End Games

Chapter 30:Ultimatum

Okay...that was interesting." Said Gevanni as he watched the procession of cars fade into the distance. Halle didn't say anything as she examined her phone.
"I know where Misa is" She said, and he gave her a questioning look. She held up the phone to him, showing him a text message from Misa containing the address to a nearby hotel. He nodded and gestured toward his car, offering to take her there. She accepted and they left immediately. When Halle arrived at the suite, she opened the door and almost stepped on the black wig and overcoat that Misa always used to disguise herself. They lay discarded on the floor, soaked because Misa had run out of the apartment in the rain.
"Misa?" Halle called.
"I'm here" a voice responded from further into the hotel suite. The two followed the voice and arrived at the bedroom part of the suite. There was Misa, laying face down on the bed next to Mihael, who looked content as usual, oblivious to anything that was happening. Misa, however, didn't look so good. Her face was damp and slightly red as if she'd been crying.
"Are you OK? I thought those hazmat people took you. I don't know what the hell happened or why they were in my apartment but thank goodness you got out of there in time." Said Halle, sitting on the bed.
"Yeah. He was there." Said Misa miserably.
"He? You mean...detective L?" Halle asked.
"Yup. The very same."
"Are you serious?!" She looked at Gevanni with wide eyes. "So I very possibly met detective L, the top detective in the world, the legend, and I didn't even realize it?! How unfair!" She said, indignantly.
"...here we go with detective L again..." Sighed Gevanni, rolling his eyes.
Misa snorted at Halle's outburst. She always found it funny how Halle was so business-like, yet when it came to L she would get star-struck and turn into an absolute fan girl. Misa was convinced that if Halle could have L's autograph, she'd frame it on her wall and admire it every single day. He was like her personal idol or something.
"I'm sorry. I'm being tactless. It's just...I really want to meet him someday..." She said pitifully, earning yet another eye-roll from Gevanni. "Anyway, so this whole thing was detective L's doing?"
"Yep" Said Misa. "I literally woke up and saw the message from Watari 10 minutes before he raided the place. Apparently he was planning to have me sent to a fake quarantine location where he would meet me..."
"That's actually pretty clever." Gevanni pointed out. "Even the ICPO wouldn't have the authority over someone quarantined due to public health issues. When you think about it, it's a pretty smart way to kidnap someone because if a person goes missing because they're 'quarantined,' people stop asking questions and no one investigates."
"And that's why he's a legend..." Chimed Halle wistfully.
"Alright, I'll give him brownie points for creativity, but he still failed." Said Gevanni, crossing his arms.
"Wait a minute, this means he knows that Misa is the dark-haired woman. Did you tell him?!" Asked Halle, glaring at Gevanni. He immediately got on the defensive.
"Of course not. It's like I said to you before, he assigned me to a new mission. I'm following some other agent now." He explained. Halle continued to stare him down, but eventually she relaxed again.
"Alright, I believe you." She looked at Misa, noticing that she was curled up, caressing Mihael's face with a sad stare.
"Are you OK?" Halle asked her.
"Yeah..." Misa responded feebly.
Halle wasn't the least bit convinced but if Misa didn't want to tell her what was bothering her, then she would respect that.
The young mother frowned as she stroked her son's hair. How she wished L could see him. When she read Watari's message warning her that L was on his way, her heart leaped. Part of her wanted to stay. Ever since she gave birth, all she wanted was to see that stupid panda, to introduce his son to him, and see the look of a proud father on his face. But that was just a silly hope that she had. From the moment that he found out he was going to be a father, L refused to care for their son. For all she knew, he would try to take her and make her leave Mihael behind and she could never risk that. Yet in spite of that, her heart still clenched at the thought of not being able to see him, especially when he was so close.
'I still love him, and probably always will' She thought miserably. She curled up further into herself.
Halle looked at her sad friend and got an idea.
"Oh, hey, maybe this will cheer you up. Look!" She said, taking out the large lollipop that the hazmat guy gave to her. She held it out, offering it to Misa.
"What's that?" She asked, sitting up on the bed.
"One of the hazmat men gave it to me on his way out. He was kind of weird, not like the others..."
"What?" Misa's eyes were shining with the realization that this might be a gift from L. She took the lollipop and unwrapped it. It wasn't a lollipop at all. At the end of the stem was a large, magnificent strawberry covered in chocolate. She nearly cried out of joy. It was a present from him!
