| Wolves in Sheep's Clothing Chapter Four Success |
"A toast… to the brilliant minds of the Montfort Corporation!" Lawrence raised his mug into the air, and his words were greeted with cheers and calls of "hear, hear" from his fellow engineers.
They had arranged to meet at a local bar for an impromptu party, celebrating the success of their project. The device had successfully overcome the last fifty tests, not only shrinking the objects, but restoring them to their original size without mishap.
"See, I told you it was all in the Phi Fragment," grinned Musako, downing his fourth rum and Coke. The team had wasted almost a whole month investigating the Iota Fragment, against his recommendations. The Iota Fragment had been just fine. The Phi Fragment was the hang-up. He went off to find a waitress who could bring their group more pretzels.
Lawrence draped one arm over Arami's shoulders. "You know, I've had my eye on you for a while," he remarked, the alcohol giving him courage to finally express his feelings.
"I'm married," scowled Arami, grateful for the excuse. She gently disengaged herself from his arm.
"C'mon… what does that skinny guy have that I don't?" sulked Lawrence, downing the last dregs and refilling the mug from a nearby pitcher.
"What do you have that he doesn't?" returned Arami, daintily sipping her amaretto sour. Somehow, she preferred it when all Lawrence did was stare… it was distinctly uncomfortable having him talk like this.
"Oh, please. The list is so long, the bar would be closed before I finished enumerating all my good points," scoffed Lawrence, slipping his arm over the back of Arami's chair. He wasn't actually touching her, so she contented herself with scowling darkly at him.
Musako came back with the sought-after pretzels, seating himself happily on Arami's other side. He passed the basket of pretzels to his colleagues, seemingly oblivious to Lawrence's actions, striking up a conversation with Mr. Wilder concerning the outcome of the hockey game on tv last night.
"You're making things very awkward," hissed Arami, wishing that her fellow Jyushinshuu would turn around and intervene. "If you don't back off, things are going to get very uncomfortable at the lab."
Lawrence grinned. "You don't care about him," he replied in a matching tone. "I can tell. I've been watching you. The way you look at him… the way you act around him… the tone of your voice when you talk to him, or talk about him… just the way you two are together. It's like you're friends, not lovers."
Arami's cheeks flushed. Lawrence was dangerously close to one part of the truth… did he know it?
"Ano… dear," said Arami, tapping Musako gently on the shoulder.
He turned around, a bit surprised. Since when did she call him dear?
She looped her arms around his neck and smiled brightly at him. "I just wanted to let you know that I think you're absolutely brilliant, and I'm so proud of you. I love you very much…" She closed her eyes and brushed her lips over his.
The bangs hid Musako's quirked eyebrow. Where did that come from? Not that he minded. He reached out to stroke Arami's hair tenderly as he deepened the kiss slightly. He reveled in the moment as the contact sparked memories of long ago…
He pulled away, smiling at her tenderly, ignoring the hoots of his colleagues down the table. "You make me proud, too, Arami," he murmured, touching her cheek gently before turning back to his drink.
Arami glanced challengingly at Lawrence. So there, she mentally told him, and he only grinned irritatingly.
* * *
"…So that's why," explained Neon, in the hotel suite that evening, as they sat at dinner.
"Oi… I thought that you had finally succumbed to my charms," grinned Joker, helping himself to lasagna. "And I was mentally berating myself why you couldn't have succumbed to my charms somewhere around 10 or 11 PM… when we were alone… and perhaps somewhere a little more comfortable than stick chairs in a crowded, smoky bar."
"Yeah, right," scoffed Neon. "I'm sure that's exactly what you thought."
"Actually, my thoughts at the time were, 'Ick, now I've got the taste of amaretto in my mouth, and it's not doing my rum and Coke any good,'" he lied.
She shot him a dirty look. "The nice part about your grating personality is, you won't survive to reproduce," she scowled. "Future generations will be spared the torment."
"So it worked?" asked Koganei through a mouthful of lasagna.
Neon nodded. "It's scheduled to be given a test run in front of the Board of Directors next week," she explained. "So Joker-san and I will probably sabotage it the night before."
"And you know how to bust a madougu?" asked Koganei. "I mean, break the insides... but keep the outsides intact, so they can't tell it's been tampered with?"
Joker nodded. "In the R sector, Epsilon Fragment, I was able to pinpoint several chains of molecules which, if shredded into their individual components, would probably render the entire madougu useless. The strands were several billion molecules long, and it would be extremely difficult to reassemble them with the current technology." He glanced at Koganei and added, "There are very few chains like that in the whole madougu... most of the components are very individualized. But the entire Epsilon Fragment is the basis upon which the whole madougu pivots. If something was damaged there, the rest of the madougu would be rendered useless. If I tried damaging another fragment, it would most likely render the madougu to operational at a fraction of its capability, but still operational to a degree. We want this destroyed."
The boy's eyes widened slightly. "How are you able to shatter just the one segment, and not the others?"
Neon laughed. "The madougu divide themselves naturally into individual sectors. The sectors are naturally subdivided into fragments. It's rather like a built-in defense... the madougus themselves are, to a certain point, sentient beings. That's what these people don't understand... which is why we have more success in manipulating them than their people did. A little chi can work wonders... very useful as a supplement to the scientific instruments."
"How long will it take?" pressed Koganei.
Neon glanced at Joker. "Anywhere from two hours to three hours," she said carefully. "It's very delicate work..."
"Good luck, then," said Koganei, finishing off his lasagna. "Hurry up, so we can get home."