So I know that I said next Monday. But this Monday came around and I had another chapter ready... So I was like. Why not? I would love reviews. tell me what you like Tell me what you hate. Hell, tell me what your favorite color is. It's just nice to know that all those hits aren't automated randoms or something. Like drones are what's reading. :) Not that you guys are drones...just...
Never mind.
On with the FIC!
Ch 22
The atmosphere was tense around the conference rooms. Heero was searching through the flurry of new reports that were streaming in as quickly as possible from the fields. The first day had been a mess of brainstorming and pulling staff from varying projects into conference rooms to network as fast as they could think. They had recruited from every department; intelligence, field operations, and security were being poached from the most. They even had gone as far as pulling local authorities in several key cities and informing them of the possibility of violence in their areas.
Those had been frustrating meetings for Trowa, as all the local officials and officers wanted to know what exactly they should be watching for and the Preventers could not give them a satisfactory or on target answer no matter how persistent the question was asked. Trowa had been in on many of those calls. The amount of cursing had been high.
Heero paused his shuffling through the papers again and thought back to the categories from the initial board in his head.
Compromised positions could be anything. Politicians like Relena, senate members, or Lady Une even. It could be stretched to the colonies themselves, or civilians. Talking about it after they threw all the ideas on the board, all of the Gundam pilots came to the conclusion that based on their arms trade history with Marcus the colonies and the civilians would probably not be what were targeted. He was intelligent and tenacious when achieving his goals, but he would not purposefully go after those populations. From there they began listing who the highest possibilities for attack were and what to do about it.
Relena and the other senate members on the ESUN council had all been relocated in the past sixty-nine hours and kept with small security staffs that they all had along with supplemental forces given by the Preventers as support. They were taking no chances with the higher government officials. Everyone below them was sent out alerts and being ranked in order of priorities by Mackenzie. She was in charge of supplying staff for security details until they passed the three day mark.
Compromised positions could be all their field agents and undercover agents. There were several thousand agents at any given time, but after a sweep of the computers Heero had established multiple new breech algorithms with Lady Une's permission and none of their databases seemed to be compromised. Those same field agents could be considered assets as well as in compromised positions, which was something of note and therefore probably meant they were very high risk for attack. At the thirty-six hour mark Lady Une authorized the issuance of a coded message to all undercover operatives to be cautious in thirty six more hours as they might be in compromised positions. Some of them would receive the message in time, others would not. It depended on the ability of each individual field operative to check their encrypted boxes, which as Heero knew did not always happen daily. Often times it was a bi-weekly update.
That could be incredibly problematic.
Heero had been checking for contact from Duo for the last- he looked at the clock ticking down in the corner of his screen on his laptop- sixty nine hours, thirty three minutes and forty seven seconds. There was not much time to go before the seventy two hour event horizon and they still had not narrowed down the immediate potential strike zones by much.
Other assets would be their weapons holds, but each facility had their own supply for their own people. There would not be enough in any facility alone for them to re-establish the arms trade. It would be a poor use of weaponry to attempt a raid of that magnitude. Other assets would be transports, but they were always on lock down.
The last point to wonder on would be goals. But Marcus's goal was easy. He wanted to re-establish his gun running operations. That was what he always wanted. There was no need for it. He had lots of money and he didn't necessarily like war. He just liked how he felt when he was doing the drops and the shuffles of cargo. He liked the power he wielded.
So what he needed was weapons, no agents within his group and, to re-establish himself as the number one dealer again. Many others had stepped up while he had been away in jail. A lot of new competition to supply people who had a cause they needed weapons for. Marcus wanted to take back those buyers.
It was simple enough. But now they just had to wait and hope they predicted him correctly.
Heero looked up at the flurry of work that was being done in the office. All other missions had been put on hold. Many of the staff had minimal sleep. Une and Quatre were over in the corner still attempting to brain storm possible outlets despite it being under three hours until Marcus would make his move. Heero understood that drive. Although very displeased with how they had to send the doctor home and reschedule her because of this new crisis that had evolved; he knew that finding Wufei would be pushed to the back burner and for good reason. A major syndicate that could destabilize peace was attempting to do exactly that.
Heero's phone chirped at his side. He pulled it from his belt and he looked at the screen. His thoughts stopped for a moment. Duo.
Instincts kicked in quickly, "Everyone QUIET!" Heero burst out. The room was stunned to silence as Heero was scrambling for his speaker adapter. Heero never yells. He plugged it in and answered. "Status."
"Hey Ro." Last syllable, he was in trouble. His voice was soft and echoing slightly. A whisper. "I have a mic going. The boss man is calling me in. Something is fishy."
