Chapter Thirteen
The shuttleport was a busy place, white tiled and people on the go everywhere. Everyone seemed to be going everywhere at once with every single plausible reason in the world to be going there – except Gershom and I. Loudspeakers spoke loud commands in several different languages, loud static sounds that alienated me.
"Watashi wa Chikyuuken Kokka no seitou naru koukeisha desu."
"Il y a quelque chose qui ne va pas avec l'ordinator."
"Das Kind wurde von einem Hund gebissen."
"New arrivals, please proceed to the main desk – Thank you."
"Kankoo annai-shoo wa doko desuka?"
I turned abruptly towards the gentleman. He had a fairly Oriental look about him, which wasn't surprising as he had questioned me in Japanese. He had just asked me where he could find the tourist office.
I shook my head. "Eigo o hanasemasaka? Chotto wakarimasen." I told him I hadn't understood. I was confused that I actually had understood him. I had never spoken a word of Japanese in my whole life.
He looked slightly embarrassed and shook his head. "Ie, gomen nasai…"
I smiled at him slightly as I accepted his apology. He hurried away and dissolved into the thronging crowd.
"A linguist?" Gershom watched me with an air of sudden respect. "Miss Liushu, I hadn't expected you to be a linguist."
"Do you even know what I said to him?"
"No."
"If you had, you would be aware that I'm no linguist."
"Your tongue's sharp enough to convince me."
I looked towards him, shooting him a withering look. "Do you always have to have the last word? Is it in your nature?"
He shrugged and grinned broadly. "Yup. I guess so."
There was a slight pause. Then he continued. "So, do we know where we're going yet?"
I thought hard. There had to be some place… There had to be… I whirled towards Gershom suddenly. "Yes! There is! If he doesn't still have the sieve he used to call a brain!"
"I refuse to probe. But pray tell?"
"One time, when I was small, my friend and I…"
"One of the other pilots?"
I nodded. "I grant you that much. Well, we told each other where we most wanted to go in the whole wide world. I told him my place, and he told me his."
"How does this connect? You've lost me…"
"Shut up and listen would you?" I drew a breath. "He told me he wanted to visit London."
Gershom snorted. "London? Why the…?"
"I don't know, but that's what he told me. I think he's going to come to the same conclusion I have."
Gershom deliberated with himself for a second. "London sounds good to me, if you think that's the best place to head." He smiled to himself for a second. "But the British talk funny don't they?"
I sighed in mock exasperation. "They don't 'talk funny'. They just talk differently from us, that's all. Meet someone from Britain in a dark alley and tell them what you've just told me, I dare you."
He turned towards the main desk and said cheerfully, yet sarcastically, "and you think I have a death wish?"
A few minutes later, he returned with the tickets. "Not bad, there's one leaving in thirty minutes."
I took one ticket from him and scrutinised it carefully. "One Adult: London: One Way" it read.
"One way?"
"You were planning to come back with me?"
I absently gazed through the ticket. "I guess not, no."
I felt a light hand on my shoulder. "It's alright. I'll survive without you. Although I love you so much it'll kill me."
I pulled away. "Love?!" I spluttered, taking in his grinning features. "You had better pray to God that I'm right when I say you're not serious!"
He held up his hands in mock surrender. "You're right, you're right." He laughed out loud. "Don't ever take me that seriously ever again. You're beginning to scare me."
We both started up the corridor towards the departure area. The corridor was plain and white. It reminded me of a hospital, not that I've ever had to see the inside of one…
Carefully, I slouched against the wall as Gershom excused himself to quickly go to the toilet before we got on the flight. I religiously counted the bumps in the ceiling, but soon grew tired since the place was so boring that there were practically no bumps to count. One place is a bombsite, and the other is almost a copy of a palace. And how exactly did that work in the modern day world?
"Hey!"
I turned sharply at the voice. A tall man, dressed in a military uniform approached me sternly. I was suddenly apprehensive. This man possessed the attitude of the Commander at the Camp. I'm out for blood – and I don't care who's.
"What're you doing?"
"Loitering." The response came before I could stop it.
"You're not allowed to loiter with intent."
The simplicity of today's military… "Intent to what? Breathe?"
"Are you being smart with me?"
By now I was basically running on auto-pilot. "No, if I was being smart I would have left you behind a long time ago."
He reached out a hand and grabbed me by the arm. "Now you listen to me, you little…"
I wrenched away from him. Did the arm now have a sign on it saying "grab me"?
"Who gave you permission to touch me?"
"I don't need permission."
I took an involuntary step backwards. "From me you do."
He made to grab me again. I backhanded him, which made him more than a little bit angry. In a flash he had me by the collar, raising me up off the ground with his extra height. If I'm anything, I'm not particularly tall – but he was. I tried kicking him in the shins, spitting at him, biting him, but he'd seen it all before. He held me dangling for a few seconds. "Don't you dare speak to me like that again, or I'll…"
"What're you doing?"
