Disclaimer: Don't own any of the Inu characters, though I may have mangled them a little for my own purposes.

5. Sango Forms Conclusions

The man swiveled behind his desk. Touching the tips of his fingers together in the accepted "evil villain" pose, he scored the young man standing in front of him with a searching glance. The young man shifted under the gaze, it was almost as if sandpaper was being physically rubbed across his body.

"I think we both know what to do," his voice drifted softly across the surface of the large, polished wooden desk. "It is time to stop this little game. He is a drain on government resources, both monetary and manpower. It should have stopped a long time ago, but we can at least rectify the past even if we can't relive it."

"But, sir, what about the two doing surveillance?" The young man fidgeted a little, not quite sure if it was appropriate to ask questions. The hardwood floor was suddenly looking very interesting. Eight knots on the board he was standing on.

"They'll be relocated," the man behind the desk observed his inferior. "They don't need to know more than that. I fear they may have become a little too...close to the situation to see it clearly."

The young man looked up. "Very well, sir. I'll get on it immediately."

"No, no. No rush," the man's smile was more alarming than any of his previous facial expressions, "This is confidential. Too quickly means there will be questions, and questions would be...awkward." He had a habit of pausing right before key words in each sentence, as if leaving the listener the chance to mentally supply his own word. He had always said that a strategic pause could tell more about the real feelings of the person you were talking to than a direct question ever would.

The young man before him nodded curtly, "I'll get things started, sir."

"Subtlety," the man behind the desk said, with a dismissive hand gesture.

"Right. Subtlety," the young man repeated as he walked out of the office. There was a note of uncertainty in his voice.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sango hung up the phone and turned to Miroku with a frown. "That was Kouga," she announced.

"Oh? That's nice," Miroku said without looking up from his lunch.

"I think something is up."

"Why?" Miroku enquired, taking another bite of his sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly was always good. It was amazing really, when he thought about how many times in his life he had had that exact same sandwich, and still it never got old.

"Well, Kouga's not exactly the subtlest guy on the planet," Sango rolled her eyes. "He said something like, 'You guys should prepare for reassignment. We'll be taking care of Inuyasha. I mean, um, not taking care of, just, um, removing. Err, I mean moving. Um.' and then he hung up abruptly."

Miroku snorted, "Yeah, he never was the quickest bunny in the hutch." He went back to his sandwich, as Sango silently began counting. As she reached three hippopotami, Miroku's head snapped back up.

"Wait a minute. 'Remove' Inuyasha? Does that mean what I think it means?"

"Well, of course it depends on what you think it means. But if you think it means that the government has gotten tired of funding an extremely costly and embarrassing mistake that the public is currently entirely unaware of but could potentially become aware of at any point, and has decided to take the easiest way to rid themselves of the problem, then, yeah, I'd say it means exactly what you think it does."

"Shit," Miroku stared at her, "And he's like a sitting duck here." Sango nodded.

"What're we gonna do?" he asked. Inuyasha was strong, there was no doubt about that, but it didn't sit well with his sporting instincts to let him just be eradicated like a rat in a cage. He should at least have a sporting chance to save himself.

"Well," Sango bared her teeth in what might have been a friendly grin, but probably wasn't, "I think we might have to reverse our position on what Kagome was saying on Saturday."

Miroku looked at her, remembering Kagome's conversation from three days ago. He returned Sango's grin, "You're right, that could work. And hell, even if our conclusions are wrong, every man deserves his freedom." Sango nodded again and the pact was sealed.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It was Thursday and senior Kagome Higurashi was pretty sure that she'd just failed yet another math test. Why everyone kept making her take math when it was obvious she had no aptitude for the subject was beyond her. She was starting to suspect that the world was, indeed, as cruel as all the country songs claimed. She sighed. At least she was meeting up with Sango after school. It gave her something to look forward to.

Sango's call two nights before had been entirely unexpected. Yes, she had felt immediately compatible with the older woman, but she hadn't expected an invitation for a mid-week meeting. After all, they had only met at work the once. Now her curiosity was making the already-long school day seem to go about three times slower than usual.

When the bell finally rang at the end of the day, Kagome was in the first wave of students breaking for the exits. As she emerged into the sun, Kagome beamed to see Sango lounging casually against a compact black car, parked at the front of the lot.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, "Hope you haven't been waiting long."

"Nope," Sango replied as she surveyed the innocuous-looking high school girl in front of her. In her school uniform, Kagome looked even younger than the 18 years Sango knew she was. She hoped that she and Miroku were doing the right thing in putting so much responsibility on her. But, "I just got here," was all she said.

