A/N: Thank you to those who are reading this far. I'm assuming it means you're enjoying the story so far. :) By this point, you could pretty much figure that I have an OC here, and no this fanfic is not under the romance genre. No romance here. I really do hope you enjoy the rest of the story. There's about 3 more chapters after this.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the GW characters. Just the OC and the plotline. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: The Master of Disguise
After Demitri Strauss collapsed, the two men ran out of the café only to be immediately caught by Heero and Trowa who were outside. The café was cleared out of all its occupants in order to make room for a full scale investigation. There was quite a commotion outside with people, mainly reporters, trying to find out what had happened to Demitri Strauss. No matter how much they pushed and begged for details, they were all kept at bay. Still, it didn't lessen the noise around them. There was also no doubt that once the scene was cleared, the story fed to the gossip-hungry journalists outside would be nothing but a web of lies.
Forensics took pictures of Demitri's corpse while police officers scanned the entire café for any clues to the man's sudden death. Quatre watched everyone scramble around to do their jobs. As he watched, he began to play his memory over and over, wondering if he had missed anything. According to forensics, the symptoms Demitri had portrayed indicated poison. The supposed nervous itch and the sweating were obvious signs. How could he not see this happening?
"Quatre?" A hand on his shoulder startled him. Duo looked at him worriedly. "Did you see anything happen while you were here?"
He sighed, "Nothing at all. Everything was right in front of me, and I saw nothing happen." He placed his face in his hands. "Maybe someone snuck in through the restroom window and poisoned him."
"Not possible," With his arms crossed, Heero walked over. "I've locked the windows of both restrooms from the inside and placed a sensor to alert me if they were tampered it."
Duo added, "And neither of the two guys are talking, but I doubt they had anything to do with his death. They looked just as surprised as we were."
"But before he collapsed," Quatre looked at the corpse, "he yelled out 'Rothman'."
"Rothman? As in Ambassador Rothman?" Wufei's eyes widened. "What does he have to do with Demitri Strauss?"
"I'm not sure. It could involve something with the banquet, but whatever it is we better find out soon."
"Excuse me," One of the policemen approached, "Forensics found a small puncture wound on the left side of his neck."
"Puncture wound?" Trowa repeated and glanced down at the corpse. The people from forensics were placing a small paper ruler by the puncture wound to reveal its almost microscopic size before taking its picture.
The policeman continued his explanation, "Yes, and on the floor where he was seated, a small needle." He showed them the needle which had been placed inside the evidence bag. "It probably fell after it punctured. It's a very effective poison. Just a small prick on the skin would be enough for the poison to go through."
Trowa grabbed the evidence bag to observe the needle. It was indeed small, but the sharp ends were enough to pierce. "So that's how he was poisoned."
Wufei passed the policeman and sat in the very seat Demitri was in earlier. "Quatre, he sat here, yes?"
Looking over to Wufei, Quatre nodded remembering the exact place Demitri sat. They watched Wufei as he looked around the café from his seat. They then realized that Demitri had specifically chosen this seat. His back was to the wall so no one could surprise him. He wasn't close to any window so there were no chances for a sniper to shoot him. And the table was the closest to the emergency exit if anything went awry. Demitri was a very cautious man.
Trowa walked over to Wufei and pointed to a spot on Wufei's neck, "This is where the needle punctured. If it had been thrown, the only place the assassin could've been is—" Their heads turned to table Quatre occupied earlier.
Quatre's eyes furrowed. His thoughts began rushing through the lunch he had with Marie. Marie's seemingly sincere yet odd request to sit with him during lunch and the peculiar way she had raised her hand and flicked her wrist to call the waitress…Wait…
She couldn't have…
He silently cursed under his breath. "Marie…"
"The girl?" Duo gawked, "How—"
"I saw her flick her wrist when she called the waitress over. She could've—could she?"
During Quatre's confusion, the rest of the team took the liberty of checking the table for any prints the woman might have left. They even decided to take prints from the entrance door handle. Sadly, the search was futile. The woman not only left the table with no prints, but she had cleverly smeared any prints off from the entrance door handle with a cloth. Quatre was sure it was the handkerchief she had taken out before she left. That woman was clever.
"Is she the one from the rumors?" Quatre stared at the others.
Trowa looked pensive. "Possibly, but we can't say for certain yet."
"Is there anything about her you could remember, Quatre? It could help give us a lead." Duo asked.
He thought for a moment. "I have an idea. Let's go."
They arrived at Strickland Corporation. It took the five of them no longer than ten minutes to arrive. They had wasted no time with formalities with the lobby receptionist and demanded to see a Marie Bennet. The receptionist, a stout blonde woman, began questioning them in return while expressing the company's by-laws on how she couldn't just give away small information like that without good reason. None of them blamed her for doing her job, but none of them were too pleased with the lecture either. After showing their badges to the receptionist, the woman sent them to the fifteenth floor where they met with yet another receptionist of that floor.
