Poisoned Rationality

January 26th.



There was no light in the back of the lorry. A patch of it spilled through from the cabin, sunlight forced its way on a torturous route through ruined walls and windows to illuminate a tiny section right up by the inner partition. Only a thin layer of metal and a small square of glass separated Takada from her kidnapper. Mello, a man whom she had been warned was the most dangerous of their enemies; who glared at her now through the reflection in the rearview mirror, his face made all the more repulsive for the burn which transected it.



Terror and despair overwhelmed her, but Takada knew what to do. It was either lean into that fragment of light in order to see the Death Note or else wait for him to disembark He would see her. He might get to her in time and then what? Takada was sobbing as she wrote, tears splashing on the the note in her hand. Her fingers trembled over the paper. Partway through, she glanced up and he was watching her. He knew. The look of horror and fury on his face was enough to freeze the bones of her. Takada turned her back on him and rushed, writing, desperately trying to calculate the time it would take for him to run around the lorry, unlock the door and shoot her. Would it take forty seconds to do that?



Clutching the paper in her hands, Takada threw herself behind the motorcycle. It might be enough of a shield to save her. Forty seconds to stay alive. That was all. Maybe it would be enough. Her terrified senses supplied the information that Mello had not left the cabin. The countdown was on, but he was just sitting there, head bowed over something. He was not dead. The seconds dragged like hours. Each one a punctuation in eternity. Surely now, he had left it too late. Surely now he could not reach her in time.



Takada watched his body jolt, then slump. His wide open eyes glaring accusation, then losing their emotion. She screamed.



Less than forty minutes later, another woman was there. Racing towards the inferno as if that could save anyone trapped inside it. Hal screamed out, "Mello!" Then stopped, hopeless against the great heat. The whole church was ablaze, only its steeple cross too high as yet to catch alight. It looked like a shred of Heaven rising over Hell. "Oh my God! Mello!"



"Hal!" A streak of darkness detached itself from the shadows behind the outhouses and fled towards her car. "Drive!"



The woman wanted to cry with relief, but years with the FBI had schooled her in action before sentiment. She dashed back to the car, pulling away before she had even properly closed the door. On the back seat, Mello lay, covering his face with his hair and arms. As they reached the track, he rolled, fitting his slender form into the floor well, hiding as best he could from the streetlamps and the searching looks of close passing vehicles. They passed none until they were on the highway. Hal put her foot down, speeding now there was tarmac for it to be safe to do so. She opened her mouth to ask the questions that beseiged her, but Mello spoke first. "I need your phone."



"Are you injured?"



"I need your phone." He yelled. Gulping, Hal handed it over. The lights strobed across the backseat and she could see little of him even knowing he was there. The phone reached his ear, but he didn\'t speak into it. "No answer."



"Your accomplice?"



"Yes." Mello let out a long breath. "Where are we?"



"On the highway, heading away from the city." She sensed it was time to ask again. "Are you injured?"



"No." Tension dripped from his tone. She heard him dialling again. "The bitch wrote \'ea\'. She spelt my name wrong."



"What?"



"Why won\'t he fucking answer the phone?" Mello screamed, kicking the seat. "Fucking answer the phone."



Hal switched on her radio. A constant round of different voices reported from their positions. The blaze had been discovered and experienced speculation suggested no survivors. Shock rushed through the professionals, coming out in black humour or silences. Lady Takada was dead. Mello was dead. Then the important information. "Still in pursuit. Heading left." Another voice added. "The rebel drives like a maniac! Someone is going to get killed!"



Mello swallowed hard. "They are talking about... my accomplice?"



"Yes." Hal flicked a switch. "B team, can you give me a location?" A city street was named, then an expletive. "Report please."



"The rebel has just driven down the central plaza. The car has taken some damage, we\'re sure to catch him at the other end." There was an almighty screeching of brakes, rubber on tarmac and then a crash.



Hal replied sharply, "B team, what is going on?" So many voices tried to tell her that feedback whistled through the system and no-one made sense. She caught sight of Mello\'s hand, gesturing wildly between the seats and flicked off her receiver. "What is it, Mello?"



"What kind of damage has the car taken?"



She opened her communication but before she could ask, a male voice roared in frustration. "The rebel has broken through. Repeat the rebel has broken through." There was a battery of gunfire and the protest of more brakes. "Ma\'am, he drives like someone on a suicide mission. We would all give up our lives for the Lady Takada, but this is..." Whatever it was went unheard, lost under the sickening sound of a high speed crash.



It took a few seconds before Hal was able to command coherency from her teams. When the report came, it was a new voice entirely. "Ma\'am, we have the car." In the footwell, Mello sucked in a breath. "The rebel has escaped on foot. We are still searching." In the background, more gunshots from several firearms simultaneously.



Hal was calm. "Keep me informed." She flicked to one-way, to hear but not be heard. "Mello, it would be too strange for me not to be there. I have to turn back."



"Yes." The blond agreed. "You shouldn\'t go missing now. Hal, who\'s side are you on?"



"We\'ve been through this. Neither yours or Near\'s. I just want to catch Kira." She spoke stonily, eyes searching for the sliproad that would turn them around. "I cannot be seen with you." On the passenger seat, her laptop sparked into illuminous life. A huge letter \'N\' stark in black against the white. "It\'s Near." Now worry creased her forehead, her eyes staring at the road. "Shit!" Her hand hovered over the keyboard, conflicting instincts telling her both to answer and not to answer. The flashing ceased and the \'N\' faded. On the horizon, the flames were back in view.



Mello made a decision. "Hal, take me back to the City."



Her eyes swivelled towards the back of the passenger seat. "What? That\'s too dangerous!"



"Do as I say." The blond man growled. "I need a phone though."



Hal glared, but opened the glove compartment with one hand searching inside. Her gaze flitting from it to the road ahead. Swarms of emergency service vehicles screamed by with sirens flaring. She found what she was looking for. "Here." Hal threw the telephone onto the backseat and it was retrieved with a grasping gloved hand. The other was returned, clattering against her laptop on the seat beside her. "He won\'t have your number." Hal knew that she stated the obvious. "How will you call him without the ring tone giving away his position?" There was silence from the footwell. "Let me try to persuade Near to help you."



"No!" Mello yelled with such fury that Hal stiffened in her seat. When he spoke again, it was more softly. "I\'m sorry. Hal, I would be grateful if you would tell no-one, including Near, that I survived that."



She nodded. "How did you survive that? What happened out there?"



"Takada had a piece of Death Note, but she spelt my name wrong." Mello sounded a little shrill. Hal was reminded that, for all his genius and terrifying aspect, he was only twenty years old. Barely a man, only just emerging from his teenage years. She had never considered herself to be particularly maternal, but she wanted to comfort the child that she sensed in him now. Then his face emerged, peering around the seat and the look in his eyes belied all notion of the innocent in her mind. "I played dead and learned a lot."



Hal shuddered. Ahead the city was apparent in high rise buildings and increased traffic. "What should I do?"



"Pull into that lay-by and let me out."



"You have no coat." It sounded ridiculous even as she said it. But the air was cold outside and his arms were bare. "You will look conspicuous."



"Well, there\'s not a lot I can do about that!" Mello snapped back. "Drop me off now or the CCTV cameras will catch you doing it."



Hal inhaled and pulled over, stopping the car at the kerb. The door opened and Mello stepped onto the pavement. There was a slamming of the rear door, then he dashed away between a garage and a cafe. The woman held her breath, as she pulled into the carpark before the cafe and used her laptop to call Near.