A/N

Happy Easter, my lovely reader-friends!!!

Yes, it took quite a while, and I apologize yet again.

I got back to work a week ago and had to juggle my time between errands and stuff, so please spare me... :-)

To make it up to all of you, I wrote two chapters! Yey!

Here you go...

*****

It was too late when Vee finally found her way out of the crowd because Conan was no longer in sight. She even tried to guess which way he may have gone but there were too many exits available and the chances of her finding him was too low. Finally giving up, she hurried to look for Jordan, instead.

"Venera?" It wasn't even a second after the ring tone sounded when Jordan answered Vee's call. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know," Vee replied quite honestly, unsure how to feel after seeing Conan with her least favorite woman on Earth. "Where are you? I guess we need to talk."

Jordan was a bit skeptical when Vee told him about Conan's presence at the bar, counting on his sharp recollection of faces. He could not remember seeing his brother or anyone that looked like him at the bar where he just came from. But then again, he considered factors like being tipsy and his short encounter with Aya which could possibly cloud his memory.

"I can't think of reasons why my brother would show up here." He told Frank when he called. "And with Aya at that."

"Don't you think it's got something to do with the clues? Your mission." Frank mused. He reminded Jordan how they previously found it a bit untimely that Conan conveniently decided to disappear when the clue-finding mission started. Jordan had refused to entertain the idea of being abandoned, but he really never settled for the older Gallagher son's presumed reason for hiding - to make way for Jordan's image-building as the heir to their family business. The mission to find the truth behind the deaths of the Gallagher patriarch and the Yates men turned out risky and Jordan and Vee could have used all the help they could get, yet Conan decided to hibernate.

"Are you saying that my older brother deliberately left us on this?" Jordan hissed. The idea never crossed his mind, but Frank has a strong point. He had never gotten a single word from Conan since day one of the mission. While they rarely see each other, his sister Alannah, on the other hand, still keeps in touch with him, unlike Conan. He had never thought about what difference it has, since he wanted his family to stay out of trouble.

"Your older sister has a kid," Frank reminded Jordan. "I would understand why you'd prefer if she's out of harm's way whether she's got a powerful husband or not. But your older brother lives alone like you. Why wouldn't he want to help?"

"Somebody has to take over if something ever happened to me," Jordan replied. He felt weird the moment he heard his own words, and he could imagine Frank's face lighting up as though hitting the jackpot. Yes, someone has to take over the family business if and when something happens to him. Conan had always taken care of the family business while he was in the military, living a secret life. It would only make sense and be fair if Conan would end up as the sole heir to the Gallagher Industries. "No... The same would have been applied had the proper hierarchy been followed..."

"That's what I'm saying, Jordan." Frank heaved a meaningful sigh. "Why would the younger brother have to face all the danger instead of the older one?"

"Because I can protect myself," Jordan snapped. He refused to acknowledge Frank's terrible deduction. "Maybe it's best to just move on with the next clues and get this over with."

The latest clue led Jordan and Vee to look for a number of nuclear bomb survivors but they knew that they would have to narrow down the list to one particular person. Based on the clue, they would have to search for a place in Nagasaki where tallow trees grow and where someone who makes puzzle boxes could be found; more importantly, that someone had to be the one who knows the significance of the puzzle box and their overall mission.

It became quite a challenge since there were multiple areas where tallow trees could be found and they had to start asking around for puzzle box makers until they managed to get names.

"Kare wa go-nen mae shibō shita..."

Vee had to turn to Jordan for a translation of what the middle-aged woman just told her. She has her share of names from the list, and she did not have any luck so far. Jordan's list did not lead them anywhere as well since the people they were looking for have either died years ago, or do not have any idea what the clue was all about. The remaining person on the list is their last chance, and Vee felt a bit elated when the woman ushered them in and mentioned some information about the puzzle box.

"She's saying that her grandfather died five years ago," Jordan told Vee. He then continued to converse with the woman in Japanese.

While she was aware that they were engaged in a serious conversation, she couldn't help but get lost in her thoughts while watching Jordan. She was amazed with his skills and found his fluency in multiple languages admirable. His accent and pronunciation could fool and make anyone believe that he was a native speaker. The more she listened, the more she found him attractive.

