Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Family Ties ❯ Chapter 67 ( Chapter 67 )

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

Quatre and Trowa make an interesting discovery that might lead them to Duo. Heero has a little luck in discovering how to stop the Firecell.

Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Hentai / Romance / Suspense / Angst | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 11.20.2009 | Pages: 8 | Words: 7.7K | Visits: 264 | Status: Work In Progress

“Family Ties”

January 2007 ShenLong

Chapter 67

“Three hundred suits?” Trowa whispered.

Quatre bit his lip as he nodded.

“Shit! That's not good, not good at all.”

“I know. Have you managed to find out anything more?”

“Actually, yes.” Trowa explained his findings, the calculations of fuel and such and how much fuel would be left for travel once out of L2's radar and communications. “All I need now is the stellar maps and we should be able to narrow down the possibilities.”

“I'll get them.”

“Thank you. I'll get coffee whilst you're fetching the maps.”

* * *

Wufei and Heero returned to the office after a light lunch. Every mouthful he'd taken tasted like sawdust, but Heero had managed to eat enough to keep Chang off his back.

Both men settled at their computers again and had been hard at work for a good ten minutes when Agent Dust appeared at the door to the office.

Heero looked up. “Agent Dust?”

“Yes.”

“I'm Day and this is Fire,” Heero said, introducing himself and Wufei. “What have you got for me?”

Dust entered the office, another agent behind him. Both men were carrying items of interest they'd managed to confiscate from the University and the professor's home. Heero cleared a space on the spare desk in the office for the agents to put everything.

“That's the lot,” said Dust as he placed the laptop on the desk. “That's the hard drive from the university along with the discs. The folder contains all the hand written stuff we could find in the professor's office. The laptop is from the professor's home. I hope you can find whatever it is you're looking for in that lot somewhere. Either way, good luck.”

“Thank you, Dust. If we need anything further, we will contact you,” Wufei replied on behalf of them both. Heero had completely forgotten the agent's presence as he was too involved in looking through the folder.

Chang saw the other agents out and turned back to his current 'partner'. “Shall I get us some beverages?”

Heero didn't even look up, too engrossed in his reading.

“Yes, Wufei. I think that would be a good idea,” Wufei replied to himself, his tone carrying a touch of sarcasm.

“You say something?” Heero questioned, his brain finally registering there was another voice speaking in the room.

“I'll fetch us something to drink,” sighed Wufei and left. Heero returned to his reading.

* * *

Quatre spread out the maps on the desk and turned to his husband who joined him, coffees in hand.

“Here's L2,” Quatre pointed on the map. “Here's the satellite the flight plan said they were destined for.”

“Here is roughly where communications and radar drop out from L2,” Trowa said as he pointed to a square of longitude and latitude on the map. “Given the amount of fuel left on board, they would be able to reach anything within this radius.” Trowa drew a pencil line on the map, indicating where the shuttles could have traveled to.

“That does narrow it down a touch,” Quatre mused as he looked over the area. “From what I can see, there's, eight, no, make that twelve possible targets.”

Trowa's eyes scanned over the map, noting the possible points the shuttles could have gone to. “From what I can recall, at least three of those are abandoned mining satellites.”

“Here, note them down and I'll search the data base for more up to date information on them,” said Quatre as he pushed a pen and paper under Trowa's nose.

Grunting softly, Trowa took the offered paper and pen, set his coffee to the side and began to note down the possible targets. Notes duly made, Trowa handed over the paper to his lover who proceeded to search for any information on them he could find.

* * *

Wufei returned with two cups of green tea and found his partner still engrossed in the folder. Setting one down by Heero's hand, he took a look over the other agent's shoulder. “Shit! That's pretty in depth stuff.”

Heero automatically reached for the cup and he took a swallow before replying. “Hai, it is. It's also very interesting. I think we might find information in here that could help in relation to stopping this Firecell.”

“What about those?” Wufei inclined his head in the direction of the computers and discs.

“I haven't gotten to those yet.”

“I'll start on them if you like?”

“Thank you, Chang, that would be most appreciated.”

With a grunt, Wufei took himself over to the laptop and booted it up. The hard drive tower he moved to one side, disconnected his own computer and connected the professor's up. With the laptop now ready, Chang set about getting into the system.

