Chapter 33: Kidnapping IX - Unexpected Meeting

Belevere tapped her feet as she waited for the tram. The sound of the tip of her boots hitting the ground seemed to echo in the dark. She’d already waited for over ten minutes. Usually she could just pass the time, but she was too worried for that right now.

Every so often, she’d check her comms again, staring at the still dot of the tracking program.

The dot was in the middle of the campus, somehow right in the middle of a river. From the look of the tracker’s history, an hour has yet to pass since Annabelle was kidnapped. The previous transmission had been back at their dorm.

Besides, she had detected traces of the drugs that the kidnappers used in her own bloodstream. The breakdown process suggested the drug had been administered less than forty minutes ago.

“Ugh. If I knew this would happen, I’d have set it to send its location more frequently,” she lamented. Unfortunately, the transmitter in Annabelle’s necklace only transmitted once per hour. Since it only sent signals and didn’t receive any, it wouldn’t be possible to change how it worked.

Once per hour had been enough for her a few years ago, but now that Annabelle’s been kidnapped, the frequency was way too low. She had to take into account the device’s battery life when she commissioned the necklace—something that low could send out that powerful of a signal too frequently.

It was a necessary trade-off. 

“Come on, come on,” she muttered, willing for the tram to come even a second sooner. Since the dot was in the middle of a river, the kidnappers might be making their getaway on a boat. Boats were really fast and if they got out far enough, there was a chance that they will go somewhere with no signal. 

If they did, she'd lose her only clue on where Annabelle was and that'd be really bad, so now she was heading to the academy’s administration building.

Being the workaholic that Director Saquest was, he’d definitely still be there. Everyone knew that man ate and slept in his office.

A bright line shined in the distance as the tram came flying over the tracks, drifting to a stop in front of her. Before the door even fully opened, Belevere jumped aboard and held the ‘close door’ button.

She didn’t even know if the button worked, but after a few seconds, the doors finally began to close at an annoying slow and smooth rate.

When the doors closed with a low thunk, she finally sighed in exhaustion. The stress was really getting to her. She staggered over to a random seat and sat down, holding her head. She didn’t notice anyone in the car with her when a voice suddenly sounded right next to her.

“You seem to be in a hurry.”

“Wahh!” Belevere screamed, leaping into the air, dodging behind one of the poles on the tram. Her outburst scared the other person as well, and he was leaping back as if she had hit him. “A-Alecto? What are you doing here?”

The person that had scared her was Alecto Maxime, their year’s former number two. Now he was sitting somewhere outside of the top sixteen due to not qualifying for the round robin tournament. What was someone like him doing on a tram in the middle of the night?

Alecto squinted through his glasses at her. Once he was assured that she wasn’t going to scream again, he eased back into his seat and cleared his throat. “I could say the same for you, Belevere. Why did you scream anyway?”

“I didn’t see you. Had something on my mind,” she said. “Sorry for scaring you.” 

Searching through her recent memories, she remembered that she did see someone on the tram. It was just she had been too busy worrying about Annabelle to register Alecto properly. As she sat down, she smacked her face to refocus.

Worrying wouldn’t do anything. If Annabelle was here with her, she probably put on her usual strict face and tell her to calm down. The only thing she accomplished from worrying was stressing herself out—it helped no one. It wouldn’t bring Annabelle back to her.

A little calmer now, she turned to look at Alecto. Like her, he was no longer wearing his school uniform. Instead, he wore a wrinkled dress shirt and dress pants, looking like he had just gotten out of a party. His clothes even smelled faintly of alcohol, though Alecto looked completely sober.

“When was the last time you had a drink?” she asked.

Alecto shrugged and looked at his comms. The gesture brought up a holographic watch. It was 4:12 a.m. 

“I’d say about five hours. I didn’t have too much to drink—it was mostly my friends that drank near me,” he explained. “My turn to ask. What are you doing here so late... or early?”

Belevere thought about how much she should reveal. Finally, she settled on revealing the bare minimum to each question Alecto asked. “I’m heading to Director Saquest’s office right now.”

“Why?”

“It’s my turn. What are you doing?”

Even if Alecto had gone partying, he should be home in his dorm by now. At least, he shouldn’t be all the way out here riding in this tram.

Alecto didn’t press her for an explanation. Unlike her, Alecto answered her question without even thinking. He had nothing to hide.

