Somewhere Nearby the Victoria Club
The blackness was total.
She woke gradually, her head pounding to consciousness first, a weak stomach and closed throat not far behind. When she had finally gotten up the courage and the energy to open her eyes, she had panicked. Eyes, when open, usually register something. Even in dark rooms there was usually enough stray light for a person to make out shadows, at the very least. But nothing of the kind happened when her lids fluttered open from a long, dreamless sleep.
/Am I dead? Is this what it's like to be dead? No, no... dead people aren't conscious... are they? Surely the end of life couldn't hold something that horrible, could it? A conscious mind trapped in darkness for eternity?
/What's happened? What in God's name has happened???/
She rose painfully from the place she had lain, willing her stomach to hold on to its contents a little while longer. Her head felt as though someone was continually whacking her with a large, steel hammer, but she knew she had to get up. She had to find out where she was. If she didn't, something told her, she might never wake up again.
She was confused at first, especially about the blackness. Five minutes went by, and she kept moving, feeling her way around the room she was in. Surely her eyes, if they needed to adjust to the low light levels, would have done so by now. But the darkness around her had not changed a bit since she had gotten up. That probably meant one thing.
/I'm obviously in a sealed building. No windows, or maybe some place underground... wait... wait... I remember something... underground - I'm in the Computer Research Facility! Little pieces... coming back...He brought me to the old CRF. Didn't even know it still existed, but it does. Why was I here...? C'mon! Think! Arrgh - my brain feels like mush.
/Well, while you're thinking maybe you can take some steps towards getting out of here. But why is it so damned *dark?* Where *is* everyone? Especially that bastard, Roos.../
Another piece came back and fit itself neatly into the puzzle. Tolv Roos. Used to be an infantryman in OZ, he had said. A member of the pro-Treize faction. A man who had taken several bullets on behalf of his idol, Treize Khushrenada. A man with a very long memory and a vindictive streak that seemed to have no end.
He had brought her here. To... to work on a project... She had agreed because she needed the money.
/Can't think... my head's all foggy... What was it... ? Something about... insects? Insects? Why did I come up with that one? Oh, hell - just keep moving. It'll come back... eventually./
She had almost completed a methodical path around the space she was in. It had to have a door. Going slowly and carefully, she could not fail to find it.
Sure enough, here it was. She reached down and grasped the cold metal handle, praying that it wasn't locked. She was in luck. The handle gave way and a sea of cold air flowed over her as the door swung in towards her. She moved to the edge of the doorway and looked out despairingly at nothing. The inky blackness seemed eternal.
The Victoria Club - Gardner's Outbuilding No. 5
"Who *are* you?" Zechs whispered hoarsely. "What the hell do you mean, bringing me here, assaulting me this way? You'll tell me - or I'll tear you apart with my bare hands."
The man he addressed looked back at him with an air of cool appraisal. He was at least 6 feet tall, with long, muscular legs and broad shoulders. His hair was dark brown and wavy, setting off the deep blue of his eyes. He looked to be in his early 30s. Not a dead ringer for Treize Khushrenada, but there were enough similarities to make Zechs shudder as he looked at the man.
"Now, Milliard - please. I know you're no virgin. In fact, I believe you are quite fond of being pursued... have a taste for being tamed, as it were. And you wanted it, didn't you. It was so close to what you had... well, let me show it to you again, my lovely boy. Your master is hungry for you... you must obey."
"Stop it!" Zechs raised his voice, clearing out the hoarse tones that came with unconsciousness. "Stop pretending you're him! You're not! He's dead - has been for over a year and your little masquerade here is horrible. How could you do this? Why?"
"Mmmmm, all in time, Milliard, all in time. Well, if you won't come back to bed you might as well get dressed - at least... part way." He tossed Zechs' pants at him and got back into his own pants and shirt. The heavy OZ dress uniform jacket he left draped over a potting bench nearby.
"Who *are* you," Zechs repeated as he pulled on the pants and his shoes. "What in hell do you want with me?"
"So many words, Milliard," the man said in a soft voice. "Did you refuse him this way at the end? Did he long for you, pursue you, as I'm doing, and feel the sting of your rejection? Or did you stay with him for awhile, after you decided to betray him?" His voice was a whisper now. "Did you let him hold you, kiss you - run his hands through your hair? All the while planning how to destroy him? Would you be that much of a scoundrel, Milliard?"
Zechs' face had gone white. He tried hard, in a mind still clouded with drugs, to understand how this man, whom he had never met, knew so much about the relationship he had had with Treize. Damn you," he croaked. "Damn you to hell for doing this! For the last time - *who are you!*"
"Ah yes, well - you wouldn't have known me. How impolite on my part not to introduce myself. My name is Tolv Roos. I was in the 7th European under the command of General Khushrenada. I was one of the pro-Treize. Not like some. Not like *you*, 'Captain' Merquise.
"I was a front-line soldier. I would have gladly died for him, or anything else he needed me to do. Treize was the finest man to have ever walked the earth... and he *loved you!* You had what so many of us down in the dirt would have killed for, and what did you do? *Betrayed* him!
"You were the one he loved the most. None of us could get anywhere near him when you were around. No one else was noticed at all. Any little thing you did he praised, while those of us who were less fortunate could have given our lives for him, even died without him taking his eyes off of you."
"You're wrong," Zechs told him. "Treize loved all his troops, and he knew each man. He always knew who had lived and who had died through any battle. If you really *were* in his regiment then he knew you."
"I'll concede the point because it is in keeping with his graciousness and leadership. But your wrong about him loving us all the same. He didn't invite *us* to his rooms for hours-long visits, now did he? And yet, you were among the first to abandon him. You left him, and left him for dead -"
"My leaving had *nothing* to do with his death," Zechs said in a low voice. "That was something between him and me and it's none of *your* damned business."
"You abandoned him when he needed you the most!" the man hissed, moving closer with an air of menace, and staring into Zechs' eyes. "You joined those Colony traitors and did everything you could to destroy him! Would you deny that?"
"No," Zechs stated plainly. "But my reasons were more than personal. And they belong to me. You have no right to criticize them. Now get out of my way - I'm leaving."
