Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Deadly Beautiful ❯ An Explosive Confrontation ( Chapter 17 )

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Deadly Beautiful - Chapter 17

By danse

On April 28, Duo walked up to the reception desk outside of the heavy double doors that led to G's private lair. He leaned over the top of the high counter slightly and put on his most innocent face as he spoke. "Helen? Can I go in and talk to G for a few minutes?"

The elderly secretary looked at her charge's innocent face and didn't believe a square inch of it. She raised an eyebrow. "He's not in his office right now, darling. I don't know when he'll be back in."

"Is he in the building? Or anywhere where I can find him?" Duo pleaded.

Helen stapled some papers together. "He told me earlier this morning, before he left, that he was going to be in the training room for a while. That's all I can do for you."

Duo leaned over the counter and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Thanks, Helen," he said quickly, and left the reception room in a hurry, leaving a flustered but pleased woman to stare at the door behind him. It was almost noon; if he moved fast, maybe he could catch G before he left the training room.

Duo jogged down the hallway and bounded into the elevator, pressing the unmarked blue button and entering his personal four-digit code on a keypad, which would allow him to reach a restricted floor of the office building.

In a mostly uncharted zone between the basement and the first floor, accessible only by this elevator and a secret staircase in G's private office, was a floor dedicated to the clandestine operational training that Duo had gone through since the age of eight. He walked down a long hallway. In a small gym to his left, he heard a small group of agents sparring, perfecting their hand-to-hand combat skills. He had used that room for years, until he surpassed the other combatants' skills so much that they'd asked him to find someone else to practice with. They were scared of him, and they were jealous of his ability. It comforted Duo to know that no matter how much they practiced, they would never be truly good agents as long as they let their fear and jealousy of stronger people control them.

He walked on. On his right, he passed a corridor that led to several classrooms, where G's agents were taught about weapons of all kinds by highly trained experts. By the age of fourteen, Duo had reached a point where he knew enough about every different type of weapon to figure things out as he went along (which he'd always thought was more fun anyway), and he'd been able to drop that part of his education. He smirked; he remembered a few instances where he'd been able to correct his teachers. That had bruised some egos, and was probably another part of the reason he no longer had to walk down that particular hallway. Weapons experts could be such prima donnas.

Just past the weapons corridor, three doors down on the left side, was the explosives lab. Duo pushed open the swinging door. He was pretty sure that he would find G in here, if he was still on this floor.

Sure enough, when he walked in, two men were talking near a lab bench. They looked up; one was a slim, balding man with wire-rimmed spectacles and a graying goatee, and the other one looked like a mad scientist. The mad scientist was G. Duo found it laughably ironic that the man who looked as if he should have been the bomb expert was, in fact, the head of the whole operation.

"Hello, G. Good afternoon, Mr. Ivanov." Duo nodded at his boss and the bomb expert in turn. Ivanov grinned at him; Duo was one of his favourite students.

"'Afternoon, Duo," G said. "What do you need?"

Duo found the nearest counter that wasn't covered in bits of wire and used blasting caps and hopped up onto it, swinging his legs aimlessly as he sat. "I need to ask a favour of you, sir."

G raised both of his eyebrows and turned to Ivanov. "He called me 'sir'," he said conspiratorially. "He only breaks out the good manners when he wants something really big."

Duo did his best to look tolerant while the two men chuckled at his expense. If he's laughing, he's in a good mood. This is good...

When, at last, G gave him the 'What do you want?' look, Duo started on his spiel. "You know the whole thing with Hilde, right? Well, she's been looking non-stop for a job--we're talking like everywhere--but no one will hire her because she hasn't got any references." Duo paused to see if this was sinking in. G was still paying attention, which he took as a green light.

"What I'm asking is, would you be able to hire her as a secretary for out front or something? I know you push a lot of paper through the cover." Duo saw that G was about to object, and he plowed ahead. "She doesn't care what she ends up doing, but she needs some work experience that she can put on a resume. Look," he said, sliding off of the counter and walking over to his employer to look him in the eyes, "maybe she could just stay on while I'm on the mission. How long is that supposed to be, a month? That's enough time for her to put some money away and get experience, so that she can get a job somewhere else. How about it, G?" He restrained the urge to bite his lip nervously, instead staring G down, trying to use all the influence he could put in a look.

