Chapter Four: Wild Angels

[She's a wild one

With an angels' face

She's a woman-child

In a state of grace

When she was three years old

On her daddy's knee

He said 'You can be

Anything you want to be'

She's a wild one

Running free.]

-Faith Hill 'Wild One'

Ulrich dropped quietly onto the marble floor of the bank, absorbing the shock with his knees and standing quickly with his hand on his gun. It never hurt to be cautious. After all, ten years could change a lot about a person.

"Not so fast." Ulrich slapped himeself several times mentally and braced for what was sure to happen next. "Take off then gun, buddy, and hand it over." He complied, removing the gun from his holster and skidding it towards the voice.

Mustering up all his willpower, Ulrich started in a commanding voice. "Yumi Ishiyama, you are under arrest for the theft of the three rare gems and for the attempted theft of another." It didn't help that this wasn't normally what he told people. Normally the line was somthing like 'You are in violation of your bond agreement, and I need yo take you down to the station to reschedule.'

A laugh greeted him in response. He was getting really sick of cocky female laughs, but Ulrich was hearing quite a bit of them tonight. "And how do you intend to bring me in without a gun?" She stepped closer, out of the shadows, and Ulrich found himself face to face with Yumi for the first time in ten years.

She gasped, moving in clser for a better look. "Ulrich? Is that really you?"

"One and the same." Keep cool, he ordered himself. Keep totally cool. Ice. You are ice.

"Well, this is a shock," she said wryly. "Peachy. How'd you get my case?"

"I can't answer that."

"Ah-ah-ah," she cooed. "I have the gun, remember?" As if to verify this fact she waved it in front of him, just out of his grasp. "Are you in law enforcement now?"

"You could say that." She shot him a look. "I'm a fugitive apprehension agent." Yumi's wrath was something he remembered all too well. It was rarely shown, but it wasn't something he enjoyed tangoing with. There had only been a few occasions when she had been truely mad. One was when he and Odd had shut off their mobiles to play a prank on Sissy. Meanwhile, X.A.N.A. had attacked but Yumi couldn't get ahold of them. The other times had been the Emily incidents.

Yumi sighed. "Bounty hunter."

"The fancy title doesn't fool many people any more," Ulrich confessed. "But it makes the job sound nicer."

"Not if you're a fugitive." Ulrich had no response to that. "Don't move. I want to finish what I started. I haven't even gotten to the vault yet." Yumi waved the gun at him one last time and moved into the bank's back room to finish her assignment. Ulrich groped around and found the counter, leaning on it for support.

A shriek came from the back room, followed by a long string of obscenities in both English and Jaspanese. The theif came rushing out of the back room and stared at Ulrich with a mix of fear and rage. "The guard is dead."

The fact that there was a guard had been news to him, but Ulrich decided it made sense. "Now you're under arrest for the homocide of the guard."

"I didn't kill him," she spat angerly. "He's just slumped against the wall with a bullet through his forehead!"

"And....?"

"And what?! I just told you there was a dead guard!"

"So? I'm here to take you down, not check out dead bodies. The guard is your problem, not mine."

Now her expression was all rage. "There's another problem too." Ulrich raised an eyebrow. "The ruby is gone."

Right on cue a fax machine whirred to life from behind the tellar's booth. The occupants of the bank froze and, war forgotten for a moment, made their way around to see what came out. Ulrich wanted to know what a fax machine was doing 'on' after closing, but didn't question it.

A single paper had emerged. Ulrich picked it up and read it. 'FIND THE RUBY BEFORE FRIDAY!' The paper held no identifying numbers, so it was a pretty good assumption it came from the Feds.

"Aparently I'm not the only thing you have to hunt down now," Yumi mused aloud. "The plot thickens."

"I don't suppose you know who took it?"

"All I know is I need that jewel by the end of the week or my head's on the chopping block." Ulrich doubted anyone could put Yumi's head on the chopping block.

"So now what, we race to find the ruby?"

"Guess so." Yumi shrugged it off.

"May the best man or woman win," Ulrich said fairly.

"Oh, I intend to," Yumi said, striding away. "Here." She turned and tossed him his gun. "I trust you won't shoot me in the back." She moved wordlessly to the rope and climbed up. Ulrich watched her go numbly.

When Yumi reached the top she pulled her rope back up. Ulrich saw it rising and went for it, but by that time it was already too high.

"Yumi!"

"Tehe. Later!" She disappeared from view, leaving Ulrich alone in the bank with the dead guy.

"That's Yumi alright," Ulrich said aloud. "Stubborn as ever."