[Reya & Fairchild] Patrolling the Rim World

Her stuttering gave her the answer he sought, though likely she wouldn't perceive it as such. Regardless, though, he cared not about where one's loyalties lay so long as their... alliance of sorts did not turn sour before the time came. "Oh certainly. I won't pry if you won't," Leo replied, a soft smile accentuating his features although it did not travel to his gaze. Her fear was likely of being ratted out to the ISC, or perhaps she wanted to protect her name, but neither mattered to him. In truth, all he wanted was to be entertained with a little story, with the potential bonus of determining why exactly Rousseau rang a bell. Oh well, though, he was far too familiar sentiments she was experiencing at the moment in any case, though for vastly different reasons.

A far more tedious setback soon presented itself, however, in which he almost immediately regretted opting for the more peaceful method of acquiring intelligence. "Well, someone sure likes to be persistently annoying," he remarked. Far from the first time in his life Leo wondered how people could put up with the bureaucracy of systems when so much could be accomplished quicker by just a dash of chaos. Of course, he had time to spare, but others? He supposed they just chose to waste it on needless protocol that for some reason they inevitably held near and dear to their hearts. Honor, integrity, it didn't truly matter if one did absolutely nothing with their years.

Jacqueline certainly wasn't lying as she held up the sheet Dalton had procured, it was an absolute mess incomprehensible to him. The lieutenant seemed to know the code to some extent, at least, and while Leo was somewhat tempted to barge back into Dalton's home demand a more straight answer, the encryption provided a challenge, and more importantly Jacqueline's request presented a golden opportunity. He grinned. "That's fine with me; I just so happen to have a drink that needs replacing. There's likely a place on the way."

Leo headed toward the direction of the docking grounds, though not familiar with the surrounding area he guessed that they were not located farther below the slums that were already being blocked by sunlight, and soon enough signs demarcated the correct route. Soon enough, he gestured toward a coffee shop - a chain of some kind though he didn't bother to remember its name past identification - and walked into it. No one bothered to give him a passing glance as most were preoccupied with their devices, though the occasional conversation did float above the sound of machines and music playing in the background. An empty table was found near the back of the café, though he did not yet move to it, instead turning to Jacqueline, provided she had followed him inside.

"Do you want anything?"

"That's fine with me; I just so happen to have a drink that needs replacing. There's likely a place on the way."

He seemed to be in a chipper mood. And he'd agreed not to press her on her family history, which was definitely a plus. As they made their way closer to the docking grounds, things... definitely changed a lot. From slum tenements and shady alleyways to coffee shops and souvenir stands. It only makes sense. After all, this was where people made contact with the planet. So having a nice place for people to relax was just common sense. The fact that the chain stores around here were present across most of The Galaxy was just one of those creature comforts for interstellar travelers. And true to form, one of them seemed to call to Leo, ducking into a coffee shop with the familiarity of a regular.

Everyone was preoccupied with their own lives, hovering over their coms and coffees as if they were in the comfort of their own home. Leo seemed about ready to order when he turned to Jak, asking if she wanted anything, first.

"Oh, I'm just gonna get a coffee and... maybe one of those bagels?"

After their transactions were taken care of, the pair made their way to the only empty table, near to the back of the cafe. By the time she'd made it over, Jak had already managed to wolf down half of her bagel, leaving a trail of crumbs and toppings leading right to her. She didn't notice even in the slightest, focused almost entirely on her growling stomach, with a minimal amount of effort towards the task at hand. After getting seated, and shoving the last cream cheese-coated piece of dough in her mouth, Jak got to work, poring over the page with renewed vigor. It was confusing... But not the same level of confusing the code normally was. In fact, it was... actually kind of simple, in some aspects, though full of self-referencial loops in others. Dalton's greasy fingers were definitely all over this attempt of subterfuge. This wasn't the normal Rouseau code... it was Dalton's Rousseau code. Jak scribbled some notes in the margins, not looking up at Leo as she addressed him.

"So... IMG, huh?" she mused, "You know I almost ended up in your outfit? Yeah... Well you're not exactly squeaky clean, over there, are you?"

After combing through a few more lines, she started again, the thoughts clearly flowing without much thought. It seemed that, while wrapped up in her code-breaking, Jak was quickly losing track of what she was saying. If she was paying more heed to her words, she may have been worried... May have thought that, perhaps, she was sharing too much. And if Leo was the sort to take advantage of such a distracted state of mind, there's no telling what kinds of clues that Jak might let slip. 

"I went with the ISC because I wanted to be on the right side for once." she explained, "Made a good amount of sense to join up with the group trying to keep the peace. I had a goal in mind to do good. Offset the balance of my name..."

