Friday 1.17 Unexpected diversion

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Manx knew she was leaving the boys in a tough situation. She could only provide so much guidance. she was not their mother - she wasn't even their handler. She hoped they considered her a friend but at moments like this, she felt more like judge, jury and executioner.

She would have to work quickly to try and round them up some support - discreet, off-the-Kritiker-radar support. She had been out of Japan long enough that her civilian contacts had grown a bit rusty.

As she exited the Koneko, she gave a wary glance around the street. She had convinced herself that Thea had only been giving her a warning for letting herself grow lax. But maintaining these mental shields was proving to be exhausting. She gave a moments attention to her fledgling shields and headed for the street to hail a cab.

Comments

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

Schuldig backed out of the alley and pulled up beside Manx, rolling the window down and peering out at her. The car wreaked of smoke, and it was obvious that he had been sitting for a while.

"We need to talk." He said, eyeing her up and down in assessment. This could go very right, or very wrong, but Schuldig never was one for consequences. "Get in."

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Manx casually eyed the car that pulled up beside her, almost thinking that it was Thea returning for her but stopping short when she realized that it most definitely was not. She froze for only a moment, schooling most of her suprise but not all of it.

Speak of the devil...

She returned the visual assessment. She had never been this close to any member of Schwarz previously and all her knowledge of them only made her efforts at restraining her reactions that much harder.

She never realized exactly how young Mastermind was.

All this thought and only now did she remember to clamp down on her shields as Thea had taught her. Her lessons also came with a dire prediction though... that now matter what she did, the likes of Mastermind would make all her hard work irrelevent. She simply wasn't capable of keeping a telepath that powerful out of her head and to try would only end badly.

If he wanted to talk, maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be tempted to pry.

"Why do I get the feeling you have already heard much of what you wanted know?" She slowly, warily rounded the car, swallowing shallowly before reaching to open the passenger side door. It was small consolation but she did have her gun in her purse, as always. But what good was that when you were at the mercy of a man who could take control of your very movements?

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

Schuldig couldn't help but laugh a little at the assessment of his age. He supposed that by normal standards, he was in fact fairly young. Most men... boys... his age were more worried about school and getting their first jobs and finding a date.

Okay, he still liked the dating part. But other than that, he really had nothing in common with anyone his age. He really had nothing in common with anyone period. Hell, considering the things he'd seen and done, sometimes he just forgot just how young he was.

But that wasn't the point.

"I heard quite a bit, but oddly, nothing from you other than what you said." He motioned to the seat. "Very odd for a normal like you. Nothing that could keep me out if I really wanted, but effective enough to bypass a casual sweep." He raised an eyebrow. "But I suppose our friend Thea helped you with that little trick."

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Manx slowly slipped into the passengers seat and reluctantly shut the door.

Again she had to remind herself to dampen her reactions. She was more than a professional, she was at the top of her field. She didn't startle, she didn't panic but, knowing what she now knew about talents and how that applied to Schwarz, she was finding it difficult to keep her composure.

"You've been here that long?" She said softly as she forced her shoulders back in the seat, willing the obvious tension out of her posture. "Obviously not for the same reasons I am here. Wouldn't a conversation such as this one be more direct in finding the answers you are looking for?" One small glance at the interior of he car proved that he had been eavesdropping for some time. "Waiting around for the bits you are looking for must be incredibly mindnumbing."

Manx was well aware of the usual routine in survellience and information recovery. She spent plenty of long sleepless nights do much the same. Hopefully her intentional misdirection would veer them away from the topic of Thea. And towards those ends she began recalling a few of those long boring nights of her own, purposely steering her mind from what he wanted to know.

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

"Long enough to see the Fujimiya girl being carted off by a former Esset employee. I wonder what Ran might think of that." He smirked at Manx. "But then, I can't just walk in and talk to those four like you can, at least not with a lot of trouble and headache. This was easier. Just like I could bulldoze your shields and take the information that I want. But I would rather talk."

He leaned back in his seat and pulled away from the curb, driving in a random direction. She didn't need to know all of his reasons for doing what he did. Hopefully his lack of mind fucking her would show that he had some respect for her.

"But I think you're trying to avoid the subject. Tell me how you know Thea." He had his theories, but based on her classification of Talents as Human and not Tools or Resources or Things, he assumed that she worked with them on some level. Maybe recruiting, maybe more. But she at least had more insight than the others.

