Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ New Rules, New Ruler ❯ Chapter 5

Part Five

Brad ran through the two sheets. African American, illusionist, male, name of Joseph. Indian, healer, female, name of Shivani. Living together above a sushi restaurant.

"Why?" Nagi asked suddenly. "There's no sign either of them has done anything. Why should we kill them just because they don't want to be SS anymore?"

Schuldig gave the kid an odd look. "It's what we do, kiddo. Remember? We kill the people we're told to, no questions asked. Besides, she didn't actually say kill. She said take down. I think she'd be grateful if we brought them back to the fold."

"No." They turned to look at Farferello. "They have to die."

"We can't kill them just because they're innocent. Besides they worked for SS, so that's hardly likely anyway," Schuldig objected.

"That's not what he meant," Brad interjected softly. He held up another piece of paper. "He's using his power to kill. Persuade people there's no cliff, and so on. They're working for a contractor."

"What about her? I mean, healer?" Nagi persisted. Crawford frowned at the sudden attack of conscience in the boy. It was not unexpected, but it was new.

"If she can heal she can harm," Schuldig told the boy. Something in his tone prompted Nagi not to ask any more questions.

"This shouldn't be hard as long as we take them by surprise. They'll be expecting an attack form the remnants of SS, of course, and no doubt they know about Schwarz." Brad looked at his team. "Farferello, pose as someone who's heard of Shivani's healing abilities. She's been healing for money as well. Tell her you want to know if she can do anything about your scars, and especially your eye.

"She'll recognise you immediately as an SS agent, you're infamous. However, it is extremely unlikely that she will be aware of your unusual pain tolerance due to SS's reluctance to hand out information about it's agents in case something like this occurs. Schuldig, monitor him. Nagi and I will enter via the roof; see, there's a vent here and we can get up form the neighbouring building; and I will shoot the illusionist while Nagi and Farferello take out the healer. Understood?"

There was a chorus of yeses. Well, two yeses. Schuldig just nodded tersely.

It was about an hour later, when both Nagi and Farferello had fallen asleep, that Schuldig approached Brad. He slid himself into the seat next to Brad's and lent forwards so his elbows were resting on his knees. The advantage of a private plane was that all seats were first class, and he didn't whack his head on the seat in front by doing this.

"Brad?"

"Yes?" Brad put down his book and turned to look and the moody redhead.

"I'm a little hurt."

"Why?"

"Monitor him? Come on, you know my talents could be invaluable here. Hell, I could take them both out on my own."

"I know," Brad sighed and lent back. He'd been waiting for this. "But not at the moment. You're not stable enough. I can't risk you losing your shields or getting confused in the middle of the mission. It's best if you remain a look out and work communications."

"Do you honestly think I would allow that to happen?"

"I don't think it's a matter of what you would or would not allow. You've forgotten who Nagi was twice today, and failed to recognise Farferello once-"

"And I mistook you for someone else, which is what this is really about, isn't it? You're hurt that despite everything between us, I slipped back to a point before you came into my life and failed to recognise you whilst knowing that I knew you intimately, so I assumed you must be someone else."

"Who is Greg to you?"

"Who is Tanya to you?"

"I was wondering when you'd bring that up," Brad winced.

"You think it would bother me that you, once upon a long time ago, had a crush on the ice queen? It doesn't." But it bothered Brad. Especially the fact that Schuldig apparently didn't give a damn. He wanted Schuldig to get jealous, he realised, like he had been jealous while Schuldig was fooling around with the Weiss boys.

"Look, this has nothing to do with any of that," said Schuldig, determinedly sticking to his point, almost uncharacteristically so. "You've sidelined me. I don't want to be sidelined. You need me. At least let me go in with Farferello. If they know anything about him they'll know no one would leave him alone with anyone, no matter how sane he seemed."

"They'll probably know about you as well, and they'll know what you can do. Remember what Tash said? One of only three telepaths, the strongest of the three, and the only one able to live around large numbers of people."

"Where id the other one live?" Schuldig asked, slightly curious.

"The Sahara," Brad told him.

