The meeting in the Old Finn had ended far sooner than expected- Rep Langley did not expect a consensus on the matters at hand to be reached so quickly. Then again, this wasn't Congress- people knew how to compromise, especially with a common enemy looming ominously on the ever-approaching horizon, one that had already been slowly tightening its chokehold for years.
His body and mind now fresh again, Rep Langley stepped out of the bar and breathed in the cool night air. There was not a person in sight, save for those whom he had just met earlier. A feeling of lightness overcame him, as he looked up at the dark, starless sky.
The sound of beeping came from his pocket. A call was incoming.
"Yes, Dr Carter, I'm done. Yes, I will be back in D.C. shortly. See you in a bit."
And with that, the congressman hung up and, hailing a taxi, disappeared as quickly as he had arrived.
A short while later...
Washington D.C.
'The Queen B!tch'
10:45PMIn an old building along 7th Street NW, just a short distance away from the Capitol, was a small, neon-lit bar called The Queen B!tch. Owing to its small size and seclusion, there were usually few patrons, but the ones who did turn up, such as the little entourage of one particular congressman, tended to visit very regularly.
"Ayy, hello friends", said the bar's lone waitress, a tomboyish and sprightly young lady with cheeky blue eyes and a sleek bubblegum pink bob, leaning on the booth table that the three sat at every time and swishing her bangs out of her eyes. "The usual stuff for tonight?"
"Yep, just the usual for me", said the first of the trio, a large silver-haired black man in his fifties, wearing a casual shirt and trousers with his tie hastily undone. "Red wine."
"Alrighty, that's one red wine for Erwin, as usual... Actually, do you wanna try this new stuff we've got? 2002 Anjou-Villages Brissac AOC. The boss went out of his way to get his hands on it. He says the first glass will be on the house, just for you."
"Sure. Thanks, Ash."
"Hey Ash", said the second, a young Asian lady in a T-shirt and sweatpants with her hair in a haphazard ponytail, "give me a ginger beer."
"Feeling like a lightweight today, are we, Leonie?"
"Shut up."
"Hey Ash, uh..." The third, a young, bespectacled, golden-haired boy in a tailored pinstripe suit, sheepishly raised his hand, as if to try to catch the attention that Ash was already showing him. "I'd like, uh..."
"A cocktail, as usual?"
"Yea. A... uh..."
"A what?"
"I'd like a Singapore Sling, but with grapefruit juice instead of lime juice. Oh, and with Grand Marnier instead of Cointreau. Add an extra teaspoon of it, too. Oh, and add a wedge of lime on top of it too, if that's okay. And, er, you can skip the Bénédictine. I'm not in the mood for that today."
"Anything for you, my dear Jesse", said Ash, puckering her lips playfully. "Any snacks?"
"Just some edamame", said Erwin Carter, the doctor. "That will be all."
"Alrighty. Be right back."
With Ash the waitress disappearing off to get the orders, the trio got down to business.
"Okay", said Dr Carter, reaching into his briefcase and taking out a stack of papers held together with a small red paperclip that seemed to be struggling to hold everything together. "Joseph won't be back in D.C. until tomorrow morning, but he gave us the green light to get on with the planning. We've been thinking about getting this done for a while now. Now is a good time to strike. So just to recap everything..."
He fished out one of the papers- a dossier for a person.
"This man here is Seong Jun", Dr Carter explained. "He's a plastic surgeon who sometimes goes by the name of Dr Lucius Seong. 38 years old. He performed a rhinoplasty on South Korean President Hwang Wi-seung two months ago, following which he flew to the US, and disappeared. He was last seen at Los Angeles International Airport, where he walked to a taxi accompanied by this man here. Alberto Milano, a United Mafia extortionist."
"Yep, yep", said Leonie, shaking her feet and resting her chin in her hand. "Usual stuff. Nothing we haven't done before."
"Now, we know that the Korean President has made lots of money off of the United Mafia's East Asian operations. Seong Jun is most likely also in on it. But the interesting thing is that over here in the States, we have Leonard Yeager, who has been nominated to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, who is a close friend of Seong Jun. Word has it Seong Jun does facelifts for him on a regular basis. More likely than not, that means Yeager's tied to the Mafia, too.
