Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Family Ties ❯ Chapter 60 ( Chapter 60 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Duo learns what it is Barton intends to do and realizes he must stop him at all costs. More information comes to light and finally there is a breakthrough on the hunt for Duo.

Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Hentai / Romance / Suspense / Angst | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 07.09.2009 | Pages: 8 | Words: 8.1K | Visits: 264 | Status: Work In Progress

"Family Ties"

January 2007 ShenLong

Chapter 60

When Trowa and Quatre returned to Preventer HQ, Une brought them up to speed with what was going on. Both temporary agents were pleased that a little more had come to light in regards to the investigation and could only hope that Wufei and Heero would be able to turn up more leads for them to follow.

Having brought all the confiscated material from both missing senators' homes, they were soon hard at work in one of the labs, searching through all they had in an attempt to find anything that would help in their cause.

Une had Summer print out the photographs of Duo and the other missing people, contacting the various resources herself and informing them of her wish to display the pictures in the hope that someone may have seen something of the missing men.

The media were helpful to a point, but wanted to know more of the case, and Une wasn't ready to give out that sort of information yet. After several minutes of talking with media heads, she managed to secure a deal and the photos were duly dispatched. Meanwhile, Summer had also posted the pictures on the Internet and whilst it was a remote shot that someone somewhere had information on the whereabouts of the guys, he wasn't about to hold his breath waiting for that information to come through.

When Heero had discovered the missing funding in a bank account and traced the purchases, he'd been unable to locate any place of destination. At this stage, they hadn't investigated further as other events had unfolded that required their attention. Now though, Heero intended to be as thorough as he possibly could.

The list of companies where the various armaments had been purchased from, whilst not all that long, was quite wide spread throughout the earth and colonies.

“There's no way we can possibly cover all these suppliers in person,” Wufei stated as he looked at the diverse addresses for the companies.

“I realize that. There are a couple that are within a fifty kilometer radius, I suggest we start with those and see what we get. We can either contact the others by phone, or have other agents from Preventer branches check on them, depending on what we find out from these two,” Heero replied.

Wufei glanced at his watch. “We have just enough time to check out one of the suppliers today. I'll contact the other branches and have agents begin to check on the other companies whilst we look into this one.”

“Then let's not waste any more time.”

* * *

Tewson and Matthews guided their 'prisoners' through a few more tunnels, Zaheer bringing up the rear and keeping a close eye on the three. Duo's mind was working overtime, not just on what was in store for them now, but also trying to figure out a way he could possibly contact Heero, or anyone for that matter on the outside, and let them know of their whereabouts.

After walking for several minutes they came to a halt outside another small room. Zaheer went ahead and entered, returning within seconds to motion the rest of them through. Entering, Duo's eyes scanned around, noting everything he could about the place.

It was a fairly decent sized room on the inside, containing a minimum of furniture which consisted mainly of desks and a couple of chairs. Maps adorned the walls and any available surface also appeared to be covered with maps or blueprints. Standing behind a desk was Dekim Barton himself.

The older man looked up when the group came to a stop and he casually rolled up the blueprint he'd been studying before fixing his full attention on the three. His eyes roamed over each one, obviously not in the least perturbed by their injuries. Finally he cleared his throat and spoke.

“Zaheer tells me you are willing to join the project,” he said in a calm voice.

“Not like we had much choice,” muttered Duo. Instantly, Barton's eyes narrowed in on him.

“You don't like our hospitality?” Barton sneered.

“I've had better,” came Duo's reply.

“Watch your mouth,” Tewson snapped and pointed the gun directly at Duo.

Duo gave the man a disdainful look and fixed his attention back on Barton.

“I've seen you before,” Barton stated.

Duo shrugged. “What can I say? I have one of those faces, there's many people that look like me out there.”

“No, I don't think so.” Dekim's brow furrowed as he tried to drag the memory up, but it still eluded him. “Not to worry, I'm sure it will come to me in time,” he stated and then looked at the other two. “Which one of you has the computer experience?”

“I do,” replied Farrow.

“Good. Matthews, take him to Lewis.”

Matthews grasped Farrow by the arm and pulled him around, leading him from the room.

“As for you two,” began Barton. “I'm sure you're both curious as to what the project is and what part you will play in it?”

“It might help,” Duo replied sarcastically.

Ignoring the jibe, Barton continued. “It's really quite simple. I intend to take over the earth and free the colonies once and for all from the repressive rule of the dictators there.” When neither of the two men looked all that impressed, Barton narrowed his eyes. “You don't believe me?”

“It's been tried before and failed,” Duo replied with a shrug of his shoulders

“Ah, yes it has, but where they failed, I will succeed.”

