Games without Frontiers
Chapter 20: You Are a Brick Tied to Me
Rating: PG
Soundtrack: The Phoenix - Fall Out Boy
Her grandfather had moved to the train going to Northern Headquarters at the transfer station, giving her another warm hug and an admonition to be careful for the sake of her 'little passenger'. Roy shook her head as she watched him leave, and chuckled when she heard him muttering, "Balls, I tell you! That girl has a brass set of 'em!"
Grumman made sure to let them know that the citizens of that little town didn't hold too much affection for the military, due to the inept behavior of some of his staff. So, they'd changed into civilian clothes in the private car. While the men changed in the car proper, Riza took the lavatory. As he tucked in his own shirt, he could picture her slipping into a white button, and her favorite skirt, which was of a light brown color, the better to blend in with the crowd. Once, when he questioned how practical a skirt could be in a combat situation, she showed him the false pocket, which allowed for quick access to the snub-nosed revolver she kept strapped to her thigh, and the lower half of the seam on that side, which was quick release, easily torn for ease of movement.
He clipped on his own shoulder holster and knew she would be wearing one and a jacket, the better to conceal her firepower. The woman never went anywhere without at least three guns on her person; this time he knew she'd taken a double holster. That meant she had two under her jacket and one in the back of her waistband.
When she emerged, he gave her a quick once over and noted that none of her weapons were visible in the least. When she caught his gaze, he smiled softly and shook her head, and once again asked himself what he had done to deserve the dedication from her.
His own shoulder holster felt odd, the high caliber gun felt heavy and almost foreign. Riza had suggested the particular model, called the Eagle, and firing deadly fifty-caliber rounds. While his gloves were usually perfect defense for any attack he might face, there were times, she'd told him, when nothing beat the safety of a nice, heavy service pistol. It was impressive enough for a soldier of his rank, and just as effective as a flash inferno to the face. He hoped he wouldn't have to use either, but had a sinking feeling that he would probably employ both before the mission was over.
He was entering the enemy's field of battle here and it rankled. The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him. The son of a bitch was trying to call the shots by luring (and Roy knew exactly what this was) them here, but that was something Roy would not allow.
"Are you expecting rain, Colonel?" Riza asked him in her smoothest voice, gesturing at the side arm.
He looked down at it, then at her with a sardonic smile. He slid on his jacket and reached into his great coat, checking for the two pairs of ignition gloves tucked inside. "Covering all my bases, Lieutenant."
She allowed the tiniest of smiles to turn up the side of her mouth. "Now you… cover your bases," she said sotto voce. Of course he didn't miss the reference, and frowned slightly, giving her the once over. Why had she reminded him of that?
No matter what she said, or how many times she talked until she was blue in the face, he did not like the idea of her on this mission in her present state. Thunder gathered in the back of his brain at the thought of injury to her, and he had to turn his face toward the window so she wouldn't see it and know. Because she would know.
"I'm positive that this mission will end successfully, Colonel," she said evenly. Roy smiled tightly. Riza, being herself, had all the confidence in the world that they would get to the bottom of these theft as quickly as she got to the bottom on the bag of cookies she'd pulled from her rucksack.
He shrugged and continued to watch the scenery outside of the window fly by. "That's not what's bothering me now," he grumbled.
She was silent next to him for a while. He turned at her lack of comment and watched as she put the last half of a cookie in her mouth and checked her hands for crumbs.
"I don't like the idea of you going," he finally tendered, as if he were paying a tax of some kind.
The air suddenly grew thick with tension. From the corner of his eye, he saw Jean and Maes stop what they were doing and watch. He could sense Fuery behind him also still and cock and ear to hear her response.
Although her face remained as impassive as ever, he saw the dark spark chocolate-colored eyes. Riza crossed her arms across her chest. "Why? Do you think I'm going to shatter and break into a million pieces?"
"A mission like this has the potential to be dangerous," he gave her.
"Yes it does. That goes with my job, Colonel," she reminded him.
He positively glared at the honorific. She wasn't budging. "You stay close to me, in any case," he muttered, giving ground.
"Of course, sir. That's also part of my job," she advanced.
Maes cleared his throat. Roy shot him a look, and wanted to throw a rock at the back of his friend's head in response to the smile he was covering up.
"Speaking of which, Maes," Roy asked, "How in the hell did the Lieutenant General find out about Riza's condition, hmm?"
Maes held up both hands. "Hey, he came to me with questions. Apparently rumor got all the way over there, quick, fast and in a hurry."
"Of course it would," Riza said quietly. "He is my grandfather. I should have expected it to get to him quicker than anyone else."
Roy gave her all of his attention again. "When were you planning on telling me that my former commanding officer was your grandfather?"
