Malik twitched.

Kaiba twitched.

Pegasus grinned and took a rather uncouth swig of wine from the bottle.

"Kaiba-boy, this is the most excellent agent I was telling you about. I promised to lend him to you, so here he is!" Another large mouthful of wine. "Mr. Ishtar, Kaiba-boy will be taking you on his private jet over to Egypt, seeing as he's on his way over as well! It was a perfect arrangement, don't you think?"

He had bodyguards and he had snipers waiting on the nearby rooftops, but from the looks on the other two's faces, he was beginning to wonder if his precautions had been enough. Then again, what was life without a little excitement?

Malik was silent, which was just a little disappointing. Had the boy gotten used to him so quickly that little surprises like this didn't affect him anymore? Then again, that boy had an obsessive streak longer than the Nile, and maybe he was willing to put aside his personal emotions to achieve his goals.

"If this is a joke, it's not funny," stated Kaiba tersely.

"I assure you, this is no joke. Mr. Ishtar here has been working for me for more than half a year, and he has been a Ghoul-hunter since way before that. He's been inside the organization, he knows his way around Egypt and he speaks five different languages, including the one most commonly spoken where you plan to go."

Malik was not pleased, not even with Pegasus's subtle stroking of his ego. He'd known that there was going to be some catch, but, really, Kaiba Seto? It wasn't that he had anything against the man personally, it was just that that man probably had something against him, and that would make for a rather difficult work relationship. Smiling bitterly, he kept his mouth firmly shut. No point making this more difficult than it was going to be.

"You're not going to say anything?! This is Kaiba! What do you think he's going to say when he finds out about me?!"

Nothing much, probably. After all, he was the one who had Seto's little brother held at knifepoint, and he was the one who organized the Ghouls to intrude of Seto's tournament three years ago. His dark personality had nothing to do with it.

"Fine! But what is he going to do to you when he finds out about me? Did you even think of that?"

"Shut up," mumbled Malik to himself. Not quietly enough, unfortunately. Kaiba, who had been ranting about how he was a psychopath, was now staring at him. Malik smiled darkly. "Sorry about that, I was talking to my darker personality."

"You may be willing to hire psychos, but I'm not taking part in this madness." The tone of Kaiba's voice was strong and sure, but Malik thought he detected a bit of a waver. Hesitation. Fear.

What did Kaiba have to do with anything anyway? KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions worked very closely together: that much he knew. Pegasus and Kaiba had some history together: that much he could guess. He would have believed that Pegasus was just trying to extort a ride from Kaiba on his behalf had the man not betrayed himself with his own words.

Kaiba needed help. This had something to do with the Ghouls, and Egypt. Since Kaiba was here personally, and Kaiba had asked for help, it had to be something pretty serious.

Blue eyes were staring at him again and Malik tilted his head, meeting the gaze full on. "Let's get this over with," he said almost pleasantly. He wanted to go home, damn it. "If you don't want my on your plane, that's fine. I'm still going back to Egypt, and I'm still going to dig the Ghouls out of their burrow and exterminate them, whether or not I get help from either of you. Stop wasting my time here and decide."

Lots of people had trouble holding his gaze, but he wasn't too surprised that Kaiba could. Kaiba had always been strong, and Kaiba had always been another one of those who could make grown men piss their pants with a look.

Malik turned his eyes away, catching a hint of surprise in the other man's eyes. Smiling calmly to himself, he looked over into the shadows, where his shadow was sitting.

"How much did you tell him, Pegasus?" he heard Kaiba demand, though he didn't bother looking back over in their direction.

"He didn't tell me you were involved."

"I told him where to find the Ghouls, that's all. I certainly said nothing about their impact on your company, now that they've moved on from just cards to hacking Duel Disks."

Hacking Duel Disks? Ever since Battle City, Duel Disks had become quite popular around the world… which meant that KaibaCorp had access to the information of every duelist who ever purchased a Duel Disk. It would have been possible for them to track any duelist… including the Ghouls. If the Ghouls had managed to hack the Duel Disk, that could explain the recent dearth of information, though not why the Ghouls were lying low.

Which was what he was supposed to be finding out.

Kaiba looked like he was going to murder Pegasus on the spot. That would have been some scene. However, much to Malik's surprise, Seto turned to him, conflict just barely visible under his icy countenance.

"You're going to hunt the Ghouls in their new den." It was somewhat of a cross between a question and a statement, so Malik decided to answer.

"Yes."

"Every single spy I sent to Egypt in the past three months have vanished," said Kaiba neutrally, watching him.

"That's a pity," replied Malik breezily, recognizing the direction the conversation was going.

Kaiba seemed to consider this before scowling as if the world was conspiring against him. "Very well, you're coming with me."

Perfect: he would be going home via private jet. The only downside was that he would have to spend most of the journey with Kaiba Seto. All things considered, it could have been worse.

And of course, he would have his darker half with him. Cheerfully, Malik stepped into the shadows to retrieve his luggage and the wheelchair. "We're going home."

"You sound so excited about spending the day with Kaiba," came the wry reply.

"What is that?" The look of sheer astonishment on Kaiba's face was amusing, to say the least.

Malik kept on smiling as if it was nothing. "My luggage."

And his dark side began to laugh.

--------------------

Notes:

A shoutout to everyone who has reviewed so far: Thank you for taking the time to write me feedback. It is much appreciated!