Alright, and Chapter Six is two days late. I'm so sorry for the delay, apparently I was fated to be one of the first people to develop the flu this season and have been dead to the world for the past three days, (get a flu shot, I mean it, it's not worth the risk!). Again, so sorry! Well then, with all these set backs I'll not keep you waiting; thank you to all who have been reading and thank you so much for the reviews, I'm so happy everyone's enjoying this!
Mutually Assured Destruction
Chapter Six – An Above Ground Assault
Tynan
- - - - -
"Guys, are you sure about this? I mean, we haven't really had enough time to plan for everything."
"The mission is a high risk one, but it's nothing we can't handle."
"I agree with Yuy. A quick strike when they're least expecting it will obtain our objectives."
"Yeah, yeah, you're right. So, do we have everything?"
"Equipment?"
"Ladders, drills, bolts, glue, and plastic wrap."
"Infiltration gear?"
"Laptop, digital schematics, radios, rope and rigging, black attire, fake IDs, paper clip, and pocket knife."
"Let's go then."
- - - - -
Relena couldn't help but smile to herself as she got out bed. In fact while she showered and dressed the images of the great Heero Yuy sitting at a brightly colored booth with a large button on his dress uniform kept popping into her head. As she packed her briefcase for the day, she picked up several of the pictures Hilde had managed to take last night and stuffed them into her bag, just in case she should need a laugh.
She practically skipped down the stairs, considering as she went that the boys were probably planning the demise of her and Hilde at that moment, however for the time being she could relish this feeling of victory. Besides, there was no way that they could have managed to pull something off so quickly; for the time being she was safe.
"Good morning Jackie!"
The woman seated at the Peacecraft Manor's dinning room table jumped so suddenly she nearly spilt her cup of coffee. "Oh, g-good morning Miss Peacecraft." Officer Murphy stood from her seat and nodded in a sort of informal salute. Relena sighed; no matter what she insisted Jackie was always so official.
"Are you ready to go then ma'am?"
"Yes, shall we?" Jackie nodded again, lifted her coat from the back of her chair, and slipped it on, watching the Foreign Minister the whole time. Something was off with her this week; Monday she had almost been afraid to leave the house and now here she was, four days later smiling as though she didn't have a care in the world.
Jackie shrugged off the thoughts and followed Relena to where she was standing at the front door digging through her bag. "Is something wrong ma'am?"
Relena turned to face her, a huge grin on her face and several small pieces of glossy paper in her hand, "Not at all Jackie, I just have some pictures that I thought you'd like to see."
- - - - -
"Aw man, I don't think we've done anything that hard since the war. I'm beat."
"You're getting soft Maxwell. One cannot let an attack such as what we suffered yesterday slide without immediate retaliation."
"Hey, I'm not arguing with ya, Wufei. I'm just saying, I can't believe we actually pulled that off."
"We were lucky, everything went exactly according to plan."
"Heero, they're totally gonna kill us for this, you know that right?"
"I swear to God, if the two of you can't control those women and I end up dragged into another one of these–"
"Oh no you don't! Sorry man, but you helped us with this one, that means you're officially on their list."
"I don't see how they could possibly know that I was involved."
"Hey, don't worry buddy, I took care of that for you. Wanted to make sure you got the credit you deserve."
"Maxwell . . ."
- - - - -
Hilde stretched as she closed the front door behind her and began to make her way around the house she and Duo shared (well, when he wasn't being an ass anyway), and around the back to her workshop. She was falling behind on orders and repairs this week; she needed to stop being so distracted by her boyfriend's antics. But today she would have a chance to catch up a bit, she reasoned as she unlocked the door and pushed it open to step inside. There was no way the boys could have already –"
Hilde's eyes popped open in disbelief as she surveyed her workshop. How could they possible have . . . For a fleeting moment she was torn between being angry and impressed; however the former quickly won out and with a stifled scream she spun on her heals and marched back to her house to make a phone call.
