Watari Pt 2: Wammy's House

"Do you really think you\'re going to change anything?" Lamond held onto the bannister as she carefully descended the stone stairs to reach the Wammy House front garden. Her painfully thin legs were quite shaky today. An airy feeling around the knees did not fill her with confidence that they would support her weight. "To be honest, Matt, your case so far is interesting, but nothing that I can see changing the system."



Fenian shrugged. "I don\'t know. It\'s certainly putting the cat amongst the pigeons." He held out his lighter, so Lamond could light her cigarette. "I was just asking him if he\'s really going to Geneva with it."



Matt smirked, leaning up against the wall. "Who knows?"



"He\'s not." Lamond replied, crossly. "He\'s just shit-stirring, as normal."



There was a clatter of heels on stone, as Mello appeared and hurried down to join them. Fenian frowned. "I didn\'t know you smoked."



"I don\'t." Mello walked between them and placed a hand on the wall beside Matt\'s head. He glared inches from his face. "Firstly, don\'t run off without waiting for me. And secondly, why didn\'t you tell me about the cold turkey and the prescription pad?"



Matt turned his head to exhale smoke. "Because you freak out enough about the bits that you do know." He shrugged. "I was telling the truth when I said it\'s just anti-depressants and nicotine now. Oh, caffeine, but I\'m in Britain. Being a caffeine junkie comes as standard here."



"Yet you put the pad back into your bag." Mello\'s eyes narrowed. "We will be discussing this when we get home."



Lamond smiled, "Isn\'t he possessive?" She opened her handbag and reached in for her sewing. "I think it\'s quite cute."



"I don\'t." Fenian lit his second cigarette. When Mello twisted around to survey him, the Irishman was looking right back. "It\'s not fucking homophobia. It\'s you reverting straight back to bullying the second you step foot back in these grounds. I have a lot to hate you for, Mello, but you grew up and so did I, so I was willing to do the Christian thing and forgive. Now I see you acting like this and it\'s fucking..."



"He\'s my husband." Mello growled.



"So fucking what? It\'s bullying."



Matt wrapped a hand around the back of Mello\'s neck and applied pressure until he turned to face him again. Green eyes peered through the orange goggles and red hair to lock with the fierce blue gaze. Matt smiled and leaned forward, closing the gap between them to claim a kiss. Mello responded, open-mouthed and probing, one arm around Matt\'s waist, as the rest of his body crushed him up against the wall. Lamond tutted, "I mean it was always obvious that Mello was gay; and Matt said he was, but..."



"But fuck." Fenian dashed his cigarette out on the steps. "I\'m going inside." He strode angrily through the empty corridors, only vaguely aware that the children had all disappeared to their classes. He had only been gone from the institution for just over a year and so it still smelt like home. Most of his peers were crowded around the refreshment table, as he charged in and found Century eating a sandwich. "I miss absolutely nothing from this place, but most of all I don\'t miss Mello. You fucking mark my words, there\'s domestic violence there. Once a bully, always a fucking bully. He hasn\'t got the rest of us to use as punchbags now, so you join the dots." He gestured angrily towards the door. "Got him up the fucking wall out there."



Century paused and swallowed his mouthful of cheese and pickle. "Mello\'s beating Matt up outside?"



The chatter in the room instantly quietened. A few seats away, Ann and Roger exchanged looks loaded with significance. Fenian sighed, "No, he\'s not beating him up, but... let\'s just say it\'s not comfortable, ok, man?"



Linda came to join them. "Did you see when Matt lifted his shirt to show us his gunshot wound? The long mark just above it? Was that a burn?"



"Looked more like a bruise to me." Century commented.



Fenian shook his head. "It was more raised than that. It was recent, whatever the Hell it was. Definitely looked like an impact wound. I tell you something else, Mello knows we saw it."



Speculation grew suddenly silent a few minutes later, as Lamond pushed open the door, followed by Mello and Matt. It left an awkwardness in its place, which had all three of them gazing in suspicion from face to face. Lamond relaxed slightly as she ascertained that no-one was looking at her; however the same observation was not lost on either of the couple trailing her. Mello tensed, so it was Matt who responded. His voice lazily cutting through the room, "Yes, we were snogging outside. Yes, it was great. No, Lamond did not join in."



There was the forced laughter of people hurrying an atmosphere away, but Ann spoke up. "I\'d really rather you weren\'t snogging on these premises. May I remind you that this is a children\'s home?"



