Enemy Revealed
There were very few lights to be seen at Central Headquarters at that time of night. It was only natural. Everyone had left to have some rest before taking up their duties again the following day.
Maes, however, had no intentions of going back home. Not before finding the answers he wanted. That’s what he had been trying to do for the last two hours, in fact. Moreover, in his attempt to find connections with any other unsolved crimes, he had opened any unsolved case-files which dated almost eight years back and remained forgotten on the shelf.
“First we have Liore, where the riot started because of the priest and the fake philosopher’s stone,” he murmured to himself as he looked at the photos that showed the catastrophe. “The military was involved and that made things worse.” His eyes caught sight of another set of pictures. “Then Ed went to Xenotime where he found Mugwar, who did research on the Red Water – the prototype for a philosopher’s stone.”
Making a small humming sound in thought, Maes’s hands reached for another file and looked at the data on it.
“Basque Grand, however, was responsible for all research in the philosopher’s stone.” The data said so only too clearly.
“And then there’s Shou Tucker’s presence in Lab 5. Grand was his sponsor, wasn’t he?” Maes mused quietly.
That, of course, meant only one thing. All incidents were caused because of the research on the philosopher’s stone. Whenever someone got too close to the truth, something happened and immediately afterwards all evidence was gotten rid off.
“But why?”
One theory was that only Basque Grand could be behind all this, but it didn’t hold water. The late Brigadier General may have wanted the philosopher’s stone for himself, but he wouldn’t have been able to pull this kind of cover-up on his own. Not to mention that the research didn’t stop even after Grand’s death. It was continued; probably by the same people who approached Grand and made him part of their plans.
“Let’s see,” Maes murmured. “Grand started funding the research shortly after the Ishbal Massacre…”
In fact, right after Marcoh became a deserter.
“Wait a minute…”
The alchemists used the red stones to test their power in Ishbal. Marcoh’s stones.
The fake priest used a red stone too.
Mugwar’s research involved crystallizing the red water.
Maes frowned. So it wasn’t only Marcoh who had come up with that theory, and the knowledge wasn’t gone once the Crystal Alchemist ran away. Someone already had that information and he was providing it to anyone interested. Who, though?
Mugwar was dead, buried underneath the ruins of the mansion where he was conducting his research, whereas the priest had left Liore without leaving a trace. That meant that Maes would have to contact Marcoh if he were to find any answers. Maes would have preferred not to risk exposing the doctor, but there wasn’t much of a choice.
With that thought, Maes opened his wallet and took out from a small secret pocket a piece of paper with Marcoh’s phone-number. He stepped outside and asked Scieszka to keep a lookout for any unwelcome passer-by, then returned to his office and dialled the number.
A moment later, Marcoh’s familiar deep voice answered the phone. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry to disturb you so late, Doctor,” Maes said. “My name’s Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes.”
The voice on the other end of the line became more alert, somewhat agitated. “Yes… Mustang mentioned your name long ago. What do you want?” There was a brief pause before Marcoh asked worriedly: “Is there something wrong?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Maes said. “Sir, I need to know about the red stones you created.”
“I can’t tell you anything,” the doctor said at once. “These stones mean nothing but trouble!”
“I’m aware of that,” Maes said, keeping his voice calm. “As I also know that the Elric Brothers almost got killed because of something you told them.”
“Oh… So they solved my puzzle,” Marcoh breathed out.
“Yes. And they discovered Lab 5.” Maes paused, trying to sense any kind of reaction, frustrated when he couldn’t detect any. “Doctor… you used to work in that lab, didn’t you? Long before it was supposedly considered inoperative.”
“Please…” Marcoh said, his voice strained, “I can’t tell you.”
Maes’s grip on the receiver tightened. “Fine, I’ll just make the questions. If the answers to any of them are ‘Yes’, keep silent. Is that okay with you?”
Marcoh didn’t speak.
“I’ll take that as yes,” Maes said. He straightened his glasses and made the first question: “Were you told about the red stones?”
There was no answer.
Yes.
“By the same people that operated Lab 5?”
Silence again.
Yes.
“Were they involved in the Ishbal Rebellion?”
“I don’t know.”
