Chapter 2
"Shit!" Duo's foot had gotten tangled and he fell hard. An alarm blared as Duo cursed every plant in the damn garden. Quatre signaled Wufei and Trowa to storm the building and then knelt down to help Duo get his foot untangled from the wires that had been hidden in the underbrush.
Duo was swearing under his breath as Heero ran up to assess the situation.
"What happened?" he demanded.
"Damn wires got tangled around my foot."
The alarm cut out as Quatre cut the wires away from Duo's foot. "Not a very good alarm system if it can be deactivated from out here," Quatre commented with a frown.
Heero grunted. "Well I hope you're happy. We've lost the element of surprise."
"Yeah, because I tripped on purpose," Duo shot back, standing up.
"Just get inside." Heero abruptly turned and stalked back to his team.
Duo gave an exasperated grunt. "I really hate when he gets stuck in 'Mission Mode,'" he groused.
Quatre gave his friend a sympathetic look. "I know. Come on, we've got work to do."
Trowa burst through the front door with his team and immediately headed up the stairs. He trusted Wufei to get in and take care of his part. The second floor had six rooms to check before they would move up to the attic. Trowa had considered starting in the attic, but as it was more likely for the rooms on this floor to be occupied, he had decided to start here instead.
"Lieberman, stay here and prevent anyone from going downstairs. Cooper and Jameson, cover me. We're going to inspect these rooms one at a time."
The three agents nodded and Lieberman, an intimidating agent at 6'8" and able to bench press a Buick, took up his position at the top of the stairs. No one would get past him. Trowa went to the first door and pushed it open. The room was small and mostly tidy. An unmade twin sized bed, a dresser and a nightstand were the only furniture. The carpet was stained, but with what Trowa couldn't be certain. The pinkish carpet had streaks on it as though someone had tracked something from outside and then tried to clean it up, but they were unsuccessful. A glance at the brownish carpet in the hall confirmed this theory as the marks went down the hall but then they disappeared beneath a stain on the wall. What was that? Trowa looked closer. It almost looked like dried blood. Trowa suppressed a shudder at the thought. He didn't want to try and figure out how blood would have gotten on the wall in such a way. He hoped he was wrong.
Moving cautiously inside the room, Trowa opened the closet, which revealed clothing such as a teenage girl might wear. Satisfied there was no one in the closet, he moved to a door on the other side of the room. The door revealed an empty bathroom. It, too, was clean, but something felt off about it. Trowa frowned as he realized that there was but one threadbare towel hanging on the rack, no toilet paper and no soap. Surely nobody actually used this bathroom. It was possible that they had simply not restocked, but it seemed odd that anyone would keep a frequented bathroom this devoid of basic necessities. But if the bathroom wasn't used, was the bedroom? Whose clothes were in the closet?
Trowa scowled as he pushed the questions aside and moved to the next room. This door opened on a mess. The bed was unmade and the blankets were almost completely on the floor. Trowa approached the bed. Was that blood? Yes. There was no mistaking that. Given how much was soaked into the sheets, the mattress was probably stained. Trowa motioned for his agents to be careful not to mess with any potential evidence. As a precaution, Trowa checked under the bed and in the closet, both of which were empty. The three agents moved to the next room. They would come back for evidence once the house was cleared.
"This floor is clear," Wufei reported as Duo and Quatre entered the house. "Trowa's team is already searching upstairs."
Quatre nodded. "Is it looking to be a dead lead?"
Wufei shrugged. "Too early to tell."
"Let's just get on with it," Duo grouched as he headed for the stairs that would lead to the basement.
Wufei raised an eyebrow at Quatre.
"He isn't usually that much of a klutz. And the fact that it lost us the element of surprise is annoying him," Quatre explained quietly.
Wufei nodded. The four of them knew about Quatre's ability to know what they were feeling. Empathy, he called it, but it seemed more than that. Wufei thought it was closer to ESP, and if not for witnessing Quatre's abilities firsthand, he would have written it off as new-age fiddle faddle. The ability to know how they felt was annoying sometimes, but it could be useful and it only helped Quatre's diplomacy.
"Right. Best not keep him waiting. Hopefully by the time you're done down there he'll have cooled off."
Quatre nodded his agreement. An annoyed Duo was more dangerous than usual. The sooner he got back to his normal, happy self, the less damage there would be to whatever he took his frustration out on.
