The Mysterious Affair at Victoria (or, the Worms' Mistress)



Part 7



Somewhere Nearby the Victoria Club

Zechs looked over at Trentes. The Admiral was admiring an antique map hung in a gilt 
frame, so Zechs took the opportunity to pull Professor Naught aside. "Keep Trentes 
occupied for a few moments, would you? I'm not really wanting him to see how I get 
the search engine started."

"Oh, yes, well - that would make sense wouldn't it, especially given the man's track 
record, eh?"

He winked at his former student and then wandered over to where Trentes stood. The 
two men began to discuss the development of military maps.

Within five minutes, Zechs had the search engine program up and running on the comm 
unit. He stepped through several screens of information until, about 10 screens in, 
the program returned the name of a file that matched the name of Miranda Centov.

"She's in there," said Zechs. "And there's the alteration date. The day before 
yesterday."

"So recent?" said the Professor. "It only happened the day before *yesterday?* 
Dear God. Something that complete, that total, and it did the work and left no 
trace of itself..."

"Not exactly," said Zechs. He pointed to a small group of numbers at the bottom 
of the screen. "One thing I thought might be important in a war was knowing 
*where* enemy misinformation was coming from. That's what these numbers are. 
They tell us the path along the network that the changes took. Supposedly, if 
we follow them back far enough, we should be able to tell where the machine 
was that made the changes. That might be the first logical place to look for 
Miranda."

As Zechs worked his way back along the digital pathway, Duo found himself watching 
the tall blond instead of the screen. A strangely possessive feeling of pride washed 
over him as he watched the Professor peer intensely at the screen, softly patting 
Zechs' shoulder as he did so.

/I knew there was more to him than good looks and being able to fight... What 
other little talents do you have hidden away, Mr. Prince?/

"Here it is." Zechs' deep voice broke Duo's reverie. "Someone write this down - 05721R. 
That's the code number for the location of the computer that was used."

Noin scribbled the code number down on a piece of Lodge stationery. "Where do we go 
to find out what the code means?" she asked.

"There should be a page with the legend near the beginning of the pathway." After a 
couple of attempts, Zechs found the legend. The abbreviated locations of each 
computer in the pathway were there, along with the key to the abbreviations. 
Under 05721R was the abbreviation 'Fed/Spec' and a link to a different page.

Duo was on his knees now, his braid draped over Zechs' right shoulder and peering 
at the screen. "What's that abbreviation?" he asked the blond man.

Frowning in concentration, Zechs responded in a distracted voice, "It's the one 
used for the old Specials Unit within the Federation."

"You mean the thing that was really OZ?" Duo murmured. "But there is no more OZ. 
No more Specials. What does it mean?"

"My program can find information that was supposedly deleted from the database," 
Zechs explained. "That's why we're being directed to a different page. This is 
information that was technically deleted after the war. But it's hard to get 
every trace of data off a network. That's the weakness this search engine exploits."

When Zechs followed the link provided, he ended up at a page with the header 
"Computer Research Facility (CRF)." The geographic location listed was VB.

"What's 'VB'?" said Duo.

Zechs let a moment go by before he answered. "Victoria Base."

"What?" Noin said in disbelief. "Here? The place we're looking for is somewhere 
*here?*"

"That's how he did it," murmured Zechs. "He could make appearances anywhere, I 
suppose, since he was coming from someplace very nearby."

"Who is this you're talking about, Zechs?" asked the Professor, who had wandered 
over with Trentes.

"Tolv Roos. He's been making appearances in full-dress OZ uniforms. I couldn't 
figure out how he was doing it, given that he wasn't a guest at the Club and 
there are no villages nearby. Now I know..."

"Bastard!" Trentes muttered under his breath. "Thinks he's God. Thinks he can 
manipulate people's lives, as if we were all so many puppets and he controls 
the strings. So he's been operating out of the Club? Huh! Even worse!"

"I wonder, though..." Zechs said, almost to himself. He stepped through a few 
more pages and found the architect's diagram of the CRF. The picture on the 
screen shocked everyone. It showed the buildings that would later be renovated 
into the Victoria Club. From an entrance in what used to be the Federation 
Documents Archive Room, a single pathway was drawn downward and eastward. 
It emptied out into a huge facility, built entirely *beneath* Lake Victoria.

"We have to find out what part of the Club used to be the Archive Room," 
said Duo, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Wait," the Professor broke in. "First, could you, that is, can you check..." 
Zechs turned around, wincing in pain from the welts along his shoulders. 

"What is it, Professor? Something else you need?"

"Yes. Could you access the data on the changes you found. I seem to recall 
that your search engine could also get to information about the programs 
making the changes, yes?"

Zechs nodded and stepped back to the first page in the pathway. It took 
several tries, but eventually he accessed the applications page. The 
program that was listed as generating the changes in the identity files 
had the curious name, "Miranda's Worm."

"Oh my dear Miranda," the professor breathed. "What have they done with 
you?"

Zechs understood immediately what the professor was thinking. As quickly 
as he could, he accessed the physical plant schematic of the CRF. It would 
list who was there at the time the changes went into effect.

The search engine provided the rest. As they watched, Zechs displayed the data 
his program had found, which showed that the individual known to them as 
Miranda Centov (and formerly known to the database as 844369) was in the 
facility with one other person two days ago at 10am. Then Zechs brought up 
the schematic as the official database registered it immediately after the 
change had been entered. In that diagram, Miranda's code had completely 
disappeared.

"She's down there," Zechs said. "Tolv was probably with her. And according 
to the physical plant readout, all of the life support systems for the CRF 
have been shut down. I think we'd better start looking for that entrance. 
She doesn't have much time."

