Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Devil's Due ❯ - 09 - ( Chapter 9 )

— 09 —

October 18, A.C. 204. Berlin, Germany. 9:30pm

Judas moved tiredly into the building Brantley was waiting in, wondering how long it would take for his knuckles to stop hurting. He had his leather jacket zipped up at the bottom, too. It wasn’t a look he was into or any sort of fashion statement, though. He’d gotten blood on his white shirt, and that sort of thing drew more attention that a fashion over-sight.

Brantley looked up at him and blinked, then looked very levelly to his watch.

Judas tossed the pile of money at him, then the little notebook and crossed his arms.

The leader stared at that, studying him over and indicating his jacket.

Judas unzipped it, pulling it open to show the blood, then went back to massaging his knuckles.

The man made a count of the money, then did so again. After a moment, he flipped the small notebook open and stared at it.

Yes, Judas had gotten all the money…but not because he hunted each man down one by one. Most of them…all but two, had been at a bar playing poker in a back room. Judas had read down the list pointedly, then looked to them all. He’d had confirmation of the names beforehand, so he knew they were his lot. All but three had simply given up the money. One of the three who hadn’t conceded had stood up and told him to get away with much threatening and posturing, but Judas hadn’t been impressed…and had pistol-whipped him. He’d followed it up with a punch to the gut and suggested he comply before something really bad had happened. One of the two remainders of the room had folded instantly, and the other had been a moment later. Within about five minutes and five bruises, the man he’d been arguing with had given in as well.

The first of the remaining two had complied grudgingly, but the second had required a bit more…hands-on…approach. If he’d have complied, it would have meant Jude was back at about nine-o-five, but since he hadn’t, it’d taken a while longer.

“You’re lying to me,” Brantley noted.

“The first eight were playing poker at the King’s Inn,” Judas shrugged. “The other two were at their houses.”

“And they just gave you the money?” Brantley snapped.

“Not quite,” Judas rubbed at his knuckles more, pulling off his jacket to show the blood spatters more clearly. “A few of them were irritating.” He dropped next to the man and grabbed an un-open beer from the center of the table.

Brantley counted the bills again in disbelief, then looked up to Judas with a sort of respect as his other cronies glared.

Judas sighed and stood again, toasting the man. “Thanks for the beer.”

“Dedreck, you said?”

“Dedreck Keller,” Judas agreed, starting for the door. “Have a good night.”

“I don’t believe I have your phone number, Dedreck,” the man protested. “I have a pen here,” he added, pulling out a sheet of paper from the notebook and offering a pen with it.

Judas moved back to him and scribbled the numbers down in a messier hand than his usually was. He scribbled Dedreck underneath that and slid the paper and pen back to the leader…then started for the door.

“Oi, Dead,” the man called quickly.

Judas turned to look at him.

“For your trouble,” the man explained…and tossed a sizable chunk from the pile at him.

Judas smirked slightly, pocketing the bills. “No trouble at all.”

Brantley grinned at him, and he left the building.

He couldn’t wait to get into the scrambler zone by his apartment. He really needed to report to Maxwell.

- -

October 18, A.C. 204. Base. 2:45pm

“Are you shittin’ me?” Jordan demanded in disbelief as he stood outside his car. “You can’t be serious.”

“Dead serious,” Judas returned happily. “He tossed me a notebook with a list of names and numbers…it took me a bit of doing, but they were all people in or close to the group. I got a couple of them at a poker game and a couple of them off on their own. Took me an hour and a half. He thought I was lying to him at first, but got over that and gave me…a thousand…for my trouble.”

“Damn,” Jor muttered.

“Also,” Judas said quickly, “he wanted my cell. He even started calling me by name instead of ‘boy.’ Actually, he shortened it to Dead…which is a bit disturbing, though it doesn’t come across that way.”

“So your German is good, I take it?”

“Decent anyway…I haven’t come across a word I don’t know yet.”

Jordan sniggered slightly.

“I’m just getting to the apartment,” Judas added. “I wanted to check in with you and get you to put the resources on alert. I made myself a shining star tonight and that sort of thing doesn’t go over well with the old cronies.”

