The Unwanted Partner
Chapter 7.
He stood in front of the steel elevator doors of the parking lot basement, removing his hat and tucking it into his pocket, he glanced at his watch as the amber digital numbers descended on the rectangular elevator panel,
04:49 am.
Impatience started to tug at him. He wanted the morning briefing with Sally over and done with.
The elevator sounded with a 'ding' on its arrival and Wu Fei step through the sliding doors, he took out his badge from his wallet and slipped it into a clear pouch attached to a black lanyard in his other pocket, then lifted the badge to the black square scanning device, its signal gave two 'beeps', indicating authorization accepted, and he pressed the illuminated amber button '11'.
The sudden call to this briefing had created an uncomfortably tightness in his chest. Historically, early morning briefings never went in his favour, and he expected that this briefing was sure to be no exception. He racked his brain to find any clues to what this briefing would contain but came up with many unfavourable speculations, one of them linked to this morning News.
The heaviness of his sigh left his chest as the elevator reached the eleventh floor. He walked down the corridor that had light grey walls on one side and reflective mirror glass windows on the other. Passing the line of cracked office doors, he felt the stillness of the usual morning disturbed with excited muted chatter and inquisitive eyes that were peering at him through the slits of their doors. He glanced in the directions of one the offices whose whispers spat "that's all we need around here, more fucking G-terrorist." They glanced at him back and their voices went from a whisper to barely audible. Wu Fei rounded his shoulders and tightened his grip on his suitcase, the slant 'G-terrorist' was only confirmation of who is behind those doors. He felt his footsteps became hesitant as he neared the office.
He reached the fog glass office doors, Sally's name written in gold mounted on a thin black rectangular slate on the wall beside it reading 'Major Po'. Resting his hand on the silver curved door handle, he heard a rise of whispers behind him. He paused and turned around and the culprits of the whispers frantically dashed back to their offices. One woman almost losing a shoe, tripped into her door before scampering in and closing it quickly. Wu Fei turned back around and shook his head, annoyed from all the unwanted attention.
Gingerly gripping the door handle, Wu Fei took a deep breath, held it, started to exhale while opening the door only to have the breath stop short by the man standing in front of him. Even when seeing the man from behind, Wu Fei could recognize the tall muscular frame in the Preventers Regular Forces uniform standing in the military stance 'at-ease', and the long ash blonde hair now crop to just past his broad shoulders.
There was a mental flash of him in outer space fighting that same man on the battlefield, a challenge he demanded while spewing words of distrust and bitterness. And another flash of him plunging his Gundam Altron two beamed trident into that same man's best friend. The flashbacks caused Wu Fei to lean heavily on the door such that it closed behind him with a loud 'thud'. He connected eyes with Sally who was standing behind her oak desk, and finally exhaled completely.
"No."
"You are in no position to object, PRF Chang." Her rebuttal was stern yet tired. She signaled with her eyes and a tilt of the head for Wu Fei to stand on the left side of the ash blonde man and Wu Fei hesitated at first, shooting a defiant look before complying.
"I do not need a partner."
"Agreed." The man stood rigidly without a single glance in Chinese man's direction.
"Same goes to you, Mr. Milliardo Peac-"
"It's Zechs." His terseness was followed by the thinning of his lips, "my name is Zechs." He had a look of defiance in his eyes that Wu Fei would have found admirable if it were someone else.
"Alright. Same goes to you, Zechs-" she overly emphasized.
Sally gave a weary sigh and sat down in her black leather office chair. "I believe this man-" she gestured with her hand towards the ex White Fang leader. "needs no introduction."
There was silence from the two men, and she took that as a sign of confirmation "Command has assigned you two to be partners, there are a number of very high-profile cases that are in need of your..." She paused, finding the right word. "…expertise"
"Expertise?" Wu Fei raised his eyebrows unconvinced.
"Both of you have backgrounds that Command thinks are essential for these kinds of cases."
"Meaning both of us committed acts of terrorism." Zechs stated plainly.
"Speak for yourself." Wu Fei turned agitatedly towards the window.
Zechs physically tensed, but do not respond.
"Meaning," She said, commanding back their attention, "in both wars, both of you participated in rebellions that have made you better experts on what creates a complex enemy striving for peace while committing extreme acts of violence and terrorism."
"That sound accurate." Zechs said, and hung his head humbly.
"Again, speak for yourself!" Wu Fei spat, this time turning to face the blonde man.
"I am!" He shot back, shifting his profile in Wu Fei's direction, his long straight hair concealing his eyes.
"Enough!" She straightened in her chair authoritatively. "Am I going to have a problem here?"
"No."
"Depends." Zechs responded cynically, and the ends of his lips tugged upwards upon seeing Sally's facial reaction.
"May I remind you Zechs that the alternative to this is life imprisonment without parole, so it is in your best interest to cooperate, that goes for the both of you." She looked between them with the expectation of verbal acknowledgement.
"Yes Ma'am!" Zechs responds was sharp and indicative of a man who grew up in the military.
