In this part, we finally get to *gasp* the plot of the fic!
Chapter Fifteen
Schuldig got up a week later, fairly pleased with himself. He'd finally gotten Nagi to go over to Omi's without having to go with him. Of course, this had mostly been because Nagi had gotten a big shipment of computer parts and wanted to coo over them with someone who would know what the hell he was talking about, but still, a victory was a victory.
Brad was sitting at the kitchen table when Schuldig wandered out, drinking coffee and eating a muffin. Schuldig opened the fridge and noted that it was fully stocked. There was a pile of documents neatly paper clipped on the table. From what Schuldig saw, they were accounts. Brad let Farferello do them, since he was surprisingly good at math and got bored easily.
"Did you have an anal retentive day?" Schuldig asked, pouring himself some coffee and getting a muffin for himself.
"No," Brad said. "I just figured that if I sent you out to do the shopping, we'd wind up with a freezer full of ice cream. I got cat food, by the way."
"I beg your pardon," Schuldig said indignantly. "I know how to go shopping. I've done it before. Ice cream gets boring."
"Mm hmm." Brad was working his way through another stack of papers. "These are our potential contracts for next month," he said. "And I want you to look through them."
Schuldig took them and sat down. "Why? Usually, you only have me look at them after you've decided."
"Because I'm interested to see which one you would pick," Brad said. "And not on the criteria of which would be the most interesting. Call it a training exercise."
"Well, not this one," Schuldig said. "It's awful. It's boring besides everything else."
"I'm going out for the day," Brad said, standing and picked up his jacket. "I've got some errands to run. I expect you to have read those by the time I get back."
"Slave driver," Schuldig muttered. "Are you going to be back for dinner?"
"I don't know. Probably not."
Schuldig heaved a sigh. "All right."
Brad turned and walked out the door without another word.
Schuldig made a face and leafed through the contracts. Although he didn't figure that Brad would actually get annoyed if he didn't get through most of them, he had nothing better to do with his time. Yohji was working a double shift at the flower shop, due to the fact that he had slept through his morning shift the day before, and Ken had covered for him.
Nagi wandered out of his room. "What are those?" he asked, surprised to see Schuldig reading documents rather than a book. "Ooh, muffins." He took one and started water boiling to make tea.
"Brad wants me to read them. See which one I would pick out for us. They're prospective contracts. Some sort of training thing, I dunno."
"That seems odd," Nagi commented, digging in the cupboards to find his tea. "Lots of groceries, too."
"He's having an anal retentive day," Schuldig replied.
"Oh, I see," Nagi said, as if that explained everything.
^^^^
Schuldig had a headache. Too many hours of reading fine print. Still, at least some of the jobs looked slightly interesting. He could handle working for them. He picked up the next folder, and a small piece of paper fell out. It was the kind that Brad left notes on, and was folded four ways.
He scooped it up and opened it, his eyes skimming over it.
'Schuldig. I apologize to have tricked you. You can stop reading these now if you want. I left you this so it would take at least a few hours for you to find this note. By now, I am en route back to Esstet headquarters in Germany. (I think.) Lately, Esstet has been questioning my loyalty, and has chosen to remove me from command of our team. Had I been taken from the apartment, bloodshed might have ensued. I chose to remove myself from the situation rather than endanger your life or Nagi's. Or even Farferello's. I'm entrusting you the team in my absence, and unfortunately, I don't know when -- if ever -- I'll be returning.' At this, Schuldig let out a tiny squeak. 'To say that Esstet is displeased with me is an understatement. Apparently, they've been watching over my possible future a little more closely than I would have liked. There's more going on than I know, and I hope you and Nagi will be able to find out what this is really about. Good luck.'
He had signed it Brad, which Schuldig found strange, since he never used his first name around the teammates.
Schuldig stared, sputtering uselessly. He reread it to make sure it wasn't some sort of horrible joke. After a few seconds, he stretched his mind out, searching for Brad. An interminable amount of time passed, but when he finally stopped trying, he was sure that Brad was no longer in Tokyo -- and probably not in Japan.
