#benedict godwinson

[hphmmatthewluther]

Back By Midnight: Operation BULLSEYE - Part 4/4:

Previous chapters can be found here, here, and here!

It's here at last! The final chapter of this OPERATION is here! Writing this has been an amazing process over the last nine months and I'm so happy that so many people have enjoyed the spy au as much as I have!

Also, this story features characters from @akaisenhatake and @camillejeaneshphm!!

Taglist of peeps who might be interested (lemme know if you want to be added or removed!): @akaisenhatake​ @camillejeaneshphm​ @catohphm​ @fangirl-screaming​ @rosachaotic​ @ag907​ @nikyiscreepy​ @oseathepebble​

One other thing to note! From here on out, this story is going to be an original story, meaning the names of many characters have been changed. I'll be putting out a guide soon, but for now I hope you're able to figure out who's who!

Every few seconds, the wind whistled through the several bullet holes that were now scattered across the windows of the 28th floor of the building.A woman’s finger traced across one of them, the one closest to the lift. From there, she could see the position where the bullet had come from on the building opposite, as well as the flashing lights from the half a dozen police cars that had been summoned to the scene. She stepped away from the window, and over the dead body that was still lying there, blood soaking into the waxed floor. For a moment, she lingered, looking over the body and at the lift shaft, the doors having only now been fully deactivated. 

Then, for a split second, she saw it there. The memory of a pale hand which had flashed the V sign at her, before clanging against the lift as it disappeared. She scowled at the memory, before only then realising what had caused the clang: a silver bracelet-looking thing on the person’s wrist. It could have been a watch, but she would have seen that from the position the hand was in. Her scowl softened for a moment. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

“Meredith!” came another woman’s voice from the open door. “In here, if you would.”

At once, Meredith Sharrow started down the corridor, as two people in forensic suits walked the other way towards the corpse. Before she went inside the room, she tried to get her face into a neutral expression, dusting down her black jacket and skirt and tidying her brown and orange hair, as well as getting any sleep out of her eyes, trying not to nudge her pink contacts. It was, after all, early in the morning by now. She came into the room, wondering why whoever this was couldn’t have broken into their London headquarters at a more reasonable time. But she couldn’t think about silly complaints like that right now. Not considering who had called her in.

Meredith stepped through into the room, just as sleek and modernist as the rest of the building, and was greeted by a woman in her early forties with long orange hair, and a long red overcoat. There was also a large sniper rifle in her right hand, which she promptly put down. Meredith nodded to her, hoping it didn’t look like too much of a bow. “...High Priestess.”

“Oh please, “Miss Warwick” will do just fine, Miss Sharrow.” Pamela Warwick closed the door behind her and gestured to the room. Just as there was in the corridor, several bullet holes were present in the glass. Others were in the room too; someone taking inventory of the items in the room, two men examining what looked like a small silver cuboid, and a police officer trying to talk to a blonde man shivering in a seat, his legs bouncing up and down.

“...Miss Warwick.” Meredith began, “Is this the Fool who was in the room with the intruder?”

“Indeed he was.” Warwick sighed, “The whole experience seems to have been a little too much for him.” her eyes darted to the side for a moment before continuing. “But he’s the only lead we’ve got, or more accurately, the only lead we have before Mr Wakabayashi shows up. He’s due back here in just a few minutes…though he will have to take the stairs.”

Meredith understood what Warwick was asking of her. Nodding once more, she made her way over to the police officer, who unlike this witness, was clearly no fool. She nodded to him and he returned the gesture, before making his way out of the room. The blonde mouse-faced man looked up at her. Meredith looked back down, and tried not to laugh.

“So…seems you’ve been through the wringer tonight, Mr…” she began taking a clipboard and pen in her hands, before looking to him for an answer. He looked up at her, his lip quivering. “Mr…” she repeated, tapping the pen against the plastic of the clipboard. That always hurried people up.

“I-I’m…I’m, b-, um…Benedict. Benedict Godwinson…i-it says over…” he pointed to the sign on his desk, which sure enough, had his name on it. Meredith scowled. How on earth had she missed that? She’d lost valuable seconds over this!

“Right, right…” she sighed, “now, getting to what you saw. Why did you let the intruder take the device?”

His eyes widened in fear. “I-I didn’t know! H-He said he was part of the IT Team, a-and Mr Wakabayashi wanted him to do some work on the device!”

