Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Gundam Wing….

Note: Many thanks, as always to KS, and to my lovely reviewers.

Duo's POV:

Smoke and Mirrors:

'Just give me one good reason why the hell I should trust you.'

He shrugged, motioning to the gun in my hand, the one that was pointed directly at his chest. 'You're holding it. If you want to shoot me right now, I can't stop you.'

Good point. Of course, if I did decide to go for that particular course of action, I'd be better off using his gun, the one he'd kicked over and was lying at my feet. Less easy to trace than Marlie's Preventer-issue weapon.

'And your buddies outside in the SUV? They'll be quite happy to let me drive away, will they?'

'Well, I rather hope they'd prefer me not to be dead. But they do have orders that you're not to be harmed.'

'Sorry if I don't entirely believe that, considering you've just abducted me.'

'I've tried to explain that.' He sounded exasperated, like he was starting to lose patience; not remotely like he was the guy whose life was being threatened. Granted, he had friends outside the warehouse he'd taken me too, but then I was the one currently calling the shots.

'Look, Mr. Maxwell, I realise how you must be feeling at the moment, but I desperately needed to contact you. It was rather difficult in the circumstances, considering how Theo and I are currently being sought by the Preventers.'

'Forgive me for not having too much sympathy,' I said dryly. 'Who the hell are you, anyway? And where's the real Agent Walsh? And how did you know exactly when and where I'd be waiting for a car to collect me?'

He sighed, sweeping off his Preventers cap and shades. 'My name is Jack Thomann. I'm currently working with Theo Fichtner and I'm a friend of Zechs Merquise.'

'I know you! Zechs gave me your number weeks ago, and I saw you in the hospital with Wufei. You were just walking out.' Without the protective camouflage, he was unmistakably the hot red-haired guy I'd seen leaving when I arrived.

He nodded. 'That's right. I was going to introduce myself, but I didn't want to interrupt the two of you.'

'Very considerate. So…if you're a good guy, why this charade in the first place?'

'I told you. The Preventers seem to think that Theo and I had something to do with the attack on Zechs; Theo's poster is plastered al over the media, and I'm not on the list of approved visitors. I did think of just trying to contact you at the hospital, but the Preventers have all the 'phone lines monitored, and I thought if I just strolled up and tried to talk to you, you might react…negatively.'

'That's possible, yes.' I assured him. 'But once you got me in the car, why did you bother with pretending to dodge your buddies? You could have just told me.'

'Would you have believed me? I'm sorry but I needed to have time to explain; we have a healthy respect for your abilities, Mr. Maxwell.' He flicked me a grin. 'Besides, it was more fun this way.'

I groaned aloud; yeah, the guy was a friend of Zechs' all right. I didn't put the gun away, just in case, but I slid the safety catch back on and pulled myself up on to one of the crates stacked against the warehouse wall.

'What about the real Agent Walsh? Is he one of you? Or has he been abducted as well?'

'He's perfectly fine, although he may not be when Lucrezia Noin finds out he allowed someone to steal his badge. We passed him a message, supposedly from you, that you'd changed your mind about going to Preventers, and that you'd make your own way there later.' He grinned wolfishly. 'He may face a certain amount of disciplinary action over not bothering to confirm that.'

'I see. And you knew he was picking me up how?'

He shrugged. 'Preventers aren't the only ones who can tap 'phone lines. We've been keeping an eye on their communications, and this seemed like too good an opportunity to miss.'

Charming.

And interesting, that 'they', whoever they were, had the resources to carry out something like this.

'You know Lucrezia Noin?' I asked.

'Of course. We were all at the Lake Victoria Academy together.'

'But you weren't a member of White Fang?'

He lifted one eyebrow; I think they had classes in eyebrow-raising at the bloody Academy. They can all do it. 'Why ever do you think that?'

'You call him Zechs,' I said simply. 'Not the Commander.' He nodded, possibly filing the fact away for future reference. 'So you must know Une as well, right?'

'Of course. Incidentally, I wasn't lying earlier when I told you she disliked me. However, I do work for her occasionally. She prefers her shining Preventers not to soil their hands with certain tasks.'

