Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Talking To The Dead ❯ Chapter 7 ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7

Dammit! Why won't you just open?

Ken yanked the ill-fitting key out of the obstinate lock and leaned against the back door of the Koneko. He had just spent the past five minutes trying to unlock this particular door, so as to slip into the building as unobtrusively as possible.

He had deliberately avoided the Koneko for the rest of the afternoon. He was in no mood for people right now - not his teammates, and most definitely not his fan club. Something that ran much deeper than an irrational bout of antisocial behavior... ever since his breakdown, Ken no longer trusted his control in the face of the screaming mass of humanity brought on by the after school rush.

A nap at his apartment this afternoon, though unintentional, had helped him sleep off the painkillers, and was probably good for him in the long run - especially if tonight's mission ended up running late.

He chuckled grimly to himself. You mean, he reminded himself, if it takes longer than usual to off the targets. Mustn't be inefficient, he thought sardonically, wiggling the fingertips of his tightly bound hand.

His left hand - the good one - held the key up close to his face for inspection. Nothing appeared amiss with it; it had not been bent, warped, or damaged in any way, and looked much the same as it did when it had first been given to him years ago.

Wait a second.

Ken dug into his jacket pocket and yanked out a nearly identical key, still shiny and looking freshly cut. Suppressing a groan, he pushed it neatly into the lock, and was not at all surprised when it clicked open with almost no effort.

Cautiously he pushed the door inward and looked around the entranceway for his teammates. Finding no one, he slunk into the dark hallway and headed directly for the staircase.

A strong grip on his right shoulder halted his descent two steps from the top.

"Siberian."

He had known who it was even before the woman's sharp alto breached the silence. He reached up, and with deliberate and obvious distaste pried the secretary's manicured fingernails from his shoulder, before turning in place to glare at her.

"Rex."

Cold gray eyes returned the glare evenly. An extended moment passed as they faced down, neither daring to break the spell of silence, each evaluating the other for the first sign of weakness that could be exploited to their advantage.

The stare down lasted a full minute before Rex relented, looking away with a grimace of thinly veiled disgust. Her right hand moved to rest on her hip, atop the holster hidden beneath her purple blazer.

"What do you want?" Ken snapped irritably.

"Where do you think you're going?" She angled her body in such a way that she could throw herself forward in front of him at a moment's notice if necessary.

Ken gripped his left hand in a tight fist. "Downstairs," he answered frostily. "For the pre-mission briefing."

"Oh?" Rex narrowed her eyes. Her fingers absently drummed the handle of the gun strapped to her belt. "I wasn't expecting you." Her eyes perceptively hardened, brows knitting together into a frown. The fingers tapping her waist stilled. "Not after this afternoon."

Oh no. I'm not playing your game this time, bitch. "Unlike certain members of Weiss, I will be attending this mission. Now if you'll excuse me..." He inclined his head in exaggerated politeness, reaching his good hand out to grasp the cold metal of the staircase railing.

Rex lunged forward to intercept him, grabbing his right arm and twisting it hard in her direction. "Even like this?"

Fresh blood welled up and seeped through to stain the bandages, as if to prove her point. Ken yanked his arm roughly away. Cradling the injured limb close to his body, he narrowed his eyes, regarding the woman with a cold contempt that was matched in her own stare.

He leaned forward, unclasped his left hand from the railing, and waved the fingers between them. "It only takes one of them to kill." His arm swung outward in an exaggerated arc, a pantomimed slice cutting the air between them. "You'd do well to remember to that."

Rex leaned against the wall, seemingly unfazed by his threat. "And you'd do well to remember the price of betrayal to Kritiker, Siberian."

"I won't betray Weiss." Ken clenched the fist at his side. A slight tremble sounded in his voice, a crack in the veneer of thinly-held self control. "Not like Mamoru Takatori."

He turned on his heel and stomped down the stairs, ignoring the sharp intake of breath behind him. Let her stew on that for a while. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he went directly for the center couch. Bitch thinks she's got it all figured out, just because she's Persia's secretary. The edges of his vision blurred, just as he felt the too-familiar jump in his heart rate, and the air became a lot harder to breath. He clenched his good hand into a fist and drove it down hard into the cushion of the couch. "Dammit!"

"Whoa! Hey Ken, I know it's been a while, but I was hoping maybe for a more enthusiastic kind of greeting."

