Part Seven

Things had settled down significantly for Wufei over the past two months away from work. He and Sally had finally settled on a date for their wedding, and with his time off the two of them had been able to get a great many of their plans underway. The service and reception would both be small affairs with only close friends invited. They had reserved the tiny Preventers' chapel for September 25, and the reception afterwards would take place at Sally's. Wufei had even begun the process of moving in.

And throughout that time he had heard nothing of Duo, which he found very encouraging. Obviously nothing large had happened involving his former comrade or the Preventers would not have been able to hide it from the media, and he was fairly sure that smaller events would have been reported to him by Sally. But Wufei had heard nothing, which led him to believe that Duo had perhaps obeyed common sense for once and was simply lying low and avoiding trouble. Hopefully he had even dropped his idea of making war. If that were the case then things seemed to have finally returned to normal. Wufei was back at work, and things seemed the same as when he had left -- better, perhaps, because he was finally dealing with some of his misgivings left over from the Mariemaia conflict.

Yes, he was finally feeling up to facing his past mistakes, and steadfastly made it a point to acknowledge the girl whenever he saw her. He was rewarded each time for his effort by a more cheerful expression appearing on her face.

The phone on Wufei's desk rang once, indicating an internal call, and so he reached for the receiver. "Smoke here."

"My office, Smoke. Now."

Une's voice had the tense, snappy feel to it that it did whenever Wufei was assigned a new mission, so eagerly he hung up the phone and strode quickly out of his office and towards the elevator at the end of the hall. After months with nothing to do, the opportunity to get back into action was irresistible.

The Commander's office in Preventer Headquarters was more like a suite. It was located in the center of the building so as to be most accessible and two glass doors opened into a tiny waiting area where Une's personal assistant -- a position which was filled by a different person yearly, all rookie Preventers there to learn the ropes -- resided to take appointments and to file all the paperwork which came the Commander's way. Wufei nodded to the young man behind the desk and continued to Une's own, private office. He knocked once before going in and shutting the door behind him.

It was a marginal shock for Wufei to see that the other person standing next to Une was not the partner he was used to but Preventer Fire. After he and Sally had announced the date of their wedding, Une had thought it best to assign them each new partners to ensure that personal feelings would not jeopardize the success of any mission. Thus, Une's two top romantically involved teams were simply shuffled a bit and Wufei was now partnered with Noin.

He was a bit disappointed with the arrangement -- he would have preferred to be with Zechs if any change was necessary, simply because he thought that he and Zechs were more like-minded. Noin, he secretly thought, could at times be too easily persuaded to be merciful where mercy should not be an option. Nevertheless…the situation being what it was, Wufei turned his mind back to the present and chose to focus on Une's new assignment for them.

Fire was holding something that looked like a photograph, so Wufei walked closer to have a look. She handed it to him freely, and Wufei was looking down at a picture of a young woman, perhaps a year or two older than he was. She would be fairly pretty, he thought, if not for the long red scar running vertically from beneath her right eye to her chin. That was the young woman's most prominent feature; the others were more delicate and bland. She had nondescript gray eyes and wavy light-blonde hair to her shoulders. She was about average height, perhaps a little on the short side. She was slender but did not look particularly muscular or athletic. In the photograph she was dressed blandly as well, wearing a simple gray sweater over a pair of khaki-colored slacks and sneakers.

Wufei studied the photo for a moment more before looking up at Une and asking, "Who is this?"

"A former Alliance spy," she replied. "Her name is Middie Une."

"A relation of yours?" Wufei asked curiously, but Une only shrugged.

"It's possible she may be a distant cousin, but I have my doubts. That's unimportant at any rate. What is relevant is that I have received word from one of our agents that she may soon be making an attempt to assassinate the Vice Foreign Minister."

"An assassination attempt!" Noin repeated in surprise, bending back over the photograph in Wufei's hands.

