AN: A horribly long wait for a ridiculously short chapter. Sorry. I'm writing more right after I post this to hopefully have two chaptes posted by the end of today. We shall see, seeing as I am awful at keeping my promises to you guys. . I'm sorry.

Anyway, Enjoy!

The Hazards of Espionage.

Yet another week had gone by in the blink of an eye. Ichigo, as most of the scientists guessed, was the first one to make a mistake when translating the ancient script, and Urahara was lording it over him like a sadistic overlord, making many comments about the things that he wanted to receive from Ichigo's non-existent funds in payment of messing up.

Still, it took four days for him to make the mistake, so they were both proud of the young Reaper.

One day, when the two were alone in the lab, Urahara came across the mother-load of all information that needed to be kept secret from the World f the Living. It was on the side of what appeared to be a small home of some sort, only two stories in height which actually made it one of the smallest buildings in the area that they were studying. It was Ichigo who was reading the text, and it took him a moment to even realize what exactly it was he had read.

They were instructions. More specifically, instructions on how to build a senkaimon that would allow those made of physical matter to pass through.

Ichigo let out a strangled noise, catching Urahara's attention. At seeing his young protégé's expression, he became serious. "What did you find?"

All Ichigo could do was point to the section of the house that started the actual, technical way of building an otherworldly gate.

Urahara sucked in a breath, his eyes flashing over the text again as he, too, realized what was being said. "What area is this in?"

"Sector R-35, Building 8. I thought initially that this was a house, but…I think it's actually a meeting place where past Shinigami and the Ascended used to get together to exchange ideas. But that's not the only thing that I need to show you." Here, Ichigo pulled out another printout. Urahara read the text on another wall of the same building, and his expression changed to show his curiousity.

"This…is very sensitive information, Ichigo-kun. Have the files been deleted?"

Ichigo nodded, still mildly shell-shocked at the revelation that by using a Stargate (and having a mild accident) the Ancients had initially discovered the Soul Society. And they had kept track of everything they had done, including the exact power readings for how to reach the afterlife. "This whole block. And I set your program to hide the fact that they were deleted."

"Good. I need to make a call to Yamamoto, so stay here and just keep working like nothing happened."

With a swish of his coat, Urahara was out the door.

Little did they know, someone had been watching the security feed for the lab when Ichigo discovered the photo. This technician, not understanding the language that the two were speaking in, soon called Daniel in to translate to find out for his report what had the two visiting scientists in such a tissy.

And that it was started it all.

"Daniel! Hey, buddy, what brings you into my homey office at this time of day? Don't you have a book to be decoding?" Jack was leaning back in his office chair, throwing a tennis ball at the wall and catching it as it came back to him.

At Daniel's uncomfortable silence, Jack turned, catching the tennis ball one last time. "Danny? What's wrong?"

Daniel fidgeted for a moment before pulling out the chair in from of the colonel's desk. He took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts before he just burst out, "Selmac was right. We can't trust the two Japanese researchers."

Jack sat up at that, looking Daniel over. "What happened?"

So, Daniel recapped what he saw—and overheard—on the surveillance footage. His Japanese had increased by leaps and bounds, but there were still a few phrases that he didn't understand, making the whole conversation a bit confusing.

"So, they have been messing with our information to hide some deep, dark secret that they don't want revealed?"

"I will have to look up a few phrases that they used, but for the most part that is what I understood. But that isn't all. They mentioned a name, and for the last half-hour I haven't been able to get it out of my head. It feels like I should know it, that I even knew the person, but…I don't know, it's hard to explain."

Jack sighed, looking at his friend for a moment. Then he said, "I guess it's time to see the General."

"So what you're telling me is that someone has been tampering with the network and deleting important information related to the case." Hammond had one eyebrow quirked upwards, an index finger tapping impatiently on the desk.

Daniel shifted uncomfortably for a moment, Jack's elbow bumping him before he said, "That's exactly what I'm saying. I checked the files for the Monument world, and there are several photos and pages of notes missing." He took a deep breath in, hesitating. "You're not going to like who I think it is."

The General's finger stopped tapping, allowing him to place said hand along his forehead. "It's the Japanese, isn't it."

Daniel said nothing, causing Jack to scoff. "Yea. According to some surveillance footage that a technician asked Daniel to translate, they have been doing so for a while. But something recently made them get their panties all in a bunch. However, they deleted the information…but the older man, Urahara, had asked Ichigo what block he was in. The kid stated aloud, for the camera, where the building was located at. We can send a team to take more photos of the place and make some more notes again, and send it off to another expert in the field that doesn't have as much of a seemingly vested interest in the project as those two do."

Hammond was deep in thought for a moment before he said, "I will take this under advisement. Catalogue all the files that seem to be missing or tampered with. I will send out a research team to the planet again to get the photos that you need, plus any others that have been erased. Do not tell them that this is what you are doing; I need to make a phone call before I can do anything about this situation. Thank you for informing me, and you are dismissed."

Jack saluted, and Daniel nodded as they left the office. "I just hope that those two don't end up dead," Daniel said.

Jack looked at him in questioningly, but then shrugged. "Probably not. They will probably just be imprisoned until they die."

Sighing, they both went their separate ways- Jack back to his office, and Daniel to the lab to pretend like nothing was wrong, and see if he could somehow find all the missing files.

Great.