"Heero�"
Mariemaia's whispered voice brought him out of a restless sleep. Heero blinked at the unfamiliar ceiling, then started as memory returned.
Rubbing at blurry eyes, he turned his head towards the voice. The girl was sitting on her own bunk, the scratchy synthetic blanket drawn up to her chin. She looked� flushed.
"What is it?" Heero pushed back his own blankets, sitting up and peering over at her in concern. "Did you have a dream? Are you unwell?"
"No� I�" she hid her face, turning away from him. Hesitantly, Heero touched her shoulder.
"Marie? Is there a problem?"
"I� I need�" She flushed again, ducking her head in embarrassment. "Girl stuff�"
Heero blinked, processing that and trying to divine the meaning of the term. Girl stuff? What do women need that men don't? �Oh. His own face heated to an unnatural temperature as it occurred to him. As usual in such situations, he took refuge in emotional detachment. "You are menstruating?"
Mariemaia nodded miserably, twisting her hands. It was too dark to really see the expression on her face. Heero frowned; she was only just twelve years old, and he'd thought that a little too young for such things, but obviously not. "Is this the first time?"
"No." She darted a look up at him from beneath her lashes, but kept her head lowered, talking very quietly. "I know what to do, but � I don't have�"
Supplies, Heero's mind filled in when the girl paused again. He knew in theory what feminine products were, but he'd never thought he'd actually need to deal with them personally. "Is there nothing in the bathroom?" he asked to gain time, already wondering what would be appropriate for this situation.
Marie shook her head mutely, looking like she was about to cry. "I ripped up my dress to make a pad, but�"
"OK," Heero stated calmly, reaching out to pat her shoulder gently. "Just wait here." Rising, he went to the door and palmed the touch-pad that controlled the lights, raising the level of illumination until he could see. He estimated that approximately five hours had passed since he'd lain down to sleep, making it roughly four in the morning. Lifting a fist, he banged on the cell door as hard as he could, making a dull thumping noise. After a moment, he knocked again, slamming the side of his hand into the unyielding metal. It was some kind of reinforced steel; given enough leverage he could probably destroy it, but it wasn't worth the effort and pain such an attempt would cost him.
There was a long pause, and then just as he was raising his hand again, a clanging noise from outside heralded the door's opening. Heero hurriedly retreated several paces, not wishing to be seen as a threat, and carefully kept his hands away from his body where they could easily be seen. He was only wearing boxer shorts, but he had no intention of getting shot by some trigger-happy revolutionary.
The cell door swung open, letting in a brighter gleam of light from the corridor outside along with two heavily armed guards. Heero retreated another pace to show willing, then held his ground.
The taller of the two guards, a hefty blond man with enthusiastic sideburns, peered between the two prisoners and frowned. "What is it?" The other guy, darker and slighter, merely glared as if he already thought they were wasting his time.
"The young lady needs feminine supplies," Heero stated calmly and quietly; out of the corner of his eye he could see Mariemaia flinch and curl in on herself a little in embarrassment. He supposed he would be embarrassed too, if he had to discuss such personal things with complete strangers.
"Feminine su� oh. Oh." The blond guard glanced uncomfortably at Marie, his cheeks flushing. That was about how Heero felt too, but he had appointed himself the girl's protector as soon as she had arrived in his cell, and as such he had a duty. He was just glad he had no interest in women; he wasn't sure he could cope with this kind of thing on a regular basis. Of course, the reason he had no interest in women�
"Uh, we'll call Katrin," the guard stammered, reaching to his wrist communicator and urgently requesting the presence of Sergeant Williams at the Level Three holding cells. Within minutes there was a rush of booted feet in the corridor and the former bodyguard appeared in the doorway, shirt buttons done up wrong and hair mussed with sleep. Heero would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so tense.
"Corporal?" she enquired, breathing hard, her narrowed eyes focused on Heero. "Is there a problem?"
"Um�" The blond guard looked trapped, his eyes flicking from Heero to his superior. Biting his lip, he bent down to whisper in the woman's ear. Heero caught the words 'female' and 'the girl' and saw Katrin's eyes widen then flick to where Mariemaia still curled on his bunk.