"Oh wow! He sent me this, it's definitely for me, he knows how much I crave these!" Said Misa. Halle's face was priceless.
"WHAT? So I did meet him! I met him and I talked to him and he talked back!" She proclaimed. "I think my life is complete. I can die happy now." She said with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Oh give me a break will ya?" Said Gevanni, crossing his arms.
Misa ate the strawberry heartily, enjoying its sweetness and the sentiment behind it. Just knowing that it came from her love was enough to make it the best chocolate-covered strawberry she'd ever had.
"Yum...your dad has great taste in strawberries, Mello" She said to the baby lying on the bed. "This was a good one!" She said cheerfully.
Halle and Gevanni looked at her, amused by how much that one strawberry cheered her up.
"Well, I'm glad that helped. Should we get going?" Asked Halle. Misa looked at her and held a finger up.
"Wait! I have to call Watari first. He said that I should call him as soon as you arrived, but I forgot, so I'll do it now." Said Misa.
Halle and Gevanni waited as she dialed the number. Misa talked with the old man for a few minutes, assuring him that everything was fine, and that she and the baby got out alright. She thanked him and then passed the phone over to Halle, who seemed surprised that he wanted to speak to her.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Hello. So I understand that you may have met with L. Did he give you anything?"
"Yeah, actually."
"...and was it edible?"
"Uh, yes. He gave me a strawberry covered in chocolate. What's up?"
"And did you eat it?"
"No, but Misa did. Was that bad?"
The old man sighed. "Please put me on speakerphone, there is something you should all hear."
Halle did as he asked.
"Please listen very carefully. As Misa knows, I'm an inventor and I'm responsible for coming up with a lot of the technology that L uses to solve his cases. One of the projects that I had been working on for a while was a new type of tracker that could be ingested by a human and once it's in their digestive system, it would interact with their stomach fluids and activate, giving off a signal that broadcasts that person's location."
Misa swallowed nervously. She didn't like where this was going.
"...Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stabilize it to the point where it wouldn't completely disintegrate inside a person's stomach. However...a few weeks ago, L asked me for the prototypes, along with all their documentation. It seemed he planned to dabble into biotechnology to complete them, which he did. I thought he planned to use them in a new case he'd taken but I was mistaken. I'm certain he put one of the trackers inside that strawberry. It's completely harmless to your health, but once it activates, it will be nearly impossible to remove without surgery. Misa, I suggest that you regurgitate that right away." Said the old man gravely.
Misa paled and held her neck, looking as though she'd just ingested poison.
"I knew it was too good to be true! He tricked me! L never does anything romantic, he fooled me and I fell right into that one, I'm such an idiot, I should have thrown out that stupid strawberry!" She rambled. Her ruckus startled Mihael, causing him to start to whimper and squirm like he often did before launching into a crying session. Realizing what she'd done, Misa immediately hovered over him and picked him up. She looked at him in the eyes.
"Your dad is evil, don't ever be like him." She pouted and kissed him. The baby made unintelligible sounds at his mother and reached out for her face. Misa hugged him.
"Alright, Stephen, watch him" Said Halle, taking Mihael from Misa and depositing him back on the bed. "You can handle that, right?"
Gevanni looked at the baby uncertainly and then nodded his head. This most certainly wasn't how he envisioned the rest of his night.
"And you need to go get rid of that thing before it settles into your stomach" Halle told Misa. The young mother grimaced in distaste. "Go, and I'll figure out what to do from here." The older woman said seriously. The door to the bathroom clicked shut behind Misa. Meanwhile, Halle went to the balcony to make a phone call.
"So while I'm on baby watch, and she's in the bathroom puking her guts out, what will you be doing?" Asked Gevanni. Halle sighed and turned to him.
"I'm calling the higher-ups to ask for backup, which by the way, I've gotten none for this whole mission. They literally shoved this girl into my life and said "Here! Keep her safe, and don't let her out of your sight!" I love her like a sister, she's great, but they never told me that she was being followed by L and while I'm flattered they would entrust me with this mission, there's no way I can hold my own any longer against L." She said honestly. "The ICPO will hear about this, L or no L, this has gone far enough and it needs to end."
...
