Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Family Ties ❯ Chapter 44 ( Chapter 44 )

"Family Ties"

 

January. 2007 ShenLong

 

Chapter 44

 

Wainright turned the stem of the glass slowly between his fingers, the red liquid inside shimmered as it moved. Taking a sip, he proceeded to roll the glass again, watching as the wine moved. “Such a nice vintage, don't you agree?”

 

Evans declined to answer, his glass still sitting forgotten in his hand.

 

“Is there something wrong with your wine?”

 

Evans jerked slightly as Wainright drew him from his thoughts. He blinked. “Pardon?”

 

“I said, is there something wrong with your wine?”

 

“No.” Evans picked up the glass and took a sip, the alcohol burning a trail to his empty stomach.

 

The phone rang, Wainright set his glass down and got up to answer it. Evans watched nervously, only partially listening to the conversation. He was jittery, on edge and would remain so until they were far away from here. Idly he wondered if anyone had picked up on the missing credits yet. The sound of the receiver being placed back in the cradle, pulled Evans from his wanderings and he looked up as Wainright returned to his seat and picked up his wine glass.

 

Taking a few sips, Wainright looked at his friend and cleared his throat. “The boss said to be ready to be picked up in an hour.”

 

“I see.” Evans' brows knitted together. “Where are we going?”

 

“That, my friend, I cannot tell you as I don't know. The boss said he was sending a car and it would be here in an hour. We will be informed of more once we're picked up.”

 

“Okay.” Evans wasn't too happy with the lack of information, but right now there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it.

 

* * *

 

Having finished her phone call, Une called HQ and arranged to have several agents come to the ESUN building as bodyguards for the delegates. With that organized, she returned to the main conference room where the delegates were of a mixed feeling regarding the contact with the terrorists and Jefferies' handling of the situation. Some were in support of the man, whilst others were clearly disgusted with his attitude. Silence fell over them all though once Une stepped back into the room.

 

Casting her eyes over the group, Une resisted the urge to sneer at them all; instead, she walked calmly back to her place at the head of the oval table, placing her hands upon the surface and lowering her head for a moment. Taking a deep breath, she straightened up and let her cold gaze sweep over the assembled group.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she began, “I've had some new information come to light and it pertains to these terrorists.” Une proceeded to give the group a brief outline on what the new information was. She was careful not to divulge too much for right now they didn't need to know all the facts, plus she still needed more information herself; and that she would only get when she met with Yuy and Chang.

 

Her information was met with a stony silence, each delegate absorbing what they'd just been told and weighing it up against what had just occurred.

 

“As you can see, people,” Une paused and fixed her steel gaze on Jefferies, “had we taken just a little more time, been polite, tried to explain the situation instead of going off on a half assed rant, we may not have found ourselves in the current situation. And that brings me to my next point...”

 

Une explained to all present about the need for a bodyguard, even more so now that Jefferies had done his worst and only inflamed the situation. Most people looked relieved at the thought of being protected, but a minor few didn't look too happy, Jefferies included.

 

Noting the look on the senator's face, Une spoke directly to him. “Trust me, I'd rather not be wasting my agents' time on babysitting duty either, they have far more important and pressing situations to deal with. But considering you had to poke your nose in and make the situation worse, I have no choice. Personally, if I had my way, you wouldn't be getting a bodyguard at all,” she snapped.

 

Jefferies looked suitably rebuffed and scowled at the commander, who ignored him and went back to addressing the rest of the delegates, explaining they would need to remain inside the ESUN building until their allocated bodyguard arrived. With nothing more to discuss, Une took her leave, pausing beside Relena and asking the woman to accompany her.

 

Relena already had her own bodyguard detail and thus didn't need any further protection for now. She followed Une out and at the other woman's suggestion, headed for her office. Once they were safely inside, Relena took a seat behind her desk, Une remained standing, crossing to the large window to look out on the world below.

 

“There's more to this than you told the delegates, isn't there?” Relena asked, knowing full well the answer would be 'yes'.

 

“That there is, Relena.” Une turned around to face the younger woman. “What I said in the room was true, however, Chang and Yuy have discovered two sets of files relating to the rebuilding scheme. One is the same as what we were given, the other... It contains much the same information, but the figures are different. From what I know, there are several thousands of credits gone missing - and only from the L2 funding.”

 

Relena gave a soft gasp.

 

“At this stage, that's all I can divulge. I will know more once I meet with Yuy and Chang. Meanwhile, this Senator Wainright, he is the one in charge of the scheme?”

 

“Yes, yes, he is,” Relena replied.