Meredith rolled her eyes, overhearing that the man in question had arrived and was going up the stairs at this very moment. “Fine, fine…what gave him away? When did you realise he wasn’t who he said he was?”

“W-When the guard started banging on the door…h-he said he’d get us both…a-and I didn’t know what to do, but then…the intruder told me, he said to not worry and that it’d be ok.”

Meredith took a mental note of that, if not writing it out fully. Benedict made him sound like some kind of Gentleman Thief. She didn’t expect someone like that to actually exist. Looking down at the notes the police officer had taken, she saw a circled in bullet point that read “CAN NOT REMEMBER PHYSICAL APPEARANCE - PANIC?”. That didn’t help, but at least she knew not to ask. Suddenly, she heard footsteps growing louder and louder. “...Is there anything else you can remember? Anything at all?!”

Benedict shuddered as she asked the question, blinking rapidly. “I…I…I dunno, it was all so loud and disorienting with the bullets and the flashes, but…I do remember…he put his hand to his ear a lot of times.”

Bingo. One of the oldest mistakes in the book. It reminded Meredith of one of the Bond films, where someone Bond was working with gave themselves away by constantly pressing his earpiece. On a subconscious level, she’d already attached the word “spy” to whoever this intruder was. “...Very well. Thank you for your time…I imagine you’ll get some paid leave or something.” she said, smirking, before walking away and handing the clipboard to Warwick.

“Our intruder was cordial to a fault, able to get up here without anyone noticing, and had an earpiece. Which means this wasn’t a simple burglary.” Meredith reported, returning to her neutral expression once more.

Warwick took the clipboard and examined it, before stashing it away in her bag. “I assumed as much from where I was positioned, but it’s good to have proof. Well done.” she said, as the footsteps grew louder still. “Here he comes…keep an eye on the person with him. Looks to be a Chariot.”

Walking down the corridor (Meredith saw that the body had been marked out and moved) came Ryuji Wakabayashi, who’d for some reason not changed out of his white suit he’d been wearing when he left the building. Alongside him was a woman who looked similar to Warwick from afar, with the long ginger hair, but was younger, only about Ryuji’s age. Meredith bit her lip when she saw how the trip up the stairs had tired the man. It made rushing to interrogate that mouse-faced man well worth it.

“High Priestess,” he said, nodding. “...Meredith.”

“Ryuji.” Meredith said curtly, gesturing to Benedict. “Might want to hold off on the ranks for just a moment, though.”

Ryuji craned his neck into the room, seeing Benedict still sitting there. “Oh, that fool…” he muttered, before clearing his throat. “Godwinson, you can go now, thank you.”

Benedict shot up, nodding, before leaving. “Th-thank you, Mr Wakabayashi, I-I’ll be off…” he whimpered, heading out, realising the lift was out, and rushing down the stairs.

Pamela cleared her throat. “Now we’re all here, we can get down to business.” She led them all into the room. Meredith watched as Ryuji frowned at the bullet holes and the missing ID machine. “...To start with, I can’t be the only one who thinks this was connected to what we all bar this Chariot here did yesterday.”

Ryuji wore an unmoving frown. “Why? We’ve done this dozens of times now, and we made sure to purge any data MI6 might have got, just like we always do.” he pointed out. “What’s so different this time?” he clicked his tongue as he wandered around the room. “And it was only the machine that was taken?”

Meredith nodded. “Correct. The intruder came here looking for the machine specifically, it would seem.”

The Chariot cleared her throat. “What’s more, there was a breach of the building’s mainframe at the same time as the intruder was in the building. All footage and data from that time is corrupted.” she reported.

“Thank you, Miss Campbell.” Ryuji said through gritted teeth. “This is all irrelevant, however, in the wake of the fact that this intruder succeeded. The fact that the only resistance they met along the way was one Minor Arcana. Well, and you, High Priestess.”

“That was only by chance.” Warwick pointed out. “There wasn’t much I could do considering I was shooting across a road at someone I couldn’t fully see. Believe me when I say you do not want to play the blame game with me. Especially not when we have a perfectly good deceased person to place the blame on.”

“Someone you shot.” Ryuji retorted. “But I suppose you’re right. You know that…he…doesn’t like infighting.”

“If that’s the case, he doesn’t like most people in Reflection.” Meredith muttered, causing Warwick to chuckle.

