CHAPTER THREE

They woke the next morning, went into the bathroom and took care of their morning routine. They dressed in the clothing that Heero had left the night before and went in search of breakfast.

Heero leaned against the wall of the elevator and watched the buildings rise around them as the elevator took them 20 floors down to the restaurant floor. This floor contained half the restaurants in the hotel, the ground floor contained another quarter while the top floor held the rest.

"What do you want for breakfast?"

Duo licked his lips in contemplation of the delights that might be available. "Bacon, eggs, waffles, coffeecoffeecoffee, and juice. You?"

"That sounds good to me but I want sausages. Dipped in the syrup. I wonder if they have real maple syrup or is it flavored?"

Duo decided, "As posh as this hotel is, it's got to be real."

They stepped off the elevator and into a large lobby. All the restaurants ran around the outside walls of the hotel all the entrances led off this lobby. This was when they realized that a simple choice of restaurant could put a stumbling block in the way of their plans. If they picked the wrong one, people would talk and wonder when they started showing up at places that didn't fit in with their perceived image.

Duo decided that the farther back they went the higher the class would be. They decided on strolling around and looking in doors.

It worked quite well. They could see in windows of a few, other's open doors emitted enough noise to tell them that this wasn't the place. Many of the restaurants were closed, but they finally found what they were looking for.

The place was small and tucked into a sort of nook where the walls curved. The restaurant was shaped like a triangle with one point being the entry way. It was elegant and well appointed and obviously expensive. And very exclusive. There was even a hostess on duty.

She approached them and said softly, "Perhaps you have come into the wrong place?"

Heero glanced around and managed to get a haughty look on his face. "I don't believe so."

Duo looked only at the hostess. "I think we're not dressed appropriately, but we came to buy clothing so we only brought casual. I'm sorry. Should we leave?"

The hostess, meanwhile, had been looking them over again. She recognized that she knew them but couldn't figure out where from. It was her job to know who was who and this bothered her. She decided on taking the safe way out.

"I don't recognize you so I'll have to ask, I'm sorry to say, for proof of ability to pay before I seat you. Restaurant policy."

Heero glanced at Duo who just nodded, it had become common for some very high priced places to ask for proof before seating people. It avoided problems all the way around.

Duo presented the hostess with his credit card. She scanned it and blinked, no limit amount came up, just an infinity symbol.

"Gentlemen, I apologize. Please come this way." She gathered up menus and led them to a table. She put the menus in front of them then asked, "What would you like to drink?"

Duo sighed. "Coffee, lots; hot, virgin. Water, OJ."

She turned her attention to Heero who just said, "Same for me."

She went away still trying to figure out how she knew them.

It didn't take long for the waitress to show up with coffee, orange juice and water. She put the drinks on the table and smiled at them.

"Are you ready to order? If not, I can give you a few more minutes."

Duo smiled, "No, I'm ready. I would like the Southern Wonder breakfast. Bacon, eggs, scrambled; waffle. Got it?"

"Yes, sir." She smiled back then turned to Heero. "And what for you, sir?"

Heero put his menu aside. "Sausage, pancakes, eggs fried over easy. Is the maple syrup real or flavored."

The waitress glowed with obvious pride. "It's real. All the way from Vermont, Earth. I'll just go put this in and be right back with refills on the coffee."

Heero watched as she gathered up the menus and left.

"Duo? What's a Southern Wonder? I didn't read that one."

Duo's eyes lit up in anticipation. "It's a waffle, crisp, light and hot, topped with a compote of fresh peaches, brown sugar, butter and toasted pecans surrounded with whipped cream. I can't wait."

Heero just shook his head. "All that sugar and caffeine? I'm doomed."

Duo just chuckled. "Oh, yeah, you're doomed. What are you getting? Pancakes with real maple syrup. You drown your whole plate with syrup and butter. Not that I'm complaining, far from it. Enjoy it, I say."