Heero's mind was running as Quatre moved closer to the phone as if it would help. Basic instinct. Each of the pilots felt their heart beats slow. Duo knew he shouldn't be calling them with a live line if he was compromised. He would be giving of a signal that would be easy to pin him as a mole within the group's ranks. "Duo-" Heero started but was interrupted by a "Shut up, Ro."
Duo sighed audibly, before continuing, "I've got maybe a minute before I'm in the room. Weeks of being here and they just now want me. This stinks. Especially since everyone has frozen up. I was supposed to do a run today. Instead I'm heading in to meet the boss man. It makes no sense. I'm carrying, but I don't have high hopes." Duo seemed to snap out of his commentary and get to business, "I'm currently in L-three's district colony two. I need you to have eyes on it. Look for any sub-e class cruiser that comes off it. If I get out it will be on one of those. I estimate six hours max. And if Lady-fucking-Une is there you tell her that I expect a pickup. I'm heading towards my favorite star."
Heero looked up at Une and she seemed unfazed by the swearing hurled at her and Quatre was already phoning the L-three colony Preventers to have satellite feeds of the external district colony. They'd need to see if he made it. "I'm muting you in three."
"Good luck." Trowa said. There was a blip and they could hear Duo's breathing, but anything on their end would be mute.
Une spoke up first, "Decode that for us please, one of you. We need to rescue our man and none of that was standard Preventer code."
Duo was still walking according to the sounds of his breathing and footsteps in a hallway. Trowa spoke up, "Most of that wasn't even in code. He's in trouble obviously. We need satellite imaging of the district colony indicated, which is what Quatre has being set up now." Indeed Quatre was busy with Mackenzie patching in lines to a monitor to project four angels on the colony. "Sub-e class cruisers will be any short range ships that are meant for less than five passengers."
"But those have twenty hours of life in them. They're meant to get from one L cluster to the other L clusters. Why six hours?"
"Because of varying factors. Maybe he knows that the ships aren't properly fueled. Maybe the ships aren't properly maintained as far as life support. These aren't government or passenger ships Commander Une. These are drug ships. They don't really follow normal regulations. It's his estimate of the time he has." She nodded in understanding. "Finally his favorite star is actually the moon." He smirked, "He's going to put in coordinates to send him towards the moon. We need to compute the trajectory that he launches from and intercept along the way. Since he'll only have about six hours we'll plan for a distance of four. We need to attempt a pickup in that time."
Out of the speakers came a knock on metal, probably a door, and everyone refocused. Trowa was beginning to work out probable trajectories, but he was listening carefully. Considering he was the one that usually did undercover operations he seemed more on edge then most everyone else in the office. He knew the risks better than most.
"Hello? I was told to report here today." It was a cheery voice that was care-free and relaxed. "My route manager told me to come see his boss."
"Shut the door." It was a deeper, harsh voice, one that had too many cigarettes to get back to normal human. There was brief silence and the sound of a door being shut quietly. "You've been doing a decent job for us, Maxwell."
"I'd like to think I'm doing a little bit better then decent." Duo snorted.
Une shifted closer to Quatre, "He's not acting like he's under cover. Why?" She asked quietly.
Quatre, "I'll explain later." He whispered back.
The silence on the communication stream went for a bit before Duo cut in, "So am I being promoted or what?"
"I've appreciated you coming to join our organization, but we've been under-utilizing you." There was a cough before the man continued. "We've always wondered why you would come to us when your reputation precedes you. You seem to be able to handle business yourself." It was a statement and a question. One that Duo didn't seem to care to answer. "Now your reputation seems to put you in a camp I can trust...but I have other information come to me. That says you are not to be trusted."
"Who?" Heero tensed. That was the voice of Shinigami. All of them heard it, threatening and dangerous. The last time it emerged was in the war.
"Does it matter?"
A dark chuckle from Duo, "You must know by confronting me like this, you will die today."
"Ah yes. I do. But while we have been chatting the trap closes and it is also your day to die. This was the plan since I learned you are pilot zero two, the god of death and I'm content to say I have family that will be glad for you to join them."
There was quick movement and rustling, dull grunt and a thud with a gurgling, choking noise. "You there, Heero?" It was quick and tight.
"Yes."
"I'm estimating five minutes max before the goons notice. Slit his throat. This is not Eckpo." There was a slight grunt of exertion on his end of the communicator. "I'm trying our old exit routes"
"Get out safely." Heero responded quickly. An order.
Duo giggled. And threw out happily, "Yes, dear." Une shook her head, incredulous at the man's giggling in a life threatening situation. But the cryptic voice was back, "You have eyes and transport?"