“Very witty, Miss Sharrow. A little surprising too, seeing as-” she looked like she was about to say something more, but each of them felt their phones buzz. They all took them out, and Meredith knew that each one had received the same message:

You are summoned to the Tower. Please arrive promptly. A meeting of the Senior Ranks will be held in response to recent developments with Operation TEMPERANCE.

Ryuji kept his face still. “Like we said, blame the corpse. Come along, we’ll take my jet.” He said, beckoning Miss Campbell and turning to leave. Before he went down the corridor, however, he turned to Warwick and Meredith. “Well? Coming?”

The two still in the room looked at each other before looking at Ryuji. “Really? In all the time I’ve known you, you’ve never invited us to fly with you.” Meredith observed. “What gives?”

“What gives is that the High Priestess and I have to work out a convincing story to tell at this meeting, and you’ll need to be there too in case anybody asks you.” Ryuji explained. 

Pamela sighed, before relenting and walking out the door. Ryuji turned to Meredith once more. “Come on. I don’t want to have to pull rank on you.”

“Bull.” Meredith hissed under her breath, grabbing Warwick’s sniper rifle and bag for her, making sure that the clipboard was still inside. As she left, she took one last look at the room, visualising the thief walking in, grabbing the device, knowing there was a chip to remove, ducking down, blinding the guard, escaping down the corridor. Another word for the intruder was very quickly replacing the word “thief” in her head. Apart from the word “arsehole”, that is.

***

For Meredith, the time between leaving the room and boarding the jet felt like nothing. Before she knew it, they had taken off from London City Airport (the area for private jets, not the bit everyone else went through). At least the jet lag wouldn’t be too bad when they landed; they’d be arriving at around 8pm local time and so would be able to more or less keep their body clocks stable. That didn’t concern Meredith, necessarily, but it was clear that it meant far more for Ryuji, who seemed even more irritable than usual, to the point that when the Chariot, who Meredith now knew to be Nessa Campbell (who happened to be flying the plane) described his anger as “needing his beauty sleep”, Ryuji simply got up and walked away from the others without a word.

“Typical.” Nessa sighed, returning her attention to the myriad controls in front of her. “I haven’t even flicked the “seatbelts off” sign.” A few moments later, she did, taking a moment to look at the door Ryuji had gone through before rolling her eyes and returning to her task at hand.

Meredith would have joined in on insulting Ryuji, but Warwick shot a pointed look at her. “Don’t be so quick to point and laugh, Miss Sharrow.” she said, examining the clipboard Meredith had procured for her earlier, “As the overseer of this Operation, the Lovers Wakabayashi will be the one covering for all of us. It’s a lot of pressure, something you may one day realise if you ever get promoted to a Senior Rank.” Meredith leant forward a little when she mentioned promotions. Warwick simply smiled back. “You’ve only recently been promoted from the rank of Devil, correct?”

Meredith nodded in reply. “Yes…this is my first assignment as a Hanged Man, Miss Warwick.”

“And you’ve done remarkably well. I imagine the Empress will be most pleased.” she reassured her, though she didn’t look up from the clipboard. “What did you mean here by “had help”? What gave you that idea?”

“The witness said that the intruder put his hand to his ear several times.” Meredith explained. “It would explain how the data became corrupted the very moment he stepped foot in the building and how he got away so quickly, especially when you consider…” she trailed off for a moment as she thought through what she was about to say, and whether it might get her in deep trouble.

“Considering what?” Warwick asked, finally looking up at her.

Meredith gulped silently. “Considering your testimony, where you said a loud car horn caused a distraction allowing him to leave your crosshair. And then there’s the fact that he couldn’t have fled the scene on foot…” she looked over to Nessa’s tablet, still open on the scrambled data. “Miss Campbell, would you mind if I borrowed your tablet for a moment?”

The Chariot nodded. “Of course, Hanged Man. It’s completely at your disposal.” she said, a phrase she knew off by heart by now.

Snatching up the tablet, Meredith began tapping away at the screen, flicking through various collated files on the incident. “All this stuff on cybersecurity…maybe the reason they could get in isn’t in the code, but instead…ah ha!” she minimised the tabs on firewalls and fibre optics and opened up another folder of corrupted video footage. “Look, Miss Warwick, the CCTV footage from the surrounding traffic lights is gone too, in the exact same style, but for about a minute or two longer than inside the building. Our intruder can’t have done it alone, the timing of the corruption simply doesn't add up.”

Warwick nodded, leaning back on her chair. “That certainly is a wrinkle. Especially when you consider mine and Wakabayashi’s shared conclusions on tonight's events.”

