CLOSE PROXIMITY

Chapter 12

Day Three 09:32

This time Heero pushed me to one side and made his way across the trailer first. He snatched up his gun from under the couch as he went, but the minute he opened the door we saw that this was no new sniper attack. The air outside was thick with smoke and dust; stones clattered across the ground around the trailer; people were coughing and shouting. I peered over Heero’s shoulder to see shadows in the drifting clouds – I could hear someone cursing. A dog was barking loudly, and it sounded like Dylan.

Junk’s bulk reared out of the mist, his hand wiping at his stained face.

“Max? You OK? What the fuck’s going on?”

“What about you?” I called back, knowing full well what was going on.

He waved a hand, dismissively. “It was under your trailer, man. Dylan’s been nosin’ around there for the last day or so. Whined all fuckin’ night, so I let him out early this morning. He pulled this bundle out from under your trailer, dragged it over t’ mine. Fuckin’ thing’s a bomb, I think. Just went off outside my steps, couple o’ my boys hurt –“

Heero had already left the trailer and had plunged into the smoke himself.

“Let him help!” I called. “Get everyone back; there may be more devices.” I started coughing myself. “Junk, tell me what the damage is.”

Junk moved forward out of the maelstrom, Dylan at his heels. The dog had a spray of dirt and dust along his coat, but he seemed healthy otherwise. I looked at him and he wagged his tail.

“Fuckin’ animal!” Junk announced proudly. “Saved your ass again, Max.” Then he caught sight of the wildness in my eyes and his enthusiasm calmed a bit. “OK, so it went off between the trailers, just smashed up the corner o’ mine and took the windows out o’ Zac’s. If it had gone off directly under yours, Max, we’d be pickin’ the bits o’ you out o’ the crap for weeks t’ come.” He looked at me curiously, and continued. “Zac’s girl was under one o’ the windows, got ‘er arm injured. Couple o’ my kids were hangin’ round having an early morning smoke behind the trailer and caught the flying metal from mine. Just scratches on ‘em, and serves ‘em right, ‘cause they’re too fuckin’ young to be smokin’ anyway. The old ‘uns are scared but they’re fine, so’s the baby, and if you can let Sheri know all her sisters’re OK –“

“Sheri?” I stared at him, my mind racing.

“Ain’t you in touch with ‘er?” he asked. His expression was both puzzled and wary. “Some message came that she was helpin’ y’out –“

I stared at him. Behind him, Heero strode back into view, his hair dusty, a single streak of dirt along his cheek. The swirling cloud of smoke and fine debris was slowly settling. He caught my eye and nodded. “I’ve checked the rest of the nearby trailers – no further problems,” he said, curtly, but I understood perfectly. This one device was meant to have done the trick. He turned back to help with the injuries and the clearing up. I stepped out of the trailer and drew Junk to one side.

“Who gave you the message about Sheri?” I tried to keep my voice calm, but Junk’s eyes narrowed.

“Where is she, Max? Is she in fuckin’ trouble?”

“I don’t know,” I said, honestly. “She visited me after the shooting, you were there then. Heero said she called in later, too, but I was out of it for a while. Neither of us has seen her since. Tell me what you know and it’ll all be fine.”

He glared at me like he didn’t believe a word. Not sure I did myself. The first signs of concern were glinting in his eyes, but he spoke quickly and concisely to me. “She took that cockroach off the site early yesterday afternoon, that kid who was around at the shootin’. He was messin’ about around here for fuckin’ ages, scared of Dylan so he said, so she said she’d take ‘im to ‘is car. Then I got a message she was going t’ go help out with somethin’ else, somethin’ you’d asked from ‘er, she’d be back later on.” He saw the questions in my wide eyes. “No, she never came back last night, though that ain’t unusual – she goes ‘er own way, y’know? And no, I can’t remember who gave me the fuckin’ message about ‘er. Someone on the site – they’d heard it from someone, who’d heard it someplace else. You know how it is. Didn’t come t’ check it with you, because y’ were hurt, and – well, because it was a job o’ yours. I know she has this sorta soft spot for you; I reckoned she’d be OK.”

