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quirkypeanutblu
Character/Fandom: Darker than BLACK/Hei
Prompt: 048: Discover (from the 100 Prompts Challenge)
Word Count: 1,718
Summary: The remnants of the EPR has caught wind of what Hei is doing. Now they want to meet him.
Author Notes/Warnings: Contractors being themselves. Possible language and violence. X-posted everywhere.
Azure grinned and leaned across Hei’s tiny kitchen table.
“And that, boys and girls, brings the grand total to eighty-six Contractors.” She thumped the table and whooped. “That’s eighty-six Contractors freed, you realize that? Eighty-six Contractors out of the country and away from the Syndicate. That is pretty damn good, if you ask me.”
Hei couldn’t help a smile as well. Azure’s enthusiasm was always infectious. Bindy cackled from her perch on Hei’s kitchen counter. The other two Contractors in the room allowed for polite smiles. Yin, of course, remained expressionless.
It had been a long three months. They had been working almost nonstop, establishing contacts, reestablishing contacts when the old ones were discovered or killed, organizing transports across Japan and across the ocean, getting safehouses shifted and making sure that information continued to travel properly across the network. They now had an entire corps of Contractors all across Japan that was charged with spreading news and making sure Contractors knew where to find the nearest safehouse.
The corps comprised all of ten Contractors, but that was neither here nor there.
Still. Eighty-six Contractors. Eighty-six lives free from the Syndicate’s influence, free now to live their own lives. It wouldn’t be easy for them, and it would likely take months if not years for them to get on their feet, but they had known that before agreeing to this whole thing. These were Contractors who wanted freedom more than anything.
Still a rare breed.
“Not too bad at all,” Verde said softly, hugging her elbows and smiling.
“Especially considering how many times we were almost discovered,” Fox added, leaning back in his chair and staring at the ceiling. It was cramped in Hei’s apartment, barely large enough for two people to live in comfortably, but for once no one was complaining.
“So what now, fearless leader?” Bindy said through her usual shit-eating grin, kicking her feet against Hei’s kitchen cupboards. “We shifting gears yet, bringing the fight to them?”
“That was never what this was about,” Hei said, only the barest of warnings in his voice. He’d had this argument with Bindy before. “We focus on helping those Contractors who want to be helped. We focus on surviving. Then we’ll see.”
Bindy leaned backward, almost flopping on the counter. “So boring.”
In the moment of silence that followed, Yin spoke.
“We are being watched.”
Hei was on his feet in an instant, an automatic reaction. Fox’s hand fell to his gun; Azure reached across the table and took Verde’s hand in her own, sharp eyes darting all over the apartment.
“Where?”
Yin had her bare feet in a pan of water. She lifted a finger and pointed at the window over Hei’s stove. There, clinging to the glass, was a surveillance specter.
The Contractors stared at it in silence for half a second.
“We need to leave,” Hei said, drawing one of his knives as the others scrambled to their feet. “Now.”
“Wait…” Yin said, spreading her fingers in the corresponding gesture. “She’s talking…”
All eyes fell to Yin as Yin stared back at nothing, listening to something the other’s couldn’t hear. Then her head inclined toward Hei.
“She says she’s with the EPR. She says they want to speak to you.”
Silence. Hei looked from Yin to the specter and back. The EPR? It didn’t seem possible. How could the EPR find them, when the Syndicate had as yet been unable to? And why him; why Hei? If they wanted business with the Constellation, it would have been easier for them to contact the Chinese branch.
Hei frowned, remembering when Azure and Verde had first come to him. There were still legends surrounding Hei. And Amber would have made it clear to her organization just how badly she wanted Hei. The EPR had crumbled after the events at Hell’s Gate; the last of them were hiding in Shanghai, and hadn’t made a move ever since.
Why now?
“What do they want?” Hei asked, his voice carefully controlled.
Yin was silent for awhile, staring sightlessly at Hei’s face.
“They want to meet you. She says they are leaving it up to you if you want to meet them.” She paused, tilting her head a little. “Go to Odori Park. Ishikawa. Tomorrow at ten AM. Someone will meet you and will pass along instructions.”
All at once, the tiny apartment seemed to erupt with noise.
“It’s a trap, gotta be—”
“—the fucking Syndicate—”
“Even if it is the EPR, it’s a damn roundabout way to get our attention…”
“Sure got it, though.”
“So what the hell—”
“Hei?”
Hei was pacing, barely even hearing the other Contractors trying to talk over each other. He stopped just in front of the kitchen window and stared hard at the pale specter that sprouted from the glass like some kind of Gate plant. The black gaps that represented its eyes seemed to shift; the specter, and the Doll on the other end, were looking at him.
