AN I am so sorry for not updating in such a long time. Things just weren't progressing. I had no inspiration. My muse must have decided is was time to show up again. I don't know and I don't care as long as it's here to stay. I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter and it's not the full rescue operation yet, either. I'm gonna need at least one more chapter for that, if not two. I'll try and keep things interesting, and update more. I can't promise you anything though. Sorry. For now, enjoy.

Thank you everyone who has reviewed so far. Thank you for sticking to this thingy. And thank you NafX for your praise of my wavering talent. I know my story may not be the best out there, but I still am proud of what I've accomplished so far and I'm glad there's people who agree with me. Always nice to hear from you. Thank you very much.

Under Pressure

Chapter 19

Brown eyes again glanced at the dark locks hanging in front of them. "Disturbing," Quatre whispered. He found his new looks very, very strange. But the brown hair and eyes were very average. No-one would give him a second look. He might just be able to openly walk the hallways of the base they were staring at.

A few hours ago Heero had pointed out an nondescript building of nine stories high along a relatively quiet road in the colony they were on. According to the plans the master hacker had been able to dig up, the building extended a few levels below the street's surface as well. The structure was listed as abandoned and was scheduled for demolition two months from now. Several L2 colonies were still struggling to repair the damage done to them, not only by the wars, but the time of the Alliance domination as well. This wreck was one of many waiting to be torn down and replaced by something livable.

Quatre let his gaze wander along the walls and corners of the building and was impressed by the way the organization had managed to hide themselves. When he had first set eyes on it, he had been dubious of Heero's conviction. Upon closer inspection he found the corners to be a little too much intact in comparison with the rest. The walls might look to be degrading, the skeletal structure was still pretty much intact. It was the perfect cover for a temporary base.

The young business man shuddered. If they, whoever 'they' were, could move around so much, they had to have contacts higher up in society. He didn't like the direction his thoughts were going. They were distracting him from the matter at hand.

Beside him Duo shifted the pack hanging from his shoulder. It was filled with small explosives, enough to create a disturbance, not enough to bring the building down on top of them. They would all be placed on the front half of the second floor. They didn't have the time to wander around the entire building. Duo would get a ten minutes head start. While he placed the explosives, Heero would try and locate Wufei and Sally. The would rendevous at the center of the first floor. From there they would split up. Heero and Quatre would go after Sally, while Trowa and Duo would try and get Wufei. No comms were used. The chance of interception of the signal was too great.

Quatre barely got the nod Heero gave Duo, before the two sprinted from their hiding place, avoided all the light and disappeared around the left corner of the building. He and Trowa sat back to wait exactly ten minutes before following. In the meantime the formerly blond owner of one of the largest companies in space found his thoughts wandering again. He was worried for his two friends trapped in that building. They couldn't even be sure they were still alive. It was not something he wanted to dwell on, but it was very much possible that they were risking their lives for two corpses. He fervently hoped the Preventer and the former Gundam pilot were alright and could be taken out of there.

That was another cause for concern. What if they were too injured to be able to get around well enough. Quatre would have to try and carry Sally, while Heero gunned their way out of there. But the blond CEO was never one for muscle strength and his time since the war had hardly been demanding of his physical capabilities. And then another thing, he didn't doubt Heero's abilities with weaponry, but he knew his own had dwindled somewhat. If things got hot, he'd be in serious trouble.

Quatre sighed. Things had changed in the four years since they had destroyed their Gundams. Even though he somewhat missed his faithful combat in arms and had never been able to completely rid himself of a sense of betrayal, he was also relieved to have acted the way they had. He had believed it to be the end of his time as a soldier. Unfortunately, he was now standing here, his back pressed to a grimy wall in an alley, his eyes trained on the likely hideout of a new enemy to peace. A well-organized one, at that.

A new war was imminent, but the current situation was a lot different from five years back. Relena was publically dead, the political field was in turmoil because of that, the enemy to peace was no longer a well-connected, dominating, world wide organization but many seemingly unrelated smaller groups under an unknown leader with unknown intentions.