Maes frowned. “What about Liore?”
“I don’t know.”
Damn… Maes would have to find that out through the files. “Understood. Thank you, Doctor.”
“Good luck, Lieutenant Colonel.”
“Thanks.” Maes hung up, so that he could continue examining the files. He now understood that, whoever was behind the whole research and gave those alchemists the push they needed to make their breakthroughs, also had a lot to benefit from the Ishbal Rebellion. It was a fine opportunity to see just how powerful the red stones were, as well as how long it took those amplifiers to backfire on the alchemists that used them.
Maes couldn’t help but feel disgusted when the thought that the battlefield was the testing room and the State Alchemists the lab-rats wedged forcefully in his mind. And the idea that his best friend was among them saddened the lieutenant colonel the most.
They were used as tools… all of them.
Or should he say like puppets? Maes realised that it was quite convenient that the outbreak in Ishbal began just when the first red stones were ready to be put to the test.
Maes’s hands instantly reached for the file concerning the Ishbal War and started reading through it carefully. It didn’t take him long to find what he had been looking for.
“The skirmishes between Amestrians and Ishbalans became a grand-scale war when a private by the name of Juliette Douglas accidentally shot an Ishbalan child that was playing near the military camp…”
Maes pursed his lips. So far it seemed like the war in Ishbal was an accident. Nevertheless, Maes couldn’t be appeased. A nasty feeling that something was very wrong with this sentence settled in the pit of his stomach and it wouldn’t budge.
So engrossed he had become in his fervent thoughts that he almost fell from his chair when the phone next to him rang. Huffing mentally in frustration, he picked up the receiver. “Yeah, go ahead.”
“Lieutenant Colonel Hughes? This is Colonel Douglas. The Führer wishes to speak with you in his office.”
Maes instantly tensed. Not because King Bradley himself wanted a personal meeting with him, but because he finally realised what was wrong with the case-file.
The name Douglas.
In a flash, everything fell into place. Though utterly horrified by the revelation, it was with a very calm voice that Maes answered:
“I’ll be up in a short while.”
He didn’t register the slow motion of his hand as he hung up, and he didn’t pay heed to what Scieszka meant to tell him when she walked in, another pile of files and books in her hands. He merely stood up and walked out, heading for the archives’ room.
His last words to the girl were: “Put everything back in its place. And after that, go home. You’re fired.”
He was going to deal with this on his own.
“Thank you for coming at such short notice, Lieutenant Colonel,” Douglas said. She was standing on the head of the stairs when Maes came to the top floor of Central Headquarters, her expression icy as always. “Follow me, if you please.”
Maes nodded his acknowledgement with a salute and started walking beside her. She didn’t seem to notice his scrutinising look on her person, or how his entire body was as tense as a bowstring – as though ready for a fight.
It is now or never.
“So, Miss Douglas… do you know why the Führer wants to see me?”
“I believe it has to do with the incidents at Lab 5,” she replied. “There has been information that Ishbalans were involved.”
“I see…” Maes said. “I guess some people believe that the war isn’t over, right?”
Douglas said nothing.
“Tell me, if you don’t mind my asking: Have you ever been to the battlefield of Ishbal?”
“I’m afraid not, Lieutenant Colonel. I’ve been doing a desk job in my entire military career.”
“Heh, fancy that – same as me,” Maes said, yet there was hardly any mirth in his voice. “It’s very interesting, considering that a certain Private Douglas seemed to have been the reason the whole mess in Ishbal started in the first place.”
She simply walked on. “A common name, Lieutenant Colonel.”
“Maybe, but here’s where it’s becoming really interesting,” Maes continued on. “On my way here, I looked at some files in the archives’ room. It turns out that that particular Juliette Douglas apparently died two years prior to the War of Ishbal, but someone forgot to cross the name out of the active soldiers’ list. Now, wouldn’t it be just plain easy for someone to take advantage of that slip-up and take that name as their own? It would give them access to everything, including--”
“Including several promotions and a key-position by the Führer’s side,” Douglas answered. Her face was calm and her eyes soulless as she looked back at Maes.
Maes regarded her with a clenched jaw. “Who are you? Exactly?”
