Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Finding Heaven ❯ Found ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer- ... Look, I'm a mirror! .em eus t'noD .seod wothgiN orihusaY .sretcarahc sti fo yna ro nugirT nwo t'nod I-------Damn, it's hard to type backwards.

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Meryl's calves hurt from the angle she'd been sitting in for the past two hours. 'So something interesting is finally happening to the Witless Wonder,' she thought caustically before grimacing slightly and attempting to work the cramps out of her legs. This was more difficult than it sounded, as she was forced to maintain the careful perch she'd established earlier without alerting the guards positioned down below. 'The Mayor's mansion, wonder how he ended up here? Damn, but I wish I could hear what they're saying.' She felt slightly stupid after coming all this way and not bringing her binoculars so that she could follow their conversation... but there was no helping that now.

She had tailed Vash and his companion through the greater portion of Inepril, watching as the blond man attempted to lose any tails, and smirking every time. She was much better at this than he was. The thing that surprised her was that Vash wasn't aiding at all. He seemed to be dazed. 'That's not all that surprising though,' she decided, 'He's looked like Hell for the past couple of days, maybe it's just caught up with him.' Squinting, she attempted to follow the conversation occurring across the courtyard from her. Nope, still too far. 'Of course, this has got to be the most unusual thing to happen to him in the time she'd been following him... so maybe--' She shrugged slightly and adjusted her position again. If only she could sit comfortably on this ledge without becoming completely visible to the guards below... Not likely, but it was a thought.

She'd seen the other woman tracking Vash and his friend earlier, but had lost sight of her some time in the interim. The woman was a veritable ghost. It spooked her slightly, she didn't often run into people who could match her move for move and every time she did it left a mark upon her. It was a matter of pride that she was one of the best trackers out there and she had a knack for anticipating where they would show up next, but that woman had evaded her with very little effort.

Below her, a man passed, humming one of the latest songs under his breath. He paused slightly in his rounds, scuffing his soles against the rough dirt of the courtyard. Striking a match, he lit a cigarette before leaning against the wall and hunching his shoulders against the cold. Tapping his fingers rhythmically on his jacket to the tune he was humming, he continued to scan the horizon, watching for anything out of the ordinary. Guard duty wasn't precisely the most exciting thing in the world, as Meryl could readily testify, but he was slacking. Boredom had made him sloppy and she thankful for that. Through him, she was able to gain a view of the proceedings in the room opposite which, discomfort or no, was better than waiting down below with no idea of what was happening inside. Sometimes a little discomfort went a long way.

In the room across the way, she noted that Vash had sat down in the chair, and the dazed expression he'd had since early evening had dulled to merely confusion. He looked exhausted and lost, and for a moment she almost felt sorry for him until her legs twinged again and she realized that, lost or not, he still was inside a very nice, very warm mansion, with a very solid wall between him and the night. After that little thought, she didn't feel quite so sorry for him.

After a moment of watching, she attempted to settle her legs again. They kept falling asleep on her, and it was a tough call on whether or not she preferred dead legs or pins-and-needles. Training called for pins-and-needles, but she was getting sick of this. Damn waiting... Raising her hands from the ledge, she attempted to massage some life into her legs.

Below her, the guard on duty had stopped whistling. Probably had fallen asleep on duty, something she didn't approve of, but it made her job that much easier. The prospect of being able to relax for a little while made her smile, and she peered over the ledge, careful to keep her face within the shadows of the buildings. Shadows were a short commodity on a planet with five moons, and she intended to take full advantage of the stray shadows that these buildings provided.

Yes, there was the guard, he was sitting on the ground, his cigarette lying beside him, forgotten. One hand was cupped above his stomach, the other dangled beside him, trailing in the dust. Trailing in the dust... It lay upon the cold, cold earth...

Her breath caught in her throat as she worked to locate any sign of life in the man below her. He couldn't have--could he? People didn't just fall asleep like that... 'Watch it Stryfe, don't get excited.' Her eyes darted over the guard, searching for something, anything that would show he was just sleeping. 'You're just jumpy because of that woman.' Nothing. 'He's just asleep... you didn't hear anything.' No plumes of breath, no movement, no sounds. And that was the problem, wasn't it. No sounds... 'Quit it, Stryfe. This is why you don't get the good assignments.' Was he dead? If so, how and when had it occurred? Was she overreacting? She was almost certain she was--

The cold metal that touched the back of her neck an instant later told her she had not been. Cursing her stupidity in letting down her guard momentarily, she froze, hoping for her normal luck to reassert itself. "Very good," a voice purred from behind her. "You're just lucky I'm only leaving a moment for Mr. Millions at the moment." A pause, before the voice continued, in that same silky voice, "I want you to walk up to the front door, and tell the two men that you've been watching that the Gung-ho Guns do not appreciate being left out of situations that interest them." Meryl shivered at the tone in the speaker's voice, it reminded her of the night sky, cold and dead. And so very... dangerous. "Inform Mr. Millions, that if he wishes to play the game in this fashion, we will be forced to counter appropriately... and nobody wants that to happen. Can you do that?" That last seemed not so much a question, as a threat.