That was, essentially the whole story, in hindsight. Jak was one of very few Rousseau's born with a conscience, it seemed. Or, perhaps, she was one of the few willing to act on it. Either way, she was intent on... trying to do something else with her life. Something less selfish and petty. But in the end, even she wasn't sure how successful she had been. After all, part of her reason for doing this was some sort of vain attempt to bring honor to her family name.

"Seems almost selfish when I put it like that... but then again, I figure most people have somewhat selfish reasons for taking on jobs like this..."

As she spoke, Jak tore the top half of the page away, quickly stuffing it in her mouth as if it were a common practice. Old habits: born of necessity. Even Nox wouldn't forgive her, if she let the Rousseau code get out. So, any time they deciphered a message... the original had to go. And Nox had made sure they all knew how important it was for it to be an ongoing process, making a habit of snatching half-decoded ciphers from anyone he caught writing them. Punished them quite severely, too.

"So... what about you, Doc? I'm here for redemption, self aggrandizin' as that may sound... But, do you have a reason? Or is it just the paycheck?"

The line for service wasn't that long, mildly surprising considering the time of day but then again there were certainly other cafés in the area, perhaps even an overabundance as compared to what he was used to. Yes, Trillium was more keen on the night than the morning, which, to be fair, he completely understood. "I'll have a black coffee with thr-actually let's go with two shots of espresso, please," Leo said once he got up to the barista, offering a courteous smile although the expression did not carry well to the rest of his visage.

They soon settled down at the table he had made a mental note of, there was no other choice in any case so it was the obvious decision. He took a few sips of his drink, almost immediately regretting scaling down the caffeine as it left a less bitter taste on his tongue, not to mention the actual effects of the drug. While to many the amount of it he consumed on a daily basis would seem excessive, it was simply the unfortunate reality of never getting enough sleep along with an unnaturally high tolerance to... various substances. Did he have an addiction to it? Most certainly, but there were worse things in life. Granted, some of those things he also had a problem with, but that was just how it was.

Such was irrelevant, yet he didn't have much to do other than think, Jacqueline was busy cracking Dalton's code and there was little he could do to assist her, not knowing it himself. Still, Leo watched her handiwork with a degree of intrigue, though less concerned with the deciphering itself and more about how she went about doing so. Her lack of eye contact as she spoke to him told she was more concerned with her task than conversation, yet she chose to initiate one all the same. He didn't think it was social anxiety over the silence, no, she did not seem like that type. Perhaps then the message was not as difficult as she had anticipated, and it was a way of diverting the rest of her brain power.

Nevertheless, he let out a small laugh at her more or less answered question. "We like to say there's a place for everyone," Leo replied, though he did not disclose any specifics. She was, of course, still a member of the ISC regardless of her family history, and although many knew of the existence of the illegitimate side of the corporation, it was never good to speak of such in direct terms. Official recognization would only invite an endless array of questions and accusations, some of them for the right reasons - or at least that was what most people thought. He didn't necessarily hold such views, but was aware of them all the same. Certainly, the lieutenant would express the more common thought, based on her occupation, but at the same time she showed a willingness to work with more organized outlets, or perhaps her family was her only exception.

Ah, but she did want to talk about them. She just seemed a bit... cagey in doing so. It was a sentiment he knew well, and something he had to deal with often at that. Or perhaps it was merely that Jacqueline was more focused on her efforts than he had originally thought. In any case, Leo nodded along to her brief tale, confirming what he had assumed to be true. The renewal of the subject, however, allowed for his most pressing query to be asked, even if it were to be rejected.

"Speaking of, something in my mind keeps on registering Rousseau as familiar, I suppose you don't know how far back in time the name goes, do you?"

In almost immediate hindsight Leo realized he probably should have rephrased it differently, but hopefully the woman would still be too busy to catch why he cared. At least she was making some progress on the page, him not even batting an eye as she destroyed the evidence of part of the encrypted message. It wasn't something that changed regularly, then, if she went to such lengths to protect it. Well, she also wasn't being all that guarded about her codebreaking, but the mangled swirls on the page had already told him why that was so.

And, there was the inevitable question about him. It wasn't a personal one, though, not really, so Leo didn't feel obliged to lie about it, or at least he could tell some part of the truth. "Oh no, if I were short on credits I would work for a university, Lieutenant. The opportunities presented with IMG - and the individuals one can meet from such opportunities - fascinate me. Occasionally, even, they perplex me," he answered. "It's rarely boring, that much can be said, and if I can help people, well, I don't really care about that but it's a virtue in the minds of many."

