Chapter 10

I'd Walk a Mile for a Camel

By EdenEight

"For Christ sake stop smelling his clothes!" ken snaps ripping Omi's shirt from my hand and glaring at me. "He's not dead. He just ran off. You must have really made him mad Yohji." He says and his tone is scolding me. I am waiting for him to cross his arms over his chest.

"He didn't run off." I growl. "He's missing." I insist but no one is listening to me. No one believes me. "He's missing!" I say louder when Ken only frowns.

"Just sit there and don't touch anything, will you." Ken says turning and heading back for the reception desk leaving me to brood in my lobby chair until Manx appears with him.

"Yohji, when was the last time you saw him?" She asks getting right to business. I don't even get a hello.

"I went in to see him, we talked, I sat outside his room. The doc came, had me take a paper to her." I point to the receptionist Aya's talking to. "Then I came back and the door was opened a bit and they were both gone. Someone took him." I add and she frowns just like Ken.

"You believe someone took him?"

"Manx they're in the middle of a fight." Ken butts in.

"This has nothing to do with our fight!" I snap getting to my feet. "I am telling you he's missing and I am right." I demand glaring at Ken for arguing before turning to Manx as she speaks.

"What makes you so sure?" She asks studying me with her head tipped up a bit, her eyes squinting ever so slightly. I can see the gears in her head turning, weighting her options with all of our stories, trying to find the best one, the one that fits so she can act upon it. She's really quite good at her job. Remarkable even. She's never been wrong.

"I know him." I say flatly.

"Oh for heaven's sakes." Ken grumbles shifting a bit to glance at Aya, like listening to me is a waste of time.

"He left his clothes for one thing." I state quickly snapping his shirt back from Ken's hands. "He'd never do that, who takes off in a dress that has your ass hanging out the back?" I ask. "He didn't run off. He's missing. He left his clothes, and we were in the middle of a conversation." I say firmly because every second they're here listening to me means they're not looking for Omi.

"All right." Manx says and her head becomes level again, I doubt she'll want to hear any more from either of us. "Let's watch the tape."

"No, he disappeared while in with the doc. So there's no security tape." I say shaking my head wishing to god he was kidnaped in the hall instead.

"Not necessarily." Manx says turning to the receptionist and giving a nod. "We normally don't use them, and of course they're never viewed unless necessary but he have everything on tape." She explains simply and I begin rubbing between my eyes to hide my blush while Ken simply stands there blushing with his mouth open. Oh, the things we've had done in those rooms. "You can view the tape with me in the back office." Manx says allowing us to follow behind the reception counter into a staff only office where she slips in the culprit.

It begins with just the empty room before a nurse putting things together until she leads Omi in and he's left to change. It's funny how even then he seems nervous there are cameras, and glances around for one before changing quickly. When finished he hugs the gown to him before playing with the hair along his right ear and tugging at the ends almost playfully, but I know he's crying. It's something he does when he's incredibly stressed, normally he only plays with his hair on missions before we murder off the target and we're all sweating bullets.

"He's stressed out of his mind." Ken blurts frowning at the screen and recognizing the body language from all those late nights. Manx seems interested and glances to me for confirmation, but I simply nod. She pulls out a pad and scribbles something down.

On screen Omi hears something and wipes his face and straightens up seconds before the doc comes in and they shake hands and Omi moves to the table and they appear to talk for five or six minutes before the guy leaves and Omi's left alone for only a second before I appear. No wonder he thought I was the guy.

"Oh my god." Ken grins watching Omi throw things at me as I stand there shielding and dodging and holding my hands up like a groveling bum. "You're so pathetic."

"Shut up." I snap watching us, and it's so weird. It's so different seeing myself and him. The way he sits so tense and I creep up to him like mating praymantis, like he'll eat me if I offend him and really that's how I felt. Like that would be it if I said the wrong thing…again.

"Did he seem like he needed or wanted to get away?" Manx asks turning to me from the camera and I shake my head. "Did he say anything at all that may lead you to believe he could have considered it?" I shake my head. "Yohji." She states my name and I turn to her, dragging my eyes off his sad face. "What did he say?"

"That he'd get back to me. He'd think over what we were talking about and tell me afterward, or I think afterward it was sort of implied instead of stated." I explain and she nods.

"Could telling you this have been stressful enough he may have felt like he needed more time?"