Heero came back over, hugging a grimy bundle of cloth in his arms. We both turned to look at it. “The dog found this under the trailer alongside the device,” he said, glancing down at Dylan who stood patiently beside Junk. The Rottweiler’s dark eyes stared up at Heero’s – seemed like they sized each other up, and neither was found wanting. Heero unwrapped the cloth and we all stared at the scorched remains of a rifle.

“Guess that’s the one that got me,” I said quietly. Heero met my eyes and nodded.

“Tell me what the fuck’s goin’ on, Max!” Junk’s voice was full of fury, but fear too. “I’ll search for Sheri myself! Just tell me where the hell t’ start –“

I turned to him and grasped his shoulder. He looked startled at my expression, like he’d never seen me properly before. “We’ll find her, you hear me? And she’ll be OK.” I know I sounded fierce. I was damned angry myself – as angry as the girl’s father.

“You swear she will?” he said. I saw Heero looking at us both, his face creased with worry.

“I swear!” I said. I pushed him gently away, though it’d take a strong man to propel Junk in any direction he didn’t want to go. “Go and see to the others and leave Heero and me to sort this out. Heero, is that right -?”

He stepped up beside me. “That’s right.”

*

Day Three 15:52

We were sitting back in my trailer. The explosion hadn’t alerted any emergency services, and no-one had come to the park to see what had happened. Guess there’d been so many awkward things that had happened there in the past, it had cured the city neighbours of their natural curiosity. A few of the residents had suggested they call the police, but after Junk and his family had talked to them, no-one on the park wanted to draw any more attention to themselves.

The sounds outside had quieted down and the worst of the wreckage had been cleared away. I’d spent several hours alongside Junk’s family shifting rubbish and sweeping up the mess. By now, the panic had subsided, and some of the kids were already playing with the last bits of twisted metal and odd knobs and handles that had been blown off doors. I could hear parents yelling at them to leave that stuff alone, and the rumble of Phil’s flatbed truck as he continued to roll round the site picking up the debris and discussing repairs over a beer or two.

Occasionally I heard Dylan bark. It was a reassuring sound, and maybe he meant it to be.

My bandage had come loose with the activity, and I was redressing it. I hadn’t been able to do a lot of the heavy lifting, but the wound was healing well and my arm felt fairly strong again. I looked across at Heero. “How are the injured?” I asked.

“Fine,” he said. He’d just returned from another round of the nearby trailers, and he still shed a little dust with every step. He’d spent all his time since the explosion with the people on the park, helping them all to clear up, seeing to any remaining shock or wounds. He was good at that, if a bit abrupt, but I reckon that’s what they needed at the moment. “The girl’s arm is good, and I swabbed a few more cuts and bruises; they’ve fetched Hans the doctor again too, so he’ll take over now. One of Junk’s sons had a bad gash on his leg, so I checked on that, and another had a cut on his side. He’s only about ten; he was shocked, too – wailed a lot.”

“I didn’t hear him –“

Heero grimaced; it was half a smile. “I showed him my scar in return – he was quiet after that. All the youngsters were pretty interested in it, actually. It took their mind off the drama.”

I gazed at him, and let the smile linger for a while. “What does everyone think happened? I don’t want them drawn into this any further.”

He sighed. “They think it’s some random act of vandalism, but a few of them know it’s connected to you – to us. Some of the guys further around the park want you thrown off. Junk’s spoken to them and calmed them down. I – well, I spoke to some of them, too. I assured them it was in hand, and all the damage would be made good.”

Huh? He flushed as I stared.

“I’ll reimburse them. Maybe the Department will, or maybe this’ll end up a personal debt. Either way, I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“You don’t need to do that,” I stammered.

He smiled. “Can you afford to help out yourself, then?”

I winced. “You know I can’t. I’ll find some other way to help, then. They’ve been good to me here.”

