Day 56: Intercom, Late Evening

[damned_intercom]

Despite the rough start and the heavier snowfall, the buses managed to stay on route and on schedule. With minutes to spare, they arrived at the gates of Landel's Institute, back to the waiting arms of the military. All pretenses seemed to drop at this point, and the soldiers again took on their patented gruff exteriors. Patients were filed out of

Comments

M25

[quarter_english]

L was pleased to find that he had returned to the room before his roommate. Orihara was still an unknown quantity, and thanks to Aguilar's procedures, some of the supplies that L had collected would be left out in the open. He'd had reasons for choosing to lock certain items in his desk drawer; he didn't appreciate them being moved to a location that other patients could access. From a certain point of view, it struck him as ironic that Aguilar seemed so obsessed with security when he was interfering with L's own attempts to maintain it. No... not security, he corrected himself. His aims are more likely to be discipline and control. At any rate, he cares only about his own security, and that of his men, his goals, not the ability of his prisoners to keep secrets amongst themselves.

When he'd understood, the night before, that the serial number assigned to him was alphanumeric code for his real name, he'd been hit by a wave of nauseated horror. He'd covered it as well as he could. Putting him in a dangerous situation, cut off from all his customary resources, was one thing; he could still act with caution. So far, apart from the headaches, he wasn't the worse for wear. Revealing his name to the wrong person, though, might prove to be tantamount to signing his death warrant, and while most people wouldn't be able to see the box, Orihara could. L didn't yet trust Orihara, but that was irrelevant; he wouldn't share his full name even with the few patients he did trust. The only reason even Lunge knew as much as his first name was that L had had to reveal it in an attempt to establish credibility.

The consolation was that there didn't seem to be a specific pattern to the assignment of numbers-Taylor's was that of a pizza delivery line. Therefore, if he showed no specific concern about it, there would be no reason for anyone to assume that L's number meant anything. Even if they did, each number could represent between two and three letters. L's name was unusual enough that it wouldn't be the first or second guess of anyone who assumed that the number was a code and tried to decipher it. He doubted that it would have been obvious to Orihara that his distress had been caused by the meaning of the number, either. A more reasonable conclusion, based on available evidence, would be that it had been caused by the flavor of his dinner.

He made sure that certain supplies were where he wanted them to be-the pistol and bandages in the backpack and the bat on the closet floor, to start-then bent to take off the boots he'd been stuck in all day.

"Preparations".... That doesn't sound good. Past statements of that nature had tended to mean that he should prepare for an unusual night.

Sorry for the wait!

[predictator]

By the time Izaya reached his shared room after being escorted from the bus, Ryuuzaki had already arrived. In addition, the same box that had awaited him yesterday sat on his desk once more, next to what was supposed to be dinner.

He gave a nod to Ryuuzaki, waiting by the door for the moment. "Good evening." he gave what he expected would be a pleasant enough smile, before slowly moving towards his desk. "It looks like everything is back to military rule," he commented as he went. "But being taken into town was a surprise-is that something that happens often, or only on special occasions? Though I can't say I know what might have been special about today...."

His brief rambling trailed off as he reached the desk. The pink gruel looked especially bland today, so Izaya ignored it in favor of the box, lifting off the lid. His makeshift lockpicking tools sat in the bottom once more, and he pulled them out to move them to his pocket.

That accomplished, he cleared the box from the desk and took a seat, pushing the 'meal' aside and turning towards Ryuuzaki.