Before I forgot!! The holy disclaimer!!
Well... I only own my hamster... And he doesn't own GW either... Sob...
 
 
 

Trick-riding
 
 
 
 
 
 

Chapter VI : Operation Sethi.
 
 
 

            Quatre stirred as the sound of something beeping insistantly in his office, he kissed his sleeping angel slightly on the temple, before taking a robe and walking stealthily towards the room he had sweared Dorothy not to enter for the next twelve hours. He picked up as silently as possible the small vid-com, to find an exhausted and worried Relena on line.

"Hello... I know it's late but... I just wanted to know if you have any idea of what we're going to do..." She whispered.

"No... But I'll be there." Quatre said soothingly.

She stared at him in silence for a few minutes, then her voice cracked, and sobs escaped her lips. "Quatre... I'm... So tired!" She whimpered, tears rolling down her cheeks, falling on her chest with each shaky sob.
 

Shaolin greeted the cheese-pepperoni-mozarella-pineapple pizza with an animalistic growl, while Midii simply stared at it blankly, lost in her thoughts.

"Mwidwii-chwan? Myou dwon't eawt?" Shaolin managed between her third beer and her fourth piece of pizza.

"Shao... I really betrayed him... Didn't I?" Midii sighed playing with the cheese on her pizza.

Shaolin swallowed with a certain lack of distinction, before answering, "You did... But you knew it from the start, eh?"

"But I didn't want to!" Midii whined.

"Oh. Warning. You love him." Shaolin stated, staring at Midii with a deadpan face.

"No... It's not about that... I mean..."

"You love him."

"Shall we ask for the desserts now?" Midii groaned in exasperation.

"You're no fun  you kn... Hey! that guy forgot his suitcase!" Shaolin suddenly bawled. Standing up to catch him.

Midii couldn't help but smile at her antics. She had just stole something like 2,6 millions dollars in a bank, and now, she was willing to give a stranger his suitcase back... Shao...

Strangely enough, the man didn't turn back despite the cherry-haired monster enthusiastic yells and disappeared quickly. Shaolin walked towards Midii, still holding the suitcase. "Maybe there's his name on it and we cou..." Her voice faltered and her features took her professional mask. "I... I know that smell..."

Midii looked up at her questioningly, and understood in a fraction of second. "Everybody out the restaurant!!! There's a bomb!!"

The next seconds were a blur. Fortunatly enough, the small dinner was almost empty, and it was totally when the explosion resounded. The restaurant disappeared in a dark smoke, pierced by blinding burst of flames, and when they finally got up, fragments of glass, stone, food and metal lay scattered on the sidewalk.

Midii rubbed her sore back and took a circular look at the disaster, nobody seemed badly injured, but some people obviously needed a doctor. She turned to find Shaolin, sprawled in a similar way on the ground, staring angrily at something red on the sidewalk.

"Hey... That was my pizza!" The young girl yelled, resenting all the injustice of her situation. She smelled one of the wrecks surrounding them. "C4... Geeezz!! What kind of sicko plays with explosives like that?!"

"Ask him." Midii retorted, shifting her gaze to a lonely figure watching the scene from the other side of the street.

They immediatly got up and ran as fast as their bodies would allow it. He had already disappeared in the back alleys of a huge line of buildings, but they knew the slums, Midii thought, and he obviously didn't. No man in his right mind would dare to hang around at such an hour in such a place...

After a few minutes of hide and seek between tottery stairs and gloomy by-streets, came the occasion. A cul-de-sac*.

"Hey... Don't freak out... We were just eating a pizza... I don't even have a single hand-grenade with me..." Shaolin began.

"We just wanna know why you did... This." Midii finished.

The man eyed the two girls warily, from the terror they could read in his eyes, it was easy to tell he was no expert. He didn't even have a gun, if he had, they knew they would have been already dead. He had probably just been ordered to put the suitcase there. But there was a strange determination in his frightened eyes. Somehow, they both felt that he had truly believed in what he had done... Suddenly, his gaze became unfocused, his movements shaky, he didn't seem to try to escape anymore.

