WD Rule five is entitled 'Be steadfast in even the falsest of feelings, and evasive in your lies.'

Previous rule four: People changing is fine, it's people changing too fast that's troublesome.

Next rule six: Reunions are things that everyone looks forward to, though sometimes you may have to force yourself into looking forward to them.

Summary Page

-Short summary-

Lukas and Meifa head into the field to pursue a lead on not Mugen, but things don't go as planned...

-Long summary-

Back at the Hydeout, (a name affectionately coined by the sevens), Lukas browses through the information Heike, Mo and Nolan had stolen from the Govt in print format while Yelena does so on a laptop. Most of it is straightforward in its revelations of next to nothing.  It’s suggested that not Mugen has been killing feds in connection to the WD theorem, but that wouldn’t explain why he seems to have done the opposite lately and gone down the rank and file. Some of his last victims had little if anything to do with the theorem, and it seems utterly pointless to pursue them if that is his MO. Lukas starts thinking a bit bigger…what if his goal is something more than slaying people who have something to do with the WD theorem?  What if this is only the beginning act of some sort of twisted play? What if…this has absolutely nothing to do with anything? The sheer amount of possibilities is mind boggling. Yelena is looking through the encrypted information and printing it as she decrypts it (something she considers child’s play), and all it does is to serve as more confusing than when they knew nothing about him. The re spy can’t help but think that this whole ordeal would be easier if Matilde weren’t obviously holding out information on them.

He manages to work through his annoyance with her to think back on Ricca who had turned down the chance to be with them. Caught between frustration and understanding, Lukas figures it might even be for the best that she didn’t get caught up in being forced to help a terrorist find the person who’s framing her. (He also realizes how very fantastic this whole premise sounds.) Despite that, he would have liked her back on the team, if only to assuage his own feelings of guilt. If Ricca were here he could continue to apologize for what happened to her, and furthermore it would ease his own psyche towards how she feels about being harmed in general. Although she hadn’t said as much, and he knows she probably doesn’t feel that way, his own brain betrays him with thoughts of her decision being based on not wanting to see them…or him any more, on thoughts of hating what happened to her due to his own failure. For now at least, he’d have to just focus on the mission at hand. Hopefully he can figure out leads soon so he can call Ricca back with good news.

Heike and Meifa have somehow managed to jerry rig a Television in the Hydeout and are watching reality TV on an old leather couch, while Nolan despite the sheer amount of space in the warehouse has taken it upon himself to begin cleaning. Chiaki out of obligation (or pity; take your pick.) is helping him. Mo is nowhere to be found, and the group is under Wargle and Mizuki’s watchful eyes. Lukas starts to wonder where Matilde is, but he looks up and nearly falls over when he sees she’s spying over his girlfriend’s shoulder. Yelena exhales obviously surprised by the terrorist’s sudden appearance, but manages to keep a poker face focused on the screen. Matilde sips from a Styrofoam cup from a straw and asks between slurps if they’ve found anything. She’s not, not paying them for nothing after all. Lukas narrows his eyes and questions this….she’s not paying them? Coercing them to work for her is one grievance, but doing it for free is…

Matilde waves off his concerns and replies she’s not saying she is never going to pay them.  Just…not for this particular job. Startup costs and stuff….you know, the costs of doing business. ‘Sides they’re always free to go try their luck somewhere else, if you call that luck. Lukas grumbles and rustles the papers he has in an attempt to look busy. Matilde continues reading over Yelena’s shoulder until something strange happens. For just a moment, a fraction of a second so tiny that even experienced operatives might have written it off as trivial, Matilde’s happy go lucky exterior drops. The gang has seen her bloodthirsty and cutesy sides enough that this isn’t strange in and of itself, but what the briefly collapsed emotion reveals is a new one previously unseen to anyone on the team. For just a brief second Matilde reads something that leaves her with an ‘oh-crap’ expression. Lukas and Yelena both trade quick glances, and with experience beyond their years hide that they have seen what they probably shouldn’t have. Matilde quickly recovers and makes a pleased sound as she turns to Heike and Meifa who are trying their best to not be annoyed at the prospect of working pro bono. Not picking up that she is a persona non grata, Matilde heads over to them and starts up a conversation.

