[Fic] International Relations 1/7

[kittydesade]

Title:International Relations
Fandom: Night Watch/Human Target
Characters: Tiger Cub, Guerrero
Word Count: ~28,000
Rating: PG-13
Summary: When children who have yet to make their Choice go missing up and down the West Coast of the United States, the head of the Moscow Night Watch sends Tiger Cub to help the Americans investigate. Her encounter with the assassin Guerrero seems to be a coincidence, but the deeper she goes into the investigation the fewer coincidences there seem to be.
A/N: Written for scifibigbang and beta'd by the ever-tolerant kikibug13


"I have a mission for you, my dear."

Tiger Cub leaned her head back in the seat and rolled it from side to side, restless. She hated flying. Semyon was driving her to the airport and consoling her with platitudes and offerings of sing-alongs. It wasn't working.

"Boris Ignatievich can..."

"Tsst." Semyon shushed her. There was a better than even chance that their fearless leader would hear her, especially when he had just summoned her to headquarters. It was a wise thing to do, but it did nothing for her ill temper. And it did nothing for her curiosity and her suspicion regarding this latest mission.

Anatoly was in the computers again. She tugged his belt as she went past, and he yelped.

"What are you working on?"

He leaned back on his heels and pulled his head out of the mass of wires and circuit boards and looked up at her, wary. "The boss wants to see you. I shouldn't say anything until he does."

Tiger Cub looked over at Semyon, who shrugged and shoved her ahead of him with a meaty hand between her tiny shoulder-blades. She called him a rude name, to which he only responded with a laugh. It did not reassure her to hear his laugh or to feel his pushing her into the room with the boss. But then there was very little that would reassure her.

The boss was sitting at his desk going through papers, photographs, listening to a man on the other end of the phone say something in a language Tiger Cub didn't know. Nodding and speaking back. One hand came up to hold her there to wait, and then he said a few more words. Nodded, and hung up. "Katya, please, come in."

Tiger Cub's face stayed very still by a great effort. She was not Katya. She hadn't been Katya since she had officially joined the side of the Light, let alone the Night Watch; she was Tiger Cub. Calling her by her birth name was a way to get her attention, but also a way to goad her. She didn't like being goaded.

"Boris Ignatievich, you sent for me?" Hands clasped behind her back.

The boss nodded to Semyon, who slipped out the door before she could object. "Of course. Sit, please. Coffee? Tea?" All the usual pleasantries and preliminaries; Tiger Cub declined both. "There are people pulling some very powerful strings in the United States. Some very powerful people, pulling strings to get some things that they want, that are not in our best interests, not in anyone's best interests."

Of course not; if they were in anyone's best interests the Night Watch would not be taking notice. Tiger Cub did not say this, but by the look he gave her the boss heard it anyway.

"I need you to go to San Francisco, in California. I need to you to work with an agent of the Day Watch and find out what these very powerful people want with the children..."

Children?

"Yes, children. These dangerous people are pulling strings to have children with talent abducted and scuttled away, for purposes we do not yet know. This is not a Day Watch operation, they have denied all knowledge of what is going on and given us full co-operation in this matter. Both Watches in several cities have sent representatives to California to see if they can find what is going on, but no one has, yet. Now it is our turn."

"And the Inquisition?"

"They remain silent."

Tiger Cub wrinkled her nose. She had little use for the Inquisition; after what happened with Anton and Maxim and that mess, she thought most of the Moscow Night Watch and possibly even the Day Watch had little use for the Inquisition. Too much mistrust, too many people allowed to get away with too much in the name of keeping the balance and maintaining order among both Watches for anyone's taste.

If Boris heard any of this he gave no sign. His eyebrows arched a little, waiting for her formal answer.

She sighed. "I will go, Boris Ignatievich. Give me the files on the case, I will go find your missing children and their abductors." And suffer through the incompetent travel clerks and endless amounts of greasy, bad food in the process.

The boss nodded and tossed her a packet, thick, with a plane ticket banded to the top of it. "You will leave tomorrow morning."

Of course he had known she would say yes. He was the boss. It was his job to know things like that.

Still, Tiger Cub hated him a little bit for that.



