by Windsor Blue
Notes: This fic is my little valentine to the fandom. The working girls contained herein are Mary Sues of just some of the brilliant people I've met in the last year or so that I've been lurking around here, all of whom graciously volunteered for the task. Many, many thanks to Anne, Blue Soaring, Fablespinner, Lockheed, Maureen, Mikkeneko, Okaasan, Ponderosa, Raletha, Sailor Seraphim, Sakura, Suzume, and Trowacko for allowing me to - *ahem* - prostitute them in this manner. ^_^
~ Two Days Later ~
In spite of their attempts to be quiet, Une noticed Trowa and Quatre sneaking into the back of the conference room, some ten minutes after the meeting had already started.
"Ah, there you are, Agent Barton - feeling better today? I gather whatever virus it was that felled you in the middle of the day on Tuesday and kept you bedridden yesterday has passed?"
Quatre looked down at his feet, one hand over his mouth. Duo, Heero and Wufei pointedly refused to make eye contact with anyone but each other. Trowa stood blinking like a deer caught in a set of headlights. "I'm feeling much better today, thank you for asking," he replied blankly, sinking into a seat by the door and resting his elbows on the thick conference table.
"Good to hear. Special Agent Winner, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to assist us with this case."
Quatre had to work very hard to keep his smile polite instead of cocky. "My pleasure, Director Une." With that, he took the seat between Trowa and Duo.
Duo coughed into his open palm, stopping only when Wufei thumped him soundly on the back.
"Now then," Une began, "I know you're all familiar with the basics of this case. The evidence Miss Trent presented to us was more than enough to cause some concern, so we're sending you all in as part of a team to infiltrate the casino and find out what you can." She paused just long enough to begin gathering up thick dossiers to hand out. "Inside these files, you will find copies of everything we know about the operation and the woman who acts as the madam there, a Ms. Dahlia Jeffries. You will also find an outline of the mission, its objectives, and the identities you will be assuming." She dropped the first one in front of Heero. "Your name is Hiroshi Langston. You are the heir to a department store chain in the Northwest United States. You are also a compulsive gambler. Your game of choice is poker."
Heero blinked. "I don't know how to play poker."
"You'll learn," Une replied.
"Quatre and I can teach you," Duo chimed in. "Old Q here's quite the card shark! Aren't you, Q?"
Quatre tried to smile innocently and ended up looking a little feral instead. Heero glanced back and forth between the two of them and nodded his head shakily, just knowing that he was going to regret agreeing to this. "Okay..."
The second file landed in front of Duo. "Agent Maxwell, you are Jake Aguirre. You're a blackjack dealer, working for the Caesar's organization. They employ a large number of what they call 'floating dealers', who work different parts of the casino on different nights. Being called up from the pool for a shift in the Dionysus Suite is considered a step up in the organization. Behave yourself accordingly."
"Dionysus Suite?" Duo asked.
"Yes," Une nodded, "That's the name of the private club the pleasure suites operate out of. The entrance is on the bottom floor of the casino, and there are stairs that lead up to the - er, specialty rooms." Une shook her head quickly. "There's a floor plan in your files." She stepped back to Wufei, and his file landed on the table with an impressive 'thud'. "You are Chen Liang. You're a high-level executive at a Hong Kong export company. You have a reputation as a lady-killer and a big spender. Your game of choice is Pai-Gow, but you've also been known to spend some time at the roulette wheel."
Wufei nodded, then looked at Duo, who was trying far too hard not to snicker. "What?"
Duo shook his head. "Nothing, lady-killer."
Wufei glared and Quatre hid his grin behind his hand, jumping slightly when a file landed on the table in front of him. "Agent Winner, you are Sebastian Peters. You are a piano player, and will be filling in for the regular pianist at the bar. You'll be accompanying a singer. I know you're used to playing solo - will it be a problem to have someone sing with you?"
Quatre blinked, then beamed wickedly. "Oh, no, I've had some experience with duets as well. I'm sure I'll be fine."
"Very good. Agent Barton, you are Alexei Romanoff. You are an art dealer from Moscow, although there are rumors that you're involved with the Russian mafia. Naturally, if you are asked about these rumors, you will insist they aren't true. Your game of choice is craps, but you are also fond of blackjack and roulette." With that Une paused and refocused her attention on the rest of the group. "Any questions so far?"
Heero raised his hand. "Are we sure this isn't an assumed name, this Dahlia Jeffries?"
"As far as we know, that's her only name. Her Nevada business license and the club's bi-weekly health inspections are all filed under that name."
"Do we have any idea what her motivations are?" Duo asked.
"Not really, but a preliminary profile is in your files."
"And still no clue as to who her next victim might be?" Trowa inquired soberly.
"No, not yet. You're all going to have to keep your ears pretty closely to the ground on this one. Try to develop a few contacts within the operation. I'm guessing that if Miss Trent was unhappy about being inadvertently involved in a murder, then some of the other women that work there are none too pleased about it either."
"When do we leave?" asked Wufei.
