Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Deadly Beautiful ❯ With a Little Help from My Friends ( Chapter 38 )

Deadly Beautiful - Chapter 39

 

by danse

 

~*~

 

Wufei lowered his binoculars and let them hang around his neck as he frowned. Quatre stood beside him, shading his eyes from the evening sun as he peered up at the hills ineffectually. “Well?” he asked.

 

The Chinese teen scratched the back of his neck, adjusting the strap of the binoculars. Finally, he dug into the pockets of his cargo shorts for his notepad and pen, crouching to balance it on his knee as he scribbled. Quatre knelt next to him, bracing one foot behind him so that his heavy backpack wouldn't topple him down the dusty hillside. His leg muscles still quivered some from the strain of climbing the mountain to the gentler slope that the compound was built on.

 

Wufei drew a hasty triangle with an `X' near the top. “This is the target building,” he said, tapping it with his pen. Below it, he drew three straight lines that pointed towards the `X'. “Three service roads through the jungle. From what I could see, there's checkpoints here, here, and here.” He drew circles at intervals along the roads. “They were stopping everyone going through. Also....” He added what looked like a circle on a stick to the very left of the service roads. “There's a tower over here, with a satellite dish on top. I couldn't see what was inside it because the sun reflects off the windows too much, but it's probably for surveillance. I doubt that they can see us here though, since we're still five miles away through the brush.”

 

Quatre squinted at the hasty drawing, wheels churning in his head. Finally, he unclipped the radio from his belt. “Come in Zero, do you copy?” He let go of the communication button and listened to the static until Heero's voice broke through.

 

“I hear you, Sheik. What's the situation?”

 

Quatre pressed the button again. “We have a plan. I'll be down in five. Over.”

 

“Roger that.”

 

Wufei gave Quatre a shrewd look as he clipped the radio back on his belt. “We have a plan?” he asked.

 

Quatre just grinned at him and started back down the steep hillside, going carefully so as not to slide the rest of the way down.

 

When they reached the other three boys, who were sitting on their backpacks in the shade of a boulder, the meeting began. Quatre and Wufei shrugged off their packs as the circle widened to include them. Heero had to nudge Duo, who had dozed off while leaning against the boulder, his sunglasses hiding his eyes.

 

“So,” Quatre said, taking Wufei's notepad from him and showing everyone the drawing he'd made. After explaining what all the symbols and lines meant, he launched into his plan. “I suggest three teams. I'll go with Wufei, Duo can go with Heero, and Trowa will go alone.” Everyone scowled at this decision, but kept quiet, knowing he would have a reason. “Heero and Duo, you will be Team Alpha. You two go in first and distract the security while Wufei and I, as Team Beta, act as cover for Gamma over here,” he gestured in Trowa's direction. “Thus protected, Trowa will move in and look after the destruction on his own. A quick in-and-out job, Trowa; no time for anything else. As soon as you give us the signal, we'll all regroup back here and get the hell outta Dodge. Questions?”

 

Wufei had one. “How are we getting up there, with the tower and the checkpoints and all that? There will be a lot of fences where the road isn't.” He had a point.

 

Quatre considered it. “We'll move through the brush as much as possible. Mostly though, we're relying on Alpha to clear us a path through one of the checkpoints. You two can have the biggest guns we have to get your point across.”

 

Heero brooded quietly, staring at the toe of Duo's boot, which was sprawled in front of him. “I've got a better idea, actually,” he said quietly. “Just let us look after it.” His eyes were dark.

 

“Alright then,” Quatre said, feeling a little uneasy although he tried not to show it. “We'll all head up to within two miles of the compound, and then Alpha will go ahead and give us the `all clear' to proceed. Agreed?”

 

They all got up, shrugged on their packs, and set off through the growing twilight.

 

***

 

An hour later, Heero and Duo were creeping silently through the wet jungle in full darkness, relying on moonlight and the distant glow from the compound to see where they were going. They both had Uzis slung across their backs, which made the going awkward even though they'd left their backpacks behind with the others.

 

Duo took a quick swig from his water bottle, and then whispered, “So you have a plan then?”

 

Heero appeared to be ignoring him. Probably because it was a stupid question, intended only to start a conversation. Duo tried another tactic. “What is this going to entail?” he asked.

 

Heero was silent as they eased themselves over a fallen tree, and then answered in a faint whisper. “I'm going to need your full cooperation with this. I need your skills.”

 

Skills? He had skills? More importantly, ones that Heero apparently didn't have? Duo shot the other boy a sharp look and nearly tripped over a root, his gun sliding over his shoulder. They had to stop while he rearranged himself before continuing.