"Great," said Kagome. "So where are we going?"

"I know this cool little cafe about five minutes from here, if that sounds good to you."

"Oh, A Panini for Your Thoughts?" asked Kagome. "They have the best hot chocolate."

"Alright then, let's go." Sango hopped into her car.

Twenty minutes later, the two young women were seated across from each other, Sango nervously clasping a cup of the recommended hot chocolate. She had run out of small talk and had a feeling that it was time to explain what she was doing there. Kagome noticed her silence and gave her an expectant look.

"Okay," Sango gathered up her courage. What she was about to do violated every bit of basic training that she had ever had. "There's something I need to tell you. It's about the lab."

Kagome raised an eyebrow (a feat which had only taken her about half a year's worth of concentrated training) and made small encouraging noises.

"I'm not just regular security there," Sango continued. "Actually, I work for Intelligence." As she spoke, Sango took out her badge and flipped it open with a practiced twist of the wrist. Kagome held a hand out for it, inspected it closely, and then handed it back without a word. It looked authentic enough, but then again, she wouldn't know an authentic Intelligence badge from a hole in the ground.

"As you may or may not have guessed, this has to do with Inuyasha. Miroku and I--"

"Miroku!" Kagome exclaimed, "The night janitor?"

"Yeah, I know. He doesn't act like he could hold down a mature, responsible job, let alone work for Intelligence," Sango shrugged. "Nevertheless, the two of us are supposed to keep tabs on Inuyasha. We've been monitoring him for the last year and a half, basically as long as he has been at Smollet."

"And he doesn't know this?" Kagome asked.

"Not as such, no. I'm sure he knows that someone is watching him--someone always has been--but he doesn't know that it is us specifically."

"But why?" Kagome asked. "He hasn't done anything wrong."

"I know," Sango agreed, "But you know about the uprising, right? To put it in the short version, they're worried about him. They fear his strength and his abilities."

"Wait a minute," Kagome asked, "How did you know that I knew about the uprising?"

"That's our job," Sango said, "We know about everything that happens in Inuyasha's room."

"You mean it's bugged?!" Kagome exclaimed, suddenly feeling very, very exposed, as she tried frantically to remember if she had said anything embarrassing during her brief stay in the dog boy's quarters. Right then she was really, really glad that she had not taken up Inuyasha's offer to allow her to get the "full dogboy experience."

"Yeah, and video monitored too."

The high school girl sipped at the rest of her hot chocolate, buying time to process what she had just heard. "Then why on earth did you let him threaten me like that?" she demanded, putting into practice the second tenet of stalling--when you don't know what to do, accuse. "I could have been seriously hurt!"

"Yeah, well..." Sango began to turn a little red. "Unfortunately I was a little distracted at that moment, and it all happened so quickly. Then you managed to calm him, and we were interested in what happened. Inuyasha is usually very anti-social."

"Of course he is, he never gets to interact with other people," Kagome said, "All alone in that little room of his." Both women were silent for a minute. Then Kagome continued, eyes narrowed, "So just why are you telling me all of this anyways? You must have a reason."

Sango looked at her appreciatively. She liked the way the younger girl got right to the most important point without any more mucking about. She was also relieved that Kagome had dropped the whole question of their delayed reaction to her predicament. Damn Miroku and his roving fingers! "You're right," she said, "And you aren't going to like my reason." Briefly, she outlined the plot that she and Miroku had discovered earlier that week.

"And you want me to figure out a way to keep him from being...exterminated?" Kagome asked with a slightly acidic note to her voice, although she already knew that she would do what she could to help. Inuyasha did not deserve to be punished because some scientist had been playing around and lost control. Still, she was in high school!

"We just thought you might go ahead, as it were, with plans that you were already making...?" Sango suggested, toying with her spoon. Then she looked up and met Kagome's eyes directly. "Please Kagome," she said softly, "He's going to need as much help as he can get."

"I know," Kagome answered, responding immediately to the pleading in Sango's voice, "And I'll do what I can. How much time do we have?" Okay, so maybe she was just in high school, but she had wanted to help the boy from the moment she set eyes on him. Things were just going to be a little more immediate than she had planned on.

"Well, we were given a two week notice on Tuesday, so I would say we have about 12 days."

"Okay," Kagome said. Twelve days. Oh dear. Within twelve days, she, Kagome Higurashi, senior class honors student, was going to help a top government secret to escape.

Within twelve days, she was going to become a federal criminal.

She guessed it was time to start planning.