It seemed like hours had passed since Koji first entered the large room, and he was finally relieved now that the commotion of his news had finally died down. The bio-androids had started to split off into smaller groups or go off by themselves to think and talk about what Koji had told them, finally leaving him alone with Shinta. The news had been met with shocked horror at first, then anger and now almost hopelessness. All of the androids in the room had stayed in Japan for a reason. None of them wanted to leave, especially now that they had made a life for themselves in Japan.

Koji felt Shinta steer him off to a quiet spot away from the others. Sitting down in a rather uncomfortable folding chair he looked at the man he had been longing to see for so long, wanting nothing more than to hold him again. Putting the urge aside for the moment he gazed at the serious face, looking for any clue that the man before him really was an android. Yet no matter how hard he tried all he could see was the elusive escort who had inadvertently changed his life.

"Well, you know my secret now Koji," Shinta finally spoke after a few minutes, leaving no doubts of the truth of who Shinta was.

"Yes, but why not just tell me? I would have rather heard it from you than my private investigator," Koji asked with a tinge of anger threading through his voice.

"Because it was my secret Koji. You were my client and most of all a scientist. I had to be able in my mind to trust you with that secret. I had to be able to say without any doubts that I believed you would love me the same way if I told you. But before I told you I had to be sure I wanted to be with you. To tell you would mean giving you a big part of who I am, revealing a part of me that no one other than Takumi knew about. If I chose to leave you, Koji, there was no need for you to know," Shinta looked down at the floor, his hands clasped together. "Koji, there are a lot of things I want to tell you, even need to tell you, but right now isn the time."

"You e right, but I don know when I will get to see you again. After all of the arguments I doubt that everyone in this room will agree to sign away their citizenship," Koji sighed, knowing that Shinta was right.

"You have talked with Kamiya, what do you think he will do?" Shinta asked, looking up at Koji with sad eyes.

"The man has no respect for bio-androids," Koji said flatly. "If he had his way you would all be dismantled immediately, but I think the rest of the committee is holding him back. He wants the bio-androids totally gone from Japan and soon. By letting me come here I doubt at this point he will dismantle you, but I have an uneasy feeling about the man," Koji replied.

"I would like to stay in Japan, but honestly I don have the ties that some of the other people in this room do. I would be willing to leave," Shinta offered, not looking at Koji.

"If you leave then I will as well," Koji said firmly as Shinta raised his head, surprise writtena>cross his face.

"But your corporation, your family estates, your whole life is connected here. How can you say that so decisively? You hardly even know me, Koji. I not even human. Why?" Shinta said, his jade eyes wide with shock and confusion.

"You e human to me. I don ever want to hear you say that again, Shinta. You e different, but that doesn make you any less of a person," Koji said firmly, reaching over to grasp Shinta hand.

"That still doesn explain why you would leave your country behind for a stranger Koji," Shinta replied, even as he wrapped his hand around Koji .

"I don know, why did you decide to leave your life behind at Black Heaven?" Koji retorted gently. "Shinta, I still reeling from all the shocks that have hit me this week, what is one more? Since you have come into my life you have altered it by just being around me, a change of location seems small in comparison to what has already gone on inside of me."

"Koji you sound like Takumi, you e both insane," Shinta said, shaking his head.

"I will take that as a complement considering how much you love him," Koji said with a smile.

"Excuse me Mr. Oshimaru. I don know about the others but I will not voluntarily leave my homeland. I can , my wife, her family are all here. She would never leave and I not going to leave her," said a tall, muscular man who had come up behind him.

Koji sighed, knowing this was going to happen and wishing the others could have given him more time with Shinta. Looking over his shoulder at the man dressed in a simple business suit, his brown hair cut short, his appearance screaming of a normal, everyday office worker. Koji gaze shifted around the man as he noticed many of the groups had turned their attention toward them. He had hoped to have a little more time to talk to Shinta, but it didn look like that was to be.

"I not sure if it is a question of what you want, but what is going to happen," Koji replied, loudly enough so others could hear.

"Is that a threat?" the man asked.

"No, it just a statement of fact. I have no power to free you, if I could I would. Right now your fate is in the hands of Kamiya and unfortunately he dislikes you. I have used my money and threats to push him into releasing you, but all I was able to get from him was the promise to release you if you left the country. He is determined to make sure you all disappear one way or another," Koji explained once again, having already said the same thing when he first arrived.

"There has to be a way. This is our home, I can leave my family. I won ," the man said stubbornly as many of the bio-androids drew closer, nodding in agreement.

Koji remained silent, not knowing what to say. He had already offered to help anyone that needed it to move their families, but in the end he also knew for some it wouldn be enough. He was pretty sure whether they signed away their citizenship or not Kamiya would deport them from the country, if not now then when he was elected Prime Minister.