She simply waved her hand to the direction of the Führer’s door with apathy. “The Führer will see you now.”
“Is he really here, I wonder?” Maes said, his eyes still on Douglas and prepared for anything. His hand reached for the doorknob. “I guess I’ll find out.”
At the sound of a door bursting open made him turn around at once, and what Maes saw almost made his heart stop beating. There was another woman now standing in front of him, her violet eyes matching those of a hunting tigress. Her elongated claws aimed at his chest, and her ruby-red lips curved into a smirk of triumph. But it wasn’t that that had Maes staring at her incredulously.
It was the symbol of the ouroboros on her chest.
“A pleasure to meet you… or should I say ‘Goodbye’, Lieutenant Colonel?” she said, her voice carrying a deceivingly seductive quality.
Maes smirked, trying to hide his rising panic. “That’s a very sexy tattoo you have there, Miss.”
She didn’t bother with a reply this time. She only extended her elongated fingers for the kill.
She was fast, but Maes proved faster in his pure instinct to stay alive. He stepped aside so as not to be pierced through his chest. His right hand reached for the secret pocket on his belt and he threw one of his knives at the black-clothed woman’s direction. The knife got imbedded right between her eyes, making her fall backwards and on the floor.
At the next moment, pain surged through him and the sensation of something warm trickled down his arm. He looked down, and he realised his attacker didn’t miss her target completely either.
Damn it…
Three of her nails had grazed Maes’s skin badly. Blood was flowing out of his wound quite freely.
He had to get out…
“Run, Sir!”
Maes turned around, just in time to see Second Lieutenant Maria Ross holding up her gun and opening fire against Douglas. Douglas evaded the bullets easily, yet Maes didn’t have the luxury to think about that. He was just relieved that Ross was there, offering him help. He started running frantically, and he saw the young soldier from the corner of his eye following close behind.
Neither she nor the lieutenant colonel noticed Lust stirring back to life, pulling the knife from her forehead. And, of course, they never saw the haunting smile she directed at Douglas when she said: “It seems like we underestimated him, Sloth.” They simply kept running. They didn’t even stop when they got out of Headquarters, or even when they reached the alleys of Central; they couldn’t take any chances.
“Sir, what happened back there?” Ross asked, still running beside Maes. “How did the intruder get in unnoticed and what was Colonel Douglas trying to do?”
Maes winced mentally. Of course the woman needed some answers. She was forced to shoot at the Führer’s secretary just minutes ago!
“That, Lieutenant, was the enemy, who has moved in very close to the Führer, deep enough to affect large-scale decisions. First it was Ishbal. Now Liore is going to pay the price as well.”
“The price?”
“The price for immortality,” Maes replied, looking at Ross momentarily. “The enemy’s goal isn’t to create the Philosopher’s Stone directly, but…”
His voice died in his throat, because it was at that moment that he realised something very important.
Ross’s face…
So he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
“Never mind. Come along.”
“Yes, Sir,” Ross said obediently, following Maes to a phone-booth nearby. Maes quickly took out of his pocket any small change he had and dropped them into the slot of the large phone. He didn’t realise that a small picture of his wife and daughter slipped off his pocket and landed on the ground in plain view for anyone to see.
“Come on, come on… hurry up…” he muttered in frustration.
Finally, there was an answer. “East Area Headquarters, how may I help you?”
“I need you to put me through Roy... Colonel Mustang!” Maes said at once.
“I’m sorry, but Colonel Mustang is unavailable.”
Maes’s hands clenched into fists. “What do you mean unavailable?! Where is he?!”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t give this information to--”
Damn it, this is taking too much time!
“This is Lieutenant Colonel Hughes from Central Headquarters! This is an emergency, that’s why I’m calling from outside!”
“Please, give me your code.”
Maes swore mentally, but he knew he had no choice. He searched for a small notebook, kept safely on the inside pocket of his uniform jacket. After looking through all the pages, he finally found what he had been looking for and started repeating the code on the phone.
“I’ve confirmed the code. I’m sorry to inform you that Colonel Mustang has left for Central.”
He did what?!
“DAMN IT!” He slammed the phone down, unable to control himself. “At a time like this! With this information, he could go straight to the top!”
