Private Rinky-Dink

[Adrian Cassidy]

9:21PM​

Whenever a new operation began it needed several things to proceed successfully.

1. funding
2. personnel
3. base of operations

Probably some other things.

Luckily for Cassidy it was only number three that he had to worry about. This was the reason he was send to this place. Acquire (rent) a fortified position (flat) and stay put, until his reinforcements would arrive (Virginia Schnapp). He took one look at the agreed upon place before turning around and taking his money back. It was one thing to require secrecy, but this? Yeah, no. At the very least they could operate from relative comfort.

Instead of a rinky dink apartment.

it really hadn't been that bad, but you know how some people have a sweet tooth? adrian has a luxury tooth.

This was why when Schnapp arrived at the location supplied to her by FOSB intelligence? She received an encrypted message. This had a different set of coordinates. It was paired off with the protocol codes of this mission... and signed off with the name Queen.

The next set of coordinates were easy to follow.

It led to one of the most expensive hotels in the area.

The assistants at the desk? Already were expecting her under the cover name attached to their personas. She could let herself in, because right now Adrian was busy mixing up drinks (some sordid fruity ones) and enjoying the view from the penthouse suite. How he managed to procure it, even though someone else had been renting it for a month at least? That was the question wasn't it.

"Ah, Frost, glad you could make it." Once Adrian noticed a glimpse of her in the window's reflection.

 

[Virginia Schnapp]

Agent Frost -- Virginia Schnapp -- settled into the rear seat of the taxi after giving the address to the driver, and pulled out her datapad to send an encrypted message.

FROST ARRIVED AT TOWNSITE WITH CARGO AUREK. PROCEEDING TO QUEEN'S CASTLE. DETAILS TO FOLLOW.

She sent the message and scrolled through the news, looking up occasionally to take in her surroundings. Watch for surveillance. Alert for followers. She was more focused on who was around and the traffic that may or may not be following the taxi than the surroundings, so she didn't even realize they were proceeding into the more snazzy parts of town until the taxi was easing to a halt. "Is there a mistake?" she asked the driver as a doorman approached. He read back the address and Virginia examined her instructions, then nodded. "All right. Thank you." She stepped out of the car and put some credit chips into the driver's hand. "Keep the change."

A pair of men unloaded her luggage, including a weekender and a locked trunk. A brief stop at the desk where she identified herself as Sylvia Montclair yielded a keycard and directions to the room. Virginia thanked the staff, took possession of the luggage cart with her bag and trunk, and proceeded to the elevators. When she finally made it to the suite where Agent Queen was waiting, Virginia was highly confused, which in turn made her prickly and irritable. She shut the door behind her and threw the bolt before walking over to Queen.

"What's all this?" she asked, folding her arms over her midsection. She hadn't even taken her trenchcoat and sunglasses off yet. This looked like a swanky pad more than a First Order intelligence forward base. "This is... " She paused, then looked over at him. "Not what was discussed."

Adrian Cassidy​

 

[Adrian Cassidy]

"This is true." Adrian allowed as he turned around with two glasses in hand. He settled against the bar and studied his new partner in crime. She was... well... really exactly what her code name would suspect.

All cold, frost and business like.

Adrian tried his grin out on her.

"In fact, I'd say it is better than what was discussed. Drink?" Offering one of the glasses to her in a gentle fashion, while sipping from his own glass at the very same time. "I know, I know. Mission parameters, protocol, all that jazz. I get it. But the location is better and more central. We are right at the pulsing heart of the corpo scene here."

Another sip.

"And that last place was the quintessential spy pad- any self-respecting counter-intelligence agency would have had it monitored. Nobody's gonna imagine we parked ourselves right on the throne of this city's nightlife."

This, Adrian, believed was the core of his arguments that thoroughly explained his rationale.

It was all a bunch of chit though. Yes. It was factual, but none of it would have mattered to Adrian. No, what he cared about was the fact that the beds were larger, the drinks were stiffer, the views grander. It even had central heating for the floors. Even a jacuzzi, though something told him that if Virginia Schnapp could have her way she'd have it uninstalled.