"May I help you?" The dark-haired woman looked alarmed.
"Marie Bennet." Heero said sternly, nearly shoving his badge in her face. He wanted to avoid another lecture.
She murmured a word of understanding before she paged Marie to the reception area. The receptionist pointed out a couple of couches, the waiting area no doubt, where they would wait until Marie came by. It only took a few minutes before Marie Bennet appeared. The moment she entered the waiting area, she staggered at the sight of them.
"Is…there a reason why the Preventers Organization is here?" Marie walked towards them, cautiously.
Duo narrowed his eyes. "This is her, isn't it? I remember how she looked like." He grabbed her wrist.
"E-Excuse me?" Marie jerked her wrist away, which only caused Duo to grip tighter. "Please let go of me!"
"You need to come back with us and answer our questions. And don't think I won't know when you're lying." Duo began to pull her alongside him towards the elevator.
Marie and Duo struggled against each other. As Marie yelled for security, a crowd gathered around them from the commotion. The audience didn't faze any of them. Quatre stared at Marie. It definitely looked like her. Then as he approached her, he frowned. Her eyes were black.
"Wait a minute, Duo!" Quatre gripped Duo's shoulder.
"What is it?" Heero asked.
The "Marie Bennet" at the café had navy blue eyes. He clearly remembered how they gleamed under the light, reflecting off that peculiar emotion that allured him so. That woman was masquerading as Marie Bennet, but her eyes were the only features about her that Quatre was sure wasn't part of her disguise.
"This… isn't her."
"What?" Duo released Marie and began to look from Quatre to Marie.
"What do you mean 'it isn't her'?" Wufei exasperated.
"Her eyes aren't the same."
"Her eyes?"
"Yes, her eyes. They're black. The one in the restaurant had navy-blue eyes."
Duo groaned in frustration. "Are you sure she just wasn't wearing contacts?"
"I'm sure." He looked firmly at Marie and asked, "Where were you in the last two hours?"
Nervously, she answered, "Um, I-I left the office for lunch—"
"Where?"
"Roy's. Um, it's about a block away from here. I-I'm sure the waiter there can confirm that. Then after an hour I came back to work and have been working since."
The ex-pilots looked at one another in confusion. If this wasn't the Marie Bennet, who was at the café? The imposter's choice in disguise was no doubt to hide their identity, and to lead anyone to a dead end if they were to ever be suspected. It was a typical spy method. Still, if the ex-pilots were to get any leads on their spy, they needed the real Marie Bennet's help. She had to have encountered the spy at some point.
Quatre looked hopeful for a clue—for anything. "Did anything peculiar happen today? Anything at all?"
Marie looked pensive. "Hm…well I did lose my ID pass today so I did have some trouble coming back up to work when security wouldn't let me in. I know I had it earlier before I left for lunch." She furrowed her brows in thought. "But I guess, it might've dropped when this woman bumped into me outside—"
"A woman bumped into you?" Trowa repeated. "When?"
His abrupt interruption startled her, but she quickly regained her composure. "Uh—yes. I was leaving for lunch and she accidentally bumped into me. She apologized plenty before going on her way though."
"How did she look like?"
"I-I'm not too sure I'm afraid. She had a hood up. But she looked about eighteen or nineteen. Is there something I need to be concern about?"
This time Quatre answered. "Ah no. You're fine. We were just looking for some information on this woman. She had used your appearance as a disguise." He took her hand as a sign of gratitude. "Thank you very much for your help."
He nodded towards Heero who replied to the rest of the group, "We're done here. Let's go."
Duo placed his hands in front of him, sweatdropping at Marie, "Sorry for the trouble, ma'am."
Surprisingly, Marie smiled, "It's all right. It was just a misunderstanding. Good luck with your search."
As they quickly left the corporation and into the busy sidewalks, Duo looked to the rest of the team then asked, "So what now?"
Heero answered as he walked to the car, leading the others to follow. "This is becoming something bigger than we thought. Strauss, Rothman—and if that girl is using the same M.O., then those two might have some involvement with former OZ and White Fang. We need to go to Lady Une and figure this out before the banquet."
In a hidden laboratory, an intruder artfully glided through the room, grabbing any and all gadgets on the counters. They covered themselves with a dark black hoodie making it appear as if they were truly gliding across the room as they continued their heist. Quickly, the intruder stuffed the gadgets into a black duffel bag, shoving in as much as they could fit inside. All the alarms were shut off and the cameras that were placed around the laboratory were set in a never-ending loop. Everything was going according to plan.
*CLICK*
The lights in the room flashed open and the intruder spun to glimpse at their perpetrator.
