Chapter Twenty-Four
Yohji was somewhat surprised later that evening when there was a knock on his apartment door. He and the others had long ago bid each other good night unless any missions came; it was fairly late. He stood up and looked through the peephole (one could never be too careful, particularly not when one was an assassin), then opened the door to let Schuldig in.
“Hey, baby,” he said, putting his magazine aside and taking a quick drag on his cigarette before stubbing it out. “C’mon in.”
Schuldig came the rest of the way in and closed the door behind him, anger and frustration rolling off him in waves so big that even Yohji could feel it, although Schuldig was making no effort to project. In fact, Yohji guessed that most of the neighbors could feel it, probably including the rest of Weiss.
“What’s wrong?” Yohji said. He plopped onto his bed and patted the space next to him in a clear indication for Schuldig to sit down.
Schuldig did sit, but his shoulders were square and his body was stiff from tension. “He . . . he blew me off,” he said, his voice nearly as tense as his posture. “And made me feel like a complete and utter idiot.”
Yohji’s frown deepened. “What the hell did he do that for?” he asked indignantly. He couldn’t help but think some very nasty things about Brad, but did his best to dampen those down before Schuldig could ‘overhear’ them.
“I . . . I don’t know,” Schuldig admitted. “I don’t understand him I never did. He makes it so hard.”
“Well, what did he say?” Yohji asked, wondering if he was going to go try to break Brad’s head open. Honestly, after everything Schuldig had gone through to get him back from Esstet, the least the man could do was show a little damn respect.
Schuldig straightened his back and said, in an exaggerated imitation of Brad’s voice, “I know you look upon me as more of a protector, older brother figure, and that would be hard to change. The team dynamics would alter too much, and this would be a very bad time for that. And you have Yohji.” He immediately went off into a long string of German swears, most of them dirty and many of them insulting Brad’s ancestry and male anatomy. They were rather creative, including calling him a fucking anal retentive bitch.
“God, what an asshole,” Yohji said, after a moment to gape at Schuldig in total disbelief. He leaned over and gently nuzzled at Schuldig’s cheek. “Guess that means I’ll just have to keep you all to myself, then. His loss, not ours.”
Schuldig relaxed slightly under Yohji’s attentions, but he didn’t precisely look comforted. “It hurt,” he said softly. “He’s never just . . . ignored me like that before.”
Yohji pulled Schuldig into a loose hug, leaving him plenty of room to pull away if he wanted to. “Maybe he just couldn’t deal with outright saying no to you?” he asked, although he didn’t sound like he believed what he was saying.
“That would have been better,” Schuldig said. He didn’t pull away from Yohji, but he didn’t snuggle in any closer, either. “That way I would have at least been given credit for knowing myself.”
“Well . . .” Yohji’s voice trailed off and he hesitated before speaking again. “I don’t know him, so I can’t really speak for his actions, but . . . you know it’s not you, right?”
Schuldig nodded, then shook his head, frowning at himself. Brad was the only person on earth who could shake his self-confidence in this way, and the American had done an excellent job at it in this particular case.
Yohji reached out and lightly touched his cheek. “It’s not you,” he said firmly. “He’s just stupid. And cruel. And I know it’s not you because I love you.”
“But he’s not stupid, or cruel,” Schuldig protested, leaning against Yohji more heavily. He felt very confused. “He has always taken care of me.”
“Well, did he push you away entirely, or just in a romantic sense?” Yohji asked, hoping he could either make sense of what Brad had done, or at least make Schuldig feel better about what had happened.
“Just . . . the romantic.”
“So he’ll still be taking care of you, I guess. But . . .” Yohji hesitated again, trying to think about what he should say next. He was having difficulty, given that he was rather angry and mostly just wishing he could bitch Brad out. “He was cruel, no matter what you say. He owed you an explanation.”
Schuldig ducked his head, not meeting Yohji’s eyes. “He asked me to trust him and I always have in the past.”
“That doesn’t mean that he can just brush you off,” Yohji said heatedly, the anger more clear in his voice. “He may be a precog, but he’s not God, and he owes you something for how much you care for him and how much you did for him.”
“He doesn’t owe me anything,” Schuldig said quietly. “I may want an explanation, but he doesn’t owe me anything.”
