Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Family Ties ❯ Chapter 64 ( Chapter 64 )

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

More clues are added to the ever growing list. Heero and Wufei have their work cut out for them whilst the forensic evidence is starting to pile up.

Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Hentai / Romance / Suspense / Angst | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 10.10.2009 | Pages: 9 | Words: 8.3K | Visits: 259 | Status: Work In Progress

“Family Ties”

January 2007 ShenLong

Chapter 64

“Are you sure?” Une questioned.

“I can't be one hundred percent certain, but I'm pretty sure,” Heero replied and hit the rewind again.

All agents and the commander watched very carefully as Heero slowed the play down to almost a frame by frame speed. The Japanese man's eyes followed every movement of Duo's lips and came to the same conclusion.

“I'd swear on my life that he said 'Dekim Barton, Firecell, back up army'.”

“I'm not as proficient at lip reading as Heero is, but I get pretty much the same words,” Trowa put in.

“Firecell?” Quatre questioned with a frown.

“Dekim Barton? I thought he was long dead,” Wufei commented.

“Obviously, he's not,” Une snapped. “Unless Agent Night has made an error.”

“Duo wouldn't make a mistake on that. If he says Dekim Barton then the man is involved in this thing somehow.” Heero's brow furrowed in thought.

“A Firecell?” Quatre questioned again. “I didn't think it was possible.”

Heero scratched the back of his neck. “Technically, it isn't. It's all been speculation.”

“Until now if what Duo said is correct,” said Quatre.

“If this is Dekim Barton and a Firecell is a possibility, then the man is completely insane,” Wufei grunted.

“I think we need to look a little deeper into this Firecell possibility, gentlemen,” Une interrupted. “If Barton is behind it, we need to find out all we can about how it would work; and what we can do to prevent it from happening.”

“If Barton has somehow managed to develop a Firecell program, I really don't think there is much we can do,” Trowa muttered.

“There's always something we can do,” Une stated. “You're forgetting a couple of important things here.”

Four agents turned to look at the commander.

“We have one of the best computer hackers and programmers in the Preventer ranks. We also have one of our top agents in the enemy camp.”

Heero looked away. “I don't know if even I have the skills to stop something like this,” he whispered.

* * *

Summer took one last look around and satisfied he had all he needed, he began to work his way back through the house. The detectives had handed over all the information they'd gathered and even stayed for a while to help the Preventer team out a bit. Stepping back outside, he noted the sun was up and took a quick glance at his watch. It was a little after eight. They'd been at the premises for just over twelve hours; and he could feel every one of them in his tired and aching muscles.

The team was securing everything into the vehicles and Summer left them to it, walking over to the sleek, black car parked behind his own. “Are you all set?” he asked the agent sitting behind the wheel.

“Yes, boss.”

“Okay, you may as well head off then, the rest of us will be about ten minutes behind you. I'll call ahead and let the commander know we're on our way back. Either she or I will contact you and let you know which doctor will be meeting you for the autopsy.”

“Thanks, boss.” The agent started up the car. “I'll see you back in the office when you get there.”

“Drive carefully,” Summer replied and stepped back so the agent could pull out. Watching the car disappear down the road, Summer walked back to the house to speak with the police officers and insure that the crime scene would remain secured.

“We're all set to go, sir. Would you like us to wait for you or go on ahead?” Agent Autumn asked.

“Go on ahead. I've got a couple of calls to make and then I'll be on my way. Take everything up to the department and wait for me there.” Summer glanced at his watch again. “I know you all should have finished your shift by now, but see who can work overtime and who can't, this is a top priority case and we need to get into it right away.”

“Yes, sir.” Autumn turned and went back to the car; Summer pulled his cell from his pocket and punched in a number. “Put me through to Commander Une please. This is Agent Summer, clearance code, F187SUP.” Summer stated.

* * *

Une's pager went off, the commander pulling it from her pocket and glancing at the screen. “Excuse me a moment,” she said to the agents. Walking to the side of the room, Une picked up the phone and punched in a number. “You paged me, Felicity?”

“Yes, ma'am. I have a call from Agent Summer for you.”

“Right. Put it through to this extension please.”

“Commander?”

“Summer? What have you got for me?”

