Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Business Proposition ❯ Five ( Chapter 5 )

Five      "You like guys, right?" Trowa muttered, kicking Cardle's leg under the table.

Cardle jumped, pulling his eyes away from the file he'd been reading to look at Trowa. "What? ...sir?"

"Yuy's boyfriend does this...shy thing," Trowa explained as Raymond looked around to him in confusion. "He's cute."

"Yeah, he is," Cardle gave him a perplexed look. "I don't understand."

Trowa looked around to Raymond.

"Don't look at me," Raymond retorted. "I have no idea what nonsense you're talking about either."

"Raymond," Cardle hissed at him.

"...sir," Raymond added, then grinned wickedly.

Trowa gave the man a level look, then focused back on Cardle. "Sorry," he added, shaking his head. "It was weird to see it."

"You are surrounded by a lot of bisexual males," Cardle suggested carefully. "Maybe...not saying you are," he added. "But maybe...maybe you just understand."

Trowa stared at him.

"Sorry, sir," the man muttered, looking back to the file he had open.

"I guess," Trowa muttered thoughtfully, sitting back. He'd been exposed to Heero's tastes for the better part of five years, and Duo's off and on for that same time...and really, he made moves on Tim. Tim didn't seem to see it that way or react to them at all, and he didn't actually mean them...so it really could just be the association.

Pleasant thought...bi by association.

He shook his head ruefully, looking back to the folder. "I seriously don't want to read this, so I'm not going to," he sat back and looked between the men. "You two can, and tell me all about it."

Cardle sighed, looking up to him—he could see the recrimination in the man's eyes.

Trowa sniggered, rising to his feet. "And I'm going to hide it by having to go run and have a word with the good general. Keep on task, boys," he clapped his hands at the pair. "I'll see if I can fish out Ricci."

"Oh joy," Raymond muttered, rolling his eyes.

"If you get me in trouble," Cardle hissed, "I will tie you to your bed and..."

"Kinky," Trowa cut in before he could say more, then left the room. He wasn't particularly worried about Raymond's disrespect. The man had a mind that could find all sorts of nooks and crannies to search. Besides, the stiff formality that most soldiers offered him was boring. He didn't like being reminded every sentence that he was back in uniform.

They hadn't left the military just to jump back in again.

Trowa shook his head again, considering the information he'd gathered.

Marsh had sent out a warning message giving the soldiers an hour to remove the blockade, but had thrown one of his tantrums and sent his men out at the end of the call. He'd seen the video from Lu's black-box. That attack had been thrown back easily, and a few more had pushed out...before twice as many armed suits as before had come out. That had been when Lu'd been injured, and a goodly number of those suits had come out under surrender. The ones that hadn't had fought their way clear, but before they could be properly pursued, another wave of suits, of armed MS...more armed MS...

The world'd had enough of MS as weapons. They all needed destroyed. That was the short and the long of it—but that wasn't going to happen either.

Trowa shook his head again. The last of that second wave of soldiers had been pushing back against the former barricade and their back-up...but then the scramble had hit.

"They've all...surrendered."

Trowa jumped hard, looking up to see Une near a window.

"I was just coming to find you," she added, starting to rub at her temples. "Soldiers were pursuing the MS, and we sent a sweep in to secure 27. The men said that there were...hundreds...of men standing in formation. Each and every one of them was wearing sweat pants and fitted t-shirts and their hands over their heads. There were piles of weapons arranged by type—knives, autos, semi-autos...even boots. Each and every man had his dog-tags outside his shirt...and they were just standing there. The order for them to lay down wasn't even out of Pathax's mouth when they were all on their faces."

Trowa stared at her.

She shook her head, still massaging her temples.

"Shouldn't that be a good thing?" Trowa asked skeptically.

"It would be," she returned, "if half their number hadn't gotten away."

"We can only go so far into space," Trowa reminded her.

"They didn't go into space, Trowa," she returned, studying his face. "They went to earth."