Ken almost choked. The rage pounding in his blood dispelled almost instantaneously, replaced by a numbness that threatened to paralyze his limbs. Fighting for ultimate motor control of his limbs, he turned his head slowly behind him, and was rewarded for his efforts by the animated visage of one Yohji Kudou, decked out in what had to be the most outlandish, impractical assassin outfit ever dared in the history of Weiss.

"Y-Yohji?!" His jaw hung open in shock, his ability to string coherent sentences together temporarily lost as a warm glow of something he suspected he once called hope surged through his body. "Yohji?"

"The one and only, kid." Yohji's right hand came down to land on Ken's shoulder, gripping it tightly through the jacket. Ken's jaw continued to remain slack. Realizing any sort of answer was not forthcoming, Yohji tipped his hat into his free hand and yanked it down over Ken's eyes.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"Oh, good. You had me worried there for a second there, Hidaka. I thought maybe one of the fangirls broke your heart while I was gone, and took all of your higher brain functions with her."

Ken scowled irritably, shoving the ridiculous hat out of his eyes. Something that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle drifted across the room from the sofa to his left. Ken jerked his head quickly in that direction in search of the guilty party.

Kyou's face remained remarkably neutral, but to his right, Sena's eyes danced in mirth above the hand covering his mouth.

Suddenly, a bark of pure, unrestrained laughter burst forth from his mouth. Like a tightly wound spring uncoiling, the tension flowed out of him steadily. His body shook with expulsion of long-buried emotion, but to Ken, the feeling of emptiness was in itself something wonderful. It had been a long time since he had laughed so hard and so freely... Not since...

No! he sharply reprimanded himself. I refuse to let him ruin this... I refuse to let go of this piece of happiness!

But the spell had already been broken. His laughter trailed off; the warmth he had felt only a moment ago dissipating in the chill of the room.

Ken pressed himself close against the back of the couch. The sound of a throat being cleared echoed from the base of the stairs, signaling Rex's arrival and the start of the mission meeting. Ken privately wondered what had held up the woman after he had stormed off.

Maybe I'm not the only person she wanted to talk to tonight.

He shrugged his shoulders. At the very least it had given him a chance to talk to Yohji; he could not have conceived of a better tonic for his disillusioned soul.

Yes, he allowed himself a small smile. It's good to have Yohji back.

Rex moved to the center of the room and commenced set up for the meeting. Sena and Kyou immediately jumped to their feet to assist; in a matter of minutes, Sena had set up a table in the center of the room and laid out the building schematics, while Kyou booted up his laptop and loaded onto it the contents of the CD handed to him by Rex.

Ken watched the others' activities languidly; it was no different than any of the mission planning sessions he had attended since joining Weiss a few years ago. Same old play - hell, even the same director, he thought with bitter irony, just a slightly different cast. His eyes followed Sena and Kyou.

Except this time they had to call in the understudies.

A playful smack on the shoulder (from Yohji, no doubt) roused him from his reverie enough to notice that Rex was calling the meeting to order. Ken pushed up off of the couch and lumbered forward to stand between Sena and Yohji.

Directly across from him, Rex pressed the heels of her hands flat on the table and leaned forward across the table. She turned her head slowly from the right to the left, a silent appraisal of the men gathered around her. Satisfied, she nodded her head once, her eyes catching and holding Ken's gaze for a moment, a silent challenge in her fierce stare.

"Weiss, we have a lot to cover tonight, so let's just cut to the chase and get things started." Rex reached forward and lifted the laptop from in front of Kyou and placed in the center of the table, on top of the building schematics, facing outward. "In the light of new intelligence gathered by one of Kritiker's operatives, Persia has outlined the mission plan for everyone tonight."

Ken twitched involuntary, gripping his left hand into a fist beneath the table. Feeling eyes on him, he turned his head to the right and caught Abyssinian's mistrustful glare. He clutched the fist tighter, fingernails biting into palm of his hand.

What the hell is his problem, anyhow?

He jerked his head away, forcing his focus back to Rex and the mission briefing in progress. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Aya doing the same, and relaxed his hand from its tense grip.

"...it was decided that because of his familiarity with mission locale, and his previous history with this team, our mission specialist will be leading the team for this assignment."