**********

CRF/Beneath Lake Victoria

/Well, do I crawl away and die somewhere, do I stay in here and beat on the 
computer until it talks to me, or do I try to find the applied chemistry 
section and look for drugs...? God, I... I can't make myself believe this... 
big time denial going on here, Miranda. You always thought you'd go when you 
were 99 and had tons of cats around you... just not meant to be, I guess... 
damn that bastard Roos!/

She was sitting at one of the terminals in the Control Room, staring at the 
small machine that should have been her lifeline to the outside world a 
hundred feet above her head. Should have been, if the worm hadn't been created.

/My fault, really. I should have known somehow that he was going to use it 
against someone. But he was so convincing, so persuasive that this would be 
of prime importance to the ex-soldiers of the Federation, and of OZ. And I 
believed him... believed him because he was so good at what he did... so 
charismatic, so utterly convincing.../

She put her head down in her hands and massaged her temples. They were 
starting to pound in a more serious way, attempting to let her know that 
the location she found herself in right now was not a good one. If only 
she could remedy that... but it was too late now.

/Can't even try to break into the database and change the code for the 
worm. All my data is gone now... no way to bring it back... God - this 
is horrible! I can't just... just sit here... waiting to die... I've 
gotta think... /

She looked back to the screen. As she watched, the monitor dimmed as the 
terminal went into savings mode. It felt too real, hit too close to home, 
and she had to turn away from the dying light on the other side of the glass. 
As she did, she stood up, feeling a little light-headed.

/Gonna take a walk... yup, just a little stroll... maybe I'll go see if Daddy 
Tolv left the front door open by mistake... /

She walked slowly out of the room, grabbing a flashlight from the emergency 
kit near the door, and headed off into the darkness.

**********

The Victoria Club - The Map Room

Duo and Zechs were peering at the architect's drawings for the old Federation 
military installment at Lake Victoria. The tall blond was feeling the effects 
of the day. He was bone weary and every part of his skin had some bitter 
complaint or other. /Sorry - can't help you yet...I have to keep going... 
pain is nothing but a nuisance right now.../

They had determined that the location of the Federation Documents Archive 
was somewhere among three adjacent rooms at the back of the Club. Zechs 
tilted his head a bit and frowned at the screen. 

"It's odd - but the actual entryway to this corridor that leads downward 
doesn't seem to be 'in' any room at all. It's *between* these two - the 
Library and the Reading Room."

"But... there isn't any door," Duo remarked. He traced the back corridor 
of the Club with a finger, held just above the screen. You go along this 
hallway and you come to the... uh..."

"Mombassa," offered Zechs.

"Oh, yeah, the Mombassa Room. Then there's the Reading Room. Then the 
Library. And finally, on the other side of the Library, the..."

"Nairobi," Zechs suggested.

"Right," said Duo, looking up at Zechs a little sheepishly, "the Nairobi 
Room. Ya know - we didn't have any of these names in school where I came 
from..." Zechs gave the braided boy a wink and Duo's embarrassed look 
melted into an idiotic grin. "There isn't any other doorway. But the 
entrance to this place is somewhere around there." He scratched his head. 
"Nope, I don't get it."

"Noin," Zechs called, his eyes not moving from the monitor screen. "Can 
you come and look at this - tell us what you think?" When no answer came 
after several seconds, Zechs looked up. The professor and Admiral Trentes 
both sat in armchairs - fast asleep. Noin, however, was nowhere to be found.

"Damn," muttered Zechs, "she'd better not be wandering around on her own...
 not safe..."

He was just about to tell Duo to make a quick sketch of the diagram when Noin 
came into the room, trailing clothing, medicine, and a hairbrush.

Zechs eyed it all suspiciously.

"Noin... uh... could you come and have a look at this, please?" 

"Only if you let me wash off some of those cuts and get you dressed first."

That caught Duo's attention. His head popped up from behind the monitor screen, 
the expression on his face one of pure disbelief. "You want to do *what* to him?"
 he demanded of Noin.

She signed, as if exerting every ounce of patience she had, and turned to Duo. 
"I thought that you might need to keep working on the diagrams there and that 
while you were doing that, I would get Zechs cleaned up. He needs to have these 
cuts washed with antibiotics - and a quick sponge bath and hair brushing wouldn't 
hurt. Both of you could use some quality time with the brush, as a matter of fact."

Zechs and Duo looked at each other - then shrugged in confusion.

"Over here now, Zechs - please." Noin was not taking 'no' for an answer.

Zechs handed the comm unit to Duo and pushed himself painfully off of the sofa. 
He sat down in a chair, his back to Noin, and ducked his head. Duo looked over 
at him as he looked up from beneath long bangs and long lashes. The lovely 
blond man gave him a soft, almost wistful smile, and then dropped his gaze 
again. Duo felt an overwhelming urge to grab him and take him away from all 
this insanity. This was supposed to be time for the two of them to spend 
together. To get to know each other better, and to explore what their 
relationship was becoming. 

/Huh!?/ Duo thought as he watched Noin begin to touch Zechs softly. /Fat 
chance of that ever happening now... And... damn I wish she wouldn't be so 
nice and gentle. She's only gotta wash him off - she doesn't have to act 
like it's foreplay or something.../ He grumbled and set about drawing a 
quick sketch of the Club's back corridor rooms. Zechs would probably want one.

Noin ran slender, ointment-laden fingers over Zechs' tortured skin. She was 
angry, so angry at the man who had done this. And she wondered if he had done 
more that Zechs wasn't telling her - telling *them* about. She leaned over his 
shoulders to move the antibiotic down the front of his chest. As she did, a 
flood of memories, sweet, intense, and erotic, came washing over her. She 
felt weak suddenly, remembering the shuttle ride to Mars, when they had first 
kissed,and she was able to touch him, finally, in the way she'd wanted to for 
years.

/He was so... willing... so open to everything I wanted... and more beautiful 
than I had ever guessed... golden skin, golden hair, intense blue eyes looking 
only at me, for once. Only at me.../

Zechs' eyes were closed, his body feeling warm and relaxed under Noin's 
ministrations. He was remembering a time on Mars when she had done something 
like this after he had been at the B-level terraform site for over 14 hours 
straight. Just as now, she had known exactly where to touch him to bring 
relief and pleasure.