After a long pause that made both Duo and Ivanov uncomfortable, G spoke. "This girl seems to create nothing but problems for you, Maxwell," he said. "I suggest you take the advice of an old man who's been through these things many times before, and get rid of her while you still can. Things will only get worse for you if she stays."

Ivanov snorted derisively. "You are a morbid old man, G," he said in his thick Russian accent. "How bad can it get? She is just a girl. Not an army of them. Let the boy have his way. Besides, were you not just telling me, before he came in, about how your front manager needs more low-wage help? That is exactly what you are being handed. You of all people should know when to take the money and run."

G turned around to glare at his outspoken old friend, who stared back bemusedly. After a few seconds of silent standoff that Duo didn't fully understand, G sighed and scratched his nose, glaring at Duo grumpily. "All right," he acquiesced. "Bring her in tomorrow morning to start at nine. Make sure that she dresses appropriately." Having delivered his surrender speech, he left the room. "I'll talk to you some more later, Matvei," he called to Ivanov as he walked away.

Ivanov nodded absently, then looked at Duo, his eyes sparkling. "Well, my boy, that was certainly a fun conversation."

Duo got a pained look on his face, then shook his head. "Thanks for your help, Mr. Ivanov. I couldn't have done it without you."

Ivanov waved away the thanks. "It was no problem. Sometimes he needs to be knocked down a peg. So tell me more about this girl. Why is she having so much trouble finding a job?"

"She used to be a prostitute."

"Oh my," he said. "There is some trouble in finding references from a job like that, isn't there?" He started to laugh. "You took her in?"

"Yeah. Actually, she stole my wallet. I found her again by accident and ended up letting her sleep on my couch."

Ivanov raised an eyebrow. "She stole your wallet? And now she is living in your home?" He shook his head. "I cannot decide if you are compassionate or stupid."

Duo frowned, and Ivanov started chuckling at the look on his face, which eventually made Duo laugh.

"Do not listen to my teasing, Duo. You are a fine young man. Now, it has been a while since you have been down here to see me, I think. How would you like to see the new point charge detonator that we are developing? It has a radar transmitter and two failsafe mechanisms, and the whole thing will fit in a fountain pen. The advanced class has been helping with the process, but I am afraid that they do not understand the refined subtlety of a clever explosive..." Ivanov was a good man, and he knew his bombs like Michaelangelo knew his paints, but he was a bit eccentric.

Explosives were Duo's specialty, and he could see that Ivanov had a reason to be proud of this detonator. It was half-finished, but it was elegant. It actually would have fit in the top half of a fountain pen, using the metal tip to strengthen the signal. It was supposed to have a range of about two city blocks, with minimum interference, but they would test that rigorously later, Ivanov said with a wink. If Duo had had enough time to examine the blueprints and listen to Ivanov's excitedly detailed account of the building process and materials and concepts that had gone into the tiny mechanism, Duo would have been able to share more of the man's enthusiasm. As it was, he was leaving on a mission in two days, and he had some preparations to take care of before going home to tell Hilde his good news.

"I have to get going," he said. "I have some prep work to do with my equipment, and I have to be measured for a school uniform."

Ivanov nodded. "A month-long mission? The best of luck to you. Come back safely, with all of your extremities intact. That is the important thing." Ivanov himself was missing two of his toes; casualties from his glory days, designing bombs for the Soviets and the Germans in World War II. He'd done it purely for the money, he said; he had met Hitler personally and liked the man even less than he liked his ideals.

Duo nodded gravely, and suddenly gave the man a hug. When he drew back, he smiled grimly at the surprised look on Ivanov's face. "Comfort's hard to come by in this line of work," he explained. With a last nod, he left the room quickly and went back to the elevator.