“He should read more,” Jordan mused. “He’d realize that the guy that comes in out of no where and does everything wonderfully the first time through is a double agent.”

Judas snorted. “He won’t have to worry about that. I’m using him to get to Bauer…and I’ll use Bauer to get to Holt.”

“You’re still sure that Holt’s from the Chile shit, then?” Jor asked. “Nothing’s changed that yet?”

“Not yet, but I’m paying attention so it should be fine. I’m gonna go crash. I think tomorrow’s going to suck.”

“All right. Take care of yourself…and don’t skip anymore check-in dates.”

“Sorry,” Judas apologized. “I didn’t mean to to begin with.”

“I know…I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, bye,” Judas agreed…and the line went dead.

Jordan closed his phone and slid into the car properly.

He was headed for the Rest. He wasn’t looking forward to the papers he’d have to read through in an hour’s time, but at least he wasn’t behind anymore.

He shook his head, and backed from the driveway.

- -

October 18, A.C. 204. Base. 5pm

“That’s the last of it?” Wufei asked, turning to survey Chance’s bedroom somewhat nervously.

“Should be, if not I can get it later,” Chance agreed, moving through the front door of the house with a box in his arms.

Wufei hesitated a bit more, looking around the place.

He thought it was strange that over the course of four days, Chance had moved out…entirely. He hadn’t really been home over the weekend, but he rarely ever was. The fact that it was Monday, and he’d only be coming back to the house for visits was upsetting Wufei.

The Chinese man hadn’t realized he’d have that big an issue with the notion.

Chance being gone Fridays and Saturday nights had been a consistent thing since he and Shin had gotten together…since Jordan had come back. He’d been home Friday night, which had been weird, but they’d had that meeting on Saturday with the ambassador…Saturday night, Chance had stayed with Shin…and he’d been home Sunday night, sure…but he wasn’t going to be “home” anymore.

“All right,” Chance muttered, moving back into the house and considering as he flicked his keychain around. It wasn’t a good-bye…but it was at the same time. This time, when he left the house, he would no longer live in it.

“All…right,” Wufei agreed, frowning slightly at the other.

“We’re going furniture shopping,” Chance noted, looking to Trowa, who was sitting on the arm of the couch with a similar upset expression. “I’ll be back…tonight,” he hesitated again, then shrugged. “Dinner at Chai’s right?”

Wufei nodded.

Chance hesitated again, then flashed a grin at the pair…and moved from the house. He’d lived there about nine years. He hadn’t really been ready to leave the place. He wasn’t disgusted with his roommates or anything…so leaving like that seemed odd.

He shook his head as he climbed into his rig, sitting there a moment before backing carefully out into the road.

He was really…moving.

He was really getting married.

The wedding hadn’t ever seemed not real, but driving away from the place he’d called home for nine years settled it into his system that his life was about to change entirely.

Was he ready for that?

That question was a bit redundant at this point. Unless he really fucked up, Shin wasn’t going to leave him, and even if she did, what about Chip? He’d hit the point of no return, and that lack of escape sent off warning signals in his brain…but none that he was really considering.

It was strange…how had Jordan done it? He’d gone from single to girlfriend to marriage in about six months time…or had that been it? Everything with he and Chai had gone very quickly…did that really count as quickly? He’d been in Angels for five years with her.

Maybe that had given him time to decide he really was ready to be married to her…but Chance himself was ready to be married to Shin, right? He’d been dying inside when she wouldn’t accept him. He’d been shriveling up. All he’d wanted was her and she hadn’t wanted him. She wanted him now…and he sure as hell wasn’t giving her up…not now. Not when they were so happy together…

So that was it. Sure, it was scary…it was a big step…but he wanted to take it…and that was all that really mattered, right?

He grinned slightly to himself…and headed for home.

- -

October 19, A.C. 204. Imperia, Italy. 7am

Riley rubbed tiredly at her eyes as she finished typing up her report. She hated having to type up information in an encoded file, though. It meant that she’d have no further access to it, because once she hit save, it was flying away to Jordan without stopping on her own hard-drive.

