His chief swiveled a cigar from one side of his mouth, to the other. He never lit it, of course, which made it a damned expensive chew toy for a man on a very small salary. He was glaring at Duo, over his large rimmed glasses, his old computer, looking as scarred as he did, between them, and hiding the new case from Duo.
"You're a waste here," the man growled around his cigar. "You should be out rounding up terrorists or averting international incidences."
"Those were pretty large words, chief," Duo chuckled. "You didn't hurt yourself, did you?"
The man looked him up and down, his face going angry red for a moment and then cooling as he sized up the man before him. Duo was slim, and short, his loose fitting long coat making him look like a teenager about to have a growth spurt. The chief didn't make the mistake of thinking that Duo was inexperienced, or a lightweight, though. He knew the man's history. Duo's three foot braid, snaking over one shoulder, and his large, outrageous, purple eyes, were not the markers of a fool, or an innocent boy. This man before him, had seen more action than most men twice his age.
"Why are you here, again, Captain Maxwell?" the chief asked.
Duo snorted and rolled his eyes as he jammed his hands into his overlarge coat pockets. His police badge, on his lapel, flashed in the yellow light, of the bare overhead fluorescent. Understaffed. underpaid, under funded. the bare, concrete walls, and the cracked floor of the warehouse were insults to the men and women forced to work in such conditions. Knowing that everyone considered them 'archaic' and 'redundant' was acutely demoralizing as well.
"Officer Maxwell," Duo corrected.
"Officers wear uniforms," the man pointed out.
"They didn't have any my size," Duo retorted and then took a step closer. "Look, Chief, you either have a case for me or I take off for lunch. What's it going to be?"
"You didn't answer the question," the Chief pointed out as he tapped a few keys on his computer.
Impatiently, Duo replied, "You need me. They don't.You do good for the little guy, the guy who the Preventers don't have time for. I'm all for the little guy. I always have been. I've told you this before. "
"And it still doesn't make any sense to me. One of the best trained men, in space or on Earth, and you take care of Mr. Wilkes, who had his wallet stolen," the Chief sighed in exasperation.
"Uhm, actually it fell on the floor under the couch," Duo corrected. "He was in a panic, though. It had his Social Security credit chip in it." Duo grinned. "He gave me soda and a cookie, for the wasted time, though, and told me all about his grand kids."
"A waste," the Chief growled.
"Not to me," Duo said with a shrug and a grin.
The Chief suddenly turned his computer screen toward Duo. Duo blinked at the images and the text on a screen that had older images burned into the background. "How would you like to take on something a bit tougher? the Chief asked. "This fell into my lap. The Preventers don't know a thing about it. It's a chance for us to do some real good in this city."
"And get some glory?" Duo added with a knowing chuckle.
"Don't we deserve it?" The Chief replied and then used a cracked nailed finger to point out relevant points on the screen. "Tarmalane Patterson, CEO of Super G Enterprises. They make dolls, Maxwell, very popular dolls."
Duo blinked at him. "The horror. We really should take this man out."
The chief chewed on his cigar and then pointed to a line up of pictures. "These are his 'assistants'. They go everywhere with him."
Duo cocked his head as he studied the scarred, dangerous group. The last photo, had him gasping involuntarily, though and tensing as if he had suddenly seen a snake. "That's..."
"Heero Yuy, ex gundam pilot," the Chief confirmed. "You have to ask yourself, why would a doll company CEO need these kind of men as assistants? I doubt that someone of Yuy's caliber comes cheep and I don't see him as the type to design doll clothes, or worry about whether the newest doll wets the bed or burps after being bottle fed."
Duo had to laugh, but it was strained. Heero Yuy had disappeared, shortly after the end of the war celebrations. No one had reported seeing him for over three years. He looked older, and more dangerous in the photo. His hair was still a messy pile on the top, but he had shaved the sides close, and his chin had firmed and lost it's baby roundness. His dark blue eyes had the level cold look of a killer.
"So, what's the case?" Duo wanted to know, feeling a strange, heated excitement coil in his chest.
"Make us look relevant, so that we can get some damned funding, and a decent building," the chief told him honestly. "Find out what these doll makers are really up to, so that we can close down their operation."
"A fishing expedition?" Duo asked skeptically.
"Why not fish, when you can already see how big the fish are?" the Chief replied.