Ten minutes later he still hadn't managed to get past the security. With a sigh, he turned to Heero. “Yuy? Can you spare a moment please?”

“What's up?”

As loathe as he was to admit it, he was defeated. “I can't get into the laptop. The professor has security measures in place I'm not at all familiar with and nothing I've tried so far has worked.”

Putting the folder down for the moment, Heero moved across to the laptop and took a look. He frowned and then dragged a chair over. “Whilst I work on this, see if you can get the discs to open their information.”

“I'll need to use your computer, mine has got the professor's tower hooked up to it and from what I can tell, it has the same security on it as the laptop.”

“Fine.”

Leaving Heero to hack his way into the laptop, Wufei took the discs to Heero's computer and set to work.

The ticking of the clock and the sound of tapping keys was the only noise in the office for a good fifteen minutes.

“I'm in,” Heero said softly.

Wufei looked up. “Good. Can you hack the other computer too?”

“No problem.” Heero moved across to the other computer and began to hack his way in. It was much quicker this time as he already knew what to do. “Done,” he said after a few minutes.

“Thank you. I'll come back to these discs shortly.” Wufei moved back to the laptop and began the process of going through all the professor's files.

Returning to the folder, Heero resumed his search for further information.

* * *

Duo sank onto the bunk mattress and gave a groan. His shoulders ached, his neck was stiff and he felt a headache tugging at the fringes of his mind. His ankle throbbed and his ribs were still sore as well, but he wasn't about to ask for any medical assistance. Knowing his probable pregnant state, Duo didn't want to be taking any sort of drugs and if his captors knew he needed treatment he would arouse suspicion were he to refuse any treatment; and that could lead to the possible discovery of his unique makeup.

No, far better to suffer in silence.

He tilted his head as he heard the door open and watched as Duric entered. The man looked okay and walked over to his bunk. Once the door was closed though, Duric collapsed onto the bunk with a groan of his own.

Unable to hold his curiosity, Duo had to ask the question. “What have they had you doing?”

Rolling to his back, Duric replied. “Training troops. What about you?”

“Programming.”

“I thought they took Farrow to do programming?”

“I'm programming mobile suits.”

“Fuck!” Duric sat up. “Mobile suits? I didn't know they had any.”

Swinging his feet around, Duo also sat up. “Neither did I until earlier. Barton has quite the hangar full,” he replied in a quiet tone.

Duric rubbed his face. “What the hell have we gotten into?”

“I thought that was pretty obvious,” replied Duo, his tone sarcastic. “Question is, what are we going to do about stopping it?”

“Fucked if I know. I'd say we're pretty much screwed. First it's this Firecell thing, then the private army. Now you're telling me he's got suits as well? How the hell do you expect two of us to stop something like that?”

Chewing on a nail, Duo contemplated the situation for a moment. “There's not really anything much we can do about the Firecell; Barton has that one well protected. No, we have to try and sabotage the suits and the army in some way.”

“How?” Duric was becoming interested despite himself and his reservations.

“This army of his. I need you to do some recon on them. I need to know what sort of training it is you're doing with them, what training they've already had, any strengths and weaknesses, anything at all that could be used against them.”

Duric grunted. “I guess I could do that. What about you? I'm not doing all the shitty work and running the risk of being caught.”

“I'm going to see if I can't add a little 'extra' to the programming of these suits. It won't be easy though; they have me covered all the time and check everything I've done.”

“I'm sure that someone with the expertise that you boast you have can sneak something past them; or is it all just talk?” Duric sneered.

Despite his injury recovering state, Duo moved fast. Before Duric could register what was happening, he found himself pinned against the wall, a hand closing around his throat and unable to free himself. Purple eyes flamed and Duric felt a knot of fear grow in his stomach.

“I'll do my part, asshole, don't you worry about that. You just make sure you do yours. And remember, I still owe you for the nanny and my son,” Duo snarled. He tightened his grip a touch, pleased when he felt the other man begin to shake.

Unable to answer, Duric nodded his head and tried to draw air into his rapidly deprived lungs.

“Just watch your back, Duric, I have a long memory.” Duo released the man and climbed back onto his bunk.

