Chapter Thirty-One: Hong Kong Tangles:

-Ju-Oh-Cho, Japan-

Watari returned to his lab from picking up lunch to discover a nasty surprise. His computer gave him the blue screen of death when he walked in.

“Oh, no, no, no!” he shouted, running towards his laptop. Watari managed to save his computer and most of the data just in time. He sighed in relief.

“Whew,” the scientist said. “That was close.” After checking his data again, he could relax. Sadly that didn’t last when he noticed a note icon on his desktop. What’s this? Against his better judgement, he clicked on the file. A large siren noise blasted his ears loud enough to knock him to the floor.

“Damn it!” Watari shouted, covering his ears. The siren drew the attention of three more people.

“What’s going on here?!” Tatsumi shouted. The scientist turned his head. The secretary stood with April and Kyosuke in the doorway.

“Mute it!” Watari yelled.

“What?!” Kyosuke yelled back.

“Mute it! Mute my laptop! Hurry!”

“Right!” Kyosuke ran to the laptop and hit mute. Watari pulled himself to his feet, panting.

“Thank you, Kyo-san,” he said.

“Hey, Watari-san,” his assistant spoke up. “There’s something written in this document here.”

“What?” the scientist asked. He, April, and Tatsumi walked over to the laptop. Watari narrowed his eyes.

“What the… huh?” he asked. “This is as far as you go, friend?”

“What does that mean?” Tatsumi asked. The color drained from Watari’s face.

“Move aside!” he said. The scientist pushed Kyosuke out of the way before the assistant could ask.

“Boss?” Kyosuke asked. Watari clicked around at his data on his laptop. When he came to the files on Baby Kirika, the laptop shut down.

“What just happened?” April asked.

“I knew it,” her boss mumbled under his breath. All eyes fell upon him. Watari pressed his lips together as he prepared an explanation.

----------

Watari gathered Tatsumi, Kyosuke, and April around a table while he ran virus scan on his laptop. The scientist sighed, pressing his hand to his forehead.

“I should’ve seen this coming,” he said.

“What’s going on?” Tatsumi asked. Watari lowered his shoulders.

“I was looking into more information on that pharmaceutical company in Hong Kong,” Watari explained. “I did find a lead.”

“And?” April asked.

“You saw what happened,” the scientist said. “I think I was hacked.” He sat back in his chair. “Someone’s going to extreme lengths to hide this pharmaceutical online.” Tatsumi was about to speak up when Watari’s cell phone rang.

“Excuse me,” the blonde scientist said. He pulled his phone out of his coat. The others watched as he disappeared into the hall.

“Hello?” Watari asked as he closed the door.

“Drop the case on the key or your laptop won’t be our only target!” a voice hissed on the other line. Watari became confused upon hearing this.

“Who is this? What key?” he asked.

“You’ve got twenty-four hours to shut down your research!” The other line went silent. Watari stared at his phone. What the hell?

--------

Meanwhile, a young Chinese woman knocked on Tsuzuki and Anna’s front door. She paced around, biting her lower lip.