Watch out, folks....here comes a whopper.
Disclaimer: It's lucky for the people that run the Super Bowl that I don't own a complete set of Gundams and pilots, etc., because there isn't a football field big enough in the whole world to hold the game I'd want them to play. =^-^= Down! Set! HUT! *massive explosions*
~~~~~~~~~~|
Episode Thirty-Five: Golddiggers "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." ~Bible, 1 Timothy 6:10aJanuary 27th, 1902 There was a sparkling mauve sky overhead, peppered with the glitter of thousands of stars, though it was nearly bright enough to be daytime. Walls appeared on every side made of neatly cropped shrubbery, inconsistently eight feet tall and fencing in the grassy ground that pitched and rolled like a sailboat shooting rapids. In all directions, there was colour...sage, violet, blue and gold...a pleasant shock to Heero's senses. Behind him, someone laughed. He was suddenly facing the opposite direction without moving, and a flutter of chestnut with golden highlights flew past his eyes. Heero followed the twisting, shimmering rope and soon recognized the place he was in--the hedge maze in the back garden outside Bridlewood--as well as the person running away from him. It was definitely Duo, but he could only catch tiny glimpses of the boy's face as he darted through the leafy labyrinth, tossing seductive smiles over his shoulder as he laughed. In the logic center of Heero's brain, the scene made no sense and perfect sense all at once, but he didn't care. He ran eagerly after his quarry, not knowing why Duo laughed so, or why he was leading Heero on such a merry chase. They ran and ran, many times farther than the real hedge maze should have lasted. A warm summer breeze swirled into Heero's ears, blending with chirping birds and cascades of beautiful laughter, urging him forward, faster and faster, until he skidded to a halt, surrounded by shrubs with no escape. A dead end. A twig snapped behind him and he turned around. Duo slowly peeked around the corner; the prey had its own hunter cleverly trapped. Duo smiled again, and the leaves and grass turned a bright chartreuse, while the sky turned the deepest shade of violet, and shooting stars rained down on them both. There was no place so beautiful in all the universe. "Heeeeero..." A high-pitched voice punctured the heavens, out of sync and strangely lacking in the ethereal quality of Heero's environment. Suddenly, he felt a burning scratch across his cheek, and the vision was shattered. He woke up. "You're not going to sleep the whole day away, are you?" the honeyed voice continued. Heero felt a fingernail being dragged lightly up and down the side of his face. He looked up immediately and saw Relena, leaning over him...on his bed...in his pajamas...unarmed and trapped like a rat. Upon making eye contact with his captor, he gurgled groggily in shock and scooted away, pulling the blanket up to his throat. Relena thought that this was simply charming, and giggled. "Sleep well?" Yes, until you came in. "Fine, thank you." "Good, because we've got a busy day ahead of us!" Relena bounced boldly onto the bed and sat back on her ankles, producing an opened letter from the pocket of her skirt. Heero propped himself up and rubbed his eyes, clutching vainly at the fading remnants of his dream. It was so beautiful...and now it was gone... "We got a letter this morning from the Hursley Hambledon Hunt Society," the girl chattered excitedly. "The estate they normally use for their spring hunt can't host it this year, because of a stone bridge that collapsed into a creek. The repairs won't be finished in time, since the owner wants another bridge imported brick by brick from Scotland. I think it's very wise of them to stick to traditional materials, don't you?" Heero yawned. "Well, the committee wrote to ask me if they could use our grounds for the hunt, and that would also mean that we'd get to host the hunt ball! Wouldn't that be fabulous!? Anyway, to make a long story short..." Too late, Heero thought. "...I thought this might be something nice that we could do together--plan out the hunt ball! The committee will furnish us with the addresses of the regular guests, and they're letting us invite whomever else we want, so long as they'll fit in the ballroom, and you know our ballroom's huge! Inviting our own guests is an unusual privilege, but since it's such short notice, I think it's a nice way for them to make up for the inconvenience. Now, I know you're not terribly enthusiastic when it comes to social events, but I could really use your help, since Uncle Treize is gone for the day, and Dorothy will be planning out the decora--" "Wait a minute," Heero interrupted. Nothing in her tirade had been of any interest except that last remark. "Where's Treize?" Relena squinted unpleasantly as Heero referred to her uncle in the familiar. "He...went back to London this morning. I asked him if I should get you out of bed to say goodbye, but he told me not to wake you." Heero made the leap to near-total wakefulness before she even finished speaking, and glared straight ahead, cursing himself for oversleeping. If it weren't for the presence of a lady, he would surely have leapt out of bed and