The screen slowly crackled to life, and the face of Sally Po gradually appeared on it.
She already looks annoyed.
A frown seemed permanently etched into her features whenever she spoke with Heero, easing only when Wufei would speak in his stead. Luckily, Agent Chang was there, and Heero hoped that he might placate the irritated blonde lieutenant on the screen.
"Agents Green and Blue, this is Water reporting, do you read?"
He wanted to roll his eyes at their ridiculous codenames, but merely nodded. "The communication link has been established. It should stabilize within the next minute."
Wufei glared at him for his obvious disregard of the language protocol, though he couldn't blame him for wanting to get to the point. The 'Preventer speak', as it was called, grew tiresome after over a year of writing reports and regularly checking in with headquarters. Often there was nothing really new to say about the situation, save for the fact that it remained difficult.
That much was evident, anyway, from the poor quality of the technology available at Manila base—so poor, in fact, that even establishing a video link to another station on Earth had become a hassle. Sally had always blamed the fact that one of the chunks from Libra's explosion had destroyed much of the infrastructure of the former OZ training camps and bases in the Philippines now appropriated for the Preventers, but Wufei remained irritated that so little had been done since then to improve the facilities.
Sally ignored Heero's informal reply, her eyes brightening as she regarded Wufei.
"What progress has been made in following up the leads you mentioned in our last communication, Agent Green?"
Wufei eyed Heero briefly before greeting Sally with a hard stare, as was his usual way.
"We've captured some of the rebels hiding out in the rainforests of Panay and Luzon that we'd been tracking for a few months," he said, pulling up a map on her screen to indicate their positions, "and with them we've found impressive stores of weaponry that was formerly the property of OZ."
Her brow furrowed. "Have the captured ones said anything yet?"
Heero almost scoffed, though his expression remained the same.
"They started talking the minute their weapons were taken away."
Sally blinked, surprised. "Already? I thought you had a difficult time with them before."
"That's only because the ones we've captured recently appear to be pawns," Wufei cut in, a scowl settling on his features. He pulled up a picture of one of the rebels in question onto the monitor. "This is one of them, Santiago Estrada. He told our interrogators that he was hired by the main circle of perpetrators to do drug-running; he claims that he and the others were 'forced' into smuggling the illegal arms we found in their camp from Phnom Penh."
Sally's eyebrow rose in suspicion. "And you believe that, Agent Green?"
Wufei frowned. "At first, of course not," he replied plainly. "But it's been difficult to disregard his story, as all the men he was captured with—and several other groups we've infiltrated and rounded up—have repeated the same story."
Heero looked at Sally pointedly, a frown now visible on his lips.
"We can't know anything for certain without at least one of the people responsible for this operation at the base for questioning."
The blonde lieutenant matched his frown, irritated by the obviousness of his comment.
"Of course, Agent Blue. But, as you know, that has been more challenging than we originally anticipated."
YOU ARE READING
Slow Burn
Fanfiction[Gundam Wing A/C; a 1xR series of vignettes post-Endless Waltz.] He had always been conscious of the fact that she—Relena Darlian Peacecraft, Queen of the World—loved him, and him alone. And yet that was the problem, since he could never give her wh...