"Hey! Don't pass out on us!" Shaolin bawled.

"I don't think he is passing out, Shao..." Midii said, gesturing to the unmistakable drool that was escaping his lips.

"Shit! A cyanide pill!" Shaolin hissed, shaking the jerking and dying body.

"What could have been so important... That he was ready to sacrify himself?" The blonde wondered.

"It has something to do with us... I could bet my eyes!" Her associate growled as she started to fumble in his pockets. "Empty... empty!" She shouted in frustration.

"Cool down..." Midii said, before her eyes met a single paper that had escaped his jacket. "What's that?" Further examination revealed that it was a canteen card.

"Is there still money on his account?" Shaolin jocked, 'playfullness' replacing anger.

"No... But we get the jackpot anyway..." Midii retorted absently, observing the small pink plastic card attentively.

"I'm hanging to your lips."

"Our guest is called, or was called, Eliot Sloan, he works... worked, in the research department of the NorwayTech labs, international sector, and... Eeeew... He ate chocolate recently." Midii explained holding the card with the very tip of her fingers.

They drove along the deserted streets, before finally stopping in front of an impressive building. Most of it's structure was metallic, the surface was covered with glass, and some well positionned spotlights gave the whole thing an eerie aspect. They gazed at each other in a religious silence, waiting for each other to mouth it. It was Midii who did. "So... I guess if the answers exist... They're here. Shall we go, Milady?" She said laughingly.

Shaolin considered the edifice for a while before answering. "Well... It's a civilian building... Labs... Probably a high security level in the research department itself, but I guess we could access his office easily... I know I'm gonna regret this. Let's go!" She sighed.

As expected, after having won against the Winner bank security systems, the NorwayTech labs seemed a joke, and the light equipment they kept in the boot had been enough to coax some positive reaction from the locked doors without disturbing a fat keeper, sprawled in front of an ageless TV set. They crept silently across the corridors, Shaolin stole a chocolate in a box that had been foolishly forgot on a desk, and, eventually... "Here we are... Mr Sloan..." Midii whispered. "But there's a lock."

"No panick!" Shaolin retorted, taking of her strangely shaped earring. What could look for the ordinary observant like a sole, black earring, constituted of thin black and silvery metal sticks, was actually a very efficient way of 'chatting' with the reluctants locks, when one doesn't have the key... The door gave in after a few seconds of struggling, and Midii immediatly began to fumble everywhere, while Shaolin sat at the computer with a demonish grin.

"Okay..." The cherry-haired girl said, "All their units are part of an intranet... From his computer, I can reach any other one! What are we looking for?" She asked Midii, smiling widly.

"Dunno... Type our names." Midii answered, eyeing a pile of files tossed in a corner.

"Nothing about us!" Shaolin groaned, after a few minutes.

Midii frowned and her eyes fell on a blue and yellow portfolio, with something printed on it. She picked it up, only to find that it was empty, however, the inscription triggered something in her mind, Group W. "Look..." She said, handing the object to Shaolin.

She gazed at it questioningly. "Group W? Group Winner?? That's not their logo... as far as I'm concerned... Besides, it's 'Winner corp, not  Group Winner!" Shaolin observed, cocking an eyebrow.

"Maybe... Type 'Winner'!" Midii asked, not knowing exactly why, but led by the intuition that he had, somehow, something to do with all that...

"Aaaaah!" Shaolin grinned evilly. "Gotcha!"

Midii leaned on her associate's shoulder to discover an endless list of files. "What do they do with this?" She questionned.

"I don't know... But some files require a password, and they're all in the boss's computer." Shaolin hissed.

"Do you think you can do a miracle?" Midii whispered, "We can't stay here forever!"

"I know! Just wait..." She murmured nervously. Suddenly, her breath got caught in her throat, as she stared at the computer in sheer rage. "I... I can't believe it!! It's unfaaaaaiiiirrrr!!!" She whined.

"What is it now?"

"That was a dirty trick... The files are copied in his computer, but he can only access them by connecting to another server.... I've never seen such a system... I can do nothing with this! I need to use his computer." Shaolin explained.