He nodded. “Have you got through to the others yet?”

I shook my head impatiently. “No. The hospital is constantly engaged, which I can understand, but I can’t reach any of the others either. There just doesn’t seem to be any good reception.”

“None of them? They should all be at the hospital by now.”

I met his puzzled eyes with my own. “None of them.”

He swore out loud. “Duo, we have to think this through. Who’s behind it all? It’s not Quatre - of course it’s not - but a lot of our clues still remain. He’s been the least targeted – he holds the most information. He has access to all the systems, is involved in most of Relena’s decision making at some stage or another. His involvement was feasible enough for me to consider it, even while I didn’t want to believe it. He holds so many keys…”

“Or his department does.”

He stared at me. “Not him specifically, then?”

“No,” I said slowly. I’d been doing some more thinking while he’d been out and about on his Flying Doctor missions. Hell of a lot more thinking. “Consider someone with a similar access to equipment and services – but who doesn’t have Quatre’s security clearance or his intelligence. Someone who’d have to dig a little deeper and a little more messily to try to find out more information about the Project Team, but could do it if he was determined.”

Heero’s body stilled and his voice sharpened. “Someone who wanted to keep tabs on us all but didn’t need to gather much information about Quatre himself –“

I nodded. “Yeah - because he was the one person they could watch from the inside.”

Heero’s face was darkening. He sat next to me on the couch like a coiled spring, staring ahead of him. I remembered this concentration of his so well; I wanted to reach over and brush the wisps of cobweb from his hair. “Someone who made us fish for these red herrings, Duo, who led us to suspect our own colleague, set traps for us and kept us on the wrong foot for days, while trying to isolate and attack the team members.”

“With variable success,” I said, dryly. “You might say someone a little naïve, not very experienced in our ways. But with a determination that’s still fucking dangerous.”

Heero ran a hand over his eyes and sighed. His expression was dark with sorry realisation. “And I let him go.”

There was a short silence.

I grimaced. “He was good, Heero. I believed him too. He looked too scared, too pathetic to be the real danger. I knew there was something out of place, but I didn’t follow up on my instincts. Anyway, we didn’t find the gun on him –“

“Because he hid it under the trailer before Dylan caught him. Along with setting another bomb.”

“I reckon he had time to set the bomb before he even tried to shoot me; we never found any evidence on him of any explosive stuff. Maybe the shooting was extra insurance for him – or just a diversion, in case we found the bomb too early. I don’t know – little bastard was always a poor shot, you said.” I took a deep breath, calming my anger.

“No-one sent him here officially,” said Heero, miserably. “That should have alerted me from the start. But it was his nervous behaviour that made me start to wonder about Quatre, actually –“

“I think that’s what you were meant to do,” I said, gently. “He’s been clumsy, but he’s not a complete fool. Damned good actor, at the very least. We both fell for it. He seemed to be a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all.”

“Fuck it.” Heero groaned. “The dog knew more than I did.”

I shrugged, but I smiled a little too. “You’re right. Dylan didn’t like Greg from the start, even when they first brought you here. God knows how Greg got him and the other dogs off the site yesterday morning, leaving the coast clear for him. And then Junk brought Dylan back, nearly catching Greg in the act, but just that little bit too late for us to realise it. But Dylan’s been dog-nosing around the trailer ever since…”

“Maybe he saw Greg hide the gun, or plant the bomb. Hell, he was still keeping watch, even as we let Greg run back off home to the Department. Remember? Junk said the kid couldn’t get off the site without help.” He must have felt me tense up beside him, because he turned to me at last. “Do you think he has Sheri?”

“I know he does,” I said grimly. “She’s his hostage.”

“Any idea where?”

“I think she’s probably being held back at the hideout that Trowa found.” He frowned, but I continued. “Yeah, Trowa said it looked like it’d been cleared out. But that’d be all the more reason to go back to it, thinking we’d dismissed it, thinking the trail was cold.”