Meredith stayed very still, unsure whether Warwick was upset with the conclusion she’d reached, or angry, or wanted to erase any trace of it, or anything else. “Your conclusions, Miss Warwick?”

“Indeed. He may be in denial about it, but the famed “Byakko of Ice” knows when not to ignore a coincidence. I looked back at the aftermath of our explosive outing this afternoon and was surprised to discover that it was an ambulance that first came to the scene. Not the fire brigade, as any witnesses outside might have called for, but an ambulance. And the only way that could be the case is if someone inside had not been killed, merely injured.”

Meredith nodded, digesting this information. “...So the MI6 agent we wanted to take out…he survived, got medical attention, and came back to get revenge?”

“Perhaps, or maybe he contacted someone and they did it for him. Even before this, I had a strange feeling when we found the MI6 location in that old building. It was a far too aggressive move for them, and we should have known about it sooner. Perhaps our intelligence system simply missed it, deemed it too unimportant.”

“...Perhaps.” Meredith put down the tablet, and looking out the window watched as the jet flew across the Pacific Ocean. She got the nasty feeling that they were almost there, made even worse by the fact that she felt like she was missing something obvious. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the jet was truly starting to descend, landing upon an airstrip surrounded by watchtowers, with military vehicles patrolling to boot. Home sweet home. They had their IDs and cards checked before being escorted onto one of the Jeeps, which sped out of the runway and down a long, winding road towards the more built up part of the island. Eventually, the Jeeps slowed down near a busy junction, which happened to be just a few metres away from the turnoff to The Tower.

“This always happens…” Ryuji groaned, rolling his eyes as the tourists in rental cars as well as some permanent residents drove past, no care for the fact that they had right of way, or that they more or less owned the island.

Meredith was growing more restless by the second, the stress of everything that had happened as well as the fact that a Meeting had been called all weighing on her brain. “...For god’s sake! Can’t they install traffic lights, or a roundabout, or something?!” she said, slamming her head back against her seat in frustration. Warwick merely watched on, with a slight amount of amusement on her face.

“Patience, Miss Sharrow. This junction always takes time, it’s the way the island-” but to her surprise, someone had actually stopped. Meredith leant out of the window to see a middle-aged man in a floral t-shirt and sunglasses (despite it being night) in an open-top expensive looking car. He smiled and gestured for the jeeps, and the drivers, seemingly surprised, took a moment to begin moving again. Meredith tried not to stare too much, but it was difficult for some reason. She needed that structure and order in her life again, the type that Reflection was normally so good at enforcing. Thankfully for her, the Tower was the best place for this.

The skyscraper stuck out like an incredibly sore thumb, towering over everything else on the Island. It was a miracle the land didn’t tilt slightly, Meredith thought to herself as they stepped out onto elegant red carpets with a golden zigzagged lining around the edges, leading up twin sets of stairs between three bronze fountains. Above the automatic doors which led into the reception area was that large red logo once more, the snake looming overhead as the group walked in. They were at once met by a group of people in white shirts and black waistcoats, who looked to Meredith like fools.

“Welcome to Reflection.” The one in front began, bowing slightly. “You’re just in time, Miss Warwick, Mr Wakabayashi, you’re both just in time for the meeting. I have also been told that Miss Sharrow and Miss Campbell have been invited to relax in the waiting area outside until the meeting comes to an end. Please, follow me.”

Meredith kept moving forward, down a corridor and into a lift, even if her legs were telling her to turn and run. But she couldn’t afford to look weak, especially not in front of Warwick or Ryuji, as the former would never respect her, and the latter would absolutely go straight to her aunt about it. Their guide pressed one of the uppermost buttons, before quickly stepping out and letting the lifts scarlet and gold doors close. The occupants of the lift turned to each other.

 “It appears that all of the higher-ups and representatives have been called.” Nessa said, reading off of her tablet. “...Doesn’t look like we will be late, fortunately.”

“I’ll be sure to let your aunt know you’re here, Meredith.” Ryuji droned, pushing his dark hair up slightly. “She may want a word, after all.”

To Meredith’s surprise, it was Warwick who spoke next. “Actually, Meredith pointed something out rather interesting to me whilst on the plane here. It should be on the Chariot’s tablet, and might come in handy when explaining our side of the story.”

Meredith merely nodded. “I’m glad I could assist, even if I’m not able to attend the meeting.”