“How can you be so sure?” Duric questioned.

“My plan is foolproof.”

“That's what Romefeller, Oz and White Fang thought too,” Duo muttered under his breath. “But they didn't count on the Gundams.”

Dekim caught the softly spoken words and the memory he'd been hunting for suddenly burst forth. He stepped forward and closer to Duo. “Now I remember,” he stated and raised his hand. His finger poked Duo in the chest. “You were a Gundam Pilot. Pilot 02 to be precise, if I remember correctly.”

Zaheer's head jerked up and he almost gave himself whiplash as he spun to look at the man Barton had identified. Tewson swallowed hard.

Duo's violet eyes darkened as he fixed Barton with his gaze. “Yes. I was Gundam Pilot 02,” he said in a cold tone.

Barton's eyes lit up and he rubbed his hands together. “I thought so. This is excellent, with you on my project success is even further guaranteed.” An evil smile graced the man's face as his mind ticked over.

Duo wasn't sure he liked the look on Barton's face, but right now he didn't have any choice other than to go along with whatever it was he'd gotten himself into. His mind though was constantly on alert for any chance or opportunity he might get to try and contact Heero.

“Oh yes,” Barton continued, “I can certainly use you on the project.”

“What is it you want from us in this project?” Duric snapped. He was getting tired of the games being played.

Turning to face Duric, Barton narrowed his eyes. “That, you will find out once we have moved to our point of operations.”

“How do you think you will succeed when all the others failed?” Duo tossed in.

“The others all tried to take over by using brute force,” Dekim replied. “That was their downfall. I intend to use brains and keep the brawn for the back up.”

Neither Duric or Duo looked convinced.

“It's really quite simple,” Barton explained. “You cannot rule by force alone, that will gain you nothing but unrest, but - “ Dekim paused for a moment, then continued, “but, by outsmarting the dictators you have shown you're a force to be reckoned with. No one wishes to oppose someone who is smart.”

Duo snorted. “I fail to see the point here. You talk of brute force and how it fails to accomplish anything, yet you have an army assembling right now.” Duo knew there was still unrest amongst the Colonies and their governments and that the ESUN was working hard to resolve the distrust and show the Colonies that they all needed to work together.

“Weren't you listening?” Dekim snapped. “The army is my back up. I intend to take over by using a rather unique, persuasive method, the army will only be there to enforce my rule should the need arise.”

“And what is this `method' you seem so sure will work?” Duric questioned. He honestly couldn't see how Dekim could take over and rule the Colonies and Earth without some form of violence and attack.

Barton spun around and with an evil smirk, addressed the other man. “Computers.”

Duric frowned, Duo raised an eyebrow.

Seeing his audience wasn't following on, Dekim shook his head. “You're a lot more stupid than I thought. Computers, the entire earth sphere and the colonies alike are reliant on technology. Oh, they would be the first ones to tell you that they aren't, but step back and take a look at the big picture. Take out the computers, remove the technology and what do you have? Think about it people.” Dekim turned and walked away to stand behind his desk, allowing his words to sink in. Raising his head, he spoke to Zaheer. “Take them to the containment area and prepare all for departure. We will leave in four hours.”

Zaheer nodded. “Move!” he ordered.

* * *

Sitting in the small containment room, Duo had a lot to think about. His mind was whirling with thoughts, the full realization of what Barton was planning slowly unraveling in his brain.

“Something tells me this guy isn't your usual bad guy,” Duric said.

“No, he isn't,” Duo replied a little absently.

“I'm not as clued up on all this technical talk, you think you can explain in simple terms what it is he's planning on doing?”

Duo sighed. “I don't have the full picture myself yet, all I can do is speculate, but I'm pretty sure I'm not far off the mark. It's true what he said about the Earth and Colonies being reliant on computers and technology. You take that away and you put the entire human race pretty much back to the stone age.”

“You seriously think he would try to destroy all the technology?” Duric asked, his tone one of disbelief.

“Firecell,” Duo stated quietly.

“Firecell?”

“Yeah. It's been talked about and discussed, but no one really knew if it would be possible to actually bring it into reality as such. I don't think the governments really took much notice, believing that no one would be either smart enough or stupid enough to pull such a stunt. It's all been pretty much theories up to now.”

“What exactly is a Firecell?”

“In very simple terms the Firecell is a name for a program that cuts into the technological world, shuts down computers; and I'm not talking your home computer here, I'm talking the major players. Communications, economics, transportation; even basic life support could all be effectively shut down. But as I said before, it's all been theory, no one has ever put the theory into practice that I know of.”

Duric paled. “But, wouldn't that be deadly to the Colonies? They depend on life support.”

