Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Duo's Strategy ❯ Chapter 1

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. Darn it.

Chapter One

"Howdy, Larry." Duo Maxwell parked himself on the edge of the humourless, greying, middle-aged mans' desk. "Is Lady Une around?"

Larry Reed, Lady Une's secretary, flicked a nervous glance at Duo and sighed in resignation. "Just a moment Mr. Maxwell. I'll ask her if she can see you." The poor man had long ago stopped refusing Duo entrance to Lady Une's office. Mostly because Duo made a point of annoying the heck out of him until he let him in to see her.

Duo glanced around the room. Beige walls, beige carpet, beige furniture.

Boring.

"You can go in, Mr. Maxwell."

"Thanks Larry, you're a pal." Duo flashed him a grin, hopped off the desk and sauntered into Lady Une's private office.

Out of the corner of his eye, Duo watched Lady Une's secretary wince as he greeted the Chief of Preventers with, "Howdy, Lady Une, how's it goin?" Duo deliberately closed the door.

Lady Une shook her head at him.

"You know he thinks you're frivolous, immature and disrespectful, why do you constantly reinforce those misperceptions?"

Duo shrugged. "Bad habit." He grinned and winked. "I've got lot's of them."

"Oh Duo." Lady Une sighed and shook her head again. "Tell me how the mission went."

"As expected." He reached inside his black leather jacket and pulled out a disk, tossing it on her desk. "No problems getting in. I set off an alarm on my way out, but I was way too fast for those guys to catch me."

"Hmm." Lady Une put the disk into her computer and scanned it quickly. "Excellent work."

"Thanks." He preened under her praise. Maybe he'd get a bonus.

"But, I need you to go back."

"Uh?"

"I've got an operative working inside this organization now. I want you to assist them in destroying the facility."

"Sure." The extra pay would come in handy. There were too many things that needed doing at the junkyard. "Who is it? Heero?"

"No, he's going to take care of their earth-side operations."

"One of the other pilots then." Duo didn't make it a question since he knew Lady Une wouldn't trust a mission this important to just anyone.

"No."

"No?" Duo was confused. "Who then? I'm not fond of working with too many folks."

"Hilde Schbeiker."

"What?! Are you serious?" Gone was Duo's casual pose and smile, changing from happy-go-lucky to dangerous in an instant. "Hilde?"

Lady Une nodded. "Yes, she went in as tech support personnel two days ago."

Two days? He'd only been gone from their place for four.

"How did that come about?" Duo didn't bother hiding his anger. Hilde was the last person he wanted involved in this.

"She was approached. They showed up at the junkyard looking for some specific parts and offered her a job as a mechanic. She figured out who they were by what they were looking for and contacted me before she left."

"Damn." Duo groaned, knowing that Hilde wouldn't think twice about jumping in to help out the Preventers. Especially since she knew he was working for them on this job.

"I want you to help her destroy the satellite they're using, but it has to look like an accident."

"Why? Blowing it up is blowing it up, isn't it?"

"Our actions could be misinterpreted by the colonies if they knew an Earth based group was destroying satellites in space."

"Yeah, I see what you mean. You wouldn't want to start another war or anything." Duo crossed his arms over his chest.

"Will you do it?"

"Yeah, I'll do it." How could he not with Hilde involved? "But let me get one thing straight," he leaned forward, pining Lady Une with a glare that promised retribution. "If she gets hurt, you guys are going to answer for it."

Lady Une wasn't fazed. "It was her decision, Duo."

"I'm sure it was and you just went ahead and let her make it, didn't you."

"Duo .."

"Forget it. I'll get her out and blow up that satellite .. accidentally." He snorted. "When am I supposed to meet up with her?"

"Thirty six hours. Heero has the .."

"Fine." Duo had had enough. He turned to leave.

"Do something with your hair, Duo." It was an order.

He glanced over he shoulder at her, a dangerous gleam in his eye. What about his hair? "Excuse me?"

"Your braid. You can be identified by it."

"I'll think of something." He shook his head, reverting to his irreverent self as he opened the door. "Man. There are critics everywhere."

He stopped at Larry's desk, throwing him an injured look. "What's wrong with the way I dress anyway?"

Larry seemed surprised by the question, but Duo didn't bother giving him the chance to answer before walking away, mumbling under his breath. "I even had a shower this morning."

Larry's jaw fell open for a second time.

Oh well, at least he could leave good old Larry guessing.

******

Duo walked into Sally Po and Wufei Chang's office without saying a word. He sat down with a "Harrumph" and propped his black military boots on the table in front of the rooms' only occupant.

"You're getting predictable, Heero." Duo stared broodily at his friend.

"In what way?"

Duo knew that would get Heero's attention in a hurry.

"This is the first place I thought to look for you and here you are. What, do you like this office or something?" Duo glanced at the walls and floor. Beige again. "It's not exactly a decorator's heaven in here ya know."