Ryuji looked like he wanted to retort, but was interrupted by Warwick. “Look, you two can stop acting so formal, especially since we’re working together to save our careers. I’m aware you two have something of a rivalry, something about often being in the same division as you’ve worked your ways up.” she said, allowing herself to smile at the two and their shocked expressions. Meredith thought that she did pretty well, at least she didn’t drop her jaw like Ryuji did. “Yes, yes, I’ve done my research, as I do on everyone I work with.”

Time passed as the High Priestess and the Lovers discussed their story, the Chariot busy on her tablet, leaving the Hanged Man feeling like the world was turning upside down. Looking around, they thought back to the much less elegant and decorated lift in the building in London, how that pale hand had emerged to disrespect her before descending with the lift. The hand of a spy, with a silver bracelet…but why was it up there in the first place? Her eyes widened as her memory corrected itself, the presence of a card held by the hand whilst doing the two-finger salute now restored. Why? Her first thought was as a trophy, but then judging by what she knew about him, it somehow didn’t seem right. In her head, it all rested on whether or not the spy had broken in as a direct result of what had happened earlier that day or not.

Suddenly, the lift doors opened out into a smallish room with three doors, the left and right ones leading out into a balcony area. The group continued forward through the other door, into a room with red carpet and a few plants, as well as a pair of ornate double doors, covered in gold that snaked across their surface. Warwick gestured to the red velvet seats that dotted the room. “Chariot, Hanged Man, wait here. These meetings normally don’t go on for too long, but considering the circumstances…well. There are some magazines available.” she pointed over to a pile on a table near the wall. Without another word, she opened the grand doors, walking inside.

Ryuji took another look at Nessa and Meredith. “...You saw something in the smoke, didn’t you?” he asked the latter. “...Be very careful. When you get this high up, you’ll realise there are no such things as secrets.”

Meredith showed no reaction. “You have a meeting to get to, and a missing ID machine to explain.” she said simply, sitting down and grabbing one of the magazines. They were all almost a decade out of date, and some of them, she noticed, seemed to be for younger children. Ryuji turned towards the door which Warwick was holding open for him and left the room, the door closing behind the two with a loud slam.

Meredith turned to Nessa, but she was on the other side of the room, her back turned,  busy on her tablet. She leant back, remembering her time as a Chariot. It had been a lot of work, chauffeuring higher-ups around as well as monitoring the armoury and vehicles the company had at its disposal, as well as dealing for said arms and vehicles. Nessa likely didn’t also have the advantage of having an aunt who was a higher-up. It was then that she heard voices from within the other room.

“...is it true?”

“Hey, save it for the meeting, you know the rules.”

“What? I’m allowed to ask a little, aren’t I?”

Meredith blinked. Nobody below a Lovers rank was allowed to even know what happened in the Meetings. The room was supposed to be soundproofed, or so she’d heard. She very slowly tilted her head so her ear was closer to the wall, before immediately turning around when the door to the room with the lift opened. Her hand went to her gun on instinct when she saw the hooded figure, but didn’t pull it out. This was good, because on closer inspection this was one of the higher-ups. Although, admittedly, they weren’t exactly dressed like other agents.

His “hood” was in fact a medical fabric of some kind that covered a fully bandaged face, the mouth covered and the eyes dimmed under the layers of bandages. Below that was a formal suit with a green handkerchief in the pocket. He was eerily still, standing in the doorway for a moment, before turning to Meredith. “Pardon me. Has the meeting begun yet?”

Nessa and Meredith stared at each other for a moment. “N-no, I don’t think so.” Meredith stammered, not making direct eye contact with the masked figure, who merely nodded in response.

“Good, good…” he nodded at the both of them before walking forward, absent-mindedly scratching the wrapping below his right eye with one hand as he yanked open the door and walked into the meeting room, closing the door without a slam this time. Meredith sunk back into her seat, taking her hand off of her gun. There were certain divisions that kept to themselves, and you didn’t go near if you valued your life or career. The Moon Division, the area of expertise for deep cover operatives, was one of those divisions. They were higher-ups, but since they couldn’t send all of them to a meeting they had a representative who went instead. They called the guy who represented the Moon Division “Mr Nobody”. She’d always wanted to know why.

Nessa now had her eyes on her tablet again. Meredith leant right back against the wall, shutting her eyes as if she’d fallen asleep after a long flight. She concentrated on whatever slight fault there was in the walls of The Tower, and listened.

