File 13: Sources of Trouble
For life in the present, there is no death. Death is not an event in life. It is not a fact in the world.
-Wittgenstein
Shinichi moved quickly to catch up with Ran after the talk with her father. He ignored social customs and Ran's weak protests when as he wrapped an arm around her waist, earning stares from people on the sidewalk. Together, they walked over to the bus stop to wait for the next bus to Beika.
One of those who saw Shinichi walk from the hospital casually drew out a cell phone. He carefully snapped a picture and saved it to an e-mail. He dialed in an unusually long phone number, punching in a code or password after that. Bringing the phone up to speak, he said, "4521 reporting at 1836 hours. Daughter has left hospital with an unidentified male that she entered with. I'm sending a photo for identification immediately. I will report again when my shift is over."
Hanging up his phone, he brought back up the newspaper he had been 'reading' and continued to watch for certain people out of the corner of his eye.
--------------
A whippy, thin man walked down a hall, his footsteps echoing down the bare corridor. As he proceeded he passed doors oddly spaced along the hall. The doors varied from clear doors like sliding glass doors revealing their occupants working diligently to doors that were barred or steel barriers and could only be opened by the proper code on the keypad next to it. From these rooms, one might occasionally hear thumping to muffled yelling.
The figure sniffed when he heard a muffled, but not completely 'Please…let me out! PLEASE!' as he walked by one of these rooms.
Another item to bring up. Better sound proofing, the person thought critically.
The man walked up to a seemingly random door. A keycard was pulled out of a pocket and was slid quickly through a slot like those for swiping credit cards. Fingers flew across the keypad, punching in a long code of random numbers. There was a beep and a click. Reaching out a hand the person pushed on the handle, causing the door to swing into a sparsely decorated room. All the room held was a round table with swiveling chairs placed around it.
The thin man sat in one of these chairs. Closer inspection showed that only a few chairs were occupied. The others had an odd placeholder for the empty chairs. Placed on the table, there was a TV and a camera on a movable base placed on top of the TV. A few of the fluorescent lights that are so common to large buildings flickered to brighter light, indicating that they had not been on long. A quick look at the clock on the wall showed the local time to be 2:58 a.m. The four people in the room sat in silence, the only sound in the room coming from the static on the TV's. As the clock's time flipped over to 2:59 a.m., two of the TV's flickered on and faces slowly appeared on the screens.
The faces on the screens asked for confirmation that they could be seen and heard. Affirmatives were given by those seated at the table as the rest of the TVs came to life. The same actions were preformed by all those people. The last TV came to life as the time changed over to 3:00 a.m.
One of the people on the TV looked around the room, the camera panning to look at each member, his closed-circuit system showing the other members that were not present in the room.
Finally, he began to speak in a deceptive tone that sounded amicable, "I'm glad to see that everyone is present for this meeting despite the late hour for some of you."
"Before we move onto the major points of this meeting, I'd like to address any concerns or thoughts you might have," he said, his tone indicating that he already knew what they were going to bring up, " I'm afraid we won't get to them if we save them for later."
Many 'small' matters were brought up, such as, soundproofing, funding for specific research, and general reconnaissance information. Once the 'little' matters had been squared away, the speaker moved onto the topic he really wanted to talk about.
"I have heard some disturbing reports of late from our Japanese base of operations. First the failure of Vermouth and her operatives to apprehend Sherry (1) and now the failure to properly dispose of Mouri," he paused, allowing his displeasure to radiate to all those at the meeting. "In addition, Shinichi Kudo has been confirmed alive after our records have stated he's been dead for around a year. Recent actions have gotten the attention of the police and government agencies has been attracted. This is unacceptable."
One of the members mentally shifted uncomfortably at his words, knowing that they were directed at her. However, her expression remained unchanged from its politely interested expression.
Somehow, the speaker seemed to turn and look straight into the woman's eyes. "We do not appreciate information being withheld and our organization demands results. You were aware of this when you joined," coolly he inspected a glass of wine he held, "You have one more chance to kill Sherry and to get Shinichi Kudo out of the way and to deliver us all the files and information you and the operatives under your control have gathered." He looked back at her, taking his eyes from the red wine, a small vicious smirk at the corner of his lips, "Failure with these directives will result in your…termination from our organization."
A few moments of oppressive silence past in the room before she spoke. "Understood."
The amicable façade dropped back down over his face as he said, "Well then, that concludes this meeting." His screen flicked back to the static it had before the meeting started. The other screens followed in quick succession.