Lukas glances over at Yelena who types on the keyboard with one hand and sends a text with the other. His phone buzzing, Lukas picks up and reads the text. ‘You saw that right?’ Lukas types a response that he did and quickly asks if she has an idea of what she read that elicited that response. Yelena quickly replies that she had followed Matilde’s eye movements and can guess around what sentence in the encrypted files she had read that had caused her to drop her façade for a moment, but she’s not sure exactly what word or phrase had done it. Lukas asks her to send him the paragraph, and he’ll simply go through it and single out any words that sound suspicious. They may be overreacting, but this might be just what they need to bring Matilde down. Yelena e-mails him the document, and Lukas puts it in his important files for later. He’d have to spend time on this lead, as it’s the only one they’ve got for the time being.

He then finds a page on the printed portions of the file that he finds interesting. According to the Govt, not Mugen has started getting desperate in his search for a connection to the WD theorem, which is the basis of their hypothesis for the random killings. Although there’s no real proof of this, it is an interesting theory. If he’s getting desperate it means he’s not entirely thinking things through, and that’s the sort of behavior that gets you caught or dead….that is if the people who want to kill or catch you have a lead. The Govt can’t find not Mugen, and though they have this information, they can’t exactly feed it to everyone without not Mugen getting scared off the grid. That is of course if it is the Govt that comes charging after not Mugen. Would he get scared off if a bunch of vigilantes were to come looking for him with information? Or would he come to silence them before they could go public with it? Chances are he’d go with ‘B’, and come looking for them. So then Lukas would goad him into coming for  them by trumping up the information they stole to a point that not Mugen would have no choice but to give them his full attention and come running.

Lukas goes to Yelena and asks if she can doctor up a profile for him. Yelena nods and starts on it, and the re-spy asks Meifa if she still feels up to whupping some ass. Meifa sits up straight, and replies ‘always’. Obviously happy that she doesn’t have to listen to Matilde prattle on about this or that. He grins in response and says that he thinks he might have something for her to do then. The terrorist glances in his direction and Lukas gives her a confident look. All goes well, they could catch not Mugen today. If not they would at least be able to see him up close and personal. He then tells his ‘boss’ that he’ll spearhead this mission himself, so she should just sit tight and wait for results. Matilde regards him silently with an unreadable expression and purses her lips as if she intends to say something, but smirks instead and walks away from the group. Heike leans into the couch near the TV and thanks the merciful Lord that they’ll be getting away from her for a bit. Is he the only one who thinks that this new persona is creepier than the other one? She actually asked him for hair care tips! The nerve of some people.

Later that evening Lukas and Meifa head out to a café with their trumped up information.  Yelena had put them down as the messengers for a corrupt security official who has information on not Mugen he intends to sell to the Govt. She had also made sure to make every effort to put the sale up for public knowledge…everything short of putting coupons on living social’s webpage, which acts as a security buffer and trap for not Mugen. Some underworld dwellers might come slinking around to get a look at the deal, but since not Mugen is acting in interests against the people who keep them from their ill gotten gains, none of them would really act in the interest of Uncle Sam and capture him. Now the feds on the other hand might take this seriously and come around though this is why Lukas had asked for a new identity. Only the really high ups would recognize his face, and even then he was a teenage kid last they saw him, so it would probably take them a few moments to recognize him. Right now he’s Eliot Parker, a deliveryman for corrupt security consultant Tyson Corelly. Tyson had said he’d get a nice little bonus if he delivered this to a certain ‘person’, and Eliot being the good guy he is going to make the drop off. Since it’s at a café, he’s bringing along his girlfriend Rebecca Reyes so they can drink and eat until the client shows and gets his information. Eliot is pretty low on the list of people that Tyson employs in his shady dealings so he has next to no knowledge of what his boss has on this ‘Mugen’ guy.

