Taking Over

Light was busy.

This guy knew a lot more about computers and hacking then he did. He could admit that. But. If he could write that program, being third in line for L’s place, and L had said he could think nearly on his own level, he could certainly do it too. He’d have to go through the connection lines—he knew how to work encryption codes, but not to the extent this other guy did.

I need to be more careful. I’m underestimating him. Just like he did me. It will all depend on who makes the next move first. Still…even after this much time…hearing nothing. It’s suspicious. I know he’s already logging me…but I may need to come up with a reason to contact him anyway…just in case…

That was when the door flew open. Matsuda and his father sprang to their feet. “Ide?”

The man looked frantic. “Light—something’s wrong with the Director!”

He turned in his chair. “Like what?”

“He was found in his office this morning around ten o’clock. He doesn’t usually go around but someone had come to him with another file—he was unconscious. His coffee was cold. When they were finally able to bring him around, he started throwing up but…when they asked him what was wrong…,” and here, Ide looked at them strangely, “He said he couldn’t remember. He arrives earlier then everyone else. He got here at seven this morning. He said he remembers getting his coffee, sitting down—and then nothing else.”

Light narrowed his eyes. “It sounds like he was drugged…”

“He was taken to a hospital and he was chattering and throwing up and when the doctor checked him out…he said that, somehow, someone had done that. They found traces of Rohypnol. It usually leaves body in about twelve hours—so we were lucky someone found him. But if he’s been drugged and can’t remember…”

“Do you think it was someone in the police?” Aizawa asked. “Did security report anything?”

“He gets here before security.”

Light stopped for a moment and then whipped around. M! It had to be. But if he did drug him and somehow got information from him…and he can’t remember what he did…then he’s a liability. Dammit! He looked at the little clock on his computer. It was nine pm.

“No. This can’t have been anyone in the force.” He turned back to his program. “Give me an hour.”

“An hour?” Soichiro asked. “For what?”

“To finish this program and get M.”

“M? You think he has something to do with this?”

Light didn’t bother to answer. He was busy.


Matt blinked a little, opening his eyes and yawned and then he jerked up. He was in his bed again. He wished he knew which one of them kept doing that. It was kind of unnerving. But it seemed too weird to ask.

He ran a hand through his hair, making even more of a mess of it and put his glasses on. He slumped down to the control room. Hal and Gevanni were watching the screens.

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

Hal looked at him, swiveling in her chair. “Because you’ve been completely exhausted.”

“Rester just got back, by the way. He said they were done by seven thirty and he took the nine o’clock flight back—that’s Japan time and got here at four this morning. He’s catching a few hours.”

“This time changing shit it a pain in the ass. They’re fourteen hours ahead…so he technically, he left us yesterday, arrived in their evening, got the work done this morning at seven thirty…and got back….today….at four in the morning.” Matt shook his head. “That’s fucking annoying. He must have serious jetlag. Poor guy. Did the other two stay in Japan?”

“They said they would stay until you called them back. Cassandra’s keeping your line open for anyone that contacts you so she’ll be able to keep up to date on news and pass the information along to Matthias.”

“So what all did he find out?”

Gevanni turned completely around now, glanced at Hal and then spoke. “The guy was pretty drugged up but content, if you will. He said that there were five guys who stayed on to work with L. They stayed separate from the police. Their names are Soichiro Yagami, Touta Matsuda, Kanzo Mogi, Shuichi Aizawa, and Hirokazu Ukita—but he said Ukita died early on in the investigation.”

“Did they replace him?”

“He didn’t seem to know. He did, though, have their files sealed but he opened them up for Rester and they were able to copy all of them. They already sent them here for you to look at.”

“Where?” Matt walked over to him and saw a pile of paper next to him. He grabbed them and sat down. “So, Yagami is the leader?”

“Yep.”

“A wife, daughter, damn, she’s cute—and a son—are these recent? Aizawa’s married, has a little girl…god, that Matsuda guy can’t be out of his twenties yet. Haha, Mogi looks like he could break someone’s neck just by looking at them.”

“They’re recent. Light Yagami entered into the police force recently. His daughter is in high school. Aizawa’s daughter is very young.”

“Just recently, eh? Hmm.”

And then came the little beep. Matt leaned back and put his feet up on the desk. Just as planned. He looked over. “Go get Rester up. Now!”

He clicked on the button. “L. It’s been awhile.”

“I could have told you the same thing. I have something I’d like to discuss.”

“That so? Go ahead.”

“Actually, two items. The first being—you get newscasts from all over the world, just like I do, correct?”

“Yes.”

“So you know about the death of Richard Williams?”

Matt jerked his head up. He narrowed his eyes. “Yes. I suspect he was killed by Kira.”

“Why is that?”

“Heart attack. Isn’t everyone suspicious of heart attacks these days?”

“But you knew him, didn’t you? Because you attended Wammy’s House. You would have known that he wasn’t the type that Kira would kill.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Why did you tell him to lie?”

