Note: From here on out there will occasionally be phrases used by characters that are not spoken in English. I'll include those translations in a footnote for the chapter, but you don't need to scroll down early. I've written it to flow with context, and recommend waiting until the end to get those translations if you need them.
Chapter Five: Person of Interest
"Well look who's here! The ever lovely Raveena has returned!"
She knew that voice. She loved that voice. She also loved how of everyone at this branch of Preventers she was probably the only person who got to hear that smooth tenor. Turning to the sound with a bright smile she took in the familiar face before her.
"I've been here for weeks! Where have you been, Mateo? Sneaking in on someone else's shift?" His smile never failed to spark a reciprocal one in her. How could anyone see that smile and not return it tenfold?
He reached one hand to his ever present baseball hat and jokingly tipped his cap to her with a slight nod of his head. "M'lday I'd never dream of letting another soul check me into the building. No te hice de chivo los tamales."
She laughed, as she always did when words she couldn't understand rolled off his tongue. His tone was so sweet she never worried about the actual meaning. He was grinning as he slipped her his clearance badge and they began their usual dance: her taking as long as possible to process it and grant temporary limited access to the building, and him obediently setting his messenger bag into the security scanner. He was Une's personal courier, thoroughly vetted with regular background checks and smart enough to empty his bag of everything outside of whatever he was delivering to her. It made checking into the building as hassle free as it could be with Preventers security protocols.
"So how was it, Ravi? You have a good time skiing with The Baker?"
She chuckled at that. Mateo never learned the names of the men she was dating and always referred to them by their professions. In response she continued to type with her right hand and used the other to play with her hair, making sure to show off a new bit of jewelry while at it. While she didn't know what to expect, she was not disappointed when her visitor's jaw dropped and he grabbed for her hand with wide eyes, her new ring glistening against her dark skin.
"No shit! That sonofabitch did it! And here I thought he was too cowardly to ask you."
She leaned forward as her computer processed his clearance and whispered "I underestimated his courage, too. We're gonna elope as soon as we can both swing some leave time." As she leaned back she snatched her hand from his and pretended the ID card wasn't ready. After three weeks everyone who mattered knew about her engagement. Mateo was the last person to find out and she planned to enjoy springing the news on him for as long as possible.
"Does this mean I gotta learn his name? Because I'm not ready for such a big step in my life…" when she laughed his demeanor shifted and his voice dropped, taking on a more serious air. "Honestly Ravi I'm real happy for ya. None of the others made you light up quite like this. You deserve to be happy. You've definitely been on enough bad dates to finally land a good guy."
They smiled at one another while she reached for his ID card, and as she handed it to him she asked "how about you? Finally seeing anyone?"
The question caused him to pause mid reach before recovering from whatever surprised him. He took on an expression she'd not seen before and then attached the card to a lanyard around his neck. Worry about crossing an unspoken line sank in and gave her a sense of unease. For all their friendly banter he'd never actually disclosed anything about himself. She realized, suddenly, that while she considered him a friend from work they'd never so much as gone for coffee. She didn't even know where he was from.
"Some people," he said in a low and almost serious tone, "are are meant to be alone." The slight smile on his lips broke her heart as he swiped his access card and walked away. The raised hand waving at her as he disappeared towards the elevators was the only signal in her eyes that he wasn't angry. He always raised a hand to wave goodbye as he rounded that corner. But how could someone with such light inside of himself be so closed off?
She wondered what happened to him to leave the cheerful young man so wounded.
When Duo slipped into Une's office he was not expecting to see Trowa quietly speaking with her, looking very serious. They weren't necessarily conversing quietly for the sake of confidentiality. Duo knew a crew did sweeps of Une's office daily to make sure there were no bugs present. Paranoia in times of peace was simply good security.
