Hello everyone. Once again I apologize for the huge delays between updates. I really don't mean for them to happen. Life just sort of pops up when you least want things to go bad. Anywho I hope to have the next chapter out by next monday so hopefully you enjoy this one and the next will be on time. :)
Cause and Effect Ch 22
Heero jolted awake as he felt the shuttle's decent into the atmosphere. He had been sleeping for a solid six hours if they were still on the correct trajectory and hitting atmo at the designated time. Trowa was supposed to wake him up halfway through to switch pilot shifts.
Heero wrenched the curtain back and looked over at Trowa who was facing the console. He didn't bother turning around; he knew that Heero was awake and would be annoyed that he was unable to be of any assistance for the flight. Heero quickly brushed his eyes with his palms to gain a little more alertness and then headed for the seat next to Trowa.
"Twenty nine minutes and fourteen seconds till touch down. One of the prisoners wet himself." Trowa looked over at Heero was half-heartedly glaring at Trowa in annoyance and Trowa shrugged saying, "You looked like you could use the sleep." Heero stretched his arms above his head before switching to look at the instruments for re-entry. Trowa definitely had things under control, but at the same time he liked to be able to know what was happening to change things if it was deemed necessary.
The hull of the shuttle abruptly stopped shaking as they broke through the upper levels and hit blue sky and cloud zones. Trowa set the course for port approach and leaned back in his seat. "No notices while you were down." Heero nodded. He had just been about to check his email for the thirteenth time in the last day and a half. That wasn't too bad, but for more than half of that he had been on a mission and asleep, so perhaps a little bit concerning.
Trowa looked at him from under his bangs and asked blatantly, "Why is this keeping you up, Heero?"
Heero looked at him and shrugged not saying anything, but having no way to change the subject either. It was a fair question. All of the pilots had been suffering since Wufei had been placed in jail and Heero was not usually one to be weighed down emotionally. And yet somehow the situation seemed to be hardest for him to handle then every other pilot.
"I…" Heero spoke. He seemed startled that his own voice was attempting to explain. "I just need to find him and explain, so that he understands."
The cockpit was silent for a moment before Trowa tried, "So that he forgives you?" Heero shrugged and they were silent for a while looking out the windows of the shuttle craft. "I want him to forgive me too, Heero. But it doesn't keep me up at night. I'm not actively seeking him out so he can exact retribution as he sees fit. Neither is Duo or Quatre. You should think about that the next time you try to go on an all-night search binge or stop letting yourself sleep when you really need it. Ask yourself why it matters." Trowa decided to go silent at that; what he said was apparently enough.
Heero mulled over what Trowa's unusual speech as they finished out their flight. The normally stoic pilot had a point that was important, but Heero still felt he had an obligation towards Wufei. Perhaps because it was his plan initially that landed Wufei in a facility for nine months. He was only supposed to be there for three. But that thought of three months had been distressing initially as well when they had him on the shuttle after capture almost eleven months prior. He had been feeling this weight at least since the shuttle flight. Close to a year and he had only seen footage of Wufei at a distance from the jail break. Heero shook his head clearing his thoughts and refocused as Trowa lowered the wheels for landing.
Quatre and Une had vital information that he needed to be able to analyze and incorporate into what he knew. The slight bump of wheels hitting the tarmac had Heero up and moving to the back to check the prisoners they were transporting. Technically they were supposed to be treated with a certain level of humanity, but nowhere was it outlined that they were allowed bathroom breaks during transport, so Heero was unmoved to see one with wet pants.
Heero uncuffed one from the wall as the craft stopped and door in the hall was being opened. Two Preventer agents came to escort the first prisoner and a second team of two came for the other. Heero nodded to Trowa for an all clear and stepped out of the craft to the stairs leading to the large concrete shuttle port. There was a petite brunette woman in Preventer business uniform waiting for them. One of Une's assistants undoubtedly. "I'm here to escort you to the briefing room." She spoke loudly over the roar of other engines. She was obviously used to this environment so not a green horn. Trowa nodded and they followed swiftly behind as she took them to a jeep and pulled out of the port.
The trip was silent as they approached the shiny glass and metal skyscraper that was the Preventer's New Berlin headquarters. It stood alone as it was far from the center of New Berlin, but it still managed to dominate the skyline. This was what happened when politicians did have their way unlike the post-military base that was the Detroit base of operations. She parked up front and led them inside to an elevator that was off to the side of the normal elevator banks and placed her thumb on a scanner.
