Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Just Communication. ❯ Soldier's Talk is Cheap ( Chapter 1 )

Just Communication.

Chapter One.

Time 01:07AM

Date 10th October AC195

Location Oz Medical Research Laboratory formerly Belvedere House, Liverpool, England.

The building was still, only a few windows lit against the pitch-black night, the light shining out hazily due to the slight mist falling. Unlike one of Oz's army barracks the people in this establishment didn't live on site. They had homes and families to go back to. Most had grabbed for their clock cards and donned their coats and hats way back at 18:00 but the presence of the lights indicated that some die hard workaholics were still on site.

Despite the fact that it was not a twenty-four hour establishment the premises remained heavily guarded, each and every worker who entered the doors of a morning had to run the gauntlet of the various scanners, clocking in machines and security guards. And again when they left to go home. Even outside of the building the fun wasn't over. The final security measure was a single barricade and a fifteen-foot high wall surrounding the building and it's grounds, complete with row of electrified barbed wire on. Two armed security guards manned the barricade, which was lifted only on inspection of the official hologrammed permit every worker was allocated on their first day at Belvedere House.

The guards were alternated on staggered eight hour shifts, this to ensure maximum efficiency and secrecy. The top guards were always kept for the graveyard shift, it was infinitely harder to spot and apprehend a potential thief in the darkness.

Footsteps crunched over gravel, strong steps aiming for the small security hut at the side of the barricade. A shadowy figure melted out of the mist, pulling his dark jacket more firmly to his body and lifting his collar in a futile attempt at keeping out the frosty air. The figure stopped as a voice called out.

"That you Degs?"

"Aye." Sergeant Derek Tuthill, known affectionately as 'Degsy' grinned in the dark and fished out his packet of cigarettes. Pulling out one of the small cylinders he searched for his lighter in his other pocket. "You just come on shift?"

"Yep. Steve couldn't wait to get away for some reason. Told me to tell you goodbye."

Degsy nodded, "Want a ciggie Bill?"

"Cheers Mate." Sergeant William 'Bill' Taylor was quick to cash in on his friend's offer. Usually getting a ciggie from Degs was harder than squeezing blood from a stone. "Must be getting near the end of your shift now eh?"

"Aye." Was the pleased response, "'Bout time too, Shelagh's doing us a curry today."

Bill nodded in understanding, Shelagh's curries were to die for. A companionable silence fell as the two friends lit up and drew in deep breaths of the smoke. Finally Bill gestured to the building with the hand not currently holding his cigarette. "Working late tonight ain't they." It was a statement more than a question and Degs grinned before releasing his smoke filled breath with a sigh of pleasure.

"Fun and games here this morning that's why." He took another long drag, knowing Bill's interest had been piqued.

"What happened?"

"Break in of some sort. I dunno really, they haven't told me much. Real professional job though. You know Joey?"

Bill nodded, "Head of internal security, Aye I know him."

"Well," Degsy leaned in to whisper in the other soldier's ear, "I heard on the grapevine that Joey reckons the break in could have been done by the Gundam pilots."

The response was just as he had expected. Bill's eyes opened wide in shock and disbelief and the normally deep baritone went an octave higher as he whispered back. "No way."

"Aye, it's true. And on Mark's shift too."

A chuckle, "Git."

Degsy drew on his cigarette one last time before dropping the used filter on the floor and grinding it underfoot viciously. "Bloody imbecile more like it. They walked in practically under his nose, two of them...bloody kids too that's what really gets to me. A couple of snotty nosed vandals outwitted Mark...gives the rest of us a bad name."

"So what'd they take?"

Degsy grinned, "Nothing but some ones and zeros. They wiped the computer files." The burly man pointed up to one of the lit windows in the old Victorian building and laughed mirthlessly, "See that room? Right now that room has more Oz big wigs in it than I care to mention. I've been watching them arrive all evening, real serious faces on all of them too.

Ruddy kids loaded up some sort of computer cold or something..."

"You mean virus?"

Degsy nodded, "That's it. A ruddy virus, stopped the research dead...probably knocked it back a couple of months too."

"Christ."

"I know." Degsy pulled another cigarette from his fast depleting packet and lit it. "Poor ole Mark's still here too. He's in it pretty deep, Joey told me. Apparently he was doing routine checks on the rooms when it happened."