thrown his clothes on, uttering vile phrases in the direction of the clock. Even without looking at it, he could tell it was terribly late by the brightness of the room. How could he be so careless? Relena got up off the bed and smoothed out the covers where she had perched. "Anyway, he knows I'm perfectly capable of running the house and organizing a little country ball. Now, get up, get dressed, and I'll have Elsie fix your breakfast. We're going to have so much fun today!" With a primal squeal used by enterprising women for generations, she gave her beloved a sweet smile and slipped out. As soon as she was safely gone, Heero went back to his original plan of jumping out of bed and tossing on the first clean outfit that came to hand, then looked at the clock and felt dizzy at the sight of 10:30 being displayed by the golden hands. He'd never gotten up so late in his life. There's no way I can catch Treize now! he thought angrily. How could this happen!? All I can do now is call Duo and warn him... His first conscious thought of Duo brought back the memory of the faded dream. Is that why I overslept? It was beautiful...perhaps I didn't want to wake up. I remember...not being able to sleep, late last night...and then that dream.....my efficiency is down. Something must be getting to me. While he pondered what on earth could be wrong with him, he glanced around the room and just happened to notice that something was missing. ".....Shadow?" The little grey cat slept wherever she liked, and that was usually on top of the covers--sometimes on top of Heero--and always went downstairs with him to the kitchen for her breakfast, but that morning she appeared to be gone. Acting on a hunch, Heero crouched down on all fours and peered under the bed. Two shiny turquoise eyes twinkled back at him nervously. He sighed. "It's alright, she's gone now." With a gentle tug and a bit of coaxing, Shadow crawled back into the light of day, and into the safety of Heero's arms. It had not escaped his attention that she didn't particularly care for Relena, or her habit of barging into their room unannounced and uninvited. Either that, or she could smell Frederick on her. He tried to be a comfort to his kitty as they made the long walk to the kitchen, for Elsie would never consent to room service for the likes of him. After leaving Shadow to Trowa's expert care, he gobbled down half a plate of mediocre food while quickly formulating plan 'B'. The risks were enormous, but there was no alternative. He would have to try to call Duo. If Treize was already there, at the very least, he could maintain contact with his assistant for hourly updates. On the other hand, if Relena caught him on the phone again, it would mean instant death. Silently, he crept into the lounge, expecting the worst. Still slightly foggy from his extended layover in dreamland, he made a grab for the pocketwatch that wasn't there, remembering with a wince that he had loaned it to Pegan weeks ago. Fortunately, another timepiece rested on the mantle, and he saw that it was nearly eleven. Far too late, he thought, if Treize left early enough, he could be there by now. Pushing aside his stray regrets, he lifted the receiver and whispered to the operator, who connected him at once to Bridlewood. Three rings went by, then four. Between rings five and six, he was starting to worry, but to his relief, someone finally picked up in the middle of ring number seven. "Czesc!" the someone said. Heero double-blinked. That didn't sound right. "Hello?" "Przepraszam?" the person asked in a puzzled voice. "Who is this!?" Heero barked. "Nie rozumiem." Heero sighed into the phone. It had to be one of Treize's flunkies on the other end, and the Count had apparently lucked out and chosen workers who spoke a language Heero was unfamiliar with. The accent was eastern European, but that was all he could tell. A thousand fresh worries invaded his mind. Had Duo been forced out of the house? Had he been captured? Or had he just popped down to the shops because he was running low on nutmeg? "Czesc? Hallo?" the foreign voice begged. Should I try one of my other languages just in case? No, I'd almost certainly be giving myself away. He would have told them to expect that...but I have to find out what's going on... "Heero!" Startled, he slammed the phone down and pivoted around, only to see a rather irate Relena standing in the doorway. His last thoughts before she stormed up to him and slapped his hand away from the device were whether or not he was too young to join the French Foreign Legion. "You just can't keep yourself away from this thing, can you!?" she bellowed. "Well, we're going to have a nice quiet day together planning the ball, and then we'll go back over the wedding preparations, and I don't want this offensive piece of technology disturbing us any more than it has done!" With that, and to the boy's extreme horror, she grabbed the telephone cord and savagely ripped it out of the wall. Afterwards, she smoothed out her hair and laced her fingers together in a very ladylike fashion, while Heero gaped. "Now, let's get started shall we?" When he didn't quite move fast enough for her liking, she folded her arms and glared a highly impressive