'I'll bet.' Yeah, I could imagine what sorts of tasks. And I could bet that Mr. Jack Thomann, which possibly wasn't his real name either, didn't appear anywhere on the Preventer records. Probably his no-doubt substantial fees were covered by some creative accounting to do with refuse disposal and maintenance. 'So you're Fichtner's partner?'

'Not in the romantic sense, if that's what you're wondering,' he grinned. 'But I'm working for him at the moment.' Jack checked his watch. 'He should be here soon. Are you starting to trust me now?'

'Zechs trusts you,' I dodged the question, knowing there was no way he would have given me a contact name whom he didn't believe to be totally reliable. 'And 'Fei said you were a help out there in the desert, and you stayed with him in the hospital 'til I got there. Why didn't you call Wufei? After all, he's met you.'

'We'd planned to, but it's been hard to get in touch with him; he's been with Zechs most of the time, and he's had his mobile switched off. I did try to get a message to Zechs earlier today, but it doesn't look like he got it.'

'You sent him those roses,' I suddenly put the pieces together. 'The card signed 'J'; that was from you? I'd told the medical staff not to let give him any roses.'

Jack made a face. 'I wondered what happened when he didn't call. Preventers Security agents are checking everything he receives; I thought the roses might work, though. We were planning to try to get a message to Chang when we heard your plans for this afternoon.'

'So what's the big deal, anyway? Why d'you need to talk to me so badly?'

'We have…some information that we thought you should know. It's probably better if Theo explains.'

'What sort of information?'

'It concerns your friend, Quatre Winner.'

'What?' I exploded. 'Why the hell didn't you go to Preventers with it? They're conducting the damn investigation.'

Jack answered with a question of his own. 'Do you trust them?'

'Maybe.' I shrugged. 'I mean, I think Une is evil and everything but I don't actually think she's a bad person as such.'

Sure, I've always had - issues, with that bitch, dating straight back to her threatening to blow up the Colonies and being responsible for Heero's self destruction. On the other hand, even Wufei's always respected her abilities, and I've never doubted her loyalty to the Preventer Organisation.

'Would you trust the Preventers with your friends' lives? With Heero Yuy's?'

'Oh, God,' I muttered. 'Does everyone in the universe know about us?'

'They will soon,' he flicked me another of those slightly crooked smiles. 'I believe you two are going to be the main feature of tomorrow's entertainment columns, Mr. Maxwell.'

Sweet. I didn't bother asking how he knew about that. How he knew about us, for that matter.

'Call me Duo,' I muttered. 'You realise my friends are going to get panicky if I don't turn up at the Preventers building exactly on time?'

'It's not even ten thirty yet. It takes approximately an hour to drive to the Preventers HQ from the hospital; no one's going to be expecting you 'til eleven at least. This won't take long, once Theo arrives, and then we'll drop you straight there. If you decide not to share whatever information we tell you, then I'm sure you can concoct a story to explain the delay.'

He canted his head at the sound of a car pulling up outside the warehouse. 'That should be Theo. Just listen to him, Duo, please.'

Theo Fichtner looked pretty much like I'd imagined; tall, blond, built like a barn door. The guttural accent was less pronounced off the 'phone.

'Mr. Maxwell. A pleasure.' He gave me the sort of handshake that crushes bone. 'I apologise for any inconvenience we may have caused you. Have you been listening to the radio? No? There's a situation at the hospital.'

Shit.

'What sort of problem? Is anyone hurt?'

'Not yet. Princess Relena took it upon herself to grant an live interview. Doubtless, she meant well, but the reporter asked some inconvenient questions and there are more people protesting outside the hospital gates. Her royal highness and the Commander are being airlifted to the Sanque Embassy as a precaution.' His gaze sharpened as he looked at me. 'Please. I ask for fifteen minutes of your time; no more. Then you will be escorted wherever you wish.'

'All right. Talk. You were both with 'Fei out in the desert, right? You saw what happened?'

