Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Chimaera ❯ Chapter 114 ( Chapter 114 )

"Chimaera"

 

October. 2003 ShenLong

 

 

Chapter 114

 

[Inside the Glasshouse]

 

Jackson stalked towards Quatre. "You think that maybe they would start to take me seriously if I were to shoot you next, Mr. Winner?" he snarled, waving his gun around.

 

Quatre kept his features neutral as he eyed the man in front of him. Jackson was a man on the edge and Quatre wasn't about to push him any further if he could help it. "I don't think it will make any difference at all if I'm the next one or not. The government can only move at a certain pace as you have already been told. Shooting me or any of the others won't help speed things up. Channels and protocol have to be gone through the right way and that all takes time."

 

"Crap!"

 

"I wish it were as simple as just unlocking a door and sending a chopper; but it isn't. Killing any more of us isn't going to win you any sympathy votes, if anything it could delay things further. Why don't you let these people go? That would assist your cause a lot better..."

 

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up! Letting these people go isn't going to happen. Face it, blondie, I let these people go and then it's all over, I have nothing to bargain with anymore and the law enforcement will simply walk in and we're history. I might be a terrorist but I'm not stupid," snarled Jackson.

 

"No one is saying you are," began Quatre.

 

"I said, shut up!" Jackson swung his hand and caught Quatre on the side of the head with the butt of his gun sending the blonde to the floor.

 

"Now hang on a minute," began the Major as he stood and went to help Quatre up.

 

"Sit down!" barked Jackson, "unless you want to be the next in line."

 

The Major sat but cast a worried look at Quatre who had started to sit up and was rubbing his head tenderly.

 

"Get up," snapped Jackson and bent to grab Quatre by the shoulder, hauling him to his feet.

 

The room spun for a moment but Quatre managed to regain his equilibrium. The cell 'phone in Jackson's pocket began to ring again and the terrorist reached for it, giving Quatre the opportunity to grab the table to steady himself. Taking a couple of deep breaths he gave the Major what he hoped was a reassuring smile before turning his eyes back to Jackson.

 

"What do you want?" growled Jackson down the 'phone.

 

Quatre's eyes slowly focused and as they did he found them drawn towards the air conditioning duct. He blinked a couple of times to make sure his vision was working correctly. If he wasn't mistaken he could just see the outline of a gun muzzle in between the grill of the duct cover. He didn't get time to completely study it though and confirm his suspicions as Jackson grabbed him again and pulled him towards the broken window.

 

"You think I'm not serious?" Jackson all but yelled down the 'phone. "You have two bodies already, in five more minutes you will have a third. Look up asshole. See the window? Good. See who I have with me? Don't even think about trying to take a shot at me, I'm too far up for your bullets to reach... Five minutes, that's all you have and then Mr. Winner here will be the next stiff you have on your conscience." Jackson flipped the 'phone shut and turned to Quatre. "You're next."

 

* * *

 

[Outside the Glasshouse.]

 

"We are working on it," Devlin said. "I can't move it any faster, we are doing everything we can to speed things up. No, no..." Devlin moved and looked up at the building. "Fuck!" he swore under his breath but Une still heard it.

 

"What's going on, Devlin?" she asked.

 

Devlin pointed up to the broken window of the Glasshouse where two figured could be clearly seen standing. Une grabbed the binoculars. "Shit!"

 

"We need more time... Bastard!" Devlin cursed as he looked at the 'phone that now beeped with a disconnected call signal. "He hung up again."

 

Une watched for a moment longer then lowered the binoculars. "What did he say?"

 

"We have five minutes." Devlin swallowed. "Mr. Winner is next."

 

Une resisted the urge to scream, pound her fists and generally throw a temper tantrum. Instead she walked quietly away and pressed the button on her com unit. She spoke softly. "Five minutes. Winner is next."

 

* * *

 

[Television Crew]

 

"Quick, grab the camera," shouted Phil. "Something's happening."

 

Paul, Terry and Jasmine all turned and looked up at the Glasshouse.

 

"Shit!" Paul leapt into the van as Phil shoved the camera at him. He heaved it onto his shoulder, slipped the lens cover off and focused before hitting the button and sending the machine into motion. He gave Jasmine a wave and then proceeded to record the happenings.

 

"This is Jasmine Marshall reporting live from the Glasshouse where we seem to have something going on. I'm not completely sure what is happening at the moment but as you can see..."

 

Paul panned the camera up the building and paused at the broken window. He fiddled with the machine and zoomed in as best he could without losing the focus.