Duric slid down the wall, greedily sucking the air back into his chest. He eyed the other man warily and rubbed his abused throat, deciding it would be far more beneficial to his health if he were to cooperate with his roommate.

* * *

“I think we might have something here,” Quatre said as he clicked on the screen a few times.

Trowa looked over the blonde's shoulder and began to read the information showing on the screen.

Quatre had managed to locate all twelve possible targets and pulled up information on each of them. Six were discounted as they were still operational mining sites and all their records checked out. Three others had been closed down from mining activities and were now used for production of other materials. The remaining three had also closed down and according to the records, were abandoned anywhere from ten to two years previous.

“I'd say our best bet lies with these six,” Trowa said indicating the three closed satellites and the three that were currently producing other materials,

“I agree,” confirmed Quatre. “I'll leave you to do a little more investigating on those whilst I continue on looking into these suit parts.”

“No problem.” Trowa retook his seat as Quatre vacated and proceeded to look further into the records of the three satellites currently producing materials.

Returning to his own computer, Quatre continued in his search for the larger, mobile suit parts. Having located a company that had salvaged a lot of the debris during the war, he was keen to locate where exactly those parts had been taken, who had smelted them down and what had been done with the liquid metal. If his hunch was correct, he also needed to know who had purchased the metal afterwards, whether it be in suit parts or cast into other items.

The first two satellites Trowa checked all came back clear. The materials they were producing were legitimate and the records confirmed the facts. The third satellite was proving to be a little more difficult. Leaving the program to continue its search for information, Trowa switched to the remaining three, abandoned satellites.

Quatre frowned and rubbed his eyes. This was getting frustrating. He'd run every check he could think of, scanned pages and pages of information and still came up against a brick wall. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find out anything further on the salvage company. It was as if all records had been wiped.

Trowa was having a little more luck.

The third satellite had finally given up its secrets and checked out as legitimate. That left the three, abandoned ones. The first was dismissed, it only being a mining site and the ores mined had run out a little over ten years earlier. The remaining two had not only yielded ores, but both had had processing plants built on them too. Trowa began to research those processing plants a little deeper.

Quatre switched tactics and began to look at what sort of equipment would have been needed to smelt the metals from the mobile suit parts. It was quite an involved process, so he discovered. With his brain running in circles, he decided to take a break and see how Trowa was getting on.

The blueprints to the plants on both abandoned satellites were up on the screen and Trowa was studying them intently. He wasn't all that clued up on this type of machinery, but he did have a basic knowledge. A soft gasp from his lover had him turning in his seat.

“What are those blueprints of?” asked Quatre.

“The two abandoned satellites in the region where those shuttles could have gone. These are the layout plans for the machinery and such.”

“Minimize that one and bring that one into full frame,” Quatre ordered.

Trowa was a little taken aback by the shortness of the blonde's tone, but he did as requested.

“Bring that bit there up a bit bigger,” Quatre said and pointed to a section of the blueprints.

Hovering the mouse over the requested section, Trowa brought it closer.

“Are those furnaces?”

Trowa studied the print. “I think so.”

Moving closer, Quatre's face scrunched as he studied the layout and machinery. “Keep it there,” he demanded and shot back to his own desk to scan over the information he'd discovered.

Green eyes watched that lithe body as it moved. Trowa was still puzzled as to what it was Quatre was up to, but he trusted the blonde. Moments later, Quatre was back beside him, a printout in his hand.

“Those furnaces, what were they used for?” asked Quatre.

Clicking on another 'window', Trowa brought up the information on the satellite he was currently investigating. “According to these records, they mined ores on the satellite. The ore was contained in the rock which was then crushed and smelted in the furnaces. The ore liquefied and separated from the rock where it was then skimmed off and either processed into usable materials, or shipped out in a raw form to whatever company purchased it,” Trowa recited from the information he had.

“Trowa? I have a hunch.”

Turning completely in his seat, Trowa gave the blonde his undivided attention.

“This scrap from the suits destroyed in the war was collected by a company and then smelted down. I cannot find anything further on the company in relation to where the metal was processed or what happened to that metal. It could have been sold off in raw material form, it could have been recast into something else; or it could have been used to make parts for more mobile suits.”

“You think this satellite could be related?”