glare. As Heero turned in defeat and shuffled out of the lounge, he could swear that he heard, in the back of his mind, a lone trumpeter, mournfully sounding out the first few notes of 'La Marseillaise', gently. **********At first, Duo's natural reaction to the overturned apple cart that blocked the path of his cab back to Bridlewood was one of slight frustration, but he soon overcame it by getting out and walking the last few blocks. He'd been out running errands all morning, since he no longer felt needed in his own kitchen; the blue-clad workmen had rejected his fine cooking and were fixing all their own meals now, most of which smelled decidedly strange. In his travels that morning, he took some books to Pegan in the sanitarium from Bridlewood's library, and had swung by the Muddy Nag to pick up the blueprints from their hiding place. The chef had endured too many nights listening to every creak and thump and wondering if it was Wufei, and while he hadn't worked out the fine details, he felt that having the blueprints with him might buy him some sleep somehow. With the rolled-up sheaf of papers tucked under one arm and his tweed cap held on with the other, he struggled against the wind as he turned the corner onto Whittington Place, but was greeted by an unexpected sight. There was a carriage in front of the house, and an unfamiliar coachman was just hopping down to open the door for his passenger. Duo slowed down a bit. A tall auburn-haired man stepped out, and the chef ducked behind a neighbour's hedge even before he recognized the man as Treize. Ohhhh geez... One of the workmen emerged from the house and jogged down to the carriage. Treize conversed with him openly, and while Duo was too far away to hear them, he guessed that he wouldn't have understood a word they said anyway. Something disconcerting happened just then; while he was being observed, Treize seemed to ask the man a question while dragging one hand down from the back of his head through three feet of empty space, while making a zig-zag motion with his other hand, as if illustrating something. Mmm. Probably best if I ignore the fact that he appears to be describing my hair. Purely a coincidence. The worker nodded and held one hand several feet off the ground questioningly, and added a spiral motion pointed at his head, the international sign for raving loonies. Treize nodded back. ...and they've just accurately described my height and overall demeanor, too. Still, doesn't mean anything. The Count spoke a few words more and made a slashing gesture across his throat. Wuh-oh. That ain't good. After a hearty chuckle at the curbside, the pair went into the house, and the coachman drove off down the street, prompting Duo to duck further down behind the hedge as the carriage went past. Suddenly, walking in through the front door no longer seemed like a good idea, and he strolled nonchalantly back the way he came, turning at the first corner and heading for the parklands directly behind the manor. It was well past lunch by then, but his stomach wasn't complaining; he hadn't had much of an appetite for the last couple of weeks, and actually had to force himself to eat from time to time out of fear for his muscle tone. Food was still the farthest thing from his mind as he hiked as casually as he could through the park, right up to the six-foot brick wall that separated him from Arthur's cottage, marking the back property line. A new plan was needed. I've got to get inside...but then what? I can't take on all of them at once, not if they're out to get me...but I need the rest of my stuff, and...well, if Heero was coming to watch Treize, he would've been here by now, clinging to the underside of the carriage, most likely. If he's not here, something must've gone wrong and he couldn't make it. He sat down on the frozen ground behind the wall and took a moment to assess the condition of the blueprints; they had survived the wild trek around the neighbourhood splendidly. I need help. I need an ally...I know I can trust Arthur, but he's not as young and agile as I need him to be. There's got to be someone else... **********Wufei watched the Count's arrival from the front attic window and smiled to himself. Creeping out from his hiding place for some fresh air and a stretch had been well worthwhile. The civilians are gone, the stage is set, and the rat just wandered innocently into the trap. It's been far too long a wait for this...too many years...my time is now, Lord Treize...and your time is ending. Once his target had gone inside, there was no further purpose in standing at the window, and so Wufei began inching down the servants' stairwell on his way to the drawing room. As yet, he still hadn't decided what to do with the Count. A quick death seemed too good for him, and yet Wufei didn't want to draw a great deal of blood and ruin the nice carpet he'd picked out. Assured that inspiration would strike at the appropriate moment, he skulked slowly through the house, pausing here and there to avoid Treize's lackeys along the way. It seemed like an eternity to him, but he finally reached the safety of his cave, and after a couple of quick clicks of the hidden wall switch, he slipped inside to await his prey. He