The Notorious Adventures of Duo Maxwell and Heero Yuy
Disclaimer: Gundam Wing does not belong to me. I'm just borrowing the characters.
Warnings: None, though foul language occasionally.
Chapter 3
Duo's eyes slowly opened. He studied the room blearily.The curtains were closed, a table sat near a corner of the room. On top of it were empty plates and coffee cups. His left arm was off the bed hanging down to the floor. A lamp sat between each bed, and Heero was reclined on his reading a book. Shivering, Duo rolled over lazily, pulling the covers a little higher.
"Hey, Heero?"
Heero took no notice of his name being called, too intent on his book. Duo saw Heero had already dressed and was wearing, oddly enough, a business suit. Duo didn't think he'd ever seen Heero dressed in anything like it before.
"Heero!" Duo finally sat up and tossed a pillow in the direction of the boy across from him.
"Yeah?" Ignoring the pillow Heero lowered his book to look over at Duo.
"What are we going to do now? We have no leads on the thief, and the henchman are either dead or long gone from here."
"I think I have a lead on the thief, and the group is somehow linked with him." Heero shot a quizzical look at Duo. "Even though they tried to..." He trailed off.
"They tried to what?" Duo turned his head quickly to stare inquiringly at Heero.
"Nothing, never mind," Heero replied weakly.
"Heero, tell me," Duo demanded.
"Even though they tried to kill him!" Heero frowned staring straight back into Duo's eyes. Duo seemed shocked but then he smiled.
"Well, I knew I couldn't hide it from you long." His smiled broadened to a wide grin. "So, are you going to arrest me?" His grin vanished, replaced with a serious, but guilty look.
"Do you know anything about the attackers that put you into the hospital?" Heero asked ignoring Duo's question for the time being. "Was it because you stole the diamond from the ship?"
"I have no clue why they attacked me. Say, how did you find out I stole the diamond?" Duo asked puzzled.
"The bandage on your arm," Heero pointed.
"This?" Duo unwrapped his bandage revealing savagely burnt skin. It was Heero's turn to look puzzled.
"You don't have a cut?" Heero asked, mainly for himself.
"No I told you, the other thief knocked me into the boiler."
"Oh, I thought you quickly changed and lied."
"I told you way back, I never tell a lie." Duo looked frustrated. "You mean, you thought I was the thief that tried to kill you? Well that's great! Some friend you think of me."
Duo paused for a moment and then groaned. "I just blew my cover for a false accusation! Damn."
Heero smiled for the first time in months, "So what have you stolen?"
Duo sighed, "The diamond. I swiped it from the thief's pocket when he shoved me. I thought you knew."
"Where is it Duo?" Heero wiped the smile from his face.
"It's with Martin, he's supposed to ship it to a buyer," Duo explained.
During their conversation Duo was slowly moving his arm under his pillow inch by inch. Heero quickly realized his intent and grabbed his own gun tucked in his pants. As one they both drew their guns on each other.
"Duo!" He warned.
"I can't give it back, you wouldn't understand," Duo replied. Heero lunged past the gun pointed at his head and tackled Duo off the bed, rolling to the floor. Duo landed under Heero, but his gun was steadily pointed at Heero's temple. Heero mirrored the gesture. Duo broke the silence.
"You know, you're really heavy," He grunted.
Heero couldn't help it, he chuckled, "Only you would say some smart ass comment while in a hopeless situation."
Quickly Heero knocked Duo's gun from his hand and pressed an arm to his throat, pinning his head to the side.
"Damn, I always forget that move," Mumbled Duo. Heero could hardly hear him because Duo's voice was muffled by the floor.
"Give the diamond back," Heero demanded.
"I can't, I need the money."
"DUO!" He yelled.
"I can't!"
At that moment, a knock sounded from the door. Heero and Duo froze.
"Hey, is anyone there? I need to talk to Duo," A familiar voice called.
Heero elbowed Duo in the face, and took off before Duo could recover from the blow. Unlatching the lock he opened the door and greeted Martin. Martin glanced uneasily at the scene in the room.
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" He asked curiously, looking at Duo rolling around on the floor swearing and clutching face.
"No, not at all," Heero reassured.
"Good," Martin smirked. "My new boss paid much more generously for the diamond." Martin said pointing at Duo. "Here's a message from him," Martin pulled out a knife, and lunged at Heero's throat.
Heero stopped the arm in time, and wrestled, keeping the dagger at bay. Duo raised his head to see Heero and Martin fighting over a blade that flashed in the light. Cursing, he slowly got up and look around for his gun.
Heero received a fist to his jaw, weakening his grip and the knife slowly edged toward his throat. The dagger was a centimeter away from his neck when a shot filled the air and Martin gurgled. Blood gushed all over Heero as Martin writhed in pain. Heero pushed the man off him and panted. Duo slowly walked over and pointed his gun at Martin, who was already dead; blood forming a pool around him.
Heero pulled himself off the floor and frowned. "Why did you save me?"
"You're my best friend and partner." Duo's eyebrows furrowed, "Also, if you died I'd probably get stuck with Chang."
Heero smirked. "So you saved me even though I said I was going to arrest you?"
Duo shrugged and grinned, "Hopes springs eternal, and all that. I'm still holding out that you'll change your mind."
