(1) Sunday1.20: Something has happened!

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

The sun has set and the flickering glow of streetlights reflects off the Koneko's doors, alleys shadowed in the night.

A blond Japanese man with a pleasant face framed by square glasses, medium frame clothed in a crisp beige suit, walks purposefully down the deserted sidewalk. He has a suitcase in one hand, he carries a can of coffee in the other. When he reaches the flower shop, he places the suitcase on the ground, bends over and opens it. With precise ease, he enters a series of commands. Within a matter of minutes, the building's security programs, Weiss' and Kritiker's both, are disarmed.

He picks up the suitcase and slips inside the back door, placing the suitcase on the kitchen table and repeating his motions. The alarms are reset. He dumps the rest of his drink down the sink and throws out the can before taking a seat facing the door, hands folded neatly in front of him on the table, waiting for Weiss to return.

Comments

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi heard it, too. Abyssinian. A code name. The lack of them thus far had only aided his wariness, but hearing one made it more difficult to discount the man as a liar and enemy.

That didn't redeem Yohji in the slightest.

Activated. In Omi's mind they'd never been deactivated. It was just... a dry spell, he supposed. The sick feeling in his stomach had nothing to do with that, and everything to do with the rapid series of confusing and upsetting twists the last few minutes had taken.

A stranger had slipped past security and surprised them all, leaving Omi to wonder if their current level of it was enough.

Chaos had ensued as they tried to figure out whether he was an ally as he claimed or a liar and enemy.

Ken and Yohji had walked in holding hands.

Yohji defied a direct order, placing his trust in an as-of-yet unauthorized stranger in their home over him. Placing his priorities in making that stranger tea instead of confirming the security of the rest of the building. Omi was -still- reeling from that.

And now the man really was from Kritiker and the whole team looked like a joke. Humiliating.

He wasn't looking up and missed Ken's glance. He stared at the bottom of the stairs, clenching his fists and fighting for self-control. Don't show your emotions. Climb the steps. Be professional. This was business.

God, they sucked so hard.

One step at a time, Omi slowly returned to the main floor and stopped in the doorway, expression unreadable. He pointedly avoided looking at Yohji, concentrating instead on Sato. He wanted an explanation, but held his tongue.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Ran regarded the man, then half-turned his head toward the doorway. "Omi," he prompted.

Their response would not look good, if this were indeed Kritiker. Disjointed, disoriented. Disobedient. Even if Omi's orders seemed hasty, he was their leader. Yohji should have obeyed.

Ken should have obeyed, or asked for new orders. He had taken Yohji's lead, it seemed, rather than direct orders.

They were holding hands.

He had thought them more professional than this. If Ken had formed allegiances within the group, a particular allegiance that interfered with orders, it was not permissable.

And something more bothered him about it, he recognized.

He shoved it aside.

"Omi," he prompted again.

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi warred with himself. Ideally he'd like a little more solid proof that Sato was a genuine connection to Kritiker. The use of a code name was well and good, but...

New liaison.

Ran had prompted him twice. He needed to speak out. Represent their team, somehow, or whatever excuse for a team they'd shown themselves as.

"I want to speak with Manx."

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Sato inclined his head, looking vaguely satisfied. "I'm afraid that is no longer possible, Mr. Tsukiyono. Manx has been assigned to a new project.

"I will be sending you an email shortly. If you have any concerns...well. I don't doubt you have your ways of contacting our employer. But I strongly recommend you go through me. These are busy times."

He smiled at Yohji. "I'm afraid it is getting a little late for tea, Mr. Kudoh. But thank you." He extended a hand, kept conservatively close to his body. "May have I have my briefcase, if I may assume you've decided to believe me?"

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi shot his hand out in a blocking gesture in front of Ken. No. No he could not have his briefcase back yet. Damn it, the entire situation was vexing. He was furious at Yohji, frustrated with the lack of information, pained at the idea of never seeing Manx again, and highly unsettled with the idea that strangers could come and go as they pleased within their home. Enough.

"An assignment to a new project doesn't render her unable to spare a minute of her time. She can testify on your behalf and there will be no doubt at all that you're telling the truth. I want some answers. Why she's been reassigned when she's always been so good at her work. Why you're here instead without any notification of the change and expecting us to believe you. And why you thought it smart to first greet us by breaking past our security and waiting uninvited inside our home. That's incredibly rude. And stupid, if you know it's the home of people like us. You might not have even had the chance to say hello."