Heero watched as Duo checked out the restaurant. After ordering it was natural to visit and look around so no one would wonder at their scrutiny.

After a thorough examination of the restaurant Duo remarked, "We will be needing the services of that fashion designer or whatever she's called. If we're not careful we'll stick out like a sore thumb and not in a good way."

Heero agreed with Duo. "You're right. The wrong shoestring will ruin us with the type of crowd Ameena is running with. We've got to be really careful."

Duo sipped the last of his coffee. "I wonder if hanging around at the docking bays would come up with something?"

"Might. But let's see if we can't narrow it down a bit. There's over 3000 docking bays on this colony."

The waitress came by to fill their cups so they changed to some innocuous comments on the latest news until she left again.

"I know there's over 3000 bays, but there's only about 40 that are big enough to hold that yacht. And you know damn good and well that Ameena isn't going to tolerate using a tube. That's one of the reasons she wanted the yacht in the first place."

"True. I didn't think of that. You're right, size would cut down on the number. And, the fact that Ameena won't use a tube, cuts out any other boarding area."

Duo crooned, "Nice. We've eliminated almost 90% of the targets right off the bat. If we can get in Ameena's crowd, even on the fringes, we can pick up gossip and find her. I still don't see how she could just take off in Quatre's yacht like that. That's just not cool."

Heero agreed, "No, it's not."

The waitress returned again, this time with their food. She set out the plates and sides, smiled and asked, "Can I get you anything else?"

She laughed as Duo just shook his head and dug in. Heero was a bit more polite and said, "No, thank you. More coffee later, perhaps."

The waitress left again, promising to bring more coffee later.

Duo offered Heero a taste of his waffle. Heero just leaned over and opened his mouth. The taste of peaches and pecans hit his tongue, followed by waffle and whipped cream. He hummed appreciatively but returned to his plain pancakes and syrup, remarking, "Very good, but a bit more than I really want for breakfast. Bite of sausage?"

Duo turned up his nose. "No, thanks. I don't really like syrup on them, you know."

"So, I'm trying to educate you." As this was an ongoing discussion neither one took offense, instead they returned their conversation to how to break into Ameena's social clique.

It didn't take two young men with healthy appetites to clean their plates, finish their juice and coffee and ask for their bill.

The bill paid and the waitress tipped they returned to the hotel and called Mr. Randall.

When he answered his phone Heero told him that they would like for the fashion consultant to come up to their suite. He replied that she was on her way.

Heero's puzzled look made Duo ask him what was wrong.

"I thought we were going to hit the clubs before doing any major shopping."

"We are, but we can't head for a high class club dressed like a couple of vagabonds, right?" This was a constant source of discussion between them. Heero was never going to be a clotheshorse; he tended to throw on anything appropriate to the weather. He dressed well but

only because he wore whatever a clerk put together for him. Duo dressed well, with a keen fashion sense he'd learned to enable him to fit in where ever he needed to. He now dressed Heero, who obediently wore what Duo told him to.

Heero just agreed. "Fine, I guess what we do is dress nicely, go to the club, see that the fashions are and then go shopping again. Right?"

Duo smiled. "Exactly. So, not bland, or boring but generic, if you get my drift."

"Yeah, like Relena wears, guaranteed not to offend anyone, expensive enough but not too expensive."

Duo nodded, "Right."

"I'm bored just thinking about it."

Duo laughed so hard he fell off the stool he was sitting on.

Heero gave him a disgusted look but it faded quickly into amusement. "Ok, ok. I'm no clotheshorse but I like to look nice on occasion. So this fashion designer, she'll have all kinds of questions, what do we tell her."

Duo thought about that for a moment, then asked, "Why not the truth? I'm sure she's not interested in busting us to anyone. We're the hotel residents and she owes her loyalty to the hotel."

Heero thought about that for a moment then said, "Why don't we feel her out a bit first. Talk about wanting to get in with Ameena's crowd and see what she says."