"Then the satellites..." he trailed off as he remembered what had happened. The satellites had been scrambled, and Heero'd said it would take them an hour to reset.

She nodded tiredly, rubbing more at her temples. "Their machines, they shouldn't have been able to penetrate the atmosphere...but they did. We lost most of them because we had to stop to put up our atmosphere shields."

"Wow," he muttered, leaning back against the wall behind him.

"That's a succinct way to put it," she noted dryly, studying his eyes. "I need the five of you to meet in my office in a half hour," she said quietly. "I don't care if Duo has to wake Zechs up...put Mattox with Lu, actually. Let Peacecraft sleep and have Mattox take over the guard duty."

"Zechs asked Duo not to leave Lu's side," Trowa returned, studying her face. "I don't think he will, even if you order it."

She stared at him a long moment in silence, then nodded her head once and looked away. "Then we'll meet with her. A half hour, Barton," she added, starting away from him again. "Not one second later."

"Yes, Ma'am," he muttered, watching her go.

He had a feeling things had just gotten very complicated—and for some reason, he didn't appreciate it.

- -

Rendezvous with Lu. Twenty-nine minutes and counting.

Heero considered the message on his phone a long moment and shrugged to himself. Twenty-eight.

Twenty-seven, Duo noted.

Twenty-six? Quatre asked interestedly.

Wow, you can count! Wufei announced. I'm SO proud!

Heero grinned at that, then looked around at the men and women who'd been watching him. "I have to go," he summed up what he'd been saying. "You know your jobs well enough, I hope, that I don't have to give you all individual orders."

"Sir!" most of them chirped with salutes—at least, the ones who hadn't said 'yes sir', anyway. They dissolved away from him before he could even get his phone back in his pocket, and he logged off of Une's account.

He didn't understand why she'd let him take her laptop. The thing had access to every single military resource in the entire earth-sphere. He didn't have the clearance necessary to use the thing, but she'd given it to him willfully and told him to fix things.

Granted, that had been just the two of them, her smiling at him in a way that told him one thing very plainly.

She knew he could—they could.

Heero shook his head and darted off down the hall to the woman's office. She'd told him their cards gave them access to everything on the base but the black-room, and if they wanted access to that, to let her know.

It amused him vaguely that for a few hours, he'd been the most powerful man in the universe...as far as control and things went. Her laptop could probably give the orders that destroyed the moon and no one would question her right to order it—just her reason.

He dropped the machine on her desk—he'd had to use his pass-card to enter her office, then turned and headed for the entrance. He pulled his phone out, it'd buzzed at him a few more times...and blinked.

I don't have a way to GET there, Matty had noted.

We'll come for you, Trowa'd retorted.

I'm not alone.

If you've picked up a lover, Trowa returned as Heero blinked, then I'll sit back and watch Heero mutilate him happily.

Mutilation is not Heero's style, Duo noted.

What do you mean, not alone? Heero asked, wondering about that. He was pretty sure the mutilation stuff was a joke.

Jinli has been here with me, Matty explained—Heero could have sworn the guy shrugged between texts. So I'm not alone.

How sweet of you to keep him company, Wufei noted, pulling a new number into the chat-room.

Say what?

You're with Matty, Wufei explained easily. How sweet of you to keep him company.

Because I got fired? the man demanded. You call that sweet?

What? Duo demanded in disbelief. How did you get fired?

Who is that? Jinli protested.

It's Duo, Wufei returned. Don't tell me you didn't realize you were in a chat room...that's special, Jin.

A chat...oh, hey, guys...I'm turning off my see-as-you-type now.

Heero sniggered.

Just follow after Matty like a good little puppy, Wufei suggested, moving out of the building behind Heero. We'll come by and pick you up.

I love how everyone's in my chat and no one's greeted me, Trowa noted happily, also moving from the building.

