as written by Ottoman, Krysis, and Script
'He's more worried about offending you, than keeping anything secret. He feels as though he has nothing to hide.'
The Baroness took the psychic's advice in stride, having grown so used to hearing Simon's voice in her head that she could almost have a mental conversation with the young man without missing a step.
Almost. The trick was controlling one's expression, and that was something she hadn't quite mastered yet, at least when conversing in a telepathic manner. Regardless of that, Devika kept her mind focused on the task at hand and didn't reply to her psionic aide, her visage unmoved as she focused on examining the young man in front of her. Nervous little thing, wasn't he - but could she blame him? He was taking quite the risk by coming here, especially coming here in such a ripe state.
A practiced wave of her hand dismissed his vocalized concerns, the Diva herself not worried in the slightest about the paper or the scribbling upon it. No, what had intrigued her, and perhaps truly perturbed her, on that fragile piece of paper was the rubbing of the slide that the boy had done. "No need to fret, he showed them to me." It was why she knew about the young man and his wares, after all. "I know you've already told Hakis but, could you tell
me how you found them?" Markus had already related to her how Thomas had came into the possession of these weapons, but she wanted confirmation through her own ears. There was a leak somewhere in her organization, and the woman wasn't keen on taking any sort of chance.
Gadhavi had told her that this was shaping up to be a hole that they needed to plug, a potential 'crumb trail' for the Zivis to follow back to their operation - but rash action might condemn them just as well as letting this slide. Thus she wanted to hear just how much of a coincidence this was from the boy's mouth, to see if she thought these weapons worth the price that Thomas was asking - food was no problem, and clothes could be arranged, but to push pharmaceuticals to lurkers? Medicine was already something that wasn't thrown around, at least not often, and not by anyone that didn't have a Syndicate contact, but to put it into the hands of dregs like this smacked of desperation.
Again did the rubbing recur in her mind, the faint, but tell-tale,
wreathed eagle of the Zivilwächter alongside an inscription that she had, until now, never bothered to read.
'PROPERTY OF THE COMMISSARIAT OF NEU-LUMEN
GOVERNMENT USE ONLY'
____
Tommy took a deep breath and held it for a long moment at the Diva's request to hear the story yet again. It was wearing to relate the tale of woe to his crew so many times, but the faces of those most in need among them flashed in his mind's eye. It was too fast to really get an idea of how many there were, aside from more than twenty and less than fifty. Two stood out, one with an infected wound and another with a breathing problem, but mostly it was just the number of kids depending on this slender blonde boy.
His resolve stiffened and his shoulders straightened as he nodded to the flashy celebrity in front of him. His people needed him, and he would rise to the task. Or at least do the best he could. The next option for the two that were sick would be to loose them entirely to the void of government involvement. Which, in his mind, was more terrifying than dealing with Devika. Sure, in the criminal world, they might be abused, hurt, or even killed, but at least they knew the risks. Getting taken by the Zivilwächter, or a hospital, or any other law-abiding citizen, meant just vanishing out of the only life they knew.
"First off, let me begin by telling you that I wasn't actually present for the event. I've gotten the story out of the ones that saw most of it, but I wasn't involved until the end." Tommy explained quietly, not wanting to mislead the Diva even by leaving out his ignorance.
"A girl I knew was with her scavenging squad..." Tommy began the story, but more interesting was probably the mental commentary that went with it. The boy's vivid imagination supplied far more details than he relayed out loud. His memories of Adelaide Smith were filled with the poignancy of his belief that she had died soon after the events he was describing. He was thinking more about how vibrant Addy had been as he described the location well enough that anyone familiar with the area would know where he meant.
"So, according to the squad, they heard a series of 'thuds' and were aware of an aircar zooming off. When they arrived at the scene, there were four bodies just dumped." Still warm, he recalled one of the girls saying, but he kept that to himself. One of the others had claimed that one of the bodies was still twitching, but since they were all executed with head shots, that seemed very unlikely.
"Addy would have worked quickly to grab the belts. Belts are useful to us. Shoes too, but they tend to be too big, so the belts are what we tend to go for first when possible. But these guys, they had lots of stuff on their belts." Tommy closed his eyes briefly then, imagining Addy running in front and directing her squad to go for the desired articles. The little girls would have needed to move fast (though the squad had unanimously claimed that Addy had done it all on her own), since the older lurkers would have been there soon, so the small articles would have gotten shoved in scavenging bags along with the leather and buckles. The weapons had just been too big for the bags, but also too tempting an item to leave behind.