“We have finished for now at the crime scene and are heading back into headquarters to continue the analysis of the evidence. The body should be back there in the next ten or fifteen minutes. Who would you have meet the agent to do the autopsy?”

“Tell the agent to pull into the emergency bay two. I'll have Doctor Po waiting.”

“Roger that, Commander.”

“Anything else?”

“No, I'll report in once I'm back.”

“Thank you, Summer.” Une hung up and turned back to the four agents still studying the screen and footage.

“The forensics team is on its way back in, we should have some results from them a little later. Heero, I need you to look into this Firecell thing, find out anything at all about it that you can, including if it can be stopped. Chang, you assist him. Agents Air and Space, see what you can dig up on Dekim Barton. Where he went during the war, what he did, who he was involved with, the brand of toothpaste he uses; anything at all that could help with our finding out exactly what it is he's up to.”

“Yes, Commander,” the four replied.

“Let me know when you have something.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Then hop to it!”

The four agents moved; Trowa and Quatre disappeared to the temporary office they'd been assigned and fired up the computers. Heero and Wufei aimed for Heero and Duo's office to research on the Firecell conception.

Une gave a sigh and picked up her cell. “Sally?”

“Une? What's up?”

“I have another body coming in for you to autopsy. Arriving in about five minutes in emergency bay two.”

“Let me guess, you want the report yesterday?”

“Last week would have been preferable, but yes, as soon as you can. Thanks, Sally.”

“No problem. How is the investigation going?”

“We have new information which is being investigated as we speak.”

The tone in Une's voice told Sally all was not well though. “I see. I'll get this autopsy done and the report to you as soon as I can, then you can bring me up to speed.” Sally's voice brooked no argument.

“Thank you, Sally.” Une disconnected and dropped the cell back into her pocket. Rubbing her hand across her face, she left the communications lab to return to her office, detouring by the coffee machine.

* * *

Summer passed the information on to his agent who was delivering the body to headquarters and then followed his team back to Preventer headquarters. All the collected evidence was taken through to the forensics department and dispersed to the various sections. Most of the team remained and set to work on analyzing all the evidence.

Sally headed off to the emergency bays to await the arrival of the body. Within minutes of getting there, the Preventer vehicle pulled in and reversed into the bay. The agent got out and opened the rear doors.

“What exactly do you have for me, agent?” Sally asked as she assisted in pulling the gurney from within the bowels of the car.

“Male, Caucasian,” the agent began and filled Sally in on the circumstances surrounding the body's discovery.

“Thank you, agent.” Sally steered the gurney with the agent's assistance into the autopsy room. “I'll take it from here.”

“Right you are, doc,” the agent replied and once the body had been transferred to the autopsy table, he retrieved the gurney and went back to the car.

Sally paged one of the orderlies to assist with the autopsy and whilst she waited for their arrival she fetched a fresh tray of instruments, donned her mask, gown and gloves. By the time the orderly turned up the paperwork had been started.

Briefly explaining the background to the autopsy case, Sally then handed over the paperwork and prepared to begin.

The orderly assisted with getting the body removed from the body bag and set up on the table, once all was ready, the orderly placed the clipboard on a convenient tray table and prepared to pass over instruments and take notes.

“Male, Caucasian, appears about thirty to thirty-five years old,” Sally began, the orderly writing the information down. “External visual preliminary check show a gunshot wound to the left hand, one to the calf and one to the left temple.” Sally probed around, lifting the hand and calf as she continued her preliminary inspection. “Exit wounds also visible on calf and hand. The exit of the bullet to the temple was just above the right ear and has taken a large portion of the skull with it.”

“Not a nice picture is it?” the orderly said.

“No, it isn't. Off the record, this looks like an assassination to me.”

“I think you'll find that once we start looking deeper we will find evidence to support that supposition.”

“I agree with you. Pass me the long nosed forceps, please.”

The autopsy continued, the clinking of instruments in the tray and low tones of voices as they made notes and comments the only noise.

Four hours had passed when Sally called an end to the autopsy. The orderly cleaned up the room and settled the body back in a body bag whilst Sally finalized her notes and waited for the last of the results to come back from pathology.

Finally, Sally had all her results and with a summary of her findings, she went in search of the commander.

* * *

“I have Captain Johnston on the line, ma'am,” Felicity said.