Duo nodded. “Yeah, they do. No, I don't think Barton would go that far, well, not unless he wasn't getting what he wanted.”

“We're all fucked.”

“Seems like it.” Duo didn't bother to argue, he needed his mind to stay alert, to figure out if that was what Dekim was planning. He was pretty sure it was and if so, Duo needed to try to find a way to stop him.

The two men remained in thought until Matthews and Zaheer came to collect them.

Once again they traversed the corridors of the garbage system, emerging back out of the tunnels and into the abandoned building. It was evening cycle when they stepped out into the recycled air of L2. Despite the slightly sour tasting air, Duo drew deep breaths, clearing out his lungs from the oppressive air of the garbage system.

A car was waiting for them and as Duo climbed inside, he glanced around. There wasn't much in the way of human presence, this was one of the poorest and more crime ridden sectors of the colony; no one ventured here if they could help it.

The car drove through the artificial night and out of the slums. Duo realized they were heading for a smaller shuttle port on the colony. Most Colonies had two major ports, one for passengers and one for cargo. They also had smaller ports to handle the smaller cargo shuttles and therefore leave the large port free.

When he'd been working with Hilde in the scrap yard he'd often come to the smaller port to either send out a shipment or pick up one and even though it had been a while since he'd been there, he was quite familiar with the way the port worked.

Pulling up at the smaller shuttle port, the group exited the car and stood around the side of the main entrance in a small alley way . Zaheer looked down his nose at Duric and Duo.

“You will both keep your mouths shut and do exactly as you are told. Matthews has a gun trained on you at all times.”

Both men nodded.

“Here.” Zaheer handed them both a pair of coveralls with some company name on the back that Duo didn't recognize. “Put them on and act like you're cargo handlers.”

Duo and Duric did as requested, Zaheer and Matthews doing the same. Zaheer produced ID tags and passed them over, checking each man had it clipped to the top, left pocket of the coveralls. Satisfied, he gave one last warning before leading the group out to the front of the shuttle port where a van had pulled in.

The doors to the van were opened to reveal several boxes.

“We are to take these boxes and load them onto shuttle X436. Keep your heads down, eyes to yourself and mouths shut. I will deal with the authorities,” Zaheer informed them.

The boxes were removed from the van and stacked onto three small trolleys. Matthews, Duric and Duo each took a handle to a trolley and began to follow Zaheer into the port. Zaheer approached the cargo desk and handed over paperwork, chatting idly with the officials behind the desk as they checked the validity of the paperwork.

Whilst Zaheer was busy, Duo peered out from underneath his bangs, spotting a security camera to one side. He glanced at Matthews who was watching Duric and took a chance. He lifted his head just enough and looked into the camera. His lips moved silently to form a few, simple words and then lowered his head again before Matthews could spot him. It wasn't a moment too soon; Matthews turned to look at him and seemed satisfied that Duo was doing as he was told.

Having cleared the paperwork, Zaheer returned to the group. “Bay four,” he stated and began to lead the way past the desk and along the corridor that would take them to the loading bays.

As Duo passed the desk, he tried to raise his head enough to see the officials behind it, a warning growl from Matthews told him that was not a good idea and Duo quickly ducked behind his bangs again.

The walk wasn't long, bay four appearing quickly and the three pushed their trolleys to the waiting, open cargo doors. The boxes were transferred from the trolleys to the belly of the small shuttle, the four humans entering the shuttle once the cargo was secure.

“Strap in,” Matthews ordered as Zaheer went to speak with the pilot.

Strapped in, Duo wondered where the hell they were heading now. As if reading his mind, a returning Zaheer gave them a smirk.

“You didn't seriously think that Barton would use L2 as his base point? No, we're heading to a small satellite, that is where the base for the operations is located.” Zaheer went quiet as the shuttle's engines came to life and the machine began to move out from its bay to the short runway that would take it to the exit runway from the colony.

* * *

“Thank you, you have been most helpful,” Wufei said as they exited the recycle yard. He walked in silence beside Heero and climbed into the car.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Heero rubbed at his chin, locked in thought. Wufei broke the silence.

“L2.”

Heero nodded and pulled out the paper invoice the man had given him. “This does not make a lot of sense.” He handed the sheet to Wufei who scanned it over.

“I agree. There's more than just armaments here, there's circuitry, chips and a whole lot of other stuff that doesn't fit in.”

Heero sighed. “How soon before we get reports back from the other teams investigating the other places of purchase?”

“We should start to have some answers coming in by tomorrow morning.”

“Good. There's a thread here, something tying all this together and I can't put my finger on it,' Heero stated, his voice clearly frustrated.

Wufei started the car. “Let's go back to HQ, you have a son to collect and I'm interested to see if Barton and Winner have had any luck in discovering anything from the confiscated material from the senators' homes.”