“Alright,” he said at length. “Tomorrow at ten.”
Bindy hissed, sounding rather like a cat. “Always knew you were an idiot, but now you’re just being retarded. Anyone can see this is a trap.”
“Maybe.” Hei watched as the specter sank away, leaving the glass bare.
“I don’t see how this can be anything but,” Verde agreed, watching Hei with careful eyes.
Hei wasn’t looking at them. He was silent for awhile, staring at his own reflection in the glass. Now was the only chance, when he was sure they weren’t being watched.
“If it’s the Syndicate, it’s already too late,” he said. “I’ll go alone. The rest of you scatter. Hide out for a few days. Azure, Verde, I want you to look after Yin—”
“No.” Yin was shaking her head. “Hei. No.”
“It’s not up for debate. If it goes well, I’ll contact you through the network. Yin…” He turned back, looking her in the eye. He had made a habit of it, even if she couldn’t see him. “Take Mao with you, alright? Just in case.”
“Hei…”
“Gotta be the self-sacrificing hero, huh?” Bindy sneered. “Not at all like a Contractor.”
Hei didn’t have the energy to rise to it this time. “We are the core members of the Constellation. If we are brought down, the entire organization falls. I can’t let that happen. All of you know enough and have the contact information; even if I’m gone, the rest of you should be able to continue without me.”
They were staring at him. He could only guess at what they were thinking.
There was a long silence.
Verde’s chair squeaked as she stood up, still grasping Azure’s hand. “We’ll go now. Hei…good luck.”
They filed out, one by one. Hei pretended not to notice how quick they were to leave.
-------
There weren’t many people in the park. There was always a healthy crowd of tourists, but it had been raining on and off since the very early morning, driving the locals indoors and driving the tourists to museums and shrines.
It was drizzling as Hei made his way to Nishi 3 chome, where the Monument of Takuboku Ishikawa stood. There was someone already sitting at the monument’s base, their back pressed to the stone. Hei couldn’t tell their age or even their gender; they were wearing an oversized yellow raincoat with the hood up.
Hei didn’t pause or slow. He walked to the other side of the monument and sat down as well, his back to the stone, his arms draped over his knees. He felt vulnerable. There was hardly anyone else around. If this was really a Syndicate trap, they had picked the perfect time and place. He likely wouldn’t even see them coming.
There was silence for a long time, except for the patter of rain and a murmur of distant conversation.
“I’m glad you came, BK-201.”
Male. He spoke good Japanese, but with a thick Czech accent. His voice was unusually high, which made it difficult to tell how old he was. Hei turned his head just slightly to the side. He heard a shift of cloth from the other side of the stone.
“The Primrose hasn’t wilted quite yet,” the man went on. “It’s taken a renewed interest in you.”
“Why might that be?” Hei kept his voice low. There was no telling whether there were microphones or specters nearby.
“Your Constellation.”
Hei hesitated before responding. “It’s not mine.”
“You began it. It’s yours.” Another shifting of cloth, a crinkle of paper, and a hand appeared around the stone, pushing a plain white envelope toward Hei. “The Primrose is interested in an alliance with the Constellation.”
Hei watched the hand and the envelope out of the corner of his eye.
“It is the logical decision,” the man said, answering Hei’s question before he could ask it. “We could be useful to each other.”
It was true; there was no denying that part. Even weakened, the EPR had contacts and sympathizers all over the world. If the Constellation had EPR support, they could go worldwide. Contractors everywhere would be able to locate safehouses and disappear, escape the Syndicate. After that it would only be a matter of time before they could go public. Demand rights, if not stage an outright war.
Hei hadn’t even begun to think that far ahead.
“I’ll consider it.”
The hand pushed the envelope closer toward him. “Follow the instructions here. They want to meet you in person.”
“In—”
“Go the address indicated and you will meet a Contractor. A teleporter. He will bring you to Shanghai—”
“I can’t simply go to—”
“The teleporter is guaranteed to return you safely home, no matter what your final decision is. The Primrose wants things to be civil.”
“Of course it does…” Hei muttered.
“The details are written. Everything will be explained and discussed in Shanghai.”
There was a shifting sound and Hei heard the man get to his feet. The rain began to pick up.
“We hope you will make the logical decision, BK-201,” the man said. And with that, he was gone. Hei caught a glimpse of his yellow raincoat disappearing down the path.
