4 April 2001
Pairing: 1+2+R
Rating: R
Category: Drama
Warnings: Violence, occasional bad language, hetero-ai, shounen-ai, sap, cute fluffy kittens.
Disclaimer: The boys and the girl belong to Sunrise, the Sotsu Agency, and Bandai, and I intend only to increase their happy happy revenues by creating this derivative work.
Notes: Welcome to yet another trip through Lili's Wonderland of Favorite Clichés--this is such an old premise that it's grown a long, long beard. ^_^;; But I like it anyway. This fic is part of the Complicated Arc, falling chronologically after "Matins" but before "Lauds." And it's dedicated to sweet Becky, who kept asking "Is it done yet? Is it done yet?" ^__^ It's done!
Extreme thanks and massive glompings are due to Quatre-sama, for many conversations on matters geographical and political--and for her eternal patience! <glompglompglomp> Any errors that remain are entirely my own.
Many thanks also to Ryoko, who pores over this stuff with a care you would not believe--this would have been a much weaker story without her, and I hope she knows it! <glompglompglomp>
(Additional notes on geography &etc. at end of fic)
"Why are you so cute? Hm? Why?"
Heero looked up from his position at the computer, not really wondering who Relena was talking to--ever since they had brought the half-grown grey kitten home from the shelter, she and Jeoffrey had been inseparable. At the moment, the human half of the happy couple was lying on her stomach on the living-room rug, gazing soulfully into the cat's yellow-green eyes.
Snapping the laptop shut to protect it from curious paws, Heero came to sit next to them on the floor. "If you're waiting for him to say something back, I think you're going to be there a while."
"Silly. He's already saying something. Watch." Making sure she had the kitten's attention, she closed her eyes very slowly and then opened them again. Jeoffrey regarded her for another moment before he closed his eyes, too, opening them again only enough to make sure she was still watching.
Intrigued, Heero leaned down until his face was at a level with Jeoffrey's, and then tried it himself; the green eyes opened wide in mild surprise, but then narrowed to happy slits as the kitten began to purr lazily.
Reaching out to scratch between the silver ears, Heero asked, "So what's he saying?"
"It's a sign of affection--you wouldn't close your eyes on someone you thought might hurt you, hm? And look--he's not scared at all. So he's saying he trusts us with his life." Jeoffrey was in heaven, rolling onto his back so Relena could rub his tummy, too.
"Somebody threatening the furball?" Duo paused in the doorway to watch them. "Hey, cat. Those two are mine. Find your own fondlers, you lazy bum."
Relena laughed. "Sounds like you're doing the threatening."
"Hey, just protecting my turf. Give these felines an inch and they'll take a mile. He's already making a habit of hogging my pillow!"
"You poor thing." Relena didn't even try to sound apologetic--after all, Duo usually ended up on her pillow anyway.
He flopped down onto the rug, his martyred air somewhat at odds with a rather calculating grin. "Gonna make it up to me?"
"Oh, I would--but I'd better get my things together for this day-trip thing." She stood, stretching, and sighed more happily at the sight of the three of them, distributed around the carpet in relaxed heaps. "Stay just like that, all of you, and I'll be back tonight. Seven-thirty, at the latest."
Duo waved a farewell from the floor. "Have fun!"
They waited to hear the front door close, then Heero spoke decisively. "We'd better get going, too."
"Yup. Back here by six, right? We need some time to set things up."
"Aa. The cake should be ready by then."
"And the big surprise, too." Taking Heero's offered hand, Duo bounded up from the carpet with a gleeful smile. "This is going to be so cool--she probably thinks we forgot all about her birthday!"
Both of them had to put in a full day of work, and then scramble across town to gather the last few essentials. But by seven-thirty, the mission was proceeding according to plan.
Coming back downstairs from a hasty shower, Heero arrived in the dining room to find the house transformed. A massive bouquet of white lilacs sat in the center of the table, flanked by candles of various heights--it looked like Duo had ransacked a candle store, and then scrounged every bowl and saucer from the cupboard. Which was, Heero thought with a slight smile, probably exactly what had happened.