"You're whiney," Wufei informed the man and his two henchmen. "You know that, don't you? Why are you bringing the parade?"

"It's only a parade if there are three of us...sir," Raymond retorted.

Wufei pointed at each of them one at a time, then cast a mock-perplexed look to Heero.

Heero grinned, sliding into the van that had pulled up.

"Is there even enough room?" Quatre demanded, jogging from the building and glaring at the two soldiers.

"I hope you do that some day and someone kidnaps you," Trowa informed Heero testily as his two men slid into the back-most row. "And there should be," he glared at the raven-haired male a moment and climbed in.

"Me, too," Heero retorted, grinning slightly at Quatre. "Then I'd have a direct line to the bad guys."

The driver guffawed at that, then shook his head. "The hospital, sirs?"

"No, the hotel room," Wufei returned, shifting around to look at the two males. "I don't think we need to break speed-limits this time."

What's going on? Matty had asked.

We're all in the van, Heero explained. Duo?

We're all right, Duo noted. It's quiet here. Why are we meeting here?

Don't ask questions, Trowa retorted.

That makes absolutely no sense, Quatre informed him happily, then flashed a smile at Wufei. Jin? I'm adding you to my phone, and I'm sure the others already have. Be advised that we'll all pester you eventually.

And most likely at the same time, Matty agreed. And usually for the same reason.

Heero sniggered, looking up to Trowa and Wufei, who were also grinning.

"What...are you guys doing?" Cardle asked quietly.

"We're chatting," Wufei returned, turning his phone so they could catch a brief glimpse of the face. "We do that sometimes. We're easily amused like that."

The man grinned back at him.

"So...what are we doing?" Quatre asked Trowa pointedly.

"We're going to the hospital," Trowa returned. "Then we'll probably go have supper."

"Wonderful," Wufei noted, looking around. "My friend got fired from work and we're all going out to dinner."

"Why don't you ask him what happened in a personal chat?" Trowa asked as if he thought it was strange Wufei hadn't. "Then maybe see why he's hanging out with the...with Matty," he glanced briefly at Heero.

"The what?" Heero asked levelly. "I already asked you to lay off."

"I didn't do anything," Trowa snapped back, giving him a petulant look.

"But what were you going to call him?" Heero snapped.

"Pretty," Trowa returned, staring directly into Heero's eyes. "I was going to call him the pretty boy."

"You've lost your mind," Wufei informed the guy tiredly, shifting around to sit properly again.

Heero glared at Trowa a moment, then shifted around himself.

Quatre considered Trowa sidelong a long moment, then shifted around to smile at the men in the back seat. "So how are you two?"

- -

"Thirty-two minutes," Trowa noted pointedly as Une moved into the hospital room. "You're late."

"I said you had to be here in thirty," she retorted, then looked them all over. "You, you, you, and you...out."

Cardle, Raymond, Matty, and Jinli blinked at her—though Cardle and Raymond were already scurrying.

"What's going on?" Quatre asked, staring at the woman in disbelief.

"We'll wait out here," Matty muttered, kissing Heero briefly, then headed for the door. Jinli considered Une a moment, met eyes with Wufei and raised his eyebrows, then followed the teen from the room.

"So, gentlemen," Une said when the door had shut, glancing at Lu with a small frown on her face. She shook her head and looked back to them. "You're going back to earth."

They exchanged looks.

"But," she added, taking a long slow breath and closing her eyes. "But...I need you still."

They exchanged more looks.

She took a long slow breath and met their eyes. "I need you in...full...regalia."

They all looked at her—the four that had been at the base glanced down at their uniforms uncertainly, then looked around to each other again.

"Gundams," Duo said quietly, studying his friends over before looking back to the woman. "You want us to get our gundams."

She nodded, looking down.

"I knew I should have destroyed Heavyarms," Trowa sighed, starting to rub his face. "I knew it."

Heero laughed wickedly, glancing around to Quatre—who was also grinning.