/So good, Noin... You read my mind somehow... know just where it hurts and 
you're there, making it better... that other time... your hands just kept 
moving over me... going further and further down...until... hmmmmm..." 

She leaned over just the slightest bit, and spoke to him in a low voice. 
"Do you remember that time on Mars..."

Zechs nodded drowsily, small humming noises coming from deep in his throat. 
"Yes," he murmured, voice no more that a whisper..."You were so beautiful, 
Noin... and it felt... so good..."

Her hands drew the medicine cream further down his chest. It made his skin 
tingle with heat. As she moved he could feel her body against his, her soft 
breasts pushing up against his shoulder blades . The rubbing motions she made 
pushed them up and down against the bones of his back and he felt her nipples 
stiffen through the thin cloth of her dress.

The feel of them, there, against him, so stiff and hot, brought to his mind 
all the times he had run his fingers over them... suckled them. God he had 
loved doing that... Of all the mysteries that Noin's body offered, her 
breasts were, to him, the most lovely. Being with Treize hadn't prepared 
him for the strange combination of lust and tenderness he felt towards 
Noin when they had kissed for the first time, and she had guided his hand 
towards them. He had a strong suspicion, since then, that Noin knew his 
weakness, and had willingly exploited it to pleasurable effect on many, 
many occasions.

He was drifting now, almost asleep, so relieved to be feeling pleasure in 
his body, a body that had, a mere hour ago, been the source of so much pain. 
So, as Noin touched him, obviously with her fingertips and, more discreetly, 
with her breasts, his own nipples stiffened in a response he was largely 
unaware of. Her fingers brushed against the hardened points and closed on 
them, rubbing gently up and down...up and down. Zechs' breathing grew faster... 
/What a lovely dream/ he thought. /Noin?... Duo?... Are you both here?... hmmmmm
... Duo... I love you... I love you.../

Noin had just begun pinching Zechs lightly between her fingers when Duo stood 
up to show Zechs the diagram he'd drawn.

What he saw hit him so hard he couldn't breathe. Zechs' eyes were closed, his 
face, so peaceful. Noin was bent over his back, her cheek pressed to his. She 
was rubbing her fingers against his nipples, whispering something to him. He 
wasn't complaining. There was a soft smile on the lovely face. He dropped his 
eyes from them and started to walk away, to let them be together as they 
obviously wanted to be.

/What... why? Why would she do this... would *they* do this? Dear God... I thought
 ... No! It's okay... he's just responding by habit... maybe... but *she* knew it 
was over... Zechs had told her... she knows he and I...Damn her to HELL!/ 

He spun around, suddenly furious and broke in on the intimate scene in front 
of him.

"Zechs! We'd better go." 

Noin, who had been leaning over Zechs' shoulder, watching her own hands as they 
aroused her ex-lover, looked up abruptly. She was at once both reluctant to move 
away from Zechs and intensely embarrassed that Duo had seen what she'd been doing. 
They stared at each other over a groggy but slowly awakening Zechs.

"W-what? Oh, Duo... are you ready? Just need... to change my clothes..." He looked 
up at Noin, but she wouldn't return his gaze.

"Sure, why don't you do that while I talk to Noin out in the hall for a minute."

Zechs blinked several times and searched around for the clothing while Duo turned 
and walked out of the room. Noin sighed, knowing what was coming, and followed him 
out into the hall.

Duo was pacing up and down, his hands curled into fists at his side. When she had 
closed the door behind her, he stopped and put his fists on his hips. "What the hell 
were you doing to him in there?" he hissed, trying hard to stay angry and not run 
away, as he felt like doing. 

"Is there something we're not straight on, Noin? Something that needs more explanation? 
'Cause I thought we went through all this yesterday."

Noin was ready. She had a volley of insults, problems, and reasons for the inappropriateness 
of Zechs' relationship with Duo. In fact, right now, a very large part of her - the part 
that had wanted so badly to touch her ex-lover and that had rejoiced at his response - 
wanted to tell Duo to grow up and deal with it. She wanted to yell at him, to tell him 
that the reality was that Zechs found her attractive sexually, just as he did Duo. That 
she had every legitimate right to fight Duo in any way she knew how in order to get 
Zechs back. And that, like it or not, she had a history with the tall nobleman that 
he didn't share, and hadn't been a part of. 

She was ready. She could fight. But she didn't, and that surprised her. Her mind 
wandered back to the first days she had known Zechs, when she had seen him walking 
across the quadrangle here at the Academy. It had been as if the sun had opened up 
and was shining only for her. He had barely noticed her, gave her a polite nod and 
kept walking, but she took care of that. And now, standing here a facing this boy 
on the verge of being a man, she also remembered that sweet fierceness, the 
protectiveness, the sense of territory that he radiated. She had harbored those 
identical feelings for the beautiful son of Sank. She had been exactly where Duo 
was. So she didn't fight.

And one more thought came back to her, preventing her words from flying out at 
the braided boy. The dream. The horrible dream where Treize's ghost had reminded 
her that she herself had allowed Duo Maxwell to die and so caused Zechs to follow 
him. She could still see the horrible look in his eyes, and his soft voice saying 
"It's all your fault...it's all... your... fault!!"

The insults, the doubt she could send Duo's way, they were just like that terrible 
black car. They would bear down on him, ready to crush the budding relationship, 
just as the car had crushed Duo's slender body. She had been warned about it. So 
she didn't fight.

Instead she looked into Duo's eyes and told him the truth. "I'm sorry, Duo. That 
was out of line. I shouldn't have done what I was doing. It's just that... he's 
a hard one to get over. Hard to leave alone. And he was... so close... so warm... 
Helping him like that, I just remembered all the times on Mars... acting like... 
a wife, not just a lover or a friend. I need you to understand that Duo. I really 
thought that I was going to be his wife. It's the only thing I've wanted since I 
met him. Stupid, I know... very old-fashioned. But everything I've done has 
been done for him, at some level." 

