Taking Over

Diante gave him a warning look.

“Nickolas, you know that I like you very much but you come here with these four others—and him, he looks dead. Did you kill him? I don’t know what is going on but I don’t want it—“

“Diante, just please—I needed somewhere. This was the first place I thought of. Rustam’s is too small.” He suddenly seemed to have a thought and looked back at Hal. “Get Cassandra and Mathias on the phone.”

“Who first?”

“Either or—I don’t care. Tell them to come back to New York. Hopefully Cassandra got herself a secure place. Tell them to come back to Zetta’s and see Diante.”

“Nickolas! I have not said any—“

Matt looked at him. “Please. I will explain. Okay?”

“If you get caught here—“

“—you didn’t know we were here. I understand.”

Diante looked at them all for a long moment. “All right. Come with me. Marietta!” Diante’s daughter seemed almost to be waiting on this. She appeared around the corner.

“Yes, Papa.”

“I have some business here. It’s been awhile. Call the staff. We’re closing for the day. Make up something to eat for our guests. We’ll be in the basement. Call Marco and get him down here.”

She nodded and hurried off.

Matt turned when he heard some muttering behind him. Hal had nudged Gevanni in the ribs and he looked away awkwardly.

Matt rolled his eyes.

Diante went into his back office and opened up a door in the floor, hidden under a thick rug.

“I saw the report on the news about people who had gone attacking a building—people said they were against Kira.”

Matt smiled.

“So that is what you’ve been doing then.” Diante glanced up as Marietta entered with a young man who didn’t look much older. “Ah, this is my son, Marco—Marietta’s twin brother.”

The two of them set large trays on the table full of hot food, glasses of ice water and four bottles of red wine.

Matt rubbed his forehead and stood up, walking over to the couch they’d laid Yagami on. “Mister Yagami?”

A set of tired, miserable eyes rolled over to his.

God, this poor bastard.

“Do you understand now…?”

Yagami shook his head but Matt could tell, just by the look in his eyes, that he did.

…this guy really believed. God, his own son. What a bastard. “You should eat something, Mister Yagami.”

Soichiro took a deep breath and forced himself to sit up.

“Who is this man?” Diane asked.

“Father of the prime Kira suspect. Poor guy didn’t know until Kira tried to pin him as Kira.”

“And who is the present Kira suspect?”

“The current L.”

Diante stopped cold and sat up. “What?”

“L is dead. The police set up a new one so panic wouldn’t erupt. Just so happens it’s this poor guy’s son. He never knew it until earlier on today. Right before the attack.”

Soichiro sat up a little straight. “How do you know—?“

“We have detailed files on each of the other members of the Japanese task force. Your son is playing three roles, Yagami. All at the same time. Pretty impressive. L, Kira, and cop.”


“His son, eh? Boy can’t be that old than.”

Matt shook his head. “Guy is about twenty-three. So he started killing people when he was seventeen.”

“Holy Mother of God…” Diante took a healthy gulp of wine. “He’s hardly older than you, Nickolas. Or at least around the same age?”

“I’m nineteen.”

Soichiro got up, rubbing his forehead, sat down in a chair closer to the tray. Marietta seemed to take pity on him and started to pour him a little wine and Marco prepared him a plate. The man sighed and suddenly sat up, looking at Matt. “So it really was you that drugged the Director.”

Matt looked at him and made his way back to his own chair. “Yes. It was me.”

“How did you do it?”

“I’m afraid I’m not gonna tell you that right now, Mister Yagami. Eat something. Try and relax a little.”

“Cassandra is in Phoenix, Arizona—she’s catching the next flight to New York. She said it leaves three hours and it’s a four hour flight. Matthias is in Poland. He’ll be leaving tomorrow afternoon.” hal suddenly said, shutting her phone with a clack.

“And arriving tomorrow morning.” Matt scowled.

Hal smiled a little at Diante’s questioning look. “He does not like the time changes.”

Diante nodded and then waved that away. “Well, Nickolas—as you will be using my restaurant, I believe you owe it to me to tell me a few things.”

Matt laughed. “The question on everyone’s lips. ‘How does Kira Kill?’ right?”

Diante did not smile. “Yes. I’d like to know how I might die.”

Matt sobered. “You agreed to this—“

“I am aware of that. I am not a coward.”

Matt nodded and told him.

And for several minutes afterwards, Diante and his son and daughter stared at him in silence.

Matt smiled ruefully. “Exactly.”

Diante drained his wine glass. Marco gripped into the back of a chair, which his sister had sunk into.