Neither noticed his arrival nor the closing of the office door so he cleared his throat to catch their attention. The two looked sharply in his direction as Une beckoned him forward to take a seat. If the former Heavyarms pilot was surprised to see Duo dressed like a private messenger he didn't show it. But with Trowa and Une both standing at attention behind her desk Duo stopped short of the chair before him. This was feeling like a trap. He thought he was summoned to be formally dressed down about the incident at the hospital, but this was clearly something different.
"I'll stand, thank you."
Une nodded and fixed him with her gaze. "Let's not mince words here, Maxwell. I need to know if you're aware of anyone on L2 who may have reason to want Quatre Winner dead."
Violet eyes darted to Trowa's and he could tell this was indeed serious. He met Une's gaze again. "I'm not really affiliated with anyone on L2 these days." Duo was glad the physical tension he felt was not coming through in his voice. "But if you're asking if anyone from L2 would harbor a grudge against the Winner family, then yeah."
The next words out of Une's mouth cemented in Duo's mind that this was indeed an informal interrogation. "If you remain unaffiliated with anyone currently on L2 how would you know someone is holding a grudge?"
It was a simple but loaded question and Duo knew to tread lightly. If Une just asked a question she didn't already know the answer to then whatever problem they were facing ran as deep as Duo anticipated. But an interrogation could go both ways. He cocked his head ever so slightly to the side and asked "Do you not know of Winner Enterprises policy towards L2 in the years before Operation Meteor?" A minute twitch of her brow told him she was clueless. "Guess that cover up was good enough even Preventers can't reveal it."
He successfully baited Trowa. "What cover up?"
Duo turned his attention to him and ignored the growing feeling in the pit of his stomach that what he was about to say might irreparably damage friendships already tarnished by time and anger. Brevity, he determined, might be his best play.
"Ya know about the colony wide plague we had, yeah?" Trowa nodded. "Then you must know Winner Pharmaceuticals had a vaccine and drugs for treatment." Again Trowa nodded. "Long story short L2's got poor colony clusters and wealthier ones. They sold the drugs to the cluster that could afford to pay and left the poor to die. Somethin' about it costing millions to administer treatments and prevention for the hundred some thousand people living there in poverty. More than half the population died. Hell, just about everyone I knew did. All that to save a fraction of the annual interest the company earned. And all under the direction of parent company Winner Enterprises." He looked back to Une. "So yeah. L2's got a lotta people who hold a grudge against the name Winner."
Duo waited for the inevitable question are you one of them but instead Une and Trowa stood silently as they processed what he said. It was Une who spoke first.
"How could this be unknown?"
Duo rewarded her with a crooked and painful smile. "Cost less to cover up than to save lives. How can you count a street kid who doesn't officially exist in death tolls? You gotta remember that kids like me? We didn't have birth certificates, medical records... we weren't enrolled in schools. We weren't even registered as citizens. I didn't even have a name until I gave myself one. It's why Oz couldn't find shit on me during the war. There was nothing to scrub. Nothing to accidentally leave a trace." He chuckled darkly. "We didn't even have an official population. And no one but us would notice if we went missing. Who would we even report deaths to? Who would confirm them?"
A moment of uncomfortable silence made the air tense. "So," Une spoke with resignation, "we have at least 100,000 suspects."
"You weren't paying attention."
Une looked puzzled.
"It's twenty at most."
"What?"
"We had about 100,000 before it began. Might've had thirty or forty after everyone died. Then there was famine, the war… you'll have 20,000 at most remaining who might even know what happened enough to hold a grudge. But very few would have the resources and motivation to actually hunt down Winner. Most of those people will die in poverty on that colony, or they already did, or they should've." He knew he said a little too much as he implied that he should've died there, too. He just couldn't control his words. The whole topic was acutely personal.
