Coal

UNEXPECTED!! The thought bolted through her mind as she let out an unintended scream. She wasn't being hurt any more badly than being tackled does, but she was bombarded with the personal space issue at the same time as the center of gravity issue. There was also a mercenary on top of her, which was a first too. Her brain glitched repeatedly as she tried sorting it all out making sense of what was happening to her. "OW! OW! OW!" She said each time her auto-pilot smacked him with the light.
 
Her scream pierced his ears but that was fine. He was on top of her now and she managed to hit him with the light once, twice, the third time he was finally able to grab the thing and throw it to the other side of the room.
Bouncing off a wall, it clanked a few times before rolling to a stop. Now Q was on top of Saeda, each of his hands pushing down on her wrists and breathing heavily.

"Where are the glasses," he growled, his upper lip curling, his upper back muscles and his grip on her wrists tightening.

He had a knife sheathed on his belt, and while it was frequently hidden by the tails of his untucked dress shirt, he wasn't afraid to use the thing on this girl.
"I overpower you," he warned, as if that were enough reason for her to give up. He was straddling her, most of his 205 pounds forced on her wrists through his hands.
 
Her face was twisted in horror. She was utterly helpless and had never felt that way in her life. He was too big, too strong. She probably shouldn't have messed with someone with such an advantage over her, but biting off more than she could shew was a fault a long time harbored. Adrenaline bid her kick and scratch, so she tried to obey at first. Nothing came of it. She was pinned; kicking feet only served to increase her heart rate and cause her to panic. She stared at him trying to figure out if he was bluffing. Maybe he was just going to scare. Maybe he was going to kill her. Hot tears disobeyed their creator and spilled from the corner of each eye. She screamed again, but this one had a little less life too it. It was a less instinctual sort of sound, and more like a goodbye wail to the world.

And then she was finished fighting. Her face was turned away from his body to avoid touching as he leaned so heavily onto her throbbing wrists. Correcting the direction she faced, she stared deep into his green eyes for the first time. He was supposed to make my dream come true. and to think....I never even got to shoot a gun....wait... that was his fault too. She took what she was certain was her last breath and lifted her head as close to his as she could. Then she spit.

"Go to hell. This isn't the way to get them back."
 
He watched her. Glared at her. Waited for her to give up. Finally it looked like she had. She looked away, and he was about to ask her where his glasses were again. But she turned her face back and spat at him.
"Augh!"

He turned his face away but didn't dare take his hands from her wrists. Closing his eyes, he shook his head, trying to get the spittle off him. It wasn't going to come off, obviously.
FINE! He'd just have to deal with it. Best he could tell, at least it wasn't in his eyes!

Go to hell!

The twenty three year old opened his eyes again and sat down on her legs. He gripped her wrists with all his might and used pure arm strength to bring her hands together in front of both their faces and above her body. He held her hands together in front of him for a moment, his green eyes narrowing as he tried to figure out his next move.

His grip loosened and he held both wrists in one hand. If she tried she'd easily get out of his grip as his free and left hand reached for the knife at his belt, quickly pushing his shirt tail away and unsheathing it.
By that time, if she hadn't broken free of his hand already, he'd let go, using his right hand to push her chin up so she could not look up to him and using his left hand to push the cold steel of a SOG Seal Knife to her throat.

Her hands were free but would she dare try something now?

"Where," he ordered, his voice deepened and came with a new tone. He was done playing games.
He was serious now.
 
She wasn't just some little girl who was in over her head. She had a lot to learn, yes. But she wanted to be a merc. You didn't just wake up one day and decide to get into the business. You had to have some small part of you warpped beyond repair. It takes a certain type of person. She was young, but she still had the guts that a good mercenary needed. She had nerves of steal.

He terrified her, and she could tell that the outcome of her life depended on the moment she was in right now. She noticed the rate his chest pumped in and out, the way the sweat dripped off of her assailant, and the way his face was twisted in rage. Time moved in slow motion. She would not give in like a coward. She was Saeda Cole. No one got one over on her. Not even if it meant death.

He shifted positions and she her wrists were free. But he was still on top of her, and now he had a knife to her neck. She felt more defiant than ever, but there wasn't a thing she could do. She was about to attempt a compromise, saying, "let me up, and I will tell you." But she managed to get out, "let me up-" and was interrupted by two sharp knocks at the door.

