Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ To Serve and Protect ❯ Chapter 19

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

To Serve 19

Betaed by Skippyscatt

~ * ~
At breakfast the next morning Mokuba dropped a bomb. "We've got an appointment with the
Commissioner at 10:00 sharp." Mokuba announced.

Joey choked on his coffee. "Son of a fucking bitch. Dammit, Mokuba, could you just spring
something nasty like that on a guy? Why?"

Mokuba smirked at Joey. "He's going to give you a medal . . . and a gold watch. Or something."

Seto stuck his two cents worth in with a matching smirk. "You deserve whatever he gives you."

Joey just shook his head. "Yeah? What if it's a pair of handcuffs, for real? I don't trust any of
them. From the Commissioner down to, but excepting Tanaka-san, I wouldn't trust them as far as
I can throw them."

Mokuba gave Joey an evil look. "Well, that's kind of far, if you ask me. You're hard as marble
and I heard about your little exhibition yesterday. Joey? " Joey raised an eye brow at Mokuba
"You got to quit pushing yourself so hard. It's not good."

Joey shrugged then leaned into Seto for comfort. "I know. As soon as we catch the Letter Man,
I'm retirin'. Seto's taking me to the South China Sea for a nice vacation in the sun."

Seto smiled his agreement. The look on Joey's face when he mentioned his dream vacation was
soft and dreamy.

It took Joey a little while to get ready. He'd planned on doing nothing more than loafing around
all day, with a little visit to the gym for some easy yoga, tai chi and light weight lifting. So he had
to shower which meant he washed his hair. Seto wound up combing out tangles while Joey
cursed in three languages.

"I didn't know that you spoke Spanish. Where did you learn that?"

"The Farm. There were several people there from Mexico. Will you quit worrying about that and
finish with my hair? I want it braided, please."

Seto started braiding Joey's hair. It was long now, almost to the middle of his shoulder blades
when it was braided. While he braided, he tried to distract Joey by asking him questions.

"The farm. You say it like it means something. I know you told me a little about it. Some kind of
High class facility? Like that one in Osaka, for white collar offenders."

Joey looked at Seto in the mirror, he had a hopeful look on his face. At Joey's solemn head
shake, he sighed.

"Can you talk about it?"

"Sure. What do you want to know?" Seto just waited. "First off. It's in Louisiana, USA. West
Feliciana Parish. There's 18,000 acres 5,000 prisoners and 1,000 plus staff. It's basically a giant
farm some of its history is so bad you don't want to know. It's no picnic now. There are places
where the staff only go in groups of four or more. I was on the same crew as my target. So . . . I
hate cows. And the smell of raw milk."

Seto changed tack quickly. "Here, take the brush, I'm almost done with the braid. You going to
wear that tussah silk suit? I like it. The dark blue looks really good on you."

Joey let the subject drop without complaint. Seto had given him some ideas and he wanted to
think them out before they got to the Headquarters. This visit to the Commissioner wasn't a good
idea as far as he was concerned. All it was going to lead to was more annoyance for him. He
didn't 'do the pretty' very well.

~ * ~

The drive to the city was accomplished in silence. Brooding on Joey's part, worried on Seto's
and oblivious on Mokuba's. Seto chewed on his lip and watched Joey, Joey stared out the
window, and Mokuba read papers.

Mokuba was happy. Getting the Commissioner to review the suspension was a real
accomplishment. It hadn't been easy either. He'd had to call in or offer favors that were going to
be hard to deal with later. But, all in all, he was satisfied with the results of his work. He didn't
feel that he'd been optimistic when he'd told Seto that Joey was going to be fully reinstated.

When they arrived at the HQ, Joey told Roland to go to the front. "I'm not an officer anymore, so
we go in the front, not the garage. I'm tired of getting the shitty end of the stick."

Roland just sighed. It wasn't like Joey to be snarky, but he had to admit that it was justified. He
held the door for the three young men and followed them into the building; followed in his turn
by several of the black suited security men.

They were stopped at the vestibule by a wand wielding female officer. When she ran the wand
over Joey, she nearly had a conniption. In a delicate, mannerly way.

"I'm so sorry, sir. You can't bring that . . . arsenal in with you. In fact, all your men will have to
leave their weapons here."

Joey shrugged, filling his hands with eye-popping speed. "I don't leave these babies with anyone.
Not even someone as nice as you. Call the Commissioner. Tell him we're here. See that he
knows that I'm not coming up without these."

There was some discussion on a phone, then the lady officer allowed Joey to keep his weapons,
but told the other men to leave theirs. She gave each man a lock box to put their weapons in,
instructing them to keep the keys.

Joey was glad that they all fit into the elevator at the same time. He now regarded this building as
enemy territory and wasn't comfortable splitting their 'unit.' He especially didn't want to be
separated from Mokuba or Seto. The others could take care of themselves, but he still wasn't
comfortable with the idea of either of the Kaiba brothers on their own.

Joey waited as Seto and Roland sorted out who would come into the office and who would stay
out. It was finally decided, mostly by Roland, that all the extra security would stay in the outer
office and only Seto, Roland, Mokuba and he would go in. The Commissioners' secretary, a
hardened veteran of twenty years, heaved an audible sigh of relief as he realized that most of the
hard-faced people would not be near the Commissioner.

Little did he realized that the most dangerous and heavily armed of the group was the honoree.

