The Previous Night...
Well, this isn't how I was expecting the night to turn out... Jimmy was just leaving Patch's place, turning his collar up against the wind as he got back on his bike. Doc seemed to be in a something of a hurry to send him on his way again, but he was willing to chalk that up to a long-ass day. After all, it's not like anyone had been expecting this to turn into a working night. So much for his night off; now he needed to worry about vetting Cooper, and that meant putting in some face time with some people he knew - someone he really didn't want to be seeing tonight, in particular.
Of course he knew where he could find Anatoli that night - not that the man was really that predictable, but sometimes it was useful for him for people to track him down. His position in the Vory required that he maintain an image of being on the up-and-up, which made it difficult sometimes for him to go and deal with business face to face. On this particular night, he'd be holding court at a bar in one of the nicer parts of the 'plex, the same kind of place where professionals might go to "network" after a long day of wageslavery. To pull a meet in a place like that, there were two options - look inconspicuous enough that noone could be bothered to question what you were doing there, or look like belonged there. Inconspicuous wasn't really Jimmy's style, but he was going to have to drop by his place to pick up a suit. He fired off a message to some of his Yakuza contacts that had been planning on joining in on the race that had been called off tonight.
<<Ghostdamn this fragging rain. What'd you guys get up to after the race got called, anyways?>> Best to lay the groundwork for asking around there while he was at it.
As tended to happen, people took notice of Jimmy when he showed up at the bar. It was a pretty classy place, but he looked the part now - three-piece suit, clean cut look, the right bearing, everything. He was also wearing a particular ring, a simple white and black band modeled after a particular Vory tattoo. To those who knew what it was, it signified him as someone who moved in their circles, but who remained an outsider. It was a signal, a way to let certain people know that he needed to talk business, but to anyone who didn't know what it was or who bought into his camouflage, it just looked like a style choice. The signal was important, though, because he couldn't just walk right up to Anatoli and have the conversation he needed to have. The bar was Vory owned, though, and the bartender would recognize the ring for what it was. Jimmy grabbed himself a spot at the bar - standing room only - and flagged the man down to order a drink. When it got there, he thanked the man, clinking the ring against the glass a couple of times - nothing too obvious, just enough to draw a glance while he indicated in Anatoli's direction with his eyes.
The bartender nodded - to his credit, the kid played it pretty well, like he was just acknowledging the thanks and moving on. Jimmy stepped away from the bar; Anatoli would be scanning the place in a second after the bartender notified him and it was better to be visible. So, he mingled - their meet wasn't going to happen right away; it would have to wait until a natural time for Anatoli to get up. It was all well and good anyways, since this was a perfect chance to see what rumours were going around about the Coopers and about SFT. Eventually, though, Anatoli got up and made for the back; Jimmy moved to join him, but took a different way around. Meetings like this were part of the place's design spec.
"I wasn't expecting you tonight, Navarro." Anatoli's tone was clipped; he was willing to take the meeting, but it was going to be brief.
"Wasn't expecting me either. Sometimes these things just happen." Jimmy played it off; he didn't want to advertise that he had a run going just yet.
"And yet, you sought me out. What do you want?"
"Just an introduction or two. No doubt you heard about this SFT thing; looking to get some background on the players involved." He didn't give a reason for wanting the information; Anatoli would ask, but he wouldn't actually give a damn. It was just a game, each of them trying to get more information from the other person than they gave up themselves; they both armed themselves with information and secrets above all else.
"And what the hell do you need that for?" And there it was.
"Can't say yet. Usual arrangement if it turns into anything, of course." The usual arrangement wasn't anything so simple as a percentage - there was a price, of course, but the amount didn't really matter as long as it was "respectful". No, the usual arrangement was about favours and information - he had resources and contacts of his own, of course, but he also needed to go off book sometimes. That was the currency that mattered, so that was the currency they traded in.
"Hm." Anatoli paused, deciding just how much he cared about what was actually going on. "I can let some people know you're coming who have dealings in those areas. Keep your commlink on." Not very much, apparently.
Jimmy nodded, waved, and left. He could guess why those people weren't immediately available - some kind of deal or job going on.
Outside the bar some of the Kagetora were hanging out in, Jimmy's appearance had changed again. He'd ditched the dress shirt and waistcoat from his suit, storing them in a compartment on his bike, revealing the sharply contrasted t-shirt he'd been wearing under that, which had some reference to combat biking emblazoned on it - the sport was popular with these guys. His hairstyle was different - less "day at the office", more "night in the mosh pit", and he'd traded out the dress shoes for a pair of boots, and swapped the jacket for his greatcoat. A little bit of AR fashion on top of that, and he looked the part he needed to look.
It was a very different meet than with Anatoli - these people were friends, and actually happy to see him. Working business into these things was tricky; you had to bring it up slowly, maybe get people talking about it without you. Still, over the course of the next hour and a half, he'd managed to get a couple commitments to get back to him with some information. If anything was going on with SFT or Harold Cooper on the shadowy side of things, these guys were probably the safer method of looking into it. A message flashed up in AR at that point - Anatoli had made the proxy introductions; all he had to do was show up and make people like him.
Based on the bar he showed up at this time - his fourth that night - he could get away with the same sort of look. Which was good, because he didn't really have anything else prepped. The crowd in the place was boisterous, celebratory - so he bought a round for the bar. Nobody hates the guy who buys a round for the bar. After that he found the people he was supposed to meet, and got down to what he needed to talk to them about.
More than a bit hungover, Jimmy was running late to meet up with the rest of the team. He hadn't heard how the funeral home scouting had gone the previous night, which could be good or bad, but mostly he was just hoping there'd be coffee inside - those Russians had been in a serious mood to party. Arriving back at Doc Patch's place, he stopped for a second when something caught his eye before knocking on the door. Okay, I know the rest of that wall was there when I left last night. The hell?