"Eyes yes." Heero clipped in.
Trowa spoke across the room, "We have six possible transports. You're good."
"K. I'm muting you again. Keep watch. Shinigami has returned."
And the line went silent with the very low sounds of Duo's breath barely audible.
"Commander Une I'm going to need proper authorization codes to alter transport routes on all six of these ships just in case." She nodded and motioned to Mackenzie.
"I'll have them in ten minutes." And with that Mackenzie exited the room. It left them listening intently to the whisper that was Duo's slow inhales and exhales over his line. Quatre had all satellite feeds and was monitoring them closely.
"He can't just be sitting there." Une murmured at the silence.
Quatre shook his head. "No. He's moving in the vents. It'll be a lot slower than blind running, but he may get out clean this way. Though he did say five minutes clearance so..."
"Wait...He's crawling through vents right now? I can barely hear him breathing let alone moving." Une spoke. Quatre nodded, while Heero glared for the unnecessary questioning. She shook her head with a small smile on her lips. "We never had a chance of catching you during the war, did we?"
Trowa smirked, "Duo is unrivaled in stealth. And you did catch us occasionally. Give yourself credit." Une nodded as she listened to the quiet crawl through the ventilation system of whatever compound Duo was in.
"This is almost official. We need to remove all undercover operatives." She said looking at Quatre. It was about two hours out to the seventy two hour mark. He nodded in assent. If Duo was blown there was a very high likely hood that all other ops might be blown. Quatre picked up a phone to call field operations; it was time to message them to come out. Hopefully they would get it in time.
Distant yelling shot over the coms. "Time's up." Duo whispered. There was a quick scuffle of boots on metal and the barest rustle of clothing quickly followed by close muffled yell and silence. Duo's quick foot- falls still quiet for how fast he was running were feeding through.
BLAM-BLAM-BLAM. Gunfire following him, "Shit." BLAM. "I'm hit." He was breathing harder and quicker, yells echoing and gunfire following.
Abrupt "Hey-" and the snap of bone followed by a gurgle noise came through the line. Static began popping regularly interrupting the communicator's link.
Heero shook his head. "They have a communication block going up." An intermittent sound of a blaring alarm was going. Heero listened carefully for the noise between the static. Gunfire, boots pounding quickly and static...
The line suddenly went silent. "We lost him." Heero got up and crossed to be in front of the satellite screen. "What do our reports have on the colony activity of Eckpo's group?"
Quatre pointed to the bottom left screen. His voice was blank and calculating when he spoke, "We think they are in the third quadrant of the colony." Heero stared intently at the screen.
Duo had been in tough situations before. He would get out. There was no way he would not get out. He had to. Minutes began ticking by and they sat staring looking for any sign. Waiting.
Mackenzie walked in and handed Trowa a sheet. He began lining up the codes to the ships instead of staring at the screen. There was nothing else to do.
An explosion on the side of the colony, a quick red flame that easily went extinguished in the vacuum of space. The automated distress lights of the colony kicked in yellow pulse broadcasting a decompression. Debris was floating outward, but still no ship. Une whispered, "Come on, Duo."
Heero heard it and frowned. He was going to make it. There was no question, no need for the whispered hope. He stared at the screen waiting.
A second explosive decompression thirty meters down blew out debris and a shuttle emerged on the end of it... Something seemed wrong. "Freeze image." Quatre had seen the same and was already bringing it up. The image came up and they zoomed up on the shuttle. Only one of the two engines appeared to be firing and half the ship was decompressed. From right engine to mid length the hull had been ripped out. Heero moved quickly beside Trowa who was looking over the specs of the ship they were expecting. "We need to recalibrate for the lost thrust on the starboard side."
Quatre moved back to the vid feeds and was following the craft as it moved quickly away from the colony. There was no tail, but Duo did not open a channel either. He moved next to Trowa's side looking at the shuttle specs, while Trowa worked out fleet positions again. They would need new ships because Duo would be so off course. Heero began doing the work to recalibrate the path the shuttle would take.
After a minute Quatre spoke clinically, "He has less than a four point two percent chance of survival." He looked at the fading dot on the screen as the shuttle moved out of range of their satellite's capabilities.
Trowa shifted and bumped Quatre out of his business like gaze. He touched his shoulder looking down at his friend. "We have faced worse." Quatre nodded with a smile, but the concern didn't leave his eyes when he looked back.
TBC
YAY! Another Chapter. There is a box just down below now GO THERE and be like I like the color blue. OR YOUR STORY IS AWESOME. or YOUR STORY SUCKS! whatever. Just go there.
I'll try to get another chapter out by next Monday. :)
Ciao,
Silverserpent