Next chapter :D glad everyone seems to be enjoying this so far, hope you enjoy the next installment
"So they're all here then?" Wiry asked Riza as they walked down the halls of the Bureau's Central branch towards one of the briefing rooms.
"Yes," Riza replied. "You know that dark haired one..."
"Mustang?" Winry guessed.
"That's him," Riza said with distaste. "He introduced himself by making a few badly chosen sexual comments so I threatened him with a gun."
"Nicely done," Winry said.
"Thanks."
"I threatened him with arrest and that seemed to cool him off," Winry said.
"I've assembled you a team that will be able to deal with them, both as a group and individually, and it's mostly men," Riza said.
"Wise," Winry agreed. "We can't afford to have this operation jeopardised because Mustang can't keep his dick to himself for five minutes."
"The female agents with you are either married or won't take any of his shit," Riza said. Winry chuckled.
"Do we have any agents who would take his shit?" she asked.
"Vanessa."
"Bury me in a 'Y' shaped coffin Vanessa?"
"How many Vanessas do we have?"
"Good point," Winry replied as they reached the briefing room. Through the glass she saw Al talking animatedly to Hoenheim, who was smiling fondly at his youngest son. Izumi was showing Denny how easily she could get out of a pair of handcuffs, Mustang was trying (and obviously failing) to impress Rebecca and Ed was sitting in the corner, scowling at anyone who came near him. "I'd love to see him try it on with Olivier."
"What Mustang?" Riza asked laughing. "She's kill him.
"Exactly."
"Um excuse me, Agent Rockbell?" a voice asked. Winry turned to see an agent in a suit with long dark dreadlocks pushed out of his face with a headband standing behind her. Winry narrowed her eyes at him.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"This is Yven Powell," Riza said, "he's on your team."
"Are you new?" Winry asked, still having trouble placing his face. She thought everyone was supposed to be keeping an eyes out for a spy of Father's and here was someone she'd definitely never seen before. Yven's face fell.
"I've been bringing you coffee for the last three years," he said.
"Ah..." Well this is awkward... "Did you do something different with your hair?" Winry asked. She was clutching at straws but there had to be something to jog her memory of who this guy was. Yven smiled and shyly fiddled with the end of one of his dreadlocks. Yep the hair, that was what it was.
"I tied it back," he said.
"It looks good," Winry said smiling at him.
"Thanks."
"Shall we go in?" Winry asked changing the subject.
"Sure thing," Yven said and pushed the door of the briefing room open and went inside.
"Good save," Riza whispered to Winry as she made to followed him.
"I still have no idea who he is," Winry replied.
"Well he passed the background check," Riza shrugged. "Anyway you get in there and get your briefing started, you'll be great."
"Thanks," Winry smiled and entered the room.
The chatter died down as she closed the door behind her and she turned to see every pair of eyes in the room on her. Well... every pair except one. Ed was still scowling at the corner like it had personally offended him in some way.
"Right so everyone has already been briefed about this operation but I'll give a quick run through of it anyway to bring us all up to the same speed," Winry said. "With the help of the members of 'The Brotherhood Of Travelling Alchemists' we are now prepared to make contact with Father to set up a performance at 'The Dwarf In The Flask' Theatre. Once we have confirmation of that we can begin preparations to infiltrate his organisation and start to get proof of the crimes he's linked to. So what have we got?"
"Photographs of Father meeting with known members of the Xingese maffia," Yven said handing Winry a stack of photographs.
"Fantastic," Winry said having a swift look through the photos. "If we can find out what this meeting was about, even better."
"Working on it," Kian stated from the back of the room.
"How?" Winry asked surveying him.
"We're opening up chains of communication to all phone lines throughout Amestris and the neighbouring countries so that we can tap into his phone line," Kian said. "Once we have a link inside then we can get them with a wire and record Father's meetings."
"Good," Winry said, smiling at him. "Well done Kian."
"Thanks," Kian said looking incredibly pleased with himself.
"Do we have anything on the seventh member of Father's organisation?" Winry asked. "The so called 'master of disguise'?"
"We've got nothing," Rebecca replied.
"Great," Winry sighed.
"Although," Rebecca continued, "I did manage to get a interesting tit-bit about him from one Mr G. Cason."
"Who?" Winry asked. Rebecca put a photograph down on the table of the obese man from Father's organisation talking to a plain-clothed Vanessa.
"Cason is an easy link to Father because he's not the brightest bulb in the closet," Rebecca said, "but by the sounds of it even 'The Suicide Squad' don't know what this seventh guy looks like."
"The Suicide Squad?" Winry asked.
"What Father's organisation calls themselves," Rebecca replied.
"Well that's more than we knew before, good work," Winry said. "Although we can't keep that link open; if we're seen to ask too many questions, stupid or not, Cason is going to get suspicious and then we're fucked."
"Can you say fucked?" Mustang asked raising his hand and grinning cheekily. Winry levelled him with a glare.
"I am the leading agent on this case, I can say whatever I fucking want," she stated. Mustang put his hands up in defence before he crossed his arms and settled back in his chair. Winry slowly counted to ten to hold her temper. "Now..."
"Question," Ed said from the corner, clicking his fingers and raising his hand. Winry sighed and put her hands on her hips.
"Mr Elric?"
"How exactly are stage magicians like us going to help you get close to this Father guy so you can prove he's a criminal mastermind or whatever?" Ed asked.
