Note: A reminder that there will occasionally be phrases used by characters that are not spoken in English. I've written it to flow with context, and recommend waiting until the end to get those translations if you need them.
Chapter 38: Mateo
When he jogged up to the main entrance of Preventers Headquarters as Mateo and found the doors locked, Duo gave a friendly wave to the night security guard and pointed to the door with a shrug and a laugh. The guard just stared at him wide eyed, leaning back in his chair with feet up on the desk in front of him. There was no indication he planned to move.
Duo knew the building was locked after hours but he was playing a role, and after a second's pause with his hand still raised in the air he the made a large "aha!" gesture and snapped his fingers. He knew he was being watched closely as he reached into his pocket. The guard appeared confused, and Duo casually motioned a signal for him to remain in place, pantomiming that whatever was happening was no big deal. He then held his ID card high in the air to showcase it to the guard and swiped his way into the building. That was when the other man immediately removed his feet from the desk and stood at attention.
"Hold it! What are you doing here?"
Duo flashed him a bright smile. "Getting double my hourly rate, that's what!" The man looked unamused. In response Duo leaned in like a kid about to tell a secret and declared "Anything past midnight and I'm making bank!"
He noticed a few things about the desk clerk right off the bat. First, the man was on edge and doing a poor job of hiding it. Second, he carried a gun on his hip and his right hand seemed twitchy and eager to grab hold of it. The combination left Duo with a growing sense of danger.
"You need to leave. We're not open to the public."
It seemed the man was also not particularly verbose. Duo kept the charm going, his posture unassuming and friendly. "Listen man I'm not the public" he waved his ID again. "I'm just here for a job." He pointed to the courier service name on his hat and jacket. "Gotta make a delivery and I'm not allowed to leave until it's delivered in person."
The man's eyes narrowed and he gruffly replied that he'd sign for it.
"Whoa whoa whoa." Duo's hands raised palm out in surrender. "I can't do that, buddy. I'll get sacked if Une doesn't sign this herself." He patted the bag at his side for emphasis.
"Une?"
"Yeah man. Just run my clearance and lemme through. It'll only take a sec."
When Duo took a step forward the man finally pulled his gun. The hand that was on Duo's bag instantly shot upward and back into the surrender position. He asked the guard in his best shaky voice "What... What're you doing? Did I do something wrong? Don't shoot. Talk to Une, man. She'll square this away." He watched closely as the guard ignored his words but kept the gun trained on him. As he listened to him bark for backup into a comm unit two things became clear. First, there was no way this man was employed by the Preventers. Any doubts were erased by the lingo he used. And second, his aim was surprisingly steady for a man who looked so nervous just moments before.
Within minutes Duo was roughly thrown into a conference room on the 6th floor, his hands zip tied behind him and his phone stolen. They'd even stolen his bag. He was thankful for the decoy papers he carried, which gave credit to his story. Une insisted he carry them at all times when entering the building as part of his cover. Years into the job and it was the first time they were useful. If they bothered to deliver the papers to her and demand to know what they were, Une would cover well and know he was in the building. If they tossed them aside and never asked her why she was getting a late night delivery, the criminals really did think he was just a random guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both cases worked in his favor.
He'd thank her later.
Shortly after he hit the floor he heard the door shut. Conference rooms didn't lock from the outside, but he heard something heavy get dragged into place and assumed they were barricaded inside. He looked around the room and recognized it immediately. The last time he was in this room Heero was hitting on him, advancing and pinning him against the door with a hungry look in his eyes. He preferred his prior experience.
Since he was not alone he took a moment to evaluate who was locked up with him. Raveena, his effervescent Ravi, was in plain clothes and tied up, huddled in a far corner next to a man Duo knew only from pictures. Tears streaked her face and when she recognized him she choked down a cry. Two others who looked like office workers were similarly tied and sitting against the far wall. All showed signs they'd been crying. Lastly he recognized three security guards by their uniforms. They'd all been beaten and tossed to the side, likely laying where they were thrown. He doubted any were conscious. Unlike the others their feet were also bound.
It looked like the men who did this knew enough to remove chairs from the room before tossing their hostages inside. Duo did recall seeing chairs strewn about outside before they ditched him. It made sense. Chairs could be weapons. They could also be used to hide. And maybe more importantly they'd crowd the room too much to make quick work of rounding people up.
