Three-Hour Tour
[Two]
by Truth
It was late afternoon before Yohji finally woke up. He had managed
to almost completely unwrap himself from his blanket, and lay in an
uncomfortable `L' shape where he'd rolled up against the roots of a
tree.
"I feel like I've been trampled on by a herd of angry elephants
wearing golf cleats," he moaned.
There was no response. Opening his eyes and lifting his head, he
looked around the small shelter. Omi was nowhere to be seen. Yohji
slowly and painfully pulled himself upright. He re-wrapped the
blanket around himself as a sort of sarong while he checked on his
clothing.
The shirt was drying, slowly. His pants, on the other hand, were
still almost soaking wet. "Stupid humidity."
Yohji poked around, but found nothing to indicate where Omi had gone,
or why. "Well, I'm damned if I'm going to play Friday to his
Robinson Crusoe," the lanky man muttered, settling back on the
ground. "If he wants to stagger around this sweltering, insect
filled paradise, he's welcome to do so all by himself."
"I'm sorry." Manx looked down at Ken's shell-shocked face. "I
thought it would be best to tell you personally."
"It's not true," Ken protested, brokenly. "It can't be true!"
"When the ship reached port, the target was dead and the cabin he had
been using for his sick games was totally destroyed. His personal
cabin had been ransacked by professionals. Balinese and Bombay never
made it off the boat. No one can recall seeing them since before the
ship left the three hour danger zone."
"They wouldn't have been caught by the target." Aya's low voice was
certain.
"No. But their mission orders did not include theft and the target
was neither shot nor garrotted. He was crushed to death." Manx took
a deep breath. "And Nagi was spotted leaving the ship."
"And you think that they're dead?" Ken whispered.
"They never came back." Manx repeated. "And when Nagi was seen
earlier in the evening, he was talking with a tall young man with
bright orange hair."
"Schuldich," Aya hissed.
"All of the victims disappeared in approximately the same fashion as
Bombay and Balinese and at approximately the same place and time. If
the target didn't dispose of them, I think we need to face the fact
that Schwartz may have." Manx looked at the suddenly angry faces
before her. "I'm sorry," she repeated softly.
Two hours later, Yohji was officially worried. Cursing, he made his
way back to the beach. "I'm going to check that damn lifeboat, and
if he's not there, I'm just going to go back and lie down."
He was muttering under his breath about inconsiderate teammates when
he stumbled across the speedboat, carefully moored in a slightly
deeper spot alongside a spit of land. "What the...." The memory of
his teasing remark to Omi the night before suddenly came back to
haunt him.
`I'm entertaining visions of Schwartz in a speedboat.'
Yohji crossed the beach cautiously, peering around but seeing no
one. A quick search of the boat revealed that it had plenty of gas,
several boxes of supplies and the key in the ignition. After an
experimental twist of the keys and a closer examination of the boat,
he discovered that somebody had carefully and efficiently disabled
the engine. There were one or two small but essential pieces missing.
It wasn't until he double-checked the crate of supplies that he
realized just how much trouble Omi might be in.
"What kind of sicko carries BONDAGE gear in a boat?"
/Imagine having to be at sea in an open boat with Farfarello for just
a moment./
"Good point." Yohji froze, replaying the last thirty seconds in his
head.
/My, you CAN be slow on the uptake, can't you?/
"Schuldich!" Yohji glanced around frantically. Beach. Trees.
Water. Boat. Not another assassin to be seen anywhere.
/Why isn't anyone ever happy to see me?/
"I can't see you," Yohji snapped. "Stop playing games!"
/Hmmm? Oh. Well, there's a bit of a problem there./ The telepath
actually sounded amused.
"Like what?"
/I'm busy. Go sunbathe or something. I'll get to you later./
"`Busy?'" Yohji scowled. Your mortal enemies weren't supposed to
just give you the brush-off.
/As if you're any sort of a threat?/ Schuldich sounded
amused. /Nowithstanding the fact that your `watch' really doesn't go
with that terribly tacky blanket, without your gloves, you're not
about to handle that wire in a fashion that would menace even my
maiden aunt./
Once again, Yohji replayed the last thirty seconds in his
head. "What have you done with...Bombay!"
/Omi,/ Schuldich pronounced the name deliberately, /is fine,
thanks. Go play in the surf or take a nap. You're distracting me./
"GOOD!"
/At least pull some clothing on. What sort of sick exhibitionist are
you, anyway?/
With a strong sense of ill-usage, Yohji gave in and rummaged through
the boxes until he found a pair of pants and a t-shirt. The pants
were a few inches too short, but they did fit.
/Luckily Farf is as skinny as you are. Now, go find your gloves.
Once you're feeling like a big, tough assassin again, you can make
yourself useful. Start a fire or something./
"Where. Is. Omi." There was homicide written large across every
snarled word.
/He's with me. Be good and I'll return him. Run along, Yohji./
"Answer me, you bastard!"
But the teasing voice in his mind had gone.
Yohji stared at the thick jungle growth, bewildered and
angry. "It'll take DAYS to search that mess." With another set of
muffled curses, he started back to the shelter at a run. `Gloves
first. Then I'll hunt down that German bastard and make him rue the
day he was born.'
In the wee hours of that same morning, in approximately that same
spot, a very different scene had taken place.