"Oh, not quite yet, my sweet boy. It seems Treize left a gift for you." He leaned over to pick up something in back of the bed. Zechs' face paled. The man held a whip, made of deep red leather, with knots at the ends of the long tails.
The Lodge at Victoria - Lobby
Noin and Duo approached the registration desk. The young man behind it straightened his tie and turned the full glare of his smile on Noin. "Yes, Miss Noin, what *can* I do for you today?"
Noin, attempting to turn the brightness down, smiled back coolly and said, in her most professional voice, "I'm looking for Mr. Merquise. Has he checked his messages this morning?"
The clerk moved to find Zechs' mail slot, then turned back to Noin, charm almost oozing out of him. "I'm sorry Miss Noin, Mr. Merquise does have several messages but apparently has not picked them up this morning."
Duo felt a flash of panic. It had been over 2 hours - why wouldn't he be back yet? He waved his hands, trying to get the young clerk's attention off Noin. "Has he made any calls from his room? Has the room been entered at all this morning - you can tell that, right?:
The clerk reluctantly looked in Duo's direction, smile changing with breathtaking speed to a cool, impersonal expression. "I'm sorry young man, but of course I *cannot* give out that kind of information." He turned to Noin again, the eager smile blossoming once more.
"Oh... please," Noin said, widening her eyes and batting her lashes a few times. "We really need to find him. Couldn't you... just this *once?*"
Noin reached over and touched the clerk's hand gently. The clerk grinned.
/Like an idiot,/ thought Duo. /Geez, I hope I don't look that way when I'm with Zechs. Damn it - where *is* he??/
The clerk found his voice. "Let's just check, shall we?" He entered the room number into his terminal.
While he was waiting for the result, he smiled coyly at Noin. "Mr. Merquise is very well-known. Are you and he... *friends?*" He smiled at her knowingly.
Noin, taken aback somewhat by the intimacy of the man's question, was momentarily lost for words. This allowed an increasingly impatient Duo to jump in.
"First of all, buddy, that's none of your business! Second, you can stop all the googly eyes because, "Miss Noin" here isn't interested in *boys.* And third, as far as Mr. Merquise is concerned, *I* am his boyfriend and *I*, for one, want to know where he *is!*"
The clerk blanched a bit and shrank from the boy's intense glare. He sensed, without really knowing why, the trained terrorist behind those violet eyes. Retreating to the safety of his monitor screen, he addressed Noin, with none of the familiarity of before. "No one has accessed his room this morning, with the exception of the housekeeping staff, Miss Noin. Now, if you'll please excuse me?" With a stiff little bow to Noin, he eyed Duo up and down warily, then moved off to help another guest.
Noin and Duo looked at each other. Duo was the first to speak. "Maybe I should go look for him. I know what he told us, but something's way wrong here. I need to find him."
"Duo, that's dangerous," Noin advised. "I know I can't stop you, but I think it would be better if we planned our next move out - together."
Duo stared at her for a long moment, then spoke softly. "We've gotta find him Noin. He... he could be... hurt, maybe. That weird guy... what if-"
"What if's aren't going to help right now Duo." Her hand moved hesitatingly to his arm. "Right now we just need to sit down and get our thoughts together. Who knows - if he found that man then he's probably talking with him. That could take awhile. Now, let's find a map of the grounds and think about how best to do this. Okay?" She looked over at Duo with a look close to encouragement on her face.
Duo smiled weakly back at her. " 'Kay boss - where to?"
Gardener's Outbuilding No. 5
Zechs paled as Tolv raised the whip. The tails came down hard, cracking against the air as the tall blond threw himself to the left. Tolv circled the room, making feints with the weapon as his eyes burned into Zechs'.
"It's time you paid for your betrayal, Captain," he said softly. "Our leader loved you - trusted you. And you sent him to his death!"
The whip cracked again, missing Zechs by less than an inch as he dove to avoid it. "No, Roos - I didn't kill him. He chose to go into space. He chose to take on the gundam pilot. That wasn't my doing."
/I sound so confident. But... damn him! How does he know? How could he have guessed this was the one thing I can't get over... It *was* my fault... all my fault... Can't let him see that.../
CRAAACK!!!
Zechs felt a terrible sting against his shoulder as one of the knotted tails found its mark. He was feeling his way along the eastern side wall of the building now, hoping he could make it to the door without Tolv realizing what he was doing.
"It was *you*, Captain!" Tolv shouted. "If *you* hadn't betrayed him and joined those rebel bastards, he wouldn't have *been* in space and he'd be alive today! It was *your fault*, Merquise! *You* killed General Khushrenada!!"
"Noooooo!!!" Zechs yelled back, closing his eyes and trying to still the clamor of accusations coming from inside of him.
CRAAACK!!!
Several tails stung his thighs but he stayed where he was, moving slowly towards the door.
Tolv's voice was soft and seductive. "You have to be punished, Captain. But you're lucky. I know the General wouldn't have wanted me to ruin you completely. He wouldn't have wanted me to be as harsh as I'm being on the others."
Zechs raised his head, staring at Tolv. "Others?" he panted, fending off the pain. "What others??"
The smile on the ex-soldier's face was slow and self-satisfied. "Oh, Captain... let me tell you about the others..."
CRF - Somewhere near The Victoria Club
She stepped out into the blackness. The air was cold but stuffy, making her wonder what part of the facility she was in. She had hoped that room she woke up in was just off the central workspace, but that seemed unlikely given the staleness and the humidity. The central room, large as it was, should certainly be draftier.
/I could be anywhere... and this place is huge. Wait - the readout panels! I should be able to move along the walls and find one. That should have my ID code on it and where I am in the building. It's funny though. I should be seeing the monitors... they shouldn't be off.../
Putting her hands out to the side, she felt for the wall around the door of her room. She slowly began moving to the right., keeping one hand in contact with the wall as she went.
About 20 feet from the doorway, her hand hit something smooth and cold, colder than the dank air in the room. She moved her fingers over it to get a sense of it's size and shape, then froze.
/This *is* a readout panel! These are never turned off! What the hell is going on? Where *is* everyone? God - am I dreaming this? Maybe... something terrible had happened up there. An attack of some kind? Or some natural disaster? Why... why is there no one here?/
She reached beyond the panel and came across three large switches, each about 10 centimeters wide. She tried pushing them into the 'on' position, but nothing happened.