"Yes Ma'am!" While Wu Fei responded stubbornly only after Sally eyes rested on him.
"These cases" She continued, "had gone cold in the past, brushed of as missing persons reports with no leads or causality. However, recently there has been activity involving these cases, deeming them highly suspicious and a potential risk to Earth Sphere Security. I want a report of everything, where they are, who they are with, why they are with them, what are they doing; even down to what colour their toothbrush is and what hand they use to brush their teeth."
"The first cases are on your desk, Chang. You two will work together and present me your findings by next week. And Change," She turned her attention in Wu Fei "please show Zechs your office, a workstation is set up for him there."
Wu Fei remained silent, resisting the urge to protest.
"You're dismissed!" they both saluted and turned to leave, Zechs reaching the door first.
"Chang, may I have a word?" Sally called out; Wu Fei stopped and turned around.
She folded her hand and rung them together and watched Wu Fei without speaking until the door was closed again. "I... This wasn't my decision" Becoming conscious of hands, Sally released them and set them on her lap, "If it were up to me, I wouldn't have you two in the same room together."
This was a recurring moment between them, a moment where one of them wants to say more, one of them wants to apologize for the past. But in the end, both are too stubborn to say the right words.
The room was quiet until Wu Fei responded emotionlessly "Is that all Ma'am?" He also found himself to be the victim of his own stubborn.
She looked at him with eyes that urged to say more. "No," she said softy, turning her focus on the computer in front of her. "You're dismissed."
"Ma'am!" he saluted and exited the office, shutting the door firmly behind him.
Wu Fei was surprised to see Zechs waiting for him outside, then he remembered that he was supposed to escort him to their now shared office. With a huff, Wu Fei brushed past Zechs gruffly, keeping a few paces ahead of him as they both walked down the corridor in silence. Occasionally, someone down the corridor would poke their head out to get a quick look at the new notorious Analyst PRF member and his equally infamous partner.
The prying eyes was starting to take a toll on Wu Fei's nerves, and he began to quicken his pace to the elevator. Once reached, he jabbed the illuminated downward arrow on the circular button and slid through the door before they completely opened. He showed no inclination to wait for his new unwanted partner and angrily scanned his badge and punched the illuminated '9' button several times until the elevator rang and began to close, but the doors were to slow and Zechs slipped in just in time, causing the door to jam and open again.
Wu Fei cursed under his breath and reached his finger out to angrily punch the number again but was cut off by a veil of long blonde hair and the pleasant assault of sandalwood aroma. He involuntarily took a jagged step back, embarrassingly flustered by Zechs closeness. He venomously looked over at the blonde man who already made his way over to the opposite side of the elevator, his lips had that one-sided tugged smirk and he looped his long ash hair behind his ears. Wu Fei then fixating his heated stare on the descending number appearing on the digital panel.
Once the elevator reached its destination, Wu Fei stepped through the doors before they completely opened his suitcase slapping against the metal, and sped down the empty grey corridor, his footsteps muffled by the charcoal speckled carpet. His office wasn't far from the elevator and he only had to turn a short corner to the right before he reached his destination, office number 956.
He entered his shoebox sized office that had a dated metal lined crock board mounted in the center of the room on the back of the light gray wall. There was a mind map of an already solved case on the crock board with pins of four different colours systematically pinned in different locations and a red string connecting them together in an entangled web.
His face set into a frown when seeing his already small space invaded by another gray metal desk directly facing his. He walked over to his neatly arranged desk, set his suitcase beside it, sat down, and got his laptop out of his suitcase. He didn't look up when he heard Zechs enter the room and rolled out his black office chair.
Wu Fei logged into his laptop computer, typing rhythmically, determined to ignore the man across from him. He heard the squeak of the wheels on the chair from across the room and saw a tall shadow in his peripheral vision. His body went completely tense as the shadow stretched out a hand over his black file folder topped of with the recent case files given by Sally.
As soon as the hand hovered over the file folder, Wu Fei felt his hand impulsively snap out and slam down hard on the files, causing an after effect of air cascading through Zechs long hair.
"Get your own work." His eyes shot up and were met with icy blue eyes and a look of contempt that would make most people fold instantly. Wu Fei wasn't most people.
Seconds began to feel like minutes as the intensifying hostile stare down was held between the two of them. Suddenly, there was a rapping on the door that made both men jump like two teenagers caught in a school yard fist fight.
"Is everyone settling in well?" Sally folded her arms and leaned against the door frame.
Distracted by the sudden disruption, Wu Fei felt the weight of the case file pile jerked out from under his hand. "Just spectacular, Major Po" Zechs said coldly as he carried the newly acquired files and slammed them on his metal desk, almost causing some of the leaflets to spray out. "Like two peas in a pod." He smirked cynically as he drew his chair inwards.
Sally looked at the men "Good." She said unconvinced, she bounced of the door frame and let her arms drop to her side. "Then enough with the passionate gazing and get started on case file 'Anika Brown'."
****** Inspiration******
Houdini – Foster the People