By: Shadow Chaser
Author's Notes:
I've been re-reading over the previous chapters of Retaliation and I noticed that I'm taking a darker turn with this story. Just want to warn you readers out there, a major character from the original series will die in this story. I won't tell who though. Oh yeah, and if you think it could be one that's mentioned in this chapter, the character's already mentioned in the other chapters. ^_^
Chapter 9 – Interrogations
Heero Yuy sat in his cell in grim silence. It was over a week since he, Duo, and Hilde had been taken into custody by Severn Cawley and his men and placed under arrest for sedition and treason against the government – all which were untrue, but tell that to Daemon Hallsfield. He had heard of the ambitious Senator from L1 who represented both the L1 Colony Cluster and the Northern European sector of the Unified Earth and Colonies, from his wife long before they were separated.
From what he researched and what Relena told him of Hallsfield, he was ambitious, conniving, and a true businessman. He knew of the bad blood between him and Quatre, the former resented the Winner Corporation's monopoly on the mining and distribution of iridium alloy, gundanium, and other precious metals. Hallsfield also hated the fact that the Gundam pilots were adored by the people of the Colonies and Earth itself – which made Heero wonder about the coup he had taken upon himself to do.
He knew from personal experience that the Colonies and some people of Earth will resist Hallsfield's intrusion and accusation that Preventers, Space Force, Sweeper and especially Winner Corp. would be liable to take over the Earth Sphere, but Hallsfield had played his hand at the most opportune moment. Even though it was just months after Locke's defeat and death, the Colonies were still reeling from her takeover and wanted a strong leader – and Hallsfield had apparently saw that it was his chance.
Politics were never Heero's strong suit, he left that to Relena, but he knew some things like the fact that if a majority of the people had their attention focused on one thing, they wouldn't even be able to see the background dealings. It was the same thing over and over again, which was why the Barton Foundation was able to execute Operation Meteor and why the White Fang was initially successful, but from all those times, he and his friends were able to deflect that views of the Colonies and Earth to focus on the problem at hand.
A "mob effect" he had heard Relena and Mariemaia use the term more than once in their speeches and in their discussions. Now with Hallsfield gaining control of the "mob", by ruthlessly suppressing dissent and engaging martial law in places where the most sympathy for the Gundam pilots would be generated, he was using his propaganda machine to the fullest.
He glanced towards Quatre who was sitting quietly in a chair, staring at nothing. From his vantage point, the former pilot of the Sandrock and his friend looked old. Hell they all were old, but it seemed that this turn of events hit him the hardest. Granted Quatre was the youngest of the five Gundam pilots of Operation Meteor, but right now, age seemed to catch up to him. He noted that since the past war with Locke, the head of Winner Corp. had begun to whiten at the temples and wrinkles lined his forehead. Even though they were the same age, 44, Quatre seemed older and more burdened.
His family business was now under heavy investigations, but at least he still had remnants to pick up on, whereas Heero couldn't really say the same for his best friend Duo.
Turning his gaze to the American scavenger, he inwardly winced in sympathy. Duo had seen his company go up in literal flames – when someone deliberately bombed the Parisian headquarters, destroying almost everything.
Hallsfield put the blame on Winner Corp. for forcing Sweeper to take shipment and sabotaging their headquarters and then reversed it so that Sweeper Group and Winner Corp. were in a conspiracy together to get insurance money to fund their future coup against the government. The problem with that logic, in Heero's opinion, was the motive. Hallsfield never came out with a clear motive.
Right now the good Senator, no President now, was pointing fingers at anyone who spoke against him, saying that they were part of the conspiracy and those that spoke out against him in the Senate were immediately placed under arrest and confined – at least that's what he deducted through the TV broadcasts that he had been watching since they placed him and Duo in these cells.