L looked out the window of his hotel room. He felt light and almost giddy with excitement and relief. He'd found Misa at last, he was 100% sure of it. Even though she somehow managed to leave the apartment before he had the chance to see her, the hair he found on the bedroom floor proved it. As usual, he'd planned ahead and brought the bugged strawberry, her favorite, just in case she hid or escaped. Now it was only a matter of time before his tracker finished the rest of the work.
He walked over to his laptop and refreshed it, waiting for the tracker signal that would reveal where Misa ran off to. She and their baby. Judging by the infant toys and clothes he saw in the apartment, there was no doubt that he had a son. L crouched down and settled himself in front of the laptop, biting his thumb, waiting. It felt weird knowing that he had a child, but along with the weirdness, he felt...happy, and eager to meet him, and jittery with nerves. He didn't know what to do once he met his son, or even what to expect.
'Maybe he'll cry when he sees me, but maybe he won't...I wonder if children that young can recognize their parents...' He thought, his eyes still glued to the computer screen. His phone rang, startling him. It was Watari.
"L"
"Watari, I found her!" He announced. "I've almost won. It should only be a few more minutes and I'll know exactly where she is. Both of them."
"You did?" He asked, in a strained voice.
"Yes, I did. I raided Halle Bullook's apartment with a Hazmat Control team. Misa left just before I arrived, but regardless, I found some hair samples inside the apartment and when I analyzed them and ran them through, I found no match."
"No match?" Said Watari, confused.
"Yes, and that is very good because the ICPO took down all of Misa's records from all databases and made them highly classified. So no match means that it doesn't belong to anyone, except someone so highly protected by the ICPO that their records are off-the-record, if that makes any sense...and that Halle Bullook has been housing this person, which naturally, could only be Misa" He said all in one breath. Watari could tell that L was excited to have found her. It pained him to have to burst him out of his high.
"And..." L continued "I have a son." He said, smiling.
He clicked the refresh button on the laptop. Still no signal.
"Everything's perfect, now all I need is for this signal to come on and then I'll go over there, apologize to Misa wholeheartedly, and we can all move on with our lives." He finished.
"I see...congratulations." Said the old man.
"Thank you."
"But we have a problem, L."
"Would that problem be the ICPO? I anticipated that they might get involved so I made preparations."
"Did you now?" Said a completely different voice over the phone, chilling L.
"...Watari?"
"No, try again." Said the voice, and it sounded displeased. L knew that voice.
"Ferraro." He said.
"Yes, I've been listening in on your little conversation and I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I'm not impressed. You messed with one of my agents, had her followed and her house raided. You were right to expect me to get involved. This will not be overlooked."
L said nothing.
"You ignored my warnings and now I'm forced to take action against you." Said Ferraro. "Right now, we have Watari in custody and we raided a few of your hideouts, the Kira Taskforce Headquarters included. Let's just say that when you go back there, you won't find much left."
"Watari, is this true?"
"It is. I was there when they burnt down the Taskforce Headquarters." Said Watari seriously.
L was unconcerned about the headquarters building, it was just a place after all. He had so much more than that now. He was going to get Misa back and their son, and then Watari. It didn't matter how many of his buildings Ferraro burnt to the ground.
"...that's not all, though." Said Ferraro with a hint of malice. L listened carefully. Watari spoke next.
"They know about Wammy's House" Said the old man mournfully. "They're threatening to burn down Wammy's House."
"...what?" Asked L, taken aback. "Ferraro. Killing innocent children is unbecoming of an ICPO president. I find it hard to believe that the other representatives are willing to taint their conscience with the blood of orphans." He said sternly.
"Oh, they actually encourage it. You see, detective L, the ICPO has never trusted you. What's more, you became an enemy of Interpol the moment you acted against us and what better way to eliminate an enemy than to destroy his legacy? An orphanage full of successors to L...sounds like a place full of future traitors and enemies of the ICPO to me. Best to put an end to that gibberish quickly."
L was silent for a moment, thinking. Unfortunately there wasn't any way for him to get the orphans out fast enough without attracting attention. Surely Wammy's House was under heavy surveillance by now and any movement on his part to try to relocate anyone might not end well. In fact, any way he cut it, at least some children casualties were inevitable.
"Alright, so what are your terms? You wouldn't have told me all of that unless you planned to negotiate" Said L, though he could already guess what Ferraro wanted.
"Leave my agent and my detective alone." He said firmly.