"So here's Joe's plan. The Senate will all but certainly overwhelmingly vote to confirm Yeager. What we need to do is get people to kick up enough of a storm. Tie the man to the Mafia openly. It doesn't matter if the Mafia rams him through, so long as his image is marked. For that, we're gonna find Seong Jun, who is, according to Joe's sources, somewhere in D.C."
"Alrighty." Ash, the waitress, had returned. "One bowl of edamame for each of you three. One Singapore Sling for Mister McBride. One red wine for Dr Carter. And one ginger beer for Lightweight Leonie."
"Shut up, Ash."
"So when is Joe gonna be back?" Ash sat down in the booth seat beside Jesse and crossed her legs, taking up the space that was usually occupied by Rep Langley. Jesse, turning red in the face and struggling to avoid eye contact with Ash, shifted a little further in. "How long did he say he was gonna spend in New York?"
"Less than a day, actually", said Leonie. "He should be home by tomorrow morning."
"That's good to hear", said Ash, winking playfully. "When he gets back, tell him that the Queen B!tch has a surprise for him."
"A... surprise?"
"Oh, he'll know it when he sees it", the waitress replied coyly. "Manipulating Congress against the Mafia is no easy task. Refreshments are always good, y'know."
"Damn, this is good stuff", said Dr Carter, sniffing from his glass.
"So the Boss and I got him a present", Ash continued. "A little token of appreciation from the Queen B!tch."
The TV droned on in the background- it was the usual newsreel, talking about whatever it was that was happening as of late. Strangely enough, nothing of note had taken place, at least not anything the media deemed fit for reporting.
"CNN, Fox News, NBC... they're all the same", said Leonie, sighing. "Can't get anything done without, well, you know."
"Uh..."
Here, Ash's expression became dark, and her eyes darted furtively from side to side, as if eyeing the surroundings of the bar. Aside from the trio, there was hardly anyone else; there was the bartender, a small-built bald Asian man in a tuxedo, as well as one other regular customer, a lanky middle-aged black lady with a big afro, seemingly asleep on the counter. The Boss, as usual, wasn't around- he usually hid himself away in his office, and only came out into the bar on the rare occasion that the crowds got too big for Ash to handle by herself.
"Since it's only Bev and Hide in today, I'll let you in on something", she said in a hushed voice. "There's this guy who's been coming, usually a little bit after you guys leave. Tall, handsome guy, always wearing a suit. I don't know if he's using his real name for his tab, either."
"You think he might be a Mafia fella?"
"I have my suspicions", said Ash.
The sound of chimes broke the monotony of the smooth lo-fi jazz that had been droning on endlessly in the background of the bar. An old grandfather clock standing in the corner rang out mournfully, signalling that it was now 11:00PM. A gust of cold air from the outside briefly made its way through the bar, as a tall, olive-skinned man in a pinstripe suit and a fedora entered the room, his deep-set eyes piercing through the smoky halogenic interior of the bar. With his entrance, Ash shot to her feet in an instant and quickly strode over to him, away from the trio, all of whom averted their gaze from the man who had just come in.
"Welcome, Mr Fontana", they could hear Ash greeting the man, who didn't utter a word, instead just nodding quietly. "Counter seat, as usual?"
In a mere instant, Leonie had whipped out her phone and snapped a quick picture of the man, so fast that even Jesse and Dr Carter did not notice. With that, she opened the encrypted messaging app that Rep Langley had gotten them to download, and quickly sent the picture to their group chat.
Hey Joe, she typed.
This guy look familiar to you?A bit of silence on the other end. And then a reply.
Keep an eye on him. I know this bastard.Leonie’s eyes darted furtively round the neon-lit bar, scanning the interior for other people.
“Keep your voices down and watch him”, she said to Jesse and Erwin, both of whom leaned back in the booth seats and struck relaxed poses, resting their heads in their crossed arms behind them, their eyes shifting to watch the man who’d come in.
He was a handsome man, with features like that of a movie star and a dress sense not at all unlike one. In the orange neon lights of the Queen B!tch, his tanned skin took on an almost hellish tint, as he took a seat at the bar counter and folded his trench coat, putting it neatly on the empty counter seat beside him, before leaning forward on the table and crossing his legs suavely, looking at Ash the waitress and at Hide the bartender.
“I would like to have an El Diablo.” The man’s accent was smooth, yet forced- almost as if he was faking it.
The bartender nodded in silence and set about preparing the components for the cocktail. As the man in the suit swiveled around to face the inside of the bar counter, Ash looked down at the trio and raised her finger to her neck, surreptitiously drawing a line across.