"So." Another one of his trademark grins and spreading his hands, still full with glasses filled with booze, in a conciliatory shape. "Why don't we celebrate that this assignment isn't going to be entirely uncomfortable?"

 

[Virginia Schnapp]

Virginia was torn between slapping the drink out of his smug hand and grateful acceptance of it after the arduous journey here. She settled on a happy compromise, taking it and setting it on the bar with an impatient, barely audible 'huff' of air from her nostrils. "If you say so," she said, turning back to the door. She untied the belt of her trenchcoat and shrugged out of it, revealing the conservative traveling suit beneath: knee-length grey skirt, black satin blouse, and three-quarter sleeve grey blazer.

It was the nicest place she'd been on assignment since her days as a young and impressionable deep cover agent in Moff Horne's office at least. She had to give it that. But if Queen had used the company card to pay for the penthouse suite of this hotel, Virginia could only imagine what hell there would be to pay for his cheekiness.

"We can celebrate you needing to find a new job once You Know Who finds out." Delilah Graham was on the Moff Council now, which meant she would be watching her departments closer than ever -- not that she had ever been lax in that department. "There's expense enough already for this trip. The train tickets alone are thousands -- well, anyway, until then, we can elebrate. Give me a hand with this chest, would you?" She gestured to the chest on the bellhop cart. "They'll be after this cart shortly and I don't want them barging in as we go over our supplies."

Adrian Cassidy​

 

[Adrian Cassidy]

A smile growing there as she accepted the glass.

It wasn't a fully throated endorsement, but at the very least she didn't throw the drink back in his face.

Such things should be cherished.

Preferably with another sip.

Sip.

"Oh, I doubt You Know Who is going to care, since I didn't use the company card for this one." If she bothered to look, she could see that smugness only intensifying there. Clearly Adrian had been waiting for her to touch on that. This was one who enjoyed to show-off. At least a little. "I have my ways and they are grand indeed." That last bit coming in to forestall her asking how. They weren't that close yet, who knew what sort of things were acceptable in the eyes of Virginia Schnapp?

Instead Adrian stepped up to help with her chest.

"I hope you got the good stuff for us." He murmured as he lifted it up casually and started to carry it into one of the side-rooms. "This room has a bulletproof door, biometric key, the works. The equipment will be secure."

"I think it's meant for a visiting drug lord to put their wares in it."

A chuckle as he said that.

 

[Virginia Schnapp]

Virginia raised a sculpted eyebrow, but said nothing more about the financial situation. It would be his arse on the line if it went wrong. "Sounds like you covered all the bases," she said, her tone non-committal. She took one end of the crate and carried it into the side room with Cassidy. They set it down and she knelt in front of the crate, putting her thumbs to the biolocks. The lights flashed green and the latches released, and she pushed the lid open. It went a full 180 degrees to lay flat, showing the gear that was stored on all sides.

"Standard gear," said Virginia. "Couple SUSPCTs, some of the new EARBUDS, false identifications in case our covers get blown, disguise kits. Anti-material sniper rifle here, spotter macrobinoculars. Bug scanners, bugs. Don't know what else but we can take a look." She shut the lid again and nodded towards the crate. "Should have your signature for the biolocks. Give it a try now."

When that had been settled, she stood and went back into living room of the suite, scooping up her cocktail glass and taking another sip. "This isn't bad," she said after a moment of consideration. "What is this, anyway?" She perched on the settee overlooking the window and, after another moment of consideration, kicked off her shoes and tucked them up beneath herself. When they had settled what she was drinking, Virginia reached behind her head and pulled the hair tie from her hair and shook her hair loose.

"To business, then, hm? Have you got the latest from Graham?" Virginia looked across at Adrian Cassidy , eyebrows raising expectantly.

 

[Adrian Cassidy]

Virginia Schnapp

It was never fun when they didn't try to pry.

Sure, Adrian wouldn't have said anything, but it was the attempt that mattered.

"Ah, the good chit, at least they don't skimp on our equipment." He rubbed his hands in anticipation as they rolled out the gear. Taking stock of what they had, if there were any gaps they'd have to fill in the field and then locked it all up securely once more. "This is definitely an improvement compared to working in the private field, let me tell you," Adrian mentioned to her conversationally as he locked the door behind them.