"He needs somebody to allow him to access them? But.. Who??" Midii asked, a bit puzzled.

"I don't know... But we'll find out!" Shaolin said, before lunging at the stairs. "You, go and take care of the keeper, we'll need complete calm to do this!" She murmured, before disappearing.

"O... Kay." Midii said... To the walls, ever so slightly dumbfounded.

A drugged keeper, two cranky locks, an unbelievable password and a few cold sweats later...

"The name of his wife? How original..." Midii yawned.

"When I'm old and rich, I'll write an anthology of the dumbest passwords..." Shaolin sighed.

"I'll help you... Anyway! What do we have?" Midii retorted.

"I'm in!! But they won't take long to catch us, gimme a disk... Anything! And print everything we can get, we'll read later!"

"Hey... What's going on?!" Midii inquired, worry obvious in her voice as she pointed to the various warnings appearing on the screen.

"They found we were connected, we're caught!" Shaolin hissed, biting her lower lip, "They're deleting the files... Oh pleeeeaaase... Copy faster!"

The screen went blurry and Midii took off the disk as the connection warnings disappeared, letting an empty computer. "Maybe we should leave now... They probably located us..."

Her suspicions were confirmed, when, as they sit in the car and tried to catch their breath, they watch two black berlines stop in front of the building. They quickly left, not exactly wanting to know why those cars had suddenly appeared...

"Pheeeww... What do we do, now?" Shaolin sighed, as the car stop at a red light.

"We can't go back to the appartment... If somebody wants to kill us, and if that somebody found us twice already, there is probably a committee waiting for us there..." Midii said, contemplating the small disk. "We have to find a place to read it!"

"I... I had never thought I would say that, some day, but... Midii, let's go to the library!" Shaolin giggled.

"...?" Midii's only answer was an interrogative stare.

"I mean, they have computers!"

"We never stop breaking in, do we?" Midii smirked.

At that precise moment, the radio which Shaolin had been playing with for a while announced some news flash. Her first and usual reflex was to change the station, preferably for some good music, but the speaker's first words got them hooked.

'A new victim of the growing urban violence : Tonight, in the Queens, a 34 years old employee of the NorwayTech Labs has been savagely murdered by three teenagers. Eliot Sloan was married and the father of a two three years old twins. The company made no comment about his death, but will ensure that he receive proper funerals.
Politics : As expected, the Cotswolds lodge meeting led to an economical shism in the Sank Kingdom. Numerous powerful trusts have made public their decision to stop all transactions with Sank, Handicaping severely the process of the frontiers supression, initiated by the vice-foreign minister Peacecraft. However, the Winner Corp have reiterated its complete support of her action, and the young president, Quatre Winner has reaffirmed that "no base money issue should threaten the peace."'

The youngs girls blinked at each other. Then blinked again. Now, something was definitely wrong. When they reach the deserted public library, it was almost one o'clock in the morning, however, their impatience made up perfectly for their lack of sleep. Breaking in was a mere formality, but, strangely enough, the events of the night had led them to fear that they would be caught at any instant. Shaolin found that her fingers were slightly trembling when she pushed the disk in the computer, and she could tell it wasn't only from the ambient cold.

"Okay..." She whispered, munching a sweet she had found in Midii's pocket, "What do you hide..."

"Did we manage to copy a lot?" Midii asked, shivering too.

"Most of the files are incomplete, but one thing is sure, they're all related to the same thing : The server we hacked was a private one, it seems to belong to somebody or something called 'Kyûseishu'*." Shaolin explained, gesturing to the files appearing on the screen.

"And what are they about?" The blonde inquired, leaning closer.

"This one is about that weird 'Group W'... And there is something about a 'Sethi'..." Shaolin answered.

"You can open them?"

"Your wish is my command!" The cherry-haired girl grinned.

The file was actually a simple plan of the structure of a group, but, despite it's simplicity, it was perfectly self-explanatory...

"The son of a bitch..." Shaolin laughed nervously.

"That's what I call making money..." Midii gasped.

"Sooo... Now we know that the powerful Winner Corp, that we thought were one of the richest company on earth and in the colonies, is only part of another structure, way more important..."