He left the girl with a warning not to try and escape, though with the shape she was in, she wouldn't get far if she did. The house alarm was easily shut off from the control panel in the prep room. Now to see what set it off. The alarm hadn't been triggered recently and the last time it had been because a mouse chewed through one of the wires. Still…no point in taking chances. He was angry that he hadn't gotten farther in the girl's 'training.' But if it was nothing, he would be back at her soon enough. He hoped she enjoyed these last few moments with her innocence. He headed towards the stairs and paused as he heard footsteps overhead. He had a client upstairs but there was no way the man could make that much noise by himself.
Swearing under his breath, he headed back the way he came. He thought about grabbing the girl, but if she realized someone was there that could help her, it was likely she'd attempt to escape. Even if she wasn't stupid enough to try and escape, two people were more likely to be caught than one. He smirked. Maybe once they caught his client they'd leave. Still…no point in waiting inside for that to happen. He decided to take his private escape route and watch from a safe location. Once they left, he'd get back to work on the girl.
He slipped silently through the hall to a door that he'd had installed for just such an occasion. The door was well oiled and made no noise as he slipped out. Cursing, he stuck to the shadows. There were Preventer agents everywhere, milling about. He watched and waited. He would have to move as soon as there was an opening.
He started to get antsy the longer it took. There were only two agents now. He grinned as the agents were called away for something. He slipped silently into the woods. He had a few places he could wait for them to leave. As he headed to a cave on the south side of his property he thought about the girl. He frowned. What if they found her? He shrugged. It isn't like she would talk. She wouldn't dare. And if she did, he had ways of getting her back. He smirked as he realized that the invading agents would terrify her. Maybe once he got her back she'd have learned to behave herself.
He found the hidden entrance to the cave he'd renovated. It was fully furnished and boasted enough emergency supplies to last him a month. He settled into his easy chair with a drink and a book. He'd wait out those nosy Preventers. It was all just a matter of time before the girl got what she had coming.
Trowa put a finger to his lips. There was noise coming from the next room and he wanted to get the drop on whoever was inside.
He kicked down the door, yelling, "PREVENTERS! FREEZE!"
Trowa was furious and disgusted at what he saw. "YOU! STAND UP AND KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!"
The naked man crawled off the girl and stood with his hands out to his sides.
"Cooper, check the girl," Trowa ordered, keeping his gun trained on the man. The man was older, balding and overweight. "What's your name?"
The man scowled at Trowa. Who was this whelp to tell him what to do? Just because he had a gun didn't mean he was in charge.
"I asked you to tell me your name. I won't ask again."
The man's eyes narrowed. "Decart."
Trowa kept his face neutral. They'd found their target.
"Sir, the girl…" Cooper started, not wanting to say what needed to be said.
"Report, Cooper."
"She's dead, sir."
Trowa narrowed his eyes. "You sick bastard. What are you doing screwing a corpse?"
"She wasn't when I started," the man answered cockily.
"You're under arrest." Trowa motioned with his gun towards the door. "Let's go."
The man walked out the door and instantly took off down the hall in the opposite direction of Lieberman.
"STOP!"
The man ducked into one of the rooms they hadn't checked yet. Trowa followed and jumped back into the hallway as the man started firing on the Preventer agents.
Trowa allowed his anger and annoyance to get the better of him as he leaned into the doorway and fired back. No one took shots at his team.
There was a scream of pain and the man yelled, "I surrender! Please…stop shooting at me!"
"Throw your weapon to me." Trowa cautiously leaned into the doorway to watch the perpetrator.
The man was lying on the ground, clutching a bleeding leg and moaning in pain. "I can't…help me!"
"Throw me your weapon," Trowa told the man evenly.
"You're a cruel sonofabitch, you know that!"
"Throw. Me. Your. Weapon." Trowa didn't give a rat's ass that the man was in pain. He had no sympathy for anyone that would treat women the way he did.
The man let out a grunt of frustration and, with what looked like a great amount of effort, threw his gun towards the door.
It didn't make it as close as Trowa would have liked, but it was out of reach of the man. Trowa carefully approached, keeping his gun trained on the man. Once he had the villain's weapon in hand, he motioned for his team to enter.
"Cooper, have Lieberman take him out and ask Agent Chang to send up some of his crew to take care of the girl we found."
Cooper went to do as ordered while Jameson kept his weapon trained on the man whining on the floor. Suddenly, the man grabbed at something under the bed. He pulled out another gun and shot. Jameson fell to the ground with the force of the impact as Trowa sent a round through the man's chest. The man wheezed but shakily aimed at Trowa.
