"Bolin," Asami whispered. "Bolin!"
The muscular earthbender shook to attention. "Huh?"
"You going to give me a boost some time tonight or would you rather wait until morning?"
Bolin's blush brightened the darkness. Bringing him instead of Mako proved more the correct decision with every step. Not that Asami disliked Mako, but he had all the combative nature of Korra without any of the chemistry. Right now they'd probably be embroiled in an argument over who would boost through into the air vent above. Bolin obediently knelt, his hands cupped and waiting.
Asami planted a foot where his fingers joined, screwdriver in hand, and began unscrewing the bolts holding the vent cover in place when her body lifted. The screws fit well, the steel hardly making a sound as it scraped loose. Bolin took the cover and placed it gently on the ground before boosting Asami into vents.
"Good luck!" he whispered far too loudly. Asami couldn't help but smile. He may be a bull in a fine dinnerware shop, but she was his bull.
Of course, if she had had her pick of unsubtle companions to help her break into Ilannaq Automotives, she'd have gone with Korra. Crawling through the vents brought back memories of Cabbage Corp and cold nights. The steel had been icier than the cold blue of Korra's eyes, but nervous sweat had dripped warmly from her forehead. When she had found the information she sought, Korra had burst a window and set off an alarm, yet they had laughed all the way back to the estate.
Korra was gone, though, wandering the world alone doing spirits knew what. All Asami could do is hope she was taking care of herself and focus on the task at hand.
A right turn, a climb, and a kick later, and she dropped into the main office. She unlocked the dead bolt on the door and turned around. Sheets of paper poked sloppily out of files. Unlocked cabinet drawers lay partly open. A ring of keys hung from a hook beside the door to unlock others. If Asami thought Ilannaq had any corporate secrets worth stealing, she might have thought this too easy. Instead she searched the paintings hanging from the walls and the rows of bookshelves and cabinets until she found the hidden safe.
It popped open alongside the door. "Asami?" Bolin whispered.
She waved one hand while the other navigated the contents of the safe. Stacked, banded slips of yuans and small chests of coins from the Fire Nation, Earth Empire, and Water Republics sat atop piles of paperwork. A pistol and two magazines sat alone on a shelf. Asami pushed everything aside until she found what she was looking for. She folded the sheets of paper twice and tucked them inside her jacket.
"Did you find what you wanted?" Bolin asked.
"Yes." Asami closed the safe and considered breaking a window in celebration.
Mako was already back at the hotel the next morning. He waited beside the entrance, cloaked in the receding shadows fleeing before the light of the rising sun. His frown should have struck a spark of fear in Asami's mind, but she had learned long ago that Mako not frowning was more of a reason to worry.
No one paid them any mind as they entered the lobby and entered the stairway. A janitor passed them as they ascended to the third floor, where their rooms were located, but Asami hardly spared him a glance. Now that the task was done, it didn't matter what the White Lotus might know. She only need keep herself safe long enough to leak what she knew to the proper sources.
Breakfast passed happily and without a word about their separate tasks. Bolin pushed Mako to tell them all about Shu, and Asami joined in until the firebender was red-faced, stuttering, and shouting angrily at them to stop. Yet every word out of Mako regarding the metalbender was spoken happily, in a tone Asami had rarely heard from the older and shyer of the two brothers. It made her happy. Judging by Bolin's giddy expression, he felt the same way.
Once breakfast had ended, they took the stairs back down, left the hotel, and walked over to the parking garage beside the street. The engine of Asami's Satomobile purred when she turned the key, but an incongruous stutter caught her attention as Mako pulled a series of photos from his coat. She would have to check beneath the hood later.
"It's nothing as outrageous as the others," her detective friend said when he handed them over. "It is enough to use, though."
Asami grinned as she flipped through. Mako was right, it wasn't as outrageous as catching Cabbage Corp's CFO paying the Triad, or Nobuo's wife wincing as tears slipped between her swollen eyes. They didn't need enough to ruin these people's lives. Though it certainly didn't hurt.
"Is it really so hard to own a business and just be a good person?" Bolin asked.