She paused and leaned her back against the wall of the hallway. "Losing that... 
has been...has been the hardest thing I've ever been through. It means putting 
away... so much. All these pictures that I've been carrying around in my head 
for so long. What our wedding would be like... setting up a home together... 
having his children, all with that beautiful blond hair... Now I have to find 
a way to accept it that those images will always be that... just images, nothing 
more tangible."

Duo felt the anger in him draining away as Noin spoke. /Wedding? Children? Hadn't 
thought of that, had you, Maxwell. He's not just any old guy - he's a damn prince. 
Or would be if he'd give himself permission... What could I possibly do for that 
part of him?/

A sting of tears behind her eyes now, but she willed them back. She refused to cry 
here. Not in front of Duo. She couldn't take a chance that he would tell Zechs about 
this, about what she'd said. Above all, she wanted no pity from either of them.

Duo's reaction to her, however, was not at all what she expected. The fight that had 
been their just a moment ago had disappeared. His hands dropped to his sides, and 
his face was sad, troubled.

"I can't give him any of that," Duo said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I... I 
sure can't be a woman for him. And if that's what he needs..." His voice trailed off.

Noin was just about to reply when the professor stuck his head out into the hall. 
"We're ready to go when you are," he said grimly, and went back into the room.

Noin and Duo looked at each other for a long moment, neither knowing what to say. 
Finally, Duo ducked his head. One tear fell onto the carpet beneath him. Just one. 
"You've known him for years. I can't even claim a week. I've... I've been selfish 
about him, I guess. I hadn't thought of everything he'd be losing if I stayed with him."

"Duo, that's not what I meant." Noin felt a strange sense of alarm at the boy's 
words, his sense of despair, a fight given up. 

/The dream... the dream is coming true... I'm killing him - God, what have I done... 
shouldn't have touched Zechs, shouldn't have said those things... he looks beaten... 
Damn this whole situation!!/

She spoke softly, taking a step towards Duo. "Those were *my* images, Duo. I wouldn't 
claim to know what Zechs has imagined for his future. He loves you. I know he does."

Duo looked up sharply. His large violet eyes were shining with tears - tears that he 
could stop from falling, but couldn't will out of existence. "Why wouldn't he want all 
of that?" he whispered to Noin. "He's a prince. He needs a princess, and that sure isn't 
me." He tried to laugh, but it came out as a whimper. "He needs someone he can show 
off, someone on his arm, someone... to give him children." Again, he ducked his head.

"I want him to have the person who's best for him, who can make him happy and give him 
what he needs..." He folded his arem over his chest, somewhat protectively, and 
stared at the floor. 

"Last weekend, in Sank, he... he told me something that could have made me leave 
him in a second. He said that Heero had finally told Relena that he loved me, not 
her. I'd been waiting to hear that for two years. And Zechs knew that there was a 
good chance that if I knew that, I would go back to Heero. But he said that I should 
know... and that he told me because he really loved me. He said if you really love 
someone then the only thing you want is for that person to be happy. Even if it's 
not with you."

Slowly, he raised his eyes to hers, and pierced her heart with his words. "Maybe... 
maybe he'd really be happiest with you... Noin."

And with that, he turned abruptly and led the way back to the room.
CRF/Beneath Lake Victoria

She was headed to the stairs. It was infinitely easier to move around now that she 
had a flashlight. But it was also easier to see just how deserted the facility was, 
and how alone she was herself. 

/All of the people - Mazer, Krisstans, Eric - where were they. They hadn't been 
friends, exactly, but they were colleagues. She had seen them every day for the 
last two months, and now there was no trace of them. The desks were empty, the 
papers all gone... no pictures of the chubby 6-month-old on Karras' file cabinet, 
no stupid plastic robot toys on top of Decca's computer. What had happened to 
them? Where were they?/

She moved through the eerie wasteland of the central work area, trying to ignore 
the screaming emptiness of it all. At the back she passed into the corridor that 
led to the central elevator shaft and the stairways beyond. How far could she 
climb, she wondered. How certain was Roos about her death? Had he left anything 
unchecked, any little chink in the armor of this steel grave?

The elevators were open. /Odd/ she thought, passing them. /That must be their standby 
mode - never thought about it before./ She paused, about to go through the door to 
the stairs. 

/Those doors... they looked so... inviting? I can almost pretend they were asking me 
to join them upstairs. Oh, dear, you *are* starting to feel the lack of air, aren't 
you. You'll be talking to the ceiling sprinklers at the end... Still, why not try the 
elevators. It's not like I have anything better to do and it'll only take a moment.../

She turned away from the door and walked back to the elevator lobby. The car on her 
left was entirely dark. She moved towards it, running her flashlight around the 
interior. She thought she could detect something - a faint smell, something soapy, 
that lingered in the air of the small, dark space. It drew her in, and once she 
stepped through into the car, the doors closed smoothly behind her. 

Outside, in the darkness of the lobby, the immense silence was broken by a small 
humming sound, as the elevator indicators showed the progress of the car moving 
steadily upward.

**********

The Victoria Club - The Map Room

Zechs looked up as Noin and Duo walked in. He was wearing the clothing that Noin 
had brought for him - putty colored shorts, a deep red camp shirt, and brown boots. 
"Ah, Noin, Duo, good. The professor and I were talking and we agreed that we need 
someone to stay here and work with the police and the Lodge's security team. Would 
you do that for us, Noin?"

/Oh, Zechs... no matter how modern you are in your fighting skills and your 
understanding of technology, you'll always be the little prince whom they 
taught to revere women - to put them on pedestals so they won't be harm's 
way. I thought I'd cured you of it, but I'm beginning to see - it's in your 
heritage... you can't escape that./

"Certainly. If that's where you need me, then there's no question. Will Admiral 
Trentes be staying?" She looked over skeptically at the still-sleeping ex-officer.

