Title: Silent Consonant
By: Dr. Kim-chan
Author's Note: Just for the record, the title of this chapter means "hidden" in French, and it's also a relevant word pun, as you'll later see.
So, aside from thanking my lovely readers for following me this far (it's rare that my fics reach over ten chapters, and it's about to get real intense soon), let's talk about music! It's rare that my stories come with their own "theme songs", but for some reason "Silent Consonant" lends itself to a soundtrack. When I was writing Chapter Nine I had a particular song firmly fixed in my mind: "Gloomy Sunday" by Björk; it fit the memories of Beyond perfectly. As for this chapter? "L's Theme", of course! But whatever song you listen to while reading this, at least you're reading, right?
Un-traditional Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about the French language, nor do I know squat about French intelligence agencies. I did a little bit of research, but nothing too in-depth, so please forgive any grammatical mistakes you may see. And expect subtitles.
Un-traditional Disclaimer 2: Ithil, in one of your reviews you gave me a cute idea that I wanted to use here, so thanks in advance!
Keeping one hand on the sleek gray Aston Martin's steering wheel, Aiber reached down into the space between his seat and the armrest of the car, rifled through a manila folder, and picked up the piece of paper L had handed to him hours before, cocking a skeptical eyebrow as he read the sparse amount of data relevant to the mission he was about to undertake. In the passenger's seat, Wedy tilted her shades downward and gazed out the window at the verdant English countryside racing past them, probably thinking the exact same thing her cohort was.
Though he felt a little displaced, Aiber sighed with contentment. As one of the world's foremost con men, life was always changing, his identity always evolving, and living by a gradually-developed philosophy of his, he had to be ready to adapt in accordance with those changes…and quickly.
Especially whenever L was involved.
For the past few months, he'd been back in Florence, juggling time between his extended family and settling a few of his assets (whether any of those assets were legal, that was his own business), and for once in a long while, a rare sense of serenity had come over his daily routine…hell, it was a even a stretch to use the term "routine".
Then all of a sudden, one afternoon L called him, told him he'd flown in with Wedy (of all people), and asked if he would meet him at a local five-star hotel called Helvetia and Bristol…
Five days earlier…
"L…a pleasure as always," Aiber greeted the detective semi-sarcastically as he stepped into the ornately furnished suite. He turned and nodded his head towards the room's other occupant, a blonde woman clad head-to-toe in designer labels. "And hello to you, Miss Kenwood."
Wedy smirked, trying and failing to hide any trace of malicious intent behind her dish of tiramisu, as Aiber stepped over to the cramped sitting area and occupied the other armchair.
"So you finally showed up. You just have to hear this."
Aiber arched an eyebrow and followed Wedy's gaze to the disheveled young man curled up in the loveseat on the other side of the table who'd been listening to the brief exchange of banter with a stone-faced expression, his own slice of tiramisu three times the size of Wedy's. Keeping his own wary stare on the master thief, L offered Aiber a piece of the rich Italian pastry and ate a few bites of his own before speaking.
"As I explained over the phone, I'm working independently on a personal matter—aside from you and Wedy, of course. That is, if you'll accept my offer."
"I don't know what would be the point in refusing. Besides, things have been rather quiet these past few months. I've been waiting for a challenge."
"Is breaking into an orphanage challenging enough for you?"
The fork was barely past Aiber's lips before incredulity froze his face, his mouth left to inelegantly hang open. A full two seconds passed before he put down the fork, eyes shifting frantically between the amused thief and the impassive detective.
"As absurd as it sounds, she's telling the truth," L finally spoke, reading into Aiber's shocked expression. "But there's more to it…"
Aiber had to admit, when Wedy mentioned an orphanage, and when L explained that it was an institution that served as the basis for the system that supported and secured the detective's future prospects, he did start to have his doubts. But as he himself said, he didn't see the point in refusing, and besides, L wouldn't waste his time doing anything if it wasn't worth the risk.
But…
"You think something's up, too, don't you?"
The expert con man's reverie was suddenly broken by Wedy's voice. All the glee she had before was now completely drained from her face—the tell-tale sign that she was looking for a serious answer instead of the usual jokes.
"Well, the circumstances are suspect. He says this is for some classified information, but to break into your own former orphanage? L's pulled some stunts before, but this has me stupefied. He couldn't just waltz in himself?"
"You heard what he said. He's being forced to work alone, which means he doesn't want Watari or anyone else he's involved with to be mixed up in all this," Wedy reminded him.
"So what does that make us?"
"The same thing we've always been: victims of the so-called 'justice system' working in exchange for free will."
"How romantic."
"Hmph. But seriously, you don't think this could be a set-up? Whoever this rival of his is, at the very least he used to be associated with L. Was going to be the next L if he hadn't bailed out. The whole thing reeks of betrayal."
"Maybe the fact that this guy does think like L is exactly why we shouldn't worry. If you keep trying to outsmart your own shadow, you'll always end up failing. It's possible they have some sort of unspoken agreement between each other. 'If you don't break my rules, I'm willing to follow yours', that kind of thing…but of course, there's a risk to that, too."
"Which is?"