"I thought it would be you." By the door, Gerard stood with a knowing smile on his face. He sighed and slowly walked over to the surreptitious individual, "Tsk, tsk. What am I ever going to do with you?"
There was a long sigh from the intruder. The intruder's shoulders slack, accepting the loss before removing the hood. It was a woman. Her black hair flowed down past her shoulders and her navy blue eyes stared back at him, amused.
"Maybe for starters, Dad, I could have these nifty gadgets of yours?" she smiled. "They'd make great assets to my accessory bag."
Gerard gave a small chuckle, "You really can't leave the heroics to those boys, can you?"
"I'm not doing—"
"You don't have to lie to me." He heaved a small sigh. "I've known for a long time now. I'm old, but I can put two and two together."
She was stunned. Hesitantly she asked, "Why haven't you said anything?"
"It didn't seem like you wanted me to know." He gave her a sharp look. "You still don't trust me after all these years?"
"That's…not it."
"Can't you trust me?"
She looked down, refusing to show the pain in her eyes. It wasn't if she didn't trust him because she thought he would betray her. She didn't want to trust him with a secret that would burden him or even hurt him. She was afraid to trust him with it.
He said no more about that and went back to asking, "Why can't you leave it to those boys?"
If she was a little relieved at the change in subject, she didn't show. In response to her father's question, she scoffed. "Well what they're doing is taking too long. What kind of justice is there is the ones suffering have to continue to suffer for years until the government has enough evidence to lock them up?" In frustration, she roughly shoved a gadget into her bag with a clang. "I don't think I can idly watch any longer."
He placed a hand on her shoulder, but she didn't look up as she busily gathered some gadgets into her backpack. "Please, listen to me." Her navy-blue eyes stared back at her father. "I think it's time to stop—"
"Dad, we've talked about this. I can't stand waiting around, watching people suffer."
"They're doing what they can. I don't want you getting hurt—"
"I won't! I'll be fine!"
"You're well aware that the Preventers are on to you now, aren't you? I'm not sure what I can do to help your situation if you're caught."
She smiled smugly. "It's ok, Dad. I've done my homework. I've seen their pictures so I know who to look out for. If they happen to catch on, I'll be sure that it won't lead back to you. You've gone through enough from the war."
"That's not where I'm getting at. Listen—"
"Please, I don't want to trouble you—"
"If something were to happen to you, you don't think I'll feel troubled?" At this point, he seized her by the shoulders, looking sternly into her eyes. "I'm worried about you. I don't think I can live with myself if something were to happen to you."
She was silent, looking back into his eyes to understand. He took that opportunity to continue.
"I understand that you want to undo the wrongs he did, but that's not your duty. Leave the Preventers to do their job their way. You've gone through enough during the war as well. It's time to leave it behind, and just live your life. I don't want to lose my daughter." As he hugged her close, he began to tremble. "A parent shouldn't lose their child before their time."
She let out a small sigh, and then slowly lifted an arm over her dad's shoulder to hold him. The usual fragrance of her father's garden flowers enveloped her senses. It was a pleasant change from years before where he would reek of sweat and oil. His work on the mobile suits often kept him away from home and a decent shower. Although when she was younger, she remembered how the smell of sweat and oil was what she loved the most at her father's return. It meant he was back from wherever he was, and he was alive.
She understood completely. "I know dad…"
They stood there in each other's embrace for what seemed like an eternity, but it didn't matter to either one of them. They were too preoccupied with their thoughts of the past and how dear and precious their existence was to one another. She thought long and hard about she would do next—what she would tell her father. She understood his feelings as she had been in the same position when the war approached. Yet now from her standpoint, she understood why her father was gone for many days—sometimes months on end during the war. Slowly, she stepped back from their embrace.
"Dad…I don't know if I—it's just something I need to do." She struggled with her words and didn't dare to look at her father in the eye. "Believe me when I tell you that I know—I know how dangerous this can be, but I don't think I can leave this alone until I've stopped them. Until I'm sure it's over, I just…can't give up."
For a few moments, she waited for her father to yell, reprimand, something. Anything would have been better rather than the deafening silence. Finally, she took a breath and looked at her father. There was a sad smile on his face as if he had known all along what she was going to decide. Yet, the look in her father's eyes held nothing but disappointment. She abruptly looked away, her fists clenched at her sides. Although she didn't want to disappoint him, but she wasn't going to go back on her word either. Would he leave her? An inner turmoil grew in her. Her father knew her decision, but it had obviously distressed him. She was suddenly startled when he slowly approached her and took her back in her arms.
"I know, I know." He murmured into her hair and kissed the top of her head. "I understand."
"Da—"
"Go sleep. It's enough for one night." He left her with a heartbreaking smile and walked away.
She couldn't help but feel empty watching her father's retreating figure.
TBC
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