stood on the other side of the drawing room wall and slid open a tiny panel, unnoticed by everyone, even Heero, through which he could observe the goings-on a few feet away without revealing his hiding place. It was twenty minutes or more before Treize appeared, but he was called back out into the hall before he was halfway through the door. Wufei swore in Chinese under his breath. "Get back here, you coward," he hissed. "Why don't you try a dog whistle?" a sarcastic, velvety tenor crooned from Wufei's left. The boy spun around, instinctively drawing a dagger from somewhere in his blue-sleeveless-shirt-and-white-pants ensemble, and his eyes bulged as a match flared in the darkness, spookily illuminating a grinning, cherub-like face. "Love what you've done with the place. Real homey." "Baichi!" Wufei whispered angrily, unintelligible to Duo, but unmistakably an insult. He slapped the peephole panel shut, lest the light give them both away, and dropped into a defensive crouch, knowing the intruder could have picked up any weapon out of his beloved arsenal to attack with. "How did you get in here?!" "Same way you did," Duo said, lighting a lantern and standing it beside him. He was sitting cross-legged on the raised floor of the niche in his brown tweed suit, at the opposite end from Wufei's sleeping pallet. There was a rolled up sheaf of papers lying next to him. "Since we're both here, and there doesn't seem to be any other form of entertainment in this hole of yours, have you got a minute?" Wufei smiled wickedly. "I've got a minute. You have significantly less than a minute." He had already counted his knives, swords, and other assorted weaponry, found that none were missing, and waved the dagger at Duo with renewed confidence. "Now, now, there's no reason to take that attitude," Duo chided sweetly, "especially when talking to someone who's got what I've got..." He picked up the bundle of papers and slowly unrolled it, teasingly, with a sugary smile. Wufei frowned and raised an eyebrow, half wanting to wipe that smile off Duo's face, and half burning with curiosity. "What?" Duo made an 'oooh' face and held up his treasure. "What's this, you ask? What have I got in my weathered yet graceful little hands? Why, hot diggity dog, it's the plans to the house!" His grin grew as the Chinese boy's face fell in slight fear. "Boy, I'll bet Treize would love to see these, wouldn't he? All those little gaps in the walls where something or someone might be hiding...and I've got the blueprints he'd need to find every last one. Gee, I'd hate to be you when I hand these over to him in exchange for getting out of the house alive..." "You wouldn't." "I would, if I had to." "...what do you want?" Duo smiled and put the blueprints down, standing up to talk to Wufei without pulling a neck muscle. "I'm in a bit of a jam, as it happens," he began. "Count Iron Drawers has his goons searching the house for me, among other things...can't think why, but he seems to want my head on a platter. Go fig." There was an uncomfortable silence during which he knew what Wufei was thinking; he cleared his throat. "The thing is, I need to keep a lookout for the guy, in Heero's absence, but I don't wanna get caught either...so I could use some help." Wufei thought it over. "Or I could just kill you now and take those blueprints from you." Duo stuck an angry finger in the boy's immediate airspace as a warning. "Hey, if I get so much as a papercut from you and Heero finds out about it, you're gonna end up a strange blue and white smear on the drawing room ceiling! Pilgrims will flock here from miles around to see the big, sticky vision of the Virgin Mary that appeared suddenly one night after a heated argument between the butler and the decorator, who hasn't been heard from since!" "Lower your voice, you fool, before someone hears us!" Wufei whispered with fury. "You lower your voice!" Duo countered. "You were gonna stab me a minute ago! Didn't you think that would've made enough noise!?" "I mean it, you blithering idiot! Shut your mouth!" "Whoa, you have no right to call me an idiot! That's a privilege afforded to Heero Yuy and no one else, you color blind hack!" That was it. Impoliteness and death threats could be tolerated; knocking his decorating skills, well...the line had to be drawn somewhere. The dagger was dropped on the pallet, and the fists came out in a cramped, clumsy deathmatch of karate versus kung fu, but after about thirty seconds of it, form and sophistication went out the window, and it became a battle of headlocks. In between the muffled grunts and squeaks of pain, there came a tiny 'clink' from the floor, and Duo froze. Not knowing why his opponent had suddenly given up and was staring at his shoes, Wufei froze as well. "Shoot!" Duo exclaimed, shoving Wufei off him with surprising strength. The chef dropped on his hands and knees and began frantically searching for something, repeating 'oh no' over and over again. Curiosity got the better of Wufei a second time, and he let his guard down. "What now?" "My key! It must've fallen out of my pocket just now...dammit!" It was the key Heero had given him the day he left, the key to his room at the Muddy Nag. He couldn't afford to lose