"If that agreement is indeed mutually understood, it's also probable one of them is already one, maybe two steps ahead of the other."
"And who do you think's ahead?" Wedy asked.
"If I had to bet on it, the other guy. L can be a sneaky bastard sometimes, but he's a bit too naïve for my tastes. But like you said, we're just on the sidelines, working for our freedom. Nothing we should be concerned about, right?"
"Depends on if the other guy plans for us to be caught up along with him. And don't forget, if something does happen to L, our asses are on the line too."
"We'll just have to charge him extra, then."
A quarter of an hour later, they finally reached the gates of the orphanage. Running a sharp contrast to the true nature of the institution, except for the gates, the path was more or less wide open for anybody to roll in. However, as Wedy assessed a couple of days ago, it wasn't as simple as it looked, especially in the evenings. Motion detectors alerted those inside to any visitors, wanted or unwanted, and a couple of hidden cameras took visual records of any incoming cars' license plates. The latter wouldn't make a difference in this case, as the license plate on the Aston Martin would be difficult to trace.
"The motion detectors should've kicked in by now. Are you ready, Monsieur Aubin?"
"As always, Madame DuVerger."
The Aston Martin rolled to a stop in front of the steps, and the pair stepped out after double-checking that they had their identification cards at the ready. Immediately Wedy spotted their next set of minor obstacles: another set of cameras hidden out of view around the parameter of the entrance, and a messaging console with a couple of unlabeled buttons, one of which Aiber fearlessly pushed.
"Yes, who is it?" Roger's voice croaked out.
"Hello. You've been contacted a couple of days ago by L concerning our visit, yes?" Wedy responded in a near-flawless French accent.
This was the critical moment in the plan. It was out of the question for L to actually show up at Wammy's House, but for their infiltration to have some credibility, L took the initiative to call Roger.
And as they hoped, it didn't take long for Roger to answer the door.
"Oh…welcome. Please come in."
As they stepped into the wood-paneled foyer and led to Roger's office, Aiber and Wedy took the opportunity to scope out the place, which had to be the most upscale orphanage they've ever seen. It was eerily quiet, the smallest sounds from adjoining rooms and the upper floor giving away any sign that children were here. No toys, no sign of any housekeepers, not even a trace of the Dickensian ambiance typically expected of orphanages. The feeling only intensified when, a minute later, Roger ushered them into his office; it looked more like a college professor's sanctuary than a space for an orphanage administrator, complete with a glass case of preserved insect specimens lying somewhere on one of the bookshelves.
"Well, as you said, I did receive L's call a couple of days ago, but may I ask what exactly your connection to L is? He wasn't too liberal with the details..."
Aiber then leaned forward slightly as fluent French poured out of his mouth.
"Mon nom est Edouard Aubin. Je suis de la Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure."
He then exchanged glances with Wedy, who picked up her cue and "translated" for him.
"He says 'My name is Edouard Aubin, from the Directorate-General for External Security'. I am Antoinette DuVerger; also an agent from the Directorate-General for External Security, as well as Monsieur Aubin's translator."
"Je ne travaille pas habituellement en dehors de la France, mais cette matiere entre les fonctionnaires de notre pays et L est devenue assez pressante que nos superieurs nous ont envoys sur une telle breves informations. Nous faisons des excuses pour le derangement," Aiber continued.
"He says he doesn't usually work outside of France, but the matter between our country's officials and L has become urgent enough that they felt it prudent to send him on such short notice, and he apologizes for the inconvenience," Wedy commented.
"No, that's perfectly all right," Roger replied.
"Thank you. As to the reason for our visit, L has been helping us track down a network of weapons and drug smugglers that have been operating in our country when we stopped receiving any further data from him a couple of weeks ago. Then, a few days ago he contacted us with strict instructions to come here in order to receive a file containing all the data he's collected thus far. We know as little about L's current whereabouts as you do, but we assume he chose this location because he felt it to be secure. Our guess is that it got 'too hot' in France and he had to throw the suspects off his trail."
"Do you know the method by which he chose to deliver the information?"
Aiber crumpled his eyebrows a little, perfectly feigning confusion. Wedy translated the sentence to French, and only then did he respond to Roger's question.
"Nous avons ete menes croire qu'il nous enverrait un e-mail. Il nous a instruits apporter un disque compact blanc." ("We've been led to believe he would send us an e-mail. He instructed us to bring a blank CD," Wedy repeated in English, brandishing said CD in front of Roger.)
"Well, there are multiple computers here on the premises—"
Roger was then interrupted by his phone ringing again. Quietly excusing himself, he answered the phone.
"Wammy's House. This is Roger."
"It's L. Have the officials from the DGSE arrived yet?"
Roger glanced up nervously.
"Yes."
"Then I assume they've already told you that they're looking for the data files. Tell them I'm dumping the files in the computer that's on the desk furthest from the south wall in the library in approximately three minutes…and don't hang up yet. Just tell them what I've told you."
Gently putting the phone down, Roger did as L asked (and of course, Wedy translated everything for Aiber), and after an additional explanation on where the library was located, the pair thanked the elderly man and quickly took their leave. Only until Roger heard the 'click' of the lock did he put the speaker back up to his ear.