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

It wasn't Thea poking at her mind otuside the shop after all. Manx could have kicked herself. Out of sight, out of mind did not apply to this particular telepath. Well, at least there was a miniscual sense of comfort at knowing that this telepath was still business as usual. It was safe to assume that he personally had not deviated one iota from the profile she had compiled.

She kept her eyes ahead, her hands relaxed in her lap. He wouldn't get the satisfaction of a reaction. She wouldn't be his puppet on a string.

"Ran trusts me to do what is right." She stopped short and considered his words. He could simply take what he wanted. His angle could be as simple as gaining trust to gather information or it could be some off-the-wall personal diversion for his amusement. That was all his interest in Weiss seemed to be after all. But it was also possible that he had other motivations for simply engaging in conversation and if that were so, she needed to know what it was. It would be invaluable.

"Thea and I met in the middle of a fire fight with a Rosenkreuz retrieval team in Singapore. Three others in her group didn't make it."

She answered his question and it was entirely truthful. In fact, it was more information, in a way, than she had provided her own superiors. She glanced sidelong at the redhead, a hint of a smirk crossing her lips.

"I was glad to learn that not all teams of talents come with a precognitive."

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

Schuldig chuckled softly. "That's part of why Schwarz was so good for Esset. Every team would love to have an Oracle. Unfortunately for them, most Precognitives go insane very early on." He purposefully gave up a little more information than was necessary. A little morsel of goodwill or something like that. A little information that she might not have had before.

He almost wanted to ask who the others were, but realized that it really didn't matter. If they were dead then they weren't good enough, and not worth wasting his time wondering about. Thea had survived, and he wasn't surprised. She was a damn good telepath... at least, good for her level.

"So you just happened to be in Singapore and happened to find yourself in the middle of a fight involving a rogue team and a retrieval unit?" He raised an eyebrow. "I think someone is not telling me something. You said Kritiker has a talent in their employ. Where there is one, there is usually more. Like Mr. Sato said, we're an excellent resource to be used." He kept his voice even and calm as he said the words. Hell, he'd heard things like that his entire life, even believed it for a while. Rosenkreuz had wanted to break them down until they saw that they were less than human, and the only place they could possibly belong was with the organization. All they had was each other, but they didn't even have that because everyone was so desperate to prove themselves worthy that anyone would happily stab you in the back to climb up the ladder...

He lit up another cigarette, offering the pack to Manx. He tried not to think about Rozenkruez, but he'd spent the majority of his life behind those walls. He'd learned everything there. It was hard to banish it from his thoughts.

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Manx just held up a hand, denying the offer. It took her three long hard years to kick that habit. She sat quietly for a moment, processing his words.

He confirmed Thea's words. Schwarz was unique. Not all talents were as terrifyingly powerful as that team seemed to be. Her conversations with Thea opened her eyes, it explained many things and actually inspired sympathy for the plight of those born differently - and enslaved for it. Esset was simply the buyer - Rosenkreuz was the supplier and they dealt in people lives for nothing but power.

She slowly looked to Schuldig - all the despicable things he personally had inflicted on Weiss, many times solely for his own personal amusement. Ouka died as his entertainment. He nearly forced Sakura to kill Ran. Kidnapping Aya - twice. All of those things - could they all be blamed on Rosenkreuz?

It had all been so clear cut before but now...

Up until an hour ago she hadn't even known that Schwarz had survived. And her sources confirmed that not only were they high on several groups lists but that none of those groups had the answer to that question either. And here they were, hiding in plain sight at ground zero.

She knew her first instinct should have been to find a way to eliminate these bastards once and for all. If she survived this conversation with her mind intact it would be an easy thing to alert any one of those groups to Schwarz's whereabouts and let nature take its course. It should have been. It troubled her that it wasn't.

Her first thought - We need them.

"People sitting at desks work in acquisitions - politicians, corporates, short sighted scientists... I work in the field. I work with people in the hope of helping those that cannot help themselves. I recruit people to help us in that cause." In a round about way she was answering his questions. There was no reason to be direct. It was clear that they both wanted something out of this conversation. And he was obviously quite practiced at this game. As Thea said he would be.

"We had thought that the destruction of Esset would be sparing countless innocent lives." She paused, then swallowed a bit of pride. Kritiker still felt that way. In many ways, the organization had outgrown its own vision.

