The Mello Code

There were many ways in which Mello could have gained access to the Wammy House. A childhood spent getting out and the last few months spent occasionally testing the security by getting in, had both presented him with many options. He chose one that he had never tried before. He walked up to the gate and rang the bell. Hal came outside to see him, buttoning up her coat, which she had evidently just grabbed. Before she was even close, Mello called out. "Ma\'am, I am M. I called earlier for an appointment. I apologise for the lateness of the hour."



Hal frowned, but immediately responded. "Of course, please do come inside." She unlocked the gate and didn\'t attempt to communicate outside her presumed role. They walked along the driveway and up the steps into the reception hall. "My office is just this way."



"I think we\'re clear now." Mello exhaled. "I know I\'m not bugged, because I\'ve checked, but I wasn\'t sure of the security outside the gates." He looked around, but there were no children in sight. "I need Jamboree down here. I may have to take her out. I haven\'t decided yet." He marched towards Hal\'s office. "Please don\'t announce to the whole House that I\'m here. I\'m on a case."



She followed him in. "You know where the kettle is, Mello. I\'ll have a coffee, if you\'re making yourself a drink." She picked up her telephone and pressed a single digit internal speed-dial. "Hi, can you find Jamboree and bring her down here please? I need a word. Thank you." She hung up. "You look worried."



"What\'s Jamboree\'s ranking?"



"Currently fifth, but that\'s fairly fluid. Didn\'t the committee agree that the fourth generation rank above the fifth in this house. It would have to be a fairly major catastrophe before Jamboree is in the running."



"Yes." Mello was pacing. He circled past the kettle and snatched it up to fill it. He didn\'t want a hot chocolate, but he decided to make Hal\'s coffee just for something to occupy his hands. "But didn\'t we also nearly just have one of those? It\'s actually very few people who need to be killed before she\'s L, when you stop to think about it. Hal, MI5 know that there\'s a letter in the country. Namely they know I\'m in the country. I\'ve just been in two police-stations where the left-hand didn\'t know what the right-hand was doing or else they would have attached the name Mello to M. Regardless, it doesn\'t matter whether I\'m Mello or M. Right now, a rather astute chief constable knows that I\'m here. She believes it to be on a case. In a way, it is."



He had paused. Hal waited, but he didn\'t go on. "You\'re very forthcoming tonight. Normally I couldn\'t prise information out of you if my life depended on it."



Mello looked at her with dead eyes. She involuntarily stiffened. He took out his chocolate and bit off a chunk. "Let me spell this out. A couple of bobbies trying to gain brownie points with the Home Office by finding out why I\'m in the country is one thing. MI5 throwing their resources behind ensuring that they know is quite another. Are you seeing the danger yet?"



"You\'ll be arrested?"



Mello frowned. "Hal, you aren\'t usually this stupid. Are you drunk?"



"Do you want a smack up the mouth?"



"Danger number one," Mello raised a gloved finger to count it off, "I have to be very careful not to stay here too long nor to do anything that makes it obvious that I\'m connected with this place. I\'m a known letter. Wammy\'s House is an unknown hive of us. Danger number two, how the fuck can I go home tonight? They could well be tracking me via satellite." He glanced up as the door was quietly knocked. "Are there any strings you can pull to get them off my back? Someone must know we\'re here."



Hal nodded quickly, then called out. "Come in, Jamboree."



The teenage girl walked in and closed the door behind her. She gasped slightly as she spotted Mello. "Hello."



Mello turned and surveyed her coldly. "You are fifteen, Jamboree, not eighteen." He growled. "You\'ve been flirting with boys from the university campus. You\'ve endangered the security of Wammy\'s House. Not precisely the action of a genius, is it?" He poured Hal\'s coffee and carried it over to her desk. "Do you think we\'re playing games here? I\'m out there having to clean up your shit."



Hal tried to look impassive, though her eyes flashed daggers in Mello\'s direction. Jamboree appeared close to tears, before closing down completely into dead calm. She whispered. "I apologise if my actions have compromised you or this House."



Mello walked behind Hal, closing first the nearest curtain. He indicated to Hal that she should close the furthest. It would look too strange to anyone watching outside if he did it. He leaned against the wall, watching the teenager carefully. "Don\'t try aloofness with me. I helped refine the techniques that you\'re using and I live with Matt. Aloof dissociation tends not to work on you anymore, when you live with a master of the art."



"Mello." Hal warned, softly.