***

Meredith didn’t know what the room looked like, but from her aunt she’d heard that it was exceptionally elegant but dimly lit, with a long table in the middle that stopped at the far wall, on which was a large carving. It sounded too fantastical to be true, but when she’d peeked through the door when Mr Nobody stepped through that was exactly what she had seen. Without any visuals, her mind began to fill in the blanks

The meeting room was silent now, all gossip now spent. The higher-ups took their places, Warwick separating from Ryuji to sit further down the table. Ryuji, meanwhile, took his seat among the three other Lovers. He looked between them all, knowing them all fairly well: Estevao Raphael, who was currently scowling at the table, Lauren Brayden, who was savouring the last few seconds in which she was allowed to use her phone, and Pascal Brunel, who looked like he wished he had some popcorn. Meredith didn’t blame him. The most senior of the Lovers, Pascal had made no attempts to get a promotion, seemingly enjoying his position at the lower end of the top. Meredith had never understood his mindset, nor why he was allowed to keep his position, but at least he seemed to be happier than most people in the room.

The room was now silent. A side door had been opened, and out stepped a woman with brown hair in a red version of the clothes the receptionists had been wearing. This was no clueless fool, however, but a member of the island’s permanent staff, who also happened to be in charge of enforcement. The person in the seat Meredith imagined herself sitting in, Ryuji, looked down the long table. The Judgement representative walked past him and the rest of the Lovers, past Mr Nobody, past a woman in a lab coat, a man in a wheelchair with several sheets of paper in front of him, past Warwick, and past the two at the very end of the far edges of the table. He knew them very well indeed. On the right sat Maverick Cunningham, a middle-aged man with black hair in a quiff that made him look like if Elvis took up arms dealing. On the left was a woman around the same age as Cunningham wearing a deep purple overcoat. This was Vivian Sharrow.

Thus sat the highest ranking officials of Reflection, an organisation which seemingly found being a pharmaceutical company not thrilling enough, and decided to branch out into having hidden influence in every industry, especially the criminal industry. Maverick and Vivian, the Emperor and the Empress, turned to the large engraving on the wall. It depicted a man in robes with his right arm up holding a candle that burned at both ends, surrounded by a sword, cup, wand, and pentacle.  Above its head was the symbol of infinity, and above that was the roman numeral I.

The Judgement representative cleared her throat. “May I have your attention. Presenting the Magician, who calls this meeting to order.”

The giant monolith carved into the wall began to hum, and the outline of the Magician began to glow a neon red. A few seconds passed, and each Reflection member took out their card and placed it on the table in front of them. Ryuji did the same, taking a moment to look down at the card. It had always seemed rather strange to Meredith that he carried an image of two naked people as identification, but her mind was nowhere near that now. Soon enough, a voice emerged from within the carved wall.

“Welcome, my good friends.” the voice boomed. Meredith had expected a loud and deep voice, but instead it sounded rather calm and neutral. “I do apologise for calling all of you here, but I am afraid that the topic of this meeting is too important to avoid or to send in a simple message. To begin with, I must inform you all of the death of the Knight of Swords. His efforts to aid Reflection will be missed. I leave finding a suitable replacement for the position to the Empress.”

Meredith imagined her aunt nodding dutifully. “Thank you, Magician.”

The voice continued. “The more unfortunate news comes from the reason he was killed, and why I have summoned you all here. High Priestess, if you would brief the others on tonight’s events?”

Meredith heard a chair move as Warwick stood up. “At approximately 10 pm local time, an unknown intruder was found on the 28th floor of Reflection International’s London Headquarters. Entering through unknown means, he walked into the office on the floor, posing as an IT worker to an employee, before taking hold of an experimental identification device, codename T-LD…” Warwick explained. She took a pause for a moment. Meredith knew why. She was about to mention her role. “...At which time I, on the opposite building conducting a routine inspection, spotted the intruder and proceeded to prepare for elimination.”

“It was here that I called for security.” she continued. “The Knight of Swords was the first to arrive at the office, which the intruder had locked. The Knight proceeded to attempt to kick the door down, shouting threats to both the intruder and the employee.”

Meredith allowed herself to smile. Already, she was beginning to pin the blame on the deceased agent. “The Knight persisted in knocking and yelling, though that was not what allowed the intruder to escape my line of sight with the T-LD. Instead…it would appear that the intruder had one or more accomplices who created a distraction to allow the intruder a window to duck down, and was likely to be intentional as evidenced by the deletion of traffic light CCTV footage, as identified by a Hanged Man within the tower at the time, Meredith Sharrow.”