"I never knew how many lives they stole."

Her words were quiet as she reflected on them.

"You knew... Oracle knew. It was you that placed the gaping holes in security. Disabled cameras. Left a crate unbalanced so Bombay would fall and trigger an explosion. All corridors led directly to the Elders and the only escape route led directly to you." Manx was sure she had pieced it together correctly but some part of her was afraid to admit the truth of it. Schwarz had helped them bring down Esset. No - not helped - engineered.

She looked to him in all seriousness.

"Why?"

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

"You scoure the globe looking for teams that defected or went rogue after the downfall of Esset and bring them into Kritiker." He sighed and shook his head. "Trading one master for another."

He tucked his cigarettes away, taking a long drag as he watched Manx think. He could hear the wheels turning in her head, but didn't pry. He knew a thing or two about trust, though he didn't trust many people. In fact, only three.

"Why did we do it?" He asked, then shrugged. "We're not as different from regular people as you might think. In the end, we want the same things most people want. We just want to be left alone to live. And if people need to die for that to happen..." he shrugged again. "Better them than us."

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

"There is a world of difference between Master and Employer. It may not be such a bad thing to put an entire organization between yourselves and those that are actively seeking to reclaim their investment in you."

It could have come out sounding like a threat but it was nothing but an offer. A sincere one at that.

"How much of that is Rosenkreuz talking? Would you even know where you begin and Rosenkreuz ends? Thea had called you and Oracle 'lifers'... even she refused to imagine what it must have been like to be raised there. Yet... somehow... you emerged not as mindless robots but as individuals." She couldn't believe she was actually thinking these things... not just saying them as a sales pitch to recruit but actually beleiving her own words. "I assume you had no choice in what they required of you. What if something different were required?"

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

"Save the salespitch." Schuldig frowned suddenly. "I'm not interested."

He was quiet for a while, resisting the urge to throw her out of the car and run screaming. Brad had seen Schwarz and Weiss working together, but he doubted very much that had included becoming a part of Kritiker. And he really had no desire to work for anyone else. It had taken this long to finally be rid of Esset and Rosenkreuz, and the majority of that had been Brad's doing.

He finally spoke again, his voice a bit softer. "No, I probably don't. But I do know better than to accept anymore offers from big organizations offering me 'something better'." He glanced at Manx again. "Besides, you have someone manufacturing those discs right under your noses and can't even find him. Why would Schwarz lower ourselves to that sort of incompetence?"

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Manx's eyes went a bit wide.

The disk. They had information and that suggested a few things. But, with putting the telepath on edge she wasn't willing to pry further. So far, he had not pried into her mind. At least she didn't believe he had. She wanted to keep it that way.

" I may be employeed by Kritiker but I am not Kritiker itself." The irony of turning Sato's words around made her smirk to herself. That was as good as treason. "Thea works with me, not for me. She is considered a freelancer by Kritiker. Not everyone chooses that path..." Manx left that statement wide open. She had 'recruited' nearly a dozen former Esset talents but only three worked 'with' her. She couldn't trust Schuldig, of all people, with the knowledge of her true motives.

"The origins of the disk are not exactly clear - Sato was not the most informative." She knew what it sounded like and what Schuldig was suggesting. It was still too bitter a pill to swallow. "this is not what Kritiker does. It has to be a project gone wrong - a rogue agent. Possibly even a mole from Rosenkreuz or some faction of Esset. Kritiker wouldn't do this." She couldn't believe Kritiker was capable of becoming their own dark beast.

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

"I would suggest getting those boys to the theater tonight. Someone is going to use the disk there tonight. Maybe we'll all benefit from it." He said. He wasn't sure exactly how much information he should give. After all, they didn't need Kritiker up in their business anymore than they already were. Frankly, he would be quite happy to forget about all of this and get on the next plane to a sunny, tropical destination where he could lay on the beach and drink Mai Tais for the rest of his life. Or at least until he got bored.

"If you can catch whoever is going to use the disk, I would be willing to come see what they know." He finally offered. "I'm sure you have other telepaths that work with you. But I can guarantee you that they're not as good as I am."

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

That was not only an unexpected offer but also incredibly telling. The Mastermind of Schwarz would not be offering such detail, suggesting as much as he just had lightly or unknowingly. What exactly was his angle?

