Title: Silent Consonant
By: Dr. Kim-chan
Author's Note: Birthday roll call for March? Let's see…we got Ooi on the 31st…you know, the bald guy with the shades from Yotsuba? And then we have Hatori on the 22nd, the other Yotsuba guy who's probably only known for the fact that he was offed first. Yeah, March is a slow month.
But not for me! See? I told you my updates would be a little quicker. But I can't attribute it entirely to my new laptop. Things have gotten a bit easier in my little corner of the universe, and now that some of the most confusing parts of "Silent Consonant" have been dealt with (keyword: some), I'm excited to see how L's and Beyond's plans will pan out—yes, you heard right. Some things I really don't know how I'll figure out. Some things that are about to come up, I'd already planned for a long time before (probably as early as Chapter 13), but as for the "Absolute End of the Story"…I can only shrug my shoulders.
That said, this chapter officially marks the end of what I've come to call the "L.A. Chapters".
Right from the day the SIS-L was established, the whole case seemed to have been following the same pattern.
One step forward—and probably ten steps backward, if not a complete and humiliating stumble.
Bullook stormed down the hallway toward the office where she'd been holed up with L's successors for the majority of her time in Los Angeles, a new set of reports in her hand and a lot of unanswered questions swarming around her mind.
The first, obviously, pertained to the most recent developments.
What good did it do for Beyond to take yet another hostage? If he already had Near and Naomi, why did he need to kidnap Loud? Near and Naomi were probably the biggest advantages he held right now. And as for Loud, Beyond could have taken him when he knocked him unconscious the first time they crossed paths at Good Samaritan Hospital, not to mention this only made the hole he'd put himself in even deeper.
More importantly, how did this all fit in with the puzzle given in the video?
Loud will be silent, beyond will be within reach, and six more equals twelve.
Was it even Beyond who sent that video?
And if it wasn't Beyond who sent it, why did it take them so long to consider the possibility that he had an accomplice?
Her cell phone rang.
She stopped just outside the door to the room where Mello and Matt were waiting and flipped the phone open.
"Hello?"
"Bullook?"
"…Loud?"
"Are you alone?"
"…Am I alone? What's going on? Where are you?! It's chaos over here! The SIS-L just received a video implying that you were kidnapped!"
"Believe me, I'm pretty much as clueless as you are about what's going on…but here's what I know so far…"
"…Hm?"
Once again, Naomi was roused from a restless sleep by Beyond and the ethereal light of his laptop monitor.
It'd been a surprisingly short time since they'd been taken by L's archenemy, but with nothing to do except wait for the pivotal moment that would free her and Near from this tiny hotel room, she had nothing much else to do except think—and not just about Raye's death.
She'd always entertained the notion of going back to the FBI, and she'd been equally prepared to become a good wife. Now none of those possibilities would happen anytime soon. Raye was dead, and the FBI was too deep in Watari's claws; she could never trust her superiors again.
And so—as she'd slowly came to realize with a shock—she was almost in exactly the same position as L.
She couldn't imagine fulfilling any other position in her life.
I have become overspecialized in my own field of work, a unique individual among many, with a singular purpose. As a result, I now find myself at a great disadvantage. I don't know if I could do anything else…
And then there was that single, persistent mystery.
Who was truly responsible for killing Raye?
For the most part, however, the adrenaline rush had worn off, her mind unable to process any more information or figure out any more solutions. She couldn't say the same for Near, who always stayed in his safe corner, rarely venturing to talk with Naomi even when Beyond left the room, playing with the only set of dice he'd accidentally brought along with him.
Beyond, on the other hand, always seemed to have something to do. Whenever he didn't venture out into the outside world to buy more sweets, he spent every other half hour checking the databases of whatever computers he was hacking into—most likely those of the FBI and the SIS-L. As L himself would say, she gave it a 94 percent chance.
Brushing a few strands of hair out of her face, she twirled around an eye to look at the scar-faced ex-convict.
But this time, something was different.
He cracked a smile. A real smile. Without a sinister chuckle or anything.
It was almost frightening.
"Looks like our time together is about to come to an end," he muttered.
Now Naomi was fully awake, and Near was giving his full attention.
