Collusion

Chapter 10: What Am I Doing Here?

SUMMARY

Yelan gives a sardonic smile. “Darling, you’re alone in a foreign country, with a killer on the loose. I don’t think you’re in a position to negotiate. As I see it, you need me more than I need you.”

“I’m not worried about him killing me,” Lumine replies, her jaw clenched.

“Well,” Yelan starts, opening the car door again. “If you want to take that chance, be my guest.”

“Put this on.”

Yelan hands Lumine a surgical mask to shroud her face, then gestures to an unoccupied wheelchair.

“Isn’t anybody using that?” Lumine asks.

“Do you want to get out of here or not?”

Lumine doesn’t think twice and sits on the chair, pulling the mask over her face. Yelan sets Lumine’s purse on her lap and pushes the wheelchair through the labyrinthine hallways of the hospital.

Perhaps Lumine shouldn’t have left Ajax there. If she’d stayed, maybe she could have gotten answers.

But in her frail, miserable state? She also had no leverage against Ajax. Nothing to coerce him to tell the truth. Like he had said, she needed to do her worst.

So she will. In due time. But not now.

As they reach the exit, a nurse sees them and talks to Yelan in Liyuen. She responds in kind, no doubt making up an excuse on the fly as to why she’s taking out a patient in a wheelchair. The nurse writes something down on her clipboard, then nods at Yelan. She bends for a curt bow before pushing Lumine out of the hospital.

Diluc is in an alleyway beside the hospital, leaning on the wall. He’s still here. Waiting. Lumine turns to Yelan, signalling her to stay while she enters the alley and approaches Diluc.

“Are you leaving?” Lumine asks, pulling down her mask.

He grunts, flexing his fingers as he puts gloves on. “I would love to stay and chat, but I have business to attend to.”

Lumine raises an eyebrow. “Targets to kill, you mean?”

Diluc chuckles dryly. “Just business.”

“Sure. What about your brother?”

“He’ll be fine.”

“Is he… in a hospital, too?”

Lumine poses the question before she can stop herself. Does she want to know? There’s no doubt this won’t be the last she’ll see of Ajax, and if he’s still coming to get Kaeya, she’d rather she didn’t know where he was. Partly to keep him safe from any attempts on his life, but another part of Lumine harbours resentment with Kaeya and his well-kept secrets.

Thankfully, Diluc shakes his head. “No. But he is in good hands.”

“What about…” Lumine pauses. What about Ajax?

Diluc seems to take the hint. “I’m sure this won’t be the last time I see him. Like I said, if I see him again, it will be his end.”

Lumine swallows the knot in her throat. She does not like the sound of that.

He turns to leave, but she steps in his way out. “How can I reach you?”

“You don’t.” He scowls down at her, his eyes narrowing. “You better hope you don’t need to reach me at all.”

“And if I do?”

Diluc sighs. Then, he reaches inside his coat and hands Lumine a business card. A Dawn Winery business card. “If you need help, call that number and say you’re putting in an order for grape juice.”

Lumine accepts the card. His name is inscribed on it in beautifully curved letters, with his title and number underneath. “Um, what if I actually want to order grape juice?”

“Grape juice? At a winery?”

She laughs, despite herself. “It sounds stupid when you say it out loud. But what if, right?”

“Fine. Say you’re putting in an order for 50 barrels of grape juice. Then I’ll know you actually need help.”

Lumine smiles. “Because anyone who needs 50 barrels of grape juice needs to get help, is that right?”

He gives a small smile. “That is right.”

“Jokes aside, thank you, Mr. Diluc. It was nice to finally meet Kaeya’s family.”

“The pleasure is all mine. Though I hope we won’t need to see each other again.”

He leaves.

What’s with that guy?

Lumine gets the urge to tell Kaeya all about him, only to feel her heart sink. Right. There’s so much she wants to tell him. No matter the amount of bitterness she holds, Kaeya is still her best friend. She sighs, kicking a pebble as she walks out of the alley.

