Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Deadly Beautiful ❯ A River in Egypt ( Chapter 51 )

A/N: A student's work is never done; merely put off until later.

 

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

 

Deadly Beautiful - Chapter 51

 

by danse

 

~*~

 

Duo roused from a dreamless sleep to the sound of something buzzing near his head. Grunting, he smacked whatever it was and heard a dull noise as it hit the carpet. He soon realized it was his cell phone, and it was ringing loudly. Blinking, he raised his head from the pillow and looked down at the phone quizzically before picking it up and flipping it open. He mumbled something incoherent into it and waited for a response.

 

“Duo, is that you?” It was Quatre's voice. Duo sat up blearily and rubbed sleep out of his face.

 

“Yeah, it's me. What do you need, Quatre?” he yawned, scratching his head and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. A short silence met his question.

 

On the other end of the line, Quatre had stopped short. He paced as far across his room as the phone cord would allow and then returned, thinking quickly. He couldn't really tell Duo that he'd sent Wufei in to spy on him, could he? Spying was such a harsh term for it anyway; it was more like just checking up on the poor boy. Okay, no, it was spying. But with good intent. Not that Duo would probably give a damn about intent if his privacy was being infringed upon. Quatre covered the receiver and sighed loudly before answering. “I, uh, I just realized I haven't heard from you for a little bit, and I thought I'd, uh, I thought I'd call and check that you were doing okay,” he managed.

 

Quatre thought he could almost see the annoyed look on Duo's face, even though they were several thousand miles apart. “Of course I'm doing okay,” the other boy responded, sounding more awake. “Why wouldn't I be okay?” Quatre heard him yawn into the phone again.

 

Duo's erstwhile friend had a very good idea why Duo might not be okay, because Wufei had seen fit to tell him everything that Hilde had related. It was probably the only straight and complete answer Quatre would ever hear from Wufei again about anything, but he was glad to hear it all anyway. How to phrase this delicately? he thought. “Well,” Quatre hedged, “you've teamed up with Heero on more jobs than either of you has with the rest of us, and you seemed to know each other already when we met the first time. I just was thinking there might be a bit of history there and that his disappearance”--Quatre was choosing his words very carefully--“might be affecting you. I thought, as a friend, that I would call.” Nicely done, Quatre, he whispered to himself, feeling triumphant.

 

Duo nearly exploded. “Quatre. You do know that Yuy and I spent all of our acquaintance, except for the past month or so, trying to kill each other, right? Personally,” he said at a volume and tone that prompted Quatre to hold the phone somewhat away from his ear, “I'm really not all that torn-up about it. You understand me? I could care less!”

 

Wincing, Quatre gingerly placed the phone next to his ear again, hoping Duo wouldn't hang up on him as a finale. He put on his best soothing voice as he started apologizing profusely for his 'assumptions'. Truthfully, there was no longer any doubt in his mind as to whether Wufei had correctly reported Duo's feelings for Heero. His attitude now (except for the anger) was completely at odds with what it had been during their last phone conversation, and on top of that, it sounded a bit too over-the-top to be real hatred. So he carried on, and kept apologizing and looking at his watch until Duo finally mumbled his forgiveness.

 

“It's okay, Quatre, really,” he said, his voice a bit muffled. “I'm sorry I snapped there; I'm just not feeling well today.” Quatre heard him sigh. “Um, actually,” Duo said eventually, “can I ask a question?”

 

“Shoot,” Quatre replied, raising an eyebrow as he scratched his knee, waiting.

 

“Is there anything to be done? I mean, we haven't met up for a little while, but I feel like I need to get out and do something.” He rushed on before Quatre could say anything. “I was thinking of some kind of one-man operation, you know? Some job that needs to be done that we don't need a whole crew for. I'd like something to do; I feel like I'm getting cabin fever or something!” Duo's voice was a bit on the pleading side. Quatre frowned, staring at the wall.

 

“Let me have a look,” he said, tucking the phone under his chin as he got up to flip through his stacks of information, printed off from the OZ computer data that one of the Maganacs had collected several weeks previously. After searching for a few minutes and rejecting three possible targets that he didn't think Duo would be able to handle at the moment, he found a job that would do. The risk of failure and danger was fairly small, comparatively, and the work to be done was basic. Holding the paper in his hand, Quatre stared at it for a moment, debating silently with himself, and then brought the phone close to his mouth again. “Okay, Duo, I found you something,” he said. “Are you ready?”

