L woke in complete stillness with his cheek against cold hard tile and, oddly enough, water dripping from his dark hair. This last struck L as odd until he remembered that just before he had died, he had gone up on the roof of task force headquarters in a rain storm and gotten soaked. The shinigami king had meant what he said about L returning to exactly the way he was before he died.
L's body felt heavy, but he sprang to his feet. He had no idea where on earth he was. The shinigami king had said he would appear where he most needed to be. That was hardly a specific description. L had hoped that meant he would reappear somewhere familiar. The room he was in, however, looked like a crossroads on the top floor of an ordinary office building complete with blanks walls and white flooring tiles. The only thing that wasn't standard were the security cameras perched near the ceiling. There were at least four of them with a clear shot of L. Foosteps pounding from the end two of the four hallways opening out on the cross roads told L that the cameras were streaming live and not recording tapes. Whoever was monitoring them had seen him and was on the way.
L didn't have time to examine the halls or consider where they might lead. He picked one that he didn't hear any footsteps coming from and ran.
"Shinigami must have a vastly different definition of 'need'," L muttered.
He didn't need to get grabbed by whatever security this place had and needed to be handed over to the police for breaking and entering even less. He had neither passport nor identification. Wattari was dead and could not rescue him and his allies at Wammies House thought he was dead. L could be locked up for years before he was released or somehow managed to convince someone he was L.
Unfortunately, the hallway he had taken turned back on itself and L found himself heading back for the cross roads. He spotted a figure at the end of the hallway, a blond woman in a black business suit, mere moments before he ran into her.
L expected her to fall to the floor with him on top of her, but she had a keen sense of balance. She took a few shaky steps away from him, but did not fall to the floor.
Her companion, a man with black hair was still gaping as L rushed past the recovered woman. He recovered enough to reach for L, but being the size of a teenager had its advantages. L slid between his legs and kept running, hoping that this next hallway did not loop back around. To his relief it did not.
"Stop!" The woman yelled.
She and her companion were behind L now, their feet pounding on the floor like minature hammers.
Not likely lady, L thought as he increased his speed.
The woman's sense of balance suggested that she had some skill with martial arts. She had been wearing a gun on her belt and so was her companion. Of even more concern was the lack of security guard uniforms. That suggested that these two might be mercenaries or even plainclothes detectives. L didn't like the idea of either.
"Stupid Shinigami," L muttered.
He increased his speed as he spotted a turn in the hallway. If he could get into one of the rooms then maybe he could find a place to hide or a window to climb out. Running around the halls and being pursued in an unknown building could only get L caught.
He opened the first door he came to after rounding the corner and skidded inside. He shut the door then turned to examine the room. It looked like an office with a large desk and desktop computer in the corner. Sadly, there were no windows.
L ignored the rest of the room and focused on the ceiling. There it was right above the desk!
When the man and woman didn't see or hear L further down the hall, they went into the room to search it for him, but before minutes before they opened the door, L was lying on his stomache in the air duct. He watched through the grill as they looked under the furniture and then left to search the other rooms.
L paused to catch his breath and consider his options. He could hide in the ventillation system for now, but eventually he would have to leave. If he stayed in it long enough, his pursuers might think he had left the building, but judging by the number of security cameras, they would see him the second he left the air duct. L also needed to find out where he was and fast.
L crawled out of the room via the air duct. He tried to keep silent, but the air duct was a tight fit even for a man as small as he was and he kept banging his head or shoulders on the top of it. He paused every time he did, but heard nothing to indicate that someone was searching the air ducts.
L smiled to himself as he crawled around peering through grills at the various rooms. Both the man and the woman had been far too big to climb around after him. Even if they did suspect that L was in the duct system they would have to wait until he left it to get to him.
L stopped when he found an office with more computers then normal. A quick trip out of the vent and a search of the desk drawers confirm that this was the office of some lowly tech support worker. He smiled as he pulled open a drawer and found a small black earpiece inside among a tangle of plugs and earbuds. It seemed like too much to hope, but L put it in his ear and turned it on.
"Gevanni, has the intruder been located?" a voice asked.
It was heavily disguised with sound modification software not dissimiliar to the kind L used to disguise his voice.
The next voice that spoke was not modified, however, "he has disappeared. The kid ran with me and Lidner behind him then turned a corner and was gone. Have you got anything on the cameras Rester?"
L frowned at the word "kid" then realized that it referred to him. He did look a lot like a goth teenager, one of the many defenses that protected his identity, but he wasn't used to be referred to as kid.
"Cameras confirm that the kid opened the door to that room you searched first and hasn't come out since. Are you sure you searched throughly?"
The woman's voice answered this time. She sounded indignant. "We searched every possible hiding place and the kid wasn't there."
"Could he be a spy sent by Kira to investigate the SPK?" Rester wondered.
The disguised voice cut in. "It is highly possible. How an intruder managed to penetrate so far into the SPK before getting caught is just as concerning. But since it is Kira we are dealing with, we must be cautious. Kira is a cunning opponent and wouldn't send a stupid man on such an important mission. The spy may well have found his way out of the room by now. Where there any windows in the room?"
"No," the woman replied.
"What about air vents?" The disguised voice pressed.
There was a pause.
"Yes, right above the desk."
L grimaced. Whoever was behind this disguised voice was smart.
L considered climbing back into the air duct, but decided against it. The woman and her partner would be listening for sounds coming from the ceiling now. Better to wait and use that as a last option. That third man, Rester, might be small enough to crawl in after him.
L sat down on the desk and digested the information he had just gained. So this was the headquarter of some organization that went by SPK. A well funded one if they had their own building like the conversation suggested. But one with few members too. There had only been four voices speaking and the disguised voice, obviously the leader, had not ordered other people to join the search. Most telling of all had been their mention of Kira. Was it possible that the Shinigami King had left L there because the SPK could be a potential ally?
