Winds of Destiny: Rising ~ {Hawks x OC}

Chapter Fifteen: Detour

Misaki and Hawks sat opposite each other in the private dining room of an izakaya down the street from the Safety Commission headquarters. She had flat out told him when they'd walked out the front door that he was not allowed to fly her anywhere, so he'd suggested something close by. The food was decent enough and it was still a bit early, so they hadn't run into any of the after-work traffic when they'd walked in. It was always a crapshoot whether or not he'd get recognized and stopped when he walked into an unfamiliar place, which was why he tended to avoid them while he was on the clock.

"Thanks for that heads up the other day. It's too bad I wasn't able to make it," he said as he reached out for one of the yakitori skewers in the middle of the table. They'd ordered several side dishes, but that one had mostly been for him.

"Don't worry about it. The raid was a bust. Everything had been cleared out by the time we got there," Misaki replied dejectedly as she picked at the hiyayakko she'd ordered for herself.

He'd enlisted the aid of several of the supply chain workers he'd been helping out to spread the word around the other facilities about a rush order had been scheduled for some black-market support items to be received and processed at their warehouse in Shiga. He'd asked Skeptic to keep an eye on the surveillance feeds from all of the bases and let him know if anyone stepped out around two and a half, to three hours before the scheduled time of the bogus shipment. As luck would have it, the worker they'd caught taking a break during that time was on rotation at the villa. He'd tailed the guy overhead as he drove into the city to make the call. Misaki's heads up had come in no more than a minute later.

When the guy had returned to his vehicle, Hawks had met him there and confronted him, prompting him to spill for the cameras that he'd been unhappy with the new regime under the command of the League of Villains, and that he'd been working alone the entire time. He'd reluctantly delivered the man back to the villa to be dealt with by the higher ups. He couldn't really blame the guy for trying to thwart their plans, but Hawks was focused on the bigger picture. The black-market support items were chump change compared to the payout of taking down the League and the Liberation Army as a whole. Unfortunately, the man had picked the wrong time to have a sudden change of heart.

"Think they figured out you were onto them?" He asked, sliding the chicken off the end of the skewer with his teeth.

She sighed. "Something like that. We haven't heard from our anonymous tipster since then either. It's suspected that he was probably discovered by the people he was working for, seeing as they were able to clear out before the raid team arrived."

"That's too bad," Hawks drawled sympathetically. "Seemed like a good opportunity to get a bunch of illegal items out of the hands of the public."

"Yeah. Especially after Deika," Misaki huffed.

"You guys close the case on that yet?" He asked in a light tone before clearing off another skewer.

"For the most part. The investigative team finished running down background and known contacts for all of the militants a few days ago. Seems like the League really wasn't involved at all." She shrugged, sectioning off a bit of her tofu and bringing it up to her mouth.

"Kinda strange that they never responded to that whole finger business, huh?" He prompted, giving her an avenue to elaborate on that point. It wouldn't hurt to give the Liberation folks a false sense of security that the Commission was officially off their backs at this point.

"Don't even get me started on that wild goose chase..." Misaki mumbled around her food as she rolled her eyes. "So, how are things in your neck of the woods?"