Scott figured he had probably broken at least 6 traffic laws on the way but he hadn't been caught and that was all that mattered. He slammed the door of his rental a little harder than he probably had to and took the stairs two at a time before banging on the rather nondescript door.
"Scott?" Agent Guy asked, opening the door.
"Yes. Agent Guy?"
"It'd be creepy that I knew your name otherwise. Come in."
Scotts eyes scanned the nondescript room with a few chairs and a desk tucked in the corner. No Midge. He followed the agent through another door which seemed to be his office. No Midge. "Where is he?" he asked, his voice cracking.
"He's home watching a movie. My wife's a musical buff and he's getting a thorough education in all things broadway. Have a seat."
"I thought I could see him" he said, slumping into the chair.
"Soon enough, maybe even in the morning."
"No! No, you mean like tomorrow? No. I can't... please?" he begged.
"Relax, we need to talk and we'll see how things go, alright?"
Scott knew that this 'Guy' was in charge and he would have to suck it up and chill out. "Sure."
"So I did some checking on you, you come up clean. Ever been in any trouble with the law?"
"No, never."
"Tell me, really briefly cause trust me, he talked a LOT, how you met Midge."
"He was hiding in the alley near my apartment. I brought him inside to get him dry and something to eat and well, he never left. We've been together a couple months now."
"And about the collaring?"
"He wanted me to, said he couldn't visit his sister otherwise, that it wasn't safe. So we exchanged bracelets because it seemed important to him."
"Exchanged?"
Scott pulled up his sleeve and showed Guy his. "Yeah, granted his is a little more fancy but... yeah." He spun it around his wrist, a habit he'd developed whenever he was trying to think.
Guy had been speechless more the past two days than in the last year combined and that included him forgetting his wife's mother's birthday which was apparently important and worthy of a tongue lashing. "He says you know nothing about Nekos."
"Only what he told me. I tried google but that was absolutely useless."
Guy laughed, a deep bone jangling laugh that went down to his toes. "You are something else, that's for sure. So there are rules, regulations, etc etc etc" he said, waving his hands around. "Pretty much a shitload of paperwork and me, breathing down your neck now and then. So here's what we're going to do. You are on probation, son. I am going to let you two see each other and I will be watching and listening to EVERYTHING. If he is the least bit fearful or scared of you, you are going to walk back onto a plane. If even what HALF of y'all say is true, I'm willing to bend some rules and see about keeping you two together."
"That's fine, he's not scared of me, but why? Can't he choose? Why do you get to choose for him?"
"Well, you know about Trent?"
Scott nodded.
"Well he apparently bought Midge which makes him an owner and upon his death, ownership should revert to whoever he decided, or whoever took his estate." He watched Scott's breath halt, then continued. "But, and this is a big but, Trent didn't record the sale or register Midge, so I can, if I want, sort of pretend that never happened. Jose sure isn't looking for him and he's the only one who would have rights to him if the sale wasn't proper."
"Damn this is complicated. What is the deal? Are you with the government or something?"
He flashed his badge for Scott to see. "Homeland Security, although that's fairly recent. Before that we were under the DoD."
"The army? Why?"
During the World Wars, the DoD rounded up just about every Neko they could find for spy work. You can imagine how helpful they were in the field, with their crazy ears, being able to see at night and being so sneaky. They did a lot of good work, but most never came home. Afterwards there were so few of them that I guess no one really bothered to change it. Now it's me, my secretary, and my supervisor in D.C. and that's it."
"How many are there left?"
"By my counts, adults and children? 153. I'm sure there are some I don't know about, but that's my best guess."
"Wow. That's uh, a lot to take in. Wait, do you know where Marley is? He would do just about anything to see her. Is she still at home maybe? Has he seen his family?"
"I know where she is but I can't tell you that. She's not at home. I offered to take him by his mother's today, so they could hash out some things but he said he'd rather I call you. Surprised the hell out of me, honestly."
"You said the LAPD got him. What happened? He'll tell me he's okay because, well, that's just the way he is but... is he?"
"You really care, don't you? He wasn't real good when I got there, no. They'd done a shitload of tests, psych and medical and had him in a crappy cell. At least he was alone. Apparently they restrained him a good bit too, which given his history must have, well, sucked. He's alright now though, but I'm glad I got there when I did."
"Thank you."
"If he goes home with you, you MUST call me IMMEDIATELY if he goes missing. Not that night, not the next fucking morning, not on Christmas. Immediately. Got me?"
"Absolutely."
"We'll go over the other rules and shit if I decide to let you take him. Now, why don't you go get a hotel and some dinner and we'll get together tomorrow."
Scott didn't want to wait, he wanted to shake this asshole until he caved but he was stuck, and he knew it. "Could I talk to him again? Tonight?"
"Yeah. I'll put you on speaker though, I'll be listening."
"That's fine. Thanks."
"We'll call you. See you tomorrow Scott."
*** By popular demand there's a 110 and a half, but it's Lee and Zac, not Scomiche so feel free to skip if you want. But, it's there, so, yeah.