For awhile, Hei didn’t move. Then he reached over and picked up the envelope.
quirkypeanutbluCharacter/Fandom: Darker than BLACK/Hei
Prompt: 048: Discover (from the 100 Prompts Challenge)
Word Count: 1,718
Summary: The remnants of the EPR has caught wind of what Hei is doing. Now they want to meet him.
Author Notes/Warnings: Contractors being themselves. Possible language and violence. X-posted everywhere.
Azure grinned and leaned across Hei’s tiny kitchen table.
“And that, boys and girls, brings the grand total to eighty-six Contractors.” She thumped the table and whooped. “That’s eighty-six Contractors freed, you realize that? Eighty-six Contractors out of the country and away from the Syndicate. That is pretty damn good, if you ask me.”
Hei couldn’t help a smile as well. Azure’s enthusiasm was always infectious. Bindy cackled from her perch on Hei’s kitchen counter. The other two Contractors in the room allowed for polite smiles. Yin, of course, remained expressionless.
It had been a long three months. They had been working almost nonstop, establishing contacts, reestablishing contacts when the old ones were discovered or killed, organizing transports across Japan and across the ocean, getting safehouses shifted and making sure that information continued to travel properly across the network. They now had an entire corps of Contractors all across Japan that was charged with spreading news and making sure Contractors knew where to find the nearest safehouse.
The corps comprised all of ten Contractors, but that was neither here nor there.
Still. Eighty-six Contractors. Eighty-six lives free from the Syndicate’s influence, free now to live their own lives. It wouldn’t be easy for them, and it would likely take months if not years for them to get on their feet, but they had known that before agreeing to this whole thing. These were Contractors who wanted freedom more than anything.
Still a rare breed.
“Not too bad at all,” Verde said softly, hugging her elbows and smiling.
“Especially considering how many times we were almost discovered,” Fox added, leaning back in his chair and staring at the ceiling. It was cramped in Hei’s apartment, barely large enough for two people to live in comfortably, but for once no one was complaining.
“So what now, fearless leader?” Bindy said through her usual shit-eating grin, kicking her feet against Hei’s kitchen cupboards. “We shifting gears yet, bringing the fight to them?”
“That was never what this was about,” Hei said, only the barest of warnings in his voice. He’d had this argument with Bindy before. “We focus on helping those Contractors who want to be helped. We focus on surviving. Then we’ll see.”
Bindy leaned backward, almost flopping on the counter. “So boring.”
In the moment of silence that followed, Yin spoke.
“We are being watched.”
Hei was on his feet in an instant, an automatic reaction. Fox’s hand fell to his gun; Azure reached across the table and took Verde’s hand in her own, sharp eyes darting all over the apartment.
“Where?”
Yin had her bare feet in a pan of water. She lifted a finger and pointed at the window over Hei’s stove. There, clinging to the glass, was a surveillance specter.
The Contractors stared at it in silence for half a second.
“We need to leave,” Hei said, drawing one of his knives as the others scrambled to their feet. “Now.”
“Wait…” Yin said, spreading her fingers in the corresponding gesture. “She’s talking…”
All eyes fell to Yin as Yin stared back at nothing, listening to something the other’s couldn’t hear. Then her head inclined toward Hei.
“She says she’s with the EPR. She says they want to speak to you.”
Silence. Hei looked from Yin to the specter and back. The EPR? It didn’t seem possible. How could the EPR find them, when the Syndicate had as yet been unable to? And why him; why Hei? If they wanted business with the Constellation, it would have been easier for them to contact the Chinese branch.
Hei frowned, remembering when Azure and Verde had first come to him. There were still legends surrounding Hei. And Amber would have made it clear to her organization just how badly she wanted Hei. The EPR had crumbled after the events at Hell’s Gate; the last of them were hiding in Shanghai, and hadn’t made a move ever since.
Why now?
“What do they want?” Hei asked, his voice carefully controlled.
Yin was silent for awhile, staring sightlessly at Hei’s face.
“They want to meet you. She says they are leaving it up to you if you want to meet them.” She paused, tilting her head a little. “Go to Odori Park. Ishikawa. Tomorrow at ten AM. Someone will meet you and will pass along instructions.”
All at once, the tiny apartment seemed to erupt with noise.
“It’s a trap, gotta be—”
“—the fucking Syndicate—”
“Even if it is the EPR, it’s a damn roundabout way to get our attention…”
“Sure got it, though.”
“So what the hell—”
“Hei?”
Hei was pacing, barely even hearing the other Contractors trying to talk over each other. He stopped just in front of the kitchen window and stared hard at the pale specter that sprouted from the glass like some kind of Gate plant. The black gaps that represented its eyes seemed to shift; the specter, and the Doll on the other end, were looking at him.