Heero had yet to visit this facility, but was content with the security seen so far. The doors slid open and they stepped in and the elevator went down. That was unexpected.
"We are heading to a high security clearance zone only. You will obtain access once we are downstairs. So far it is just Lady Une, Mr. Winner, and two other assistants that have clearance to these floors." She spoke succinctly, which Heero appreciated. "I am Mackenzie Cartwright. I was one of Lady Une's lieutenants in the war. The other two are also from her previous command."
Silence rolled over them as the elevator came to a halt and she lead them down a cement walled, fluorescently lit corridor with several rooms along it' passage. The last door on the end of the hall yielded a large room. With paper piled high in stacks on table and desks and chairs. Several screens were mounted and displaying different bits of information. Profiles of potential criminals.
Une was currently bent over a pile of papers in the back left hand desk of the room while Quatre was sifting through a stack and sitting on the floor. There were sandwich wrappers and coffee cups littered around the room between the various stack of papers that were piled in what seemed to be organized chaos. The back wall had three names written above each of the desks with the pictures of Eckpo, Donnovan, and Marcus above each desk. The piles of papers surrounding the desks were high and appeared to have spilled over to the surrounding floor. Heero saw Quatre look up and nodded in greeting. Trowa stepping further into the room careful not to shift any precariously stacked folders. Une looked up when the shuffle of paper from Quatre stopped. "Ah, hello agents." She said in lieu of greeting and nodded to Mackenzie who turned and departed.
Heero looked around and tried to make sense of the chaos, glancing at various stacks. He worked operations not data checking. He could be an excellent researcher, but this was how they were distributing the workload currently. Quatre and Une looked slightly over-caffeinated but otherwise fine.
Quatre stood up and went to one of the computers that was controlling a screen and began searching through files. Une stepped forward and ushered them towards the screen. "What you are about to see is going to be fairly disturbing." Heero raised an eyebrow at her. And she shook her head, "Not violent...more personally upsetting. And we are attempting to work around the new developing situation."
Quatre finally located his desired file and clicked. A video file popped up. It was a court room. The judge was rattling off the normal words that were said at a given trial and Heero keyed in hard when he heard "Bring in the accused 503492-T" Heero fixed to the screen as Wufei of eleven months ago appeared on screen in magnetic cuffs and watched his supposed pre-trial sentencing unfold. He felt his muscles tensing in anger that reflected Wufei's on screen protest and rage and watched as he was led away.
He was silent with fury when the clip ended. Trowa spoke up clipped, "This is illegal in every way. Why have we not seen this footage?"
Une shook her head and moved a pile of papers off one of the chairs in the room to sit down. "There appear to be some issues within the government, such as this repression of the truth and illegal sentencing. We were just able to obtain this video under threat of a clerk on his staff." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. "The judge appears to be the one driving some of these cases...This Judge Hadeling."
Heero growled, "Why has he not been arrested?"
Une shook her head. "He's untouchable."
"We have him on video violating prisoner rights." Heero insisted darkly. This was the man who appeared to have knowingly sent Wufei to prison without fair trial. Heero felt anger starting to swell in his chest. "We should be able to go to his front door and arrest him today!"
Une shook her head. "The evidence is not why he's untouchable, Heero. Please try to understand. If we were to go in now and accuse him of using his power to imprison people without proper trial it would turn over every case he has ever ruled on."
"So?" Heero growled. "He has probably done this more than once."
Quatre nodded and spoke up, "Undoubtedly. But you must know, he has been ruling for the past decade. Not just since ESUN came together. The majority of which were not done incorrectly. Every single decision he made would be called into question. And most would not be allowed to be sentenced again. Double jeopardy would save them from it." Quatre sighed rubbing his hands over his face. "I wish we could go to his home right now. He should be dragged out and shot if you really want to know how I feel. But we can't."
"It would destabilize any sense of trust the public has in the government to hear a story of people being hidden forever." Trowa said quietly.
The room was silent and Heero thought over the outcomes quickly and nodded his head in ascent. The facts were pointing to what Une and Quatre was saying was the truth. This would destabilize a lot in an already shaky government. "Then what can we do about it?"
Une spoke up and said pointedly, "We are investigating how far this goes. He had to have contacts within Wufei's jail as it appeared that most of the cases heading through there were ones that were hidden, but that also means he had to have other contacts either in record departments or at other jails to set up all the false transfers that Wufei was supposedly going through."