The soldier turned angrily to Gershom, who stood in the doorway of the Men's, a thunderous expression on his face.
"None of your business, buddy. Take a hike."
"None of my business?"
The soldier let up slightly on my collar as he turned to face his new opposition. "Military matters, son. I'd stay out of it if I was you."
"I don't know which military you're from, but bothering civilians is bad wherever you come from. Let her go."
"Make me."
Gershom grabbed the soldier's arm and had twisted it halfway up his back, the soldier suffering the same kind of surprise I had a few moments earlier. I was dropped in surprise and back-pedalled to the wall. Then I saw it all. I couldn't do anything about what happened next. The retrieval of the gun. The way it was fired into Gershom's head. And the way his eyes met mine as he fell.
I pulled myself upright from the wall slowly, with a moment's contemplation. Then turned back to the soldier and stepped over Gershom's, now lifeless, body.
"I don't want to hurt you."
"What are you?" he sneered, "some kind of pacifist? A Peacecraft?" He levelled the gun at me as though I was afraid of it.
"Who's been talking about escape girlie?"
My brow furrowed as I noticed the similarity in the situations. The soldier in the dormitory and this idiot. Back then I had been too small to do anything…
"I'll beat your brains out with that bloody chair leg!"
But now was different…
Next thing he knew I was flying towards him with strength I didn't know I had. I gracefully jabbed my good fist into his stomach, forcing him to drop the gun as he grabbed at his belly. Then, as he stood there groaning, I snapped up with a foot into his chin. It was almost graceful. He then proceeded to fall to the floor, unconscious.
"And that," I muttered, stepping over him, "is why you do not tell me I have a reason to get angry with you."
Glancing to either side uneasily I continued to the departure lounge. I already knew from experience that I wouldn't feel this loss for several hours yet. Then the waterworks would start. But I had a plane to catch if I wanted to get anything done.
I gingerly felt in my pocket for the ticket that Gershom had handed me not five minutes ago. I pulled my cap on backwards, hiding as much of my hair as I could. What was going on wasn't under my control anymore. I picked up a magazine without noticing what it was angrily, getting a few stares as I swore loudly when it gave me a paper-cut.
Let's face it, at this point my life sucked. I savagely pulled one of the pages open, almost ripping it out of the magazine. I was mad all right. Too mad to notice the guy walking towards me, until he walked right into me. The magazine was knocked out of my grip and landed on the carpet.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!"
He bent down and picked up the magazine without looking at me. "Sorry." He handed it back to me without another word and continued to the other side of the departure lounge. I watched after him suspiciously, knowing him from somewhere. He sat down in one of the seats and looked out of the window thoughtfully, as though he'd completely forgotten about me. The sort of reaction I'd expect from a complete stranger.
Then I recognised Trowa. I'd only ever met him once, but it was definitely him. So what was he doing here? I looked about. Where were the others? I had no idea what was going on, and that frustrated me, but if Trowa didn't want to be acknowledged, so be it. There had to be a reason for it.
I continued to scan the room carefully, trying not to look too conspicuous. I managed to pick them out one by one. Heero and Wufei had placed themselves strategically around the room, much like Trowa. Duo and Quatre were staking out the door and avoiding my gaze deliberately. Quatre deeply engaged in conversation with someone I didn't recognise. So they'd figured out what I was going to do, before I'd even done it. They were better at this than I'd imagined.
I took a deep breath. I didn't think the security staff was going to let a dead body and an injured officer slide. And where there was one soldier, there was always going to be lots more. They were like animals. They hunted in packs.
Then the commotion started. A slow rumble at first, but getting steadily louder and more panicked. Carefully, I reached to my shoulder and untied my sling, sliding the injured arm into my jacket sleeve and the cloth into my pocket. One more difference.
Suddenly, the double doors burst open, forcing Quatre and Duo to jump to one side hastily. Four soldiers strode in and my friend was not among them. Good. Then he couldn't pick me out of the crowd. Hopefully I'd changed my appearance enough to fool them for a while.
"Hey, you!"
I looked up from the magazine with all the innocence I could gather. "Yeah?"
"Would you come with us?"
"Why?" I put on my best 'irritatingly-ignorant-schoolgirl' act. But it didn't fool them.
"There's been an incident we would like to question you about."
"But I didn't see anything…"
"Please miss, or we'll have to use force."
Grudgingly I got to my feet and followed the soldier. What now? In fact, don't tell me – I'd have to break out? Again? Great…
On my way out, Duo caught my gaze. It was a concerned, yet calculated look. Silently, I begged him not to do anything stupid. But… I really don't think he's into the telepathy thing just yet. I felt the cautiously worried look follow my back as I continued down the corridor. I shook my head softly as I slowly realised how bad things were likely to get from here onwards.