"Father is apparently very fond of stage magic, especially the work of you five, and this is the only way that we can get close to him," Winry explained. "We got you up on stage, we get into his inner circle."
"Then what?" Ed asked.
"Then you will only need to worry about producing a magic show that will keep Father's attention away from us while we gather enough proof to bring him down," Winry said. "If we get enough before the show you can even expose him there if you want."
"And how do you propose to do that?" Ed asked.
"Brother don't be difficult," Al hissed.
"What?" Ed asked shrugging. "I'm just interested, that's all."
"We have the finest team of hackers already on the case along with highly trained experts who will dig up every bit of dirt there is on Father," Winry said. "No matter what he is hiding we'll be able to get it."
"So it's a bit like misdirection," Al said.
"Exactly," Winry said and smiled at him.
"Okay," Ed snorted. Winry turned to glare at him.
"What?"
"No nothing," Ed said smirking.
"No you clearly have something to say so why don't you just say it," Winry told him, trying not to lose her temper.
"Okay if you really want to know then I think this is a terrible plan," Ed stated raising his hands in defence before crossing them over his chest again.
"How so?" Winry asked crossing her own arms and glaring at him.
"Well," Ed stated, "it's just that this Father guy is going to see this coming a mile away and then you're fucked."
"This is a good plan," Winry stated.
"No it isn't," Ed chuckled. "This guy probably knows he's being watched by the Feds so he's going to be suspicious when a group of magicians he's been wanting to see for years, and have previously avoided him like the bloody plague, suddenly turn up wanting an audience. Whatever plan you have he will see coming so you need to think more outside the box."
"Then if you have a better suggestion then, please, feel free to voice it now," Winry said as her temper began to get the better of her. She had been formulating this plan for months and then this jumped up little street-punk shows up and thinks he can tell her more about espionage and infiltration than years of training had taught her.
"Well I don't exactly have anything right now," Ed snapped.
"Then I would thank you to keep your comments to yourself Mr Elric," Winry told him coldly.
"Jesus who died and made you queen of the world," Ed muttered glaring at the wall again. Winry took a deep breath trying not to snap at him.
"Brother!" Al hissed in warning.
"Mr Elric I am the lead on this case," Winry said as calmly as she could.
"Yeah but you lead these lot not me," Ed said nodding at Kian and Denny who were sitting quite close to him.
"And thank god for that," Winry muttered a little louder than she had intended.
"See it comes out now," Ed said.
"Okay I'll admit that was unprofessional," Winry said, gritting her teeth.
"You meant it thought didn't you?" he asked looking at her smugly.
"Oh for goodness sake," Winry said rolling her eyes. "You're like a child."
"And this is exactly why I didn't want to do this in the first place," Ed said. "Being ordered about by a stick in a pencil skirt."
"I beg your pardon?" Winry asked. "Did you just call me a stick?"
"If the pencil skirt fits," Ed replied.
"Stick?" Winry asked again. She didn't know whether to be insulted of flattered, although she was leaning more towards insulted.
"Will you leave it Edward?" Hoenheim asked.
"Got something to say old man?" Ed snarled.
"Okay," Winry said raising her hands to stop the argument that was clearly coming. She was losing control of the meeting and she needed to bring it back to topic. "If we could all just calm down for a second..."
"Don't tell me to fucking calm down," Ed snapped.
"Charming," Izumi said rolling her eyes.
"Honestly Elric can't you control your temper?" Mustang asked smirking. That really got Ed's back up and he shot him a glare.
"And you can stay out of it and all!" he shouted.
"Okay, if we could all please just..." Winry began.
"Ten minutes in your company would be enough to send anyone to distraction," Hoenheim said.
"What is your fucking problem?" Ed asked getting to his feet and striding over to his father. Hoenheim stood, towering over his son.
"Edward if your mother were to see you like this..."
"Yeah well she's not here," Ed snarled. "Not that you were ever around when she was."
"Brother don't start," Al said placing a hand over his eyes.
"You know what?" Ed asked looking around the room, glaring first at Winry and then at Hoenheim. "I didn't want to do this in the first place so you can all go fuck yourselves."
With that he stormed out of the briefing room, slamming the door behind him. The room fell silent before Al pushed himself to his feet.
"I'll go talk to him," he said.
"Thank you," Winry said. She looked at the room of still expectant eyes staring at her and she had to fight the urge to cry. This was her first lead on a case and it was falling apart from under her before they had even gotten started. "Meeting dismissed," she said finally, "you all have your next assignments so just crack on till we make some headway."
Slowly everyone filed out of the room, muttering to each other as they went until only Winry, Yven and Hoenheim were left.
"I apologise for my son's behaviour," Hoenheim said.
"It's fine," Winry said although the slight catch in her voice made it more than obvious that it wasn't. Hoenheim smiled at her sadly before leaving the room. Winry sank into a chair and placed her head in her hands. She took a deep breath to compose herself, finding that she suddenly felt incredibly tired. She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Do you want a coffee?" Yven asked. Winry leaned her head against his hand.
"That would be great thanks," she said. Yven gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze before leaving. Winry looked up as he turned back to her.
"For what it's worth I think it's a good plan," he said.
"Thanks Yven," she sighed. He smiled at her before leaving the room. Once the door closed Winry sighed again and leaned her head against the table top. Maybe Olivier was right; maybe she should have let Riza lead the case.