"And what of me?" Wufei asked quietly.

"Well, my dear dragon," she said, straightening slightly. "With the information we gathered from the various machines...some of our scientists have put together something new."

All their faces went flat.

"We didn't create a new gundam," she snapped at them irritably. "It's a combination of a few old suits...though..." she glanced sidelong at Duo. "It has a modification."

"What sort of modification?" Duo asked quietly.

Une looked to her feet a moment, then raised her head and surveyed them with cool-eyed regal dignity. Her look ended on Duo, and she held his eyes. "A copy of Deathscythe's cloak."

Duo's eyes hardened.

Wufei sat heavily—he'd been standing, running a hand through his hair.

"I'm not using Heavyarms," Trowa said quietly. "No one is using Heavyarms."

"Sandrock needs to stay off," Quatre added. "He needs to stay powered down."

Une's head snaked around to look at the pair of them.

"No matter what you do or what you say," Quatre added firmly, "you don't know where we hid them, and you won't know where we hid them."

"If we had those machines..."

"The machines are supposed to be destroyed," Trowa snapped at her. "Only held in reserve for the ultimate emergencies. Deserters and rebels are not worth that cover."

"Wing," Quatre spoke up, glancing at Heero. "Wing needs to stay powered down, too."

Heero nodded tiredly.

"With the cloak," Duo said quietly, "it will be impossible for anyone to take digital recordings of your new toy. We don't need to bring the gundams back to life."

"Some of the machines Gerrange had were altered," she spat, turning to glower at him. "Some of them had the same cloaking as your damn machine."

"Because your scientist were playing with the information," Duo spat back, rising to his feet. "Because you couldn't let well enough alone."

Une stepped back, glaring at him.

"She...doesn't trust you," Quatre noted in disbelief, looking up to Duo. "You scared her when you stood up."

"Only a fool stays near a pissed gundam pilot," she spat over her shoulder at him. "And you know the five of you were trained better than most soldiers."

"Most?" Wufei asked in amusement. "That's an interesting understatement."

Une crossed her arms, turning to face them all again with a glower.

"You said the new machine wasn't a gundam," Wufei noted pointedly. "If it's not a gundam, what is it?"

"Leftovers from aries, libras, and tauruses," she retorted, studying him. "The only part of it remotely gundam is the cloaking device—and that's because the mechanism needs gundanium to function."

Wufei started rubbing at his face.

"Why?" Heero asked quietly. "Why are you desperate enough to tempt fate?"

"Because...because more of the information we had on the gundams...was compromised."

Quatre started rubbing his temples.

"A few of the deserters had access to sensitive information," she added, starting to dry-wash her hands as she looked them all over. "A few of them had permissions to...to investigate discoveries."

"You let discontent war-rick scientists create new weaponry?" Duo demanded, stepping closer to the woman and pulling her to face him by the shoulder. "You let..."

"Brigadier," Une hissed, glowering up at him, "you will not touch me."

"If you can't even trust us," Trowa noted dryly, "then why tell us to pull out weapons of mass destruction?"

"Why are you scared of Duo?" Quatre added in disbelief. "How can you be scared of Duo?"

"He's looming," Heero noted happily, bouncing to his feet. Une's eyes flashed toward him, but he bounced to Duo's side anyway, moving so his head was between Duo and the woman.

"Stop," Duo tsked, shoving him back irritably.

"I like it when you scare me," Heero noted happily, moving between them again. "It's exciting when you scare me."

Quatre groaned, covering his face as Trowa snickered.

Duo settled back, glaring at Heero.

"See?" Heero asked Une happily. "It's easy to redirect him," he moved from between them again. "If he starts looming at you again, just say something off-color."

Duo snorted at that, shoving at Heero again.

Heero laughed happily, moving around Duo and sighing as he moved up to Lu's bed. "Hey, beautiful," he muttered. "How long were you awake?"

"Long enough to hear you embarrassing Une," Lu retorted.