/These must be the overhead controls, for those huge lights on the ceiling. That means... I'm on the western side of the central workspace. But... why does the air feel this way? Oh, guess it doesn't matter much. at least I know where I am now. Question is... where do I go?/
The Lodge at Victoria - The Map Room
Noin and Duo glanced into the deeply comfortable room. It was lined with bookshelves and map drawers, dark wood contrasting nicely with the cream-colored walls. The walls were lined with beautifully framed antique maps. It appeared to be absolutely empty.
"Okay," Noin sighed. "We need to come up with an efficient way to search the grounds. Otherwise we might waste time - lots of time."
"Yeah," Duo replied, "I tend to think it's easier to just head out on my own as soon as find out something needs to be done. But I spent some time with Quatre during the war. I mostly remember it being that my way of doing things didn't stand a chance against his. You'd have thought I would have learned that lesson by now..."
They had picked up a tourist map of the Victoria and its grounds. They sat with it now, spread out in front of them on a low table. Noin pointed to a large area of the map marked as forested terrain. "This was were he was headed," she said. "It's called the Eastern Garden. They planted a lot of savanna trees and brush over there. Slow going, I'm afraid."
They had just begun to divide up the search space when a dry and worried voice came from the doorway. "Noin? Lucrezia Noin? Oh, what a very fortunate coincidence."
Noin turned to see the withered face of Professor Naught. He was frowning and had a hand up to his forehead. It was clear that he was deeply troubled. She stood up, pulling Duo along with her.
"Professor! How are you enjoying your stay! May I introduce you to Duo Maxwell? He was a gundam pilot in the war and is... a very good friend of Zechs'. Duo, this is Professor Naught. He was the head of the Computer Science department at the Academy here at Victoria. Zechs and I both had him for several classes." Duo and the Professor shook hands, each eying the other with interest.
Noin looked back at the worried face. "Is there something troubling you Professor?"
"Yes, yes - there is something that's troubling me *greatly.* I need to speak to that young man of yours - need his advice. Where *is* Merquise, anyway? Been looking for him all morning."
"We... We..." Noin broke off, hesitant about how much to tell him.
"We're waiting for him. We don't know where he is right now." Duo stepped forward, making the decision moot. "What is it you want from him?" he demanded, looking somewhat suspicious.
The professor was taken aback for a moment, then remembered Noin introducing the boy as a former gundam pilot. /Well, that it explains it. They were all a little strange - had to be in order to do *that* job. Probably never learned manners.../
"I want to see him because something terrible has happened to a very dear friend of mine. It may be that Mr. Merquise is the only one who can help." His gaze never left Duo, as if to say, 'What do you say to *that!*' Duo backed up a bit and looked at the professor a little more warily.
Noin had found a chair and pulled it up on the opposite side of the low table. "Won't you join us professor?" She offered the chair with a small bow. He grunted a reply and sat, Noin and Duo following suit.
When they were seated the professor looked over at Duo. "You know, young man, your 'friend' was the very best student I had ever had. A genius at creating programs no one thought were possible. Seemed to take it on as a challenge every time someone said a thing couldn't be done in such-and-such a language, or on a particular machine. That's why it's so important for me to speak with him, you see."
Duo looked perplexed. "You need him to program something for you?"
"No, I need access to a program he wrote while he was at the Academy. I think," and here the professor leaned in towards Duo and looked very serious, "it may be the only way to save my friend's life."
Gardener's Outbuilding No. 5
"They all betrayed him," Tolv said. "All of them who sided with Dermail and his cronies. But I know who they are. I managed to collect quite a lot of information over the last two years and now... well now I can just go down the list. He smiled broadly and took a step closer to Zechs.
The tall blond braced himself for another lash, and it came - this one on his right shoulder. The pain was intense, but he was within a couple of feet of the door. He needed to keep his tormentor distracted from his movements, so he gritted his teeth against the stinging pain and asked, "What...what are you planning to do to them?"
Tolv moved forward again and Zechs took another step towards the door. "Ah, well - that would be giving it away, wouldn't it Merquise? Let's just say that I found the secret weapon. I found the punishment worse than death." He was inches away from Zechs now, his breath caressing the long, noble lines of the blond man's face. He brought up his hand and Zechs flinched, but Tolv merely ran the back of one finger down the his cheek.
"Tell me, pretty one," he murmured. "Wouldn't our leader be amused... aroused even... to see what I'm doing to you..." His hands moved to Zechs's arms, immobilizing them, and he leaned in close for a long, rough kiss.
Between the stinging welts on his body and his struggle against Tolv, Zechs was getting weak. He wasn't able to push the ex-infantryman away and the man's weight was making it hard for him to breathe.
Tolv finally broke the kiss and began delivering sharp nips to Zechs' neck and shoulders. He held him by his upper arms and pressed him harder against the wall. Zechs struggled for breath, but kept trying, hoping for more information. "So... you're going to do something to everyone... every soldier... who sided with Romafeller - haaa - Is that it?"
"Not only them. There were those who supported *you*, too. Lucrezia Noin, for example. She may not have been with you - but she wasn't with Treize, either..." He chuckled softly as he began licking Zechs ear.
Zechs felt a wave of panic. It hadn't been there when he felt his own life threatened, but Noin - that was completely different. Had it alreadyhappened? Was there still time? He strained to breathe again. "No!! Ahhh... Not Noin! She had nothing to do with any of that... Gaaaah!"
Tolv pulled back just a bit and Zechs gasped, trying to pull as much air in as he could. Tolv dropped the whip and put a hand on Zechs' face. He stared deeply into the ice blue eyes and said, in the softest voice yet, "And that gundam pilot... we know how *they* felt about our Leader, don't we? How could you Zechs? How could you betray him that way - letting that little terrorist bastard take his place..."
/NOOO!!! Whatever happens... not Duo!! I won't... won't ever, EVER let him... got to be strong here... I can do it... just focus... focus every ounce of energy... and think of what you're saving... Duo...DUO!!!/
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH DUO!!" The words seemed to be ripped out of Zechs' lungs by some outside force. "I swear, Roos - if you do *anything* to hurt him - him or Noin - I'll find a way to torment you for the rest of your miserable life!"
