The Watchers That Watch

I settle behind the table of my personal suite at the hotel, the once bustling environment now quiet. Things have taken a turn for the worse, Da is losing patience with me and Chance. Daffyd is making her look like a fool. I pull up the phone from its cradle and inform my staff to summon Chance immediately. Why did Daffyd had to make things so difficult for everybody? The answer to my unasked question is obviously clear, because its not Daffyd we are chasing after.

New Daffyd prefers living a lie instead of facing the truth. Worry begins to build up in my heart. From what I understand, New Daffyd is not going to accept being cured and going back to his previous self. Chance says she has a plan to get round this, but after the last few days, I am having doubts about whether she can actually deliver. What a headache.

"Chance, Da called me again yesterday," I inquire as Chance enters after respectfully knocking on the door, "Have you made any progress in tracking down Daffyd? Any at all?"

The muscle head bows perfunctorily and adopts a conciliatory tone, never a good sign. "Tracking your brother is not the problem boss," she says, "its cornering him. Daffyd is as slippery as an eel."

"Look at this." I snap and shove my mobile run into Chance's face, "That's a video of Daffyd flying across The City without trousers. Without trousers. He is probably the most well known man in The City right now. How haven't you caught him yet?"

"Look Boss, things really aren't that simple." Chance tries to deflect but I quickly cut her off.

"Da just chewed me out over the expense we're racking up." I cut back, "Do you know how much it costs to keep so many of our men here? And all we have to show for it is a video of Daffyd gallivanting about without his pants on."

"Sports Utility Vehicle." Chance replies incomprehensibly.

"What?" I mutter as I begin to massage my glabella to release my rapidly growing irritation.

"An SUV. That's what Daffyd is using to avoid the men." Chance explains, "We can track your brother just fine boss, its pinning him down that's the problem. He moves about too regularly for us to plan an ambush."

"Daffyd has to return to one of his hideouts sooner or later." I waive Chance's explanation off, "Why haven't you just camped outside and grabbed him?"

Chance reaches into the file carried by her side and draws out a report, presenting it to me. I take the piece of paper and begin scanning through it as Chance takes up the thread again.

"That's the problem Boss. Daffyd seems to have abandoned all his hideouts, at least the ones we know of." Chance says, "From what we can tell, your brother is shifting around random hotels in the various Districts with no real pattern. He sometimes shows up at gyms where he had purchased membership to use the bathroom and cafeteria."

I frown as I continue perusing the report. There is a pattern to Daffyd's movements, but Chance is too much of an idiot to see it. I feel like screaming at the top of my voice and strangling the muscle head for her incompetence.

"We can't just wait for Daffyd to show up at the hideouts boss." Chance concludes, unaware of the black spot of annoyance growing at the back of my head, "I have dispersed the men to comb The City for your brother. The problem is whenever we find him, he's long gone by the time a team is assembled."

"Don't bother." I snarl, "You'll never catch Daffyd this way. Have you actually read the report?"

"I don't understand -" Chance begins but I silence her with a glare.

"Of course you don't." I huff, "Look. Daffyd always shows up at the location furthest away from the capture teams. What does that tell you?"

Bewildered silence is all I get from the moron in front of me.

"It means that Daffyd knows where the teams are!" I shout, my annoyance finally getting the better of me, "He can track where your men are and rests at places where we can't get to him in time. You have spent all this time chasing your own tail!"

Chance looks down, chastened by my outburst. I slump back into my seat and let out a sigh. "Da told me he's withdrawing most of the men he lent us." I say resignedly, "I can't justify the expense of keeping them here if all we have to show for it is a big fat nothing."

Chance suddenly looks up with a strange expression on her face, "I have it boss. I know how to catch your brother. We wouldn't need so many men even."

Chance then takes out a series of photographs and hands them to me. Looking through the photos, I see that they all show a black SUV loitering about a hospital. I make a questioning sound in my throat. How is this supposed to help us catch Daffyd?

"That's the SUV Daffyd has been using." Chance excitedly gestures, "The men managed to spot it a few times hanging out near the hospital Tensei and Kira are being treated at. Daffyd bolted the moment we began to send a capture team there though."

"So how does this knowledge help?" I question, "Daffyd still manages to escape."

"Here's the thing boss." Chance hands over another picture to me, this time a grainy, long distance shot of Daffyd leaving the hospital, "Your brother always goes back there the moment the coast is clear and the capture teams are far away. Its as if he wants to do something but can't find a good opportunity."

So. There is something that is drawing Daffyd to the hospital. And it can't be Chance that's preventing Daffyd from doing whatever he has got planned. Daffyd clearly knows how to evade that idiot.

"What is Daffyd up to?" I mutter contemplatively.

"I don't know." Chance admits, "But I suspect it has something to do with Tensei. The von Amsterg family sent their House Guard to protect Tensei ever since he had been admitted. Tensei's ward is the only place in the hospital that Daffyd would not have ready access to."

"Its certainly possible." I concede, rubbing my chin.

"Here's the clincher." Chance points to the time stamps of the photos, "See when Daffyd shows up at the hospital? It matches the change in the guards' shifts. But he quickly retreated. Something in the hospital must have scared him off."

I begin tapping the table and say, "But Daffyd's not scared enough to give up. He still loiters around outside the hospital waiting for his opportunity. Whatever it is that's giving him problems, it can't follow him outside. Or perhaps won't or can't pursue him."

"Right." Chance confirms, "I was going about this whole thing the wrong way. We can't corner Daffyd, but your brother himself will eventually come to us."

"You still haven't explained how to actually stop Daffyd from running." I point out, "Just camping outside Tensei's ward is going to do us no good by itself."

"Well, I don't have a solution to that," Chance says as she scratches her head awkwardly, "but I personally think that's a self-solving problem."

"You see, Daffyd clearly needs to do something urgent." Chance continues, "Otherwise he wouldn't keep hanging around like that despite the danger. Sooner or later he is going to have to take action regardless of the risk."

"And then we will strike." I conclude. Good. The end is in sight at least. We just need to wait for Daffyd to lose his patience at the hospital and then we can wrap things up. I might have been a bit too hasty in labeling Chance an idiot. Those conclusions were surprisingly well put together. Totally unlike her usual airheadedness.

"You certainly have your moments of insight." I remark.

"Inspiration really." Chance clarifies, "It all just came to me like, wham! Just like that. One moment I was completely lost, a second later the whole puzzle made sense."

If only you would act like this on a more regular basis. It would help immensely if I had an actual strategist instead of a grown woman obsessed with role play and refuses to grow up. I don't say all this to Chance though. She might have her issues, but she is frighteningly powerful. I merely nod in thanks and gesture at her to proceed.

"Leave it to me boss." Chance boasts happily, her mood having done a complete one eighty, "All this will be over soon."

"And you and Daffyd can go back to Neo-Cardiff as one happy family."