Then Duo came back into the room, his hands full of placemats and glassware, and Heero gave himself over to shameless staring. Duo was wearing perfectly normal clothes--though that dark-blue shirt was new--but his hair was down, freed from its usual plait to hang in heavy waves almost to his knees. And it seemed to be getting in his way, since he had to pause and toss it back, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like profanity, before he could lean past the candles to set down the wine glasses.
All helpfulness, Heero came over to gather it up for him, holding it safely away from the flames so he could finish. That this also gave Heero a rare chance to bury his hands and face in that hair was, of course, purely coincidental. He tugged on an especially wavy lock. "You're pulling out all the stops."
Duo glanced over his shoulder as he straightened up. "Yeah, well, I'm not the only one. Someone's been borrowing my gel, I see."
Heero ran a self-conscious hand through his unusually docile hair. "It was sticking up."
Duo shook his head, not even bothering to point out the humor in that rationalization. "Whatever you say." Giving the tablecloth a totally unnecessary tweak, he backed up to inspect his work. "So. Any minute now, I guess."
"Aa. Did you get the--"
"Yep. Right here." Duo patted his pocket nervously. "The jeweller called yesterday, and I stopped by on the way home." He fiddled with the ends of his hair, looking wretchedly apprehensive. "Do you really think she'll like this idea?"
"Why wouldn't she?" Heero slid a coaster under one of the few actual candlesticks; it disturbed the aesthetic effect, he decided, but it was better than ruining the tabletop.
"Oh, I don't know--because you're a professional stoic and I'm a basket case and we don't have an officiant or anything and this won't even be legal?" He paused for breath, trying not to hyperventilate.
"Baka. You're just panicking." Duo did look more than a little wild-eyed, Heero decided, and came across the room to place reassuring hands on his shoulders. "She knows what's important: it's about the promise, not the place. And it's about us, not what anyone else thinks."
"I know. Really, I do. But Jesus, I'll feel so much better when we're done with the asking part."
The phone shrilled, and they exchanged exasperated looks. "If she's going to be more late--" Duo muttered, eyeing the guttering candles with concern while Heero went to the phone.
When he saw Sally's set face, Heero's brows drew together with concern. "Something we can do for you?"
"Heero. Are you alone?"
Duo moved into the vidscreen's field of view. "Nope--I'm home, too. What's up, Preventer Water? Are you calling to beg us amateurs for help with official business?"
Her worried eyes flicked from him to Heero, and then Sally seemed to steel herself to continue. "Not exactly. Well, yes. There's been a--an incident. A shuttle has been hijacked, and the passengers were taken--we don't know where yet. Or why they were grabbed in the first place."
Heero looked thoughtful. "Civilian shuttle, or military?"
"Both--sort of." She shook her head in annoyance at her own vagueness. "It was a commercial transport, but had more than a few families from the Ministry's staff. Including their children."
The two former pilots would have come anyway, but that last detail clinched it. They exchanged a look, already starting to plan, and then Duo checked his watch. "Can you give us an hour, maybe? We can get started on it from here--it's just that Relena was supposed to be back by now, and I don't want to walk out just as she's getting home--"
"Duo." Sally closed her eyes as if asking for strength. "She was on the plane."
He didn't make a sound, just stared at her with eyes that were suddenly so dark they looked black. Then he stood up, still without speaking, and left the room.
Heero looked swiftly after him, then leaned back over the vidset. "He's getting hardware. We'll be ready to head over in about fifteen. In the meantime, tell me what you've got."
It wasn't much, and Sally didn't gather much more information in the time it took Heero and Duo to make it to headquarters: United Skyways Flight 4511 had been airborne for about twenty minutes when it had suddenly deviated from its filed flight plan; instead of proceeding straight east to Copenhagen, as scheduled, it had headed sharply southeast. Attempts to contact the crew had failed, and the only transmission to leave the aircraft had been a garbled message about men with guns, received shortly after the shuttle passed into Slovakian airspace. It was enough to upgrade the crisis from possible engine trouble to probable hijacking; by the time the shuttle disappeared from radar over the southernmost stretch of the Carpathian Mountains, the Preventers had already been alerted to the situation. It had taken another three hours to obtain a reliable passenger list, or else they would have known much earlier that they were dealing with an even greater crisis than originally feared.