Tolv grimaced at him, then his arm moved. Zechs had seen it coming. It was what he had just prepared for, focusing all of the remaining energy in his body on blocking this one blow...
With a long yell, Tolv drove his fist toward Zech's stomach. At the same time, Zechs brought up his hand and caught the other man by the wrist, barely an inch away from where the blow would have hit. The two of them stuggled, eyes locked onto each other. Tolv brought his other hand, curled into a fist, down toward Zechs' head.
Again, the tall blond was able to grab the other man's wrist and hold it. Another few moments of struggle, and Zechs was able to work himself away from the wall. He had no idea where the strength he needed was coming from, but it was there. That was all that mattered.
An image of his young lover came into his mind once more and something powerful washed through him. Using everyuthing within him, he pushed Tolv back further and brought his knee up hard between the man's legs. Tolv howled in pain, crumpling to the floor where he lay, not moving. Zechs stared at him while he got his knees to support his weight. He walked as close to the prone form as he thought safe and, as Tolv was beginning to rise again, the blond-haired man brought his hand down hard on the back of his tormentor's neck. Roos stopped moving.
Quickly, Zechs searched the tiny room for any weapons Roos might have had. There were none, other than the whip. He leaned over, hands against knees, to catch his breath and think about the dilemma he now faced. On the one hand, he had his man, knocked out cold in front of him, ready to be captured and dragged to the Club where Zechs could hand him over to the police. On the other, he needed to get back to the Club, *now*. Needed to find Duo and Noin, and make sure nothing had happened to them. Which one to do?
Taking a last look at the man on the floor, and wincing from the sting of the welts the man had given him, he picked up the whip from the floor and bound Roos' arms and wrists as securely as possible. Briefly he considered putting his shirt back on, but it, like the thin blanket over the bed, it had been stained with sweat and semen. Zechs made a face and then took one last look at his prisoner.
He left him there, on the floor of the outbuilding, ran like the devil for the Club.
CRF - Somewhere near The Victoria Club
/Funny - I seem to be beyond pain. Must be the stress... /
For what must have been close to the hundredth time, her shin smacked against something hard and pointed. She could feel warm liquid trickling down her leg, but nothing seemed to hurt. She went on without slowing.
It had occurred to her that, since she was in the central work area, she could easily navigate to the Control Room and get the lights back on somehow. She knew that the computers in that room were always working and that, at the very least - she could see by the light of their monitors. Even if the power had been cut, those machines had their own back-up power supplies. They *would* be working.
She stumbled over a box of paper, and reached out in the darkness. Her hand touched the doorway of another room. /This is it! Given where I started, this would have to be the control room. But... there aren't any monitors on.../
She felt her way forward again, into the blackness of the room, and managed to find one of the terminals. Groping downwards from the monitor, she pressed at several keys, but the monitor remained as dark as the rest of the room.
/Why aren't any of these machines up? Dear God - what has *happened??* This doesn't make any sense.../
She put her hands out and groped her way to the back of the room, where she knew the two mainframe computers that ran the entire physical plant stood. Feeling along the front with her hands, she knelt down and touched the bottom panel of the machine. It was warm! A huge wave of relief broke over her. For some reason that she couldn't fathom, the network that ran the physical plant appeared to be in the ultra-low power "stasis" mode.
/Why would it - Wait. Stasis mode. That happens when there is absolutely no one in the building. When it's been evacuated or abandoned; when the sensors no longer pick up the ID information from the badges./
There had been a session, she remembered, when she first came to the CRF, that was an overview of the physical plant and it's highly-secure control network. The facility was designed to be fully shut down in emergencies or when completely evacuated. A set of rooms at the top of the facility served as a waiting area for staff reentering the CRF following one of these stasis mode periods. The CRF was designed for safety as well.Through the use of identity information coded into all employee badges, it was not possible for stasis mode to be activated as long as authorized employees remained in the facility.
She patted the left side of her chest frantically. It was there - the badge they all had to wear, with their personal allowing the control panels to display the exact whereabouts of any individual, anywhere in the CRF. At least, that's what was normally on the control panel screens. But the machine in here was acting as if there were no one in the building. As if she weren't there.
/As if I wasn't here... Oh.. my..God... He's done it. He's really done it. The worm... he used the worm... against *me*.../
She felt an intense shiver of fear and desperation. But she shook herself, hard. There had to be some way... She went through it as logically as she could for someone scared half out of her wits.
/If my ID number had been removed from the Earth Sphere identity number database, then the network could read my badge perfectly, but it wouldn't recognize the number... it wouldn't recognize me as a *person*... That's why... that's why the lights don't come on... and - the air! The air has been turned off. The network thinks the building is completely unoccupied.../
She braced herself against the machine, her legs feeling suddenly weak. Struggling for control of her breathing, she forced her thoughts back in order.
/They've buried me. This isn't a research facility anymore - it's a grave. A huge, black grave for one tiny person. Me. Well, I'm not going without a struggle. They've done the worst thing they can do to a hack coder like me; they've used my own code against me. No one does that. No one. Now think! This machine *is* running. There *has* to be away to get it to respond to me. Get to the override program. I just pray there's enough air left in this place... enough time... /
The Lodge at Victoria - The Map Room
"I've told you that Zechs was the best student I had when it came to creating original programs, began the professor. "That was true - until two years ago. Now he's tied for best with another student. Her name is Miranda Centov and she graduated from the academy two years ago." He stopped speaking for a moment as Noin rose briefly, opened her mouth as if to speak, then sat down again in silence.
"She went straight to work for Federation intelligence. When I first noticed her caliber of work, I immediately thought of Zechs Merquise. She was that good at programming, in ways that no one had ever thought to do it before, just like he had been.
"I've kept in touch with her this past year. It's been hard for her to find a good job. Almost all of her work up until now has been classified, so no one can see it. And she was on the losing side of the war and, try as people might, their still is a kind of prejudice against Federation people. A couple of months ago she had contacted me to say she'd found an interesting job with a private company. Said she was getting to work on the most fascinating project she'd ever done and that it would help those Federation people who wanted a new start in life."
