Chapter Six
VI
A few minutes later, a call was patched to Party Central at the Winner mansion. After answering it and putting the caller on hold, Rashid appeared in the doorway of the party room where Kristana, in her pink frilly dress, and her friends enrapturedly watched a conjurer pull a necklace from the ear of one of the mothers. The other adults watched with a bit of amusement and couldn’t help but be awed by the trick.
Trowa noticed Rashid first and nudged Quatre discreetly. He wove himself through the crowd without causing as much as a ripple.
A blonde of average height in a polka-dotted black dress under a pink cardigan came to Trowa. She’d been enjoying the festivities along with the other adults until she had noticed the movements between him and Quatre. She usually kept her distance from the tall, silent, and handsome green-eyed hunk, but concern won out over timidity. “What’s going on?”
Trowa gazed at her for a moment before speaking. He was not used to having someone come up and talk to him, especially the usually-cheerful, attractive woman with the worried cornflower blue eyes. “Quatre had to take a phone call. I do not think it’s any cause for worry…” Trowa trailed off as Quatre appeared again, and stared at him meaningfully. He straightened a little, and that did not escape the blonde’s attention. “If you would excuse me…”
She stared at his retreating back and blinked, feeling like she missed something. Wufei and Duo soon disappeared as well, and she felt a hand on her arm. She turned to find Crys standing behind her with an anxious expression on her face.
“Nothing good ever happens when they all leave the room like that,” Crys said quietly so that no one could hear her. She mustered up a smile for her daughter, who looked over and waved happily. When Kristana’s attention was diverted, her expression sobered. “Jennifer—could you—?”
Jennifer Dunne nodded. “I’m on it,” she responded. She strode away purposefully, trying to stay out of Kristana’s sight as much as she could. It was only when she left the room that she registered Nicole walking beside her. “Nicole—?”
“I had a feeling in my big toe that I should follow you,” Nicole hissed out of the side of her mouth. “You and Crys were looking serious. Do you know what’s going on?”
“I have no clue,” Jennifer replied, “but we’re about to find out.” They swung out of the room, quickening their pace when they were a safe distance away from the birthday party. They caught the shadow of Duo rounding a corner upstairs. They simultaneously guessed that the destination was Quatre’s office.
The duo burst into the room without knocking. The men turned, wearing expressions with varying degrees of surprise. Quatre straightened as he was placing the phone receiver back on its cradle. Hastily Jennifer turned and closed the door before anyone could speak.
Nicole, not surprisingly, broke the ice. “So what’s so G-14 Classified that’s got you all skulking out of rooms and stuff?”
Wufei rolled his eyes but said nothing. Quatre explained, “I was just about to tell Wufei, Duo, and Trowa that that was Heero on the phone. He won’t be able to join us this evening.” When everyone looked at him expectantly, he continued. “Danie was attacked in the Arashi Corp parking garage about twenty minutes ago.” Jennifer reached out for a hand and found Nicole’s. Quatre gravely listed her injuries, prompting more shock from everyone.
Nicole covered her mouth in horror. “Geez-us!” she blurted before she could stop herself.
“Holy Mother of Buddha,” Duo managed at the same time, awed.
“She’s lucky to be alive,” Trowa said. “I can only imagine how Heero reacted when he saw her.”
“Yuy is most likely on the warpath right now,” Wufei commented. “After all, someone attacked his wife—and you know what he says about his family.”
“No one hurts a Yuy and lives to tell about it,” the others said in unison. It was as well-known as the Golden Rule and the Macarena.
“Well, from what Heero told me, there’s not much he can do on the vengeance end of things,” Quatre informed everyone. “Danie’s attackers got off considerably worse than she did.”
“If the other guy looks worse, he must be dead.” Silence. “Damn, she killed the guy?” Duo scratched his head and the party hat bobbed precariously. “Sheesh, I didn’t think she had the whole kicking-ass bit in her…”
“Duo!” Jennifer admonished. “I take offense to that. Danie’s capable of more than just looking pretty and brewing coffee for a morning meeting. I’m sure she is able to take care of herself in all sorts of situations, including this one.”
“I was just saying, Jen—you don’t have to get all go-on-girl on me. Where do they have her?” Duo asked Quatre.
“Gracia Memorial,” Quatre told them. “I’ve already decided not to tell Crys until the party is over.” Jennifer began to protest but Quatre added, “Not to mention Heero threatened to do me considerable harm if I ruined Kristana’s party with this news. I have no choice in the matter.”