His hand where Severn had shot it, still hurt, but he didn't really care anymore. He let the soldier inside of him deal with the pain, and dealing with it, he suppressed anything that would make him weak. He was caught now, and his instinct was to survive…
Suddenly the loud echo of booted feet sounded harshly in the mostly quiet of the cells. As far as he could guess they were the only ones in this military prison block and so the booted feet meant either two things: one was that either Trowa or Wufei had been capture or their children had been captured, or two, they were coming for them – possibly for interrogation. Either that, by a long shot, someone assassinated Hallsfield and restored order to the Earth Sphere.
Fat chance though, he thought mostly to himself, especially if Severn Cawley had anything to do about it. He knew that Hallsfield had his own contingent of guards at his beck and call; he had seen them when Zechs invited the Senator over for a ball at the Sank Kingdom a few years back. Hallsfield came in with his contingent of well dressed and groomed bodyguards – looking very much like a President of a foreign nation or something of that nature.
Heero didn't move from his bed except only to look up at the opening of the door when four heavily armed guards came in, followed by a person that was all too familiar to him. Sean Johnston was Hallsfield's aide, but a damn sneaky person of his own right. He had heard rumors and looked through Preventer files on the early forties guy and found that most of his stuff was classified Black Ops and intelligence only answerable to Hallsfield's committee, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. This was where the regulations on trade and commerce were, but even though Hallsfield controlled the committee that decided what minerals were shipped and such, it was mostly Winner Corp. that had the right to set pricings and ship everything – which led to the political battles.
Johnston was dressed in an immaculate beige business suit and his light brown hair was a bit ruffled, but he looked like a stylish businessman, not a Black Ops officer. He and Johnston crossed paths more than once in their careers, as the man was the Senate liaison to Preventer – and through those many times, they had managed to get each other riled up, which wasn't an easy thing considering he himself didn't get riled up so easily.
The four soldiers fanned out to each of their cells and Heero just glared pointedly at the one who was holding a gun to him, standing a bit clear of the electrified bars surrounding his cell. Johnston swaggered towards Duo's cell and Heero watched, mildly interested. He caught Quatre's gaze and saw the younger man shrug an 'I don't know'.
"Ah…Duo Maxwell," Johnston drawled a bit lazily as he stopped in front of Duo's cell.
* * *
Duo raised an eyebrow at the patronizing tone. He wasn't familiar with the man in front of him trussed up in a business suit, but he had seen the man a few times in the Senate when he went there on rare occasion. He recalled someone pointing out to him that the man in front of him was one named Sean Johnston or something like that.
He leaned back, tilting the plastic and metal chair he was sitting on so that the back leaned against the cold concrete wall. Lacing his hands around the back of his head, he gave the man a predatory grin. "Come to see an old man in his cell?" he asked sarcastically.
"Of course," Johnston replied, "I just wanted to thank all of you for letting the good Senator Hallsfield get his chance to voice his opinions to the Senate and Earth Sphere."
"Oh…sure, glad that we could be of help," Duo threw back.
"Now if you would be so kind, Maxwell, Senator Hallsfield wishes to see you," Johnston said then held up a finger, "uh-uh. Make any sudden moves to escape and there'll be more breathing holes for your friends here."
He keyed the door to hiss open and Duo dropped his chair back onto the ground with a loud thump, and gave an evil smile at the guard who had been holding his sub-machine gun on him. "Just me? No committee or any prestigious body, not even Quatre, Heero, and sorry Zechs if you're awake, Zechs?" he asked as he stood up lazily and stretched. He wondered silently if Johnston would actually shoot Heero and the others, but decided to take a gamble.
"No just you," Johnston smiled sardonically.
"Aww…fine then I'll just make my lazy way out. Go ahead, shoot them. I don't really care," beyond Johnston, he could see Heero raise an eyebrow at him and gave him a skeptical look before he shrugged back at him almost imperceptibly.
"Don't give me that crap Maxwell, I know that each of you would actually die before revealing whatever secrets you have, but when I said 'friends' I also meant your wife too. I forgot to mention that sticking point," Johnston said and Duo froze mid-step. Years ago back when he still had his Gundam and was fighting a war against the Earth, Romefeller, White Fang, and the Barton Foundation, a comment like that he could have thrown away…but now…
Married with children, one who died just months ago in a war that was needless, he now had an obligation. He had to protect his wife and his only child, wherever Reyna was. He looked briefly into Johnston's eyes and saw that man was dead serious in his threat. He would shoot Heero, Zechs, Quatre and quite possibly his wife Hilde if he provoked him to do so.