it, especially not now, and there was a good six inches of space below him for it to be lost in. Why the builders had put raised floors in the wall niches at all was beyond him, though he remembered nearly tripping over it the first time he crawled inside. Not more than two feet away, Wufei began to show his frustration. "Do you intend to get up and finish this fight like a man?" "Shut up! I need that key!" Duo felt around on the floor several feet in all directions before noticing something was horribly wrong with it. "Oh man...the floorboards aren't seamed up properly...there's big cracks in between the wood! It must have fallen straight through!" Panicking, he tried to wedge his fingers into the gap; when that didn't work, he took off his shoe and tried to jam the toe into the largest crack, to no success. To Wufei, a battle without a resolution was one definite kind of hell, but watching someone do something so badly when he knew he could do better was a different hell altogether. He peeked out the peephole briefly, just to make sure there was no one around to hear, grabbed a crowbar from his haphazard toolkit and knelt beside Duo with a frustrated sigh. "If you're going to jimmy something open, for pity's sake, do it properly!" Duo grinned and grabbed the metal bar below Wufei's hands, and they slotted the narrow end into the gap between the floorboards. Making much better use of their brute strength, the pair pried at the aging timbers, hoping the ugly sound of wood cracking and splintering couldn't be heard below them. With all four hands, they repositioned the bar farther underneath the board and used all of their weight to lever it up, taking with it corroded nails and cobweb fragments with a hollow knocking noise, but an extra sound they hadn't expected made them pause with the end of the board just an inch or two out of the floor--the sound of cloth tearing. The boys blinked at each other. Confused, they wedged the bar laterally under the floorboard and pulled it back hard, lifting the end just enough for Duo to snake his hand underneath and feel what they had ripped. There was some rough burlap under the boards, and the crowbar had torn a sizeable hole in it. Duo tucked his fingers into the hole and felt something else that was definitely not burlap, something cold, hard, and smooth, with curious ridges in its surface. He blinked again, and looked up. "Hey...there's something down there." Wufei reached over and grabbed the lantern, and set it next to Duo, who struggled with the aging timbers, trying to get a look at the peculiar object. Between the two of them, they managed to exert enough force on the floorboard to pry it all the way free, and it came away with a loud 'thok.' Duo reached out to widen the hole in the burlap, and both boys gasped at what lay underneath. There, neatly stacked and lined up perfectly end-to-end, were some flat bars of factory-milled metal. Each one was about two inches wide and less than five inches long, and each bore the numbers '.9999' and '1000g', as well as some other mill marks and official-looking crests permanently etched into the smooth, glossy surface. They shone like the sun, brilliant and blinding. "..........gold!" Duo breathed, and suddenly it all became clear...the purpose behind the wall niches, the reason Treize came to England, perhaps even the cause of Lord Peacecraft's untimely death. The boys quickly tore the rest of the burlap away, exposing even more bars, and Duo was sure, without anyone's help, that his deduction was correct. "This is what he's looking for. He killed Relena's father so he could get control of this house and tear it apart until--" "Treize has already killed for this gold?" Wufei asked solemnly. There was a rapid change in his demeanor, as if he'd been pricked with a pin and deflated by force. Duo nodded. "Heero has proof. Lord Peacecraft was poisoned, and we know Treize did it." Wufei's spirit was dragged into the cellar as he stared with misery and revulsion at the shiny yellow bars. He crawled backwards as if in a trance, barely missing cutting himself on the dropped dagger as he retreated to his pallet and curled up into a loose ball. It's all happening again...more blood has been spilled for gold, and I couldn't stop it...I didn't even know... Resurgent memories pummelled him from within. He heard a train, clattering down a lonely track towards unforeseen doom...an explosion...the crunching of metal and the screams of the innocent. He squinted in agony and withdrew even father into the corner, clenching his arms about himself. ...all happening again... "Hey...are you okay?" Duo said, crawling over to the pallet with genuine concern. It took a prod to the shoulder for Wufei to come back to reality. Immediately angered at the inference that there was something wrong with him, he scowled. "Go back to what you were doing, Maxwell." Duo knew better than to press a person who was sitting surrounded by sharp instruments of destruction, and pulled back a bit. He opened up the blueprints again and looked over all the areas marked in red pencil where Heero had suspected there were hidden chambers. "This is just one secret passage. We figured there could be a dozen more, and if they've all