The unconscious guards laid in the empty floor space between the long conference table and a wall. Though rectangular the room was wide. Normally there was space to get around but with the chairs removed the table felt almost laughably small. Ravi and conscious hostages were across the room on the far end. From his position on the floor he could easily see them all.
A hollow feeling grew in Duo's chest. He was too tired for this nonsense. After a week of barely sleeping he didn't have the energy for a hostage situation. Emotionally he was drained. After the kids, after Heero, after that wave of grief over Hilde… Duo was over this before it began. All he wanted was to sleep in the comfort of his home. If he was honest with himself he found the situation more annoying than anything else. The audacity of these people to take away the sole comfort he craved was immeasurable.
It was unwise to mess with him when he was exhausted. The idiots in charge wouldn't know what hit them. When Shinigami reached his limits and then got thrown to the wolves he didn't get lazy or sloppy. He got vicious.
"Mateo!"
Ravi found her voice, though she kept it soft despite her agony. In all the times he'd seen her and chatted he'd never imagined her like this. Such a carefree young woman shouldn't be fearing for her life. In his opinion no one should. Duo fought two wars to prevent people from danger exactly like this. When she flinched at the look on his face he realized he was letting his exhaustion and anger show. He smiled at her as he laid on the floor, his hands fishing for something in his braid. It was harder with it tucked under his jacket but he could manage. With some effort he turned on his charm before speaking.
"Hey Ravi. How ya doing? Because you've sure looked better."
She was stunned and spoke much more softly than him. "Mateo! Now isn't the time for jokes. You need to do as they say and keep quiet. These men are dangerous!"
Duo grunted in response as he leveraged a tiny utility knife pulled from his braid and pushed hard against the zip ties. Upon realizing he kind of sounded like Heero giving monosyllabic answers to questions, he smiled. What a turn that was. Ravi caught his attention. She was looking at him like he was insane.
"I'm serious! Don't do anything stupid! They're dangerous!"
With a grin and a wink Duo replied darkly "So am I" and kept working to free his hands. He heard a snap and the tension holding his arms in an unnatural position was released. Removing the remaining plastic loosely clinging to him he stood to search the security guards. They might be unconscious but there was always a chance their captors missed some kind of weapon. They missed Duo's after all.
"Mateo! What're you-"
"Be quiet, Ravi. Don't need to grab too much unwanted attention. At least not yet."
The guards were unarmed. Conference rooms didn't have office supplies so there wouldn't even be scissors available. The utility knife was so small it would be ineffectual against a person, Duo mostly used it for lock picking and small work on electronics. He'd have to make do with the emergency blade he'd hidden on his person before entering the building. It was the size of a small throwing knife or a pocket knife, but the ceramic build kept it from triggering metal detectors.
Next he checked for a means to contact someone on the outside. With his phone gone the next best chance was inside the conference room. When he picked up the IP phone at the center of the table the line was dead. He figured they'd disable that.
"I take it none of you have your phones, yeah?"
The hostages stared at him.
"How many of them are there?" When no one answered he got annoyed. "Come on, think about it. How many are there?"
"Seven."
He turned to the man seated beside Ravi. Her finance, as Duo recalled. The Baker. He wondered what the man was doing here but instead asked "How do you know?"
The Baker looked to Ravi with frightened eyes as he answered. "My neighbor and his friends. There's seven of them."
"How many guard this room?"
Without looking to Duo he replied "one."
"How'd only seven people take HQ?"
That question only increased the fear in everyone's eyes. Duo frowned at their lack of answer but before he could ask a second time The Baker choked out "A bomb. They have a bomb."
Duo nodded at that. While dangerous it was in some ways fortunate. He could handle a bomb easily, it was the one specialty he didn't need to train like hell to master. Then he turned to look at the door. For a moment he froze in place, gathering his will to power through what would come next. It didn't feel very long ago that he stood with his back to that same door, Heero advancing on him.
Heero. He needed to get out of here alive so he could see Heero again. That was just one more mistake these people made when they broke into HQ: They didn't consider the consequences of keeping him from Heero now when he had so much to look forward to.