“Yes, he does,” Yohji said. He was very firm on this point, and hoped that he could impart at least some of that onto Schuldig. “For caring about him, he does. He can’t just brush you aside.” He considered bringing up the fact that Schuldig had most likely saved Brad’s life by risking his own to get him back from Germany, then decided against it. It would probably only upset Schuldig, and that wasn’t his goal.
Schuldig sat in silence, clearly not really sure of what he could say to that. He was just glad that he had gotten his telepathy and his emotions back under wraps, where they belonged.
Yohji took his silence for disagreement. “I’ve a good mind to go over there and kick his ass . . .” he snarled.
“No,” Schuldig said immediately, as Yohji had known that he would. “I don’t want you two fighting.”
“I won’t, but only because I know you don’t want me to. Bastard had no right to hurt you like that.” He pulled Schuldig against him, giving him a hard little hug.
“I just thought I was doing the right thing,” Schuldig said, sounding bewildered.
“You were. It’s not your fault that he was a jerk about it.”
“I almost wish I could go back and not notice,” Schuldig said miserably.
“Maybe he just needs some time to adjust,” Yohji said, smoothing his hair gently. His thoughts did not parallel his words, but he was getting the feeling that saying what he really thought was probably a bad idea.
Schuldig ignored his thoughts, finally letting himself be comforted.
Yohji hugged him tightly. “You’ll always have me, no matter what. You know that, right?”
Schuldig nodded and managed a wan smile. “You put up with an awful lot from me.”
“Yeah, but you’re worth it,” Yohji said, with a laugh. “I mean, in all these years, you’re the only guy I’ve ever been serious about.”
Schuldig also laughed, and he was glad to find that he was both reassured and flattered. He felt a sudden wash of warm gratitude for Yohji’s presence, and made sure to let the other man know it. “I thought you generally went after girls.”
“Well, I do, but . . .” Yohji was too busy basking in the warmth of the emotions that Schuldig had projected to really care what they were talking about.
“Fine, ruin my dramatic statement.”
“It’s the thought that counts,” Schuldig said, snuggling closer.
“Ha very ha.” Yohji pressed a kiss against his temple. “Are you feeling a bit better, baby?”
Schuldig nodded. “I knew I would if I came to see you.”
“Good.”
^^^^
Chien eventually came to the conclusion that no matter how much he argued, he was always going to lose. In the long run, he managed to gain enough headway to at least get them to perform missions for Esstet, and Brad graciously agreed to stay home during these missions. Schuldig was only allowed to go along as a telepath; he wasn’t up to actual fighting. This displeased him greatly.
However, as long as Chien continued to act civilly, the team got along as well as could be expected. Brad and Nagi continued to work for Daishi, and Brad promised Schuldig that as soon as his two weeks of rest following his week of inactivity were over, he could join them again.
Yohji and Omi continued to visit, regardless of the dirty looks that Chien gave them, and for a week, everything almost seemed normal.
Chien dumped some paperwork on the table and went to the cupboard, while Schuldig was sitting at the kitchen table with his breakfast. He was incredibly bored. Brad had left for work that morning, and Nagi was home, but he was doing a hacking project. Farferello had been completely nuts, and no one had protested Chien sedating him.
Chien shut the cupboard with a thud. “We’re out of coffee,” he said shortly. “Would you mind running to get more?”
“You drank all my coffee?” Schuldig asked.
Chien rolled his eyes. “You probably drank it all yourself. You and Crawford both drink about two pots a day.”
“Well, since it’s our coffee.”
“I didn’t see your name on it,” Chien replied coolly. “Besides, you’ve been cooped up in the apartment for nearly two weeks. Don’t tell me you’re not itching for a chance to get out, while Crawford isn’t home to make you stay here.”
Schuldig stood up and grabbed his keys. He made a mental note to put his name on the coffee as soon as he got it. “You’re such an asshole.”
“I need to finish this paperwork,” Chien said, not denying the comment. “You can take the money from my wallet if you don’t have any.”
“Oh, why, thank you.” Schuldig opened Chien’s wallet and took all the cash, plus his credit cards. Chien didn’t protest, although he had known Schuldig was going to do it.
“Don’t be too long,” he said, shortly.
“Eat me,” Schuldig replied, leaving the apartment.