Colonel Minsk, a middle-aged Preventer with a distinguished service record and no shortage of confidence, had been called in to help Sally, Une, and the Minister's own security personnel with the coordination of a retrieval plan. His staff had brought along schematics on the aircraft, maps of the forested mountains, background information on the various terrorist groups known to operate in the area--anything that might be helpful in determining a course of action. Unfortunately, Minsk and his cadre seemed to have no idea how to handle two very concerned former gundam pilots, at least one of whom seemed to be as volatile as jostled nitroglycerin.
The others weren't sure they had any advice to offer. Duo's eerie silence had given way to intermittent bursts of rage, complete with dangerous pacing--and the Minister's acting chief of security paled visibly every time those icy dark eyes pinned him to the wall with another barrage of questions. "What was she doing on a commercial flight, anyway? What's the damn jet for, if she isn't going to take it? And where were the goddamn bodyguards?"
Anatole tried to keep from making things worse, but couldn't keep himself from sounding miserably penitent. "This was a very low-profile thing, just a--like a field trip to Copenhagen with the kids. To see the fairy-tale stuff. You know, the mermaid thing? And the bodyguards were with her--still are, as far as I know."
"Who?" Heero's even voice brought their attention back to where he leaned against the wall.
Anatole consulted a mental duty roster. "Ashcraft and Singh, this week."
Heero nodded approvingly; the two were among the best agents on Relena's staff. "They're good." /If they're still alive,/ he finished silently, and knew Duo was thinking the same thing as soon as he met those tortured, angry eyes across the room.
It was enough to make Duo start pacing again. "So help me, she is never leaving my sight again. If I have to go to every stupid lecture, every fucking tea party, hold her hand every time she--"
Sally cut him off. "Maxwell, don't be ridiculous--it's not like you can stuff her in your pocket and carry her around with you every minute of every day."
"Watch me." He bared his teeth in a feral parody of a smile before stalking toward the door. "I'll be checking the weapons cache. Call me when we know something useful."
Une watched him go, concern darkening her eyes. "Is he all right?"
"He will be," Heero answered calmly.
"Good. It's just that last time--"
"Last time he couldn't do anything. This time he can." Heero left his post by the wall and came to examine the array of maps. "Big difference."
Sally observed him shrewdly; he was almost in worse shape than Duo, she decided. Though most people looking at him might mistake that stillness for calm, she knew it to be a state of almost unbearable expectancy. For now, the reassuring routine of information-gathering and mission-planning was making sanity possible--but Heero's eyes had the dangerous sheen of a metal wire drawn taut, and Sally worried that he might be almost to the breaking point.
"Ahem." Now that the crazy one was gone, Minsk decided to remind the room of his existence. "If I may point out--ladies, sirs--we do have a demand on the table. The passengers are currently the 'guests' of the Republic of Walachia, I believe?"
"Right." Gazing at the map, Sally traced the outline of the small Transylvanian nation. "The aircraft's last known position was well within their borders, and that's where all the demands have been originating."
"And they're demanding secession rights?" Minsk fiddled with his moustache thoughtfully.
Une nodded. "It looks that way."
"Didn't Walachia sign the treaties to join the World Nation?" Heero asked.
"They did," Une confirmed. "But not everyone was happy about it."
Heero raised his eyebrows at the understatement. "Apparently not."
"Hence the problem," Sally put in. "If it helps--which I don't think it does, necessarily--it looks like we're dealing with a splinter group within the Walachian government. We haven't yet pinpointed the source of the transmissions, but it looks like they're coming from the mountains and not the capital itself." She spread out a handful of printouts on the table, pointing to a newsvid capture of the group's leaders. "They're calling themselves the Sibiu. And they apparently think the way to get the ESUN's attention is to hijack a shuttle full of its nearest and dearest."
Turning her pen over and over between her fingertips, Une looked up from where she'd been reviewing the communications log. "Something interesting about that."
"And that is--?" Sally came to lean over her shoulder.