"Backup?" Duo asked uncertainly. He had lost his last partner to budget cuts.
"If you can find someone good enough to keep up with you, take them along," the chief told him.
Duo nodded, "Okay, this case is mine, then."
"Good." the chief loaded an information chip and handed it to him. "Get started right now. I don't have to tell you to keep this under wraps? We don't need Preventers coming in and taking over."
"Don't worry," Duo threw over his shoulder as he was leaving, "This case is all mine."
_______________________________________
Duo tried not to stare at his fellow officers as he loaded the information onto his laptop. Seated at his old desk, he traced one of the coffee cup rings, vying with scratch marks, for supremacy on the desk top, over and over as he considered each officer's qualifications.
Julio Ramos; crack shot, but also a crack pot. He was wearing a bowler hat with his uniform, his badge pinned to the side like a decoration. Duo could always trust him in a fire fight, but they were like oil and water when it came to working personalities.
Theresa Kirkpatrick; tenth generation police officer. Serious and by the book. Her fall of dark hair, and her spit and polish uniform, reminded Duo of Heero. Her only fault was that she was too young and hard headed. Duo needed a more flexible and quick thinking, partner.
Michael Poldakis; tall, slim, and ready for anything. He wasn't good at communication, though.
Paul Rodriguez; a good candidate to replace the chief, someday. He had his tie undone, his shirt sleeves rolled up over hairy arms, and a unlit cigarette clenched on one side of his teeth. Too loud, too ready to argue when action needed to be taken.
Duo looked over the information, at the hardened bodyguards of a toy maker, and couldn't imagine any of his fellow officers not getting themselves killed. They were good for small cases and the occasional drug bust, but standing up against someone like Heero Yuy, would be like pitting a pit bull against a butterfly. Mayhem would definitely ensue. No, it was better to work alone, and to keep them safe in precinct headquarters.
Duo read the name of the investigators on the case and nodded, recognizing their expertise. This wouldn't be a wild goose chase. They knew their business. It surprised him, though, that they had dropped the case into the chief's lap and not taken it to Preventers. It wasn't their usual M.O. and Duo made a note to ask the chief about it. It was possible that the case wasn't as big as the chief hoped, if the investigators thought that a shoestring budget police force could handle it.That prospect pleased him, though. Duo hadn't joined to crack big cases. He had joined to take care of Average Joe Citizen and the problems that Preventers deemed not important enough to involve themselves in.
Duo connected to the citizen files and tried to find Heero Yuy. He wasn't surprised when nothing came up after the war. The man wouldn't fill out an application, pay taxes, or make car or home payments. As far as records was concerned he was 'missing' . That was a violation, on many levels, if Super G enterprises had hired him.
As for the man's other hired goons, Duo found prison records on two, and military histories on three others. They all had red flags next to their names. Approach with caution. Possible suspects in any crime. That they were all legally employed, and had gun permits, were marks in their favor, but, looking at their pictures, and long lists of priors, Duo couldn't imagine them tuning up at church socials or helping ducklings across busy highways. They were obvious thugs and Duo completely ignored the 'by the book', very small, part of his brain, that protested sentencing without any evidence. Duo hadn't stayed alive that long without having a sense for danger, and these men were sending off very loud alarm bells.
"Share?" Ramos asked and Duo started and glared at the man at his elbow.
"No," Duo replied bluntly as he closed the laptop.
"Bastard," Ramos growled. "Who are you taking?"
Duo shrugged. "Nobody. It's just a purse snatching crime spree. No biggie."
"Why did you get it? You run faster than everyone else here?" Ramos wondered sarcastically. The man had resented someone of Duo's caliber joining their force. He had called it 'slumming' and seemed to think that Duo had done it as a lark, mocking their dedication.
"No," Duo replied as he stood and tucked the computer under one arm. "I know one of the suspects. That makes me an expert, I guess. It's not a two man job. You'd just get bored."
Ramos repositioned his bowler hat and tapped a finger on the badge. "I'm a police officer. It doesn't matter if it's boring. Cut me in, Maxwell."
Duo considered the request, but then shook his head, no.
"Why not?" Ramos demanded angrily.
Duo tossed over his shoulder, as he headed for the door, "I don't dislike you that much, to want you dead."