Duo looked up at the Professor sharply. "This project - it wouldn't by chance have had to do with Earth Sphere Identity Numbers, would it?"
The Professor looked over at him. "I'm afraid I don't know. She told me that the work was highly secretive. She was a loyal employee; she never said anything to me about the actual project itself. That is, until..." The professor stopped speaking and began searching through the small leather satchel he had carried in with him. He took out a piece of paper.
"This is a copy of the last message she sent. Perhaps I could read it to you?"
Noin nodded, and the old man read out loud,
"Work becoming very troubling. Not at all what I first thought it would be. The supervisors were talking yesterday and I overheard one describing a heated argument that supposedly took place between our employer and some former high-level OZ officer. It was something about the project I'm working on.
"I'm losing confidence in this. I may have made a grave mistake in accepting this job. I never was one to understand people and their little political schemes, but it seems I've landed myself in the middle of scheme war! And the worst thing is that this project I've spent so much time on could be used against people. Identities are on the line. I've got to stop that somehow. If the worm were on either side of a political fight, many, many people could be hurt.
"Well, thanks for listening. I hope to send another, more optimistic message sometime next week."
Duo frowned and turned to the professor. "What could she have meant by 'If the worm were on either side of a political fight...' Is she referring to her employer, or her project maybe? Hmmm - may I see the message?"
The professor handed it to Duo. His eyes remained fixed on the carpet as he spoke again. "Miranda's honors thesis at the Academy concerned the use of worms in military intelligence." He looked up at Duo and Noin. "Do you know what a worm is?"
Noin shrugged but Duo nodded his shaggy head. "Yeah. Heero talked about those. He used a couple against OZ. It's a program, right? It... hunts down certain things on a network. Like certain programs, or number combinations, or names. Then it does something to them. Is that what she meant in here?"
The professor nodded. "I think so , yes. Most often in intelligence worms are used to either implant false information within the files that computers access, or to destroy information contained in large databases. They can do it with great accuracy because they're given a very specific target each time.
Duo was leaning over his chair now, staring absently at the bookcase beside the door, the message dangling from his left hand. "A program..." he murmured. "A program that finds something... or someone... and targets them. A program that hunts through large databases for specific pieces of information..." He stopped suddenly, cocked his head to the side, and frowned more deeply. In another moment he was up and at the bookcase, taking a small, re colored book from it and staring at the cover.
"Maybe she *did* have something to do with it... maybe it was that program her employer wanted to use..."
The professor shook his head. "I'm afraid I'm not quite following-"
Duo looked at both of them, a look of comprehension spreading slowly over his face. He held up a long, slim finger for each point. "We know she was working for this weird guy. She hears that he had a knock-down drag-out with someone who used to be with Romafeller. Then she starts getting the feeling that her program will be used in a way that she wouldn't want it to be. She's worried, so she writes to the professor and tells him as much as she can. And she includes that one sentence." He looked back at the message in his hand and read, 'Identities are on the line.'
Noin looked over at Duo. "Are you... are you thinking about that man? The one that was arrested for using a false ID?"
Duo nodded his head, then crossed slim arms over his chest and seemed to become lost in thought.
The Professor continued. "Miranda had told me that the man in charge of the operation was a bit mysterious. She apparently only met him one or two times. In one of her earlier messages she had said that he reminded her of someone, but she couldn't think who. Just before that last communication,though, she told me she'd figured it out. Said he acted almost the same as Treize Khushrenada. Said it gave her the creeps.
"That's it!" Duo said suddenly. "*He's* gotta have been the one who was outside the window this morning. That's where he comes in! I've been wracking my brains to try to make him fit into this. I think he might have been the one responsible for what happened to that guy - the one they arrested."
Now it was Noin's turn to get up and pace the room. "What was he had said in those letters... that there was going to be some sort of revenge for "our leader?"
"Maybe he meant Treize," Duo suggested. "If he's wandering around this place in an OZ uniform and leaving notes like that, it's obvious he's got some sort of Treize-worship thing going. Now, how would that fit in with the argument Miranda Centov heard about?"
"Well, it may be too obvious," Noin replied, "but it seems to me that if a man who worshipped Treize argues with someone who used to be in Romafeller, it can only be about one thing. That split in OZ, when some of the troops and officers stayed loyal to Treize and some sided with Romafellar."
"Yeah," Duo said slowly. "The pro-Treize stuff...hey, wait a minute! One of those little old ladies - what was it she said?" He hit his head lightly several times, working to remember the conversation he had had earlier that morning. "Something like, 'Just look at the lengths he went to to try and unseat General Khushrenada during the war!'"
Noin looked puzzled. "Who *are* you talking about, Duo?"
He looked from Noin to the Professor. "*Admiral Trentes*! That's what Mrs. Inoue said about Admiral Trentes! I'd bet anything that he was the guy that argued with Miranda's employer. I *knew* he had to have something to do with this.
"But, I don't follow you -" the professor lifted a hand to his forehead, his voice puzzled.
Duo stopped the pacing he had started. "I've been thinking that the whole thing about Admiral Trentes' wife was suspicious, given what people at the Club were saying. So I've tried everything I could to figure out how he fits with the other stuff going on here. Strange notes to Noin and Zechs. That guy being taken away. That weird Treize guy. They all seemed too bizarre on their own to be just coincidence." He sat down backwards in his chair and rested his chin on his arms.
"I thought Trentes might have been working with that guy who looks like Treize, but I couldn't find any connection. But now - well, it's just that *I* was trying to put him on the same side as that guy. Guess I just didn't think of him possibly being on the *opposite* side."
The professor frowned in thought. "Are you saying, then, that you believe Miranda had been describing an argument between her employer and Admiral Trentes?"
"Yup, and I'd bet anything her employer was that guy we saw outside the window, Noin. I think he was planning to do something to the people who ended up on the Romafeller side of that break in OZ. And that seems to be where Trentes was."
"Yes..." murmured Noin, making her own connections. "Trentes *did* side with Romafeller against Treize. He was one of their most vocal supporters. But then... does that involve this missing woman? The one that's not really his wife?" She shook her head.
