cozzybob (cozzybob) wrote in cozzybabbles, @ 2008-03-11 01:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | duo, howard, veteran |
[GW] Veteran 2
Veteran 2
Pair: Duo, Howard, OC's
Warning: mission-ness, the torture of old men
Note: For gw500's prompt, "foreign." Sequel to Veteran (can be read separately). I forgot how terrible I am at writing missions when doing this. Doh! Oh well. Practice makes perfect, as they say... sequel to Veteran. (And yes, it's a stand-alone. Hee!)
Summary: Duo finds Howard.
Of all the places to stash gundanium, why did it have to be Africa? And not even the bigger parts of Africa, but the desolate, somewhat tribal parts? Duo would've assumed the moon, or one of the colonies, or even Mars as a better place—but, no, it was this miserable war-ridden dot on the map clustered with mass graves and diseases of every known attribute running rampant among the children. When they saw Duo and his men come with guns, half of them didn't even bat an eye, and the other half ran to their homes and mud houses, refusing to come out until after the threat had passed.
He was sure the whole thing had something to do with the fact that Africa was the last place you'd expect to find gundanium in the first place—they probably had someplace in space to process it, but it must've been possible to build one on Earth if all the gundanium was already shaped and ready to build. You'd need one hell of a lot of pulleys, and some strong assed men, but it could be done, couldn't it?
Anyway, it was that, plus the fact that White Fang apparently had connections in the diamond trade, and Africa as a whole was a decent source of money for them. Gundanium was, after all, extremely expensive. Not to mention illegal.
“So what's the plan?”
The target was a massive underground complex that had been abandoned way back in the Alliance days, before the rise of OZ. The goal was to find any information on where the gundanium came from, destroy all other information, retrieve the gundanium and destroy the base. Simple, right?
“We split. Tom, Max, you're with me, we're getting the information. Cad—take Jess, Larson and Harriet, and plant the bombs. You know where, but leave the gundanium intact. Don't trip the alarms until we're ready. Mannie, Fred, Wilson—when Cad and I both give you the clear, disable anyone guarding the gundanium and secure it by any means possible. It should already be on a truck—they'd want to be able to leave in a hurry, which is why we have to be quick. Worse comes to worse, bring the whole building down on top of it, it isn't like the stuff is gonna suffer. We'll pick it out of the rubble later.”
“Gotcha,” Fred said, checking his cartridge. Cad nodded and mentally skimmed the blueprints of the building in his head, to decide the weakest points to bring the whole thing down. All of it was literally underground, so the blowing-up part was difficult... but Duo had faith Cad could do it. He was best the best demolitionist Duo had ever seen, sometimes surpassing even Duo's own abilities. It made for a lot of respect.
“Radio silence until the alarms are triggered. I want this as smooth as possible.”
With several nods, they departed to their positions. Duo, Max and Tom slipped passed the exterior defenses, into the underground facility.
**
Duo's fingers flew over the keyboard, unable to believe his eyes. “They've been using jewelery. Christ. No wonder we couldn't figure out where it was coming from.”
Max leaned over his shoulder and hummed negatively. It wasn't against the law to sell and purchase gundanium to be used in jewelry—it was all the rage after the war—but White Fang had to have purchased billions to get anywhere even close to the quantity needed to build a gundam. It had to be another mask, but it was obvious the jewelery companies were heavily involved. Why they hadn't considered it before... unless that had something to do with the diamond trade as well.
“Nevermind, I'm backing everything up. Tom, is the coast still clear?”
“Clear as bell, sir.”
“Good. Just give me two--” And there it was. Howard's picture, his name, and a cell number. Duo stood up, swearing.
“Sir...?”
How the fuck?
He didn't have time for explanations. He pulled out his gun and motioned back to the computer. “Finish it and leave. This just turned into a rescue mission.”
**
Howard was curled up on the floor in an old man ball when Duo found him. He couldn't believe his eyes—there was blood, wheezing, and a lot of rage, there. He shook with the intensity of it—someone was going to die.
Lucky for the tormentors, they'd vanished when the alarm finally hit, so Duo had yet to confront anyone. It took but thirty seconds to get the door unlocked and then he'd stood awe-struck at the balls it must've taken to hurt Howard this badly, knowing full well that someone would eventually find out about it.
But that was the thing. Duo hadn't a clue. He hadn't seen Howard in over a month, but he hadn't thought anything of it since they went through spurts in contact all the time. You'd think the Sweepers would've known something was wrong, but Howard loved to vanish into parts unknown even when he and Duo were talking, like a hobo wandering through the concrete jungles in search of Big Rock Candy Mountain. They'd probably just assumed he'd gone voluntarily and would show up again when he damn well felt like it. It was hard to tell Howard to stay in one place, to always assure them that he was fine.
They were just going to have to try harder.
Duo's knees slid across the floor as he rushed to Howard's side, a wavering, ginger hand hovering over a bony shoulder. Howard was barely conscious, a livid bruise forming on the left side of his face. Duo slapped his cheek a little, but Howard just groaned wearily and turned his face away. Duo sighed and wrapped the man's arm around his shoulder, lifting him up off the floor.
There was another groan, loudly this time. Howard's breath was hot, faintly smelling of oatmeal in his neck. “Fuck, mind the ribs.”
Duo nearly dropped Howard when he spoke—he was sure the old man was down for the count. He hefted Howard into a better position, and elicited yet more agonized grumbling.
“Sorry, old man, but getting out is numero uno right now. Shut up and let me rescue you.”
Howard let his head rest on Duo's shoulder, what gray hair he had left tickling his would-be rescuer's nose. Duo sniffled, annoyed. He trucked them both to the door.
“The hell 're we?”
“Africa.”
“The fuck we doin' 'n Africa?”
“Hell if I know. You're the one they captured. Technically, this is your fault.” Duo didn't have the heart to tell him they didn't come to rescue him.
Howard just laughed, choking when the agony sparked in his chest again. “In'it always?”
Duo was puzzled by the statement. Howard continued to laugh, sharp puffs of stale, hot air against his cheek. By the time they made it down the corridor, the pain of the laughter had knocked him unconscious again, and Duo pretended everything was back to normal.