He left the man staring after him, wide eyed, and kicked himself, mentally, for having said that. It was still hard to remember to watch himself. There was a huge gap of experience between them. They would never get his dark jokes, or understand that he was more than his skinny, big eyed appearance suggested. They couldn't see the soldier, the man who had killed hundreds with a fatalistic grin, during the war.
That was a good thing, Duo supposed. He wouldn't like a world filled with people just like himself, who understood completely, the life that he had led. That would make peace impossible, make normal unattainable. The world needed that innocence. He needed it, badly. He could be very angry at Heero, for reminding him, so thoroughly, that he wasn't part of that innocence, if he didn't deep down, care for the man so much.
"Daddy's home!" Duo called as he balanced his laptop and a bag of groceries as he went through the door.
A black crow squawked and glided from its cage to Duo's shoulder. It gave him a dark eyed regard as if asking questions as Duo dumped his groceries onto a small table and put his laptop next to them, more carefully.
"Sorry, I'm late, Scythe, traffic was shit," Duo grumbled as he opened up a small plastic container and took out a treat for the bird. It took it with a snap, managing to look angry.
Duo huffed as he handed it off onto a chair back. "Ungrateful, that's what you are. " He eyed the plastic container and the obvious marks. "Try to get your own treats again? I made sure that container was bird proof, this time, Scythe. You are not going to try and do without me. I give the treats. You stick with me and be grateful for them, got it?"
The bird continued to eat it's treat, ignoring him.
Duo sighed as he began putting away his groceries."Look, I know you're pissed about the hurt wing, and me, of all people, deciding to take you in out of the cold, but you gotta learn to live with your disabilities. You are not being deprived of living a happy life out there. You'd be road kill, or cat chow, in one day gimpy, and you know it. Playing nice, nice with your savior will make both of our lives happier."
The crow squawked and awkwardly flew to it's cage, almost not making it. It flipped dark tail feathers at Duo, once it reached the door, as if in insult, and went inside.
"I should have a nice, warm, fluffy dog," Duo grumbled as he popped the top on a soda, grabbed his laptop, and settled in a chair. As he booted the laptop up, he continued, "or a cat that likes sleeping in my lap and at least pretends to like me. Hell, even fish-" The bird squawked and Duo relented. "Okay, okay, it's you I'm stuck with and it was my decision. Let's just try to get along..."
Going over transport logs, cargo manifests, and attempting to find something nefarious in a toy manufacturer's itinerary was a boring process of elimination. The chief had already book marked anything suspicious but Duo discounted every one. Nothing spoke to him of an undercover operation.
"Has to be something there," Duo muttered. "Even Preventers acknowledged that having that many well trained bodyguards was suspicious in itself."
The crow eyed him, made the glide over to his shoulder, and then pecked at the shiny cross that Duo wore.
"That's mine, thief," Duo grumbled as the bird leaned way down his chest and pecked with that dark beak some more.
The bird eyed the computer screen and gave it a peck. Duo shooed him back up to his shoulder. "You could be useful, you know?" Duo told it. "I could train you to do missions, like those really smart animals on the vid shows. You could be my feathered side kick."
The bird gave his cheek a hard peck. "Ow!" Duo yelped and the bird, startled, fluttered to the floor. It proceeded to walk about, looking for something more interesting.
Duo brought up the picture of Heero and studied it. He knew better than to assign any emotions, or history, to that pic, but he couldn't help it. The man looked...hard. Duo remembered those eyes softening, on occasion, and a real warmth, even, playing in a smile on his lips, but this man... His eyes were flat, the mouth set hard, and there was a crease near one eye that spoke of too many frowns. Killer for hire, that expression said, but it didn't look self satisfied with that job.
"What are you up to, Heero Yuy?" Duo whispered.
There were a few records of Heero taking trips with his boss. One to L4. Another to L2. Yet another to Europe. His pic showed on vid security cameras. Duo played the clips, watching Heero move two steps behind his boss, through concourses, parking lots, and hotel lobbys, with assured strength. His eyes were roving, alert, and daring anyone to try and breech his security. His boss was always smiling, always looking completely congenial to everyone around him. He looked like a man who made toys. A Gepetto in a business suit.
"You're more important than the other goons," Duo muttered, noticing how the others were ranged wide. Only Heero stuck to his bosses' elbow like glue. "He knows what you're worth. Not a stupid man."