"We haven't gotten a single demand that specifically mentions Relena. Plenty of threats about what they'll do to the children--but nothing about the Minister, who should have been their trump card."
"So they may not know who she is."
Heero nodded slowly. It made at least a little sense--Relena had been out of the public eye for some time during her recovery, and even now the news organizations still preferred pictures of the serene teenaged princess. So the hijackers might not have recognized the famous Minister with her shorter hair, her slightly more angular woman's face. Not especially likely, and they couldn't count on the kidnappers remaining ignorant for long--but it was possible, and every tiny advantage was worth its weight in gold. If they didn't know who she was--
"They won't be planning on Duo." He looked warily pleased. "Or me."
At that moment, one of Minsk's staffers dashed into the room waving a disk to get their attention. "We've got footage! This just came over the wire."
Minsk slid the disk into the main computer with a flourish. The entire team leaned forward, intent on gathering all the evidence they could from this handful of information.
When the screen came to life, Sally suppressed a gasp: the Sibiu had chosen Relena to deliver their recorded message. The young Minister sat on a folding chair at a metal table, holding a piece of paper--presumably her script--in hands that shook only a little. She seemed to be unharmed, except for the beginnings of a bruise along one cheekbone.
Une tipped her head to one side, thinking. "Why her?"
"Don't know." Anatole shrugged. "They may have figured out who she is--wouldn't be that hard, if they have any access to the worldnet. Or else she's just a random pick?"
"Probably the only one who wasn't bawling her eyes out," Sally pointed out, and looked up to see Heero smile in spite of himself at the accuracy of her observation.
A muffled curse from the doorway made her turn sharply. Someone had gone to fetch Duo, who didn't like the looks of that bruise one bit; for a moment, Sally almost pitied the doomed soul foolish enough to have taken that swing.
The video was rolling, and on the screen Relena was reading the terrorists' prepared statement in her low, precise voice. "Your children wish to inform you that we are the prisoners of the Sibiu, liberators of Walachia, and that we will not be released until your wretched government, which has soaked the earth with blood, heareth--" she actually raised an eyebrow at the mangled affectation of the script, and Sally could have kissed her. "hears their demand, and releases Walachia from its bondage within the Earthsphere."
The calmness of her demeanor must have infuriated her captors, Heero thought with no small amount of pride. Other than the detached, almost ironic tone of voice, though, she made no move that would draw down the ire of her guards--at least, not until the very last seconds of the tape.
"...we are all well for the moment, but we fear for our lives. If these reasonable demands are not met, we know that retribution will be swift and our ends assured. Please do not let us die in unimaginable pain."
While they watched, she laid the paper down and looked straight through the cheap lens into their eyes. Slowly, deliberately, she closed her eyes--paused for a heartbeat--then opened them again, just as slowly. As the picture gave way to static, she was almost smiling.
For the first time since the crisis began, Heero's calm abruptly shattered. A low, animal sound escaped him--a sort of gasp, as if he'd been punched in the stomach.
Sally turned to see his eyes fixed on the blank screen with a frozen attention that was somehow more distressing than howls of pain; Relena's wordless declaration of total trust had been too much to bear.
Next to him, Duo silently laid one hand flat against the middle of his back. Its warm weight held steady until Heero could break off that agonized stare, dropping his head and swallowing convulsively. When Heero finally spoke, his voice was raspy, but even. "You saw?"
Duo took a deep breath, then let it out in a determined exhalation. "Yeah."
"We are going in. Now." Heero's tone was like metallic ice, forbidding argument. If Minsk had thought Duo was the dangerous one, he was quickly being forced to revise his opinion--or at least to expand the roster.
Sally was not so easily cowed, though. "You're not going anywhere tonight--if you go in there exhausted, you'll all end up dead. And anyway, it'll take us a little more time to get your equipment together."
Heero turned on her like a cornered wolf, almost baring fangs--but finally the wisdom of her words seemed to make it through to him, and he closed his eyes in reluctant acknowledgement. "Hai. But we go first thing in the morning."
"We'll sleep down in the barracks," Duo spoke up. "That way we don't waste time going home and coming back." /And we won't have to look at an abandoned birthday cake on the kitchen counter, either--that might be just a bit more than I can handle right now./
Heero's quick glance confirmed his understanding of all that Duo wasn't saying, even as Une dialed up the barracks master to make sure there was a room free.
