Update!....sort of.
This came out to only 833 words, since I didn't get nearly the time I wanted to work on it (I didn't even start until 2200), so I'm not officially numbering this one as an update or doing the usual art and such. I'll add some more to it and make the official update in a day or two. For now, as promised, a Friday update before I sleep!
@modigar,
@Naughtilus, this is for you two. Kaji and Gendo cause some trouble for SEELE, and SEELE... notices.
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"I spy with my little eye something that begins with…. S," Kaji muttered under his breath. His lips curled in a faint grin as he watched the street far below through the binoculars.
"What was that, sir?" the faint voice of the Section 2 squad tasked to him crackled in his earbud.
"I said, 'target in sight'," Kaji grinned. "I see someone oh-so-casually walking their way towards the dead drop."
At street level, the 'sucker' approached the fake dead drop Kaji had set up. A simple 'pickup ready' mark on a street lamp elsewhere and the city, and the trap was baited. Kaji had been waiting for a couple hours in his observation site in one of the office towers overwatching the spot, but the wait was worth it now. A nondescript man in a civilian shirt but NERV khaki pants casually walked up to the bus stop on the street below Kaji and took a seat on the bench. It was a minute or two before his hand wandered idly over the underside of the bench, palmed the slim envelope taped there, and slipped it into his shirt pocket.
"Cue the bus," Kaji said into his headset. "He's taken the bait."
"Yes, sir."
An apparently perfectly normal city bus came around the corner, empty, and pulled to a stop in front of the bus stop. The man got on without seeming to notice anything odd about the bus being empty. From the murmurs over the radio, he didn't seem to notice anything at all until the bus pulled into a warehouse just off the 'normal' route and several nice people in dark suits asked him to step out for a nice little chat about the entirely fake secret materials he'd just picked up.
Kaji was already most of the way down to the street level by the time their first catch was rolled up. He stuffed the headset and cables for the radio in his pocket, and sauntered out into the street smiling. "One down, and plenty more to fish for… Commander Ikari better be happy with this."
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The NERV cafeteria was busy at lunch. Dozens of people coming and going, loud conversations swirling, trays and bowls banging on tables… the perfect sea of chaos to conceal any number of things you want lost in a crowd, such as document passes.
It was somewhere no one would notice you peeling the tape off the envelope attached to the underside of the seemingly random table in the back, or even you opening the papers covered in technical jargon and graphs to read them.
Not unless you were looking for them.
"Hi!"
Technician 2nd Class Hotaro Mizukawa jumped in his seat at the overly cheerful greeting from right behind him. He did manage not to guiltily try to hide the papers. He was a NERV Technician, why shouldn't he be reading them? He looked up at the man who'd spoken to him, who was already pulling up a chair to sit down across from him. "Er… hello?"
The roguish man with the ponytail and unshaved chin smiled sloppily at him. "Ryouji Kaji, UN Inspector to NERV. Can I ask what you're reading?"
Mizukawa tried not to sweat. "Um, just some technical documents related to my job. Nothing important. We're always behind, so I try to catch up at lunch."
The Inspector nodded, still smiling. "I'm pretty sure they're nothing important, yes. Mostly because I planted them there an hour ago, right after I left the 'dead drop ready' sign in the vending machine area on level 17. Those documents are pure fabrication, containing no actual intel value at all. Sorry about that."
Mizukawa tried and failed to conceal his growing nervousness. "I-I'm sorry? What?"
"You're a spy for SEELE, and you just took the bait. An innocent man wouldn't have picked up that envelope at all." The Inspector stood up. "Now, come with me. Section 2 wants to have a… quiet talk with you."
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In a dark, empty room somewhere in Europe, a dozen holographic monoliths faced each other.
"Ikari is moving. He has removed half a dozen of our eyes and ears in NERV Headquarters this week. Inspector Kaji has been seen assisting," growled the one marked SEELE 06.
"Several of our couriers and data lines have been corrupted or shut down as well," added SEELE 08. "Ikari is moving sooner than expected."
"We anticipated sending Tabris would provoke him. We have contingencies for this," replied SEELE 03
"And it is time we activate one," rumbled the cold, harsh voice of SEELE 01. "One of the last reports we received before this confirmed our suspicions. Ikari has dabbled in matters he was ordered to leave alone. He has taken what was not his. It is time he is taught a lesson about obedience. Order our agent to terminate Ikari's asset. We will teach him regret."
"It will be done," said SEELE 02.
The monoliths faded away, and silence reigned.
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