Huh? Next to him, Sena shifted uncomfortably in place. Across from him, Ken could read the confusion plainly written across Kyou's face.

Not surprisingly, Aya was completely unperturbed.

"Balinese, would you please come forward?"

Ken's head swung to his right, just in time to catch Yohji's surreptitious wink. Yohji? He blinked; if Yohji's the mission specialist, then that means -

He stared at his old teammate in baffled amazement, snatches of overheard conversations from earlier in the day replaying in his mind to form a much more coherent picture of recent events.

...That was Yohji she was talking about on the phone with Persia?!

The easy smile that could only fall from the lips of Yohji Kudou graced the assembled members of Weiss from the spot Rex had been standing only a moment before. Yohji lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his hair once before replacing it, the only visible indication of his nervousness.

"Well, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting me yet," his gaze caught the eyes of both Sena and Kyou, "I'd like to introduce myself. Yohji Kudou, codename Balinese." He tilted his head forward and tipped the hat into his hand in a mock bow. "And for those who missed me..." Yohji positively leered at Aya. "I'm back from my six month sabbatical at the Ministry for Science and Technology, and ready for action."

"Mr. Kudou has been moonlighting as a janitor at the Ministry these past six months," Rex interjected, by way of explanation.

Yohji took the interruption in stride. He threw his hands up in the air melodramatically. "What can I say? Kritiker just doesn't pay well enough." Ken watched with amusement as Yohji shrugged off a dirty look from Rex, instead favoring her with his lady killer smile in return.

"Anyhow," Kudou trailed a finger across the touchpad of the laptop, highlighting a list of names on the screen, "these are our targets tonight. We will arrive at the building at 2100, but the mission will not commence until 2130, when I give the word."

"Why the delay?" Sena beat Ken to the question.

Rex answered instead. "The delay is to give time for Balinese to check the system to verify that all of the targets are present tonight."

"And if they're not?" Aya spoke up for the first time that evening.

Yohji was undeterred. "If not, then we'll hit as many as possible, and destroy the data and the backups tonight. But I have a good hunch they'll be there tonight. The minister will be in tonight, and they never miss a meeting with him."

Aya nodded once, satisfied.

"Weiss will be split into three teams, and each team will work to accomplish a particular objective in the mission." It was Rex speaking again, Ken noted with agitation. Why did the woman always feel the need to interrupt? Hell, at this point, he would rather deal with the damn videotape than have to listen to her! "Because of his familiarity with the building layout and personnel, Balinese will be taking point in the mission. He is responsible for coordinating the positions of all team members and assigning targets."

Rex turned her head to regard Kyou and Aya, in turn. "Havana and Abyssinian are responsible for taking down and wiping the main code server, and eradicating all traces of the program from the network."

Kyou visibly blanched. Rex pursed her lips, the edges of a smile teasing at the ends. "Don't worry, boys. I've brought something to make your lives easier." She reached into her handbag and produced a CD-ROM into her right hand, which she immediately handed off to Aguri.

Kyou accepted it with a quick nod, too nervous to question the gift.

"What is it?"

Aya was not so readily accepting of strange gifts.

Rex regarded him coolly a moment before answering. "A little program Kritiker's been working night and day to cook up, so that you don't have to search out every copy of the software on your own in order to delete it. This will remotely activate each keyed copy over the network and force it to update with our software. However," she folded her arms, "since the targets themselves are responsible for writing the program, any machines they've used in the past year might potentially contain source code, and should be wiped as a precautionary measure."

Kyou nodded slowly, appearing to understand the unstated implications of Rex's orders. Satisfied, she turned to regard the remaining members of Weiss. "Laperm and Siberian, your orders are to concentrate on target removal. You will receive specific instructions from Balinese during the mission. If there are no instructions, you will backup either Balinese, or Abyssinian and Havana. Understood?"

The question was addressed to both Sena and Ken, though her gaze rested on Ken alone.

Oh, don't worry, bitch. I understand. Through the pulse pounding in his ears he vaguely heard Sena's spoken agreement.

Only good for one thing, after all.

He gripped a fist beneath the table, out of sight.

'Target removal.'

He felt a smile creep across his lips as he nodded his own confirmation.

But that's good enough for me.

He loosened his fingers and uncurled them, spreading them out into a familiar position. Only a few more hours...