Jak chuckled. Apparently the good doctor thought himself a scholar. And even a bit of a comedian. But she knew that her name wasn't showing up in any history books. Rousseau's tended to avoid such attentions. While it didn't originally start that way, she would soon find herself going on a rant about the shittiness and secrets of the entire Rousseau line. Nothing specific, no. But at the same time, she didn't really have any specifics, in the grand scheme of things, anyways. It had been almost a decade since she had been considered anything but an outsider. Sure, she was family, but when it came to the business? Their business? Jak was always kept out of the loop. It was for good reason, but at the same time... it was just another example of the selfishness and distrust that her family had, even towards one-another.

"Alright, University Man, lemme give you a quick rundown, eh?" she resolved, covering Dalton's page with both hands, "For the last thousand years, there's not been a single Rousseau who stuck their neck out for anyone."

"And even those who did noteworthy things? Always under the cover of darkness. They have hidden from the public eye for centuries. Most of them don't even officially exist."

"So, yeah. We may trace our name all the way back to our Fioran ancestor, but I have no idea how you, or anyone else, might recognize that name. Or even if you did, it surely wasn't the same Rousseau's or Moreau's that I am."

Jak gave a sort of half-satisfied shrug before turning back to her work, calculating a word-based equation to decipher the key to decipher the next key. Recursion. Julia was always going on about it... something about how computers and people alike were confused by it, if done enough. She always got so excited about things like that, for some reason. And even though she didn't really get it, Jak always seemed to get excited with her. That's just the kind of person Jules was: she could make you excited about something you had no interest in, whatsoever. Jak smiled a bit, continuing her little story in a way she hadn't expected. Though, considering how her little rant had gone, it was clear that "not what she expected to say" was the order of the day.

"Probably the only person I know who actually has a clue about our real history is Julia. She's always going on about our ancestor, the war hero. But I doubt he even exists. Especially since he was supposedly a Trillian mobster, to boot."

"But hey, who am I to say her namesake was probably just a piece of shit, like the rest of us, you know?" she shrugged, "Kids need to have some hope, right?"

After letting her little tirade sink in for a couple seconds, Jak sat up straight, covering her work once again and looking Leo in the eyes. It wasn't a challenge... more of an acknowledgement. One person honestly addressing another. Even if that honesty had a tinge of sarcasm to it.

"So what do you think, Leonidas?" she said with a smirk and a flourish, "Is this the level of fascinating you look for? Or do we Rousseau's leave something to be desired?"

A thousand years, well then apparently it went all the back to Earthland. Impressive, a family legacy that still recalled such time, even if it were only a faint connection. War hero, Fioran, from Trillium? Which war? Was a thousand years only a rough estimate, a result of people liking to throw around big numbers as if their lengths were arbitrary when to him they were far from it? No, it seemed right, but for what reason he had no idea. He had never made a habit of visiting the city while it was still such, it had been nothing before the emergence of Astrea and only a few years spanned between that time and the Exodus, not nearly long enough to have formed a connection that lasted in his memory, not to mention the period coincided with, well, many terrible things.

Oh well, he was doomed to forget many things, and unfortunately people as well. Had their relationship really mattered, Leo would have at least had a first name, although... that wasn't really true. In many cases, actually, the most jarring of which he push out of his head. "Trillium, you say? Perhaps your ancestor's name is found on an obscure record somewhere, we-I live on Trillium, when I'm not travelling," he lied, well not technically because it was possible what he proposed was true but it was still pulled straight out of his ass. Certainly the second part was true, though he had momentarily forgotten Eris wasn't in the vicinity. "Yeah, sorry, it's not ringing any more bells. I... don't have the best memory when it comes to people and names."

Her words that pertained less to her family history seemed to only suggest further that she had not diverged entirely from the rest her kin, in which his mouth upturned for a moment as she mentioned this Julia. He guessed she was a younger cousin, maybe even a sister. Both were nice to have, not to mention a family in general, even a shitty one. "Absolutely. Sometimes the truth is more cruel than a modicum of it."

Ah, but she wanted to be witty. "That remains to be seen. I am most certainly intrigued, but such tends to branch in one direction or the other," Leo replied with a grin, almost attempting to goad her into disclosing more specific details yet it was a subtlety. He had no ill intent, that much Leo hoped she had already picked up on. Perhaps the Rousseaus were deeply entrenched in crime, but with such an established lineage he doubted they were the type to disrupt other organizations that presented a structured hierarchy, although really all he cared about was IMG. As far as he knew, the two had no connection, which worked out swimmingly. Plus, Dalton had displayed no adversity to the corporation, which further solidified the notion.

