The System

Chapter One

By Dustin

            Waiting, waiting, tick, tock, it thought. Soon, sooner, not soon enough… It watched the creatures scurry about in the menial tasks they called life. It couldn’t wait to show them, couldn’t wait for them to see it. It was almost strong enough, nearly ready. Oh yes, then they’ll see, the little scurrying creatures… It vibrated with anticipation as it lovingly stroked the interwoven cords that spread out away from it. Soon, it sighed. Soon…

<-- -->

            “It’s raining again,” Duo Maxwell sighed, staring out the window into the gray cityscape.

            “Welcome to Seattle,” Calder Slandovich replied. “Check cell three, would you?”

            Duo leaned sideways over his laptop. “Cell three looks good,” he said. He tapped a few keys and leaned back to the window. “Do you like rain?”

            “Only when it pours,” Calder answered rhetorically. He unplugged his PDA and slid it into his inside jacket pocket. “We’re ready.”

            Duo made a face. “Wonderful. I hate rain, you know.”

            “So I gathered.” Calder stood and adjusted the tie that complimented his three-piece gray suit. “How do I look?”

            “Snazzy,” Duo said with a smirk. “I’m tempted to sculpt the Eiffel Tower with your hair.”

            Calder patted his slightly long light-brown hair that was currently plastered to his head and picked up his briefcase and an umbrella with a grin. “You’re just jealous."

            Duo zipped up his jumpsuit and pulled a hat onto his head, completing his electrician's look. "You know, you're a serious bully magnet in that outfit. Guys like me beat guys like you up all the time."

            "Like you could," Calder retorted.

            Duo grinned wickedly. "But you have to play the part of a wimpy computer nerd. You'd have no choice but to let me torment you to my heart’s content." He thought for a second. "Not that I couldn't beat you up anyway," he added.

            Calder laughed. "See you in a few." He left the room and headed down to the lobby of the hotel, going straight to the rotating door and onto the busy sidewalk. Snapping open the umbrella, he immediately felt rejuvenated as he took a deep breath of the cool, wet-smelling air. He really did like rain. He would normally have done without the umbrella, but he had keep up appearances. He started moving through the streams of people. There was a small click in his ear.

            “How’s the weather out there?” Duo’s voice said through the tiny earpiece.

            “Just wonderful,” Calder replied. “I’m doing a little dance, singing a little song. You ever watch old movies? I’m singin’ in the rain… just singin’ in the rain.”

            “You could never be Gene Kelly,” Duo said.

            “Really? Am I not good looking enough?”

            “Nope. And you can’t sing.”

            “Thanks, Duo. You brighten my day.”

            “And this rain just kills my day,” Duo said, a shiver in his voice. “Following you at fifty meters and freezing my butt off.”

            “Roger that.” Calder smiled.

            A little way up Calder spotted a familiar face leaning against a wall under an overhang, reading a newspaper. Their eyes briefly met, but otherwise they took no notice of each other as Calder continued by.

            Trowa Barton looked back down at his paper. “Dodge passing waypoint one,” he said softly on his separate link to control.

            “Acknowledged,” Arys Walker responded. She sat in an unmarked black van parked down an alley next to their target building. She turned to the eight Preventer soldiers, crammed into the space that wasn’t occupied by computers and communications equipment. “Captain Roland, we’re almost ready.”

            “Roger that,” Marcus Roland said, sliding his weapon into its holster and signaling his men, who immediately loaded and secured their own weapons.

            Calder finally reached the building and folded his umbrella as he stepped inside. Now was where his character became crucial. He pulled a pair of glasses from his pocket and slid them on, looking around the busy reception area. The building housed several different offices, and all but one were completely normal, as were most of the people in the building. But Calder spotted a couple of conspicuous dark-suited men standing in one corner.

            Pretending to squint at the directory, Calder glanced sideways at the teenaged girl that sat slouched in a chair, reading a magazine. She was wearing wind pants and a baggy t-shirt with a jacket tied around her waist. She had ear buds stuffed in her ears and was nodding her head in beat to the music. Her green eyes met his blue for an instant and she gave him a flicker of a smile. Calder moved to the elevator and the girl looked back down. “Dodge has entered play area,” she said.

            “Roger,” Arys replied.

            “Intrepid passing waypoint one,” Trowa reported as Duo ambled by him. He waited for Duo to move past, then casually put down his paper and stepped into an alley. Checking that the coast was clear, he leaped up to the fire escaped and pulled himself up, climbing quietly up four floors to the roof. Peering over the edge, he spotted two men clad in worker’s uniforms, trying to look casual, but Trowa spotted the subtle outlines of the big handguns each carried. He slid over the rim of the rooftop and rolled behind an air conditioning unit. Creeping closer, he saw that the men were trained well enough to stay back to back. In which case, a simpler approach was better.

            Trowa picked up a piece of gravel and tossed it over the edge. It clanked satisfactorily on the fire escape and both men instantly turned towards the sound. In a split second, Trowa dashed forward and took out one guard with a single blow to the neck. He grabbed the second’s right arm as he reached for his gun and flipped him to the ground, then landed a knockout blow. He injected each man with a tranquilizer to insure they would remain out cold, then set to work disabling the security on the roof door.

