A/N; Disclaimer; Original Death Note isn't mine and I make no profit from this.
DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT READ CONSTANT TEMPTATION.
And so it begins. Welcome to the first chapter of the sequel to Constant Temptation. I hope you enjoy it, and I'm overawed that you wanted one.
Please read and review.
Instrumentalities
Chapter 1
The car sped down the narrow alley and out into the road beyond, the car it was following was already attempting to zigzag through the traffic and lose its tail. The red saloon car dodged and weaved through the traffic to the sound of blaring horns and the driver attempting to follow it frowned. His eyes narrowed beneath his fringe of red hair as he saw its distance from him, his foot pressed down on the accelerator as he too shot forward, pressing through the spaces left behind by the vehicle in front. Despite the distance that had been between them before, he quickly made it up and tried to sit doggedly on its tail. Not for the first time he felt thankful for his access to Wammy's superior technology; so much of what he used wasn't available on the commercial market. It gave him the edge he needed when it came down to events like this.
He glanced in the rear view mirror as he heard the sound of sirens and realised he had gained a tail. The police had obviously not believed them when they had been told L would bring this man in for questioning. Either that or they didn't care that this man had information about L, the new L that needed to be verified or dealt with somehow before they let the justice system have him.
With a sigh he raised his hand to his ear piece and placed a call, he needed his tail of three police cars gone, or he would end up arrested himself; he didn't want that. The technology that was in his car was also in the cars behind, more than once Matt wished that Wammy wasn't so fair to the justice systems of the world. Surely they didn't need every piece of technology he invented, at least not until they were done with it.
"I have a problem," Matt sighed as the person at the other end picked up, there was a strange sound in the background he couldn't place, but he discounted it. Keeping track of the car in front was too important to get distracted.
"I'm already on it," Mello's voice was filled with his usual pride that crawled down Matt's spine and made him shiver. He could almost see the smirk that had to be adorning his scarred face, "Just keep following him, his heading straight into our trap. I'll deal with your tail. Damn cops."
"What are you going to do?" Matt asked.
"Something reckless," Near's voice suddenly cut into the line, "But he won't listen to me. Of course despite its recklessness it does have a 97 percent success rate possibility."
Mello's laugh resounded down the line at that, almost at the same time as Matt saw the motorbike burst out of the traffic going the opposite way and somehow leave the ground enough to clear the barrier between them. It sped towards him and was gone a second later. Matt glanced in the rear view mirror to see it had stopped and Mello, it just had to be Mello, was levelling a gun at the police cars behind. To his relief the police cars came to a very sudden halt, they had to; all the traffic around them was stopping too.
"He is carrying all the necessary documentation to avoid being arrested?" Matt sighed, flooring the pedal once more and regaining the distance he was losing on the car in front, he gave a growl of annoyance as it suddenly shifted through the traffic and nearly hit three cars. If anyone died today, despite his usual control, Matt wasn't sure he could hold back hitting the driver at least once.
"I managed that at least," Near sighed, "I'm talking to the superintendent now. He resolutely refuses to understand that we need this person in our custody. He seems to think L is taking liberties."
"This is the first time we've ever needed to do this," Matt growled, "Did you mention that? Or the numerous times we have saved the police force from public disgrace?"
"I did," Near commented, "It did not help. He is accusing us of abuse of power."
"Are you still on the line to him?" Matt asked, and his anger was clear in his voice. There was a long pause from the other end of the line, the silence so loud Matt thought he had been cut off.
"I am, but it would not be wise for you to speak to him," Near responded, and the cool logical tone he used told Matt all he needed to know. Near was, in his own subtle way, telling him off for getting too emotionally concerned over something Near could deal with on his own.
"I understand, I'm reaching the road block anyway," Matt whispered.
At the next turning the desperate driver in front tried to make a sharp right, to head out towards the motorway and potential escape, instead he had found the roadblock. His actions had been anticipated and skidded to a stop in the ring of cars waiting for him; the cars and the armed men. Matt came to a stop behind him, blocking his escape with his own vehicle. He knew that they, the trio, as L had far more physical power than the original L had ever had, for Mello was prepared to use the mafia at every turn. Well what had once been the mafia, all that had served in the section under Nicholas had stayed with them even after his death and they had become something similar to L's contact network, if somewhat more powerful.
Matt sighed and stepped from the car, his movements tracked by several men that surrounded him as he moved towards the red car in front. He was not armed himself, but with these men protecting him he didn't have to be, he knew them well. With them at his back he might as well be armed. As he approached, the door opened and the driver at last emerged.
"I suggest you raise your hands or my friends will get a little worried," Matt cautioned, and almost immediately the hands rose well clear of the man's head.
"Hi Matt."