The professor hooted softly. "The weakling! What kind of officer, even an old one, 
falls asleep when this much is at stake. Leave him, that's what I say!"

"He's not of any use to us," Zechs agreed. "Would you mind, Noin?"

Noin smiled back, trying to catch Duo's eye as she did. "Not at all. Do you have a 
messager for me so I can get in touch with you, if I need to?"

"Yes, the professor had some." He handed her the pager-like device and kept one 
for himself.

Zechs looked down to snap the small black unit to his belt and Noin took the 
opportunity to nudge Duo. He wouldn't look at her. His shaggy head was tilted 
down, his eyes focused on the floor, his expression completely unreadable. As 
Zechs looked up, he couldn't help but notice.

"Duo?" he said softly, putting a hand on his lover's arm. "I appreciate you 
drawing the diagrams for us, thanks."

Duo did not look up. "No problem."

Zechs frowned. "Duo? Is anything wrong?"

There was a small pause. "No, of course not," Duo said, too brightly. He looked up, 
first quickly at Zechs, and then settled his gaze on Noin. "I'm fine, really. Just 
fine..."

Zechs followed his gaze to Noin. As Duo walked out into the hall, Zechs stared at 
Noin in confusion, his eyes pleading with her to tell him what had happened. She 
looked at him in despair and shook her head. Her hands went up in front of her in 
a gesture of helplessness and she mouthed the words, 'I'm sorry.' 

As the professor tugged him gently into the hallway, speaking urgently about the 
time, Zechs kept his eyes on Noin, a look of bewilderment on his face. As he turned 
the corner and moved out of sight, Noin felt the tears, hot and wet, sliding down 
her face.

**********

The Victoria Club/ South Hallway

The three of them stood at the eastern end of the corridor that ran along the 
back of the Victoria Club. In this wing, there were four rooms that adjoined one 
another and somewhere in the middle of them was the entryway to the CRF. Now the 
only problem was to find it.

The professor was the first to speak. "I suggest that we search separately from 
either end of the hall, as well as the middle. I could start down there, outside 
of the Nairobi Room. Zechs, you could start outside the Mombassa Room here, and 
Duo could begin at the junction of the library and reading rooms."

Zechs and Duo agreed and they went to their different starting points. Duo began 
at the level of the floorboards, looking for any cracks or replaced boards. He 
carried a copy of the diagram, and kept looking between it and the walls in 
front of him. There was no sign at all, that he could find, that a door or 
other entryway lay hidden behind them.

The professor walked slowly along the outer wall of the Nairobi Room, searching 
from the top of the wooden molding near the ceiling down to the floor. He too, 
was finding no sign of irregular construction or renovation.

Zechs had taken a slightly different approach. He stood as far back away from the 
Mombassa Room as the hallway allowed. Scanning the entire wall, he began to walk 
slowly down the corridor towards the professor. He passed the Mombassa, and was 
now walking outside the Reading Room. The double doors of that quiet chamber 
were open and several guests were taking advantage of the Club's extensive book 
collection. As he passed the room, Zechs noticed that there were windows along 
the far wall, windows that looked out onto a large enclosed garden of savanna 
plantings. 

/Charming. I'd like to spend some time with Duo in there... not likely any time 
soon, though... whatever is wrong with him, I wonder.../

He passed the center of the hallway, where Duo was making a painstaking survey 
of the door frames. Next came the library, where the doors were also open, and 
again, the far wall was filled with windows looking out onto the garden. 

He had passed the Library Door and was headed toward the Nairobi Room when he 
stopped and frowned. Something was off. Something hadn't added up during that 
walk, but he couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was. He turned around 
and began to retrace his steps, but got all the way to the Mombassa without 
noticing it again.

Duo, who had seen Zechs pass by him twice, looked down the hallway at the tall 
blond. He was standing, staring down at the carpet, right elbow resting on the 
palm of his left hand, and the right hand stroking his chin. /Maybe what they 
say about royalty and inbreeding is true/ Duo thought and then scolded himself 
for it.

"Uh, 'scuse me, Zechs?"

The blond looked up, a distracted expression on his face. "Yes, Duo?"

"What the hell are you doing?"

Zechs raised an eyebrow. "Language, kitten, please. We *are* in the Victoria, 
after all." He gave Duo a wink, then frowned more deeply. After a moment he 
spoke again. "I was walking along the hallway, to get a sense of the relationship 
between the rooms and... something, something seems wrong, but I can't figure out 
what it is. I retraced my steps the other way, but didn't feel it again."

Duo looked along the corridor skeptically. "Well, maybe you should try it again 
from this direction. Maybe the side you come from makes a difference."

"Perhaps," Zechs replied. "Would you care to come with me?"

Duo looked up at him. His tall lover smiled warmly at him, and held out a hand. 
The gesture was an elegant one, as if he were asking to lead Duo onto a dance 
floor. Duo felt a ridiculous wave of happiness that threatened to swamp him 
completely.

/Maybe... maybe Noin was right... maybe he doesn't want the same things she 
does... maybe, just maybe... he might... want me... Damn, I don't know which 
way is up anymore... don't know what to do about him... but if he wants me, 
I'm sure as hell not going to refuse him... /

He gave his hand to the blond and they walked. Once again, Zechs looked at 
the lovely garden as he passed the two middle rooms, and, once again, he 
found himself at the Nairobi with a strong feeling that something was amiss. 

"I think it's something about those two middle rooms," he told Duo. "But I 
can't say what it is."

Duo looked back down the hallway as the professor joined them. "Zechs," Duo 
asked. "What was different when you walked in this direction from when you 
walked back to where you started. Was there something you were doing or 
seeing as you came this way - something you didn't do or see going the 
other way?"

"The garden..." he murmured. The blond man paused for a moment. "Let's walk 
between those two rooms. There's something about the garden, or how I'm 
seeing it that's off."