That’s the story Yelena and Lukas had cooked up, and would serve as their cover should anything unexpected come up. Lukas has deniable plausibility if the wrong guy comes, as he’s just a dreg in the system, and anyone investigating this ‘Tyson Corelly’ person would find nothing but dead ends either. It would take time to investigate this however, and by then it would be clear whether not Mugen is coming or is avoiding them. If not Mugen does show up, Rebecca…er, Meifa would kick him in the groin and they’d zip tie him. The End. Honestly Lukas could have sent anyone to take care of this mission, but he’d be a liar if he said he isn’t interested in not Mugen at all. At least he’d like to see what kind of person would don the ‘Satan’s Child’ moniker on purpose, and why he’d picked up Matilde’s methods out of nowhere.

Meifa eyes the envelope containing the fake information and asks Lukas if he really thinks anyone will buy it? From the way she sees it they’re going to be sitting out in the open hoping he’ll get wind of this plan involving him and then show up to stop the deal from going down. What if he just doesn’t give a shit? They’d be dangling out in the breeze ready for someone to shoot ‘em down. This is unfortunately how things go in intelligence. Sometimes the worth of some knowledge depends on the worth of what you’re willing to give up to know it. They’ll just have to hope that not Mugen values his privacy enough to not pass this up. Meifa shrugs and admits she doesn’t really care as long as she gets to work out her aggression. She knows he’s the same way, since he’s been pretty happy since they all got together…’sides, she always pegged him as the sorta guy who doesn’t go for peace and all that bullshit. Lukas shoots her a sideways glance and asks how she figured that, and she replies simply that she could tell when they first met. He asked all the right questions, sure but not enough of them. For him, being a part of something mysterious like this is exactly what he wanted.

True enough at around the time they met Lukas was feeling like life is too short to do anything meaningful with. It’s like when humans get to the good part they’re too old to do anything about it. He just didn’t think of Meifa as the kind of person who cares about that kind of thing. Actually, on that front Meifa had consistently surprised him both then and now. She has always had an subtle understanding of people despite her way of thinking being simplistic, and for the most part a maturity about the world that belies her immaturity. Maybe she’s just faking being a foul mouthed deviant with a violent streak?

The two reach the café and Lukas prepares to sit when Meifa stops him. She comments that something is weird, and checks the perimeter. Lukas is startled by his partner’s sudden movements and is on guard himself. He backs up looking left and right for a moment until he bumps into someone. It’s then he realizes that despite it still being somewhat early in the evening, there is no one else there other than Meifa, himself and the tall mysterious person behind him…who has pointed something into his back and in a low voice commands him to stand still. Lukas doesn’t have to turn around to know that he has  gun on him and his thought processes shift to flight or fight mode. Unfortunately, neither option works for his current predicament, and he is stuck doing what the mystery man commands. Worst yet this is most likely not their target as not Mugen kills with his hands (and feet.)

Meifa turns and glares at the mystery man, commanding to back the fuck off. Lukas tells her to back down, as he’s sure mystery man has his guys around and nothing is stopping them from shooting her up. Meifa grits her teeth as if she intends to ignore Lukas’s comment and dash forward, but before can do so, a limo pulls up in front of the café and from inside someone opens a door. Mystery man commands Lukas to get in, and glances up at Meifa. He gestures for her to get in the car too, but she declines and gets into a fighting stance. Lukas rebukes her again and says that she can’t assume that mystery man is alone, and that he doesn’t want her to get shot again for him. This is enough for Meifa to relax and although she looks as if she might kick Lukas instead, she starts towards the car and gets in. Lukas glances at mystery man who’s face is obscured by a hat and bandana, and gets in the car as well. Mystery man signals to two other guys who seem to appear out of nowhere and join him in front of the car door just as he closes it, and the limo drives away without the three mystery people.

Lukas sits beside Meifa and begins to lecture her on listening to orders until he sees her staring forward with an expression of amusement and surprise. She then states that someone is doing well for herself, which causes Lukas to look in the same direction, and nearly hit the limo celling.

Before them dressed in a black business casual skirt and suit with a clashing set of pink rimmed glasses is one Ruka Deguchi. Her hair is done in a loose bun and between two manicured fingers is a slim cigarette which appears to just have been lit.  She looks at them amused and states that they look somewhat familiar….though not who she was looking for. She cast a net out to capture a big time criminal and instead got two guppies. The question now is, do these fish get to swim away? Or will they be served up as part of a platter?

Ultimately, she leaves that decision in their hands.