“Lieutenant Colonel, we should go somewhere safe,” Ross said, looking at her surroundings in a worried manner.
Maes released his grip on the receiver with a defeated sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s not like I lost any evidence here.” When the woman turned her back to him, he seized his chance. “But now there’s something I’d like to bring up with you.” He grabbed another knife from his secret pocket and held it close to the woman’s throat. “The real Lieutenant Ross has a mole right beneath her left eye.”
The woman, surprisingly, didn’t even so much as flinch at this sudden turn of events.
“Oh, is that so? How careless of me,” she said with a chuckle. She faced Maes before she placed a hand over her face. There was a small flash of light, and a mole appeared right where Maes said there should have been.
Maes felt his heart racing as he recognised that kind of trick. Edward had described it to him only too recently.
“That’s an amazing talent,” he noted, a grim smirk tugging on his lips.
If the woman ever meant to say anything to that, she never had the chance. With a swift motion of his hand, Maes slit open her throat and watched her fall on the ground.
“I hope you’ll forgive me,” he said, as death spasms coursed through her now blood-soaked body, “But I’ve got a wife and kid waiting for me back home.” At that, he turned around, not bothering to look back.
Suddenly, he sensed another flash of light behind him. Deciding that he had to finish off his opponent after all, Maes let another knife slip out of his sleeve and got ready to use it.
He never did. He froze on his tracks, staring in disbelief at the form that was now standing before him, gun in hand.
“You’re right, Hughes,” the Gracia look-alike said with a smile. “Maybe this is a more fitting end.”
As the great clock-tower of Central ticked over to midnight, the sound of gunshot filled the air.
TBC…
Maes, however, had no intentions of going back home. Not before finding the answers he wanted. That’s what he had been trying to do for the last two hours, in fact. Moreover, in his attempt to find connections with any other unsolved crimes, he had opened any unsolved case-files which dated almost eight years back and remained forgotten on the shelf.
“First we have Liore, where the riot started because of the priest and the fake philosopher’s stone,” he murmured to himself as he looked at the photos that showed the catastrophe. “The military was involved and that made things worse.” His eyes caught sight of another set of pictures. “Then Ed went to Xenotime where he found Mugwar, who did research on the Red Water – the prototype for a philosopher’s stone.”
Making a small humming sound in thought, Maes’s hands reached for another file and looked at the data on it.
“Basque Grand, however, was responsible for all research in the philosopher’s stone.” The data said so only too clearly.
“And then there’s Shou Tucker’s presence in Lab 5. Grand was his sponsor, wasn’t he?” Maes mused quietly.
That, of course, meant only one thing. All incidents were caused because of the research on the philosopher’s stone. Whenever someone got too close to the truth, something happened and immediately afterwards all evidence was gotten rid off.
“But why?”
One theory was that only Basque Grand could be behind all this, but it didn’t hold water. The late Brigadier General may have wanted the philosopher’s stone for himself, but he wouldn’t have been able to pull this kind of cover-up on his own. Not to mention that the research didn’t stop even after Grand’s death. It was continued; probably by the same people who approached Grand and made him part of their plans.
“Let’s see,” Maes murmured. “Grand started funding the research shortly after the Ishbal Massacre…”
In fact, right after Marcoh became a deserter.
“Wait a minute…”
The alchemists used the red stones to test their power in Ishbal. Marcoh’s stones.
The fake priest used a red stone too.
Mugwar’s research involved crystallizing the red water.
Maes frowned. So it wasn’t only Marcoh who had come up with that theory, and the knowledge wasn’t gone once the Crystal Alchemist ran away. Someone already had that information and he was providing it to anyone interested. Who, though?
Mugwar was dead, buried underneath the ruins of the mansion where he was conducting his research, whereas the priest had left Liore without leaving a trace. That meant that Maes would have to contact Marcoh if he were to find any answers. Maes would have preferred not to risk exposing the doctor, but there wasn’t much of a choice.
With that thought, Maes opened his wallet and took out from a small secret pocket a piece of paper with Marcoh’s phone-number. He stepped outside and asked Scieszka to keep a lookout for any unwelcome passer-by, then returned to his office and dialled the number.