Those seated at the table slowly turned their eyes towards the woman. She still sat at the table. Her calm face did not show the inner turmoil and anger that was raging through her mind. She stood and gave a polite bow to those around her and left the room with out a word.
The remaining people stood and left the room. The thin man who seemed to handle technical aspects within the organization was the last to stand. Walking to a switch on the wall opposite from the door, he flipped it, shutting down the equipment in the room. He turned off the lights, so only the emergency lights glowed dimly, as he left the room and secured the door.
------------------
Chris Vineyard, a.k.a. Vermouth, sat on a leather recliner peering out of her high-rise apartment window at the city nightscape. She carefully swirled the red wine in her glass. Bringing the glass to her face, she delicately sniffed the rich aroma released by the swirling action. With a satisfied smile, she sipped the wine. She looked down at the cars zipping from stoplight to stoplight and the pedestrians strolling down the high-class street. She gracefully stood up after throwing a careless glance at the clock on the lamp stand.
She walked into her bathroom, shrugging off her clothing, coming to a stop in front of her elaborate vanity. Hanging on a hook on the bathroom door was an outfit for a slightly overweight man. Standing in front of her mirror, she pulled on a lightweight yet sturdy vest. With practiced and efficient movements, she began to apply make-up to a mask she had pulled over her face. Within ten minutes, the beautiful face of the actress was transformed into a face of a middle-aged, balding man. The vest inflated as she pulled a cord on it. Turning to the door, she pulled on the clothes, adjusting things here and there until there was a sloppily dressed, middle-aged salaryman standing in the high-class bathroom.
Walking with a tired gait, the man picked up a brief case and slipped out of the apartment, taking the stairs down to avoid the notice of the other tenants. Exiting out of a side door, he made his way to a bus stop where he boarded a bus headed toward the docks.
He got off with a bunch of other workers that were headed toward a bar. Clandestinely leaving the group, he headed off to a poorly lit but secure warehouse. He entered the warehouse and walked to a little office in the back of the building. He entered the office and calmly greeted the two other men there.
The three interacted like dance partners who knew each other's moves and what to expect from their partner. The two men in black shifted warily, knowing that the 'middle-aged man' liked to pull unexpected stunts and pranks to test them from time to time.
Finally, 'he' spoke in a properly deep voice that slipped into a more feminine voice as the speaker progressed, "I suppose you've heard our new orders already?"
The shorter of the two, and frequently the brawn of the pair, grunted, "Just the gist. Don't know the whole set of orders."
The other man, with long blonde hair, lit a cigarette, leaned back in his chair, and took a drag before he picked up where his partner left off. "Why don't you tell us everything about the orders. That way there'll be no misunderstanding."
Pulling out her own pack of cigarettes, she lit one for herself. "Kill Sherry and get Shinichi Kudo out of the way."
"WHAT?" snapped the brawn. "I thought we confirmed recently that we killed him last year."
Shrugging as if it was no real concern, she said, "He was spotted coming out of a hospital with Angel (2) after visiting her father. Apparently, he's not as dead was we thought."
The cold-eyed, blonde-haired man asked, "What sort of plan are you proposing?"
A sharp and cunning smile formed on his face, which was out of place on the face of a middle-aged man. "We follow his movements and we use his noble nature to trap him, Gin."
A similar smile formed on Gin's face as he turned to the other man and said, "Looks like we get to stick around this time to finish the detective off, Vodka."
Nodding in agreement, Vodka said, "We should've just shot him when we had the chance. But we can do things right this time, aniki (3)."
Somehow, the mask of the middle-aged man disappeared without being removed and the true character came though. She said, "It has to be done right this time. There are no second chances."
Gin and Vodka nodded in understanding. They knew that the price for failure would be death, whether by the organization's hand or by another.
(1) Vol. 42. This is a very cool case. Some of you know what I'm talking about. There are also certain facts that people who know recent events will know how they fit into things. I'm not going to explain them, like how Vermouth knows who and where Sherry is.
(2) A code name that's used for Ran by certain people. (That's a spoiler!)
(3) Aniki means something like older brother. Vodka calls Gin that, though I don't think they're related. I think its honorary.
It's a bit tricky writing about the Organization. Not much is known about them. I'm going to try and make little update notes about stories on my live journal. You can get there via my profile.
Since doesn't do paragraph indentions anymore, I've tird to jimmy (Jimmy, ha HA!) the way I type so there are indentations but it doesn't seem to work.
I wish I had a beta-reader. One of my friends was going to but she is so sloooooooow at reading. So...I try to catch mistakes when I revise and I do catch a lot.
Two chapters left! :-)
Posted: 8-11-04