I am quiet, biting my lip slightly. "I hope not." I say quietly and she is just about to tell me she didn't hear that when on screen I leave and the doctor appears causing us to all turn back to watch the unknown. "If he starts examining him, you're leaving." I deadpan to Ken.

"I want to know what happened too." He argues.

"I'll fill you in." I say watching the doc press into Omi's stomach a bit as they talk some more before preparing stuff on the little table and I can see Omi's chest rising and falling rapidly as he tries to calm himself. "All right get out." I order giving Ken a shove toward the door when the doc starts putting rubber gloves on. I am embarrassed enough watching this, and don't want him here to see it. I don't want him seeing Omi uncovered. Not because it isn't right, but because he's mine, and I am a selfish, selfish lover.

"Oh shit." Ken mumbles in the midst of my shoving and I turn back to see some guy on screen in the room with them. He just barged in and Omi's sitting up looking furious and the docs talking before the guy raises his arm and shoots the doc in the neck with something.

"OMI!" I yell diving to the screen like I can warn him, but Ken grabs my arm and Omi's just as fast. Before the doc hit's the floor he rolls over and behind the examining table, and flips up the tray of medical equipment spraying the guy with it. His hands are wild, grabbing things off the wall as he kicks over the stand up lamp and in a second he's taken down the guy wearing nothing but that dress with a few quick flashes of a nice tight butt. "Get out of there now." I hiss at the screen watching him back himself into the corner with a weapon raised and ready for the next guy who walks in, before another, and another. Until there are four in there all first looking at the body and then all looking at Omi, and he's just outnumbered. The first one starts talking as he pulls out the gun they shot the doc with and I can hear my heart slamming in my chest as the guy shoots Omi and he crumbles to the floor clutching his neck and they begin fixing the room. Straightening all the things Omi threw and even replacing the light Omi broke before putting him and the doc in one of those big carts for the sheets and covering them. It took them less than five minutes to clean up and get out, and their little stunt cost us four hours because with the room looking perfect without signs of a struggle. Everyone assumed Omi had just taken off for an hour to think.

End flashback

"Double A's?" Aya appears in the doorway holding batteries but I shake my head.

"Tipple." I reply down to the bin I am digging through. I need the batteries. The damn batteries, because it occurred to me that wherever Omi is, and whomever took him is going to have some connection to us, or the job, or his past, or something. All we need is a clue, and I think I know how to get one.

"Yohji!" Ken appears in the doorway. "I got 'em." He pant. Raising his fist which I can only assume is full of batteries.

"Tipple A's!" I ask looking up excited.

"Tipple? Damnt." He swears disappearing the exact second I feel something as thin and long as I want brush my finger.

"I GOT EM!" I yell racing to the kitchen and climbing into one of the chairs dragging our only B.E.C-I.N over.

B.E.C.-I.N: pronounced beckon, a Basic Employee Communication-information Navigator, or a BEK

I chiseled, wedged, and then ripped the outdated thing off Omi's bike because he was the one who had it. He'll be mad, but when we find him I think he'll forgive us.

I am frantic jamming the batteries into the back and glaring….glaring…glaring at the little knob that suddenly turned yellow. "Yes. We're in business!" I yell and I can hear Ken coming down the stairs as Aya emerges from the basement. Both of them watching me flip the contraption over and punch in our code and wait. All and all it looks kinda like a fat calculator or thing you swipe your credit card through. Than once you put in the code the top opens and there we are; three cluster glowing dots and one blinking message at the bottom telling us: Bombay is missing.

"It knows he's not here!" Ken exclaims as I hit the message and it instantly starts searching. We all wear locators all the time. Even though this is an outdated model of our BEK it will still pick us up because we're littered with bugs in the buttons of our clothing, pendents, earrings, shoelaces, the zippers to our jeans, our bags, our tooth brushes, etc. We have them everywhere so that no matter what happens, no matter what setting or climate we'll have at least one locator on us. Hopefully more than one that way if necessary we can scatter them behind us as we move and leave a glowing trail of bread crumbs.

Unable to find target Bombay. Target is outside moderate 008 range.

"Damnt." I swear sitting there staring at the message before Aya reaches over my shoulder and readjusts the homing zones and we wait while it reads searching before revealing the results.

Target Bombay Found. Forty-five miles South West. Target is stationary.

The computer reads before a map appears and there is Omi. A small blinking dot, and I smile, never so happy to be an assassin, for never in my wildest dreams did I believe it would help me find whom I love. "Hang on Omi." I whisper running my finger over the dot as Ken gets on the phone and Aya gets the car keys. "Here we come."

