Author's Note: Happy New Year. It's the first day of the new year and things look promising. So eat your black-eye peas and sit back relax as you enjoy this latest chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing.
Everything's Circumstantial
"What the hell do you mean we can't arrest him?!" thundered one Zechs Marquise. "We know who he is and what he's done!"
"But it's only circumstantial," Une snapped back. "You of all people know that we can't simply arrest him for kidnapping Relena with no hard evidence! It'll seem as if the Preventers are making a power grab and it doesn't help that Xavien's in charge now. Unless anybody can dig up any proof that Francis Knox and Janus Xavien are one and the same and responsible for the abduction of Relena and Dorothy, there is nothing we can do."
"What about something else?" Heero asked, hard pressed to come up with something that Une would allow them to use as an excuse to arrest the man. "Tax evasion?"
Une frowned at him. "Tax evasion? How the hell can we charge him for that if we don't have any records on him?"
"We've found stuff on Knox," Heero protested.
"And has any of that helped any? I have Noin looking into that by the way."
"You aren't giving us much leeway," Zechs stated.
"Because this is a delicate situation," Une answered. "If what Duo and Quatre said are correct, then if we do arrest him and have to release him because we can't hold him, we'll have shown him that we're on to him and we can't allow that. He needs to be kept in the dark about this as much as possible until we have hard data pointing the finger at him. Until then, we wait."
"What about the disk?" Wufei quietly asked, surprising the rest of the office's occupants. The Chinese man had remained silent throughout Zechs and Heero's verbal assaults.
"You mean the one that Dekim Barton made?" Zechs asked, trying to clarify what Wufei was saying.
"Wouldn't that have all the information we would need to arrest him?" Wufei answered with another question. "If we can't get him for kidnapping Relena, then we can get him for illegal arms dealing. At least that way, we can still arrest him for something."
"Do you know where this disk is?" Une retorted. "It's only good if we can actually find it."
"Could Mariemaia know any of this?" Heero asked.
Une frowned. "Why are you bringing her into this?"
"We have to consider every possible angle," Heero answered bluntly. "We can't let personal feelings get between us and ending this."
Une raised an eyebrow. "I hope you are including Zechs in that since it is his sister who's on the line."
"Une," Zechs growled dangerously.
"Enough!" Wufei snapped. "This is getting us nowhere!"
Sighing, Une put her head into her hands. "I apologize," she spoke. "I guess the stress of all this is getting to me. I'll ask Mariamaia later tonight."
"Later?" Heero questioned. "What does that mean?"
""I promised her that I would take a small time off to relax and spend the evening with her at the circus," Une said. "As it is, we hardly spend time together at all."
"But it might loosen her up so that she'll be more willing to talk," Zechs said.
Frowning, Une said, "Don't treat her like she's some sort of criminal. She's done nothing wrong in any of this."
"At least ask her and see what she knows," Wufei cut in. "If she doesn't know anything, then she can enjoy her time with you and we won't bring this up again. Is that all right?"
"I'll see what I'm able to do," Une answered tiredly. "I won't pressure her though, so get that idea out of your head Yuy."
Scowling, Heero said nothing to the accusation.
---
Finally, he was back at L9 after long negotiations with clients who seemed to want more bang for their buck.
Thankfully, Adams was better at business than they were and managed to turn the tables to his favor. But damn it all, it was infuriating. Well, at least he had something to look forward to. Oh yes, if none of them had found that disk yet, then he would be able to satisfy some of his more sadistic urgings.
At last, his own personal ship, the Gemini, the smaller sister ship of the Sagittarius, docked and he prepared to enter the domain of L9 once more. Already he was plotting some interesting punishments to deliver when he was intercepted right at the docking bridge by Serbiak.
"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded on the spot.
"Get back in there, we're heading out," Serbiak replied.
"What are you talking about?" Adams demanded, his anger increasing with every second.
"We know where the disk is," Serbiak answered with a hungry grin. "Xavien has given me command over this job and that you're to obey my every order. Understood?"
"You lie!" Adams snarled.
"Am I?" Serbiak countered smoothly. "Why don't you go ask Xavien about it? Oh wait, you can't. He's still busy on Earth and he would be most upset if you were to do that. You're just going to have to take my word on this."
"Oh really? Do you have any proof?"
"Well, there were the men who also heard the command and are coming with us. And yes, you are coming too. Xavien's orders."
"Did he say why he wants me to go too?"
"Yeah. He's tired of waiting for you to come up with results. He wants no mistakes on this one. Now, enough with the questions. We need to head out now."
"Now?" Adams repeated. "Where the hell are we going? Where is the disk anyway?"
Sparing the business man a glare, Serbiak answered, "You'll find out soon but first, we need to get to Earth and this ship needs to haul ass, got it?"
Before Adams could speak another word, he was rudely shoved aside by the men that would be accompanying them for the disk retrieval. Serbiak simply smirked at the businessman before joining the group of men who were going deeper into the Gemini.
Grumbling, Adams glared at them before resigning himself to this and following after. He'd show that mercenary who was top dog around here and show Xavien once and for all that he was his successor.