“I can go,” Nicole volunteered with a shrug. She earned dubious (from the guys) and dazed (from Jennifer) stares for that comment. “What?” she drawled. “Look, it’s gonna look funny if one of y’all leave. It’ll make more sense this way.”
“I somehow doubt that Heero will be pacified with you there, Nicole,” Duo stated. That prompted a glare from her. “I’m just saying. You and Heero are not exactly Captain and Tennille.”
Nicole blinked at him. “What the hell? I don’t even know who that is. Now you’re just talking out the side of your neck.” She waved a hand in dismissal. “Man, whatever. We’re wasting time. I’m going down there so that he knows we know. If you going along, then you better come and ride the train.”
“Whoop, whoop,” Duo muttered sarcastically as he followed Nicole out of the office.
* * *
At the hospital, Moira-Selene paused in the doorway of her twin sister’s hospital room and watched her brother-in-law for a few beats before making her presence known.
Heero sat quite dutifully at Danie’s bedside, watching her face for any signs of cognizance. To an outsider, his face looked impassive, features set in a rigid, emotionless mask. But Moira-Selene knew better. He was worried and rather infuriated that someone would hurt his wife. No matter what was going on between them, he had still vowed to be with her for better or for worse. She hoped that things would improve in light of the current situation.
“She should be waking up soon,” Moira-Selene informed him softly. “They sedated her while they extracted the bullet but the medicine should be wearing off.” She stopped and placed a hand next to her twin’s prone one. “We are lucky she wasn’t killed.”
“Not quite,” Heero said.
Moira-Selene looked at him in disbelief. “What do you mean?”
“We are also lucky that the bastard that attacked her is dead,” Heero amended.
Moira-Selene could only sigh. He had latched on the vengeance end of the situation. Not surprising. “Danie doesn’t need you on a killing spree,” Moira-Selene chided him. “She needs support and care as she heals.” She stared into her sister’s still visage. “She can take care of herself.”
“Almost too well,” Heero murmured.
Moira-Selene raised an eyebrow. “Almost too well?” she repeated.
“The guy she killed was impaled in the belly with a windshield wiper,” Heero revealed, causing Moira-Selene to lose her color. “I would think that your average woman wouldn’t know how to apply a fatal blow with a mere windshield wiper.”
“Danie is not average,” Moira-Selene remarked. “You and I both know that, Heero. But I have to admit, that particular maneuver requires a resourcefulness that I didn’t think my twin had. It’s almost like…” She trailed off then, shaking her head absently. Then her green eyes focused on Heero’s face. “It kind of reminds me of you, Heero.”
Like me. He pondered more on this, and Moira-Selene spied no pride or pleasure in his eyes, only confusion. She didn’t blame him. This whole situation seemed to come out of nowhere.
Or had it? Heero stared at his wife, trying to think if this had been telegraphed. He couldn’t tell right at the moment because he didn’t have all of the information. Lack of information seemed to be a chronic problem of the moment. As soon as Danie awoke, he would press her into explaining everything. It was the least she could do.
There was a soft knock on the door and Moira-Selene turned expectantly. A tall, dark-haired man walked into the room along with a petite black woman with curly hair. Moira-Selene put her lips together and sighed before addressing them.
“Dawn, Detective O’Lara,” Moira-Selene said in way of greeting.
“Hey Moira-Selene,” the woman named Dawn greeted her back. “Sorry to disturb you. We just wanted to talk to Heero about Danie.”
Moira-Selene stepped aside and allowed Heero to gaze at their new visitors. Lieutenant Dawn Richardson-Cain was at least on speaking terms with Heero, having met him through Moira-Selene’s older sister Jessica; Detective Michael “Mick” O’Lara, on the other hand, had recently moved from Los Angeles and only knew Heero from word of mouth. Moira-Selene knew Dawn and the badass reputation that followed her, but Moira-Selene also knew that she wouldn’t push Heero where he didn’t want to be led. O’Lara, about whom Moira-Selene knew little, was another story. She had a bad feeling about how this would turn out.
“Maybe we should talk outside,” O’Lara suggested.
Heero looked like he was about to protest until Moira-Selene assured him, “You can speak outside the door. You’ll be able to see through the window if there is a change.”
Heero looked at his wife one last time before rising to his feet. Quietly he walked out of the room with Dawn and O’Lara on his heels. There was silence until the door was slightly cracked and they were in relative privacy. Dawn, being the higher ranked between the two officers, spoke first.