“Today is my last day here. I’m going back to my father’s tomorrow, so I'm just riding around the academy one last time.” He sighed and looked out the window. “I can’t believe I might never see this place again...”

“Ahhh.” Belevere nodded sympathetically. Deep down, though, she couldn’t relate. To her this was just another location. More to the point, she couldn’t wait to leave. She’d do so immediately after she and Annabelle bought their new house.

The thought of Annabelle who was missing put a heavy weight on her heart that she almost didn’t catch Alecto’s question. 

“Oh...sorry. I’m going over to Director Saquest’s place. I’m going to ask him if I could borrow one of the academy guards’ mechs.”

Alecto’s eyebrows shot up. “Hm? Why?”

Belevere almost answered him when she realized how sensitive the answer was. 

The only reason why she wanted to borrow a mech was because she didn’t have her own and she was going to need one to catch up to a boat.

No matter how fast a boat was, it wasn’t faster than an aerial mech. Any other kind of vehicle was either too restricted, like a car, or she didn’t know how to operate, like a plane.

But should she tell Alecto? What would be the benefits and detriments? There were no benefits, nor were there detriments.

Telling Alecto didn’t matter—it wasn’t like he was with the kidnappers. Their meeting had been pure chance. But telling him didn’t help her either. Alecto had his own problems, and it wasn’t as if he was particularly close to her or Annabelle. 

Although it didn’t matter if Alecto knew, Belevere decided to answer him honestly anyway. She couldn’t bear the stress of Annabelle’s fate alone. She will not fail to save Annabelle, but if—just if—she did, she won’t be the only one to know.

No. Alecto will live with the knowledge as well.

“Fine. I’ll tell you.”

Belevere looked up, meeting Alecto’s eyes with a grim smile. Alecto’s face changed at her look, the disinterested look fading from his eyes as if he knew something big was coming. 

He shifted nervously, but Belevere wasn’t going to let him get away this late into the game. He will know the truth, one way or another.

“The truth is, Anna has been kidnapped,” she said. “While we were asleep, someone came into her room and took her.”

Alecto gasped. “Who would do such a thing? Wait, her mother is Vesmelda of the Florent Group, right? Is she going to be a hostage against her?”

Belevere stared at the young man in front of her as if he was spouting drivel. “What?”

“What?”

With a start, Belevere remembered that except for her and Annabelle, no one knew of the animosity they had for Vesmelda. To everyone else, Annabelle’s relationship with her birth mother was no different from that of any other daughter to their mother. 

Today, another person will join their ranks. 

“No. I suspect that Vesmelda was the one to kidnap Anne.”

“Why?!”

“Because Anne is special to Vesmelda. She had been brainwashing and grooming Anne for years before Anne came here. Now Vesmelda wants her back.”

Belevere only hesitated for a brief moment before she summarized the things that Annabelle told her. The growing horror on Alecto’s face reminded her of her own reactions.

To mech pilots like them who focused so much of their identities around their ability to pilot mechs, anything that might take that away from them was taboo. Piloting while underage was one of those taboos.

“That’s horrible,” Alecto muttered as she finished. “How could she do that to her own daughter?”

“That woman is twisted. That’s why I have to prevent Annabelle from falling into her hands again at all costs. Now that you know everything, I guess it’s okay to tell you that the real reason I’m going there is to have the director mobilize the Academy Guard. The borrowed mech is just a bonus since I want to save Annabelle myself.”

Alecto nodded numbly. “I understand. And... I want to help. I’ll come with you to visit the director.”

“You will?” Belevere had not expected that. 

Alecto was overly nice at times to his classmates, but she hadn’t expected him to go this far. Did he and Annebelle have a special relationship she didn’t know about?

Belevere couldn’t remember any hints of it. As far as she could tell, Annabelle and Alecto were normal acquaintances—friends at best.

“Yes,” he said. “While you may be a knight, you are still currently powerless. I have my father’s support, so maybe I could provide an extra push to convince the director to agree to your demands.”

Belevere looked away. She knew well how powerless she was. An expert candidate without even a mech to her name! She’d never heard of something so ridiculous before. 

Even though she had received offers to join the military of a mercenary outfit in return for her own custom mech, she had rejected them all. All of the offers had too many restrictions and she prized her freedom and time spent with Annabelle too much to regret not taking any of the offers.

However, surely the title of knight still counted for something.