"Oh my God," he said to himself. He got up and went unsteadily to Nagi's door, knocking quickly.
"C'mon in," Nagi said. He was flopped on his bed with a manga. Schuldig went inside and handed him the letter. "What's this?" Nagi asked, blinking at it.
"Just read it," Schuldig told him.
Nagi started to skim over the text, then stopped and read slower, his eyes growing wider as he continued. When he finished, he looked up at Schuldig. "Uh," he said.
Schuldig sat on the edge of his bed. "We're fucked. Okay, maybe not, but -- we're fucked!"
Nagi pushed his hair out of his face. "How can they just . . . take Crawford?" he asked nervously. "Does that mean that if they don't like us, they could take us, too?"
Schuldig nodded a little. "Either that or . . . they want us for something else," he said slowly, thinking this over.
"And didn't trust Crawford to lead us?" Nagi asked hesitantly.
"Or didn't trust him to do what they wanted," Schuldig said. "Which isn't the same thing."
Nagi nodded slowly. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know," Schuldig said. "Do we have anything planned for the next few days?"
Nagi shook his head. "Our contract with Hisakawa-san ended on Tuesday. We hadn't chosen a new one yet. That's probably why he left you that stack. He really did mean you to read them."
"He said I could stop," Schuldig said, "though knowing him, the good ones are in the first half. I'll pick one out, and then you can go over it, and I'll see if I can find Crawford. See how far my power stretches. It'll be an experiment."
Nagi nodded, then put down the note. "Ne, Schu . . . if Esstet wanted him out of the way so they could control us . . . they very well may send us orders soon. We should have a contract lined up by then, one we can't just back out of. It'll let us stall."
"I'll have one picked out before dinner," Schuldig said.
"We'll have to tell Farferello," Nagi replied.
"I'll take care of that after dinner. I'll make a list. He left the accounts for Farfie anyway."
"All right." Nagi hesitated. "Is there anything you need me to do? Kenshin just got a lot less interesting."
"Unless you want to see if there's any record in their files that could be helpful to us at all . . ."
Nagi nodded. "I'll look."
"Just don't get caught."
"I'll be careful." Nagi paused. "Remember what we found about Crawford's family?" At Schuldig's nod, he said, "if they wanted him so badly . . . why get rid of him now? I don't think they'll kill him."
"Thanks," Schuldig said.
^^^^
Schuldig let Farferello out of his room to do the accounts, and sat down with the contracts that he had marked as possibilities. There were only three, so it didn't take him long to pick the one he thought had the most potential. Nagi was still contentedly hacking away, so Schuldig began to make dinner. He had a lot of bottled up nervous energy.
"Hm," Farferello said, from where he was doing the accounts.
"Hm?" Schuldig asked, looking over from where he was chopping vegetables.
"Yes, that's what I said," Farferello replied.
"Why did you say it?" Schuldig asked, doing his best to keep his temper. It was getting difficult.
"Crawford's changed all the accounts. Or, more accurately, I'm supposed to change all the accounts. There's only three now. Different bank, too. It's not one of those chain ones. It's a small private one. And he left a note that Nagi was supposed to do the transfer."
"Really," Schuldig said.
"Yes. That's what I said." Farferello gave him a look.
"Well, let me know when you're done," Schuldig said. "We'll get right on it."
Farferello considered all the implications of this. "When's dinner?"
"Half an hour." There was a pause. "Only three accounts," Schuldig said. "Who do they belong to?"
"One for each of us," Farferello said. "Most of the money goes into yours."
"Oh," Schuldig said. He assumed that the money had been put there to draw on for missions. It was now nearing evening. He put the contract he most approved of at Nagi's place in the table and waited as Farferello finished the account work.
Nagi wandered out of his room, studying a printout as he walked. A few more papers were floating behind absently, as was the much discomfitured kitten. "She was into my wires again, Schuldig," Nagi said, not looking up as he took his seat.
Schuldig plucked Katzchen out of the train. "What have I told you about Nagi's wires?" he asked, although he was sure that floating in midair was enough of a punishment. Katzchen gave him a wide-eyed, innocent look. Schuldig rolled his eyes and set her down on one of the chairs.