They began at the door to the Library. Several guests looked up at them 
curiously as Duo and Zechs peered into the room, scanning the back wall. 
Next came the Reading Room. Once again, they looked in and stared at the 
far wall and once again, the Victoria's guests stared back.

Zechs walked again to the Library, staring in at the far wall. By the time 
Duo caught up with him, he was headed back again, and Duo was left to 
cope with the rather indignant stares of several guests looking for books. 
Duo tried to laugh, silently, and give a little wave that meant, "Really, 
it's nothing - he does this all the time. No big deal." He kept the smile 
in tact as he turned to follow Zechs again and promptly ran into the tall 
man, who had returned to look at the Library yet again. As it was, Zechs 
had to catch him or he would have been knocked to the floor. Duo laughed 
sheepishly, gave another a little wave to the ever expanding audience 
they had within the Library, and was pulled out of the doorway by Zechs.

They were standing along the wall at the corridor's center point, between 
the two middle rooms.

"Zechs, they think we're idiots!" Duo hissed.

"I figured it out!" Zechs whispered back. "I figured out what was different. 
It's the windows."

"The *windows?* What's that supposed to mean? And I mean it, Zechs, they 
were given me looks-"

"Come over here, I'll show you." Zechs pulled a slightly reluctant Duo to 
the door of the Reading Room. At least seven scowling faces greeted their 
arrival. Duo tried smiling at them. It didn't work.

Zechs was pointing to the far wall. "Look at the windows, Duo. How many 
windows do you see?"

"Um, I see two windows, Zechs."

"Right. Now let's go back to the Library." 

"Oh, I'd rather not do that Zechs. They think we're a little strange to 
begin with..."

"Look, look," Zechs urged as they stood in the now too-familiar doorway 
of the Library. 

A thin, rather drab-looking man with spectacles and an impeccably tailored 
suit advanced towards them. His gaze fell immediately upon Zechs who, as 
the obvious adult in this situation, should have been keeping better watch 
of the youngster he was with (who was no doubt the one causing the stir in 
the first place.) "Is something wrong, sir?" he asked the tall blond.

"Why no, my good man. Nothing at all. It's just that, well my young companion 
and I are making a study of Central African architecture and these two rooms 
struck us both as very intriguing. Didn't they Duo?"

"Huh? Oh! Yes! Yes - very intriguing."

/Damn you Zechs, what *are* you seeing here? They're just bloody *windows* 
for God's sake./

"I had just pointed out to Duo, here," Zechs continued, "that the windows 
were very striking." The Librarian launched warmly into a discussion of what 
was obviously a pet subject for him. Duo felt a nudge from Zechs, who appeared 
absorbed in the man's lecture on early 19th century window designs, and started 
to give him an exasperated come-back when he saw Zechs' hand behind his back. 
The long slender fingers were counting out, "1, 2, 3..." Duo looked into the 
room again. Sure enough, there were three windows in this room, compared to 
the two in the other. Was that it? Was Zechs noticing the discrepancy between 
the adjoining rooms? But what could that mean?/

"Yes they *are* most handsome, don't you think?" Zechs had managed to get 
the Librarian into a warm and talkative mode. They are Wesley windows, meant to 
come in threes, of course."

"Really?" Zechs said appreciatively, all the while backing Duo and himself out 
of the room. "Well thanks *ever* so much, you've been a wonderful help." He 
hustled Duo down the hall toward the professor while the Librarian looked 
after them, his reading glasses perched well-down on his nose.

"I think it's outside, in the garden," Zechs whispered when they were all 
together. "It's the windows that give it away. There are three perfectly 
spaced in the Library, but in the Reading Room there are only two, and one 
of them is far too close to the wall. Since the alteration has been made 
along that far wall, I'm betting that the entry itself is somewhere along 
that wall, probably out in the garden."

"Well, then I suggest we make haste for that garden," said the professor, 
his voice betraying a growing concern for his former student's safety. They 
walked through the empty Nairobi Room and found a set of French doors, 
hidden by the drapery. Once through them, the dust and heat of the garden
was immediate and intense, and they hurried to find the area of the wall 
that would contain the entrance to the passageway. Standing back away 
from the wall, the three of them walked slowly down the garden. Zechs 
made them stop at the point he had determined was the site of the missing 
window. The three of them turned and scanned the whitewashed plaster. 

It wasn't immediately apparent, but in a moment or two, as they took in the 
wall and the vines that trailed across it, it seemed to materialize out of 
nothing. Faint marks, in the shape of a doorway, nicely covered with vines 
so that, unless one was looking for them, they would probably never be noticed. 

"Duo," murmured Zechs, "do you want to take this one? You seem to be very able 
with difficult doorways..."

Duo grinned up at him and approached the door. He trailed experienced fingers 
along either side and came quickly upon a point where the plaster seemed thicker 
than the rest of the door. "Feels like a counterpoint spring mechanism," he 
told the two men waiting. "Hafta be careful with these. If you push with too 
much force they'll spring hard and you can get caught. Or if you don't push 
hard enough they can get jammed halfway open and then you're outta luck."

His long, slender fingers caressed the wall, his head pressed to it, listening 
for sounds of the mechanism's release. It came with incredible softness. "Is 
there anyone watching?" he asked Zechs. 

The tall man looked around quickly. "No one."

Judging the force carefully, Duo pressed the counterpoint and jumped backwards. 
The small doorway swung open. "Okay, let's get inside before anyone sees us!" 
And in a moment, the three of them disappeared into the tiny entryway.

*********

CRF/Beneath Lake Victoria

For a moment, when the doors had closed behind her and the elevator began to 
move upward, she thought about being terrified. Then she remembered that she 
was going to die in about and hour and a half anyway, so she figured she might 
as well stay calm. What could be worse? If anything on the floors above her 
was lethal, well - it would just happen a little sooner.