Manx shook her head minutely to break the dumbfounded stare that she finally realized she had fixed on Schuldig. She also sealed her lips shut considering that her jaw also hung slightly open in her disbelief.

She went to begin to speak but stopped herself, clicking her jaw shut as she carefully reconsidered her words.

Slowly, she pieced her thoughts together into something coherent.

"I have no doubt in your skill. You have spared no opportunity to..." She stopped to choose a more appropriate word than 'flaunt'. "... display... your talent to Weiss. But I can't help but wonder how this benefits you and your team."

She had her suspicions. She understood the potential threat this weapon posed to talents. Was this Schwarz's motivation - self preservation? Sato and Weiss were quick to condemn, easily assuming the Black Team only wanted to cause more harm. It was an easy assumption to make based on past history. But they did not know what she now knew. While she didn't know much specifically about Schwarz, the things she could assume were enough to give he pause in passing judgement.

"Your team is much better equipped to handle this for many reasons. I'm assuming your interest is not in saving the lives at risk." To her credit, that statement was delivered without a single inflection in her tone.

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

Schuldig smirked at her dumbfounded look, knowing that his offer would be a bit of a shock. But the redhead was smart, quickly realizing his motives were not completely altruistic. But the gaping, wide-eyed look was still amusing, especially once she realized what she looked like.

"No, their lives are hardly our concern. But we do want to know more about the disk." He said. "For once our goals and your goals coincide with each other. And with all of the people Kritiker is going to kill... we thought it would be more... appropriate if Weiss went in. After all, this isn't our mess. For once." He smirked again.

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Well that statement cleared up the intent question... if the telepath could be believed. Why would they randomly kill a theater full of people? It seemed a fairly petty thing... not their MO at all.

If he was right... if this did turn out to be a Kritiker sanctioned field test of some kind. No. She couldn't believe that. This was outside Persia's control. It had to be.

There was only one way to find out. The German was correct about that much at least. As a team, Schwarz could easily accomplish this without even bothering to notify Weiss. Was Schuldig just pulling strings, making them dance for another of his self absorbed diversions? No. Oracle sent Prodigy with a message. Their team was fully invested in this.

"You know what it can do... don't you? So you are unwilling to personally take the risk? That does not instill much confidence in your sincerity." She dipped her head, not seeing many options available. Weiss was taking this on personally. It wasn't their responsibility yet they were stepping up to it solely because they felt it was the right thing to do. At least, three of them did. She was no longer sure what motivated Ken.

"We do have the same goals but what is it you will do with the answers? Why is Oracle so concerned about this disk?"

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

"We know what the disk does. We know that people will die tonight because of the disk. I don't know if it is anything official on your end or not." He was quiet for a while, trying to decide how much more he should give her. Too much and Kritiker might have their number. Too little and he wouldn't be able to convince her to get Weiss off of their asses to go do what needed to be done.

"Oracle had a vision about tonight." He slowly offered. "It was vivid, and managed to physically hurt him, which is very unusual." He kept his tone deliberate, making sure she would catch a hint of worry. Something she could use to judge his sincerity. "We want to know what is happening just as much as you do. We want this project stopped, and we want to be left alone."

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Every single word he spoke felt like truth. But that was his specialty... making people believe what he wanted them to believe. She had to stop second guessing every word and decide here and now where she stood.

It was surprising to hear that Oracle was actually hurt by a vision. Nothing in her research or many conversations ever suggested such a thing was possible - it could be a fabrication. But his final words struck home.

"... left alone..." she repeated quietly to herself.

Slowly she looked to him, assessing the black eye, the worry lines creasing his young face, the drawn, sallow complexion that spoke loudly of exhaustion.

"Every talent I have encountered has requested exactly the same thing." She recounted sadly.

She had intended to keep this information close, in reserve should she ever need it. She decided that even though he was playing a game, he had chosen to do so with some shred of honesty. The least she could do was return the favor.

"Do you know how many teams are searching for you? Or exactly how close they are?" Manx did have the resources and the backing of an entire organization behind her efforts. She was bound to have some intelligence that Schwarz would find useful.

Hopefully, she didn't just paint a target on her forehead.

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

He gave a slight smile. It wasn't unusual for talents to request being left alone. It was hard having everyone after you all the time because they want to use you. Sometimes even Schuldig forgot that behind the telepathic monster he was still a human.

