The Truth Part 2
By Vixen Schmixen
Rating PG-13 for language, but hell, I bet you've all heard worse…
'This is so boring!'
'Quiet Duo.'
'Hmph!' Duo folded his arms and looked out into the sky outside. The aeroplane could fly itself, so he didn't have to do anything except sulk. Which he did.
'If you're so bored, why don't you inspect the passengers again?'
'Heero, forget it. This rogue secret service guy we're after? Not here. Why would he be here anyway?'
'He's out for revenge.'
Duo unfolded his arms and sat bolt upright.
'Against who? Us?'
'I don't know. I think it's against a member of Necsa.'
'Fucking Necsa,' groaned Duo, meaning the National Earthsphere and Colony Surveillance Agency, 'you means there's a Necsa agent on this plane as well?'
'I guess so.'
'Okay, one more look…' Duo got up out of his seat and out of the cockpit.
Heero stretched his neck and continued to stare straight ahead. This was what they did now. There were jumped-up security guards. This, however, was slightly more interesting. He didn't quite know why they'd been called in to protect a Necsa agent. They generally knew how to look after themselves as well as people like him did. It was probably to protect the other passengers on the plane…
Duo strolled nonchalantly down the aisle, his tell-tale ponytail hidden under his airline hat. He returned passengers' smiles as he walked to the back of the plane, where the toilets were. A few people caught his eye. One was a man of about 30, and another a man of about 20. He couldn't decide which of the two looked more suspicious.
He felt a hand on his sleeve, and looked down. A woman of around 21 was smiling at him. She was wearing a dark blue blazer, and what could have been either a white T-shirt or a blouse under it. She was also wearing trousers. She had an open organiser on her lap, and looked at him through blue eyes.
'Sorry to bother you, but will the trolley be coming back?'
Duo tried to speak, but it was a couple of attempts before words came out. She's cute.
'N-No ma'am, we're only a few kilometres from Sank.'
The gentle smile never wavered.
'Oh, all right then. Thank you for your time.' She looked back to her organiser. Duo noticed that the page she had open had 'BE CAUTIOUS' scribbled across it. The woman noticed him looking and slowly closed the file.
'My manager,' she explained, 'always afraid that some mugger'll grab me whenever I come to Sank on his business.'
'Oh yeah?' Duo smiled and began to walk back to the cockpit.
***
'Well?' asked Heero as Duo crashed into the seat next to his. He scowled a little. Why was Duo incapable of sitting down quietly?
'A couple I'd watch…' Duo began, then hesitated. Should he mention the woman? Oh, by the way Heero, there's this really cute girl as well…No, not a good idea.
The plane began to descend. Lights blinked at Heero, and he did all the right things. He always did. The plane taxied to a stop. Duo was about to make the announcement about 'Thanks for flying with us,' and all that, when the chatter and buzz of voices from the passengers fizzled out completely. Duo looked at Heero.
'Uh oh,' he mouthed.
A man had stood up. He was wearing a large T-shirt and jeans. He was holding a gun.
'Thank you for flying with me, ladies and gentlemen,' he growled, 'and I'll try and keep this quick.'
His eyes narrowed.
'Where are you?' he snarled, his eyes sweeping the terrified crew and passengers of the plane, coming to rest on Heero and Duo.
'I wouldn't try anything if I were you. I can shoot a lot of people before you can get to me…'
Duo noticed the woman again. He couldn't figure out why she kept catching his eye. She had taken her blazer off a few minutes previously. She was staring at the man with the same kind of bemused terror as the rest of the passengers.
Suddenly a child screamed, and was quickly quietened by its mother. The man suddenly moved. He grabbed the girl Duo had been watching and put the gun up against the side of her head.
'Tell me where he is or she dies,' he said darkly. Silence.
Suddenly there was a flurry of movement. The girl swung her elbow back hard into the man's ribs. He gasped and his shot went wide. A hole appeared in the roof of the plane. People screamed. The girl kicked out and sent her attacker to the floor. He attempted to get up and found he was snout to snout with an old Glock.
'Think real carefully,' said the girl. He thought. He stayed. Hate burned in his eyes.
'You. You ruined my life!'
'Nothing personal,' said the girl, 'hope you understand. Get up.'
He got up. Without looking away, the girl said, 'I could do with a hand right now.'
Duo looked at Heero.
'Does she mean us?'
Heero had gone. He drew his own gun and trained it on the terrorist. The girl turned and reached into her bag, and withdrew a pair of restraints.
She put them on the man's wrists, and he tried to spit at her.
'Who are you?' he muttered.
'Fleur Tollian, Necsa.'
'Fucking Necsa,' the man groaned, 'I'll kill you one day, you know.'
This didn't faze the girl.
'Get in line,' she said quietly, then led the man in her custody off the plane.
Heero returned to Duo's side.
'You didn't pick her out?'
Duo dragged his fingers through his hair, having removed that dumb hat.
'I even spoke to her! She was completely normal!'
'Normal people can't do that, Duo.'
'Yeah, I know. Heero…did she look…ano…familiar?'
Heero thought about it.
'Yeah, she looked like Relena didn't she?'
'Weird that.'
'Yeah.'
****************
Police arrived at the scene, even though the party was over. Fleur and her prisoner had been gone a long time. They busied themselves by asking the shaken passengers questions.
'Hey Heero.'
Duo walked over to his partner.
'What?' Heero noticed that he was leaning against the same wall he had been leaning against nearly three years ago. What a stupid thing to remember.
