Going through some physical therapy now for my wrist and my neck. Here's hoping that I can get this fixed without having to undergo surgery -.-
Still, enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
"Boss, it has been two weeks." Mark said into the camera above the laptop screen. "Any news?"
"My contacts in the FBI said that there's a new investigation into what happened in Los Angeles going on but none of them are part of it, so they can't tell me anything solid, only that it's happening."
"But where would they have gotten the information to even start an investigation?" Mark wondered.
"That's the question." his boss agreed. "It depends on what they found when they investigated the scene."
"You think Owain had everything just lying around without encryption?" Mark wondered.
"No, but no encryption is bulletproof." the boss said as the door opened and Kenta walked in, entering the camera frame. "What have you got?"
Kenta produced a flash drive and put it into the laptop, hitting a few buttons and letting a video start. The image of the boss on the screen was replaced by two side by side black and white camera pictures of the office and the walkway outside it. After a few seconds, they saw Owain and two of his group coming up the stairs and going into the office, followed by a several time skips with more of the gang arriving.
Lastly, the two guards from the gate entered the office as well, the last one to enter closing the door. The video again went into fast forward, the minutes ticking past in several seconds with the gang doing only talking, counting money, moving some drugs around the table. While they smoked a lot, only a few of them drank, and only beer, the other bottles of hard liquor either already empty or untouched while Owain stuck to water.
"What is that?" Mark asked aloud when they all saw a roped package coming down from the roof hatch, followed by a blurry figure.
"Watch." Kenta grunted.
They saw the figure put tape against the bottom of the door and on the lock hole, then place a car pedal lock against the door and the opposite railing before pressing itself against the door as well. The images on the office camera showed the group beginning to cough and clearing their throats for several minutes for one finally tried to open the door.
With the door blocked, more of them threw themselves against it and Mark watched the scene with horrid fascination, seeing Owain and his men dropping one after the other, the movements clearly showing asphyxiation. He wondered how the boss was feeling, watching his son die. The blurry figure then took the pedal lock away and entered the office, checking the life signs of the men and apparently finding one of them still alive because he then proceeded to choke the man to death.
Lastly, the figure unwrapped his package, putting a barbecue with a gas bottle into the room. Before the person left, he or she put a flash drive into the laptop on the table and apparently downloaded everything from it, because it took twenty minutes to do so. Once that was achieved, the figure left the warehouse the same way he or she entered from, the scene then going to just the image of the empty walkway and the office full of corpses.
"Okay, I think we now can definitely say that they didn't just die by accident." Mark broke the silence. "Who was that and how did he make himself blurry like that?"
"Do we know it was a man?" the boss asked, Kenta only shaking his head.
"Sorry boss, I just can't believe a woman would be able to achieve this." Mark clarified. "But it could be."
"Why are there only those two camera angles?" the boss wondered.
"No other camera inside the warehouse or covering the area outside of it caught anyone." Kenta said, speaking his first full sentence since him and Mark has left their headquarters two weeks ago. "Whoever this is, they must have found a blind spot, got through or over the fence, onto the roof and then entered the warehouse through the roof hatch."
"What do you think?" the boss asked Kenta.
"This was a planned hit by a professional." Kenta said. "The tactics of this person, coupled with the sophistication of the gear shows me that it's not a member of their competition."
"Where did you get the recording?" Mark wanted to know.
"A contact." Kenta replied.
"How much did you have to pay?" the boss asked.
"Fifty thousand dollars." Kenta said.
"I'll send you the money." the boss said and a few seconds later, Kenta's phone chimed, presumably from the received funds. "Can you get some information on the person who did this?"
"I can try." Kenta nodded and got up to leave.
"What do you want me to do?" Mark asked once his large companion had left.
"Is Owain's organization salvagable?"
"Not in any recognizable form." Mark shook his head. "Nobody above the street dealers survived this attack and unless Owain shared his particular way of doing things with you, I wouldn't even know where to start."
"How is the city looking?" the boss continued his questioning. "Give me your gut feeling."
"From what I've seen and learned, the city is a powder keg." Mark told him. "The death of Owain and his group has caused a vacuum in the drug distribution within the city. The various gangs that had been kept down be Owain's tactics are poised to take advantage of this."