"Yes." Meryl wished that she could stop thinking momentarily. Incidents reported to Bernardelli over the years flashed through her mind, incidents of murder and violence, incidents of death and destruction. The one factor that linked these seemingly unrelated cases together was the mention of the 'Gung-ho Guns,' in every report. The Gung-ho Guns, a mysterious organization that many believed didn't even exist. Somewhat similar to the legend behind Vash the Stampede, the Gung-ho Guns were mostly myth, a tale told to frighten small children, a spook organization that some deemed a crime syndicate, and some claimed was a plant-worshipping cult. Although Bernardelli had no official opinion on this matter, each Gung-ho Gun case was treated very carefully. After all, as the story went, where the Gung-ho Guns go, only death follows. Even one of the most powerful organizations on the planet was not exempt from this rule. Whoever--whatever they were, the Gung-ho Guns were not something to be trifled with.

"I'm glad you understand." The gun was lifted from Meryl's neck and she restrained her immediate impulse to run. "Be sure to mention that Millie Thompson sends her regards," the woman gave a low chuckle before holstering her gun. "Don't even think about trying anything. I know you are intelligent enough to recognize the danger in false courage at this point. Turn around." Praying that the odd note in the Gung-ho Gun's voice was not one of a final decision on her fate, Meryl did as she was told.

The first thing she noticed was how tall the figure before her was. Cloaked in shadows, the woman seemed not so much a living, breathing entity, as the dark within the dark. As the figure forced her to stand out of the shadows, she noticed the woman's hand, long and aristocratic. Finally, when the woman herself stepped out of the shadows to reveal the face that Meryl Stryfe had been fearing, she noticed the cold look in her eyes. Millie Thompson was the woman who had dodged her detection while she had been tracking Vash and the man she assumed was Mr. Millions.

"Once you deliver your message, I want you to stay close to the two men and follow them where ever they go. Consider yourself my emissary, if you will. And also, consider yourself lucky, for it isn't often that someone is allowed to see me and live. Should you betray me, my reason for doing this is gone, and so are my inhibitions." There was another one of those pauses, where Meryl listened to her heart beat. "Although you yourself might disappear into the woodwork, be assured that I will kill one bystander for every day that you live afterwards." She cocked her head at Meryl, a slight smile touching her mouth without reaching her eyes.

It was then that Meryl Stryfe saw it. The flicker of emotion that flickered across Millie Thompson's features wasn't anger or even bitterness, but instead, it was a drowning, silent sadness. Even that small portion of the inner pain threatened to overwhelm Meryl's senses. But it was gone before she could verify it, and an instant later she wasn't sure she had seen it at all.

"We've studied your company Ms. Stryfe, for many years. We know you. Don't try to be clever or righteous, or I will be forced to exact the price for crossing a Gung-ho Gun." And with that warning, she was gone, disappearing before Meryl could fully register what had just occurred.

In the distance a Thomas mewled before dropping silent once more. The night was empty once more, and Meryl had an entrance to the mansion before her. Glancing around her nervously, she climbed to the ground before crossing the courtyard carefully. From the simple act of crossing the open area, she saw why no one had raised the alarm on the lone dead guard. Millie Thompson certainly did thorough work.

At the door she paused, wondering how a routine job could turn so dangerous in the span of a night. Or had the job always been like this but she'd never been in the right places? Nevertheless, she certainly had the action she'd been waiting for. Opportunity had knocked, so it seemed, and it was her time to see where it led. She had no doubts that the Gung-ho Gun had been telling the absolute truth about the consequences of not following her instructions to the letter, and she didn't intend to sacrifice innocents simply because she didn't know what she was getting into. After all, this was the danger and excitement she'd been craving for all these years, right?

Steeling herself for the future, Meryl Stryfe, one Insurance Investigator for the Bernardelli Insurance Company, knocked on the door to the Mayoral Mansion, and wondered who would open the door.

"Time to face your destiny, Meryl," she muttered as the door swung open to reveal light.

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Author's note: Sorry, got tied up in work. Couldn't figure out what I wanted in this chapter...you know how it works. In the end, I decided to go with what I'd written down originally, and actually did it.

Next up: Two people who've met... but haven't, meet for the first time... (That sounded almost... deep.)