"So, what have you made out of those scribbles thus far?"

Jak cocked an eyebrow at Leo's little stutter. It wasn't much, but it was clear he wasn't sharing something. It could have been many reasons, she supposed. Could be to protect his family. Could be because he wasn't used to the fact he was alone now. It could even be that he'd gotten so used to talking about himself as part of the organization that it was simply a slip of the tongue. Regardless, she wasn’t going to bring it up. There was the potential that it was nothing. But she kept it in mind. However… that wasn’t what she was really concerned about… not right now.

No, what was truly disturbing was… the vagueness of Dalton’s notes. And what he had said… And what he hadn't said. She was taken back from her worrying by Leo's question. She had an address now, so she relayed it to Leo. But at the same time, she wanted to be sure that he knew what they were about to get into. While she didn’t know what it was they were doing there… it definitely was bad news. And Leo had the right to know at least that much. Because... this was the kind of thing that could go bad quickly. And Leo needed to know the risks.

“Listen… I don’t know what these guys are up to.” she explained, “It’s not in the notes... and The Flock? We-... They. They're involved in all kinds of stuff… but they have certain rules.”

Jak tore the paper into tiny bits as she talked, dunking each one into her practically untouched coffee.

“There’s only a few things that are off-limits. And none of them are good. And Dalton said these guys weren't cutting in on their turf.”

As she continued to explain the situation, she snatched up three packets of sugar, tearing them all open in unison and dumping them over the scraps of paper.

“It could be dangerous. Drugs. Guns. Hell it could even be something toxic…. And I doubt they’d let it go without a fight.”

She stirred the coffee carefully, the floating pieces of paper turning dark, slowly sinking down into the murky depths of the inky mug.

“While I know you’re not a normal civilian: I get that... I wouldn’t be doing my duty if I didn’t at least try to keep you out of this.”

Without much of a second thought, Jak put the mug to her lips, finishing her coffee in a single slosh before slamming it down on the table as if she’d just done a shot.

“Although… ugh fokken awful! Although! I won’t stop you if you must.”

Jak peered into her mug, nothing more left of her coded message, other than a few spare scraps, completely soaked and illegible. Nox always taught her to make sure to "clean her plate"... and unfortunately, even given the state of it, she figured that Nox wouldn't approve of leaving even this much behind. She sighed, removing her glove to reveal the slender black-clawed hands underneath. She hadn't filed them down in awhile. She would have to take care of that tonight. She sighed, scooping out the last of the paper with her nail, rolling it into a ball in her fingers and chucking it deftly into her mouth. She smacked her lips a few times, as if trying to will away the unpleasant taste. Whether that taste was her no-creamer coffee or the taste of ink and paper, she wasn't entirely sure, herself. Both were pretty unappealing. But much to the point of both, black coffee marred paper better without cream. And the sugar, at least, had helped to cut the taste. She shook her head, pulling her attentions back to reality before standing up suddenly.

"Well... We know where to go, I guess... you coming or not?"

He caught Jacqueline's minute reaction as he stumbled over his words, offering a quick glance down at the ring on his finger as an explanation. Whether or not she caught it, however, didn't really matter, any assumptions she made would probably be more extreme then that particular truth, although it could offset anything else the lieutenant just so happened to come across, if it came to that. Funny enough, a few moments later she repeated his slip-up, in which Leo mirrored her previous reaction for half a second before cracking a grin as if to say it didn't really matter.

Oh, that much plain sugar in her coffee... what an unpleasant combination. Yes, it was beyond the point she was trying to make but Leo couldn't help but focus on it amidst her words that ultimately explained nothing he already didn't know, aside from the actual address that was. He was accustomed to walking in blind, unfortunately information typically had a high price to come by and it was not just in material goods alone, people strove for connections, to know they could trust those who they dealt with. Needless to say, trust was not one of his strong suits, although Leo liked to think he had gotten pretty good at faking it over the years. Still, he preferred to learn more about others than to divulge his own life story - it was easier, less complicated that way. And although he had no ill intent in asking personal questions, most did not see it as such. Everyone had a skeleton in their closet, or more than a few, yet people tended to magnify their own issues above others. It wasn't an inherently bad thing, such priority allowed individuals to focus on what was most important in their lives, themselves and those they cared about, but sometimes it had a habit of putting blinders on the rest of the world.