 

“So-so what are we doing then?” Duo asked after a couple more minutes.

 

Heero frowned, but Duo couldn't see it in the darkness. “My plan was to hijack one of the checkpoints and man it ourselves so that the others can get in and out safely. And I'm going to need your full cooperation because you're strongest at stealth maneuvers and impersonation.”

 

Whether Heero meant that it was Duo's strongest skill or that he was the best in their group at it wasn't clear.

 

 

***

 

Forty-five minutes after watching Team Alpha depart through the trees, Quatre's radio crackled to life through his earpiece. “Alpha to Beta, we have secured a checkpoint. Please proceed.”

 

Secured a checkpoint? In less than an hour? Quatre shivered. Those two were a formidable team when they wanted to be; he was glad they were on his side. He pressed the communication button on his radio. “Roger that, Beta. Alpha proceeding. Which checkpoint?”

 

“The leftmost.” Radio silence.

 

Quatre looked at Wufei and Trowa, who were watching him expectantly. “Well, gentlemen, that was our cue.”

 

They left their backpacks with the other two, stashed under a fallen log obscured by some hanging foliage. After checking one last time around them and making sure they were all armed, they proceeded along Team Alpha's trail through the undergrowth.

 

Half an hour later, the three teens had come as close as possible to the designated checkpoint without emerging from the camouflage of the jungle. “Can you see anything?” Quatre whispered.

 

The other two were squinting ahead until Wufei remembered he still had his binoculars. “Two guards at the gate,” he confirmed. “I can't see their faces.”

 

Quatre slumped. “I thought they said they'd secured it.”

 

Trowa, however, was agitated. “Hang on,” he said, silently beckoning for Wufei's binoculars. He peered through them at one of the two small booths on either side of the road, focusing them to the maximum, even leaning forward a bit, and then started to chuckle, pressing his hand over his mouth to obscure the noise as he handed back the binoculars.

 

Wufei grabbed them back and trained them on the gate again, straining to see what was so funny. “What? What is it?” Quatre said.

 

“The one on the left, over there?” Trowa pointed, still grinning. “That's Heero.”

 

Quatre gaped, realizing what had happened. “They're pretending to be the guards?” he squeaked.

 

Wufei started chuckling, too.

 

Trowa glanced around. “Okay, it looks like the coast is clear. Shall we?”

 

They stood as a unit and approached along the side of the road, still wishing for bushes to hide in. At least they weren't carrying anything larger than handguns. The three boys approached the guard station and looked up at the grinning face of Duo Maxwell, an army-green cap pushed down to shade his eyes. He was wearing the ID tag of someone who looked almost nothing like him, stuck to the front pocket of a uniform that looked snug. “State your business,” he barked staunchly.

 

“To blow the place up,” Wufei quipped.

 

“All right, carry on,” Duo grinned, pressing a button. “I love this job!”

 

Heero could be seen in the other booth shaking his head slowly. Quatre wondered if there were bodies curled up on the floors of the booths behind them. He shivered again, involuntarily.

 

The trees reappeared a short distance after the checkpoint, and the two remaining units melted into them once again, knowing that the gates wouldn't be the only security between them and the buildings. It was unlikely, though, that there would be any mines or other traps in the woods within the fence; you never knew when you could lose your own men to an accident simply for wandering in the trees.

 

“I can't believe,” Wufei said, “that the two of them-who don't get along at all, I might add-were able to seize that gate without any sign of a struggle in under fifteen minutes. I wonder how they managed it.”

 

“They're starting to warm up to each other,” Trowa said, always quietly observant. “They can't help but respect each other for their skills, despite whatever happened before to make them dislike each other. I think you'll find their opinions of each other changing.” He shut up after that, and they were all silent for a while, saving their breath for the hike as their thoughts wandered all over that subject and the mission ahead.

 

***

 

Ten minutes later, the three boys were crouched behind a log, Trowa and Quatre on the ground looking at each other as Wufei peered through his binoculars. Between the moon and the lights on the outside of the nearby building, it wasn't hard to see.

 

“Two with Uzis,” Wufei reported. “Fifteen metres.”

 

“Can we take them?” Quatre asked.

 

“I can see myself taking down the one on my left, but the other one would fill me with holes,” he responded.

 

Quatre peered over the log, hoping that his blond hair wouldn't be visible through the foliage. He saw what Wufei was talking about, and pulled out his gun, checking that it was loaded. “I've got the other one; you go,” he said. He turned to Trowa. “You'll be ready to go through the door. Once you're inside, be cautious, but go. Wufei and I will follow as best as we can and try to clear any obstacles for you. When you're done in there, you leave. Go out how we came in, if possible. Tell Heero and Duo not to wait for us. You outfitted?” He knew Trowa was, but better safe than sorry.