Barracks were all alike, Heero thought as he flipped on the lights and dumped his bag on one bunk; the featureless room could have been lifted straight from the Peacemillion, or swiped just as easily from Noin's ill-fated Victoria Base. But he didn't get much time for reverie, as Duo slapped the lights back off, kicked the door shut, and toppled him backwards onto the other narrow bed. His hands and mouth were fierce, insistent; Heero found himself responding just as desperately.
Finally dragging his mouth away, Heero summoned appallingly rational words. "We need to sleep."
"We will. But right now I--" His face twisted with pain, and he shook his head angrily before burying his face against Heero's throat; his voice was a tortured whisper. "Don't let me think."
Heero's arms went around him, holding on painfully tight. "I won't."
/I won't cry. I won't./ Through sheer force of will, Relena made herself sit up, uncurling from the huddled, protective position she'd been holding since she had been shoved back into the room with the other dazed passengers. She'd thought to buy some time, perhaps even protect the others, by playing along with the Sibiu's little film project--but that had been hours ago, and their captors had yet to reappear. They had left a bucket of drinking water inside the door, though, and there was a portable toilet in one corner of the room. Both amenities indicated advance planning, if not heartfelt concern for the hostages' welfare: someone wanted them kept alive, and would rather not clean up after them. Relena decided to take both of these as good signs.
It seemed like days since she had breezed onto that airplane, hurrying to shake hands with the harried-looking woman who had coordinated the outing to Copenhagen. Laughing at Ashcraft's horrible jokes, laughing even harder when Singh attempted to make balloon animals to entertain the children.
She'd known something was wrong fairly early on--muffled thuds from the crew compartment were followed by suspicious silence, and Singh didn't return from her foray to check things out. And then the armed hijackers had burst down the aisles, and Ashcraft had gone down in a pool of blood, and--
If she was going to keep from crying, Relena needed to think about something else. She decided to concentrate on evaluating their surroundings; if Heero were here, what would his escape plan look like? Narrowing her eyes, she assessed the large room--about half the size of a school gymnasium, possibly some sort of storage bunker left over from the war. High, blank walls, broken only by two very narrow air vents set at least fifteen feet up. The single door was metal, and heavy, judging from the clang it made upon shutting. And the whole room was cold--not so cold that anyone was in immediate danger of hypothermia, but definitely marked by a pervasive damp chill. Almost like the sea-caves where she had played as a child. /We must be underground,/ she concluded, pleased with her deductions.
The glow of accomplishment faded almost immediately, as she realized that this meant escape routes would be harder to come by, even if she could find a way for them to get out the door. /Damn, damn, damn./ Her profane internal monologue made her smile--she knew precisely where she had learned to think such things, and only wished she could summon Duo just by swearing like him.
Some distance away, a small brown-haired girl voiced a fretful complaint, drawing Relena's attention. "I want Polly."
/She sounds as petulant as I feel,/ Relena thought, and unbent her protesting joints to go over to the child. Kneeling, Relena brushed damp bangs back from the hot little face. "Who is Polly? Your doll?"
Drawing back shyly at first, the child gradually relaxed, smiling cautiously up at Relena. "No--she's my puppy."
"Bigger than Meggie is, that dog." An exhausted-looking young woman, whose unusual pale-green eyes identified her as the child's mother, reached out to tug at the little girl's pinafore. "Paws big as your hand, too--so she's only going to get bigger."
Meggie looked back to Relena with an even bigger smile, no longer timid. "Do you have any pets, Miss?"
"My name is Relena, Meggie. And I have a cat. He's grey, and plumper than he ought to be, and his name is Jeoffrey."
"What's he doing right now?" Wide eyes watched her intently.
"Oh, dear. It's hard to tell what time it is back at home, isn't it?" Suddenly realizing that she had completely lost track of time in this windowless place, Relena fought back the urge to panic--it wouldn't help the children if she started screaming like a lunatic, she reminded herself sternly. /Deep breaths, Relena. What would Jeoffrey be doing?/ "If it's, say, ten in the morning, then he's watching the sparrows while they look for weed seeds in the grass."
