Deprogramming
Chapter 20
by Scarlet Eve
December 26, A.C. 201
7:00 am Central European Time
Relena
Relena and Une waited on the roof of the Preventer HQ, watching as the golden helicopter slowly descended down to the landing pad. The weak sunlight still managed to glint off the shiny finish of the helicopter, making Relena shake her head, remembering Dorothy's golden limo from so long ago. Not that she was any better as a teenager - she'd had a pink limo.
The wind from the helicopter blades blew over Relena and Une, forcing their winter coats to flap sharply in the wind. As soon as the helicopter touched down, the door slid open and Dorothy Catalonia appeared. She hopped down gracefully and strode towards them, a smirk already on her face.
"I wondered when you'd call me in, Miss Relena," she said, approaching Relena and pulling her into a hug and kissing her cheeks. Relena smiled.
"I suppose I thought it wouldn't escalate like this," Relena admitted. Dorothy turned to Une and greeted her the same way, though Une was stiff while receiving the kiss to the cheek.
"Don't worry. We'll get it taken care of." Dorothy linked her arm through Relena's, and the three women walked towards the elevator that would take them down to the underground tunnel that linked between the ESUN building and the Preventer HQ. Une left them when they passed by her floor, leaving the two women to catch up quickly in the privacy of the elevator. Relena blushed the entire time she explained about Heero returning to Earth.
"It's about damn time," Dorothy muttered. Relena tilted her head and gave Dorothy a long stare, but the other woman only grinned and shook her head.
The elevator slowed to a halt in the basement of the building, and the doors slid open. They turned down the hallway that would lead them towards the ESUN building.
"So have you done anything yet about this… situation?" Dorothy asked.
"Hilde and I called the colony representatives. They're all still on my side, though some are not happy."
"Naturally."
"I haven't done any public statements or anything. I probably should have on that day…" Relena said. They reached the elevator on the other side of the tunnel and rode up to Relena's floor.
"No "should haves," Miss Relena. We'll fix this. Not to mention, we have to be careful about putting you out in the open. I'm surprised you don't have a tail on you of guards right now," Dorothy said.
"Some other issues came up that took priority," Relena said. "I'm fine, anyway." Dorothy gave Relena a look that told her she was not convinced. They arrived at Relena's office, and she unlocked the door to let them inside. "I guess there's more I should show you," Relena added while Dorothy deposited her things on a table in the office. She gestured for Dorothy to join her at her desk. On her computer, she pulled up the scanned images she'd saved that Une had sent over the previous evening - the newspaper articles with Relena's face and name blacked out and the piece of paper with the mock headline stating that Relena had been assassinated.
Dorothy watched her scroll through the pages with widening eyes. "Someone mailed you these?" Dorothy asked, and Relena nodded in answer. "Is anyone trying to figure out where they came from?"
"Heero started to, but he got put on that mission to the Americas to find Duo," Relena said. "Une may have put someone else on it, but I don't know."
"Email those to me. I'll get someone on them," Dorothy said. She marched back around the desk and removed her laptop from her bag. She set up her laptop on Relena's desk, and pulled out a cellphone, gold of course, and popped a small ear bud in her ear.
"What are you going to do?" Relena asked.
"First, we're scheduling a press conference. The president needs to be there, to show he has full support in you and the ESUN," Dorothy said. "We'll also want several other members of the ESUN to be there, to show support and solidarity." Relena nodded. Dorothy began to type quickly on her laptop, then dialed a number on her phone and waited. Relena watched her, mind blank on what she should be doing to help. Knowing Dorothy though, she'd have everything taken care of.
Relena tried to turn her attention back to her computer, half listening to Dorothy's phone conversation. It sounded like she was on the phone with the president's assistant. She was setting a date for the press conference.
Pulling up her calendar, she scanned it. With a sigh, she pressed a hand to her forehead; she'd forgotten about the New Year's Day party that the President always hosted. Increased security would be necessary. Would Une even have enough Preventers, or would she have to hire a contractor to fill in the gaps? That always brought additional dangers with it, as Une tended to distrust other security companies.