“I appreciate you talking with us, Heero. I know you’d rather be by Danie’s side, so we will try to make this short.”
Heero had a slight distaste for the local law enforcement save for the woman in front of him (he didn’t know O’Lara yet, so how could he judge?) so he merely said, “Thank you.”
They started off with verifying what Heero had told the first officer on scene. He answered them clearly and concisely, suffering through it because it was standard operating procedure. Then they moved on to the harder questions.
“Do you know of anybody who would want Danie hurt or killed?” Dawn inquired.
The truth was, it could have been just about anyone. Heero took a moment but could not come up with anyone that posed an immediate threat. “No,” he answered. “She never told me of anyone who wanted to wish her harm nor was there anyone who threatened her to get to me.”
O’Lara quirked an eyebrow but said nothing. Dawn continued. “We found a file among her belongings, and we are not quite sure what it means. We are not quite sure, but we think this is what her attackers were after. None of her other belongings were disturbed. Her wallet contains cash and credit cards that were never touched so robbery was not a possibility.”
“A file?” Heero frowned at Dawn. For a moment, she said nothing. O’Lara slid her a critical look.
“He has to see it,” Dawn told her partner in reference to the look he was giving her. “So stop looking at me like I just peed on your foot.”
“I beg to differ, Dawn,” O’Lara said.
She returned that remark with a glare and slipped a file folder from her bag. “We’re hoping you could help us shed some light on this scenario,” Dawn said as she handed Heero a file folder. Heero took it, frowning, and opened it.
He scanned the page. It looked like a copy of another document that had seen some wear, but the quality was good enough that the picture included amidst the data was startlingly lifelike. The girl in the picture—a surveillance photo taken from a camera across the street from a high-class prep school—looked as if she could walk off of the page as she was captured in mid-step. It was eerie.
Even more startling was the name on the top of the document: Abigail Taylor.
On the inside, Heero’s mind raced. He tried to come up with a reason why Danie would have a file about a girl he had just learned about that very same day. The surveillance photo did not clearly display Abigail Taylor’s features, but he could tell that she was dark-haired. Could she be part of the puzzle? Heero thought. Apparently, she was part of the “suppressed”—whatever that meant. On the outside, his eyes didn’t flicker, his breath remained steady.
That would help because he was about to lie.
“Abigail Taylor,” Heero murmured as if trying to recall the name. Then he shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve heard of her. Maybe it was work-related.”
“We plan on talking to Takeshi Arashi next,” Dawn told him. “But maybe you could also—”
At that moment Dawn’s cell phone rang. She excused herself to answer it, leaving Heero and O’Lara for a mere forty-five seconds. When she returned, there was something in her eyes that gave Heero the impression that their interview was over for the moment.
“That was the wonderful Dr. Danner,” Dawn informed her partner. “He has an anomaly he wants us to see.” To Heero she said, “Heero, let us know when Danie awakens. We’d like to talk to her.”
Heero agreed and bade them goodbye, having the sense that their involvement with one another was long from over. He lingered a little while longer in the hallway. As his mind worked, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent Duo a text message. Abigail Taylor. DOB 7 March 97. Search and locate.
Duo’s timely reply: Rodger that, buddy. Hey how is Danie doing? She okay?
She is fine, Heero replied succinctly. Just do this for me. Will explain later. With that, Heero put his phone away and retook his space beside his wife.
* * *
Duo and Nicole showed up twenty minutes later. Before anything could start, Duo sent Nicole away for some coffee so that he could talk to Heero alone amid Danie’s sleeping form. She initially balked but eventually left them alone.
“What did you find?” Heero asked when the door was closed and Nicole was out of earshot.
Sighing, Duo leaned on the wall and took out his PDA. “There wasn’t much to be had honestly. You’d think the girl was some sort of secret agent or something the way her information has been blocked. I found out that she lives in New York, but there is no address. I could probably finesse more when I get home and ease past the blocks someone put on her profile.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can do it myself.” Heero’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why would someone go through so much trouble for an eleven-year-old girl?” he mused aloud.
“Maybe someone doesn’t want the world to know about her,” Duo suggested. “Stranger things have happened, Heero. People have tried to conceal less with more effort.”
Heero shook his head. “It’s not just that.” He looked at his sleeping wife. He wondered what secrets she kept away from him on the inside that she did not reveal. The question still nagged at him: what does Abigail Taylor mean to Danie and Arashi Corp? If this was merely work-related, then the issue would be less grave than he presumed it was. He would demand that Danie finally quit her job and the problem would be resolved. But he had a feeling it wouldn’t be that simple.