A stupid man wouldn't have been able to get Heero on his payroll, Duo thought. Gepetto had not only found Heero, when everyone else had failed, but he had managed to convince the man to be his bodyguard. That also meant that what he was doing was worthy of Heero's attention. It wasn't going to be anything as simple as drug trafficking, Duo guessed with unease.
"Why am I doing this?" Duo sighed.
He had liked his new life. He had like making a difference in his small community, knowing everyone by name, and protecting them from being overlooked and forgotten by a policing organization that had all but taken over every local police precinct. They didn't have men on the street, just agents in glass office towers that were unaccessible by the common man. Mrs. Tibbs couldn't call them and complain about the loud music next door, and Mr. Sullivan couldn't call and wonder who was taking his potted plants off his stoop every night. Unless they were calling about a major crime spree, drug cartel, or rebel force with contraband weapons, they wouldn't be given any priority status accept o-file.
Scythe gave him a dark regard and Duo sighed again. "I know the Chief needs funding, but if we can't make it doing what we're supposed to, helping Joe citizen, what's the point? We'll end up just like Preventers. I don't want to be a Preventer agent. I don't want Preventer cases."
Duo took out his cell phone and punched numbers. When Chang Wu Fei answered it was hard to say, "Duo here."
"Maxwell, to what do I owe the honor?" Wu Fei sounded perfectly sarcastic.
"I'll keep it short-" Duo began.
"As short as when you told me that my job, as an agent of Preventers, was akin to being a cog in a giant monstrosity, that plowed under the common man, in favor of bloated politicians, and despot nations?" Wu Fei wondered and Duo could feel the lifted eyebrow and the disdainful glare even over the cell phone.
"Doesn't sound all that short," Duo snickered lamely, but then went on to say, "Look, Fei, you must know about Heero and his new job. I need to dump this back in Preventers lap."
"The case was filed as 'lack of evidence'," Wu Fei reminded him. "We couldn't see any connections to terrorist activities, or any other activities, as far as that is concerned. You know how thorough we are. Heero Yuy's reappearance was not treated lightly. It would seem, though, while working still off the roles, that he is only gainfully employed to a toy maker."
"Bullshit!" Duo growled.
"I find it hard to believe as well, Maxwell, but Preventers chose to believe otherwise," Wu Fei told him. "The case was dumped on your chief, specifically because it was believed that it wouldn't go anywhere. They simply wanted to keep him out of trouble. The man has definite aspirations for his precinct."
"He assigned me the case," Duo complained.
"Ah, of course, " Wu Fei was amused. "You'd rather, of course, be working on lost dog cases."
"Yes, I would," Duo replied truthfully.
"A shame," Wu Fei muttered.
"Not to me," Duo growled back.
"Well, relax and keep chasing lost dogs," Wu Fei told him. "This case is a dead one, Maxwell."
There was nothing to say, after that, and Duo ended the call with anger and bitterness.
"I know Heero," Duo said to Scythe as the bird pecked at his cross again. "I know something is going on. Fei knows it too. It looks like it's up to me, as much as I hate it, to find out what that something is."
________________________________________________________
Duo took the tour. It was a reflex from the old days. Look at the layout of the target before making any plans. Even though he wasn't planning on blowing the toy factory to kingdom come, he wasn't sure that his entire investigation was going to be exactly legal, either. Possibilities had to be explored, in case regular channels came up dry.
There was also a slim hope, in the back of Duo's mind, that he might see Heero. It was nonsense, of course. The tour went through the factory floor, included a vid show, and dumped visitors into a gift shop afterward. Contact with any sensitive areas, where decisions were made, was out of the question.
Duo didn't expect the protest gathering outside of the factory, but he filed it under, something to be investigated further. He noted the signs. The major protest seemed to be about worker exclusions in profit sharing, but a few signs were complaining about a factory being built on L3. Building on stations was strictly controlled. A company had to be permitted extensively, to claim some of the precious property, that definitely had a limited availability. L3 property was especially rare. One of the most well to do stations, anyone who was someone wanted to live and build there. Duo doubted that poor L2 had the same waiting list.
"A celebrity!" the gushing tour guide was beaming at Duo. The small children on the tour, obviously on a school field trip, ogled him without comprehension. "We're honored to have you Captain Maxwell."
Duo felt an uncomfortable blush. He had been given the honorary title, but he never used it. He corrected her automatically, "Detective Maxwell."