Seto went in first, then Mokuba; so Joey wasn't surprised when the Commissioner walked
around his desk and offered his hand to Seto. At first glance Seto looked a lot more dangerous
than Joey.

Seto had always been tall, but at twenty-three he was fully grown at 6'3" Joey's own height of 6'
was respectable but boots added another two inches to Seto while Joey favored flat heels.
Mokuba at 5'10" was and always would be the shortest of them. Joey snorted gently to himself as
Seto eyed the hand with an arrogance that would never fade.

"I'm sorry."

"Mr. Jounouchi. I'm so pleased to finally meet you."

Seto just jerked a thumb in Joey's direction and sat down in a nearby chair. Mokuba sighed, this
was going to be much more difficult than he'd thought. The Commissioner had just slighted Joey
by going to Seto first, not recognizing one of his top operatives was down right insulting.

Joey reacted just as Mokuba had been afraid he would. He got snotty.

"Sorry I'm not what you expected; all manly and G. I. Joe. Just a kid with a bad attitude and a
head for not getting killed. You got stuff to say, say it and let me get out of here. I got places to
go and things to do."

Seto gave the Commissioner a completely unapologetic look while Mokuba just dropped his jaw.

"I'd heard that one of the reasons that you were suspended was insolence. I'd like to know how
you managed to graduate from the academy with that attitude."

So Joey told him in excruciatingly intimate detail. "I went to high school in the day and I went to
the academy at night. I worked so hard that at the end I was in sleep deprivation so bad that I just
didn't care anymore. You can read my record, but . . . So, I got four hours sleep a night, if I was
lucky. By the time I actually got a place to sleep, it was great."

"I see, at your age at the time, it's a wonder you could rent a place."

"Rent?" Joey snorted in amused disgust. "I got a really nice refrigerator box in a blind alley."

The Commissioner goggled, then wisely changed the subject muttering, 'I really don't want to
know.'

"I also heard that you were indulging in club fighting. That's not exactly illegal here in Japan, but
it is frowned on. So . . . "

Joey interrupted. "Yeah. Great. It's ok for me to fight for a yakuza, followin' his orders on how
long the fight lasts and how much pain I have to endure, but it's not ok for me to do the same
thing for myself and my new family. Yeah, real nice there, Commish. Can you say hypocrite?"

"Well, why don't you just tell me your story in your own words so I can understand this . . .
attitude."

"Ok, fine. Can I get a couple of tapes from records?"

"Yes, if you know the . . ."

Seto interrupted "Joey, you sure about this?"

"Yeah, let him see. What do I have to be ashamed of? Tell me one thing."

Mokuba rubbed at his cheek, *video, what video? Damn I hate surprises*

Seto smiled at Joey. "Not a thing. You're not the one who needs to be ashamed."

Joey rattled off the numbers so fast that the man had trouble writing them down, Joey just
nudged him aside and typed the numbers directly into the computer pulling up the files with an
expertise that rivaled Seto's.

The Commissioner sat and watched the video with growing horror.

Joey was fighting. His face was bloody his lower lip split and oozing. One eye was swollen
almost closed. His knuckles were split, but he was fighting with a fierceness that belied his size.
He was less than half the size of his opponent. They met with a smack of bone on flesh, Joey
threw three hard punches right-left-left. That was what put the other man out. The two quick
short jabs to the chest.

"How did you manage to get so beaten up? You certainly are better than that."

Joey shrugged casually "Boss said. He told me how many rounds to go, how much damage I had
to take and how much to dish out. That way he could fix the fight without seeming to. I'm a good
fighter, or I'd be dead by now."

Then they viewed the video of Joey being punished for insolence. When the spoon hissed on his
tongue, the Commissioner winced.

Joey just raised his eyebrow and watched. Seto got a good dose of Joey's yakuza face. It was
somewhat like looking at a stone wall.

The secretary changed the tape and they viewed the tape of Maeda beating Joey in excruciating
detail. The commissioner seemed to find the use of the cane especially disturbing. Mokuba left
the room green faced and sweating.

The next few clips were taken from Hotohori's confiscated hoard. They were of Joey fighting,
racing, and putting up with all kinds of humiliations, from being slapped for next to nothing to
having to kneel and put his hand under Watanabe's foot.

"I don't know how you managed to retain your sanity, much less cooperate like that."

Joey eyed the Commissioner for a blank second, then just pointed to the jacket on his desk.

"According to some, I'm not. Sane, that is. And if that beating I took didn't explain the
cooperation to you, try: 'I had a job to do and I did it. No matter the cost.' Did you do anything
more than read the cover sheet?" The Commissioner started to open his mouth. "Don't even try.
Just read the damn thing. We'll wait. Won't we Seto?"

Seto just gave the Commissioner a really disgusted look. He couldn't believe the man had taken a
step as serious as putting someone on Administrative Leave without reading the complete
recommendation outline. He would have fired him if he worked for Kaiba Corp.

The Commissioner sat down and buzzed for tea. "I'll just have Mr. Kawasaki bring in tea while I
read this. I trust my secretary and assistants to take care of this sort of thing and usually follow
their recommendations. But in this case, maybe I should have read the whole thing and made up
my own mind, obviously there is something that we all missed . . . Huumm . . . ah." The
Commissioner continued to make funny noises. Little exclamations of dismay, grunts of surprise
and snuffling noises.