Leonie nodded back.
“Permit me to ask you two a few questions.”
“Um, yes?”
“The man sounds only 90% human”, Erwin muttered under his breath, taking a measured from his wineglass. “Hmm. Very nice wine. Full bodied, smooth... no tannins.”
“What is the nature of things in this neighbourhood?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m asking, is this a quiet neighbourhood or a noisy neighbourhood.” The man in the suit grinned a wide smile, but it did not reach his eyes, which stared unblinkingly at Ash’s own. “Are there many crimes that happen in this neighbourhood?”
“Not really”, Ash replied, in as natural a manner as she was able to do so, considering the man’s unsettlingly stiff demeanour.
“Very good.” The man continued smiling, raising a thumbs up in a robotic manner.
The bartender finished making the cocktail, which he promptly handed to the man.
“Thank you, Hide Tanigaki”, the man mechanically thanked the bartender, reading off of his name tag and pronouncing 'Hide' as the English word
hide. “And thank you too, Ashley Truman”, he thanked the waitress, in the same robotic manner, conspicuously reading off of her name tag too.
“Something is up with this guy”, Jesse hissed under his breath to Leonie and Erwin, stirring his Singapore Sling vigorously with the paper umbrella and then taking an incongruously careful sip. “He talks like a robot. What’s with that?”
“Maybe English isn’t his first language?” Leonie suggested.
“Doesn’t seem like it”, Erwin added, still keeping the man in his peripheral vision. While they spoke, Ash had headed over to the corner of the bar where the phone plugged into the sound system was, increasing the volume by a few degrees. She looked in the direction of the trio and winked approvingly. “That doesn’t sound like someone who doesn’t understand slang. It’s more like he’s trying to pretend... to be someone he isn’t.”
The lanky black lady sitting at the counter stirred a bit and mumbled something under her breath. She looked up at the man in the suit sitting two seats down from her- he flashed her the same mechanical smile he had given to Ash and Hide just moments earlier.
The cigarette she’d been holding had burned right through to the filter.
“I’m going home”, she said, taking her purse and stumbling to the exit. “Tomorrow, homies.”
“Goodbye, Bev”, said Ash.
“Goodbye”, said the bartender quietly.
“Goodb-“
Leonie did not get to finish the word, for at that moment, the man in the suit had gotten out of his seat and floated over to the booth seat at which the trio was seated, almost like a phantom, his drink still in hand.
“Is it okay with the three of you if I sit with you?”
“Sure, I guess.”
At the same moment that the man in the suit sat in the empty space beside Jesse, much to the latter’s perturbation, Leonie and Erwin both checked their phones. Joe had been typing for the past half a minute- it seemed like he had something rather important to say.
“Allow me to introduce myself.” The man, again, smiled and looked at each of the three, one by one. “My name is... Peter Fontana. I presume you three are regular patrons of this here establishment?”
That man’s name is Paulos Fontana. I saw him in Congress, some time last year. He was speaking to Sen Maj Leader Mark Couture in his office. “That’s right”, said Erwin suspiciously and reservedly. He took another sip from his wineglass and set it down, looking squarely at Fontana. “Pleasure to meet you... Peter.”
I’m 100% certain Couture is a Mafia plant. This man is most likely with the Mafia too.Leonie glanced at Erwin, who shook his head darkly.
“So what do you people do for a living, and how do you know each other?” Fontana asked the trio.
“Oh, we’re just PR managers”, said Jesse. He gestured at Erwin. “This guy is our supervisor.”
“I see.” Fontana held his cocktail to his mouth, but did not drink, instead bringing the glass back down and putting it on an empty coaster.
Try to suss a bit of information out from him if you can, but be careful not to reveal anything either.“We work at the Barnes and Noble D.C. headquarters”, Jesse prattled on, clearly perfectly comfortable spinning a false alibi entirely out of thin air. “Lately there’s not been much business, so the sales department people are all in for a hanging, you know. But we’ve got to work round the clock as usual. There’s always stuff happening, even when there’s nothing happening.”
“Hi, sorry Ash. Could I have another glass of that stuff?” Erwin raised his hand and spoke over Jesse’s rambling. “Put it on my tab.”
“Coming right up!”