She blushed and repeated it. "Of course. I'm sorry, sir.. detective. I am a huuuge fan, of yours, sir."
She was an older woman, not a gushing teenager, and Duo felt his embarrassment go up a notch. He wasn't sure what to say, but he needn't have worried. The woman was babbling almost at once.
"Come along, and we'll start the tour," She said and became glued to Duo's side as the children lined up behind them. "We wouldn't want to start late."
As they walked into the bowels of the factory she said excitedly, "I have every interview you've ever done, and cut out articles about your war time heroics. I just can't get enough of hearing about your life. is it really true that you were given a Gundam at fourteen, and that you trained..."
Duo stopped listening, only nodding absently as she recounted his life as if it were the life of a holy man. I was a terrorist, he thought sourly. I killed a lot of people, in very messy ways. I cut open ships and let the people die in vacuum. I let people decompress at the bottom of the ocean. I took great pleasure in blowing up installations... with people in them. The cause might have been noble, but sugar coating it, and worshipping him over what had been necessary evils, was ridiculous. Gushing over a battle, without caring about the cost, was wrong. In the end, they had wanted people to know the cost of war, so that they wouldn't want any more of it. Glossing over history was a betrayal of that goal.
Duo couldn't correct her in front of children, though. There wasn't a good response that was fit for their ears. He let her words slide over him, instead, and concentrated on his job. He was there for a reason. That reason was far removed from killing and war. He hadn't even brought his gun.
The tour wasn't boring, but it also wasn't out of the ordinary, in any way. When they neared the gift shop, and Duo was beginning to think that the woman would hurt herself, trying to do her tour, and talk to Duo at the same time, he heard voices raised and looked up at a high catwalk of steel that led to an upper office.
"They're out there again!" one man was saying to another. They both wore dress shirts and ties. Management types. "Can't we get a court order to clear them out?"
"It's not illegal to protest," the other man growled back. "My hands are tied!"
"They are jeopardizing a ten million dollar land deal," the first man argued, "and thousands of jobs. We have to get rid of them, somehow."
They went into the office and Duo filed the information. If someone was protesting enough to worry management, then maybe Tarmalane Patterson's acquisition of some tough new guards was more understandable. That would make Wu Fei's ascertain, that nothing was going on, credible.
As the children dashed into the gift shop, ready to spend whatever credits their parents had sent with them, Duo had to conclude that he might be on a wild goose chase. Nothing to see here, he thought, and wondered at his sense of disappointment. Hadn't he decided, firmly, that he was done with these kinds of cases?
Duo supposed that it was the adrenaline, the excitement of the battle, whatever that battle was, that he missed. It was a dangerous addiction, though, and it wasn't a recipe for happiness. Feed an addiction too much and it could destroy a man's life. His had nearly been destroyed in Preventers. One battle after another, satisfied the craving, but, sooner or later, he would have found a battle that would have been his last.
The tour guide nervously slipped her cell number into Duo's hand. "Call me," she mouthed, and then she was talking to the bus driver that would take all the children back to their school.
Duo grimaced and trashed the phone number in the nearest receptacle. He was glad to finally escape the tour guide's endless chatter, as he slipped out an exit door and made his way to the parking lot.
The Chief wasn't going to like his findings.
-----------------
"I have a nose for this kind of thing, Maxwell," the chief predictably complained as he jabbed his unlit cigar at Duo's chest. "I'm not wrong."
"I have leads to follow," Duo told him as he slumped in his chair, in front of the chief's desk, and rubbed his forehead. A headache was percolating, just under the surface. "I'm not sure it's worth the trouble, though. Preventers has probably already gone over all of them."
The chief growled as he sat down in his big chair, "Preventers is full of itself. They can overlook things under the shadow of their own egos."
Duo smirked, "Get that off the back of a gum wrapper?"
The chief grunted, "Actually it's something that you said, when you first joined our force."
It was Duo's turn to growl in annoyance.
"I know that you don't want this," the chief said, and almost managed to sound sympathetic, "but I'm not only fighting for the survival of this precinct, but trying to be the best police officer that I can. When I see trouble, I won't ignore it, because higher ups don't see what I see."
Duo rubbed at his aching forehead again and said, in way of surrender, "I have a friend, who knows more about L3 politics than anyone else. I'll contact him and see what's up with this property Patterson wants to build on."
