PRE-FICCIE RAMBLINGS: For all of you who's been waiting forever for this part, I'll cut it short:
I'm sorry and HAPPY READING!
NOTE: Thoughts will be expressed like *so*, and com-link transmissions will be expressed like so.
Chapter 03: The Second Disappearing Act
Knock.
Knock knock.
No response.
"Aya!" the lanky blonde man pounded at the stubborn door, trying to get a response from the even more stubborn occupant. "Aya! Won't you even give me a chance to explain??"
*Not even my hardest to get dates were this stubborn!* was the sudden thought that flashed his through his mind. With a sigh, Youji called the redhead's name again, but was interrupted by Omi.
"Youji-kun! Aya-kun! Come downstairs! Ma---"
"NOT NOW, Omi!" Youji growled out and was about to turn his attention back to Aya --- or more like Aya's door---when Omi call again.
"But, Youji-kun! Manx and Birman are here!"
*****************
I can feel Ken's questioning look on me already as I was coming down the stairs, but I ignored him as I followed behind Aya. Speaking of whom, managed to brush past me as if I didn't exist!
I was hoping to be able to get a seat beside him, but he probably read my mind, 'cause he just took the seat at the computer. Since I obviously cannot "squeeze in" beside him, I moved to sit at the empty seat beside Ken.
"Well?" Ken whispered to me.
I rolled my eyes. "What do you think?" I replied, not bothering to keep my voice lowered. I can feel Aya raising an eyebrow at me, but I couldn't give a damn at the moment.
"Well, excuse me for caring!" Ken huffed.
I know I shouldn't have used that tone of voice with Ken, well.. like he said, he was only caring. My train of thoughts was interrupted when Omi entered our mission room with Manx and Birman. Heh, the poor boy looked so confused when he found his precious computer seat occupied by a certain redhead, but he knew better than to question, so he sat down on the stairs instead.
********************
Stupid Youji. He just has absolutely no clue how to approach our "oh-great-redheaded-leader." And when his attempts fail, what does he do? He takes it out on people who were just trying to help! Namely, me.
Gyah! I'll have to deal with him later though, after our mission. With Manx *AND* Birman here, we can be sure that this is a) a pretty big assignment, b) a very dangerous assignment, or c) a combination of both.
Manx pops in the video while Birman talks about the basic "charges" against this target. The video starts playing and she stops talking to let us focus on the video:
Plenty of clips of bloody victims, plenty of clips of news of the official charges the target has managed to evade, plenty of unofficial charges of crimes there's never enough evidence of, and finally, with the computer generated "Persia" ending the clip with his usual quote "White hunters of the night, hunt the tomorrow of these dark beasts!" ((Erm... is this right? please correct me if I'm wrong --Kris))
The video's shut off. "Everyone in?" Manx asks. And of course, we all "nod our heads" like we always do.
"Good," said Birman, passing each of us a file about the target and the mission in general. "Here are the details that you need to keep in mind."
I briefly glanced over the information.
Tch. Of *course* they'd give us the details after we agreed to take the job!
********************
"Sick bastard," I mumbled under my breath when I saw the details of the stuff she does that the police has evidence on, and the even more gruesome details of the stuff the police doesn't have enough evidence on. 'Officially,' the target is know to be a drug dealer. The 'unofficial' stuff, the stuff the police doesn't have evidence on, the stuff that's the cause for us to kill her, is that she makes and tests her own newly developed, *unstable* drugs on children that she managed to get addicted to drugs. Some of the luckier ones survived these new drugs with severe brain damage, others...
Quickly finishing up the charges Kritiker has against him, I flipped to the pages about the details on the mission itself... and that's when I understood why *both* Birman and Manx came.
Considering the amount of personal guards the target has around herself 24/7, the labyrinth-like structure that is her home, and the tight, unvarying schedule of 'from home to work, from work to home,' this is basically a suicide mission for the inexperienced. We're lucky though, we're not inexperienced, so our survival rate is slightly higher, according to my calculations we have about a 0.01 out of 10 chance of surviving this mission. Nope, this mission isn't impossible... it's just right next to it.
********************
Four shadowed figures split paths in pairs. Abyssinian had just given out the last of the last minute instructions, and now Weiss set off in their predetermined pairs of Bombay+Siberian and Abyssinian+Balinese, at the insistence of Siberian of course, to complete their assigned tasks before "the kill."
The four had agreed that the best place to strike will be when their target is traveling on a strip of isolated road on her way home. Bombay and Siberian's job was to blow up the drawbridge that leads to the targets mansion, blocking her source of reinforcement and way of retreat. Balinese and Abyssinian's job was to wait for the best time to "swoop down for the kill" so to say, or at least keep the car's occupants occupied while Siberian and Bombay comes to back them up.
"Ne, Ken-kun," Omi started, "why'd you insist on pairing up with me?"
Ken's hands stopped their work at the question. "You don't like being partnered with me?"
"Ie! That's not what I meant!" Omi replied quickly, turning to look at Ken, but unfortunately Ken had went back to his work. "I mean, you don't usually care who you got paired with so I was just wondering..." he trailed off. "You're not mad....are you?"
