Pluto VII

[Cherubian]

Private bodyguard? Michaela had to severely restrain herself not to burst out laughing loudly at the irony. For a week she had beeen looking for a contract like this, and now that she had lowered her standars to work as a personal assistant she finally got such a position. That is if this was not just a bluff to get her out, but considering what had just happened...

"Sure boss, comin' along" She tucked the submachinegun into her waistband as she followed Fiona. The security men were too perplexed by the situation and by the reprimand they had just received to even bother asking her for her permit.

 

[kittenofdeath]

Jason was glad once Seth called for them to stop, he was way too tired for this kind of thing, he was already half hunched over and his breaths were already laboured from the short distance they had gone so far. “Jason” he said, taking Seths hand shaking it “You did me a massive favour back there” he finished catching his breath and stood up straight “I’ve got enough money to buy a gun, what you need is a permit.”

Jason looked around, they hadn’t gone far from the hotels, now they were in an alley just off a small shopping area, food, clothes… No guns stores, but they had something just as good. “That is something I can help you with though” he said, smiling once he saw the stairway under a sign that said ‘internet café’ in big, bold letters “Follow me.”

Jason quickly led Seth across to the stairway, not wanting to stay out in the open too long “If you can use the net to find a gun store near here, I can hack you a permit, all I need is your ID and a computer.”

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole

Fiona led Michaela to a empty corner in the cafeteria that belonged to the complex around the embassay. "Hide that gun." she said on the way.
She sat down and looked at her new bodyguard.
"I have no choice. I must provide your papers later. WIthout them, it is most likely that you will be arrested, even if it is a clear cas of selfdefence."
She order two coffees.
"Now tell me. Who are you really? Your reflexes are not that of somebody applying for a job as unqualified assistant."

 

[Cherubian]

Hide that gun! Now that was a good one. Michaela looked down at her T-Shirt and her rather tight fitting jeans, and with a lack of better alternatives she quickly dropped the little submachine gun in the next wastebasket when noone was looking. She did not feel that great being unarmed again, but the black woman had a point.

Finally she slouched down in the chair across Fiona, now no longer seeing any need for overly ceremonial bearing. Her clothes and her habitus attracted a few glances, but then the people had better things to look at. "No coffee for me" she commented "but one of those banana milk shakes would be grand. Always wanted to try one of 'em".

And then the inevitable question came. She lowered her voice as good as she could before she replied "No use denyin' it now, is there? Well, been with the German Bundeswehr for a while, and they messed around with me a bit. Fuckers." Her expression became angry as she said that "Don't wanna talk about it anymore."

"You know, I tried hard to get a job as a bodyguard, but the few that was hirin' dinna think a girl with jugs like these was up to it. So went for whatever I could get. Girl has to eat. But what about you? How come armed killers are after yer ass?"

 

[Talon]

Seth nodded, handing Jason his passport as they moved into the Internet Cafe. "You get me a gun and we'll be square as far as I'm concerned." He looked around inside the shop, seeing only a few patrons and plenty of open computer terminals. He followed Jason to one of the open terminals and leaned against the cubicle wall, eyes on the front door while Jason did his thing. Arms crossed, he frowned as he noticed the Cafe clerk at the front desk talking into a phone and looking back in their direction. Unbeknownst to them, the clerk had received a security alert on his computer terminal with Jason's mugshot a few moments before they stepped into the shop. He was on the phone with security.

Seth looked down at Jason. "Work fast, I think the clerk recognized you.". He moved away from Jason and up towards the front of the shop. Just as Seth arrived at the front a few security personnel entered, the one in front reaching into his jacket for his weapon. Seth charged them, slamming his shoulder into the first guy and pushing the two officers back through the doorway and down the stairs. Seth slammed the door shut, locking the deadbolt and turning to the clerk. "Open this door and you die."

