Chapter 7: Enemy From Within

Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist or the characters of Full Metal Alchemist.

He jumped over one of the railings as he followed the car to it's destination point, a hotel that was usually reserved for officers, but he couldn't shake the fact that someone may be impersonating him so he walked into the hotel. The two guards who were there were escorting the man who looked like him upstairs. Guile waited for second while he drank in the hotels bar, talking with one of the waitresses who caught his eyes, but as soon as the men came down for a drink, Guile excused himself to the bathroom and walked up to the hotel, looking for the hotel number that General Roy Mustang used. At first he thought that any imposter could be dangerous so he decided to pretend that he was talking to himself and that he didn't know which key was his as he figured that the man inside would assume it was some idiot trying to find his way or that a mistake had been made in the hotel rooms. Guile put a fake key to the door as he used a different number then the one on the door to make it seem like he was mistaking the room number. When the key wouldn't open the door, he knocked on the door to ask the guy if he knew how to get to the fake room number. Slowly, he heard a lock turn on the door as the handle twisted to open.

"You mean to tell me that Captain Asshole is a part of this as well," asked Roy as he leaned his head on his hand. Captain Asshole was the nickname of Captain Carl Grove.

"The only other captain who would be informed of that would be Captain Vash, but he was checking out the library," replied Riza as she shuffled through her notes to find the library check in sheet. "Lieutenant Sheska saw him at the library and even had a conversation with him at the time, so all things point to Captain Grove."

"I'm think we need to put some men on him, maybe we could use Captain Guile for that to keep him away from Sean," said Roy as he ran his hand through his hair in frustration at the pounds of burden that were being place upon him. "Anyway, do we even know if the two assassinations are related to each other? You did say that there was an absence of markers at the place, plus we don't even know if the Philosophers used homunculi for their purposes like golems."

"Well that two is a possibility, but right now we don't know if it is a second group or if the Philosophers were even involved in the attempt on the Fuhror's life."

"Edward claims that there is a strange man who seems to be after something of his father's," announced Roy as he sat up fully and start stroking his cheek. "From what I see, the problem with all of this is that we have little information as to who plans what. Right now we can only keep Sean away from Guile."

"General Mustang," cried Havoc as he ran into the office with Breda following him.

"What is it," asked Roy in frustration as he knew that the two weren't coming into bring good news and only meant further anxiety.

"We can't find Colonel Guile, sir," replied Havoc as he snapped a crisp salute, which was the only thing that was saving him from getting burned to death from his incompetence.

"You damn idiots," scolded Roy as he slammed his fist down on the desk and started walking towards the door. "Okay, I want you two dumbasses to go to the hotel and try looking for-wait no cancel that, I want you two to keep tabs on Captain Grove. If I sent you two after Colonel Guile, I'm sure you idiots would some way to fuck that up as well. I'll go after Guile with Lt. General Riza. Dismissed!"

The two colonels ran out of the room at lightning speed, fearing the burning touch of fire if they dared to linger any longer, but Roy was still able to control his temper at a time like this. He quickly got all the others outside of the office on the go to locate Captain Vashov so he would know where everyone was, the matter had just escalated up in the food chain of damage potential and he was not about to let this powder keg explode. After dictating his orders to everyone in the building, he walked quickly outside to the car that Riza had waiting for him and climbed into the passenger seat while Riza practically stomped on the accelerator. Something was making Roy nervous, a feeling that wouldn't be shaken away so easily like a stain on the mind that is hard to wash off, and Riza knew that there was something wrong with her beloved commander, but now she would have to focus on driving at the pace she was going. The hotel wasn't that far away, but still, they didn't know how far away Guile was from reaching Sean.

Havoc was out of breath when he finally stopped running and the first thing he realized was that he had no clue where he was or more importantly, where he should be. From the curious look on Breda's face, Havoc could tell that his partner knew just as much as he did, which only exacerbated things. What was worse was that at that very moment, a big looking brown dog walked up to them and Breda naturally freaked out at the sight of the big dog, climbing up on his chain smoking partner while shouting for the dog to go away. Many people turned and stared at the two colonels with puzzled looks do to how odd the two looked worried looks because the two men were military men, the ones who were supposed to protect them, and looks of amusement at how ridiculous the two looked. One look however, was one of great attention and one that wandered over every detail about the two men, taking in their position and radioing back to the ones who employed the looking eyes.

Colonel Guile Stryker was a tough man, a strong man, not one who could be easily beaten or put into a position of defenselessness. He had manage to develop hand-to-hand combat moves that were the envy of many grapplers when he picked them up and threw them across the floor, which was easy to do since he was very built. Every morning he would practice his fighting stances and do exercises to make sure he was in tip-top shape, often jogging for a few blocks before going back the same way to build up his stamina. Boxing matches were always something of a challenge for Guile because he couldn't find anyone who would want to scrap with him, with the exception of Brigadier General Armstrong, and he would often have to use his fights with street criminals as practice. This was a man who was the pinnacle of combat junkies, but right now he was looking at the floor while another man who looked just like him, stood on top of his back.

"You must be Colonel Guile Stryker," declared the man standing on his back as he slowly got off and sat on the bed while keeping his gun trained on his opponent.

"Who, might I ask, are you," asked Guile as he slowly got up to face the man who looked like him and the gun that looked like his.

"I'm Sean Guile Stryker, your counterpart for the other side of the gate, or so I'm told," said the man holding the gun, his accent seemed quite peculiar to Guile.

"What type of accent is that," asked Guile as he squinted in confusion at his counterpart. "I've never heard it before and I've mastered all the accents that I know about."

"Well, in the world I come from, there is a place called Ireland," replied Sean as he got up and handed the gun to Guile, unloading it before he handed the gun back just to be on the safe side. "My ancestors immigrated to America and this is the accent I've developed since my child hood, but I can use a lot of other accents when I need to."

The hotel lobby was a bit crowded by all the people moving in and out of it, but Roy was able to get by thanks to Riza firing off a warning shot in the air so that they could make room. It probably wasn't necessary, but Riza did things like that on reflex, which is why someone had gotten the idea to put her picture in the dictionary right under the word "trigger happy." The person who published the dictionary had the fortune of Riza never reading his edition of the dictionary until Havoc had somehow gotten a hold of the dictionary and was distributing it among some of the guys in the office. One day, as fate would seem to have it in for the guy, Riza needed to look something up in the dictionary and had found the page with her picture on it.

"They should be in room 3-S," said Riza as she looked at the men in the bar who were coming out. "Grand, it looks like some of our men were a bit preoccupied with doing something other than their job."

"I'm sorry sir, but he insisted that we take a break," said one of the guards assigned with keeping Sean separated from Guile.

"Well we just have to hope that Guile hasn't gotten here yet," said Roy as he walked towards the stairs and was bumped into by someone as he reached the top.

"I'm terribly sorry general," said the strange man as he took off his hat and bowed before going off on his way.

"That was odd," said Roy as he fingered his pockets to find a note. "What the hell is this?"

"Please allow me to check it first and make sure that nothing is wrong with it," said Riza as she held up her hand to receive the letter and give it her security examination.

"No that's alright, I'll look at it myself," said Roy as he tore open the envelope and read the message that was inside of it. His expression changed from calm, indifference to a horrified look.

"What is it Roy," asked Riza as she put her hands on his back and looked at the letter.

On it were just a five words: Captain Vashove is a homunculus.