All of her information hinted strongly toward a man in Switzerland named Holt. He seemed to be the man in charge of most of the area’s activity…at least between Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.

Of course, whether or not that was the man Danielle was buying her arms from was still up in the air. The guy dealing with Danielle was equivalent to the hook of a fishing pole. The line went up from the hook to the pole. The hook and reel did most of the work, but without the pole, there’d be nothing to work from.

She was…tired…damn tired, if she was comparing organized crime to a fishing pole…

She smiled slightly to herself and typed that into her message as well. Jordan would appreciate the visual…and hit save. If the report hadn’t been due, she wouldn’t have gotten out of bed for another hour.

Maybe he’d call her back to base for a bit…let her recharge. She needed to do her visual soon, maybe she could ask him then. She wasn’t lonely, per se, but she was ready to not have to pretend anymore. He was supposed to be training new recruits anyway…wouldn’t it make sense for them to meet the newbies?

Riley backed out of the program and switched her laptop back into normal mode. She studied it a moment before closing the lid and grabbed her cup of coffee, looking out to the early morning street…not many people were moving around, but it wasn’t a business road. Basically, there was nothing to see.

The woman stretched slightly, wondering how Judas and Raul were faring…Mouthy. That was one thing she did not appreciate. She wanted to know all of their status.

She shook her head slightly, then moved to set her coffee cup back on the counter…then headed back for her bedroom.

She wasn’t ready to be awake yet.

- -

October 18, A.C. 204. Base. 10pm

Jordan heard his laptop chirp, and moved instantly to accept the encoded message. He typed in his first key-code quickly, waiting the required amount of time before typing in the second line of it. It took only moments for the file to open on his screen, and as he read the title Riley had given it: ‘A Comparison of Organized Crime to Fishing Poles’, he realized how much he missed his team.

“What?” Quatre asked curiously, moving to the kitchen door.

“Riley’s report,” Jordan returned, pointing at the screen.

“Oh,” Quatre grinned slightly at him and moved to stand next to the man.

“This is special class,” Jor noted half-heartedly, shifting aside so his friend could read it as well. “Don’t read it.”

“I’ll just look at it,” Quatre reassured him.

Jordan snorted, paging down some.

“Hey, I don’t read that fast,” Quatre protested.

“You don’t know the full details, either,” Jordan retorted.

“Fishing poles?” the blond asked blankly, looking up to the guy.

“She hasn’t explained yet,” Jordan returned, resting a fingernail against the screen to help his focus.

“Okay fine,” Quatre muttered, rolling his eyes happily as he moved back toward the living room. “I’ll leave you to your porn.”

As it was intended to, the word made Jordan stop and look up.

Quatre flashed him a naughty grin…and moved from the kitchen.

The brunette snorted slightly…and refocused on his work.

- -

October 19, A.C. 204. Base. 9am

“Good morning,” Morris said happily to Shin and Zachary as the pair moved into the examination room. “How are you?”

“Good morning,” Shin returned nervously, offering her hand. “I’m Shinyue Huang. This is my son Zachary.”

“Hi,” Zach said, studying the man curiously as they shook.

“I’m Dr. Morris,” Morris noted, smiling at the pair of them as he gestured for the boy to follow him. “Wow, you’re big,” he added to the four year old. “I thought you’d be a little boy, not a big boy.”

Chip smiled at that, pleased, then started to climb up onto the examination table.

“So, you’re my new patient, huh?” Morris added to the boy, pulling his stethoscope out and showing it to him. “Do you know what this is for?”

“You hear my lungs with it?” the kid asked curiously.

“Or heart,” Morris agreed approving. “How did you get so smart? Does your Mom feed you smart pills?”

Chip giggled at that. “My dad!”

“Your dad doesn’t have smart pills,” Morris protested in amusement. “He’s too silly.”

That made the child laugh even more, a slightly naughty sound that actually sounded somewhat like Yuy’s laugh.

“He just is smart,” Shin informed the doctor with a smile. “We don’t have to give him pills for that.”

“Ooh, even better,” Morris noted as the boy beamed even more…then started giggling again since Morris had started listening to his leg.