She smiled that frosty little thing she offered up during working hours. "I thought you knew. After Father died and you left for the Academy, I lived with him. He helped pay for the first two years of academy, until I came into my… trust fund."
Roy colored a bit at the mention of the trust fund, then looked at Hughes, who gave a weak smile, nodded and said. "He did. And it is in her personal file."
"It is, Colonel," Riza said with a twitch of her eyebrow. "I assumed you've reviewed my personnel file at least one time in the past few years."
Though he tried to review all possible responses to that salvo, Roy had absolutely nothing to say. Finally, he gave her a no-nonsense look and said, "The minute I smell trouble, you are going back to the base of operation, and I won't be gainsaid. You got that, First Lieutenant?"
"Clear as crystal, sir."
"Good." Roy nodded and stared out the window. Silence reigned for a few moments, then, like all perfect comebacks, he was struck with inspiration. "By the way..." Roy was saying. "Did your grandfather ever tell you what he did?"
Riza frowned. "What he did?"
"The day I met with him to discuss my transfer." He turned back to her with a slightly predatory look. He was going to love this.
Maes groaned and put a hand over his face.
"What did he do?" she asked carefully, her whole posture showing her wish to be anywhere but by his side at that moment.
"Well," he started, looking down at his fingernails. "When I was a lowly Lieutenant Colonel, it seemed that he shared Maes' opinion that I should go ahead and get myself a wife before I move up the ranks. Settle me down, I suppose." He showed her every tooth in his head with the next smile. "So much so, that he offered me his precious granddaughter's hand in marriage. Loved her so much, he said, that he wanted her to be allied to the 'next Fuhrer of Amestris'."
Riza stared
"Of course, he never mentioned the delicate flower by name, and I politely declined." Roy gave a small chuckle, "Grumman said the offer would remain on the table until the damsel in question made her own choice."
He paused for a few heartbeats then basked in the glory that, was his First Lieutenant being completely bereft of reply.
###
"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" Riza asked him as they closed the door to their room.
Roy smirked at her as he removed his jacket. "Immensely." He certainly did enjoy flustering the young woman at the front desk, convincing her to give their party a wonderful set of adjoining rooms – the only set of adjoining rooms in the whole building. As far as any of them downstairs knew, they were a traveling family that were forced to stop due to a wife's… illness.
Inside, the guest house was as gray as the rest of what they had seen of Tin City. Roy thought he might have seen a grand total of twenty people since he'd arrived. Perhaps they were all hiding from the utterly dismal rain that was falling like hot piss from the sky.
Perhaps they were hiding from something worse.
"We'll only be here for as long as it takes to confirm that it is who… I think it is… and to apprehend him," Roy said as he unstrapped his holster and draping it carefully over the back of the chair.
"He won't go easily," Riza said as she did the same.
"No. But he will go."
"I want you to be careful as well, Roy," Riza said quietly, moving up to him and putting her hands on his shoulders. "I know how angry you are. How outraged."
He looked down into her eyes. "I will. I have to practice what I preach, don't I?" He lowered his head, and touched his lips to hers. He ran his hands down her back until he reached the small of her back and pulled her close. He felt her hands move until she had wrapped her own arms around his back.
###
He pulled the collar of his overcoat closer and scowled up at the traitor of a sky. Now, how was he supposed to fight the son-of-a-bitch while it was raining? As he'd been told on successive occasions, he was utterly useless in the rain. Of course, he had his gun, but that would only dent the shell of this creature. One of these days, he would have to design a pair of water-proof ignition gloves, dammit.
"Couldn't you use a lighter?"
Roy turned to Havoc, who was also peering up at the murky sky. "What?"
"I know what you're thinking. If your gloves don't work, couldn't you just use a lighter?"
Technically he could. All he needed was a spark. He could, but it didn't look right. "If it comes down to it, I might have to," he grumbled. He took a glance slightly behind him and to his right. Riza followed him, wrapped in her own overcoat, both hands shoved in her pockets, expression flat and unreadable.
He knew she was still irritated with him for trying to keep her from coming on the mission. But, he couldn't help it. If anything happened to her right now, he would be more than useless.
It had occurred to him, sometime that afternoon, that he was being a prized idiot. Riza was more than a capable soldier, in any situation. She'd been that way since he'd known her. And, according to that personnel file (which he had tucked into his rucksack and did read the previous evening) she'd been exemplary from the time she joined. Her promotions had come fast and furious, from mere Private to Second Lieutenant in a mere seven years.
Which gave him an idea...
But, ideas like that were for later. Right now, he had to let her know that he had confidence in her abilities, pregnant or not. It would not do him any good to insult her like that again. Not on duty nor off duty, he thought scowling again. There had been a good reason he'd spent the entire night previous reading a personnel file. Alone. Lying on a settee – where he'd slept after pissing her off.