"Are you saying a gang war is going to start?"
"Yes, that's my assessment." Mark nodded. "I don't know how violent it will be and how long it will take until the various gangs get to an understanding who controls what territory, but it will happen."
"Would you be able to do what Owain did and regain all those territories?"
"Not the way Owain did it." Mark said honestly, because he knew that lying would be worse. "As I said, unless he told you how he managed to keep the other gangs down, I wouldn't know how to begin."
"He didn't." the boss sighed. "What would you need?"
"A lot of manpower, that's for sure." Mark said. "But if I start going around instigating wars against one after another of the other gangs, the rest might unite against us. Not to mention that any overt action on our part would make the job of law enforcement even easier, don't you think?"
"You're right." the boss accepted the reasoning. "Continue to sit tight and monitor the situation. Let Kenta do his thing and report back as soon as something comes up."
"Will do, boss." Mark nodded as the call was ended.
Mark looked at the door, wondering who Kenta exactly was and what his place was within the organization. He knew that the boss was very stingy, looking at every cent being spent and would never overpay for anything. Mark had seen him kill one of his lab chemists because he had demanded a ten percent raise, yet he had given Kenta a fifty thousand dollar reimbursement without questioning the amount.
He had also now heard Kenta actually speak in sentences. His voice and his delivery was like an avalanche coming down a hill, an unstoppable force in spoken form. Mark knew that if Kenta told him something, he would listen and then most likely follow whatever advice was given.
Taking the order to sit tight, he laid down on the bed and turned on the TV.
"So, how's the course coming along?" Penny asked, while they walked the dogs through the park.
"We're still building it." Leonard sighed. "Sheldon went a bit overboard to include your input from the last one."
"Are the plans going to change?" she wondered. "I'm already studying the ones you brought home."
"No, we hashed out any possible issue before we began building any of the internals." Leonard told her. "So either they're good now or we have overlooked some serious problem."
"What will I have to do this time?" she wanted to know.
"Sheldon will tell you." he chuckled. "And don't try to get it out of me, I actually don't know."
"Aw, and here I thought I could sex the information out of you." she laughed.
"You can still try." he winked. "Though I might be very good at resisting your efforts this time."
"Meh, too much effort." she shrugged him off.
"Gee, thanks." he laughed.
"Here we are." she proclaimed, pointing to the enclosure that marked the dog park.
"Well, lets see how they do in there." he said and let the dogs off their leash after Penny had opened the gate, the two canines rushing into the enclosure and greeting certain dogs, who they had seen before.
"They're going to be fine." Penny grinned. "I've been here a few times, remember?"
"Well, alright, it seems you were right." he admitted after watching the dogs play with the others for a few minutes.
"Hey Penny." a familiar voice greeted her after about half an hour of sitting at the tables within the enclosure.
"Katie." Penny nodded to the familiar women, the husky at her side straining against the leash. "This is my boyfriend Leonard."
"Finally, I meet the man behind the name." Katie grinned, shaking Leonard's hand.
"Likewise." Leonard nodded to her. "So, this is your husky?"
"Yes, my pride and joy." Katie smiled.
"Is she a purebred?" Leonard wondered. "She looks a little wider than a husky normally would."
"Good eye." Katie nodded, impressed. "She has some part malamute in her too."
"How does she fare in the California heat?" Leonard asked her as the husky jumped up on Leonard's legs, probably because she had smelled the treats he was carrying in his small hip pack.
"Not well." Katie admitted. "I have several cooling mats at home for her to lie on, I have a pool with ice water in the shade in my backyard for her to go into, give her frozen treats and so on."
"What are frozen treats for dogs?" Penny wanted to know.
"I put little fish or other treats into ice cube trays, fill them with water and freeze them." Katie shrugged. "I must say, I'm surprised."
"About?" Leonard looked at her.
"Well, Amka usually doesn't like other people right away." Katie chuckled. "Also, I didn't quite expect you too look... like you do."
"In what way?"
"Given your dogs, I expected you to be..."
"Taller?" Leonard chuckled this time.
