Paris, France, 00:08, April 22, 2010

In "La Ratatouille", a man was awaiting somebody. At fist glance, he would look like any other drunk, save for the fact that he wasn't even drunk, but nobody would expect him to be that important. That somebody that the man was awaiting, entered the bar/restaurant and immediately sat with this man. It was Thirteen, who entered.

"Are you sure you thoroughly investigated everybody?" Thirteen asked him.

"And a good night to you too." the man said.

Thirteen sighed: "Largo, please. I only just heard that Dr. Bacon's real name is Caine. He's..."

"Looks like I was right from the start, then." Largo interrupted.

"I'm sorry?" Thirteen didn't understand.

"Yes, I had done a thorough investigation, Jason." Largo explained, while using Thirteen's proper name, "I found out about a man that called himself Bacon, who appeared to be an expert in bio-engineering. But the strange part is that I couldn't find anything about his past. I could, however, find somebody with the same first name, who apparently died, just when this Bacon showed up. It wasn't that hard to put two and two together."

"Then you also knew that Ba... Caine somehow made himself invisible?" Thirteen asked him.

This was new to Largo: "He did? You must be joking."

"We're in a city that's been torched down by dragons a few months ago, and you think I'm joking about something like this?" Thirteen questioned.

Largo didn't need to think about this: "It does sound hard to believe. Then again, when I read that England sometimes puts together some secret task-forces for special operations, it was mentioned that sometimes an invisible man joined them as well. I thought they were joking, but hearing you..."

"Anyway, now I know how he managed to spy on everybody." Thirteen told him.

"Do you think that this would become a problem?" Largo wondered.

"No." Thirteen answered, "It looks like the only thing keeping them on the island is their curiosity."

Largo smiled: "Great."

"So when can I expect to hear from your contact from the FBI?" Thirteen asked him.

"He should be on his way here." Largo told him.

"Are you sure this guy can be trusted, though?" Thirteen still wasn't too sure, "I mean, I promised I won't sell them out, and then I allow a federal agent to come to the island."

"An agent who doesn't always trust the agency he works for." Largo assured him, "The only thing you'd have to fear is if his partner would find him out. The man in question was always a believer, but his partner was always a sceptic, so if she finds out anything about what our man does."

"That's assuring." Thirteen replied, "It's hard enough for me to lie to Jones, how would it be any different with this man?"

"Only that he hasn't got... whatever it is that you have with Jones." Largo sounded cynical.

"Lucky for him." Thirteen sank in his chair, "Oh well, let's not think about this while the night is still young. Is the restaurant still open?"

"Ask him." Largo pointed to a rat that was at the ceiling.

Sarjevane, 01:34, April 22, 2010

Everyone who was in New Jersey only a few hours earlier, apart from Caine, was in the mess-hall. Knowing that the aforementioned could be walking around without any of them noticing, none of them felt too comfortable without the presence of somebody who could see him. Still, despite having that fear in common, friendship was a hard thing to find. All of them were in the hall, but nobody felt like talking. Jason was staring out the window, while Ginger sat next to him. Al couldn't move around to much, so most of his exercise was in scratching the part of the body, his shoulder and his leg, where he was hurt. Max was having another one of her seizure-attacks, so she wouldn't say or do much even if she wanted to. Snake was the most active, as all he did was walking to and fro.

"Will you fucking stop moving around?!" Ginger started, "You're making me nervous!"

"Good." Snake bit back, "Now I'm not the only one annoyed."

"Yeah well, if you didn't threaten to kill us..." Ginger reasoned.

"Hey! If it were up to me, I would have never met any of you." Snake told her, "I did some things back there that I'd never have done, I..."

"Oh right, and I'm supposed to believe that." Ginger sounded dry when she said that.

"I don't care whether you believe me." Snake hissed.

"But you both make excellent points." Al tried to bring peace in this room, "I mean look at us. Where we are now, who or what we are,... whatever these people need us for, it must be pretty damn fucking important."

At this point, Jason turned around to face everyone.

"No shit." Ginger agreed.

"Whatever it is, it had better been worth my leg and shoulder." Al added.

Snake suddenly rubbed his neck, somewhat annoyed and/or nervous.

"What's the matter with you?" Max asked him, as her seizures were stopping at that time.

Snake stopped rubbing his neck: "I keep thinking back about New York."

"You don't think they need us to fight that Clover-thing, do you?" Max asked him.

"Clover?" Al asked.

"No." Snake replied, "I was sent on a rescue-mission. But they had to be sure I would do as they tell me, so they implanted these things in my neck that would kill me."

"So this ain't the first time you're somewhere against your will?" Al rhetorically asked.

"Don't ever tell that to the people from Manticore." Max told him, "You wouldn't want to give them any ideas."

"What the fuck is Manticore?" Ginger asked.

Snake sighed: "Have fun explaining that to her. I'm outta here."

"Where are you going?" Ginger asked him.

"I don't need to tell you." Snake replied, as he left the hall.

Just outside the hall, he stared out into the open. From where he stood, he could see the moon shining in the lake on the island. Not that he's the type of person who's easily impressed by such things, as all he wants is to be alone with his thoughts.

"Not much to your likings. Is it?" a voice said.

Snake turned to look. He saw a young man, wearing a long black trench-coat, but he didn't recognize him: "And who are you supposed to be?"

"For as far as you'd care, nobody." the young man replied, "All you need to know is that while our goals may differ, our roads will end at the same spot."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Snake asked him.

"Snake?" Max popped her head out just then, "Are you alright?"

Snake turned to look at her: "What do you want?!"

"Who are you talking to?" Max asked him.

"This guy..." Snake pointed to where the young man stood, but he was gone.

"What guy?" Max asked him.

Snake quickly looked around. There's nobody he knows of that could move around that quickly or that silently. Who was this young man he met and how did he do what he just did?

"There was somebody here." Snake insisted, "Said something about... I couldn't make much sense of what he said, but he was here."

"If he was, I would've seen him." Max assured him.

"And I would've smelled him." Ginger sounded from inside the hall.

"That's reassuring." Snake sighed, "I'm losing my mind here."