L mulled it over. It was possible. He didn't know how much Shinigami understood humans. It was possible that the king had genuinely thought that something like a formerly dead person suddenly appearing in their headquarters wouldn't alarm anyone. It was just as possible that the king had thought it would be amusing to see how L explained himself and turned the SPK into his allies.
L needed to talk with their leader. It seemed that the SPK was against Kira. If the leader was half as clever as he seemed then the SPK could prove invaluable. His old task force believed him dead and contacting them would be as good as announcing to Light Yagami that he still lived. L had to get resources without alerting Light/Kira to his existence. The SPK could be that.
Of course none of that would be possible unless L was caught.
L replaced the earpiece where he had found it then darted out into the hallway. The cameras in the hall caught his movement and L had no doubt that Rester was now dispatching the man and woman, Gevanni and Lidner, after him.
Sure enough, he heard the footsteps of the pair as he raced down a hallway to the right and ran right into what he had been hoping for: a dead end.
L whirled around to find Lidner and Gevanni coming up behind him.
He tensed as they stopped a few feet away.
"You have nowhere to go. Hands behind your head," the woman, Lidner ordered pointing her gun at him.
L smiled, "Why? You won't shoot me. You want answers and shooting me won't get them."
L's smile seemed to unsettle Lidner. She lowered the gun.
Gevanni waved his. "Kid. You are backed up against a wall. Why not just cooperate and make things easier on yourself?"
L smiled even wider. "Take a look around you and you will realize that mankind is focused on futility. We go to great lengths not to make things easy. I am not about to break that time honored tradition. Plus, there is a chance that I could defeat both of you and escape."
Lidner laughed. "A chance? I don't think so."
"The odds are about one percent, but they still exist," L informed her.
Gevanni frowned. "So you would rather go with the one percent chance that you get away."
L nodded. "That is right."
"Well, Lidner here is a martial artist. Does that lower the odds enough for you?"
"I already factored that in to my calculations," L replied.
Gevanni started to speak, but L didn't hear what he said next. He was too busy ducking the right hook Lidner swung at him. She grunted as L kicked at her and his foot connected with her shoulder.
When L had said the odds were one percent, he had been exageratting. He found that for his more implausible theories pretending that they were unlikely tended to calm people down. They would cooperate with L and could tell themselves they were just being cautious. They didn't actually believe the theory. Yet time and time again, L had found that these theories were correct. In this case, however, L had exaggerated, not because of a case, but to bluff his opponents. He doubted either of them were aware that he too possessed martial skill.
Gevanni seemed surprised by his partner's sudden move, but he understood its meaning. Now they both came at L. Lidner's goal was to hit L with a disabling blow while Gevanni's was to grab L.
L swung smoothly through the complicated moves of Capoeria. It was a martial art he had been introduced to during a murder case by an agent of his and then adopted as his own. It allowed someone of his build and reach to defend and evade at the same time. L had worked hard to master it.
Gevanni and Lidner found themselves stumbling over each other and taking blows rather then efficently disabling and grabbing their opponent.
L wished they were just a bit faster. If they didn't switch strategies, L would have to make some kind of deliberate slip to allow them to take him. Such a thing would make it harder to believe that L had not allowed himself to be caught.
L was saved from this by the timely arrival of the second man in the SPK, Rester. L used the distraction his arrival afforded to deal disabling blows to both Lidner and Gevanni then rush at Rester as if to get away.
Just as L planned, Rester simply plucked L from the floor and held onto him.
"He looks a little young and scrawny to be the cause of so much trouble," Rester teased.
Lidner grimaced and got to her feet. Gevanni still lay on the floor, gasping from L's kick to the solar plexus.
She pulled out a pair of handcuffs and secured L's wrists behind his back.
He couldn't resist one last poke at her. "Shouldn't you secure my hands in front so you can see what I am doing?"
"Shut up," Lidner snarled then she tapped her ear piece. "We have the intruder, sir. I propose we throw him in the nearest dark hole and throw away the key."
She listened intently for a moment then looked at Rester, "The boss wants you to bring the intruder to him. He wants to question him in person."
Rester nodded then addressed L, "Can I trust you to walk on your own or are you going to cause trouble?"
"I will not cause trouble. Though is worth noting that my particular fighting style focuses on hands and not feet so if I wanted then I could cause problems. I understand if you still want to carry me," L said.
Rester blinked and then set L down on the floor and took his arm. Lidner and Gevanni walked behind L, watching him carefully.
"Why tell me that? Why not simply wait until I set you down then attack?"
L shrugged. "I prefer to be honest."
"That is an odd attitude for a burgalar or spy," Rester commented.
"I assure you I am neither. Given a choice, I would not be here," L said.
"So you are claiming, you what, just woke up here?"
L didn't answer. If he was being honest that was actually very close to the truth. L wasn't sure just how much of the truth he was going to tell the SPK.
Rester led L through a set of double doors.
The room behind must have the heart of the SPK. Monitors covered one wall and there was a long counter in front of it with computer chairs. A microphone sat on the counter plugged into a small black box that was probably the source of the disguised voice's software. A kid lay on his stomache in the middle of the room, building a castle entirely out of white LEGOs. The kid had white hair and wore a pair of what looked like white pajamas that matched.
Any other man might have thought that the kid was some employee's child who his father or mother had been forced to bring along due to lack of child care. L, however, knew better and he knew with a sinking feeling that turning this kid into an ally was going to be harder then he at first thought. The kid was one of the few people to know that L had died about a year ago. L was going to have to convince to Near, child genuis and one of his own successors, that he had come back from dead.