"Is this the contract?" Nagi asked, neatly stacking his own papers and picking up the ones Schuldig had left him.
"Yup," Schuldig said.
Nagi skimmed it. It was for a prominent politician, with whom they wouldn't be able to back out. They were already the most recommended candidate for the job, which meant they wouldn't have to worry about being turned down. It also looked to last at least six months and would have a hefty salary, and there would be a job for each of them. "This is good," he said neutrally. "Of course, if you had looked at the back of the last page, you probably would have saved yourself some work."
"What?" Schuldig dished each of them a bowl of chicken soup. Comfort food. Nagi held up the sheet of paper. On the back of it, Crawford had simply written, 'This one.' Schuldig sputtered, then made a disgusted noise and sat down with his dinner.
"He probably figured you would be observant," Nagi said, stirring his soup.
"I was a bit distracted!" Schuldig protested.
Farferello handed Nagi a sheet of paper. "You need to move our money tonight."
Nagi skimmed it. Farferello had written all the details of the transfer on it. "All right. But may I make a suggestion?"
Farferello shrugged.
"If we move all the money, they'll know we've moved it. I'd rather do it in small amounts over the next few days, so it looks like we're spending it for the new contract. Then we can split the salary and put half in each set of accounts. If we close these, they'll be suspicious."
"He said untraceable," Farferello said. "He's trusting you to make it untraceable."
Nagi blinked. "Was that a yes?"
"That's what I said," Farferello said complacently.
"So what'd you find?" Schuldig asked.
"Not much," Nagi said. "To go deep enough into the system to get at the good stuff is really a two-person job, because I'd need a really good sweeper code to -- never mind," he said hastily, as Schuldig's eyes started to glaze over. "Let's just say that I couldn't go in too deeply. But I did find the record of Crawford's transfer. It's not being listed yet as a removal. It's just a transfer. It says back to HQ, but there's no way of knowing if that's accurate."
"It'll have to do for now," Schuldig said. "Tomorrow we'll go get this contract signed and go from there."
"Have you managed to find Crawford yet?" Nagi asked. "Or have you been too busy to look?"
"I haven't tried yet," Schuldig said. "It'll take an awful lot of concentration to see if I can make it to Germany. I wish I knew somebody along the way to use as a springboard."
Nagi stirred his soup. "Okay."
^^^^
Schuldig had no luck getting through to Brad, and the concerted effort wore so many holes in his shields that his mental condition slowly deteriorated over the next couple days. Nagi was nervous and more fidgety than usual, both from being alone with Farferello so much and also because he definitely didn't like Schuldig being both somewhat loopy and in charge.
He knew that he could get the truth out of the computer, but not without completely giving himself away, and that wasn't an option. He could get somewhat deeper if he went to Omi for help, but so far, Schuldig hadn't told Yohji. Nagi took that as a tacit signal to not tell Omi. After all, when it came right down to it, Weiss was a team of assassins that could someday be an opposition. Nagi trusted Omi, but neither he nor Schuldig trusted Kritiker.
"I've got the money transfer done," he announced two days later. "Do I go on bodyguard duty now?" He didn't look thrilled at the idea, but Farferello still could not be trusted to do a job by himself. With Brad gone, both Schuldig and Nagi were working full schedules.
"Yeah," Schuldig said.
"Okay. You should go over to Yohji-san's. You need to get some rest."
"All right," Schuldig said. "But if you need something, give a shout." He fixed Nagi with a stern glare. "And I mean it. Especially if Farfie starts going wiggy."
Nagi blinked, perplexed. Schuldig had spoken the last word in German, and Nagi hadn't the slightest idea what it meant. However, he gathered enough from context to simply nod. "Are you going to tell Yohji-san anything?" he asked hesitantly.
"I don't know," Schuldig said.
"I could find out more if I could get help from Omi," Nagi said. "But I understand if you don't want me to tell him."
"For now, don't," Schuldig said. "I'll let you know if I change my mind."