“Thank you, Felicity. Please, put him through.”

Moments later the captain's voice came down the line. “Commander, I have the statement from the man at the shuttle port who called in about seeing the agent that is missing.”

“Good. What did he say?”

Johnston proceeded to read the statement he'd taken from Harold; Une listening intently.

“You're telling me there were five men at the shuttle port, one of which was Agent Night?”

“Correct, Commander.”

“Captain, have a copy of that statement sent through immediately to me.”

“Yes, Commander. I'll send it now.”

“Thank you. This is the address to use.” Une gave the agent her secure email address and then turned to her computer to bring up her mail account.

“It's sent. You should have it shortly.”

“I'll contact you if I need anything further. Good work, Captain.”

“My pleasure, ma'am.”

Une cut the call and turned back to her computer - the mail had arrived. Just as she was about to open the attachment there was a knock at her door. “Yes?”

“Doctor Po is here to see you,” came the secretary's voice.

“Send her in, please.”

The door opened and Sally entered carrying a sheaf of papers in her hands.

“What have you got for me, Sally?”

“I've done the autopsy as requested and here's a report of my findings.” Sally passed over some of the papers.

Une took them and scanned down the words.

“From what I got back from pathology, combined with the findings on the body itself, I conclude that the man was murdered. The wounds inflicted to the hand and calf were older than the gunshot wound to the head. The wounds to the hand and calf were inflicted anywhere between twenty four and forty eight hours before the head wound. It was also a different gun that was used for the head wound.”

“I see.” Une read over the pathology report and agreed with Sally's findings.

“What is the background on this body, Une?”

With a sigh, Une gave Sally a condensed version of what had transpired in the past day or two, including the discovery of the body, the footage from L2 and Duo's haunting message.

“A Firecell?” Sally gasped. “I didn't think it was possible.”

“Neither did we,” Une replied grimly. “I have Heero and Wufei looking into it as we speak.”

“But, it's all been speculation. No one ever thought it would be possible to put it into practice; and if they did, it would be like the holocaust.”

“Tell me about it,” Une sighed. “I'm really hoping it isn't true.”

“But what if it is?”

Une looked up and met the doctor's eyes. “Then I suggest we all start praying.”

* * *

Summer rubbed his eyes and reached for the coffee mug only to find it empty. With a sigh, he put it back down and then looked up as a mug was waved under his nose. “Thanks,” he said as he took the mug and greedily sipped at the contents. Looking up, he smiled at the agent. “That's just what I need.”

“I think an intravenous drip of the stuff would be more appropriate,” chuckled Agent Autumn.

“You got that right,” replied Summer. “How is the rest of the team doing?”

“Pretty good. We should have some positive results on the fingerprinting within the next hour. Pathology is still working on the DNA samples and the other evidence we brought in.”

“Good. I really need to have something to take to the Commander as soon as possible. The longer we take the colder the trail is getting.”

“You really think that Agent Night will be charged with murder?” Autumn asked.

Summer stared into his coffee mug for a moment, ordering his thoughts and choosing his words carefully before speaking. “All the evidence we have gathered thus far on this case points to Agent Night being responsible for the murder of at least three people. There is no refuting that. However, it's the circumstances under which these murders were committed that is the question in this case.”

“Excuse me for saying so, but I honestly can't see Agent Night willingly murdering those people.”

“Me either,” Summer sighed. “But you know just as well as I do how the system works. The evidence is there in black and white, unless there are witnesses to make a statement and swear that Agent Night was forced to commit these murders then he's pretty much screwed.”

“We have to find him first though,” stated Autumn.

“That we do. And once we do it will be up to us to try and produce the evidence to counter the charges.”

“Funny how this system works. We dig up all the evidence to prove what happened, and then we need to produce more to protect the guy who did it.”

Both men took a moment to contemplate the current case, each one as determined as the other to see Agent Night cleared of any and all charges.

“Once we have this part of the case dealt with, I suggest we start to look for evidence to prove Agent Night is, in reality, innocent.” Summer put the empty mug down on his desk.

“I'll go see how pathology is coming along.”

“Thanks.”

* * *

Heero's fingers flew over the keyboard, the computer humming away as it searched for the information Heero was looking for. There wasn't a lot to be found. As they had thought, the concept of a Firecell was pretty much just that - an idea.