"Professor," she turned to the older man suddenly. "Duo and I found out something strange about Admiral Trentes' wife this morning. Apparently, no one in his immediate circle remembers seeing her at all while she was here. Trentes was evidently full of excuses why she couldn't come out of the room. We thought that maybe - just maybe ..."
"She didn't exist?" the Professor concluded for her. "I think that's a very interesting conclusion."
"But some of the women I talked to heard Trentes speaking with her," Duo added. He laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them.
The Professor looked thoughtful, then turned to Duo. "Did they hear him 'speaking with her' or was it that he was 'talking to her?' There is a difference, you know."
"What?" Duo asked in a perplexed voice.
"If I'm speaking with you, we are both involved in the conversation, yes? But if I am talking to you, only I have to be saying something. I could stand in the hall out there and be talking to you and someone outside would only hear me."
Noin started. "That means - that means that Trentes could have staged the whole thing. We know he lied to the police about being married. He could have told everyone that he was there with his wife, and to make it more believable, he might stand outside of his room, where everyone could hear him, and 'talk' to this nonexistent person. Everyone would just assume that there was someone inside the room that way."
"Then why was it that the ladies didn't agree on coffee with cream or tea with lemon?" said Duo, mostly to himself.
Noin and the Professor looked at him as if he'd just started speaking in tongues.
He looked up at them, blinking. "My ladies," he explained, "the ones I talked to in the Morning Room. Mrs.Octan said that she and Mrs. Inoue heard Mrs. Trentes order contradictory drinks. Mrs. Inoue clearly heard her say she didn't like coffee and order tea with lemon, but Mrs. Octan said when Trentes ordered for both of them, he ordered her coffee with cream.
"Well, wait a minute," Noin broke in. "If someone actually *heard* her order something, then maybe we've gotten this all wrong."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Noin," the professor warned with an odd look on his face. A moment went by and then, suddenly, a voice filled the room. "May I have your attention ..." Noin and Duo both startled at the sudden sound. Duo jumped off his chair and looked around for the eavesdropper.
The professor, still seated, smiled somewhat mischievously and drew a tiny voice recorder out of his pocket. "That, my dear Noin, was the voice of a colleague of mine at the last conference I went to. Trentes could have easily recorded someone's voice uttering a few stock phrases. He could have even gotten them prerecorded on a language-learning cassette. Some people do still learn languages other than English. Not many, but a few."
Duo was following his line of thought. "So, he would play the recorded voice loud enough to be heard outside of the room? And one of the phrases might have been 'tea with lemon'. But when *Trentes* ordered for his non-existant wife, the drink might have been something he was used to ordering for himself, like perhaps 'coffee with cream'?"
"Precisely," said the old man. "You know, it's that kind of inattention to detail that brings down many a criminal."
"But *why* would he do all this?" Noin asked. "Why invent a wife and even go to the trouble of changing official records to make her more real, and then report the nonexistent woman missing?"
Duo began pacing the room again, back and forth, his braid twitching behind him on every turn. "That Treize-looking guy... Trentes... Miranda... Miranda's program... Trentes' wife..." He stopped suddenly. There was an expression that was unreadable on his face that quickly changed to worry. "If only there was a way to find out what name Admiral Trentes gave to the police as his wife's name..."
"Miranda Centov," came a booming voice from the doorway.
Everyone of them jumped. Looking up, they saw Admiral Trentes standing just inside the room.
"I gave them the name of Miranda Centov. It was the fastest way I could think of to find her. But I've just been told by the police that something is wrong with the search. They said that all of the files they had accessed about her from the ID database have disappeared. They are at a complete loss to explain it."
CRF - Somewhere near The Victoria Club
She had worked frantically, doing as much as she could with the abbreviated menu options that she had on the monitor. She had managed to pull up the screen that should be on the readout panels. It was just as she thought - the schematic diagram of the building was completely empty. No trace of any ID numbers were being detected. Not even her own.
Now, she had cracked into the physical plant programs, looking for an override or a reset command. The air had become noticeably thinner. She could feel her lips tingling and she couldn't stop shivering. Just behind her right temple was the faint throb of the coming headache she knew would accompany suffocation.
/Damn! It's so hard to think straight! I've gotta focus... if I can just find the override command code- aha! there it is... /
The code was easily altered to reset mode. She got back to the menus and accessed the directive screen. From here it was simply a matter of telling it to reread the altered code and then verifying the command.
She chose "Physical Plant - Reset" from the options on the screen. The program came back immediately with the prompt.
YOU HAVE CHOSEN A COMMAND THAT CAN ONLY BE USED BY OFFICIAL CRF PERSONNEL.
PLEASE ENTER YOUR ID NUMBER HERE: ____________
She stared at the blinking cursor.
/No... no... I've gotten so far... It can't be... /
She slowly typed her ID onto the terminal screen and hit the ENTER DATA key. For a moment, the screen was blank except for the words: PROCESSING. PLEASE WAIT.
Then the cursor returned.
THIS ID NUMBER IS NOT CONTAINED WITHIN THE EARTH SPHERE DATABASE. PLEASE REENTER A VALID ID HERE ____________.
They had done it. They had thought of everything. They had taken her program, designed supposedly to help Federation soldiers in the Witness Protection Plan begin new lives, and had turned it against her.
/So this will be my grave. I wonder how long I have... At least I can play with *that* program./
She entered the access code of a program designed by a colleague of hers who worked in the chemical applications section. It was a sensor-based application that was able to sense the amount of various chemicals in the air and the time it would take to be sure they were eliminated. She entered the symbol for oxygen and put the location as the central workspace. Being the largest area, and the most open, it would probably have the highest amount.
The readout came back. She noted the low figure on the oxygen levels and then the time remaining until oxygen was eliminated: 2 hours.
Halfheartedly, she glanced down at her watch. It was now 2pm. With strangely little feeling, she observed to herself that she would be dead sometime before 4pm that afternoon.
The Lodge at Victoria - The Map Room
As they all stood, motionless for a moment, Duo was aware of a chill that now filled the room. It hadn't been there before. No - it had arrived with Trentes.
The Professor rose with a start and stared intently at the Admiral. "Why were you looking for Miranda?" he demanded.