The chief began shuffling paperwork on his desk, as if looking for something, and said, "Good, do that. Keep the cost low, though. The cost of L3 calls are criminal." He eyed Duo under bushy eyebrows, "And I can't pay for trips, there, either. Keep the investigation Earth side."
"Why don't I just hire a psychic and let them tell me who's guilty?" Duo complained an he stood up and picked up his notes from the desk before the chief could bury them.
The chief swiveled his cigar around and then replied, "They cost too much."
Duo sizzled with anger as he went back to his desk and tried to decide what he would ask Quatre Winner. He wasn't surprised when Ramos sauntered over, bowler hat askew, and thumbs hooked in the loops of his uniform pants.
"Trouble?"
Duo gave him a flick of eyes, but then kept his attention on his notes.
Ramos tisked as he hooked a chair with a foot and then sat in it backwards, arms draped across the back."You're being awfully rude to a guy who has information for you."
Duo's eyes came up again and stayed on Ramos expectantly.
Ramos chuckled and looked as if he were admitting the nails on one hand. "What, interested? I thought that little guys, like me, didn't rate?"
Duo glared and rapped his pencil on his notepad. "What do you want?"
Ramos grinned. "It's good information. I think it's worth making me your partner on this case."
"How do you even know what my case is?" Duo wanted to know skeptically.
"I'm an intelligent officer, with resources," Ramos replied in an offended tone, and then his eyes twinkled, "and the chief doesn't lock his desk."
"Then you know this is dangerous?" Duo wondered. "I'm not dealing with petty theft and petty criminals. I'm dealing with a man who could kill you, twenty ways, without you noticing, and not feel a bit of remorse over your corpse."
"That's why I want to be in," Ramos insisted as he inched his rolling chair closer. "I want a taste of the big time."
"Then join Preventers," Duo growled and tried to dismiss him by hunching over his notes.
"I don't have the credentials," Ramos replied. "Didn't finish school. A few marks on my rap sheet. No military experience."
Duo drew a dark line, over and over again, on his notepaper. "I've seen people like you, many times," he replied quietly. "You always think that you want the action, the glory, the chance to run with the big boys. Your kind usually ends up dead... or damned surprised that blood, guts, and a lot of dying are involved."
Ramos leaned forward over his chair, very serious. "I won't be surprised, Maxwell, and I'll try very hard not to be dead. You know that you shouldn't work this case alone. You know that you need backup, a partner. I want to be that man."
"I don't know any of that, yet," Duo argued. "As far I know, it's just a toy maker with a case of bad paranoia."
Ramos smiled slyly. "And if he weren't?"
Duo's eyes came up, almost glowing with warning. "If you know something, spit it out."
"I told you, I want in on this," Ramos insisted.
"You don't see how unethical that is?" Duo wondered acidly.
"Call it what you want to, I have my price," Ramos replied stubbornly.
Duo weighed the cost and then shook his head. "No. I know the danger. I have the skill to deal with it, you don't. I won't have you get your throat slit, and have that haunt me for the rest of my life."
Ramos glared. Duo glared back. "He's that dangerous?" Ramos asked softly.
Duo nodded. "Even more than I'm telling you."
Ramos looked thoughtful and then he sighed. "I'm really not an unethical officer," he said in defeat and tossed a paper onto Duo's desk. "Here. I found this tidbit for you."
Duo picked up the paper and sat up in his chair as he read it. "Forty three shipments to L3, listed as building materials for the new factory. Not only is the manifest wrong about the origin, but don't you think that the weights are off for equipment and sheets of prefab?"
"And you would know this...how?" Duo wondered.
"I used to work in shipping and receiving on Moon Base," Ramos admitting. "They charged by the weight. You start remembering how much things weigh after awhile. As for the origin, that shipping station hub hasn't been in operation in years. It took a nasty blow during the war and no one rebuilt it. Someone didn't know that when they falsified the paperwork."
"Why didn't anyone else catch that?" Duo reasoned. "That's the job of the satellite inspectors, to look for contraband."
"I'm sure that they didn't look too closely at a regular shipping operation," Ramos replied. "They're more concerned with small time cargo ships, or unusual transports."
Which made sense."What could they be shipping?" Duo wondered softly.
"That's the question," Ramos agreed. "Good luck figuring it out."