Mr. Kawasaki brought in tea followed by Mokuba.

Mokuba went to sit on a couch where he could watch the Commissioner but not the monitor. He
watched carefully. The Commissioner sighed and closed the file.

"Well, there's some really harsh stuff in there. I am glad that you could finish your time in the
American penal system at a farm. That must have been restful."

Joey choked on his tea. "Restful. Yeah, right. Being incarcerated in one of the worst prisons in
America with five thousand hard cases and eighteen hundred staffers; most of whom wouldn't
know me from Adam, and think I'm the real deal. . . . real restful. The best part of the whole
thing is, I learned to ride a horse. You got eye problems or something? Or do you just hate to
read?"

"Well, why don't you just tell me about it?"

"Because it makes me sick. I get so mad that it's all I can do to talk. I did everything for you. I
messed up my life, my body and soul; so I could do what needed to be done. Now that I'm
fucked, you don't want me anymore. All you want to do is sweep the whole thing under the
nearest rug. Well, here. That prison . . . fuck, Seto let's just get outta here. I'm too dumb t'
handle this mess . . . I wanna go home. I wanna . . . I gotta get outta here b'fore I do sumthin'
that'll embarrass ya."

The Commissioner gave Joey a startled look, he'd gone from a fairly educated upper-middle-
class accent to a dockside snarl in about two sentences. He sat down behind his desk and studied
the young man carefully. He noticed how thin Joey was and how strained he looked. He opened
the file again and gave one appendix a quick scan. Then he turned to a single page and read it
carefully.

"Well, it seems to me that the lynch pin argument is that you haven't gone to any of your therapy
sessions. They are mandated after all. If you need help and refuse it, that's grounds for
immediate suspension."

Seto finally got snarky.

"I've checked carefully with all my secretaries. No one sent any appointments to any of them. No
one called us direct either. I'd like to know how he's supposed to keep an appointment he never
got."

Joey just grinned at Seto, a nasty look that the Commissioner found left a cold chill running
down his back.

"I'll call . . . "

"Don't bother. Joey doesn't need you. I'd like him to be reinstated, Mokuba worked hard to see
that he was treated fairly. But I can see that his loyalty is going to go unrewarded. No matter what
you said. Besides I wouldn't trust him to that bunch of quacks you keep. Most of them graduated
in the bottom 10 percent of their classes. I'd rather keep him with Doctor Higa. Thank you very
much."

After an aggravated glower of his own the Commissioner punched the call button for his
secretary. When Mr. Kawasaki came in, he asked him to call the Psych. Department and get the
phone number they were sending the appointments to.

After a few moments he came back in looking like he'd just bitten into a green kumquat. He
announced in a disgusted voice. "They've been sending the appointments to an e-mail address. I
checked with one of Kaiba-san's under secretaries. That box is so secure that all the appointment
mails were sent directly to junk mail. He never got any of them."

The two men looked at each other, like old friends do, and exchanged nods. Mr. Kawasaki left
returning several uncomfortable moments later with a small box and a leather-covered folder.

"Now I have to read this. I can never remember most of this ceremonial stuff." He made a face
and grumbled, "Formal shit, never mind. So . . . for service above and beyond the call of duty I
here by promote you to Commander. That means that you answer directly to me. But don't
bother. And . . . for four years of loy . . . " the Commissioner cut himself off suddenly. "That
can't be right. If you've put in four years . . . how long were you under cover?"

Joey gave the Commissioner an especially nasty smirk. "Four years."

"I . . . four years?! But you're only 22! How can that be?"

"Yuh din' listen a'tall, did yuh?"

Seto nearly strangled. Joey had gone from almost incomprehensible to dock yard cant.

"Sorry? I didn't understand you."

Joey took a deep breath.

"I already told you. I went to high school in the morning and early afternoon and academy in the
evenings. I studied for a combined class load of lemmesee. Twelve hours plus eighteen and a
four hour lab . . . that's thirty-four hours. I managed a quite respectable 3.5." Joey eyed the
Commissioner and Seto "What!? So I'm a glutton for punishment. Had to be done, so I did it.
Nearly passed out for the week ends, most times."

"Oh, my god. And your trainers knew about this?"

"Fuck yes. They made sure I got tutored so I'd pass."

"I'm instigating a full investigation." The Commissioner eyed Joey for a moment then continued
his presentation. "I've done research, or rather one of my secretaries has. So here, you're fully
reinstated, all benefits etc. and you have a sh . . . lot of vacation, sick leave and leave with pay
accumulated. In a case like this, we usually just pay you for it. So here's a check. Don't spend it
all in one place."

Joey took the shield, the commendation papers and the check. When he looked at the check, he
blinked then handed it to Seto.

"I'll invest this along with everything else. If Seto manages correctly, by the time I'm forty I
won't have to worry. I'll be able to afford my tea."

After some more polite babbling, which Joey mostly ignored Seto and Mokuba shook hands with
the Commissioner. Seto glared Joey into doing the same, as Joey's slender digits disappeared
into the commissioner hand Seto knew that this was not a good idea. When the Commissioner
gave a soft gasp, he was even more convinced than ever.

Joey made a small sound of annoyance. "I'm sorry. Don't quite know my own strength
sometimes. Stupid of me. I usually don't forget. You ok?"