Her eyes widened with a look of "deer in headlights." She whispered quickly, "Saito will find you!" She winced, praying he didn't choose to slit her throat and try to make a break for it before the knockers became too suspicious.
 
Bornes glared down at her, his forest green eyes fierce, his pupils in a convex shape, similar to a cat's. The room wasn't so bright his pupils were slits, but they were slim enough that someone who paid enough attention would know that something was "off" about them.

When the knock came at the door, he leaned down close and whispered, "Tell me where they are!" It was almost as if he were desperate now.
After whispering to her, he looked up to the door and proclaimed, "We don't need maid service."

They simply knocked at the door again, a somewhat masculine voice saying "Open the door."

Q growled, his right hand letting go of Saeda's face, but keeping his let hand with the knife to her throat.
He wiped off his face with his hand, hoping to get the now somewhat dried spit off himself and look halfway presentable. He knew he probably had bedhead. He'd fix that when he had both hands free. He looked back down to Saeda again.

"I need the glasses if you want me to answer the door," he rushed.
Turning back to the closed door he shouted, "Who is it?"
 
The knife was still at her throat- but she was still breathing. She puffed out her cheeks in a long exhale, her eyes drifting toward the drawer in which she'd hidden his glasses. She felt vaguely victorious since she wasn't dead, but with the knock at the door she knew her dangerous game had come to an end. Some sort of warning vibrated along every nerve, foreshadowing some great calamity around the corner. She had no logical reason to believe this, and it was twice as disconcerting since she'd not felt any sensation of the sort when Q was holding her to the floor. But those knocks bade an ominous air come forth.

He turned back toward the door after asking her the whereabouts of his glasses. "Who is it?" He replied to the next series of knocks. The man on the other side of the door spoke no reply, but he rattled the knob. A polite person would not have done so. To Saeda, her sibylline sensation was just proven true. Something was amiss.

Her fingers pointed at the dresser. "There, third drawer down. Beneath the socks."

As the knob rattled on, she hoped Q could get to his glasses before whatever this was got too intense. She hated him, but he was her best chance for survival- regardless of the knife he still held at her throat. Her lip pulled itself to the side of her face in a flat, "Oh fuck" sort of expression with pinched brows but soft eyes.

"Get them! Hurry!" She returned his urgent whisper.
 
Bornes was rushed now, searching Saeda for answers. He followed her eyeline over to the night stand, and narrowed his eyes. Finally she told him which drawer and he got off of her, taking the knife away and rushing over to it. He opened the drawer and quickly pushed away all the socks with his free hand, grabbing the sunglasses that lay beneath and plastering them atop his nose. He then put down the knife for the briefest of moments and quickly fingerbrushed his hair to look presentable. Afterward, he picked up his weapon again, blade pointed upward and ready to strike should he allow, and stalked over to the door, hiding the knife behind his form.

He quickly put the chain lock on the door, sliding it into place so the door wouldn't open all the way once he finally turned the knob.
The twenty three year old kept his body behind the door and only stuck his head around the opening marginally. The man outside didn't even hesitate, and put his hand in the crack, trying to push it more open.

"What do you want?" Bornes ordered.
"Open the damned door!" The man replied, sticking his foot in the crevice and pounding on the door to open fully.

Bornes lowered his stance slightly, as if he were a feline getting ready to pounce. He stepped backward, his grip tightening on the knife. The door had finally been banged enough and the chain lock broke. The door itself swung wide, slamming the wall, and Q was right there, ready and waiting. He spun and with no hesitation had slashed the the first charging man in the jugular. He gripped his throat, gurgling, and fell to the floor. Unfortunately, with the way Q had attacked the man, his back was to the second intruder.

As the twenty three year old turned again and re-positioned the grip of his knife to stab, the second man had pulled out a handgun and fired a shot.
Luckily, it missed Q, but it came close enough to actually bring fear to his face. In a sweeping motion, he brought the knife up, back of the blade (the entire edge of which was serrated) knocking the gun out of the stranger's hand and toward Q. His own right and free hand came forward and Q stepped in, grabbing the stranger's hand and finally grabbing the gun for himself.