Bill frowned, puzzled. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"It means, Idiot, that the senile old beggar walked in on the damn kids this morning when they were knee deep in data and he still let them get away."

"You serious?"

"As a heart attack. Mark's in it up to his neck right now, I wouldn't trade places with him for all the baccy in the World and the Colonies."

"Poor sod."

Degsy snorted before dropping his cigarette on the floor and grinding it into the floor beside the first one. "Don't be too sympathetic Bill. Mark's had it coming for a while now. He's too old...past it. Maybe this will show him that he should stand aside and let some of us with real ability take over."

"You're just saying that because you want his job."

Degsy grinned, "Too right I do. And I could do it a helluva lot better than that fool."

"So what happened?"

Degsy shrugged, "As far as I know he just opened the door and came face to face with a gun. Dropped his own weapon straight away like the coward he is, 'bout the only thing he did right was switch his radio to transmit...and I think that was accidental. His partner heard what was going on through the CB and came to help. If he hadn't I think things would be a helluva lot worse right now."

Bill's eyes flashed in the darkness with excitement. "Go on."

"Nothing more to it really. Nick ambushed the lot of 'em. Hit one of them a right crack on the head too I hear; he dropped like a stone. 'Course the other one went crazy then, broke Nick's arm in three places and cracked his cheek bone. Then he pockets his gun, shuts down the computer, picks up his friend like he weighed nothin' and just walks out of there calm as you please. Ignored Mark like he was so much pocket lint, not that that's far from the truth. Nick woke up about five hours ago; he's getting commended too. Lucky bastard."

There was a quiet sigh, "Why doesn't anything like that happen on our watch?"

Degsy chuckled evilly, "It might."

"What'd you mean?"

"I mean," his voice dropped to a hushed whisper, "Joey reckons the kids are still here."

"You're kiddin me."

"Nope." Degsy grinned, "Think about it. You're trapped in an enemy base...a damn well guarded enemy base too...the only exit is barred, your companion is out for the count, it's broad daylight and the place is crawling with officials. What do you do?"

"I'd keep a low profile." Bill declared immediately, "Hide and wait...for...dark." A flash of comprehension lit up his brown eyes.

"Bingo."

There was shocked silence for a while before a hushed, "Jeez."

Degsy patted his friend on the back firmly, "Keep an eye out man. I mean this kid broke Nick's arm and knocked him cold for over twelve hours without even breaking into a sweat."

Billy shivered suddenly, his eyes darting rapidly around the confines of the base. "Cheers mate, you tell me this and now you get to go home. Some of us have to stay till six AM you know."

"Aye I know." Degsy brightened visibly as a faint crunch of gravel from behind Bill became heard. "Looks like Mike's here. Finally, I get to go home." He offered his cigarettes one more time, lighting one himself before pocketing the sad little packet. "I mean it Bill, you take care now. They say one of the kids calls himself the God of Death." He snickered, jammed his hands deep into his pockets and walked off in the direction of the employees' car park.

Despite himself he grinned as Bill called after him "Take care yourself."

Young and gullible, he thought, hunching into his jacket a little more. Bill always had been incredibly easy to fool...and here he was working as a security guard. The idiot would probably open the door to a six-foot Girl Guide offering him cookies with a smile and a five o'clock shadow on her face. Degsy chuckled at the thought and drew in a deep smoky breath in delight. No, those Gundam pilots were long gone now, as if anyone with a lick of sense would hang around an enemy base for practically an entire day. It had been worth it all though just to see the look on Bill's face. There was one soldier who wasn't going to relax anytime soon.

The tall soldier was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the light footfalls behind him until it was too late. There was the cold pressure of a gun pressed between his shoulder blades and a raspy voice hissed in his ear. "You know those things will kill you right?"

A blinding pain on his temple and Degsy's world exploded into a myriad of white flashes, they faded slowly through to orange, then purple before finally plunging him into blackness.

At 2.00AM on 10th October AC195 Bill Taylor raised the barricade and waved as Derek's battered land rover turned onto the main street and headed off into the night.

It was a full seven hours before Derek 'Degsy' Tuthill was found, stripped to his underwear, gagged and bound; lying on the gritty surface of the employers' car park with his remaining unsmoked cigarettes crushed and broken around him.

TBC.......

Author's Note. Just setting the scene of the story really, I do have a point to this lol. Hope you enjoyed it and I promise I'll explain everything in chapter 2.