She took dinner with Anton and Svetlana that evening. It was more fun and easier than being alone. They went out to a little restaurant down the subway line from their apartment, well known among their set for their chicken and dumplings and for being quiet and having staff who asked no questions. Tiger Cub was in the mood for quiet, tonight, and to only answer questions put to her by her close friends who knew better than to prod sensitive topics.

And who were also willing to listen to her grumble and growl about her current assignment. "It is pointless. If there were something there to discover the American Watches would have discovered it already. They are better equipped to handle something in their own backyard anyway."

"Perhaps that is why they need you," Svetlana offered, looking as though she was trying not to laugh at Tiger Cub's grumbling. "They need a fresh pair of eyes, and a new representative from each Watch might be able to see something they have not."

"We are sure that this is not a Day Watch operation?"

Tiger Cub wrinkled her nose. Anton would say that, although Anton had also been on the receiving end of a number of the machinations from both Night and Day Watches, so he would think that.

"Boris Ignatievich thinks it is not. I don't know. I don't care," Tiger Cub said, shoving her bowl away from her with a petulant kick at the underside of the table. "I don't want to go to the United States."

Svetlana reached across to stroke her hair, rub gently behind her ears, and it did soothe her. "Think of it as an opportunity to have a bit of a safe adventure, to travel and see the sights. You've been saying you wanted a bit of an adventure, anyway." Anton chuckled.

"I have not." No, that wasn't true. Tiger Cub had been complaining that it had been too boring lately, itching for something to do. Even out in her somewhat remote corner of the city.

"You have. And you've earned a solo assignment." Anton knew, also, how the moments away from Semyon and Bear were a treat for her, as much as she depended on their support. It was nice also to be on her own, to be given a small assignment that would take her away from people for a little while.

This wouldn't take her away from people, but it would at least take her to strange people. And strange places, where she wouldn't hear her own language for days or even weeks on end, and everything would even smell funny. Her nose wrinkled.

"Maybe. But it won't be a solo assignment. Alisa from the Day Watch will be there with me."

"Alisa..." Anton's face grew shaded, guarded again. He'd had run-ins with her before.

Svetlana moved to put her hand on his arm. "Of course the Day Watch would want their own representative there, participating in the investigation."

"Of course." But Tiger Cub could tell he was upset, or at least mistrustful.

They poked at their dumplings a little more, no one in the mood for conversation after that. Another few minutes and Svetlana started asking Tiger Cub about her preparations, what she would be packing, what the weather in California was like. Tiger Cub gave short, but not impolite answers. Eventually she had to confess that she knew very little about that part of the world.

"Well, it'll be a change, at least. And if there's as little to discover as you think, you'll be able to come home quickly."

Svetlana smacked Anton on the arm. "We're not hoping for that! There are children involved, we are hoping they can resolve this quickly, not give up and come home."

"You're right," Anton said, soberly and with excessive gravity. "We hope you have a long and arduous investigation in California."

Tiger Cub laughed and lobbed a dumpling at his head.

"In all seriousness, koshka, you'll be all right. It's not as bad as you think, and even the flight will be over before you know it. Sleep through it, if you want."

She nodded reluctantly. Anton was right. She could sleep through the flight, set feet to ground again, and be off and running and no doubt discover that there was nothing for her to discover, the Inquisition would have to take care of it. Or perhaps there was something to discover, but she was hardly the person to take on an entire cabal of child-abducting Others by herself. Well, with one Dark Other, but still.

"You'll be all right," Svetlana told her. "One day we'll look on this and share stories and drink and it will all be a distant memory."


The flight, at least, went well.

Tiger Cub didn't so much sleep through most of it as toss and turn and keep her eyes closed. She was stiff when she got off the plane and her eyes felt as though they should be sizzling on someone's breakfast platter. The bottle of water only helped a little, and she managed to splash cold water on her face a whole hour and a half before landing.

"Hello. My name is Annika."

"Tiger Cub." She shook the other woman's hand. "I need a shower."

They discussed business while Tiger Cub was drying her hair and bundled in a borrowed robe. To her mild surprise, Alisa was already there, as was the San Francisco representative of the Day Watch. The table they sat around was round and small and wobbled, but it supported all their laptops and their uplinks to their various home networks.