            Calder emerged from the elevator at the top floor and approached the reception desk.

            “May I help you, sir?” the receptionist asked, friendly enough, but Calder could tell she was scrutinizing him closely.

            “Ah, yes,” Calder said, stepping forward and smiling nervously. “I’m um, here to see Mr. Cappella about…” he lowered his voice and leaned in closer. “…the server problem he needed fixed.”

            The receptionist plastered a fake smile on her face that didn’t reach her shrewd eyes. “Yes, he’s expecting you,” she said. “One moment and I’ll show you in.”

            Calder waited as the secretary went through the door behind her desk, nervously twiddling his fingers as he scanned the room, noting the hidden security cameras. A moment later, the secretary emerged and beckoned him forward.

            Leaving his umbrella by the desk, he followed her through the doors and into a spacious, windowless, dimly lit office.

            “Sit down,” said a familiar deep voice.

            Calder blinked, pretending to peer through the dim light at the figure sitting at the head of a rectangular wooden table, then nervously sat at one side. There was another man sitting at the table with a laptop opened in front of him and two other men standing in the shadowy corners of the room, wearing wide-shouldered suit jackets that undoubtedly concealed weaponry of the brutal sort favored by this particular group. Calder remembered all too well the viscous pain of a hollow tipped bullet exploding in his upper leg.

            Barely glancing at Calder, Marco Cappella continued studying the display built into the table. “I hope you’ll forgive the lack of light,” he said, sounding as though he couldn’t care less what Calder thought.

            “It’s no problem, sir,” Calder responded. He inwardly smiled. The gangster’s need to make people uncomfortable in his presence would make it all the more unlikely he would recognize Calder.

            They sat in silence a moment while Cappella continued to read. Calder nervously shifted his weight and twiddled his fingers.

            Finally Cappella glanced up and touched a button. “My experts have been unable to verify the authenticity of this,” he said. “I trust from our previous communications that you have the appropriate skills.” 

            A square section of the table in front of Calder came to life and began displaying information. Calder studied it for moment, then pulled his briefcase up to the table. “May I?” he asked, indicating the connection slots on the table.

            Cappella nodded his consent.

            Calder nodded and unclasped the case. He lifted the lid, revealing a silver laptop and several cables. Before he could remove anything, Cappella reached over and slid the briefcase towards him. He paused momentarily as his gaze slid over Calder’s face. Calder kept his eyes averted and after a second, Cappella turned and nodded to the other man at the table, who pulled Calder’s computer beside his laptop and attached the two. After a moment, he nodded to Cappella.

            “It’s clean. No wireless capability.”

            “Get to it then,” Cappella ordered, pushing the computer back. Calder straightened his glasses and connected his computer to the table. At the same time, he slid his hand over the table’s wireless port and the hidden receiver grafted under the skin of his palm analyzed the port’s frequency, then transmitted it to the neural interface in Calder’s head. He established a link to Cappella's mainframe and connected it to Arys' computer in the van outside through his interface. At the same time, he pretended to study the information that was displayed on his computer screen.

            “Just give me a few minutes,” he said.

            “Take all the time you need,” Cappella said amiably.

            He noted Cappella’s eyes lingering on his face again and did his best to look like a simple, nervous computer programmer. If Cappella recognized him too soon…

            “We’ve got a solid connection,” Arys said through his earpiece. “Give me a minute to get through the security. Then the download should only take a few seconds. Stand by.”

            Calder continued to sift through the information, biding time as Cappella watched him closely. “We’ve got it,” Arys said finally. “Give the others one more minute.”

            Calder relayed a message through his interface. Easy for you to say. The wolves are getting hungry.

            Arys chucked softly as the message appeared on her display. “No one said this job was easy.”

            Calder sat back and removed his glasses. Strictly speaking, this wasn’t part the his mission description, but he couldn’t resist. He looked directly at Cappella and smiled, his previous demeanor gone. “Well, Mr. Cappella, you’ve done rather well for yourself, if I might say,” he said nonchalantly.

            Cappella narrowed his eyes, the change of persona not lost on him. His eyes roved Calder’s face, trying to place it.

            “You had your beginnings on L3 twenty-one forty, if I’m not mistaken,” Calder continued. “Did you know they’re calling it New Colorado now?”

            “Are you finished?” Cappella said, his voice cold.

            “What? Oh, that. Yeah, I’m finished.”

            Cappella waited. “And?” he prompted.

            “And I’d say it’s a fake.”

            Cappella was now glaring at him and clenching his teeth. “Are you certain?”

            “As certain as can be,” Calder said, pocketing his glasses. “A fake Zero System is as easy to spot as, oh, fake trilithium,” he said with a smile. “Which is why you were forced to leave New Colorado, wasn’t it?”

            Slowly recognition began to dawn in Cappella’s eyes. “You,” he said, hatred shaking his voice.