"Yeah, just feel like I put my hand in a vise. I'll be ok as soon as the circulation returns." The
man shook his hand and wiggled his fingers laughing softly. "Mr. Kaiba, would you stay just a
moment?"

Seto nodded and watched Joey and Mokuba head for the door. Joey turned back but when Seto
just nodded to him he stepped outside. Seto knew that he was taking up a stance outside the door.
The one Seto thought of as his wise-guy stance.

"I'm sorry about all the trouble he's had. It's incomprehensible to me how some of my
subordinates think. I've had words with some of them but I think I need to have serious
conversations with some others. As to Jounouchi-sama, he's now considered a free agent. He'll
have to write reports, but they come directly to me. You pay his salary and we won't interfere in
anything he does. Just don't let word of his more . . . er . . . cutting edge activities get back to me.
Ok?"

Seto nodded he understood that the Commissioner was giving Joey carte blanche to handle things
in whatever way was necessary to get results.

"Thank you for your help. If you need to get in touch with Joey, all you have to do is call one of
these numbers." Seto gave him a folded piece of paper with four numbers on it. "We're going to
the Towers now. I'm hoping that Joey may have an idea on how to catch the Letter Man.
Goodbye."

Seto walked to the door and sure enough, there stood Joey, legs spread, right hand gripping left
wrist. Seto bit his lip for a second, then motioned for Joey to follow him. Mokuba looked at them
with bright, knowing eyes and smiled.

~ * ~

Seto looked out the window at the Towers and found that the swell of fondness had faded into a
simple feeling of ownership. The building had been built in the early seventies and was still one
of the most cutting edge in the city, even though it had its faults. But it wasn't home anymore.
The apartment was only a convenience now. If it was anyone's home, it was Torrance's. It was
an island of safety in an unkind world for the scarred man.

Joey got out first and held the door for Seto while Roland opened the office building door. Seto
swept into the vestibule with coat tails flying and an irritated expression on his face. He was
going to have a meeting with development over some difficulties with a new program.

The new drafting program couldn't get by the preliminary stages and Seto couldn't see why.
There was a bug in the thing somewhere, but no one could find it. He was going to have to see if
he could do it himself. And he was going to have some words with the development group, not
very nice ones.

Mokuba announced that he was going to his office and see what needed doing there while Seto
'had lunch'. He took off with two security men trailing after him.

Seto stepped into a common elevator and watched as the other two security men, Roland, and
Joey formed a barrier between him and the door. A low-level salary man scurried to catch them,
but found a rather large barrier in the door, which closed in his startled face.

Joey settled at his desk in Seto's office and turned on his computer. "I'll just stay here. I don't
think I'm fit for human consumption just now. Think I'll find a game or something." Seto put his
hand on Joey's shoulder and Joey rubbed his cheek on it. "Go on. I'll be fine here. Roland knows
those guys better than I do. Maybe I'll go over those files one more time. Scat."

So Seto went to the think tank. *Why I call it that I don't know. They certainly don't.* He settled
in for a protracted round of 'it's not my fault'.

After twenty minutes of review, he realized that it had to be a basic flaw in the program
somewhere. The model worked, but when they tried to put a skin of any kind on the model the
whole program crashed.

~ * ~

Joey settled in for a protracted round of frustration. He was going to try to build a model of
where the e-mail came from. If he could find a physical location for the e-mail that could help
identify the sender. So he looked for some way to map the ISP's. Since they were locked now, it
should be easy.

The only modeling program he could find was a turkey of the worst sort. He hacked the code and
started looking for the error. It was a decent program and a few new lines would make it do
exactly what he wanted. So he grumbled about 'idiot ivory tower elegant egotistical programmer
useless pretties' and fixed the mess.

Then he started locating the ISP's, he had to do it by hand and it took him a while. Then, when
he tried to view his results, it wasn't possible. The 19" monitor was too small for him to get the
entire building on it at once and a partial picture wasn't going to do him any good at all.

Opening the door to the office he smiled at Miss Ayami and asked if there was anywhere that he
could view an extra large projection. At her puzzled look and 'a duel monster projection?' he
slapped himself in the forehead and said, "Never mind. I got the stupids today. That visit to the
Commissioner was . . . not fun."

Miss Ayami apologized with a slight smile and led him to the elevators. She reached in and
punched a button.

"You go on down and I'll let them know you're coming. Watch out for them, there's a few stupid
practical jokers there. They scared the bujums out of me the last time I was down there."

Joey exited the elevator, followed Miss Ayami's directions, and realized that he was in a
projection room for the holographic system used by the new duel program. He looked around for
someone to give him some help, but since no one was around, he helped himself

He got the unit running and patched in the program he'd been using. Then he grinned, the
holographically projected wire model of the building was twice as tall as he was. He could see
every thing in good detail. All the main walls of the building were in green and non-loadbearing
and half walls were in blue. It was better than a blue print because he could see the relation of
one floor to the others. Elevators, stairs, every feature of the place was there.

He eyed the red dots that represented every ISP that an e-mail had come from. The orange dots
were paper mail.

"Well fuck, there's a pattern, but what does it mean. I . . . " Joey walked around the model. All
the dots for e-mail were in two clusters; half a floor each. What did that mean? He looked again
and mumbled to himself. 'Something . . . something . . . come on stupid.'

Then a phone rang. He looked around and found it.

"Moshi, moshi. Jounouchi."