"Sir?" Havoc said, jerking him out of his ruminations. "You got a plan of action yet?"
"If there were more people around, I could ask a few questions," Roy muttered. "Damn! I wish Edward were here. He always has this knack for finding the right people to talk to."
"Hmm," Havoc said, frowning. "Think he'll be at home for a while."
"Oh?"
"Yeah." The voice on Havoc was the flattest he'd heard in their entire association.
"What the hell happened on that last mission? Did those two give you any problems?" Escorting the Fullmetal Alchemist and his brother was not the easiest task to give anyone. Strangely enough, Havoc had volunteered, saying that he needed to get out and stretch his legs a bit. When he returned, though, he'd been in a nasty mood, barely civil if not downright taciturn.
"Problems?" Jean snorted. "Those two are problems personified." He shrugged. "A couple of heart attacks on legs."
"Are you sure? You've been out of sorts since your return."
Jean hunched his shoulders against the rain and turned toward the darkened alleys on his side of the street. "It's nothing, Colonel. Just the weather, I suppose."
Roy arched an eyebrow but didn't comment. Back at Eastern, the sun had been shining, the birds singing, yet the man's mood had been no different. "Suppose we'll just have to spread out and look for any trails. Any evidence." He stopped, looking at the tavern directly in front of him. He could smell the warm flames crackling in the fireplace inside. "But first, I want to get dry and warm for a few minutes. Let's go."
In the closest tavern, he and his staff sat together at a couple of small tables in the corner near the fireplace of the large common room. As he peeled his gloves off and set them on the table to dry, he unabashedly ordered a round of drinks for the lot of them, ignoring Riza's sniff. She declined, asking instead for coffee, black with no sugar. Roy shuddered. Coffee with no sugar was like drinking boiling oil.
"We'll split up," he told them after the whiskey warmed him to his fingertips. "Each take a quadrant of this city. And I want to make this clear. No one is to engage this man if they see him. He was cracked when I knew him, and he is probably more cracked now. For your life's sake, don't let him get a hand on you. If you do, you'll more than likely wind up dead. Plain and simple. You see him, you mark his location and you find me." He split them up in groups of two, with one notable exception.
"Hawkeye," he captured her eyes. "I want you to take the high ground. Our prey could be anywhere. I want your keen eye on the rooftops." It was the absolute last place he wanted to send her, but it was probably the first place she would do the best good. The idea of her climbing roofs made his brain twitch in places he didn't like, but if he was going to show her that he didn't think her completely useless or helpless, he had to do this. It was still early days, he said to himself, she'll be all right.
She accepted his tacit apology with good grace. She nodded. "Yes, sir."
"You sure that's wise?" said Hughes, giving her a look of concern. "Her condi–,"
"Her condition is no longer a point for discussion, Lieutenant Colonel," Roy said carefully. "She has her orders. And you are with me."
Maes still looked doubtful, but gave in to the authority Roy put in his voice. This was business, and Roy had point during this mission.
"Let's go." He scooped up his gloves and shoved them in an inside pocket, hoping they were dry enough and would stay dry. "Put on your war paint, everyone."
When they were alone, Maes looked at his friend. "You don't think you're going overboard with this plan for letting her know you trust her? Crawling all over the rooftops is not safe for her."
"Why? She's not at the, ah, cumbersome stage. She's not lifting anything heavier than herself and her pair of firearms. She's just climbing and walking."
"Still..."
"Maes, please," Roy said. "Can we talk about this another time? We need to find this bastard. That's far more important right now."
Maes sighed, then paused. "Roy, look at this..."
Roy peered at the rough etching in the stone of the wall. It was the same thing as on the scrap of paper Maes' had given him. "He's leaving a trail." he said slowly.
"Like he wants to be found."
Roy laughed bitterly. "Of course the bastard wants to be found. He always needed an audience." He rubbed the etching, frowning. "If only we had a way to track this to the next one. Because," and he gave Maes a look, "you know there's going to be more of these."
Maes shook his head. "What the hell is he doing? He doesn't need explosives."
"He doesn't. He's just doing this as a distraction."
"A distraction, Roy?" Maes exclaimed. "He's setting it up to look like you set fire to these warehouses!"
Roy beat back the fury that threated. "It's a distraction. If they are busy investigating me, then he can get these explosives to the person that needs them. Unfortunately, he didn't count on Grumman knowing better." He looked to his left, down an alley black as ink. Pausing, he considered the four shadows he saw for a moment. They resembled common warehouse workers from where he stood. He took a step in their direction.
A concussive sound ripped through the sky, snatching his attention like a bright thing attracted a bird of prey. He looked over and up in the direction of the sound, still as stone.
"Northeast from here," Maes said sharply, the dread rumbling under the surface of Roy's skin.
"Let's go."
Northeast was the direction Riza had taken across the rooftops.