Chapter 124 Interlude – The Vanished Children
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Whoa, hold up—judging from this photo, your ex-wife was a total knockout!”
The man next to Senator Augustus flipped through the dossier, whistling low. Sure enough, the reference materials included a glossy headshot: an exotic Japanese beauty, a mole at the corner of her mouth.
Her name: Yurie Sanai. Ayumu’s mother.
Everyone in that room, just like Paulo once did, was falling for the surface image. None of them could picture the reality: a woman who, in the middle of marital spats, would brandish a kitchen knife, splash boiling oil, and once barricaded herself in with a chainsaw to carve through a door.
”Gentlemen,” Augustus interrupted with a pointed cough, “I’d appreciate it if we could stay on topic. The ex-wife is irrelevant, Congressman.”
He leaned forward, voice cooling. “Now then, Paulo. Word has surely reached you by now: an entire class from your son’s academy disappeared, as if spirited away by the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Do you know anything about this?”
Paulo’s face didn’t flicker. “Of course not. I already consider my son dead, Senator.”
”Your son,” Augustus pressed, “aren’t you worried about him at all?”
”One person vanishes, it’s nothing. People die or go missing every day in this world.”
The blunt indifference made the air in the chamber freeze. No wonder everyone present walked away chilled—Paulo answered as if his child had never existed.
Augustus folded his arms, weighing the silence, then switched tactics. “So you know nothing about the people around your son?”
He riffled the dossier. “Your boy attended one of Japan’s top prep schools and seemed blessed with connections. For instance—he co-authored a paper at Yuzuki National Central Hospital with Professor Takumi Kiritani on the antiviral effects of melittin from bee venom against HIV. Ring a bell?”
Another page flipped. “Or perhaps this: when a cutting-edge semiconductor chip, supposedly 4,333 times faster than conventional CPUs, was sold to America’s Electrozeneca, the intermediary was a former Diet member—Genzen Kiritani. Do you truly know nothing about any of this, Paulo?”
Augustus’ eyes narrowed. “Your son’s classmates included Takuya Kiritani and Yuuka Yuzuki—the daughter of the hospital directors. Convenient coincidences, don’t you think? Japan’s power elite, gone without a trace. Even the Japanese government is alarmed. And you still claim ignorance?”
Paulo grimaced, chewing the words like poison. “Senator, I can’t pretend to know what I don’t.”
Augustus sighed, but didn’t let go. “Very well. Then what about Yukina Yuki—real name Yulina Viktorovna Rubianskaya? CIA believes she’s… problematic. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard the name.”
Paulo actually blinked, thrown. “What is that? A rebadged name so fake it should come with a warning label?”
Augustus chuckled, low. “You may not know the daughter, but surely you’ve heard of the father. A Belarus defector. Famous, in his way.”
Belarus. A man fleeing the regime the same year Paulo himself was disgracefully discharged. Paulo’s mind clicked: Viktorovna. Viktor’s daughter.
Yes, he remembered. A silver-haired man, claiming to be the product of genome editing—an experiment in designer children for military use, orchestrated by Belarus and Russia. His story had once rocked headlines before being dismissed as conspiracy theory. But if Augustus was bringing him up here… maybe it hadn’t been fiction at all.
Still Paulo shook his head. “I don’t see how he or his daughter connect to this.”
Augustus met his denial with one of his own. “Perhaps. But your current superiors think otherwise.”
He tapped a stack of CIA and DIA reports. “According to this, your son is already considered a completed weapons scientist.”
Paulo’s jaw clenched.
”They say he smuggled military textbooks from your study during his law school days, reverse-engineered structures, and tried synthesizing real compounds using nothing but household cleaners and garden fertilizer. The results were crude, but he came dangerously close. He even attempted organophosphates, intending to smear nerve gas on the classmates who beat him. Fortunately the batch was impure, or else—” Augustus let the words hang. “Even so, the neighborhood ended up with seizures and breathing issues. A mess.”
Paulo said nothing. His memory was busy replaying that chaotic period: his own dishonorable discharge, Yurie smashing through walls with a chainsaw, and his son brewing poison in their kitchen.
”…Are you listening, Paulo?” Augustus’ voice snapped him back.
”Anyway,” the senator went on, “here’s the core issue: Viktor, that Belarusian defector, was tied to Russia’s next-generation chemical weapon, the Tsar Smerch-6. Our intelligence does not believe he severed ties with Moscow. You understand the implications?”
Paulo exhaled, dry. “So… a national security risk, sir?”
”Exactly. And not just for America. This concerns our allies as well.”
”I’ve already told you everything I know,” Paulo said flatly. “Frankly, I doubt I can be of any further use.”
Augustus frowned. “Even scraps of memory might help. Anything about your son before he vanished.”
But Paulo only shook his head. “If your government couldn’t uncover it, I certainly can’t. As you know, I’ve cut all ties with my family.”
And with that final wall of silence, the hearing adjourned, yielding nothing new.
Notes:
• Kiritani – The class president who takes leadership and questions their situation. A smooth operator, laid-back and calm. The handsome one.
• Takuya – The class president who takes leadership and questions their situation. A smooth operator, laid-back and calm. The handsome one.
• Yukina – Sayumi’s friend, a half-Eastern European girl with silver hair and blue eyes, who offers support and expresses concern about the recent events.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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