"Tomorrow morning. You will infiltrate the club tomorrow evening. Zechs, Noin and Sally left last night and will be assuming their roles this evening. By the time you arrive in Las Vegas tomorrow, they should have a preliminary scouting report ready for you to peruse." Une moved to the intercom unit mounted on the wall and pressed a button. "Andrea, could you please send Dr. Rand and Agent Corbett to Conference Room 2? Thank you." She moved back to face them. "Now then, the club requires its new members to fill out personality profiles and, er - preferences, in the interest of providing...quality service." She shook her head again. "Copies of those are attached to the inside front cover of your files. Heero, Wufei and Trowa - take a moment to look them over and see if you have any questions about them. Duo and Quatre, there are copies of your employment applications in the same spot."
All five opened the packages in front of them, flipping to the pages indicated. A few seconds later, Heero coughed.
"A - a schoolgirl fetish?" he stammered.
"You're the spoiled son of a very wealthy family," Une replied calmly. "You're used to being catered to. You like your women to be submissive and more focused on your needs than their own, and for the most part, that's what you get. This little fetish for schoolgirls is the one taboo you have yet to break."
"But I..." Heero looked to his friends for support and found none. Duo was remarkably quiet, deeply engrossed in the pages of his faked job application, and Wufei was busy working up some indignation of his own.
"Blonde dominatrices?!?" he cried.
Une sighed. "You're used to being in control. The idea of relinquishing that control is very appealing to you."
"And the spanking?" Wufei spluttered.
"Look, this place is all about letting go of inhibitions. That's why people go there in the first place. We had to come up with some viable boundaries for you to be breaking, or else why would you be going there in the first place, right?"
"Can we go back to my schoolgirl fetish?" Heero asked petulantly.
"Now there's something I never thought I'd hear..." muttered Duo.
"Submissive women turn you on, Heero, and that's the end of the discussion." Une ignored the daggers being glared in her direction and cast her gaze on Trowa, who merely lifted an eyebrow.
"What exactly does 'experimental' mean?" he asked cautiously.
"What it says. You're very open-minded and welcome new experiences. At the hands of a trained professional, you're hoping for an enlightening evening."
Trowa paled a little and turned to Quatre. "Should I be scared?"
Quatre gave him a sidelong leer. "I'm sure a big, strong man like you can fend off a couple of amorous ladies. If you can't, though, make sure to take notes. I'll be dying to know what sort of 'enlightening' things you learn about yourself."
Trowa scowled at him just as the door opened. A gangly young man, all limbs and glasses, ambled into the room with a large, official-looking box in his hands and an enthusiastic grin on his face. Behind him came a much smaller woman, mousy-brown hair pulled up into a severe twist and glasses even thicker than her companion's perched on her nose. A pristine while lab coat was wrapped around her like a suit of armor, and she walked with a decidedly nervous air.
"Ah - Dr. Rand, Agent Corbett," Une said, sounding almost too grateful for their presence. "Thank you for coming. I know you're busy."
"Indeed," muttered the woman grumpily.
"No problem!" insisted the man. He extended his hand to each one in turn to shake. "Agent Jarrod Corbett, nice to meet you. You guys are, like, the best agents on the force! I can't tell you how cool it is to finally - "
The woman cleared her throat and began fussing with the lock on the box.
"Huh? Oh - sorry, Dr. Rand." Corbett rolled his eyes at Duo, who smirked conspiratorially, and turned to unlock it for her.
"Agents," Une began, gesturing, "This is Doctor Janice Rand. She's in charge of the experimental technologies lab. Her unit is responsible for creating the gadgets you all love to play with so much."
"Oh, yeah?" Duo drawled, straightening from his slump and extending a hand affably. "What's up, Doc?"
Dr. Rand gave him the sort of look that he would have expected to receive if, perhaps, he had demon wings sprouting out of his back, horns growing from his skull and his head were on fire.
Quatre stood up and leaned over the table to offer his own hand as Duo, bewildered, slowly lowered his. "It's nice to meet you, Dr. Rand. I'm Quatre Raberba Winner."
She stared at his hand as if it might leave his arm of it's own volition, run across the room, and bite her. After a few seconds, she looked up sharply to meet his eyes, nodded her head once in acknowledgment, and turned her back on them to focus on the contents of the box. Quatre glanced at Duo, questions all over his face as he began to sit back down. Duo lifted his eyebrows and shrugged in reply.
Une soldiered on, gamely ignoring the air of strangeness pervading the room. "Dr. Rand and Agent Corbett have been working on a new type of listening device. I thought - and they agreed - that this mission would be the perfect test scenario for the device."
"We're gonna be guinea pigs?" Duo began a bit dangerously.
Corbett turned around with something grasped in his fist and the biggest grin any of them had seen in a long time on his face. "Trust me - you're going to love this. This thing is so cool." He held his palm open before them and looked around the room in giddy expectation. "Well? What do you think?"
In his palm lay a flat piece of transparent plastic about the size of a dime. Inside it, they could see a miniscule maze of circuits that presumably made it work. Judging by the way it seemed to cling to the contours of his hand, it must have had some kind of adhesive properties as well.
