By West Wind
Disclaimer: I have no claim to any of the Gundam Wing characters in
this story. They belong to someone else.
Author's Note: As always ~ Thanks for the reviews and
feedback on the last chapter. I think Grrl N is onto my plot!
~_^
The four friends had spent the past three and a half days exploring and seeing the sights of L4. Kiel, being a business major, had even talked them into touring one of the Winner buildings that was open to public tours.
"Look here!," exclaimed Kiel as he read a brochure on L4 sites of interest. "They give public tours of the Winner Corporation."
"Why would we want to do that?" questioned Nikki.
"Come on, L4 is the headquarters of the Winner business empire. A business major like myself can't pass up the opportunity to visit."
"He has always wanted to visit it," admitted his sister.
"It might be interesting," added Marimeia.
Nikki was not to thrilled on the idea but agreed to go.
~*~*~*~*~*~
They entered through the large double glass doors into a spacious reception area and foyer. They all gasped at the beauty and magnitude of it. They walked up to the receptionist while gawking. The area behind the receptionist opened up to the skylight in the top of the building. You could see people hurrying across the different floors. Plants filled the foyer and dangled from the boxes below the railings of each floor. It gave the place a tropical feel, especially with the fountain bubbling in the center.
"May I help you?" asked the receptionist.
"We called earlier and are here for the public tour," Kiel eagerly said.
"Go through that door, and Marry will help you," she told them.
They entered the room she indicated. Marry greeted them as they entered and gave them visitor cards to fill out. To Marimeia's surprise there were several others there. They sat down and filled out the cards with their names, addresses, and answered a few other questions. Before they started Marry collected the cards and gave them visitor badges to wear.
"I want to welcome all of you to the Winner Corporation's headquarters. We will start out with a short video about the company and what it does before I show you around the campus," Marry started.
The lights dimmed and the large screen before them came to life imparting various facts about the company and its history. Afterwards Marry and two other employees escorted the group out of the room and showed them around. Marry talked and answered questions. Kiel asked many questions and absorbed the facts they gave through the tour like a sponge. Marimeia found Kiel's delight in the activity amusing.
"If he is like this now, how would he react once he meets Quatre?" she wondered and looked forward to her friends upcoming state of shock.
As they were wrapping up their tour, a group of men exited off the elevator and walked across the foyer.
"There is Mr. Winner, the head of the corporation, now," pointed out their guide.
The blond company head was surrounded by the group of men all bidding for his attention and took no notice of the tour group. Those in the tour group moved back and forth to get a better look at him through his entourage. Marimeia on the other hand stepped behind her friends and the other group members. She did not want Quatre to see her and come over. It would ruin tonight's fun with Kiel.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Have any of you seen Kiel?" inquired Marimeia.
"He went down to the gift shop for flowers to take to your friends," answered Jen.
"He didn't have to do that," said Marimeia.
"It's the way we were raised," responded Jen. "It is impolite to have dinner at someone's house and not bring them a little something – flowers, candy, wine, etc. –, especially the first time. It's a quark passed down in our family," she shrugged.
"I hope he gets back soon. We will have to be leaving in about fifteen minutes."
The phone rang and Marimeia answered it.
"Hello."
"Marimeia," greeted Kiel from the other end.
"Kiel where are you?"
"I am out in the parking lot, and I have something I have to show only you," he insisted.
"We don't have much time before we have to leave."
"It won't take long. Please come down here. I will meet you in the parking lot. Come ALONE!"
Kiel was gone. Marimeia gave the phone a confused look as she hung it up.
"Who was that?" asked Nikki.
"Kiel," responded Marimeia. "He wants to meet me in the parking lot, alone."
"Well, go see what he wants so we can go. I'm starved," said Nikki.
Something was not right, but Marimeia did not know what it was. The only way to find out was to go. She grabbed her room card and headed for the door.
"Tell Jen where I am going," she called to Nikki as she left.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Marimeia went to meet Kiel in the parking lot like he had asked. She located him at one end of the lot with his hands behind his back and Jim was standing behind him. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as she approached. She prepared herself for the unknown danger. As she approached she saw a hint of fear and warning in Kiel's eyes and a menacing look in Jim's. She made sure to keep her distance from the pair.