At the voice, and the face he could suddenly see as the driver turned towards him, Matt did a double take. Despite his impressive intelligence even he couldn't quite believe what, or rather who he was seeing. It was E, or rather Earl, one of the old orphans of Wammy's.
"Earl?" Matt gasped, staring at the once housemate of Wammy's, "What the hell are you doing working with the insidious group we're investigating?"
"It's good to see you as well Matt," Earl sighed, "It's been a while."
"It's been nearly four years," Matt said, as he heard the unmistakable sound of Mello's bike quickly approaching, "Why did you vanish like that?"
"Unavoidable circumstances," Earl whispered, and his eyes widened in surprise as a motorbike roared into the clearing, and stopped just shy of him and Matt.
There was no sign from Mello that he had been shocked by Earl being the driver as he flipped up his visor and stared at Earl coolly.
"This is no place to be having a conversation," Mello growled, "We certainly need him in custody now. Tch, what happened to you Earl?"
"I felt I had to broaden my horizons after Wammy's burnt down," Earl sighed, "L obviously isn't all that if his house could fall."
"I really don't like traitors," Mello hissed as the men finally approached to cuff Earl and take him away to the waiting van. His eyes narrowed as Earl merely laughed at him, it seemed E had grown up to become quite the malevolent man. Mello's eyes stayed fixed on Earl as he was led away. At last he muttered, "at least we have his cargo. Whatever he was transporting they wanted it badly."
"How did you deal with the police?"
"Didn't have to, they finally started listening to Near after he actually made a threat," Mello laughed, and he flashed Matt a grin.
"He threatened them?" Matt gasped, shifting to glance underneath the car and then in all the usual places, for any obvious signs of booby traps. It wouldn't do to have the car suddenly explode on them, "they must have truly annoyed him."
"Well, more particularly he threatened tipping papers off to the bad book keeping several high level officers have."
"Your bad habits are rubbing off on him," Matt commented, "he-"
Matt never got to finish the sentence as a shot rang out across the square and both he and Mello turned to see Earl crumpling to the floor between the guards escorting him. He was right next to the van which would have kept him out of the path of any bullets.
"Shit," Mello growled, his eyes searching the buildings around them as men rushed to surround them. Neither of them knew how being surrounded in people was going to do them any good now; the shooter had to be above them in one of the many buildings and was obviously a very good shot.
"Do you think we're in danger?" Matt whispered, and a second later he discounted it before Mello even answered. If they had been in danger they would have been shot before they had even begun to hide, the shooter would not have waited for his target to be moved away from the two people who had any hope of tracking his position.
"No. No we're not," Mello sighed, and shook his head, "I can't see them, and by the time we search they will be long gone. Fuck it."
"The real question is," Matt murmured, "What was so important about his cargo, or about what he knew, that they had to shoot him?"
"No, the real question is what Near will have to say about this," Mello said calmly, then he saw Matt's expression, "What?"
"Are you two always going to be rivals?" Matt snapped. He couldn't believe his partner could be so callous with the dead body of an old comrade cooling on the tarmac nearby.
...
The trip back to their mansion was a quiet one. Despite their earlier bravado in front of their men neither Matt nor Mello was willing to talk about what had happened. It was the first time they had 'failed' at something related to a task since L had given them his position. They weren't worried about telling Near, for they had already done that in a quick terse conversation that had been a brief summary of events before they began their journey back up the UK to their country manor. No, Matt was simply quiet because of what was happening inside Mello's head.
Matt tried to look at Mello as sneakily as he could, just managing to take in his partner's face out of the corner of his eye. He had never seen Mello look so serious and alert as he drove and Matt knew he had to be brooding. If there was one thing Mello did well it was brood, he would sit with a problem for hours, days, maybe even weeks, and pick it apart and over-analyse it till there was nothing there that resembled the original problem. If there was one thing Mello needed Near and Matt around for sometimes, it was to snap him out of it; else Mello could end up doing something... dangerous.
"We couldn't have predicted that," Matt said at last, trying to go for the logical route instead of the emotional one.
"But we should have," Mello growled, "That's our job."
"Even L wouldn't have been able to predict that," Matt added.
"Yes he would," Mello spat out, and Matt frowned. It seemed Mello was not being at all rational; he didn't like that when Mello was driving.
"But we have proof he hasn't," Matt said softly, "Light was able to kill Higuchi right under his nose, and that was with L knowing he was Kira."
"But-" Mello began, and stopped himself. Finally accepting the knowledge that they had not known the group they had been investigating would have been so serious about silencing a delivery boy, even if it had turned out to be E. This had been a delivery for an underground organisation that had been growing in size for the past year, but had only appeared as an interest in the past few months for the trio. Today's delivery was hinted to be a special package of particular importance to the group, and so the trio had decided they wanted it too. The knowledge that the driver knew something about L had only been an added incentive. However nothing about the group had told them to act in extra caution, nothing had told that the group would be armed with a sniper rifle of such ability in the UK. "You are right Matt, all we need to do is track the group down, Earl working with them is immaterial. We simply have to find them."