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Sato nodded, the gesture making his glasses fall further down his nose. Finally he pushed them up and tugged on the corners of his jacket, pulling his suit back in place. "The nature of her assignment makes it an impossibility, I'm afraid. Be content that Kritiker has decided that I am a suitable replacement. You nor I have much of a say in it, I'm afraid, so I hope we'll get along a bit better once we both get accustomed to our places."

If it held a note of warning, it sounded completely unintentional.

He paused, then looked over his glasses at Omi, the gesture making him look like a boyish schoolteacher. "As for being rude. I'm afraid you'll need to rework your security systems. They were very good, of course." He trailed off, fixing his glasses a final time.

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi narrowed his eyes. "You didn't answer any of my questions. I refuse to be content with that. If you can't do any better providing information and Manx is unavailable, I'll be paying a visit to headquarters. I don't know what planet's logic makes you think the ability to wait in here gives you the right to or makes it any less foolish, but I'm not buying it! I'd like to remind you that if you are telling the truth, you're currently alone and surrounded by four trained specialists that are not happy with you. I'm not inclined to let you just walk out of here with no more than that."

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Sato lost his smile. "I understand your position, Mr. Tsukiyono. However, I am forced to remind you that I outrank your team. Unless you want to tell me how your loyalties have changed, you might want to keep that in mind.

"As for my purpose here," he continued, "it should be clear. I've breached your security. Your team did not respond efficiently. You cannot control your members. I'm here for an evaluation, Bombay, and I think you may want to recognize my suggestion to use me as your liaison as an opportunity to improve before Kritiker becomes informed."

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi remained quiet for several moments. The reprimand was harsh, and the reminder that Yohji had disobeyed a direct order sent a fresh sting through Omi’s stomach. Ken hadn’t responded to orders either. Was he following Yohji now that they were together?

The sting was in Omi’s chest now. He didn’t let it show. When he finally answered his voice was hushed and level.

“My loyalty remains with Kritiker, as it always has and always will. I won’t deny that our team makes mistakes sometimes. Such is the nature of using humans over robots. But it doesn’t make very much sense to test our reactions to a security breach and then become upset that the result is surrounding you and forbidding you to simply waltz out without any more information. You’ve put us in a catch 22, performing poorly until your position is compromised. Then you turn around and accuse us of mutiny. Maybe the real answer is that we may not be perfect, but we’re still a strong team, and it’s because our loyalty to Kritiker is absolute that your higher rank will -not- be acknowledged until you give us more than your word. Breaches of Kritiker’s security are of even greater importance than the security of this building, and you seem to know a lot. Please don’t judge us poorly for my demands that you provide unshakeable proof of your identity before I let you leave. The Kritiker I’ve worked for wouldn’t want it any other way.”

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

A grim sense of doom settled in Yohji’s gut. He was fucked. Aya and Omi were not going to forgive him for this. He had screwed up in the very deepest sense of the word. He steeled himself. There was no fixing this; all he could do is make himself not care. He hadn’t expected Ken to balk at following orders as well though. Why had he done that? He really hadn’t meant to drag Ken down with him.

While he had concluded that Sato was telling the truth, he had not yet evaluated his personal opinion of the man. He now made up his mind that this Yutaro Sato was a self-righteous prick.

He poured himself a mug of tea and calmly returned to the table. He briefly entertained the notion of pouring the kettle of boiling tea onto Yutaro’s expensive suit, but decided he had already dug himself a deep enough grave for one evening. Too bad though, that would have been immensely satisfying.

“If there is to be disciplinary actions taken, Mr. Sato,” Yohji forced the artificial calmness to remain in his voice, “I trust you to direct them at me, and not the team. Omi is certainly not to blame for my behavior tonight. And I’d also like to say that your arrogant attitude would be better reserved for people who are voluntarily employed.”

[plotbunnytiff.livejournal.com]

When his teeth started grinding of their own accord and the taste of copper began to crrep into the edges of his awareness, Ken knew that his temper was hitting a rising point.

This self-rightious ass had no right...well if he was Kritiker he did have a right but...playing mind games was not a good way of handling people who live their lives wearing a thin shield of paranoia at all times. If this was a test, it was a horrible way to set up good liason relations.