“One of those double bluffs I joked about earlier.” Heero sounded really pissed.

“Uh-huh. At our expense, this time.”

He put out a hand to me, then, laid it on my arm. It was a consoling, comradely gesture, and one I never thought I’d feel again. I wished I had time to appreciate it, you know? “She’s special to you, Duo, I know. Will we go get her?”

“Damn straight we will!” I growled. “I don’t know what this guy has against us, but as soon as I can get hold of Tro and find where this fucking place was –“

Then the cell phone rang again.

I glared at it. “That phone hasn’t brought us any good news for a while, Heero.”

“It could be one of the Team at the hospital, calling you back. Relena must be there now.”

I reached for it and flipped it open.

*

The voice on the line was the last one I’d thought to hear.

“Duo? Are you OK? I didn’t know … who might answer this number…”

I flicked on the loudspeaker again so that Heero could hear as well. “You mean, whether I’d been blown into enough pieces to sparkle in the heavens or not? No, I survived. Heero too – he’s making a fucking habit of rising from the ashes of various explosions. Guess someone might be really pissed at that, don’t you think – Quatre?”

The voice at the other end sighed with genuine relief. “Thank God. He said the trailer would be destroyed by now – but I was to check whether this line was still operational. Whether there were any loose ends to tie up.”

I could just about measure how mad I felt about being called a ‘loose end’. “Who said? You mean Greg?”

“Yes.” Quatre didn’t ask any of that unnecessary nonsense, like ‘How did you find out’, ‘What final clue led you to the perp’, or anything like that. We weren’t in any fictional detective story here. Heero’s eyes had brightened, and he pressed up against me to listen in more carefully.

“Where are you, Quat?” I said, urgently.

“I can’t say.” Quatre’s voice was guarded. “Greg wants to speak to you.” His next word was almost a whisper. “Trowa?”

“He’s safe,” I quickly said back. I heard a soft exhalation of breath on the other end. “Does he have you covered, Quat?”

“Yes.” He started to speak quickly. “I followed some clues in Trowa’s notes to try to find him, to try to find what was going on, but I had no time to let him know what I’d found - who I’d found. Don’t try anything rash; you must protect yourselves! I’ll sort it out somehow –“ His voice broke off abruptly, as if the phone had been snatched from his hand. I could have done with knowing some clue as to where he was, what state Greg was in, what weapons he had – whatever. Quatre Winner was another guy who didn’t spend too much time out in the field.

I felt chilled inside at the thought of what Greg might be doing with him.

“Duo Maxwell?”

I recognised the young voice, of course. There was less of a whine underlying it than before. “Let him and the girl go, Greg, and then we can talk, OK?”

There was some scuffling noise at the other end, and the voice sounded very angry. “Not OK. Not OK at all. You should be under rubble by now. You and your partner. All of you. I’m not letting anyone go until this is all finished properly.”

“What is it you want, Greg?” I noticed that Heero was leaving me to do the negotiation, which was fine by me. I’d have liked to take the kid and rip his head off, nice and slowly and with a side order of spicy relish, but fuck, that’d maybe have to wait. “Why are you doing this?”

He declined to answer that, which was only to be expected. “Shut the fuck up. I’d have let you bleed to death in that shithole you live in; I don’t know why Yuy didn’t get out then, why he stuck around you. But it’s all the better for me, I guess, because now I’ve got you two in one place, everyone else in another. And now I have some bargaining chips to keep you there.”

“Let them go, Greg,” I repeated. “They’re no good to you. The girl – well, she’s expendable of course - she’s nothing to us.” I hoped I kept the tension out of my voice. “And Quatre… he knows what it’s like; he’s just an agent. He knows he’s on his own.”

I heard the indignation flaring in his tone. “That’s fucking typical of you – of all of you! - dismissing him like that. He’s the one who keeps it all rolling, the one who keeps the rest of you morons in line!”

