"Hey, this is Haruki Feliano speaking. Clearly, I'm not able to answer your call at the moment, so please leave-
*CLICK!*
With a sigh, Milette places her phone in her clutch, before entering the department building.
"Milette! There you are!"
Looking over, the young woman gives Nia a nervous smile.
"Good morning, Nia."
"Good morning, Milette. Have you gotten into contact with Kazimir recently?"
Milette shakes her head.
"I tried calling him last night to see how he was holding up, but I couldn't get reach him. I do hope he's doing okay, I know how much Khristina means to him."
Nia nods, before pulling out a piece of paper from her pocket.
"I have the address to his house. Captain Uzini told me he's called out of work, but didn't give him an exact time limit of how long he'd be gone. Maybe someone from his neighborhood knows something."
Milette nods, slightly jumping at the sound of her phone ringing.
"Oh, please pardon me. I must take this."
Running back outside, the young woman quickly answers her ringing phone.
"Haruki, what did you do?!"
The young man looks at his phone a bit confused.
"Why're you whisper yelling, Milette? Are you at work?"
"I thought you said, you'd only go after Alexei!"
"And that's what I'm doing. Once Khristina gets auctioned off, they'll no longer be able to track her. Boom, he falls apart, he'll need some type of group support, and that's when I'll convince him to join Merderaé. Simple as can be."
"So then what does Kazimir have to do with this?!" Milette frantically asks, pacing back and forth.
Haruki rolls over to the other side of his bed, picking up a dart.
"Nothing. I just want him gone. The La'rine siblings have been growing a bit too close to him lately. You have to understand, I'm only trying to return the favor that their dad did for us."
The young woman rolls her eyes.
"Well, have you ever thought that maybe none of them don't want to join?"
The young gamer laughs a bit weirdly and Milette raises a brow.
"Ah, Milette. Guess I should be honest with you; I don't really care about Alexei officially joining. He's a nice, vulnerable boy, just like his father. Do you know how much I can get out of him? Once I get rid of Mr. Brent Never-Here-For-Merderaé Domonkos, he can take his spot. After a couple of mind games, we can have the airline company all to ourselves."
"Okay, but can you just leave Dréy, Khristina, Kazimir, and his other friends alone? Can't you find another way to convince him to join?"
"I guess you have a point; I'm sure there are lots of other ways to get Alexei to join." Haruki replies, adjusting his angle as to where he should throw the dart. "Your wish is granted; I'll leave them all alone."
The young woman sighs in relief.
Haruki smiles as the dart landed perfectly in the middle, onto a picture of Kazimir.
"Once they're dead."
Milette's jaw drops and her eyebrows furrow.
"What?! Haruki, I-
She looks down at her phone in horror as the young man hangs up.
Putting her phone in her pocket, Milette heads back inside and turns to Nia, giving her a warm smile.
"I'm ready to begin our neighborhood investigation now!"
--------
"WE'RE HERE!"
Happily jumping down the plane's fourth to last step, Jai begins to record the water in front of him.
"Look at the city on the other side! This feels like a fever dream!"
"The ferry should be docking in around 30 minutes with our cars." Alexei says, looking down at a notification on his phone. "In the meantime, Laurenté will lead you all to a small restaurant that serves wonderful breakfast plates. I'll be right over, I just have to make a quick phone call."
The five men walk down the sidewalk, looking around at the large buildings.
"Have you ever been here, Laurenté?" Jai asks, snapping pictures of almost everything in sight.
"Yes, my parents moved here from France when I was only 4 years of age. I moved to Claiza City after I got bored with it." Laurenté replies, opening the door to the restaurant. "It's a small yet beautiful country, nonetheless."
The group takes a seat in a booth and Dréy picks up a menu from off of the table.
"Aye, Lanté; what's the best thing to get off this thing?"
"I'd recommend the eggs, toast, and steak. It's pretty delicious." Laurenté replies.
Looking at the menu, Jai brings it closer to his face.
"What is the croaky may-day-me? Is that like some type of frog dish or something?"
"The croque madame? It's actually pronounced as "cro-kay madame.". Laurenté says, chuckling. "It's basically a ham and cheese sandwich with a sunnyside-up egg on top."
"I see. I want four of them then!"
"I just want a stack of waffles with chocolate syrup and a cherry on top." Lennox says, looking throughout the menu.
"Uh, I guess I'll the croissant, bacon, and eggs with cheese dish." Kazimir adds, rubbing the back of his neck.
Laurenté nods, taking everyone's menu and placing them in the middle of the table.
"Bonjour à tous. Vous avez choisi?" a waiter asks with a smile.
"What'd he say?" Jai asks, turning to Lennox who shrugs.
"He told us good morning and if we're ready to order." Laurenté replies. "Oui, je commanderai pour nous tous."