Fichtner nodded. 'Some of it. We were driving some distance ahead of them; it didn't seem to be a problem. There is so little traffic on that road that we were careless. At first, we simply assumed the two SUVs were employees of the shuttle port on their way to work. Then we heard gunfire, and spun around. By the time we met their car, Mr. Chang had disabled both jeeps. Jack stayed with him and the Commander until the MedEvac unit arrived, and I drove on to ensure they were no longer a threat.'

'They were all dead or unconscious by the time the Preventer agents arrived. I'm guessing that wasn't the case when you found them?'

'Precisely. One of them was still conscious and I managed to persuade him to confide in me.'

'The guy confessed to attacking them?' I demanded. 'That's brilliant. If you testify to that, it gets 'Fei off the hook.'

'It isn't exactly that simple.' They exchanged glances and Jack spoke first. 'Theo doesn't have any proof; it's only his word and I doubt if many people will be willing to believe him, under the circumstances.'

'We also have….some issues with Preventers,' Fichtner contributed. 'Mr. Maxwell, please. I realise you have no reason to trust either of us, but can you please listen to what we've found out so far?'

'I guess I trust you,' I said slowly. 'Zechs obviously does, and I trust his judgement. So tell me.'

'Thank you. I'm sure you know by now, that I run a private security firm; Jack occasionally works with me, and he happened to be on L4 anyway. When you asked me to arrange surveillance for Quatre Winner, I assigned two of my best men to the task. Richard Blake was a professional and I still have no idea what happened to him. Just that he was found with a bullet between the eyes, shot at point blank range.' Theo hesitated. 'Blake was a pro, Mr. Maxwell. We have no idea how we let a stranger get that close. You understand?'

I nodded; it had to have been someone he knew, someone he trusted.

'How come his death was never reported in the media?' I hadn't thought of it before; assassinations weren't that common on L4 that this would have gone unnoticed, especially not so close to Quat's disappearance.

Theo and Jack did that closed-off eye contact thing again. For guys who claimed not to be together, they seemed pretty good at reading each other's signals.

'We took care of the body,' Theo informed me. 'Blake had entered the Colony illegally, and he has some details in his past that we preferred not to be revealed. Also, he has family on Earth, and we preferred to return his remains to them, without involving the Preventers.'

'You don't trust them, do you?' I demanded. 'D'you have any particular reason for that?'

'Possibly.'

Well, shit.

'We both have friends who joined Preventers after the War, for various reasons.' Jack sounded like he was making an effort to keep his tone neutral. 'Over the past eighteen months or so, we have heard…certain rumours. Never anything concrete; just small things that are unimportant in themselves, but add up to something bigger.'

'Examples? And why haven't you told anyone? You both know Lucrezia Noin, don't you? Oh!' it suddenly occurred to me. 'She's one of the friends, isn't she?'

'Exactly. There is no definite proof of anything, Mr. Maxwell. Impressions. Feelings. I take it you know what I mean?'

I nodded; knowing all too well. It was pretty much impossible to explain, but those nebulous feelings could save your life if you paid attention to them.

'Small things, as Jack said.' Theo put in. 'A case that could never be brought to court because of a small error in procedure at the start of the investigation. A witness who suddenly changed his mind before officially testifying. Nothing that is in itself remarkable but if one adds the pieces together…they begin to form an interesting pattern.'

'Right.' Oh, God, wasn't that just all we needed?

'So, you see why we are somewhat reluctant to pass our information on to anyone in the Preventers,' Jack mused.

'What information?' My voice sharpened. 'Something about Quat? That guy told you something, right?'

The other two swapped glances, and Jack nodded. Interesting. He'd said he worked for Theo, but he seemed to be giving all the orders. He hadn't elaborated, either, on just what he'd done instead of joining White Fang; a pretty safe bet that he hadn't just sat around and grown lettuces though.

'He was…in a bad way,' Theo said finally. 'He required a certain amount of persuasion to talk, and what he said was largely incoherent. A string of numbers, which we originally assumed to be a date sequence, but were actually co-ordinates, and two names.'

'Co-ordinates of where?'

'An old resource satellite off L4,' Jack contributed. 'No, sit back down, please. Theo's just been there, and it's deserted. Although there have obviously been a number of people in residence there lately.'

'Shit!' I glared at them both. 'If you'dbloody told someone before about this, they might have got there earlier.'