I glanced at Heero and raised an eyebrow. Greg’s aggressive language sat oddly with our perception of the kid we’d previously thought of as respectful and timid. And, basically, ineffectual. I spoke back into the phone as calmly as I could. “He thinks highly of you, Greg; we all know that. Why don’t you let him go, then, and he can speak for you?”

But he wasn’t going to fall for that. Wasn’t I the one who said he wasn’t a complete fool?

“I’ll speak for myself, Maxwell. You can both stay there until I call on you. I have things to say to you in person.”

I could feel Heero tensing beside me. Would Greg come here? It could be of advantage to us if he did. Despite all that, I put the edge of a whine into my voice. “Why the fuck should we stay here? You might have all kinds of other stuff planned, and we’re not sitting here like fairground targets to get blown up again –“

He gave a low growl of disgust. “There’s nothing more. You’ll have to believe me, won’t you? Or will you take the risk?”

I looked at Heero who mouthed at me, “The blast under the trailer was low quantity. Maybe he’s used up all his explosives – or is using them somewhere else.”

“The hospital?”

“No,” he hissed back. “Too big a target, too difficult to find them all together. But I just don’t know. It sounds like he’s changing his plans on an hourly basis –“

“Maxwell?” The voice on the end of the phone called me back. “I’ll be there, don’t you worry. But if I don’t find you there I’ll have to leave another calling card. Maybe another person will lose limbs – another person will learn what it’s like to be shit scared and desperate. And get those fucking dogs away from the site, too. If there’s anything that smells of a trap, or any kind of obstruction –“

“We’ll stay here,” I said, quickly. “Don’t get hysterical. You’ll bring them both with you – Quatre and Sheri?”

“Maybe,” he said. He didn’t like me talking to him like a kid. “Maybe not.”

“Greg,” I said. “That’s fine. Chill. Aren’t you worried we’ll call in some back-up, though? If you can’t give me any idea of when you’re coming –“

And he laughed. Loudly, and with a rather pleasantly melodic tone. “Do what you like, Maxwell. You’ll see it’s all useless. In the meantime, I’ll be there when I’m there. Any trouble – well then, you’ll see just who I might have with me. You understand?”

The call ceased. I turned to Heero.

“Is he insane?” said Heero, frowning. “To come and meet us here? Warning us he’s on his way? He could have got clean away; he could have tried some other remote attack again. Not knowing we were on to him –“

I held up a hand, quieting him. “Yes, I believe he’s nuts, but not in the way we can measure. He wants to see us for some reason – he wants us all to be here together. He wants his day in court.”

Heero still looked confused. “What did he mean – another person might lose limbs, another person might learn what it’s like to be scared and desperate? He can’t mean us, surely…”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. He must think Wufei is still likely to lose his leg, or something like that. He hopes he’s ruined that life, if nothing else. I don’t know what he’s thinking about the rest of us.”

“How long do we have? I mean, will he be here in the next ten minutes?”

I shrugged, but when he protested I held up a hand. “OK, so obviously I don’t know, but that’s the idea, isn’t it? To unsettle us and keep us on tenterhooks. But I heard planes in the near background – he’s close to the airport, and that’s almost an hour across town. And at this time of day, he really would be nuts to cross the traffic. I reckon he’ll come early evening, when there’s darkness and less chance of witnesses.”

“So there could be time to get to the hospital and back…”

I took hold of his shoulder then and stared carefully into his face. I could see the plans rolling around in his brain. Here was a guy who was created for field work, right? “Maybe there would be time, Heero. But I’m not going to risk it. Not for Quatre, not for Sheri. If you want to try it, go ahead, and I’ll cover for you. But I’m staying here until Greg comes, and I’m going to find out what the fuck this is all about. I’m going to get Sheri and Quatre back and then – then – I’m going to beat the holy crap out of this kid.”

Heero looked back at me and I wondered if he’d chew me out for it, for not considering other options, for just sitting back and waiting for trouble to come to us, for – well, for not being him.

But he didn’t.

