Schudig was not normally a patient man. But he might only have one brief chance to read Silvia's mind. He had to time it just right.
So he waited while Silvia unlocked the shop door, shaking his head in reproof when she failed to notice the lock was smoother than usual. He waited while she switched on the lights and the heat. He wanted the heater even more than she did. He waited until she opened the back room's door on him, and he could hold her gaze with his. Then he hit her with all his mental strength, as fast as he could. She was stunned semi-conscious, and he grabbed her upper arms to hold her upright.
They stayed like this for just a few seconds, while he tore through her mind. She mightn't be able to reach her talent, but she still managed to say, "I'm not going back to Crawford."
//You're not. Crawford's dead. I thought you must have killed him.// But it wasn't the same as speaking through a team link. He said aloud, "If I stop holding you, will you give me time to explain?" He felt her first test the hold he had on her talent. She nodded. He stepped back, physically and mentally. Silvia's shields went up. She rubbed her forehead.
He offered to help her to the nearest chair, and she scowled at him. The chair floated toward her, and she sat down in it rather quickly. She said, "I know you have a weakness for Ran, but the Fujimiyas are much more likely to do away with Crawford."
The chairs were a bit small for his sprawled way of sitting. He lounged along the edge of the big table. "I checked them first." Sumiko Fujimiya in her office, Aya over her nursing text books, Ran in the kendo, learning no kill moves.
No, he didn't want to remember that. Yuushi this, Yuushi that. Sickening.
He'd even looked into the staff of a certain restaurant. Only a fool ignored Ouka Sakaki. "They didn't do it."
"Then Weiss? But it would be Esset, not Kritiker."
"I don't think Esset ever knew he wasn't their loyal dog." Crawford would have so enjoyed telling them. There were many in Esset who had held personal grudges against Crawford, from his first teacher to Nagi Naoe, but they were all of them dead.
"How was he killed?"
"He died in bed. Something stopped the blood supply to his brain. The doctor thinks it might have been the drugs, or maybe a minor stroke in just the wrong place. He was full of excuses." The doctor had been scared of Schuldig, and rightly so. Schuldig wondered again if he should have shot the man. At the time, Schuldig had been concentrating on catching a deliberate murderer. Answering her sceptical look, "He was getting better! Most of his time asleep, but not a coma. He sat up that morning." Schuldig wouldn't tell her how Crawford had looked to check Schuldig was there, and trusted that made Crawford safe.
And it had just been an accident, after all. That made him feel better.
"After midwinter, I wasn't even in Tokyo."
"You could have hired someone. Or is that against the rules of your new profession?" He looked at the florists' debris on the table, and clicked his tongue. "A flower shop called Kitten in the House?"
"It works," Silvia assured him. "And I better work, too." Bundling herself into her red coverall, she said, "We're pretty new at this. We don't have the same client base as your lot." As she hurried out to the front, he surveyed the expensive shop stock with a glint in his eye.
There were two customers waiting. One of them was a regular who liked to spend as much time as possible flirting with Silvia. This morning both customers were as fast as possible. When the second had left, Silvia said flatly, "No using powers in the shop. We want to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible."
Schuldig came out of the back room, and offered her an enormous bouquet. The biggest flowers he could find, in every bright colour. It came off, just. He'd learned a few things from Weiss. "Kritiker isn't my lot. Crawford didn't mean to stay in Japan. I don't want to, either." Ran had mattered. "But I am a telepath, and I need an anchor." He didn't need to explain how, in the long run, a telepath needs to be stabilised by a known mind. In Rosenkreuz the non-telepaths had liked to use the term nursemaid. The telepaths preferred the metaphor 'guide dog'. She looked at the bouquet, and him, and frowned at both. She stayed well shielded, too. "This isn't a proposal of marriage, Silvia, it's a practical."
She still didn't take it. "Most people would look for marriage and family."
Schuldig thought of Sumiko mourning her husband, Botan his wife and daughter. He simply didn't understand why the guy had refused Schuldig's offer of amnesia, saying he didn't want to lose the years he'd had them. "I prefer my pain second hand." Some time ago, he'd caught an idea of how Silvia remembered their time together. He'd been disheartened to learn how forced she'd felt. "I'm not still that jerk teenager you knew in Rosenkreuz."
"No, you're not. I should send Ran roses."
"Better make them white ones."
She was still frowning. He waited. At last she said, "It's turned out very well for you. You're not Esset's property. And now, you're not Crawford's either. I don't ask if Esset put an extra collar on you for him, but you must have been tempted to get rid of him."
Schuldig thought of Crawford, utterly helpless on the hospital bed. "I was. But I had him cared for and guarded as well as I could. And I would have killed you, if you'd murdered him. I'm loyal to my team, Silvia."
Silvia's frown went, and she smiled slightly. Taking the bunch, and almost staggering under it, she said, "You do good work, and I'll tell KR so."
FIN