To Kate- Ooh, tell your friends to review! With ideas! Because this story simply will not work for me! It's driving me nuts!
"No! No, no, no!" Duo screamed, his usual smile gone as he wrestled fiercely with three orderlies, trying to reach a nurse near the wall holding a plain wooden box.
"What's going on in here?" Elliott demanded, pausing in the doorway to speak to Duo's elderly doctor.
"I'm afraid we discovered Mr. Maxwell in possession of something he's not supposed to have, and he doesn't want to part with it." The doctor explained succinctly. "He refuses to listen to reason."
"That's mine, dammit!" The longhaired boy yelled, diving for the box again and managing to knock it out of the nurse's hands. It skittered across the floor and bounced off the wall, dumping a .45 automatic into the open.
"Duo," Elliott said quietly, bending and picking up the gun by the barrel, "where did you get this?"
"Please, gentlemen, come in." The young brunette known as Relena Peacecraft said, ushering Munch and Finn into a sitting room not unlike the ones in the Winner mansion. "Have a seat. Would you like something to drink?"
"No, thanks," Munch said, settling on a tall wooden stool while Finn chose an overstuffed loveseat.
"I take it you're here about what happened to Duo Maxwell?" Relena hazarded, flouncing over to a reclining couch and seating herself with much arranging of her dress.
"Yeah," Finn said. "Any idea how that could have happened?"
"How would I?" Relena responded, blinking innocently. "Duo was always wandering around in places no self-respecting person goes by choice, tempting fate, looking for someplace to set up an orphanage, if you can believe that."
"He's licensed to carry it." Heero said with a shrug. "He asked for it."
"So you gave him a gun?" Olivia demanded. "I don't care if he's licensed to carry, or if he wanted it! You can't just give a hospital patient a weapon!"
"You wouldn't be saying that if you knew Duo at all." Quatre said sadly, shaking his head. "He doesn't panic easily; if he thought he needed the gun to protect himself, he had good reason to."
"But he can't have a gun as long as he's in the hospital, and he's nowhere near ready to be discharged." Elliot said firmly. "And if he asks for any more weapons, do not give them to him."
"It's a clue, of sorts." Heero explained in his usual monotone, typing away on his laptop so fast the word processor had trouble keeping up. "If he felt threatened enough to flip out like that, then subconsciously, he knows that whoever attacked him could still get to him. It's psychological, but it's there. Considering where he is in the hospital and the fact that either myself, Quatre, Trowa, or Wufei is with him at all times, the person would be someone who could easily gain access to his room. If we factor than into our current list of suspects, our prospects are halved, at least."
"If you say so, kid." Finn conceded, shaking his head. "I don't understand any of this stuff."
"Trust me." Heero said simply.
"What are you doing, anyway?"
"Taking the new list of suspects and comparing them to the suspect lists of rape/homicides with the same MO in the past five years. Hmm?"
"What?"
"That's strange…" Heero muttered, typing in a command and frowning at the result. "For some reason, I can't access the suspect lists for four homicides in the database. All are open cases; they shouldn't be protected like this…"
"How exactly could someone hack our database?" Cragen asked for about the millionth time in the past half hour. "And why would they only put passwords on four suspect lists? That makes absolutely no sense!"
"Unless our hacker is on all four lists." Alex pointed out, chewing on the end of her pen. "What I want to know is, what was a kid doing in our system, looking at suspect lists? Aren't those files restricted?"
"He has authorization." Munch said, shrugging. "The kid's pure genius, Alex; if anyone can crack this one, it's him. He's already backtracing the hacker's trail, and he's taught our resident computer junkies a thing or two about their own systems in the process."
"I don't care how good he is with computers; why was he authorized in the first place? He has no credentials, he's underage, and he's a civilian!"
"Not according to the Tokyo Police Department." Finn disagreed. "They had him on staff for five years before he walked out on them and came to America. Apparently, he's an orphan with a gift. He can work, take apart, fix, and improve any machine on the face of the Earth easier than Munch here works a coffee maker."
"Hey!"
"My contact says if we've got Heero Yuy, we damned well better use him, or he'll solve this case without our help."
"I'm still not sure I like having a 16-year-old on the force..." Alex protested, sighing. "Who's his guardian? I'd prefer we keep our arrangements this side of legal."
"Figures." Heero grunted, his hands stilling on the keyboard of his laptop for the first time in nearly two hours. "Used a computer in the public library. Slick bastard."
"How so?" Bethany, one of the resident computer technicians, asked curiously, leaning back in her seat to look at him around the cubicle wall. "Doesn't take much smarts to use a public computer for hacking, just caution."