We drive to Kritiker who so far has turned up nothing and there they assemble a team and brief us.

"You're not going." Manx says the second I step out of the car clutching the BEK.

"WHAT?" I scream hugging the thing to me as they try to take it. "This is ours!" I snap tugging from the obnoxious hands. "I am so going!" I argue stealing her eyes from the men she's in charge of.

"You're a liability. This case hits too close to home, and you're not going." She states quickly before turning to the five guys dressed in what looks like swat gear near her. "Take your positions and take Siberian and Abyssinian with you."

"WHAT!" I scream.

"Sedate Balinese if he becomes unmanageable." Manx says walking from me before I can grab her.

"Unmanageable!" I scream racing up to her and grabbing her arm. "Manx what are you doing. This is Omi this is…." I trial, should I tell her? I am not sure. Suddenly I am bombarded with questions. Whether or not I should tell her he's my lover, whether or not he would want her to know. Whether or not she's a homophobe, and if we'll no longer be paired together. If they'll transfer one of us to another group.

"I know Yohji." She says simply, quietly. My god. She's so good at her job it's scary. "We'll bring him back to you in one piece. You can watch from the monitors in that room." She says pointing to a far office before waving away a few advancing guards whom seem to think the way I am still clutching her is threatening. "I will be going, and you have Ken and Aya on this case. Nothing will happen to him." She assures, gently touching my arm for a moment before pulling away and walking out the sliding doors with the swat guys. With the rescue-my-lover-guys, and I am left hugging that stupid fat calculator like it IS Omi, and walking swiftly, but calmly to the back room with eyes all over my back.

I had three different headsets to watch from, and one was Aya's. They circled the building, staked out from two different roofs, infiltrated the floor using our diamond pattern and circled the small room before kicking in the front door while three went in the back window.

He wasn't there.

No one was there.

In the back room toward the wall with a broken protruding pipe they found his rainbow necklace. I watched Ken walk over and pick it up, fingering it in his hand before turning to Aya, my camera, and showing me. "Let's not tell Yohji." He said, but I heard him over the Mic. like the rest of them.

"…Ken, he can hear us." Aya dead panned after a moment, of truly feeling sorry for all of us.

and

I started crying.

"ahhHH!" I hurled, for the firth time.

"Christ." Ken groaned from behind me where he started holding my hair back for me, but was now just another weight. "How big is your stomach?" He gags when I hurled again.

Stomach content ratio: 1 natural acid 99 Vodka.

"Yohji you're not drinking any more tonight." Aya said from the bathroom doorway. I didn't even know he was home. He had stayed there with Kritker to go over things, but I couldn't. Ken took me home. I couldn't stomach the scene. They way his file, and pictures were littering the table like some missing persons whom was probably already gutted by then. I had seen it a million times, pictures, files, the height, weight, colors, dislikes, preferences, tendencies, they were listing Omi out like he was the victim of one of our targets. That's whom they assumed would take him anyway. Currently we have no enemies. We've killed them all. Made sure they all died so that we wouldn't have these types of complications. Apparently, however, we must have missed one, or, he must have some really, really loyal family members.

"When-did you-ahhhh-when did you ahhhh"

"Get home?" Aya supplies. "I just walked in the door. They have people working on this round the clock Yohji." He said over my puking. "Yohji."

"I heard you!" I snap before giving up a lung, and what looks like my kidney.

"You know Omi. It's only a matter of time until he contacts us." Ken teases. "He's smart enough he'll find away."

"Unless they broke all his limbs." I say. "Or blinded him, or drugged him up, or stashed him in a well or a stairwell alone and hurt and bleeding ahhhhhh-" I throw up and Ken and Aya have nothing to say to my comment.

"How long have you been drinking?" Aya asks with a bit of a scolding tone before a long sigh, like he regretted using it at all in a time like this.

"From the moment I got home! Till right now!" I yell panting into the toilet. I think I am done. Yes, I think I am really done this time.

"Let's get you to bed." Ken mutters patting my shoulder before offering me a tissue and I wipe my mouth and drop it into the toilet of alcohol. I didn't have the energy nor the wit to argue with him and so I let him lead me to my room and pull my shirt from me before opening my bed as I dropped my pants and collapsed into my sheets which smell like him.