Suddenly, a phone went off. Everyone looked around and it was Rester who pulled a bag up from the floor next to him. “I grabbed Yagami’s personal affects.” He dug around and picked out his cell phone, studying the characters. “Sayu?”

“My daughter,” he said, almost desperately. He sat up, reaching for it.

Matt hesitated but nodded. “Fine, but let us hear the conversation.”

Eagerly, Yagami answered. “Sayu?”

“Dad! Where are you! Light called and said you’d be gone for awhile. Mom trusts him and everything but she’s really worried and I wanted to talk to you and—“

“Sayu, I cannot answer any questions right now.”

There was a long pause. “But Dad—everyone is really worried…Light sounded really worried on the phone. He said it was only suppose to stay in the police and the information hadn’t been released publicly but that we should try and stay around the house in case you called.”

Matt watched him carefully and said, quietly, “Ask her what else Light told her.”

Yagami paused and then did so. “Did Light tell you anything else?”

“He wanted you to take a photograph with your cell phone of your surroundings. Have you been kidnapped? Dad—are you gonna be okay?”

Matt narrowed his eyes. So Light didn’t figure out that his father was in the room. He doesn’t know yet that his father already knows. Of course…as the taskforce are all pawns to him now, he may just decide to kill all of them. It won’t matter—his father has the most influence over the rest of them. Best not to let him talk about his son.

Matt gestured for the phone.

“Dad?”

Yagami looked at him. Impatiently, Matt leaned forward and took the phone. “Miss Yagami?”

On the other end, on her cell phone, Sayu blinked. She was in her room. She wasn’t supposed to be calling. She was supposed to wait for her dad to call them…but…she hadn’t been able to resist. Light hadn’t given them any explanation. “Who is this?”

Matt listened carefully. She sounded about the right age. “Your father is fine. I’m a friend of his. We are not his enemy. You talked about someone named Light—is he an officer?”

“Y-yes…”

“Well, be sure to tell him, as a message from his father, that he accomplished what he set out to do but will be staying where he is for a time, just in case. As an officer, he’ll understand.”

“But who is this? Light asked for a picture to make sure he was okay.”

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that. Thank you though, Miss Yagami.” He disconnected and handed the phone back to Rester. “Destroy that.”

Soichiro nearly upset the table. “What?!”

“Don’t want the chance that your phone has been tapped.”

“But if they call and I do not pick up—“

“Kira knows that I can’t kill you or touch you without falling under further suspicion. It won’t matter. I said I would keep you under surveillance for the twenty-three day period. I intend to keep to that. Not to mention, I also don’t know what line your daughter used. For all we know, your son could be controlling her.”

“He would not—“

“Wouldn’t he, Mister Yagami? He was quick to point at you as a Kira suspect.”

He went silent.

“We have a picture of your daughter, by the way. She must be about sixteen or seventeen, right? Cute girl.”

Soichiro stopped dead and stared at him.

Matt smiled. “Eat something, Mister Yagami.”

“That was tactless,” Hal put in, rolling her eyes.

Matt shrugged.

Soichiro started to eat and when he started he realized just how hungry he was. He opted more for the ice water rather than the wine. He tried to pace himself but that proved difficult.

My son… He sat up. The rest of the taskforce is—

“You have to let me call my men. If my son truly is Kira than they deserve to know.”

Matt looked over at him, pausing from fishing out another cigarette. He’s trying to shove it aside to deal with later. He’s going to fall hard when this is over. “We’ll have to be careful about that, Mister Yagami. If your son finds out that you know he’s Kira, he’ll probably kill all of you. None of you will be of any use—especially you, because he knows that you’ll have the most influence over them—so he won’t really need to hide. This world has gone into such a suck-up, Kira-direction anyway, what will he have to worry about? And if what you’re saying about the shinigami is true—about being able to go through walls—than it would be nothing for it to get the notebook for him and continue judging criminals while your men believe it is safely locked up.” He looked back down and lit the cigarette. He chuckled. “We should invite Rustam over and make this a party. Russians are great drinkers. Hell, everyone will be here by tomorrow morning.”

“How long do you intend to stay?” Diante was watching him closely.

“Not long. Enough time to get a new hang-out. Then we’ll go.”

“And what then?”

“We’ll be watching Yagami,” and here he nodded to him, “and once that’s over…” Matt suddenly smiled a little.

The room was quiet, waiting for the rest.

“Once that’s over?” Marietta prompted, leaning towards him a little.

Matt chuckled and looked up, breathing out some smoke. “I’ll be going back to Japan with him to greet Kira.”