Chapter 9: Something forgotten

Ayame walked out of her room in the morning and noticed that everyone seemed to be in such a rush even though they weren't scheduled to leave for another three hours. Duo waved good morning to her as he rushed by. Ayame met Katsumi in the hall.

"Gosh, they're in a hurry." Ayame said quietly.

Katsumi nodded. "Apparently the meeting has been moved and they need to leave within the hour."

Ayame sighed and decided to lie back down because everyone was leaving anyways. Duo had said not to call them because it could be traced back to the hangar. When she got up about an hour after everyone had left, she found Katsumi practicing with her sword.

Deciding not to disturb her Ayame walked into the video room, she saw that there was nothing in there except quite a few spider webs and a lot of dust. She left and browsed around the security room looking at all the monitors before deciding to go to the control room.

It was a mess. Papers were scattered everywhere. Ayame sighed and bent to at least neaten the pile. She stacked the papers that were on the desk. She then reached behind the computer to pull out more papers.

She found a pile underneath the desk and another under the table. It took her a good half hour to find all the papers and stack them neatly on the table. Ayame sat back to survey her work. Then she saw a lone piece of paper she missed sticking out of the drawer in the desk. Seizing it, she was startled to find what it read.

Codes for getting into the OZ compound:

Front door: 8572639 Ventilation: 3982291458 Back door: 11029

It was written in Heero's hand writing along with a memo to remind himself to bring the paper so he could tell the new codes to Meika. Ayame was immediately worried. Without the code they would not be able to get inside and would be caught. Meika had said that she knew the code, but that was no doubt the old ones.

Ayame quickly walked back to the repair bay where Katsumi was practicing. Upon seeing her worried face Katsumi knew something was wrong and stopped going through her exercises.

Not a word was said as Ayame handed Katsumi the paper.

"We have to get to them before OZ finds them first." Ayame stated. Katsumi agreed and walked over to the photocopier. She copied the codes and handed the original to Ayame.

"Let's split up and go two different ways to get there. That way, if one of us is caught, the other can still get to them. If both of us make it though, then it will be better to have two people help them if they are in trouble." Ayame agreed. Katsumi sheathed the sword and hooked it around her shoulders. She took a shoulder gun holster with two guns and clipped it around her left shoulder.

Ayame chose a rifle and sharp shooter. She also decided to take a pistol for a trump card in case she lost the other two weapons. The two of them walked to the entrance. Ayame headed right as Katsumi adjusted the gun holster so the kittens could sit in their accustomed places.

"I'll take a jeep. How are you going to go?" Ayame asked.

Katsumi grinned. "The old fashioned way. I'm going to walk, besides, I can't drive."

Ayame raised her eyebrow as she continued to the jeep parking lot. "You can pilot shuttles and fighters, and yet you can't drive a jeep…"

Katsumi smiled and headed off into the woods holding her copy of the codes.

Ayame chose one of the stealth jeeps, ones that were nearly silent. She fired it up and backed it out onto the path. She drove down the path. She knew how to get to the OZ compound and it would be just a matter of time before she got there. Unfortunately, she didn't know how much time the Gundam pilots had.