I drifted in and out of that timeless state I suffer from when he's away. My body weightless gliding about the sheets as though any second I'd slip though them in peace, before I could feel the cold sweat to my weighted limbs bleeding stress for him. My mind tormented in the very darkness of my room. I ran like this, in and out of sleep this way until finally I dreamt of him. I dreamt that he was here with me and I could hear his heart and feel his breath and as I rose to consciousness I could smell him in my bed and believed the pillow to my right was him and I was laughing with relief he was back, and crying because as I awoke part of my brain was arguing he wasn't there.

I took that pillow and threw it out the window.

Then I staggered down the hall in my drunken stupor making more noise and more mess than ever, before finally wondering into Omi's room and crawling into his bed. He was even more potent in his own sheets but that's what I wanted most, to be with him then. So there I lay, in his slim twin bed where we tried to have sex.

Tried.

That's so pathetic. You either do, or you don't. No one tries. Hey watcha do last night, did you see the game? No, no I was busy. Really, doing what? Trying to have sex. NO one says this. This is not an office or bus stop conversation because no one tries to have sex. It's just not an issue. I wonder if he ever told Rei that we tried in his bed. My god, I wonder if he tells that boy everything about us. What we've done and where. What sweet nothings I've said to him, what parts I've complimented and what stupid things I've done. Like how I slammed my funny bone into the wall in the garage when we were doing it, and it hurt so bad we had to stop for a second because I could no longer hold onto him with my right arm. I wonder if he told him that. Geez. I probably sound like such an ass to that kid. I smile. He probably wishes to god he never told me Omi loved me. Then again. What we have I don't think I'll ever find again. It's a little destructive, a little unpredictable, not a smart career choice, or smart social choice, but damnt I've never had more fun in bed, nor have I blurt out my honest feeling so many times to another person. And I am getting damn close to being able to apologize to him. Soon that's going to happen. Yup, I bet Rei is just rolling in it. Considering how often they apologized to each other, how honest they were, and how much more cuddling they did. Always talking, cuddling, apologizing, and Omi and I are always eating, or breaking the law streaking, and fucking as fast and as hard as we can. I should have never turned off that little bug I gave him so I could have heard what he told Rei that night. SO I could have heard exactly what he said to him, and what his complaints and compliments were. In fact! I never should have turned it off at all that way I could hear exactly what he thinks of me and than I could be his knight in shining..

Oh.

Oh my god.

"Oh my god." I am the dumbest man alive. "Oh my god." I sat up smiling, chuckling, laughing, laughing my ass off because I am the dumbest man alive! "I AM A GENIUS!" I scream throwing my head back into it, which wasn't necessary, and clenching my fists in scoring quarterback style, which also wasn't necessary. With the liquor I felt on top of the world, I had done it. I would save him! Now I really would be his knight in shining

"What the hell is the screaming for!" Ken yells after bursting through Omi's door with the hall lamp. He looks confused as hell of course, for all there is me sitting there in Omi's bed grinning like a mad man. "Where those the last brain cells you had? Huh? Is that what Omi's done to you? Has the bottle take all there was?" Ken asks calmly as thought I am dreaming and won't hear this and be insulted.

"Do you remember how we bugged Omi when we had the old doc?" I ask still grinning and he's staring at me as though not sure if I am talking to him. Him whom is the only one in the room until Aya trudges up along side of him with his hair sticking up and his eyes in nice thin slits of death.

"Yeeah." Ken slowly answers.

"I never took the bug off."

"You never-"

"Nope. Never took it off." I say triumphantly.

"You bugged him?" Aya asks confused, the hateful expression morphed to one of disgust.

"I made a replica of his earring, and bugged it and never gave him the real one back." I smile.

"Yeah but doesn't he have that skin that gets all itchy when it's not real silver?" Ken begins tugging at his own ear as though he can FEEL Omi's discomfort and I frown.

"How the hell were you ever hired." I grumble slumping out of the bed and beginning the struggle of pulling myself to my intoxicated legs using Omi's dresser.

"I-HEY!" Ken begins before frowning once he registers my comment.

"Did you bug him for business or…." Aya begins completely ignoring my short convo with Ken as I get to my legs. "or…pleasure." He asks seeming afraid to hear the answer.

"For blackmail." I state and he simply raises his chin slowly like he's thinking 'Ahhhh' in a -yes, it's all so clear. Yes it all makes sense- sort of tone.

I fumble back to my room, using the wall to keep me up with both Ken and Aya following, and neither lending a hand before pulling out my package of camels. My VICC, I don't smoke Camels.