 

“Yeah,” Duo answered. “I'm ready.”

 

***

 

The night was deep and black outside the boundaries of the OZ Taurus base. Around the fence and around the building, spotlights cut through the darkness to spill harsh, white light on the bare ground. The spotlights didn't quite overlap, and the dim, grey fringes created narrow paths through the illumination, from the metal fences right up to the rough walls of the buildings.

 

A silhouette sat low to the ground, in the small space between a Jeep and the fence, which now bore a small hole fit for crawling through. The figure was briskly rubbing his hands against his upper arms; he somehow hadn't expected it to be this cold at the beginning of August, even in Siberia. He could see his breath coming out in little puffs of vapour; it had to be well below freezing that night. Hindsight is twenty/twenty, Duo, he grumped to himself. Nothing to do now but suck it up. Nevertheless cursing his decision that a dark turtleneck and toque would be enough to protect him from the elements, he carefully slipped off his small pack and took out a pair of binoculars.

 

Not a soul in sight, he decided, sweeping the area with just his eyes before training the binoculars along the roof of the building across from him. He turned his attention back to his pack, removing a bundle of dynamite, a sheathed knife with a six-inch blade, a light handgun that was loaded with an eight-round clip, a roll of fuse wire, a short length of rope, and a cheap lighter. Working quickly, he strapped the knife to his left forearm, tucked the gun into the back of his pants and stuffed the lighter and fuse into his pockets. Next, he unrolled the dynamite into a flat, connected sheet and used the rope to secure it around his midriff, under his shirt. He hissed when the cold air and then the cold explosives touched his bare skin, but he warmed up again quickly when he pulled his sweater back down. The only things left in the pack were a few energy bars and his wire-cutters; he quietly bundled it into a ball and pushed it back through the hole in the fence behind him. Now he was all ready to go.

 

With one last visual sweep of the area for threats, Duo raised himself onto the balls of his feet and slipped out from behind the Jeep in a low crouch. Taking a deep breath to fortify himself, he pivoted to face another vehicle about fifteen metres away and then ran for it, staying as low to the ground and as silent as possible. It was unfortunately situated almost directly in the middle of one of those dangerous circles of electric light. Extracting his gun from the waistband of his pants, he checked his speed a bit as he approached the vehicle, and at the last minute, slid to the ground to roll underneath it into the welcome embrace of the shadows. He very nearly hit his head on the running board on the way down, but he made it without injury.

 

The dynamite shifted uncomfortably against his skin as he lay facedown on the cold dirt, his gun in his right hand as he scanned the ground again as far as he could see for enemy feet. Seeing nothing, he raised himself up onto his knees and elbows and crawled quickly out from under the vehicle, his gun still facing forward, and then jumped to his feet and ran for a ten-foot-tall stack of empty, wooden pallets over by the nearest building. He next wedged himself in the narrow space between the stack of pallets and the wall, his gun up above his head as he looked from side to side, checking out his new surroundings. With his back pressed flush against the cold, concrete wall, he had maybe two inches of clearance between the front of his shirt and the rough, splintery wood in front of him. To his left, a pool of light ended about three feet away and the open yard stretched beyond it. He could see the Jeep next to where he'd come through the fence a bit more than a hundred yards away. He slipped farther into the darkness behind the pallets, wanting to get away from the exposed space. To his right, where he was moving, it was dark for a twenty-metre radius; there was a service bay with a heavy-looking metal door on tracks, like the kind that is commonly found on garages. Probably bulletproof, he mused. The light over this door, he noticed, was conveniently burnt out. Duo loved a warm welcome.

 

He sidled closer to the edge of the pallets, nearly leaning out from behind their cover, and spotted something that made him grin giddily for a moment. About ten paces down the wall, on the other side of the big door, was a ladder that went up to the roof. It started surprisingly high up (probably higher than he could reach from the ground, he noted), but conveniently, there was another stack of pallets nearby that practically mirrored the one he was currently hiding behind. Duo frowned at it, and then turned to look at the much closer pile. There were fairly large gaps in the sides of the structures, so that they formed an awkward sort of ladder. This could work. This could work very well, he thought.