It seemed like everything was happening in slow motion as Vee stared at Jordan and daydreamed, and she was totally taken aback when Jordan suddenly rose to his feet, seemingly displeased. He stormed out of the receiving area and did not even bother to look back or wait for her. She turned to the woman they were talking to and noticed that she also seemed flustered. There was an uneasy and apologetic look in her eyes.

"Arigatō," she thanked her as she bowed and waved goodbye before hurrying to catch up with Jordan.

"Hey! Jordan!" She had to yell while running down the street when she realized that Jordan had already gone about fifty meters away. She wondered what could have pissed him off to run away that fast. Since she had lost track of time while daydreaming, she was unable to analyze what was inside the puzzle box which the woman showed them back at the house. "Jordan!" She sighed in relief as he finally slowed down upon hearing her voice. "What happened?" She asked when she was already close enough to be heard without having to shout. She tried to read Jordan's facial expression and she felt alarmed when she saw him looking grim and torn, with his normally twinkling eyes now clouded with much anxiety.

"I don't know what to do next," he mumbled. His voice was almost inaudible and Vee had to move closer to hear him. "She can't be serious... No... Her grandfather must have been mistaken..."

"What do you mean?" Vee asked, starting to feel uneasy with the way Jordan was acting. He looked devastated and never had she seen his composure crumble like that. He would usually be calm and cool, not showing even a bit of panic or worry.

Jordan did not give Vee any explanation for his actions and kept mumbling to himself as he searched for his cellphone in his pockets. When he finally found it, he hastily dialled a number and paced back and forth as he waited for the other line to connect, and kicked an unsuspecting rock out of frustration when nobody answered his call.

"Fuck! Fuck!" He suddenly turned and punched the nearby wall so hard that he hurt his knuckles, but did not mind that he was starting to bleed. Vee was horrified and instinctively stepped back.

"Jordan, what's going on?" She shouted, fighting back the tears forming in her eyes. She was starting to get worried. Whatever the Japanese woman told Jordan, it sure was something very bad and unacceptable for him to show such frustration and agony.

"I need to talk to Conan," Jordan told Vee. "I need to clear this up... You said he was at the hotel bar, right? Are you sure it was him? You aren't mistaken?" He looked at Vee with hopeful eyes and his shoulders visibly slumped when Vee slowly nodded. "No, no, no... I'm sure it was a mistake... This is a misunderstanding... It can't be right... It can't be..." He resumed pacing back and forth and blindly punched the rough wall fence again. Fresh blood trickled down his hands and Vee willed herself to find the courage to stop him. She stood against the wall hoping that Jordan would come back to his senses and stop hurting himself. "Venera... I need to see my brother... I need to understand..."

When Vee noticed Jordan's glassy eyes, she felt like the world slowed down. She watched as a drop of tear fell down his cheeks and her world shattered. She did not expect him to break down and never had she imagined to see him ever lose his composure. She had somehow relied on him as her protector, and seeing him confused and devastated made her feel like giving up.

"J-Jordan... Please tell me what's going on..." She softly said, as she carefully approached him. "I need to understand as well. If you can't bear with whatever it is you just found out, maybe I could help you endure it. Let me know what the woman has told you. Please." She cautiously wrapped her arms around Jordan's torso and leaned against his chest. She could feel his heart racing so fast and hard that she feared it would bore a hole through his chest and burst.

Jordan felt like exploding with different emotions but the warmth of Vee's embrace somehow calmed him down. His aching head slowly stopped throbbing and his heartbeat steadily went back to normal. He could now feel the stinging pain of the bruises on his knuckles but he did not mind, because he felt at ease with Vee's arms around him like a protective blanket. He felt more peaceful as they stayed that way for a few while.

"The lady's grandfather..." He whispered when he was finally calm and collected, "he left a clue in the matching puzzle box at his home... It was a letter which had the same initials as my father's plate number... 'F...S...T...' and the last letter's meaning which we haven't found out yet... It seems that he left the clue on the day he died. He was abducted by some Russian-speaking men and was found murdered after a month of search and rescue." He paused and drew a deep, steadying breath. "There was a small cloth wrapped in plastic which was stuck in his throat discovered during the autopsy. When authorities extracted it, they concluded that it must be his last will which he wrote in his own blood and didn't want his abductors to find." There was a confused look in his eyes as he briefly massaged his throbbing temple. "Tanaka Ueno... We need more information about him. We need to know what he really meant when he wrote 'T' from 'F.S.T.' as... traitor."

*****
A/N

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liquidfiredragon