"Back when I was working for this intelligence corpo, we usually were dropped in the field with only our shirts and if we were lucky a piece of paper. We had to fight for our own pens." Bemused tone there, clearly exaggerating, but honestly not by all that much.

"You'd have to source your own equipment from the locals. Buy, steal, whatever worked. Kept their profit margins high, but spirits was it a piss of an annoyance." He poured himself another glass from that same mix. "What about you, always been an Order stalwart, or did you just get into the game?" There was a bit of a pecking order in the FOSB as far as Cassidy could tell. Old loyalists versus new additions to the team. The ones that had been there from the beginning, under the Supreme Leader and before the scales attacked, were considered practically royalty. They could barely do anything wrong without the big D covering for them.

Or maybe he was just a bit bitter that he wasn't part of them.

"Margarita," Answering her question as he sipped again. "-salt on the rim et al." He winked and stretched lightly. When she let her hair loose, Adrian was at full attention however. Took a bit of effort not to gape openly. She was definitely a beauty.

"Oh. Um." Owlish blink before Adrian focused again. He had to drag his eyes away from her, back towards the window. "Yeah. Official operations will start soon. Within the month, unless something changes noticeably. In that time we are supposed to ascertain criminal elements, subvert or repossess them as much as we can."

A pause there.

"We are supposed to keep a look out for a person of interest. I don't remember his name right now, ridiculous sounding though, should be in the dossier. Apparently Graham has the hots for him. Wants us to lure him out somehow, I have had some initial ideas, but we can go over that in a bit."

Instead Adrian smirked there once more.

"Wanna check out the jacuzzi? We even have an infinity pool."

 

[Virginia Schnapp]

Virginia frowned and took another drink of the margarita, her dark eyes closing momentarily, appearing to demure from his question for a moment in order to construct an answer that didn't incriminate her. She couldn't very well say that she had been involved in planning a coup against the Grand Moff that had gotten half the cabinet sacked. She cleared her throat and forced a smile. "I don't know about 'always', but at least since college. I joined the Bureau shortly before the sacking of Dosuun. I was embedded in the Moff Council offices before I was reassigned to analysis. I was in the Cloud City Bureau office when the scales took down Dosuun. I've never been deployed in the field beyond this capacity. You know," she added delicately. "Logistical support, advance team."

This was true; she had not been a field agent before. She had had to fight her way from her posting on Bespin to Pa'desh in the wake of the First Order's collapse, so she was not without useful skills, combat and otherwise. "I guess this is going to be a try-out of some extraction," said Virginia, leaning back into the cushioned sofa backrest, carefully adjusting her glass so as not to spill its contents. "What's the deal with this crime boss, anyway? Word on the street is that Graham is taking a personal interest in his apprehension. She's bringing in the big guns."

She took her datapad from her handbag and scrolled to the dossier. "Cierrol Harlow," she said. "Apparently he considers himself a crime lord although the dossier just calls him the leader of a criminal network. What a sick burn." Virginia glanced at her compatriot over the top of her datapad and raised her eyebrows before returning her gaze to the document. "He spent a lot of time on Yag'dhul and is wanted for, like, hundreds of murders, assault on First Order personnel, human trafficking, drug smuggling, arms dealing. What a prince."

She set the dossier down and took another drink of the margarita. "I don't need to see the jacuzzi," she told Cassidy. "Knock yourself out, though. I wouldn't mind changing out of my travel clothes and freshening up, though. Where's my bedroom?" Virginia stood up and shrugged out of her jacket before looking expectantly at Cassidy.

Adrian Cassidy​

 

[Adrian Cassidy]

Virginia Schnapp

"Harlow? Piece of chit is what he is. I encountered his work a few times, when I was still flying private." Euphemism for working in the field as a corpo agent, rather than attached to a specific government.

"As for why the Order is so interested in him... dunno. Well, there are the rumours, 'course."

You couldn't hide everything in an organization like the FOSB.