Heero brought up every page he could find, reading through and adding notes to a slowly growing pile of information.

Wufei was in a similar situation. He'd not found all that much either. Whilst Heero was looking into the idea of creating such a program, Wufei was looking at the effects it could have.

And it wasn't looking good.

Should one succeed in writing a program then the possibilities and the many areas it could affect were boundless. He paused in his research for a moment as the computer beeped to let him know he had email. Bringing up his email program, he scanned the in box and spotted a secure mail from one of the Preventer sub branches. Opening it, he read through the contents, eyes widening a little. Having read the mail, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment, his brain working overtime. Slowly but surely, it all came together. He thought about what Barton and Winner had found so far in their investigation into the contents on the senators' hard drives, he thought about the bank account set in Barton's name, the invoices, equipment purchased and where it had gone to.

Steadily it was all starting to form a bigger, clearer picture. Yes, there were still a few holes there, but they were slowly closing.

Heero suddenly got lucky.

After following many links, one link took him to exactly what he was looking for.

It was a published paper, one from a Professor James Hawkins, an expert in the field of computer software, programming, viruses and so on. He was the leading researcher into the Firecell concept.

Heero pounced on the information, eyes devouring the words as his brain digested the information.

“Yuy?”

Heero paused in his perusal, grunting softly and turning slightly annoyed eyes to his boss. “Hai?”

“I've had an email from the British branch looking into invoices.”

“And?” Heero quirked an eyebrow.

“All equipment purchased was sent to L2.”

Heero frowned. “Can you find out exactly where on L2?”

Wufei gave an evil grin. “Oh yes. The pilot of one of these shuttles is currently being brought in to the British base for questioning. I expect to have a report from them soon.”

“Hn.” Heero leaned back in his chair to let his protesting muscles have a break. “If we can find out exactly which shuttle port the equipment was taken to, we might be able to trace it from there to where it was delivered on L2.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Wufei scratched his neck. “How are you doing with the Firecell? I've had a bit of success.”

“How so?”

“From my reading so far, and remember this is all speculation, should a Firecell program actually manage to be created, it has the ability, in theory, to bring all transport to a halt. Shuttles, aircraft, trains and the like by sending the radar systems haywire. Then there are the power grids. All solar, hydro, wind and gas generated electricity can be shut down simply by pushing a button and sending the program into the computers controlling them. Then we have communications. All phone lines would be rendered useless, Satellites would also be affected and once they are knocked out there goes the rest of the communications. Without the satellites, the earth and colonies are pretty much brought to a standstill.”

The full implications of such a program hit the two agents hard.

“What have you found?” asked Wufei.

“I think I may have hit the jackpot.”

“You have?” Wufei's eyes widened.

“I've come across a paper written by a Professor James Hawkins. He is the leading man in the concept of the Firecell.”

“I see.”

“I'm going to speak with Une. We need to bring this professor in and speak with him. If Barton is planning on releasing a Firecell then we will need this guy to help us stop him.”

“Where does he live?” Wufei questioned, watching the other agent as Heero picked up the phone.

“Lucky for us, he's here in California.” Heero turned his attention to the phone, speaking with the Commander and getting the clearance he needed to bring the professor in. Hanging up, he turned back to Wufei. “Une has sent a couple of agents out to fetch him.”

“Good. We'd best get back to this then.”

“Hn.”

* * *

“Commander Une? This is Agent Dust.”

“Ah. Dust, have you found the professor?”

“Commander, we have a slight problem.”

“And what is it?”

“The professor. He's not here.”

“What do you mean, he's not there?”

“We went to his residence and there was no reply to our knocking at the door. A neighbor told us the professor quite often spends days at a time at the University campus. We've checked his lecture rooms, office and spoken with staff and students alike.”

Une felt the dread building in her stomach.

“The professor hasn't been seen for over a week.”

~ * ~

tbc...

FranceG: Thank you for your condolences regarding my father and my condolences to you on the loss of your sister. I sincerely hope life is kind to you and you have my admiration for taking on those children. They are very lucky to have you and I wish you all the very best. Thank you also for your continued support and lovely reviews on this fic; I hope you continue to enjoy as the rest of the drama unfolds. *hugs and Gundam Pilots* Shen ^_^