(no subject)
"Maxwell, what am I going to do with you?" Faisa Rahman, Commander of the L2 Preventer headquarters, stared at the agent sitting across the desk from her.
"To be honest ma'am, I was hoping you'd give me a day off." They'd at least let him shower and change into a uniform before the debriefing. His hair was still damp. Duo still looked exhausted, though.
"Be thankful you aren't getting the rest of your life off, Agent!" said Swanson, one of Preventers' higher ranking lawyers.
"Give Captain Maxwell time to speak, if you please, Mr. Swanson," the Commander said. "I received the initial reports of all those involved, but some further details could not go amiss."
"It started with Major Kassel. I was expecting him to take me at my word and pass the list onto you. I didn't realize he was as dirty as everyone on it. I should have figured something was fishy when he offered me another undercover gig."
"We do try to keep promises to our agents, Captain, and that was one of your stipulations. This was your last undercover case, and the Major had no right to ask you to pursue another."
"Thanks, Commander, I know. And that probably would have cued me in, but he apparently set off the alarm, and I got ambushed. I didn't recognize them from anything I'm working, and they weren't trying to kill me. So I put up a fight, but let 'em have me in the end."
"Christ, man, I saw the medical report-"
"Swanson. Please control yourself." The Commander ran a hand over her immaculate headscarf. "Taking a little more caution with your health would not go amiss in the future, Maxwell. Inpatient services are expensive, you know." She was probably joking.
"Admittedly I wasn't expecting what I got." Duo straightened up. "Speaking of that, Commander, I think we should be going over their cases. All of them."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Maxwell, X39FH is a penal colony, in case you had forgotten. All of them had trials," Swanson said. "They ended up there because a jury thought they should be there."
"Oh yeah?" Duo said, cutting his eyes away from Commander Rahman to give Swanson a look. "Then how did I end up there?"
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
"Look," he started again. "I'm just saying that there might have been some extenuating circumstances. Prisoners or not, these people were starved, and denied basic supplies and medical treatment. They didn't even have soap or birth control!" Duo was gesturing widely at this point, punctuating his indignation. "Half of them were freaking pacifists! They deserve another look at their cases, if nothing else."
Duo thought of Marie, after the Preventer clean-up team had arrived, sitting safe among the workers who had followed her example. None of them had offered any violence, or done anything but protest their unfair treatment, and take in someone they thought was in over his head.
She'd said 'Adieu' to him, and even with his limited French, he knew that meant she wasn't expecting to see him again. He'd prove her wrong.
"We can't turn all of those cases over to the courts again, it would be a publicity nightmare!" Swanson was probably moments away from clutching handfuls of his hair.
"Publicity?!" Duo snapped, rising from his seat even as his injured ribs twinged with pain. "Fuck the publicity!"
"Captain Maxwell!" Commander Rahman said. "I'll thank you to remember that it is Mr. Swanson's job to worry about publicity, and you would enjoy his career as much as he would enjoy yours: not at all."
"Sorry ma'am," Duo muttered rebelliously, and sat back down. "But this is what I'm here for. This is an opportunity to exploit, not bad PR! It's a blow to corruption on L2, and a chance to prove that Preventers will give anyone a fair shake, if they do the right thing in return. I'd go to bat for all of them, it's the right thing to do!"
"I agree. Mr. Swanson, please gather a team and compile the names and cases of those involved. Remember as well that we have some prosecuting to do. You will be presenting your initial reports to me, and the PR department tomorrow. Thank you."
As he left, the Commander turned back to Duo. "You do seem to exceed all expectations, Captain." He couldn't quite tell if it was an insult, a compliment, or both. She was good at that.
"Yes, ma'am. So, about that day off..."