Duo had a feeling those weren't the only unpredictable mistakes his captors would make that night in relation to him. They probably didn't see an ex Gundam pilot coming at all. He breathed deeply, removed his jacket, ignored the gasp from Ravi when she saw his braid for the first time, and found whatever spark inside of him he relied on for his entire life to ignite a raging fire within.
Then he took action.
Everyone jumped when he pounded his body against the door repeatedly and yelled "Hey! I got some questions for you! What the fuck's goin on here?" He kept shouting, paying no attention to the other hostages who pleaded with him to be quiet. Eventually footsteps could be heard approaching. Strategically he continued making noise until he could hear the sound of the barricade moving. Instantly he stopped and ducked into a low couch at the side of the door, his small blade was in hand.
The dragging sound ended and the door swung open. An armed man stepped through, holding a gun in one hand. He looked straight ahead into the room and didn't spot Duo.
"Will you SHUT YOUR-"
Duo leapt forward before anyone's wide eyes staring at him could give up his advantage. Attacking low he knocked the man off his center of gravity and stabbed him in his leg above the knee. But the gun was still in the man's hand when he hit a wall and slid to the floor with Duo on top of him. He twisted his body to take aim, the gun nearly leveling with Duo's face before his arm was pinned to the floor.
As far as Duo was concerned their position was not ideal and he needed to move them. If the gun went off it would not only alert the other infiltrators, but it could possibly shoot one of unconscious guards. He used his strength to partially lift the man and twist his body and arm 90 degrees until he laid with his feet to the door and his gun pointed away from any hostages. Though the motion was necessary, it gave the other man an opening to attack.
Duo was rewarded for his efforts with a punch to his face.
The force of the blow wasn't too strong since the man's leverage was compromised, and he shook it off, pushing his full weight onto the man and striking him across the face with his elbow. It was immediately evident from sound alone that he broke the man's nose. Shock caused him to loosen his grip on his gun, and Duo noticed.
Snatching it, he punched the man in the face once more. The added weight and mass of the weapon made the hit land even harder, and Duo raised his fist again but stopped when he was certain the man would not be getting up anytime soon. He was awake, but disoriented.
For Ravi, the sight of amicable and sweet Mateo coldly taking charge, attacking a man, and beating him nearly unconscious, was too much to process. She and the others remained silent as Mateo nonchalantly pulled the clip from his new weapon to examine it and then searched the man he'd just throttled. He was cool and collected. When he found little more than zip ties he quickly used them to hog tie the bloodied man. Inexplicably when Mateo was partway through the process he removed one of the man's shoes. She stared, confounded, as he ripped a sock off the man's exposed foot and gagged him with it. She cringed at the thought of a used sock in anyone's mouth.
None of this made sense. She couldn't believe gregarious Mateo could flip his personality so quickly.
Her thoughts were interrupted when he double checked then man's pockets and angrily cursed his lack of a cell phone. "The fuck kind of crew is this? No phone?" He scoffed and shoved the man into the floor as he grumbled "No saber ni papa de algo" before he looked back up at the hostages. "I take it none of you Preventers are field agents."
A woman shakily supplied "I passed my firearms test two years ago."
Duo stood and quickly checked out the door before turning his attention back to the room. "Listen I'm gonna leave you here." Though they gasped and made to protest he continued "taking you with me is a liability and there's no guarantee for your safety. But so far you've been safe here. And if anyone comes lookin for this guy" he gestured to the nearly unconscious man on the floor "you all have plausible deniability. Throw me under the bus and tell em I'm a coward who left you all to die. They'll take it out on me, not you. If they wanted to kill you they'd have done it up front." He took one step out the door, canvasing his field of vision.
"What about the bomb?"
Without looking to Agent Firearms Test he answered "If it's real I'll disarm it before I go find Une. And if I can get a working phone along the way I'll call backup."
Ravi couldn't hold back the one question that kept coming up in her mind. "Mateo! Who are you, really?"
Violet eyes turned to her with a mirthful twinkle that seemed out of place given their current circumstances. She saw the wide and reassuring grin Mateo always sent her way when she'd check him into the building and it struck her that he really was the same person she joked with. Somehow he was the same man she freely shared her joys and sorrows with.
"I'm just Une's personal courier" he said. And then he was gone, the sound of the barricade dragged back into place was he last thing he left them with.
TRANSLATION FOOTNOTES:
No saber ni papa de algo - basically means "you don't know shit" in Spanish.