Chapter 4

I knocked on the door to room 17. The walkway was clean, even if the paint was beginning to peel. A musty smell came from one of the rooms, I didn't stop to figure out which one. The place was a dive, but it could have been worse. Though I was finding it annoying that no one was answering the door.

I knocked a second time as I heard Hector coming up behind me. He had stayed behind to grab a suitcase from the trunk and have a word with the manager. He didn't say anything as I knocked a third time, pounding hard on the door. Setting down his suitcase Hector smiled softly to himself, not even glancing at me while he pulled out a set of keys. The door opened easily to him once he unlocked it.

Feeling a little silly I walked past him into the room. I had walked right into what looked like some secret organization, which it probably was. The room was complete with multiple laptops hooked up to every outlet in the room, some not even needing them. All the tables were covered with either a computer or a pile of paperwork. Cords ran across the ground, hooking everything together. The screens to the unattended computers flashed with different codes that were scrolling along. I didn't bother looking to see what any of it meant. They probably wouldn't want me to, anyway.

Two men were talking on cell phones in the back of the room. I couldn't hear what they were saying or see them very well in the dimly lit room, so I ignored them. Another two men were working on laptops, they barely noticed me, and I doubt they looked up from what they were doing to acknowledge I was here. The last two were working within piles of papers, nothing that I recognized. Yet nowhere did I see Zechs.

The only man who even acted as if he noticed me was one of the two sorting through papers. His gray hair and eyes made him look old, probably older than he actually was. He looked at me suspiciously, obviously not liking me, though I didn't think he'd ever met me before. But it didn't surprise me that he was already making a judgment call.

"Zech's friend?" the man asked Hector, who merely nodded, no longer being in charge of me he turned away from the two of us, going to talk to the two at the computer. The gray man turned back to me. "Sit down somewhere, don't touch anything. I'm not sure when Zechs will be back." He showed no emotion as he turned back to his paperwork.

I cleared a chair, setting the books and papers I found on it on the ground nearby. Not having anything else to do I studied the two computers on the table by me. They were both working as firewalls for the rest of the computers. I could see they were good, some might say great, but mine were better. Of course I had my computer set up so I couldn't hack into it, and I found that I could hack into a lot, any computer in Oz anyway. Not that Oz was around anymore.

Soon I got bored, glancing at my watch I realized I had been here for almost half an hour. Tired of waiting I stood up and moved towards the door.

"Where are you going?" the gray man asked.

I glanced at him, not stopping. "I'm going to call a cab," I stated.

Gray jumped to his feet, moving in front of me. "Sorry, but you can't"

I raised an eyebrow as I stepped back, crossing my arms and giving him the 'why are you getting in my way?' look. "Really?" I asked coolly. "I'm actually wanting to go. Zechs isn't here, he was supposed to meet me at the mall, and he wasn't there either. I'm sick of waiting. I've humored you this long, and now I want to go home. I don't know what's up with you guys, and frankly at the moment I don't care. So get out of my way so I can leave," I sounded a lot more sure of myself than I actually was, but at least I was good at pretending I knew how to force people to let me go. In truth I didn't. I hadn't brought a gun to threaten them with. Why would I? Of course the whole prospect of seeing Zechs probably would have been a hint. but oh well.

Gray didn't even look uneasy. Normally the people standing in my way did. He seemed just as sure of himself as I did, and about a foot taller making a good blockade keeping me from the exit. I was sensing a problem that wouldn't have a happy solution. I could get out, I'd just end up ticking him off in doing so.

"You're not leaving," he said simply, as if it didn't matter.

I sighed deeply before answering, "And why not?" I let the sarcasm slip into my voice.

"Because you're not aloud to leave," Gray said. He shrugged. "I didn't make the rules, I just follow them." How many times have I heard that one? I'd lost count. It seemed to be a popular excuse though, and not one I was interested in.

I didn't say anything as I slid around him, ducking to avoid the arm he held out to stop me while I ignored whatever he had been saying. I heard laughter from the back of the room, but I ignored that, too. I had opened the door and was stepping outside before Gray did anything to stop me. He gabbed my arm, but I easily twisted out of his grasp, continuing to walk calmly down the hall, hoping he wasn't stupid enough to try to pull me back into the room when someone might see us. Lucky for me he wasn't. Amongst many curse words he leaned against the wall, watching me walk away.

I reached the stairs and skipped down them, making my way outside and towards the hotel office. Slamming the door shut behind me I asked for a phone. The manager supplied one and I thanked him before dialing the cab number.

"Yeah? What can I do for you?" a ruff voice asked.

I was about to say something when I saw a black sports car pull into the driveway. Zechs stepped out of it, dressed in black slacks and a navy blue polo shirt. Duo stepped out of the other side, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, not really caring how he looked. I hung up the phone, not bothering to say anything. I gave the phone back to the manager and he put it away while I walked back outside towards Zechs and Duo, both of which had just noticed me.

Duo looked me up and down with a knowing smile, while Zechs glanced my way, then to the room I had been in, then back at me. Through a window I could see that the door was once again shut, with the gray man back inside.

"Sorry for making you wait, I got a little busy," Zechs said as if nothing was going on.

I rolled my eyes. "Next time I'm just going home." Zechs laughed, even though he knew I meant it. "I'd have been gone by now but we took Hector's car."

Zechs nodded. "That's why I told him to take it. I didn't want you leaving before we could get back."