"Sounds good to me." Duo got up off the floor with a grunt. The ringing of the doorbell had him changing directions to answer it instead of pummel Heero. He was bored and had decided to wrestle Heero for entertainment.

"Come in, come in. We were waiting for you. Is it always this boring or are we just missing something."

The advisor just smiled. "I'm Jessica. And no, you're just not in the swing yet. There's lots to do. It's just that the hotel is on the wrong street. Two blocks up spin and the high life continues 24/7, it doesn't even make a difference which shift you like to be on. There's always something doing." She settled on the love seat and dropped a huge purse on the floor. "Now, tell me what has two gundam pilots ..." At their surprised starts she laughed, "Yes, I know who you are. Did the second I saw your pictures. So, what's really going on? Don't worry about me talking to the wrong people for the wrong reasons. I'm very discrete. And very good. Who are you after and what for?"

Duo glanced at Heero who just started telling Jessica the whole story. Ending with, "And Quatre wants his yacht back, Ameena in jail and his other sisters on notice. So, what do we do first?"

Jessica fished in her purse mumbling, "You would need to get in with that crowd. I'd rather see you in with Hidalgo's group but what .... yes, here we go." She put a projector in the middle of the table and a keyboard in her lap. "Ok, here's the deal. That bunch are all ... idiots. They're not smart, just sly. And ostentatious. I'd rather see you dressed in fish guts and swimming with sharks. They do drugs, drink, fuck mindlessly and in general are a waste of skin. But ... It would really benefit the whole colony if that clique was broken." She smiled in a way that reminded both Heero and Duo of Une. "First, clothing. They dress in very expensive, very revealing skin-suits. Not that either of you have to worry about it but imagine a 50 something, fat, person in a skin suit. Even spacers know better."

Duo blinked, most real spacers covered up with a coverall of some sort, unless they were in private. Especially the older ones.

Duo sighed. "That's going to pose a problem or two. Both Heero and I cover up for good reason."

"I'm sure. But the thing with this style is, it doesn't make any difference where the cutout's are. They're usually situated to startle and/or shock. Let me show you some styles and you can help me design your suits to ... er, suit you." She giggled a bit, not as stupid sounding as you'd expect from a lady out of her teens.

Heero and Duo chuckled along then settled down to work. Jessica showed them image after image, all skimpy, expensive and poorly constructed. They all seemed to be made to look worn to pieces. Duo finally snorted and remarked, "My old skin suit is better than any of that trash. I really object to spending a ton of money on ... whatever that's supposed to be. Why not buy a decent suit and just tear holes in it?"

Jessica sighed. "And that's why I'd so much rather see you in Hidalgo's bunch. They're young, in the know and much better quality that Ameena's bunch of poseurs. I'd love to take her down a notch. But you need to find that yacht. Well ... I can't have everything. So ... I'll work up some designs that aren't too offensive, get you some walking around clothes and be back in time for lunch. Why don't you go to Hchoff's and just get some nice casual stuff? It's down spin, over a block and very pink. Can't miss it."

"We'll do that, be back in time to meet you at ... which restaurant should we be seen in?"

"Miranda's. Everybody who is anybody eats there. I'll have reservations in your names. And, I'm going to very discretely ask around a bit. Your reputations might do you more good than harm. And don't worry about me ruining your cover." She winked and gathered up her things. Duo escorted her to the door, then returned to Heero's side.

"I wonder about that woman. She's ... There's just something about her that's real. I wonder what she did during the war?"

Heero dismissed Duo's curiosity with a shrug. "Don't know. If she wants us to know, she'll tell us. Leave it."

Duo grumbled a bit, but said, "You're right. Just my bump of curiosity wants satisfied. Won't kill me not to know."

So they dressed in the cleanest dirty and headed for some serious shopping in the area they were told was called, "King's Run".

It was all situated around Hchoff's Department Store, small shops with high priced, good quality merchandise side by side with 'dollar' stores and kiosks with knock off goods. It was more of an open air mall than a shopping district.