"We know. Sorry." Mello slipped away to resume his position against the wall.



Matt resumed his position by the whiteboard and waited for everyone to sit back down. "We were talking about health and welfare rights. There\'s also a right for children with a disability or special educational needs to be allowed to fulfill their highest potential. I\'m not convinced that that happened. Our academic needs were more than adequately met, but lack of disclosure and the pressure upon us never to reveal personal information meant that hidden disabilities remained hidden. The result was isolation, which is a great boon for Wammy\'s House. The policy here has always been divide and conquer."



Deontic raised a finger, "Roger, why are you not debating any of these points? He\'s presenting a very damning case here against the administration of this House, but neither you or Ann are speaking up."



It was Chrissie who responded, "Because the first thing that Matt did was state that this was going to court. Unless Roger has a lawyer present, and he hasn\'t actually asked me to represent him, then the wisest thing he can do right now is to remain silent until he\'s heard the case and then take legal advice." They heard her clicking. "He effectively silenced Roger and Ann at the start of this, and we\'ve already been told that Near and Mello have agreed not to make their views known. I\'m surprised that you didn\'t notice that, Deontic."



Deontic flushed and bent over her origami. Matt smirked. "I\'m assuming that you\'re all adding evidence from your own experiences as we go along, but if anyone needs me to go through examples, just shout out. We have the right to education, leisure, culture and the arts. This is the category where the system almost gets through with flying colours, but I\'d contest the part about leisure."



"Tenuous, Matt." Chrissie shot back. "Particularly considering the amount of games you got through during your time here. I don\'t actually recall you not playing one."



"Touche." Matt grinned. "But we were very restricted on what officially constituted spare time. In fact, the academic pressures on us meant that we self-regulated. Also we weren\'t treated like children. I recall Mello getting excited because \'Wind in the Willows\' was being staged at the Royal, but it was vetoed in favour of us going to see \'Hamlet\' instead. He\'d probably prefer that now he\'s twenty-one, but not when he was six."



"Mmm." Salvo\'s husky voice rose from his speakers. "I\'m not sure that being denied \'Wind in the Willows\' counts as child abuse worthy of the United Nations. I personally can\'t see that the system has a case to answer on this point. The rest though, I\'ve been right there with you."



"Thank you, Salvo. The final major category concerns special protection for refugee children, children in the juvenile justice system, children deprived of their liberty and children suffering economic, sexual or other forms of exploitation. Without knowing our backgrounds, I have no way of judging their performance on this one." Matt pressed his enter button. A single line appeared on their screens. "Article 21.d: Take all appropriate measures to ensure that, in inter-country adoption, the placement does not result in improper financial gain for those involved in it. This, I believe, is the crux of the matter. I asked to see, in advance, the financial accounts and records for the Watari system. It made extremely interesting reading. The orphanages across the world are largely financed from the estate of Quillish Wammy. The patents on his inventions are worth a lot of money. However, our House isn\'t. This one only has a basic endowment, covering fixtures, fittings, food etc, but materially we wanted for nothing here. I could have gone to Roger and argued the case for a helicopter and got one. Our research equipment and supplies cost thousands, but were here plentifully. The funding for all of this comes from us. Near is paying for the bulk of it, because that\'s his responsibility as L. But any job sourced via the Watari Network, ie the place where all of our jobs originate, includes a surcharge."



"I don\'t begrudge that." Linda frowned. "I\'ve seen the line on my account sheet, so this is hardly news. When I think of the money spent on me over the years, then I would be happy to give more. It makes sense!"



"Yes, it does." Matt replied, patiently. "But it only makes sense if you work retrospectively. Let me put this another way. Genius children are being taken, sometimes illegally, from countries all over the world. I believe that this is done without the knowledge of the authorities within those countries, because which government in its right mind would release a child who has the potential to be the next L? That\'s brain-drain and part of the reason that none of us are supposed to disclose our country of origin to anyone. The implications of having just one tame L would be too great for any government to not put its all into reclaiming its son or daughter. But there are thirty-three of us alive. In Deduction class, even the little ones are raking in the revenue, hundred here, thousand there; then you get us lot bored and hanging around the MayDay line, the money goes up substantially. Then you get the like of Near and Mello getting involved and suddenly we are talking millions. The bottom line is that were taken and trained to become the most profitable little machines in the world."



There was stunned silence, punctuated only by the munching of chocolate from a spot near to the wall. It was Fenian who eventually responded. "How much money precisely are we talking about?"