"Oh, okay. Anyway, if they know who Farferello is, and they know who I am, chances are they know all about Schwarz. The minute we go in there they'll be expecting an attack. The more of us enter via the front door, the less they'll expect any other way."

"And if she decides to use her power to shred your organs without even touching you?" Brad snapped.

"Okay, so Nagi go in with Farferello. He has more chance of blocking that kind of attack. I, meanwhile, ought to be able to decipher any illusion your fellow American comes up with. You'll need me in there. Suppose he presents multiple versions of himself? Which will you shoot? I would know which was the real one."

"I'm going to regret this…" Brad moaned.

"I knew it!" Schuldig crowed. "You're going to let me play!" He grabbed the older man in a hug, a stark contrast to his previous sombre behaviour.

"One thing," Brad cautioned.

"Yeah?" Schuldig seemed distracted, glancing back at the plane's small toilet. Brad frowned. Did Schuldig need to go? He couldn't abide the cramped and unhygienic aircraft toilets, and tried to dissuade anyone from using them.

"Do not, I repeat, do not try to influence them in anyway. You're still a little clumsy, and they'd know immediately. And I really don't want you to get lost in the head of someone I'm going to kill."

"That all? I wasn't intending to. Better the devils you know, and all that," Schuldig winked. "So, ever done it at forty thousand feet?" Brad's jaw dropped. So that was what Schuldig had been thinking about.

"No," he said huskily.

"Wanna do the whole play acting `meet me in there in ten minutes' thing too?" Schuldig squeezed Brad's arm.

"We can't do it just here?" Brad squeezed back.

"Come one, we're in a plane! You have to do these things properly. Besides, we wouldn't want to wake the babies." With that, Schuldig slid from his seat and sauntered towards the rear of the plane. Brad sat back in his seat and counted away the seconds.

* * *

The sushi shop was closer to the private airstrip than their new apartment, and they'd all slept well on the plane (eventually), so Crawford suggested a little recon before checking out their new home. His BMW was parked and waiting for them, and he had to restrain himself form checking over every inch of it in front of the plane and airstrip crew. Instead, he pulled over as soon as they were out of site and did it.

They parked about half a mile from the sushi shop and set off. Schuldig broke his word and skimmed over the minds of their targets, unnoticed. He told the others that both targets were at home and unsuspecting. They'd have no time to prepare, if Schwarz were to act now. Brad quickly went over the changes in plan with Nagi and Farferello, who'd both had their doubts about the original anyway.

It worked like a charm. Shivani had almost fainted upon seeing Farferello, but had had to take him up to the apartment to avoid arousing suspicion. Crawford and Schuldig were already within the flat when Farferello, Nagi and Shivani entered the front room.

Schuldig grinned down at the naked man on the bed. "Not him," he told Crawford. He winked at the clothed man holding a long rifle. "Not him either," he said. Walking over to the wardrobe, he yanked out a much smaller, much uglier guy and waved him in front of Crawford's face. Crawford drew his gun, but Schuldig dropped the guy. "Not him either." The limp form flickered for a moment; before it's original form could be seen. "Sex doll. Bet you'd have felt stupid shooting that?" Schuldig smirked. He snatched Crawford's gun from him suddenly and shot the window frame. Brad turned to see blood appearing on the carpet, but no one to bleed. Slowly, as the man's concentration gave, a body appeared and slumped to the carpet. "Him," Schuldig said shortly, still smirking.

Farferello was happily having his insides twisted and churned by the healer, who seemed reluctant to kill. Nagi watched for a moment, preventing the worst of the intended wounds. When he heard the gunshot in the bedroom, he gave the signal to Farferello, who promptly began to do manually to the woman what she had been trying to do to him. The faded crimson of the walls rapidly regained its vigour.

They regrouped in the tiny bathroom, so Farferello could be cleaned off so as not to attract too much attention. Crawford had removed the bullet from the wound, and Nagi had carefully cleaned the knives Farferello had taken from the kitchen and replaced them where they came from. By the time they had finished, there were no clues as to who had been there. Climbing out of the bedroom window and splitting up to regroup at the car, Schuldig caught Nagi's thought that they had `been doing this way too long'.