Alone

AN: I can post again! Whee!

CHAPTER 17

Major Hernbeck entered the conference room with Une feeling fairly certain of himself. As far as he could tell, he had all his ducks in a row - as his mother used to say. All his files were perfect, Chang’s were hidden, all the proper papers had been filled out and if that little *brat* complained they were forgeries, well - it was his word against Hernbeck’s, and what possible reason could Hernbeck have for keeping the boy here?

His face was calm and a little smug as he took his seat. Then he glanced at Une, and the smugness disappeared. She was smiling at him, but there was nothing sweet or reassuring about it. That smile was predatory - he felt like a rabbit looking at a wolf.

“Major. Care to explain this?” She slid a paper across the table to him and he gazed down at it. It took him a moment to realize what he was looking at. He turned a little pale. It was Chang Wufei’s mission list. All the back to back missions, all the undercover missions, all the little dull routine missions were listed in chronological order - neatly revealing what he’d always kept hidden, that he was working Agent Chang to death. He scrambled for an excuse.

“I - we’re very understaffed here... I have to use my agents to their full potential.”

“None of your other agents have a mission log like this.” Damn, she shot that one down.

“None of my other agents have the experience Agent Chang has. I’ve been *forced* to use him over and over on these intense missions.” Ha!

“That’s what the Agent Request Department is for, Major.” Une’s smile was becoming deadly.

Oh, shit. He’d forgotten about that - he should have gone through that department to request a temporary agent for the unusual missions instead of putting Chang on every one of them. “Um, yes, but some of these missions required immediate attention...”

“Some of them, yes. Not *all* of them.”

Hernbeck shifted his eyes away from her laserbeam glare, trying to think of another excuse. Une pushed the mission log aside and picked up a folder. She took two sets of papers out and passed him one. He took it with visible relief, but if he thought she was being merciful he was dead wrong. He shuffled through the pages and Une saw his face begin to turn green. She smirked.

“Aren’t these mission reports interesting?” Her voice was almost a coo. “Odd, isn’t it, how the ones *Wufei* filled out never showed up in the database? It’s so convenient to have all the reasons your orders were disobeyed tucked away in some dusty filing cabinet in a basement storage room, isn’t it?”

“Ma’am, really, no matter what he’s been saying...”

“I have yet to speak to Agent Chang about this.” Her cold voice cut him off. “In light of the fact that you seem to be *blind*, Major, that agent was exhausted and in pain. Sally!” Her call brought in the other woman, the doctor.

“Yes, Une?”

“Do you have your report?” She was handed a few thin pieces of paper and flipped through them rapidly until she came to one particular page. He was able to lean forward just enough to see that it was the results of a scan used for possible rape victims. All the boxes were marked negative. Une heaved a sigh of relief and turned back to the first page, reading through the report thoroughly. “Where is Wufei?”

“I sent him home to rest. I told him to take one of the others with him and he said he would. Well, actually he said ‘I guess.’ But for some reason he didn’t. I don’t know if he decided not to bother them or what, but they were all still in the waiting room five minutes after he was gone.”

Hernbeck was smiling a little as he listened to this exchange, thinking about Agent Burks and the orders that he’d given him. At least this problem would be nipped in the bud. No witness, no case, right? He just had to make it through this silly meeting - what was that woman saying?

“So I told them what was going on and they all headed for Wufei’s apartment. Duo said he’d call if there was any problem.”

“Excellent.” Une replied.

‘Shit, shit, *shit!*’ Hernbeck thought.

“Now, Major,” Une’s friendly voice was relentless, “let’s discuss sending agents ‘highly recommended for medical leave’ on extremely dangerous, poorly planned missions, shall we?”

It was beginning to dawn on Hernbeck just how much trouble he was in.


*


Half an hour later he stumbled out of the conference room, eyes shocked and wild. He’d been removed from command, stripped of his rank, was under threat of intense investigation into the actions of Agent Osborne and his remarks about ‘certain Preventers’ having understandings with the Mercenaries. That couldn’t happen - he might get in serious trouble from the actions taken on Agent Chang’s case, probably to the point of being kicked completely *out* of the Preventers - but if they found out just how deeply he was involved with those Mercs he’d go to *jail.*

“I will not go to prison because of that little pipsqueak.” he muttered. He reeled down the hall into his office. There was someone waiting for him - Agent Burks got to his feet and stared and another shadowy figure stepped into the light.

Osborne.

He looked awful. He was dirty and his clothes were a mess. There was an ugly lump on his forehead surrounded by a dark spreading bruise. Hernbeck looked him up and down and curled his lip. “Useless.” He snarled, and turned on Burks. “Tell me some good news.”

“Sorry, sir. There were other agents there...”

“Kids! All of them. You’re telling me you can’t handle a bunch of *children*?” Burks flushed and looked away, unable to explain how threatened those ‘children’ had made him feel. Hernbeck had kept the fact that the agents were the rest of the famous Gundam pilots from the man. He strode over to his desk, hiding his desperation at Commander Une’s punishments and sat down, leveling another glare at the two men. He had to stay in control of these two. He needed them to do one thing, one simple little thing that would make all of his problems go away.

“Take care of Chang Wufei.”