"What?"
"Look."
He moved out of the way of the laptop screen, revealing to his two hostages a media player displaying a stark black screen with a white, Old-English 'L' in the middle.
"This video was sent to the Japan and Los Angeles Branches of the SIS-L just a couple of hours ago," he said.
He clicked on the 'Play' button.
"…Loud will be silent, beyond will be within reach, and six more equals twelve."
"…What does that mean?"
"It means L's finally taking some initiative."
Naomi pushed herself up by her forearms as Beyond switched browser windows and showed a simple e-mail message from an unknown sender.
"'As long as you choose to cooperate, I will choose free will'," she recited.
Internally, some of Naomi's distress melted away, as well as some of her lingering anger towards L.
She still believed her life would have had some sort of normality if L never contacted her in the first place, but she realized that was just wistful thinking and whining. If being in the FBI taught her anything, it was that the world hid darker secrets than it seemed, and that there always seemed to be more than one reality—and ignoring one or more of those realities could result in worse consequences. She never wanted L to die, especially not by the hands of some self-righteous inventor.
Now, whatever kind of wretched death Watari had tried sentencing him to, and whatever Beyond did to counter it, L survived.
…Watari.
Meanwhile, on the floor beside her, Near cocked a snowy eyebrow.
Free will?
His question remained more or less unanswered as Beyond clambered out of the chair and reached for a black telescope bag he kept stashed in the closet since he first arrived a couple of days ago.
"I guess this also means you'll both finally get your answers."
"…Beyond…"
The former successor lifted his head up and glanced over his shoulder at Naomi, who was now sitting straight up on the bed.
"…I think I already know who was behind the mafia hit."
Beyond smirked.
"I don't doubt that you do."
The second Carter stepped out of the car, the very first thing he spotted was Bullook, waiting near the FBI field office's rear entrances.
The vans holding Strike One, Strike Two, and Watari were already on their way to the LAPD's headquarters to book and process a new batch of suspects in the MacArthur Park case, tailed by a seemingly modest squad car escort. As soon as they rounded up Rod Ross and a few of his underlings, Watari called Carter to the Shore One van, informed him about the latest developments in the Beyond Birthday case, and dispatched him in a private vehicle with another agent.
The air was a little chilly, but Carter had to wipe some sweat off of his forehead. He'd worn combat uniforms before, but the bulletproof gear he had to wear during the raid on the mafia hideout had been unbearably uncomfortable, and he couldn't help but feel a little glad that Watari allowed him to shed it immediately after the operation was declared a success. Nevertheless, seeing Bullook waiting for him outside—and looking extremely anxious, at that—wasn't helping to ease the rush of adrenaline still coursing throughout his body.
Though the other agent paused for a second at the sight of Bullook, Carter sent him inside with an imperceptible nod, leaving the two alone.
"I don't like that look you're giving me. What's wrong?"
"…I got a call from Loud about ten minutes ago."
"You know where he is?" Carter demanded.
"I couldn't trace the call; he contacted me by cell phone, but he gave me some instructions, so I was out here waiting for you so we could track him down. But before we do, there's a few things I have to tell you."
Carter raised an eyebrow.
"All I can tell you right now is that he's safe and that he's not alone, but he's not with Beyond—and he said he got in contact with L."
"…With L? I thought Watari took L to England!"
"So did I, but Loud said he talked to L himself over the phone. What I really don't get is that Loud said that L told him to 'prepare to cut off all ties with the SIS-L'. Whatever that meant, either way I don't like how it sounds. Is there something else to this investigation no one's telling us?"
"Come on, Halle. Now you sound like Beyond. And how the hell did Loud know it was the real L? If anyone hasn't already noticed, we still have a prime suspect on the loose! And I'm still not convinced Beyond wasn't the one behind that attack on MacArthur Park—"
"He knew Mello loved chocolate."
Carter stopped cold, and Bullook's expression hardened.
"And he knew Mello's and Matt's physical characteristics, and he knew who Loud was. No one else but Watari and us could have known that, Anthony. That isn't in any of the SIS-L's databases, and Beyond couldn't have known that, either."
A moment of silence.