Shin rolled her eyes very slightly, though she was seriously relieved that the man was getting on so well with her child.

“It doesn’t seem to be working,” Morris noted, pulling the thing away to study it a moment with a frown, then put it on the kid’s forehead.

“No!” Chip laughed delightedly, catching his wrist. “Right here!” He directed the thing to his chest, still giggling.

Morris jumped, like he was startled. “Wow…I can hear…I can hear…stuff.”

“Stuff?” the child echoed, his eyes curious.

Morris nodded, listening to his lungs a moment. “All sorts of stuff,” he added, focusing on the heartbeat.

“Like what?” Zach asked.

“Well, here, let me show you,” the man muttered, pulling a second stethoscope from under his jacket and offered it over. It only took the boy a moment to work it out, and he moved the thing so the child could hear his own heartbeat.

“Whoa…” Chip breathed. “Is that my heart?”

“You’re just too smart,” Morris agreed.

“Mom!” the kid squeaked loudly, looking to her. “I can hear my heart!”

“Wow,” she muttered. “That’s cool.”

Morris indicated her with a slight jerk of his head and the boy smiled more, pulling the thing off and offering it to her…he looked almost breathless as he waited for her to hear the interesting thing, too…

That was a Yuy look, too.

He pulled off his stethoscope as he studied the boy a little closer. He was obviously of more Asian descent than just his mother accounted for…and he had a rather similar bone structure to Yuy before the man had matured.

“So,” Morris muttered, turning to gather a few more instruments. “I’m going to need to give him a few shots,” he noted to Shin. He thought a moment, then met her eyes. “Do you know who his father is?” he asked her in Cantonese.

She blinked at him, then shook her head slightly.

“All right,” he added. “And he calls Yuy dad?”

She nodded. “I met him when I was two months or so along, and he helped me as much as he could. He…paid for the birth, actually.”

“He saw him born, then?” Morris smiled slightly as he moved back to the child.

“Looked white as a sheet,” she agreed, biting her lip slightly as she realized again how wrongly she’d treated him all that time. He’d been trying as hard as he could with everything he knew to be there for her…

“The nurses made me sit in a chair when my first was being born,” Morris noted in amusement, thinking back to it. “I suppose I looked a little tottery or something.”

Shin smiled at that.

The check-up continued in that general vein as the doctor went about his work, and then it got to the point of the shots.

“I’m going to give you some shots and take a little bit of your blood,” Morris noted seriously to the boy. “Is that okay?”

“What for?” the kid asked quietly, his eyes looking nervous.

“Well, to make sure you don’t get sick with some stuff. A little cold or a cough is okay, but there are other things that these shots will keep you from getting.”

“Oh,” the boy fidgeted slightly. “Will it hurt?”

“It might sting a little,” the man noted. “But it shouldn’t be any worse than that.”

The kid took a long bracing sort of breath, then nodded. “Okay.”

“You’re brave, too?” Morris muttered, turning to gather the things. “Your father must be proud. Can you stand up and face your Mom?”

Zach did so as Morris lowered his jeans and gestured for Shin to have him sit again since she’d taken his hands. He swabbed the spot on his leg quickly as the boy looked almost ready to cry.

“Now,” Morris added quickly, meeting his eyes. “You’re a smart boy and maybe you can help me…right here,” he flicked on a projector. “Can you find me the ducky in that picture? I haven’t been able to see it yet.”

“A ducky?” Chip asked blankly.

“Yeah, a little yellow one,” he agreed, readying the needle and looking to Shin.

She nodded very slightly.

“Is it little?” Chip asked, blinking. His leg flinched very slightly as the needle moved into it, but he was focused on the screen.

“It’s medium-sized,” Morris agreed, pressing cotton to the little wound and looking to the picture scramble himself. “I know it has to be there somewhere…”

- -

October 19, A.C. 204. Imperia, Italy. 7pm

Danielle snuggled into her fur coat a little more watching the men loading the haul of weapons she’d bought. They were heading directly back to Inado, and she couldn’t wait to get home.

“I hope you had a wonderful time visiting us in Italy,” Antonio gushed at her.