Nagi nodded. Schuldig dropped Nagi off at the politician's office on the way over to the flower shop. Given that school had not yet let out, Aya was working alone in the store. It was never swamped enough to need more than one person until the afternoon. Ken was in working in the back.
"Hi," Schuldig said, waving a little to Aya.
Aya blinked at him. "Yohji's still asleep, you know. Would you like to go wake him rudely? Do you have that cat with you? You could drop it on his head."
"No, I don't," Schuldig replied. "She's at home."
There was a long pause. Aya gave Schuldig a questioning look. "Do you want to go get Yohji up?" he asked.
Schuldig shook himself. His mind had drifted, although he was uncertain to where. "Oh. Right, yeah." He went through the door of the shop, waving to Ken on his way by, and went up to Yohji's apartment. No one answered his knocks.
After a pause, Schuldig poked at Yohji's sleeping mind. /Yohji?/
Silence. Then, sleepily, /I swear I came to a full stop . . ./
Schuldig laughed. /No, you didn't./
/I did. I came to a definite slow./ Yohji rolled over in bed and pulled the blankets over his head. His thoughts drifted back into sleep.
/Yohjiiii . . ./
Yohji sat bolt upright at the prodding at his mind. He padded over to the door and opened it to see a grinning Schuldig. "It's too early," he mumbled, and shut the door in Schuldig's face.
Schuldig opened it again, since Yohji hadn't locked it. "You really didn't come to a complete stop, you know."
Yohji had crawled back into bed. "Huh?"
"You were dreaming. Cop. You lied."
"Oh. It's too early to be awake. I can't believe Omittchi has been in school for like hours already."
"I've been up since seven," Schuldig said.
"Huh, that's funny," Yohji said. "That's only a couple hours after I went to bed. You must be tired. Come sleep." He lifted the blankets invitingly. Schuldig pause.
"Okay," Schuldig said. He had gotten two hours of sleep and those had been restless. He kicked off his shoes and crawled into bed next to Yohji. Yohji dropped the blankets over them both, wrapped an arm around Schuldig's waist, and fell asleep promptly.
Schuldig was asleep minutes later.
Yohji woke up for real about an hour later, and was startled to see Schuldig in his bed, as he didn't remember Schuldig arriving. He leaned over and kissed him lightly, brushing his hair out of his face. "You awake?" he asked softly.
Schuldig didn't twitch.
Yohji yawned and crawled out of bed. He padded into the shower and got ready for his day. Then he went downstairs and made some lunch, even being nice enough to make some for Ken and Aya. He left it there and brought a tray upstairs. Lunch in bed was a good start to the day, in his opinion. Like breakfast in bed, but several hours later, which was always good in Yohji's book. He didn't know how he ever managed morning shifts.
Schuldig was stirring slightly when he got upstairs. "I made lunch," he announced, and plopped onto the bed next to Schuldig. "When did you get here?"
Schuldig blinked up at him fuzzily. "What time is it?"
"About twelve thirty. I've been up about an hour. I made lunch." Yohji precariously balanced the tray on his lap. It had two plates of rice and sushi.
"About two hours, then," Schuldig replied. He yawned and stretched. Yohji declined to comment that there might be better things than lunch to be eating. "Are you always this horny when you wake up?"
"No," Yohji said defensively. "I woke up an hour ago. I'm horny now. There's a difference."
"Oh," Schuldig said. He reached for the chopsticks and began to eat. They chatted amiably, although Schuldig was definitely not all there. Once lunch was finished, Yohji put the tray aside, popping the last bite into his mouth.
"So what's wrong?" he asked.
"Do I look that bad?" Schuldig replied, startled. "Oh, I do."
"You look awful, you're all spacey, and you didn't even try to get me up when you came in; you just went to sleep. And you're not horny, which is a rare condition for you." Yohji smirked at this last comment. "So something must be wrong."
"I'm going nuts," Schuldig announced.
"Uhh . . . why?" Yohji asked.
"'Cause . . . Brad's gone," Schuldig said, apparently not caring that he had previously not been disposed to tell Yohji about this. He trusted Yohji to not mention this to Kritiker anyway.
