Tell
"Someone's got Pargan."
Damn it. It couldn't be…It's very important not to get defensive. Or get excited. Or show any emotion, for that matter. Relena takes a little worry and turns it into full-blown hysteria. Honestly, though, I can't blame her.
"He…wouldn't do something like that." The words are out of my mouth before I can reign them in.
"I don't think I believe you." Her frown reversed and quirked itself at the ends; I ran my fingers through my hair. I send Carmen for tea and sequester the other girl in the parlor. It had been so long since I've dealt with espionage and secrets (important ones, anyway), and all of the things that come with being involved with the state of the world.
"We stick to the plan. Stay calm." That wasn't a suggestion. Whoever it was, we needed answers.
"Read this. Then tell me how calm you'd feel! It's Pargan, Dorothy" She flings the square of paper at me, her hands shaking. It takes less than a moment to interpret the data, but a full minute before the implications hit with full force.
"Okay." I turn from my friend to the phone and begin dialing.
Quatre is the first to arrive and I'm not surprised. He gets the information direct, anyway, and takes over the difficult job of consoling Relena. Pargan had been like…he was her father, all things being equal. It takes a lot for the 'Queen of the world' to cry, but she's collapsed in Quatre's arms, and that gives me a respite form the insanity.
Who the hell would want to take the wind out of Relena Peacecraft-Dorlian's sails?
Okay, who wouldn't?
The note…and I'd torn the thing to shreds as soon as I'd understood it, was suggestive, as if I were somehow behind the whole thing. What Relena didn't suspect, but what the rest of the Preventors would take for fact was that I was jealous of her bill.
That damn bill…and we had been arguing at the Conference…and I had played the antagonistic bully to the hilt.
"Ms. Hilde is here, madam."
I wander, lost in thought, into the foyer to keep the rest of the dispatched group out of Relena's sight. The things you do for a friend…I shake my head at the errant thought.
"I swear to God, Dorothy, if you're behind this…" a flash of a long dark braid shakes me from my thoughts. Standing behind Hilde (restraining himself, sort of) was Duo Maxwell. Just what I didn't need. I forced a smile, and I'm really good at that, and told myself that his opinion didn't matter, regardless of how highly he ranked in that overgrown Boy Scout club.
"Save your breath; Relena will want to see you." I point down the hall, and waited until he left the room.
She stared at me, her eyes inscrutable and dull. She hasn't been sleeping well, and this situation has caught the both of them at a really bad time and I couldn't even allow myself to that about that because whoever was busy snooping on me was also trying to frame me; I'd worked too hard to redeem myself after the war and now someone was trying to destroy it all.
I don't break easily, however, and so I don't break her gaze. Eventually she looks away and nods, which I take to be the universal sign of "WTF?" and I gave her my assessment.
Damn it all to hell…
My home is now full of law enforcement and not one of them is Heero Yuy, which is a surprise because the story broke over twenty-five hours ago, and he always comes to save her.
I'm not jealous, okay?
Trowa doesn't bother speaking to me, but Wufei mutters expletives in my direction when I tell him about the note. They've spent most of the day searching my rooms (discretely, of course. The family name still wields certain aristocratic privileges, and these are the most dangerous (and silent) young men on the face of the planet) and I'm being followed from the grocery store to my favorite antique bookstore to the nightclub I frequent when I'm in town. I keep my mouth shut (uncharacteristically) and my eyes open and send Quatre telepathic messages every half-hour, which he rarely anwers. He's still at my house, and since no one will leave it, I do. They send rookies after me, but they're good enough, and the only reason I don't try to disappear is because I'm hoping my mystery guest will take a hint and show up.
I am accosted at the doughnut shop two days later.
"You're Lady Catalonia, right?" I'm at the door of a trendy eatery trying to sneak out. I'm dressed like everyone else, from the well-worn jeans to the black baseball cap that hides most of my blonde hair.
"Who are you?" The guy is taller than me, thin but not athletic, with a mop of red curls and a smile that oozes innocence.
"You've seen the note, right? Of course; we've been watching you." I freeze. That was the one element we all agreed to keep out of the news; Duo figured that only someone who knew too much would bring that up. Trust a Gundam pilot to think a couple of steps ahead of a regular investigation. He is smile is plastic, as if it were molded to fit this entire conversation, this crowd of people shuffling around the two of us. I take a moment to place the officers charged with following me. They are gone. I have a decision to make; I don't resist as he takes my arm like a gallant beau and steers me out of the shop and into the madding crowd outside.
He doesn't talk, and I don't press him, and don't bother trying to use the remnants of Zero to assault his mind. For the first time in a long time, I am afraid.
"I won't kill him, Ms. Catalonia, if that's what you're worried about." I stifle a laugh, because that is the least of my fears. He was an old man, a butler dedicated to the sole heiress of a dead Royal name, a man who was seen but not heard. I could sleep if he never woke up again.
So much for my mind.
We followed the tourist crowd through the popular attractions until we reached the Earth Alliance headquarters in the middle of the city. He has a car, a sleek red number, and opens the door to usher me in. As I buckle my seatbelt, I feel the steel chill of metal pressed against my neck, and then I don't feel anything at all.
We are an element of society that pursues the hope of eliminating dangers to our new peace. This man is sacrificed in order to gain the attention of our next target, a person of your acquaintance, the Duchess of Catalonia. If you wish to see your servant again, you will deliver her into our hands.
"You're quite the rebel, aren't you, Dorothy?" The fact that the voice is the same friendly casual one worries me even more than the question. I wake to the darkness and dankness of an abandoned warehouse; my hands are bound behind me, and the only think that I can concentrate on is how uncomfortable this metal chair is. I know without thinking that trying to contact Quatre would be useless. The boy sits in front of me, his smile the same sickening saccharine flavor.
"Have you been spying on me?" I am careful to sound nonplussed. I have something they need, else I would be dead now. There is a corner of my heart, in the smallest vein, that feels a twinge of disappointment.
"Do you remember the Zero system, Dorothy?" He dismisses my question as either irrelevant or obvious with a wave of his hand. His hands are large, the knuckles oversized and intimidating. I'm getting that feeling in my stomach, you know, when you feel like whatever you've eaten is about to make an encore appearance. I nod. It's a safe motion.
"Not many have tangoed with it and survived, you know." His voice takes a darker edge. "People have died because of it…no one knows why."
"You have to be strong."
"Like Quatre? Is Quatre such a mind?"
He doesn't say anymore, but he doesn't have to. I have no choice. He's like a brother and I can't draw him…or any of them back into another war. I won't.
"There are scientists…they disappeared during the Wars…they have perfected the use of carbon-based nanotechnology. The Doctors Rhodes."
I sigh. Lila and Evander are such nice people…
Relena,
I'm fine, but I'm taking a few days to visit my aunt on the Venusian moons. Will see you in about a week or so.
There was a motion, on my part, to insist that she not share the information with anyone but that would sound suspicious. The moon were far enough away, however, that they would waste too much time traveling there to keep me from my goal.
Mission accepted, I guess.