"Hal." Mello moved forward, leaning on the desk to meet her eyes. "Jamboree is in the running for the L code, however distantly. She needs to understand what that really means. I\'m sorry, did Near make you think it was solely sitting around being clever all day?"



Jamboree\'s face crumpled. "But I\'m not. I\'ve..." She didn\'t finish. She stared at Hal, eyes wide with pleading and hurt. "You haven\'t submitted it?"



Hal sighed. "Mello, Jamboree has applied to be taken out of the running. She wants to be a surgeon."



"That\'s why I was at the University!" Jamboree added. "Hal arranged it. They have real cadavers there to train on. For all the facilities here, there\'s not that."



Mello blinked slowly, then bowed his head. His mind was reeling. In a way, this was easier, though anger pulsed through his psyche. The way ahead was clear. He stood up and rearranged the chocolate in his hand, so that his fingers weren\'t gripping the section that he had just crushed in the wrapper. He ate a piece, staring at Jamboree. "That be as it may, but you don\'t get to leave messes for those of us who heard the call. Right now, MI5 could be using satellite to track me, because they know I\'m M and they know I came here. I\'m going to have to leave in a minute, while Hal gets on with running just an ordinary orphanage in the eyes of officialdom. Meanwhile, out there is a young man who has admitted that he\'s been listening inside this building." He snapped off more chocolate. "What would L have done, Jamboree?"



Hal coughed, "I\'ll contact L. I\'ll ask him to intervene."



Mello glared at her. He hissed out. "Near will not hear of this!"



Hal glared back, "It\'s the quickest, easiest way of letting you go about your business! What\'s the problem?"



Mello couldn\'t believe his ears. "I thought you were on my side!" He spat. "You want to call Near and tell him that I fucked up? Nice!" He fixed Hal with a stare usually reserved for rogue Mafioso buttonmen. She didn\'t flinch. "I will clean up my own mess. Jamboree will clean up hers. That\'s the way it works."



Jamboree swallowed hard, "I don\'t understand what\'s gone so wrong. I get MI5. I understand that. Who was listening?" She glanced at the window. "Those students climbed in here?"



Mello rolled his eyes. "Tell her, Hal." He walked away, picking up a telephone that he knew was a secure line. He heard Hal bringing the girl up-to-date. It took ten rings for Matt to pick up. Mello barked out, "Did I interupt an important boss fight? I\'m sorry, guapo. I\'m in the shit here and you\'re..."



"I was on the loo." Matt softly interupted.



"Matt, I need to you to hack MI5." Mello put his chocolate down on the cabinet top in front of him. He heard Hal\'s gasp and Jamboree\'s loaded silence. Matt didn\'t reply. "Are you still there?"



"Yeah." The redhead lit a cigarette. "Just waiting for the rest of the sentence." He exhaled smoke. "Or was that it, \'hack MI5\', for, like, fun?"



Hal rushed to Mello\'s side. "This is idiocy! Do you know the penalty for being caught at that? Matt could go down for a very, very long time." She met Mello\'s gaze and this time she flinched. "All for the sake of losing face with Near. Mello, don\'t endanger Matt. Please?"



On the other end of the \'phone, Matt took another drag on his cigarette, then languidly commented, "Tell Hal that she\'s assuming that I\'m going to get caught. Bitch. What do you want when I\'m in there?"



Mello wanted to scream. He closed his eyes and contemplated the risks. Jamboree had made a mistake, but it had been the result of some seemingly harmless flirting. She must have been complimented by the attention from someone older than her. She was fifteen. There were probably hormones involved. She was at that age when being attractive was so important. Mello sighed. He could empathise with that. Jamboree couldn\'t have foreseen that the student had friends with surveillance equipment. The real fault was with himself. He, Mihael \'head up his arse\' Keehl, had galavanted up and down the country being amused by the reaction that a known letter could solicit from the law enforcers. He became aware that both Hal and Jamboree were staring at him. Matt was characteristically silent on the other end of the telephone. "Ok. Matt get back to Tetris or whatever you were doing. Forget this."



"Need me to come out?"



"Matty, stay in the fucking house and keep your head down. That\'s an order." He went to hang up, but rescued the line before it was properly disconnected. "Te amo, guapo."



"Volim te."