'Turns out they're gonna halve our pay 'cos the tub got damaged,' grumbled Duo.
Heero shrugged.
'It wasn't our fault,' he said.
'Apparently the protection we were supposed to instate covered the plane as well.'
Duo followed Heero's gaze. They watched as the same girl who had apprehended the armed terrorist stepped out of a side building. She had been relieved of her charge, and now a taller man was following close behind her. He seemed to be in charge.
They were too far away to lip-read, and the wind carried the voices away from them, but it was obvious that an argument was going on.
The woman spun around and quite obviously glared at her superior, who backed off. A few more words were exchanged.
'What's going on down there?' muttered Duo to himself, as the girl was presented with a keycard. She hailed a taxi, got into it, and drove off.
'Whatever's happening, what happened today affects all of us, not just Necsa. We need to tell the others about this Fleur.'
***
'What? A woman?' Wufei was in outrage.
'Yes, Wufei,' said Duo as patiently as he could, 'a woman called Fleur Trillian…'
'Tollian…' Heero corrected without looking up.
'…whatever.' Duo sighed. 'Heero says we have to check her out.'
Heero snapped the portable computer shut.
'Nothing?' asked Duo. He shook his head.
'She was never born.'
'Hey that doesn't mean anything, 'cos didn't you erase all your details?'
Wufei glared at Duo.
'This is only Necsa, not Operation Meteor, Maxwell…'
The door banged open. Heero's hand was already on his gun when a stranger walked in. He bore a terrible resemblance to the late Vice-Minister of the colonies. Very odd.
'Put that away Mr. Yuy,' he stated, as he withdrew a card. Duo stepped forward and took it. Heero didn't budge.
'It says Peter Juno, Head of N.E.C.S.A.' He pronounced every letter separately, as if ashamed to use the acronym of the company.
'I'm here at the request of one of my agents, whom I believe you've met,' he said coldly.
'You're her boss?' enquired Duo.
'She's a bit of a rogue, I'm afraid. She got on that flight despite my best efforts to prevent her. She has a very stubborn streak.'
The man's eyes were inhuman as he spoke his next words.
'We've really tried to force out this behaviour, but as you can see, I'm afraid it carries on…'
None of them were left in any doubt that he was using the word 'force' literally.
'The thing is,' he continued, sitting down, 'Fleur was wasted in Necsa, she was always more cut out for the taking action part of the war.'
'Was Necsa operating during the war?' asked Duo. Juno nodded.
'That's what we do, Mr. Maxwell, we observe. In Fleur's case, it was only sensible to give her the project that was most in contact with the running of things, but something went wrong, and Fleur's project was terminated.'
'Hang on…what's a project to you guys?' muttered Duo, sitting down as well but never lowering his guard.
'In layman's terms, we're spies, but we go beyond that, we also control. Fleur's project…'
'…that's just it, what was her 'project'? How do these 'projects' work?'
'We infiltrate, instate characters that previously didn't exist. Fleur was an exception in that her project lasted a long time. Nearly five years. That's very unusual. The norm is around eighteen months.'
'You still haven't answered his question,' said Heero levelly, 'what was Fleur's project?'
The man leant back. 'Ahhh…Fleur. She was going to be our triumph. Nothing so dangerously obvious had ever been tried before. We had to create an entire family for her, and get them involved in the current affairs, which took time, but once it was done, that was when Fleur became useful.'
He smiled. It wasn't nice to behold. 'The agent who played her father withdrew in a clever death-fake incident, and her mother faded into obscurity, leaving only Fleur's character. However, the entire matter spiralled out of control, and Fleur was overcome by the proportions of her task. It left her too exhausted to be of any more use to us. In normal circumstances, we would delete the agent, but as she was still playing her part, we had to kill her character first. She did this, and even I haven't seen her up until now, she simply vanished.'
There was a silence. The three pilots inwardly digested the information. Wufei spoke next.
'Why are you telling us about this?'
'Fleur felt it was fair, and that it would save you time looking through the colony birth databases to find her.'
Heero didn't even blink.
'Did you find out what she's doing now?'
'Dodging people with grudges against her, mostly. She still has her two modes of transport, so in effect, she could be anywhere. She didn't ask me to say this,' he added, leaning forward, 'but she's a very useful contact to have. She can blend in anywhere, and is up for everything. So she should be, she was trained by the same person who trained you.'
After dropping this bombshell, the man swiftly left. Duo began after him, but Heero stopped him.
'Let him go, we've got the information we need.'
'But Heero…' Duo didn't finish the sentence, it was obvious the subject was closed.
Wufei's pager bleeped. He cursed and grabbed at it. He read the few words.
'New job,' he muttered, 'let's go.'
In five minutes the room was empty.
*****************************
Vixen: OK, you got me, but there will be a lemon soon.
Duo: Grrrr…
Vixen: Please shut up, 'cos I've only just figured out that that's you tryin' t'be scary.
Duo: Awww…
Vixen: Argh! No! Not the puppy face!
Duo: *puppy face*
Vixen: *squeals* Awwww poor Du-chan! *hugs him tight and starts to cry*
Heero: What are you looking so smug about Maxwell?
Duo: *grins* Jealous?
Heero: VIXEN! Snap out of it quick before Duo tries it on!
Vixen: Huh? Oh God! *pushes Duo away* *blushes* Damn you and your puppy face Maxwell.
Duo: Heh heh heh.
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