Chien waited about five minutes. Then he shut the folder of paperwork and went to Nagi’s door, pushing it open without bothering to knock. “I’m going out,” he said shortly. “If Farferello wakes up, there’s a tranquilizer ready in the bathroom.”
Nagi glanced up. “Where’s Schu?”
“He went out to do some errands. I’ll be back later.” Chien shut the door and left. A minute later, Nagi heard him leave the apartment. He frowned, putting his computer aside, and left his room. The apartment was completely empty, except for himself and Farferello, who was unconscious.
He shifted slightly. He didn’t know why the situation made him so nervous, but he was aware that the four of them had been very neatly separated. Nagi was the only member of Schwarz that was intimidated by Chien, mostly because he had known several people like him at the Institute. However, because of this, he paid the most attention to him. Chien had been pleased when he had left the apartment, but Nagi didn’t know why.
Nagi went to the phone and dialed Schuldig’s cell phone. There was no answer. He frowned more and tried to get a hold of him mentally, but there was still no answer. Nagi had never been unable to get in touch with Schuldig that way before. Now beyond nervous, he dialed Brad’s cell number.
No answer.
He decided to call Weiss, but for that, he would need to know their number. He thought that Schuldig had left it on the list of numbers by the phone, but it wasn’t there now. He went to his room and went back to his computer.
The whole situation had him very nervous. He wondered suddenly, if something was to happen, if Weiss would be able to do anything. They were a good team, but they didn’t have Talents. If they were going to be able to do anything, they would need help.
He opened his e-mail and addressed a letter to Omi. He didn’t bother writing anything; he didn’t know if there was time. He just typed in the seventeen character password that he used to do all his hacking, and pressed send. Then he got their phone number from the addressbook he kept on his computer, and shut down the system.
Nagi was walking back to the phone when he heard one of the windows crack. He looked down to see the dart embedded in his thigh.
“Well,” he said to nobody, “at least I won’t feel stupid for sending Omi my password.”
^^^^
Brad had been feeling nervous most of the afternoon. He couldn’t pinpoint why, it was just one of his hunches. Being a precog, he was used to trusting his hunches, so he escaped from work as quickly as possible and went home. Once in the car, he tried to turn on his cell phone to call the apartment and make sure everything was all right.
The cell phone refused to turn on. He frowned at it, shaking it, but this made no difference. He tried to get hold of Schuldig mentally, but had no better luck than Nagi had. Given this, he broke every speed limit on the way back to the apartment.
Chien was sitting at the kitchen table, looking through his paperwork. Brad ignored him, stalking past and going into Schuldig’s room. It was empty. So was Nagi’s, and the computer was off, despite the fact that Brad knew the hacking project should have taken him all day and well into the night. He had never seen Nagi abandon a hacking project half done.
He checked in Farferello’s room. The other man was looking somewhat woozy, but was awake. “Are you all right?” Brad asked tersely.
“Drugged,” Farferello said, looking displeased. “But better.”
“Good.” Brad abruptly left the room, leaving the door open behind him. Farferello eyed the open door and started trying to wobble to his feet.
Brad walked into the kitchen. “Where are they.”
Chien didn’t look up. “I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
Brad drew out his gun. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Tell me what’s happened to Schuldig and Nagi. And don’t think that I won’t shoot you, because I’m having a very bad day, and I think it’s all thanks to you.”
“You won’t,” Chien said. “You know that Esstet would have you killed if you did.”
“Esstet’s going to have me killed anyway and you damn well know it,” Brad said, pressing the gun against Chien’s temple. “You’re a projective precognitive, aren’t you. You fucked up my visions so I wouldn’t see this coming.”
Chien smiled. “And here I thought Schuldig was the only one who had figured that out.”
“As if Schuldig doesn’t tell me everything,” Brad said disdainfully. “Now for the last time, tell me where Schuldig and Nagi are.”
Farferello wandered out of his room, still in his straightjacket, and surveyed the situation with curiosity. He leaned against the wall, looking on in interest. It was hard to look casual in a straightjacket, but he managed.
“You know that I’m not going to, no matter what you threaten me with.”
“Fine.” Brad pulled the trigger. Blood splattered all over the kitchen counter, and Chien slumped forward, facedown in his paperwork.
“Schuldig’s going to be very upset with you,” Farferello stated.