"What if it's four in the afternoon?"
"Then he's stretched out in a sunbeam, asleep." The memory was a calming one--nothing could be all that distressing, if Jeoffrey was still purring in the sun. She drew a calming breath, and concentrated on storing the image away against future need.
"I want a cat too, Mamma. Can we have a Jeoffrey?" Meggie turned the full force of her cuteness on her mother, who just shook her head.
"I'm afraid not, Megs. One pet is already a lot of work, and you'll be starting school soon--" Realizing what she was saying, Meggie's mother lifted a hand to her mouth, eyes wide and tearful as they met Relena's. /First we have to get out of here alive..../
Relena understood immediately, and held the woman's gaze as she spoke reassuringly to them both. "School is a big responsibility, Meggie--and so is Polly. I bet she'll be glad to see you when you get home, hm?"
"Yes!" The little girl beamed. "But I still want a Jeoffrey."
"Well," Relena seized on the opportunity to distract them, and herself. "You might not be so sure if you knew him better! One time, when the whole house was asleep, he knocked every single bottle of perfume off my dresser. And then there was the time when he...." And she was off into storytelling, glancing up only briefly to smile as other children and their mothers scooted closer to listen.
Their little peace was short-lived, however, and the youngest of the children were startled into tears when the door crashed open. Radu, who had introduced himself as leader of the Sibiu, stood in the doorway.
"Well, well, well." He sauntered toward the group of passengers, smiling unpleasantly. "Am I interrupting story hour? How interesting. Especially since you haven't been telling me the whole story--Princess."
Relena scrambled to her feet, facing him down. "What exactly do you think you're playing at? These people have done nothing to anyone--let them go at once!"
He chuckled. "Interesting choice of words, little Minister. I think I just might let them go. But not you, I think." He circled her thoughtfully, gathering up a strand of her hair and sniffing it dramatically. "I always wanted to know what royalty smells like. Never quite thought it would be hyacinths, but...."
She stood her ground, resisting the urge to jerk away in revulsion. "Let them go."
An elaborate bow. "Your wish is my command, Princess." He barked a command, and a squad of Sibiu soldiers came jogging into the holding room. With a combination of prodding and pulling, they got the bewildered hostages to their feet and formed them into a ragged line. Radu nodded dismissively. "To the bus. Now."
More than a few of the passengers turned to look desperately at Relena as they passed, but only Meggie's mother had the courage to dart from the line and embrace her. "If we really are getting out of here, I'll find a way to send help. I will."
Relena nodded numbly, clasping the woman's hands in hers for a long moment before the foot soldiers urged her away. And then they were gone, leaving her alone with Radu again. She turned slowly toward him, carefully concealing the tapered metal object--probably a nail file--that Meggie's mother had slipped into her palm during their brief embrace. "Are you really letting them go?"
"Oh, you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?" He smiled, making an effort to appear engaging. "Don't worry your pretty head--I don't need them any more, not when I have a better prize. The World Nation will be hanging on my every word, now that I know I have you. After all, you're the Queen of the World!"
/And you are a walking caricature./ She bit back the angry words, willing herself to appear calm. "The World Nation doesn't make bargains, especially with loose cannons."
His hand flashed out, catching the side of her face with a bruising slap. "That's twice you've made me hit you, Princess. Why must you say such things?" He began pacing agitatedly, though his voice remained alarmingly calm. "My country will understand. I'll make them understand. You'll see. They'll make me king, when they see all I've done for them."
One hand to her injured cheek, the other still clutching the hidden file, Relena watched him. /He's insane. Absolutely insane./ Her heart sank--there would be no making deals with a crazy man. If Radu was as far gone as he seemed, she had only one hope of survival. Two, actually--and the mere thought of them was enough to bring her head up in defiance.
Across from her, Radu abruptly stopped pacing. "It doesn't matter. If they don't want to hear my demands, they'll just have to be presented with an object lesson: you, Princess. In pieces, if necessary." He giggled nervously, catching himself when he looked up to see the returning Sibiu gunmen waiting for him in the doorway. "If you know any prayers, little Minister, I suggest you start saying them."