V.I.C.C. : Versatile Internal Communication Confirmation: a standard unit issued to all personnel for auditory investigation complete with type b-004 chips which disintegrate four hours after plant.

"His bug is still on." Ken whispers through his grin before turning to Aya. "Aya, the bug is still on." Ken says elbowing him as I open the bottom of the cig package and push the bottom of the fake cigarettes in for our code and wait for the top to flick itself open where each cigarette has a symbol. Play, Stop, etc, so it's like a cigarette Mp3 player with much much better capabilities.

Silence.

"Is it on?" Aya asks as Ken and I stand there looking at the thing, like it will make itself work.

"Green lights on." Ken says before flicking it.

"It should be on." I state giving it a shake before Aya snaps it away turning it about in his hands examining the lights and buttons to make sure it's operating before handing it back.

"Perhaps it's quiet where he is." He says.

"Of course!" Ken snaps slapping my shoulder. "He must be sleeping!" Ken exclaims but the impact of his hand has made his face swirl around and around in the most disturbing manner. I quickly turn to Aya nodding to let both of them know I agree with this theory, and yes he's probably sleeping.

I hope to god he's probably sleeping.

We sit in my room for a while, moving from desk to bed, and bed to leaning against the dresser as Aya makes tea, and Ken eventually makes some nachos before we're all too tired to sit and listen to nothing any longer. They leave for the night, and I lay in my bed watching the little camel eye glow yellow, like it's glaring at me before it starts scolding me. Telling me all the bad things I've done to have landed myself in this bed looking at it at this hour. I feel the weight against my chest, against my shoulders for what I've done. For making him do things he didn't want to, fighting with him, making him cry. I can see him before me: Eating cereal, washing his hair, rummaging around on his hands and knees searching for the remote. I remember him so clearly, and with the alcohol all of my memories are merging with fantasy so I can't think well: Him washing his hair slurs into one of our better intimate bathroom moments, his discovery adventure for the remote brings my hand up against his butt which is slightly raised and moving about as he crawls and I can feel the cotton of his shorts, like I can smell him in my bed. Until I am swirling in and out of my dreams and memories knowing only that the camel is constantly looking at me, and Omi is very very tired.

At some point I fall asleep. Fighting it, and unaware it happens at all until suddenly the camel is there in a bright room instead of a dark room. It's one eye is no longer so piercing because it can no longer glow so strongly. I take this as a good sign, like perhaps the camel has scold me long enough, and I am closer to getting Omi back already.

"Yohji?"

"AHH!" I bolt up startling Ken whom jerks away from me frowning. "JeSUS! What the hell are you doing in my room! How did you get in here!" I yell referring to him walking in without waking me, rather than how he obviously used the door.

"Coffee." He states offering me the mug that must be mine. On his lap is a half eaten cream cheese bagel, and empty mug of what smells like had-been grapefruit juice. I take the mug with an appreciative nod before swallowing the aspirin he hands me next.

"How long have you been in here?" I mutter sinking back into my bed and watching the camel that sits upright on my stomach.

"Two hours, maybe a bit more." He says chewing away where he sits in my desk chair conveniently rolled along the side of my bed so he leans back in it with his feet propped up. "Startle you?"

"Yes." I admit before I can catch myself or get him with a sarcastic remark. "Have you heard anything?" I switch topics.

"Nothing."

"Christ." I grunt getting up slowly, and with his help before downing my coffee. "I am starved." I mutter eyeing his bagel and he all but turns around with it to let me know he's not sharing; so I am forced to begin the journey downstairs after grabbing some clothes. The most irritable of morning actives now complete.

I arrive rubbing my temples cursing Vodka and begin pouring myself what is sure to be one of the many coffee's of today noting the kitchen is just as I saw it last aside from some cheese smeared about where Ken made the nachos.

"The cream has gone bad. Someone left it out all night." Aya spits as I go to touch it. My fingers just brushing its dewy container when he speaks over his shoulder from where he's doing the dishes.

"Doesn't taste bad to me." Ken says holding his coffee cup.

"I am telling you it went bad." Aya counters.

"Does it smell bad? Aya you're too paranoid about these things." Ken begins as I stand there gripping the cream waiting for whether or not I can pick the damn thing up. "It doesn't taste bad." Ken finishes after a bit more rambling.

"Well." Aya grunts, insulted he's being questioned. "I am telling you I think it's bad. Drink it if you want."

"Is it hot?"

