Lost Memories

By: Ashley2323


Chapter Four

"Here's something," Scout muttered to herself. "Witnesses in Ace's kidnapping." She pulled up files of a few civilians. They looked average enough. She checked out the police reports they filed and noticed something interesting. "What the…" She studied them more carefully. All three witnesses said exactly the same thing. "Since when does that happen?" It could have been a mere coincidence, but Scout didn't believe in such a thing. Just to make sure, she pulled up the police records of all three witnesses.

She didn't really find anything more than traffic tickets and nights in the drunk tank for the first two, but the third caught her attention.

He was a tall, bald man, with a thick neck and broad shoulders. He called himself Jonas Smith, an obvious alias. He looked like a bodybuilder. She found absolutely nothing on him. No parking tickets, no court hearings, nothing. The man was a saint; Scout fund that hard to believe. She started more intensive research. It took her only ten minutes to catch a lead.

"Look at this!" Scout cried happily as she slammed a pile of printouts in front of Heero.

"What?"

"I've got three phony witnesses to Ace's kidnapping."

"How can you be sure?"

"Look at this," She said as she tucked her bangs behind her ear. "All three of them told the police the exact same thing."

"So?"

"So! Don't you find that a bit odd? Since when do witnesses all tell the same stories? And not only that, but they're obviously completely made up."

Heero gave her a questioning look.

"See here? They all told the police that they saw the men rob Ace and knock him out in the process. Then they dragged him behind some trees where they couldn't see them. Then a few minutes later, 'about four minutes' according to the witnesses, they reappeared and got into the van and drove off."

"So where was Ace?"

"Exactly. If someone really is after us, then why wouldn't they take Ace with them? It doesn't make sense."

"Hmm," Heero was thoughtful. "So do you know where to find them?"

"Not yet, but I thought you could use this information. This guy here who looks like Mr. Clean, was using an alias when he filed the police report. His real name is Calvin Hunter, and he's got a record four miles long."

Heero took the papers from her and studied them. "How did you get all this?" He asked.

Scout grinned. "Impressed aren't ya? I figured we were looking at it from the wrong angel. We couldn't find anything through Duo, so I figured we should work through Ace."

Heero nodded. "I'll check it out. Keep it up."

"Will do," Scout saluted. She turned and stalked back to her room to keep up with her research.

Duo was keeping busy. Since they had taken him to the hospital ward he had been studying their routines of security. There was less security in the hospital ward, and it shouldn't be too hard to get out.  He was almost ready to make his move. All he had to do was work out his plan. He watched as the nurse walked past the door, the same way she always did. Soon the guards would change, and he could act. He waited and watched as the noise of switching shifts started.

Grinning, Duo crept out of his hospital bed and expertly picked the lock. He opened the door and swung viciously at the two guards. He watched with satisfaction as they both fell to the floor. He dragged them inside, took one of the uniforms and their weapons. He left the room, fixing his cap, and started to walk. He tried to guess that general direction of the hanger. He could steal a mobile suit and get a message to Heero and Scout. They would be able to help him. He wondered how they would get along once they met. He chuckled. They definitely had clashing personalities. But then again, so did he and Heero, and they were best friends.

He turned a corner and ran into a man wearing officer's stars.

"Soldier! Where do you think you're going?"

"Uh, down to the hanger, sir," Duo said with a salute.

"What are you talking about? The hanger is the other way!"

"Oh, sorry, I just got transferred here."

"No you didn't, you're the prisoner!" The officer hissed. He pulled his gun out and Duo sprang into action.

"Hiya!" He cried as he hit the officer with the but of his gun. He turned to run, but another group of soldiers closed him in. Duo cursed and turned around but he was surrounded. He had no choice but to surrender. He dropped his gun and raised his hands in the air. A couple of young soldiers grabbed him and cuffed his hands behind his back. They roughly pushed him back to his cold cell. Duo grumbled and screamed at them as they did so. It was no use, he knew that, but he felt like making a scene. He would never go quietly.

The guards tossed him into his cell, and he jumped up and yelled at them some more. "You just wait until my buddies get here! You'll never know what hit ya!"

"Yeah, yeah," The guards laughed. "Just like those morons, always insisting that someone will come for them." The other guard laughed and they left. Duo grumbled to himself and sat down in his cell. He lay down and propped his feet up against the wall. Then, out of sheer boredom and frustration, he began to kick it. He would have to come up with another way to get out.