"No. I have no idea. More than one, and slightly less than all of them, I would imagine." He answered, banishing the melancholy thoughts. He was a professional, and he was above emotions like that, especially with the enemy sitting next to him in his car.

Though he was starting to get the feeling that she wasn't going to shoot him anymore. Not without thinking about it first, anyway.

"Oracle knows more about it than he lets on, I believe. I would rather not know, because if I did, I would probably kill myself." He said, and it was true. He would rather be dead than go back to Esset, and he was pretty sure Esset knew that. After all, they had been willing to die in order to escape.

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

She watched him closely. Again, he could just be very talented in controlling his body language, his expressions but the words he spoke and the conviction behind them suggested the truth in them. Esset was just as bad for Schwarz as it seemed to be for the others she had met.

Death was a completely viable alternative. That gave her pause. She hadn't expected him to be quite as broken as the others. Perhaps because of their status, their rank within Esset, she had thought Schwarz was spared much of the unpleasantness. In fact, they seemed to thrive on the horrors they inflicted on others. All of this raised even more questions that begged to be answered.

"I can tell you that most of the Esset factions and Rosenkreuz teams still do not know that Schwarz survived. Oracle has done well in keeping you under their radar." As a team leader, Oracle always seemed to go above and beyond what she expected from him. The stories of other Esset team leaders painted a picture of cruelty and sociopathic disregard for any human life - even the teams. They were free of Esset yet Schwarz remained whole, together, seemingly unchanged as a unit.

Perhaps unit was not the correct word.

"He bears the weight of the world on his shoulders to protect your team, doesn't he?" She almost didn't want an answer to that question. Above all else, she had abhorred everything about Oracle. His ruthless disregard for life, his cold calculating demeanor, his arrogance, even his damnable talent that always gave him the upper hand, justifying that superior, smug smirk he always seemed to wear on his face. He was the face of Esset and yet, he was the one who brought it all crumbling down.

Oracle was the true monster yet, he was protecting his team still. They were free. Manx would have thought Oracle would be the first one to abandon it all and head off on his own - disappear into the world without a glance back. But here he was.

Again Schulidg's words had raised more questions, only this time, they were about herself and what she had believed for so long.

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, he's a real humanitarian like that." Schuldig scoffed. It was getting a little too After School Special in his car, and he didn't like it. Manx was starting to put her nose where it didn't belong, and he was afraid he'd already said too much.

And he refused to believe that Schwarz wasn't being looked for. He knew how Esset and Rosenkreuz worked. And on the other side, they knew how Schwarz worked. They probably wouldn't stop looking until the found bodies. However, it was possible they weren't spending a tremendous amount of energy on it. Both organizations were arrogant like that.

But at least Manx was starting to come around. She was the foot in the door that they needed if they were going to start poking around at Kritiker.

"A man by the name of Johnson is behind this." He said, pulling up in front of the Koneko again. He then reached out and grabbed Manx's hand. "Touch the gun and I'll kill you." He said before she could even move, then he took out a pen and wrote his phone number on her palm.

"That's my cell. If you feel like sharing information, we would appreciate it. Like I said, we aren't any happier about this than you. The faster we get this taken care of, the faster we can get out of each other's hair and go about our lives."

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Damn.

She knew she was pushing too far as the words left her mouth. But for some odd reason, she had to know. It felt like the one piece of information that would decide which way her fluctuating feelings would finally fall. If Oracle was capable of an actual human emotion, if he was able to care, then Schwarz, most definitely would fall in the 'victim' category that most Esset talents seemed to be in.

She actually felt a bit of disappointment as he pulled up to the Koneko once again. The suprising bit of information almost sailed by her and the warning was simply dismissed. Mastermind was proving to be full of helpful information even if his words couldn't necessarily be trusted. Shooting him was the furthest thing from her mind.

Even so she tensed as he grabbed her hand.

She sorely wished she could just take his words at face value.
Even more disturbing, she was warring with her instincts that were telling her he was being truthful.

"Tonight. Your team will be there." She said it as fact. There was no question in her mind. All the other questions she may have had were instantly clear in her mind. She pulled her hand free, wrapping her hand around the number scrawled there.

"You know more about this disk than Weiss does." She looked to him in all seriousness. "We have a common goal..."

She prepared herself for the mocking laughter she thought would ensue.

"... so help them."