"Room temperature maybe." Aya scoffs before sitting a now clean cup down and turning to us. "Why would it be hot?" He sounds annoyed and confused and I groan before realizing they're both staring at me.

"What?" I ask motioning to Ken the idiot who asked the question and thus should be glared at.

"What? I didn't say it." Ken defends himself when Aya turns to him. "Why the hell Would it be hot. That doesn't-"

"It doesn't feel hot." My pocket speaks. We all stop dead with the sound of a foreign voice and the sudden icy chill of adrenaline and immediate panic which zaps us, before our eyes all fall to my jeans and the protruding lump of Camels.

"It's-" Ken begins before Aya practically covers his mouth as I rip it out.

"You shouldn't push on it."

"I doesn't feel hot. I can't really feel it at all."

"Well, try not to aggravate it."

"Omi." I whisper smiling as I hear his voice, he sounds fine. Uninjured, and if anything a bit annoyed.

"Ok. Just sit tight doc I am going to get us out of here." Omi's voice sounds before we hear some shuffling and we all smile with his words. "Just as soon as I can (shuffle) get these (static shuffle) stupid (scrape) stupid-stupid cuffs off!" Omi snaps and I can see him rolling a bit as he struggles with his bounds.

"Now don't you try to be a hero son. Here, my coat must of all but slid off, and looking at you is making me freeze." The doc says and we can hear some soft rubbing sounds like cotton into cement.

"Thanks." Omi whispers and the small silence brings us back to life.

"Ok. Ok." I begin looking up at Aya as Ken goes to get the phone. "It's bright, then can obviously see."

"No heat." Aya deadpan.

"Possible cement, or unkept hard wood floors."

"Small room, they're no more than four, five feet apart."

"Good. This is good." I say nodding excitedly all they did was say a few lines and already we've learned so much. "Ok." I say turning to Ken who rushes in with the cordless. "Uh-uh no heat uh-bright, they can see-uh-small room, four feet target separation-rough floor, cement and poor hard wood is a possibility." I state and he's nodding getting this all down as he dials before we all jump with the loud bang from the VICC.

"Sorry to startle you." A new voice suddenly sounds. "I really must apologize I've been so very rude to keep you waiting, but I must confess I have been…been quite busy."

"Male, late forties, accent." Aya states. "German?"

"Russian." Ken corrects.

"I know how impolite it has been to keep you in this room all alone without any real entertainment or comforts, and just as I was coming here this morning." The guy says and we can hear him begin to walk, as though he is pacing a bit with his words, acting his speech out as though he's on stage. "I began to realize. Yes, this is in fact working in my favor." By counting his steps we've all learned the room is narrow. The possibility of a hallway has now come into play. "You see. I am by nature a polite man, but you cannot be polite with everyone you meet or they will, as you can say, walk all over you? Yes, that is it. Walk all over you." The tone is beginning to get low and malice. "So now I realize that keeping you cooped up in here has shown you that you're are not so important, and really nothing of value to me." The voice is growing stronger, more hateful, closer, louder the guy is leaning down into Omi's face because his voice is blaring through the kitchen. His mouth must have been mere inches from the bug. "I want only what you have taken and nothing more."

"I don't have anything." Omi says voice strong and confident.

"Oh. I am insulted!" The guy exclaims and we can hear the smile in his voice. "You do not remember me? Oh, this is so sad for we were getting so close before you ran off. Without even saying goodbye now tell me that is not polite is it?" (creak of door, new footsteps enter room) "Perhaps I have left you in here too long, or perhaps you have been just as busy as I have been and that is why you don't remember me. But regardless…I will not waste so much time with you. So tell me…Where is my virus."

With that question we all draw breath, because it's like flicking on a tv and fast forwarding the picture. We remember him, the mission, the threat, the sounds, everything.

"AyA!" Ken snaps turning to the red head. "He should be dead! What the hell is he doing alive! I thought You killed him!"

"So did I." Aya growls back.

"Damnt he's mission what 02, what 023, 023..." Ken trails snapping his fingers.

"023-4867." I state.

"I don't know what your talking about." Omi says firmly and there is a silence before the sound of cloth sliding about cotton as the guy stands up.

"Ok. I see." We all still as we hear the cock of a gun. "Perhaps I will kill him there."

"Go ahead." Omi breathes. "I don't even know the guy." Omi clips and we can hear the strain in his voice, but he only has so many options and apparently he's going with this bluff.