 

Jasmine stared briefly at the small monitor on the side of the van that showed what the camera was picking up on and gasped. "It appears that one of the terrorists is threatening another of the hostages. If I'm not mistaken it would appear to be a Mr. Winner, head of the WEI corporation. Oh, God. The hour is nearly up and there's still no sign from the law enforcement here that the demands the terrorists have made are being fulfilled. If that assumption is correct then it would appear that the terrorists are going to continue with their threat to shoot a hostage every hour and judging by what we are seeing now... Mr. Winner is next."

 

The picture Paul was getting through the camera clearly showed a rather irate terrorist waving a hand around whilst keeping a semi automatic trained on a blonde temple.

 

The look on the face of Quatre Winner was one of calm acceptance.

 

* * *

 

[Preventer Hospital]

 

Lying on the hospital bed, Duo listened as Sally filled both himself and Trowa in on what Une had said about Wufei and Heero. "They're almost there then?" he said softly as he reached for Trowa's hand and was comforted when the Latin curled his fingers around Duo's.

 

"It would appear so," replied Sally with a smile.

 

"It should all be over soon and Heero will be with you in time for this baby's birth," said the nurse kindly as she squeezed Duo's shoulder and then brought over the small 'box'.

 

Duo gave her a grateful smile. "I hope so."

 

Moving the saline drip over, Nurse Brown connected it up to the 'box' and fiddled with the dials. "There. This machine will monitor the flow of saline and anything else we put through it into your bloodstream."

 

"They're not out of the woods yet," stated Trowa as he flicked the channels on the television and then froze. "Oh, fuck!"

 

Immediately everyone else in the room turned their eyes to the television.

 

"It appears that one of the terrorists is threatening another of the hostages. If I'm not mistaken it would appear to be a Mr. Winner, head of the WEI corporation. Oh, God. The hour is nearly up and there's still no sign from the law enforcement here that the demands that the terrorists have made are being fulfilled. If that assumption is correct then it would appear that the terrorists are going to continue with their threat to shoot a hostage every hour and judging by what we are seeing now... Mr. Winner is next."

 

Trowa stared at the image on the screen and saw what the camera didn't pick up. Quatre appeared to be calm but his eyes told a different story. Trowa could clearly see the unspoken in those teal depths. A promise that he wouldn't go down without a fight, a promise he would do his best to survive this; and the promise that no matter what happened, he loved Trowa.

 

"Trowa?" whispered Duo as he felt the Latin's hand tighten around his own. "It's going to be okay, Tro. Heero won't let Quatre die, I know he wont... He can't... Not after all we've been through together..." Duo's voice trailed off, unsure if he was making things worse or not.

 

Sally and Nurse Brown stood there, both too shocked at the present time to form anything remotely coherent.

 

"Trowa?" whispered Duo again, getting worried that his friend hadn't said anything.

 

Slowly Trowa turned around to face the American, tears shimmered in his eyes as he searched Duo's face for reassurance. Duo raised himself up and enveloped his friend in his arms, holding him close and rubbing his back.

 

"I can't lose him, Duo. I can't."

 

"You won't, Trowa. Heero will be there, he has to be there."

 

"What if he isn't?"

 

"He will, he promised."

 

Trowa didn't answer but Duo felt the gown begin to stick to his skin as Trowa's tears soaked through the papery material.

 

* * *

 

[Air Conditioning Duct]

 

Heero inched forwards, moving slowly and with care not to make any noise to alert the people in the room below to their presence. Wufei had taken up position as agreed at the first vent and was scanning through the grill. Heero reached the second grill and turned the flashlight off. His eyes took a moment to adjust and then he peered into the room below. Fortunately there was enough light in the room for Heero to be able to see and what he saw left him cold with dread.

 

Several people sat around a table in the room, two armed terrorists were off to Heero's right, their eyes constantly traveling the room. The other two he couldn't see properly so assumed they must be within Wufei's line of sight. Over by the shattered window stood Jackson... with a gun pointed at Quatre's head. "Fuck!" he whispered.

 

Wufei stared through his own grill into the room. One terrorist stood off to Wufei's left, the other was right below the grill. Hearing Heero's curse he scanned further into the room and picked up on the reason for Heero's language. Quatre was poised by the window with a gun at his head.

 

The com units crackled softly and Une's voice came over the line. "Five minutes. Winner is next." The units went quiet.

 

Heero shuffled back along the vent and met Wufei in the middle. "You hear that?" he whispered.

 

"Yes."

 

"How many can you see?"

