Chapter 4

A week later, on the day of their next meeting with Dorothy, Relena and Heero break into her company's main building and sneak inside. Heero says they're doing this to prove that holes in the security for the physical structure of the building exist too. It's something that Dorothy didn't specifically ask them to look into, but also didn't expressly forbid. In truth, Relena thinks that Heero just finds it fun to sneak into the building through a service entrance.

She does have a point about the building's security, though. Heero doesn't even need to black out any of the cameras, just make sure that the two of them move quickly through a short hallway while a camera's turned, and that's very lax.

"Not really," Heero shrugs, when Relena points this very thing out to her friend in an incredulous whisper as they're climbing slowly up the back stairs. "Most companies don't even have real cameras on entrances like that, just fake ones."

The idea of taking so few precautions boggles Relena's mind, and she considers with some amusement that apparently she can be just as paranoid as Heero sometimes. Well, Relena can be a little paranoid, at least, which is close enough. "Aren't there alarms on the stairs, though?"

Heero shakes her head, scoping out the stairway entrances of the floors above to make sure no one's up there for them to run into or be seen by. "If the fire alarm goes off, the doors open." Seeing Relena's confused look, Heero continues to explain. "The doors leading to this service stairway can't be opened from inside the building unless the fire alarm's going off."

Relena pauses. "But… they can be opened from outside?" This makes no sense to her. Who would arrange their security like that?

The look Heero sends her is both amused and approving. "It's not intended for security purposes," she says. "It's to stop employees from trying to skip out on their work without being held accountable. If they could leave through these stairs, a lot of employees would end up disappearing for hours. Since they'd leave through a side entrance, no one would know exactly when they left, or when they returned, and the employee could simply lie and say that they were visiting another department on an errand or something. But if they had alarms on the doors, they would go off every time shipping personnel, or others who only use the service entrances, had to come inside. This way, they're just automatically locked from the inside unless a fire alarm goes off."

Relena blinks. "I suppose so. It still seems silly to me."

"Because it is silly," Heero agrees. With that, they easily make their way up to Dorothy's floor undiscovered, and they walk down the hallway. Relena knocks first, because she knows that Heero would just barge in if Relena let her.

"Come in," Dorothy calls. She sounds preoccupied, but not in a bad way. Simply busy. The look of surprise on her face when she sees Relena and Heero enter quickly changes into something very calculating. "Well now, how interesting that you two are entering my office when no one saw you enter the building."

Heero smirks, and even Relena can't quite keep her face neutral. "Yes," Relena agrees. "We thought it best to give you a practical demonstration of the lacking security in your building."

Dorothy sighs, but waves them over to some chairs in front of her desk. "I should have expected something like this," she admits. "This building is older, and I haven't wanted to renovate the whole structure in order to update the security. How big a priority should I put into changing that?"

It's obvious that Dorothy's speaking to Heero, not her. "It's not terribly important," Heero admits, which surprises Relena. "You'd have to rewire the whole building in order to install anything truly worth spending money on, and the likelihood of your building being broken into after hours is minimal. The reason you hired us is because you know that your real concern should be your own workers."

Relena thinks that through. It makes sense, she allows. Dorothy only nods, like she expected that response. She's obviously thought it through already, but still wanted Heero's input. "I'm glad to hear your professional opinion," Dorothy says, and Heero smiles back. Relena loves it when the two of them are getting along.

"We have the rest of our report," Relena says, handing over a folder. Though they'll send her an electronic copy later, Relena knows that Dorothy is old-fashioned and prefers a printed copy in front of her to read.

"Marvelous," Dorothy exclaims, though her attention is already mostly on the report. She skims through the info on the first page, which explains Heero's suggestions on how to improve the computer security system. Relena doesn't know how much of it Dorothy understands, and most of it she figures would probably have to be implemented first in order to really understand the projected results. Dorothy then flips to the second page.

Obviously, this is the part that Dorothy's most interested in, and her eyebrows climb up her forehead dramatically as she reads. "Only two?"

"Only two that we caught," Relena agrees. She's reasonably certain that they're the only two spies in this building, but Relena doesn't want to absolutely commit to that response unless Dorothy makes her. "We also found out which companies they were selling information to, and included their names."

Dorothy smiles as she turns the page and reads further on. "I see you also uncovered an infidelity and informed the spouse?"

"Yes," Heero agrees. Something in her tone says that she refuses to apologize for sending that information along.

Her tone makes Dorothy laugh delightedly. "Oh, I'm not scolding you for it. I just find it amusing." What exactly about that Dorothy finds amusing, Relena doesn't know. "So," Dorothy continues, closing the folder and bracing her chin on her folded hands, "you two are managing to work together very well."

It's not a question, but Relena nods anyway. "Yes, it's been wonderful." She smooths out a fold in her pants. "In fact, we were wondering if perhaps you'd like to join our company."

Dorothy manages to look surprised, even though Relena's almost positive that she was expecting this offer. "Oh? And how could I help the two of you?"

"Contacts," Heero answers succinctly. "You have a lot of connections, and can recommend us to them."

Dorothy leans back in her chair, and taps her fingers against the desk. "That is a good point," she agrees mildly.

Relena sighs. "You're not going to join us, are you?"

She gets a sharp and approving smile for that. "Not yet," Dorothy says. "Don't get me wrong, I'll be more than happy to recommend you two any time the opportunity comes up. You performed to my expectations, and then succeeded them, which isn't an easy thing to do." Her gaze turns calculating again. "But that's not the only reason why you want my influence, is it?"

They both stay silent, which is just as good as a confession.

Dorothy flips her hair over one shoulder. "Whatever the two of you are up to, I think I'll wait a bit and see what you plan next before I commit to anything."

It's unusually subdued of Dorothy, which means she's sussed out that whatever they plan on doing is going to have lasting consequences. Relena smiles at her friend. "Thank you, Dorothy." For giving them this chance, and for being smart enough to wait before she decides one way or the other, instead of condemning them both right now.

They all spend the next few minutes talking through the details of the report, and Relena lets Heero take over to go into more detail about the security changes she thinks Dorothy should implement. Surprisingly, Dorothy offers Heero a commission for coming in and upgrading the computer system herself, and Heero agrees eagerly.

When they leave, this time through the front doors, Relena almost feels like skipping. This was the first real step in her plans, and it was an absolute success. She restrains herself from appearing too excited, though.

"That went well," Heero says, mirroring Relena's thoughts exactly.

She nods. "I think," Relena says, "that it's time for me to call some of my old contacts as well."

Getting new business with Dorothy's help is all well and good, because of course expanding their reputation is necessary, but Relena thinks it's time to also pursue another angle of her plans. She knows a lot of paranoid government officials who will be thrilled to accept her security recommendations. They hardly need to know that the security checks and upgrades Heero performs will also be used to gather incriminating information that those same officials would much rather never see the light of day.

They don't need to know this yet, anyways.

Heero glances over at Relena's falsely innocent expression and huffs in response, clearly amused. "If you think that's the right next step," Heero agrees, not bothering to hide her own eagerness. Relena knows that Heero's been looking forward to this as much as she has. "It sounds entertaining."

Doesn't it just, though?