"Very well." The guy says and we hear the smile in his voice again before a gun sounds makes' us all jump. My heart is beginning to slam in my ears and I grab Ken's arm and start shoving him toward the door, pushing the phone to his chest. I need him to call now. Now. Now. Now. He needs to call now. NOW. All my brain can think is now, how fast we need to get moving, how fast we need to find him. I don't want Omi in the same room as this man! I don't want Omi in the same room as this gun!

Omi is breathing heavily now, and we can hear it rasping out of his throat and into the floor before back into his ears over the bug. "So." The man begins calmly as Omi continues to escalate his breathing before grunting as he's kicked. "So where is my virus."

"You just killed an innocent man!" Omi screams. "He knew nothing! You'll go to hell for that. You SHOT an INNOCENT MAN!"

"WHERE IS MY VIRUS YOU LITTLE BRAT!" The guy screams loud enough to drown Omi out and move me to Aya's side as I begin to hyperventilate like Omi. "Can You Not think SO Well OUTSIDE A DRESS!" The guy yells.

"I don't have it. I wasn't the one to steal it. We didn't get your stupid virus we failed! That's why we ran!" Omi yells whining at bit. He is going for the unprofessional bluff now. "Look, I don't know what kind of medicine you're into ok, but it was just a quick buck." Omi breathes waiting to see how the guy will take this card and I am left in suspense next to Aya whom I can tell is memorizing and recreating the room and proximity of people over and over again as they change so he can have it as close as possible when he needs to report. And I am grateful. Because all I can feel is my hangover, headache, and panic. I am thinking: Nothing All of my skills, and training are drizzling out the back of my skull with my eyes glued to the small standing camel blaring this circus into our kitchen.

"Do you know…" the man begins after a second and what he says now will tell us if he's bought Omi's play or not. "Back in my own country I was in the military?" Shit. I close my eyes already knowing Omi's play when right out the window in account the guy actually knows something. "Four two, no three years. It was. It was not so bad, no, not as bad as some would think but, I had better offers. Careers. Better for making living and making money. And…so I left military on good standing, but left, and perused, my, my chemistry obviously, but not without coming to recognize training when I am seeing training." The guy said his voice becoming low in the end and Omi is quiet. "I know you know what you are doing, and so this is why I am bothering with talk to you. Why I have him shot in the head and not you. Because you know something and I want to know what this is."

"I wasn't the one to take it." Omi says his voice still breathy.

"Ok. Than I go and ask your friend again." The guy says and we can hear him stand up. Omi says nothing like he's trained to, but he must give himself away somehow because the man stops walking. "Oh. This you did not know? OH! He did not know this!" the guy announces and there is a short group laugh. "Yes you are not thee only one I have. I fear my training taught me few things young boy, and now you be telling me what I need to know. Or I will hurt them."

"Who are you trying to fool? You don't have anyone." Omi counters firmly, almost smugly and I bite my lip begging him mentally not to piss this guy off. "I caall a bluuff." Omi sing songs softly and there is nothing but silence before the man barks orders.

"You! Go and Cut the Tall one, Bring me finger, two fingers! So I can show this boy where he stands." The guy yells before chuckling and we hear a set of feet start for the door disappearing. "Can you imagine what a surprise it will be now for him? I have him in room like this, no men, and uh, all of a sudden, two fingers no more." The guy chuckles, whispering these words into Omi's face. "This I am thinking must be pretty painful, no? Not so unbearable, but painful so snip snip no more finger, don't you think?"

"I think you're going to hell." Omi grumbles and we wince as we hear him get (Slap)ed. "You're not bringing me anyone's fingers either." Omi continues and he's (Slap)ed again. "I didn't take your stupid virus, and I don't know where it is!" (Slap Slap) "You don't have anyone else in here with me." (Slap) "And! I think you Should Move on with your life!" Omi snarls and the slapping stops and we're silent, spazzing out of our skin when Ken makes a noise and we didn't know he was back.

"Bring me… little blue box." The guy says suddenly and I close my eyes mentally scolding Omi for pissing this guy off. "I think perhaps this boy is not too afraid of us, and we should do something about this, no?" the guy chuckles and feet come and go before we hear a clasp, and shuffling, some tissue paper perhaps before the man chuckles again. "Oh. I see you recognize this." The guy's smile is saturating his voice almost completely. "Yes, you do not look so smart now. Do you think, you would like to try some?" the guy asks and something brushes by the bug giving us static for a moment. Whatever this man has he's moving it close to Omi's face for a moment. "Yes?" the guy laughs.