'Impossible,' Jack said firmly. 'As soon as we figured out the location, we sent a shuttle to investigate. I assure you, if we had given the information to the Preventers, they would have wasted time in authenticating it, and then seeking permission to land there.'

Damn, he was right. Even if the L4 team was on the level, they would still have had to follow procedures.

'Here. You may give this to your friends in Preventers if you wish.' He shrugged. 'They may possibly find something we overlooked. And here are the names the man gave us.'

He handed me a flimsy printout. A series of numbers on one side; two names on the other.

The first name; David Souhef, meant nothing to me. The second did.

Barton.

'No way. There's no freaking way Trowa's involved in any of this.'

'In that case, it looks like someone is trying very hard to set him up,' Jack replied smoothly. 'Have you any idea who that might be? Quatre's Winner's family perhaps? I gather he's not their favourite person.'

'That doesn't make a whole load of sense though. Sure, the Winners don't like Trowa very much, but they've been together for seven years. If they wanted to get rid of him, why wait that long? Or do you have any proof? Oh! The resource satellite; that wouldn't belong to WEI by any chance?'

It wasn't exactly a hard guess, given how much of L4 the Winners actually own. No major surprise when Jack nodded.

Maybe the Winners were behind all of this. Although it was hard to see how any of them was benefiting from Quat's disappearance, given that the value of WEI shares had plummeted since he'd vanished. Unless Quatre turned up soon, his sisters would inherit nothing but debts. 'So who's this David Souhef guy when he's at home?'

'He's a property developer. Mainly on L4, although his company has been expanding over the past year.'

'A legitimate property developer?'

'Apparently so. His buildings tend to fall down less than others, and he has a good reputation. He seems like the perfect citizen; married with three children, does a huge amount for charity.'

'I'm guessing there's something slightly imperfect about him, however.'

'On this colony, yes,' Jack nodded. 'Despite the wife and family, Mr. Souhef also has more exotic preferences. It seems to be something of an open secret; certain things are condoned on L4 provided they happen behind locked doors. Interestingly enough, he also seems to know your friend Mr. Winner. He's done some contract work for WEI, and they both serve on the board of several charities.'

'Really?'

Theo's mobile beeped and he rapped off a couple of words in a language that sounded like German. 'Jack, we need to leave. Can you take our guest to the Preventers' building?'

'Sure.' Jack motioned for me to follow him outside to the parking lot; the car he'd driven before, and the blue SUV, had vanished, and we got into a black pick-up.

'Why the sudden exit?'

'We have a minor problem.' He turned on the ignition and we swung out into the road; apparently your friends have noticed you're missing and there's a major search underway. Rather impressive, actually, given the short time they had to organise it. You may wish to call and reassure them you're safe.'

'That might be an idea, yeah.' Oh, shit, I could imagine just how Heero would react if he realised I'd gone MIA. He was probably beating the hell out of Agent Walsh at that very minute. 'Damn, his cellphone's not picking up.' I tried Wufei's number and got the same result.

'There's been a problem with some of the satellite networks this morning,' Jack informed me, handing over his 'phone. 'Try mine. You might be able to send a text even if you can't get through.'

'Thanks.' I keyed in a quick message to Heero; hopefully that would stop him going too ballistic. Damn, he would be freaking out over me.

'There was one other thing I wanted to tell you. I've been looking into what prompted all this media coverage of what happened in the desert. Apparently, the story was first broken by a man called Emil Talbot,' Jack gave me a very direct look. 'I gather you know of him?'

Oh, fuck.

'Yeah' I muttered. 'I've heard of the bastard.'

Emil Talbot was a journalist who'd spent the twelve months of 197 doing his best to ruin my life. His father had died at New Edwards, and Talbot had spent the rest of the War tripping to whip up anti-Gundam sentiment on Earth. After peace broke out, he'd organised a media campaign to have us all executed as war criminals.

After I'd had my little incident in 196, he'd wanted me tried for attempted mass murder, and when that failed, he'd gleefully reported all the dumb things I'd done after I'd first been released from hospital, and then started digging into all the squalid stuff in my past, even flying to L2 to dig up the juiciest sods of dirt.