/So it *was* like an invitation... I just wonder who the host is going to be... 
surely there couldn't be anyone else in here... the schematic showed absolutely 
no one - unless... is there another invisible person around... like me?/

There was a rough lurch and the elevator ground to a halt. She judged that it 
had carried her up about fifty feet - roughly three floors. What was three 
floors up? The old hardware lab. But no one used that anymore. As she pondered 
it, the doors slid open onto a dimly lit hallway.

/Lights? There are lights on here! Emergency ones, of course, but still... 
Guess I'd better get off my magic carriage - my host is waiting.../

She walked slowly out of the elevator. The hallway was flooded with the eerie 
blue of the emergency lights that were embedded in the walls, near the floor. 
The angle of the lighting, coming up from beneath things, gave everything a 
creep-show appearance, and she shivered involuntarily.

There was nothing but a blank wall to her right, where the corridor ended about 
25 feet away. She turned to her left and froze. A figure, small and shadowy in 
the ghastly light, was huddled no more than 5 feet from her. 

Scrambling for her flashlight she held it up with trembling hands and flipped 
the on switch. There was a yelp of pain at the brightness of the light, and the 
figure covered its eyes with one hand. "Turn it off, turn it OFF," it hissed. 
The voice sounded young, no more than his early 20s surely, and was definitely 
male. With the light washing over him, she could see that he sat in a wheel
chair near the elevator control panel. He had a computer on his lap and several 
cords ran from it to the open panel on the wall. "Please!" he repeated. "Turn 
if off, it's really hurting my eyes." She decided it was safe enough, so she 
complied.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "And why aren't you showing up on any of the 
schematics? This place is supposedly empty."

"I know," he said softly. "I'm the one who closed the door when the last 
person was out."

She frowned at him. "What do you mean? Are you the one responsible for 
leaving me down there, drugged out of my mind. *You're* the one who's 
suffocating me? 'Cause if you are I gotta tell ya, buddy - I have no 
intentions of dying so soon. Now, why don't you just tell me how to get 
out of this place, huh?"

"I wish I could," he whispered. "But I underestimated him. I thought it 
was just one of those little obsessions that soldiers get. I didn't know 
he had a lot of people working for him; people with skills that I can't 
match..." He lowered his head and ran one slender hand over his eyes.

"Hoo-kay, how about turning the air back on? You got the elevators to 
work, why not do the life support system now?"

The young man shook his head. "Takes access to the network, and I can't 
get that-" He stopped in mid-sentence, unable to speak or look up at her.

"You've been erased, too, haven't you?" she breathed.

He looked up at her. "It wasn't supposed to happen this way, honest! I 
thought I had him fooled - that he didn't know I was still here. But he 
knew - somehow. And he... he used the program on me, just like I did on you."

"You? You were the one who erased my ID code?" She couldn't quite believe 
what she was hearing. This skinny kid with the computer? *He* was the one 
who'd done this?

"Only because he told me that he'd kill you if I didn't'!" the boy retorted 
sharply. "At least this way you'd still... still be alive..."

He looked at her, eyes full of anguish. For the first time she noticed the 
black hair, pulled back into a sleek ponytail, and the small, round glasses 
he wore. /Maybe not even 20... maybe younger, a high school kid perhaps... 
Then what the hell is he doing down here?/

She sighed, wanting all the pieces to fit, knowing she might never get them 
to before she died. But there wasn't any harm in trying. First things first.

"I'm Miranda, what's your name?"

"K-Kazusa. You can call me Kazu." He was looking down at his hands on the 
keyboard of the laptop. If the lighting had been different she could have 
sworn he was blushing. 

"Okay, Kazu. First off, am I to understand that you can't do anything 
about the air supply in here?"

He nodded.

"Well, why don't you tell me everything that you know about how we got 
into this predicament. But make it quick 'cause we don't have tons of 
time, okay?"

"Okay," he nodded. Then, straightening up in the wheelchair a bit, he 
coughed a little, then began.

"About three months ago, I was at school - the University of Tokyo in 
the J A P sector."

"A little young for college, aren't you?" she ventured.

"Not really. I'm 18. I just went through my studies faster than a lot of 
kids and ended up at TU when I was 15. I... I study computers... the 
hardware, actually. Anyway, one day this guy came by after a lab class 
and asked to talk with me. He looked familiar. It was weird, but I couldn't 
place him. He wanted to know if I was interested in coming to work for him 
here at Victoria."

"Let me guess," Miranda interrupted. "Tolv Roos?"

"Yeah. He was really... persuasive. He seemed to know that I was getting 
burned out on school - and I was. I just wanted to get out of there and 
*do* something with what I knew and... he was offering a fascinating 
project. In the end I just couldn't say no."

"Interesting. He basically did the same thing to me, only I had gotten 
out of school a couple of years ago." Miranda looked thoughtful. Her 
chest felt a bit heavy, and she coughed several times before saying, 
"Sorry, go on."

"Well, I got here, and I really liked the project and the people around 
this place. I got to know Tolv really... really well. He and I were... 
well..." Miranda realized that the boy was blushing furiously.

"Oh, you were... lovers?"

"Well, I don't know if I would have used anything that strong to 
describe it, but we did... sleep together, you know? 

He told me once that I was the first man he'd been with. That I was 
a kind of... 'experiment' for him." Kazu laughed, somewhat bitterly, 
and continued. "He said I was an acquired taste but that he was 
learning fast..."

Miranda nodded.

"Anyway, two months ago he told me that you were coming. I'd heard 
of you. There were two or three articles that you published in the 
computer science journals that I'd read and saved. You're... you're 
a genius."

She gave him a wry smile. "If I were a genius, I wouldn't be about 
to die in the biggest grave of all time."

He looked up at her, eyes full of pain. "It's all my fault. Maybe 
I could have stopped him somehow, I could have thought of something 
else that would have worked -" He broke off as another coughing fit 
came over him.

"Kazu," she put out a hand and covered his. It was icy to the touch. 
"Let's focus on why we're here. We can both wallow in blame when the 
air comes back on, okay?"