“Very fascinating lives you people appear to be leading”, said Fontana in a manner suggesting that he was trying to express interest somehow, before then slowly standing up. The whole time, Erwin had noted, the man did not once blink- nor, for that matter, did he stop smiling.
Leonie and Jesse both looked up at him.
“I shall be taking my leave”, he said. “I hope to be able to speak to you and get to know you all better in the near future.”
And with that, the man had vacated the bar, leaving behind his cocktail which he had left untouched.
...
11:47PM"So anyway, that's the plan."
With the suited man's interruption, the meeting between the trio had gone a lot slower than expected, and by the time all the details had been finalised, the trio were visibly and palpably exhausted.
"Hey, you guys good?" The bartender had quietly packed his things and clocked out about half an hour ago, leaving Ash alone in the Queen B!tch to keep things open until the trio left. Already, she had turned off most of the lights, leaving only a single fluorescent ceiling light and the neon tube sign that kept the one remaining occupied booth illuminated. As she took a seat with the trio again, the fiery red light rendered her bubblegum pink hair a rather odd shade of magenta. "That guy's been coming here every day for the past week or so. Y'all usually don't see him because you come earlier, "
"Who is he, really?" Leonie brushed her hair out of her eyes and downed the remnants of the ginger ale in her pint glass. By now, it had gone flat. "Joe's seen him before, in Congress. He says he might be Mafia."
"That's what I suspected too, but I can't tell what it is he's up to", said Ash, scratching her head and crossing her legs. "He comes in every day, orders an El Diablo, sits around and talks to a bunch of other customers, if there are any... and then he just gets up and leaves without drinking the cocktail."
"Hmm." Erwin scowled.
"Are you gonna be safe?" Jesse asked nervously. "I mean... you're like, spying on him and talking smack about him behind his back."
"I like to think my black belt in judo is worth
something", Ash replied Jesse coyly, adding a coquettish wink as if to tease him. "Joe thinks I'm pretty good, if that means anything to y'all."
"Um-ah, I mean- yea, er, that's like, uh, kinda, uh, what I was thinking, if you realised, yeah", Jesse blurted out, hastily turning his gaze elsewhere.
"Jesus Christ, Jesse. It's like you're doing it on purpose", said Leonie, rolling her eyes.
"Doing what?" Jesse leaned on the table and cleared his throat loudly.
"Jesse, just so you know, I'm turning 33 this year." Ash added. "I know I look nice and young, but we have an almost ten year gap between us."
"Okay, I think we've spent enough time here." Erwin checked his watch in a purposefully conspicuous manner. "We've got our work cut out for us tomorrow. I think we'd all like to get a bit of sleep, not to mention Ash needs to close shop too. So."
"Yea", said Jesse, suddenly yawning. "Jeez, it's late. Let's get going."
"Remember your assignments, everyone", said Leonie, standing up and manoeuvring past Erwin out of the booth's inner half. "Tomorrow, we'll meet back here in the Queen B!tch at 9:00PM. An hour and forty five earlier than today. Joe will be with us tomorrow, so on the off chance our friend Fontana comes early, we'll leave it to him. Our two main focuses for this week will be gathering information on Leonard Yeager and finding Seong Jun and taking him in for interrogation."
"And that one other thing", said Erwin.
"Yea", said Leonie. "Don't worry, Ash, we'll keep you in the loop. Joe's bringing a new guy along to help out. Something big's coming up, from what I gather, but for now, all we need to know is that we've got this new guy called Zach coming along to help us out."
"Alrighty. New customers are always good."
"Yes", said Leonie, straightening out her T-shirt and stretching her limbs. "That's it for tonight, ladies. Get a good rest."
"Alrighty guys. See y'all tomorrow."
...
12:03AMStanding across the road from the Queen B!tch was a dark figure in a long winter jacket and a fedora. The faint embers of a lit cigar pierced the blackness between the evenly-spaced conical lights of the street lamps, as the figure quietly watched the door of the bar, conveniently illuminated by one of the street lamps on the other side.
Out the bar came Ash, herself in a winter jacket draped over her work uniform, the only visible feature from across the street being her pink bob. Without pausing, she made her way down the street, in a hurry to get back home and crash for the night.
That signified the Queen B!tch's closing hours.
"Ok Gabbie", said the dark figure to someone, over the phone. "I've got things on my end sorted out.
"Tomorrow at 10:30PM is when we'll move in. Make sure you and Alberto have got the katanas ready."
...