 

“Good. Can you tell me where his office is? I think we need to take him down to HQ to answer a few questions.”

 

“Certainly, Une. Just give me a moment and I'll have all the details for you.” Relena turned at her desk and called her secretary, telling the woman what she needed and waiting patiently for the information. The secretary called back within a couple of minutes and gave Relena all the details.

 

“His office is on the fourth floor, number six. Also, another Senator is working on the scheme with him, Evans, he's the second in command so to speak,” Relena stated and handed over the piece of paper she'd written the details on.

 

Taking the paper, Une thanked Relena and after promising to keep her informed of what was going on, Une took her leave and with two agents accompanying her, went to find Wainright and Evans and have them brought to HQ to answer some questions.

 

* * *

 

“Boss?”

 

Nolen looked up to see Farrow standing in the doorway. “Yes?”

 

Farrow entered the room. “I have as much information as I could get on this Jefferies fellow.”

 

“Good. Take it to Duric and the pair of you can work out the best way to make the hits for tonight.”

 

“Okay.” Farrow left, laptop in hand and went to find Duric.

 

Nolen smirked to himself. That bastard of a Senator would certainly rue the day he ever spoke to Nolen.

 

Farrow found Duric studying maps and entered the room quietly.

 

Duric glanced in his direction then sat up. “What have you got?”

 

“As much information as I could find on this Jefferies fellow,” Farrow replied and sat the laptop down, turning it on and waiting for the thing to boot up. Once it had, Farrow took Duric through all he'd managed to find out and handed over the papers, which he'd printed out the layout of Jefferies' residence on. “He drives himself home each day, car and route details are there in the paperwork. Given where the L3 ambassador is residing and where Jefferies lives, there's about thirty miles between the two. Jefferies does, however, pass a little closer to the residence on his way home. It might be an idea to take him out whilst he's en route to his house.”

 

Duric pondered that thought. “It could work,” he mused as he studied the map Farrow had given him with the route clearly marked in red. “If we took him out somewhere around here,” he pointed to a spot on the map. “We could then continue on to the L3 ambassador's residence, be in and out and back here all within roughly five hours.”

 

“Sounds good to me,” Farrow replied.

 

“Can you get me a clear map of the area here?”

 

“No problem.” Farrow typed a few commands into the laptop and moments later the screen changed to show a detailed satellite image map of the area Duric had asked for. They both studied the layout, particularly the countryside and anything that may aid them in their quest.

 

“I think here would be a good spot,” Duric announced.

 

“How you gonna do it?”

 

“I'll get the kid to set an explosive charge on the edge of the road, right before the bridge. We can hide in these thick trees and detonate it when he approaches. It should be enough to cause him to either drive off the bridge or collect the supports; either way he will be disabled enough for the kid to finish the job.”

 

“Okay. I'll print that off for you if you like?”

 

“Thanks.”

 

Farrow left to hook up to the printer leaving Duric alone to finish planning out his route.

 

* * *

 

Duo had continued to 'transmit' for several hours until his eyelids became heavy and he needed to get some sleep. Nurse Brown and Keitaro were curled up on the mattress, both deeply asleep and Duo smiled at his son. Wearily, he dragged himself to the chair and did his best to get comfortable. Settling in, his eyes began to drift shut when he suddenly had the overwhelming urge for an orange. He shook himself mentally, now was not the time to be wanting something he couldn't have. He'd love a big, juicy steak too, but he didn't see that forthcoming any time soon either.

 

He did promise himself though that once this was all over he would have both the steak and the orange.

 

The morning sun shone through the basement window and fell across Duo's face, awakening the agent. Nurse Brown was also stirring but Keitaro remained asleep. Stretching and yawning, Duo stood up and scratched at his belly.

 

“Morning, Duo,” the nurse said softly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Oh, I'd kill to have another shower.”

 

“Morning. So would I,” Duo replied as he sniffed his armpits. “Whew, that's a little ripe. Oh shit!” Duo's stomach suddenly rebelled and he made a dive for the chamber pot, grabbing it in time to empty out the small amount of bile that resided there. After dry heaving for a moment, Duo felt the nausea leave and straightened up. He placed the chamber pot back in the far corner, reminding himself he'd need to let their kidnappers know it would need emptying and walked back over towards his chair. He could feel the nurse's eyes on him and waited patiently for the words he knew would come.

 

“Duo? Are you okay?”

 

“I'm fine. Must have been the armpits,” he joked.

 

“I don't think so.” The nurse's eyes narrowed. “You've been sick a few times these past couple of days.”

 

“Only twice,” Duo protested.