Dorothy tapped the screen of her phone and turned back to her laptop.
"Tomorrow it is. Ten in the morning, at the ESUN delegates conference hall. They'll ask the Preventer-Secret Service team to help out with security," Dorothy said, typing quickly, her eyes on the screen. A moment later, an invite popped up in Relena's email.
"Are you going to the New Year's Day party?" Relena asked. Dorothy shrugged her shoulders.
"I figured I'd hang around here until then, anyway. Who knows how long this mess will take to clear up," she replied.
"I'd offer you a place at my townhome, but Hilde is staying with me," Relena said, but Dorothy flapped her hand and smiled.
"I have a permanent reservation of a suite at the Emissary Hotel," Dorothy said. "They should have already received my luggage. I appreciate the offer though, Miss Relena."
December 26, A.C. 201
8:00 am Eastern Standard Time
Trowa
The cafeteria at the New York Preventer HQ was full, but mostly silent and tense. The night hadn't gone well. Many more protesters showed up outside of the ESUN building, and there were literal fires to put out around the area. Luckily, no one was hurt, and the ESUN employees were advised to stay home. Preventer agents were assigned to watch over the homes of the handful of people that worked out of the New York ESUN building.
The rest of the Preventers were either coming off their shifts overnight or coming in for their shifts to begin - though there was no discernable difference between the two groups of people. Everyone looked equally exhausted, tired, and worn down. Trowa felt bad for them. They'd been dealing with the problems for the last several days, whereas he'd only been brought in recently.
Trowa made shapes in the small amount of oatmeal left in his bowl. Sitting across and beside him at the table were the rest of his team - Wufei and Sally looked tired, but not yet exhausted. Heero looked the worst, and it was a strange sight to see. Back during the wars, Heero never seemed to never sleep, unless he was in a coma. Now though, dark circles lined his eyes after one night of little sleep, and his head drooped over his plate of fruit and toast. Trowa began to wonder just how much that chip powered Heero, and how he was coping with it being gone.
Not well, it seemed.
Commander Smith approached their table, followed closely by Agent Leigh Watts. "Good morning," Smith said, dropping into an empty chair at the table. Agent Watts remained standing behind him.
"Last night, we were able to find a few leads for where this group might have gone. It was good collaboration between our people and Agent Yuy," he said, nodding towards Heero. Trowa glanced at Heero, who didn't move at all, though he was being acknowledged. "What we're going to do is split you up into two teams and send you to do quick sweeps of some of the locations. Obviously we're going to avoid any fighting as much as possible, since we have no idea how many people they'll have." Smith waved to Agent Watts.
"Agents Watts will go with Agent Barton, and Agent Chang and Agent Yuy will pair off. I'm keeping Agent Po here with me again," Smith said. Wufei looked annoyed at this, but Smith smiled. "If she keeps impressing me, I might have to try and convince her to transfer to this division." Sally laughed, shaking her head. Wufei scowled more.
"And if we find something at one of these locations?" Trowa asked, pushing away his bowl.
"You'll return to the HQ immediately. From there, we'll put together a raid team to take care of it. Une warned me some of you might try to take this on by yourselves…" He looked pointedly at Heero and Wufei. "So again, don't try to do anything on your own." He glanced around the table, nodded, then rose and left. Agent Watts sat down in his vacated chair.
"We'll find him," Watts said, reading everyone's minds.
Heero
9:00 am
It was a struggle to finish his breakfast, but he managed it, somehow. His eyelids felt so heavy, like weights were attached, pulling them down. His eyes themselves burned with exhaustion. Feelings he'd never experienced before were weighing him down.
All because he didn't sleep much.
It was wrong, he knew, but he missed the chip. Just a little bit.
As he followed the others down to the garage, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw an email from Relena.
I'm holding a press conference tomorrow at 10:00 am, so about 4 am your time? Dorothy is here, and she's been a big help.
-R
Of course he was going to watch her press conference. Every time she'd been on TV in the last few years, he'd watched her. It was something that was programmed into him more deeply than anything the chip could ever influence.
"Relena is making a statement tomorrow morning in Brussels," Heero said as his teams approached the vehicles they would be taking.