"That's right. Naturally, we must stop her. I want you two heading the operation. We need stealth in this instance, above all. After all, if this girl was a spy once she will still know the tricks of the trade and we'll have to be careful not to tip her off and send her running where we can't catch her. Understand?" Both Wufei and Noin nodded, and Une went to sit down, motioning for the others to do the same.

"Fire," she continued, "I want you ready to follow her, and Smoke I'm stationing you here to head up the security around Ms. Dorlian. No one and nothing gets in to her without your approval. And Fire, as soon as you have anything the least incriminating on this Middie don't waste time, go in and arrest. Any questions?"

"Do we know where she is?"

Une smiled grimly. "We have an idea. If we're right, she's currently staying at the Crowne Hotel on colony 93346 in the L-3 cluster. They have confirmed that someone under that name has checked in there and the description given matches our target. She doesn't seem to be trying to hide quite yet. We don't know how long she'll be staying -- so Fire, you'll have to leave as soon as possible. I have a commercial shuttle ticket ready for you under the name of Virginia Watson and a reservation for you at the hotel under the same name. Can you be ready to leave by this evening?"

Noin nodded. "Do you have a cover story ready for me?"

Une handed two sheets of paper to both of them -- the general mission parameters and detailed specialized instructions. "You were married to Tad Watson, an Alliance army officer during the war. He was declared a traitor and executed three months before the end of the war. Use that; try and get close to her. Smoke? anything?"

"A copy of the Vice Foreign Minister's schedule?"

"Available from her secretary. This is a top priority case right now, you two, so Smoke you will be reporting to the Minister's offices for duty until this is over. Contact time for you, Fire, is 8 pm L-3 time. If that's everything, Fire go and get ready; Smoke go and start checking in with the Vice Foreign Minister. And Smoke -- the less she knows the better." Wufei nodded, and Une barked, "Dismissed!"

Wufei nodded and stood, folding his mission parameters in half to stick them in his inside jacket pocket for safekeeping. Noin turned to him outside the door, stating for his confirmation, "Eight o'clock tomorrow then -- two o'clock for you -- the inside Preventer line." Wufei nodded, and the two of them quickly parted ways.

Noin slept on the shuttle ride to L-3 in the hopes of avoiding jet lag. Her two bags were packed full of clothes that did not belong to her, and in her tiny carry-on briefcase (which also did not belong to her) she had stowed her mission parameters.

Virginia Watson was an interesting character, to be sure. As Une had said, her husband had been accused of treason and executed by the Alliance three months before the Eve Wars had finished, and Virginia continued to be bitter about his death and to proclaim his innocence. The Alliance, she felt, had betrayed him, and though Tad had remained loyal to it to the end of his days, Virginia felt no such compulsion. She was thirty-one years old, and as angry at the new government for refusing to acknowledge her husband's innocence as at the old. Noin was to use these sentiments and Virginia's openness about them to bring herself closer to Middie Une and attempt to goad the other woman into revealing something incriminating. The obvious challenge was that Middie was a former spy; she would know tricks of the trade and not be likely to open up to just anyone.

Noin had no particular relish for such missions -- but she understood why she had been assigned to the job. Une was still cautious about sending Wufei to the colonies on missions, and Zechs had been too prominent a figure during the war for him to go. Moreover, as Relena's brother he was not suited to watching over her if Sally were to go. And as they were the Preventers' top four agents, in such a delicate case Une was unlikely to want to trust anyone else. Which, distasteful though it was to her, left Noin. And even if she wasn't terribly fond of going undercover, it wasn't as though she couldn't do it. One way or another, she could -- and would -- get Middie Une into Preventer custody.