“You mean there’s more to this?” Duo sounded incredulous. His eyebrow raised as he followed Heero’s gaze. “Does Danie know her somehow?” Heero quickly filled him in on the conversation he’d had with Lieutenant Cain and Detective O’Lara. Duo’s expression turned thoughtful. “So wait. Let me get this straight. The guys that attacked her were probably after a file on this Abigail Taylor?”
“The police seem to think so. And I agree with them in this case. It’s far too much of a coincidence.”
Duo blinked. “Coincidence? Okay, you’re gonna have to explain because you’ve got me on this one.” Heero explained about the mysterious email he’d gotten that morning and the documents that had been attached to them. Slowly, Duo’s mouth went slack as he put two and two together. “The message,” he said simply. “So she’s part of a secret that has to do with someone you love—”
“Relena Peacecraft,” Heero remembered softly.
Duo was so shocked he nearly slid off of the wall. “Relena? What the hell does—?” He quieted and shook his head. “That’s twice today,” he muttered. “Someone’s trying to tell us something.”
It was Heero’s turn to be confused. “Twice today, Duo?”
Duo waved a hand. “It’s a long story. I’m more intrigued to know what Relena has to do with this.”
“There was a note in one of the documents that Relena was involved with the child I believe is Abigail Taylor’s twin sister,” Heero told him. “She went missing not long after Relena was murdered. In fact, if my suspicions are correct, the events perhaps happened simultaneously.”
“Simultaneously? Man, if I didn’t know any better I’d say—”
Duo did not get a chance to finish. Nicole reentered the room then, brandishing coffee and pastries from the cafeteria a few floors down. As the door latched shut behind her, she fixed Heero and Duo with suspicious looks. She could sense something in the air as soon as she had stepped into the room and she didn’t like the feeling that they were keeping something from her.
“What?” Duo asked innocently.
“You know what. Sending me off like some little errand girl. You ought to be ashamed.”
“No,” Duo said, “just hungry. Since Danie here got into a skirmish and nearly landed herself in a pine box, I’m gonna miss Kristana’s birthday cake. Heard it was gonna be a stunner, too.”
Tight-lipped, Nicole stared at him a moment before beaning him with the Danish from downstairs. Hard as a rock, it felled him almost instantly. Heero merely shook his head and fought a sigh.
“Hey?!” Duo protested from the floor, rubbing his head. “What the hell was that for?”
“Well,” Nicole began archly, “you wanted a stunner—so you got one. Bon appétit.”
* * *
On the East Coast, eleven-year-old Abigail Josephine Taylor tiptoed out of her bedroom, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. She was supposed to be in bed, after all. As she padded down the hall in socked feet, Abigail could feel the change in the air like one could tell a really hellacious storm was on its way. She felt her mother’s weakening spirit and knew, while dread pooled in her belly, that the end was quickly approaching.
The cancer treatments, as harrowing and grave as they were, had been token, mostly done to dispel the whispers that Harlan Taylor had married Victoria Petrie for nothing more than her family’s influence and wealth. No one knew this for sure—that is, except for Abigail herself. She knew things that others didn’t want her to know. And she couldn’t help it either; she more she tried to suppress her gift, the stronger it would come back the next time.
She was also bound by her love for her mother. Victoria was not aware of her husband’s subterfuge, and Abigail was not sure how it would affect her in this weakened state. Victoria was not a woman to be pushed around, but she loved Harlan dearly and believed in their union. Her response, if she were strong enough to give it, would be brutal. Victoria never did anything halfway when she was scorned. Sometimes Abigail wondered if the cancer had developed on its own—or had been of Harlan’s making because of the very fact of Victoria’s temper.
Abigail hovered outside her parents’ bedroom door. Underneath the pale moonlight, Victoria slept with the aid of morphine to dull the pain. Her pallid olive skin was a thin cover over weary bones. Abigail was glad that she was out of her misery for the moment but feared for the day that she would leave this world. It was quickly approaching.
Abigail did not like to think what life would be like without Victoria around. She was not very fond of her father. And if anyone knew the indignities to which he subjected her, they would certainly agree. She was not a lab rat. She was not a test dummy. She was a normal eleven-year-old girl—well, except for her abilities. Harlan seemed to forget that in his quest to study her and use her talent for his own gain. With Victoria sick and out of commission a lot of the time, he could be less restrained about testing Abigail. When Victoria died—it was a sad, but sure, certainty—she would be locked away like some specimen. She’d already had the nightmares. They had felt too real just to be images created by an overactive imagination. They were a warning. Something must be done.