"Koji, didn you say that we are under a jurisdiction of a committee, not just Kamiya?" Shinta asked.

"Yes, but Kamiya heads it," Koji answered, wondering what Shinta was getting at.

"Could you get the other committee members to side with our cause?" Shinta asked intently, looking up at Koji.

Koji didn answer right away, thinking about what Shinta had suggested. He had briefly read the report Yamagata had given him on the other committee members. It was made up of thirteen members including Kamiya. Most of them had ties to Kamiya, some of them deep enough that Koji wasn sure he could break them. It might be possible to bribe and blackmail many of the committee members, the thing that worried Koji the most was time. Kamiya held the people in this room hostage. With one order they would quietly disappear, it didn matter if he could prove it or not. He wasn out to ruin Kamiya, he wanted Shinta to be safe and with him. Koji was sure that if he pushed Kamiya hand the man would call his bluff.

He looked down at Shinta intense eyes, wondering what to say. He had admitted to Koji that he was willing to leave Japan. If Koji refuted the idea then he was fairly sure that Kamiya would forcibly deport the bio-androids once he was elected Prime Minister. It would be the safest course for the man, causing the least amount of damage. Even if they did protest they would be out of the country. If Koji remained quiet there would be less risk and he had a better chance of having Shinta safe. Yet as he looked at those intense eyes and he thought of all the people he had interviewed he knew that he couldn lie about this.

Looking up at the cameras placed in the room he knew that he couldn’t say anything that might be overhead. Shaking his head he looked at the man.

"It is impossible. I’m sorry, the only option is what Kamiya has offered you," Koji replied standing up.

"Please, there must be something," the man pleaded, grabbing his arm as Koji heard a murmuring from the surrounding people.

Gently prying the hand from his arm he grabbed Shinta’s hand, walking away. Once again they found a quiet spot against the wall even as the others in the room stared at them. Koji ignored their stares, hoping that nothing showed in his face of what he truly was thinking.

"Are you sure Koji?" Shinta asked.

"We are being watched Shinta, I can’t say anything here even if I do try something. The problem lies in time. I’m not sure I can get to all of the committee members before Kamiya finds out. They would have to be approached all at the same time, and I would have to have something substantial to shift their support from Kamiya. He soon will be in a position of great power, so they will not want to go against him. I’m sure that if Kamiya even suspects what is going on you all will be at best forcibly deported or at worst dismantled before anything can be done" Koji whispered.

Shinta remained quiet for a while, then suddenly he felt Shinta move in front of him, wrapping his arms around him. For a surprised moment Koji just stood in place until he felt his face flush in embarrassment as his body instantly responded to the warm body pressed up against him.

"Koji listen, go to Black Heaven and talk to Takumura. Ask him about an auction. It will take a lot of money and persuasion but I think he might be able to help," Shinta whispered in his ear. "You have to try, not just for us."

"Shinta, are you sure?" Koji asked, holding the man a little tighter.

"Yes, now go, you don’t have a lot of time," Shinta replied softly, pulling out of their embrace to kiss Koji.

At the touch of the man’s lips Koji forgot their audience. He didn’t want it to end and felt a jolt of disappointment when the soft lips moved off of his. Opening his eyes he was brought back to reality by more than a few staring bio-androids that were avidly watching them.

"I don’t want to leave," Koji said softly even as he felt his face flaming hot.

"Well, the sooner you leave the sooner I can get out of here and we can continue where that kiss left off," Shinta smiled, giving Koji a look that was in his opinion positively unfair. Now he definitely didn’t want to leave without the man standing in front of him.

Koji pulled his gaze from the blonde with some effort and started to move towards the door with Shinta following him. Before he could reach the exit he found his path blocked by several of the bio-androids. Looking at the mixture of men and women standing before him Koji wondered what he could possibly say to them.

"Wait, where are you going?" asked a thin, elegant man with sharp blue eyes that stared down at Koji.

"What is going to happen to us?" pleaded another diminutive woman next to the man.

"I don’t know what is going to happen. I’m going to leave and try to talk to Kamiya again. I will tell him that you all need some more time to think, it is all I can do," Koji replied, looking at the two as he felt Shinta move to stand beside him.

"That isn’t good enough. Why are you here anyway, you’re the head of Oshimaru Corporation. Your company didn’t have anything to do with bio-androids. I find it strange that you are the one that shows up here to tell us what is going on. I think you are in on all of this," the man growled, anger apparent as he scowled down at Koji.

Before Koji could even think of something to say Shinta stepped forward a little, looking at the man with an unreadableexpression<.

"I believe it is quite obvious why Koji is here," Shinta said, staring the man down. "He is here for me, and fortunately he has the resources to try and help us. He is putting his reputation, his company, and all of his money on the line to free me. To free all of us," Shinta stated in a firm voice as his eyes raked over the group of people standing in Koji’s way. His tone and expression radiated disapproval.