7:30 am L-3 time found Noin checking into the Crowne Hotel under her assumed name. It was a nice hotel, but not overly expensive or luxurious. While Noin was busy signing in, she took an opportunity while the clerk's back was turned getting her key to find Middie Une's name and room number. By the time the man had turned back to her, Noin was putting the final flourish on her signature. He handed her the key to room 490, and Noin hid her smile. If the hotel was built in the old-fashioned, box-shaped design it appeared to be, her room would be directly above Middie Une's; moreover, each room had a tiny balcony outside of it -- which could, if worst came to worst, provide Noin with access to the young woman's room, and hopefully to enough of her secrets to allow for her arrest. If things continued this well, Noin thought she might be able to return to Earth in a week or so.

She stowed her things in her room, and then returned downstairs with a book to find a table for herself in the hotel's dining room. She was early enough, Noin felt, that she might have the opportunity for an early encounter with Middie if she waited long enough. She selected a table near the entrance's archway and ordered a pot of coffee from the waitress who descended on her. Luck did indeed seem to be with Noin that morning, for she did not have long to wait before a young woman who was almost certainly Middie Une walked into the room.

"Good morning," Noin greeted her, as though she was simply extending a polite acknowledgment. The young woman's head spun toward her in faint surprise, giving Noin the opportunity to see that although the woman's scar was well-concealed under heavy makeup it was certainly still there.

"Good morning," Middie Une returned quickly, and with a slightly calculating glare. Apparently she was unaccustomed to overly-ebullient people capable of striking up conversations with any old passer-by.

Noin smiled wanly and said, "I've just checked in for a long weekend; are you here on vacation?"

"No," was the reply, followed by a brief pause. Then, "I'm here on business."

The added information indicated that Middie was apparently not entirely adverse to conversation, which caused Noin to smile slightly more widely. "Oh!" she said, inwardly grimacing at playing a character so unlike herself. "Are you from L-4 then? or perhaps Earth?"

A short hesitation before Middie replied, "L-4, yes."

"I'm from the colonies as well," Noin supplied, "although when I married a man who lived on Earth I moved there for several years. I've returned to L-2 now, though." Everything was going wonderfully smoothly; Noin was chatting with the suspect and easily slipping her cover story into place through the conversation.

"Oh?" Middie asked, furthering things along nicely. "How did you convince your husband to move back? People from Earth are usually quite disinclined to leave it."

Noin pursed her lips and stared down at the tabletop. "My…my husband died," she said quietly. "In the war. The…the bastards in the Alliance executed him. You're from the colonies, you understand how they were, I'm sure." She flicked her eyes back up to Middie's face to weigh in the woman's reaction to her words.

A slightly bitter sneer had descended onto her lips. "Oh yes," she replied, "I know how they were. Quite well."

"Bastards."

"Yes. Bastards," Middie agreed quietly.

"My husband was innocent," Noin said, letting a slight quaver enter into her voice before letting it get swallowed by the hard tone which followed in her next statement. "And the idiots in power now still won't recognize that. I've fought for six years to clear his name. No one will listen. No one cares anymore. They think that now the wars are over it's all just going to go away and they can just forget about the harm done to everyone. Well they can't! I'm not going to stop until they clear Tad's name!" Noin shut up quickly, as if suddenly realizing what she had been saying, and glanced around in embarrassment. A few people at neighboring tables were shooting glances at her, but she hadn't seemed to have aroused that much attention. "I'm sorry," she laughed, wiping the residual anger from her posture. "I shouldn't talk that way to you, a perfect stranger!"

Middie Une remained serious, a contemplative look spreading across her face. "The war's not over yet," she said abruptly, but perfectly serious. "It won't be until people like you have their justice. There are lots of people with problems like yours, you know. But…as you said, this is hardly a topic of conversation for two strangers to be discussing." She smiled faintly. "I must be going. I only stopped in here for a cup of coffee; I have a business meeting which I've got to leave for in a few minutes."

"Well perhaps I shall see you sometime again this weekend. It was nice meeting you."

"Yes. It was a pleasure. Goodbye."