 

"One directly below, one to the left. Clear shots on both."

 

"Two to the right. One clear shot, one a little more difficult but not impossible."

 

"Plan?" asked Wufei.

 

"On my signal take out one then reload and take the other as quickly as you can, speed is vital here. How's your line for Jackson?"

 

"Not clear enough," replied Wufei.

 

"Provided I can get my two down in quick succession I should be able to get him before he realizes that something is going on. It's going to be tricky though, I'd also prefer it if he wasn't so close to the window."

 

"Not much choice there. Ready?"

 

"Hai."

 

They parted and crawled back into position. Heero pulled the small gun from inside his suit along with the case that held the tranquilizer darts and loaded one into the chamber. Further back in the shaft, Wufei was doing the same. Taking position, Heero lined the sights up with his target's neck. "Fire when ready," he whispered.

 

"Roger that," came Wufei's reply and the Chinese agent lined up his own target.

 

Heero squeezed the trigger and the dart shot from the gun with a soft hiss of air, sped through the gap in the grill and across the room to lodge in the back of its target's neck. "Bullseye," whispered Heero.

 

Wufei lined his own target up and fired. Neither gun made any noise other than the soft hiss of escaping air as the darts were fired.

 

"Ow!"

 

"Shit!"

 

Two of the terrorists reached simultaneously to their necks.

 

"What's up with you?" snapped the terrorist to Heero's right.

 

"Something bit me," replied the man as he rubbed his neck. Across the room one of the other terrorists was doing the same.

 

"Huh? What the?" The terrorist that Wufei had darted rubbed the back of his neck and felt the small dart. He tried to grab it with his fingers and pull it out. As he did so, and brought it around to see what had 'bitten' him, so his vision began to blur and he felt weak at the knees.

 

"You okay, Fisher? What's that? Ow!" The other terrorist slapped the back of his own neck as a sudden sting registered.

 

Wufei had reloaded and fired off his second dart, hitting the second terrorist just as the first one pulled the small dart free and went to examine it. Heero had also reloaded and taken out his second target. They watched for a moment, Heero reloading in preparation for the shot at Jackson when the first two terrorists began to feel the effects of the drug.

 

Preventer had said it was quick acting and they hadn't been joking either. Within the space of ten seconds the drug was penetrating the system of the terrorists and working its magic. None of the 'victims' had time to really comprehend what was happening before their knees began to buckle and the world disappeared into darkness.

 

As the first terrorist began to slip to the floor so Jackson spun around.

 

"Shit!" cursed Heero quietly in the shaft as he noted Jackson's attention now focused on the room and his fellow terrorists.

 

Immediately Jackson knew something was wrong. His fellow terrorists were swaying on their feet. Jackson's heart began to race as he looked wildly around the room to see what had caused this. There wasn't anything different, all the hostages were still in the same places they had been in seconds before. Jackson pointed the gun at Quatre's head as he continued to scan the room.

 

One by one the other terrorists collapsed to the ground, their guns still clutched firmly in their respective hands.

 

"No one move," stated Jackson.

 

"Fuck!" muttered Heero. As the man had moved so he didn't have a clear enough shot at Jackson anymore and with the gun currently trained on Quatre, Heero knew if he shot now that Jackson would still have time to pull the trigger and Quatre would be dead before the drug permeated the terrorist's system. Heero had promised Trowa he would look after Quatre; and he intended to keep that promise.

 

"Where are you?!" demanded Jackson.

 

Wufei and Heero remained silent in the duct.

 

"I know there's someone here. I suggest you show yourself or blondie here will bite the bullet - literally."

 

Quatre remained calm but silently willed Heero or Wufei to ignore Jackson and take the man down. He was quite prepared to sacrifice himself so that the others in the room would live. His only regret was that he wouldn't be able to say good bye to Trowa... Or see Duo's baby.

 

Jackson continued to scan the room. He noticed Quatre's eyes flickering around as well and followed the blonde's line of sight. They skimmed over walls and across the ceiling. Jackson paused and brought his eyes back again, stopping at the air conditioning grill. He squinted and blinked, then an evil smirk crossed his features.

 

Inside the duct, Heero stared out and into the cold eyes of a killer.

 

/ Damn! The air conditioning ducts. / Jackson mentally cursed himself for not having thought about the ducts.

 

"I know you're in there," stated Jackson as he stared pointedly at the grill. "Come out now, nice and easy or I will shoot blondie here first and then another and another until you do come out. Unless you want a body pile I'd advise surrendering now."