A moment later, Marcoh’s familiar deep voice answered the phone. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry to disturb you so late, Doctor,” Maes said. “My name’s Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes.”
The voice on the other end of the line became more alert, somewhat agitated. “Yes… Mustang mentioned your name long ago. What do you want?” There was a brief pause before Marcoh asked worriedly: “Is there something wrong?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” Maes said. “Sir, I need to know about the red stones you created.”
“I can’t tell you anything,” the doctor said at once. “These stones mean nothing but trouble!”
“I’m aware of that,” Maes said, keeping his voice calm. “As I also know that the Elric Brothers almost got killed because of something you told them.”
“Oh… So they solved my puzzle,” Marcoh breathed out.
“Yes. And they discovered Lab 5.” Maes paused, trying to sense any kind of reaction, frustrated when he couldn’t detect any. “Doctor… you used to work in that lab, didn’t you? Long before it was supposedly considered inoperative.”
“Please…” Marcoh said, his voice strained, “I can’t tell you.”
Maes’s grip on the receiver tightened. “Fine, I’ll just make the questions. If the answers to any of them are ‘Yes’, keep silent. Is that okay with you?”
Marcoh didn’t speak.
“I’ll take that as yes,” Maes said. He straightened his glasses and made the first question: “Were you told about the red stones?”
There was no answer.
Yes.
“By the same people that operated Lab 5?”
Silence again.
Yes.
“Were they involved in the Ishbal Rebellion?”
“I don’t know.”
Maes frowned. “What about Liore?”
“I don’t know.”
Damn… Maes would have to find that out through the files. “Understood. Thank you, Doctor.”
“Good luck, Lieutenant Colonel.”
“Thanks.” Maes hung up, so that he could continue examining the files. He now understood that, whoever was behind the whole research and gave those alchemists the push they needed to make their breakthroughs, also had a lot to benefit from the Ishbal Rebellion. It was a fine opportunity to see just how powerful the red stones were, as well as how long it took those amplifiers to backfire on the alchemists that used them.
Maes couldn’t help but feel disgusted when the thought that the battlefield was the testing room and the State Alchemists the lab-rats wedged forcefully in his mind. And the idea that his best friend was among them saddened the lieutenant colonel the most.
They were used as tools… all of them.
Or should he say like puppets? Maes realised that it was quite convenient that the outbreak in Ishbal began just when the first red stones were ready to be put to the test.
Maes’s hands instantly reached for the file concerning the Ishbal War and started reading through it carefully. It didn’t take him long to find what he had been looking for.
“The skirmishes between Amestrians and Ishbalans became a grand-scale war when a private by the name of Juliette Douglas accidentally shot an Ishbalan child that was playing near the military camp…”
Maes pursed his lips. So far it seemed like the war in Ishbal was an accident. Nevertheless, Maes couldn’t be appeased. A nasty feeling that something was very wrong with this sentence settled in the pit of his stomach and it wouldn’t budge.
So engrossed he had become in his fervent thoughts that he almost fell from his chair when the phone next to him rang. Huffing mentally in frustration, he picked up the receiver. “Yeah, go ahead.”
“Lieutenant Colonel Hughes? This is Colonel Douglas. The Führer wishes to speak with you in his office.”
Maes instantly tensed. Not because King Bradley himself wanted a personal meeting with him, but because he finally realised what was wrong with the case-file.
The name Douglas.
In a flash, everything fell into place. Though utterly horrified by the revelation, it was with a very calm voice that Maes answered:
“I’ll be up in a short while.”
He didn’t register the slow motion of his hand as he hung up, and he didn’t pay heed to what Scieszka meant to tell him when she walked in, another pile of files and books in her hands. He merely stood up and walked out, heading for the archives’ room.
His last words to the girl were: “Put everything back in its place. And after that, go home. You’re fired.”
He was going to deal with this on his own.
“Thank you for coming at such short notice, Lieutenant Colonel,” Douglas said. She was standing on the head of the stairs when Maes came to the top floor of Central Headquarters, her expression icy as always. “Follow me, if you please.”