"What'd Laurenté say?" Jai asks, turning to Lennox who gives him a "does it look I know?" look.
"He said yeah and that he's ordering for us." Dréy replies, scrolling through his phone.
Jai smiles and turns to Dréy.
"You speak French, too? Do you speak any other languages? Does Alexei speak multiple languages?! What about Khristina?!"
"English, Russian, and Spanish." Dréy replies, setting his phone on the table. "Khrissy speak most French, Russian, and English. Alexei speak Russian, English, Arabic, French, and Swahili."
"It's actually Somali." Alexei says, gently hitting the top of his brother's head. "Get it right next time."
Taking a seat, the young law student picks up a menu from the table.
"No need cousin, I already ordered and paid for you." Laurenté says, turning back inside the booth.
Alexei gives him a small smile.
"Thank you, Laurenté. Anyway, I expect that we'll be here for only a few days; remember, we just came here to find Khristina."
"Do you have a guess on where she is?" Kazimir asks, playing with his earring.
"Since she's being auctioned off, I'd say a building that's being hidden out of public sight."
"So then how we 'pose to find her?" Dréy asks, crossing his arms.
Alexei groans and rolls his eyes.
"Will you let me get to that? While I was following the people who allegedly put her on the flight here, I overheard them talking about a small house they were planning to meet in at around 9:20 tonight. Don't worry, I have the directions written down."
He hands a piece of paper to Laurenté.
"Since Laurenté is the only one who knows this place well, we'll be following him."
"Votre petit déjeuner est arrivé (Your breakfast has arrived)." the server says, carrying two trays of food.
"OOOOHH! GIMME, GIMME, GIMME!" Jai yells, reaching for his plate as Lennox sits him back down.
After quickly eating, the six men head back outside to retrieve their cars from the docked ferry.
"Once you drive off the ferry, please get in line behind the other car." Alexei says, handing everyone their respective car keys. "As soon as the last car gets in line, then we'll all follow Laurenté to his villa."
"A villa, quite fancy! How many bedrooms does it have?" Jai asks, feeding Bon Bon one of the sandwiches he ordered for breakfast.
"Seven." Laurenté replies, walking over to the ferry.
"Aye, I think we got a problem!" Dréy says, running back off of the ferry. "I ain't got no more gas in my tank."
"I told you to fill up before we got here." Alexei replies, facepalming.
"And I did, but you know gas don't last long in my car."
"Laurenté, just take everyone else to your place while I tow Dréy's car to a gas station." Alexei says, opening his car trunk. "We'll find our way afterwards."
"Alright then." Laurenté replies with a sigh. "Try not to get lost, cousins."
Following behind the older male, Kazimir, Lennox, and Jai all arrive at a large villa surrounded by a few palm trees.
"This place is crazy!" Jai says, immediately getting out of his car. "It even comes with a rooftop pool, I wanna check it out!"
Laurenté softly laughs as he unlocks the front door.
"Why don't you pick out a room first and unpack? There's two on the first floor, three on the second, and two on the third. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you; the room at the end of the hall on the second floor belongs to me."
The four walk in and Laurenté immediately makes his way upstairs, leaving the other three young men to select a room of their own.
Placing his things in a room on the first floor, Kazimir walks over to the sliding doors that led outside to the backyard and looks out of them.
"Guess I'll take this one."
Opening a dresser drawer, the young man places his clothes inside, before placing Bon Bon's bed in the corner and Heggy's cage on the top of the dresser.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he takes out his phone and sighs at the amount of missed calls.
"I don't even remember giving any of these people my number."
Putting his phone back in his pocket, Kazimir walks out the sliding doors and into the large backyard.
He takes a seat on a bench, looking down at the ground.
"It's so peaceful out here. Wish I was rich."
"Yo, Kazimir!"
Looking up, Kazimir watches as Jai and Lennox wave down at him from the rooftop.
"Come on up and join us! It's a warm day, man!" Jai yells.
The young detective shakes his head.
"I'm fine."
"It's okay if you don't have any abs to show off, we don't judge!" Jai replies.
Kazimir raises a brow.
"Uh, okay?"
Walking back inside, Kazimir watches as Bon Bon quickly hops in front of him, tapping one of her little feet.
"I already fed you earlier. Are you hungry again?"
The little bunny moves her ears as a way of saying yes.
"Okay, okay. I have some leftover breakfast that you can have." Kazimir says, placing the food in Bon Bon's bowl. "And you can have the rest, Heggy."
After giving the pets his food, the young man walks out of the room, throwing the tray into a trash can.
"Ah, good. You're not occupied just yet."
Looking forward, Kazimir watches as Laurenté picks up a book from his kitchen table and motions for the young man to follow him.
"Come along, I'd like to show you my second weapon room."