They blinked at it, then they looked around and blinked at each other. "What is it?" Trowa finally asked.
"It's a bug!" Corbett declared proudly.
"It's a trans-dermal, hyper-sensitive listening device," said Dr. Rand, her voice quiet but still clearly annoyed. "It's programmed to receive and process up to 200 different voice patterns per second. It can transmit to a listening station as far as ten nautical miles away, and it can also act as a receiver to the agent wearing it in the field, so that said agent may receive up-to-the-minute instructions from his superiors while undercover, or may monitor the activities of other operatives."
They looked back down at the bug, and up at Agent Corbett again. "Pretty sweet, huh?" he grinned.
Duo nodded in appreciation. "Yeah, it is. How's it work?"
Corbett peeled it off his hand and held it out between his thumb and forefinger. "Put it behind your right ear, just behind the lobe and up a little." He turned his head and pointed to the precise spot. "Just stick it on there. Either side will work - it clings right to your skin like a bandage."
Duo took it gingerly and applied it to the place indicated. He heard a slight buzzing for a moment and then nothing. He looked up, his brows knitting. "I don't hear anything," he said, and blinked in mild surprise as he heard his own voice filtering out of a tinny laptop speaker in the box behind Agent Corbett and Dr. Rand.
Corbett's grin grew even wider, if that were possible, and until that moment Duo hadn't thought it would be. He reached back into the box and pulled out four more small packages, handing them out eagerly. "Try 'em on for size, you guys!" he encouraged. "Check it out - once you get it on and working, you give it a little tap with your fingertip, like this, and it switches channels so you can hear what's going on with the other guys. Two taps - like this - switches it back to listen-only mode." He reached into the control box and pressed a couple of buttons on the keyboard. "Whoever is on the listening end can contact you at any time, and you'll hear a faint beep, like this, before they cut in. Agent Maxwell, go stand in the hallway and see if you can hear - "
"That won't be necessary, Agent Corbett," Une interrupted gently. "But thank you for your enthusiasm."
Corbett blinked sheepishly. "Oh, sorry."
"That's alright. One more thing, agents, and we'll let you get ready to leave - since you will be going undercover in a casino, we expect that you will have to drink at least a little bit of alcohol while on duty. Dr. Rand has prepared a serum for you that will counteract the effects of alcohol, basically rendering it impossible for you to get drunk for the next forty-eight hours." As Une spoke, Dr. Rand pulled a small bottle out of one pocket and a package of syringes out of another. She tore the package open and prepared the first one, moving towards Heero.
"Roll up your sleeve, please," she said, a touch too meekly for someone with a needle in her hand. Heero did as asked, and felt the prick of the needle into his skin before her fingers came anywhere close to touching him.
Duo watched as the procedure was repeated on Wufei, and his eyes narrowed in mild confusion. He could have sworn that he saw something moving in her front chest pocket, but then it stopped, and Duo decided he must have been imagining things.
"Roll up your sleeve, please, Agent Maxwell."
Duo put on his best charming smile. He was going to make this woman like him, or know the reason why. "Sure thing, Doc - you'll find I'm a model patient!"
She took a small step back and gave him another one of those indescribable looks. Shaking her head a little, she put the needle to his arm and as she did, something small, bewhiskered and definitely nose-shaped poked out of the pocket, followed by a fuzzy white little body, four legs, and a pinkish tail. It scrambled up to Dr. Rand's shoulder and perched there, wiggling its nose at Duo as if he were terribly, terribly odd.
"Uh," Duo began, rather brilliantly, he thought. "Dr. Rand? There's..." He lifted a finger to point at her shoulder, trying not to make any sudden movements. Hell, this woman was skittish enough - there was no reason to send the thing down her back and freak her out even more. "There's a mouse on your shoulder. Hold still and I'll - "
"No!" she shouted, and everyone in the room jumped. "Don't touch him!" She put a hand up defensively and stepped back, straightening up to her full height, such as it was. "His name is Copernicus, and he's a critical component to an experiment I'm doing on advanced genetic enhancement. He requires constant monitoring by trained personnel, which you most assuredly are not!"
Duo blinked, pulling his hand back, still moving as slowly as he could. "Okay..."
Dr. Rand sniffed at him, discarded the used syringe, and prepared a fresh one. "Agent Winner, please roll up your sleeve."
Quatre did so with neither hesitation nor a single word. Trowa rolled his up without even being asked. Her duties finished, Dr. Rand turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, leaving Corbett, Une and five very confused agents behind.
"What," Duo finally said into the strange silence, "Was that all about?"
Une pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. "Are there any other questions?"
A murmured "no" buzzed around the room, and Une breathed a sigh of relief. "Very well, then - dismissed. See you tomorrow morning on the plane."
As they filed out of the room, Duo turned to Corbett. "Seriously, what was that all about?"
Corbett shook his head and patted Duo's shoulder. "Don't mess with the mouse, man. Don't mess with the mouse."
to be continued...