- - - - -
Jackie was doing her best not to laugh. A year and a half under Agent Yuy's command had taught her one thing: It was not good to laugh at Agent Yuy. However, as she escorted the Foreign Minister to her office she really couldn't help it as she kept flipping through the pictures Relena had handed her. "I had no idea that Agent Yuy was so involved in the recruitment process."
Relena smiled in a twisted sort of way, "Well, he had a little help from me on that end."
Jackie nodded, "Who's this with him and Agent Maxwell, I think I've seen him around."
Relena leaned over Jackie's arm to look at the man she was pointing too . . . and instantly began to pale. How could she have not noticed him before? How could Hilde have missed something like this? How the hell did Wufei Chang end up at the recruitment night with Heero and Duo?!
In the short span of time it took the young Foreign Minister to reach her office Relena Peacecraft was in a full blown panic. It was one thing to be combating just Heero and Duo; those men were in charge of her security, they couldn't do anything serious to her. Wufei Chang had no such restraints, and she was very familiar with the extent of his mercy . . .
As she approached her office, Jackie had managed to catch up with her, a questioning and concerned expression on her face. But Relena did not have time to explain, she had to call Hilde as soon as she humanly could and possibly arrange for the two of them to go into hiding.
Relena breezed past Mrs. Bolling's desk, barely hearing the older woman stand from her seat and call after her. As she turned the corner and made her way down the hall towards her private office, Relena was met with an obstruction in the form of Francheska Biddle and a man wearing a maintenance uniform.
"M-miss Peacecraft, ma'am!" Francheska jumped at her boss's arrival and looked concerned about something, bur Relena did not have time at this exact moment.
"In a minute, Francheska. I need to make a phone call." Relena reached for the door and began to push it open just as Francheska spoke again.
"Y-yes ma'am, well there may be a problem with that."
Before she could even comprehend the words, Relena stepped into her office and immediately came to a screeching halt. The entire room was completely empty, right down the floor lamps and the area rugs that had covered the hard wood floors.
"I, I . . . h-how . . ." Relena stuttered as words simply would not come to her. She was vaguely aware of Francheska's arm pulling her back into the doorway and muttering something to her.
"Y-you should step back ma'am. Maintenance is on their way with ladders and some equipment. They said that it looks secure, but they don't want to take any chances."
Relena slowly turned around to face her personal assistant, "Francheska what are you talking about?"
The younger woman looked confused for a moment, "Umm, w-well your furniture ma'am."
"Yes it's all gone!"
Francheska's eyes got wide for a second before she pushed her boss about two steps into the room and forcibly tilted her head back toward the high ceilings.
Relena felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. Ignoring, Francheska's protests, she staggered a few steps into the room in a state of complete shock.
Her entire office, desk to decorative plants, was looking down at her from the ceiling. Relena continued to stare in a stupor; the larger pieces of furniture had all been fitted with open ended metal sleeves over their legs which in turn were bolted to the actual ceiling. The chairs, the plants, the lamps, the cabinets, the bookcases, the coffee table, the sofas, even the rugs, had all been attached to the top half of the room in a fashion mirroring how they had been arranged when they resided on the floor. As she continued to stare, Relena noticed that they had even gone so far as to flip her curtains upside down and suspend from the ceiling as well as fastening all of the papers that had been on her desk to it with what appeared to be saran warp.
Relena, half fell, half sat on the hard floor below her in a rather inelegant manner, "My new desk . . ." Behind her Francheska approached.
"M-miss Peacecraft, ma'am . . . maybe we should get you some coffee and –"
"My brand new desk!!!" With that Relena was back on her feet and storming out the door into the entrance area where a somewhat amused Mrs. Bolling was waiting for her.
"Edith how did this happen?!" Relena tried to keep her voice quiet and calm, but was not managing well.
Her personal secretary just raised an eyebrow, "Well that certainly is an excellent question, Miss Peacecraft. One that I don't believe we will ever no the answer to."
"And why is that?" Relena grated out.