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole

"First, I think you should improve your language. Maybe this did make you loose more chances on a job then you expect."
She talked on a bit later, afte rthe drinks were saved. This went really fast her, but on cost of the quality; the cooled drink were just heated up. Like nearly everywhere.
"First it is quite usual in my job to have enemies. Second, I stepped many people on the feet by speaking out what I think about some things, for example slavery. Then I think I spoiled some deals in my position. Many people do not like me, some inside the embassy as well." Fiona thought about the way the security men looked. Had they expected to find her dead on their arrival? Even possible.

 

[Cherubian]

Michaela chuckled "Ye know, I was just thinking about how it would have turned out to try and sweet talk those thugs outta killing ye." She defensively raised a hand "I know I know, you probably got a point there, it's just that it ain't as easy as you make it look. But maybe I just have to listen to you long enough."

She took a sip from her milk shake. Maybe it was poor quality for Fiona, but her taste buds were not as refined "Not too bad, not too bad."

"But ye know, I've been thinkin', with that many people around that want to see you dead, maybe you'd want ta keep me around for a bit longer? Not as a personal assistant, that's fer sure..."

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole
"As I said, I must provide you with a contract now, for sure. I will see to get you a weapon license as well. I did not have a bodyguard before; although I could have got one on the official way." she took a drink from her coffee.
"And you can learn to speak, if you want to. How do you think I got on my position? I wasn't born into it as well."

 

[Cherubian]

"Sure sure, I will give it a shot. A contract would be fine as well."

Michaela made a pause to be sure she missed nothing before she continued "But just so you know, I am currently completely broke. So if you want me to wear something else" for emphasis she tugged at her old T-Shirt " 'specially somethin' I can hide a gun under, or if you want me to actually buy a gun for that permit you can get me, there will be no way around a little - or more than a little most likely - advance payment..."

"Oh, and do you think you could arrange for a place to sleep? Don't have one of those either..."

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole
"I think I can provide for this. As for the room, it might take a few days in this area. But as long I can clear out a room in my quarters. One more thing..." she paused, still thinking on the expression of the guards.
"I mentioned I might have some enemies on several sites, so just be very careful what you tell anybody, even if they seem to be on the right side. That includes persons in the embassady as well."

 

[Cherubian]

"Sure thing. Maybe starting as your personal assistant won't be such a bad idea after all. Same holds for sleeping close to you, the most luxurious hotel room won't do me any good when you are mugged in your faraway bed." It was evident by the occasional pauses in her speech that she tried hard to avoid slang and find the proper formulation each time, but also that this did not come naturally to her.

"One thing, though... Let's be honest, I like to have some, how do you call it? 'Male company' from time to time, actually maybe a bit more frequent than that. Just helps me to stay emotionally stable...." she had to grin at that. "I hope you do not mind such, might be a problem as long as we sleep under the same roof."

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole

"As long as you are in my quarters, you will cut that out. I won't have any strangers in m room."

 

[Cherubian]

Michaela sighed and her shoulders slumped as a clear sign of her disappointment "Well, your house, your rules. Just want to warn you, so you don't complain when I become grumpy." A pity she had to be so stuck up, it could have been fun to invite two studs over and have a nice four way orgy, but whatever...

"So what is our next step? How long do you think security will block our apartment?"

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole

"My office will be blocked at least two days, I think. My Apartment is not blocked. It is in the same complex, a few hundres yard away. I will first have to do a report at several places. They will be asking you as well. Before this will happen, I will write down your contract, and you will read it and tell you got it before the attack occurred. I will get the offical version later. After the report, I will show you your room, while I will probably have to do some more talking about the incident."

 

[Cherubian]

Michaela nodded as she drank the last few drops of her milk shake. "We better get started soon, no use delaying this any longer. How about we start by heading to your apartment, where we can do that contract stuff?

Might be a good idea if you got me a permit as soon as possible as well, but from what I hear with an official bodyguard contract that should be just a formality."