"Well... yeah." Katie laughed. "I know Malignois to be very energetic, high maintenance, even more than huskies."
"But you should know as well that it doesn't matter how tall or heavy someone is to correctly take care of a certain dog breed." Leonard said. "It's all about your personality, your energy. Looking at you, one would not think of husky owner."
"Right." Katie admitted. "Penny said that you can do different whistles to make your dogs do things?"
"In a way." Leonard nodded. "It's a training thing. And the whistling is my way of doing it. Other people use hand signals or words that dogs associate with the order to do a certain thing."
"So, you could make them come to you by just a certain whistle?"
"Yes. Normally when people whistle, they really just get the attention of the dog and then a subsequent command makes the dog come to them." Leonard explained. "My training just skips the second step."
"That's so cool." Katie smiled. "Any other commands?"
"I could make my dogs maul your husky to death if I chose to do so, given that your dog is jumping on me frequently." Leonard chuckled.
"Oh my god!" Katie gasped.
"I'm kidding." Leonard laughed. "I mean, I could do it, but I wouldn't. But my dogs are trained to also watch my body language. If I showed signs of distress because of your dog, they would go into defensive mode and would try to get your dog away from me. Since I'm not showing any sign of distress, they keep playing but if you watched them closely, you would see that they are looking at me frequently."
"I never realized that." Katie said after looking at Leonard's dogs, seeing them look into their direction every ten seconds. "Amka, go play."
"Your dog listens well to you too." Leonard said when Amka stopped demanding treats and ran off to mingle with the other dogs.
"Well, I hope so." Katie laughed.
Leonard whistled and the two Malignois came over, sitting down and looking up expectantly. Leonard handed half of the food they brought to Penny and held up a piece of his own, Major's head moving to follow the piece of food. Leonard threw it and Major jumped up, catching it out of the air and swallowing it with barely a chew. Penny copied his action, throwing hers at Tyson who caught it the same way Major did.
Penny whistled too and both dogs ran off to play again, Penny feeling intensely proud that she could also give a few commands just by whistling. That, or she was giving some body language commands she couldn't prevent herself from doing. They sat back down and chatted with some of the other dog owners, everyone giving stories about how they acquired their four-legged friends. Some of the stories were heartbreaking to Penny, dogs found in desolate conditions or having to be rescued from abusive owners.
Leonard looked around as he listened and noticed a black car parked opposite of the dog park. That alone wasn't strange but the driver was sitting in it, looking at the area with binoculars. At first he thought that it was maybe a boyfriend or ex-husband of one of the people with them until the binoculars were lowered.
Before he could place him, the man drove away, the split second that his face was visible not enough for Leonard to make a definitive recognition. He tried to put the man from his mind but a nagging voice kept bugging him about it for the rest of the time they sat in the park. When late afternoon rolled around, he stood up and whistled, his dogs immediately coming to his side and sitting down so he could attach the leashes to the collars.
They said goodbye to the other dog owners and left, Penny holding Tyson's leash. He kept his suspicions to him for the moment, not wanting to alarm her and decided to go and test his theory before dinner.
"Can you feed the dogs later if I'm not back by dinner time?" he asked after they entered the apartment.
"Where are you going?" she wondered.
"I have to go to the hotel." he told her. "I need to check something."
"What hotel?" she was very confused.
"The same kind of hotel that you and I were in while we were in Omaha." he said.
"Can I come with you?" she asked. "Would be nice to see how it all works there."
"No, you can't." he shook his head. "At least not yet. Where I go, only full members of the organization can go."
"But I was in the hotel in Omaha." she argued.
"Yes, in the rooms, where regular guests also go." he pointed out. "Not in the more... uh, clandestine areas."
"I see." she sighed. "Well, see you later then."
"Don't worry, once you finished your final exam, I'll take you to the hotel." he winked. "Especially since you have to exchange some of your money into coins."
"Right, forgot about those." she nodded.
He left the apartment and got into the car. Evening rush hour was as bad as he expected and it took him an hour to reach his destination. He parked his car on the hotel's lot and walked into the building, the doorman opening the door for him and welcoming him into the building. Inside, he saw the usual half a dozen people sitting in the foyer, reading newspapers but he knew that they were the hotel's guards, their weapons cleverly hidden to avoid the regular guests becoming aware of them.