 

Duo turned to the side as much as the limited space would allow, keeping his gun out in front of him, and crouched, trying not to press his knees up against the wood too much. Slowly, carefully, he leaned forward, his head creeping out into the open bit by bit, until he had an adequate view of his surroundings beyond the doorway. There was absolutely no one there, which he simultaneously found comforting and strange. He, however, was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he quietly stood up again and edged his way out into the open, darting along the side of the building until he was firmly ensconced behind the new obstacle.

 

This one was a couple of feet farther out from the wall; he was glad to actually have room to turn around all the way without scraping his shoulders on splintery wood or rough concrete. He looked up; the ladder was indeed too far out of his reach from here, even if he were to jump. He had no idea how anyone was supposed to be able to use it that way, unless either OZ employed seven-foot-tall soldiers or there was another ladder somewhere nearby. At any rate, he didn't need one. Duo turned to the stack of pallets, noting that it was the same height as the other one, and looked up at the top as he tucked his gun back in the waistband of his pants.

 

Climbing was one of Duo's special talents; he figured he must have loved jungle gyms as a kid, although he couldn't specifically remember that far back. Spitting on his hands, he scurried to the top of the pallet stack in only a few seconds, and then turned his head to look at the ladder. Immediately, he realized why the extra space between the building and the pallets was not as good as he'd thought just a minute ago—the gap seemed like a yawning void from the top. Chewing his lip thoughtfully, he climbed the rest of the way over the top edge of the wooden tower and crouched on its flat top, staring at the ladder. When glaring at it didn't make it come closer to him, he huffed a bit louder than was probably prudent and edged back another step. Before he had time to think about it too much, Duo stood up, leapt forward one step, and launched himself off of the edge of the tower, his arms out in front of him. He caught the third rung of the ladder, swinging his feet into the wall in such a way as to muffle the noise. The first rung buried itself in his stomach, and he was glad for the dynamite's presence to keep that hit from bringing up his dinner. After clinging to the same rung with both hands, dangling several feet above the ground as he tried to catch his breath, he pushed the soles of his boots against the concrete and reached up to climb again.

 

The first thing Duo noticed, once he was on the roof, was that there was a lot more wind up there and that it was even colder as a result.

 

The second thing he noticed was that there were three men with guns up there with him.

 

They all seemed to spot him at the same time, and since he didn't have time to go for his gun and hope to make a difference against three people who were armed and at the ready, he could only think of one option. So, with his hands in the air, he backed up quickly to the edge where the ladder was and jumped off, grabbing the metal bars at the sides and wrapping his arms and legs around them for a very fast, controlled descent. It was controlled until he ran out of ladder, anyway.

 

After plunging to the cold ground, Duo rolled to his feet and just started running, pulling out his gun and taking off the safety as he ran. There was a lot of shouting, noise, and pounding of footfalls around him, but he was deaf to all of it. He ran around the corner that was closest to the ladder, zigzagging through shadows as bullets kicked up chunks of earth at his heels. Belatedly, he realized he was near both the front gate and a lot of vehicles, and veered toward a clump of Jeeps with one guard attending them. His mind reverting to an action-reaction state and adrenaline coursing through him, Duo ducked down below the doors of the vehicles as he cut around behind the soldier, taking her by surprise as he reached up to snap her neck. Her rifle fell from her hands and clattered uselessly to the ground, and Duo was already moving again, making a beeline for a Jeep at the front of the cluster, near the road to the gate.

 

A particularly fast runner from the chase scene that was probably organizing around the corner appeared out of nowhere in front of Duo, and the extent of his reflexes was tested as he ducked a surprise punch. He retaliated by rising fast with an elbow to the other guy's chin, staggering him, and followed that by planting a heel in the man's side that shoved him into the door of the nearest vehicle. Duo grabbed the OZ soldier by the back of the collar, heaved him off of the door, and punched him hard in the face, sending the poor unfortunate sprawling to the dirt. Breathing hard, he vaulted the door of the Jeep, landing neatly in the driver's seat, and unsheathed his knife to pry out and strip the ignition wires.

 

He had just gotten a spark that made the engine rumble to life when he realized someone else had appeared beside him. He looked up in horror, the thought to put the Jeep in drive and peel out of there not entering his head in his state of numb shock, and the last thing he saw was the soldier raising the butt of his rifle before everything went black.

 

><> ><> ><> ><>

 

A/N: Yay, midterms are over! I'm fic-juggling these days, but most of the next chapter has already been written and it just needs adding to and editing, which won't take a month. :D See you soon.