He instantaneously cocked it and pointed it to the stranger, whose fingers were bleeding from the knife's previous engagement with them.
"Who are you," Q ordered.

The man just stared.
 
As soon as he moved from her body, she rolled herself over and pushed off the floor. At least she was on her feet.

Saeda watched the peculiar Q take a moment to fix his hair, even though her pounding heart reiterated the knowledge that some hazardous happenstance was occurring. She listened to the exchanged words, and stood stupidly in her place though she watched the shaded man crouch behind the door. When the lock broke, she gasped. One lone chain link hurtled into the air, a single ray of light escaped from the mostly closed curtains to reflect off the smooth golden surface into a spray of light. Her attention was stolen by the tiny object, but no matter how odd it might have seemed to an onlooker the distraction served its purpose. It fell to the floor and rolled away beneath the bed. Instinct began its ascent to supreme control over her limbs, and by the time the link rolled away she was a calmed huntress biding time until that singular moment when she should take action.

A throaty resonance sounded near the door, afterward which a large meaty thunk alerted Saeda's senses. She cut a look from the corner of her eyes and watched wide-eyed as the stranger lay in the floor dying. With each faltering beat of his heart, the artery spurted a spray of red, red blood. A pool formed around the man, and Saeda knew that the carpet would have to be replaced but only after some poor sap spent hours doubled over it trying not to vomit as she scrubbed at gruesome spot.

A bullet announced its prescence loudly, but as swiftly as it came it buried itself in the bed with an explosion of feathers celebrating its arrival. The blonde stood still with both hands hanging limply at her sides. She was watching a movie from the front row, unconcerned that her life could be taken at any moment. Q would keep her safe. She suddenly had no doubt that for all his misgivings and flaws and without having much reason to do so, he would without a doubt make sure she survived this. Maybe his own life depended on it. Maybe beneath the brusqueness dwelled a kind-hearted man. okay...well... that was probably a stretch.

He showed a weakness then. He was afraid of that bullet, and Saeda had etched an un-erasable image of that scarred face into her mind. Then the same green snake of jealousy from the bar returned and gnawed his way into the girl's very soul. Q was her teacher. Her property. And this guy was fucking with what was hers. Her eyes narrowed- finally a break in the stony stillness she'd portrayed throughout the encounter.

Q took control of the gun. That was good. With a satisfying click, she understood that the gun was cocked and ready to send this guy to whatever hell is buddy was in.

"Who are you?" Q demanded.

No one in the room spoke, but the man's eyes stared past Q. His gaze fell on Saeda. Now that the fighting was finished, it was her time to shine.

"G-get on the floor." She said rather quietly. The stutter was not from fear or uncertainty. It was from her words falling out of her mouth before she had solidified a plan.

Again, the response was naught but a stare.

"Get on the fucking floor!" She demanded much more loudly, pronouncing each syllable deliberately. The man slowly obeyed though he didn't try to hide his resentment for doing so. He held both hands out in front of him, but still said nothing. She bet he imagined himself a very difficult egg to crack. She'd see about that.

She ran over then, urgency taking over. On her way to the door, she ran through the pooled blood and slipped. Stumbling toward the door still, she stepped in the middle of man number two's palm with her tall stiletto heel. He let out a string of profanities. She slammed the door closed behind her, praying without much hope that no one has heard the commotion yet.

Positioning herself beside Q, she demanded again, "'Who are you?"

"Kid, you are out of your mind if you think I'm going to give it up."

Her sneer broadened, and she placed her foot on the man's face. "Is that a fact?"

"It's a fact." was the slightly muffled response.

Her face twisted into an bestial snarl as she pressed her heel into the soft of his cheek with all her might. With a squishy little *pop*, the heel went through. His screams were music to her ears.
 
Bornes held the gun steadfast on the stranger. He looked passed Q and toward where Q assumed Saeda was standing. The twenty three year old fought the urge to look behind him.

"G-get on the floor." She said rather quietly. The stutter was not from fear or uncertainty. It was from her words falling out of her mouth before she had solidified a plan.

Bornes's brows creased. What was she doing?

"Get on the fucking floor!" She demanded much more loudly, pronouncing each syllable deliberately.