"The Group W... Ten holdings belonging to the same man, each one weighing billions, that guy owns the world, Shao..."

"And when the poppa died, he divided the group and placed ten bearers bond in an eleventh holding, in Panama, a sort of ghost society in a fiscal paradise..." Shaolin remarked.

"The good son retrieves the bearer bonds, and that's how you inherit of an empire beyond imagination..." Midii smirked.

"Without paxing a single tax! The succession tax would have dissolved the group... so Winner Corp is a facade, the smallest bit of the iceberg..." Shaolin finished.

"What a bastard... we should have taken more money in his bank!" Midii chuckled.

"Sure..." Shaolin sighed, while opening the second file.

Their merry faces soon disappeared however, as the containt of the file appeared.

"Oh."

"Shit."

Midii's feature took an expression of sheer terror when, amidst the name on the list, she saw her name, Shaolin's, but, most of all, Trowa's.

"These people... I mean, we, are the... Targets?" Shaolin stuttered, shocked too.

"Operation Sethi... Did you notice? Apart from us, those guys are all Gundam pilots!!" Midii squeaked.

"Which leads back to us, who were asked to steal the plans of two Gundams..." Shaolin frowned. "But I still don't get the point in this mess..."

"I think I do..." Midii said, closing her eyes in concentration. "remember what they say on the radio?"

"About that peacecraft girl being dumped by all those trusts?" Shaolin's eyes widened.

"Yeah... If I remember well, the NorwayTech was one of those... Let's imagine that they're all somehow linked to that 'Kyûseishu' thing, they all try to pin the Sank by removing their money and stopping all their investments, but there is still the Group W, eh?"

"Yes... So it doesn't work!" Shaolin retorted, still a bit puzzled.

"But the Winner brat doesn't have kids! So, if he dies, the Group is blasted to smithereens, because the system they created to inherit implies a son, and old enough, at that!" Midii went on, jumping in enthusiasm.

"So... When he's dead... The Sank is helpless?" Shaolin inquired.

"Yes! And what do you do with an helpless kingdom?"

"I conquer it..." Shaolin answered with a malevolent smirk.

"And what do you conquer it with?" Midii added, waving her finger.

"I know!!! A Gundam!!" Shaolin yelled in glee.

"But..." Midii remarked.

"I need to eliminate all the pilots before I do, to ensure the success of my Coup d'état!" She finished, in awe.

"Those guys are definitely more subtle than any Mariemaïa or Dekim Barton..." Midii sighed heavily.

As realization dawned, a shadow fell over Midii's eyes, reflecting the strange and overwhelming guilt she felt. Shaolin noticed it, as she was ranting madly about leaving for the Bahamas or Kwala Lumpur, and she understood immediatly.

"I guess I could say that there's no way I'm doing it... But I'm gonna end up doing it anyway..." She sighed. "Stop giving me the puppy eyes... We'll try and save your darlin'..." She finished, grumbling.

"Shao..."

"Don't say it!"

"Thanks!!" And, with that, Midii envelopped her target in crushing hug.

"Naah... I told you not to say it!"
 

Trowa awoke at the feeling of something soft and light brushing his cheek. Someone was calling his name, faintly.

"Trowa... Please... Wake up!" Midii whispered in his ear, her hair brushing against his face and shoulder.

He couldn't tell if he was still dreaming if this was reality. In both cases, he didn't feel the urge to sat up and pin her or simply reach for his gun. He couldn't put words on his feelings, but he wanted to believe that she didn't mean harm. So, let's take thing smoothly, he thought. However, he almost regretted his decision of being calm, when a faint smell tickled his nostrils. The smell of a sugary, childish perfume, rapsberry maybe. Not that it was nauseous, puzzling at the most, but he was pretty sure he had smelled this before... Oh yes...

"Midii..." He grumbled, "If your friend came here to finish off Quatre, this is not the right address..."

"Hey you bangboy!!! We came here to save your butt!" An angry voice shrieked in the dark.

"Bangboy...?"
 
 

I know that was totally boring... But R&R, pleeeeez!!  ;_;