Brad’s mind tried to click into gear. Shooting Chien had been a bad idea, but it wasn’t like it mattered. Esstet had clearly arranged for Schuldig and Nagi to be taken somewhere, probably to a secure facility. Schuldig’s abduction failed to surprise him, but Nagi’s? Why had they taken Nagi? In all the possible situations Brad had come up with, Nagi had not figured in. He had found Nagi with no help from Esstet. Nagi hadn’t been in their files at all, and they had let Brad remove him from the Institute with relatively little trouble. How did he fit in?
“Schuldig will have to put up with it,” he finally said. He walked over and started to loosen the straightjacket.
“Now what are you going to do?” Farferello asked, allowing Brad to help him free. “You’ve ruined the kitchen.”
“Get your shoes. We’re leaving.”
Farferello held out his hand.
Brad reached in his pocket and pulled out a key. “They’re in the chest at the end of Schuldig’s bed. Take whatever you feel you need.”
Farferello accepted the key. “You think we’re in trouble.”
Brad looked at Chien’s body. “I know we’re in trouble.”
Farferello went in Schuldig’s room. He came out a few minutes later with his full set of knives, Schuldig’s gun, and the kitten under one arm. Brad was now holding a spare box of bullets. “Do you have everything?” he asked, as Farferello put his shoes on.
Farferello tossed Brad Schuldig’s gun. Brad checked it for bullets and tucked it under one arm. “Let’s go. You’ll have to hold the kitten; I’m not taking the time to cram it into the cat carrier.”
“It doesn’t like it anyway,” Farferello said with a shrug. “Where are we going?”
“I haven’t the faintest,” Brad said.
“It’ll be an interesting trip.”
^^^^
The flower shop was busy for an evening, and Omi was looking forward to when they would close, and he could go do his homework. At least there hadn’t been any missions lately; he’d been able to catch up. Of course, given that he spent a lot of his free hours either visiting Nagi or trying to find information on Aya’s kidnapping, the time he had actually spent on homework had been relatively little.
He glanced up as the bell on the door tinkled, and his jaw nearly dropped as Brad walked in with Farferello in tow. Omi saw several curious glances from the girls in the flower shop and winced. “Crawford!” he said, waving. “Wow, it’s been so long! Over here!”
Brad waded through the girls, trying to glare down their stares. He turned to Farferello. “I’m going to go talk to Omi. Don’t. Play.”
Farferello heaved a much put-upon sigh.
“Don’t make me take your knives,” Brad said, under his breath.
“You wish,” Farferello said, wandering away.
Brad went over to the counter and gave Omi a smile that almost looked genuine. “How’ve you been?” he asked casually.
“Oh, pretty well,” Omi said. “School, work . . . I wasn’t expecting you to visit.”
“I wasn’t expecting to come,” Brad said. “I was going to bring Nagi-kun, but he got caught up in something else and couldn’t make it.”
Omi blinked, and looked suspicious. The look was quickly replaced with his usual large smile. “Well, let me finish up with this order, and then I’ll make you some tea.”
“Sure,” Brad said.
Omi quickly packaged up the flowers and shoved them into Ken’s hands. “Finish this for me,” he muttered, and disappeared into the back with Crawford in tow. “Sorry about that,” he said, as they went into the house. “Those girls can be strangely perceptive and persistent. And curious.”
Brad shrugged. “In a public setting, from you I expect no less.”
“What’s going on?” Omi asked. “Where’s Nagi?”
“I don’t know. He’s gone. So is Schuldig.”
“That’s not good,” Omi said, clearly waiting for an explanation.
“How much had Nagi told you about what’s going on?”
“I know your organization has a longer reach than ours. I know you were removed for insubordination, however subtle. And I know that your organization finds Schuldig very valuable, and not necessarily because he’s a member of your team.”
“Good,” Brad said. “Then you know pretty much everything that I know.”
“Why don’t you fill me in on those little bits that I don’t know?”
“Do you know about the Talents?”
“Yes.”
“Then here’s what you need to know. Chien, the new team ‘leader’, was a projective precognitive, and he was giving me false visions so I didn’t realize anything was wrong. For some reason outside my knowledge, Schuldig and Nagi have been taken, probably to a secure facility. I don’t know where they are and I don’t know what’s happening to them. But I do know that it’s important that we get them back as quickly as possible. Esstet is not known for mercy.”
