Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Family Ties ❯ Chapter 43 ( Chapter 43 )

“Family Ties”

 

January 2007 ShenLong

Chapter 43

 

Duo took a good look at the blueprints, hoping with all his heart he wouldn't have to use the knowledge and assassinate yet another innocent person. Unfortunately, he couldn't see any way out of their predicament. If he didn't comply then his son and Nurse Brown would be hurt. If he did... Then another innocent soul would belong to Shinigami.

 

Murphy returned later as dusk was falling with a tray of food for them. Duo took the tray with a scowl, Murphy retreating at the look he got, but not before Duo asked yet again about the candle. It was their only hope that he could see of making any form of contact for getting out of their situation.

 

He'd had another go at the mortar surrounding the window, but the teaspoon he was using just wasn't strong enough and he'd bent the handle several times in his attempts to break away more of the concrete stuff. His strength too wasn't up to pulling at the bars - although they did move a little. Given time, Duo knew he would manage to eventually either dig enough mortar away or succeed in pulling the bars out. Only problem was, he didn't know how much time they had. All he could do was continue in his assaults and pray for the candle.

 

Luck was with him this time and when Murphy returned to pick up the tray and used dishes, he handed over a small candle.

 

“Thank you,” Duo said, taking the candle and book that held a couple of matches.

 

Murphy declined to reply, simply taking the tray and locking the door behind him.

 

Once the footsteps had receded, Duo's face lit up into a feral grin and he made a beeline for the table and transistor radio.

 

Having made up a bottle for Keitaro and the infant now sucking happily on it, Margaret made her way over to the table to see if she could help in any way. Keitaro lay on the bed with Duo's jumper on one side, Nurse Brown's on the other to stop him from rolling off.

 

“Can I help?” Margaret asked as she rubbed absently at the numbness in her hand and wrist.

 

“Not much you can do at this stage,” Duo replied, “Just hand me what I ask for if you don't mind?”

 

“No problem.”

 

Duo pulled the back of the radio off and quickly located the wires he needed to swap over. Using the diaper pin, he began to ease the wires out from their soldered base and twist them around to where he needed them to go. Sweat began to bead on his brow as he carefully worked with the tiny wires.

 

“Can you light the candle?” he asked.

 

Margaret nodded and set the candle up on a saucer. She managed to get a match torn form the book and holding the strike piece in her damaged hand, she managed to strike the match and light the candle.

 

By the time the candle had burned enough to start melting the wax, Duo had the wires free and hovering over their new place of connection. Holding the first wire as still as possible, he picked up the candle and tilted it, experimenting first with the drop rate of the melted wax into the saucer. Satisfied, he brought the candle to the radio and exposed wire. Touching the wire to the circuit board, he held it as still as he could and carefully tilted the candle again.

 

A couple of drops of wax came forth, hitting the wire and circuit board dead on. Passing the candle back to Margaret, Duo held the wire still and blew gently on the cooling wax. After a couple of minutes, he released the wire and watched carefully for any sign of it pulling away.

 

It stayed.

 

Buoyed by the result, Duo reached for the remaining wires and repeated the process until all wires were secure once more.

 

“Now what?” asked Nurse Brown as she took the candle back and blew it out.

 

“Now we wait a few minutes to make sure the wax has set hard and then we turn it on and hope it works,” replied Duo.

 

“I see.” Nurse Brown prayed silently that the rewiring would be a success and that Duo would be able to transmit on it and alert Preventer to their whereabouts.

 

After several minutes, Duo deemed the wax set and turned the unit on. He fiddled with the dial until he was sure he had the correct wavelength for Preventer and then paused.

 

Nurse Brown cocked her head and raised an eyebrow.

 

“Now to see if this will work,” Duo said and fiddled with the radio again. He picked up the diaper pin and tapped it gently against the small speaker.

 

“What are you doing?” the nurse asked, clearly bewildered by Duo's actions.

 

“I've hopefully turned this into a transmitter instead of a receiver,” Duo began. “In theory, with the wires I've rerouted all should be working in reverse.”

 

“I think I follow,” replied the nurse.