The man blinked in surprise at Shinta as the woman blushed a little. Koji was surprised at Shinta’s control of the situation. He watched as his lover’s icy stare parted the group of people and Koji walked through them to the door, which automatically opened as he approached. Before walking out the door Koji couldn’t help but turn around to look one more time at Shinta, who wore a strained smile as the door closed, blocking Koji’s sight with blank white metal.

Koji stood looking at the door for a moment before shaking himself. He wasn’t going to get anything done by standing in front of a door. Turning, he looked at the automated android who led him back to the elevator leading out of the basement.

Once again outside Koji looked up at the sky, taking a deep breath, trying to center himself. He knew where Shinta was now and for the momenthe was safe, at least Koji hoped he was. Walking to his car he quickly got in, asking the driver to take him home as he placed an outgoing call to Yamagata. He was quickly connected to the man and ran down the series of events to him. After some questioning Koji asked him to immediately have the Japanese Scientific Observatory placed under watch to make sure that the bio-androids were not moved. He was pleasantly surprised that Yamagata had already obtained a huge amount of data on the committee members, which Koji had forwarded to his home network.

The next call he placed was to Dr. Ito. Praying that he had not left yet he found he still had a glimmer of luck left when the man answered the phone. It didn’t take much persuasion, only a quick explanation and a first class ticket to Las Vegas to get the man to hack the androids watching over the bio-androids. Ito promised Koji that they would be under his control within twenty-four hours, without anybody knowing that he had hacked their systems.

With a sigh of relief he placed he next brief call, setting up an appointment with Takamura at Black Heaven later on in the evening. It was with more than a little trepidation that he placed his final call.

"You have reached the Office of Hideki Kamiya, how may I be of assistance?" inquired a cold metallic voice.

"This is Mr. Oshimaru, I would like to speak with Kamiya," Koji replied neutrally.

"One moment please," the secretary replied.

"Hello Mr. Oshimaru, I thought I might be hearing from you," Kamiya said after a few moments.

"I told them your terms, but they need time to think it over. It is a huge decision," Koji said, trying to keep any emotion from his voice.

"I’m surprised, I thought you wanted to see that toy of yours free. I was sure I would heara positive answer from you," Kamiya’s irate voice rang throughout the car, making Koji grit his teeth a little.

"If it was my decision it would be a positive answer, but it’s not. They are the ones that have to decide," Koji answered, trying to keep the anger out of his voice and failing.

"I don’t have time to deal with this issue right now. One week, that is all Mr. Oshimaru.If they can’t decide by then, then I will decide for them," Kamiya warned before ending the call abruptly.

Koji sighed, looking down at his watch he was surprised to see that it was only noon. He wanted to look over the data Yamagata had gathered on committee members before going to Black Heaven as Shinta had asked. Looking out the window he thought about Shinta’s suggestion. He had a vague idea of how Takamura might be able to help, but he honestly wondered if he could convince the man to help in any way. Shinta’s suggestion of an auction puzzled him and he couldn’t help but wonder what he meant by it.

He felt tension running through his body the more he thought about the situation and his head began to ache. With a sigh he knew he didn’t have time to worry about himself. His head was pounding by the time he reached his estate. With one look at Koji, Hajime suggested a hot bath and massage. Koji shook his head, causing yet another stab a pain which changed his mind. It wasn’t long before he was submerged in warm, fragrant water. Leaning back in the large marble tub he felt the water draining away a little of his tension. Trying to clear his mind but found it impossible, so instead he turned his mind not to the problems he faced but instead to Shinta himself.

Closing his eyes he thought of his reunion with the escort that had thrown his life into chaos. Despite being held in that empty room for more than three days he had still looked stunning. Koji smiled a little, thinking about how once again Shinta had done the unexpected. A month ago Koji would have never dreamed of kissing anyone in public the way he had kissed Shinta.

He could still remember the feel of the man’s lips and body next to him. Letting his mind drift he sifted thought the memories of the escort, remembering the way just hugging the slender man had stirred his body. Provocative images entered his mind as he remembered the gentle hands that had awaken his body to unknown pleasure. Silky golden hair, firm supple limbs, but most of all a provocative smile that spoke volumes. Koji’s hand moved over his enlarging member as his mind focused on Shinta’s naked body lying on his bed behind his closed eyes.

His mind moved through images of the man, awakening his body’s memories of the sensations that Shinta had provoked in him. His hand moved faster as he watched the private theater of their history together. In his lab, bed, shower, garden and even on the beach Shinta had taken him and shown him pleasure beyond his imagination, fueling the images that brought him to release.

Sitting in the semi-warm water Koji felt himself tremble. His release had melted away the remaining tension, easing his aching head, only to increase the terrible ache that rested in his heart at the missing escort.