“Okay.”

Wufei drove them out of the parking area and back to Preventer headquarters.

* * *

Quatre scratched his head and then rubbed his weary eyes. The screen before him was starting to blur a little. Beside him, Trowa was also finding it difficult to concentrate. They had been at this for several hours now and had yet to find anything of interest in relation to the case.

“I think I need a break,” Quatre stated as he stretched his arms above his head, feeling his spine pop and the muscles ease a little.

“Coffee?” Trowa asked, a hopeful look in his visible eye.

“Sure,” Quatre chuckled and got up to stretch his legs and fetch the coffee.

Trowa continued to pour over the contents of the hard drive on Wainwright's computer, he was beginning to doubt that they would find anything at all. Quatre returned with the promised coffee, setting the mug beside his partner and then standing behind Trowa's chair to massage the tired muscles of his lover's shoulders.

“Feels good,” Trowa sighed as he let his eyes drift shut and enjoy the ministrations.

Quatre continued to manipulate the flesh, digging his thumbs and fingers in harder, attempting to loosen the knots.

With his husband working on the muscles of his shoulders, Trowa opened his eyes and continued in his search. Clicking on another folder his eyes suddenly widened and he let go a soft gasp. Immediately, Quatre stopped and looked over his partner's shoulder.

“What is it?” the blonde asked as he scanned the screen.

“I'm not sure,” Trowa replied, “but it's certainly something I wouldn't expect to be on here.”

Pulling across his chair, Quatre sat next to his lover and studied the information.

“Why would a senator want to research communications networks?” Quatre asked.

“I don't know,” Trowa replied and then clicked on a sub folder. “This is interesting. Looks like he was researching a lot of things.”

Trowa continued to click on sub folders, each one containing research on many different networks and systems the Earth and Colonies used. They ranged from communications to power grids, transport to banking.

“I think we should inform Une of this,” Quatre stated.

“I agree.” Trowa inserted a disc into the computer and downloaded the information. Just as he was preparing to shut down the machine, Heero and Wufei entered.

Quatre turned to see their fellow agents walking in the door and was immediately out of his seat. “Any luck?” he asked.

“Sort of,” replied Heero. “We've checked out one of the suppliers named on the list from Barton's bank account. We know his shipment of goods was sent to L2.”

“L2?” echoed Quatre.

“Hai. There's also items on the inventory that are not armaments.”

“What sort of things?”

“Circuitry, chips, circuit boards, things like that,” Heero replied.

Quatre frowned.

“Have you two had any luck?” Wufei asked.

“Not sure. We have found something that appears a little unusual on Wainright's hard drive.”

“What sort of things?” asked Heero as he approached the Latin.

“It seems the senator was doing a little research, mainly into systems and networks of the Earth and Colonies.”

Heero let his eyes scan the screen when Trowa brought the data back up. The hairs on the back of his neck began to prickle. “Copy it.”

“Already done.”

“I have a feeling this is related.”

“How?” asked Trowa.

“Not sure, but my gut is telling me that it is.”

The pager on Wufei's belt went off and he looked at it. “Une,” he stated and went to the internal phone in the corner of the room. Moments later he returned. “Une wants us in her office now. There's been a breakthrough.”

The four agents scrambled to get out of the door and to Une's office.

* * *

Sitting back in his chair and watching the news, one of the officers that had been on duty at the shuttle port accepted the mug from his wife and took a sip of the hot beverage.

“Any good news on?” she asked her husband as she took a seat.

“Not really. Mostly just the same old stuff,” he replied.

The news went to a break, showing a couple of adverts and then an advert of a different kind.

“Have you seen these missing men?” the announcer said as four pictures were splashed across the screen. “If anyone has seen any of these men or knows of their whereabouts, please contact your local Preventer office. All information is confidential.” The program went back to the news.

“Harold?” The woman turned to look at her husband who was locked deep in thought.

Turning, Harold locked eyes with his wife. “I'm pretty sure I saw two of those guys at the shuttle port today.”

“You did? You'd better call the Preventer office then.”

“I couldn't be a hundred percent sure, but they looked pretty close to two of those pictures,” Harold said as his mind drifted back to that evening. “I don't know if I should call, what if it's not them?”

“Call them anyway, I'm sure they would be interested, even if it turns out to be someone that just looks like them.”

“You may be right,” Harold replied and with a grunt, he got up out of his chair and went to place a call.

“Preventer L2 branch, how can I help you?”

“Those men that you lot are looking for? I think I may have seen two of them.”

~ * ~

tbc...

AN: The idea for the Firecell was inspired by the movie 'Die Hard 4'.