"... challenging the sanctity of the choice," Mick, the San Francisco representative of the Day Watch was running them all through the information that had been gathered so far. "Of course, there is nothing we would like better than to replenish our ranks, but this is not the way we would do it. It would open up too much ground for retribution and tear down the structure that benefits both of us."

Alisa nodded, and Tiger Cub wrinkled her nose, seeing the truth of it. The treaty served everyone by remaining intact; if the Day Watch had some plan in the works it would not be so sloppy and openly undermine both other Day Watch members who might have a genuine interest in maintaining the treaty and the balance between Day and Night Watch that kept them alive to continue their more immediate plans.

"Not to mention the sanctity of their flesh," Annika commented dryly. "Children are being slaughtered..."

"There is no proof of that." Alisa interrupted.

They went on back and forth like this until Tiger Cub shifted, leaped onto the coffee table, and proceeded to wash with large, deliberate gestures. One by one, they fell silent.

Alisa wore a tiny smile on her face when she spoke. "You have a plan in mind?"

"I think it would be worth it to see how they are spotting the children. They must have Others with them, or they would not be able to see the potential before it develops."

"We have questioned every Other who is registered and licensed in the city..."

Tiger Cub's tail lashed. "And those you don't know about officially, yes, I guessed that. What I am suggesting is not going back over old ground but finding out who could have followed that scent before us."

"You are suggesting..."

"I am suggesting that we look more at who has been taken, and who had access to them, and how they found them. Not by magic but how they could have gotten in. There has to be a trail somehow, some kind of disguise they would have used..." After all, the Night Watch ran around in an electrician's truck or a garbage truck or whatever was available for a reason.

Mick frowned, tapping his fingers on the table. "It's not bad, but I still think that if the solution were to be found among the Others..."

First Tiger Cub's head jerked up, then Annika's. Then Alisa's and by the time Mick realized none of the women were listening to him they had come crashing through the windows and shot him. Police. Human police?

Tiger Cub didn't bother to stay and find out why, or whether or not they were human. Upending the table in her haste to get out of the line of fire, she crashed through the half-open door and into the hallway. If they hadn't made it to all of the doors. If they hadn't made it to the windows that could be made to be doorways when a several hundred pound tiger came crashing through it, she could get out.

But they had made it to the doorways, or at least, all of the ones on the ground floor. Behind her, she could hear Alisa screaming. In outrage, at least, rather than in fear or pain. Good. That meant she wouldn't have to explain to Boris Ignatievich and, worse, to Zavulon, why her counterpart in the Day Watch had gotten killed. Assuming she didn't get herself killed, that is. There was no real point in disappearing into the Gloom if she would be chased there, and how far down she hid would reveal her ability level, so she stayed in the world.

And up the stairs she went. Pelting on four legs, then on two, swearing breathlessly and then just inside her head at Boris Ignatievich, Semyon, Anton, everyone who had ever talked her into this. And the San Francisco Night Watch, for not being able to handle this in their own territory. And there was a window. It looked out onto a rooftop. She could escape there. A thrown chair broke the glass and in another second, the tiger leaped through.

"She's getting away!"

"Leave her!"

"No, follow her! She could be..."

Tiger Cub snorted and didn't stop to listen to what she could be when what she was was hunted. Over the rooftop, leaping the gap between buildings, and over the next rooftop. And then over the next gap, or at least that was the idea. As it turned out, the gap was a little larger than she had calculated for.

The car beneath her was big enough to break her fall. No one needed a car that big, she thought, before the impact caught up with her and she blacked out.



Guerrero was in a foul mood.

He'd been waiting for a client when the woman landed on his hood. Out of nowhere, well, off a rooftop at least, but he'd checked the area over carefully when they drove up and there had been no signs of any other operatives. No sign that anything was happening except what should be happening. It was supposed to be a safe area for a meet.