...
With a small sigh Near placed the final die on the tower before him and shuffled back; staring at the accurate representation of the skyline of London, down to even the smallest spire. In the past few years his creations had become far more ambitious and time consuming. He always wondered about Matt and Mello's patience with this habit, not once had they mentioned it; he supposed it could only be because they knew that it was part of his stress relief. He twitched as he heard the applause next to him, Matsuda's exuberance always surprised him. Even after more than three years working with the man.
"It's amazing," Matsuda enthused, coming to stand by Near so he could better survey the model. Then he asked rather incredulously, "Just how many dice did you use?"
Near wondered at Matsuda sometimes, the man was capable of some stunning insights that always surprised the trio, yet he always let himself down by his inability to remember certain details... like the number of dice he himself had order for Near. Yet still Near found that he liked having the Japanese detective around, it was nice to have someone around who seemed perfectly happy all the time; for no-one in the trio was that was for certain. Matsuda always managed to put up with all the trio asked of him too, he did everything they were sure Wammy had done for L, and more. Near realised with sudden horror that Matsuda was crouched next to him, still surveying the model and had yet to receive an answer.
"Eight thousand six hundred and fifty three dice in total," Near murmured, "I did not need three in the end."
Near couldn't hold back a small, proud smile as Matsuda gave a whistle of appreciation next to him. He supposed he had a right to feel proud about his creation, it was somewhat impressive. No doubt it wouldn't last long until one of the people around him walked into it, but then it would be time to move onto something new. It was all about the building process for Near.
"What time is it?" Near asked, "Mello said they would be arriving back at seven thirty."
Matsuda glanced at his watch and bit his lip. Near had to hold back a laugh, with that simple motion he already knew that it was either seven thirty or later.
"It's seven thirty-two," Matsuda said, and Near's smile broadened.
"I think I will go and wait for them," Near commented while he padded across the floor in his bare feet towards the door.
"What about the cases I was telling you about?" Matsuda called as he hurried after Near.
"In the case of the murderer in America leaving those messages, his name is Charles Randall, the third on the police's lists of suspects," Near murmured, and he heard the sound of frantic writing. It had not taken many months in the trio's services before Matsuda had become a note taker of some extraordinary quality, "the Drug Cartel are next meeting in Brussels, a particularly inane choice as Interpol are quite a presence there. The weapons shipment for the terrorist group in Eastern Europe is being delivered on Friday and two in the morning at the usual place."
By this point Near and Matsuda had left the large operations room now occupied with dice and were descending the large stairs that led down to the entrance hall of the manor the trio had inhabited after everything with Beyond had come to a close. Sometimes the house would be swarming with people, contacts and the men now employed directly under Mello, but now it was almost deathly quiet. Near hated it, the silence merely reinforced the loneliness he felt without Matt and Mello arrived.
"I still can't believe they shot E," Matsuda sighed.
"I have already explained the reasoning behind such behaviour," Near commented, "No doubt Matt and Mello came to the same conclusions. Though I suspect emotions will be clouding their memories of Earl. He was not a nice person at Wammy's, to have picked the career path he had does not surprise me. To be in the criminal underworld is to be close to death, being killed by your own group could only be expected. He determined his own fate by his actions."
Matsuda was stunned by Near's words, it wasn't often that Near spoke so vehemently about anything that wasn't Mello or Matt. It could only mean that Near was unsettled by the dissatisfactory ending to this aspect of the ongoing case. It wasn't often the trio had to work on something for this long.
All introspection ceased as the front door banged open and Mello entered, closely followed by Matt. The change in Near was immediate, and instead of the small smiles he had been using earlier he was truly grinning now. Then he was actually running forward. The two returning men had barely enough time to realise what was happening before Near was on top of them, drawing them into an embrace.
"Tch, you'd have thought we'd been away longer than a couple of days," Mello said, with a small laugh as he pulled Near close and kissed him gently. He was always gentle with his white haired partner, despite his words. Near said nothing in reply, and was in fact prevented from doing so as Matt chose this moment to kiss him as well.
"We've missed you as well," Matt whispered, as he broke the kiss.
Behind them Matsuda stood completely unaffected by the display, he was well used to the trio being in such a relationship, and could only find it romantic. It was heartening to see the three hard working people before him taking time to be with each other, but then they always did. It was at this point Matsuda's ever present mobile rang.
The trio turned to watch him as he took the call, and gave no sign of impatience as he took in the words.
"Well?" Mello asked as Matsuda ended the call, and he spared the man a small smile. He knew their aide needed some acknowledgement, else he would feel he was being ignored.
"The forensic team have finished searching the car," Matsuda explained, "They're waiting for your call."