He'd written all kinds of nastily suggestive things about myself and 'Fei, making sure that every sentence was carefully qualified with an 'apparently' or 'allegedly' so we couldn't sue for libel.

'Fei had pretended not to care, but of course I'd known just how hard it had made life for him. He was miserably unhappy at Preventers anyway, very conscious of not fitting in but clueless about how to try, and all these smutty little articles hadn't helped him.

'How'd you find out he was involved? I watched the news earlier and his name wasn't mentioned?'

'I know. Interesting, isn't it? I have a friend who works on one of the networks and he told me. Ah, here we are.' He pulled up across the road from Preventers HQ. 'Just something to bear in mind, perhaps. Can you please give our regards to His Highness? It was a pleasure to meet you, and I wish you luck with finding your friend. Oh, one last thing?' He handed me a Preventers badge. 'Perhaps you could return this to Agent Walsh? Assuming he still has the right to wear it.'

'Sure.' I flicked the badge open, considering something. I hadn't even bothered to check the photo ID when 'Agent Walsh' had collected me. Heero had a fake Preventers ID and I'd used it myself, back in Florence. All of which made me wonder just how many people ever did examine them properly.

'Jack, can I borrow your shades for a bit? I'll try to get them back to you.'

He shrugged, handing them over. 'Keep them. What are they for? I assume you're not suddenly worried about protecting your eyes from UV rays?'

I grinned, sliding on the wraparound glasses and shoving my braid down the back of my jacket. 'Just a little experiment. I'll call you, OK? Thanks for the information.'

'Good luck.' He flicked me a quick smile, leaning over to shake my hand. 'I hate to say this, but you'll probably need it. Call me if you need anything.'

'You too.'

The Preventers HQ was a veritable hive of activity; agents rushing in and out. They actually had a retina scanner at the main entrance, but the morgue, which was located to one side of the main building, lacked anything so high-tech. The guard nodded me through after a cursory glance at Agent Walsh's ID, and his buddy directed me to the office of Dr. Saunders, the chief coroner.

He was an old guy who was the spitting image of my therapist at home; maybe Dr R-L had a twin who'd gone in for ripping up people's bodies instead of their minds?

'Good morning, sir. My name is Duo Maxwell. Heero Yuy arranged for me to view a body.'

'Of course. informed me that you would be coming this morning. Please follow me.' We walked down a flight of stairs and he hesitated outside one of the doors. 'I should warn you, Mr. Maxwell, the body is in an appalling state.'

'I gathered that much. What exactly happened; Heero just said he was tortured? He didn't give me the details.'

'I've rarely seen a more appalling case,' Saunders' mouth thinned as he handed me a file full of all the gory details. Gory being the operative word, actually. The boy had been alive for most of it; the report listed loss of blood as the cause of death. It would have been slow.

'Is there any damage to the head, except for … what it says here?'

Saunders shook his head. 'No. I presume someone wanted him to be recognised. Probably as a warning. I'm sure you can imagine the symbolism of the tongue having been ripped out.'

'Yeah.' Oh, I could imagine that all too easily. Someone had seen him talking to me. OK, deep breaths, Duo. Not a good time to have any kind of panic attack. Not now. 'I'll see him now.'

Saunders pulled back the white sheet covering the body just enough to show his face and I nodded. 'That's him. His name's Ali. Mr. Yuy was right.'

'Thank you. We will find the people who did this, I promise.'

'Sure.' God, he looked like he could have been asleep; that's what always gets me about dead people. 'I want to see the body.'

'Mr. Maxwell, I would strongly advise against it. I'm sure Mr. Yuy…'

'I've seen dead people before.' Before he could protest, I pulled the sheet down and forced myself to look at him. He'd died terribly, surrounded by enemies. It seemed the least I could do, somehow.

'OK.' I pulled the shroud back up, covering his the boy's poor, broken body. 'Listen, is there anyway I can get to the Preventers main building without going back outside?'

'Of course. If you go through the door at end of the corridor, and take the first flight of stairs, it will bring you to the main lobby.'