 

Heero looked across to where Wufei was staring out the vent. "I have to surrender," he stated.

 

Wufei nodded, understanding what Heero wasn't saying.

 

"As soon as you have the chance, shoot."

 

"Be careful."

 

Heero nodded and then with his mouth set in a grim line he maneuvered himself to rest his feet against the grill. Bracing his arms against the top of the duct he pushed his feet hard against the grill. The metal resisted and then groaned, bending first and then snapping under the pressure. Heero slipped through the broken opening and dropped to the floor. Slowly he raised himself up and stared at the terrorist.

 

"Well, well, well," Jackson stated as he looked Heero up and down, clearly considering the threat and then dismissing it. "They could have at least sent someone with a bit of maturity," Jackson sneered. "It would seem that they either aren't taking me seriously or there's a serious lack of recruits in the force if they only send a boy to do a man's job."

 

"Never underestimate the enemy," Heero said quietly. Heero took the chance to look Quatre in the eyes, the Arab gazed back at him. From what Heero could see, Quatre was relatively unhurt. There was swelling and bruising appearing on the side of his face and dried blood around Quatre's bottom lip, but all his limbs were in tact.

 

"Put the gun on the floor and kick it away," demanded Jackson.

 

Heero started to crouch, one hand slightly behind his back where he knew Wufei would see it and gave a couple of quick signals with his fingers. As he bent further and placed the dart gun on the floor so he placed his other hand on his ankle. Heero's eyes traveled to Quatre's then darted to his hand and back again.

 

Quatre followed Heero's eyes and saw the silent signal from the hand as the gun was pushed away. He blinked twice, the old signal they had used in the war days to signify he understood.

 

"Good. Now, stand up slowly. You," he said to the Major, "come here and pat him down, I don't want to risk any other weapons on him."

 

The Major went to stand, at the same time Heero yelled out "NOW!" and twisted as he grabbed the knife sheathed at his ankle.

 

Several things all happened at once. Hearing the command, Wufei took careful aim from inside the air conditioning duct and fired off his dart gun, the small missile snaking through the air and hitting Jackson in the left shoulder. Quatre tried to throw himself to the right but Jackson's hand grabbed his shirt causing the dart to strike Jackson's shoulder and not the terrorist's neck as planned. The sudden sting of the dart combined with the force of the lunge for Quatre, sent Jackson's fingers closing on the trigger and the semi went off. The bullet whizzed through the air and hit Heero in the thigh as he was straightening up with the knife in his hand. The knife was dispatched but with the impact of the bullet to his thigh, Heero's aim was slightly off and the knife hit Jackson in the gut.

 

The terrorist staggered backwards, his left hand grappling at the knife hilt, his right still clutching Quatre's shirt. The tranquilizer in the dart began to seep into his system throwing him further off balance as he fought to stay conscious. Cool air wafted across his back and Jackson knew the open, shattered window was behind him. His knees began to buckle and he felt himself falling backwards. The gun dropped from his hand and he grabbed Quatre even tighter to keep from falling.

 

Quatre tried to twist out of the grasp but the terrorist's fingers had locked on tight. He felt himself being pulled backwards with Jackson and closer to the shattered window. Desperately Quatre fought to free himself but it was no use. Jackson began to stumble, the tranquilizer robbing him of his equilibrium and he began to fall through the broken glass.

 

"NO!" Heero screamed, and despite the pain of the wound to his thigh he dived forwards, throwing the grappling hook from his waist as he did so and praying it would hook on to something.

 

* * *

 

[Television Crew]

 

"Holy shit!" exclaimed Jasmine as she looked up to the building.

 

Immediately Paul began to film, zeroing in on the twelfth floor.

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are coming live to you from the Glasshouse where it appears something is happening. Oh, God..."

 

The camera picked up on a man staggering by the broken window. They watched in stunned silence as the man appeared to be grabbing at someone to regain his balance but only succeed in dragging the other person with them.

 

"They're going to fall!" said Jasmine, her hand flying to her mouth in shock.

 

* * *

 

[Preventer Hospital]

 

Duo and Trowa stared at the television. The camera clearly showed a man staggering back to the broken window and then losing his footing and slipping. The hand flailed in the air as the other hand grabbed something and pulled desperately on it to stop the fall.

 

"QUATRE!!" screamed Trowa.

 

"FUCK!" yelled Duo as he watched the drama unfolding. Then he doubled over in pain as a severe contraction hit his abdomen and the monitoring equipment suddenly went crazy.

 

~ * ~

 

tbc...........