Bornes actually flinched. He wasn't expecting that from Saeda. As the stranger went to the ground, Bornes's gun followed, keeping its aim to the other's head. His finger was not on the trigger, however. It was rested above between the trigger guard and dust cover.

Saeda then walked up to Q's side, trying to assert her dominance and somehow still doing so despite her minor stumble. She closed the door and shoved her heel into the stranger's palm. Then she demanded to know who he was, again.

Bornes's mouth was a thin line, a slight semi-frown began to form as he quietly watched Saeda take control of the situation. He didn't like being seen as beneath her, but he wasn't entirely sure how to approach this situation at all, either.
To him, however, it was clearly apparent Saeda was making it up as she went along.

There was a small exchange between the stranger and her, then. She clearly liked being in control. But when she shoved her heel through the man's cheek and he screamed, Q's face lit with pain. He groaned and shot the gun at the bed, bullet quieting at the man as he shoved Saeda out of the way. It pulled her shoe from the man's face, resulting in another yell from him. It quickly faded as he brought his hand to the hole, trying to cover it, still very much in pain. He shouted a bunch of cusswords, followed by a "What the HELL was that for?!"

Bornes gave a quick look to Saeda, hoping she wouldn't react too negatively to his shove. He wanted to correct in her in why exactly she had been wrong, but in reality all the "real" reasons were waylaid by the fact that he didn't want to hear the man scream in agony that close. His eyes weren't the only things that were sensitive.

His attention turned back to the man, and he grit his teeth.
"Parlez-vous français? Habla español?"
His voice was curt, to the point. Demanding. Business-like.
He derived no pleasure from it.

The man looked at him blankly, like Q was crazy.
Bornes just kicked him in the side.

"Explain why we should not kill you!" Bornes finally proclaimed, changing his train of thought.
He had wanted to speak to this man without Saeda understanding. But it was clear the stranger only knew english.
 
Saeda was removed from her position atop the man’s cheek forcibly. She giggled as she mentally likened the feeling of her heel lifting with stepping on chewed gum.

“What the hell was that for?”

She chewed her lip happily; a joyful inebriation keeping her highly unstable temper from tipping with the shove. She didn’t care3 that Q had ended her fun and quieted the man’s screams. She’d had a decent fill for now. She chuckled again and tilted her head, eyes sparkling with glee.

When Q began to speak in his native tongue, then switched to Spanish, Saeda quirked a brow thoughtfully. After a moment, she registered this in combination with the tight-jawed expression he wore. She wondered if he had intent other than to communicate. Her pleased expression soured into a much brattier half-pout.

The suited man did what seem like his only response- remained silent and stared, albeit this current stare looked quite bewildered. Saeda pondered the possibility that he may be retarded.

“Explain why we shouldn’t kill you!” Q demanded with a kick. He was once again in control, which for the time being was acceptable to the sweet-faced teen.

The bleeding man still said nothing; he breathed heavily but remained mostly silent save for a few hushed groans. Q added to those noises of pain by giving a second jab to the ribs.

“Alright, alright! If you kill me, then you will never know who sent me!” He sputtered as a stream of blood diluted with slimy drool fell from his shaking lips.

“Are you really going to blab that easily?” she asked, a bit disappointed.

He thought for several lengthy moments before answering, “….if it means staying alive.”

Saeda grabbed a chair from the nearby table and set it near the man’s body, showing her profile to Q. She crossed her legs, and with one finger tapped at her temple. She took her turn for a drawn-out think before bringing her eyes up to peer into Q’s shades. She imagined the shocking green she’d finally gotten to see.

She knew her next stunt would result in someone dying. (Or at least she assumed a good mercenary would have it be so.) whether it was her or the man she couldn’t be certain, but with the latter she’d be pleased and with the prior she’d be unaware. She took half a breath, smiled angelically, and spoke in that sickening sweet tone she’d mastered.

“Q…how often do people survive these encounters….even if they talk?”

There. She’d said his name. It was his codename, sure, but he’d already taught her to be frugal with spreading the knowledge of it as well. Now she hoped that this trespass was enough to ensure that she’d witness another slaughter when they were through with drawing the information they needed.
 
Bornes stayed silent as Saeda took control again. He had no thoughts. He slipped easily into the "man with the gun" role, it was almost habit to let someone else take over the actual interrogation.


