Mission Accepted: On the Road, 1
Relative disclaimers apply.

Day Two...

Trowa, wearing a trench coat over a T-shirt and jeans and a cowboy hat, leaned against the lightpole on the southeast corner of First Street and Walker Avenue.

From that position he had a clear, right-hand diagonal view of Three First Street, which was officially known as The Walker Building.

His position also kept him out of the direct path of the variety of people coming out of and going into the twenty-floored, glass-concrete-and-steel structure.

It was nearly three p.m., nearly break time for most of the workers in the multi-office building. Soon, the number of people leaving would increase, then nearly equal the number of people entering the building, then taper off as the fifteen-minute half-point approached. Five or so minutes later, the process would reverse itself, and then just about no one would come out of the building until the work day was over.

Trowa adjusted the hat and briefly wondered if this pattern ever changed, if the workers ever tired of it.

I should come here more often, just to see.

He peeked at his watch, one of five that Quatre had bought along the way to this building.

"We can't guess here. We have to be synchronized and on the dot," he had said matter-of-factedly.

So five watches had been fastened to five different wrists, and they had continued on.

Much like the process that Trowa was watching.

I forgot how much I enjoy watching people. But the plans don't allow for that. I have to get moving. It's almost time. Hey, what's this? They don't look like normal office workers.

Every person that walked into the building, regardless of the reason, was required to wear an I.D. tag.

Along with a small picture of the wearer, the tag had the wearer's name, company name, job position and a personal bar code number (scanning this code would open a personal database file associated with the wearer).

Five six-foot-two-inch men, each in a single-breasted midnight-blue colored two-piece suit and mirrored sunglasses, had just entered the building, and were tag-less. They had nearly succeeded in making their entry as effortless as possible; that was, they had tried to blend in with the rest of the people going in. But they didn't fool Trowa.

So they know we're here. They could at least have given them fake tags. Interesting, that such a reputed security company breaks its own rules. These guys must be special. Or maybe we are. Hmm, none of them even looked my way. So maybe they don't know exactly where we are. Or, they're trying to play it cool.

Trowa didn't want to take any chances.

He slipped a hand inside one of the coat pockets, faked five coughs, then turned and blended in with the people walking by, towards the building.

A sliding-door white van with dubious license plates pulled up to the back entrance of the building.

Inside the van, Duo, the driver for this day's excursion, put the gear in park and scowled.

"Didja hear that?" he irritably asked his three companions, who were sitting facing each other in the back.

Quatre exhaled.

"Hear what?"

He and Heero were each wearing a single-breasted two-piece suit and black leather dress shoes. Quatre's suit was navy blue and was accompanied by a white shirt and navy blue tie; Heero's was midnight blue and was accompanied by a white turtleneck.

While Quatre had no problems with wearing a suit, Heero appeared to be uncomfortable in his. If he wasn't adjusting the collar of the jacket, he was buttoning or unbuttoning it, or stratching a false itch.

But it wasn't the suit that was the problem. Relena was wearing a chignon, a lilac, long-skirted, single-breasted riding outfit, simple gold circle earrings, tall black leather dress boots, a light perfume that he more than liked, and a purpose on her face and in her attitude that did quite a bit for her aspect.

All in all, she was more than beautiful this day, and he knew that if he didn't get out of the van soon, he would go insane.

"Those sounds," Duo said with forced patience, and tapped the glove compartment of the van. "Those five sounds."

Quatre rolled his eyes.

"Oh, brother..."

Relena frowned.

"Five sounds....?"

Heero frowned. When she had frowned, she had ruined the mood she had unknowingly created.

"They know we're here. They've sent five people after us," he said thoughtfully, as though he were trying to read their persuers' minds.

"They won't find us before we're done. Stop worrying, Duo," Quatre scolded.

Duo shook his head and leaned back.

"I know that our plans included this possibility. We did peek behind their walls after all. But still..."

Relena smiled softly.

"We'll be fine," she said.

"You really think so?"

"I know so."

Her tone and words seemed to soothe him. He grinned.

"If you say so, lady. Let's go."

Relena didn't feel as confident as she had sounded. But she hadn't wanted the others to lose faith in what they had planned.

She heaved a long, long sigh as she stepped into the building.

"Excuse me, miss? You're not wearing an I.D. tag, I can't allow you to come into the building."

Surprised, her head jerked up and she saw a male Booth's Secure Force member sitting behind the receptionist's desk.

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

Since when have I needed identification to enter my own building?

"But I own this building..."

Something's not right...

The man exhaled.

"No one is allowed to enter this building without an I.D. tag."

She exhaled.

"Fine. Do I need to prove identification for this identification?"

He chuckled, although she hadn't been making a joke.