got false floors like this one...man, there could be gold all over the house!" "It would be wise to distribute the gold sparsely," Wufei grumbled, "otherwise the weight would cause a structural collapse." "I wonder how much money's been hiding in the walls all these years," Duo whispered in admiration, running a hand over the cold metal. He never thought he'd be that close to legendary riches after a lifetime of poverty; it was the sort of thing that only happened to him and his street buddies in their daydreams, when they planned how they would one day hit the jackpot and rise up against their upper-class oppressors. "What do you figure it's all worth?" Staring straight at the wall, with the little shelves he'd installed for his food and personal items, Wufei didn't need another look at the gold to know what it was about. "Those bars are one kilogram each, equal to 32.15 troy ounces. Gold is valued by American banks at twenty dollars and sixty-seven cents per ounce, making each one of those bars six hundred and sixty-four dollars, and some odd cents." Duo looked up slowly with a carefully-raised eyebrow. He was only looking for a rough estimate. "Right." He sat on his heels with his hands on his knees and pondered their situation. Now that he was sure there was something in the walls that Treize wanted, no place in the house was a very safe place to be. "Look...we're both on the chopping block if we stay here, because there's a dozen goons swarming around the house looking for this gold. That's got to be why they're here, but we'd be tough for them to ignore. If they find either one of us, we're toast, but if we team up, maybe we can get out of here with our heads still attached to our necks." "You must be joking," Wufei snorted. "Hey, you wanna stay here and wait for them to start ripping the walls open so they can find you by accident, that's fine!" Duo said. "You wanna kick me out and let me fend for myself, that's fine too! Only I'm taking those blueprints with me, come Hell or high water, and if they catch me with them, they'll find you soon enough. Either way, if we don't trust each other just this once, we're snookered." It was a bitter pill to swallow, but if Wufei was honest with himself, the Maxwell boy was right. I'd rather not stay here with that gold anyway. I never wanted to see that substance again. "What did you have in mind?" Duo clambered back to the hole in the floor and fished around on top of the gold bars until he found his key, then put it safely back in his pocket. "I say we grab what we can of our stuff and sneak out back to the carpenter's cottage. He's a decent guy, he'll hide us for awhile, and we can stick by the house and keep and eye on Treize. Failing that, if something goes really wrong, the three of us can split to this room I've got in Peckham. Nobody knows about it except me and Heero, so I promise you it's safe." He could tell the other boy wasn't totally convinced, and bit his lip. "I know it's gonna feel weird, but we both have great reasons to nail Treize to the wall, so there's no reason why we can't help each other out, and staying here would be a bad risk, for either of us. We're outnumbered and probably outgunned too. So...whaddaya say.....truce?" Wufei watched in disbelief as Duo, whom he had threatened, attacked, and blamed for at least a portion of his problems for several months, extended his hand in trust and friendship. He also didn't believe what he saw when his own hand crept forward and clasped Duo's, with the underlying worry that he would live to regret it. "Truce." Duo smiled. Two stealth experts creeping around the house under the noses of thirteen of our worst enemies...this is gonna be a blast! "Alrighty then...let's get sneaking." **********Treize looked over the makeshift floor plan his workers had constructed from their measurements of the interior of the house. Using the exterior dimensions for comparison, and the average width of the interior walls, they could easily see that there was some space left unaccounted for. I knew it had to be in the house somewhere, he thought triumphantly. Now there were only two clear obstacles to getting what he came for: the chef and the spy. For the latter, he had his pistol, which he now carried at all times. As for the former, the workers told him which guest room was being used by Duo, and the Count went to see for himself if the boy was there, with heavy backup behind him. Some furniture had been moved, as indicated by slight scrape marks on the floor, and the bedding was disorderly, but the room was empty. None of them were to know that Duo had cleaned out his few worldly possessions only a few minutes earlier, with Wufei keeping watch at the door for approaching enemies. Another worker came up from the kitchen bearing a note in English, which he could not read, and which Treize was slow to take at face value: 'Nobody needs me anymore, so I'm on vacation! Aloha! ~Duo.' The Count mulled over the possibility that Duo had actually left Bridlewood while he smoked another one of Lord Peacecraft's fine imported cigars in the drawing room. He also wasn't to know that a few yards away was a treasure trove of gold, precisely what he was hoping to find, and recently-vacated