"Detective? Misa? You can't be serious." L said, frowning. Was that what this was all about, Misa offered herself as a detective for the ICPO? With that premise in mind, it made sense why the ICPO was being so protective of her, but from a detective's standpoint it made no sense at all. Were they trying to get her killed? Misa was thrifty sometimes, and she had heart, but she was no detective. She was also a well-known person, easily recognized in public, and most importantly, hundreds of people know that she has ties to L. Anyone trying to find him would try to use her, so she's practically a sitting duck. What were the representatives even thinking?
'Idiots...all of them.' Thought L bitterly.
"As always, very shrewd of you to have caught that. I always had my doubts about your interest in Misa Amane being strictly professional, but now I think it's pretty clear why you're after her so persistently. And I will tell you right now, forget her. Forget the kid. They're not yours anymore. And contrary to what you may think, I actually like you, detective L, I really do. So I want to offer you an alternative to the child slaughter and world wide manhunt for your head."
L was numb, his mind racing to find a loophole, a silver lining that he could grasp and exploit to his benefit.
"I'm listening" Said the detective, gripping his knees tightly.
"I've arranged for a private jet to depart for England later tonight. You will be on it, and only after I receive confirmation of your arrival in Winchester, will I release Watari and lift all threats on the orphanage. Trust me when I say that failure to comply isn't in your best interest or that of Watari and those orphans. So what will it be?"
L's heart dropped and he was at a loss for words. He stared blankly at the screen in front of him, unable to think of a way around this ultimatum. He absentmindedly clicked on the refresh button on his computer and a small blue dot appeared on a map. The signal. L did not react to it at first.
"I...I need half an hour to think. Is it alright if I give you my answer in half an hour?" Asked L. Ferraro thought about it for a moment but then he agreed.
The dial tone went dead and L's hand dropped with the phone still in it. He curled further into himself, looking at the blue dot on the screen helplessly. He wanted to go to his family but that may spell death for Watari and the orphans. He sat there staring at the computer screen, feeling torn. Moments later, the dot started moving, and fast. His eyes followed the dot as it darted across the city through uncharted routes not marked explicitly on the map. He frowned and brought his thumb to his lips as he looked on.
'How is she doing that? The only way that she could go that fast and bypass all roads is if she's somehow been shot through a tunnel at high-speeds, which doesn't make any sense.' He thought, baffled. Then as quickly as the dot had begun to move, it stopped at a location just on the outskirt of town. L made up his mind and decided to go. If he was quick he could meet with Misa, explain everything to her, apologize, and promise to return to her as soon as he secured Watari and the orphans. That would leave him with enough time to call Ferraro back.
L got on his feet and called for a taxi.
...
Meanwhile, at the hotel, Misa emerged from the bathroom looking ruffled and displeased.
"Ugh, that was foul. I threw up my whole dinner with that too. I hope it got rid of it..." She said, patting her empty stomach. "But I guess there's no good way to tell if it's gone or not..."
"It's alright. We might not even need to worry about that anymore." Said Halle. She had a serious look on her face and Misa immediately sensed that something had changed.
"How come?" She asked.
"I made some phone calls while you were busy and the ICPO is finally interfering. I don't know any details but the president of the ICPO himself is making sure that L doesn't bother us anymore..."
"Bother you?" Interjected Gevanni. "Sorry if I'm butting in but I think he has every right to. That's his child too as far as I know" He said from where he sat on a chair by the bed. Halle diverted her gaze from either of them.
"I know...Sorry, that's just how they put it. I'm not sure what they meant but regardless, we're being relocated to a different city." Said Halle quietly. Misa looked lost as she lowered herself onto the bed.
"What are they going to do Halle? I don't want them to hurt him!" She said firmly. "This isn't worth it if they hurt him, I'd rather see him!"
"No, no it's nothing like that, I'm sure. The ICPO doesn't operate like the mafia, they wouldn't threaten him, they just have their own way of doing things." Halle said. Gevanni looked pointedly at Misa.
"I wouldn't be too sure. I've seen a lot of crazy schemes perpetrated even by the FBI." He told Misa. "You want to know what I think you should do? Here-" He tossed Misa his work phone "-call him and find out yourself. Hell if you don't want to see him ever, then at least tell him. I work for the guy and I think he really wants to find you so if you don't want to see him, then at least save him the trouble of running around the globe looking for you." He said.
Misa held the phone gingerly in her hands. She stared at it, lost in thought.