Yelan has her hand on her hip, eyebrow raised. “Done?”

Lumine nods. “What now?”

“I’m sure you recall our last conversation.”

“Vaguely. You were offering protection in exchange for information. Is that right?”

“Mm-hmm,” Yelan hums in affirmation. “I assume you have thought about it, considering you called for me.”

“Right,” Lumine says. “Do you always put trackers on your calling cards like that?”

She gives a lopsided smile and shrugs. “Helps give me an idea of where my prospects are.” When Lumine scowls at her, she continues, “Oh, don’t be like that. Did I not just help you get out?”

Lumine crosses her arms. She could get out of there on her own, but perhaps it was easier with Yelan’s help. “Whatever.”

“So,” Yelan starts, putting her arm around Lumine’s shoulders as they walk. “What do you think about my offer?”

Lumine hesitates. Does she trust her? She remembers how Albedo found nothing incriminating about her. For a fellow secret agent, it is the ideal scenario, but for Lumine’s self-interests, it is like following a light at the bottom of the ocean, hoping it’s not an anglerfish that will devour her.

But she has nothing else. Being in a completely foreign country does not help.

Still, Lumine does not quite give in.

“First, what kind of information do you have?” Lumine finally says. “And I don’t need your protection.”

They come to a stop in front of a parked car. Without a word, Yelan opens the door to the driver’s side.

“I’m not getting in there until we talk about this first,” Lumine says.

Yelan sighs. “Fair enough,” she says, closing the door and turning to Lumine. “I understand you had a brother.”

“Have. I have a brother.”

“Sure. And he’s missing for several years now.”

“Get to the point.”

“Well, I have information about him and his whereabouts.”

Lumine’s heart almost stops. This had better not be a joke.

“How do I know you’re not lying?” Lumine asks, trying to maintain her composure. “Anyone can find out from public records that I have a missing brother. I need more than that.”

Yelan gives a sardonic smile. “Darling, you’re alone in a foreign country, with a killer on the loose. I don’t think you’re in a position to negotiate. As I see it, you need me more than I need you.”

“I’m not worried about him killing me,” Lumine replies, her jaw clenched.

“Well,” Yelan starts, opening the car door again. “If you want to take that chance, be my guest.”

Lumine crosses her arms. This is the closest she has gotten to getting answers about her brother’s disappearance. And Yelan is offering those answers to her. This sounds too good to be true. There has to be a catch. There always is.

“What do you need from me, then?”

Yelan smirks and closes the car door again. “I knew you’d come around. Come on. I’ll tell you the details on the way.”

“On the way to where?”

“To your new office.”

Childe sinks back into the sofa, holding up a bag of ice to his cheek.

“Why did you think that was a good idea again?” Ekaterina says, her voice coming from the kitchen.

A sharp twinge of pain wells up from his jaw as he attempts to speak. Jesus. How much did that guy fuck him up? It wasn’t much of a fight. It shouldn’t have been much. Sure, the other guy was taller by an inch, and had slightly bigger arms, but it’s not like Childe hadn’t fought people larger than him and won. He always won.

Why didn’t he win?

He groans. He’s sore all over his arms, torso, and worst of all, his face.

What went wrong?

At the time, the fight was exciting. Truly. It has been a while since his last fistfight, or really, any fight, that actually has him using his hands. Childe plays the scene in his head, blow by blow, analyzing what had gone wrong.

There is no logical answer other than her being the problem. Of course. She was—is—a distraction. A pretty one, but a distraction still. Childe sees it now, his mind finally clearing of the Lumine-shaped fog in his head.

Lumine almost got him. She had thrown his life into utter chaos, to the point where he’s saving a life—her life—instead of ending them. All that, and he is not even closer to completing his mission.

Nice try, Lumine. But you won’t distract me again.

Childe laughs, but all that comes out is a dry wheeze. Ugh. He may have broken a rib.

He reaches into his coat pocket for his phone and finds nothing.