The conversation suddenly came to a stop, no one really having anything to say so we just starred at each other in silence. The fact that Duo was here nagged at me for some reason. I wanted to talk to him about what had been happening lately, but when would I have the chance?

"So why did you want to talk to me?" I asked getting to the point.

Zechs looked at Duo. "In truth I didn't want you here," he pointed to Duo, "it was his idea, so don't blame things on me." He looked a little stressed, and I wondered what exactly was going on with him, but Zechs would have to wait.

"Well, to sum things up," Duo began, "I need your help to hack into a certain computer which we can't get into to help us take out an organization I can guarantee you've never heard of."

"Is that all?" I asked, glad our conversation was going somewhere.

Zechs muttered, "Is it ever?"

"No," Duo agreed. "If you do help us with this you'll probably end up helping us with something else, not to mention that it requires getting into an organization, undetected. It's kind of a big deal, but from what I've heard I think you can handle it."

I was tempted to raise my hand so I could interrupt, but I just blurted out instead. "And why are we hacking into this computer?" I asked curiously.

Duo shrugged. "Because we need a few files."

I nodded encouragingly, "Yeah. a few files for what?"

"He's not going to tell you," Zechs murmured, I shot him a glare. "Well he's not," Zechs repeated. "Ask all day and he still won't tell you anything."

I turned back to Duo. He wasn't going to tell me what I wanted to know. That would nag at me, but I'm sure he had his reasons. "Why do you want me?" I asked suddenly, the thought just coming to me. "I'm sure you've got some hackers in there," I nodded towards the room. "I mean, why me?"

Duo just looked at me. "Because they're not as good as you, and we've got just one shot at this. You're my best bet, and you probably won't end up helping anyway. I'm just asking you to. I still have to clear it with a few other people, and they probably won't like the idea."

I starred at Duo for several slow seconds before stepping back as I shook my head. It wasn't that I wouldn't help, I would, I just didn't like how he was asking. He brought me out to the middle of nowhere to get my help, even though he wasn't even sure I could do anything. I couldn't help but feeling annoyed. I didn't like this, but I wasn't sure why, or how to tell Duo.

I looked up at him. "What do you need me to do?" I asked, my voice stronger than I thought it would be.

Duo grinned, happy that I would help. Zechs frowned, knowing I was uncomfortable. I was tempted to say that nine years could change a lot of things. Last time I had seen Duo was three years ago, and he "died" when I was ten. We didn't even know each other any more. And Zechs had known that. I turned to Zechs, who met my gaze with understanding. There had been more than one reason he didn't want me working with Duo.

Soon Duo started talking again, "Well, you'll have to meet with a few people, three, actually. There will be a vote on whether you can help, but we only need one of those three to vote with us."

"You'll need two of them," Zechs interrupted, "I'm not voting on this one." Duo looked surprised, he turned to Zechs as if to ask "why not?" Zechs pursed his lips, taking a deep breath before answering. "I-I'd vote no. so I don't want to vote and turn someone else's answer. I truly don't want Alex involved."

Duo held in whatever he was thinking. He starred blankly at Zechs, not wanting us to see what was going on in his mind. "Then we'll need two votes," Duo murmured, his voice emotionless, even if there was a trace of anger in the air that came with it.

Zechs left after that, going into the hotel room where the other men were , leaving Duo and me to go where we pleased. We both got into the car, Duo driving. Neither of us talked the entire trip. Duo seemed preoccupied with his thoughts, leaving me with my own.

The drive didn't end until we reached an old warehouse building. Duo got out and I followed him inside. The place was a wreck, broken crates and bottles littering the floor. The place was covered with dirt and the soft scuttle of paws insured me that mice lurked inside here.

Duo wound his way through the ruckus until he reached the far wall of the small room the door had led to. One of the other doors had to lead to the larger room that the warehouse used. Duo pounded on the wall. Nothing happened for a moment, then I heard the grind of metal on metal along with the murmurs of other noises. Duo rocked back on his heals, waiting.

A man walked in, muttering under his breath. He was thinly built, but not weak or scrawny. His eyes reminded me of some rodents that never stopped examining the room, taking in every small detail. His cloths were stained with oil and sweat while his blond hair was in disorder, but something about him held a feeling of order, of calmness.

"Alex, meet Blake," Duo said.

Blake looked at me, then back to Duo. "You actually brought her here?" he shook his head and chuckled, the laughter sounding more like a wheeze. "I suppose you'd be wantin' me to vote her in, 'eh?"

Duo nodded, "Something like that."

Blake clicked his tongue in thought. "Cant's say as to what I'm a voitin' on yet, you might want to check with Mason. Don't even bother Jack. Zechs should help, him bein' the outside vote and all."

Duo nodded again. "Figured you'd say as much. Zechs isn't voting, so I'm going to need you to be with me on this one," Duo said persuasively.

Blake clicked his tongue, glanced around the room as if trying to find someone else to answer the question. He looked back at Duo. "Ain't Promising nothing, but I'll think 'bout it." With that he turned and went back in the room he had come from. A moment later the grinding noise came again, stopping after a few seconds.

Duo shrugged. "At least he didn't yell this time," he mumbled under his breath. I looked at him questioningly, and he shrugged. "It's not important, come on, we still have to see Mason. Nothing we can do with Blake 'cept hope he votes on our side."

I don't have much to say about this chapter either, but I'd like reviews ^.^ I'll get the next one out soon.

~Rave