A/N: This would have been up earlier today - much earlier - but nooo, we just had to go scrimmage freshmen in select volleyball today. Whatever. BUT - I met my standards for updating! I've decided the update day for this story will be Fridays. I'll update on a Saturday if and only if something happens to stop a Friday update. Which will hopefully be rare to never. I think Saturday is going to be my day to update 10 Secrets of the MR Characters, as well....hmm...

Last chapter: The flock have arrived in China, and they kept watch on the Itex - only to see Anne and the Head Hunter come out of the building! *gasps*

Enjoy!

"Holy shit," Iggy breathed, and I had to suppress the reprimand to tell him to watch his language. The same words were going through my head as well. "Are they headed this way?" he asked me sharply, trying to get a sense of the situation.

"No," I reassured him. "They don't see us, and besides, they're on the other side of a really busy street. They're walking towards downtown...it looks like they're arguing..." I stopped narrating and watched them carefully, holding my breath in a automatic instinct to stay hidden. It was needless at the moment, but that survival instinct had gotten me out of many, many tight pinches.

"How much time is left on our stake out?" Iggy whispered to me as few people dressed in business clothes marched past us.

I checked the watch that was on my left wrist. "About fifteen minutes. Let's skip out and tell Fang what we saw." I realized too late that I had given an order, was making decisions like the leader that I used to be. I cringed inwardly, waiting for Iggy to get pissed off again. Luckily, it didn't seem to bother him - maybe he hadn't picked up on it, or else was so used to me telling him what to do that it didn't register in his mind as odd.

"Okay," Iggy agreed, standing up and popping his back. "I'll tell him, though."

Ah. There was the Iggy that was more recent.

We picked our way through the many people on the street until we'd reached where Fang and Iggy had apparently arranged to meet. I had to admit, it wasn't a bad spot - it was right smack in the middle of one of the busiest parts of the city, and it was so loud that the risk of being overheard to any great length was virtually zero. It was a sort of modern courtyard or something - a place where people could walk around, but it looked like it was really just an area between a ton of shopping centers. Fang, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel, on further inspection, were milling about casually through the crowd, seemingly wandering with no purpose. I noticed, however, that they always kept in sight of one another, watching out of the corner of their eyes. Nudge spotted us first, and as she moved toward us, the other three followed as if planned - which, I reminded myself, it probably was.

She glanced at me and addressed Iggy. "What's wrong?" she asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "You guys are back early; your watch doesn't end for about five more minutes." Fang was watching us, waiting for an answer but letting Nudge do the talking.

"You'll never believe who we saw," Iggy started. We? I thought venomously, resisting the urge to elbow Iggy's side. I'm behaving, I'm behaving, I'm behaving...

"Who?" Gazzy asked immediately, his blue eyes wide. He was hanging on to Iggy's every word. I could see that some things never changed.

"Anne - and the Head Hunter - together," replied Iggy dramatically. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes and glanced at Fang. He was resolutely not meeting my gaze. I tried to pretend that it didn't hurt.

"They're here?" Nudge exclaimed, though amazingly she kept her voice low. Even Fang raised an eyebrow, intrigued. And no, I was not watching Fang specifically to see his reaction. I just happened to catch that.

"Yeah," I affirmed, simultaneously cutting across Iggy and taking my mind off of Fang. A smug feeling rose in me at the affronted look on Iggy's face, and I had to keep from smirking. "They were leaving the Itex together. It looked like they were arguing about something, though...I guess they're not the best of pals."

"I wonder what about," the Gasman thought out loud. His eyes flicked from Fang to me, as if unsure who to ask what to do. I was reminded with a jolt of the first time I'd had to leave my flock, though at least then I had had Nudge and Angel. Still. Not a happy thought.

Fang made the decision for him. "Okay, Nudge and Gazzy will go next," he spoke up. "If Anne and the Hunter are here, we're in the right place. They're too far to follow now, just keep a sharp eye out. Remember - be subtle." Well, that kind of went without saying. But Nudge and Gazzy just nodded, and without further ado, Nudge set off weaving through the people, Gazzy right behind her. I watched them go until the crowd swallowed them up.

Now what?

I was about to ask Fang this, but I stopped myself. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of having to answer poor, ignorant little Max's question. I would pass, thanks. Almost at the exact same time that I had made that decision, Fang caught Iggy's eye, nodded, and they both set off back into the crowd.

Well, gee, thanks for telling me what the f you're doing.

Angel, thank the Lord, came to my rescue."Just act casual," she told me in an undertone. "They don't want to call a whole ton of attention to ourselves."

I nodded. "Thanks, babe." She flashed me a brilliant smile and went in the opposite direction of Fang and Iggy. I strolled through the people in the crowd, making sure that I kept an eye on Fang, Iggy and Angel at all times. It was both for my paranoia and because - well, I hated to admit it, but Fang was chock full of good ideas lately, and this whole acting casual thing was one of them.

I sighed inwardly. Now that was a sticky subject - Fang. I had been avoiding thinking about him at all when I could help it. Iggy's anger I could deal with - it hurt me badly, of course, but it was nothing compared to what I guessed Fang felt but refused to say. Iggy had been like my brother, a member of my family. But Fang, on the other hand...