Duo was in his element. He had always loved shopping with Quatre during the war, they were like two kids in a candy store. Now that he had real money of his own, it was even better. He dragged a long suffering Heero from one store to another, cheerfully insulting the knock offs and tossing over carefully folded piles of goods. Heero just smiled and followed, obediently trying on stuff. They managed a nice wardrobe of casual, formal and necessities in a short time, most of it from Hchoff's, all of it to be delivered to their hotel. When they announced that they were staying at the Savoy-Hilton they got the best service available.

One store in particular was fun. Duo had a secret passion for leather. He loved it, the smell, the feel, everything about it. He didn't buy much as each piece he selected was top quality and chosen for longevity. He only had three garments now and they were all at home on Earth.

So, when they saw the leather store named Hidalgo's, they had to go in. Duo even commented that it might not be a coincidence that Jessica had mentioned a clique by the same name.

A cheerful voice from the back answered the ding of the doorbell. "Be right there, just take a look around."

Duo was attracted to a display of jackets. Most ground-pounders thought the colonies kept the ambient temperature warm, but that wasn't so. It was cheaper to keep it slightly cool, so the actual ambient temperature was actually around 60 to 65 degrees, even cooler when the sun wasn't shining on that portion of the colony. Jackets were more necessary than you'd think.

Just as he was getting ready to pull a jacket out of the rack, the voice from the back made his appearance. "Hi, sorry to keep you waiting, I had to sign for a shipment. I'm Hidalgo. This is my store. What can I do for you?"

Heero looked at the young man for a still moment. He was six feet tall, muscular and blonde. Not exactly what you'd expect from someone named Hidalgo but the northern Spaniards were sometimes blonde. Heero wondered vaguely if it even mattered anymore.

Duo noticed Heero's distraction and poked him. "Doesn't matter. Right?"

Heero laughed, "You know me so well."

Hidalgo, used to questions about his coloring, just said, amusement clear in his voice. "My mother liked the name. My last name is Jenkins. I don't use it for obvious reasons."

Heero laughed and admitted, "I do tend to get distracted by things that don't make sense to me. Saved my life a time or two. So, we need some ... club rags."

Hidalgo laughed. "Ok, so who do you run with?"

Duo shrugged negligently. "No one yet. A friend said Ameena's bunch was interesting."

Hidalgo frowned, then said sourly, "Only if you're into drugs, booze, insipid conversation and fucking anything that'll lie down. My friends are much better. And that's not just pride talking. We're more into racing and x-sports, but the conversation tends to range over a little bit of everything. And no drugs, very little drinking. A drunk x-sporter is a dead one. You know?"

Heero said that he did, while Duo silently mourned losing out on a friendship with this group. But business was business. He just hoped he wouldn't have to break too many fingers. He hated being groped with a passion.

Just then all three of their phones began to ring. Duo answered, "Maxwell!" while Heero just said, "Speak!" Hidalgo laughed, then listened.

It seemed that Jessica had connections in higher places than Heero or Duo had imagined. She had them on a four-way.

"Oh, my, you're all together? That's good. Here's the scoop. No one in Ameena's bunch of nuts knows anything about a yacht or even where she is right now. The scoop is that someone in Hidalgo's clique might know something. 'Dalgo, darling, help the boys out, will you?"

He gave a shark-like grin, "Will it give Ameena indigestion?"

"More than that, sweetie, it's quite likely to break up her little nest of eels. See what you can do. Oh, and, boys? Tell him who you are. It'll help immensely, I promise."

Heero studied Hidalgo for a moment after they hung up, then he turned to Duo. "What do you think?"

"I think we can trust him."

Hidalgo was now studying them closely, a confused expression on his face. "Ok, tell me what? What's Jess blathering about?"

Duo just explained about the yacht, with some interjections from Heero. Heero finished their explanation by saying, "So we're bounty hunters turned repo experts. Quatre Winner hired us to repo his yacht from Ameena and arrest her."