“Q…how often do people survive these encounters….even if they talk?”

"Not very often," Bornes answered, not thinking.

A second later it finally clicked, and he realized he'd snapped into the submissive role again. His shoulders rose and he gave an audible hmph, mentally jumping back into the driver's seat and making a show of it.

"A lesson for you, Giggles:" he said. His tone changed, as if he were mocking her, "Never make the victim question who is in control."
He pulled the trigger and shot the man on the floor in the head.

Afterward, he turned the safety on and dropped the gun casually ontop of the victim, as if it no longer held his interest and was now an old toy.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it.

"Don't inflict that type of pain so early on. And I know I said to not say names." he put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it with the pink lighter from last night, blowing the first drag to the ceiling before looking over to Saeda, cigarette now in his left hand.

He was trying to gauge her reaction to his randomly killing the guy without getting any information from him.
 
Her face fell when the invader’s head bounced with the impact of the bullet, and all was silent. She watched Q tinker with the gun, assuming he turned on the safety and drop it atop the body. Her head lowered in disappointment as he spoke to her. He’d scolded her for making the man question who was in control, and now he went on to nag about inflicting pain so soon. But at least he’d commented on the bit about saying names, and at least there had been a death. It wasn’t as fun as she had hoped, but at least she wasn’t completely let down.

He puffed a cigarette in the way she’d come to see as an unconventional type of elegant.

From the top of her eye (for she did not pick her face up to him), she stared. “You’re too stuffy for your own good, you know. You didn’t really have to end it that quickly.”

Q watched or was in his own thoughts, or whatever it was he did behind those shades in these moments of silence.

She paused then to consider the events that has transpired. The longer she thought about it, the more disgruntled she began; this was clearly displayed on her face. With an over exaggerated, annoyed tilt of her head she finally lifted her face to take in the entire sight of him.

“Hey..wait…” she said much like a child recognizing that something is off-kilter, “he didn’t tell us ANYTHING. I mean.. yay.. I saw a man die, which is cool… but… now we don’t have a clue what they wanted. Come *on* mister mercenary…. That hardly seems like a wise decision!”

She showed no remorse over the death of the man, other than that she didn’t get what she had wanted from him. Throughout her monologuing, her eyes drifted to the two probably still warm pools of blood. It was beautiful and entrancing, and she had to work at great lengths to switch her gaze back to its intended target. At the end of her final word, her abandoned all attempts to keep focused on Q. She simply wanted to examine those bodies.
 
Bornes watched her and swallowed, giving a slight hmph. He looked down to the two men he'd killed one last time and picked up the knife he'd discarded, wiping it off on the bed's comforter before sheathing it on his belt.

"Unless your dad wants to cover this up, we should leave."

He went over to the other side of the bed, taking the violin case out from underneath it and holding it in his hand.
He didn't want to bother answering her other statement about killing the stranger too early. Bornes had no idea what these men were here for and while it bothered him slightly not knowing, he was able to let it go. The simple fact that the man didn't know french was an indicator that he probably wasn't after Q, so that was enough weight off his shoulders.
And not knowing at least spanish, well... That just spoke volumes about their intelligence, and so weren't of much importance anyway.
Bornes wasn't fluent in the language, but he knew enough to get around.

He passed Saeda and opened the door.
"I'm going to go back to your father's and grab my things. Convince your father that if you actually want to learn anything, you need to be able to leave town."

With that he simply left, clearly unafraid and not intimidated by Saito's daughter.
 
Saeda should have been distressed that Q was not distressed about not knowing why the men who came had come, but she wasn't. Quite frankly, she was having too much fun. While the entire scene could have gone quite poorly, and she could have indeed been in much danger, she simply treated the whole affairs as if it were a game. She listened to Q's words, but they were falling on more or less deaf ears and she hadn't the will to take them seriously.

She stared after Q, mildly dumbfounded at his ease with announcing that he was going back to her father's. She was also mildly offended that he left without so much as waiting on her. She would have been more offended if she wasn't secretly begging for a moment alone with the bodies. As soon as the door was closed behind the older man, she squealed with delight and shot out of her chair toward the door. The latch clanked shut. She motioned to lock the chain....sighed and turned toward the bodies, a chilling sneer plastered on her face.