            He stood and drew his gun. Right on cue, the lights went out. Cappella fired blindly as Calder rolled out of his chair and lashed out with his foot, catching Cappella in the knee, which buckled with a satisfying crack. Completely unhindered by the darkness, Calder kicked Cappella’s weapon away, then faced the two guards, who were looking blindly around, their guns out. Calder took the first one out with three quick strikes to the throat, stomach, and knee, then turned to the second, grabbing his wrist and breaking it as he wrenched the gun out of the bigger man’s grasp, then slamming his elbow into his nose. He dropped like a stone. The computer guy had drawn his own gun and was aiming it in the direction of the commotion. Calder turned and snapped off a shot that hit the tech’s shoulder. The gun clattered to the floor.

            Calder glanced at Cappella, who was on the floor blindly groping for his dropped gun. Calder slammed his knee down on the gangster’s back and pinned him to the floor. Cappella thrashed, but Calder wrenched his arm back, dislocating it, and put pressure on his broken knee. Cappella groaned in pain and stilled his movement.

            Calder leaned in close to his ear. “You’re lucky I’m with the Preventers now,” he said. “If our paths had crossed a year ago, I wouldn’t have hesitated to kill you.”

            Cappella let out a strangled curse and tried to twist away again. Calder silenced him with a blow to the back of the head. He let out his breath, then stood and checked on the tech, who was unconscious. He stemmed the bleeding in his wound, then went to the office door, unlocked it and stepped into the dark reception area. Trowa was wearing slim night vision glasses and had just snapped a pair of handcuffs on the scared looking secretary who was on the floor. He glanced at Calder. “Secured?” he asked.

            Calder nodded. “Cappella, his techie, and two guards. The roof?” he asked.

            “Two up there. Two more guards on this floor, plus her,” he said, nodding to the secretary.

            Calder heard footsteps on the stairs and the door opened and Duo and Meela Toloran emerged, wearing night vision glasses and sporting hand guns. The ear buds were still dangling from Meela’s shoulders.

            “Everyone clear up here?” Duo asked.

            “Yeah, we’re set,” Calder said.

            Duo pulled out a small devise and pushed a button, taking off his glasses as the lights flickered back on. “Roland’s men have the other floors secured. I think we got ‘em all,” he said smugly. He glance at Meela. “You know, it’s just not fair. She got all the bystanders out of the lobby and took out four guards by the time I got back up from the basement."

            Meela looked at him and shrugged. "You were too slow."

            "Yeah, you and your built-in Zero System. Us mere mortals just can't compete." He smiled. "Oh well though,” he said, tossing the blackout switch, catching it and pocketing it. “I did my part.”

            They headed for the office, followed by two soldiers and a medic carrying several rolled up bundles. They spread the bundles on the floor, revealing them to be stretchers. They lifted the unconscious bodies onto them, then an electrical current was applied to the limp, rubbery material, causing it to harden into a solid frame. They carried the bodies up the stairway to the roof and loaded them into the waiting Preventer hover craft.

            The soldiers and medic left with the craft, leaving the four Gundam pilots alone on the wet rooftop. Duo shivered as he looked up through the downpour at the steel-gray sky. “I hate rain,” he said again and headed back downstairs. As he passed Meela, he paused and said, “By the way, I love your outfit.”

            Meela made a face but otherwise didn’t respond. Duo looked at Calder and rolled his eyes. “I though you said she was a fun person,” he said with an exaggerated pout.

            Calder smiled. “She is. It’s just you.”

            “Gee, thanks. I think I’ll throw myself off the roof now.” Duo gave the sky another look. “Naw, I don’t want to die in the rain." With another shiver, headed down the stairs.

            Trowa had watched the exchange with a bemused expression. He smiled slightly at them and moved to follow Duo. “I think I’ll give them a hand getting everything ready to go. Arys will want to get to London to analyze that data as soon as possible.”

            “All right. We'll be right down,” Calder said.

            He glanced at Meela and thought he saw her eyes linger on Trowa’s receding form, but then she was staring off into the distance, her face blank. Calder lay back on the gravel with a sigh, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of the cool rain massaging his face.

            “You really messed Cappella up,” Meela said after a minute.

            “Yeah,” Calder said without opening his eyes. “I couldn’t help it.” He glanced up at her. “You would’ve done the same.”

            “No. I would’ve killed him.”

            Calder chuckled. “I take it your memories of him are just as vivid as ever.”

            She looked down at him. “Not really. Just the emotions. Everything is still pretty vague." She paused. "But there's enough to realize how messed up I am,” she said without humor. She sighed. “I don’t fit in with the Preventers.”

            Calder sat up and was quiet for a second. “To be honest, I don’t know if you’ll ever be the same,” he said softly. “But it’s only been a month. Give it some time. The others all respect you. Just open up a little.”

            She gave him a small, appreciative smile. “Yeah. I think it’s getting better. It’s just when Duo…” she motioned at the door. “I don’t know how to respond.”

            “Don’t worry about it,” Calder said. He stood up and brushed the gravel off his suit. “Let’s head down and see what we can do to clean up this mess we made.”

            They headed for the door and Calder opened it, letting Meela go ahead of him. She paused as she passed him. “By the way,” she said, with a smirk. “Nice suit.”

            Calder laughed and followed her down.