Pleased with his own drama, Radu swept back toward the door--but then her gentle laughter stopped him in his tracks, sending a trickle of ice down his spine.
"My prayers? Are you sure you want to hear them? Very well."
He turned angrily, but was startled into motionlessness by her smile.
"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil--for Death is with me." That low, sweet laugh again, freezing his blood. "And Shinigami will not be alone when he comes for you...."
He backed away from her in sudden panic, not feeling safe until he was back out in the hallway with the locked door between them.
Upon reaching the war room next morning, Heero and Duo were greeted with rather startling news.
"They what?" Duo's eyes widened in surprise.
"They released the hostages--they're still holding Relena, but the rest of the passengers were bussed across the Danube just after dawn." Une had been awake all night, and looked exhaustedly pleased; this wasn't an ideal development, but it did simplify things considerably.
Heero sat down heavily. "Somebody recognized her."
"It looks that way. We received a new demand shortly after the buses arrived in Bulgaria--same death threats, just with an adjusted target. We're still stalling them, but--"
"We're running out of time. I say we go in there." Duo looked ready to take them on with his bare hands; Une noted approvingly that a night's sleep seemed to have worked wonders. He still looked edgy--both of them did--but now it was more like the familiar pre-battle tension, rather than an anxiety laced with despair.
Minsk stood up briskly, having jumped happily to conclusions about the planned course of action. "Indeed. The Preventers have more than enough firepower to shut down their little operation. Why, with one artillery unit, we could--"
Duo's palm thudded onto the table hard enough to make the map-tacks dance. "Hate to burst your bubble, Sparky, but you can't go crashing in there with an armored division. That's just what these Sibiu nuts want--to get a lot of news footage of the World Nation blasting away at a helpless little group of dissenters. This can't turn into an international incident. If we start a war, even over this-- especially over this--"
Duo trailed off, shaking his head even as Heero supplied the end of his sentence. "Our wife will kill us."
Minsk stared from one of them to the other in confused disbelief. "Your--ah--" Heero's cool gaze dared him to comment, and the Preventer colonel wisely snapped his jaw shut before he could get himself in deeper trouble.
Duo continued, "So it's got to be a stealth operation--two of us go in, three of us come out. You want to be backup, you do it from a distance. And try to stay out of our way."
Minsk appeared totally bewildered, and not only because two know-it-all kids were taking over his operation. Apparently, no one had bothered to brief him on the details of the Minister's unusual domestic situation--probably because no one in the Minister's staff found it worthy of comment. After all, they'd had years to get used to the idea. Poor Minsk, on the other hand, looked decidedly unsettled by the information--though he apparently knew better than to appear intolerant in front of two points of the scandalous triangle in question. Especially when those points were skilled assassins, and already more than a little on edge. Gathering up his files, muttering something about needing to check on GPS data, the flustered colonel beat a strategic retreat.
When he was gone, Duo flipped a rubber band neatly at Heero. "Our wife, huh?"
Heero caught it just as neatly. "Close enough."
"Only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, my friend." Duo was smiling, though he was still wound visibly tight--it seemed like a big improvement over the previous day's obvious torment. "I think the bride has to be present for the marriage to count. Even illegal ones."
"In some cultures. Not all." Heero shot him a sly sideways glance, and Duo promptly took the bait.
"Oh, nice. She hears you talking like that, and I'll have to find another co-groom."
"Shouldn't be too hard."
"Yeah, I guess not." Duo leaned back in his chair, tilting it to a dangerous angle. "Be a shame, though--just when I was getting you broken in."
"Your neck's what'll be broken, if you don't sit on that chair like a human being," Une snapped, and then looked around with some alarm. "Oh, no. When did I start sounding like someone's mother?"
"About the time you took Little Miss M home with you, Lady." Duo turned one of his rare sweet smiles on her, and obediently set his chair back on the floor. His eyes were already darkening again as he reached for the latest data sheets. "But you're right. If we're doing this our way, it's about time we figured out what our way is, hm?"
End of Part One
(:./lilias/fnevil1)