"I see," she murmured, rolling her eyes at the three men. "You," she gestured to Heero with the barrel of her rifle, "sit down. I'll be back shortly. Corporal, stand guard." And with that she turned and marched right out of the cell.
Heero backed carefully to Marie's bunk and slowly sank down into a sitting position, keeping his hands in full view and his eyes on the uncomfortable-looking guards. The blond corporal exchanged an uneasy glance with the other man, who was fidgeting slightly in place and shooting mutinous glares at Heero's barely-clothed form. Heero looked down at himself, blinking as he realised that his scars must be fully visible in this light. The patches of regrown tissue on his left torso and shoulder were� unusual, to say the least, remnants of Wing's destruction. Then there were the bullet scars � three neat star-shaped indentations in his abdomen, upper arm and thigh. Two of them he'd received from Duo at their first meeting; he'd since grown quite fond of the markings. The other was a relic of a mission gone bad two years back; despite its placement it hadn't been serious. The dark stitches showing in the slash in his calf were probably more noticeable.
Heero experienced a mild shock of surprise that he'd forgotten to get them removed. Had it really been only nine days since the explosion at the warehouse? His eyes narrowed as he calculated the probability that the incident might be connected to his current predicament. The guards had well-made and plentiful weapons, and this seemed to be a fairly large operation. What were the odds on there being two smuggling rings dealing in such weaponry?
The only question, he concluded grimly, was whether Ibsen were involved in this operation beyond the supply stages. The man Bryting had called himself a 'liaison,' which meant he was unlikely to be the commander of either this installation or the organisation that ran it. Marie had mentioned that he'd been the one to record the message to Une and Relena.
A noise from the corridor made him look up; Katrin had returned, her arms filled with packages. She dumped them into a pile on the floor, then nodded to the guards, who looked relieved as they left, the clang of the door behind them echoing in the tiled room.
Marie didn't move from her corner, so Heero crossed the room again, picking the three boxes of sanitary pads from the floor and taking them over to her. There was also a plastic bag among the items the woman had brought; Heero opened it curiously, then coughed and closed it quickly; it appeared to contain underwear of some kind. It was probably best not to ask.
"Here." He set the last of the packets before the girl, then retreated to the other bed, pointedly turning his back as he pulled on one of the scratchy brown coveralls and tried to get comfortable on the thin mattress pad.
Half-formed plans ate at him. Heero knew that he was physically strong enough to overpower at least two armed guards, even in handcuffs, but Mariemaia's safety was more important than his own. If he'd been alone he would have felt able to risk his life on a chance of escape, but the girl had neither his skills nor his strength, and would be at risk. Likewise he couldn't abandon her while he escaped.
Like it or not, he thought grimly, they were in this together. This wasn't the war, when he had been able to put the success of the mission above all else. Heero still remembered and regretted the ease with which he had abandoned Duo and Wu Fei at the lunar base five years before; he had actually been grateful for the opportunity to get back into a mobile suit. Duo probably thought I was working with the enemy � I suppose I was, in a way. Perhaps that was why�
No. The past was past; leave it there. Heero lay back on the thin mattress and ran through the facts of their situation again in his mind. Unknown but significant numbers of opponents, secure quarters with constant guards in a well-used facility. There had to be weak points, of course, it was inevitable, but the trick lay in discovering them.
Heero thought back over their brief trip up the corridor. Theirs had been the only guarded door, and once past the security door at the end of the cellblock, it hadn't seemed like any of the rest of the place was sectioned off. That might work to his advantage. In addition, there was his strength, which their captors were obviously unaware of, and his knowledge and ability at combat tactics, which went far beyond the level one might reasonably expect of even a top-level Preventer Agent.
The most immediate problem in considering an escape was the security cameras; he'd seen three in the short corridor of the cellblock, and others at intersections of the main hallways. The guard corporal had called this 'Level Three,' which argued for a fairly extensive facility. Heero had no way of knowing whether the level was above or below colony ground-level; the lack of windows might simply be a security measure. Before he attempted an escape, he decided, he would need to locate the stairways and main thoroughfares of this installation, and preferably a computer room. Even if he could get hold of a gun, shooting out the security cameras would be a risky manoeuvre.