“They would have needed somewhere to smelt it down and my gut instinct is telling me this could be the place for it to have occurred. The set up on those blueprints is exactly what would be needed for an operation of this type. Plus the place was closed down six years ago. The war finished a little over five years ago so the time frame would fit. The equipment left behind wouldn't have had a chance to deteriorate much in the twelve months before the war ended. It would be the ideal location to drop off the scrap and do whatever it was the company did with it.”

“I think we need to take this to Une. There has to be some way we can check out that satellite, look for evidence that what you're theorizing could be true.”

“I agree.” Quatre looked at the clock. “Come on, we have about half an hour before knock off time.”

“I'll just save all this information to disc,” replied Trowa.

* * *

Wufei glanced up from the screen to where Heero was sitting and gave a slight frown. Heero was still scanning through the folders and jotting things down from time to time. Judging by the look on Yuy's face, it would appear he was on to something. Wufei wasn't sure whether he should interrupt the other agent or not.

Heero made the decision for him.

“Chang?”

“Yes?”

“Have you managed to find out anything from the discs?”

“Not much in relation to the Firecell. Most of it is related to the professor's teachings at the university. I haven't had a chance to look into the computers as yet so there might be something on those,” Wufei replied. “Why? Have you found something yourself?”

“I think I might have a way to do something to assist in stopping this Firecell.”

“You do? What is it?”

“I want to look at the professor's computers first, then I'll have more of an idea.”

“Okay.”

Heero moved to sit behind Wufei's desk and type in commands to the computer. Wufei moved position and stood behind the other man.

“Would you like me to start with the laptop?”

“If you could,” replied Heero.

“Anything in particular I'm looking for?” asked Chang as he sat and brought the laptop to face him.

“Programming codes. Codes required for programming anything from weather stations to public transport, financial, communications; anything at all that would require a code to function.”

“Ah.” Wufei couldn't make heads or tails of why, but he bent to the task.

An hour later, Wufei was starting to go cross eyed and still hadn't found anything on the hard drive.

“That's it!”

Wufei looked up sharply. “You have something?”

“Hai. I'm pretty sure I do.” Heero frowned. “Although it's going to take a miracle to pull off.”

“Yuy? Care to explain this to me?” Wufei was getting a little irritated with the lack of information.

“Call Une, she needs to know about this and I can explain it to both of you at the same time.”

“Okay.” Knowing he wouldn't be getting anything further from the agent, Wufei contacted Une's secretary and was informed the Commander would see them as soon as they got to her office.

Mind still swirling with thoughts, Heero grabbed his notes and headed for the Commander's office, not waiting to see if Wufei was following him.

* * *

The elevator doors opened and Heero stepped inside, his eyes widened a touch when he saw the other occupants of the car. “Trowa, Quatre,” he greeted.

Chang managed to get inside before the doors closed and turned to the other two. “How is your side of the investigation going?”

“Quite well. I think we have a breakthrough,” Quatre replied, his tone a touch excited. “How are you doing with the Firecell theory?”

“I think I might be able to do something about it,” Heero replied.

“About time we had some good news,” muttered Trowa.

“We're on our way to speak with Une about it,” Heero continued, ignoring Trowa's comment.

“Same here,' said Quatre.

“That's good then. Maybe we can all be brought up to speed with things,” Wufei stated.

The elevator slowed and jerked to a stop, doors opening a moment later. The four agents stepped out and began to walk along the corridor that would take them to Une's office.

This time it was Fiona that greeted them. Une had three secretaries, each worked an eight hour shift as Preventer was a twenty-four seven operation. Felicity had done the morning shift and had left, Fiona coming in for the afternoon stint. “Ah, agents. Please, go right in, Commander Une is expecting you.”

Heero nodded and strode past, knocking and then opening the doors to Une's office. Trowa, Wufei and Quatre followed in behind him.

Motioning for the agents to take a seat, Une finished the papers she was currently signing and shoved them to the side. “Agents, you have something for me?”

The four nodded in unison.

“Good. Barton, Winner, if you would please explain what it is you have found?”

“Yes, Commander.” Quatre placed a couple of pages on the Commander's desk. “Commander, we think we may have found where the shuttles were headed to...”

~ * ~

tbc...