"Hn." Heero answered, typing again. He actually kind of liked Bethany; she didn't speak much, she wasn't loud and annoying, and she definitely knew her computers; she'd recognized his as homebuilt in two seconds flat. "Whatever software he used, it definitely wasn't ameteur. I can only trace the building, not the terminal itself. Look at this."
This was the fragments of code he'd managed to collect on his search, arranged in the order they'd been found. Not one letter was in English.
"What language is that?" Bethany demanded, scooting her chair further back, so she was all the way out of her cubicle. "It looks like a bunch of squiggly lines!"
"I have a hunch. Where's the nearest printer?"
"Plug yourself into my desktop, and it'll print in the next room over. Why?"
"I think I know what this is, but I have to check with someone to make sure."
"Heero, what are you doing home so soon? I thought you were-"
"What language is this?" Heero interrupted, thusting the stack of codes at Quatre. "Can you tell me?"
"It's... " Quatre started, taken aback by Heero's tone and expression. To most people, they were nonexistant, but to the blond, they were clear as day. Heero was pissed. "It... It's Arabic. It looks like a computer code. Heero, where did you get this?"
"Someone hacked the NYPD database and sealed certain files." Heero explained flatly. "They left those behind. How many people who would make programs in Arabic and have the knowledge to hack a government database could have been in one of the city's public libraries on Saturday?"
"Not many." Quatre admitted thoughtfully. "I can do some checking for you, but I won't promise anything."
"Just trying is good enough."
"I need a police escort."
"Why?" Olivia asked, looking up from her very late breakfast of cold toast and lukewarm coffee.
"I might have a lead on the hacker who got into the PD database." Heero explained. "But the chances of her talking to me of her own free will aren't looking very good; we've had run-ins in the past. I need an escort to ensure cooperation." The teen paused for a moment, and Olivia saw a slight smile flicker across his lips before he added, "I'll buy you lunch."
"Deal. Elliot, let's go! Heero's treating us to lunch!"
"What the hell do you want with me now, Yuy?" The blond girl demanded without looking up from her laptop.
"Nothing." Heero said. "The police department wants your help. You started watching the news yet?"
"Hell no." The blond muttered. "Why? They legalize hacking or outlaw chatrooms?"
"Duo nearly died."
That got her attention. She slammed her hands down on the keyboard, completely ruining whatever she'd been typing, and shot to her feet, staring at Heero with wide blue-gray eyes.
"Duo? What happened to Duo? Is he all right? Where is he?"
"Ma'am," Olivia stepped in, trying to calm the girl down before she went into hysterics. "My name is Olivia Benson, and this is my partner, Elliot Stabler; we're with the Special Victims Unit. Duo-"
"Duo was raped?" She gasped, sinking back into her chair. "Oh, god. Who would do something like that to him?"
"That's what we're trying to find out." Elliot said. "Heero thought you might be able to help us, Miss..."
"Dorothy. Dorothy Catelonia. What can I do to help? I lay our grievances aside for now, Heero, just tell me what I can do!"
"Translate this." Heero told her, dropping the packet of code snippets on top of the keyboard. "Drop by Quatre's place if you come up with anything; someone there will know where to find me. And Dorothy?"
"Yeah?" Dorothy asked faintly, already looking over the first page of printouts.
"Thanks."
"Heero," Olivia said hesitently, setting aside the remains of a huge lunch on the Japanese teen. "Can I ask you something?"
"If you want." Heero shrugged, staring unblinking out the window at the pedestrian traffic.
"You don't have to answer if you don't want, but I was wondering... Heero, are you in love with Duo?"
A near-deafening silence descended on the corner booth as Elliot and Heero both turned to stare at her as if she'd lost her mind and/or grown a second head.
"What makes you think that?" Heero asked slowly, his face and voice completely devoid of any emotion.
"I... I'm not sure." Olivia confessed. "It's just... you're much more upset than the other boys, and you spend every waking moment either with Duo or working on the case. You're barely sleeping, and... I guess it's just a feeling. Forget I said-"
"You're right."
"What?"
"You're right." Heero repeated. "I do love Duo. Whether he feels the same is irrelevant at the moment; I love him, and I will get the bastard who did this to him, no matter what it takes. I swear on the grave of my father, this man will be punished, even if I have to do it myself."
And another chapter. I am no longer borrowing a bedroom in my aunt's apartment, so Crystal can't constantly bug me, which means I need reviews to get me to work. No guesses on the perp? I was dropping you clues left and right in this chapter, you know.