I'll just be blunt about it. Fang is literally my other half. More than likely we were made that way on purpose, but either way, that's the way that it is. He's always been the one that I trust the most, the one that I go to first for everything, the one who understands what I'm thinking with just one glance. That's probably why it hurt more than it did with the rest of my flock when he refused to forgive me.

I had been purposefully avoiding thinking about this for the entire duration of my return to the flock, but I found it hard not to think about it now that I had gotten started. I knew Fang. He wasn't speaking to me because he was beyond angry. Iggy was more vocal about it, but Fang preferred to keep it all stored up inside until he exploded. He had gotten better at hiding his emotions - most of the time, he never slipped - but I could still read him. I chanced a glance over at him as I walked, hoping that he didn't choose that moment to watch me as well. The skin around his mouth was tight, and the thumb of his right hand was picking at the knuckle of his index finger - a nervous habit that he had never been able to suppress for some reason. Fang was thinking, I could tell, and whatever it was seemed to be making him angry.

Fang looked up then and caught me watching him. Covering my embarrassment at being caught, I gave him the smallest of nods and returned to 'casually' pacing through the crowd. I could feel his eyes stay on me, though, and I thought that I had figured out what he had been thinking about.

I closed my eyes for the briefest instant. I hated this. I would never say it out loud - I had a reputation to uphold - but I really, really missed Fang. I didn't want to be the first to break this stand offish silence between us, though. If he wanted to talk, I was right here.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts while we waited that I hardly noticed when Nudge and Gazzy returned, and only saw them when I noticed Iggy begin moving with a purpose. "Anything?" Fang asked as soon as he reached them.

Nudge shook her head, smoothing back wisps of her hair that were too short to fit into her braid. I still wanted to know how she had managed to tame that hair. "Nothing important. We didn't see anyone new. But," she corrected herself, "the Head Hunter came back. Alone this time, though." I raised an eyebrow, intrigued. Had Anne just had something else to do, somewhere else to be? Or had the Head Hunter ditched her? Personally, I hated both of them, so I really didn't care, but all the same. I wanted to know.

Fang checked his watch and then the sky. The sun was beginning to go down, and I automatically glanced at Angel, who had been walking in circles for four hours. It wasn't much strain on her - I mean, the girl can fly for miles without stopping -

"Oh, wait!" Nudge said, remembering something. "I do know something."

Fang focused on her. "What?" The rest of us leaned slightly towards Nudge, wanting to know what she was going to say.

"Well..." she suddenly looked sheepish. "I wanted to find out more about what was going on, and just watching people wasn't really doing anything...so I touched the door. You know, to get a memory of something."

I glanced at Fang. His face was a deceptive calm. "You what?" he asked her. There was no inflection in his voice, but I could tell - and Nudge could, too - that he was not happy that she'd done that. I kind of had to agree with him. Practically waltzing into the Itex was not Nudge's brightest idea ever. That might actually have been worse than the incident at the E house when she decided she could be Snow White and brought all of her 'friends' - AKA squirrels, rabbits, assorted woodland creatures - into the house. It took ages to clear up the mess, and guess who had been stuck with it.

I digress.

"I touched the door," she repeated, raising her chin slightly in a classic stubborn-Nudge manner. "Not for very long - and it was at the end of our shift, anyway, so we were leaving."

"You do realize," Iggy interrupted, "that that was really idiotic and you almost just got yourself killed?"

Nudge narrowed her eyes. "But I'm not dead, and I know more stuff now, so do you want to hear it or not?"

"Go ahead," Fang said, his eyes scrutinizing her.

"So," Nudge began, "I found out that after about eleven, all of the scientists are gone. I don't know about guards, but all the whitecoats leave. And during the day, there are a whole ton of people that go in and out-"

"We know that," Gazzy blurted. "Tell them the rest."

I quirked an eyebrow. "What rest?" I asked before I could stop myself.

A smile started to form on Nudge's lips. "Guess who else was here today." Without waiting for us to guess, she answered her own question. "Roland ter Borcht."

Coincidence? I think not!

It came to me in a sudden burst of realization. "I got it!" I exclaimed, and my flock turned to look at me.

Fang raised an eyebrow. "What's your great epiphany?" he asked me. I caught the mocking in his eyes and had to stop myself from saying something snarky. Again, I say - perfect self control.

"It's a meeting," I said. "Don't you see? They've got to get back on their feet after - after the whole thing with the Director-" I knew that he would catch my reluctance to elaborate, but plowed on, "-and they've chosen here to meet! It's the only reason that makes sense why so many people that we know are here. They're big players in Itex."

Gazzy cackled evilly. "Can we hit them, Fang? Can we? Please?" I saw his eyes dart to Iggy, and I knew that somewhere in their possession there was some kind of explosive. Cue the ominous music.

Fang looked at his watch again. "Tomorrow. If this meeting hasn't started yet, we might be able to hear something useful."

"How exactly are you proposing we break into the Itex?" I asked him disbelievingly before I could stop myself.

Iggy's face split into a wide grin. "Plan Z."

I looked blankly from one face to the other, all beginning to split into identical grins.

"...What the heck is Plan Z?"

A/N: Good question, Max...

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