Ramos stood and turned to go in one motion.
"Thanks, Ramos," Duo told him. "I'm sorry about-"
"Let it go, Maxwell," Ramos replied as he rubbed the badge on his hat. "Maybe you're right and maybe I would only get myself killed. It's just hard to swallow, okay?"
Duo understood and sighed in regret as he began calling Quatre Winner. he had
a lot more questions for the man, now, and a lot more confidence that he was
working a real case.
_________________________________
"Are you sure, Duo?" Quatre Winner asked as he leaned into the vid screen. His blue eyes were concerned under his hard hat. The sounds of construction were loud and he raised his voice to be heard over it.
"If I was sure, he would be under arrest," Duo replied.
"But, Tarmalane Patterson, Duo!" Quatre exclaimed. "He's given more to charitable organizations than-"
"Than you?" Duo snickered.
Quatre smiled a little, but he didn't lose his worry. "He's done nothing, that I know of, that even flirts with breaking the law. It's true that he's had difficulties building his new factory, but that's to be expected in a station that tight for space."
Scythe jumped to Duo's shoulder and eyed the vid screen. Quatre's eyes looked at the bird nervously.
"Do you still have that thing?" Quatre wanted to know.
Duo tried to pet the bird's chest and the bird pecked him hard. Duo shook the injured hand and replied, "He has his good qualities."
"Name one," Quatre wanted to know sourly.
"You're straying from the subject," Duo retorted. "I need to know what groups are protesting Patterson's build and I need to find out exactly what has been shipped to him for that construction."
"How can I help with either of those things?" Quatre wanted to know.
"L3 is your home," Duo pointed out.
"Does it look like I'm there, now?" Quatre asked as he panned the vid to take in the old station of L2 and construction going on everywhere. He brought the camera back to his face. "I'm where construction is most needed, not rubbing elbows with L3 elite, Duo."
"I'm not asking you to do my investigation for me," Duo replied. "I'm asking to borrow some transportation. If I can hitch a ride on Winner cargo shuttles, I can get around my Chief's lack of credits."
"Hitch away," Quatre told him, "but I still don't think that you're going to find anything wrong with Patterson."
"I've already found something wrong," Duo replied, as Scythe began pecking at his hair. "He hired Heero Yuy."
Quatre's eyes went wide. "Yuy? After all this time, he's appeared again?"
"If you're going to argue, that maybe he's taken an interest in toy making, I'll take a shuttle to L2 to slap sense into you,Winner," Duo warned.
"No,of course not," Quatre replied irritably, but then looked shocked again. "Heero Yuy. What can he be doing?"
"I'm going to find out," Duo promised.
Quatre's shock turned to alarm. "Tell me that you are taking backup with you?"
Duo winced and made a show of getting Scythe to find a better place to sit.
"Maxwell!" Quatre exclaimed. "Are you insane? None of us are a match for Yuy."
"I'd take offense at that, or I would, if I didn't think that was true, too," Duo sighed. "I'll be careful, Quatre, and stay in a public place. He won't kill me in front of witnesses."
"Just later, when there aren't any," Quatre argued. "At least take Wu Fei with you."
"Can't," Duo replied irritably. "We don't work well together and he's already written off the case."
"Why would he do that?" Quatre demanded. "Especially knowing that Heero is involved?"
Duo shrugged. "Either, Fei is lying, and they are still investigating, or Preventers really has become that concerned with it's own navel lint, and can't see the danger."
"I vote for naval lint," Quatre sighed. "It is why I never became involved with the organization."
"They are blinded by their own view of their self importance," Duo grumbled. "They forget the little guy, and the little things that tell them that big problems might be brewing."
"I'm still worried about you Duo," Quatre told him.
"Why?" Duo wanted to know.
"Because I know you," Quatre replied in exasperation. "Should I name all of the times, during the war that you risked your life for the cause."
"Throwing my Gundam on top of a speeding train was pretty 'up there', wasn't it?" Duo chuckled.
"That was a mild example," Quatre pointed out, and then more seriously. "Watch yourself, Duo. Come back in one piece."
"I intend to," Duo replied. "I'll report as soon as I can."
Quatre nodded and the vid call ended.
Duo sat staring at the screen long after the call. Finally, he grunted, "I don't want to die, Quatre, but I have to know what's going on with Heero. I intend to find out, no matter what."
TBC