"I'm sure Alan Scott, the warden, had some ties, but we haven't been able to get a solid link yet. We have not wanted him alerted into running yet either." Quatre said out. He said Alan's name with a certain level of distaste and Trowa quirked a brow at him. Quatre obligingly said, "He was the one that sat me down the second week and said Wufei had been placed into solitary confinement and would not be available for a week. Then informed me the following week that due to issues with Wufei they had him transferred, it was puzzling at first, but I know that he is somehow tied with all of this. Of course I knew about the bad trial too from day one…" He faded out and had an unfocused gaze on the table in front of him.
"Is there anyone we can interview?" Heero prodded. The investigation would move slower than it had been if they were not actually able to interview anyone.
Une once again sighed, "Unfortunately the jailbreak was a lot more violent than the initial accounts called for. We have access to tapes, but personnel from the actual facility were tortured and or slaughtered for the majority of the riot." She pointed to multiple stacks over to the right of the room. "Those are the files for every prisoner and everyone who worked there. But the good news is the doctor will be arriving tomorrow. As far as we can tell she seems to have no connections, so we thought it to be safe to bring her in."
"When does she arrive?" Trowa questioned.
"Tomorrow."
They were all quite again. Heero was thinking about ways to increase the speed of the investigation ways to cross-reference all the information. "Why is everything in file format? Why not tap into the servers?"
Quatre winced at the question; he had obviously been expecting it. "In light of the fact that an upper level of the judicial branch has been compromised, we have decided to move all investigations to this area, which means that we can't have open databases to the external network. There appears to be corruption in some major branches of government. We've been bring down the data and uploading it to our local computer banks, but sometimes it's just easier to see the connections this way." He shrugged. "Perhaps, while you are here you can help organize the local databases."
Heero nodded. That would let him preview all the files and organize the information in an efficient set up. He would find the pattern and remove the judge. The man deserved to die, but this was second best.
There was a knock at the door and Mackenzie strode in, "I'm sorry to interrupt Lady Une, but we received an anonymous vid-disc that I think you need to see. Now." She looked concerned. Quatre took it from her hands and slotted it into the nearest computer. "It arrived ten minutes ago by courier. It was addressed to you and the Gundam pilots."
Heero looked startled at that. Few people knew they worked for the Preventers. Heero tried hard to stay out of public lime light and the majority of the pictures he found of any of the pilots on the internet, he hacked and forcibly removed.
The video started and Heero felt his chest freeze. It was Marcus. "Hello Lady Une and pilots. It's been too long since I've seen you all. I was very sad to lose your business after the war. Especially Trowa, those shells Heavyarms used made me quite the profit." He smirked into the camera. It was pre-recorded. "I thought you all would like to play a game. I've always liked chess. A war game of strategy and intelligence, moving each opposing army until the kings met an untimely demise. So here we are in our own real life version of chess. You have your agents I have my minions and in the end one side will lose. The problem with this scenario is that you are all unaware that there is a war going on." He laced his fingers together loosely and rested his chin on his hands. "Now I don't plan on destabilizing the government, I just want to sell my products. Destabilization is part of the ripple effect."
He smiled and sat up straight taking a sip from a glass of what appeared to be whiskey. "So consider this your warning. We are at war. This is my first move. But I want to give you a hint to make this interesting. I suggest you look to protect anyone in a compromised position and to secure your assets. And as a final hint," he paused eyes narrowing into the camera. "Our next move is in three days."
The silence after the first time viewing the video was startled, like the seconds where your brain freezes as you happen across a bomb that was unexpected and instincts scream run away, whereas training says dismantle it. The group watch it again and again and again until the silence turned grim and heavy.
Une shuts it off and looks to Mackenzie who left the room disappearing down the hall. Une looked to each of the Gundam pilots, Heero standing against a wall, but distracted and Quatre and Trowa sitting at the table. Quatre had a far off calculating look and Trowa just looked tired. Mackenzie returned wheeling a dry erase board from another room. "Thank you Mackenzie. Please get agent Cole and agent Rodriguze in here asap. You are to return as soon as they are en-route." She nodded and left. Une went to the board and drew out in large block letters. 'Compromised Positions', 'Assets', and 'Goals'.
"We need to figure out where he is going to hit us and we have just under three days to do it."
TBC...
Yay. Plot update.. Character angst and other fun bad things. Next monday I will try very hard for another chapter.