"Gone?" Yohji asked, surprised. "Like, packed up and walked off?"
"Well, more like stocked the house and then was kidnapped," Schuldig said.
"Kidnapped."
"I suppose technically, the term is 'relocated'," Schuldig said. "Or transferred. I don't think you can be kidnapped when it's your own -- well -- your superiors. We're his own people. They're not, er, anyway."
"So your superiors relocated Crawford."
"Yes," Schuldig said. "Against his will."
"Why?"
"I think it was a question of loyalty," Schuldig said. "His to them or us to him or us to them or . . . because there is no us to them or . . . anyway, they were right pissed off. I really do sound crazy. Oh, God."
"Why is Crawford being gone making you this flighty?" Yohji asked, reaching out and smoothing Schuldig's hair in the hopes of grounding him slightly.
It did work, at least a little. "Well," Schuldig said, "I thought I was doing pretty good. But apparently not. 'Cause see, now there's this Brad-shaped hole in my head, and I keep falling into it. Losing my balance."
"What?" Yohji asked, confused.
"Imagine that someone just walked off with one of your legs! You'd lose your balance! Mental feet!"
"Why was Crawford one of your legs?" Yohji asked, completely lost.
Schuldig laughed, leaning against Yohji. "'Cause . . . he's the one that got my sanity back on kilter. Or as close as it's going to get. And apparently it was all kind of centered around him. And when Brad's there I always have a quiet place, since I can't hear him. Imagine what it'd be like if you weren't here." Schuldig's face went blank and he paused for a minute. Then his eyes narrowed. "When I get him back, I'm gonna kill him. Wring his little neck."
"Uhm . . ." Yohji said.
"He planned this," Schuldig said. "This. Not his kidnapping. He planned this because of his kidnapping. If he knew -- arg. Of course he knew."
"Planned this, as in, you and me?" Yohji asked, wanting to be clear on this part.
"Yes," Schuldig said. "Fink!"
"Why did he plan this?" Yohji was still lost.
"Because he knew he was going to be kidnapped! And if I didn't have you, I'd be like . . . extra extra nuts!"
"Oh," Yohji said. "So he's known about this for a while, I guess."
Schuldig looked like steam might come from his ears. He ground his teeth and tried to remain calm. "I'm gonna kill him."
"Okay then," Yohji said.
"Fucking precogs," Schuldig muttered. "They always did piss me off."
^^^^
Omi got home from school around four thirty, with a stack of homework that he didn't feel like doing. Schuldig was sitting in the living room watching television, and Yohji was working in the shop. Schuldig glanced up as Omi walked in. "Can I talk to you?"
Omi blinked at him. "I guess," he said, putting his bag down and plopping into one of the arm chairs.
"Do you report everything you know to Kritiker?" Schuldig asked bluntly.
Omi opened his mouth, then shut it. "It depends," he finally said.
"Well, see, we need your help on something," Schuldig said. "But we really can't have you telling Kritiker." He was assuming that since Brad had set him up with Weiss, he wanted him to trust Weiss for help in his absence. "Oh, who am I kidding. Brad has this all frickin' planned."
Omi kept blinking.
"Okay, here's the deal," Schuldig said, and explained the entire situation in a flood of semi-intelligible words.
"Does that mean if you annoy them too, they'll 'relocate' you?" Omi asked, making quote marks in the air.
"Oh, Brad's not dead," Schuldig replied. "He's too important. For what I don't know, but he's definitely dead. But yes, they'll relocate us. Or they'll try. I'd kill Nagi before I let them have him back."
"Uhh," Omi said, looking somewhat alarmed at this concept.
"Trust me, he'd prefer it that way," Schuldig assured him.
Omi, recalling Nagi's tight-lipped state whenever his training came up, decided to believe him. "Oh."
"So you'll help us?" Schuldig asked. "At least with the hacking and the sneaking? You can hit on Nagi. And I'll make sure Farfie doesn't try to eat you."
"Thanks," Omi said. "I'll help. Do you need me to do this today?"