The change of focus was instant, everyone rising and moving to look at her on the bed.

She smiled slightly at all of them, then frowned as she looked around. "Where...where is Zechs?"

"He needed to sleep," Duo explained. "Last I saw, he was out in the lobby on a couch."

"Oh," she caught Duo's hand, smiling at him. "You were here, weren't you?"

He nodded, wrapping both his hands around hers as he studied her fingers—then blinked.

"Ooh!" she muttered, pulling her hand away to finger a ring on her ring-finger. "I didn't tell you guys, did I?" she laughed lightly, then groaned. "That made the world spin...he asked me finally. Can you believe it? He finally asked me..."

"That's wonderful," Duo said, his eyes still on the ring.

"Congratulations," Wufei muttered, moving to take her other hand. "When were you planning on telling us?"

"He wanted to wait a little bit," she returned, smiling slightly at Wufei. "We thought I might be...pregnant." Her hand moved to her belly and a brief flicker of sadness crossed her face. "The doctors told me I wasn't though...they said that even before..."

Duo had his eyes closed.

Quatre moved around the bed and under Duo's arm, studying his face. It made Duo open his eyes to look at him, then smile. He smiled a little more, then looked back to Lucretzia. "That's good, at least."

She smiled back at that, then looked back to her ring...then blinked and looked back to Quatre.

"I have a boyfriend," Quatre informed her with a slightly wicked grin.

Lucretzia and Une both stared at him a long moment, before Lu started giggling. She raised a hand to her head, but she still giggled.

Quatre waited until she'd stopped to grin wickedly at her...and lean up to kiss Duo properly.

"Oh geeze," Trowa muttered with a sigh, turning away as the woman started giggling harder.

"I...I..." Une was obviously dumbfounded as she looked them all over. "I'll...go get Mattox and your friend," she said quietly, looking around to Wufei. "I'll...send them in."

"We'll talk," Heero reassured her quietly. "You get us the compromised information, and we'll let you know what we plan to do."

"I'm putting a lot of trust in you, Yuy," she returned quietly, starting for the door. "You remember that when we all get court-martialed."

He snorted at her.

"What?" Lu asked blankly, actually looking at them. "You're all in uniform—I suppose I should salute, huh?"

"The day you salute me," Duo informed hear easily, "is the day I turn you over on my knee and spank your ass."

"Kinky," she retorted, then giggled again.

Quatre snorted, then looked around to the door as Zechs moved into the room.

"Hey, love," he muttered, moving across instantly to unconsciously shoulder Duo from his path. "Are you okay?"

"Quatre and Duo are a couple," she returned, grinning at him.

Zechs stopped completely, then looked around to Duo.

"Congratulations," Wufei noted to Zechs before he could speak. "It's about damn time you two got married."

- -

"It's so...cold," Jaden whispered, following after Rab with his coat tight around him. Even with his fingers turning to ice and his legs stinging, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the mass of darkness that was supposed to be the ocean.

"Just come on," Rab muttered, glancing at the ocean himself. He shook his head, then focused back on their path.

Jaden was tired and tense, and something about the deep dark night was messing with him badly. It took him a moment to figure out what, though, and that was a glance at his watch.

His watch read eleven-hundred hours.

It looked like it should be twenty-three hundred hours, if anything.

Really, though, Jaden couldn't wait to get wherever Rab was taking them and curling up under blankets. Qingfu looked about the same, but Jaden wasn't entirely sure the man had slept.

He had counseled Rab not to contact the barricade himself if he was going to try and insist on its removal...and the fact that it had been someone Rab knew from the Eve wars figured. Fate...or karma...was playing a terrible joke on all of them, and Rab was too fool to try and pull himself out.

But Jaden had thrown in his lot, and all he had left to do was wait and see.