 

“If the theory is correct, then the speaker, instead of receiving sound waves, should transmit them. I'm tapping in a code we used to use during the war. If Heero gets it, he will know it's me and translate the code easy enough.” It was a long shot, even Duo knew that and the chances of anyone picking up on the signal were extremely remote. The possibility of Heero getting the message were even more minute.

 

But Duo had to try.

 

The nurse accepted the explanation, keeping her thoughts to herself. They had enough to worry about without her voicing the knowledge that the chances of the signal being detected were something like a million to one.

 

Taking a couple more of the painkillers, Margaret left the young man to the radio and curled up on the mattress with the child to try and get some sleep.

 

* * *

 

Four pairs of eyes stared at the screen and the information that was showing up.

 

“This is where our perp was headed,” Heero mentioned casually as he clicked on a couple of folders and typed in some commands.

 

“Heero, there's duplicate files there,” Quatre commented.

 

“I know. I'm betting there's a few answers in these files.” Heero continued to type in commands and the screen brought up the two files associated with Wainright. Heero opened the 'shadow' file and with Wufei's assistance, scanned through it, comparing the data found with the data in the other file. Most things added up, but not all.

 

“Why have two files?” Trowa mused.

 

“Good question,” Heero replied, “One I intend to try and answer.”

 

After a few minutes of checking and comparing the files it became clear that there were several discrepancies between the two.

 

“Our perp got as far as here,” Heero announced and pointed out the relevant sub folder in the 'shadow' file.

 

“The figures don't add up,” Quatre mused. “If you look closely, this folder shows donations, outgoing and purchases - all of which add up in the final total boxes. But this one is different. The donations don't match and some of the purchases look a little fishy too. I'm thinking if we look at the donations made from WEI and Sanq, the figures will match with those in the shadow folder.” Quatre shifted to fetch his laptop and compare the figures.

 

After a couple of minutes double checking, all four men conceded that the donated monies figures in the shadow file matched, yet those in the main folder didn't.

 

“Which is the file that Une and the delegates currently have?” Wufei asked. He was beginning to get a little confused with the two files.

 

“This one,” Heero replied and conveniently renamed the files to 'Wainright' and 'Wainright shadow'. That made things a little easier to follow considering the files closely resembled each other.

 

“I'd say our perp was onto this and someone found him out, thus he was eliminated before he could make waves.” Wufei scratched his chin.

 

“From what I can deduce from the figures, it only seems to be L2 that the funds have been taken from,” Trowa puzzled. “Why take only from L2's funding and not the other colonies?”

 

“Because L2 is the poorest colony, full of misfits, deviants and homeless. They wouldn't be suspicious of the length of time it is taking to rebuild and put into place better infrastructure,” growled Heero. He was only too well aware of the state of Duo's home colony.

 

“Obviously someone was suspicious though, and it would seem they cared enough to find out why L2 was lagging behind,” Wufei snarled.

 

“Only they got sprung before they had concrete proof and were silenced,” Trowa added.

 

“I think we need to have a chat with a certain Senator Wainright and let Une know of this,” Quatre stated.

 

“Given all this, I'm betting the guy who was hacking the system and killed for his trouble was part of the terrorist group making these demands,” Heero put in.

 

“If that's true, and they're the ones claiming responsibility for the L1 ambassador's assassination, then they must have Maxwell. Forensics confirmed that the hair sample found in the L1 ambassador's hand belongs to Maxwell,” Wufei said as he thought, slowly putting the pieces together.

 

“If that's true, then Duo's message was true, that Keitaro and Nurse Brown are definitely with him. There's no way Duo would assassinate anyone unless he was forced to... Oh god,” Heero's voice petered out and he held his head in his hands. “They must be using Keitaro and Nurse Brown as hostages to force Duo to comply,” he whispered.

 

The other three men all paled as that thought hit home. They each knew that there was no way Duo would ever let anything happen to his son, or the nanny. They all hated to think what the result would be if so much as a hair on Keitaro's head was touched. But with the threat of harm to his son hanging over his head, Duo would do whatever was asked of him to keep his son safe.

 

“I have to find them,” Heero snarled. “If they've so much as touched my son, or my husband I'll kill them all with my bare hands.”

 

Heero's cobalt eyes were almost black with the rage they held and each of the other men all knew that once Heero managed to locate his missing family, there wouldn't be much of the terrorists left; that's providing Duo didn't get to them first.