Duo couldn't hold back the bitterness that crept into his voice. Suddenly feeling vulnerable he pressed on. "Listen if there's a credible threat to Winner that's linked to L2 that person isn't on the colony. No one still there has the money to hire a hit-man. They're here on Earth and probably nearby, so look into anyone local or in neighboring cities with ties to the L2 slums. Folks from L2 don't send someone long distances to do their dirty work. We're either neck deep in it or we're nearby. Particularly focus on anyone with money, or anyone with the skills to carry out a threat themselves." He fixed Une with a look that said he was to be taken completely seriously and added "that includes me."
Trowa was immediately defensive. "We don't think-"
"If you're conducting a thorough investigation, Barton, you can't eliminate me because you're fond of me." Duo gave Trowa a weak smile and a tiny shrug that broke the taller man's heart.
"Thank you for the intel. We've got a lot to consider." Une's smooth voice was all business. "When we clear you, Maxwell, I expect you to be involved in this investigation."
Duo nodded in acknowledgment. "Does Winner know?" After a second he clarified "about the threat?"
A solemn shake of Trowa's head was all the answer Duo needed. "Am I dismissed, Commander?"
"You are."
Duo nodded once to her and thanked her for her time, as he usually did rather than saying goodbye. Then violet eyes met green and Duo nodded once, the name "Barton" escaping his lips before he left the room.
With Duo's back towards them Trowa gave Une a meaningful look, silently asking for permission to follow. Though they had more to discuss she nodded her head in the direction of Duo and Trowa took off to catch him at the elevator. He made it just in time.
When the elevator doors opened a young woman stepped aside to allow Duo room and Trowa filed in behind him without a word. When she exited on the next floor Duo waved away two agents about to step inside and shot them a challenging look. They retreated back, and as the doors closed and the cabin moved Duo pressed the emergency stop and turned pointedly towards Trowa.
"Spill it. Go on and say it. Let's get this over with."
For his part Trowa looked adequately uncomfortable as he quietly asked "Is that why you hate Quatre?"
Duo smiled at him. It was lazy and at ease, not the manic kind of smile his companion expected in this line of questioning. One corner of his lips raised, and his eyes softened with affection. He leaned back just to the side of the control panel and crossed his arms over his chest. "Nah, man. Winner was just a kid like me. He had nothing to do with the decisions of his father's company and I know him well enough to guarantee if he had any idea what was happening at the time he'd fight tooth and nail against what Winner Pharmaceuticals was doin'. He's not some monster." He paused. "And for the record I don't hate the guy. We just don't get along."
Trowa believed every word. This was Duo at his most honest and unguarded. He recognized it from their time together in the war, when Duo would talk late at night on a mission about some simple dream he had for his life. Like how he wanted to spend just one day on Earth out in the wilderness without someone trying to kill him. Or how he'd get Pilot 01 to really laugh one day. Returning the smile, Trowa leaned forward and reached out to press the button for his floor. As his hand lightly brushed against Duo's side the elevator began to move once more.
Trowa stood straight, ready to momentarily exit. "I'm glad you're still who I remember, Duo."
Duo drew in a breath and sharply blew it upwards and through his bangs. The hair briefly went flying in all directions. "Yeah, well. I'm glad you never asked if I was the one trying to kill your boyfriend."
The taller man glanced towards Duo. "I never had to."
Duo's smile flipped into a mischievous grin. "But Une wanted you to."
At that Trowa laughed and the elevator dinged to announce their arrival. "Only a formality. Let's say I did, she'll never know."
As Trowa exited Duo's eyes gained back some light. He almost followed the taller man, but remembered where he was and who he was with. Instead, he let the doors close and hit the button for the lobby, the elevator taking him back to Raveena and out of the building. He suddenly had a lot of work to do.
TRANSLATION FOOTNOTES
No te hice de chivo los tamales – literally means "I didn't make you goat tamales." In (at least parts of) Mexico, making goat tamales is slang for cheating /cheating on someone because tamales are supposed to be chicken or pork. So Duo's actually saying "I'd never cheat [on] you" when Raveena accuses him of coming to HQ when someone else was working the front desk.