'Tell L that I never want to see him again? Is that even true?' She asked herself. 'I feel like I'm dying just thinking about doing that...I can't. At least not now, maybe someday I'll be stronger and I'll get over him. But now, I miss him too much, I want him back too much...it just hurts to even try to do something like that...'
She looked at the phone as her vision blurred with tears that were pooling in her eyes. This whole situation hurt her more than she could say. She stood up, wiped her eyes, and gave the phone back to Gevanni, thanking him for trying to help. She turned to Halle with a new look of determination.
"Alright, when will they come for us?" She asked.
"Tonight." Said Halle.
...
L arrived at the location where the signal was coming from. He grabbed his laptop and hopped out of the taxi. He looked around and saw nothing but a lonely avenue with a large stream of water on one side that ran under a footbridge. There were no buildings there, but on the other side, along the avenue, were a few small shops. He walked around and looked closely at each passerby. There weren't many people there and out of those few, none of them could have been Misa, even in disguise. L sat cross-legged on the ground facing the stream and opened his laptop anxiously.
'Where is she? I couldn't have gotten the wrong place...this is definitely it.' He thought as he looked at the blinking dot on the computer screen. There was no mistaking that this was the place. L closed the laptop and looked around again, getting worried. The last hint of sunlight was quickly dying over the horizon and he knew that he didn't have a lot of time. He needed to find her now, before he had to leave.
'Where are you Misa?' He asked himself. He stood up and walked to the bridge, looking underneath just in case but there was nothing there. He kicked a few stones around and waited another minute. Then he walked back up to the footbridge to get a better vantage point. His body tensed as he caught a glimpse of blonde hair and a petite young woman coming out of a shop across the avenue. His heart nearly leaped out of his chest. He ran closer to the blonde woman but just as he was about to cross the avenue, he saw that it wasn't her. The blonde woman that wasn't Misa unhooked a bicycle from its rack, mounted it, and then rode away as L watched her go. He sighed and turned back to the bridge while taking out his cell phone.
'Only five minutes...I don't understand why I haven't seen her yet...' He thought frustrated. Then it hit him. He walked over to the footbridge and crossed it again. This time, he observed something in the stream's current. It appeared that it didn't all flow from one direction. Sure enough, there was a small pipe protruding slightly from the ground under the bridge that added to the stream's current.
'That's right...this is where treated water from the city goes...' He realized. L exhaled and hung his head low, leaning forward on the bridge's border. 'And that's why the signal was moving so strangely before. The tracker was following the path of the sewage system and ended up in this stream. Misa was never here to begin with...'
He let the heart-sinking realization settle before he ran his hands over his tousled hair. He'd never been so frustrated in his life. The sun finally went down and L knew that he was out of time. He shook his head and scoffed at his own stupidity. This whole thing was his fault, and it was because of his stubbornness and refusal to admit that he'd been a jerk to her that Misa left him. Now in a couple of hours he was going to be on a plane to Winchester, England, and who knew when he would see Misa again.
L crouched into his familiar pose and put his head down, trying not to think anymore. But of course, his mind just kept replaying all the things he'd done to Misa that he wished he could take back or at least apologize for. Then there was his son, whom he had hoped to meet before leaving. Now he might never meet him at all. At that moment L felt an emptiness unlike he'd ever felt before, like something in him was broken, and he desperately wanted to fix it. He stayed like that for a while, waiting for Ferraro's call, resigned. When the call came, L picked it up and spoke in an even, controlled tone.
"You win. I'm not going to chase Misa any more. And I'll leave for England tonight." He said, and hung up immediately after.
Even after the call, L stayed on the bridge a little longer, just looking at the water flowing. He buried his hands in his pockets and got ready to leave when a question popped up in his mind.
'How did the tracker end up in the sewage?' He wondered. The tracker did activate, which means that it must have come into contact with stomach acids, which means that Misa most likely ate it. Then how did she know to get rid of it? The tracker was as small as a grain of sand, practically untraceable, and there was no way that she could have known about it...unless, someone told her. L's eyes widened, knowing full well what this all meant.
'Could it be?...it would explain how Misa was able to anticipate Gevanni at the airport, how she knew about him spying on her, how she knew to get out of the apartment in time for the raid, and how she knew about the tracker...that has to be it...' He thought, shocked. 'Wammy...told her...'
It appeared that Gevanni was not the only one who'd betrayed him.