That thought made him blink in startlement. He'd had a gun on him when he'd left the restaurant that night; it was something he'd become far too accustomed to and found difficult to give up. In addition, as a Preventer he could be called upon to deal with emergencies at any time. He'd had no time to draw the weapon in the rush of the assault that had taken him down, and when he'd awoken it and his holster had been gone.
Damn. Heero opened his eyes, fixed on the shadows blurring on the opposite wall. He'd liked that gun; it was the same ancient, rebuilt USP Elite he'd carried throughout the 195 war and the Eve Insurrection a year later. The gun he'd aimed at Duo with every intention of shooting, only to find that he was completely incapable of pulling the trigger. It had become more than a weapon or a tool, almost a trusted friend. It carried some of his worst and best memories�
�arms around him, a demanding mouth against his, flesh pressed to his own as clever hands unerringly pulled the gun from the back of his waistband and tossed it aside before returning to seek out the heat of him, moans pulling at his throat as lips and teeth teased�
Swallowing dryly, Heero determinedly shut off the rush of recollection. This was no time for such things, and there was nothing to be gained by poring over past misunderstandings, no matter how much� The gun was lost, and that was an end to it. Heero repressed a sigh and closed his eyes, determined to get as much sleep as possible.
***
Heero shuffled along the corridor after Marie, keeping his head down while trying to take in as much information as possible. He'd been right; in the main hallways the cameras were only at intersections, and they were set to pan� He tried to time one and estimated that a full sweep took ten seconds either way, with a five-second pause at the apex of each arc. Furthermore, the angle they were set at meant that with normal lenses there would be an area of perhaps four or five square metres directly beneath them that wasn't covered at all. If they'd used wide-angle lenses, though, that was cut down to about a metre and a half.
Heero smiled inwardly as they were led past the room they'd been taken to before, the guards prodding them on with rifle barrels that were probably supposed to scare them. He could see that Mariemaia was frightened, her skin even paler than usual, but there was no way for him to communicate to her that the guns had their safeties on.
He hadn't been entirely surprised when the guards came for them that morning, and when their mouths had been taped and their arms cuffed tightly behind their backs he had known that his hypothesis was correct. They were being taken to witness the communication with Une and Relena, probably so that they could be on hand if extra 'persuasion' was needed. Heero set his mouth grimly; he wasn't all that bothered about himself, but if they tried to do anything to Mariemaia he would have to intervene. Thus far they had actually been kept fairly comfortably and he had been loath to risk the girl's safety without justification, but if he was pushed to it he would fight.
Ducking his head to give the impression that he had submitted to his fate, Heero kept a wary eye out as they were led down the corridor towards another set of doors and an elevator. A quick peek to one side as the guard sergeant pushed the call button confirmed that the code-locked door led to a stairwell. Heero ticked another item off his 'escape' checklist and meekly entered the lift car when his guard prodded him forwards, leaning against the back wall and lowering his head as he resisted the temptation to pull at his bound hands.
The elevator car seemed to be a standard Colonial model, and Heero had to wonder if this facility had been constructed within or around the existing infrastructure of a colony. The less palatable option was that this was a privately owned satellite or mining station, in which case it would be very difficult indeed to escape unharmed.
The doors swished shut and the sergeant pressed another button, starting the lift moving with a slight lurch. Upwards, Heero realised, which gave credence to the idea of their being underground. He counted fifteen seconds, which equated to three storeys. If he was lucky, that would put them on the ground floor and he might be able to discover their location.
He wasn't lucky; they exited the lift to a view almost exactly the same as the corridor they'd left, the only difference being the painted walls and the lack of ductwork along the ceiling. Still completely closed in, although the brief glimpse Heero got of the stairwell suggested that it went further up.