He'd gone to bed at nine on Saturday night—he'd been tired anyway, and had wanted some sleep. From what he could tell, Rab had waited long enough for him to head for his bed before calling. It'd been ten, probably, when he'd realized the buzz around him wasn't just because he was going to sleep earlier than normal. He himself had gone out in an MS not long after that...so he'd had...an hour's sleep.

It was cold.

"There," Rab muttered quietly.

Jaden pulled his eyes away from the dark mass of darkness he'd been staring at. There was only a tiny sliver of a moon in the sky, and aside from the sound, there wasn't much to see...but he could feel something different in the air itself, and there was a smell to it...

They were at a house. The yard around the place was well lit.

Qingfu looked nervously to Jaden, but moved past him to follow the man anyway. There were dozens of safe houses set up around the planet. The intent was to settle for a few days respite before heading to South America, where an entire village was being set up in the Amazon jungle.

Rab pushed the door open.

"Marsh!" Ranger's voice was a croak. "Marsh! I was starting to worry! Oh shit...J! Jaden!" Jaden was pulled into a rough hug.

Jaden stared at Ranger in disbelief.

"You guys must be exhausted...though maybe not," he smiled, pulling Qingfu into a brief hug. "I nearly shit myself when the satellite network crashed. Come in! Come in!" he pulled them away from the door to stare outside a long moment, then look around to Jaden again. "Have you ever seen anything like it?" he whispered.

Jaden shook his head, looking back out into the darkness.

"Wait for the sun," Ranger whispered to him, then turned his welcoming smile back to Rab and Qingfu. "I'm damn tired. I've been waiting forever...come on, the house will warm you up soon enough. J, you look dead on your feet..."

Deroy was the last person Jaden had been expecting to see, but at least he was welcoming.

He tossed his jacket onto a chair near the door, then moved to the end of some stairs—Rab had been wandering around looking the area over, and Qingfu hesitated before tossing his jacket as well.

"What?" Ranger asked, looking back to Qingfu. "You have a weird..." the man trailed off hesitantly. "Expression," he decided.

"I thought you were dead," Qingfu returned quietly, staring at him. "From what I gathered, I thought you were caught for sure."

Ranger frowned, looking to Jaden a moment. "You too?" he sighed. "I thought at least you'd be happy to see me."

"I just wasn't expecting you here," Jaden retorted, smiling at the man. "I didn't figure you were dead at all."

"I'm touched," Ranger retorted.

"Yeah, in the head," Rab agreed, grinning at the man. He looked around to Qingfu. "You should go download what information you can," he noted, jerking his head to indicate another room. "Didn't you say the downloading takes the longest time? It might take the geniuses a while to do it, but they will eventually get around to re-encoding the systems. I want as much as I can get before that."

"Right," Qingfu muttered, turning for that room. "I'll start on that now."

"You need sleep," Ranger noted, looking pointedly to Jaden. "Come with me and I'll show you where."

Jaden sighed and nodded, rising to his feet.

It was well past time for him to sleep—and he was still able to pilot an MS.

For some reason, that was a depressing thought.

- -

"We are not married," Zechs argued at Wufei.

"She's wearing the ring, she all but said it...just accept it."

"But we're not married," Zechs retorted. "I asked her to marry me, but we haven't done the ceremony yet."

"You just went in and did the legal stuff at the court-house?"

Matty started laughing, covering his face with his hands.

"You're annoying," Zechs informed Wufei, then cast a look at Matty.

Matty grinned back at him innocently.

"Are you two engaged yet?" Zechs demanded of him, wanting to change the subject. He knew Wufei was just trying to get a rise out of him, and he didn't want to give in anymore than he had. He'd known he probably shouldn't have agreed to go with the guy to get snacks—he didn't know why Matt had decided to go with them though.

The question made the grin vanish for a brief moment from the little-Asian's face before his sparkling eyes met Zechs' cool-blue again.

"I don't think Heero's thought that far ahead yet," Wufei noted. "I don't know if you're aware or not...but we haven't known Matt that long...I mean like, early-January."

