Chapter 25: Inside Job

7:53 PM C.E.T.

Handcuffed and bound in a dark closet....

"Heero was right again, of COURSE." Duo Maxwell didn't like the fact that Heero Yuy was almost always, from the first time they met till the last time they battle enemies side by side, right about every little thing.

How the heck did he figure these damn guys wouldn't put me in with the hostages?! Geez, the guy's so right about everything all the time it makes me sick! Everything!!!! Except, that is for....

Where he lay on the closet floor, Duo lets his sieve like mind wander away from his agonized "how-do-I-get-out-of-this-mess" thoughts for a moment to consider just what was at stake here today on this mission.

In about twenty-five minutes, if those dang terrorists don't get what they want, the lower half of Norway will be a fizzled out wasteland. As the God of Death, it wouldn't be so bad to ride out of this world on a black billow of radiated smoke. Hell, though, it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the good people of Sanc. You wouldn't want your precious princess to go out with a big bang, would ya, Heero?

Duo smiles, knowing inside (who didn't know?) that super man, inhuman, Mr. Know-it-all-Soldier Heero Yuy had this thing for the good-lookin', pacifist princess named Relena.

"So, if she's in danger, we've just gotta stop these jerk-offs. Right, Heero? They might've confiscated all my guns and weapons, but I might have a few tricks up my sleeve."

Duo Maxwell, the crack thief, was pretty good with his hands. Especially when they were all that stood between him and his freedom.

CLICK CLICK.

"What handcuffs were made that could stand up to me! Hah!" A hair bobby pin could always double as a lock pick and since Duo Maxwell was blessed with enough hair to hide hundreds of pins in, locks were no match for him!

Now for the door and those two ugly, scarred doofuses outside it....Hmmm.....Can't utilize my mini grenades just yet. The radar would pick that up for sure. So what's my next move?

But Duo doesn't have to wrack his brains on that one. Those two ugly guards' heads he could see through the peek hole in the door soundlessly go down without explanation, as if they had both just nodded off to sleep.

Or maybe, someone unseen on the outside had induced sleep on them from somewhere above...

No longer under guard, a quick lock pick was a cinch and Duo was out the now open prison/closet door he'd been caged in the dark.

He steps over the two guards downed bodies and looks around in amazement to thank whoever had just aided his "jailhouse" breakout. But no one was in sight.

"A miracle? I know the Lord works in mysterious ways, but heck! I don't reckon he'd K.O. these fellas just for me. But then again, maybe it was a winged angel. After all...."

So Duo looks up to where angels usually come from and finds one was indeed hovering above his head. More like an avenging angel who was hanging quite complacently upside down, with a thick shock of auburn brown hair standing straight down from his handsome face.

"So ya came to save me this time? Guilty conscience from a past mission, old buddy?" Duo sarcastically jibes as the superhuman acrobatic wall-crawler unhinges his agile legs from the ceiling overhang he was perched upside from.

Two muscular arms had, moments ago, snuck up from above and obviously kwashed the two guards' heads together.

Pretty good work if you can get it, Trowa, old boy.

"Yeah. Something like that, Duo." Trowa Barton's usually expressionless face was a joy to see any emotion on. And Duo Maxwell knew how to make even him smile.

"What time do you have?" As he lands feet first after a graceful flip down, Trowa's brief smile turns all serious. He was one man who could focus on what's most important in a mission.

And this one was full of important things.

"Uhhh....7:59 and uh....41, make that 42 seconds. We've got less than fifteen minutes to make this sucker fly. Do ya still think we can--?" Duo was prattling on as per usual, as he strips the two downed guards of their firepower and quickly slipknots their arms and legs. He gags their unconscious mouths as well. But just as he finishes the last gag around the man's head, the terrorist's own communicator flashes red, beeping to life with his commander's checking in voice.

"De Telos 24. Report."

Duo makes a cringing face as he looks to Trowa with gritted teeth. Trowa expertly attaches their own little black box to the unconscious man's com. It simulated his voice from prerecorded data as Trowa speaks calmly back into it.

"Prisoner's secure. All clear here. Over." Trowa states emotionlessly. A long second passes.

"De Telos 2. Over and out." Comes the reply. Duo sighs a big sigh in relief. He was sure glad level-headed Trowa was here to handle that so precisely.

"Let's thank Heero for this little gift." Duo whistles as he and Trowa exchange a nod. Both of them knew how to thank Heero Yuy.

Relena Darlian's kingdom needed rescuing and they were just the men for the job.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was getting pretty stuffy inside the drawing room---and Senator Dorothy Catalonia wasn't talking about the temperature.

Of all the cattle (Pardon me, Honored Guests) only she, Lady Anne and less than a handful of others being held hostage were even dreaming of a rescue attempt to save themselves. And Dorothy Catalonia didn't just dream---

She grabbed hold of her fate with both clawed hands.

"Why are we just sitting around?! We should be doing something about this! Not just twiddling our fingers!" Even the Senator's twiddling fingers were twitching as the same with every nerve ending in her reactionary body. And that didn't even begin to describe her evil eyebrows.

From where she stood, Dorothy had a plain view of the hostage takers serving as keepers of the sixty plus inhabitants of the room, and she still had enough boundless energy to question and "why" and "how", much to her captive audience's chagrin.

After all, what could they do about this situation? They were helpless, unarmed, untrained, mostly women and elderly group of normal citizens. And the ones willing to do something wouldn't put the rest of the room at risk.

Responsible hostess and peaceful leader Relena Darlian didn't want to find out.

"Dorothy. Please come and sit down. You'll only cause trouble for everyone by making a fuss." The pacifist that Relena Peacecraft was fearfully thinks of what these terrorists would do to these innocent hostages if Dorothy continues to stir their anger.

Even Relena could tell that the half-dozen guards watching them under threat of machine guns were having their short tempers no doubt worn thin by Dorothy Catalonia's annoying pacing up and down the room, along with her incessant demands to be set free, or for them to abide by the Fifth Geneva Convention's rule for proper treatment of hostage, and the like.

"Yes, I agree. The last thing we want to do is incite them now when their fervor is at a fever pitch. We've only twenty minutes or so before things start to happen. We must remain composed."

Elegantly....

The thought passes through her mind. Lady Anne who had somehow found her way through the crowd of hostages sits beside Relena Peacecraft Darlian. Little, wide-eyed and quiet Mariemaia Khushrenada sits on the other side of her. Lady Une feels the weight of the world again on her once unstable shoulders. And though she herself was here as an unwillng part of this hostage crisis problem, Colonel Une knew from experience that a solution was on its way. She just hoped and prayed they would get here on time as the clock continues to tick by.

The three on-off enemies/friends look deep into each other's eyes with the same sentiment of hope.