The room they were led to was only three doors down the hall; from what little he could see of the rest of the facility before he was unceremoniously shoved through the door, it seemed to be mostly offices. As far as he could tell, the camera coverage seemed similar to the lower floor. If he could manage to get up here, the probability of finding a computer should be quite high.
This new room was much more lavishly decorated than the corridors they had left. Heero whipped his head around as quickly as possible, taking in as much as he could for later consideration before he was all but manhandled over to one wall and told in no uncertain terms to stay put. The walls were panelled in expensive faux-wood � the extremely realistic kind � and the place seemed to be kitted out as some kind of conference centre. There was a large oval table in the centre, with cushioned chairs arranged around it and an array of electronic devices spread across it. Heero recognised some of them as signal scramblers, but of more immediate concern were the laptop and vidphone camera set up at one end.
Three men and a woman were standing around the table talking in low voices. Heero recognised Drew Bryting from the previous day, but the others were unfamiliar. He committed their faces to memory and waited to see what would happen next.
The guards backed off, leaving Heero and Mariemaia more or less alone although they kept their weapons aimed squarely at the two prisoners. The woman over by the table glanced at the pair of them, grey eyes cold and hard, then dismissed them, her eyes going to her watch.
"Five minutes," she murmured, her low voice just barely audible to Heero. Marie, as if overcome by the chill in the room, leaned weakly against Heero's side. He wished there were something he could do to reassure her, but with his lips taped he would have been unable to speak even had he had the words.
One of the men detached himself from the little group with a bow and went to the table, sitting behind the laptop and beginning to wire in the equipment. The others barely seemed to take note of his absence, continuing to discuss something that seemed urgent. With their backs mostly turned, Heero couldn't even lip-read, so he switched his attention to the three guards, who were standing a little way off, talking amongst themselves while they kept an eye on Heero and Marie. It was likely that any other person would have been unable to distinguish their soft words, let alone comprehend them, but Heero had been trained to be a spy and assassin as well as a soldier. He could only make out a few words, but that was enough.
"�day off� go across to New Anselm�"
It took some self-control not to react to that. New Anselm was the local name for the L3-VX922 colony, famous as a pleasure resort. More importantly, though, it was located in the far arm of the L3 cluster. There were very few other colonies that were close enough to take a day trip from.
"Right." Heero's head whipped around; he had been distracted by the guard's inadvertent revelation and had forgotten to pay attention to the cluster of people by the table. His eyes swept over them now as they moved to seats; apart from the technician they were obviously high up in the organisation. For one thing, they wore business suits rather than uniforms; for another there was an indefinable air of command around them. The guards had remained at attention.
"It's time," the oldest of the men said quietly. Heero narrowed his eyes, looking him over. He was quiet and balding, with an air of calm authority. He was the leader here, and one to watch.
The technician turned the vid-camera so that it was pointed directly at Heero and Marie, everyone else moving out of range as Bryting settled himself behind the microphone.
"Ready?" The technician glanced around the room, then pressed a key on the laptop, immediately shunting his chair to one side. There was a series of tones from the speakers that had been hooked up, and then the familiar sound of a phone ringing.
It was picked up almost immediately. "Hello?"
Even with the distortion of several hundred thousand miles, Heero recognised Relena's voice. His muscles tensed automatically as she gasped, the sound of a suppressed sob echoing around the conference room.
The three commanders were looking satisfied. "Princess Relena? Lady Von Kinzig?" Bryting asked urbanely, his arms folded calmly on the edge of the table as he stared into the laptop screen. Plainly, while he could see the vid-feed from the phone line, Relena and Une could see only Heero and Marie, bound and gagged against the wall. Heero felt the girl wilt against him a little more, and looked down to see her squeezing her eyes shut, perhaps holding off tears.
"Yes," Une's voice sounded down the line; Heero recognised the calm fa�ade she projected for mission briefings, and allowed himself to feel a little more hopeful.
"Good, good." Bryting smiled, though there was no one to see it. "I'll keep this short, my ladies. As you can see, your boyfriend and ward are unharmed. You know our demands; will you accede to them?"