Wait. Wait a minute.

Childe pats his other pockets. Nothing. He reaches for the back pockets of his pants, pain stabbing him with every motion, but he willfully ignores all of it. There’s a phone in there, but it’s not his.

“Hey, Kat,” Childe croaks the words out.

“What is it?” Ekaterina answers, emerging from the kitchen.

Childe takes a deep breath, bracing himself from the throbbing pain of speaking. “Have you seen my phone?”

“Uh, no. Have you lost it?”

Shit.

“Never mind,” he says, making a show of fishing the phone out of his back pocket. “Found it.”

Ekaterina rolls her eyes, then turns to leave for the kitchen.

Childe stares at the phone in his hand. He turns it on and is greeted by Lumine’s beaming face.

She really will not leave me alone, huh?

He smiles back at her image and unlocks the phone, thanking himself for having the foresight to change the unlocking mechanism. If his phone is not here, then that means Lumine has it.

To test his theory, Childe opens the messaging app and sends a text to his number: ‘Hey, girlie’. Calling his number might be the easiest and fastest way to check if Lumine has his phone, but Childe has always liked playing with his food. Besides, he is already a hundred percent positive she has it. The question is, will she respond?

Childe finds himself about to laugh again, only to be met with more pain in his chest. Fuck. He needs time to recover before he can move about freely. More specifically, to finally finish his assassination mission.

Tall, grey, run-down buildings encompass the business district in dense clusters. The sidewalk is divided in two invisible lines, people keeping right in single files to get to their destination. An unspoken courtesy that an outsider like Lumine is unaware of.

Lumine peers up at the building before her when she gets pushed and shoved by the throng of businesspeople. Yelan chuckles as she helps her up and directs her to the stairs near the building entrance.

“Don’t stand still in the middle of the path,” Yelan says, brushing the dust off Lumine’s pants.

“They really put the busy in the business district,” Lumine replies. She stares at the stream of people walking, as if they were robots, or perhaps simpler, their soul got sucked away from working in this seemingly hellish place. Mondstadt has a business district, too, but with lesser skyscrapers and more colour in people’s faces.

Lumine turns to look at the glass door entrance in front of her. She sees her reflection on the door, her eyes sunken and her skin slightly pallid. Her right shoulder still stings when she tries to stretch or reach for something. The only thing that makes her look and feel normal is the change of clothes Yelan gave her, though it was a bit awkward to change inside the car. Yelan didn’t seem to mind.

Yelan enters and holds the door open for Lumine. She follows her as they go straight to the elevators, without so much of a nod from the receptionist. Inside, Yelan presses the button for the 5th floor. Lumine notes the lack of a 4 or 13 on the series of buttons, but she doesn’t ask. Must be another Liyuen custom she is not aware of.

“This operation is off the books,” Yelan begins. “Meaning you can do whatever you want, however you want. There’s no paper trail or red tape. No bureaucratic bullshit. You answer only to me, and even then, it’s not likely you’ll do anything I’ll disapprove.”

“What am I doing here, Yelan?”

The elevator doors open. Yelan strides out into the hallway. “I already told you, didn’t I?”

Lumine follows her. “You said I’d be continuing my work as an intelligence agent, but for Liyue.”

“Uh-huh.” Yelan stops in front of a door and fishes the keys out of her pocket.

“The whole ‘no red tape’ thing is kind of a red flag,” Lumine replies.

Yelan turns to Lumine, raising her eyebrow. “What’s wrong with being able to do whatever you want?”

“It also means I’m pretty much expendable. Anything I do here, any impact I make, there won’t be evidence, no records of it,” Lumine answers without a thought, then quickly realized that is exactly what Yelan has in mind.

Yelan only smiles in return, then enters the room.

The office is small and modest. Just like the exterior, the room has a run-down feel to it. Parts of the ceilings and walls have watermarks on them. The three desks are old and wooden. On one side of the wall, there is a bulletin board, pinned with news clippings and crime scene photographs. The only thing missing is a red thread interwoven around the pins, and it would look like the stereotypical mind map she sees in murder mysteries.