Matt flicked a hand out to stop his team from saying anything. “And just how would you find out something like that, L? Or accuse me of something like that?”

“Because these two boys—this Near and Mello—it wasn’t that they weren’t real at all. They’re dead.”

Matt tensed, his hand clenching into a fist. You son of a bitch. “Meaning what to you?”

“That you were third in place to take over for L.”

“Oh. So you made a trip to England to find out why Roger lied? How convenient, just around the time of his heart attack.”

“True. Which means you must still be a Kira suspect.”

Matt laughed, incredulous. “Really? That’s funny considering I was let go, no thanks to you. I’d be interested in what the president told you about my personal affects.”

“What’s funnier is that I go to approach Roger only to find out that he’s dead. He may possibly have given me information about you. That’s convenient.”

“Are you going to go whining to the president and have me interrogated again? It seems like someone as smart as you should have already figured out why I did that.”

“Why?”

“To keep bastards like you from poking around to find out who I am.”

Light smiled a little. Getting angry. Roger was someone important to him…heh.

Matt glared and then said, “But speaking of finding out peoples’ identities—I heard your Director had a bit of an accident. Did you and the rest of your incompetent crew happen to figure out who did it yet?”

Why you--! “How did you find out about that, M? Were you involved?”


Behind Light, his father was staring at his knees. He was agitated, eyes wide, clammy; he kept moving one knee compulsively. The pressure…this pressure…they made hardly any progress during the last four years…and now, once again…once again…a young…somebody…going under a letter….his son. He looked up at his son. He was straight-laced, honest and he had joined up with L and the police to catch Kira…and twice now…twice…Kira?

Kira.

His son…he worked hard. He studied hard. He’d nearly cried, yelling, panicked, when L was murdered…his son could not be Kira…he couldn’t…

Ide, Mogi, and Aizawa were all watching him. Matsuda was at another screen, watching Light.


In the other room, Shidoh sat next to Misa. She was reading a magazine and letting him look at the pictures.

“You know, you’re not as creepy as I thought you were,” Misa told him.

“Really!”

“Yes and you don’t eat all the apples like Ryuuk does! We should find something fun for you to eat though before you have to leave.” I wonder what Light will do…

“When do you think I will be able to leave?”

“I don’t know…”

“I have my sources just like you have yours, L.”

“You have a spy.”

“Nope. Sorry. Thank for playing, but do try again. I’m going to assume that was the second part of what you wanted to talk about as you don’t sound all that surprised. So. I have a request. I’d like to speak to…” Matt trailed off—on purpose—to look over his papers, “a…Mister Soichiro Yagami.”

Everyone looked up at that.


Shidoh got up from the couch and went over to Ryuuk. “The human attached to my notebook is scary. Do you think he’ll really give it back?”

Ryuuk shrugged. “Probably not.”

Shidoh stared at him. “But he said he would.”

“Who knows then.”

Shidoh picked up the notebook and opened it. “Hey, you wrote all the rules down.”

“Well, I was bored, I wasn’t gonna use my own for that.”

Shidoh frowned, flipping through it. He pointed one spidery finger. “These two rules are fake. Why did you do that? You might get punished!”

“I wanted to see what would happen.”

“Maybe if I am nicer he will let me have it back. I’ll tell him.” He ghosted over through the wall.

Light narrowed his eyes. How could he have found out? Well, of course, Takimura. But if the president is right and he’s under constant supervision…I’d have to speak to his team to judge whether or not they really trust him. “Why do you want to talk to Yagami?”

“Is your team not allowed to speak if they want to? I just want to ask a few questions. A few clarifications. He worked under the original L.”

Soichiro got to his feet. The tension, anger, frustration—was clear on his face. “I will speak with him.”

Light whipped around and stood up. Dammit. He’s agitated but…he won’t give anything away. He wouldn’t tell him. He knows, after all.

Soichiro walked over to the speaker. “This is Yagami.”

“Yagami. You realize, of course, that L is under suspicion of being Kira.”

He tried to keep from being terse. “Yes.”

“Do you doubt the new L at all?”

“No. He isn’t Kira.”

“You’re sure?”

“I am absolutely certain. He has tried to look for Kira for four—“

“Mister Yagami, the new L has made no progress whatsoever. Compared to the original L, he’s useless. He’s making you all look pretty stupid.”

And suddenly, there was a very long silence.

Shidoh came into the room and waved at Light. Everyone looked up again.

“Get out,” Matsuda whispered. “This is a tense situation.”

“But I must tell Light something. It may help.”

Matsuda looked at Light.

Light looked at him carefully.

“These last two rules that Ryuuk wrote in, about dying if you touch and then burn it and the one about dying after thirteen days if you don’t write in it—they’re fake.”

Everyone froze.

Yagami muttered, “Fake rule…”

Matt jerked. “What?!”

Soichiro jerked back from the speaker.