"What a pleasant surprise to find you here, Jim," she stated while weighing the situations.
"I thought we might go for a ride," replied Jim.
"If we do that, Kiel and I will be late for dinner."
"Your plans have changed," Jim countered and revealed the gun he had pointed at Kiel's back. "Your and your boyfriend here are coming with me, but first you are going to call your friends and tell them you have a change of plan."
He dialed the phone and kicked it over to Marimeia and ordered her to pick it up. She put it to her ear in time to hear Nikki say hello.
"Hello, Jen," responded Marimeia.
"This is Nikki."
"Yah, I know, but we have a change in plans," Marimeia continued as she closely watched Jim for any chance to get out of this. "Kiel and I decided to have dinner alone. Sorry to bail of you."
"But, we were to go to your friends," said a confused Nikki.
"Thanks, we plan on having a good time. Oh, before I forget. While you were out, Jen, your friend Catherine called. She said she was the winner of the competition she was in. She wanted you to call her back. The number is on the nightstand."
"What are you talking about, Meia?"
"Well, I have to go. Kiel is looking extremely antsy at the moment. Bye," ended Marimeia and hung up.
"Put the phone on the ground and get in the van," Jim ordered.
Jim pulled a remote from his pocket which opened the van door. Marimeia slowly got in the van and sat down. She placed her hands in her lap and activated the homing beacon Heero had given her. At this moment she was very thankful for his suspicious and cautious nature and hoped the calvary would come soon.
Jim forced Kiel in the van and closed the door. He pushed another button and the van began to fill with gas. The two occupants were soon unconscious.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Nikki looked at the phone.
"That was a weird conversation," she commented as Jen came in the room.
"Who was it?"
"Meia, but she called me Jen. Said something about going out to eat with Kiel and your friend Catherine called. It was all weird. She totally ignored any comment I made."
"Something is not right. Tell me the whole conversation the best you can remember," ordered Jen.
Nikki recounted the call.
"She said my friend Catherine called to tell me about winning some competition?"
"Yes, and the number was on the nightstand."
"Let's start there."
Jen and Nikki examined all the nightstands.
"I can't find a paper with a number anywhere," groaned Nikki.
"Maybe it is not on a paper, but in a book. Ah," said Jen as she opened Marimeia's phonebook that was sitting on her nightstand. "I think I found what she was referring to."
Nikki sat on the bed beside Jen to see what had been found.
"Look for some one named Catherine," observed Nikki.
"That was my thought."
Jen tried under "C" and "K" but there was no Catherine there.
"It would help if we had a last name," commented Jen.
"We will just have to look through the whole book," said Nikki.
They were almost to the end of the book and had found no Catherine. Jen flipped to the next page when Nikki told her to go back. Jen turned back a page and there it was.
Quatre & Catherine Winner
"Winner!" exclaimed Nikki. "She did tell us the last name. We just didn't get it."
There were several numbers listed under their names.
"This one," pointed Jen, "is marked home and is on L4. Let's try it."
Jen dialed the number and waited for an answer.
"Hello," answered a blond male.
"May I speak to Catherine Winner?" Jen asked.
"Who shall I say is calling?" the man asked.
"We are friends of Marimeia, and we think she might be in trouble."
"Catherine, darling, please come here," they heard the man call.
A woman walked up beside him.
"What makes you think Marimeia is in trouble?" he asked.
They told him the whole story from the call for Marimeia from Kiel to Marimeia's cryptic call.
"There is no evidence that something has happened to them, and I am sure the police will not take us seriously until she has been gone for a while," stated Jen. "But, Marimeia would never take off like that when we had plans to have dinner with her friends. Would you be her friends we were going to have dinner with?"
"Yes, you were to have dinner with us," confirmed Catherine.
"You stay put. I'll be there shortly, and we will find her," commanded Quatre before ending the call.
"You try to contact Lady Une and the others while I check it out," Quatre told his wife before sprinting out the door to find Rashid and a couple other Magunacs.
~*~*~*~*~
FYI: I will hopefully have the next part up sometime this weekend.