Like a small child examining a tiny bug, she knelt next to the man with his throat cut. At first her eyes simply traced the slit, but as the thick smell of iron seeped into her brain she timidly reached toward the wound. When she at last poked the gaping hole, a last stream of blood fell from behind the flesh that held it. She turned her head sideways so that she could look into the man's empty eyes.

In a thick baby voice she said, "awwwww. pwoor ting." She pouted at the corpse.

In the span of several heart beats she simply gazed, then all at once her face lit with delight. She gasped.

"Turn that frown upside down!" Then with the blood she'd gotten on her finger, she traced a smile on his ashen face.

She looked at the other man and decided he too looked forlorn. By the time she was ready to make her retreat, both bodies were "smiling."

Her business being finished, she unlocked the door, peaked into the hall, and figured it was as good a time as any to exit stage left. She felt like a ninja as she stealthily avoided any contact with an actual human. Once, some yuppy's escaped poodle sniffed her out from behind the group of plants she was hiding behind... but a swift kick sent it yelping on its way.

At last she was out and on her way to her father's. She didn't rush. She only wanted to catch up to Q; she had no actual intention of telling Saito she would be leaving town. It would definitely make the game more interesting if she didn't.
 
Q quietly left the building, making his way to his temporary housing. By the time he entered Saito's place, Saeda had caught up with him. He still said nothing, however, and simply went to his own room, gathering his things. He collected his various dirty clothes around the place and any spare toiletries, tossing them in his seabag after unlocking the combination lock. After everything was packed again, he locked it once more, spinning the knob so the last number of his combination wouldn't be known. Then he hiked the bag up on his shoulders with a grunt, grabbed his violin case again and left the building, not really caring if Saeda had time to pack or not, or had even bothered packing, and left the building again.

He wasn't sure if Saeda was following him or not, but didn't care and began to walk down the street with a two and a half foot bag on his back carrying a violin case in his left hand. He briefly debated if he should call a cab, but decided against it and began to walk toward the highway, planning on walking straight out of town and away from the people blackmailing him.

By the time he got to the freeway and was walking on the shoulder, however, it began to rain. And when it rained, it poured.
Bornes's grey hair stuck to his face, his luggage gained poundage, and he took his sunglasses off, tucking them into his red torso'd dress shirt.
Overall, the rain didn't bother him too much-- it was just a very heavy annoyance, and reduced his chances of getting out of town before dark.
 
Having been familiar with part of town from spending much of her time as a child wandering the streets, Saeda had the advantage of knowing several short cuts. She managed to make it into her father's building before Q was even on the same block. She'd managed to pass him several blocks back and maintained the distance so long as she ran. Sure he'd still not seen her and thankful for the time away from his dull conversations, she sped into the building and slowed as she passed through the glass doors she regarded as her own threshold.

Standing just within the door was a guard she recognized well, but in all the years he'd been employed by Saito the young woman had never once taken the time to learn his name. He knew hers well enough.

"Morning, Ms. Saeda."

She wanted to beam at him, so high were her spirits, but if she did so it would arouse suspicion. She stuck with her usual eye-roll and walked on. Part one of her charade was underway. She stopped as planned, as though a thought had just occurred to her, and turned back toward the passive face.

"Has my father returned yet?" She had no idea if he'd actually been somewhere, but he was often a busy man and didn't bring those he didn't have absolute control over to his personal building. Chances were he was out. The probing question asked in this manner would make it seem like she was expected. She wanted no undue attention brought on her.

"No Miss."

She made her usual scene of looking annoyed and sighed loudly. After this she moved down the lonely, winding halls until she eventually came to her own secluded quarters. Hastily she packed a pink and yellow polka-dotted rolling luggage with all her best clothes. She packed a matching duffel bag with any many shoes as she could shove in it without bursting the seems. A cross expression settled onto her face as she dealt with the disgust of having to leave so many pairs of her precious shoes behind. She grabbed one last bag, but saw that the neon green and orange floral pattern clashed terribly with the dots on her luggage and duffel bag. She tossed it, forgotten, to the floor. She began to dig through her large walk-in closet, dumping boxes and tearing things off of shelves until at last she found another plain pink duffel bag. She half-filled this one with makeup, hair care, and other toiletries.