"It can be, especially when you're trying to catch up to someone better." Asami thought back to how Korra had put it one time. "It's like you and everyone like you is racing up an icy cliff. It's really easy to slip, and whoever has the best climbing gear is going to win. So if you don't have the best climbing gear, you do whatever you can to make up for it. Once you start, though, it's really hard to stop, and the ice is going to soak through your clothes all the same."
Bolin's mouth twisted, and he shrugged. "I don't get it."
"The business world is like those dirty alleys we use to sleep in," Mako said. "You can't help but end up filthy yourself."
"Now that, I can understand."
A crude way of putting it, but Asami couldn't disagree. She wasn't squeaky clean herself. When she took control of her father's company, holding off the vultures had driven her into the trash or down the icy cliff or whatever analogy someone wanted to use. Somehow she had clawed her way back up and avoided ever falling again. As she looked at the photos of Ilannaq and two men who were not her husband, she thanked Korra and her friends for helping to keep her upright.
Once the photos were delivered, Mako and Bolin took the car to grab some takeout while Asami walked back to the hotel to look over the information taken from the safe. Lists of numbers and names hinted towards the same names and truths as the others. One new name made her frown. The White Lotus ran deep. She'd always known, but never to this extent.
She thought back to the day the men came to talk to her father. Dad had been miserable for weeks. Too many nights passed with her and Mom sitting quiet and alone while he was locked away in an office, either home or in the city. Asami's usual place at her father's side had been denied her, and whenever she asked he would tell her, "it's temporary. I'm playing things close to the vest right now."
Playing things close to the vest had always been a Sato family tradition. One Asami continued to this day with her friends and loved ones, and one she too often failed to break.
It had been about a week before when things returned to normal. Dad found time for the family, took Mom on a couple dates, and let Asami back in the room with him during meetings. His jovial attitude returned. She had never thought about what he had done during those few weeks that needed to be played close to the vests. Business was business, and business was sometimes ugly. She'd been well aware of the sleazier side of Future Industries.
Now she wondered what promises her father may have broken to incur the White Lotus's wrath.
"I hope Opal never asks me to get involved in this kind of stuff," Bolin muttered. "I don't think I'm made for it, and politics is probably way worse than business."
"They're actually not very different," Asami said.
"And lucky for you, Opal is way too smart to let your stupid ass get involved in her politics," Mako teased.
Bolin nodded, then his face flushed as red as Asami's lipstick. "Hey! I could help! I gave that speech, you both thought that was good."
"Yeah, you'd be a pretty good trophy husband," Mako said.
Asami slapped him lightly on the arm. "You have a smart woman, Bolin. Smart enough to realize how much help you could be."
The earthbender blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I do what I can."
Mako slapped his brother on the back, which quickly devolved into friendly wrestling that had both breathing heavy and Asami laughing.
She woke reluctantly the next morning, and reached an arm over to curl Korra closer. Memory of where she was came before her palm hit the cool sheets, but the chill saddened her anyway. Miles and time apart were nothing new between her and Korra. This time there was an uncertainty to their separation that made Asami shiver when she woke alone. So much would change, even if they succeeded. Who would they be when they carved their place out in this new world? Would their minds change?
Anxious, excited knocking scared away the last remnants of sleep fogging Asami's mind. She threw a robe over her nightgown and found a practically quaking Bolin holding the morning's paper, having not even bothered to throw a pair of pants on over his boxers. "Check it out!"
The preferred of the photographs they'd sent to the local paper was plastered across the front page, with a crude headline. Asami grimaced. "That's terrible."
"Yeah, but it made the papers. That's what we wanted, right?"
The engineer nodded. "Yes, it is." She turned around and reached for the marked up paperwork on the bedside dresser. "Ilannaq's records were as expected. A couple new names and companies, but I think we can assume them relatively unimportant. The negative headlines will have the VIPs anxious. They'll want to meet soon. When they do, we'll be there. Until then, we'll keep digging and finding out what we can."
Mako shuffled over from down the room next door, his hair spiking in half a dozen directions. "What's going on? Why are we up so early?"
"It's game time, bro!" Bolin yelled.