 

“You may have only thrown up twice, but I can tell you've been nauseous and barely managing to hold onto your stomach contents.”

 

“I'm fine,” Duo said again.

 

“I beg to differ, but for now I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.”

 

Duo sighed and walked over to the small table and the transistor radio. He switched it on again and began to 'transmit'.

 

Nurse Brown watched discreetly. Her mind was telling her that Duo was not at all fine, in fact, she strongly suspected the man could be pregnant - again. With her brow furrowing at the thought, she tried to think of a way she could question Duo without him becoming suspicious and hopefully confirm her thoughts.

 

* * *

 

Murphy finished setting up the tray with the food and added the thermos to it. With all now ready, he went to fetch Duric. The boss had said the three in the basement could take another shower that morning and Murphy was glad about that. In all honesty, he felt the three should at least be allowed to shower daily and not every three days as it had been so far. He guessed that with the assassinations that were to take place that evening, the boss didn't want the victims to 'smell' their assassin before he had the chance to take them out.

 

He found Duric still working on his planned route for the 'hit'. “You gonna give me a hand?” he asked.

 

“All ready?” Duric responded.

 

“Yeah. I'll take the tray, you bring the clothes and play the part of shower escort,” Murphy replied.

 

With a grunt, Duric stood and picked up his gun from the table top. He followed Murphy back into the kitchen and grabbed the bag of clothes there. Murphy had gone shopping the previous day and picked up some clothes for the nanny and child. He'd had to guess at the sizes. Maxwell would be supplied with an all black ensemble, similar to what he'd worn previously. Black jeans, black T-shirt and sweater plus a black ski type mask. Murphy had also picked up a pair of sneakers for the man.

 

With clothes and tray in hand, the pair left the kitchen for the basement.

 

* * *

 

Une and her agents rode the elevator to the fourth floor, exiting quickly and reading the information on the wall opposite the elevator door.

 

“This way,” Une said as she noted the arrow pointing to the left for the offices numbered one to fifteen.

 

Walking down the corridor, Une counted off the office numbers until they reached number six. Pausing outside the door, Une made sure her clothing was straight and then knocked as she turned the handle and went in. A secretary sat behind a desk and looked up as they entered.

 

“Can I help you?” she asked, clearly startled to see the uniformed officers there with Une.

 

“I wish to speak with Senator Wainright,” Une commanded.

 

“I'm afraid the Senator isn't in.”

 

“I see.” Une's brow furrowed. “Where is he and when will he be back?”

 

“I'm afraid he's on holiday and won't be available for another four weeks. I only found out myself when I came into work this morning. There was a memo for me from him,” the secretary replied.

 

“Okay.” Une thought for a moment. “In that case, I will need access to his office. I am confiscating his computer and other files.”

 

“But! You can't do that!” the secretary spluttered.

 

“Yes, I can. They are required for evidence in a case Preventer is currently investigating.” Une nodded to her agents. “Go in and collect together all computer hardware, software and anything else you find pertaining to the case.”

 

“Yes, ma'am,” the agents replied and entered the senator's office.

 

“I would appreciate your cooperation,” Une said as she turned back to the secretary.

 

The secretary nodded her head and slumped in her seat, knowing there wasn't anything she could do.

 

“Good.”

 

Once the agents had collected together all files, discs, computer hardware and the like, Une had them take it down to one of the Preventer vehicles in readiness to be transported back to HQ for investigation. With the orders for one agent to remain with the vehicle and the other to return to assist Une, they both left with all the confiscated material.

 

Une headed for Senator Evans' office

 

* * *

 

Grabbing all the discs and any other information they had on hand, Yuy and Chang gathered everything together and began to load it into Chang's car.

 

“We're coming too,” Quatre announced and picking up his laptop, he nodded to Trowa to pick up all their discs and follow.

 

Within minutes the four men were in the car and pulling away from the mansion.

 

It took them forty minutes to get through the traffic to Preventer HQ.

 

“You'd think Une would have these company vehicles rigged with lights and sirens,” Quatre muttered. “Would certainly make sense for when you're trying to get to an emergency.”

 

“This isn't a police car,” Wufei grumbled.

 

“I never thought I'd say this, but thank god for the lack of anything remotely resembling a button,” Heero mumbled loud enough that only Chang could hear him.

 

“Just don't let him know about the portable light that we do have,” Chang whispered.

 

Heero rolled his eyes. There was no way on earth or the colonies he would ever let the blonde know that the vehicle did have one of those blue, flashing lights that could be pulled out from the compartment below the glove box and attached to the roof should the occasion call for it. “Heaven forbid he should ever discover it.”