"I didn't know a thing about it myself until I was almost back at the meeting place. Addy, the leader of the squad, was struggling with an older lurker. He was trying to take her stuff, one of those guns in particular, and it went off. You know what happens when someone tries to use one of those things without the right chip." The memory of trying to save Addy's life and feeling her body get cooler and cooler as he tried to stop the blood from gushing out of her ruined arm was like a mental gut punch every time Tommy had to revisit it. She had still been breathing when he had to leave her side, but he clearly recalled her being the same color as the thoroughly dead lurker that laid beside her.
He barely thought of the Zivilwächter officer that had helped out, the face just a blur underneath of the hat that he does remember.
"That was three days ago. I wasn't sure if it was worth mentioning to anyone. It wasn't until I was doing the rubbings that it really dawned on me that those guys weren't just civilians that ran afoul of something that they shouldn't have. That's why it took me so long to come to pass the information along." Plus, the Aurora was a dangerous place for good-looking kids. Even if it was safe enough inside, usually, there were plenty that got turned away at the door. Which made Devika's showplace an option of last resort for the lost boys.
____
'He's already spoken to the Zivilwächter, but doesn't trust them - obviously. No hint of what they discussed, though. He thinks that Addy- the girl, is dead.' Simon suppressed a grimace. This was an unfortunate downside of his talents. He felt the keenness of Tommy's loss as though it were his own, his protective love for the girl named Addy. His grip on the table tightened, as he fought to distance himself from the emotions that weren't his own.
'The bodies were executed, shot in the head. Possibly still warm. He's not being totally honest about why he took three days to come here - I get the impression he was hoping to find another option for offloading the weapons, that didn't involve dealing with us.'
It was understandable. Devika's operation wasn't kind to those that got caught in its webs, unless they happened to be useful. He looked across at the boy with a sympathetic gaze. With any luck, this kid would get what he needed and be able to walk away without getting any more involved.
For his sake, Simon hoped that he hadn't made any sort of deal with the Zivis. Devika would not be pleased, if that were the case. And that was putting it mildly.
____
Though Tommy inserted a few more embellishments here and there, by and large it seemed to correlate with what Markus had relayed to her, though Simon's commentary disturbed whatever peace that Markus' honesty had given her. An option that didn't involve her? The Diva turned that thought over in her head for a moment, as it seemed that Thomas had already spoken with the Zivilwächter. Trust or not, someone in his position might make a deal, and if he was looking for an option that didn't involve her or her organization...
'Simon,' She started, keeping her eyes on the boy as she took a moment to mentally ask her aide,
'Does he suspect our involvement in their deaths?' It was already shaping up to be too much of a coincidence considering the slight that she had suffered three days ago, and though Arqa had yet to establish that this was their doing herself pending a call or two to her contacts in the Commissariat, she didn't like the direction that this was going in. There was the possibility that this was an unrelated incident, but that possibility was shrinking rapidly.
It seemed that she might have made the mistake, once more, of trusting her subordinates.
"Nothing about them seemed to indicate their
profession?" She asked, curious about the state of the bodies - how they were dressed, what they were wearing, that sort of thing. As she recalled they were hardly plain-clothes sorts, the Zivis rarely were, though she didn't know just how intelligent Thomas was. He was crafty and cunning no doubt, it was a necessity to survive as a lurker, but whether or not he could recognize a seal or a badge - indeed, even read at all - was unknown to the Baroness. A pistol detonated when one of his little friends tried to use it, a cause and effect that Tommy seemed to understand the reasons for fairly well, and it only occurred to him that they might not be civilians
after he did the rubbing, three days later? "Aside from the stamps on the weapons?"
____
"I wasn't actually there, ma'am, and the kids that were--" Tommy shrugged then with a weary smile, "I'm sure you know that subordinates don't always tell the whole story, especially if they think it will get them in trouble." Which he knew applied to himself as well, since he was trying his best to not say something that would get him killed.