A voice from the room down the hall diverted Abigail’s attention. She listened to her father’s voice filtering out from his study. It took some moments before she understood what he was saying.
“What do you mean he’s dead? I thought I told you…” Silence. “I know we’re dealing with someone far more dangerous than we initially had presumed. But she is a woman. She will make a mistake. They often do.” There was a silence. Something inside of Abigail had her drifting closer, peeking into the room where she could not be seen in the shadows. Harlan Taylor, with his head of prematurely gray hair shorn close to his scalp, had his back to the door. “If I had my way, the bitch would have been dead eleven years ago, but lord knows Prescott botched that to hell and back.”
Abigail watched as Harlan slipped a photograph from a pile of papers. It was a headshot of who Abigail figured was the woman in question. The raven-haired woman was beautiful but unsmiling, and Abigail found something familiar about her features.
Without warning, she was sucked down into a kaleidoscopic vortex with a plethora of flashes. A teenage girl crying. Two newborns under harsh lights and examination by invasive machines, one squirming and one sleeping peacefully. A group of men in a room signing papers and drinking champagne. The sound of a gunshot and a man falling to the ground. A woman with tear-filled eyes standing yards away in a long, black coat in a graveyard.
With eyes wide, Abigail returned to the present with a jolt as she usually did when having a vision. She heard Harlan speaking and shifted into the shadows while she acclimated to her surroundings.
“Well, as long as she doesn’t come here, then we don’t have to worry about it.” Pause. “There’s no telling what that file said honestly or who the source was. But don’t you worry—I’m gonna find out where the leak is. I don’t want her knowing about Abigail. That would compromise everything.”
What? What did that mean? She tried to listen for another clue, but heard nothing more. It was then that she decided she’d better get back to bed before she was discovered.
That would compromise everything. That statement trailed Abigail like a shadow, sinuously sliding in and out of her mind as she drifted back to her bedroom. So the woman knew something about her and possibly what was being done to her. Abigail pondered upon this as she pulled her covers up to her chin and stared at the ceiling. There was someone out there with a key to the cage. But who was she?
When she finished thinking, she came to a conclusion: she was going to find the mysterious black-haired woman.
Her life depended on it.
* * *
When Heero left close to dawn, Danie’s eyes opened as if she had been wide awake the whole time.
She still ached, but there was a bigger problem at hand. She could not remain in bed.
The snatches she had caught of Duo and Heero’s exchange from hours before echoed in her head, nagging her with doubt, fear, and worry. What was it exactly that they—whoever they were—were doing with Abigail that required her to be kept from the world? And even more, what did Relena Peacecraft have to do with it?
That particular question had her rising to a sitting position. She had been blind to what had happened in the room, but she hadn’t been stupid. She had detected the emotion in the way Heero had spoken Relena’s name, and it had caused a strange feeling in her chest. She still loved him, dammit. She always would. So that had hurt her greatly, especially in the mulling over it.
Daniella Thomas didn’t stay hurt for long. It was far too corrosive. So she went right to the indignation and it built until it was an inferno in her heart.
She’d take care of that husband of hers. Yes, she would. She muttered those words as she disconnected herself from the machines. For now, she had another aspect of the mystery to worry about.
Over the past ten years, she had come to realize that the children that she had brought into this world had their own lives and she had nothing to do with them. The men who had blatantly taken advantage of her had made it difficult for her to obtain information about them; even with Arashi’s tutelage under her belt her attempts had been discovered and she was “warned” that under no circumstances she should try to research them. They would have been killed if she had persisted. Avery and his associates had made that glaringly clear, especially that time in Valladolid seven—or eight—years ago. She hated to think what would have happened if she hadn’t run into Crys and…
She gritted her teeth at the thought of Heero. Later, she told herself. Focus on the now—getting out of here.
Avery was dead, along with that asshole Richards. She was done with being scared and discreet. If anyone came after her, there would be hell to pay. It was time she really lived up to her codename.
* * *
Wide awake and anxious, Heero headed to the Agency where he could be alone.
At this hour, the other guys and Nicole would still be in bed or at home or both. So he would be alone. He powered up his computer and continued his search on Abigail Taylor while also doing a more painful search—one on his own wife.