 

Trowa nodded and patted his middle. The C-4 was strapped there along with the detonator, secured in place when they'd abandoned their backpacks earlier.

 

“All right,” Quatre said. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Let's move.”

 

Wufei stood up and crept through the dark jungle with the silent confidence of a tiger, his eyes on his prey. Trowa watched as he suddenly slid out of the dense greenery and melted into the wall, seeming to glide until he was behind the first sentry. As he delivered a swift blow to the base of the man's neck and lowered the unconscious body to ground in mere seconds, it occurred to Trowa that he probably could have used the guard's gun to take out the other one, who was just now raising his weapon to kill Wufei. A silent take-down was needed here, though. He suddenly heard a single, silenced gunshot and watched as the advancing Ozzie was jerked back by an unseen force, landing on the ground with a soft thump. Trowa turned and saw Quatre holding up his gun, a chilled, focused look on his innocent face. He'd been screwing on the silencer and lining up his shot while Trowa had been distracted by Wufei.

 

Quatre lowered his gun and turned to give Trowa an expectant look. Trowa nodded and got to his feet, jogging to the door as the other two quickly cleaned up the scene.

 

Once he was inside, Trowa looked around, feeling tense. As he glanced to his right, though, he saw the best thing he could possibly come across in his situation: a bathroom. Smiling, he walked in, noticed that it was empty, and locked himself in one of the stalls to wait.

 

After five minutes of standing there doing deep breathing exercises and reading the graffiti that was scribbled on the walls, including an amusing limerick about a lieutenant, he heard the door open. Tensing, he listened; no voices, and only one set of footsteps. This was even better than he'd hoped. He waited until he heard the other occupant turn on the tap to wash his hands, and then he flushed the toilet and left the stall. He stepped up behind the unarmed soldier and watched as the young man glanced up at him in the mirror. He saw the disinterested look change to one of shock and fear just before he brought the butt of his gun down on the back of the soldier's head.

 

Grinning at his easy success, Trowa quickly hoisted the unconscious body over his shoulder and locked them both in the handicapped stall. Five minutes later, he stepped out of the stall and relocked it from the outside, dressed as an OZ private. After radioing Quatre and Wufei and telling them he didn't need backup after all (he had to override Quatre's protests), he shouldered the gun that was leaning next to the sinks, remembered to wash his hands, and strode out of the bathroom calmly, proceeding down the hallway. This was going to be easy.

 

***

 

“I hope Trowa's okay,” Quatre said for possibly the fifth time as he and Wufei followed Trowa's strange orders to stay put and hid behind their log again, watching the door.

 

Wufei, who was examining a fingernail, sighed and decided that it was time for this to stop. He turned to Quatre and said, “Do you think he can't do this?”

 

Quatre's hackles went up immediately. “Of course not!” he hissed as indignantly as possible while trying to be quiet. “He's excellent at infiltration. That's why I told him to do this!”

 

“Exactly,” Wufei said somewhat soothingly, which he knew wasn't his style. “He's perfectly capable of looking after himself and our help would probably only endanger him right now, whatever it is that he's doing. You just have to trust him.”

 

Which was exactly what Quatre had been telling himself for the past hour, but it felt good to hear it from someone else. He blew his bangs out of his face and looked up, studying the moon which was partially visible through the treetops.

 

Wufei studied Quatre instead, and shook his head. Some things couldn't be helped, and he understood how Quatre felt better than Quatre himself probably imagined.

 

Fifteen minutes later, a loud bang made Team Beta collectively jump. They scrambled to see what was going on and caught a glimpse of Trowa in an OZ uniform, running full-out with an assault rifle jouncing along on his shoulder. Without a word, they both peeled out after him, running on the road without caring if they were seen. An image popped, unbidden, into Quatre's mind of a t-shirt Duo had worn at the Maganac base: `Bomb Squad Member: If you see me running, try to keep up'.

 

Without breaking his stride, Wufei unclipped the radio from his belt. “Team Alpha, we are approaching. Be ready for extraction,” he gasped into it. He ran with the radio in his hand after that, half-waiting for an answer and half-not wanting to slow down to put it away, but a response never came. It wasn't really needed.

 

Even as he ran for his life with no indication of how much time they had, one simple, unrelated thought nagged Quatre's mind as they thundered along the road, seeing Heero and Duo ahead and still in uniform, watching them approach. After their conversation, Quatre had caught the strangest, most bittersweet whiff of sadness coming from Wufei.

 

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