The property was ordinary in every way. Indigenous plants grew within sloppily maintained gardens. Grass in need of mowing but not tall enough to be worth notice grew in the front yard. Neatly painted beige walls were in need of a touch-up. Even the cars parked in the driveway and lining the street were nice, but nothing worth paying attention to.
No one would ever think that a gathering of people belonging to the most powerful organization in the world were meeting within those walls.
"You sure the three of us are enough?" Mako asked, ever the skeptic.
"None of them are benders." Asami's eyes narrowed, studying the lime stains on the windows and the scuffed wood on the front door. "Chao Xiang has some combat training. I'm sure most of them have taken self-defense. We should be careful, but I highly doubt we have anything to fear."
"I don't know…" Bolin's tapping heel sent a subtle surge through the ground beneath him. He pulled anxiously at the covering over his head.
"Guys, when have I ever not been fully prepared?" Asami asked. "You two know me too well to think I'd ever put you in unnecessary danger because I wasn't prepared."
"You're right." Bolin nearly leapt to his feet, reminding her of the airbender children. "Let's do it."
An unlocked door sat on squeaky hinges within the garage. Habit drew Asami's hand towards her belt like a metal to a magnet, but there was no can of lubricating oil there. Calm voices engaged in civil discussion within the house. Those voices cut off when Asami whistled, and roared in panic when the doors busted open.
She pushed her own door open, wincing as it collided with someone on the other side. A small, smooth fist aimed lazily in her direction was easily tossed aside, the arm it belonged to used to take its owner down. Through the entryway ahead, a circle of rocks ensnared two men and a woman. Another woman crawled backwards to escape a blast of flame. A touch of Asami's electric glove immobilized the woman at her feet, and she moved forward to do the same to the others.
Bubbly spit splattered off the concrete near Asami's boot, tinged red by the blood on the man's lips. "Thank you for your cooperation, Chao," she said sweetly. She only smiled all the wider when the chair creaked with Chao's attempts to break free.
She exited the basement and found Mako and Bolin atop the stairs. "Well?" Mako asked.
Asami slid heavily down the wall, her hands shaking like they always did after too many hours hunched over her desk drawing designs or signing her name to an endless blur of papers. A spot of crimson marred the back of her hand near her middle knuckle. She wet her sleeve and rubbed it away.
"Are you okay?" Bolin asked.
"Yes. Just tired."
"They're not going anywhere tonight, and we've already gotten a lot out of the ones we questioned." Mako stared concernedly down at her, the protector in him having taken over. For once, it was exactly what she needed. "Go rest. We'll stand watch."
The walk to the bedroom was like burning ice on her calves, numbing the muscles more with every step. The twist of the knob sent twisting pain through her shoulders. Even sitting on the edge of the bed and removing her boots nearly paralyzed her with pain. She could only manage her jacket off before collapsing onto the bed in her dirty pants and sweat-stained shirt.
Gross, Sami. She was smiling at the imagined admonishment when she glimpsed the envelope beside the bed, and the handwriting on it. The stiffness fled her fingers when she ripped it open and pulled the letter out.
Hey, Sami. I heard on the news that you're not in town, so hopefully someone can find you and give this to you. If not, it will be waiting for you when you get home. Hope everything's okay.
I'm doing okay. Right now I'm in the Southern Water Republic. You'd think it's freezing here, but I love it. All those years away didn't kill my love for the cold. I guess it's in my blood. My frozen, shivering blood. I'm doing good. I'm behaving. Things have actually been pretty good. No one is bothering me. I'm helping people out. I feel pretty good.
It seems like you're doing good, too. I'm hearing a lot about some of those companies you always complain about. All these scandals on the news have a lot of people freaking out. Future Industries isn't going to be next, is it? As good as I feel, seeing video of you buying drugs or taking bribes would bring me down pretty quick. Is it you doing this? If so, I'm sure you have your reasons.
You know I miss you. I hope you're missing me, too. I promise I'll be back, but I still can't be sure when. I just…I don't know. It might feel like I'm running, but I promise I'm not. I haven't given up. I'm just trying something different.
Stay safe, Sami. I love you.
Korra
Asami put the letter aside, burrowed her face into a pillow, and fell asleep smiling.
Sneak peek: Korra's back next chapter