~He must be expendable,~ Ken mused dangerously. ~They must have known there was at least a 75% chance that we would have killed him first, then asked questions.~

He ignored the quiet whisper that said it wasn't too late to do just that. He didn't like Sato one bit, or what he brought back into their lives.

Before he did something like make a hole in the wall (or in Sato's head) he shifted on his feet trying to catch Omi's eye. He didn't know if he still wanted him to make that sweep, or stay in case something else went wrong. He was having trouble staying still; head games simply weren't something he was comfortable playing.

The only reason he wasn't already out the door was because of the re-instatement bombshell that got dropped on him, and most of the shock from that had worn off into a seething anger.

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi watched Yohji, only mildly gratified to see him at least take responsibility for his actions. At the same time, part of Omi couldn't help agreeing with Sato. He was the leader. He was responsible for keeping his team in line. He was responsible for being a strong enough figure of command that they wouldn't even -think- to disobey. Clearly, he wasn't.

He was still angry about it, but this wasn't the time to criticize or reprimand. So long as they stood before Sato, he wanted them to be the team that they were, supporting one another, acting as one and not four. They'd shown enough division amongst themselves.

Not willing to completely take his eyes off Sato-- who still owed him an answer-- Omi slighted his head towards one side, glancing over his shoulder at Ken, still not sure just what was going on with him. Except that he looked restless.

"Ok?" He asked in a whisper.

[plotbunnytiff.livejournal.com]

Ken nodded once, leaning in a bit to breath a reply. Hardly moving his lips at all, he muttered "Fine. Sweep?" and tilted his head a bit toward the door.

He could make the run in ten minutes or less, but he wasn't going to leave unless Omi still wanted him to.

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi had already put his eyes back on Sato waiting for an answer when Ken asked his question. Omi quickly filed through the information they had, decided it was at this point unlikely that Ken would find anyone or anything (and he honestly didn't expect him to), but it was better to not assume anything, and three on one was still easily enough to handle Sato. Besides which, if Sato was indeed telling the truth, no evaluation of procedures in a security breach should be complete without a check of the rest of the building.

He inclined his head just so in a nod, muttering back, "Be careful. Take a weapon and look for tampering or traps, too."

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Sato observed Weiss coordinating and bit back a smile diplomatically. "Kritiker does think you're a strong team," he agreed, and spread his hands in a somewhat conciliatory gesture. "But I'm afraid I have no proof for you. Kritiker does not like things that can be tracked, as I'm sure you know."

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi didn't think any sort of evaluation should be necessary if Kritiker truly still believed in them. Sato's claim that he was there to test them and his assertion that Kritiker still thought them strong... just didn't add up for him.

"Then, I think you should make yourself comfortable while I confirm your position myself." Omi gently suggested. "You shouldn't find it unreasonable that I want to be absolutely certain of it before accepting any missions from you."

[skyrat13.livejournal.com]

Yohji watched Ken leave the room to complete Omi's failed commands. He almost offered to join him, but remained silent. It seemed to him like it would only make the team look weaker if he acquiesced now; he should stick to his convictions, even if they were poor ones....

"I suppose you are going to tell us that Birman is permanently indisposed as well," he commented grimly, not knowing what else to contribute at this point.

[genuinelie.livejournal.com]

Sato inclined his head. "I'm sorry, their projects are of a classified nature."

[pichi.livejournal.com]

Omi always had his cell phone with him. Pulling it from its clip at his waist, he flipped it open and dialed Manx’s number. No answer. He fought to keep a composed expression, more worried for her safety. Reassignment was such a vague and unjustified explanation. Had something happened to her?

He tried Birman. Same result. Frustration grew in his stomach. Right. Headquarters themselves.

Frustration evaporated into relief when the voice of a familiar secretary answered. Contact at last. Though it was still worrisome and discouraging to receive no further information on Manx’s whereabouts despite asking again, there was little choice but to accept it now.

The conversation stayed brief and polite otherwise, with Omi returning the phone to its holster. The secretary had confirmed Sato’s employment, leaving no lingering doubts in Omi’s mind. He felt no embarrassment for his stubbornness in eliminating them, nor any grudge or hostility towards Sato now that he had eliminated them. He could trust him now.

He picked up Sato’s briefcase, carried it over, and offered it to him with no attempt to pry inside. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll keep an eye out for your e mail.”