“Alright,” he said at length. “Tomorrow at ten.”
Bindy hissed, sounding rather like a cat. “Always knew you were an idiot, but now you’re just being retarded. Anyone can see this is a trap.”
“Maybe.” Hei watched as the specter sank away, leaving the glass bare.
“I don’t see how this can be anything but,” Verde agreed, watching Hei with careful eyes.
Hei wasn’t looking at them. He was silent for awhile, staring at his own reflection in the glass. Now was the only chance, when he was sure they weren’t being watched.
“If it’s the Syndicate, it’s already too late,” he said. “I’ll go alone. The rest of you scatter. Hide out for a few days. Azure, Verde, I want you to look after Yin—”
“No.” Yin was shaking her head. “Hei. No.”
“It’s not up for debate. If it goes well, I’ll contact you through the network. Yin…” He turned back, looking her in the eye. He had made a habit of it, even if she couldn’t see him. “Take Mao with you, alright? Just in case.”
“Hei…”
“Gotta be the self-sacrificing hero, huh?” Bindy sneered. “Not at all like a Contractor.”
Hei didn’t have the energy to rise to it this time. “We are the core members of the Constellation. If we are brought down, the entire organization falls. I can’t let that happen. All of you know enough and have the contact information; even if I’m gone, the rest of you should be able to continue without me.”
They were staring at him. He could only guess at what they were thinking.
There was a long silence.
Verde’s chair squeaked as she stood up, still grasping Azure’s hand. “We’ll go now. Hei…good luck.”
They filed out, one by one. Hei pretended not to notice how quick they were to leave.
-------
There weren’t many people in the park. There was always a healthy crowd of tourists, but it had been raining on and off since the very early morning, driving the locals indoors and driving the tourists to museums and shrines.
It was drizzling as Hei made his way to Nishi 3 chome, where the Monument of Takuboku Ishikawa stood. There was someone already sitting at the monument’s base, their back pressed to the stone. Hei couldn’t tell their age or even their gender; they were wearing an oversized yellow raincoat with the hood up.
Hei didn’t pause or slow. He walked to the other side of the monument and sat down as well, his back to the stone, his arms draped over his knees. He felt vulnerable. There was hardly anyone else around. If this was really a Syndicate trap, they had picked the perfect time and place. He likely wouldn’t even see them coming.
There was silence for a long time, except for the patter of rain and a murmur of distant conversation.
“I’m glad you came, BK-201.”
Male. He spoke good Japanese, but with a thick Czech accent. His voice was unusually high, which made it difficult to tell how old he was. Hei turned his head just slightly to the side. He heard a shift of cloth from the other side of the stone.
“The Primrose hasn’t wilted quite yet,” the man went on. “It’s taken a renewed interest in you.”
“Why might that be?” Hei kept his voice low. There was no telling whether there were microphones or specters nearby.
“Your Constellation.”
Hei hesitated before responding. “It’s not mine.”
“You began it. It’s yours.” Another shifting of cloth, a crinkle of paper, and a hand appeared around the stone, pushing a plain white envelope toward Hei. “The Primrose is interested in an alliance with the Constellation.”
Hei watched the hand and the envelope out of the corner of his eye.
“It is the logical decision,” the man said, answering Hei’s question before he could ask it. “We could be useful to each other.”
It was true; there was no denying that part. Even weakened, the EPR had contacts and sympathizers all over the world. If the Constellation had EPR support, they could go worldwide. Contractors everywhere would be able to locate safehouses and disappear, escape the Syndicate. After that it would only be a matter of time before they could go public. Demand rights, if not stage an outright war.
Hei hadn’t even begun to think that far ahead.
“I’ll consider it.”
The hand pushed the envelope closer toward him. “Follow the instructions here. They want to meet you in person.”
“In—”
“Go the address indicated and you will meet a Contractor. A teleporter. He will bring you to Shanghai—”
“I can’t simply go to—”
“The teleporter is guaranteed to return you safely home, no matter what your final decision is. The Primrose wants things to be civil.”
“Of course it does…” Hei muttered.
“The details are written. Everything will be explained and discussed in Shanghai.”
There was a shifting sound and Hei heard the man get to his feet. The rain began to pick up.
“We hope you will make the logical decision, BK-201,” the man said. And with that, he was gone. Hei caught a glimpse of his yellow raincoat disappearing down the path.
For awhile, Hei didn’t move. Then he reached over and picked up the envelope.