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole

Fiona got up and paid.
"It is not long from her. As with the official bodyguard, I could have ordered one and the govertment would send me one. He would have certificates and would partly be paid for me. Technically I am allowed to hire a private bodyguard if I want to, but this will raise questions why I did so instead of taking a tested, professional bodyguard that I don't even have to pay for."
It really didn't take long until they reached her apartment, that was one store up and about 300 yards away from her office. The apartment wasn't huge, but for decent size on the station. The equipment was of good quality and had all it needed, but there was no sign of luxury, no extras or things to show off. Fiona sat down on a desk in the first room and printed a formular sheet, which she quickly filled. She knew what to write, because she had thought of getting a bodyguard before, but had hesitated until today. She made a copy and gave Michaela the first one.
"This is just for your information. I will make the official one later.

 

[Cherubian]

Michaela took the form and glanced over it. The pay was more than appropriate, which immediately raised her mood. Finally she was finished. "Good so far, I like it" was her comment as she folded the piece of paper and put it into one of the pockets of her pants.

"So what now? Rest a bit, get me properly armed or get me properly dressed?"

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole

"As you will get probably interviewed right after me, we better get you some clothes, although the time will get close. I cannot give any of mine... We will hurry, we can get everything else later. The gun permission wont be ready tody anyhow."

 

[kittenofdeath]

Jason took a moment to centre himself as he sat before the computer terminal, then sprang in to action, quickly plugging in a flash drive he had in one of his pockets before using the rather ancient looking scanning plate to access Seth’s passport details, it would be a trivial task to alter the information on the passport, it was a closed system, the real trick was to add the appropriate data to the official servers, otherwise anything he did would never pass inspection.

“Not surprising” He said, his attention not deviating from the terminal for one second, even as Seth left to deal with that problem. He was valuable merchandise with a specific skill set, until he could secure his own access he was forced to rely on places like this to get anything done, it was only logical to send out a watch order for him anywhere he could get to a computer.

He could hear the commotion from the front door, but ignored it as he tapped away at the keyboard, a number of programs from the drive he had plugged in also working on the task, god he wished that a neural interfaces were more widespread, he would be done so much faster that way. “Passports done, starting on the offsite data now” he called out, his hands going silent on the keyboard for a moment as another of his programs did its task, scanning the ingoing traffic to the server for a login attempt, since time was of the essence, he couldn’t hack in properly, he would just have to hijack the first connection attempt he could find and hope that it worked and had the appropriate clearance.

“Too easy” he mumbled to himself as the attempt came up successful, some poor mook called Peter Marks just had an unfortunate error while attempting to log in “Perfect, data entry operator” he grinned, then quickly started typing away again, navigating his way through a sea of menus and prompts to enter all the needed information to generate the permit that would be saved to the system. “I’m done” he called out again, quickly uploading a virus to scramble the logs of what he just did before closing the connection, then a quick internet search gave him a map to the nearest gunstore, which he sent to the clerks desk for printing.

“Let’s go” he said, quickly racing over to the front door, passing the passport back to Seth and taking the map from behind the counter, giving the terrified clerk a stern look before turning away “It won’t be long before the people listening in on the people he called call the people we don’t want to see, and they won’t be stopped by a deadbolt.”

 

[Cherubian]

And so Michaela had ended up in front of one of the best clothing shops in the station, with her new employer standing right next to her. The items displayed in its windows were definitely exquisite, as were the various fashion labels that adorned it. She had only heard of about half of them ever before, but those that she knew definitely were upper class. A single glance at one of the price tags almost made her dizzy, and she leaned in to whisper into Fiona's ear

"Are you sure this is the place you want to go? No way in hell I'll ever be able to pay you back what those outfits cost. If you really want to go through with this, please make sure that there is somewhere underneath to hide a gun." Which ruled out that one skin tight outfit over there to the right, which otherwise surely would have looked great on her, or she in it however you wanted to look at it.

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole

"We will." She went inside. "We haven't got much time, so just one outfit for now if you are called to an interrogation. Something to make you look respectable. You don't have to overdo it, but it is in your own interest that you look like a credible bodyguard working in the embassy. So nothing to fancy. I would say pants, jacket and top."