I took the stairs slowly, planning what to do next. Call the guys and let them know where I was. Then I wanted the kids out of there; from what I'd seen, security in the building was non-existent and they were probably in danger. Then decide what to do about the stuff Jack had told me.

I pushed the lobby door and walked smack into Lucrezia Noin, intent on the cell-phone in her hand.

'Duo!' Noin stopped in her tracks to stare at me, the hand holding the cellphone falling to her side. 'What in the name of God are you playing at? We thought you'd been abducted - killed - who knows what, and you just stroll in here like nothing's happened. Are you all right?'

'Nothing did happen; I'm fine. It was just a little misunderstanding. Listen, I want to get Nat and the girls out of here ASAP. Can you organise us transport to the Sanque Embassy? I'd like a chopper if you've got one available.'

'A misunderstanding!' She said incredulously, gaping at me. 'Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused? Heero's been on to Commander Une insisting that every agent I've got be reassigned to search for you; I think he and Wufei and Trowa are about ready to rip the colony apart with their bare hands, and you just swan in here and say it was a misunderstanding?' Her eyes narrowed. 'How the hell did you get into this building without anyone noticing you?'

'I got in because your security isn't worth shit! I snapped back. OK, maybe I overreacted a little bit, but seeing Ali's body, reading what had been done to him, had affected me terribly, and I really wasn't in the mood for being yelled at. And I really didn't need her pointing out how badly my friends must have been worrying about me; I could supply all that guilt off my own bat, thank you very much.

'I got in with a false ID, and no one paid me a blind bit of notice. There are three children here for their own safety and from I see anyone can just wander in off the street. Second, the reason I was missing is because one of your agents was careless enough to let his badge be stolen, and he believed a false message without bothering to check it out. Third,' I took a deep breath, and bit off what I'd been about to say; the building would be wired for sound, and it probably wasn't the best idea to broadcast the fact that there was a possible leak in the Preventers organisation. 'shouldn't you be doing something about Quatre's disappearance instead of gossiping on the 'phone?'

'I was talking to Heero,' she shot back, and held out the 'phone.

Oh.

'Duo! What the hell happened to you?' His words tumbled over each other, not giving me a chance to respond. 'Are you really at the Preventers building? Are you all right?'

'I'm fine. I'm really, really sorry about all this; I ran into some friends of Zechs' unexpectedly and I got a bit delayed.' God, that made it sound like I'd happened to bump into them in a coffee shop, didn't it?' 'I never meant for you to be worried. Didn't you get the message I left?'

'Of course I was worried! We thought you'd been abducted. I didn't know if that text was even from you! We've all been frantic, Duo.' He sighed. 'Listen, do the others know you're safe yet? Have you called Wufei?'

'No,' I whispered, glaring at Noin who was listening to me this little exchange with her mouth open. She took the hint and moved off a couple of paces. 'I meant to, straight after the morgue, and then.... ''Ro, I am truly sorry, and I swear I'll fill you in properly when I see you. This just isn't…the best time.'

He was silent for a minute and then, 'I'll tell them. You're at the Preventers Building, right? I'll be there as soon as I can.'

'No! I'm just leaving. I don't want the kids to stay here any more; Lucrezia is going to organise a chopper to take us to the Sanque Embassy. It's probably better if I meet you there. I'll tell you everything then, OK? '

'Duo, for God's sake, wait a minute. Are you sure you're all right? What's going on?'

'No, I'm not all right! I 've just been to see the body in the morgue; it's Ali, all right. He was just a kid, and I'm pretty sure that he was raped and tortured because the wrong person saw him talking to me. And that someone is going to be after the other three kids, and from what I can see right now, they'd probably be safer back on the streets. But yeah, apart from all that, I guess I'm OK.'

Shit.. I hadn't meant to say any of that. Not to Heero. None of it was his fault, after all. He'd doubtless been through hell wondering where I was, and now I was loading all my problems right on top of him.

'Oh, my love.' His voice was so gentle I just wanted it pull it out of the 'phone and wrap it around myself. 'Please don't do this to yourself. I can be at the Embassy in thirty minutes. Will you be all right 'til then?'

'Yeah,' I whispered. 'I - just come as soon as you can. Please?'