He walked to the right of the main stairwell and went behind them through a curtain. He wen through an old looking door with an employee only sign and down the stairs, only to end up at another door, this one made out of steel with a closed vision slit. He took a silver coin out of his pocket and slid it into the coin slot on the wall, the coin falling audibly into a metal container. A few seconds later, the door opened, a large man standing behind it and looking at Leonard. He lifted his right arm and the man put a silvery band around his wrist before nodding. Leonard nodded back and walked into the room proper, soft music and organization staff drinking and chatting around him.
"Look who the cat dragged in." a voice got his attention, before he saw the man he was looking for.
"Good evening, Antoine." Leonard smiled as he walked towards the booth where he shook the man's hand. "I wanted to ask you something."
"Straight to business, as usual." Antoine chuckled and made a hand motion, which caused one of the men standing outside the booth to pull a divider in front of the booth, which not only blocked most sounds from escaping the booth but also prevented anyone from reading lips. "Before we get to business, a toast."
"Okay." Leonard nodded, knowing that refusing would mean bad etiquette.
"How's your father?" Antoine asked after they took their drinks.
"He's fine." Leonard smiled. "Antoine, this might be a weird question, but do you know if Ricardo Gutierrez is in the city?"
"Why, yes he is." Antoine chuckled. "And not just that, he's been asking around about you. And not just him"
"About me?" Leonard was shocked. "Why?"
"Who knows." Antoine shrugged. "But to be more precise, he asked about John, trying to find out your real name."
"Did you tell him?"
"Of course not." Antoine shook his head. "Those that know your real name know better than to reveal it just because someone else asks."
"Good." Leonard felt relief. "I think I saw him watching me when I was in the park. You said there were more people asking about me?"
"Yes, another was Aaron Gaspard and then of course, the man they apparently became quite friendly with, Robert McNamara. He too asked about you."
"They became friends with a former secretary of defense, one that has been dead for over a decade?" Leonard looked questioningly at Antoine.
"Sure, a corpse asked out you, he wanted to haunt you." Antoine joked.
"I don't know this Robert McNamara, who is he?"
"You know his brother." Antoine said. "You killed him, too."
"What?"
"His brother was Caspar McNamara." Antoine revealed.
"Shit." Leonard sighed. "But would he dare? He must know that I killed his brother in self defense."
"I don't think he cares." Antoine shrugged. "Since the organization can't do anything until he actually tries something, you should stay on your guard."
"I see." Leonard groaned in frustration.
"Changing the subject, I heard through the grapevine that you have a protege?" Antoine grinned.
"Is that grapevine's name Lilly, by any chance?" Leonard chuckled.
"Maybe." Antoine shrugged again. "So, is it true?"
"Yes." Leonard nodded. "My dad trained her, and I'm giving her the non-combat training here, with the help of my friends."
"How's she doing?"
"Pretty good, she finished two of the three courses that Sheldon created for her." Leonard smiled proudly.
"I can't wait to meet the girl that made the Lone Wolf take a companion." Antoine laughed. "She must be quite the woman."
"She is." Leonard confirmed. "That leads me to another question. Do you have enough coins on hand for an exchange?"
"How many would she buy?"
"I don't know but I will suggest that she exchanged a million dollars at least, maybe two million."
"So, eighteen hundred golden coins and two thousand silver?"
"Yes, that sounds right." Leonard did the quick math in his head.
"No problem, we have that here." Antoine nodded. "Anything else?"
"No, that was it." Leonard sighed. "Thanks for the info, and the warning on Robert."
"No worries." Antoine shook Leonard's hand again. "And just so you know, if you have to kill Robert, the organization will back you again."
"Thanks." Leonard nodded and left.
When the guard removed the divider and Leonard left, he spotted the man he had seen before in the car, who Antoine had identified as Ricardo, enter the bar. Before Leonard could even walk towards him, Ricardo noticed Leonard as well and quickly turned around and left the bar in a hurry. Leonard cursed and ran after him, bounding up the stairs two at a time and exiting into the hotel lobby, where he had to slow his pace to maintain decorum.