The English that assaulted his ears was some guy wanting to know who'd been messing with his
program.

"That piece of shit? The skin generator had a major glitch in it so I just junked it so I could use
the wire frame generator. You don't like it, piss at Kaiba-sama. I got stuff to do." Joey listened
for a moment. "You want to say that again, come down here and say it. Baka."

Joey tossed the phone in the general direction of the cradle and went back to the model, but his
concentration was broken.

"Shimatta. Shiri nuki me. That . . . well, hell."

Joey gave the desk a kick, he'd almost had it. He could feel the solution just beyond his
fingertips.

"I'm finding some coffee. Seto be damned. I don't care if he does think I drink too much. Coffee
is the fuel of the over worked and underpaid." Joey didn't realize that he was talking out loud.
"Although I can't say I'm under layed. Damn, he's got a mouth on him."

Joey sent the raw data to a personal file on the main frame and added the program as an
appendix, then he shut the station down. He wandered out looking for some coffee.

What he found was a group of programmers standing around gossiping and whining. It seemed
that someone unidentified had messed with their program and made them look bad. Joey listened
for a moment then realized that they were talking about him.

"Yeah, and Mr. Kaiba wants this guy really bad. He's going to grant the top slot to this fucker.
We work our tails off for weeks and can't find this. I swear I checked every line of code
personally at least five times."

Joey shrugged. "Yeah, but did you check the initial interface itself? It was simple, you lazy ass
holes just used an already written interface and it wasn't compatible. You want it done right,
write it from scratch. Betsume. Ch'"

Of course the man took instant exception to Joey calling him 'nothing' in that tone of voice.

"Hey! Watch your mouth. Who you calling names. I'll give you a fresh one."

"H'ok. Konoyaru. Yaru ka? Be like fightin' a koneko, but nani yo."

Just then Seto walked in with a nasty expression on his face.

"Joey, do not kill the village idiot. And speak either English or Nihon. Not that bastard
conglomeration . . . I want you to find someone for me. Someone in the building managed to get
that program to build a reference model of this building. I want to know who it was . . . now. Do
it for me, please."

"Ok," Joey just jerked his thumb at his own chest and snorted. "Hai, omae . . . I mean. It was me.
I needed some way to map out the ISP's so I hunted up that program as the best available. It's a
mess. All they did was patch together a bunch of already written code, garbage it up with some
elegant new tools, and try to make it work. I'll finish up here and see what I can do with it. Ok?"

Seto sighed. "Joey, I don't know how you do it. I looked for an hour and didn't see a thing."

"That's because you were looking for errors in the damn code. There wasn't a single one. The
errors were in compatibility. The pieces didn't fit right. If all you do is scan for mistakes in code,
stuff like that won't ring a bell. You have to look at how the different routines work together."

Joey turned to leave, throwing over his shoulder. "There's an office down the hall. I'll use the
station there and see if I can't get all the different parts speaking to each other. Call me if you
need me."

Seto didn't even blink, when Joey got his teeth into something he resembled nothing so much as
a pit bull. He turned to the group of gaping programmers and snarled. "If he manages to get this
mess running single handed, you're all fired. And if I find out that he is right and you used
already written code to patch that together you're without recommendations too."

The entire group knew that they were in trouble, a few tried to make excuses to Seto, but he just
sneered and turned away. He went to his office and started comparing the different processes
with other programs that used the same type of operations. He realized that some of it was
original and some of it was patched in from existing code.

The next thing he did was try to figure out who'd done what. After reading code for key tells
rather than content, he recognized some of the program as code he'd written himself. Then there
were bits that were obviously Mokuba. Some from a man named Ishida, and another group of
short subroutines from a lady named Kitadani. There was still a mass of original code.

He spent the next hour figuring out who had done what. Then he called Miss Ayami into the
office and gave her two lists of names.

"I want everyone on this list out of the building in thirty minutes, send a security man to each of
their offices. Tell them to keep these people away from the computers. Have them empty out
their desks and be out of the building.

"Everyone on this list is on suspension until I figure out if they knew what was going on or not. If
they knew they are fired as well, if they didn't . . . maybe I should fire them for being oblivious. I
don't know."

Miss Ayami sighed. "Sir. . . it's not my place to say. But. . . couldn't you. . .I'm not sure. Maybe
make them take a retraining course or something. I hate to see them loose their jobs. You know
the pressure to produce can make people do stupid things. Please."

"Ok. You write up an appropriate letter of reprimand and I'll sign it. Putting it in their record
ought to do some good. At least their next supervisor will know to keep an eye on them. "

Miss Ayami sighed in relief. She was kind hearted and hated to see someone lose their job
especially if they were innocent. Although she really couldn't see how anyone could be innocent
in this. It was just plain laziness on all their parts.

~ * ~

Joey settled down and started writing code. Instead of trying to make incompatible subroutines
work together, he ran the program, found out where it hung, and rewrote those parts that refused
to run. Most of the problems were with the way each piece of code was linked to the main
program

All the idiots had done was write a bunch of links. In basic they would have been called 'goto'
sets. But the layering was the problem, some of the bits they had patched together were from
different generations, so the code was just enough different that they weren't completely
compatible. So the whole program crashed.

He wrote new sections, reworked some of the links and just plain forced the rest. He drank way
too much coffee and spent some of the time sleeping on the desk. Seto came in twice and
kibitzed both times he brought food.