Matt shrugged and glanced at Mello. "I\'m still working on it. I\'ve so far taken the official records and we, erm, I\'ve been deducing where the off-shore, hidden accounts are. So far I\'ve hacked into thirteen of them, but I\'m certain there\'s more. Let\'s just say that we\'re talking about billions."



"Billions?" Lamond stared.



"Well, put it this way. Lawliet didn\'t come out for under one million pounds and he solved over 4000 cases. The Kira case alone brought in well over a billion, because of the sheer number of nations, conglomerates, international agencies and private individuals offering rewards. They were all meticulously collected." He shrugged. "Right now, while we\'re all sitting here chatting, we are costing the Network millions. It might have started out as a way to safeguard the continuity of L, whilst making the world a better place, but these days fortunes are being made. The flaws in the system are only thus if viewed from our perspective; from the point of view of the money-making machine, everything is perfect. We are wholly dependent upon the system and that gives the administration endless opportunities to influence our lives, directing us like sheep back to solving cases." All around the room, eyes had turned to stare at Roger. "Only you\'re all looking in the wrong direction now. He\'s no longer Watari. You will have all seen the announcement. I am Watari."



"Yes." Chrissie replied. "And as much as I love you to bits, Mail, that particular prospect scares the life out of me. Whatever possessed them?"



Matt laughed. "Roger and Near not quite seeing me as you have." He bit his lip. "But I think I know the hidden reason that it\'s me. The situation has never come up before. Mr Wammy did it, then Roger did it. They were both there at the beginning and so it was a natural succession. I\'ve been trying to think like Mr Wammy and I know what I\'d do. The first would be L and the second would be Watari. I\'ve got the job, because Roger\'s too shit-scared of telling Mello that it\'s his job." He watched Mello freeze and stare at him. "Which is really bloody ironic, because Mello is the stabilising force here and he completely buys into the system. He would be the one to improve it for the children, while keeping the profitable infrastructure in place. But Roger\'s short-sightedness and Near\'s antagonism has handed it on a plate to me instead. I warrant I\'m the only person in this room, with the possible exception of Century, who hates the system and everything it stands for. Fuck the world, it wanted nothing to do with me and I want nothing to do with it."



There was a very long silence. Chrissie broke it, asking to see the contract and it was sent to her. Otherwise, they all sat, carefully arranging the information in their heads and arriving at separate conclusions. It was only as the PSP came out of Matt\'s pocket and he was on the verge of switching it on, that Mello asked pointedly, "Mail, what are your intentions? You\'ve presented your case on the current situation, but offered no solutions." He smiled as Matt looked up. "Guapo, the way it sounds at the moment, you have taken the position, but have no intention of doing anything else. I know that\'s not the case, because you\'ve been bouncing ideas off me for days. What are your recommendations?"



Matt nodded and pushed the game back into his pocket. "Two main ones. I want to establish a Board of Governors, effectively the people in this meeting now, who will make the decisions concerning the current residents and the future of the system. The other is a separation of L and Wammy\'s House. They should be two different entities and maybe then lives won\'t be destroyed in trying to be the next L." He crossed back to the laptop and circulated, electronically, another document. "These are my thoughts on possible changes, which I currently have the power to instigate, but I\'d prefer that the Board considers them. There should be checks and balances, which is what we\'d provide. I\'ve used the Convention of the Rights of the Child as my template, hence going through it with you all just now."



"So the Board becomes Watari?" Deontic asked. "Or are you retaining that?"



"Fuck no." Matt frowned. "You can\'t put me in charge of children. Don\'t be ridiculous."



"So it is the Board. Or Mello?"



"Mello would be brilliant, but completely wasted doing this. No, he has a place on the Board alongside the rest of us. Oh! And those places are equal. There will be no hierarchy around the table. I do have someone in mind for Watari." Matt chewed the inside of his lip. "Roger got intimidated by us. I\'ve seen someone who is not intimidated by geniuses, even the armed ones. Someone who isn\'t afraid to call us on our shit. Moreover, someone who has experienced the dangers that lie in wait for us and has a wonderful sense of justice." He turned, to view the scene to his far left. The laptop displaying an Old English \'L\', with Mello still leaning on the wall behind it. "I\'m going to ask Hal Lidner if she would take on the position of Watari, because anyone who can simultaneously handle Mello and Near has got to have what it takes to run this House."