Yep, the feeling that he had placed his head in the lion's mouth was getting stronger. Dealing directly with the Diva was something to always be avoided, though her network was usually safe enough for the street kids. However, this was seeming more and more like telling someone a thing they already knew. Which he should have realized before laying eyes on the Aurora, and he mentally kicked himself for not putting two and two together until after he was so thoroughly snared in her web. Who else would dare to have zivies executed, after all? No one but the Baroness had that kind of balls.
"Should I apologize for being a bit slow on this, ma'am? I mean, we're just street kids. We don't want to mess around in the affairs of the mighty. Survival is enough for us and it tends to consume our full attention most of the time." Though his expression was earnest and trying for honest, survival was topic that was becoming more and more prevalent in his thoughts. The boy didn't have to look around to know where the exits were. He also knew his chances of reaching one of them was less than a single percent, and that the chances of getting outside were actually in the negatives. It was why he was sitting very still, his hands flat on the couch, and only the tension in his shoulders, legs and fingers to reveal to the eyes that he was afraid.
____
'He hadn't put the pieces together before this conversation. He just did. He's terrified, Devika. If you don't give him some reassurance his life's not at risk, he's either going to bolt or soil himself. If not both.'
Simon resisted the urge to soothe the boy's nerves with a touch of his psionics. He wasn't quite skilled enough to make his empathic ministrations completely unnoticeable, though he was getting better with practice. The trick was to avoid introducing any new emotions, and instead focus on altering the intensity of existing ones by minute increments. Little nudges could produce results that felt entirely natural to the one being nudged, with a light enough touch.
Either way, he couldn't risk anyone picking up on his abilities. Even if they were only a child.
'He knows that the dead men were zivvies, and figures it was us who did it for lack of any realistic alternatives.'
____
At least incredibly tense, if not terrified, as Devika could see that for herself. Thomas certainly had gall coming here to barter with weapons stripped from dead police officers, and for that she admired him. He was a leader amongst his little clan, though she wasn't sure if that was because of his personality or his age, and that only made her decision all the more difficult - was it worth killing him? She didn't have the weapons in hand currently, and though the others in his little group might suspect her involvement if she bought these weapons from the boy then that only confirmed her involvement. If he was working with the Zivis, then that would only put them on a path straight to her.
Perhaps if she killed him, the others would sell the weapons to some other miserly lurkers and the problem would sort itself out. It wouldn't be the first time that police weaponry had made its way into the underbelly of the city, and without the weapon itself in hand the ZW wouldn't be able to tack down just who it belonged to. But that was running off of too many ifs for the Diva to feel entirely comfortable with the plan, her eyes narrowing on the child in front of her, the Sorukan running gloved thumbs over each other as she weighed her choices one last time. Would she risk that some heady Zivilwächt would trust the judgement of a lurker? Would their
superiors listen to that sort of talk? They might if they had proof, or reasonable suspicion.
Perhaps it might be time to
introduce a realistic alternative.
"Not at all Tommy, it's nothing to apologize for." It wasn't his fault that he was where he was in life, or at least she assumed so. Lurkers rarely, if ever, chose that life of their own volition. A reserved, almost apologetic smile grew on her visage, temporarily looking away from the boy to the food that he had been putting away before she'd entered the room. "I don't know exactly what we can do with the weapons - I'm afraid I can't justify the expense." But the Baroness was not without reason, or mercy. "But you were quite bold coming here and making the offer, Tommy. I like that sort of thing." It spoke of his caliber, of the quality of his character, that he was willing to risk personal harm for the good of the collective.
"I
can afford to pay you for the information, however. Would you rather rations or clothes?"
____
"Rations, ma'am. I'll trust you to be fair about the amount." He answered without hesitation. Clothes could be kept for a long time, but food, safe food, was ever in short supply. Also, not setting an amount he figured was a safe way to not be too demanding, since he wasn't exactly sure what the worth of the information had been. The boy knew better than to relax though. The cleverest of foes (and everyone was a foe to the lost kids) always sought to put you off your guard before the final strike came.
The blonde boy eased to the edge of his seat, ready to get up but knowing better than to rise before his 'hostess' dismissed him. Someone had taught the boy pretty manners at least. "And if you wouldn't mind taking the items off our hands anyway, I'd see it as a kindness. They are dangerous to have, and I don't want my friends to get ideas about where to take them."