sleeping quarters, from which Wufei had removed his own meagre belongings a few moments earlier to follow Duo. Nor was he to know that the pair had quietly been on the telephone in the front hall, trying unsuccessfully to call Heero and update him before they retreated to their new hideaway. While Treize hadn't seen any of this, he sensed somehow that things were going a bit too smoothly for him, so he wasn't ready to declare his victory quite yet. I've been in this game too long to be fooled by an easy advantage. Nothing gained easily can be counted on. If they're still here, I'll find them. **********There was never a time in Heero's history that he could remember being so worried for so long. Being cut off from Duo while Treize was in London wasn't just unnerving, it was sheer hell. So many 'what ifs' were flying through his brain that he wasn't much use to Relena all day as a party organizer, not that she noticed. At the end of the day, the weary lad was thankful to get away from everyone and hide in the library, where he finally got a chance to research the unfamiliar language he'd been exposed to earlier. After studying some maps of eastern Europe and comparing the place names to the sounds he'd heard over the telephone, he guessed that Treize's workmen were Polish, not that it helped him much. He was still stuck eighty miles from his friend, being pulled in different directions by the long and short term requirements of his mission. While most of the rest of the house were tucking themselves in for the night, Heero sat in the library and sulked, knowing he wouldn't be sleeping for a long time. Eventually, some soft footsteps approached. "Heero?" The voice wasn't Relena's, which by itself was enough to make the boy lift his head and take a look at his visitor. It was Quatre, holding Shadow in both hands. The cat looked very content there, but squirmed and begged to be put down once she saw her master. The fair-haired gardener handed her to Heero, and she settled down in his lap right away. "She was up in your room meowing, so we thought we'd come see you," Quatre explained. "It's a big house," Heero said dully. "How did you find me so fast?" Quatre scratched his head and decided not to get into the fine details of his sixth sense. "Let's just say I have a knack for finding people in need of some comforting." "I need to get out of here, that's all," Heero insisted. "There's nothing to be gained by rehashing my situation to someone who can't change it." "So, you do have a situation?" Quatre observed, taking a chair not too near Heero, trying to be supportive in a non-threatening sort of way. "I might not be able to fix anything, but I'll bet you'll feel better for talking. No pressure, of course, but I've found it helps me. I could use something to do anyway...there's a whole army of locals looking after the grounds here, so I've got no official duties anymore." Heero concentrated on stroking Shadow behind the ears for awhile, wondering how much he could risk telling Quatre, then remembered something that he had wanted clarification on, at a time when there was nobody he could ask. Now seemed as good a time as any. "What do you dream about at night?" Quatre's eyebrows arched in surprise. "Well, my dreams...they're, uh...kinda random. Sometimes I dream about my home in the desert, and my family...sometimes I see things that relate to whatever I was doing that day...my dreams almost never make sense when I wake up, but while I'm dreaming, it all seems to fit together perfectly." He took a moment to probe lightly into the emotional cloud surrounding Heero, and judged him to be deeply disturbed. "Are...are you having nightmares?" "No." Heero let Shadow climb partway up his arm while he thought of his next question. "Do you see colour in your dreams, or do you see the world in greys and browns?" "Oh, colour most of the time," Quatre replied. "I can't remember ever having a dream without any colour in it. In fact, some of the colours I see in my dreams are more vivid than the colours I see in real life. That's the way it's always been for me." Heero pondered, then nodded. "Last night I dreamt in colour for the first time...or at least, the first time I can recall. Since it occurred so suddenly, my initial diagnosis included the possibilities of early-onset dementia or a brain tumour, but if it's considered normal to others...there might be nothing wrong with me at all." Quatre didn't sense any change in Heero's level of discomfort at the realization that he wasn't dying or crazy, so he guessed there was something else on his mind, of an even more serious nature. "How else was the dream different?" Again, Heero paused to construct an explanation that was plausible without revealing too much. "You knew from the beginning that I didn't come to Bridlewood just to serve tea and be bossed around. I trained for many years to be a living weapon, and my dreams were always convoluted replays of the training I had received during the day. Once I was instructed to load and unload several different rifles blindfolded until I could load each one within a certain number of seconds. That night I could see nothing in my dream, and all I heard were the clicks of the cartridges