Okay, so I've had REALLY bad case of writer's block lately. Sorry I haven't been updating as much as promised, but my life is so hectic now that I find little time to write anyway. But enough of my excuses. Here is the next installment of Cartouche:

Previously on "Cartouche":

"What's going on, Duo?" she asked, a note of suspicion creeping into her voice.

"Nothing's going on, I swear!" Duo sweatdropped. "It just so happens I'm in town. Do you know where the library is?"

"Sure. 241 West End Drive." Sally said. "Sure you're alright?" she asked.

"Maa, maa, daijobu. Domo arigato, Sally." Duo said gratefully. "Ja ne." and with that, he hung up the phone, signaled a taxi, and sped toward 241 West End Drive.

Meanwhile

Hotaru, still looking through the mirror, watched as Heero drove up the dirt path to a dingy wooden…shack, for lack of a better term. It was in a huge state of disrepair, and looked as if no one had visited in a year or so. It looked like one of those cabins that belonged in a trailer park (THAT was really unclear, I know). The paint was peeling, there were holes in the porch, a beam was missing from the roof, and various nests could be seen on the roof. 'Surely that can't be where Heero lives,' Hotaru thought as Heero got off his motorcycle and walked into the hut. The mirror blurred, and when it came back into focus, Hotaru could see inside the hut. There was a laptop, a GPS, and a whole shelf filled with books on what looked like robotics.

'Figures,' thought Hotaru as Heero sat down in front of his laptop and began typing rapidly. 'How the hell do I warn Heero about Duo and Wufei? It's not like I can teleport myself there.' Hotaru peered closer into the mirror at the laptop screen. "God, I wish this thing would zoom in," Hotaru said aloud. Much to her surprise, the mirror complied, zooming in on the laptop screen. 'Weird.' She thought.

She could see that Heero had accessed the internet using AOL. 'He's probably hacking into some top-secret government site or something,' She thought as a window popped up. Surprise surprise, the window said: access denied. In response, Heero began typing rapidly, and withing a minute, the 'access denied' was replaced by the actual window.

'Wait. If Heero's on the internet…couldn't I e-mail him and tell him about Duo and Wufei?' Hotaru pondered excitedly. "Hey, mirror thingy, does the screen say Heero's e-mail address?" Hotaru asked the mirror. Sure enough, the mirror blurred and focused on the top bar of the window screen. It read 'Welcome, hy01.'

"Typical," Hotaru muttered as she raced to her computer, still holding the mirror. She logged on and set about writing the e-mail.

Heero-

This is Hotaru. Don't ask me how I know, but Duo and Wufei are Aye and Horemheb, and they're meeting with each other as I type.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Oh, and don't ask me how I got this address either. I'm not quite sure myself.

After satisfied that she got the message across, Hotaru typed in the address and sent it. 'I just hope it reaches him in time,' she thought fervently as she returned her gaze to the mirror. "What is Heero trying to find?" she wondered aloud, when, to her astonishment, her picture popped up on the screen, along with her vital statistics, family history, medical history, etc. "Oh, he wants a background check, does he?" Hotaru muttered, furious. "So I'm not trustworthy enough? Ooh, I'm going to give that sonofabitch what's coming to him," she muttered darkly as she glared at Heero.

In the mean time

Duo swallowed nervously as he stared up at the public library. A sense of impending doom washed over him as he thought about what he was going to have to explain…or what Wufei already knew.

Summoning up his last bit of courage, he swallowed his fear and strode purposefully up the steps, threw open the door, looked around, and marched to the table where Wufei was, hunched over a stack of books. He stood next to Wufei, clearing his throat once or twice. Wufei, however, was so engrossed in his 'studies' that he failed to notice Duo, who was apparently having a violent coughing fit.

Duo, seeing his efforts were in vain, sighed and slammed his fist down on the book Wufei was reading. He started up, as a look of surprise spasmed across his face, before he regained control and glared darkly at Duo. "Took you long enough," Wufei snorted as he returned to his book.

Duo sagged, his tension lifted off his shoulders in one fell swoop. "Yeah, well, it took a while to get used to."

"Two days?" Wufei said derisively, still reading.

Duo looked peeved. "So…um…" he shifted uncomfortably.

"Sit down."

"Oh, right," Duo pulled up the chair. "So, Wufei, whatcha reading?" he asked, some of his cheeriness returning.

"What do you think I'm reading?" Wufei asked irritably. "Oh, never mind." He snapped the book shut and turned to face Duo. "Well, during your two day identity crisis, I have been working nonstop and researching Tutankamun, Ankhesenamun, Aye, and Horemheb. Do you remember when Horemheb"

"Well actually I was visited by Aye," Duo interrupted.

Wufei sighed irascibly. "Fine. Do you remember what Aye said? That there are 4 artifacts to find?"

"…yeah…"

"Well, they neglected to mention that in order to find the four artifacts, we must first possess the key to finding the artifacts."

"Really?"

"Yes really. Now, do you also recall who Aye said Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun were in this life?"

"…no…"

"Well, Horemheb…I mean Aye said that in this life, Ankhesenamun and Tutankhamun were Tomoe Hotaru---and Yuy Heero."

"…oh yeah…"

"So, I tracked down all the places Heero visited within the past 24 hours, and one place in particular caught my eye. It was the Museum of Natural History in Tokyo. Now why would Heero visit a museum?" Wufei prompted Duo.

"Because the key to the artifacts might be on display there?" Duo asked uncertainly.

"Exactly. Now, you know as well as I do that Heero would never attempt to steal anything in broad daylight with plenty of witnesses. My guess is that he'll make a go for it tonight, after the museum closes, which is at 6:00."

"…so, what do you want to do about it?"

"We're going to get there first, steal the key before they do, and then we'll be on our way to finding all 4 artifacts."

"What time should we get there?"

Wufei paused. "Well, I think we should give the museum staff an hour to get out, so I'd say around 7:00."

Duo looked at his watch. "But it's 2:30. What are we supposed to do for 4 and a half hours?"

"Get reading," Wufei said, shoving a book at him.

With a resigned sigh, Duo picked up "Ancient Egypt: A History," and began to read.