Maes nodded his acknowledgement with a salute and started walking beside her. She didn’t seem to notice his scrutinising look on her person, or how his entire body was as tense as a bowstring – as though ready for a fight.
It is now or never.
“So, Miss Douglas… do you know why the Führer wants to see me?”
“I believe it has to do with the incidents at Lab 5,” she replied. “There has been information that Ishbalans were involved.”
“I see…” Maes said. “I guess some people believe that the war isn’t over, right?”
Douglas said nothing.
“Tell me, if you don’t mind my asking: Have you ever been to the battlefield of Ishbal?”
“I’m afraid not, Lieutenant Colonel. I’ve been doing a desk job in my entire military career.”
“Heh, fancy that – same as me,” Maes said, yet there was hardly any mirth in his voice. “It’s very interesting, considering that a certain Private Douglas seemed to have been the reason the whole mess in Ishbal started in the first place.”
She simply walked on. “A common name, Lieutenant Colonel.”
“Maybe, but here’s where it’s becoming really interesting,” Maes continued on. “On my way here, I looked at some files in the archives’ room. It turns out that that particular Juliette Douglas apparently died two years prior to the War of Ishbal, but someone forgot to cross the name out of the active soldiers’ list. Now, wouldn’t it be just plain easy for someone to take advantage of that slip-up and take that name as their own? It would give them access to everything, including--”
“Including several promotions and a key-position by the Führer’s side,” Douglas answered. Her face was calm and her eyes soulless as she looked back at Maes.
Maes regarded her with a clenched jaw. “Who are you? Exactly?”
She simply waved her hand to the direction of the Führer’s door with apathy. “The Führer will see you now.”
“Is he really here, I wonder?” Maes said, his eyes still on Douglas and prepared for anything. His hand reached for the doorknob. “I guess I’ll find out.”
At the sound of a door bursting open made him turn around at once, and what Maes saw almost made his heart stop beating. There was another woman now standing in front of him, her violet eyes matching those of a hunting tigress. Her elongated claws aimed at his chest, and her ruby-red lips curved into a smirk of triumph. But it wasn’t that that had Maes staring at her incredulously.
It was the symbol of the ouroboros on her chest.
“A pleasure to meet you… or should I say ‘Goodbye’, Lieutenant Colonel?” she said, her voice carrying a deceivingly seductive quality.
Maes smirked, trying to hide his rising panic. “That’s a very sexy tattoo you have there, Miss.”
She didn’t bother with a reply this time. She only extended her elongated fingers for the kill.
She was fast, but Maes proved faster in his pure instinct to stay alive. He stepped aside so as not to be pierced through his chest. His right hand reached for the secret pocket on his belt and he threw one of his knives at the black-clothed woman’s direction. The knife got imbedded right between her eyes, making her fall backwards and on the floor.
At the next moment, pain surged through him and the sensation of something warm trickled down his arm. He looked down, and he realised his attacker didn’t miss her target completely either.
Damn it…
Three of her nails had grazed Maes’s skin badly. Blood was flowing out of his wound quite freely.
He had to get out…
“Run, Sir!”
Maes turned around, just in time to see Second Lieutenant Maria Ross holding up her gun and opening fire against Douglas. Douglas evaded the bullets easily, yet Maes didn’t have the luxury to think about that. He was just relieved that Ross was there, offering him help. He started running frantically, and he saw the young soldier from the corner of his eye following close behind.
Neither she nor the lieutenant colonel noticed Lust stirring back to life, pulling the knife from her forehead. And, of course, they never saw the haunting smile she directed at Douglas when she said: “It seems like we underestimated him, Sloth.” They simply kept running. They didn’t even stop when they got out of Headquarters, or even when they reached the alleys of Central; they couldn’t take any chances.
“Sir, what happened back there?” Ross asked, still running beside Maes. “How did the intruder get in unnoticed and what was Colonel Douglas trying to do?”
Maes winced mentally. Of course the woman needed some answers. She was forced to shoot at the Führer’s secretary just minutes ago!
“That, Lieutenant, was the enemy, who has moved in very close to the Führer, deep enough to affect large-scale decisions. First it was Ishbal. Now Liore is going to pay the price as well.”
“The price?”