Trentes walked further into the room and motioned to one of the armchairs. "May I sit down?" he asked Noin. She frowned at him, obviously struggling with the decision, but then nodded stiffly at him. He took the seat.
"I needed her to protect me from threats to my life... to my livelihood. I was about to be attacked and I needed her to protect me...against T
"Who's Tolv Roos?" Duo asked suspiciously. He hadn't ever met Trentes, but already felt an intense dislike of this ex-officer who had flaunted the law. And now, supposedly, he was telling them all that he had done it, not for the good of his soldiers, but for himself alone.
"He was an infantryman in the OZ army. He was a pro-Treize soldier and he thinks Treize was betrayed by all the people who sided with other points of view. I met with him not long ago and he told me in no uncertain terms that he would be seeking revenge for Treize's death."
"And Miranda?" the professor insisted. "What does Miranda have to do with this?"
"Roos told me about her the last time I met with him, in Nairobi. He was very cryptic about it, but I got the idea that she was making some sort of weapon for him, to use against the soldiers and officers who weren't pro-Treize. I had to find her... to know what he was planning... I don't know where he had her working but I couldn't find it.
"I was getting desperate... so I came here, with a made up companion. Oh, there was a woman at the very start. One of my companions. She wore a hat with a veil and her only job was to walk through the lobby with me. She left the Club before we ever got to my room. After that it was supremely easy to make the other lodgers believe she was still there. Just a few simple tricks -"
"Yeah - like playing tapes of women saying 'tea with lemon', eh?" Duo asked dryly. "Like making up stories about a wife being to sick or too exhausted to come to dinner? Well, I'll have you know that the ladies in the Morning Room are all over your pathetic tricks!"
Trentes' expression changed to one of contempt. He looked Duo up and down. "I've never seen this person," he said, seemingly to Noin. "Is there a *purpose* in him being here?"
Duo moved close to the Admiral, too close for the admiral's comfort, actually. His voice, when he spoke was low and intimate. "Oh yes, I have a purpose here. I'm here to find out everything you know about this bastard Tolv Roos. Where is he? What is he planning? And why is he sending notes to Noin and to Zechs Merquise?" Duo was inches from the Admiral's face now, glaring at the much older man with barely concealed hostility. The Admiral remained impassive.
"Merquise?" He practically spat the name out. "I have no idea why he would want to bother *that* dishonorable cur. After all, he was the little *pet*, wasn't he? He was Khushrenada's kept boy. Why would a filthy pro-Treize scum like Roos have anything against his leader's toy?"
Duo's violet eyes flared with anger and he made a move to strike the ex-officer. Noin, however, was quick to intervene, putting her arms around Duo's and backing him away from Trentes. The Admiral's expression had finally changed - to one of shock.
The professor managed to refocus Trentes on the topic of Miranda."So, if I understand you correctly, Admiral, you staged a pretend wife person's presence with you for several days and then you staged her disappearance. You then gave Miranda's name to the police investigators so that you could search for her without being conspicuous about it, yes?"
"Yes, and it workedfor that first day or two. They pulled up all sorts of information on her. Most of it wasn't useful, but here and there were things of interest. Then, yesterday, the detective in charge called to tell me that the files on her seemed to be missing from the database. He couldn't explain it, and they've been floundering ever since." He sneered. "She seems to have completely disappeared," he said, "and I may not be able to stop Roos from doing exactly what he wants to do - the bastard."
At that moment Noin got up and stared at the door to the room.
"Zechs! My God what's happened to you?"
Duo was already sprinting to the half-dressed man who was panting hard and hanging on to the door frame for support. "Zechs! Zechs what's wrong?" he whispered fiercely as he caught his lover in his arms. "You're bleeding, Zechs - where have you been? What's happened?"
"I found him... He's crazy..." Zechs panted, his legs giving out beneath him. "He's after them all, and you, Duo... and Noin. I told the woman working at the registration desk to call the police and she's got hotel security going out to the place I left him... this... little storage building. He was bound and unconscious when I left."
He turned to Noin and Duo. "We have to find a way to stop him... Maybe... maybe the Preventers... maybe... they could do something..." He appeared to be on the verge of passing out, so Duo and Noin got him over to the sofa and laid him down.
Duo had a hold of the blond man's hands. He ran his eyes over his lover's body, taking in the broken skin, angry red welts, and bruises. A feeling of rage was building inside of him, that anyone would do this to Zechs - his Zechs - and think they could get away with it.
He heard a faint, inner voice, begin to stir - one he remembered belonging to a slender demon with batwings, black leather clothing, and an attitude to match.
/He wasn't *my* first choice, but he's important to you, isn't he? Really important./
/Yes, oh yes he is.../
/Well then, what matters to you matters to me. I've got it all saved for you, pal. All the power, all the rage. Shinigami's here... ready to fight./
Duo felt the familiar wash of anger. It had been such a constant companion during his childhood, during the war. Now it was back - minus one dark gundam. But the spirit of Shinigami had never been solely in the machine. It had come mostly from the small pilot who reigned as its master.
"Damn that bastard!" Duo hissed. "I'm gonna find him, Zechs... and when I do, he's dead. Dead for what he did to you. He won't stand a chance... "
Noin asked gently, "What can you tell us Zechs? You found the man? Who was he? What did he want?"
"And what did the bastard *do* to you??" Duo asked. Inside of him, such an insane rage, that someone could have done this to *his* man.
Zechs' eyes were closed, but he speech was clearer now. "His name is Tolv Roos. He used to fight with OZ and he all but worshipped Treize. He's after the soldiers who sided with Romafellar against the General. I'm... I'm not sure what it is he's going to do, but he threatened both of you with it. Aaaah..." He winced in pain.
He opened two very intense, azure-blue eyes, and saw, for the first time, Trentes and the professor. "What are... what... " The professor smiled at him, the Admiral merely grunted vaguely in his direction without moving his eyes away from the door he was staring at. Zechs scowled at Admiral's profile, but said nothing.
"Why don't you just rest there, Zechs. We can fill you in on what we've all worked out so far.
The next ten minutes was spent recounting all they knew about the case. It included their own knowledge of Roos, and information from the professor about Miranda. They grudgingly pulled from Trentes information regarding his own role in the situation.