Shit! Light stared at him. Stay calm. “What are you talking about, Shidoh? Ryuuk told us all the rules were true.”

“No—I thought maybe if I told you that it might help. Speed up things on the—“

Matt’s voice came loud and clear over the speaker. “Put L back on! Now!”

Light whipped around. How did he hea— He saw the look on his father’s face, stressed, distraught….

He went back over. “What is it, M?” He was calm as possible. That stupid shinigami! I have to get rid of him!

“Yagami just muttered something about fake rules. What is he talking about? The rules you gave me for the murder notebook—“

“They are absolutely true to my knowledge.”

“And how exactly did you gain that knowledge, L?!” Matt was tensing, scrambling for his papers, spreading out the rules in front of him, looking them over. “Who gave you the rules?”

“They were in the notebook.”

“Who wrote them?”

“When we got a hold of it, it had the rules already written.”

“By who? Because the writer must have just walked in to suddenly tell you about a fake rule and Yagami seemed pretty surprised.”

Light took a deep breath. “We are all surprised…”

“Who came in the room, L? Who’s there? Maybe one of your team would like to tell me? You could put Soichiro back on for me. Or they could give me a call later. Here. I’ll even give them a number.” He gave them the scrambled line for his first cell phone.

He looked at his father, who was staring and then looked down, rubbing his forehead. Damn. He just went and screwed everything up. “We did not know there was a fake rule—“

“That’s beside the point now. Who just told you there was a fake rule?”

“We’ve tested nothing on the notebook. I will not allow you to—“

“Don’t want me to put doubt in them, eh? Or did Kira just suddenly drop by?”

“I am not Kira.”

“Funny how you suddenly jumped to that—“

His father nearly surged forward. Aizawa jumped in front of him, pleading with his eyes. “Stop, sir,” he muttered. “I know he’s your son but—“

“This is the second time—my son…”

“All right L, by process of elimination, assuming the knowledge is true, which rule would you say would be fake?”

“To my knowledge, they’re all true but,” Light glared at that giant M on his screen, hating him, but he had to respond as L or he was trapped, “…if there was a fake. It would likely be…the thirteen day rule.”

“Really? Interesting. I got more out of this then I expected. Thanks, L.” He disconnected.

Light took a moment to get control of himself and then turned back. “How do we know you’re not lying, shinigami?”

Shidoh blinked. “Well, I didn’t write—Ryuuk—“

“Go back and talk to the other shinigami.”

Shidoh shuffled back and went through the wall.

“Light…” Matsuda was looking between him and his father.

Light approached. “Dad, calm down. The shinigami is probably lying.”

“I’m sorry, Light,” Soichiro muttered instead. “I spoke without thinking…now he suspects you even more…”

“Don’t worry about it. You should go and get some rest.” He’s becoming too stressed out to even be here anymore. He’s unnerved by my being suspected again. He needs to stay out of here or he might give something else away. Stupid! I have to get him out of the way, somehow take care of Takimura, and get rid of the damn shinigami, which means exchanging ownership and losing Misa’s eyes! Not to mention the rest of them…but if I kill them now then M will…

“Light, we got a clear fix on his location.” Ide said this quietly, looking at the others.

“Where?”

“New York.”

“Can you get an image?”

Ide clicked and up popped a building.

Light looked up to the screen and glared a little. Checkmate, you bastard.

But behind him, Aizawa was staring. The thirteen day rule…fake… He looked at Mogi, who was looking back and then back at Light. Then his confinement under the original L was meaningless…

Matt sat back, jumped up, spreading the papers out. “Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch. I need more. Just a touch. Someone had to have written those rules.”

There was a beep and a large C appeared on the screen. Matt hit the speaker. “Cassandra?”

“M! Important!”

“Busy!”

“No, seriously! You set up that program to log his codes and snag him as Kira and or L. You hacked him—he just hacked you back. I had it tapped, just like you asked so I intercepted first. His programming doesn’t compare to yours but it got the job done. You stayed on the line with him for too long, it traced back through your system and tapped into the cameras around the building. They know where you are! I can’t fathom he’d use it for something pleasant.”

“Where’s Matthias?”

“’Bout to call him. L might have tapped me too since I intercepted first, he might notice the extra tag if his program was smart enough. He had access to your cameras—sent a few images through but can’t get in the inner cameras.”

“Thanks for the warning. Get out of Japan as soon as you can. Call me when you have a secure spot. ” He disconnected and turned to Hal, Rester, and Gevanni. “We’re staying.”

“But why?” Rester asked.

“Better to lure him in with, my dears.” He looked up at the screens. “And Mister Yagami sounded a little stressed. We might even get lucky and they’ll send someone. Or. Maybe I could talk to one of them. If he is Kira, acting as L and his people don’t know about it—then he can’t not let them talk to me, otherwise he’ll be even more suspicious.” He glanced up. “We should uninstall all the cameras in this room though. Just in case. Let’s get started. We’ll wait and see what he does.”