At two o'clock, Duo went to a private conference room on the seventh floor, where a twenty-something tech analyst introduced him to his encrypted, high-security laptop, which he would be using to communicate with G at regular intervals during his mission. "It's got some games on it, too," the tech said with a wink. "The boss hasn't inspected it yet, but if you want, I could slip a program on there for downloading and playing music before I give it to you."

Duo stared. "Wouldn't that compromise the encryption stuff? People could hack me."

The tech grinned evilly. "Not with the firewalls I've designed, they couldn't. You will have Fort Knox with Free Cell when I'm done with it."

Duo looked at him levelly. "Do whatever you want, man."

"...And here is your handy-dandy GPS, just in case," the tech continued, as if the last minute or so of conversation hadn't happened. "You never know when you'll need to know where you are within three square metres of accuracy."

Duo nodded and took the GPS. It was black, about the size of a cell phone, and flipped open. "Do I get those cool night vision glasses again?" he asked suddenly. "The best time to get the girl out would be at night."

"Sorry, man," the tech said. "You get the big, clunky goggles this time if you want night vision. Downsizing or something." He shrugged.

"Those would be kinda hard to conceal, don't you think?"

The tech frowned. "I'll talk to the higher-ups about it. Anyways, that's all you get from me this time. Happy trails, pardner." With that, the tech gathered some papers, the laptop, and the GPS, put it all back in a red plastic milk crate, and hauled it out of the conference room. Duo wouldn't actually get the equipment until he left for the mission.

Duo got up and stretched lazily, making some joints pop loudly, and then left the room to go meet the tailor.

"Oww! Christ, you stuck me with the pin!"

"Cry about it," the tailor said absently around a mouthful of other pins, as she pinned scraps of red cloth to him. "Arms out," she said, picking up a bright yellow tape measure.

Duo obediently stuck his arms out like an airplane. This was the worst experience of his life. He'd been here for half an hour already, and had been stabbed with pins three times so far. He'd been expecting to be measured and then dismissed, but the tailor was roughing together the uniform around him, on the spot.

"You've got strange dimensions," she'd said. "You're so skinny. I need to make sure it fits."

Duo stared at her elegantly upswept brown hair as she measured him around the chest, then scowled at the bright red daggers she called fingernails as she scribbled the number on a yellow legal pad.

"Are we nearly done here?" he whined. He was very uncomfortable.

She glanced up at him. "You can put your arms down, if you want. That might help."

He let his arms flop to his sides and made a funny noise. He'd been stabbed with yet another pin.

"Careful, hon. No sudden movements," the tailor said, trying not to laugh.

Duo glared at her, beaten but far from finished.

Hilde was napping peacefully on the couch when he came home, full of pinpricks and with his pride just starting to scab over. She made such a tranquil picture, curled up like that. He smiled wistfully as he extended a hand and covered most of her face with it.

She jolted awake, gasped, and started flailing wildly. When she started clawing at him, he hurriedly took his hand away and let her sit up. She glared at him; her face was red and her hair was messy. "What the hell did you do that for?" she demanded.

"I had a crappy afternoon. Got you a job," he said as he wandered into the kitchen.

"You what?!" She leaped over the end of the couch and bounded into the kitchen, where he was chugging a glass of water with his back to her.

He finished his water and put the glass down before turning to face her, slowly and deliberately. "I got you a job."

Her eyes got very wide, and before he could blink, she had grabbed him in a bone-crushing hug and almost knocked them both to the floor. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!" she squealed.

He pried her off, but couldn't help grinning. "You start tomorrow morning. Dress to impress."

She nodded excitedly. "I have clothes for it." Suddenly, she shot both arms into the air and triumphantly yelled, "I have a job!!"

"And, um..." Duo began, hoping she would hear him.

"...Yes?"

"I'm leaving in two days on a business trip. There's a lot of travelling. I'll probably be gone for about a month."

She sobered up a lot, and watched him uncertainly, seeing where this was going. "Oh...okay..."

"I need someone to look after this place. Would you like to do it for me? I mean, you might as well..."

She brightened, seeing that she would not be homeless for the next month. "Absolutely. It's no problem. It makes sense."

"Okay then." Duo smiled, feeling the best he had in a couple of weeks. The entire world wasn't against him after all.