"Who is doing security?" Trowa asked, but Heero shrugged.
"She didn't say. Preventers, probably," he replied. His stomach churned at Trowa's eagerness.
"Come on, Yuy," Wufei barked from the driver's side of the car. Heero glanced at Trowa and Agent Watts, then climbed into the passenger seat. He silenced his phone and stuck into a deep pocket in his jacket.
The two cars pulled from the garage and headed off into the New York streets. They avoided the roads that were clogged with protesters, then off in different directions, to seek out Duo's potential location.
Heero plugged in the coordinates of the first location, then let the little machine guide Wufei. Heero, in the meantime, cleaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. He didn't sleep, however. His mind was stuck on Relena, though every once in awhile, Trowa's face would pass before his mind's eye. It frustrated Heero that things were turning out very different than he'd imagined before. He disliked the additional complications that Trowa had caused.
Before long, Wufei stopped the car in front of another abandoned building, which looked similar to the previous location they'd checked out. They climbed out of the car and headed towards the door, which was barely hanging on by one hinge. Brandishing their weapons, they slid silently into the building.
They didn't make it far. The floors of the second and first floor had caved in, leaving a pile of wood, rubble, and old furniture. Wufei and Heero glanced at each other, then backed out of the building. On the way to the car, Heero pulled out his cell phone and called Sally.
"Location 1 is a bust. No one has been here in years. The floors are caved in," Heero told her, and she sighed.
"Trowa and Leigh didn't find anything at their first location either," she said. "Go on to the next one and let us know."
"Sure thing."
Heero and Wufei got in the car and drove away.
December 26, A.C. 201
10:15 am Eastern Standard Time
Trowa
Trowa and Leigh hadn't found anything at their first set of coordinates. The building was long burned and covered in layers of snow. During the drive to the next set of coordinates, Agent Watts tried to make conversation, but Trowa had never really been one for conversation. Instead, Agent Watts talked about herself while Trowa listened silently.
"My father fought with Colonel Treize Kushrenada during the battle against the White Fang. He survived the battle but he had old wounds that never healed well after that. After he died in 196, I started training to join the Preventers," Leigh was saying.
"I was there, too," Trowa said. Leigh glanced at him, surprised.
"But you would have only been…"
"Fifteen."
Leigh's mouth dropped open in surprise. "Fifteen? But that's only a kid!" Trowa shrugged.
"We were all fifteen. Wufei, Heero, and the others."
"Did you fight for the White Fang or the ESUN?" she asked.
"Neither, really. We were sort of a third party - trying to stop the fighting. Relena Peacecraft was in space with us, and we sort of fought for her," Trowa said. "At least some of us were."
"You know the Queen?" Leigh asked, then her eyes narrowed at him. "Who are you people? I wondered why Commander Smith thought it was necessary to bring a bunch of agents from Brussels to help us with this issue." Trowa smirked.
"Who I am and what I did in the wars has been erased from history," Trowa said. Leigh slowed the car down and stopped outside of a warehouse. She shut off the engine and turned to Trowa.
"What do you mean?"
"I am - was a Gundam pilot," Trowa said, not meeting her eyes. He heard her gasp.
"How's that possible?" she asked, awestruck. Trowa finally met her gaze, a small grin on his face.
"It's a long story," he said, reaching for the door handle. "Maybe I'll tell you sometime."
Trowa led the way up to the warehouse, with Leigh following behind him in the snow. With as much stealth as they were afforded, they crept towards a window. Trowa pressed his back against the wall of the building, then peered inside through the dirty window.
"Shit."
Part of the room beyond was full of computer equipment on makeshift desks. Chairs were scattered around the room. And bodies littered the floor.
"What is it?" Leigh asked. She peered over his shoulder, and when she saw the scene inside, Trowa felt her tense up. She backed away and pulled a cell phone from her pocket. "Major Sally? It's Agent Watts. We've got something here at location two. Lots of computer equipment and… lots of dead bodies." Trowa stepped away from the window and followed Leigh back towards the car. She hung up the phone and looked at him. "They're sending back up," she confirmed to Trowa.
-SE