“The price for immortality,” Maes replied, looking at Ross momentarily. “The enemy’s goal isn’t to create the Philosopher’s Stone directly, but…”
His voice died in his throat, because it was at that moment that he realised something very important.
Ross’s face…
So he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
“Never mind. Come along.”
“Yes, Sir,” Ross said obediently, following Maes to a phone-booth nearby. Maes quickly took out of his pocket any small change he had and dropped them into the slot of the large phone. He didn’t realise that a small picture of his wife and daughter slipped off his pocket and landed on the ground in plain view for anyone to see.
“Come on, come on… hurry up…” he muttered in frustration.
Finally, there was an answer. “East Area Headquarters, how may I help you?”
“I need you to put me through Roy... Colonel Mustang!” Maes said at once.
“I’m sorry, but Colonel Mustang is unavailable.”
Maes’s hands clenched into fists. “What do you mean unavailable?! Where is he?!”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t give this information to--”
Damn it, this is taking too much time!
“This is Lieutenant Colonel Hughes from Central Headquarters! This is an emergency, that’s why I’m calling from outside!”
“Please, give me your code.”
Maes swore mentally, but he knew he had no choice. He searched for a small notebook, kept safely on the inside pocket of his uniform jacket. After looking through all the pages, he finally found what he had been looking for and started repeating the code on the phone.
“I’ve confirmed the code. I’m sorry to inform you that Colonel Mustang has left for Central.”
He did what?!
“DAMN IT!” He slammed the phone down, unable to control himself. “At a time like this! With this information, he could go straight to the top!”
“Lieutenant Colonel, we should go somewhere safe,” Ross said, looking at her surroundings in a worried manner.
Maes released his grip on the receiver with a defeated sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s not like I lost any evidence here.” When the woman turned her back to him, he seized his chance. “But now there’s something I’d like to bring up with you.” He grabbed another knife from his secret pocket and held it close to the woman’s throat. “The real Lieutenant Ross has a mole right beneath her left eye.”
The woman, surprisingly, didn’t even so much as flinch at this sudden turn of events.
“Oh, is that so? How careless of me,” she said with a chuckle. She faced Maes before she placed a hand over her face. There was a small flash of light, and a mole appeared right where Maes said there should have been.
Maes felt his heart racing as he recognised that kind of trick. Edward had described it to him only too recently.
“That’s an amazing talent,” he noted, a grim smirk tugging on his lips.
If the woman ever meant to say anything to that, she never had the chance. With a swift motion of his hand, Maes slit open her throat and watched her fall on the ground.
“I hope you’ll forgive me,” he said, as death spasms coursed through her now blood-soaked body, “But I’ve got a wife and kid waiting for me back home.” At that, he turned around, not bothering to look back.
Suddenly, he sensed another flash of light behind him. Deciding that he had to finish off his opponent after all, Maes let another knife slip out of his sleeve and got ready to use it.
He never did. He froze on his tracks, staring in disbelief at the form that was now standing before him, gun in hand.
“You’re right, Hughes,” the Gracia look-alike said with a smile. “Maybe this is a more fitting end.”
As the great clock-tower of Central ticked over to midnight, the sound of gunshot filled the air.
TBC…
Subtitles
- Brother's Debt
- Fullmetal Body, Fullmetal Heart
- A Quiet Day
- In The Night
- Two Men's Faces
- Transfer
- Making Plans
- Shadows Of The Past
- Underworld
- The Price Of Immortality
- Departure
- The Key
- Enemy Revealed
- A Step Back
- A Step Closer To The Truth
- A Race
- Rush Valley
- Responsibility
- Izumi
- Time To Stand Still
- Wild Child
- Encounter
- Riddles In The Dark
- In Search For Answers
- A Teacher's Mistakes
- Complications
- Visits
- The Nature Of A Homunculus
- Dante Of The Deep Forest
- Kidnapped
- Fight At The Devil's Nest
- Innocence Lost
- Blood Spilt
- Recovering
- Bearers Of Ill News
- The Flame Alchemist
- True Colours
- Markings On The Ground
- The Mission
- Heading To Liore
- Change Of Plans
- The Scar
- Holy Mother
- A Mother's Face
- Final Moments