People talked, gossiped like old women if it was something especially tasty. "Apparently he got a hold of some agents in the past. Higher-up ones that were especially valuable to G. Didn't manage to cross them off, but bruised her reputation regardless." Cassidy shrugged there. "Good as reason as any, I reckon, though I never did figure G to be the emotional type. I think she just wants to take him down, because he feels he's above the FOSB. When you are rolling into a new place, what's the first thing you do?"

A sip from his glass and a smile.

"You drop the largest fether in the room, so everyone knows you mean business." Schnapp refused the jacuzzi suggestion, but that was to be expected. His first impression seemed to be relatively accurate.

Frosty.

Ironic considering her handle.

"Down the hall, take a left. You are opposite of mine." His would be locked, but clearly the largest room of the place. Maybe a gentleman would have offered it to the lady. Adrian was rarely a gentleman when it had to cost him too much comfort.

"I got us dinner arrangements tomorrow. We can scope out the High Rise, see where the rich ones are nobbying together."

 

[Virginia Schnapp]

"Isn't that what they tell you to do in prison?" Virginia asked, raising an eyebrow. "Take out the biggest prisoner in the cell block so the rest know not to mess with you? Have you spent a lot of time in prison, Queen?" She smirked and took a sip of her cocktail, then set the glass to one side.

"I don't know Graham well," she said. "Met her a few times on Pa'desh, but never enough to get a feel for her. She never struck me as very touchy-feely, but I guess there's no telling these days. I guess I should take comfort in the fact that she cares enough about her people to nab this joker." She wrapped her arms around herself and looked out the window, considering what she had heard and understood.

"Speaking of dinner," said Virginia, glancing at her wristwatch. "I'm famished. I'm going to need to eat or I might get cranky." She smiled broadly at Adrian Cassidy who, she suspected, already found her cranky -- in addition to inflexible and cold. "Let me take a quick shower and we can talk about food." She picked up her overnighter and strolled down the corridor. "Open to suggestions," she called over her shoulder as she disappeared from view. At the junction, she turned to the left, then to the right. Curiosity overtook her, and silently she tried to turn the handle on the door to the room Cassidy had scoped for himself, but it was locked.

Hmm.

She turned back to her own room and let herself in. Great view. Nice room. Bed looked comfortable. Writing desk and chair. She took a brief hot shower, toweled off and dressed herself in a pair of black slacks and a dark green blouse. She placed her traveling clothes in the laundry bag and hung it from the outside of the door, then called down to the desk for it to be collected. "What did I miss?" she asked Cassidy as she came back to the main living area. "Did you buy a sportscar while I was in the shower or something?"

 

[Adrian Cassidy]

Virginia Schnapp

"Once or twice... missions, of course. Spy work isn't all beautiful galas and soirees sadly." A grin there. "You'd be surprised how similar a jail operates to high society though. Nobles are often even more vicious than the average prisoner."

If anyone was vicious it was Graham though.

Absolute stone-cold operator. Cassidy didn't have a lot of respect for most people, but he made an exception for his boss. "Nah, definitely not touchy-feely I think. She always has her reasons- I wouldn't be surprised if she has about a dozen plans for that fether. None of them all too pleasant for him though I am sure."

Cranky... maybe not, but definitely frosty.

Adrian was wise enough not to agree with her however. "You? Cranky? I can't even imagine it, such a pleasant partner." A warm smile was send her way, before doing a brief salute of agreement. "I will sort it out while you have your shower then... unless you need a hand in there." Adrian grinned and was already getting out his commlink to make arrangements.

Clearly this one was insatiable, but at least Cassidy wore it openly on his sleeve.

By the time Schnapp came downstairs Adrian had gotten them reservations and a ride. "Sportscar? Don't be silly, they are so inefficient and lacking in style." Offering his arm to her, so she could hook hers into it. "I prefer something with a little bit more... dignity." Guiding her outside, where a luxurious vintage car was waiting on them.

"Recreated Coruscanti classic. Agile in the air and capable of driving on the road. Quite something, isn't she? We have dinner reservations at Omnia, it overlooks the Long Stretch, should be a very nice view while we eat."

When Adrian said that however, his eyes were on hers, so maybe he wasn't talking about that view so much. Not with that little smile playing there.