"Weiss will regroup in the E section of the south parking lot at 2100. Side arms are authorized for this mission, and recommended. It would be a good idea to spend some time familiarizing yourself with the building layout and the profiles of the targets in the couple of hours you have before the mission, if you haven't already." Rex paused a moment and surveyed the faces around the table. "Any questions?"

Surprisingly, it was Kyou who piped up. "What about the offsite backup storage? They must have stored some of the backup tapes in at least one other location, for security reasons."

"Already got it taken care of." A black box flashed into Yohji's hand. He held it outward in the palm of his hand towards the center of the table for inspection. "I've got a timer on it set to go off tomorrow night. Assuming we don't remote detonate it tonight, of course." The device disappeared back into his trenchcoat pocket.

"Anything else?" Rex's sharp tone breached the silence. When no further questions seemed forthcoming, she unfolded her arms and smiled at the assembled group. "Dismissed."

Ken pushed away from the table, relieved that the mission formalities were finally finished. How much talking does it take to just kill a person, anyhow? He scowled, flexing the fingers, desperately wanting to punch something.

Or someone, he thought, spying Rex approaching behind him out of the corner of his eye. He spun in step to face her, fist ready, only to be pushed roughly aside by a hard shoulder to his chest. Dazed, he watched in dumbfoundment as the woman walked straight past him to the other end of the room.

"Laperm?" Rex politely tapped Sena lightly on the shoulder, a complete contrast to the rude way she had bodily shoved Ken aside only a moment before.

What does she want with him?

Sena turned to face her, a nervous smile on his lips. "Yes?"

Rex put a placating hand gently on Sena's shoulder. "Can I speak with you outside for a moment? It's about the mission."

What?!

He lunged forward, fully intent on following them, only to find his forward movement arrested by a firm hand on his shoulder. He spun on his heel and snarled in the face of his captor. "What the hell do you want, Aya?"

Impassive violet eyes gazed past him, to the corner where Kyou singly remained. "Now is not the time, Ken." He squeezed Ken's shoulder tightly once before releasing it, and stepped back.

Ken felt the fight drain out of his body. Aya was correct; there was any number of reasons Rex would need to talk to Sena before the mission, not the least of which it being Sena's first mission.

Still, he found it difficult to fight off his inherent mistrust of Rex's actions and motivations. Every encounter he had had with the woman set him on edge, and seeing her take Sena aside to speak with in private - especially after telling him flat-out earlier that she had not expected Ken to attend the mission - only served to fuel the myriad of paranoid scenarios already playing out in his mind.

It would only require an order from above for his partner to abandon him at a critical time during the mission.

And if that did not work... well, he was certain an "accident" could always be arranged.

Ken shivered, rubbing his arms. Was it always so cold in here?

"Hey! Don't look so serious, Ken!"

Leave it to Yohji to interject levity at the most inappropriate moments. And yet, it was enough to bring a smile to his face. Yohji smacked Ken hard enough on the back to make him wince. "See? We're all together again."

Ken was unable to resist. "Like a dysfunctional family reunion."

Aya snorted. Yohji faked a blow to the heart, collapsing onto the couch in phony shock. "You wound me, Ken. Anyone else would be privileged to count me as their relation."

Aya glared at Yohji from where he leaned against the wall. "Not me."

Yohji waved his hand dismissively. "And here I was thinking you were finally starting to come around." He grinned, tipping the cowboy hat rakishly over one eye. "Don't worry. You'll figure it out eventually."

"Whatever, Kudou."

It really was like family, Ken realized. He had not comprehended how much he had missed until just now.

But something still felt incomplete. Something was missing, and Ken knew he would only be lying to himself if he pretended like he did not know what it was. His gaze trailed the length of the room, stopping on a small portrait sitting atop the television.

The room had gone silent around him. Ken's feet padded of their own volition across the floor. He stopped in front of the television set, reaching forward with as much care as possible to grasp the portrait in his shaking hand.

I will remember, he intoned silently.

Suddenly, the Koneko no longer felt so welcoming to him. A sense of loss echoed hollowly in the silent room.

Kyou had left the room some time shortly after Sena walked off with Rex. Aya had disappeared off into the shadows as usual, and even Yohji had gone off somewhere to get ready for the mission.

Ken spared the room a final glance before heading upstairs.

I will remember, he vowed, clutching the picture frame tight against his chest.

And I promise I will save you.