8 – Back with a new batch

Matt and Mello's hideout apartment was a rather sorry affair. It was damp, with peeling wallpaper, sparsely furnished – the main piece of furniture a severely stained, worse for wear two-seater sofa. It was a far cry from L's old high-quarters, that was for sure. He was not about to complain though; he was far too exhausted. Instead, he curled up on the battered sofa and felt the stress starting to seep out of him slowly. Matt opened his laptop on the coffee table and typed in something. The local news station came on screen, and – not surprising – the main news were about the prison break.

L realised that he would have to lay very, very low until he could disappear into a new identity and a new life. Then he would bring Kira to justice, and perhaps that action would be enough to commute his sentence to some kind of fine. He coughed as a cloud of smoke wafted into his face.

"Matt!" Mello said. "Stop hanging around fouling the air. Get hacking for a ticket to Winchester instead."

"Yes boss." Matt rolled his eyes in L's direction and L remembered what Watari had told him about Matt. He had been third in the ranking, but that was without even trying to get good grades. He had strolled through his school years casually, never cramming for an exam, never staying up all night finishing an essay. And yet, he had kept up with Mello and Near for years, when they were were running flat out, always falling only a few marks behind.

As Mello stood by the side of the sofa, keeping one watchful eye on Michael so that he didn't touch anything, and at the same time supervising Matt, L watched as Matt grabbed a second laptop and his fingers nearly turned to a blur above the keys. It didn't take many minutes until Matt announced "done", and L realised something. The physical papers and documents from Wammy's were important, and bringing them back could prove dangerous depending on how well the police had done their job. Meanwhile, what L really needed right here was a good hacker. He was fully aware that what he was about to say would not be popular, but he would say it regardless.

"Mello?" L said, "I'm going to need Matt here. I would like to ask that you go to England and visit Roger."

Matt's typing ceased abruptly. Mello stared at L, the muscles in his jaw working ceaselessly as he tried to bit back his protests. In the corner of his eye, L saw Matt covering his mouth with his hand, no doubt to conceal a smile.

"I... have things to do..." Mello started.

"Please." L said. It was not a question. L had learnt that to get people to do what you wanted, an effective method was to act like you were their superior, even when that was not the case.

Mello appeared to be speechless. L didn't know him, and couldn't understand why this was upsetting him so, but it obviously was. Matt said, "Um, I've already put one of my aliases on the tickets so...."

"I'm sure that wouldn't be too hard to..." L started, but was interrupted by Mello.

"No, it's easy to change. Matt, sort it out. I'll go to Winchester."

His tone was short and snappy, he turned on his heel and walked out of the room. Matt rose to follow, and L slid down in the sofa, tiredness overtaking him. As he started drifting off, he heard Michael's voice, coming as from far away: "L? Are you sure it's safe here? Where am I supposed to sleep?" Then darkness swooped up and took L's consciousness away.

When L woke up, the room was empty, and grey morning light filtered in through the window blinds. He climbed out of the tatty sofa's embrace and padded out into the small kitchen, where Matt sat with his computer and a cup of coffee. A cigarette dangled from his lips and he still wore those plastic goggles over his eyes.

"Morning," Matt said. "There's coffee in the pot. This is a self-service establishment." He smirked at L, then it slid off his face as he must have realised who would normally have served L's coffee. "Was a shame about Watari," he said. "The old man was alright."

L nodded. "Where are the others?" he asked.

"Your mate has taken off. Said he had things to do. Mels' gone to England. Sulking all the way, but going."

"Good. Now, I want you to look up everything you can on the Lincoln Burrows case. We need to prove that he was framed for that murder."

"Well, technically it wasn't a murder, but I get your..."

"What?"

L interrupted him, but never stopped heaping sugar into his coffee. It was good to be back in civilisation. As it were.

"That Steadman fella he's meant to have killed? He's not dead. Something to do with his sister, who was running for president... but that's really not the interesting part. We can clear him easy enough – the important part is to clear you... right?"

"Where did you get this information?"

Matt looked away and made a lengthy procedure of stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray. Eventually, he said, "I... might have had some help... but there's this organisation called the 'Company' and even though their records are shit hard to hack, I would have managed it eventually..."

"Who helped you?" L asked.

"I got it done, that's what matters..."

L started to feel annoyed. He couldn't afford any unknown variables in this, he needed full disclosure in any project he was going to be working on.

"I need to know," he said.

"Alright. Alright. Don't tell Mello. Okay?"

"I will not tell Mello."

"Near. He's quite on the ball for being such a little odd fu... guy. He told me he'd had his eyes on this Company for a while... Apparently, one of their agents died at the same time that Kira took out those FBI guys. That you got the shit for."
"The Company's agent was killed by Kira?" L crept up a the chair at the table, stirring his coffee to dissolve the sugar.

Matt shook his head. "No, the thing is, I don't think he was, because this guy had nothing to do with investigating Kira."

"I see." L said. "That means that the Company used Kira as an excuse to get rid of one of their own agents. Perhaps he knew about Burrows... or more likely, he knew something much more important."

"Near says the guy had just come back from Japan, where he had apparently failed in whatever mission he was on... he's intercepted a rather snappy e-mail from the guy's superior."

L sipped his coffee, feeling the sugar flood his system and the pathways in his brain pop and bristle with lightning connections. He felt like a whole person again, for the first time since this nightmare had kicked off. Suddenly, everything seemed clearer, like he had put on a pair of strong mental glasses.

"If he was doing deals with the Japanese, and his superiors knew of Kira killing the FBI agents as it was happening, I cannot draw any other conclusion than that the Company both know who Kira is and how he operates. If this Company are working in the background of the American government or military... I'm prepared to say that there is an 80% chance that their current mission is to get hold of the notebook. It would be an incredibly powerful weapon to add to the USA arsenal."

Matt grinned. "It's good to have you back, man."

"Thank you, Matt." L gave a little smirk into his coffee cup. "It's good to be back."