"You've talked to Lady Une."

Duo snorted. "What gave it away?"

"You're angry."

"Damn straight I am." Duo let his feet fall to the floor with a thunk. He stood up, leaning over Heero with narrowed eyes. "Did you know about this?"

If Heero was intimidated he didn't show it.

"Hilde working for the Preventers? No. Not until she was already gone."

"God damn it!" Duo paced around the room, waving his arms as he spoke. "How could Lady Une take advantage of Hilde like that? She doesn't have the kind of training to do this job!"

"I agree."

Duo stopped pacing and stared at Heero.

"That's why you've got to go and get her out."

Duo seemed to crumple in on himself. He flopped into the nearest chair, letting his head hang down. "I'm surprised they didn't ask you to do it."

"They did."

Duo's head flew up. "What?!"

"I told them that in this case I wasn't the best choice, you are."

"You did? I am?"

Heero nodded. "Besides, I knew you wouldn't want anyone else to go in after her."

"You've got that right."

Duo let himself picture Hilde in his mind. Her cute smile, slender body and sparkling eyes.

Nope nobody was going to rescue her, but him.

Heero brought up a schematic onto his screen. "I need your opinion on the bomb placement. How fast do you think you can cover the base?"

Duo got up and ambled over to have a look. "Well now, let's just see what we've got here."

******

Hilde Schbeiker rotated her sore shoulders a few times, trying to work out a couple of stubborn kinks. She'd been lying under the bulky outer casing of an Automated Firing Cluster for about four hours, installing the main thruster engine for this unit.

It was time for a break.

She hauled herself out from underneath the mammoth machine and took a quick look around. The hanger bay was busy with technicians and mechanics like her, all rushing to get the AFC's operational.

"Schbeiker!"

Hilde turned her head toward the man who called her name.

"Yes, sir?"

"You've been under there for too long. Go get something to eat."

Hilde saluted her supervisor smartly. "Yes, sir!"

She put her tool kit away and walked out of the hanger, heading for the cafeteria. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in an interior window and shuddered, deciding to detour to her room to wash up and change into a clean set of overalls.

She punched in her access code and entered the tiny dark room, but before she could turn on the light someone gabbed her from behind, wrapping one arm around her waist and the other over her mouth.

He kicked the door shut and she heard the lock automatically activate.

Hilde tried not to panic, but couldn't help struggling. Her back was pressed against his chest and her buttocks rubbed his thighs. His arms constricted even tighter so that she couldn't help notice his growing response to the closeness of her body.

Oh God.

Frightened by what she thought was about to happen, she screamed into his hand.

"Shhh. Hilde, It's all right. It's just me."

She stopped struggling and relaxed. She recognized that deep gravely voice.

He took his hand away from her mouth.

"Duo?" Her whisper was tinged with fear and disbelief.

"Yeah, it's me all right. The great destroyer."

"Oh God, you scared me!"

"Sorry about that."

Instead of letting her go, he turned her in his arms so that she was facing him in the dark, wrapping both arms around her waist this time. He pulled her close and leaned his forehead against hers.

"Duo?" Hilde tentatively put her arms around his waist too. He'd never held her like this before. "Shouldn't we turn on the light?"

"No. All the dorms are being video monitored."

"Oh gross!"

She felt his arms tighten around her waist again.

"Are you okay, Hilde?" His voice was uncertain, sounding so completely unlike him that Hilde laughed.

"I'm fine, Duo. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you're working for a lunatic who's trying to start another war."

"Who? Lady Une?"

"Don't make jokes Hilde, this is serious."

"I can't believe you just said that! Who are you and what did you do with the real Duo Maxwell?"

"Hilde," he warned.

"Come on Duo, I can take care of myself."

"I'm not so .."

Someone pounded on Hilde's door. "Schbeiker? Schbeiker! Are you all right?"

Hilde and Duo froze.

"Damn! There must have been enough light when you opened the door for them to see me grab you."

"Schbeiker!" The pounding continued.

"That's my supervisor."

"Then he has the code to this room."

"Yes .."

Duo's lips came crashing down on hers cutting off whatever else she might have said.

For a moment Hilde felt like she was drowning. Her head swam as he rubbed his lips across hers creating a thousand tingly sensations that ran through her body. She felt something warm and wet flick over her bottom lip. It felt so good that she gasped, opening her mouth. His tongue immediately darted in, causing those delicious tingles to turn into bolts of raw electricity, ripping across her nerve endings.

She kissed him back, moaning and pressed as close as she could get.

The door burst open.

Duo slowly lifted his head, staring down at her flushed face and swollen lips.

Someone switched on the light.

"What the hell is going on in here?" a disgruntled voice asked.

Hilde peeked a look at her boss and felt her face get hot. "Uh sir, well, I .. we."