Boyfriend? Heero blinked in shock, suddenly understanding why they had thought to use him to force Relena's hand. Contemplation of the implications would have to wait; he had a priceless opportunity here to communicate with Relena and Une � and by extension Duo and the rest. Closing his eyes firmly for a moment as Relena stammered out an agreement, he began blinking his eyelids open and shut in a careful, distinct pattern that was led more by instinct than real thought. He had so little time before the guards would realise what he was attempting, and so little concrete to impart� He had to try. For Marie's sake, if not his own, but� there was one addition he couldn't help but make, all the same. Duo, please be watching. If anyone can get in here, it's you.
"Very well." Bryting was smiling; the other commanders were exchanging pleased glances. "We will accept your word, but if you have not acted on it by the end of one week there will be� repercussions." Heero winced at that word, knowing very well what it would mean for him, and felt Marie shudder against him.
"I have already begun withdrawing Preventers from the Colonies you specified," Une's urgent voice chimed in just as Bryting's finger stabbed down on a key, shutting off the transmission with a hiss of static. The technician hurried to shut down the equipment, muttering apologies as he had to reach in front of the icy-eyed woman. She thrust herself backwards from the table and pulled a cell phone from a pocket of her suit, flipping it open and dialling a number.
"Do�a?" She paused, listening to something, then nodded sharply as though forgetting the person on the other end had no visuals. "Yes; they accepted. Yes. Thank you." She rang off, nodding deferentially to the man Heero had labelled as the leader and stalking from the room. Heero's mind lingered on that word Do�a, but he had no time to contemplate it because Bryting had signalled to the guards and he was being pulled back out into the corridor.
***
Back in their cell, the tape ripped somewhat painfully from their mouths, Heero asked Marie what impressions she'd had of their captors. It was mostly a ploy for time; there was something nagging at the back of his mind, but as was the way of such things every time he concentrated on it, it grew more nebulous.
"Um, they're very organised," Marie offered after a moment, red brows crinkling in thought, "but not as organised as my army was. And the people there were important." She frowned, looking at something only she could see. "That man in the grey suit � I think I might have seen him before somewhere, but I can't remember where." She balled up her fist, striking her pants leg in frustration. "I'm sorry."
"Never mind," Heero attempted to reassure her. "Perhaps you saw him on the shuttle voyage here?"
She shook her head immediately. "No, before that, a long time ago� I don't know."
"If it's important, you'll remember," Heero said quietly, thinking about that word Do�a again. "Maria, te hablas Espa�ol?"
The girl blinked at him in surprise, successfully diverted but confused now. "S�, por qu�?"
"The woman telephoned someone she called Do�a," he replied, deep in thought.
"Huh. Lady someone?" She screwed up her face in thought again. "A Lady someone from Spain, they don't use the old titles in America Latina any more." At length, she sighed. "I've met people when T�a Dorothy took me to Tarrasa, but there are too many � I don't remember."
"Never mind," Heero said again, adding one more thread to the spiderweb tugging at his brain. He had yet to find the anchor-points, but given time�
Time, he thought with a sigh, reaching beneath the bed for his stack of coveralls, was the one thing he didn't have.
"Will you be all right if I take a shower?" he asked, rather than attempt to express the confused mass of thoughts that was slowly filling up his mind.
Marie blinked at him, then coloured a little. "Sure. I'll turn my back, okay?"
"All right." To be honest, Heero hadn't been particularly bothered by the thought of exposing his body, but he supposed that a twelve-year-old girl might be unwilling to be subjected to unclothed men. It was something he would have to be more careful of, he decided; it was probably inappropriate for him to wander around in his boxers as well, even if it would be uncomfortable to sleep in the scratchy coveralls.
Leaving her curled on the far bunk and slowly turning the pages of one of the dishevelled paperbacks that had been brought for their 'entertainment,' Heero retired to the bathroom with a change of clothes and gingerly braved the shower.