Joey stopped working and stretched. He realized that it had to be at least 9 P.M..

"Seto? Hey, anyone around?" Joey wandered down to the coffee machine and jammed some
coins into the machine. It dispensed something that was supposedly coffee, but Joey couldn't tell
by the look or smell of it. He drank it anyway.

A soft voice from the door caught his attention immediately.

"Excuse me. Are you done in my office? I don't need it, but I'm getting ready to go home and I
need some of my stuff. If that's ok with you."

Joey rubbed the back of his head, tangling his fingers in the braid. "I'm sorry. I . . .ore wa baka
desu yo. Gomen."

"Oh that's ok. I need to practice my English. You're fine. I don't mind a bit. I peeked in once and
caught a look at that screen. You're really good. None of us thought anyone was ever going to get
that turkey off the ground. I . . . Gomen . . . I don't know the word. I'm too tired."

"Hey, it's no prob. What's your name?"

"Oh, sorry, sorry. My name is Oda Eiichiro. Pleased to meet you."

"Jounouchi Katsuya or Joey Wheeler. I'll answer to either or any combination. Especially if
there's food involved."

The man laughed and nodded. "Me too. I don't have an englishu name."

Joey accompanied the man to the office and lounged against the wall. He realized that he still had
his coat on and pealed it off to hang it on the now empty hanger on the back of the door.

"Holy crap. Where did you get those?"

Joey blinked for a second. Then realized that the man was talking about his Berettas.

"Italy. They're Berettas. 92R's."

"They look real. You don't get that quality without parting with a pretty penny. You going to
some kind of . . ." Oda trailed off as Joey shook his head gently.

"They're real. I'm Kaiba Seto's bodyguard . . . " Joey ducked his head slightly and eyed Oda
through his bangs. "And his lover . . . you ok with that."

Oda just grinned. "It's not my business who you pillow with. I'm married, so it's not a problem
either way. Can I touch one? Please. I've never even seen a real gun before."

Joey immediately shook his head. "No. They're not toys to be handed around for show and tell. If
you mess up it could be very messy."

They both realized what Joey'd said at the same time and started laughing. Mokuba walked in on
them as they were getting themselves together.

"Hey, what's the joke? Let me in on it."

So Oda explained to Mokuba, who thought it was just hilarious. He got himself together and
excused them to Oda saying. "Oda-kun, you're going to miss the last bus if you don't get a move
on. Thank you for letting Joey-kun use it. I know it was inconvenient for you."

Oda brushed it off as nothing. "Not a problem. I just hope he doesn't give himself a headache
trying to get all the pieces of that puzzle to work together." He finished gathering up his things
and walked out saying, "Well, see you later. Bye."

Joey gave his borrowed desk a disgruntled glower. "Mo' tell me there's food involved in this
interruption. I'm hungry."

Mokuba shook his head. "Sorry, no food. Seto wants to know when you'll be done."

"Whenever I'm done. Tell him I'll keep at it until I get the skin generator to interface, but after
that his crew of idiots is on their own. If I have to do much more, I won't be a troubleshooter. I'll
be doing their job for them and I'm not gonna. Go 'way now."

Mokuba made a rude noise usually called a raspberry and walked over to the desk to get the
phone number off the instrument there.

"If that thing rings once and it's not the building burning down around my ears I'm gonna shoot
it. You understand? Tell Seto to leave me alone . . . and get me something to eat. I'm starvin'
here."

Joey went back to work and Mokuba hid a smile as he went to deliver his message to Seto and
find him some food. Not that that would do much good. The remains of two sandwiches already
drying on the desk proved that Joey was a mono-minded as Seto.

Seto greeted Mokuba with a snarl, "Well, did he say anything worth hearing?"

"Yeah, leave me alone. If he calls and the building isn't burning down, I'm shooting the phone,
and assorted curses, and some grumbling about being hungry. My advice? Leave him be. I'll send
down something he'll eat. He's as focused as you are, and just as nasty."

Mokuba gave Seto a raspberry of his own and left, grumbling about prima donnas and snotty
brothers. He got one of the under secretaries to take something down to Joey but he didn't think
he was going to eat it.

Seto grumbled. He wanted to play with programs with Joey, but due to the craziness of the last
few days and down right laziness on his part, he had some complicated contracts to go over and
Miss Ayami wouldn't let him sneak out. In fact, the sight of petite, 4'11" Miss Ayami standing in
his door with a stern look on her face and her arms crossed over her chest was one he would
treasure. He decided the best thing to do was just get it over with. So he settled down in his
comfortable leather chair, and promptly went to sleep.

~ * ~

Joey worked on the program all night. He didn't even notice, he was enjoying himself way too
much. This was fun. He wasn't worried about something bad happening if he made a mistake. If
he did, all that would happen was the program would crash. Big deal.

When the door opened a crack and Oda-kun asked if he could come in, all Joey did was grumble,
"Only if you have food and coffee."

"Oh, Joey-kun, I've got both. Kaiba-sama's personal secretary gave it to me and told me to see
that you ate the food and drank the coffee. She said. . . and I see that she was right, that you had
food that you probably hadn't eaten. She said that I'm to throw it away as 'heaven knows how
long it's been there' so . . ."

Oda swept the remains of sandwiches and some unidentified fried thing into the waste basket and
handed Joey the fresh coffee and danish. Joey scarfed the danish down in two bites and took a
swallow of coffee before Oda could stop him.