"And what makes you special enough that The Winner hired you? Not trying to be difficult, just ... need to know what I'm getting mixed up in. And you both look damned familiar. Jess and I were Alliance during the war. Guerrilla fighters. So .. my cards are on the table. Let me see yours."

Duo snickered softly. "I'm 02, he's 01. Une kept our pictures and such off the media so how did Jessica recognize us? I'm sure she did."

"She's just really good with faces. If she's seen you once, she'll remember you. Your jackets were sent to the heads of some of the more important cells. She was our top contact. So ... you don't need to get in with Ameena's crowd, hanging on the fringes once in a while will do. We don't completely ostracize other cliques around here, but we do tend to hang with our own most of the time. There's a party coming up soon. Sort of like Mardi Gras, everyone puts on a show of some sort and all the cliques sort of merge a bit. Everyone talks to everyone else. Gossip flies like wild. That group loves to one up everyone else. If Ameena has told one person anything at all, you'll hear about it then."

Heero just sighed. "I really hate that sort of thing. Everyone backstabbing everyone else. Too much food, too much liquor, just too much of everything. ... it offends me somehow."

Duo nodded. "Yeh, I know exactly what you're saying."

Hidalgo nodded too. "It's a mess but everyone who's anyone goes. My bunch goes more to keep an eye on some of the other cliques than any other reason. We've got an agreement with Preventers to report anything too out of hand. Several of the other cliques do too. Now, you need clothing of all kinds. Jessica is doing some shopping for you now. I'll fix you up to fit in with my bunch. Have you got any other clothing needs?"

"No, we took care of casual and under garments already. It's all being delivered. Now. I really want a good jacket. Something I'll wear for a long time." Duo returned to the rack and started some serious shopping. Heero settled back against a nearby standing rack to wait.

Duo picked up a pair of leather pants, a jacket and some boots. He threatened Heero with tickle torture if he didn't get the same. Hidalgo just watched with amusement as two of the most dangerous men in the known solar system acted their age.

.

They met Jessica for lunch at Miranda's as promised. Hidalgo had insisted on dressing them as their skin suits and coveralls were so 'last century' as to be embarrassing. So they showed up in leather pants, combat boots, silk t-shirts and bomber jackets.

Jessica announced that she heartily approved of the look.

They were seated in a very visible area, but surrounded by planters and weird sculptures so they didn't feel too exposed. Heero was happy to have his back to a planter, Duo likewise; Jessica had her back to the door but didn't seem to mind.

They ate, talked about the mission and were seen by all the right people. A word, dropped by Jessica in the right place, had made them persona very gratta. Everyone wanted to get them into their clique.

When their phones started to ring, buzz with texts and in general become annoying, Jessica advised them to get a personal assistant. Someone to manage their appointments, dates and party invitations. Duo snorted. Heero just said, "Who?"

"Well, darlings, me. I know who you should talk to and who you should ignore, some pointedly. I'll compile a list of every date and we'll go over them together. That'll make sure that you don't attend something you don't need to. You'll need the time to do your investigation. I'm sure that there's other leads to follow. Just leave all that to me. Ok?"

They both agreed with Jessica that she knew who was who. And they were both glad not to have to wade through that particular swamp of booby traps.

After agreeing with Jessica that she should take care of all social engagements, they set their phones to roll messages from unknown numbers into her organizer. This meant that any call from a number not in their phone went to voice mail on her laptop. All text messages went to her email. It was a real relief when their phone stopped going off.

"I'll get right on this. I don't have any other jobs right now so you're my only focus. I'll send you a schedule tonight, call you and we'll get organized. Let me know if you need anything else. Oh, and; have some fun, ok?"

"Ok, ok. We'll have fun. I think Hidalgo will see to that. Now... conspiring time."

So they put their heads together with Jessica and figured out which docks were worth Duo and Heero's attention and which were a waste. After another hour of nibbling on leftovers, drinking coffee and planning, they separated and went their ways.