Rather to his surprise, the water that emerged from the diffuser head was both hot and plentiful. Heero sighed as he ducked his head beneath the spray, rinsing the last of the blood from his hair and feeling the hot liquid sting the scabbed wound on his forehead. It flowed over his body, stripping away dirt and soothing the aches of abused and stressed muscles, releasing a tension he hadn't even known he felt. Heero hung his head, letting the shower take care of warming him, and thinking not of cells or cameras or Spanish Ladies, but of Duo.
Duo, with his penchant for black and his ready grin. Duo of the thousand faces, none of which revealed his true self. Duo who could dance with Death and cheat him at poker without turning a hair, but who refused to lie. Duo, his friend and his partner, who had managed to save something that Doctor J and Dekim Barton had tried very hard to destroy.
Heated water trickled over the skin of his back like phantom caresses, the memory of past warmth lingering. Heero bit his lip, sighed, and reached for the soap.
Did Duo, too, think that Heero was Relena's boyfriend? That word had been something of a revelation; he had known that there were tabloid stories, but had thought that others would dismiss them as what they were, mere gossip. But all those times he had had to refuse an invitation out from Duo or Hilde because he had an appointment with Relena� Had Duo added dinner dates to gossip columns and smiles and come up with something Heero hadn't even considered? Was that why�?
There had been something in the way the grey-suited leader had looked at Mariemaia. Familiarity? Or something less� pleasant? He doubted the girl had seen it, but Heero would have to try and make sure that she was not left alone with him. Which would be difficult, if he was as important to their enemies as his effortless command of that morning's situation had suggested.
Another item on his list. Rolling his head on his shoulders, Heero ran soap-slick fingers through his hair, trying not to remember the tug of other hands. Perhaps it was the immediacy of the situation that was bringing those memories to the fore; usually Heero was accustomed to suppressing them, and the feelings that prompted them.
The immediacy of the situation� One week for Une and Relena to show some progress in meeting the enemy's demands. A week, and what then? Heero knew very well that most politically-motivated kidnappers had no intention of releasing their captives.
His thoughts seemed as tangled as Duo's hair after a sparring match. L3; there was something about L3 that he had been trying to remember, and it tied in with Duo, if only Heero could remember what�
With an abrupt sputter, the hot water spilling from the showerhead faltered, giving way to a stingingly cold spray. Heero started violently, lashing out at the controls and turning off the water before his teeth began to chatter. Yanking the flimsy shower-curtain aside, he pulled a towel from the rail built into the wall � their captors had spared no expense, and that was something else he ought to remember � and swathed himself in it, scrubbing his hands through his hair to shake it free of water.
Drying off briskly, he hopped his way into the clean coveralls, leaving the used pair in a corner of the tiled floor. Perhaps it was the shock of the sudden cold, or perhaps he had just finally put the pieces together. Either way, Heero had a new mission objective.
Striding out of the bathroom, Heero groped beneath the cot for his boots and sat to haul them on, tying the laces extra tight and stuffing the ends inside his socks. It was a pity there was nothing in the room that could even remotely function as a weapon, but their captors had done their work well. Grabbing a spare coverall from the pile, he began methodically tearing it into strips, occasionally needing to use his teeth to separate the tough fabric from itself.
"Heero?" Marie had turned back to face him, the book abandoned, and was regarding him curiously. "What are you doing?"
"Making preparations." He regarded the pile of torn strips critically, tested the strength of one, and decided that they would do. "Here." He tossed the girl the remains of the garment and tucked his strips inside his own clothing. "Hide this so the guards won't see it."
"Okay." Marie stuffed the remainder of fabric beneath the military-issue blanket on her cot, moving to sit on top of the obvious lump it created. "Heero, what are you doing?"
"Beginning our escape." He took a quick look around the bare cell, trying to visualise its placement in relation to the corridors they had been led through earlier. "Be ready; I should be back for you in an hour or so."
"Okay," she began slowly, biting her lip nervously, "but�"
"Be ready," he repeated, rolling his shoulders in preparation as he crossed to the door, already planning out the words he would need to use. He risked one glance back over his shoulder at the girl, sitting alone and afraid-looking on the narrow cot. She seemed very small and pale as he turned again to the door, lifting a clenched fist to hammer violently on it.
"Open up! I need to see Bryting!"