"Hey! That's hot!"

"Well, did you think I wanted it cold?"

"You'll burn your mouth with that. Lucky you still had a mouth full of roll."

Oda didn't take offence. Joey was not only above him in the structure of Kaiba Corp. but Oda
was naturally easy going and tended to let things like that slide. It was easier to just ignore such
things, besides Joey had been working all night which naturally would make him snarky.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm more tired than I thought."

Oda flapped his hand in a placating gesture. "Never mind, an all nighter will do that to a fellow.
How you doing on that turkey?"

"It flies now. But there's some clean up to do. I'm going to make some notes then leave all that
up to whoever is left of that group. If anyone is."

"Yeah, yeah. I heard all about it on the way in. One of the guys who rides my bus has a lady
friend in personnel. She told him that Kaiba-sama figured out who was doing what and fired
several of the lazy bastards and put all the rest on notice. They got a black mark in their jackets.
Boy, I wouldn't like to be any of them for the foreseeable future."

Oda put his things away as he was speaking and settled on the visitor's chair for a good gossip,
but Joey disappointed him by standing up, stretching and yawning.

"I'm headed out. I'll finish those notes in my laptop and e-mail them to the group leader. Seto
will know who it is."

As Joey started to leave Oda decided to make one last try at getting Joey to let him handle one of
his guns.

He bowed as humbly as he could and asked, "Please Jounouchi-sama, may I touch one of your
guns. It's the only chance I'll ever have. And it would mean so much. I don't ask to hold it, just
touch it. Please?"

Joey looked at the man and sighed. If he'd asked to hold it, Joey wouldn't have had a problem
refusing, but just to touch? He knew how it was to want something so easily granted, but so
difficult to allow.

"Ok, but just touch. Not hold. They're way too hot for someone gun ignorant to handle."

Joey drew one of the Berettas and held it in his hand. Oda eyed it carefully then reached out with
a reverent finger and carefully stroked the butt.

"Aahh! It's warm!"

Joey holstered the pistol again and smiled. "It's been on my body for over. . . thirty six hours
now. Yeah, it'll be warm. All that shit about cold steel . . . you watch way too many American
gangster movies."

"Yes, but they're so much fun. . . " Joey turned to get his coat and Oda jumped into the fray
again. "Hey, what's that? A sword? Why do you carry a sword? And that . . . what's that? Damn,
you look like something out of a yakuza movie."

Joey couldn't help it, he snickered.

"What? What'd I say?"

"I'm a cop. I played yakuza for years . . . undercover. Yeah, I'm nutty. This," Joey drew the short
sword from his back "is handy. Run out of ammo and it gets real close real quick. And this isn't
for show either. It's easier to fight close in if you've got a shorter blade. Get in under their radar.
And your opponent might as well be disarmed unless they're really good."

Joey watched as Oda's eyes widened and he yelped. "I remember now. The bus was a mess, so I
almost forgot. You were on the news this morning as the youngest commander ever. There was a
short rundown of some of your accomplishments. Oh, my. Oh, heavens. You're a real hero and
here in my little office. So honored. I'm a fool. I'm . . ." He started bowing "Thank you for all
your sacrifices. I'm grateful. So very honored."

Joey felt his face go red. This was unexpected, but it was also very nice.

"Stop bowing like that, you'll make yourself dizzy. You're welcome. Your gratitude makes it all
worth while. Now, I got to get going. Seto will be having fits. He's probably gnawing on the
furniture."

Oda stopped bowing and nodded energetically. "Oh, yes. Wouldn't do to tempt Kaiba-sama's
temper. I've heard it's a terror. You must have experienced it. I'll let you go at once. Thank you .
. . excuse me"

Oda reached to open the door for Joey, bowing once again.

When Oda opened the door, all hell broke loose. Something lunged at Joey from over head. His
Berettas jumped into his hands and barked. The attacking mass shuddered, twitched and fell at
his feet. Without hesitation Joey kicked it in the 'head', drawing his sword he took up a
defensive stance snarling at Oda to stay behind the door.

Then they realized that it was a department store mannequin.

It had been hung from the open ceiling by some sort of elastic rope. When the door had been
opened, it had triggered the booby trap and let the thing swing and bounce toward the doorway.

If it had been Oda, the only repercussion would have been a scream and lots of laughter. As it
was, there was a hole in the wall the size of a rice bowl and Joey was furious.

"Find out who did that! Now! Oda, don't stand there looking at me like a dummy. Go. . .Now!"

Oda had always wanted to see something like this up close and personal. Now he was wondering
if his mother had drowned all her smart children. His ears were ringing and the smell of cordite
was making him feel odd.

"Sure. Sure. Any thing you say, Jounouchi-sama. I'll bet it was Yamamoto and his bunch.
They're always doing stupid stuff like this. Sit down, sit down. I'll go."

Oda left the office and yelled at someone to call Kaiba-sama and security. Then he disappeared
down the hall.

Joey sat down and sighed. He was in a world of shit. Discharging a firearm within the confines of
a public building. Discharging a firearm within the city limits. Destruction of private property.
Endangering the public welfare. Just to mention a few of the possible charges.

"Oh, shit. Fuck me sideways. I'm so screwed. Idiot."

He just waited to see who was going to try to arrest him first.

