UNDERLYING AGENDA

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Monday

8:43AM

Entering quietly into her corner office, Agent Yuy relayed the update as instructed by Agent Chang. "All the agents and staff have assembled in the theatre for the briefing, Une."

"And Agent Wind?"

"No."

Lady Une reclined back in her chair with her precariously manicured fingers steepled against her apprehensive mouth, "He's late."

"Thirteen minutes," Heero confirmed.

Lady Une scoffed and ushered him away with a flick of her hand as she swiveled her chair to face the other direction. This meant the Vice Foreign Minister and President of the Earth's Sphere were due to arrive in precisely seventeen minutes. "Would it kill you to oblige me just once? Miserable malcontent…"

Exiting, Heero met up with Sally and Duo who stood idling outside the door. Sally spoke first, "What's the story? Did he call in?

Prussian blue met cobalt, "Negative."

Sally frowned. Moving to the window, she gazed out intently for a familiar black coupe approaching from the expressway and had a sinking feeling something wasn't right. "It's not like Zechs to run late without notifying someone. Did anyone speak to him over the weekend?"

"None of us have, not since Friday."

Sally dismally admitted that "neither have I…"

"I knew I should have followed my better judgment." Duo turned to Heero, "How much time?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"We'll confirm in ten," he said, starting down the hall towards the elevators. "Sally, let's hit it!"

Along the way, Sally attempted to reach him by phone several times and only got his answering machine and voicemail. "No answer."

"Try again."

"I already told you, the damn thing's not responding," Sally growled, punching the call button again. "We'll have to take the stairs all the way to the top."

"We don't have enough time for that," Duo answered, making quick work of pulling apart the keypad and handing her a bypass device. "Punch in the apartment code when I tell you."

Sally nodded, "Right." The apparatus was familiar to her, and when it turned green she expertly entered the eight digit floor code. The elevator dinged multiple times and Sally looked up, "There are five floors wanting this elevator first, Duo."

"Negative. The reprogramming won't let it out of our sight until we know Zechs is safe." With that, the elevator began its steady ascend. When it reached the top, signaled its arrival and opened its doors, neither wasted anytime.

They flooded the apartment.

"Zechs?" Sally called out, rushing down the hall. The bedroom was empty, the bathroom practically unlived in. "Duo, there's no sign of him!" Sally quickly checked the balcony on her way back through the bedroom, found Zechs absent there as well, and rushed back toward Duo's quiescent form. He was facing the darkened living room, and she slowed her approach as he broke the stillness to turn on the overhead light.

Duo crouched down beside him and checked his pulse, "He's still alive. He…" Beneath the clammy left hand, he snagged an empty pill bottle with the butt of his pen and felt his heart collapse with the weight of his deepest fears. "The fuck has he done…?"

"Failed," Sally replied. "Come on; help me carry him to bed."

These orders came from a professional, but Duo hesitated rather stupidly despite his own traumatic history. "Shit, Sal. Shouldn't we be taking him to the hospital or something?"

"And tell them what, Duo? That the present Mission Director of the Preventers Organization took administrative leave in time to botch his own suicide? Right, wait till that gets around. Grab his arms." Sally shook her head, sending her golden twists tumbling over her shoulders as she leant over and grabbed Zechs's legs. Duo did what she asked rather agilely with limbs secretly shaking while she went on. "I've played his physician and pharmacist for nearly a year, for fuck's sake. I've watched him progress from bad to worse in less than that. I knew damn well it was only a matter of time before something like this…would…happen!" Taking the sheet and duvet between her fingers, she pulled them over his naked body and plopped down beside Zechs with a vigorous huff. Duo watched as she ever so gently touched a pinky to his temple and swept away the heavy strands of flaxen hair to reveal his handsome face. Though very grey it was, and possibly belonging to a dead man, Duo felt an immense pleasure looking upon on it even now.

"He's more than a patient, you see." Sally spoke in delicate whispers, careful to not disrupt his precious slumber now that it no longer eluded him. "He's my friend," she confessed, "and if I lost another I simply couldn't bear it…" Sally left for the kitchen and Duo followed, took the glass of wine she abruptly offered him. "It wouldn't be fair," she finished. Throwing back her half glass quickly, she grabbed her shoulder bag and told him to stay put until Zechs awoke. He simply couldn't be alone when he did, she said.

"Right." Duo reset the elevator, quietly set his belongings on the counter next to the empty glasses. "What would you call it, then, Sally?"

"Damned selfish," she said, pressing the button to the lobby. "So, I started giving him placebos."