Lumine steps closer to examine the board. There are a few recognizable faces on the photos and news articles—ones she had come across in her work in the Knights, or had heard of from international news. Notably, these were incidents that looked innocuous at first glance: heart attacks, suicide, car accidents, etc., but there’s more to it than meets the eye.

“It’s like looking at the inside of my brain,” Lumine remarks.

The most recent one is the death of Rex Lapis and Zhongli. There was not enough time to fully investigate that case. What with her practically enabling the murder of Zhongli and getting terminated from the Knights afterwards. On the board, the clippings of the two people are grouped together.

“Who made this?” she asks.

“I was about to get to that,” Yelan replies. “Right now, there’s only two of you in this ‘department’,” she says, complete with the air quotes. “The one who put this together is Ms. Yanfei. She’s a full-time legal advisor who sometimes does consulting work for me on the side.”

Lumine’s fingers graze along the outlines of the news clippings and photos. “But… how did she put this together? She’s a lawyer, isn’t she?”

“She is. She also happens to be retained by very high-profile clients, and is therefore privy to… invaluable information.”

Lumine turns to Yelan. “Isn’t that a violation of client confidentiality?”

Yelan shrugs. “Not if the person in question isn’t her client. Or alive, anyway.”

Lumine looks back at the board. This entire operation is shady as fuck. The lack of paper trail and red tape is music to her ears, if not for the implications. Not to mention she is pretty much disposable if shit hits the fan. She shudders to think what Yelan’s definition of expendable is. Hopefully, one that leaves her alive. Jobless, but alive.

“I have to ask again, Yelan, what am I really doing here?” Lumine gestures to the bulletin board. “It doesn’t seem like you’re lacking in resources or information at all. There’s nothing on this board that I don’t already know.”

“You’re right,” Yelan nods thoughtfully. “However, as Ms. Yanfei is a public-facing legal advisor, she can’t be her sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Sure, she has a network of information, but all of this—” she approaches the board, “—all of this is pretty much unactionable without you. I’m sure you understand.”

Lumine scrunches her nose. “You mean, I’ll be on the field.”

“Is that not what you used to do for the Knights?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Lumine replies, her voice trailing off. Yes, before the incident with Venti.

“Of course, that was before you… shall we say, ‘messed up’ and got demoted.”

“A person’s loyalty to their country does not change just like that.”

“And I’m not asking you to.” Yelan places a hand on her shoulder and squeezes. “Listen. An international organization is behind the killings. What helps us, helps Mondstadt, too.”

Lumine looks up at Yelan and tries to read her face. All she gets is an excellent poker face from her. “What do you need me to do?”

“I need you to investigate this organization. And seeing as you’ve already met one of their operatives—”

“Wait, if that’s the case, why didn’t we apprehend him?” Lumine asks. “He was right there, weak and unconscious. We could have taken him in for questioning.”

Yelan clicks her tongue. “You need to think of the big picture, Lumine. That man is a small fry compared to the heads of this organization. If we caught him, we don't know what procedures they have in place to protect themselves. We could lose what little lead we have on them.”

Lumine swallows. This is a lot to take in. This is a lot more than she had handled for the Knights of Favonius. She had few field assignments back then. Not even highly critical missions like this. All the information she has about this was from the results of her own personal research on the side.

There’s also the fact that she’s the sole field agent for this operation. No pressure.

If Lumine accepts this offer, she might as well find out what happened to her twin brother.

“What about my brother?” she asks. “You said you have information about him.”

Yelan narrows her eyes a fraction. “Find out the key players for this organization and you’ll know.”

Lumine scowls. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Yelan bends down to meet her face. “It means I’m not going to tell you anything before you bring me the results I want. Got it?”

What has she gotten herself into?

For Aether, Lumine thinks, before saying, “Got it.”

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