Mission Accepted: Reunion with Trowa
Relative disclaimers apply.

Day Two...

Under the midday sun, two official Booth's Tours buses pulling up parallel to the front entrance in the reinforced steel fence that kept the Rehabilitated Romefeller Building safe from too-curious eyes.

Eight official Booth's Tours Guides, four of each gender and each carrying an official Booth's Tours Guide megaphone, enthusiastically alighted from the buses.

They were followd by one hundred and thirty "Tourists" - people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds and from all walks of life, each wearing an official Booth's Tours baseball cap.

Wearing the cap before entering the building was required. Listening to the Tour Guides as they enthusiastically organized the visitors into three single-file lines was also a requirement.

But many of the other walking advertisements were too busy studying either the building itself, the lush garden, the official Booth's Romefeller Rehabilitation Project Building Management team members supervising the official Booth's Romefeller Rehabilitation Project Custodial and Culinary Management team members, or the four young men wearing official Booth's Secure Force uniforms that were marching in unison towards the front entrance.

Trowa, the young man leading the glorified security guard team, looked left and right and all around while keeping a mental eye on the visitors, who were increasingly becoming impatient.

And they say that blue is a soothing color, he wisecracked to himself.

"Are we ready to go in now?" boomed one of the female Tour Guides with a touch of irritation via her megaphone, a not-so-subtle request for the entrance to be opened.

Trowa fought the urge to roll his eyes and signalled to two of his comrades to open the gates - and then noticed something interesting.

A young man wearing mirrored sunglasses, a Booth's baseball cap, black jeans and scuffed black sneakers, and holding on to an unbranded black duffel bag, was weaving his way through the other Tourists with more determination than was necessary.

Trowa restrained a smirk.

You don't fool me, Heero.

As though he had heard that thought, Heero suddenly looked straight at Trowa and the two regarded each other for a few long seconds.

Heero's eyebrows seemed to twitch; then he suddenly and somehow vanished from sight.

Trowa restrained a chuckle.

Learned something from Duo, have we?

But Trowa knew where Heero was going. He himself had always been suspicious of Booth's plans for the Romefeller building, had done some research of his own on it, and had come to work here part-time a few months ago to prove his suspicions correct.

However, even though he saw every room in the building at least twice during his shift, he had yet to be able to remain in any one of them long enough to finalize his research.

Heero's appearance here meant that he had his own suspicions as well, and his skills would lead him to more information than most people were able to get, so...

No way would he come here just to visit, and especially not in disguise.

Trowa nodded almost absentmindedly. His shift would be ending within the next hour, and the official Booth's tour of this building lasted for two hours. Hopefully, he would see Heero before he left with the other Tourists.

That thought brought another to mind: What if Heero knew that Trowa worked here? Was their seeing each other no accident?

Let's find out.

But first he had to help with the Tourists, many of whom wanted to take pictures of everything in sight, including Trowa and his teammates.

Next time, Heero, you take the security guard position. Oh wait. You already are, aren't you?

Heero made sure that his transformation from Tourist to Secure Force member was complete before leaving the men's room.

The Tour would come to the auditorium in about an hour. That gave him fifty-five minutes to check it out and another five to change back into a Tourist. If he lingered, he could belong to Booth's for life.

Trowa was waiting for him in the hallway.

"Hey."

Heero suppressed his mixed surprise and pleasure.

"Hey."

"You ready to go? You're clear for forty minutes."

Heero nodded.

Trowa led the way.

"But you know about the shift changes, don't you?"

Heero frowned.

"I didn't know that you work here."

"You didn't dig deep enough. But that's okay. If you had known, I'd probably have had to take the day off to help you. As it stands now, I owe two very high-ranking guards a big favor for helping me out here. Only they are allowed on this floor."

"I see. Why don't you send them a couple of fruit-and-cheese baskets?"

"Since when have you had a sense of humor?" Trowa teased him.

"Hell if I know—"

The exit door closest to them opened and Duo, dressed as a Custodial team member, stuck his head in.

"Is this where the busted toilet's at?" he asked, blinking several times in a row.

"No," Heero snapped. "Go check out the top floor."

Duo stared at him blankly for a few seconds, then pulled his head out of the doorway and closed the door.

"What was that about?" asked a wide-eyed Trowa.

Heero grimaced.

"I told him to do some more digging. It'll keep him busy."

"How come he always finds you?"

"I don't know, but since I haven't gone through any metal-detectors lately..."

Trowa smirked.

Another joke. You're on a roll here.

"You gave him something to do, but are you sure that he won't get lost first?"

"He'll be okay. Let's move."

The auditorium was guarded by several keypad locks and a female Secure Force member who wasn't in the best of moods.

All of a sudden her boss had told her to keep an eye on this area, but when she had asked him why, he had made a note of her "insubordination" and had walked away.

She glared at Heero, who glared back.

She took a mental step backwards. There was something about the unfamiliar young man's vibes that warned her against getting on his bad side.

But I got a job to do.

"Who are you and why is Trowa leading you around without a leash?" she demanded.

Heero's glare intensified for three seconds; then he seemed to fix his gaze on hers.

She reflexively moved her head this way and that, but couldn't seem to escape his eyes.

Trowa cleared his throat.

Cool it, Heero.

"This is a secret mission. The big boys want him to check the place out. If you want to call to check, they'll know that you know."

"Maybe they should know that I know," she said suspiciously, and finally managed to drag her eyes away from Heero's.

One of them is lying.

Trowa briefly looked at the ceiling.

"They'll have witnesses. So I guess it doesn't really matter whether you call or not."

Her eyes widened; then she glared at Heero again.

"I don't want them coming down on my rear."

"But you will be calling."

She stepped away from her post.

"Sooner or later. I want them to kick your behinds."

Heero's lips parted slightly.

I hate weak women.

Trowa gave him a warning look.

"Never mind. Come on."

Duo hung up the pay phone that he'd been using and looked at the sky.

"You're out there somewhere, man..."

He exhaled, looked down, dug into a pocket, drew out a pocket-sized computer and turned it on.

PASSWORD? the screen displayed.

Duo entered a seemingly random sequence of numbers.

The screen went blank, then displayed a small image of the Deathscythe for two seconds. Then it went blank again, and displayed a lone question mark.

"I still miss you, old buddy," Duo whispered reverently, then cleared his throat. "You think you can help me dig deeper? And, maybe, find Wufei?"

Heero let his eyes adjust to the darkness before moving.

"Hmph. They added another floor."

Other than that, the auditorium was as it had been, as though Booth's wanted to recreate the "magic" of this large presentation room.

He waited for dust to tickle his nostrils, but only the scents of lemon oil and steam-cleaned carpet came his way.

This place is kept clean for a reason. Are they planning to have some kind of celebration in here once the 'rehabilitation' is complete? But why waste time cleaning it up now?

He chided himself for not wearing gloves.

But he soon began to see the podium, and relaxed a little.

When she was Queen, she stood up there...in that dress.

His eyes widened.

What the hell am I thinking about that for?

But it wasn't his fault that he'd remembered that, was it? Even from where he'd been standing that day, pointing a gun at her and nearly completely firm in his resolve to kill her, that dress had shown her entire audience a few inches of what lay beneath the collars that she usually wore.

What was that archaic expression? Oh yes. "Sex sells." Some things never changed.

But Heero doubted that Relena had intended to prove that she was indeed a young woman under those collars.

Whatever happened to that dress?

His face was very warm, to his dismay and disgust. He willed the heat away and set about finding his goal..

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