Eheh-heh-heh-heh....

I'm back!



Special thanks to:

Ane-chan: Well, sort of! LotR was GOOD!!!!

SachiNyoko: I'm glad you like it! Yup, Starlights!

Lilaclight: *whimpers in fear* You won't come after me now since the chapter's out, right? Thanks for you idea! Now I've got a good idea to replace Ground Zero since I think the manga is a little dull...

alexz: Sorry!!! I've got the chapter out now!



Enjoy!



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Usagi bit back as scream as she watched Hiiro slam the door open and fall at the feet of the room's occupant, a coal black gun in the Ukrainian's hand.

Immediately a bang rang out as Wufei shot the gun out of Mikhal Anporsky hands. The man made no other defensive moves as Duo cuffed the guy.

"Hiiro?!" Usagi asked, helping the man get up.

"I'm fine, Usa," Hiiro responded. "He never shot the gun."

Usagi checked him over just to be sure.

"He's right," Wufei said, picking the weapon up. "The safety was still on his gun." He sifted through the Anporsky's wallet and picked out a couple of cards.

Hiiro turned to the cuffed man and started questioning him.

"No use, Hii-man. The guy's got a sealed mouth," Duo told him.

Wufei began to list the man's charges. "Smuggling, former possession of dangerous chemicals, fake passport, fake IDs, illegal possession of firearms."

Hiiro glared at the man. "Add refusal to comply with the authorities to that list," he growled. If this one man could talk, they would be a whole step closer to locating and disarming that bomb. Anporsky glared coolly back, but still refused to talk.

"Check the entire room for addresses, phone numbers, anything that could help us find the location of this bomb," Hiiro ordered. The men got to work as Duo, Usagi, Wufei and Hiiro escorted the man out to the vans waiting outside.

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"All we got was a phone number, Sally," Wufei reported. "And a lot of cash. The guy won't talk, not with the methods permitted by the constitution," he said glancing at Hiiro who wanted to use more...er...painfully encouraging methods. Usagi rolled her eyes, noticing Wufei's askance.

"Good enough. Get someone to bug that phone number and find the location," Preventor Sally ordered.

"Understood." Wufei departed to page a FBI/Preventor who would deal with the phone number.

"What about the cash?" Duo couldn't help but asked. It had been a nice wad of money in the suitcase.

Sally smirked. "Let's just call it a nice, healthy donation to the Preventors."

Milliardo, who happened to be present, chuckled. "I'm sure no one will object to that," he said, glancing at his boss who had returned from D. C. that morning. Lady Une frowned. Technically the money would be overturned to the government, but she could forgo this pseudo-felony. The Preventors may be part of the military and may be government funded, but the President's administration preferred buying bombs over bomb defenses.

"Should we inform the public though?" Usagi asked. "The amount taken from Ukraine would expose thousands of people to radiation and possibly could render a square mile of Chicago uninhabitable for years."

Lady Une nodded. "I've spoken to the Attorney General and the President, but both are leaning towards waiting. They're afraid of the panic."

Usagi grimaced. "I'd rather have a bit of panic that a mass of dead people."

"That's what I told them," Une said. "But those two said they have faith that we'll 'find the damn bomb and get rid of it,'" she said, gesticulating to indicate the direct quotation.

"Well, now we don't have any choice but success," Hiiro stated.

"We never really had any other alternative, Hiiro," Usagi muttered.

"...Well then, now we've got more pressure," Hiiro responded.

Wufei reentered the room. "We've got our fastest workers checking up on the number. They said results within four hours."

Lady Une nodded in approval. "Now back to when to alert the public."

"I propose that if we don't get a solid lead before the Starlight concert, then we alert the public," Sally suggested.

"Good luck getting through Mr. President," Milliardo said caustically.

"Don't need to give me the luck," Sally said, a sweet smile on her face. "Give it to yourself. You've got next update duty. Remember? Your flight leaves tomorrow morning."

Milliardo groaned amid the chortles of the rest of the members.

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The phone number was traced to a shabby apartment occupied by several men.

A Chinese woman around their ages approached the chatting group of four who had left the meeting together. "Wufei, here's the information we pulled up on the address to the phone number you sent us." Meiran Long, one of the Preventors' top software engineer volunteers handed the man a manila folder.

"Thank you," he told her.

"You're Meiran, right?" Duo asked.

"Yes, that would be me," Meiran replied. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Duo gave her a wink. "Sure is. Want to go out with me tonight babe?"

Meiran blushed, not expecting a request along those lines.. "Umm..."

Usagi rolled her eyes as Wufei glared disapprovingly at his partner. "Don't mind, Duo," Usagi told her. "He's the biggest flirt in the US." She held out her hand. "Usagi Tsukino."

"Meiran Long." They clasped hands in a firm handshake.

"So, are you from here?" Usagi asked.

"No, I work in Cali," Meiran informed her.

"Really?" Usagi exclaimed. "Same! What area..."

While Usagi and Meiran exchanged small talk, Wufei, Hiiro, and Duo reviewed the report enclosed within the folder.

"Hey," Duo pointed at one of the tenant's names. "Isn't that guy on the French anti-terrorism list?"

Wufei pondered this for a moment. "You know, Yui, for once I think the braided idiot is right."

"Hn. You two want to bug the house?" Hiiro asked.

Duo took up on the offer. "Sure. No prob." He grabbed Wufei by the arm and headed for the technical storage. "Let's go, Wu-man." As they passed Usagi and Meiran, he called out. "See ya Usa! Sorry Meiran, but I've got a house to wire so I can't take you out tonight."

Usagi yet again rolled her eyes at the asinine remark. "Like she even said yes in the first place," Usagi retorted.

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Duo waited patiently for something to happen in the house as Wufei was monitoring Zero and the tapping into the telephone line.

"Anything?" Wufei whispered.

"Nada," Duo muttered, shaking his head slightly as he readjusted some dials on the panel controlling the wires and mikes he had placed throughout the apartment.

"The plutonium was never here," Wufei grunted. "Let's hope you bugged the right spots."

Duo scowled. "I did this one right, Wufei. I'm not going to screw up my home."

"Glad to here that."

An uneasy silence registered in the Preventors van which was disquised as a van from a telephone company.

Duo picked up something on his headset.

"Wufei!" he hissed. "I've got something from the kitchen!"

Wufei slipped on a set of headphones after checking that whatever they were going to here would be recorded properly for later use. They listened quietly in on the conversation.

Before the conversation was half over, they knew what the next target would be.

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I know, another cliff-hanger. Not nearly as bad as the other one though. But I wanted to get it out faster! I'm sorry that it's really short, but finals are coming up and I've got to study. Promise the next chapter will be longer and NOT a cliffie (well, not really...). However I can't guarantee the chapter will be out before Feb.

I dedicate this chapter to Lilaclight who got out a chapter of An Unlikely Bond so I could update this fic. Thank you so much, Lilaclight for all of you support. I promise when finals are over that I'll read the new fics that you have out.

I got to see Two Towers yesterday! It was awesome! Now I want to write a LotR fic! I'm seriously considering writing a SM/LotR fic, but I don't know if I'll actually find time to write it. But then of course I'm thinking of writing a YuGiOh fic too...but that's a whole other story...

Don't forget to review! I love to here what you guys think of this story. And check out my other fic!