Misaki sipped her coffee without really tasting it; then she set the paper cup down on the park bench beside her and picked up her book. Opening to a page at random, she pretended to read. It was some sort of murder mystery, but fiction had never really interested her. This was simply the book that she'd been told to bring.

She tried to look relaxed - one leg crossed over the other, leaning back against the bench - but her nerves were stretched tight and she was sure that it was obvious to anyone who might be watching. The coffee probably wasn't helping.

Her gaze flicked over the top of the book to scan the park; so far she hadn't seen anyone who looked out of place. A couple of joggers were on the footpath, but no one was meandering suspiciously. There was a playground behind her, faced by a bench that was back-to-back with hers. There hadn't been any children playing on the equipment when she'd arrived - fifteen minutes early, hoping and failing to get a glimpse of her mysterious contact without him or her realizing it - and there didn't sound like there were any there now. Well, it was right before lunch; children were probably all in school.

In any case, it was a hot day; most people were probably sheltering indoors, or else headed to the cooler mountains for the weekend. Misaki would have been inside herself, working on her massive backlog of cases, except that her orders were to be here.

The Director had called her into his office that morning to tell her that he had an unconventional assignment for her.

"How are things coming on the Fujiwara case?" he'd said by way of a preface.

Misaki suppressed a frown. "Still stalled, sir," she said. "The man we arrested has no idea how the shipments are scheduled and tracked, just that it's a very complex network."

"I see. Last night I received some intelligence concerning that case."

This time she did frown. "You did, sir?" She knew that Hourai had his own sources, cultivated over the decade of his service with police; but it always bothered her when information didn't flow through the official channels.

"It seems that an external organization, who shall remain anonymous, is also having trouble with the Fujiwara family; they came to me with a proposal that will be both in their interest as well as the police's. I agreed."

"What sort of proposal?"

Hourai regarded her steadily. "A cooperative effort, between their group and Section Four. Because of the delicate nature of this collaboration, it will remain strictly unofficial. I am assigning you, and only you. The operation will be designated top secret, and you are not to involve anyone else on your team. Do you understand, Chief Kirihara?"

Misaki hesitated before answering. She hated the idea of keeping anything from her team, but at the same time she would leap at the chance - any chance - to take down Fujiwara and his black market doll trade. But why run an unofficial operation? And… "By external organization, do you mean that this is a criminal group, sir?" she asked. "There has to be a way of using their information without cooperating -"

"You'll understand when you hear the details," Hourai interrupted. He gave her the address of the park, the location of a specific bench on which she was to sit at a predetermined time, and a copy of a thin paperback book that was to be the signal by which a member of this group would recognize her. "Fujiwara's trade is a serious threat to public security," Hourai finished. "I know I can trust you to take care of this."

"Yes, sir," Misaki said, wondering just what in the hell she was agreeing to.

So now here she was, two hours later, sweating through her suit jacket and waiting for some criminal with whom she was supposed to work. Unofficially. Without backup from her own team, people who she could trust.

This was a bad idea.

Misaki was just about to look down at her book again to fake-read a little longer when movement off to the left caught her eye: a man was walking in her general direction - tall, dark-haired, white shirt and jeans. Hands in pockets - she tensed at that, and turning her head as subtly as possible, she glanced over to get a better look. With a start, she recognized Li.

Damn it, she always ran into him at the weirdest times and places. Hoping that he hadn't seen her, Misaki raised her book a little higher to hide her face. But to her dismay, not only did he continue in his path towards her, but he paused directly in front of her bench.

"Chief Kirihara?"

Misaki lowered the book and offered a smile. "Li, hi." Please go away. Normally she wouldn't have minded chatting with Li for a bit - would have enjoyed it, even - but right now was the worst possible time.

He smiled back, though it seemed to be slightly strained, as if he wasn't exactly happy to run into her either. Yet he'd been the one to approach her in the first place, so that didn't make much sense to Misaki. "I don't think I've seen you in this park before," he said.

"I'm on my lunch break; it's hard to find a quiet place in the office to read." She gestured with the book.

Li didn't take the hint, however. "It's kind of a warm day to be outside."

"Yes, it is. Kind of warm to be out for a stroll, as well."

He shrugged and seated himself on the bench beside her, his hands still in his pockets. "Yeah."

Damn it. Misaki sighed. "I'm sorry, Li, I don't mean to be rude - but this really isn't a good time. I'm supposed to be meeting someone here. Police business."

"Ah," Li said, his tone curiously flat. "Me too."

"Li, I have to insist. You can meet your friend somewhere else; I'm expecting a confidential contact who -"

"Good, you're both here."

Misaki started at the new voice, which came from the bench directly behind her. She began to turn and see who the newcomer was, but he - it was definitely a man - said, "Keep facing straight ahead. You're talking to each other, not to me. And I'm just some crazy old man, talking to himself."

She straightened, heart pounding, and glanced at Li. His pleasant expression had vanished and he was staring at the patch of grass between his feet. Shit, how was she supposed to explain to the contact that Li wasn't involved in whatever this was - that he was just here by mistake? She had no idea who she was dealing with - how forceful could she be without pissing the man off and getting them both into trouble?

"Excuse me, but -" she began, but the contact cut her off gruffly.