"What is today?" Zechs demanded, looking to Matt.

"April thirtieth," Matty returned, tilting his head. "It really was just January, wasn't it?" he cast Wufei a grin. "I feel like I've known you forever."

Wufei grinned at him, then looked back to Zechs. "So what day did you guys get married?"

Zechs smacked him.

- -

"This is...uncalled for..." Heero growled, slamming the pile of papers he was reading onto the table. He raised his head to look between Quatre and Trowa, then shoved the things away as he started massaging his temples.

"Uh..." Quatre started.

"I know 'uncalled for' doesn't work," he retorted irritably. "I just can't think of any other way to put it."

Quatre snorted lightly. "I was actually going to ask if you were okay."

Heero raised his eyes to blink at the former-blond, noting that it was Duo who'd have called him on phrasing—or Wufei.

Where was Wufei?

"We've been here...what? Fourteen hours?" Trowa glanced at his watch. "It's only been fourteen hours, and everything's gone to hell in a handbasket."

"With bells and ribbons," Quatre agreed with a tired sigh, tossing his stack of papers down as he thought. "They need to completely lock their information down."

"And then how would people access it?" Trowa demanded dryly.

"Just re-code their access cards," Heero noted, giving him an interested look.

"And how do we know who can be trusted?" Trowa persisted, giving them both looks. "There were a few guys arrested already for aiding and abetting the idiot rebels...but that couldn't have been all of them. Rabid has never been one to keep all his eggs in one basket."

"With bells and ribbons?"

Trowa glared briefly at Quatre, then looked back to Heero.

"You could figure out who can be trusted, can't you?" Heero asked the dark-haired male interestedly.

Quatre stared at him a long moment, then looked sidelong at Trowa. "If I talked...to every one of them...one at a time," he agreed, narrowing his eyes. "That's not exactly...going to work. I don't have the patience for that shit."

"But..." Heero thought back to things he'd picked up before. "You know other space-hearts, don't you?"

"A few," he agreed, frowning slightly. "Why?"

"Well...I'm sure some of the soldiers are. You could...gather a few up and show them? And then they could show more?"

"But things could get complicated fast. I can't always tell one lie from another...and..."

Heero considered that, shifting back in his seat, then met eyes with Trowa.

"What?" Trowa asked skeptically.

"If you just..." Heero looked back to Quatre. "We could have them...just the ones who are supposed to have access to these files...we could have them come watch a presentation about 27, right? And after the first explanation of why we're there, we could pull them away one at a time. They'd be so focused on that...wouldn't that work?"

"It could," Quatre mused. "But how many people are supposed to have access to the information? I didn't read that far," he shifted to separate pages.

"About a hundred," Heero returned, considering the blond. "If you get...like...twenty...guys who can tell like you, then you'd only have to do five each. That way you could be..."

"Heero," Quatre cut him off evenly, "if what I did was that common..."

"I'm just throwing numbers," Heero protested, giving him a look."

"And if there are only five?" Quatre retorted. "That means we all get to do twenty. That doesn't give time to be thorough."

Heero smiled sweetly at him. "The worst that will happen is that we're here a few days, Quatre. Lu's not recovered enough to be moved out of the I.C.U., do you really want to leave yet?"

Quatre hunched down to glower at the man.

"Wow," Trowa noted, blinking at his friend, "you're...evil."

Heero gave him a very level look, then stood. "I'm getting my laptop. With any luck, I can have it coded tonight—that way we can put it in place before the workday starts tomorrow. Quatre? Why don't you call Une. Let her know what I'm doing and going to make you do...then Duo should be back and you can go sulk with him in private."

Quatre rose to his feet, glowering at the other man, then sighed resignedly. "I-I-I hate you," he noted, then turned to walk off.

Heero focused after him in alarm.

"Not that kind of hate," Trowa reassured him, grinning slightly. "Though right now, he might not believe it himself."