Quatre tiredly rubbed his face. Other things had changed as well. The five former Gundam pilots were no longer fifteen year old soldiers (nearly) blindly obeying orders from vengeful scientists, they each had their own lives to live, homes and loved ones to return to. His heart wrenched in his chest as he thought about Duo, upcoming father, walking around with a sac full of explosives walking willingly into the lion's den. He hoped the young Maxwell wouldn't be born fatherless, and preferably in a war-free world, he added almost as an afterthought.

Duo slithered along the wall of the decrepit building with Heero right behind him. He hated this mission to the core. First off, because it had been too long since he had last done this. Old habits may die hard, but it had been four years since the Mariemeia incident and he had spent them settling down and learning to live a normal life. That didn't involve snooping around at night with a bag full explosives and a gun in his belt.

Second, he figured they were absolutely insane for doing this. Admittedly, he would be the first to barge in and bail his friends out, but that dying soldier inside him screamed at him he was in no condition to do what he was attempting now. This was worse than the time he had bailed Heero out of the military hospital, when he figured leaving a Gundam pilot, though at the time he hadn't been completely sure Heero was one, in enemy hands, wouldn't be for the good for the cause. Now, they had to drag out two people, in worse a state than Heero had been in, with no backup and no idea what they were up against. Sure, they had studied the blueprints of the building meticulously and Duo knew he would be able to make his way around there blindfolded, but those nice little computer files couldn't tell them how many people would be inside, or how well armed they were.

All in all, he thought this mission sucked ass, big time.

They reached the back entrance of the building. Heero slipped past him to settle against the wall on the other side of the door, drawing his gun. Duo reached for the oil squirt and released some of the black substance on the hinges. Then he closed his hand around the handle and nodded at Heero. He yanked the door towards him, while Heero took aim.

The first floor was empty. Heero signaled Duo to pass him and followed the burdened twenty year-old inside. It took some time before Duo's eyes had adjusted to the dimly lit environment. When they did, he saw how incredibly dingy it looked. The walls and ground were covered with water stains, the paint had almost completely disappeared and it was impossible to see what color it had once been, a few electrical wires remained to show where the lighting had once been.

He wrinkled his nose at the smell of the place. Old and dusty. He carefully made his way over towards the staircase, more towards the middle of the building. There Heero would try and find a possible entry in a hypothetical computer network to try and find Wufei and Sally's location. Yet another part of the mission Duo didn't like. It would only work if the organization occupied levels both above ground and below and had taken the risk of connecting the parts directly.

Heero nodded at Duo and headed for the column next to the door to the enclosed staircase. Just as Duo slipped through he door, he saw his friend open a panel and investigate the wiring. Knowing the other would complete his task he headed upstairs, using the stairs instead of the elevator, because of the risk of exposure. He only had eight minutes left to plant as many bombs as possible and get back down unscathed. And he wouldn't be able to bluff his way around this place like on an old OZ base. This group would be too closely knit for that.

Carefully he made his way one floor up. The door to that floor was blinded. He pressed his ear to the crack and listened. Silence. Cautiously he tried to open it and found it locked. 'Figures.' He pulled out his picks and wasted precious seconds opening the lock. He nearly forgot to look out for enemies when he looked around the second floor corridor. It was spotless. The floor was a smooth grey linoleum. The walls were an off-white. Everything looked organized and sterile. From his place he couldn't see any doors, only an air-conditioning grit. Silently he turned left, then right, heading towards the front of the building.

Voices halted his steps. For a few heartbeats he waited, poised on the balls of his feet. The voices didn't come any closer. In fact they were rather muffled. Realizing they must be coming from behind a closed door he continued walking, cautious for any more chances of discovery.

He shifted the bag on his shoulder and peered at his watch, only six minutes left. He cursed silently. The walls being as smooth as they were had put a dent in his plans. Now he had to find different places for his explosives. It would be taking a great risk, but he had to start opening doors. Only five and a half minutes left.