Like Duo had sometime earlier, Heero ran into blocks trying to access Abigail Taylor’s profile on several databases. Rolling up his sleeves, he manually set up his computer to try to hack past them while he performed a deep-level search on Danie.
He received the first shock when perusing Danie’s medical, housing, and employment records. A whole chunk of time from ages sixteen to eighteen was missing. She was listed as working for the Stella Modeling Agency from ten to sixteen, then at Arashi Corp at eighteen until the present moment. As for her medical records, there were no indications that she had any official medical treatment during the lapse in employment. She had lived with her mother in Audbone Heights until she was sixteen and then popped up in various places before settling in Gracia at twenty-one. It was as if she had suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth in the interim.
The holes were created so cleanly Heero believed they were deliberate. What did Danie have to hide?
A beep sounded from the computer, signaling that he had gotten past a block on his Abigail Taylor search. He switched screens and found a more detailed profile of Abigail, but still no picture. He saved the profile so that his own database could be updated with the information. He shifted back to the search on his wife for a moment, putting Abigail Taylor on the back burner.
With an inspired thought, he attempted to hack into the database of Arashi Corp personnel files and was only partly successful. The lower level employees were easy to look up, but the higher he went, the stronger the security became almost to the point where Heero became suspicious. A little security was expected with a company as successful as Arashi Corp, but this was ludicrous.
“Takeshi Arashi,” Heero murmured aloud. “What are you hiding from the world?”
Before he could consider it any further, a buzzing jolted him out of his thoughts. He picked up the cell phone, frowning, and answered it. “Heero Yuy.”
“Heero? It’s Moira-Selene.”
Heero stiffened a bit at the worried note he detected in her voice. “What’s happened?”
“It’s Danie. She…” When Moira-Selene resumed her sentence, her voice was filled with utter bafflement. “She’s gone.”
Heero said nothing as his mind stumbled on the information. Moira-Selene babbled on about a knocked out orderly and a couple of stunned pedestrians, but Heero was hardly listening. When the previous statement sank in, he felt confusion for a brief moment, before alarm and disbelief had him rising from his desk chair and scooping up his car keys in one swift, smooth movement.
“How long ago?” Heero demanded in a low, dangerous tone.
“I don’t—”
“How. Long. Ago.” Heero repeated with more emphasis as he exited the office suite.
Moira-Selene didn’t answer this time; a stronger, more aggressive female voice bombarded the line instead. One that Heero instantly recognized. “Would you throttle back, Yuy? She doesn’t know where Danie is, and neither do we—so stop acting like an asshole before I yank you through this phone line and give you something to bitch about.”
Heero’s nostrils flared. There was no woman more audacious than Jessica Thomas. “I’m not interested in waging a pissing match with you, Jessica. I want an answer to my question.”
“We don’t have one yet,” Jessica shot back just as fiercely. “They’re checking the cameras right now. Have some patience would you?”
“If I waited on you to take care of this, Danie would end up dead,” Heero spat. “So no thank you.”
“Jessica, please.” Moira-Selene’s voice was strained. “We cannot bicker like this. Danie is…” She trailed off, and he heard voices in the background asking Moira-Selene if she was okay. After a long, humming moment, Moira-Selene suddenly said with clarity, “She’s… She went to your house.”
Heero blinked and paused, bemused. Then something inside him clicked, and he had a feeling that she had known where Danie was without really knowing exactly where she was. One of the upsides of being a twin. He knew all about it. “Thank you,” he said gruffly, and hung up.
* * *
At the Yuy house, Danie let herself in and went straight upstairs.
She knew she didn’t have much time before they realized that she was gone and came looking for her there. So she gathered the essentials—comfortable clothes and shoes, her stash of passports (all in different names, of course, should the need arise for her to change her identity), a couple of weapons, some cash, and her purse (which had a legion of goodies all in itself)—and tried to do it quickly. It was cowardly she knew, but she didn’t want to deal with anyone at the moment. Even Heero.
“I wish you knew,” Danie murmured rhythmically, softly singing a couple of lines of “Suddenly Monday.” “I wish I could tell you…”
Suddenly something inside of her stilled. She felt him standing there even before he uttered a word. It was one of the things that made her perfect at her craft. Not to mention, how could you not react at the mere presence of the man you loved?
“So why don’t you?”
Damn. Fate could be a ruthless, cold-blooded bitch sometimes. She knew that. So Danie turned and steeled herself against the battle that was to come in the war that had waged for far, far too long.