Ideas like that Zivilwatcher with the hat. Or that sleazy pawn broker on 66th and Kurstway. Ideas that Tommy had already discarded as too dangerous, mostly because of the woman in front of him. There was no place on the planet that was out of her reach, and the kid knew better than to piss her off-- Though if the zivie had been willing to deal, that would have been nice. Dirt on a cop would have been really worth something to offer to the Baroness.
____
Simon had noticeably tensed when he'd picked up on Devika considering killing the boy. Of course, it wouldn't have been the first child to lose their life to the underground. But it would have been the first that Simon had watched sign their own death warrant. The first he'd have been party to. It was a few moments before he collected himself enough to resume sifting through the boy's thoughts.
'He... is concerned they'll take the weapons to a pawn broker, or to the Zivis. Mostly, because he's afraid of what you'd do if they did.'
____
The Baroness gave the young man a simple nod at the note of rations, she would deliver, and the portions would be appropriate to the services rendered. For the most part she was willing to leave it at that, to call their business complete, until Thomas had suggested, or
insisted, that she take these weapons off of his hands regardless. Was he just trying to look out for the best interests of his little crew, or was he trying to put hot merchandise, potentially
tracked merchandise, into her hands? The lurkers could wind up in jail for a few weeks, potentially even processed back into normal society, were it that they were caught with this sort of thing - the Diva would not be so fortunate.
But she did not narrow her gaze, did not show a hint of displeasure, though she did still from where she had moved to rise, doing her best to look as if she was considering the matter when her decision was already made, waiting only for Simon's input. If there was any hint of apprehension regarding these weapons, regarding some plot with them, the Diva had no doubt Simon would tell her if he could sense it - he was as deep into this as she was now. "If you insist, Tommy." Devika mused, a light inclination of her head paid to the young man as she moved to stand properly, towering over the young man where he sat soon enough. "When shall I expect them?"
____
"Within the hour, if you like, ma'am. Or I can hide them for you to have them picked up at your convenience." He was a bit flustered as he answered though, trying to remember the rules that the whores that had raised him had tried to teach him about polite society. Tommy also rose, a bit awkwardly as it took him a moment to recall that it was expected to stand up for a girl-- Er. A lady. When she stood up, the boys were supposed to stand too. Though maybe it was a bad idea in this case since she seemed to be trying to loom over him and be even more intimidating than her mere existence was.
There was no place to retreat though, and the teenage boy's eyes went wide at what was pretty much shoved in his face with the Baroness' proximity before he stumbled awkwardly to one side.
Though he struggled mightily to ignore it, the hormones of a reasonably healthy thirteen-year-old male meant there was just one thought running through his head. A purple tinged fire alarm that had only one focus that didn't even really make it into a word until the initial impression of white roundness had been moved back to a more manageable range.
Out loud, he stammered, "Thank you very much, ma'am.", though the other thought was still prominent in his head and he wasn't really sure what he was thanking her for. Yep. Tommy would probably be thinking 'tits' at random intervals for hours, though later, it might be 'Famous breasts of a noblewoman' and a memory he'd take with him to his grave. Boobs.
____
If Tommy had been paying attention to anything other than Devika at that point, he might have noticed Simon's pale cheeks adopting a slightly red tint as the teen's ... distraction, empathically rebounded within the psychic's head. Such were the risks of probing into the mind of a teenager.
There was nothing worth reporting to Devika passing through the boy's head at that moment, and so Simon remained silent on all fronts, taking the time to regain his composure and take a mental step away from the boy in preparation for his departure.
____
The unamused violet gaze of the baroness didn't need the aid of a psyker to tell her what all was going through the young man's mind, blinking once or twice before she turned with a sigh, making her way towards the door she'd come in through. "Within the hour, if you would be so kind, Thomas." If only to keep her from waiting any longer, and to prove a point to the lieutenants who were foolish enough to allow this slip-up to even happen. The exotic noblewoman paused at the door, leaning to one of the guards posted. "Escort our colleague from the premises, that he might see to his half of the bargain." With that she slipped out of the room, her entourage not far behind her, the Diva headed back to her office that she might ponder this situation as a whole.
Things were getting out of hand far more quickly than she would prefer.