Heero opened the panel of the wiring and studied its insides. He immediately dismissed the thicker cables that were obviously power lines. Instead he focused on the small bundle of colored cables. Pulling a pair of pincers from his small backpack he sat to work stripping the cables from their protection.

Then he took out his laptop and plugged in the small adaptor that should protect his computer from traces as well as dangerous signals. He attached the adaptor to two stripped wires and watched his screen. No signal. Switching cables he continued until he had the right combination.

Then his finger flew over the keyboard. Commando's were entered and sent over the connection, hacking into the system. In half a minute he was in. But unfortunately he could find no rhyme or reason in this database. It seemed a random jumble of data without any kind of organization. He would have to dig through every file to see if it contained the information he needed. If that info was stored at all, of course.

His eyes traced the lines of text scrolling along the screen. On occasion he stopped to check whether the file held what he was looking for. After four minutes, he realized this was pointless. This organization was far too small to hold records of their prisoners. Maybe intercepting communication proved more useful. But he had to hurry. He only had about five minutes left.

He yanked the adaptor from his laptop and instead plugged in a small interceptor of radio waves in with a single earphone. Immediately his fingers resumed their work, testing several different frequencies at the same time. After exactly seventeen seconds he had found the main one. Using that knowledge, he hacked into their alarm system that would be connected to every comm in the base, mapping out positions of everyone of them. In the meantime he listened to everything that was said, hoping to find some clue on his friends's locations.

"...nothing to be seen. I guess it was false..." Duo must have run into a slight glitch.

"...getting tired. When is Sauders gonna..." Guard waiting to be relieved.

"...hasn't eaten anything again. Do I have to force it down his throat or something?" Found it. That sounded like a stubborn prisoner was starving himself. That sounded like something Wufei would do. Heero's fingers mutilated the keyboard in search of the source of said comm message. He tuned out the rest of the message which was most likely something along the lines of 'the less he eats, the weaker he gets, the easier we get what we want'.

There. Second level down, a corridor in the left corner near the front of the building. He had guessed right. At least Wufei was held below street level. Chances were, Sally was too. Question was, where?

"...don't know who's coffee it is, but if you don't..." Canteen, kitchen, whatever, unimportant.

"...finally getting laid again. I swear I've been dry for six..." Right, not what he was looking for.

"...running low on .32 ammo. Need to restock at the next..." Irrelevant. At least for now.

"...brought up to my quarters in an hours time. Maybe now I'll get that bitch to talk. Just don't give her..." And again, he found it. This was some superior talking most likely to the guard in front of a prisoner's door. Finding the target of that transmission would be easy enough. There. First level down, just about right above Wufei.

Heero frowned slightly. That would interfere with Duo and Trowa's escape route. He let his mental eye rove over the blueprints stored in his head. Maybe they could try the outside fire escape with Sally, if she was capable of walking and if the fire escape could hold them. It was on the outside and probably as rundown and inconspicuous as the rest fo the building looked.

The faintest tap of a fingernail against metal, two quick one slow, alerted him to Trowa and Quatre's presence. Duo was two silent steps behind them. Heero quickly severed the connection and closed his laptop, sliding it back in its case. Then he turned to the rest of this tiny rescue team.

"I found them," he murmured. He crouched down on the floor, drawing a quick sketch of the building in the dust and grime. "Two levels down, this corridor. Use the main stairwell to get away. Only deviate if you have to. Quatre, we're one level down, fire escape as getaway."

The three others nodded minutely. Duo raised the detonator. It was eleven minutes after the start of the mission. Heero shook his head. "Not until we're down. To much risk of getting caught on the stairs."

Not wasting a second, the four silently made their way down. Heero and Quatre stopped at the first landing, Trowa and Duo continued. Heero settled his back on one side of the door, pulled his gun and waited. Quatre shot him a nervous, brown eyed look from the other side.

Above them the building trembled.

AN I know. Horrible place to end it. I hate cliffhangers, but on the other hand, keeps the story more interesting, doesn't it? Please review and beg my muse to stay. I'm gonna continue on the next chapter. This is gonna be one long story.