 

“Fuck!” Trowa suddenly snapped. “How much time do we have left before the terrorists contact Une again?”

 

Wufei glanced at his watch. “Shit. They should be contacting her any minute. Yuy, we need to call this in, let Une know what we've found and try to stall the terrorists.”

 

“Right with you, Chang,” Heero replied and the pair left the room to contact their Commander, leaving Trowa and Quatre to continue scanning the files.

 

* * *

 

“It's time,” Nolen said.

 

Farrow nodded to his boss. “Everything is ready. It will only take a second or two to set the connection.”

 

“Do it.”

 

Farrow typed a few commands into his laptop and then moved to the side to allow Nolen to sit in front of the small camera. Once his boss was ready, Farrow typed another command and then nodded to Nolen. “Connecting now,” he said quietly.

 

The screen fuzzed and then cleared; seconds later the face of Commander Une from Preventer appeared.

 

“Ah, Commander. Your time is up.”

 

* * *

 

Une was fed up to the back teeth with the ESUN delegates. They had continued to argue, looking through the paperwork and despite Une's best attempts to make them see that although the paperwork told one story, she was certain there was another to be told.

 

The delegates had questioned her and she'd done her best to answer those questions, Relena backing her up wherever possible; but without the demanded proof, Une had nothing with which to validate her words.

 

The delegates knew it and decided regardless of Une and Relena's pleas to call the bluff of the terrorists.

 

Une was giving it one more go, desperate to make them see sense when the call came through.

 

“Ah, commander. Your time is up.”

 

Une stared into the blurred image of the terrorist, never had she felt so helpless. “We need more time, there's been a couple of developments,” Une began only to be interrupted by the terrorist.

 

“No, no more time. You've had more than enough to get the committee together and approve more funding for L2. I want to know what they intend to do about it.”

 

Feeling buoyed by his fellow delegates stance and support for not giving in to these demands, Jefferies took over the conversation, leaving Une with no option but to move aside.

 

“I said it before and I'll say it again,” Jefferies began. “We have all the paperwork for the rebuilding scheme and L2 is receiving just as much as all the other colonies. The ESUN refuses to play favorites and most certainly will not bow down to your demands. If we give L2 priority funding then the other colonies will demand the same and before we know it, we will have another war on our hands.”

 

“I don't give a rat's ass about the other colonies or your paperwork. L2 is behind in the rebuilding; as always, it gets left behind, forgotten,” Nolen snarled.

 

“If you ask me L2 should consider itself lucky it's getting any funding at all,” Jefferies snipped. “It isn't as if the colony puts anything back into the economic system. Let's face it, L2 is nothing but a bunch of crime lords, whores and gutter trash.”

 

The room went silent.

 

Relena's mouth hung open at the words, Une was trying to breathe again, the sheer hostility and sharpness of Jefferies words had thrown her for a loop. This was not looking good.

 

Surprisingly, Nolen managed to keep his cool, even though he was seething inside. His voice, when he spoke, came out calm and even. “Crime lords, whores and gutter trash?”

 

“Yes,” sniffed Jefferies.

 

Nolen gave an evil laugh, one that sent shivers up Une's spine. “Then I take it you will not meet my demands and release more funding to L2?”

 

“Got it in one, asshole,” Jefferies sneered.

 

“Then you leave me with no choice. Watch your back, senator. Good day.” Nolen terminated the call, the screen going blank.

 

“Well, that showed him, didn't it?” stated Jefferies, although there was a slight hint of perspiration on his upper lip and trickling down his spine.

 

Une narrowed her eyes and curled her lip back in a snarl. “You piece of shit,” she snapped. “God knows what they will do now.” Une was just about to work herself up into full blown rant mode when an aide knocked and entered the room.

 

Seeing the standoff and feeling the tension in the air, the aide swallowed nervously before speaking. “Commander Une?”

 

“What is it?” snapped Une, her glare still fixed on the now pale Jefferies.

 

“Umm... I'm sorry to interrupt, but there's an important call for you. An Agent Fire and Day.”

 

Une's face changed quickly and she spun around to face the aide. “Take me to the phone,” she demanded, then turned back to Jefferies and the rest of the delegates. “Don't any of you leave. I will be right back.” Her tone was sharp and demanded obedience. Turning to the aide again, Une followed him quickly from the room and to the call.