He nodded and then continued. "He said you were going to help him 
make the most useful program in the world. That you would be the one 
who would give him exactly what he needed to correct all the injustices 
that the war had caused. I wasn't exactly sure what he meant. I 
probably would have been more curious if..." Kazu stopped and 
looked back down at his hands. "If I hadn't of been in love 
with him..." he said softly.

Miranda waited as patiently as she could for him to go on.

"I followed all your work. He showed me every alpha version, then the 
two betas you came up with. Like I said, you're a genius programmer. 
I've never met anyone who did the caliber of work you do. You're... 
you're kind of like my... my idol." He blushed again, and couldn't 
meet her gaze.

"Then, about a week ago, Tolv said that you had finished what you were 
working on, but that you'd become 'troublesome' to him. He said you 
would have to disappear along with the others because he couldn't 
trust you anymore. Then he told me about this plan - the one where 
you'd be drugged and left down here after the place was evacuated. 
He said sometime, maybe a year from now, he'd come back and get rid 
of... the body."

She listened with growing horror but also with fascination as this 
young man told of casual conversations about her life and death. 

"Why didn't he just shoot me?" she wondered out loud.

"Oh, he would never have done that!" Kazu looked up at her sharply. 
"That wasn't his style. He... was going to give you drugs and put you 
down here... so you would suffocate before you woke up." He looked at 
her intensely, searching her eyes for something she couldn't quite 
fathom. "I think he... he respected you - in his own way... I think 
he wanted your death to be romantic."

"But he didn't give me enough. And I woke up too soon."

"Yeah - I guess that was one of the biggest mistakes he made..."

Miranda looked away from the dark-haired young man opposite her. 
/Roos - you're such a good actor. Not only can you play Treize to 
the hilt, but you can be kind and considerate to someone while 
planning her death. You really had me convinced... but at least 
I didn't fall in love with you...like this one.../ More coughing, 
harsher this time and somewhat painful.

When he spoke again, Kazu's voice had fallen to barely above a 
whisper. "I... just couldn't let him do that... not to you... I 
didn't tell him, but I started working on a way to get around 
the plan he had. I knew it would cost me my relationship with 
him, and quite possibly my life, but... what he was going to do 
just wasn't right. Especially after you had worked so hard for 
him and made that incredible program."

Miranda rested her chin on the top of her fists and sighed. "Even the 
best program can be used to hurt people. That's what he was going to 
do with it, I think. He was going to erase the ID codes of all the 
enemies he thought he had."

"It was all the soldiers who defected from General Khushrenada during 
the war. He hated them... thought they had let the General die. I guess 
he thought that what he would do to them was just punishment for what 
they did to Treize.

"But I couldn't let him do that to you, too. So I decided to stay here 
when he shut things down, so I could come and rescue you. I asked him 
if I could be the one who activated the program on you and then secured 
the building as I left." Kazu's eyes were shining with tears. "He 
believed me... I really convinced him that I wanted to do that to 
you... I hated lying to him... but I really didn't have much of a choice."

Miranda took up the narrative to give him time to get a hold of 
himself. "So, you were the one to stay behind. You were supposed 
o use the Worm to clear my code number and then put the building 
into stasis mode before leaving. But you didn't leave. You stayed 
here so that you could come down and get me?"

"Yeah. But he must have been waiting for me or something. And when 
I didn't come out he must have known something was wrong. He had 
access to everything about this place. He's probably using the computer 
up in the holding area. The air wasn't turned off up there.

"It didn't think that he'd really do that to me until I couldn't get 
ny of the computers to respond to me. Then my head started feeling 
funny, so I looked at one of the readouts while I was wearing my badge. 
I was... just... gone."

Miranda felt an absurd urge to hug him. "So you've been up here, 
working..." She looked down at the laptop connected to the elevator 
control panel. 

"Yeah. I can't go down the stairs, obviously," he slapped his 
wheelchair and coughed again, loudly. "And I couldn't get the 
air back on, so I was trying to find a way to at least get in 
touch with you. The elevators were my last hope..." He quickly 
wiped at his eyes. "It's really screwy. Most things in this place 
are controlled only by the main computers downstairs. But a few, 
like the elevators, can be hacked into without an ID code. That's 
what I've been doing for the last hour."

He ducked his head and frowned, appearing to fight back tears again. 
Then he looked up slowly at Miranda. "I really wanted to save you... 
I even hesitated in sending the Worm out for you. Thought maybe there 
was some way I could get away with not even doing that much. But I knew 
he'd find out. 

"I'm sorry, Miranda. I've made a real mess of this whole thing and now... 
we're both going to die and it's just not fair to you!" The tears finally 
came, sliding silently down his cheeks. Miranda reached out a hand and 
wiped them away as quickly as they fell.

"Kazu," she said softly. "I'm amazed at what you did for me. And you 
didn't even know me. I can't begin to tell you how kind and brave you 
were to do this. I'm a stranger to you after all."

"No you're not," Kazu replied shaking his dark head. "I felt like I 
knew you the first time I read one of your programs. People can talk 
through them, you know. The way someone writes a program can say a 
lot about the programmer... Yours... I think they show you to be an 
amazing person..."

He smiled at her through the tears, and suddenly she could see why a 
grown man might find himself attracted to Kazu. Or an almost-grown 
woman, for that matter...

She was about to ask him another question when they both heard a 
sound. A sound that neither one of them had made. A sound that was 
not expected of the facility in stasis mode. 

"What was that?" she asked, fear creeping into her voice.

Kazu was listening, his head cocked, trying to determine where the 
sound had come from. 

"It was from up there," he murmured, looking at the ceiling. "Probably 
several flights up; maybe in the holding area."

"The holding area?" she asked, her voice weak. "But that would mean.
.. it's probably..."

She looked at him with staring eyes and he nodded. "Yeah," he said 
softly. "It's probably Tolv."

to Part 8

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