“Right,” he said, nodding. “Good call. We stay here. But we’ll wait together. I can rig up some early warning system here, and I can see what weapons we might be able to get around us. We won’t be sitting ducks, if and when he turns up.” He turned from my raise eyebrows and flipped open the phone again. “We can still call Relena, ask for cover. We must be able to get through by now –“

He shook the cell phone, peered at the screen, held it up to the window.

“No signal, huh?” I said. “No coverage – no connection. Your phone’s gone the same way as the others. Of course! I understand what’s happened now.” Heero was frowning at me, puzzled. I wanted to laugh, but I was just too fucking angry. “You know what he’s done? He’s cut them off! The guy works in procurement; his department – Quatre’s department - pays the bills. How easy is it for him to cancel the contracts, cut off the communications – just like that? How fucking obvious, how fucking mundane.” I was shaking my head, half impressed. “Until we find alternative lines or set up proper radio contact, we’re out of touch with each other. It’s so simple that it hurts. He’s living in a thriller of his own mind’s making – and dragging us in after him.”

Heero stared. “But he’s working alone, Duo. We can take him out, no trouble. He’s unprepared for all this – none of us were meant to survive his remote attacks, he’s been very naïve. He’s having to make it up as he goes along –“

“But that’s what makes him dangerous!” I snapped back, and saw him flinch. “I have to think this through before he arrives. I think he has Quatre under some duress, and God knows what he’s done with Sheri. It’s not a matter of just jumping the kid when he turns up and handcuffing him. You have to realise the danger of unpredictability – of irrationality. I underestimated it once before, and I’ve regretted that ever since.”

Heero’s face darkened. “You’re going on about it again. The mission – “

“No,” I said, firmly. “I’m learning from it at last.” I stared steadily at him until I saw some acceptance flicker in his eyes. We both glanced together at the door out of the trailer.

“So we need to evacuate the site,” said Heero. “And fast.”

*

Day Three 16:25

Junk was arguing with Heero – it would have been amusing to watch if I hadn’t been so tense about the coming hours. I stood in the doorway of my trailer and watched them standing at the foot of Junk’s front steps. Dylan stood between them, looking from one to the other and panting softly.

Most of Junk’s family were filing out past them, carrying small bags of overnight things, smoking or muttering. Or both. Two of the younger girls looked over to me – one of them had a tear-streaked face. I gave them a half smile and a thumbs-up.

“You have to go,” repeated Heero for about the fifth time.

“Fuckin’ don’t,” said Junk, bluntly. “Don’t have t’ do a fuckin’ thing you say. You’re some punk that Max hooked up with and you know squat about this place. This is my world, she’s my daughter, and I go my own fuckin’ way.”

I stepped down from my trailer and went over to them. “You have to go, Junk, like the man says.” He glared at me, ready to protest again, but I spoke again, quickly. “We don’t want anyone else to get hurt, you know? You must trust us to help Sheri - this is our world now. Anyway, I need your help.”

“Huh?” He looked back and forth between us, full of angry suspicion. His head was a ridiculous mirror of Dylan’s, except without the long panting tongue.

“We need to contact our other friends, but Heero’s cell has just – died.”

Junk shrugged dismissively. “How many’d you want? Phil has a box of ‘em –“

“No,” I said. “Our friends’ cells aren’t active either – at least for a while.” I sighed, wondering how much to tell him.

“So you need a radio,” he said.

I looked up, startled, and stared into his shrewd eyes. I nodded. “Well, yeah, that’d be great, just what we could use.” I looked at Heero, who nodded too.

“Trowa will have radio contact,” he said. “Wherever he is, and particularly if the cells are out of action. I know the frequency. We just need some equipment.”

Junk laughed, a short bark. “If there’s one thing Phil has, it’s equipment. I’ll take you to him and we can see what you need.” He snapped his head to one side, indicating for Heero to follow him to the nearby trailer.

“Then you’ll both leave the site for the night,” I said.

Junk looked back at me, and his smile was strained. “Sure. It’s up to you then, Max.”