But Mrs. Bolling was already reaching in her desk for some, presumably an answer. "Because ma'am, when the building's staff pulled up the security camera footage from last night, it had been replaced with this image for a time spanning from 1:00 in the morning to 3:45." She handed Relena an 8 ½ x 11 sized piece of paper.
Flipping it over, Relena was met with the image of Duo Maxwell, holding a camera out in front of himself, a glaring Heero Yuy, and a very determined looking Wufei Chang. The braided man had his arm around the other two and was clearly holding them in place; all three were covered in black from head to toe and loaded down with all sorts of high tech equipment, behind them the door to Relena's office was clearly visible.
Relena took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, "Mrs. Bolling –"
"I'll get Miss Schbeiker on the phone ma'am."
- - - - -
Hilde pushed her way past a group of officers coming towards her. Ordinarily they might have objected to the rudeness, but watching Agent Maxwell's girlfriend storm off in the direction of his office was not something they wanted to involve themselves it.
Hilde rounded the corner at top speed, reached her boyfriend's door, and flung it open without hesitation.
"Hey! We don't knock – Oh, Hilde." Duo's face broke out into a wide grin as he looked her up and down. "Babe, seriously I forget how hot you are when you're mad." He nudged Heero, who Hilde just notices was standing beside him, "Isn't she cute? I'm not joking babe, I could jump you right now."
"I could kill you right now!"
Duo shrugged, "My idea's more fun."
Hilde took a menacing step toward the two men, (and took a little bit of satisfaction in Duo recoiling the tiniest bit). "All of my equipment is latched to the ceiling of my garage. How the hell did you two –"
"Three."
She whipped around to face Heero, who was wearing a small, but disquieting smirk. "What?"
"There were three of us, not two."
Duo leaned back in his chair, "Yeah see when Wufei go roped into 'Open House Night' with us, well he thought that we could use a hand with out little project."
Hilde could feel her eyes get wide; Duo broke down into laughter while Heero stepped away from the wall, "You two should really have been more careful. It's not wise to involve innocent civilians in your battles."
The dark haired girl stepped back towards the door, "Fine, two or three of you it doesn't make a difference to us."
Heero shrugged in return, "You're still outnumbered, the two of you –"
He was cut off suddenly by the slamming of the office door.
- - - - -
"Relena?"
"Hilde! Wufei got pulled into –"
"I know, I was just at Duo's office. I don't know how I could have missed that he was there with them that night, he must not have been at the table the whole time. They got you too then?"
"My entire office has been attached to my ceiling. The men from maintenance say they think that they can have it all down by the end of the day . . ."
"Relena, we have to get them for this!"
"How? How can we possibly top something like this?"
"I'm thinking!"
"We're going to need some outside resources."
"Relena, you're basically one of the most powerful people on the planet. I would think you could get just about anything."
"That's not what I mean."
"Then what do you mean?"
"Hilde, in politics people have areas of expertise. When you're working on a project that exceeds your own realm of knowledge, you call in an outside source that is more well-informed on the subject than you are. Someone who can assist you and give you the necessary information to get what you need done."
"And what, you've got someone running around there who specializes in bringing pain and humiliation upon unsuspecting – gasp Relena you don't mean –"
"Desperate times call for desperate measures Hilde, and it's time to admit that we are out of our league."
"But Relena –"
"We need someone who has dedicated themselves to inflicting misery and disgrace on anyone who has ever crossed them. Someone ruthless, someone not afraid of the consequences of their actions, and personally only one name is coming to my mind."
- - - - -
The light on the phone lit up before the secretary's voice came through the speaker.
"There's a call coming in from Brussels on line two –"
"Thank you Pauline, I'll take it." Nimble fingers pressed the button and turned on the video screen, "Why Miss Relena, to what do I owe the –"
"There isn't much time to explain, so I'll get right to the point. I need your help with something."
"Why of course, anything I can do. However, I'm not sure how helpful I could be in the realm of politics."
"This isn't politics, this is revenge."
"Revenge you say Miss Relena? Well then certainly count me in." A delighted smile broke out across Dorothy Catalonia's face, "So what's the plan?"