Trowa calmly sent another bullet through the man's chest, killing him this time. Satisfied that the criminal was no longer a threat, Trowa knelt next to Jameson, who was sitting up. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah…Kevlar did its job."
Trowa nodded. He was glad that he insisted his team always wear bulletproof vests. True, it wouldn't help them if they got shot in the face, but most of their quarry tended to shoot for the heart. Jameson would be bruised but it was a small price to pay.
Wufei appeared in the doorway, tensed and ready for action, with Lieberman and Cooper behind him. "What happened, Barton?"
Trowa stood. "He pulled another weapon out from under the bed and targeted Jameson. I neutralized the threat."
Wufei grunted in annoyance. "Killing our only lead was not a wise idea, Barton."
Trowa casually pointed at the video camera in the corner. "All we have to do is find where they keep the tapes and we'll have everything we need."
Wufei rolled his eyes. "You know Une wants a live suspect to interrogate."
"We're not done searching this part of the house yet. We might find more assholes like that one."
"Trowa—"
"Don't, Wufei! Just DON'T! I'll discuss this with you later but right now I have an attic to search." Trowa pushed past Wufei towards the stairs at the end of the hall. Before heading up, he turned. "Lieberman, you and Jameson check the other rooms on this floor. Alert Agent Chang if you find anything before I come back down. Cooper, stand guard at the bottom of these stairs in case I flush anything out."
As Trowa disappeared up the stairs Wufei asked, "What triggered that?"
Jameson cleared his throat. "Uh…Sir…when we first found this guy he was…he was…with a dead girl that he claimed was alive when he started with her."
Wufei shut his eyes as he willed his rage to subside. Opening his eyes he said, "Finish searching the rooms. I'll send some of my team up to remove the girl. Hopefully she can be identified and her family notified."
"Um…what about…him, sir?"
"Leave it. The trash will get taken out later."
"Yes, Sir!"
Wufei left the men to their jobs. He only wished the bastard was alive so he could kill him again.
Quatre and Duo systematically searched the basement. Most of the lights were burnt out and even the lights that weren't were not very good. Most rooms were empty. One looked like a cell. Duo suppressed a shudder as he remembered being held in a room similar during the wars. The only difference was that Oz hadn't provided him a cot, though given an option between the floor and the cot in this room, he'd take the floor any day.
Quatre frowned as he picked up the negative vibe from his partner. "You don't suppose anyone…stayed here, do you?"
"If they did, it wasn't by choice," Duo retorted. "Let's get on with it."
Quatre sighed and followed his friend. Duo's mood didn't look to be lifting any time soon.
Duo opened the next door and the two former pilots gagged on the stench of blood and death. It took them both several minutes to get themselves under control.
Quatre covered his mouth and nose with a hand as he looked inside. "It looks like a butcher shop. But…I don't know. Something isn't right about it." He focused his empathic abilities, trying to tie down the general feeling of the room. There was a strange sense of glee. He shuddered at the contrary feeling.
Duo, covering his mouth and nose as well, nodded as he looked around the room. There were a couple of long tables, rolls of butcher paper and tape and a couple of aprons that had blood stains on them. There were blood stains leading to a drain in the middle of the floor. "Yeah. We should have the forensics guys try to identify the blood. It might be that the guy who owns this place goes hunting, but…" he left the thought unfinished as Quatre nodded his agreement.
They shut the door to prevent the stench from seeping through the rest of the basement and moved on to the next hallway.
"This basement is bigger than I thought," Duo remarked as they reached the end of the hallway only to find another one. Duo looked to the left and the right. "This wasn't on the blueprints Heero brought to the briefing. Why don't you go that way and I'll go this way."
"Are you sure splitting up is a good idea?"
"We haven't found anything so far. I kinda doubt we will at this point."
Quatre frowned. "Okay. But yell if you find anything."
Duo nodded and headed down the hallway to the left.
Quatre headed to the right. Every door he opened with the fear of being ambushed. Fortunately, every room was empty. It was weird. There was nothing. Not even an emotion he could pin down. He groaned as he opened the last door. It led outside. It was the perfect escape route. He ran a hand through his hair as he turned back to head towards Duo. He noticed a video camera and made a mental note to tell Heero that there were cameras throughout the building. If they could access the footage, it would make this investigation infinitely easier.
He stopped short as a sickening stab of disgust hit him and nausea rolled through him. He closed his eyes and focused. It was Trowa. Something upset Trowa. Something was seriously wrong upstairs.
"QUAT!"
Quatre was pulled from his thoughts at Duo's yell.
"THERE'S A BODY IN HERE!"