***

***

Heero fitted the role of Cody Dickens perfectly; his height and voice were almost the same, even though he had though acting twenty would be a little trouble. Heero soon found that Cody was more of a seventeen year old then himself, and with a little more useless chatter and swearing, he did the job well enough.

The opportunity of being let out and then being allowed to lead this soldier anywhere he chose was almost too good, and Heero had though of this as a trap, before throwing his suspicions to hell and agreeing to the stupid plan.

Heero had not felt any remorse towards the soldier, he had, however, felt a small tug on his heart. Which surprised Heero, he had never thought that death would bother him; after all, he never considered it a bad experience. But after years of thinking of his death day-Heero realized- death seemed quiet useless and unneeded to the soldier who had attempted suicide a few times without hesitation.

Maybe that soldier didn't want to die…maybe I don't want to die…do I? I've always expected to die, but I haven't. Do I want to? If not, why fight for freedom instead of cutting my own throat? I've changed…I don't want to die anymore…strange…

Heero pondered this while walking down the hall, watching the doors for # 549 to show up on the wooden panels.

Soon he saw it. He guessed that Anderson would be waiting for him inside, so the soldier opened the door and stepped in, eyeing the small office carefully.

"Forgot to knock?"

"Yeah, so, what do ya want?"

"Find the prisoner. Fifteen to seventeen, brown hair, blue eyes, green top and black pants. He was in this small room we used as a prison down the hall." Said a tall man in his mid-thirties, who, Heero assumed, was Anderson.

The corbat black eyes shifted, as he looked Heero over, as if measuring him to see if he was good enough for the job.

After a short silence, Anderson looked up- apparently satisfied- and gestured towards a few pieces of paper on a desk nearby, explaining as he shifted through them.

"These are all the plans we have of the building, Cod, I want you to use them to check for this prisoner, ask for help from anyone you want. But I want a report; this might have been the pilot of the Gundam. And if he is, we need him."

Anderson stopped and waited for a response, looking Heero straight in the eyes.

"Ok, I'll do the job, I'm starting right now, sir." Answered Heero, looking back at Anderson.

"Sir? What's this crap Cod? Well… never mind, just find this son-of-a-bitch."

"I will."

"Dismissed." Replied Anderson, his corbat eyes frowning while he handed Heero the maps.

The door was shut behind the soldier, and he proceeded down the hall, looking over the maps until he found his own room.

***

Cody emerged from his room, looking satisfied as he went off down the stone cold hall.

As he navigated his way around the building, Cody tried not to look at the maps in his hand, but having no other idea of how to get to the prison cell, he was forced to glace at the maps, if only occasionally.

He walked briskly, not really looking around but in taking everything in sight, and giving of a dangerous aurora that held curious soldiers at bay. All except Ellenor that is.

"Hey, Cod! Where do you think you're going?" she shouted out to him, running to catch up.

"I'm investigating the escaped prisoner case, Ellenor." Answered Cody, once again thanking for the nametags worn by all the base's inhabitants.

"Ok, so where are you heading?"

"To the prison chamber." Cody answered, trying to get his voice a little deeper without making his struggles obvious.

"Wow, what's eating at you Cod? You sound like you want to kill or somethin'." Said Ellenor, unconsciously guessing Cody's exact wishes.

"Just annoyed about this mother-fuckin' job they got me on. It's like trying to find the edge of a circle!" Cody exclaimed, looking over at Ellenor for the first time.

"Yeah, I heard, any leads so far?" She asked, sounding sympathetic but still managing to smirk.

"Bastard somehow got out, killed the guard, then pulled a fast one. Guy's lucky, the guards were in-between shifts and nobody noticed him gone for about ten minutes."

"So…I guess you've got one mess to untangle, eh?"

"No shit!"

***

Annoyance was out of Heero's league, he was horribly bored, trying make up a reason for his own escape without making it obvious that he had lied, this was a drag, and the "troop" was not due to move until more repairs were made to their equipment. Heero was stuck doing a useless job or the next few weeks, and he was seriously doubting whether it was a good idea to waist his time on this at all.

Of course, if he wanted to survive, he had to pretend to be doing something useful and explain his escape, the only other option being "run away and hope to find some vehicle before starving to death." Which Heero was not about to do?

He made himself busy looking at the pathetic protection methods that the renegade army was using. Most were simple cameras and censor beams, which he easily intercepted and used to sneak into offices, checking files and records.

The "army" it seemed, was based on a small resistance force that had originally rose to fight against the power gripping OZ, but later shifted it's stance to accommodate the threat from the colonies, sending small forces to work in outer space, mostly spies who infiltrated OZ and White Fang forces and twisting negotiations to include as much profit to Earth as would be allowed.

The soldiers had been trained at different underground organizations and later escaped to join the main forces or some of the smaller groups. Many of the renegades, Heero noticed, were soldiers trained in his own organization, some names had even seemed familiar to him, and he was sure that he had recognized Ellenor from one of the intelligence workers.

Upon further investigation of his memories, Heero remembered that she had first been a soldier in the 79th main corp. working under a commander Lukens, who had been known for his excellent strategic planning methods, later transferring to the intelligence crew…number 45, Heero guessed.

Many of the other records showed that this army had briefly joined the OZ resistance in China, at the time when, Heero estimated, Wufei would have landed his Gundam on Earth for the first time.

The main commander on the forces of Earth was a Kenlin Jerom, who was a senior soldier in an underground corporation working as missionaries for the government of Israel, clearing it's borders of opposing nation's troops.

Neither the sponsors nor the core commander of all forces were described, which was no surprise to Heero, since these files were more then vulnerable.

As he searched the files more effectively, Heero stumbled on many more familiar names, as well s a few who he had considered friends, many soldiers of whom he had heard, some of whom he admired, and some who he considered idiotic for leaving their previous occupations.

"Osamu, Helen, Gery…Fanille…Corwine, Erick, Poline…Clair Harlot. 18 years old, 15 years of experience, intelligence crew worker for Professor Kline…lots of good comments…shit… more shit…she's exactly like Clair, working with Kline, right age, right description, right position. Clair.' Heero signed, ripping the page out of the folder and folding it carefully in his pocket, making sure that the door was locked before heading away, un noticed by the other soldiers.