 

[Cherubian]

"Sure thing, and no use delaying it any more..." After another deep breath Michaela strode into the shop determined.

At first the sales clerk's expression was a mixture of surprise and revulsion. He was about to ask Michaela to leave out when Fiona joined the scene and it became obvious to him that this woman, despite her run down looks, might actually be able to pay for what was on offer - or at least have someone pay for her. Immediately his professional pride was ignited, since at a closer look he became aware of the fact that she had quite the body to work with, not something that can be said about most of his customers who were mostly concerned to cover their physical shortcomings.

It did not take long - her massive breasts causing the longest delay in finding fitting clothes - until a suitable outfit was assembled and retailored to fit her, consisting mainly of a light grey pantsuit and a white shirt to match it, completed by a matching black pair of low heeled shoes. Two fresh sets of underwear and socks finished her makeover. Michaela was surprised how well the seemingly conservative but tight fitting woolen pants as well as the jacket managed to accentuate her figure, all the while the jacket fitted her loose enough to leave the space required for a high caliber pistol in a shoulder holster.

Satisfied at how she looked like, and relieved that Fiona was paying the bill, they were finally ready to leave, her previous possessions handed to them in a bag with the shops logo on their departure. As they finally stood outside the shop again, Michaela commented "I can see why some woman are so much into shopping. But now let's go and get this stupid interview over with."

 

[Belinda35]

Fiona Cole

Fiona took her new bodyguard back into the large complex of the embassady. She instructed her what to say, before she went off to the interrrogation first. It took quite a while; leaving Michaela alone waiting, but it was a matter of safety to keep calm and waiting, as Fiona told her. After a while the black woman came back, and Michaela was asked in to be interrogated about what had happened and to check her identity.

 

[Talon]

Seth nodded as he took the passport. He liked how this guy worked from what he'd seen. Efficient, straight to the point. Seth suddenly remembered something and he pulled the pocket computer from his jacket and handed it to Jason. "Here...just in case you need to do something on the run. Embassy loaned it to me." Seth didn't think he needed to warn Jason about security regarding a device registered in his name, so he didn't. Jason had already demonstrated skills beyond his own basic understanding, the final test would be seeing if the Firearm shop would let him buy a weapon. But they had to make it there undetected first.

Seth slipped out a window at the back of the shop and dropped a few feet down to the roof of the building beside it. Lucky for the two of them the buildings were packed in close in the slums, and there was no alley between the computer shop and the adjacent building. Seth crouched as he hurried across the roof to the far side, lying down on his belly to creep up to the edge and peer over. The alley below looked empty, quiet. A rickety old fire escape ladder ran down three quarters of the side of the building, far enough that they would be able to hang from the bottom rung and drop only about six feet to the alley below.

Seth silently motioned to Jason that it looked clear with a nod, crawling up to the ladder and slipping over the side. A veteran of dozens of military obstacle courses, Seth slid down the ladder and dropped to the alley below with seemingly practiced ease. He pressed himself up against the wall, looking down both ends of the alley for any signs that he had been spotted. Satisfied, he looked up to the top of the ladder and waited for Jason to descend. Since Jason held the map, Seth would follow and keep an eye out for trouble.

 

[Belinda35]

The Narrator - Interrogation (checked with Cherubian)

Michaela was called hin and interrogated about the events. The asking about the incident was rather short, oviously her descriptions matched those given by Fiona. The official was more interested to ask about the bodyguards past, and the way she achieved her skilss, and about the contract and her connections to Fiona. Luckily the black woman had prepared her well, as if she had expected rather exactly the questions that would be put to her.
Meanwhile, Fiona used the time to get an official formular and finished a proper contract. If anyone would ask Michaela, she could produce the right document. Getting the license for a gun would be something different. She would have to meet one of her contacts. But not before her new bodyguard would come out.