| Wild Dog in a Nest of Vipers [closed to Ginta, Tsume, & Ibiki] | [Apr. 6th, 2009|10:44 pm] |
[Takes place Saturday, March 22, three days after Don't Wanna Fight This War, and two days after Picking Up the Pieces]
Ginta was just on his way out his door when he ran into Tsume and Kuromaru. That wasn't unusual--they were neighbors. But seeing them in the company of Abe Jimon was. He knew the man more by reputation than direct experience. Officially he was one of Intel's debriefers, but rumor held that he worked Internal Ops, handling the sort of debriefings that followed mission failures, agent deaths, suspicions of treachery...
"Hey Tsume, Kuromaru," he said casually. "What's up?" He nodded a half-bow to Abe, who returned it with stiff-necked formality. "You coming in or going out?"
Tsume gave their escort a sharp-eyed glance. "Going out, apparently," she said. Her voice held nothing more alarming than irritation. Kuromaru, at her side, evinced a distinctly doggy version of the same sentiment, shaking his ruff and grumbling something so low it sounded like a growl.
"That good, huh?" Ginta asked. He gave Abe a cool look. "Something going on a friend ought to be concerned about?"
"Not at all, Sakamoto-san," Abe replied smoothly. "It just happens that I was delivering a request to Inuzuka-san to go over some details of her latest mission. Since she happened to be in, we agreed that there was no time like the present." His smile made Ginta itch.
Tsume snorted and raised an eyebrow. "Apparently the morons thought of more questions--weeks after the fact. Leave it to Intel, huh?" Her eyes darted to Abe again, half-suspicious, half-annoyed.
"Yeah," Kuromaru added, "you'd think one debriefing would be enough."
"This won't take long," Abe interrupted. "Of course we try to be respectful of agents' time, but occasionally there are questions that need clarification, as new facts come to light. I'm sure you understand."
"Oh, I'm sure we do," Ginta said. He gave Tsume a shrug. "Look me up when you're through? I should be around. If I'm not up here, I'm probably down in the map room." Which was conveniently close to Intel's debriefing rooms. "I had a little one-off mission earlier this week and nearly killed myself falling into an unmarked well. Figured I'd be a good little doobie and make sure the maps guys know about it, before they route anyone else that way."
Tsume chuckled. "Nice of you," she said. "We'll come find you when we're done."
"We appreciate your cooperation, Inuzuka-san," Abe said. "I am sorry for the inconvenience." He turned to go. "Always a pleasure to speak to you, Sakamoto-san."
"Oh, always," Ginta agreed.
Kuromaru gave Abe another mistrustful glance, as he and Tsume set off with him.
Ginta stood in the hall for several moments after they had disappeared behind closing elevator doors. "I smell a rat," he told the empty hall. "And it's not one of Genma's." He let himself back into his apartment, grabbed a map and a couple of folders to use as a pretext for his own visit to Intel, and took the stairs down to the basement. |
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