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 4
Heero and Duo ran through bushes and up the massive steps, ringing the doorbell. There was a brief pause and then Jerald, the butler answered.
"Mr. Maxwell, Mr. Yuy, welcome. I will notify your arrival to Master Quatre."
"Thank you," they said together. Stepping inside, they didn't have to wait long before Quatre walked in and greeted them.
"I've been trying to get a hold of you two!" Quatre exclaimed.
"We know." Duo quickly explained all that happened at the Caribbean to Quatre.
"I knew he was up to something," Quatre scowled and tapped his chin thoughtfully.
"We saw him open a passage through the window just now."
"He did inform us that he would be in the study till dinner." Nodding in unison the three ex-pilots headed toward the study. Duo pointed to where Grivon had opened the bookcase and they managed to find the switch that pulled the shelf up.
They stared at the coded keypad slightly flummoxed..
"It's in letters, I would have thought numbers," Quatre said, squinting at the pad.
"Well, what do you think the code is?" Duo tipped his head, studying the keypad intently.
"I don't know anything about him" Quatre said flatly. They popped the cover off and Duo studied the wiring for a moment before stepping back and sighing. "I can't make any sense of this, it's like somebody purposely cross-wired it."
Heero pulled out a small device from his pocket and placed it on the pad.
"What is that?" Duo asked, wondering what else Heero had stored in his pockets.
"Finger print scanner, what else?" Heero grunted
Duo snorted, "Oh sure, take the easy way out."
A light on the scanner turned green and showed a sequence of letters.
"W, R, E, L, J, I, T, H, O, D. How the hell are we supposed to know the combinations?" Duo asked in exasperation. Heero typed rapidly on the encoder. The small computer began randomly assembling sentences from letters that were keyed on the pad.
The list went on forever. Heero blinked and Duo swore softly.
"Wait, the encoder's flashing that last phrase." Quatre pointed
WHITE JEWEL ORDER
Heero entered the sequence and the metal door opened. "Sweet!" Duo exclaimed.
The three walked into the dark hallway revealed by the door. It was a short walk from the door and the room beyond. When they got to the room, they saw Jack Grivon sitting in a large armchair, sipping tea. Before they showed themselves, they took a look around the room. There was a fireplace and portraits of all the Peacecraft family were hanging on the walls.
"Welcome, gentlemen," Grivon offered up his teacup in a mock toast. Heero scowled and Quatre folded his arms.
"You're under arrest for the involvement in stealing a prized diamond, you thief!" Duo grinned and stepped out of the shadows.
Hypocrite, Heero thought with a cough.
Duo threw him a dirty look as if he knew exactly what he was thinking then continued. "And for trying to kill me."
"You were getting in the way." Grivon didn't look apologetic.
"What I'm interested in knowing is how the hell you knew about this place, last time I checked you weren't a member of the Peacecraft family." Quatre stood against one wall idly tapping his leg with his palm.
"Oh that's simple, Milliardo was afraid of something happening to him on the Mars project and told his dear sister about this room. I just happen to be in the area at the time and acquired the information for my own purposes. I made sure to change the code in case Relena got curious."
Quatre shook his head in amazement at the sheer audacity of the man.
"Ah well, since I'm caught are you going to handcuff me?" Grivon teased, raising both his arms.
The older man smirked, but then dropped the expression for one of shock when Heero drew his gun instead. Eyes wide, he stiffened as Heero approached him. Suddenly Heero wacked him in the back of the neck not bothering to catch the man when he collapsed to the floor, knocked out. Duo came over and helped prop Grivon in one of the chairs, patting his head like a dog and smirking.
"Look at all this stuff!" Quatre exclaimed. "The Peacecraft family crest, gold goblets, silver necklaces, all sorts of stuff!"
"Hey, do you see the diamond?" Heero asked. For the next hour they looked everywhere; behind tables and pictures, but it was nowhere to be seen.
"Maybe he hid it somewhere else?" Quatre suggested.
"No, I don't think so considering all these other valuables." Duo added.
"Damn, now what are we going to say to the Commander?" Heero asked.
"It' s all right, you found a criminal and some very valuable Peacecraft heirlooms." Quatre assured.
"I wish it were as simple as that, let's call the local police and have them finish the search." Heero told him. "We'll take Grivon though." Heero hauled the older man over his shoulder and walked through the metal door putting in the code once more.
Once they were out, Quatre said good bye to them and then went to call the police. As they were leaving they met Relena coming in from shopping. She smiled at Heero and he nodded slightly, more surprised by her calm acceptance of Grivon slung over his shoulder than anything else. Duo tossed a casual wave to Relena, not bothering to look back as he followed his partner out.
They flew back to the Preventer's headquarters and Duo insisted on putting Grivon in the cargo hull. Once back at headquarters they marched the criminal, who was now conscious and handcuffed, up the building steps. When passing through the front doors they met Wufei and Sally Poe talking at their desks. Hesitating, Heero walked in the Commander's office. Une sat at her desk drinking coffee and watching the news about the Sanq Kingdom on television.