"Okay, they're headed for the library."
"All right. I'd like you to go down to the surveillance room and monitor their movements, just to be on the safe side. If they take longer than thirty minutes, assume espionage and follow all relevant protocols."
For the first second or two, Roger was extremely puzzled, but this wasn't new for L. Even among those he considered 'close' or 'safe', he still had to keep them under tabs. Probably the only exception to L's suspicions was Watari.
Nevertheless, Roger promised to follow L's instructions and hung up.
Aiber sat down in front of the computer L assigned them, Wedy hovering behind his shoulder. Though there was still the matter of surveillance cameras to worry about, there was no one else in the library at the moment. Not even the possibility of Roger spying on them concerned them.
If anything, he was falling into their trap.
Shortly after L, Wedy, and Aiber arrived in London, Beyond contacted L again with more details on the "records" they were supposed to find, if they could be called "details". All he said was that, "They are written and yet unwritten, easily erasable from memory and yet cannot be erased from yours. The shadow, too, has found a hole, and only when you look through the right pane of glass will you see me." But as predictably obscure as the clue was, it didn't take L long at all to figure out that the "records" Beyond was talking about were electronic as opposed to written, and the rest of their plan formulated itself from there.
Naturally, L had access to the network in the orphanage; it was one of the primary locations for one of the multiple servers he used when working on his cases, and if one had the talent and means to do so, it also provided an entryway into any other networks he perused. Given a temporary verification code, Aiber and Wedy's real task was to search for any sign of the records Beyond wanted them to find.
L setting Roger on them was also a carefully constructed move, also meant to lend credibility to the plan and reduce any potential liabilities. When L said 'monitor their movements', he also meant that anything Aiber did on the computer in the library could be tracked using a separate computer in the lower level of the orphanage. However, L was also standing by, on his laptop at a hotel in London. L's secondary role was to connect to the network and falsely label his laptop as Aiber's station, temporarily close off the computer in the library from the rest of the network, and give Roger the impression that Aiber and Wedy—or rather, Aubin and DuVerger—were on the up and up.
Wedy's cell phone rang.
"DuVerger," she answered, still committed to her character.
"Are you in?"
Wedy glanced at Aiber, who was still hard at work. After breaking through a couple of safeguards, he reached the point where the classified server asked for the verification code. Aiber put in the code he memorized, and the code was accepted, opening a whole new set of archives and links.
"We're in."
"Good. Look for anything out of the ordinary."
"Fait-il compte comme hors de l'ordinaire?" (Does this count as out of the ordinary?)
Aiber lifted one hand, and Wedy passed the phone to him.
"Je regarde un dossier en ce moment. Il est accentue en rouge avec une etiquette qui a ete modifiee il y a moins de pendant cinq jours." (I'm looking at one file right now. It's highlighted in red with a tag that was modified less than five days ago.)
"What's the tag?" L asked without skipping a beat, fluent in French himself.
"Neuf-quatre-treize, ABL." (9-4-13ABL.)
"…Open it."
Aiber complied, and it led them to a completely different server…a remote one, if he and Wedy weren't mistaken. And it was asking for another password.
"Nous n'avons pas attend ceci," Aiber groaned. "L, nous sommes demandes un autre mot de passé." (We weren't expecting this. L, we're being asked for another password.)
"Let me switch channels for a moment…"
In seconds the computer appeared to obtain a mind of its own as L gained remote access and explored this new sector.
"…"
"Quel est errone? (What's wrong?)" Aiber asked, noting the prolonged pause on the other end.
"…I'm not familiar with this sector. Actually, I've never seen this one before."
"L not knowing something…that's a first," Wedy muttered under her breath.
"Comment ne savez-vous pas ce que est ce? C'est une partie de votre reseau prive, droite?" Aiber demanded. (How do you not know what this is? This is a part of your private network, right?)
"If I'm not mistaken, this server belongs exclusively to Watari, but obviously I'm not in a position to figure out the password he uses to get inside…but if Beyond was here before, then he must have figured out some other way to get inside, so he would have left another clue or message somewhere."
"Un indice…l'etiquette, peut-etre?" (A clue…the tag, maybe?)
"There's nothing to be lost from trying," L said.
Aiber typed in the short alphanumeric code, and to everyone's relief it worked.
"It looks like nothing but text files," Wedy said, sounding a little disappointed. "Encrypted, too."
"We'll worry about the encryption later. For now, just copy everything onto the CD."
"Fine, but I'm telling you right now, it's likely we'll need to compress all this for it to fit on the CD, and it's gonna take a little while."
"Understood."
Wedy dug out the slim plastic case, cracked it open, and passed it to Aiber, who popped it into the disk drive. A few seconds later, the deliberate process of compressing and copying the files to the CD started. Though their job wasn't officially done until they safely returned the CD to London, Wedy felt it prudent to breathe a sigh of relief.
"We came all this way just for some encrypted text files? Hardly seems worth the three hundred grand," she complained in Aiber's ear.
Aiber shrugged and grinned. "C'est la vie."
(End Chapter 10)