LETTERS FROM DUO
(Sidefic series
for the Death and the Dragon Arc)
By: Mel and
Christy
Warnings: Angst? Humour? Not
sure?
----------------------
Duo hit 'send', winging his email
off through cyberspace to Heero.
"Are you ready for me to stitch that cut
up yet, Duo?" Trowa asked quietly, carefully sitting on a campstool next to the
braided teen, pointedly motioning at the long, sluggishly bleeding slash on his
arm.
"Just a minute, Tro. I have to get a warning off to Wufei now. You
did warn Q, right?"
Trowa nodded and poked their tiny campfire. "Yes,
just after you finished bandaging me up like a mummy. Where did you learn
mummification, Duo? I don't believe that's part of a Gundam pilot's
curriculum."
Duo smiled in weak appreciation at Trowa's attempt at a
joke, and began typing.
----------
FROM:
Fifth_Horseman@Apocalypse.org
TO: Fang@Dragon.com
SENT: 14:03 October 3,
195AC
SUBJECT: Emergency
---message
begins---
Wu-man-
I'm not sure where you are, but whatever you do,
stay away from the safehouse in Reims. In fact- stay away from France. Hell,
STAY OUT OF EUROPE PERIOD!!! The whole damn continent is crawling with OZ.
Somehow, they found out we were there. They hit us in the middle of the night.
Trowa and I were asleep when the sensors I'd rigged up about three miles from
the house went nuts. Good thing we hadn't bothered to unpack. We got out, but
not without some damage. I managed to patch Trowa up; luckily, none of our
injuries are really serious. We made it to our Gundams, and are currently in the
Azores, waiting for Howard to pick us up.
The only thing we can figure is
that there's a leak somewhere. 'Scythe 'carried' Heavyarms once we got within
thirty miles of Reims, so there's no way they could have tracked us. We even
went north instead of west after we trashed that base, to try and throw them off
the trail. We've both gone over every possibility and can only come up with
'leak'.
I emailed G and Heero, and Trowa warned S and Quatre. Let O know,
okay? He might want to look into his network, just to be safe. We're not saying
there *is* a leak, but better safe than sorry.
Gotta run- Trowa wants to
stitch up my arm, now. I tried to tell him it doesn't need stitches, but I guess
he needs the practice. Yep, that's me, a practice dummy. Damn- see how low the
God of Death has fallen...
Take care and BE
SAFE!!!!
Duo
P.S. Quatre said if you need anything, he's at the
Sahara base, and they've just gotten a fresh load of ammo and other
supplies.
---message ends---
----------
* * * *
*
Wufei stiffened as he read Duo's email, expressions of fear and rage
mixed on his face and making him tremble. He controlled himself with an effort,
closing his eyes and breathing deeply, then forwarded the message to O,
minimised his email program and logged into O's computer network.
Eyes
narrowed, he began typing in searches, using O's links to the other doctors'
systems.
*This isn't really my area of expertise,* he thought
coldly, beginning to assemble a list of people who had had access to data about
the Reims safehouse and Duo's mission. *This is far more Heero's forte... but
knowing his priorities, I would estimate that he is checking for an electronic
tap first. If this is a short list--*
It was.
*Good. Now to
start narrowing it down.*
----------
"He could have at least
answered me," Duo grumbled, glaring at his silent laptop. He'd changed its
settings so it checked for new mail every minute, but there was still no word
from Wufei, two days after Duo had sent the warning.
"Perhaps he's just
maintaining communications silence," Trowa suggested calmly. "That sort of thing
is normal when you suspect a leak."
"Yeah, well, does he have to
be silent to us? I bothered to warn him, dammit, he could bother
to let me know he got it."
A soft chime interrupted any reply Trowa might
have been about to make, and Duo almost threw himself at his computer, wincing
as his stitches pulled, but not letting that slow him down. "Probably just Heero
again," he muttered sourly, "saying he still hasn't found-- Ha!
Finally!"
----------
FROM: Fang@Dragon.com
TO:
Fifth_Horseman@Apocalypse.org
SENT: 17:21 October 5, 195AC
SUBJECT: Re:
Emergency
---message begins---
Maxwell,
Consider the leak
plugged. I have attached a data file with the evidence that led me to him. If
you would warn Winner to expect me, I would appreciate it. I will be taking him
up on his resupply offer soon.
-Chang
P.S. Fang@Dragon.com? You've
finally come up with one that I don't mind.
***NOTE: The
'Fifth_Horseman' in Duo's email refers to the fifth Horseman Ronny in Terry
Pratchett's Discworld novel 'Thief of Time.' We (Mel & I) have decided that
G introduced Duo to the Discworld series, and both are huge fans... hence many
of Duo's email aliases will be based on them... and some will be silly, and some
will just be death & destruction related. All depending on Duo's (read
Christy's) mood at the time.