"…So what do we do?"
"I already told you what we're going to do," Bullook replied matter-of-factly. "Watari and the rest of the SIS-L will be busy for at least the next couple of hours processing and interviewing the guys you all rounded up at the port, we still have to keep an eye on wherever else Beyond might be, and some of the agents here are busy maintaining correspondence with the Japan Branch. We might as well handle this ourselves. Worst-case-scenario is it's a trick, but if Beyond and the mafia's as shorthanded as we are right now, we can handle it."
After a moment of hesitancy, Carter crossed his arms and nodded in agreement.
"Let's go, then. We're taking my car," Bullook said, stepping towards the parking lot.
"Where's Mello and Matt? Inside?"
"They're already in the backseat."
"…Wait, what? What do you mean, 'they're already in the backseat'?"
"Another worst-case scenario: we don't take Mello and Matt with us, and something serious really does go down in the next couple of days, or in the next couple of hours. What then? And what about those clues we kept getting? Besides, all the other agents are running around in there like chickens with their heads cut off."
Carter still looked unconvinced.
"One of us gets out of the car and finds out what's going on with Loud; the other stays in the car with them," Bullook explained, a tone of exasperation slipping into her voice. "And I can't see the mafia in a position to make any moves right now, not when we have half their members and one of their kingpins under lock and key."
Carter heaved yet another sigh, this time out of sheer frustration. He hadn't worked with Bullook at all before the formation of the SIS-L; how was he supposed to know she was such a risk-taker?
But, frighteningly enough, she was right.
L chewed his thumb, slightly reclined in the couch and keeping a fixed stare on the laptop sitting on the coffee table in front of him.
Just under an hour ago, he received an e-mail from Light, passing on the message that Beyond saw his video and would indeed relinquish his hostages.
Under one condition.
Apparently Beyond wasn't planning on giving them to Wedy, but rather would send Naomi and Near straight to Japan from LAX. Everyone else, of course, Wedy would have to round up on her own and herd them out of Los Angeles.
It was tempting for L to label it as a display of obstinacy typical of Beyond's nature, but even with the SIS-L spread so thin at the moment, it'd be necessary to take all precautions. Besides, it would simply be easier this way. If he had everyone come at once from one location, it'd be all too easy for Watari and the rest of the SIS-L to catch on.
Now all he could do now was wait.
In another corner of the room, Aiber also had his laptop open, but he was busy preparing another crucial part of L's plan. When Aiber was told about his part, he hadn't been able to stop smiling since they left London. Whatever happened between L and Watari in the past month or so, the former had become an entirely different creature. The data he was handling now would usually be considered sensitive, and though the con man was by all accounts a part of L's inner world, there were some things L just didn't trust him with before.
Then, in the space of a week, everything changed.
The excitement never stops when L's around, Aiber thought.
L's cell phone rang.
"Hello? Bullook…? Are Mello and Matt with her? No, that's all right. I expected them to take such precautions. That just proves they're as competent as I hoped they'd be. Let me talk to her."
Another short pause, and then L more or less recited the same spiel he told Loud, with a few additional bits of convincing information and some instructions, including convincing Bullook to "bring Carter and his successors up to the hotel room" and for Wedy to connect with his laptop and activate the web cam program before he hung up.
…Web cam?
"The great, mysterious detective is showing his face?" Aiber jested.
"I can say this much for Beyond; he was able to push Watari to such drastic measures that he authorized the dissemination of the only existing photographs of himself. The fact that Misora was able to save Beyond before he self-immolated will also make it easier for them to differentiate us. And after A's death, Watari made some changes to his project and let me have more personal contact with my successors. This will be the only way they can validate my identity. I'm still not inclined to agree with Beyond, but maybe there's something to be said for the long-term consequences of an individual's actions."
"Hmph. Don't start waxing philosophical on me now," Aiber dismissed. "If it was that easy, I would've been able to predict you getting me and Wedy into this mess."
L said nothing in response, leaving the duo in silence until the phone rang again.
"Hello? All right. You can connect with me now."
An agonizing pause.
Then…
"...L?"
"…Hello, Mello. Hello, Matt."
(End Chapter 38)