Meredith tried not to move her face too much. Getting mentioned in a Meeting like that, and by Pamela Warwick of all people? No wonder they didn’t let the lower-downs hear what happened, if she knew she’d been name-dropped she’d never shut up about it. As she had been thinking about this, Warwick had continued, moving on to the lift shaft.

“...the Knight then proceeded to engage the intruder within the lift shaft, making clear his knowledge of the fact that I would fire at whatever emerged from the lift doors. In spite of this, however, he was unable to apprehend the intruder. We believe they used a metallic weapon to strike the Knight, causing him to topple out of the doors and into the line of fire. He fully understood the level of efficiency needed, and failed. I shot the first thing that emerged from the lift shaft, as agreed.”

She couldn’t measure their expressions, but somehow Meredith knew that Warwick had quite literally got away with murder. Still, the mention of a metallic weapon…the way the metal thing on his wrist had bumped against the lift…it was so simple, and yet…Meredith then realised she should be focusing on the top-secret meeting. “...and escaped with the machine. I immediately arrived at the building, followed soon after by the Lovers and the Chariot driving him.”

There was a silence as all of this was taken in, as if it was being judged. “...thank you, High Priestess. Does anyone here have any objections to her telling of tonight’s events?” the Magician asked the table.

If they did, nobody said anything. “Very well. It pains me to discover that the Minor Arcana are unable to work under the efficient conditions of those with higher ranks. Perhaps we may need to revisit our training regimen to see what is needed. Emperor, you are in charge of this area. What would you say the priorities of the training are? What blind spot might need dealing with?”

Maverick cleared his throat, before beginning to speak in that smug voice of his. “Our training regimen is one of, if not the best in the world, Magician. It forces those who hope to improve to be ruthless and efficient in their tasks, to remain detached from anything that might bring them down, and to work in the modern world of private military affairs.”

“The modern world…I see…” the Magician hummed for a moment, as did Meredith. Why did this spy not seem to fit the many other mercenaries or opponents she’d come across? Why did she keep calling him a spy? It hit her then, though it seemed to elude the Magician. “Well, in any case, work to make sure the Minor Arcana are ready to enter the higher ranks.”

“Thank you, sir.” Maverick said, glad not to have been reprimanded. 

“But now comes the larger question, my friends. What are we to do about our missing machine? Lovers agent Wakabayashi-” the Magician said, Meredith knowing that all eyes were now on Ryuji. “What say you on the theft of the machine you were testing? What might happen to the project?”

Ryuji took a breath. “I don’t believe it is any sign of weakness for the project. It is not as if, after all, it was a failure. In fact it was responsible for dozens of successful identifications and subsequent assassinations during its testing phase. Perhaps we were a little public with it-”

“A little?” Pascal asked, chuckling. “You blew up three floors of a building! You call that “little”?”

Ryuji stumbled over his words for a second but quickly recovered. “Such eliminations had been done before, and caused no problems like this. The problem is not with the machine, I cannot emphasise this enough.”

“...I agree.” the Magician said, bluntly. “And Lovers agent Brunel, while your point is valid, I do think there is an explanation for it. Perhaps, after the downfall of our last project, we were too cautious of further failure, hence why Project Temperance has been in testing for so long. Long enough for somebody to begin identifying a pattern.”

It was as if in her head the carving was moving, swooping across the room, gazing at each and every member present with its unmoving red eyes. “We have not suffered a failure like this since Project Strength. Our caution, our need to keep things hidden, has led to critical exposures. But we cannot, and will not, keep Project Temperance secret for long. Wheel of Fortune!”

The man in the wheelchair cleared his throat. “Yes, Magician?”

“...How’s our budget looking?”

There was a rustling of papers and typing on a laptop. Meredith hadn’t expected the Wheel of Fortune to be allowed a laptop, though she supposed it made sense, considering how much financial information was digital and/or encrypted. “We have had an excellent year, and stand to make record profits as per usual, leaving us with a more-than-healthy 40% surplus for use if and when needed.”

“Good.” the Magician said with a sinister edge, as if that information gave him the key to some ultimate doomsday weapon. “I am proposing that we accelerate Project Temperance. The T-LD shall be replicated, developed, and improved. We will make the necessary connections, eliminations, and deals. We will be ready to deploy the Project worldwide in…ooh, let’s make it…six months?”