“And where is Chien now?” Omi started down the steps to the room where Weiss accepted their missions from Kritiker, and waved for Brad to follow him.
Brad waited until they were down the stairs. “He’s still in our apartment. He’s quite dead.”
“That’s quite a shame,” Omi said. “Especially since it’s going to alert them that you know so much quicker.”
“Not true. It stops Chien from contacting them. Either way, they found out immediately. There was nothing I can do about that, and I didn’t want him around to stab us in the back.”
“Good to know,” Omi said. “I don’t suppose you have a list of the secure facilities.”
Brad shook his head. “I’m sure there are ones I wouldn’t know about anyway. Nagi would have been able to get to it, but . . .”
“If I had his computer and his passwords, I’d be able to get to anything he could, within reason.” Omi sat down at his own computer and flipped the monitor on. “But I’ll see what I can do here.” He reached down and plugged the cable cord in. As soon as his monitor was on, he blinked. “I have e-mail,” he said, more to himself than to Brad, and opened it up.
“What is it?” Brad asked.
“It’s from Nagi.” Omi was blinking at it. “Huh. He sent me his passcode. Let’s go get his computer.”
“He sent you his -- ” Brad stared at him. “But that means that Nagi knew that something was wrong. With enough advance notice to e-mail you. How would he have known?”
“He’s a smart kid?” Omi guessed.
Brad paused. “Let’s go. We’d better tell Yohji.”
Omi winced. “That’s not going to be fun.” They went back to the flower shop, where Omi tugged Yohji aside from where he was watering some flowers in the greenhouse in back. Yohji blinked to see Crawford.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, confused.
“It’s a long story.” Brad looked at Omi, obviously hoping that Omi would deliver the news for him.
“We’ve got a problem,” Omi said, and outlined it as quickly and matter-of-factly as he could, hoping that delivering the news this way would make it seem at least a little less terrible.
It didn’t. “So Schuldig is missing?” Yohji asked.
“Mm hm,” Omi said. “I’m going with Crawford-san to get Nagi-kun’s computer to see if we can track down where they are. I should be able to hack into the system.”
“How long will that take?” Yohji asked, sounding upset, but still calm.
“If he does it often enough and all the presets are there, probably an hour or two. If he doesn’t, I could be at it all night.” And that, Omi reflected grimly, was just to find the list of facilities. Figuring out which one Nagi and Schuldig were in -- if they were even in the same one -- could take days or even weeks. He didn’t want to make Yohji panic any worse than he already was, however, so he didn’t mention this.
Yohji looked squarely at Brad. “Are we safe here?”
Brad jumped slightly. Clearly, this had not occurred to him. He closed his eyes briefly. “No,” he said shortly, and looked at Omi. “I don’t think we are.”
Omi swore. “They’re going to have Talents searching for us, aren’t they.”
Brad laughed dryly. “Koneko no Sumi is in the phonebook, Omi.”
“If we leave,” Omi said, through ground teeth.
“Then yes. Probably. Perhaps not, though. They’re focused right now on Schuldig and Nagi, and they know it’ll take us days or weeks to find them. They might not bother unless they think we’re getting close.”
“Weeks?” Yohji squawked.
“I’m not any happier about it,” Brad said flatly.
“We’re going to need somewhere safe when we do find them,” Omi said, being sure to say ‘when’ and not ‘if.’ “Okay. Crawford-san and I are going to clean out everything useful out of their apartment. You, Ken-kun, and Aya-kun are going to close down the shop. Pack everything we need. We’re leaving. Call Manx and tell her we want a safehouse. One of the ones I’m not supposed to know about. And go ahead, blame it all on me, but tell her we want one. We need one. Now.”
“Will you meet us back here?” Yohji asked.
Omi nodded. “I should be back here within an hour.”
Brad glanced at him. “Do you have a cell? I think Chien must have dumped mine in the sink when I wasn’t looking.”
Omi nodded again. “Yup. Clear everything out of the apartments, too. I’m not sure we’re coming back.”
“That’s cheery,” Yohji said, but he was nodding. “I’ll go let Aya and Ken know.” And with that, he walked away.
“He’s good in a crisis,” Brad observed. “I expected him to get more upset than that.”
“Getting upset won’t get Schuldig back any quicker, and he knows that. Now let’s go.”
^^^^
Chapter Twenty-Five
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