"No! no!" Omi suddenly yelps.

"No? Oh but I think you like it! You seemed bond with it so quickly last time." The guy chuckles and there is silence before something runs past the bug again. "Where is my virus. Hmm? Where?"

"I told you I don't know." Omi grates, growling his words out through a tight jaw.

"Ok. Have it your way boy, I will leave you get acquainted with this here old friend." The guy states before we hear the feet advancing and Omi's starting to hyperventilate again.

"I don't know anything!" He yells before struggling as he's touched. "I didn't take it! You got the wrong guy!" He cries but his voice is starting to sound panicked now. "Go ask Mr. Eight fingers! Maybe he knows! I-OK! OK!" Omi suddenly cries and most of the shuffling stops. "OK! Ok."

"You want tell me where my virus is?" the guy says, his voice farther away leaving the room and stopping only with Omi's cries. "Or you want meet old friend?"

"NO!" the struggling starts again. "NO! STOP! NO! PLEASE!" Omi cries and I am squeezing the life out of Aya's arm trying to fathom what it is he could be so afraid of. Whatever they have he's terrified of it, for in all our years of work he's never cracked under questioning. Even to his own brother.

"No still I do not think you taking me serious. I think I leave you two together to think over." The guy says and the struggling starts up again.

"KEN! What did they say!" I yell turning to Ken and scaring the shit out of him with my sudden cry. "What are they doing about this!"

"They-they said they tapped the line and they're doing whatever they can to try and locate him and pull information off the tape to find him!" ken yells back defensively so.

"That's not good enough!" I yell right before Omi screams grunting and panting as he fights before his whiny tones start emerging meaning he's losing. "Come on babe Fight! FIGHT THEM!" I yell glaring at the camel but seeing past it. I see him in my head trying to get back to me, and myself standing here powerless. "Shit!" I slam my hand down when I hear him cry out in pain while he struggles and the VICC falls over and our sound cuts out for a second. Our kitchen just blanks over with silence and we're left staring as though we've all just been woken from a dream before Ken frantically stands it back up and the yellow eye reloads before the sounds come back and we leave the kitchen and join him with our minds again.

"okAAAY!" Omi screams. "STOP IT! STOP I kNOW! IT Was the threeSOme!" He screams and warning bells start going off in my head as his cries drop in pain.

"Talk!" the man barks. "What threesome?"

"The three of us." Omi corrects himself panting and choking on his words. "Me, this guy they hired too and the virus. We-we took it to a hotel."

"What hotel!"

"To this hotel and gave it to a woman." Omi sniveled. "She gave me two hundred dollars for it."

"You Sold My VIRUS For TWO HUNDRED US DOLLARS!" The man screamed more than outraged.

"Yeah but! I-I know where I know where she is! I can take you to her! She's-an always there." Omi whines as I started smiling. My god, he was playing the pussy card and telling us where he was going. He couldn't be any clearer his 'She's an' sounded so much like Susan the way he whined it I knew exactly where he'd be.

"You will tell me where, and what I need know. And then I send my men, and if anything goes wrong I marry you to your friend and let my men have you. With or without your little dress." The guy sneers before stomping from the room with pairs of feet following. We heard the door slam and Omi's breath fall from his body panting and gulping before struggling with his cuffs some more.

"Ahh Stupid! stupid, stupid, Stupid!" he growls at himself trying to get free before falling slack and quiet and simply breathing. "Stupid. I am so stupid." He'd whisper every now and then before choking a few real whines and then there was nothing.

"They're tapping this?" Aya whispered and Ken nod where he stood with his arms crossed over his chest watching the camel. "What is that?" Aya asked suddenly leaning into the Vicc. "Machinery? Is that a generator?" He asked eager to know because it would landmark and bring us that much closer to finding him.

"It doesn't sound like a generator more like…." Ken trailed leaning in as well and I stood there staring at them because I knew what it was.

"It's ah…" I trail watching them both turn to me, watching me shift my weight. "It's…" I didn't even have to explain before Omi made it obvious and added some words his humming.

"…rush en…but I…ca-antt….stop….fallling en..love….width you…." He whispered humming so slightly before falling silent again and I stilled there with my eyes closed before jumping with his fit. "AHHHH!" He screamed struggling and kicking. "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU! KILL YOU!" He screamed toward where we knew the door to be before whining and moving about before finally crying. His small choking breaths loud enough for us to hear easily as he breathed down to the floor ricocheting every emotion back to our bug.