There was a brief murmur. Nobody had seen the Magician like this before. It was as if, like Meredith, they had taken the theft personally. Nobody steals from Reflection and dares to taunt them too. It made her desire to become a higher-up even more strong.

“Oh, worry not, friends. I am quite confident you will all manage. We talk of the projects being far off dreams, but here? A machine so successful someone had to steal it?! We will hit back, and whoever they are, they will see just how small they are in comparison to us. How…out of place they are in our world. This is why you are called here. Tonight we being organising Project: TEMPERANCE.”

Meredith’s mind drifted as the meeting turned to discussions of targets and quotas. Nobody heard much about the Projects. They were worked on by the higher-up Divisions, though sometimes lower-downs were called on to assist in testing, like Meredith had been here. She also knew that the last project had failed, and the Magician had punished her aunt and the Emperor for it, giving the role of overseeing Project testing to the Lovers. This meant two things: firstly, that her aunt would see this as an excellent opportunity to please the Magician and redeem the Sharrow name, and secondly that Ryuji was going to be unbearable about it. But it wasn’t all misery in her mind. The spy…it was more than a fluke, or a bluff, or boast. It was indeed out of place. And she knew why.

***

Before long, the meeting had ended, and the higher-ups emerged. The Empress walked out, and over to her niece. “There you are. Thank you for waiting patiently and not causing a fuss.”

“...I am not a child anymore, Aunt Vivian.” Meredith said, not looking up.

“That remains to be seen. Come along, I’ve managed to book you a room here.” she said as if it came at great personal sacrifice to her.

“...” Meredith was going to say something back, but noticed Warwick and Ryuji walking out too. “Just one moment, it won’t take long-”

“Meredith!-” Vivian began, not continuing the sentence as she watched her niece approach Warwick.

“Ah, Miss Sharrow, and the nicer one of the two, I might add. How may I help?” she asked, smirking, as if she knew Meredith wanted to get away from the Empress.

“I was thinking about the intruder…and, well…it might sound odd, but I was thinking about…why he feels so…odd.”

“Odd how?” Ryuji asked. They had gone out one of the side doors onto the balcony, looking out over the ocean, tree-covered areas (Meredith was unsure if they were jungles, or forests, or something else) and the tourist towns down below. “You mean sort of…out of place?”

“Exactly!” Meredith said, acting like she’d not heard those words used to describe it. “I think…well, I think of him as a spy.”

Warwick raised a ginger eyebrow. “A spy, hm? As a sort of “character” we can make assumptions out of?”

Ryuji rolled his eyes. “With respect, Meredith, and the fact that this matter is now with the higher-ups, I don’t imagine you need to worry about that intruder for much longer. Not when the new assignments come in.”

Meredith couldn’t help it. She scowled at him. “Listen! He’s a spy, right? Like a classic secret agent! None of this cyber-nonsense, or this far-off “eliminations”, or jobs done by hitmen, but a spy. You send one person who is skilled enough to more or less convince you to give what he wants over to you, uses gadgets, isn’t afraid to get physical…oh, come on! Isn’t it at least plausible that someone out there does things the old way?”

Warwick considered this. “A fascinating hypothesis, Miss Sharrow. A “spy”, someone who can miraculously survive explosions, sneak into buildings, and more…It makes for a compelling adversary.”

Ryuji simply scoffed once more. “Speculate all you like. I have business to attend to. Nessa, let’s go, my workload has almost quadrupled.” he said matter-of-factly, walking away with Nessa behind him, offering a quick wave to Meredith before leaving.

Warwick smiled at Meredith. “I’ll walk you to your room. The lift will be packed with everyone trying to get out, you need to tell me more about this spy idea, and…” her smile changed a little, to show something other than kindness. “There are some parts of the Tower best avoided.”

They walked out from the balcony and down the stairs, past floors that Warwick pushed Meredith away from, presumably where they tested other projects. A faint part of her wondered if Project Temperance started its life here too. She found herself clinging to her tarot card. Taking it out, she turned it over to reveal the Hanged Man, dangling there upside-down by the foot, as if by some strange magic he had swapped his neck for his ankle. She looked at the card, imagined the spy in the same position, and smiled. She’d never believed in Tarot, but somehow she felt her future was brighter than ever.

#hphm #back by midnight #hphm spy au #meredith sharrow #merula snyde #pamela warwick #patricia rakepick #ryuji wakabayashi #nessa campbell #benedict godwinson #ben copper