Suddenly, Ken turned around, grinning, "'Course not, Omi."
Omi sweatdropped at Ken. "Good...," Omi said, a bit uncertainly.
Silence followed, both assassins continued on with their work until....
"GYAH!"
"Shh! Ken-kun! Are you afraid no one will know we're here?!"
"Aren't you the least bit curious as to why I insisted to pair Ay--"
"Abyssinian!" Omi corrected.
"Abyssinian," Ken repeated sarcastically. "Like I was saying: Aren't you the least bit curious?"
Omi finished up the last bit of his work, and moved over to finish Ken's... "... Alright, why?"
A smile immediately lit up his face, "Didn't you notice that they haven't been talking to each other since the mission?...Unless necessary of course but---"
"That's what they always do...," Omi cut in half-heartedly.
"Well... maybe. But no this time!"
"Really? How so?" Omi finished up the last of the wiring and looked at Ken questioningly.
"Youji confessed to Aya today!"
Omi's eyes widened considerably, "Hounto ni??"
Ken nodded vigorously in the affirmative.
This is definitely news to Omi. Who would've thought that Youji-the-womanizer would end up falling for Aya? But at the moment, something more is bothering him. "Ken-kun," Omi started, forsaking the use of codenames, "are you nervous?"
Ken remained silent.
"You don't usually talk about other things *even if it's things as interesting as Youji falling for a man* when you're on a mission." Omi paused for a second, "Is something wrong?"
Ken heaved a sigh, "I don't know Omi, I don't know. But..."
"But?"
"It could be because of the last mission." Ken continued quickly at Omi's disapproving look, "I just have a bad feeling about this mission that's all."
"Ke--"
Bombay, the target just entered the 'war-zone,' in 3 minutes, detonate the explosives.
By the end of the transmission, the assassins Bombay and Siberian had replaced Omi and Ken.
"Show time!" Siberian muttered.
********************
"...in 3 minutes, detonate the explosives," I finished my order and severed the connection.
"Abyssinian, about today---"
"Not now Balinese!" I interjected before Youji could continue.
"But...!"
"..."
"Aya!" Youji hissed at me.
Lucky for me, the sound of explosion echoed through the night at that moment, signaling the beginning of out mission. "Let's go!"
*******************
Bo---ay! Ha-- seen Abys---ian..
"What?!" I screamed into the com-link as I ran for my life.
Seen--Aby----
"I can't understand you, Balinese! You're breaking up!"
"What's wrong Bombay?" Siberian shouted to me.
All I could manage to do is shake my head .
Aya was the one who finished off the target. The kill itself went surprisingly uncomplicated, it's what happened after the kill that brought trouble. It really isn't due to our miscalculation though: the target's boyfriend had suddenly decided to send another team of bodyguard after her that night... and everything turned into a mess from that.
Ken pulled me into a dark, well-hidden alley suddenly, making me lose my balance. I felt his hand clamp over my mouth to silence my yelp, and before I could regain my footing, we scrambled into the shadows.
"Shit! Where the hell are they?" I heard the leader of our pursuers bark out.
Mumbles answered his curses before he decided to keep going.
It was a full ten minutes of staying put in the shadows before we decided that it was safe to leave the alley.
"Come on, Siberian!"
"What?"
"I think something happened to Abyssinian!"
"You mean when Balinese contacted you...?"
I nodded, "Let's go to the safehouse, I hope they're there already."
********************
Dammit! Where the hell did Aya go?
How many times had I asked myself that question already? I already forgot.
I was lucky I managed to get out of that place in one piece... well, minus the few cuts and scrapes that I got from dodging bullets, as well as the one bullet wound. Maybe Weiss is in some sort of bad luck streak: first it's Omi; then it's me. And I haven't even counted that this is the *second* time Aya's disappeared during a mission... at least this time, he finished his job. But still... WHERE THE HELL *IS* HE??!
As I was about to pull out my hair, I heard the door creak open, and my first thought ---instead of being 'did someone follow me' ---was "Aya?"
"Youji-kun!"
"Youji!" I heard two voices pipe up at the same time.
Oh, it's only Omi and Ken.
"Where's Aya-kun?"
"That's what I want to know!" I snapped back.
TBC
POST-FICCIE RAMBLINGS: Kon'nichi wa, min'na-san! ::bows:: I'm sorry this part took so long... well, I'm a very big procrastinator ^^;; gomen gomen. Aside from that, I also have 3 other fics I'm working on at the same time. (There's a lesson to be learned from this: Never EVER work on more than one fic at a time.)
Erm... make that 4 fics (since this newest one is gonna be a one-shot... which somehow always takes forever for me.x__x;;) ::sigh:: At this time, I take this chance to thank everyone who were patient with me (Especially to Shannon, she's sent me e-mail since I first posted this fic, and who has also just recently sent me another e-mail since my last posting...which was a looooooong time ago. I thank her for motivating me to hurry up w/ this chapter... Arigatou! ^^)
At this point of the ramblings, I ask what I always ask of my readers: C&C please! Onegai!!
Ja for now!
~Kris