and the barrels...that was all. The formula hasn't changed in years. Last night...was different." Quatre knew there was more, and couldn't bear to let the conversation go on without acknowledging what he knew in his heart to be true. "You saw Duo in your dream...didn't you?" Heero stared past the gardener, stroking Shadow's back with mechanical precision. "He was running away from me, playing some sort of game...I tried to catch him, but he was always just out of reach. As soon as I was able to see him clearly, I was woken up.....and we only saw each other for a moment...before..." He trailed off quietly while the calculating machine inside his skull struggled to make the equation balance out. This was not normal behaviour for him, and he knew it, and as soon as Lord Jeffrhyss knew it, he'd be in serious trouble. The resulting threat of fate silenced him before the conundrum got any more dense. Quatre sighed, not even needing his sixth sense to tell what was really wrong. "You're preoccupied with Duo. You're worried about him, and you feel like there's nothing you can do to help. It's more than just worry, it's misery and loneliness...because you miss him." He couldn't tell whether the concept was computing properly in Heero's brain, so he gave him something more tangible to do. "Why don't you take a walk and think about it for awhile? Then maybe you'll tire yourself out at least, and you can get some sleep. It's getting late." Heero nodded slowly. This was an acceptable course of non-action, and he could take Shadow along for company. Both boys stood, and Quatre gave Heero a small pat on the shoulder as he walked out of the library, remembering how frightened he was of the boy the first day they met. Time had changed many relationships in many unexpected ways, he mused. Following Quatre's advice to the letter, Heero wandered about the sprawling country mansion, but soon began berating himself for putting the mission first yet again. How can I sleep without knowing if Duo's safe? I should never have left him there...I should have stayed in London and taken my chances. Eventually, he walked all the way to the front hall, and leaned against a darkened window, staring out at the snow-streaked grounds while cuddling the cat close to him. I have to know...maybe I could slip out tonight, hire my own transport and be there before anyone knows I'm gone...but it could already be too late! Why didn't I stay!? Just when he needed it most, something came gliding up to the house, distracting him from his haze of doom and gloom. It appeared to be a boy on a bicycle, a totally unexpected sight at such a late hour; he was all bundled up in a thick coat, and could barely stay on his vehicle as he rode right up to the front door. Anticipating a ring of the doorbell, Heero put the cat down and opened the door before the young man could wake the whole house. The boy waddled sleepily up to the door and yawned out his greeting. "Telegram for Harvey Young." Heero's face brightened. That's my official alias. Jeffrhyss rarely uses telegrams, but the only other person who knows that name is Duo! He composed himself rapidly and told himself to collect more information. "What sort of telegram is worth sending you out at ten o'clock for?" he needled the boy. "I only knows 'bout the sort o' person who sends a telegram at ten o'clock, and 'e promised our firm a hefty tip if we delivered it tonight, awlright? Cash on delivery, or I takes it back to the depot. So let's see the colour o' yer money, Guv." Heero shook his head and fished around in his pocket, pulling out a gold sovereign and tossing it to the boy, who handed over the telegram with due haste. With another long yawn, he got back on his bicycle and rode off, wobbling down the dirt path to the east side of the property, where the locals knew entrance could be gained without going through the locked front gate. Before the boy was out of sight, Heero swept back inside the house and shut the door, leaning against it and hurriedly tearing open the parchment-coloured envelope. The words he found inside were worth many more gold sovereigns, and he would have given them all up to read them. Heero sighed and smiled, stooping to pick up Shadow and wandering in the direction of his bedroom with the warm covers and the brilliant purple bedcurtains. He was feeling wonderfully sleepy all of a sudden. |
~~~~~~~~~~
Next, in Episode Thirty-Six: Duo and Wufei make use of their bizarre alliance and strike a silent blow against Treize and his empire, but one of them is far less comfortable with the task than the other. Horrible memories are plaguing Wufei, and Duo wants to know why. Meanwhile, Relena's efforts to keep Heero isolated from evil influences disrupt communication between him and Lord Jeffrhyss, and there must certainly be ramifications.
=^_^= Ok, be honest, how many of you saw THAT coming? With the gold and the burlap and the loose floorboards? *some hands go up* Alrighty, I know you guys are super-smart. =^_~= Now, it's more than my job's worth to publish an episode on Super Bowl Sunday, or even the day after (there's gonna be some serious partying and some serious hangovers, or so I'm told) so let's make a date for February 5th! Ja ne!