“I love Italy,” she agreed distantly, still watching the men. “It’s gorgeous, even when it’s overcast.”

He cooed about that and how beautiful she was. It was the sort of ‘you’re leaving finally!’ gushing, though. She’d annoyed him repeatedly, but he wanted her to leave with good feelings about him, and flattery worked or something.

Too bad he didn’t know that she was taking the arms directly to a government facility so they could be identified and possibly tracked. Too bad he didn’t realize the men loading the weapons were soldiers undercover…too bad she couldn’t get rid of this issue before she left the country.

She focused on the man, who smiled at her.

“Your assistance has been valuable,” she praised him. “I’ll be certain to come to you for any future needs.”

“That’s music to my ears,” he returned, smiling more at her.

She smiled at him and kissed his cheek, then moved down the stairs to her waiting car. The last of her weaponry was loaded into her truck as she slid into the back seat and waved up at the man who’d assisted her. The driver closed the door behind her, and she wondered if the fifties look she’d been going for had been pulled off. She knew it didn’t really matter, but she liked that in that particular role she could play dress up…and get away with it.

The car started moving.

She sighed slightly in her relief, wondering if Riley was on her plane or not.

She didn’t care if it was ten in the morning back in California and the jet lag would put her on her ass for a day.

She was ready to go home.

- -

October 20, A.C. 204. Khon Kaen, Thailand. 9am

Raul sighed slightly as he dropped onto the couch and pulled out his laptop. He hated not knowing what the rest of his teammates were doing. Jordan had pushed them hard in trust games before his marriage. They’d seriously gone out and messed with people in lower Angels to the point that they could have gotten killed. They’d only had each other to get out of the situations that Jordan would suddenly spring on them, and after several nights of running to fox holes, he’d seriously bonded with the rest. They’d had to sneak out for food and at one point Xane had actually snuck up on Jordan.

Really, Jordan had been who they were trying to get away from. If they saw him, they’d have someone tailing them in an instant…and it hadn’t been a game to those people. Riley had gotten shot and the hospital had been guarded by some men. They couldn’t go back to base, or really get out of Angels, so they’d had to figure out how to heal her damn quick in hell.

Of course, when they couldn’t more then stem the bleeding, Mouthy had called the man. Mario Allul from Yuy’s team, and a few of his men had met with Mouthy away from their hiding spot and taken Riley into base.

That time had been…scary. They’d had to talk to people and figure out who they needed to find to get out. It had been the parameters of the game. Jordan had tucked a sheet of paper into Xane’s pocket before the thing had started, and the paper had noted that they needed out of Angels, but they had to find someone to get them out. Jordan had been working the other end of the issue, and had said specific key things to people about who they shouldn’t say anything to…moments where Mouthy was able to fast-talk them out of a situation and get the information, and the guy had shown up the next night with a black eye and swollen lip. Bits where Danielle started talking to a man who eventually told her that this guy had been saying not to tell these three guys anything, and they looked like the three she was with so she might be careful…with a roundabout comment about Jonathon Breer in the middle of it.

In the end, they’d gone to Jon and he’d taken them out of Angels and to the gates of the base without hesitation while they waited for shots to be fired or something similarly dramatic. When Jordan had sauntered from the gatehouse to lean against the guard-arm and look at them, they’d all moved up to him hesitantly…and had been praised. Riley could have returned to them while they were out, but he hadn’t intended anyone to actually get hurt, so she’d earned time off…

They’d relied heavily on each other during those games…that first one had been terrifying, though. They could all slide into Angels at any given point, and they’d started to realize the depth of the place as they went.

At any rate, Raul knew that Judas was okay on his own…there had also been tests of them getting run off from each other…but the rest sort of liked to be in at least pairs. Even if he hadn’t been able to hang out with Judas, being able to see him from time to time had given the whole task the game feeling–he liked the games now. They were wit and laughter…but this real shit was far from funny.

Not to mention he couldn’t get the knack of Taiwanese.

He clicked the file open he’d been staring at while he thought, waiting for it to pop up the cue for his password.

He didn’t have a vid port in his apartment, but the laptop had the capability.

It was time to see Jordan.