Mello nodded and hung up. He turned on Hal. "\'Phone Near. Do not give him any details, just tell him that Mello suspects that MI5 are watching Wammy\'s House and he needs to find out if that\'s true. This is a priority, because I\'m not free to do what else needs to happen until I know that." He saw Hal\'s quick nod, then she raced to the computer. Mello stared at Jamboree. "You are a lucky girl. If you were still in the running to be L, you would really be finding out tonight what that means. As it is, you\'re just going to do a little job. Go and get your coat, then get out there. Watch the police station and the second your lover boy comes out, stick like glue to him." He raised his eyebrows when she didn\'t immediately move. "Go to stores. Get three bugs. I want one on each of them. Rajan, Nathan and Demmy." He could see Hal\'s sharp look in his direction, even as she was informing Near. "And take a secure line mobile with you." Mello smiled. "Good luck."



Jamboree made her way slowly towards the door. She was rewarded with Hal saying, "One moment please, Near." Then pausing the link and snapping. "Mello! You are not sending one of my children out into the cold at this time of night! What do you think this is?"



"Wammy\'s House." Mello glowered at her. "She\'s made it to fifteen. That\'s more than me or Near got."



"And that was wrong too!" Hal didn\'t take her eyes off him. "Jamboree, go to your room and stay there. Mello, I\'ll find..."



"Jamboree, do as I told you or I\'ll see to it that the committee refuse your application. No! I\'ll see to it that you\'re removed to another institution. Good luck trying to be a surgeon from a state home."



Hal\'s jaw dropped. "Mello, you can\'t do that." Her finger hovered over the communication button, as if she thought that Near might save her. Mello mused that Near probably could, but then again, Near understood the game and would possibly agree with Mello. Jamboree left the room, the door slamming behind her. Hal grit her teeth, a mixture of emotions showing in her expression. "This isn\'t you, Mello. Deep down, this isn\'t you."



"Wrong." Mello retrieved his chocolate. "This is precisely me." He picked up a Watari mobile phone from the cabinet top. "I\'ve been here too long. Call me with Near\'s information and give Jamboree this number. I\'ve got number six." He turned and left the office, striding across the reception area to the door. A couple of children, arriving down a corridor, called out to him, but Mello ignored them. He opened the front door and dashed out into the night.



Mello drove north, cursing the fact that he had driven here in Matt\'s car instead of taking the time to go into their house for his biking leathers. His motorbike could have maybe evaded satellite surveillance by being driven underground somewhere. There were caves in the forest. There were notably caves up Purbeck, though Mello\'s stomach tightened at the thought of them. Mainland Britain was apparently the most watched landmass in the world. More survelliance cameras than even totalitarian states. Mello felt like every one of them was trained on him now. He wondered how much of this was paranoia. He wondered if he had already led them home when he\'d dropped Matt off. He hoped that Matt wasn\'t doing anything stupid right now.



Before he could call to check though, the Watari mobile rang on the passenger seat beside him. Mello pulled over and answered it. It was Jamboree. "I\'ve just seen Nathan and another bloke being taken into the police station."



"Good girl. Keep watching."



"I\'m sorry, Mello, I didn\'t..."



"Yeah, I know." Mello swallowed. "We\'re all sorry." He hung up on her. He felt like some malevolent elder brother, but reason told him that he was being more lenient with her than would have happened in his day. The thought passed through his mind that Near might put two and two together, or Hal might tell him, and Near might take retribution against his own heir. Mello felt that sinking panic that he\'d last felt in the days after arriving home from the confrontation with Kira. He suddenly saw a future involving running or trying to take out Near in self-defence. He saw his home being lost to him. He was going mad. He could feel it. It was in his head. Mello\'s hands met over the mobile phone. "0 moj Isuse, oprosti nam naše grijehe, oèuvaj nas..." The telephone rang between his hands. "Yes?"



Near\'s deadpan tone sounded in Mello\'s ear. "Mello."



Mello closed his eyes. "Have you got the information for me?" He took his abandoned chocolate from the dashboard and noisily bit off a piece.



"MI5 are not watching you." The news came as a welcome relief, regardless of who delivered it. "Why would Mello think that they were?"



"I\'m on a case, Near. Thank you for your assistance." Mello sucked on his chocolate, well aware of what Near would be thinking. Information for information. It was the way that they had been raised. Information could not be imparted without information of equal importance being given in return. It was a point of honour. It was apparently part of the L Code for which they were all striving to inherit. The older Mello became the more he wondered about that. It just didn\'t sound like something that Lawliet would have done himself. Mostly because it made no sense at all. At the time, there had been talk of deskilling; that taking information from others without returning in kind presented the risk of some children being lazy. They could do nothing, just wait then get information from the other children to solve the case. Even then, Mello had thought that they might have had Matt in mind when this rule materialised from thin air. In retrospect, it was probably more that they worried about Mello bullying his way to the top. Nevertheless, it had done its job. No-one ever asked anyone for anything, because the penalty was airing findings of one\'s own. Mello was willing to bet a grand that the rule had not come from L himself. "It\'s classified information, given out on a need to know basis." Mello added airily.