 

* * *

 

“I hope we're not too late,” Chang muttered as he punched in the code for the call.

 

Yuy opted to remain silent, his mind was already whirling with too many thoughts

 

“Chang, Yuy? What do you have for me?”

 

“Commander. Yuy has managed to hack deep into the database and we have discovered some interesting facts.” Chang went on to explain about the shadow system and the files Heero had uncovered in their search. He gave the facts simply and efficiently, giving Une enough to work with and promising the finer details later.

 

“I see.” Une could feel her anger mounting, the scene with Jefferies and the terrorist had been completely unnecessary given what she now knew. If only she'd managed to stall, kept Jefferies out of the conversation, pleaded for more time, then maybe they could have resolved this.

 

“Have the terrorists been in touch yet?” Yuy asked.

 

“Unfortunately, yes.” Une filled the pair in on what had transpired, watching as both agents' faces darkened.

 

“What an asshole,” Wufei muttered. “He's just gone and thrown the entire case into jeopardy.”

 

“I wish I'd had this information a few minutes earlier,” Une sighed.

“We're sorry, commander,” Yuy apologized.

 

“It's okay, Agent Day. I do understand the technicalities involved and believe me when I say I'm grateful to you all for what you have found. I will need you all in my office as soon as possible; we need to discuss the findings and work out what we're going to do from here.”

 

“Okay, commander. We will bring everything we have with us and be in your office shortly,” Chang replied.

 

“Good. Now I need to go back and try to sort this mess out,” Une sighed.

 

Heero suddenly snapped upright. “What did the terrorist say again, just before he cut the connection?”

 

“He said we leave him with no choice and for Jefferies to watch his back,” Une repeated.

 

“Commander, I suggest having a Preventer agent assigned to each of the delegates twenty four seven. These terrorists aren't messing around and I have a hunch he is going to strike again, either Jefferies or one of the other delegates.”

 

“That's a good suggestion, Yuy. I was already thinking along those lines, although after the stunt Jefferies pulled I'm inclined to let him fend for himself,” Une replied. “I'll get on to it right away.”

 

“Remember, commander. If my suspicion is correct and this group has Duo, then it will be Duo who will be the one taking out whoever they decide to use as an example,” Heero warned.

 

Une nodded. She knew without Yuy having to remind her just how good Agent Night was when it came to stealth and infiltration.

 

“We will see you shortly at HQ. Chang and Yuy out,” Chang said.

 

“Roger that. Une out.”

 

* * *

 

Nolen leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head, seething. How dare that delegate speak to him like that! How dare he speak of L2 like that, as if it didn't have a right to exist. “If those assholes had done their job properly in the first place then L2 would be just as prosperous and decent as all the other colonies,” he growled.

 

Duric, Farrow and Murphy all remained silent. They knew their boss was pissed and none of them particularly felt like having that anger directed at them.

 

After a few moments of thinking, Nolen's mouth curled in a sadistic smile. “I'll fix those up themselves delegates,” he muttered.

 

“What do you plan on doing, boss?” Duric asked.

 

“That prick of a senator, Jefferies. He will be next.”

 

“What about the L3 ambassador?” Duric questioned.

 

Nolen turned to face Duric, the cold smile still on his face. “We will take them both out.” Nolen paused to think for a moment then turned to Farrow. “Get to work. I need to know all there is on this Jefferies, especially where he lives, his movements and so on.”“Right on it, boss.” Farrow picked up his laptop and took it to the other desk in the small room where he plugged it in and began his task.

 

“Duric, get everything ready for tonight. Once we have the information on this Jefferies fellow you will need to map out your travel arrangements. You will be making two hits, not one, so time will be of the essence.”

 

“Okay, boss.” Duric left the room.

 

“Murphy. You can go get the clothing ready for our assassin. Also, feed them early, I need him to be at his best for this operation.”

 

“Will do, boss.” Murphy left to begin cooking the food and fetch the clothing for their hostage.

 

Nolen leaned back in his chair once more and tapped his chin whilst the evil smile remained. “Watch your back, senator; or maybe you should be watching your front too,” he said with a sadistic laugh.

 

~ * ~

 

tbc...