"No, Miss Dorlian. If you'll just wait one moment, I'll print one out for you right now."

"Hmmmm."

In theory, it was perfectly all right for Booth's to have pertinent information about her in whatever database they used for this building - she did own it, or rather, it was in her family's list of properties. But something just wasn't right.

He didn't even ask me which office I'm going to. Or even which floor. No, something's not right here.

The sounds of a small in-machine blade slicing through thin plastic made her look at the Secure Force member again.

He jerked, making her wonder what he saw in her face.

"Is something wrong?" she asked him pleasantly enough. "Did I turn green all of a sudden?"

He hesitated, then shook his head and held a laminated I.D. tag out to her.

She's on to us. Better warn the others.

She walked over to him and took it, making sure to show him her Charming Relena smile.

Caught off-guard, he looked down and blushed.

"Uhm....you're free to go in now...ma'am..."

She nodded.

"Right."

She didn't look at the tag until she was in one of the elevators, going towards the 8th floor.

It said "Peacecraft" instead of "Dorlian".

Her eyes narrowed.

Either they truly need to update their databases, or something truly isn't right.

She closed her eyes and exhaled.

Heero...

Frowning, Heero paused as he and Quatre approached room 301, which had plate glass walls and revealed three female secretaries each dealing with three desk phones at once.

The secretaries paused in their activity to stare at the two young men.

The youngest of the three secretaries, whose desk was closest to Booth's closed office, blushed, bowed her head and resumed working. The secretary in the middle grimaced as one of her phones rang again, but she kept her eyes on the young men as she answered it.

The secretary closest to the entrance, the oldest of the three, continued to stare, ignoring her ringing phones.

"What is it?" Quatre asked softly, ignoring the women for the moment.

Heero scowled.

"Nothing."

Not now, Relena.

Quatre closed his eyes for two seconds.

You're lying. But I won't push it.

"Okay. Let's get this over and done with."

Heero smirked.

"Shouldn't take long. He's not there."

Quatre nodded and noticed that the secretary closest to them was getting up.

"And here comes one of them to assure us that he is."

Heero reached for the doorknob.

Quatre raised a hand.

Heero took his hand away.

"Right. Let her open the door."

Quatre exhaled.

"It's either stupid or a sign of wealth, having glass walls for an office."

"Or both," Heero grunted.

"In either case, Mister Booth must feel very confident that no one will try to steal anything from this office."

Heero shrugged.

"What's to steal? The phones?"

Quatre chuckled.

"Oh, Heero—"

The door opened inwards - Heero scowled at this - and the secretary, whose name tag identified her as A. SAGEN, smiled at Quatre, completely ignoring Heero.

"Welcome to Booth's, Mister Winner."

Heero raised an eyebrow and waited for the introductions.

Quatre gave him a quick warning look, then smiled brightly - too brightly, Heero thought - and indicated Heero.

"This is my bodyguard for today."

A. SAGEN smiled politely at Heero, but her eyes betrayed her hesitation and suspicion.

"It's nice to meet you, young sir."

She was looking at Quatre again before Heero had decided whether or not to reply.

"Mister Booth has been temporarily delayed. Please, come in and relax. He should be here soon."

Quatre gave Heero another brief warning look, then slightly bowed to the secretary.

"Thank you..."

They followed her into the office and looked at the two-seater couch she waved a hand at.

"He should be here shortly."

To the secretary's annoyance, Heero checked the couch out and then looked around the room for any visible dangers.

"We're clean, Mister....young sir."

Quatre restrained a chuckle.

"Is it safe for me to sit down?"

Heero nodded.

"Go ahead, Mister Winner."

The secretary rolled her eyes, bowed slightly, then returned to her desk.

There was an assortment of magazines on the coffee table near the couch. As Quatre sat down, Heero grabbed two of them: Mechanical News and the appropriately named EXTRA!, a gossip-type publication.

He handed Quatre the first magazine as he sat next to him.

Quatre thought that it was quite interesting to see Heero with such a magazine in his hands, but wisely said nothing about it.

Instead he whispered: "He's definitely not here."

Heero nodded.

"We'll give them a few minutes of our patience," he whispered.

Quatre nodded.

"That should give Duo enough time."

"That's all he's getting, if he's reached there by now."

"It'll be all right. Don't worry."

"Who's worried?"

"He'll be here soon, Mister Winner," A. Sagen said. "Just keep waiting! Please."

It was the emphasis on "Please" that confirmed Heero and Quatre's suspicions. Michael Booth was not coming to this office, mainly because he didn't really exist.

And, the longer they waited, the closer the five men would get to them.

Both of them silently wished that Duo would need less than five minutes.

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