"Master Joey? . . . Master Joseph! Have you cleared your arms?"

Joey blinked at Roland for a moment, then carefully drew his arms and started to hand them to
Roland. Roland backed away with his arms extended slightly, palms out.

"No. No, I don't want them. I just want to make sure you're not clip empty. Come on, wake up."

Joey started, blinked again, and got himself together just in time to be dragged into Seto's arms
and held in a fierce hug.

"Heads are gonna roll over this. The handbook states plainly that any and all horseplay, pranks,
physical jokes or interference with office equipment or fixtures intended to startle fellow
employees is strictly forbidden. Who did this? I what them here. Now! Right now!"

Oda gulped and approached his boss with a veritable flurry of bows.

"Kaiba-dono, please. I'm so sorry. Is Jounouchi-kun ok? Are you going to fire him? Please don't.
Those idiots are always doing stupid stuff like this. They've been warned and warned. The
bullets didn't go anywhere much. Only into the holograph room. And they didn't damage
anything there."

Seto clenched his teeth and fought for patience. He could feel Joey starting to shake and he
wanted to get him out of here.

"I'm firing every one of those idiots. Get them all in here. Now."

Oda managed to find three of the five, the other two had already turned in their time as they
decided quitting instead of getting fired was a good thing.

Seto hugged Joey one last time and had him sit down at Oda's desk.

When the three offenders were finally dragged before Seto, he raked them with a furious glower
that made them all shake in their shoes.

"I'd like to know what part of employ rules and regulations number 12 you didn't understand. Do
you need me to read it to you or what?"

All three of them gave up hope and just stood shaking their heads and mumbling apologies.

"Do you three know what could have happened if you had done that with one of you instead of a
mannequin? Someone would have died and Joey would be in a great deal of trouble. I don't like
it when Joey is unhappy. It makes me unhappy. Do you want to deal with me when I'm
unhappy?" Frantic head shaking. "Get out. Now. Clean out your desks and get."

The three scrambled to get out before Seto decided to do something truly nasty.

Seto turned to Joey and dragged him to his feet. He wrapped him in his arms and started to lead
him out. Oda stopped him, holding out a handful of brass.

"I'm sorry, what should I do with this?"

Joey sighed, "Keep it Oda-kun. It's a reminder to you that guns are not toys; and practical jokes
are neither practical nor funny."

They managed to get out of the corridor with some help from Oda and a security man.

When they got to the elevators, Joey waited for Roland to catch up with them.

"Roland, what now? I'm in so much trouble it's not even remotely funny."

Roland winked at Seto who hugged Joey tighter and shook his head at Roland.

"Wait. We'll handle this in my office."

"Thanks, Seto. I don't fancy being cuffed in front of a bunch of goggling strangers."

Seto gave Joey a quick hug and started rubbing his back. "Joey, I don't know what you're
thinking. Cuffed? Get a clue."

They stepped out of the elevator and Seto led Joey into his office. Mokuba was there talking
calmly on a phone. When he saw them, he quickly finished his conversation and shut his phone.

"Hey, Joey. You ok? You look like shit."

Joey just shook his head and held his hands out to Roland. Roland just eyed them for a second
then sighed

"Master Joey, you still don't understand. Nothing happened. If anyone says anything, they're
gone, so no one will. Most people in the building don't know that anything happened at all. That
sub basement has all the holographic theaters in it. There's always all kinds of odd and loud
noises coming out of it."

Joey gulped at a sudden rush of tears. "Seto, you . . . I . . ."

"Joey love. I don't care if you do kill someone. I'll cover it up. It'll be buried so far under that no
one will even wonder. Now. Come here and let me hold you. You look like shit."

Instead of going to Seto, Joey doubled over clutching at his chest.

"Fuckfuckfuck. Oh, that hurts."

Seto maneuvered Joey to a couch and started issuing orders. But Joey refused to see even the
medic and especially no doctor.

"Absolutely not. I'm not letting some fucker stick a needle three feet long into me again. Not a
chance in hell."

"But . . ."

"NO!"

Seto gave up. Joey seemed to be well again and passed the whole thing off as a stress related
angina attack.

"Had 'em before. They ran a bunch of tests and didn't find anything. Just let it slide. I wanna go
home. Come on."

Seto looked Joey over then gave Mokuba a significant look.

As the pain had passed so quickly Seto decided to tell Doctor Higa about it and see if he couldn't
get Joey to do something about it. He also vowed that if Joey had another attack, he was calling
911 and dragging him in.

So Seto took Joey home and settled him in their big bed and worried himself to sleep.

~ * ~

Notes: I know someone is going to wonder what the big deal is about Joey using two left jabs to
floor someone. He's a righty with a power left jab. There's not much defense against something
like that.

Old programmer here. I write COBOL, SNOBOL, FORTRAN, RPGII, RPGIII and BASIC.


Promised thank yous: Ra, (Food Fight!); Victoria Wolf, you got it.; Lady Psyche, kurisushichan,
natura umana, Mandy, Flame Swordswoman, rroselavy, dragonlady 222, Red Eyes White Dragon
Siroi, and Bombayoni, Thank you all so much; Jasmemini, don't know band of seven, sorry.;
Hellfire, Next chapter; Celestial Angel, sorry; Sakki Dono, You're on the right track.

RL means I have time to write, maybe. Sorry answers are short.