"Never mind, Schbeiker. I can see quite well what's going on in here." The man shook his head. "Just keep it confined to your quarters." He backed out of the room. "And get something to eat!" The door closed with a slam.

Hilde stared at the door in shock for a moment before burying her face in Duo's shirt.

"Oh my God, I thought you were going to get caught."

Duo lifted her chin with one hand so that she was forced to meet his eyes.

"I'm a hard man to catch."

His face was unreadable, but she didn't think he was only talking about the mission.

"They're watching us." Duo said, staring down at her. His eyes burning with a light she'd never seen in him before. "Right now."

"I know."

He slowly lowered his head and kissed her again.

Hilde knew what to do this time and immediately opened her lips for him. His tongue played with hers in an intimate dance that had them both moaning. One of duo's hands slid down to her rear, bringing her up and in, moulding her to an erection she couldn't possibly mistake for anything else.

Shocked, she froze.

Duo groaned deep in his throat and rubbed himself against her, then he backed them both up and turned off the light.

He tore his lips away, breathing hard. "Hilde?"

"Yeah?" Her whole body shook. The feel of his hard length against her stomach was wonderful and terrifying all at the same time.

"I'm sorry. I've probably scared the hell out of you."

"No." She swallowed. "No, I'm all right. I just .. you surprised me, that's all."

Duo's chuckle was laced with self-derision. "I'll bet. That was your first kiss, wasn't it?"

"Was I that bad?"

"No." She felt him sigh and his arms gave her a squeeze. "It was that good."

Hilde was very glad the lights were off.

"Um, now what?"

They were still plastered to each other from neck to knees.

"We wait a few more minutes, then go get something to eat. After that I'll go back to the hanger with you."

Hilde wondered how he could sound so logical and controlled when she was still having trouble regulating her breathing.

"What if someone asks questions?"

"Don't worry about it. I came in with the last bunch of mechanics."

"Okay."

Hilde let her hands fall away from his back, part of her wishing that circumstances were different, that she wouldn't have to let him go.

"Duo? Where's your braid." She couldn't feel it anywhere. "You didn't cut it off did you?"

He laughed and guided her to sit down on the bed. "No. I've got it hidden under by clothes. Too many people on this tub would recognize me if they saw it."

"That's good. For a moment there you had me worried."

Neither said anything for a minute.

"So," Duo broke the silence. "Do ya wanna play I spy?"

"Duo."

******

Duo didn't like this. Not one bit.

He stared down at the innards of an AFC, carefully tightening a loose bolt. The firepower and range of these things was scary, even to him a former Gundam pilot. But that wasn't the worst of it. Each unit had it's own artificial intelligence chip. Enabling it to think on its own and learn from its mistakes, or from the mistakes of other AFCs. Constructed of gundanium, Duo knew if they became operational there'd be no stopping them.

"There ya go, she's up and running, boss," he said with a cheery grin to the man standing behind him.

The older, bearded man examined Duo's work, nodding in satisfaction. "Good work, Sutter," he complemented Duo. "Close her up and move on to the next unit. We have to have these things ready to fly in twelve hours."

"Yes, sir." Duo saluted with a bit more flare than necessary and went to work sealing the hatch in the gundanium alloy casing.

After a few minutes, he finished up and with a jaunty whistle, moved on to the next AFC and to the next and to the next.

No one took much notice of his frequent trips around the hanger to look for the proper tool or part. He got his work done more quickly than most, did a good job and wasn't too annoying. He was just one more mechanic as far as everybody else was concerned.

Duo leaned down as far as he could get and yanked out the AI chip in the last unit on his roster to fix. He held it up above his head, squinting at it.

"What's the problem, Sutter?" Duo's supervisor walked up to the base of the AFC, putting his hands on his hips.

"Bad chip, sir." He tossed it at the other man. "Where do I get a replacement?"

The supervisor caught and examined the chip. "Operations." He shook his head. "I can't go, I've got two units over there with circuit board problems." He threw Duo an assessing look. "You'll have to go. Do you know where to find it?"

"No."

"Well it's not hard. Just go up to the seventh level. Operations is off to the left."

"Sure thing, boss. I'll be back as soon as I can. Gotta keep on schedule." Duo saluted and hurried off.

"I'll let them know you're coming!" the supervisor called after him.

Duo tried to keep the smile on his face toned down to a normal wattage, but it was difficult. What luck! He had the perfect excuse to get into the operations room and it didn't involve getting shot at.

Probably.

The gun tucked inside his coveralls rested reassuringly against his ribs. His grin changed to something other than cheerful.

No matter what happened, he had a mission to finish.

******

Hilde watched Duo cross the hanger and head for the elevators. He had a bounce in his step and an expression on his face that she recognized with a flash of fear.

She shuddered.

The God of Death was about to go into action.