Then he'd heard the explosion a block or so down. Not big enough or close enough to be distinct as an explosion, at least to the lay person. He'd looked around anyway, got ready to call the contact information and scrub the meet when the girl had landed on his hood. Young woman, girl. He wasn't sure how old she was and the only reason he wasn't just leaving her against a dumpster in the alley was because he was pretty sure Chance would at least want to try to help her.

The weird thing was, he should have been taking her to a hospital. But she didn't look wounded. Bruised, maybe, but not nearly as injured as she should have looked falling off a building onto a car.

"You should have bones sticking out of you or something, dude," he muttered. Glared out his windshield at the buckled hood of his car. "Chance better know a good mechanic."

The woman didn't say anything. She was still unconscious, maybe he should have been checking for head injuries. Not that he could see most of the bad ones if they were there. Never mind.

"Hey, Chance?" He called up once he'd parked outside of the old textile building. Capable he might be of carrying her up, but he wasn't going to do it when she might be injured. He wasn't that pissed.

Another second and Chance's voice came through clear to his phone. "Hey. Thought you were heading out of town."

"Yeah, something came up. Listen, can you get down here, help me with something? Might have a case for you."

"Be right down."

Chance hung up, and Guerrero put his phone away, sat back in his seat and waited. If Chance said he'd be right down he'd be right down, but it might be good to give him a couple minutes to argue with Winston first. The big guy didn't trust him. Not that Guerrero could really blame him. If he'd been in Winston's shoes, he probably wouldn't have trusted him as much as Winston did right now. Then again, if he'd been in Winston's shoes, he wouldn't know what he did about the man who called himself Guerrero.

He was fidgeting by the time Chance did get down there, knee bouncing, eyes darting back and forth over what he could see of the landscape. It didn't look like anyone had followed them, so there was that at least.

"Hey, what do you..." Chance started, which was when the girl sat up in the back of his car and startled both of them into jumping. Guerrero landed half out of his seat, half turned around and pointing a gun at her.

"[Who are you? What's going on?]"

She was speaking in Russian. Guerrero had to take a second to organize his brain properly. "[Who are you?]"

Chance glanced at him, then at the girl. Between Guerrero in the front seat and Chance standing covering the back, there was no way she could get past both of them. And yet she looked like she was about to try. If she did try something, if she so much as managed to put a foot past either him or Chance, Guerrero was going to skewer her. Or something, take out the price of fixing his car and the cost of the client he'd lost out of her hide.

She didn't, though. Instead she held up her hands to show that she meant no harm, sat back on her heels, and spoke in clear if accented English.

"My name is Katya. I come from Moscow... I am here investigating the disappearance of several children." It didn't sound like the truth. It sounded like a carefully rehearsed lie, except it also sounded like the kind of lie Chance told when he didn't want someone peripheral to the case to know too many of the details. "I was meeting with some of my colleagues when we were attacked, I don't know by who..."

Her eyes were starting to come unfocused, now. Maybe she did have a concussion. "Hey, now. Don't pass out on us, that'd be bad..." Chance leaned forward to prop her up into more of a sitting up position. Guerrero restrained himself from comment.

"We'd better get her upstairs," he said instead, and Chance nodded. "Can you walk?"

"Of course I can walk," Katya snapped, but almost fell out of his truck when she came through the door.

Chance stepped up and caught her, then scooped her up into his arms. "Jeez, you weigh a ton," he commented. Guerrero cocked an eyebrow since she looked like she weighed barely anything, but maybe it was all dense-packed muscle. Which just went to further his whole theory about her assignment here being more than what it seemed. Anyway, Chance had a grip on her. She was muttering about how it wasn't nice to comment on a lady's weight, but her English was getting more and more broken. She was barely awake by the time they got her up to the couch.

"Should call a doctor," Guerrero muttered to no one in particular, and started to stalk off.

Chance called after him. "Where're you going?"

"Getting my car fixed. You see the size of the dent she left in the hood?"

"Yeah, well..." the taller man shook his head. "Don't be too long, okay? We..." he just shrugged, in lieu of finishing that particular thought. Guerrero nodded and trotted out. Neither of them needed to talk about the consequences of a woman in trouble just dropping into their laps like this. Or his lap. Or his car. Whenever something like that happened, it always meant trouble. The only question was, how much, and what kind.