William wasn't what any society would call an upstanding citizen. He was however considered especially reliable by those he did business with. You see, William is what those law-abiding citizens called a smuggler, though he personally referred to himself simply as a delivery man.

With this chosen profession he made a respectable if not impressive living supporting his wife and two children. His reliability came from the fact that he had a nearly 100% delivery rate, and anything he couldn't get to its intended destination he saw returned along with his payment, he was no thief. He was also smart enough not to take jobs that would more than likely lead to his death.

This was why he almost turned down a job that had been brought to attention by his Friend Akihiko. He could immediately tell that something was up as his Friend knew few detail, including what the cargo was. He would have turned it down immediately if not for the substantial pay he was being offered. This amount was about 4-times his average fee, but still small enough that it wouldn't raise any red flags to him personally.

That being said he still got the sense that this job was different. It could've been the fact that his would-be clients didn't want to meet until 8pm, something rather odd for most of his particular clients, as night jobs tented to mean that they definitely wanted to hide something.

Sure enough, Eight on the Dot they did arrive. This consisted mostly of a rather large group of Boys (including one William almost mistook for a girl) with only one adult amongst them, about 16 in all. And this group was to be his cargo

William considered that they might be a particularly large family consisting of a parent and his kids, and then immediately dismissed it as each boy seemed to be around the same age.

He almost considered phoning the police, but decided against this once he saw the expressions on each of their face's. Each one was so serious that he found himself genuinely frightened. The Man at the front of the group had an unreadable expression. As for the boys, well, their face's were set in a stern, almost angry state. Something told him that it was they he should be most on guard with.

Regardless William stepped off his boat and briefly spoke to the Man, and here he received the first hath of his payment, the 2nd only to be received upon arrival at the intended destination.

Said destination was out in the Pacific Ocean, well into international waters. William didn't exactly have any idea where he was taking them, but he suspected it wasn't as simple as dropping them off in the middle of the ocean far from any known land masses. He noted that the Boys each had a large pack on their backs, more than likely filled with supplies of some sort, while the Man carried a similar yet smaller pack in his right hand while in the left was a duffel bag.

Overall because of the route chosen (A.K.A. Insisted upon by his client) the trip took just over 3-Hours. William knew they could have cut the time down to less than hath if the had just gone in a straight line, but he suspected his client knew this as well.

When they finally reached the drop-off point he was more than a bit relieved, as he found his passengers more than a bit creepy. As they prepared to disembark, he noted their destination, a huge 60footer colored in dark blues and grays intended to hide it in the dark of the night. It was at least 8 feet tall from where it touched the water, maybe bigger. Any other discernible features were lost in the lack of light.

His attention was soon pulled away from the ship itself and to it's deck where he heard a feminine voice speaking in a language he didn't know which eliminated Japanese, English, and Spanish. The Man soon replied to this and in response a simple rope ladder was lowered.

With this the Boys began to climb two at a time. As this was going on the Man walked over to William and gave him the rest of the payment. To William the rest of this went by real quick until finally the strange ship sped away at remarkable speed for it's size.

It wasn't until the vessel was completely out of sight that William realized he'd been holding his breath for almost the whole time the group was onboard. Realizing just how scared he'd been, he immediately headed back, the short way this time.

He noted that despite hearing a voice from the darkly colored ship, he had never actually see anyone on deck. Thinking back he vaguely recalled the inclination to do so, and yet something, the same something he suspected that had kept him on edge the whole time he'd been with the group, seemed to keep his eyes almost entirely on the dark vessel itself.

He smiled with this, somehow getting the sense that just barely avoided death. As a result he began to laugh hysterically, boy did he have a story to tell his Wife.