The comm unit's alert chime sounded. "Would Mr. Merquise contact hotel security, please?" a pleasant voice announced.
Zechs looked up at Duo. "Help me over there, please? I need to find out if they caught Roos."
Duo wrapped his right arm around the tall man's waist and draped Zechs' left arm over his shoulder. Slowly, they walked over to the comm unit on the desk.
"This is Zechs Merquise," the long-haired nobleman replied when the comm link to security had been established. "Have you found him?"
The face of the chief security officer on duty came onto the monitor. "I'm afraid it's bad news, Mr. Merquise. It looks as if he was able to work free from the restraints you put on him. By the time our men got there he was gone. But he left a faint trail in the underbrush - we're following it now. I just wanted you to know that as soon as something comes in we'll notify you."
"Thank you..." Zechs nodded to the man. "Thank you all very much." He hit the disconnect button and the vidscreen went dark.
He rose painfully and faced the others. The Admiral's face had gone several shades whiter then it was before the vid call. Zechs addressed them as a group. "There's no reason we can't do some investigating of our own while they're looking for him. If only we knew something more about what the weapon was he's planning to use..."
Duo got Zechs back to the sofa, having to force him to lie down. "Maybe I can help a little with that one," he said. He held up the small red book he had taken off the shelf earlier. It's just my best guess, but I think I've come up with an idea of what Roos is planning to do."
Noin started. "But... Duo - how could we even begin to know something like that. How could you figure *that* out."
Duo began his familiar pacing, still holding the book. "There are so many different pieces to this, it's hard to hold them all in your mind, but that's what you have to do to see the connection between them. Well, I think I've found one.
"First, we have Roos, who wants revenge for Treize's death and who gets Miranda to work on some program for him to carry that out. Second, we have the Admiral here, who knows Roos and knows he's going to be trying something pretty serious. He also knows that Miranda Centov is at the center of it.
"So, on Roos' end, he gets a final product from Miranda and tests it - on Koss - and it works. Somehow, through a worm that Miranda created, the information in the official databases about his identity has been either changed or deleted. I think Koss was trying to follow up on how that happened when he was arrested. If you don't have an ID number, doing that might look like you're trying to create or use a false one.
"I couldn't get the last pieces to fall into place until I saw this on the shelf." He held up the red book. The spine read, "The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells."
"It's about a scientist who makes himself invisible 'cause he thinks being that way will bring him power. But being invisible turns out to be the worst thing in the world: nobody trusts him, everyone is afraid of him, and, eventually he's hunted down. That's when it came to me. Roos was going to try to make the people he hated invisible."
Zechs was staring at his young lover. "And he'd do that with a worm that gets into the official database and selectively targets the individual it's programmed to find?" His voice was somewhat dreamy, his attention focused inward.
"Yeah, that's pretty much what I think," Duo nodded. "Now, the Admiral was, obviously, concerned about what was going to happen to *him*", and here Duo cast a look of disgust towards Trentes, " so he tries to find Miranda."
Trentes glared back at the slim, braided teenager. "Yes - I thought I could persuade her to turn against Roos. Tell me what this 'program' was going to do and maybe disable it before any harm came to me.
/Damned, self-centered pig! I hope Roos *does* get to you... pay you back for what you said about Zechs.../
"Okay," Duo said aloud, "so the Admiral needs a way to search for her and decides to make up a wife whose name is Miranda Centov. That way he can report her missing and have the police find-"
"Which they started to do," the Admiral interrupted, "but now they can't go any farther because all of her files have been deleted from the database. For all intents and purposes, she doesn't exist anymore. That's what they told me."
Noin stood abruptly and looked at Duo. "So, you're saying that Roos may have used that program on Miranda?"
"Bingo!" Duo said enthusiastically. "So, it seems to me that this program, this 'worm', is something that can remove every trace of a person's identity information from the main database. And, what's better (if you're Roos), it leaves no trace of itself. There's no way to find out that the files were *deleted*, rather than never three to begin with."
"Unless you have Zechs' program..." Noin murmured.
"Why on earth would Roos want to do a thing like that to us?" demanded Trentes. "Why not just kill us - that would seem much more efficient."
"But he doesn't want just killing," Zechs put in. "He wants to get revenge. He wants all of us to suffer."
"Right," Duo added, "and what better way than taking away someone's identity - making him invisible? Think of how much you do everyday that depends on that ID information being there. Heck, in Koss' case people were willing to believe that he wasn't who he said he was. I don't think it's that hard to make someone believe that what he's seeing isn't correct. Now, *that* would make someone *suffer!*
"Oh God -" Zechs sat up suddenly.
"Zechs!", Noin and Duo spoke in unison.
"The comm unit -" he began looking around the room wildly. He spotted it again and waved Noin over to it. "Try a status check, Noin. I need to know if he's gotten to you two."
Noin ran through the normal sequence for a status check, including the retinal scan. Everything seemed to be normal.
"Now you, Duo," Zechs said, still taking long breaths.
Duo ran through the check. Once again, all was normal.
"Ah, thank God!" Zechs leaned back against the sofa. "We *have* to find that program... before he gets too many people."
The professor smiled down at Zechs. "Well, I came looking for you this afternoon because I wanted you to help me search for Miranda. I thought perhaps your search engine program could help me find her."
Zechs tried to stand up, shakily, much to the consternation of his two caretakers. "I need to use the comm unit. I can do the search from there."
"No you don't!" Duo held up a hand and shook his braided head firmly. "*You* are staying right there. Professor could you bring that comm unit here, please?"
The tall blond looked up at Duo and frowned. Duo put his hands on his hips and frowned back, every bit as fiercely. Zechs gave up.
"We haven't been together that long, Duo," he said in a low voice to the boy above him. "But I *do* know that when you look like that it means resistance is useless."
Duo took the machine offered by the professor and knelt down by Zechs, placing the unit in the blond man's lap.
He opened the back panel and switched the long-term battery supply on, then sat on the floor, next to his lover, so that their shoulders were touching and he could feel Zechs' long hair on his cheek.
Okay, tiger," he smiled up at Zechs, "Show me what this puppy of yours can do!"
End of Part 6
(:./kumiko/2road12)
