The Urchin: Part Fifteen

By Banshi

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The first line of defense was a piece of cake, no motion detectors, just an infrared grid and some cameras. The grid had been set to G's personal setting, ensuring that Duo knew how to bypass it. Duo made a mental note to thank the old man as he lead Trowa through it. And Gibraltar really should have known better than to leave, or plant, a tree that close to the second-story windows.

The second line was a little harder, but only because Duo was a little out of practice with residential burglary. Base infiltration wasn't exactly the same thing. Once they were inside, there weren't any security measures worth mentioning. Finding who was where was a little harder, so they split up.

Duo walked in on sleeping mechanics a little too often for comfort. Although, if the mechanics were here, then G couldn't be far away.

Standing in the middle of the hallway, looking at expensive art and antique rugs, Duo tried to figure out where the old man would be. The manipulative bastard could talk rings around Gibraltar, so he was probably somewhere that Duo could find him easily.

Moving out of camera range, Duo resisted the urge to smack his forehead. Of course! The only place G ever spent any time was the lab/garage. If they were building another Deathscyth, then that's where he'd be. And in a house like this that meant ... down.

So Duo went down, and the security guards never had a clue.

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Trowa looked up from the computer console as he heard footfalls in the hallway just outside the door. He was almost finished downloading all of the files that he had been able to access, including what looked like a computerized copy of Gibraltar's journal. He had known that Duo was going to want time to savor it.

He was standing so that he was concealed behind the door as it opened, and was already tensing to strike when the end of a braid was waved like a flag from the other side.

"Duo?"

"No, the Black Scorpion. Y'know, if I wasn't already Shinigami, and she wasn't a campy superhero from the late twentieth century AD, I might have really liked having that name." Trowa let out a sigh of relief and closed the door behind his partner as the other man entered the room. "I found G, but I'm having a hard time getting at him. Are the blueprints here, or do I need to find another computer?"

"They're here." Duo went to a console and started going through the diagrams, occasionally muttering and nodding. He finally straitened with a satisfied nod and shut down the program.

"Got everything on your end?" he said, turning to look at Trowa again. Trowa finished his last download and tried to pretend that he hadn't been looking at Duo out of the cornier of his eye the whole time.

"Yes."

"Good. Come help me with the jail break?"

Trowa smiled slightly, "Yes."

They set up the virus and the relay for the security camera system and left the room. Duo going silent again as soon as their feet were on the hallway carpet. Trowa knew better than to ask what Duo had found in the blueprints, or why he had had a hard time in the first place. If Duo need to go through some last-minute research it must have been totally unexpected.

As they crawled into the ducts and towards the hanger/lab that had been in the files, Trowa began to understand the need for a new approach. Somebody had designed this area with a break-in, or a break-out in mind. And it hadn't been G, because he would have left Duo-sized openings in the precautions like he had for the rest of the house.

After disabling the third infer-red grid, and "talking" a steel door into not closing on them, Duo finally led them to an open area, just outside the lab.

"Catwoman, eat your heart out." Trowa heard him whisper before he started "talking" to the steel grating on the duct opening. Trowa had no idea that a pair of tweezers and those wire dental tools could do things like that, but Duo used them to get the grate loose enough for them to get through. They'd have to use another rout when they had G with them, he wouldn't have fit.

Of course, Duo probably had that planned too.

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Duo felt his breathing coming in gasps and his heart pounding with every footfall that echoed up from the lab. It had been a while since he'd pulled off a theft like this. For the last few years, most of his break-ins involved guns, explosives, Gundams and suicidal tendencies. All of those were off-limits tools for this operation.

He could feel the heat coming from Trowa behind him, and it both clamed him and made him tense with anxiety. Watching the goons on the ground, he couldn't help the anger that bubbled up in him at the thought that these guys were trying to rip-off of his Deathscyth. The anger was better than the calm/anxiety, so he went with it.

From the blueprints, he knew that there was a newly-added dormitory room of sorts at the none-hanger end of the long, thin lab. That was the best place to look for G. And they wouldn't even need to technically go into the lab to get there. Because of the size that Gundams were, there was a system of catwalks along the parameter of the lab. Nobody was using them on this end.

Except the rescuers and rescuee of course.

Together, Duo and Trowa creep along the catwalks, heading for the dormitory. Just before they dropped off the catwalk and in front of the door, it opened, nearly giving Duo a heart-attack. Trowa caught him as he jumped back in shock.

G and a man that Duo recognized from his photos walked out of the room together.

"So my Gundam's going to be finished by the time I get back next week?"

"Yes Mr. Gibraltar. Everything except the weapons function now, but we thought you would want it fully operational before testing it."

"Yes, of course. Thank you Mr. G. Have a good week." The pudgy brunette walked away before he could see the look of distaste twist G's face. Duo snickered, despite the anger swelling again. In the old lab, G would have decked anyone calling him by the wrong title. Better just use no title at all. At the sound, G looked up, his eyes widening as they met Duo's own. Duo grinned full force and bowed awkwardly from his kneeling position on the catwalk. Trowa just nodded his head.

The smile that spread across the old man's face was as proud as Duo had ever seen it, and it made his chest swell in an odd, warm sort of way. In the time it took Duo to get his emotions under control, G had gone back into the dormitory and brought out a briefcase. Duo raised an eyebrow, and mentally re-worked his plan for the lack of baggage.

Between the two of them, Duo and Trowa had G on the catwalk with them in seconds. "Should have remembered that you were a light packer."

"Still heavy compared to you, but yes, you should have remembered." Looking at the bag, Duo decided to go the rout of least resistance.

"Ok, Trowa, back the way we came." Trowa raised an eyebrow in question, and Duo gave him a sheepish grin in response.

So they went back the way they came, with just a little extra shoving to get G through the opening on either end of their air-duct rout.

By the time any of the lab goons went to look for G, they'd be back on the "bad" side of town. For Duo, it wouldn't be a moment too soon. A smile of pure Shinigami glee spread across his face, and only got wider as both of his companions paled when they saw it.

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continued in part sixteen