Omi jerked his head up, staring down the beach. Almost hidden by a
spit of land was a speed
boat. "Oh no...."
A familiar grip settled on his shoulder from behind and he twisted
away, falling into a crouch.
Schuldich's familiar smirk greeted his astonished gaze. "Hello,
kitten. Did you miss me?"
The younger man backed away, reaching reflexively for the darts
strapped to his wrist. He had left most of his gear strapped
carefully to the inside of the jacket of his tuxedo. Said jacket was
currently lying on the ground six inches from Yohji's head, a half
mile or so away.
"Careless of you," Schuldich agreed. "You might as well not bother
with those. They're not going to do you any good."
Omi ignored him, flipping one of the darts between his fingers. "I
may not be able to hit you with one, but if you come close enough, I
bet I could stab you."
Schuldich favored him with a mind-bogglingly cheerful smile. "How
much?"
"What?"
"How much would you like to bet?" Schuldich continued to smile, and
Omi found that the smile was making him exceedingly nervous.
"I don't have any money on me," Omi retorted, still a little
confused. It was true enough, all the gambling on board the ship had
been done with either chips or small electronic cards.
"I'm sure that you must have something else that you could bet," the
telepath wiggled his eyebrows at the younger man.
"Is this where you tell me that I'm already betting my life and that
I'm going to lose?" the teenager was rather proud of his sarcasm,
considering the butterflies in his stomach.
"Come on, be serious. What sort of bet would it be if I were
guaranteed to win?" Schuldich crossed his arms and raised an
eyebrow. "What will you bet that you can't stab me?"
"You're insane!"
"Humor me."
"I'm trapped here on a deserted island and you expect me to have
something to bet?" Omi shook his head in disbelief.
"We just came from a casino and gambling fever has me in its grasp,"
the telepath proclaimed dramatically. "Now c'mon. I'm sure you can
think of SOMETHING."
"Clothes, darts, Yohji...."
"Yohji?" Schuldich wrapped both arms around himself and howled with
laughter. "Oh, that's priceless."
Omi flushed. "I was just running through what I had."
Schuldich smirked. "You don't have Yohji. Although I know that
you'd like to."
"Stay OUT of my head!" Omi snarled.
"Temper, temper. Play nice, kitten."
"I HATE it when you call me that!"
"About as much as you hate `chibi'." Schuldich purred.
Omi froze.
/Forget you were dealing with someone who can hear what you're
thinking?/
"I...."
"Do you want to play this game, or not?" the German demanded.
"No."
"Toooooo baaaaaaad," he sing-songed. "Play nice. If I win, I'll
give you a ride back to the mainland in my boat."
"What's to just stop me from taking it?!"
Schuldich laughed. "The fact that it won't run until you find where
I hid some of the more essential bits of the engine?"
Omi ground his teeth. "Look, you obviously have something in mind.
Just tell me what it is!"
"I want...." Schuldich struck a thoughtful pose.
Flipping the dart impatiently through his fingers, Omi waited. And
then he made a critical error. He blinked.
"Oooof!"
Schuldich grinned down at Omi, who was lying beneath him on the
sand. "I win!" he crowed,
"Cheater!"
"Always," he agreed cheerfully. He shifted his grip on Omi's wrists
for a moment and then stood up, taking both darts with him.
Omi sat up and glared horribly at the other assassin. "Now what?"
"Now, we are going to disappear into the jungle and you are going to
tell Uncle Schu all about your mad infatuation with Balinese."
"WHAT?!?!" Omi squawked, turning a bright cherry red for the second
time that morning.
Schuldich tipped his head to one side. "Do you want to get off on
this island or not?"
Omi took in that sentence and almost swallowed his tongue. "You....
He.... NO!"
"Liar."
"What the hell are hoping to gain from this?"
"Several days of intense amusement." Schuldich stretched
lazily. "This was our last job for a few weeks, and I wanted a
chance to play."
Omi shivered. "Weiss will come looking for us!"
"Not if Nagi and I did our job properly." Schuldich retorted. His
green eyes gleamed. "The lifeboat has been reported in for repairs.
No one will mention to the police that it was missing, because they
think they know exactly where it is. You and Balinese are currently
being chalked up as two more victims of either the flesh-eating perv
or Schwartz. You're dead, kitten. No one is going to come looking."
"You're lying." Omi clung to that hope.
"Why would I bother?" Schuldich raised an eyebrow. "Now, play nice
and I'll take you back to the mainland. Eventually." He extended a
hand to the younger man.
Reluctantly, Omi took it. "So all you want is to pick my skull about
Yohji?"
"No," the telepath admitted. "But it's a good place to start. Now
come along."
"Where are we going?" Omi asked, stalling for time.
Schuldich slipped one arm around the younger man and smirked when Omi
jumped. "Thanks to the miracles of having a decent motor instead of
the piece of junk on your pathetic little lifeboat, I arrived just
after you did and set up a nice, insect-free tent. Let's go have a
cozy chat together. And don't spare the gory details."
Tune in next time to hear Yohji say:
"You want me to WHAT?!?!"
Send Truth feedback!
The author's Gundam Wing fics can be found at GW Addiction, and she also has an account at Fanfiction.net.
[On to part 3]