"You're here to listen, sweetheart, and listenin' don't involve talkin'."

Misaki bridled at his tone, and opened her mouth to reply, but he didn't give her the chance.

"We're here 'cause we got a common pain in the ass - Fujiwara. This guy's got ears in the police, and he's got ears with my outfit; so from here on out, whenever you're discussing this operation, you use code names. I'm Huang. Miss Police, you're Lan. Li, you'll be Fui. Fujiwara is Lu."

Misaki's jaw tightened. So Li wasn't here by accident? How in the world had he gotten himself mixed up with this? She glanced over at him again; his eyes were narrowed slightly, as if he disapproved of the code names. She didn't blame him for that; she hated using codes herself. It was too easy to get confused, especially if you were already accustomed to calling someone by their real name.

"The job's simple," the man continued. "Lu's got a whole network of black market distributors and dealers that he keeps in a secure database at the family's headquarters in Yokohama. You break in, copy the files that we need, and get out - without them getting wind of it."

"Break in," Misaki couldn't help but interrupt. "I'm not here to -"

"You're here to get us into that database," Huang said. "From what we're told, the system is the same one that your department uses. Too complicated and unwieldy for anyone who isn't already familiar with it to be able to access the information within our time frame."

"Which is what," Li said in a low voice; the first time that he'd spoken since the arrival of the stranger.

"No idea. Could be a couple hours, could be ten minutes. That's up to you to figure out."

Li nodded slightly, as if to himself. "Support?"

"Negative; they'll be watching for it. You're on your own."

"Wait," Misaki said, feeling like she was caught up in a rushing current. She could see the shore, but couldn't escape the flow of events. "Assuming we can even get to whatever computer this database is on - I'm not a hacker. I'd have to have a password to access it."

Something went plunk onto the wooden bench beside her; she caught a glimpse of what looked like a small black thumb drive wrapped in a piece of paper before it slipped between the slats and fell onto the grass below, next to her foot. Misaki didn't dare try and touch it.

"Password's on that paper," Huang told them. "Along with the location of the computer and the address for a hotel nearby. You'll spend the weekend in Yokohama, posing as a couple. That'll get you close enough to stake out the place and plan your move. Details are all there."

Misaki felt the blush rising in her cheeks at just the thought. Posing as a couple? She was terrible at acting; and she didn't have high hopes for Li's ability either. Judging from the thin line of his mouth, he wasn't any more enthusiastic than her.

Huang continued, "You'll use that drive to copy the files. Meet me back here, Sunday at noon, to deliver the goods. Got it?"

"What about the police's information?" Misaki asked. "According to my superior, we're supposed to get the details of Fuji - I mean, Lu's doll operation." She was hating everything about this assignment more and more, but she was going to make damn sure that that Section Four at least got something significant out of it.

"You'll get it after we've pulled what we need."

"That's -"

"That's the deal your boss made - we get first cut, then you get your dolls."

The idea of this unknown organization (criminal for sure, and probably Chinese, what with those code names) getting access to all of Fujiwara's operations and then deciding what to share with the police grated on her conscience. But if that was indeed the agreement that Hourai had made, then there wasn't much she could do about it. Then again, there might be a way around it; she'd have to think.

"Alright," she said grudgingly.

Li spoke up suddenly. "Huang, I don't think this is a good idea."

"First of all, you're not paid to think, so shut up. Two, I don't think it's a good idea, but I'm not paid to think either. You going to have a problem, Fui?"

Li glanced over at Misaki, his expression unreadable. "No," he said at last.

"Good. So shut up and do your damn job. I'll leave you two to work out the logistics; you have forty-eight hours." The bench slats creaked as the man stood. Misaki had to resist a strong temptation to turn and watch him leave, just to get a glimpse for future reference, but she couldn't be sure that no one else was observing her and Li.

She turned to Li. He was still sitting with his hands stuffed into his pockets, staring fixedly at the ground in front of him with a stony expression.

"Think we can look yet?" she said in a half-hearted attempt to lighten the mood.

He glanced up at her, as if he'd forgotten that she was even there. "What?"

"Never mind." Leaning down, she scooped up the thumb drive and removed the piece of paper that had been rubber-banded around it. Just as Huang had said, there was a string of characters that looked like it could be a computer password and two addresses. The first address had some additional text. "Second floor southeast corner office," Misaki read. "That must be the location of the computer."

She sighed, and passed the paper to Li. He studied it for a long moment. "Did you memorize it?" he asked her after a full minute's silence.

Misaki blinked. "Memorize? I -"

He passed the paper back. "Memorize everything on here, then tear it up."

That seemed a little excessive to Misaki - who would even know what anything on the paper meant if they happened to find it? - but Li seemed to think it was important. It was the type of thing you saw in spy movies; maybe referencing something familiar like that was helping with his nerves. She'd never seen him looking so distant and disengaged before - it must be frightening, being thrown into such a situation. Again, she wondered how on earth he'd ended up here, and what these people expected him to be able to do.

Whatever happened in the next forty-eight hours, Misaki resolved, she would do her best to make sure that Li stayed safe.

"Alright. I'll work on it," she said, stuffing it into her pocket along with the thumb drive. "Well, I guess we have some planning to do. But first, how does lunch sound?"