She hurried to freshen her hair and makeup, certain that Q was by this time in the building, and changed quickly into a pale-yellow peasant dress with long flowing sleeves. She topped her outfit off with a pair of tall white leather boots she hadn't been able to fit in the bag and Madonna-styled white fingerless glove. It made her think of her teacher. She glanced in the mirror, forcing the speedy look to suffice. She had one more thing to do before enacting phase two of her plan.

Tough it took several minutes to move the several floors below that she needed to get to, she finally found the guard she sought. He stood with his back to her, doing something with his phone- probably texting. Slacker.

"Travis!" she exclaimed with a genuine smile. She'd always found the chiseled Grecian features to be quite handsome and easy to look at. Once several months back she'd even considered reciprocating the fancy he'd taken with her when he'd begun his employment with her father. The situation would have caused more problems than benefits so she'd stifled any hints of attraction she'd felt for the man and contented herself with using him when needed, such as now.

She'd practically snuck up on the distracted guard, so he gave a startled jump before turning to face her. At once he grinned back. "Well hello, Saeda. You don't come to this part of the building much anymore." He cried as he wrapped his arms around her tiny frame in a hug. At once she made a face over his shoulder, but forced herself not to stand too rigidly. She recovered from the invasion of her space, and patted him on the back with two quick taps of her fingertips. As they parted, she forced a now-lifeless smile.

"What can I say? I've been busy."
"I imagine. So what brings you here now?" He winked as though he already knew the answer and had a personal claim to it. His hand lingered on her waist. She looked at the very young twenty-something in a suddenly serious way. (But not so serious that she forgot to shake his hand from her.)

"I need your help."
_______________________________________

Once she'd explained that she needed him to go to her room, gather her two bags, and take them down to her car in the garage below, she'd had to convince him it was worth while to abandon his post. With promises of phone calls and a night together, she'd finally gotten him to agree. She knew she didn't have to tell him to keep it a secret and go unnoticed, because it would mean horrible things for him to get caught disobeying Saito's orders...even if his guard duty was in an almost abandoned part of the building.

Presently she stood outside her father's office, standing face to face with guard who lurked there. She adjusted the pink duffel she'd brought with her, and once again demanded the guard unlock the door.

"I will not. I have orders."

"Yes, I can see that, you moron. But where have you been for the past half an hour? With my father? NO! You've been standing here....in this hallway. Do you know where I have been? At his side, doing his bidding, following MY orders. Now Peter, if you want to disturb his very important meeting, then call him up right now. One way or another I WILL get into that room. You can help me now, or you can risk his wrath. He needs the item I have been sent for, and pronto. What will it be, Pete?" She crossed her arms haughtily and puckered her lips.

The man showed no emotion, but it was evident from his long silence that he considered his options carefully. At long last, he said nothing but turned around and unlocked the door. Saeda had to keep herself from sighing in relief. He stepped in after her, but when she turned and stared at him icily, he retreated back into the hall and closed the door after him.

It took only a few minutes to rummage through Saito's desk. She found within it a tiny black address book. She pocketed it, knowing that in this world connections were key. This was a handy list of some of Saito's finest. Her next task was to push the heavy desk from its place. This took a grand effort with much grunting and panting. Eventually it was moved, and she pulled a section of carpet away from the freshly revealed floor. Beneath the inconspicuous square was the combination lock she delighted in seeing. She twisted the stiff lock, putting in her deceased mother's birthday. When the heavy door clicked open on the first try, she tsked her father for his simplicity. He trusted his guards to such extremes that he thought such a silly combination would work. She shrugged to herself, and filled the half-empty bag with several bundles of cash. It wouldn't go far in this business, but she expected Q to tell her she couldn't use her credit card at some point. They always did that in the movies. She would need some cash. When she finished, she didn't bother to move the desk back. She only closed the safe door and covered it with the carpet square.

_________________________

She got to her car and found a note that read, "Call me!" sitting in the passenger side seat. She tossed it to the floor and sped out of the garage. She'd been told by another guard that Q had left already, but not too long ago. She sped on, even as it began to rain. Her tires slid and squealed against the wet pavement as she took turns entirely too sharply. Finally, she found the man walking, wet, and glaring. She pulled her silver Mercedes next to him, rolled down the window and chirped, "Hiya!"