AN: Yay! People are enjoying my fic!! I am soooo happy! Well, the one after this is where I'm up to, so expect some delay in updating after that! Domo arigatou minna!

Chapter 4

Three of the boys were in the apartment. Ken, Aya and Yohji were trying to amuse themselves, and to outside observers the attempts would have been comical. Aya was simply lying on his back staring at the ceiling, no doubt thinking of the next bill he was due on account of his sister's medical treatment.
Ken was sat on the edge of his bed, attempting to balance a soccer ball on his nose half heartedly, and as a result he couldn't keep it there, frequently having to get up to retrieve it after it rolled across the room.
Yohji, after a great deal of checking to make sure nobody had seen what he was doing, had slipped a 'naughty' magazine behind a regular gardening magazine, and was reading avidly, glancing up at intervals to check that he hadn't been found out.
Ken looked across. "What're you reading Yohji?"
"I... uh... a magazine."
"Oh. Okay." Ken shrugged after looking at Yohji's flustered features in a confused manner before starting to kick the ball against the far wall.
The truth was they were all waiting. Waiting to see who would get there first. Manx or Omi. And none of them were sure what would happen either way.
At the light knock at the door, Yohji and Ken both sat bolt upright. Aya simply allowed his gaze to monitor the door, being the furthest away from it.
Ken stood aside to let Manx into the apartment.
Finally, Aya sat up and was the first to speak. "Any information?"
"Where is Bombay?"
"At school," supplied Yohji. "He hasn't come home yet."
Manx nodded. "I'm afraid these are pressing times. I can't wait for him. Perhaps it's better this way..." She paused for a thoughtful moment before continuing. "We have a little more information on the mission."
Yohji smiled slightly at Manx. "Whatcha got?"
Manx simply gave him a withering look before brushing a curl of red hair out of her line of vision and continuing. "Your target is a boy by the name of Richard Stevenson. We want him because of his involvement with drug dealing and violent tendencies towards women..." she glanced about the three men. "If you know what I mean?"
They all nodded. They knew she was talking about rape.
Manx shot a look down between her feet quickly before continuing. "However, his primary flaw is his tendencies towards small children. He kidnaps these children regularly and tortures them purely for pleasure." She looked up, meeting each gaze evenly. "We have a slight problem however."
"A problem?" murmured Aya.
Manx nodded. "He's eighteen." Looking about and gaining no response she added, "about Bombay's age. In his grade at school."
"What about it?" pressed Ken, a slight frown betraying a certain unease.
"We think they could have met. Stevenson is in this approximate area. The possibility is slim, but is still present. I would advise caution in how much Bombay knows about this mission."
"We can't cut him out," said Ken slowly.
"I never said to do that. I only said to exercise caution." After finishing her sentence, Manx deftly dug into her briefcase and produced four packets, each containing the details of the mission. She handed one to each of the boys, except Aya to whom she handed two. "One of those is for Bombay," she said. "I leave the giving of it to him in your judgement Abyssinian."
Aya nodded, accepting the packet. "Understood."
Nodding to each of the boys in turn, Manx turned and left as quickly as she had come, her heels being heard to clack down the darkening streets as she disappeared into the night.
Handing Yohji the packet that belonged to Omi, Aya muttered, "Hide this somewhere safe until we know what we're to do with it."
Taking the package, Yohji nodded in acknowledgement and picked up his magazine from where he had left it on the bed. Ken, who caught a glimpse of what fell out, gasped. "Yohij!"
"What?!" A maddening blush crept across the blonde's nose as he quickly bent to pick it up. "It's what I read. What's your problem Hidaka?"
Ken grinning teasingly murmured, "I knew you were a player Yohji... But please!" Sniggering slightly, he continued, "What if Omi had found it? You would have scarred him for life!"
Finding he couldn't handle the two large packets and the scrambling of scooping up what turned out to be two or three magazines behind the gardening disguise, Yohji put the mission details on the bed. Finally, having gathered together his 'naughty' magazines, Yohji ran through into an adjoining room to dispose of, or more accurately to hide, the evidence against him.