Brendon and I park the car and head inside the hotel. "You seem to be handling this well," he says. He's just picked me up from Elsa's house.

"It's my job to," I reply.

He cracks a grin. "So if this wasn't for work, how smoothly would you handle asking out a girl?" he asks. I don't answer him, holding the door open for him to get inside. "You certainly could be the ladies' man with your charm and face and-"

"I'm not a ladies' man," I say before he continues, "and I'm not doorman either." I shove him inside the lobby. He chuckles, stumbling forward and spinning around on his heels to glance at me. The conversation comes to a halt and we walk silently to the elevators. Brendon presses the up button and we wait. There's a faint ding and the doors glide open. It's empty. I press our floor number once we get in a the doors shut after the ding.

"Okay, it's been what? At least a week. Almost two weeks with Elsa?" he asks once the doors shut all the way.

"I don't know," I mutter. "Akari is the one keeping track."

"So if you wanted to, if your job didn't depend on it, would you be able to date this smoothly?"

"You're really intrigued about my dating life," I say, staring at the floor number. He's not listening to me about this.

He scoffs. "Gee, you've been my best friend for how long? Even before work. This is the most you've ever dated. And it's not even for pleasure. Well, I mean," he starts chuckling, "it could-"

I place my hand on his chest, cutting him off from continuing. "Oh, look, it's our stop," I say when the number appears on the screen. The doors open and I quickly get off.

"We'll finish this later," he says, following after me.

"There's nothing to finish," I say, swiping the key card and stepping in. Akari is sitting on my bed with their laptop and snacking on animal crackers. "Anything useful?"

Akari sucks on a cracker, looking up at us. "Well," they mutter, "Elsa is definitely is fond of you, nothing to worry about in that department."

"That's relieving," I say.

Akari glances back at their computer. "You have had four dates with her in the course of 2 and a half weeks. Things are progressing. Her noting ideas for future dates means she is enjoying your company. So everything you are doing now, keep doing it."

I smile unease and Brendon pats my shoulder. "I don't think Gerard here actually knows what he's doing," Brendon says.

Akari glances up and smiles. "Well, keep not actually knowing what you are doing then. It works."

"Noted," I say, going over to the fridge to grab a water. "How long is-Akari, animal crackers don't go in the fridge."

"I like them cold," they say, popping another on in their mouth.

I sigh, moving them out of the way and grabbing a bottle. "Fine. Okay, but how long is this going to go on?" I ask. "The longer I have to 'date' her, the further I have to progress in the relationship. And I don't really want to do that."

"I understand but I do not make the calls here. We need information..." Akari trails off.

"I see the gears turning in your eyes," Brendon says.

Akari points to me with a cracker and I raise an eyebrow. "She must have an office, yes? In her house."

"Yeah, probably. I haven't been there though."

"She has to have one with her kind of work line. And there must be a computer of sorts there as well."

"Hack the computer?" Brendon suggests.

"Yes, wait, no," Akari says conflicted. "Gerard will scan the computer, I hack."

"Sounds good," I say, "just...tell me how and I'll figure out a way to do it."

Akari thinks for a moment, setting the laptop down to the side. "Your phone. I can give you a duplicate and you can scan it for me and then send it to me. You do not need to worry about the technical bits."

"Awesome," I say.

The door clicks open and we all turn to see a man stands in the threshold. He's Caucasian, medium build, ashy hair parted back. He's wearing a grey button-down with the sleeves rolled up and black slacks. I reach for my ankle holster but Brendon puts a hand on my shoulder. "No way!" Brendon cries out with a smile on his face.

"Johnny?" Akari calls out with a grin. Okay, so they seem to know him. Not a threat. He also has a key card, granted, he could've stolen it.

The guy walks into the room and cracks a smile. "Hey, man, how's it going?" he says.

Brendon gives him a handshake and then a half hug. "Yo, what are you doing here?"

"I was flown in to help, I'll get to that more." He turns toward me and points. "Gerard Way is it?"

"Yeah," I say uneven.

He holds out his hand and I take it and he shakes. "Maxx Johnson, or Johnny. A pleasure to finally meet you. I work in the basement. Explosive forensic scientist and demolitions technician."

"Oh, right, right, I've seen you before in the labs," I say. "But with all due respect, what I can extrapolate is that you being here to help would imply there being some sort of explosion?"

He smile turns slightly grim. "I haven't told them yet," Akari says. "They just got back."

"I see," Johnny says. "Well, the Federal Crime Police were stating there is a possible attack in Salzburg and the CIA doesn't believe in coincidences so they sent me up along with Agent Ross. The chatter they've picked up was a bombing and they stuck me on a plane over here."

"Okay, noted," I say. "So you are, you're like bomb disposal?"

"Bingo," he says, snapping his fingers.

I chuckle lightly. "Man, that must be a stressful job," I say.

"People often tell me that but it's really not," he says, leaning against the wall next to Brendon. "I mean, either I'm right or suddenly it's not my problem anymore." I stifle a laugh, rolling my eyes at him. "So either I'm actually good at my job and earning my pay or I haven't run out of luck yet."

"Johnny, you are very good at what you do, I doubt luck has anything regarding it."

"Blue wire. Red wire," he says, weighing the two decisions in his hands. Brendon smacks his shoulder. "I'm kidding, I know what I'm doing."

"That's reassuring," I say.

"Don't worry, I'm just here until the chatter goes down," he says. "And it's only chatter. No live threats, just precaution."