"Well, it seems you've caught a White Jewel follower," Une acknowledged.
"A what?" Duo asked puzzled, then quickly changed his expression.
"I mean, of course we did," Duo told her, nudging Heero with his elbow. Heero just sighed.
"I'm very pleased, you may have your normal jobs back. But if you had captured him earlier, I might have given you a raise," Une smiled but it had a bit of an edge to it. "While you two were off destroying stuff, Wufei and Sally subdued a threat that could have started another war."
Heero and Duo both winced.
"Since you did successfully capture one of the remaining followers, I'll ignore the lapse and reinstate your positions." Duo sighed in relief.
"However," Une suddenly slammed her hand flat on the desk. "As your punishment for not following orders, you can pay the fine for your still ruined office, wrecking a shelf of almost ten century old antiques, destroying a whole floor of a hotel, and the burial of Martin R. Clifford." She smiled more menacingly.
"So that comes out to be $2,719,895.00. Good luck."
The Commander dealt with Grivon and then kicked the boys out of her office. Wufei and Sally stopped talking abruptly, watching the two other agents skulk past.
"How did it go?" Wufei asked curiously. Heero slammed the list of fines onto Wufei's desk.
"Ah, I see," Sally said peering over.
The boys left Headquarters soon after and walked down the steps of the Preventer's building.
"So how much you got?" Duo asked sticking his hands in his pockets.
"Ten thousand, you?" Heero replied glumly.
"Well, fourteen thousand right now, but with this..." Duo grinned wickedly and pulled out a shiny, finely cut diamond, "The fines should be no problem."
Heero stared in shock. "How did you..."
"Picked it from his pocket after you knocked him out," Duo explained proudly.
"DUO!" Heero glared. "I thought your stealing had a reason."
"Don't get me wrong, It does have a reason. I steal because...well, before I became a gundam pilot; I was an orphan running around the streets stealing food to survive. I got caught eventually and was taken in by a church. The church was destroyed by rebels one day and I wandered the streets to steal again."
Duo paused taking a breath, "The church's name was the Maxwell church."
Heero's eyes widened slightly.
"I loved that place, it was home to me. So when I heard other churches needed donations because they were going bankrupt..." He trailed off.
Heero looked over at Duo thoughtfully and then shook his head, fighting a smirk. "That's the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever heard in my life."
"Damn, busted." Duo grinned without a trace of guilt. "What can I say I like a little excitement and action in my life."
"You know, with all that money you could afford a really nice house." Heero studied one large house that looked as if it had been recently built.
"Ah, that kind of stuff is way too classy for my taste," Duo grinned.
Suddenly a taxi pulled up beside them and Quatre jumped out running toward them at top speed cursing under his breath. He was oddly dressed Heero noticed. He appeared to be wearing a trench coat with a scarf around his neck and a large pair of sunglasses.
"Heero! Just the man I was looking for!"
"Quatre what are you wearing?" Heero raised his eyebrows, "It's in the middle of summer."
"I'm in disguise! Relena has been talking nonstop ever since she saw you!" Quatre explained wearily.
"Heero this, Heero that, he looked at me! I can't believe it! He looked at me!" Quatre took a moment to gulp some air, then continued. "She's totally stopped doing paper work, so I have double the amount of work to finish." He sighed hopelessly, then blinked. An insane look came upon Quatre's face like the time he had started blowing up colonies after his father had died.
"Maybe you could, you know," Quatre's eyes gleamed eagerly. "Kill her?" Duo snickered and Heero glared at him.
"I couldn't possibly, she's the Vice Foreign Minister." Heero said flatly. Quatre shoved a large wad of cash into Heero's hands.
"If I killed her, a war could start again." Quatre dug out more cash and placed it in Heero's hands.
Heero eyed the money but shook his head, "I promised to never kill again." More money was pulled from God knows where and added to the increasing stack.
"She's your wife!" Heero told Quatre sternly. In response Quatre shoved money into all the pockets that Heero had until they bulged.
Studying the pile thoughtfully, Heero shrugged nonchalantly. "I never really liked her anyway." Offering a nod to Quatre he continued down the street.
"How much you get?" Duo asked Heero.
"Exactly one million total, and I expect my money's worth!" They heard Quatre shout after them in response.
Heero smirked. I think I'll take undisclosed leave of absence. The hell I'm going to pay that fine.
"Well, guess I'll see you later?" They had reached Duo's apartment and Heero stopped abruptly. He turned his head to look back, a peculiar expression on his face.
"Yeah," Then he turned away, and continued to walk.
"Oh, and you'd better hurry home, you look ridiculously suspicious with all that cash!" Duo yelled.
Duo stood right outside his door and watched Heero disappear from sight, an aggravated look appearing on his face.
"Don't even think it, buddy." Duo growled opening the door to his apartment. He walked in then slowly closed the door. "There's no way I'm letting you run off and leave me with that bill!"
The End!
I hope everyone enjoyed my story, I had a lot of fun writing it. Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed!
-The Sly Arbitrator