"I appreciate your consideration, but I can take care of myself. Besides, guns and drugs are the usual; it would be far more entertaining if it were something, what did you say, toxic?" he answered with the tinge of a laugh, clearly unfettered by the apparent danger Jacqueline presented. Would it be dangerous? Most certainly, it was not ignorance that led him to his conclusion, in fact it was quite the opposite. Leo dealt with the spare illicit warehouse rather often, most of the time they weren't really worth the effort with the things he found but occasionally there was an oddity. Discarded military plans, the breeding grounds of a mutiny, even biological pathogens as Jacqueline had indirectly brought up, those were some of the more intriguing discoveries to be found in such locations. And by virtue of the ones who had requested such an investigation into Chorus's interior clockwork he hoped there would be something actually worth finding.

Then again, it could just be another false lead, the true root of the evil found elsewhere. If that were the case perhaps Eris would have better luck, but it was too soon to make any definite call one way or the other. In response to the lieutenant's query, however, Leo smiled. "Oh I'm coming. It's not exactly proper to hand off one's work to another party and then claim credit for it, eh?" With that he rose from his seat, discarding his emptied cup into the nearest bin. They soon exited the shop, heading back onto their route toward the docking grounds. Gradually the scene started to shift back to the industrial side of things, similar to the slums in aesthetic although widely varying in the sanitary and decency categories. Out of all of Elyakim, this was one of the areas he was most familiar with, given that it was not only home to the larger corporate businesses that dealt with intragalactic trade but also many civilian ports. Within one of them was Blackjack, their ship which had found her home in the city more often than usual as of late, but they weren't headed in that direction, or so he hoped.

Sooner or later there came upon a road titled Flowers Street, a silly name until he looked at the two signs under it, one in Boscan and the other in Pergrandian. Leo groaned as he read the former one. Blumenstraße. "Of course it's a fucking pun," he muttered. "Well, this is the street; we just have to find the right one." It was, naturally, an alley filled with warehouses, though strangely they were the only ones in the area. Likely a trap, given that there had been plenty of people around just a few moments ago. It was something he kept track of literally instinctively, and because of that his eyes flew up to the rooftops of the buildings. Nothing, at least as far as Leo could make out. Where were they, then? It was a question that would be answered in the near future, he reasoned, and thus his stance shifted subtly, from the general laid back posture he typically assumed to one less so. Still, Leo made no move for his weapons, neither the ones on him or those just a reach away.

Jak didn’t notice the quiet, at least… not on the same level as Leo. She was used to… suspicious silences when she walked into less-than-reputable places. So while she was sure they were coming up to the right place, she wasn’t thinking about where people might be. After all, Leo and Jak were two unknowns. One of them was a narc. The other was a mercenary. At least one of them radiated it like an aura. It wasn’t exactly rocket science that they’d be avoided. And most criminal enterprises tended to post patrols for surveillance. There was only two places that the people responsible would be right now… either destroying evidence, or they were going dark until the coast cleared. Considering that they weren’t here in an official capacity… and this was their first time coming to this area… it was probably the latter. They’d be able to look around for a little while, but they’d probably have a hard time singling out the actual place… if not for the fact they already knew where to go.

The streets were quiet. Clearly these guys were keeping a strong handle on the area. It probably didn’t help that this area was mostly abandoned. There wasn’t much reason to come out here unless you were… doing something shady. It wouldn’t surprise Jak in the least if a few of these places were full of squatters and spice labs. Although… what Dalton had been directing them towards definitely sounded more dangerous than a couple assholes slinging a few drugs. And the squatters were mostly just trying to get by…

“It should be up a little further.”

Many of the warehouses weren’t designed with curb appeal in mind. They had large, featureless walls, with only small windows near the roof to let in natural light, so it was impossible to see inside… but there were two ways to get in from the ground level, the unloading doors and the employee entrances. They wouldn’t be able to pry open the bay doors without alerting everyone who might be inside… but there was a chance they could sneak in for some surveillance if they entered one of the side doors. Of course, tehre was also the option of trying to get onto the roof. There were bound to be maintenance hatches up there, in case the starship docking doors needed servicing.After all, a starship couldn’t exactly land in the warehouse if the ceiling hatch wouldn’t open up.

“So… what’s our plan here, Doc?” she asked, “I’ve scoped out a few ways to enter… but they’re all unknowns, so I figure it should probably be a vote.”

Jak explained their options.

• Go loud: enter through the bay doors, announcing their presence, but also bathing the interior in light, given them an advantage against anyone hiding in the dark.
• Sneak in: come through a side entrance, giving themselves the benefit of surprise, but leaving them susceptible to an aerial attack
• Enter from above: They'd be noticed immediately, but they'd have the high ground.
  

They each had their own benefits, sure... but which one was best depending entirely on how people inside were situated, so there was no way to be sure which would be best. No matter what they chose, though... it couldn't possibly go horribly, catastrophically wrong.... right?