 

“I agree with you there,” Chang replied and indicated, pulling into the exit lane and leaving the highway.

 

Bringing the car to a stop in the underground car park, the four exited, locked the car and made a beeline for the elevator. Clearing security on the ground floor, they proceeded to Une's office where Une's secretary greeted them.

 

“I'm afraid Commander Une isn't back yet, gentlemen.”

 

“No problem. She called and asked us to meet her here. May we wait inside her office?” Chang requested.

 

“Yes, I know she did. She called me to let me know you would be coming and to allow you to wait in her office. Please, go on through,” the secretary replied.

 

“Thank you.” Chang proceeded to the doors and opened them, allowing everyone through and then closing the doors behind them. They took up residence in the various chairs in the office, Yuy plugging his laptop in and getting everything they had discovered so far up and running. Quatre did the same only with the donations from WEI and what he'd discovered in relation to the missing funds.

 

Once everything was set they had nothing left to do but wait for their commander.

 

* * *

 

“Someone's coming,” Duo muttered as his sharp hearing picked up on the approaching footsteps. Quickly he shut down the radio and placed it in Keitaro's baby bag. Sitting on the edge of the bed where Nurse Brown was reclining with Keitaro, he did his best to look like he was simply playing with his son.

 

The door opened, Murphy entering with the tray, Duric behind him and holding the door. Once both men were inside, Murphy took the tray to the table and set it down. “Breakfast,” he announced in a bored tone and backed away.

 

Duric stepped forward and tossed the paper carrier bag towards Duo who caught it. “There's clothes inside. Once you've eaten breakfast you will take a shower, same as last time and put these clean clothes on,” he informed them.

 

Listening to what the man said, Duo opened the bag and began to pull out the various items of apparel. He could guess which ones were for him and a chill ran down his spine as he tossed them to one side.

 

Nurse Brown peered inside the bag and pulled back a little as Duo removed a dress and some items for Keitaro. Her nose wrinkled a little as she looked in distaste at the dress that was obviously for her. Turning to face Murphy, she spoke, the sarcasm evident in her voice. “And where did you get these from? Been raiding the local charity bin?”

 

Murphy glared, Duo snickered.

 

“I'll have you know that this style went out when I was a little girl,” she sniffed. “We used to call them 'granny' dresses.”

 

“Well, in fashion or not, it ain't gonna matter 'cause no one's gonna be seeing you anyway. Think yourself lucky you're getting a change of clothes at all,” Murphy fired back.

 

“Yes, I suppose we should be thankful that we're being given the very basic of human treatment,” Margaret snipped. “Cold food, luke warm tea, a chamber pot for a toilet and a shower every three days. Gee, I feel so damn lucky.”

 

Duo was having difficulty holding onto his laughter. He guessed these two had never come up against the likes of Nurse Brown ever before.

 

“Shut up and eat your food,” Murphy snapped, his patience running thin. He knew the nanny had gotten the better of him, he just didn't know how.

 

Duo moved from the bed to the table and lifted the lids off the plates of food. There was some baby cereal for Keitaro, a couple of slices of toast and a plate of scrambled eggs. Duo's stomach decided it wanted to leave its place of residence - via Duo's throat.

 

The sight of the yellow eggs with a watery liquid surrounding them had Duo running for the chamber pot once more.

 

With a worried look on her face, Nurse Brown kept an eye on the young man who was dry heaving.

 

“What's up with him?” Murphy asked as he watched the drama unfold.

 

“He's not feeling too well,” Margaret hedged.

 

“I hope it's nothing serious, or contagious,” Murphy muttered.

 

“Sick or not, he's still coming with me tonight and he will do the job,” Duric stated firmly. Noticing Duo had finished, Duric strode over and took the chamber pot from the man. He pushed the cold muzzle of the gun against Duo's temple. “I suggest you get better real fast. We have a job to do tonight, and you know what will happen if you don't cooperate.”

 

Duo shuddered, the foul taste still in his mouth. “I'll be okay,” he replied in a whisper.

 

“Good.” Duric removed the gun and walked back towards the basement steps. “I suggest you eat now, you will need your strength for later.”

 

Duo scowled but obediently went back to the table. Gingerly he selected a piece of toast and put a thin scraping of butter on it; it was about all he could stomach right now.

 

Nurse Brown watched, a worried expression on her face as she began to feed Keitaro. She was even more convinced now.

 

Content that the hostages were doing as they were told, Duric handed the chamber pot to Murphy. “Here, go empty it and clean it,” he said.

 

“Why do I have to empty and clean it?” Murphy whined.

 

“Because I said so.”

 

~ * ~

 

tbc...