"It would be nice," Schuldig said. "But Nagi won't be home for a few hours."
"Why don't you just . . . take a break until Yohji-kun gets off shift, and then the three of us can go back to your place. I'm assuming Nagi will want to use his own computer."
"You're the computer geek," Schuldig replied. "If you think we need his computer, then sure."
^^^^
Nagi was home, and nodding over a pan of stir fry that was burning happily, when Schuldig walked in with Yohji and Omi in tow. Schuldig hastened to rescue dinner, and Nagi jumped. "Oh! Hi. Uhm."
"Extra people," Schuldig said.
Nagi blinked. "Are they supposed to know where our apartment is? Crawford's gonna be really mad. Y'know, if he ever comes back."
"He's going to come back," Schuldig said firmly, frowning at the pan. "And the little bastard planned all this." He looked at the pan of scorched food and decided to order out. "Farfie, order dinner, okay?" he called.
"What sort of fine cuisine should I order?" Farferello asked, padding into the room. He was in a good mood. He had been alone with Nagi all day, and yet the younger boy hadn't put him in the straightjacket when they got home, which he was wont to do. "I assume you want your traditional computer food?" he asked Nagi.
"Am I doing computer things?" Nagi asked, yawning. "'Cause if so, someone had better make coffee. And maybe add some methamphetamines to it."
"You don't want to try those," Schuldig told him.
"Oh," Nagi said. "Well, the coffee at least." He saw Farferello tapping a foot, waiting for his answer. "Yes, yes, pizza is great."
Farferello turned towards Omi and Yohji, who were trying to not stare. He blinked at them, apparently waiting for some sort of comment, perhaps what kind of pizza they wanted. However, he didn't feel like saying that, so he just blinked like a nutter.
"Are you trying to ask what kind of pizza they want with your eyelid alone?" Schuldig asked him.
"That's what I said," Farferello replied.
Schuldig felt a migraine coming on.
Omi saved him. "Pepperoni. We both like pepperoni."
Farferello nodded and wandered towards the phone.
"Sorry to have ruined dinner," Nagi said, scraping the burnt remains of it into the trash. "I guess I nodded off."
"I'm sorry," Schuldig said. "I know you don't want to do computer stuff tonight." He took the pan from him and shooed him into a chair. Omi had his laptop in a bag over his shoulder.
"Oh, I'm fine. Just . . . coffee. Omi." Nagi suddenly realized that Omi was there, and squeaked, blushing.
"Hi," Omi said. "He asked me to help. He said you said you needed two people."
"Er, yeah," Nagi said. "If I don't want Esstet to realize what I'm doing, I need someone to run a sweeper behind me. Normally I'd do it myself and work both programs at once, but Esstet has really good security and this isn't a good thing to be risky with."
"I can run sweeper programs," Omi assured him. "I've gotten pretty good at them."
"'Cause, you know, we'd kinda like to know whether or not Crawford's dead," Nagi said.
"He's not dead," Schuldig said. "I'd know if he was dead."
"Oh. Yeah, I suppose you would." Nagi looked longingly at the brewing coffee. "When's that gonna be ready? 'Cause I think I'm making an idiot out of myself."
"You're not making an idiot out of yourself," Schuldig told him, smiling. "And it'll be done soon. I made a small batch to get you going, and I'll make a bigger batch while you're drinking that."
"Good. Do you like coffee?" Nagi asked Omi.
"It's a good hacking drink," Omi said. "I don't know why this is, but it is."
"I haven't slept in a few days, can you tell?"
"Yeah," Omi said. "You kinda sound like Schuldig."
Nagi laughed. "Wow. That's scary."
"I think I was just insulted," Schuldig said.
"I think I'd better nap until dinner," Nagi replied.
^^^^
Nagi napped until dinner arrived, which lasted about forty-five minutes. He had long ago learned the art of power-napping, and awoke feeling, if not rested, at least competent. Farferello had ordered more than enough pizza, including one for Nagi and Omi to take into Nagi's bedroom.
