself couldn’t remember if he had
volunteered to become a Zoanoid or not, but thoughts like that
weren’t really important to his line or work.
Hitting the button that would take him
down into Relics Point, Ramochis watched the elevator door
close. He had decided to take one of the express elevators and
avoid the hassle of other Chronos Combatants, scientists, and
other people getting on and off whenever they had the slightest
inclination to do so. The checkpoints were more stringent for
the express elevators, true, but Ramochis felt that that was a
small price to pay for efficiency.
Stepping off at the uppermost level of
Relics Point, Ramochis left the elevator and started looking for
Dr. Balkus. Receiving a telepathic command, Ramochis followed it
to where Balkus evidently wanted him to go. Just as Ramochis was
beginning to suspect he would be, Dr. Balkus was indeed sitting
in front of the large computer terminals that were usually used
to monitor the state of the Relic.
There was a small device sitting on the
computer console in front of him, and for a minute Ramochis
wondered just what it was. And what Dr. Balkus could be planning
to do with it.
"Ah, Ramochis. I’m glad to see you came
promptly."
"As ordered, Dr. Balkus," Ramochis said.
Balkus gestured to the device sitting on
the console. "Take this camera and plant it close enough to the
boy’s tent to see what he does and if anyone contacts him. Make
sure that the child will not be able to see it, or to find it by
accident. You are dismissed."
"Yes, Dr. Balkus. I’ll make sure the
camera gets planted as per your instructions." Ramochis bowed,
took the camera from its resting-place on the console, turned
away from Balkus and started to make his way out of Relics
Point.
Balkus, meanwhile, leaned back in his
chair and started programming the computer to monitor the feed
from the camera and save it into a file that he would be able to
open at his convenience. For a moment, Dr. Balkus considered
whether or not to password-protect the file where the video was
going to be stored in.
Then he decided that, while the
question of the child’s identity
was
an interesting diversion, there was no real reason to go to so
much trouble to cover up something that was essentially a
curiosity. As he finished setting up the computer to monitor the
feed from the camera, Balkus sent one last wisp of his own
consciousness out to Ramochis in order to monitor the Zoanoid’s
progress.
Ramochis, it seemed, was already back
out in the forest and heading for the as-yet-unknown boy’s
hiding place. Balkus nodded to himself, pleased to see that he
wouldn’t need to use any of the other methods of persuasion that
were open to him. Taking over the minds of Zoanoids had become
quite tiresome over the years, and now Balkus tried only to do
such things when necessity commanded them.
It will be interesting to see what
information this investigation turns up,
Balkus thought to himself. But it was a diversion and nothing
more. So Balkus wasn’t all that concerned about maintaining
secrecy for this particular project.
xXxXx
Out in the forest, blissfully unaware of
the events taking place all around him, events that would change
his life forever, Kenji Murakami slept on.