"Mello has been indiscreet."



Mello scowled and ate chocolate. "L spoke to me once, alone. He gave me information about three of his cases. I wrote them out in full, all of his insight and methodologies, then hid the disk under the floorboards in my room at Wammy\'s House. I figured that no-one would find it in my life-time. You thought you were emulating L in the way you worked in catching Kira. You might find that your opinion changes after reading it. Thank you for your assistance, Near." Mello came close to hanging up. It was a decent parting line, but it was also too delicious to hear the shocked silence on the other end.



"Why would L talk to Mello on his own?"



"I don\'t know. Fascinating speculation there though, isn\'t there?"



More silence. Mello did a three point turn, the earpiece still conveying nothing but Near\'s quiet breathing. Mello had begun to drive back towards Winchester before his rival spoke again. "It makes no sense for L to speak with Mello without including the other children."



"Unless he already had me marked as his sole heir."



"No." Near snapped. "That is bullshit. That conclusion does not fit the facts."



"It does if high marks weren\'t the only criterion." Mello sniggered, enjoying himself. "Maybe I had qualities that you couldn\'t hope to possess."



There was a pause of only a couple of beats. Near calmly responded, "Yes, Mello has many qualities that I do not have, but the reverse is also true. For example, I doubt I would find myself in a situation where I thought MI5 were following me into Wammy\'s House. Might Mello..."



"Bye Near." Mello began, but it felt too much like Near had won this round. "Maybe if Near had a life and got out more often, he would learn all about the adrenaline shots of high activity. Do you actually get any exercise?"



"Near has a trampoline."



Mello blinked. He tried to imagine it, but his mind rebelled. "Yeah, well I get my exercise by screwing the arse off Matt and..." There was the quiet beep of another call coming through. "Got to go. Development in my case. Bye Near." He hung up and reconnected to Jamboree. "Yes?"



There was a catch to Jamboree\'s voice. Mello couldn\'t work out if she was dithering with cold or fear. "They\'ve been released. I\'m tailing them. Mello, won\'t it look weird me just turning up? Especially when they\'ve just been arrested in connection with me?"



"They weren\'t arrested. They were helping police with their enquiries." Mello corrected blithely. "It doesn\'t matter how it looks, just get those bugs into their pockets. I need to know where they\'re going and what they\'re talking about. Go!"



Jamboree sighed and hung up. Mello hadn\'t driven too far north and was already on the outskirts of the city. He debated circling around by the police station, but decided that he was better on foot. He parked close to the Guild Hall and texted Hal to patch the audio from the bugs through to him. The earpiece was annoying him. It was designed for his left ear, but the skin was scarred and sensitive there. Rummaging around in the glove compartment of Matt\'s car revealed all manner of devices, cables and small electrical equipment - including the old Gameboy that Matt swore he\'d lost - but no right ear bluetooth earpiece. Mello blocked out the chafing pain and made do. He was close to the police station when a clicking noise sounded and suddenly he was hearing the conversation of the three students. Mello smirked, muttering under his breath, "Nice one, Jamboree."



Jamboree was still with them. Mello heard her clearly say, "Is that the Rotunda? I\'ve never been this far into the campus. I normally just catch the minibus to the main site from here. There\'s a really chilly wind coming off the river."



Mello used a combination of Parkour and full belt running to reach the other side of the city. From the conversation in his ear, he knew that the three students were heading for the Student Union. Jamboree was subtly stalling them with constant reference to her surroundings. He reached the campus and saw them crossing the paving stones towards the union itself. He recognised Rajan Singh. His assumption was that the other two were Nathan and Demmy. Mello\'s gaze though rested longest upon the Wammy child. It felt right that she finish what she started. He didn\'t have much time. They were closing into the lights. It was right that she cleaned up her own mess, but Mello was rooted to the spot in the shadows. As far as he knew, she was only the second person ever to deselect themselves from the L Code conflict. The first was Matt. It was this fact alone that stilled Mello right now. Matt had still ended up in a warzone. Jamboree didn\'t have to.



Mello\'s fingers curled around his Watari \'phone and he pulled it out of his pocket before he could change his mind. He rang Jamboree\'s number, as a return from her earlier calling of him. He watched as it rang somewhere inside her coat and the three men waited while she answered it. "Go home." Mello rasped. He saw her look around, her whole body twisting as if she moved to keep herself warm, not at all obvious that her genius mind was seeking him through sweeping gazes. He was smugly satisfied that her stance gave no sign of having spotted him. "If you want to be a surgeon, go home. If you want to be L, stay." He cut the connection and dropped the phone back into his pocket. A colder metal filled his palm now.