Duo sighed softly, "All right, you win this round Johnston," he hated admitting defeat, but he knew that he had to protect his wife at all costs, even though he didn't know where she was. They had separated them into two vans and since the explosion at Sweeper Headquarters he hadn't seen Hilde.
He walked forward and let himself be led out of the cell block, avoiding Heero's gaze as he knew that his best friend would have the most peculiar expression, he didn't want to see it – truthfully, he was afraid that it was either understanding, pity, or a mixture of both or of something completely different. He could sense the soldiers that had been pointing their submachine guns surround him in a tight circle and frowned as one of them jammed the nozzle of a gun up the small of his back.
"Hey! Take it easy. I told ya, I'm not going to run," he groused as he followed Johnston. He didn't really recognize the place they were headed towards, but he tried his best to memorize wherever he was going-
"Don't bother," Johnston suddenly said, "don't even think of memorizing your way to see Senator Hallsfield. It's only to a dead end full of guards who would be more than happy to shoot you on sight."
"So? Maybe I want to visit him again and could make my way there myself sometime," Duo shot back before the gun at the small of his back poked sharply into him. "Ow! Hey…quit that!"
"Hmph," was the only reply he got from Johnston before he led him to wooden double doors embroidered with circular designs and opened it. As soon as Duo stepped in he was overwhelmed with the spacious room.
The room screamed of money and luxury. Red draperies with perhaps real gold trim on them decorated high spacious windows. But Duo couldn't see outside the windows as the draperies covered them – he assumed it was probably night time. Small couches with mahogany edges surrounded a plush oriental carpet that was placed on wooden floors. A roaring fireplace made the room's glow brighter even with four hanging chandeliers all over the place. He guessed that it was probably down south in wherever they had been taken to. No idiot would set their fireplace unless it was winter, and since it was in early summer in the northern hemisphere, it had to be the beginnings of a cold winter down south.
A striking man sat in one of the two chairs near the fire and Duo could see that the other chair, both separated by what looked like a chess table, was empty. He stood up as they walked forward and Duo guessed that this had to be Senator Hallsfield. He never met the man in person and though he saw him on the vid a lot, it just wasn't the same.
He could sense an aura of power coming from the man, and knew that he was dangerous, not so in armament, but in thinking and tactical decisions – this man was a true politician, always plotting and figuring out ways to get by or bend rules to get things he wanted passed in the Senate. It was similar to the aura Quatre possessed, except the former pilot of Sandrock had more compassion in him and possessed both a fighter's aura and a politician's aura.
"Senator, you requested to see the prisoner?" Johnston asked.
"Yes, yes…guards please leave us. I think Mr. Maxwell wouldn't do anything rash at the moment," Hallsfield waved the guards away and the gun that was so painfully jammed up the small of his back disappeared. Duo turned his head slightly to see all four guards except for Johnston leave and close the door behind him.
"Ah, Mr. Maxwell," Duo turned back towards Hallsfield as he approached him, his hand outstretched. "I am Daemon Hallsfield," he gave his hand in a handshake and Duo stared at it for a second before reluctantly taking it. He shook Hallsfield's hand and immediately got a sense of what the man was like. He had taught his daughter that handshakes gave an indication on who the person was, and right now silent alarms were blaring in his head, warning him that Hallsfield was deceitful and couldn't be trusted. But it was an understatement as Duo shut those alarms off. If he turned us traitor, of course he can't be trusted.
"Please, sit down. I've been meaning to have a chat with you," Hallsfield's voice was oily and smooth – and Duo noted that the man sure knew how to choose his words carefully.
"I think I rather stand, thank you," Duo said, folding his arms across his chest.