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

"Maybe if they can prove useful. Right now they seem like a bunch of oversexed teenagers." Schuldig snorted, putting his pen away again. "We don't know much more about it, other than what it does. And that there are at least two copies. Probably more." He pressed the button to unlock the car doors.

"We won't be there. Aside from the fact that we don't want to, it might raise suspicion if we are there. Call me when they get tired of trying to get information out of them the normal way. Now get out and go talk to them. Tell them whatever you want."

He looked at her, waiting for her to leave. Vaguely, he wondered if a black eye would be in store for this little meeting. But... he just needed to meet her. Talk to her. See where Schwarz stood with them. If they were in good with Manx, Weiss would follow. Nagi might not be able to convince them to go, but he was sure as hell that Manx could.

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Manx couldn't argue with that assessment. The drama she had just left in the Koneko's basement seemed to be nothing but hormone driven friction. Three virgins and a playboy all coming of age at the same time, under the same roof and with each other.

Kritiker really needed to take human sexual response more seriously in their profiling. It was astounding that they were all still breathing.

She felt certain that Schwarz was looking for the same answers that Weiss was searching for but she didn't necessarily trust that they would leave well enough alone. No matter what Mastermind's true motivations were in this conversation, one thing was clear.

They needed Weiss.

That alone gave her the confidence to place a demand of her own. She reached for his pen as she reached into her purse, quickly flipping a business card out of the front pocket. She quickly scrawled her cell number on the back.

"I am the closest you will get to Kritiker. We both have information the other wants and after tonight, I will know much more. You can call me when the need arises... "

Sure he could just smash through her shields to take what he wanted to know but doing so would destroy a valuable resource. As long as she had inside information on Kritiker, and remained on the inside, she would have value to Schwarz. It wasn't a guarantee but she would put money on the odds.

Hopefully it would buy her some time to get to know their greatest enemy in more detail. So far, it had been enlightening.

She opened the door and slipped one foot out.

"Thanks for the ride. It's been... interesting."

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

"Ditto." He said with a smirk, then suddenly looked up at the building, an amused look crossing his face briefly before he frowned.

How did these boys survive? It was really amazing to him sometimes. They had all of this information at their fingertips, and they were more worried about who fucked whom, who was going to fuck whom, and who wasn't fucking at all.

And Ken had gone batshit insane.

"Keep an eye on Siberian." He said before the door closed. "A very close eye. I would hate to lose such a valuable informant." He smirked at Manx. "Not to mention such a beautiful one."

He looked up one last time, easily finding Yohji's mind in the fray and wiping clean his memory of Brad and Schuldig's eventful evening together. He left most everything else, including the vision that led to his release, though he toned it down a bit, and made sure to add the memory of Schuldig wearing clothes.

It was for the best, Brad was right about that. Relationships were ammunition that they didn't need to have right now. They might be the "good guys" but they had no qualms about doing anything in their power to destroy the "bad guys."

"I'll contact you tonight." He said, looking back at Manx, then with a wave, drove off.

[bcmanx.livejournal.com]

Manx couldn't help but wonder exactly what sort of web she had just woven herself into. She was most definitely playing this by ear with little solid information to guide her next move. She only knew that it was imperative to keep moving forward. In that, at least, she was satisifed.

As she stepped out onto the sidewalk the serious tone of the warning the telepath offered stopped her in her tracks. She glanced up at the Koneko, reminding herself again that the German's talent was unhindered by brick walls. 'Informant' twisted momentarily in her gut - again the uneasy hint of betrayal to Kritiker gave her pause. But the shameless flirting had her rolling her eyes.

At least the redhead was much smoother than Yohji. If he honestly thought she could be swayed by flattery, this would be easier than she first surmised. He was charming (to a point), engaging and negotiating with a skill she hadn't honestly expected.

She was beginning to feel like the fly in this web. Actually, she felt they both were.

She watched him drive off then slowly turned toward the Koneko lost in thought. She reached for the door but stopped herself. She shut her eyes wrestling with her decision and, with a sigh, released the handle and walked off down the street.

She needed time to put this into perspective before she approached Weiss with any of this information. The source alone would preclude it's validity in their eyes. She was sure why it didn't in hers.

She hailed a cab and headed off for her long awaited appointment. Perhaps there, she would find the clarity she was looking for.

[aki-jade.livejournal.com]

[Schuldig exit to Friday 1.16 (http://community.livejournal.com/theblackcross/40468.html)]