~

Ace listened to the steady kicking until he was nearly going nuts. Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore. He got up, walked to the other side of his cell and kicked the wall back. As if by magic, the noise stopped. Ace grinned and walked back over to his cot. But just as he got there, it started again. Ace growled in frustration and slammed his fist into the wall. "Will you knock it off!" He screamed.

The guy on the other side laughed loudly.

"You know, there are some of us here who aren't mentally deteriorated!"

"Ouch, that wasn't necessary!" the guy called. "Don't tell me you're just going to roll over and let them keep you here?"

"What does that have to do with you banging on the wall?"

"Everything! I'm not just pissing you off, I'm pissing them off too!"

Ace groaned. "Well, just shut up for a while so I can sleep."

"I couldn't do that…"

"And why not?"

"Because, they might try to kill you while you're asleep."

Ace snorted and tried to ignore the man as he dropped back down onto his cot and pulled the pillow over his head. The banging had started again. Ace grit his teeth and waited, and waited, and waited. But still the annoying guy on the other side of the wall would not stop. Eventually though, he got used to it and fell into a restless sleep.

Scout looked at the address on the page and up at the old house in front of her. "Well," She sighed, "This is it…" she stepped up to the door and knocked.

The door swung open and she came face to face with her Mr. Clean, Calvin Hunter.

"Mr. Hunter?" she asked.

"Yeah? What's it to you?"

"I'm here on behalf of Mr. Ace Stone." She pushed her fake glasses up on her nose and smiled sweetly. "I'm the attorney in charge of the prosecution in this case."

"What, they caught the guy already?" Hunter paled a bit.

"We have a suspect in custody, but we would like your cooperation with a testimony."

"All right…" Calvin Hunter sighed and let her in.

"Thank you Mr. Hunter." She walked past him into the dusty home and quickly made sure no one else was there. She grabbed her gun and spun around, bringing the gun level with his eyes. Calvin stared at it, dumbfounded.
"You're not a…"

"Listen to me, Mr. Hunter, I know you lied to the police, but you're not going to lie to me, now are you?"

Calvin only glared at her.

"Oh, now it's too bad you're such a moron. You know how I know for sure now that you were lying? Mistake number one, Calvin Hunter didn't tell the police anything, Jonas Smith did, now didn't he?"

Calvin's jaw dropped. The guy was not high up on the intelligence scale. "Now here's what I want to know. Who hired you to give the police a phony statement?"
"I…I dunno…" Calvin stuttered.

"Yes you do," Scout hissed. "Tell me who it is and where I can find him. Are you still working for him?"

"I swear it lady…" Calvin suddenly reached behind him and grabbed a metal crowbar from the table. He swung it at her and just barely missed her head, but knocked the gun out of her hand. Scout glared at him but was not quite ready to back down yet. She got ready to fight him, even though he was well over twice her size. She dodged another blow and kicked him in the head. Calvin stumbled backwards but managed to regain his balance in time to swing at her once again, this time catching her in her good eye.  Scout cursed and stumbled and Calvin punched her again, this time sending her reeling into the table. Scout watched, terrified and actually feeling helpless as he picked her up by the collar and brought her to her feet.

"You know, it's been a long time since a woman's come calling at my door, maybe you and me could have a little fun."

Scout gathered the last of her energy to spit in his face. Calvin growled and raised his fist to punch her. Scout knew this one would knock her out, and then who knew what would happen. She closed her eyes and waited, but the blow never came. Instead, Calvin made a strange noise and released his grip on her. Scout opened her good eye, which was now swelling to the size of a peach, to see what was going on.

She saw Calvin slide to the ground, and behind him stood a very smug-looking Heero Yuy.

"What are you doing here?" Scout gasped.

"I followed you." Heero answered.

"Why?"

"Well, don't you think that's it's a good thing I did?"

Scout snorted and looked away. "I will not dignify that with an answer."

Heero smirked and stepped up to her. "Better take a look at that," He said, reaching for her black eye. Scout flinched a bit as he brushed his fingers against the purple skin.

"Relax, I'm going to get you some ice." Heero said. He disappeared into the next room for a moment and came back with an ice pack to control the swelling.

"Did you get anything out of him?" Heero asked as he applied the pack.

"Not really, but I know someone hired him to go after Ace. I don't think he knew that I'm his sister though."

"Well good, what do you think we should do with him?" Heero cocked his head in the direction of the unconscious man.

Scout looked up at him and smirked.