Jamboree was making her excuses, backing away as she spoke to them. One of the students was pointing inside the building, obviously trying to persuade her to come in for just one drink. Rajan Singh stamped his feet on the spot near to the door, his hands rigid inside his pockets. His teeth were grit in the universal symbol for \'I\'m cold\'. Another student started to walk towards her, gesturing for his friends to carry on in. Jamboree called a little too loudly. "I don\'t need walking home. Honestly." She turned and ran, leaving the man behind her frowning.



It was now or never. Mello raised his semi-automatic, calculating the distance and the speed with which he would have to clip all three. As he had deduced back in the police station, L would have protected Wammy\'s House, if he had reasonable belief that the security of the place had been compromised. If Singh had listened, then the teenager could well know enough to sell to the highest bidder. He could have talked to his friends. L would have made them disappear before the threat became real. Mello took aim, as Singh\'s hand rose to open the Student Union door. His mobile phone vibrated in his pocket. Within a heartbeat, Hal\'s voice sounded in his ear, over-riding the patched through signals from the bugs. "Mello. Don\'t do it." He blinked and Rajan Singh disappeared through the door; his friends close behind him. "I\'m connecting Matt."



Mello growled, his gun lowered to point at the pavement. Mostly he was furious with himself for allowing the distraction to put him off his shot. He breathed heavily and sank further back into the shadows. He now had the option of barging in there or else waiting out here, freezing half to death, until they emerged again. The music was loud within. It could well be the early hours before they had to go home. They could be inside even now discussing what Rajan had heard. Matt spoke to him through the earpiece. "Mello, what the fuck\'s going on?"



"For the record, Matty, I am going to kill you in the slowest, most painful way I can devise." Mello flicked the safety catch back onto his Beretta and shoved back into his jacket pocket. "And trust, I can be very imaginative in these things."



"\'kay, but why are you in the shit?" Matt replied quietly. "Jamboree thinks you\'re about to zero someone."



"Was about to." Mello hissed. "Was being the operative word. Until some fucker called me at the optimum moment and..."



"Saved your immortal soul." Matt sniffed. "Mell, I\'m in Winchester. I\'m on your motorbike. Where are you?"



Mello blinked, startled. "You\'re where?" Paranoia flashed cold through his body. "I told you to stay at home!"



"Yeah, I know."



"Go home. No! Go to the House and wait for me there."



"How about fuck off?" Matt spat back. "Mello, you left ours to do a routine interview with a suspect. Now you\'re running around the city somewhere, threatening to zero students and scaring the crap out of little orphans. Angel, ordinarily I\'d trust your judgement, but, to be honest, you\'ve been yo-yoing all over the shop just recently. Don\'t make me ride around looking for you." Mello heard a voice indistinctly in the background. Matt responded. "Nice one, thanks. Mello, you\'re somewhere on the University campus overlooking the Student Union. That\'s saved me some time."



"Matty." Mello warned, but it all felt too late. It felt like that had been the moment to kill them and it had been missed. Mello shook his head trying to dislodge the thought. He\'d been in the Mafia long enough to know that there were dozens of moments to clip someone. There was nothing Fated about something as ugly as firing a gun at someone. Mello stared up at the stars. It was as if he had just sold out on some big and almighty cause. Like he\'d failed God or L or himself or something. Or been saved. It was so hard to tell. "Matty, go home." There was no reply. He could hear traffic and the sound of breathing, but Matt didn\'t say anything. "Matt, I don\'t want you out here. I want you to go back to the institution or go home." Still nothing. "Why are you giving me the silent treatment? I think if anyone around here deserves someone being fucked off with them it\'s you."



There was a humming roar in the night air, but it came from the street behind him, not through the earpiece. Mello stared in disbelief as his own motorbike tore down the road, just a few yards to his left. The figure upon it was wearing Mello\'s own biking leathers, gloves and helmet, though the boots belonged to Matt. Mello could still hear breathing through the earpiece. Whomever it was, it wasn\'t Matt. The bike returned more slowly, its rider turn to peer into alleys and the windows of darkened lecture rooms. Mello sighed deeply and stepped out towards the kerb. The bike sped up to meet him and, despite the lack of helmet, Mello hopped on behind his husband and let him drive them away.