"Goodbye!" Noin called cheerfully as Middie Une walked away from her, into the bustle of the dining room. Noin watched her progress across the room, and sipped at her coffee. As soon as Middie left for her "business meeting" Noin would be leaving too. So as Middie crossed back in front of her to leave, Noin pretended to be deeply engrossed in her book; then, as Middie departed, she counted silently to five, got up, and followed her.

Middie was just reaching the doors to the street when Noin exited the dining room; by the time Noin had gotten to the doors Middie was well down the sidewalk, heading left. Noin continued trailing her in such a manner until Middie trotted up the steps of a lavish old building and disappeared inside. Noin was hesitant about following her inside, but took note of the building's name -- the Carnivale Playhouse -- and how to find it so that she could return later that evening to check it out.

Noin spent the rest of that day unpacking and had another quick nap before dinner and her scheduled check-in with Wufei. "I've made contact and have a lead I'm going to check up on tonight," she told him. "I assume you've upped security around the target?"

"Of course," Wufei coolly replied. "Everything is calm over here. I have nothing to report."

"Well I suppose no news is good news in this case," Noin said with a wry smile.

"And extremely dull."

Noin smirked. "Take care, Smoke. If everything continues the same way it did today you'll be back to your regular job in no time. Signing off." Wufei's features disappeared into static as Noin terminated the connection and dropped the tiny communicator back into the hidden pocket of her suitcase. Grabbing the formless black jacket and cap that had been provided her, Noin then headed out the door of her room and away towards the theater.

There were no lights on inside the building when she got there, even though the overhead colony lights were dimming on the street where she was. A doorman was pacing back and forth at the top of the steps, and Noin wondered what it was inside that was so important it needed a guard. She went up to him and casually inquired, "What's playing here?"

He looked back over at her with a look of faint surprise. "Nothing," he said. "This here theater is a historical colony site; this building's two hundred years old, left from when the L-3 cluster first came up into space."

"Oh!" Noin said, surprised now in her own turn. "Is it open for tourists?"

The man shook his head. "Well it's not now; it's only open during the daytimes."

Noin nodded. Figures, she thought. "Are there guided tours?" she asked. "Or is it like a museum where you can wander at leisure?"

"Well there's guided tours, sure, if you want 'em. You can just walk around too, though."

Noin smiled. She had found her hotspot for the next several days.

Her hotspot was also, Noin realized with a rueful sigh, awfully boring. She couldn't imagine what Middie could be hiding in there, and was in fact beginning to think that the ex-spy had realized that Noin was following her and had simply ducked into the theater to throw her off track. If that were the case, Noin really was screwed -- there was no way she'd ever get anything out of Middie.

Sighing again, Noin glanced quickly behind her to see if anyone was looking. The backstage area was off-limit to visitors, so Noin was sure that if anything was in the theater that she could use, it would be there. Fortunately for her, the place was just about devoid of visitors, so she was easily able to sneak in and make her way through the wings.

She had never done any theater in school and only rarely went to see any shows, so as a result Noin was (by her own admittance) completely unfamiliar with stage architectural styles -- particularly the kind that had been prevalent two hundred years ago when the first colonies were launched into space. She didn't really have any idea where to go to find something that had been hidden -- and the place really didn't look as though it had anything much to hide; it was so dark back there that it might as well be that she was the first person to venture back there in years.

The dust was the worst part; it flew up into her face with her every step, obscuring her vision even more than the dark alone would have done. Noin fanned her hand in front of her face, trying to get some fresh air to breathe so she wouldn't choke.

That was when she heard it behind her. A footstep. Immediately, Noin froze, then slowly began to reach her right hand into her pocket for her gun. Too late. Arms grabbed her from behind, one hand clamping down over her mouth and the other pinning her arms to her sides so she couldn't move.

She was beginning to move her foot around her assailant's leg to trip him up when the person's voice -- the person's terribly familiar voice -- whispered into her ear, "Are you here for Duo too?"