In response Heero raised an eyebrow and then turned to study the body on the floor. "It seems the situation just got a lot more complicated."
Duo eyed the body, nudging it with his foot and then glanced at Heero slyly. "You know, they say it takes a thief to catch a thief."
Heero looked at him and then shook his head. "Guess at this point we have no choice." He waved a hand toward the body, "Be my guest."
Duo beamed and then cracked his knuckles. "Alright, let's see if I can make at least one dead man tell tales." Rifling through Martin's pockets, Duo pulled out a small cellphone and set to work sorting through the phone calls and messages.
Several hours and many phone calls later, they had their address. Duo grinned flashing his teeth, "The Carribean, huh? What is it with thieves and the tropics, everyone wants their own deserted island?"
Heero looked up from where he was packing his bag. "You don't live in the tropics."
Duo chuckled and reached over for his own bag, "Yeah well, I have a day job too."
They left the hotel before anyone found out about the untimely death of Martin. Quickly securing a pilot who wouldn't ask questions, they finally landed onto the ocean's surface near small island off the mainland. Locating a pretty decent rental shop, they picked up a car. Duo drove, the land seeming to consist of nothing but one hill after another. Consulting a map, they finally stopped on the edge of a large property. Silently walking the perimeter, they paused in front of some shrubberies that had a path leading through them. Duo went first and they walked past beautiful ponds with vines growing around them. Fish darted here and there, their scales gleamed in the sunlight.
"Quite a backyard he's got," Heero remarked. Duo just smirked.
"He won't want a confrontation, so we'll need to infiltrate," Duo stated. "Cameras are everywhere." He pointed to an obvious camera on the roof.
"Not a problem," Heero assured him.
Taking out one his gadgets, Heero threw it toward the mansion. It flew in an arc and the little circular gadget landed on the wall. It stuck on impact, and sent out a silent frequency which disrupted all electronic feedback in the area.
"Hurry because it only blocks for so long." The two partners grinned and ran up to the house, quickly climbing a vine growing on the wall until they reached a window. They jimmied the lock and opened the window, jumping in.
Heero noticed that the room was filled with antiques of all sort, the smallest item probably costing more than his entire year's paycheck. He moved more closely to the door and slowly opened it. Deciding it was clear, he dashed out and ran along the walls checking the corners to see if anyone was there. Duo followed silently behind, until Heero gave the order to stop. They could hear voices talking in a room next to their position. Heero peered out behind the corner and spotted a short portly man fingering the diamond..
"I sent Martin to take care of them, no worries," The man said. He was wearing a tux with an old pocket watch chain dangling out of his chest pocket.
"Good, I was getting worried with Quatre trying to contact them," The other man said. Duo's eyes widened, the man talking to the short one had blonde hair and was wearing black slacks and a dark red shirt.
"It's that guy!" Duo whispered excitedly. Heero nodded, he recognized him as well from Quatre's wedding.
"So, how much were you wanting for this beauty?" The portly man asked eagerly.
"Let's see," Jack Grivon looked at it closely.
"It's a round twenty four carat diamond!" The other man said excitedly.
"Two million dollars?" The blonde offered.
The portly man snorted, "A twenty carat is worth more than that!"
"Alright, three million."
The man eyed Grivon intently, "Deal!" They shook hands and a checkbook was pulled out. The blonde man silently wrote out a check, then ripped it off the book. He handed over his check, while the other gave him the diamond. The short man eyed the check in glee.
"Right, I must be going, my boss will wonder where I am. I promised him a bit of cricket tomorrow." The two men shook hands, then left the room.
Heero signaled Duo to follow; they snuck back the way they came in. Heero jumped out the window, landing softly on the grass. He tore through the garden with Duo following him, intent on tailing Grivon. They burst out of the shrubberies, and jumped into the car. Keeping a distance from the other man's limo, they tailed him to the docks were he got into one of the airplanes.
Heero hid in the cargo hulls with Duo. It was a very uncomfortable ride and some freight that had been stowed improperly almost toppled onto Heero. At last they landed in Sanq kingdom, Heero and Duo waited till Jack left, then knocked out a couple of workers and took their truck.
"Heero, why don't we just visit them?" Duo asked from the radio. He was standing on a tree limb looking through the windows of a huge estate with binoculars.
"Because then Grivon will be more cautious, he knows we're after the diamond," Heero replied. He caught sight of the man through the blinds.
"Target sighted," Heero said.
"I wanted to say that," Duo's voice came in.
"Pay attention," Heero growled back. Grivon looked around, then stuck his hand behind the book shelf he was in front of.
"Target acting suspicious," Duo said quickly, before Heero could say something similar.
The book shelf rose up, revealing a metal door. Grivon tapped in something on a pad next to the metal door. It opened and the blonde vanished behind the door, which shut instantly; the book case sliding back also.
"Lost target," Heero called.
"Right, let's move in," Duo replied.
"Right."
TBC...
I wanted to thank all the people who have been reading this, especially Sakura123. Thank you for the reviews it was great to hear that somebody was enjoying my story. If anyone else would like to review that would be awesome, all feedback is welcome! Hope you enjoyed the latest installment.
-TheSlyArbitrator