“I took the rest of the coffee and doughnuts to the Network group. I used to laugh at my brothers desire to give nicknames to everything that he sets up but it did help with organizing, I guess. It was time to get said info I was hungry to be gettin’.”
“Why are you here?”
“Who cares, he brought doughnuts.”
“Yeah and coffee!”
“But not enough for everyone.”
“If we share…”
“He still hasn’t answered my question. Doughnuts or not.”
“Well, you haven’t really given me much of a chance, see. I’ve just been hired by your Captain and came over for the goods. The goods, this time, being information I need. Information about the fires. The attacks. And why the damned hell would I bring enough for everyone if I didn’t even know you existed?” I was talking to a group of four. Three men. One woman. Whether or not it was due to the ratio, she had a mean look about her. The kind of look that made a man stop thinking and wonder by all the gods they would release a thing like her. The kind of look that made you forget where you were, who you were with, what you were saying, and the time of day. She wore tight black clothing meant for operatives but tailored to her hourglass body. The cherry on top of this desert was the scowl she wore on her face that dared anybody dumb enough to challenge her would end up in the river dancing with a cinderblock.
The other blokes were less impressive. I found out the loud mouth was Mason. Obviously the type of man that said every thought and spent half his day in the gym. I will admit, those type of people had their moments of necessity. In the intelligence group was not what I was expecting. The next fellow, Arlow, seemed the nerdy type; glasses, unkempt curly hair, mismatched clouting, clutching a utensil or book at all times. Poor bloke didn’t have a confident bone in his liquid body but I didn’t doubt his loyalty. He wouldn’t be here otherwise. Joe was last and looked your average…well your average Joe. Fit body with thinning hair, wore a button up but nothing flashy, stared at his notes a lot but came off genuine. He’d be the smartest one here from my take of the land.
“And who might you be?” I asked the main attraction.
“You continue to look at me like that and you’ll be the new spokesman for dentures cause I’m fixin to knock the ones you got plum right out your mouth,” the mystery woman replied standing up and coming right to my face. As if her words weren’t enough warning, proximity had to be added.
“Settle down, Miss. I quite like my teeth. So does my dentist. You wouldn’t want to upset him would you? I had terrible teeth growing up and he went through a lot of effort to get these something to be proud of. I’m sure you’re not that kind of gal that would ruin someone’s passion and hard work?”
“Full of garbage, I see.”
I patted my stomach, it was in decent shape, “No ma’am, not me! Only the best meats and greens in here, o’course. But I feel it would be more rude for me to call you something obligatory instead of your name, would it not?” I got her there.
“Okay fine, but please stop talking. Will you do that if I tell you?”
“‘Fraid I can’t do that, love. I need information, remember?”
“Oh for Satan’s Mercy, will you two please shut up. Alice. Her name is Alice! Now, Joe, will you please fill him in so he can leave and we can get back to work?” Shouted Mason and winning a glance from Alice that could have given me a close shave.
With a mouth full of doughnut, Joe chimed in, “That’s no way to talk to our guest who has brought us goods. It seems we will be working together now, so let’s keep things easy, simple, and straightforward.” These treats really went a long way with these people. I’ll have to remember that for alter use. If I could only open up a cafe across the street, I’d have them eating out the palm of my hand!
“So the fires hit us at six different locations. Four right off the harbor and two further up inland where we found you. They all went off relatively at the same time. Three buildings burnt completely, the other three are in pretty bad condition. Arlow, write down the locations of the buildings for him. That’s where we’ll want you to start first, but I’m sure you were already on that thought,” said Joe.
“Relatively the same time?” I inquired. Either they did or they didn’t.
“It’s hard to say whether they did since we didn’t have them under scrutiny before. From what we’ve gathered from eye-witnesses, it was in the ballpark of two fifteen in the morning with variances of a few minutes.”
“So why the hesitation? Seems like they all went off well enough at the same time.”
“Because at three, the ones marked there,” Arlow pointed at the map on the wall and continued on in a nasally voice, “we lost our night staff. We do have security posted but usually just to fend off ideas and not prevent explosions. It was harder to get an answer from locals to when the fires started at those specific locations but we feel confident it was about the same time.”
“That’s where I’ll be starting, then.”
“Smart thinking, ace. Here’s a badge to get you in to any place you want within our territory. It may hold some power in other areas but don’t count on it to save your ass in trouble.” Joe tossed me a mock detective badge. It had an etched pilot goggles and hat in the center with the words “Pilot International” inside a ribbon. It was pretty classy.
“This is pretty classy,” I admitted.
“Yes they are. Don’t lose it.” I’ll give ya one guess who’s smart mouth said that one.
“Listen, I woke up from a date with Death in an alleyway with trash decorating me like a sad Christmas tree. I don’t enjoy what’s going on either and I’m a bit cross about it all, too. But Joe’s right, we will be working together so you could do us all a favor and clam it if you’re going to make us all work harder by acting like that. None of us have that time, do we?” Sometimes you just have to say the stuff to get the things to stick. I didn’t like doing that kind of thing. Makes you look too serious; like you don’t know how to have a laugh. I’m as sarcastic as the next bloke but like I said, sometimes you gotta set some professional boundaries.
Alice just looked at me. Then she got up and walked off towards Cap. I took that as my cue to leave. I tossed a two finger salute to the remaining group and headed out.
By the time I got out the front door to feel the chill kiss me alive, I heard the door shut fiercely behind me. My guard was up. I whipped around and brought my right hook with me. At the last second I drew back as much as I could! Alice ducked, popped right back up, and thumped me on the forehead.