After exiting the hotel, he looked around but couldn't see the man. Grumbling another curse, he went back to his car and started driving, keeping watch in the mirrors to see if he was followed but not seeing anything out of the ordinary. He took the scenic route, using detours instead of going straight home but no car seemed to follow him the entire way.
When he arrived at the apartment, he found a note sticking to the door telling him that Penny had already gone up to Sheldon's apartment for dinner. He walked up to the fourth floor and entered the apartment, to be greeted by his dogs and a smiling Penny, along with more cordial greetings from the others.
"There you are." Sheldon said. "Your food is getting cold."
"It's chicken and rice, Sheldon." Leonard chuckled. "You can eat that cold."
"If you're an animal." Sheldon huffed. "And tell Penny that she should leave your monsters at home next time."
"Tell her yourself." Leonard shrugged and sat down next to Penny, before digging into his food.
"Something wrong?" Penny asked quietly.
"I'll tell you later." he whispered back and tried to enjoy the evening.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Ricardo cursed as he entered the hotel room where Aaron was still typing away on his laptop.
"What's with you?" Aaron asked.
"John made me." Ricardo sighed and flopped onto his bunk.
"In the park?"
"Yes, and a few minutes ago in the bar downstairs." Ricardo groaned.
"What the shit?" Aaron stopped typing. "Why are you here?! Aren't you afraid that he followed you up?"
"Relax, I left the hotel to throw him off." Ricardo waved him off. "He drove away. What about you? Any luck?"
"No, and to tell you the truth, I don't feel at ease with this whole thing ever since Bob killed that guy." Aaron said.
"If..." Ricardo began but was stopped by the room door opening again, the aforementioned Robert walking in.
"Weren't you supposed to follow John?" Robert asked Ricardo.
"I did, he went home." Ricardo replied, omitting the fact that Leonard had seen him.
"And why aren't you there?" Robert snapped.
"Why would I?" Ricardo shot back. "Apart from when he and his friends go to that ridiculous comic book store, the only times he has left the building after dark was for a date with his girlfriend."
"What about you?" Robert turned to Aaron. "Broke through?"
"No dice." Aaron shook his head.
"I thought you were some great hacker and you can't even hack a university firewall." Robert said accusingly.
"If he's working at CalTech, shouldn't his profile be public?" Ricardo wondered.
"Only if he were teaching staff." Aaron said and pulled up some profiles of various professor's. "But apparently he doesn't teach, so his profile is not public. And the firewall is something else."
"Explain." Robert said.
"This is the most sophisticated firewall I have ever seen. It's unlike anything available on the open market and I kept wondering why and how a university has one of these until..."
"Then we should pay a visit to the university president to make him talk, shouldn't we?" Robert interrupted.
"No, because I only wondered about the firewall until I saw the picture of the university president." Aaron finished and pulled it up.
"Fuck, is that...?" Ricardo sat up sharply.
"Yes, that's Jeremy Siebert." Aaron nodded, turning his chair to allow both an easier view. "Former assassin turned bureaucrat, but I doubt he lost much of his edge. Not to mention that he apparently brought his own firewall into his job, which is the reason I'm stymied here."
"I can't believe what kind of incompetent bozos you two are." Robert huffed. "Someone give me a suggestion on how to continue."
"Here's one." Ricardo said. "Stop this bullshit. I'm sorry your brother died but he did try to kill this John."
"What did you just say?" Robert turned around to him.
"You heard me. If we get caught even trying this, the organization might make an example out of us and we..." Ricardo tried to argue but was caught off guard by a palm hitting his cheek. "Fuck, are you nuts?!"
"One more word about giving up and I'll make an example out of you two." Robert shouted and turned to leave. "And find me some fucking information on this guy!"
"Dude, he's becoming more unhinged every day." Aaron said as Ricardo got himself an ice pack to hold against his cheek.
"No shit." Ricardo groaned. "I don't care anymore tonight, I'm heading to my room and get some sleep."
I'll end the chapter here or I might not finish for another week.
Review please :)