"Suit yourself," Hallsfield didn't look the least bit perturbed and instead picked up a glass of wine he had on the chess table and swirled it around. "Wine? Tea? Anything to drink Mr. Maxwell?"
"No thanks," Duo replied. He didn't trust anything the man would give – but then again, if Hallsfield wanted to kill them all, then a slow poison in their food given to them in their cells would do the job.
"Ah, well then to business," Hallsfield set his drink down and began to pace around the fireplace, his white gloved hands clasped behind his back. He was dressed in a designer suit, grey, and his white streaked brown hair was slicked back. Duo watched the man pace back and forth, feeling annoyed.
"As you know, I've been putting in so much time to investigate who bombed the Sweeper Headquarters, terribly sorry about that Mr. Maxwell," Hallsfield started and Duo felt his hackles rise, "and I was wondering if you actually did accept shipment from Winner Corporations that morning."
Duo sensed that Hallsfield was baiting him for something and he choose his words carefully, "Sweepers always accepted shipments from Winner Corp. They mine the minerals and we help them ship it, simple as that."
"Yes, yes, I know that, but did you accept shipment that morning?" Hallsfield prodded.
"Don't all the trading companies do everyday?" he shot back. He sort of knew where Hallsfield wanted him – he wanted him to say that yes, Sweepers did accept shipment and then probably spin it for his own information – especially what he heard on the vid that was constantly replaying what happened in the Senate hall that day when they were all arrested.
"I'm sure they do," Hallsfield replied and Duo gave him a sardonic smile in return. "Who do you think would bomb your company's headquarters?"
Duo shrugged, "I don't know… Maybe you?"
"Ha ha," Hallsfield laughed lightly, a laugh that never reached his cold eyes, "your humor has improved Mr. Maxwell. Now why would you think that I would destroy Sweeper Headquarters? I am the head of the Committee of Commerce, Science and Transportation after all. It wouldn't be in my best interest."
"People's interests change. Maybe you want to figure out a way to get the money for yourself?" Duo shrugged; he hated politics, he wasn't really good at it.
"Maybe you want the insurance money. It is after all, a huge Earth and Lunar based corporation and you have a lot invested in it," Hallsfield's comment made Duo blink.
"I don't care for money-"
"I see you have enough to rebuild the Gundams, especially in lieu of your good friend Howard, am I correct? It was Sweepers that funded the re-construction of the Gundams prior to the war with Locke Dabnerba. You hid the Gundams on MO-VII-"
"That's not true!" Duo suddenly burst out. "That's-"
"It's the truth isn't it Mr. Maxwell? You rebuilt the Gundams before there was knowledge that Locke Dabnerba had returned! You never told anyone-"
"They weren't even completed! They were only half-"
"So you were planning on taking over the Earth, weren't you? You were going to contact your friends, the other Gundam pilots and have them pilot your mobile suits! You were going to invade Geneva and take over the Senate with your Gundams! Except no, Locke so happened to come at the time they were almost complete and you knew that your plans for world and colony domination had to be put on hold!"
Duo felt his jaw drop. How dare he?! He felt so manipulated…he felt so… "You…you…"
"I think that's enough for today. Sean, please escort Mr. Maxwell back to his cell. Let him think over his actions," Hallsfield suddenly said, and smiled down at him but Duo didn't care. His mind was still numb from the shock of it all…Hallsfield twisted his words, the events of Locke and Omicron, to something like this…it just wasn't…feasible…
As Johnston took him by the arm and the four guards came back into the room to escort him, Duo could only think of what happened…and he could only think of his son, Tarrant, who died in the battle against Omicron.
"Oh, Mr. Maxwell," Hallsfield's oily voice barely registered in his mind, "why did you rebuild the Gundams? Power? Conquest?"
* * *
Author's Notes:
Yeah, I said that I was going to write about Neo, but I felt like writing about the G-pilots so nyah! Next chapter is probably more about the G-pilots and wives. ^_^ Enjoy! Hopefully the chapter after that will be about Neo. ^_^ Heh.