Omi hooked his laptop up to Nagi's computer and watched as Nagi stuffed a slice of pizza in his mouth while he waited. He wondered idly how many days it had been since Nagi had last eaten. By the time they were hooked up and on the 'net, Nagi had gone through three whole pieces of pizza and two cans of soda.
"Okay," he said, and the keys on his keyboard started to click rapidly, without his moving his hands. "Here's what we're going to -- why are you -- oh, the keyboard."
"Wow," Omi said, as Nagi stopped telekinetically typing. "I mean . . . wow."
"It's faster than regular typing, since I don't have to move my fingers," Nagi said, almost apologetically.
"I can see that," Omi replied.
Nagi smiled shyly, and picked up another slice of pizza. "It also lets me eat while I hack."
"I knew there was an ulterior motive," Omi said with a slight smile, and they got to work.
^^^^
Yohji attempted to settle Schuldig down with a movie to keep him distracted while Nagi and Omi were working. Schuldig was still a bit flighty, but he did manage to focus enough to cuddle with Yohji and Katzchen and sort of watch the television.
Nagi wandered out twice to get more coffee, but other than that, they didn't see anything of the two teenagers until nearly one in the morning. Then Nagi came out again, yawning and stretching. "I think we're done," he said. Omi was behind him, rubbing his cramping hands. "Are you awake, Schu?"
"I'm up!" Schuldig said, sitting up abruptly and nearly falling off the sofa. "Right. So what'd you find?"
Nagi plopped onto the sofa and gave Omi a shy look, gesturing to one of the other chairs. Omi flopped into it without delay. "Well, I'm pretty sure that Crawford's in Germany in an isolation chamber. You know, the kind they use in the Institutes to keep us from using our powers."
"D'you think that's to keep me out or to keep me from using his power?" Schuldig paused. "Can you stop a precog from using their power?"
Nagi snorted. "They wouldn't be containment cells if they didn't work on everybody," he stated. "Anyway, I don't know, but they probably don't think you can reach him. I mean, he's half the world away."
"So far I haven't been able to reach him," Schuldig admitted.
"Well, that's probably why," Nagi replied.
"If I could just get somebody halfway between there that I knew . . ." Schuldig said, almost to himself.
Nagi coughed. "Yeah, did you know that's not supposed to be possible?"
"What's not?" Schuldig asked, blinking.
"Using a non-telepath as a relay."
"Really?" Schuldig asked curiously. "I've done it before. They're just kind of an anchor to . . . I don't know. It's kinda like . . . you know how if you take a rubber band and stretch it out, you can only get so far before it snaps back? But if you stretch it out some and then wind it around something, you can stretch it farther because it can't snap back. Did that make any sense."
"Not really," Nagi said comfortingly. "The point is, according to the files I found, you can do a lot of stuff that you're not supposed to be able to do. Unfortunately, most of it isn't recorded. We're talking really high-encrypted stuff here. The best I could figure out is that they want to do something with us, with our team, and they removed Crawford because he was going to get in the way."
"So we don't get him back until we do whatever they want," Schuldig surmised. "But they haven't told us what they want. Not very fair of them."
Nagi shrugged. "Something big is going on. Crawford was right about that. But there's no records. I'm guessing that whatever it is, it's some huge project and only the really high-ups know about it, and to preserve security it was just never put into the system."
"And all the high-ups are in Germany," Schuldig said. "Where I can't get to them."
Nagi looked alarmed. "Don't pick the brains of the high-ups, Schu. They'll squash you like a bug."
"Well, how else are we going to figure out what's going on?" Schuldig asked.
"We wait," Nagi said. "If they want something from us, they're going to have to make a move. We'll have to be on the lookout, so when they do, we'll see it for what it is."
Schuldig slumped. "I want Brad back."
"Well, here's what I figure," Nagi said. "Whatever they want from us, they've gotta want it bad, right? So when they finally ask for it, as long as we realize that's what they're asking for, we can say we won't do it until they return Crawford to us."
"On the principle that I can't plan past my own nose, and that sounds like a good idea, we'll go with it," Schuldig agreed.
^^^^
