Blindsiding Phonecall

Participants:

kaylee2_icon.gif ff_silas_icon.gif

Featuring:

barazani_icon.gif

Scene Title Blindsiding Phonecall
Synopsis Silas learns that Raytech's CEO is missing.
Date January 16, 2020

1:30 pm

Cafe Seakor, Red Hook


Cafe Seakor is having a good day, it seems; it seems a sizable portion of the Safe Zone had come down with a craving for Polish food, because the place is packed. Silas had snuck in before the rush had truly gotten underway and had been able to nab a corner table — the perfect place to conduct his business in peace.

Which is why he's sitting with a dish of hot pierogi front of him, talking on a burner cell phone. "Yeah. That's Tyminski; he should be by tomorrow. Uh-huh." He nods. "Gotcha. Thanks again; bye." He ends the call, eats a dumpling, and considers… but this is still Official Business, so he might as well use the same phone. Pausing to nab a second dumpling, he punches in another number, shrouding himself to render the conversation he's about to have uninteresting to any would-be eavesdroppers who might be lurking nearby; not that he suspects any, but it's a good habit to be in, these days.

He waits for the other end to pick up. "Hello, this is John Dantes. Could I speak to Richard Ray, please?" he asks, doing his best executive impression.


Raytech Industries


Kaylee sighs. Her hand tucks under her chin, while she clicks through all of her brother’s emails. It was one of the first things she had Alia reroute. She might be regretting it a little. Bob sat on one of her couches, working on a laptop, face creased with concentration. He might have made himself her bodyguard again, but he still had work to do.

The quiet is so absolute that when her desk phone rings, both jump at the sound. Kaylee gives a huff and picks up the phone. “Yeah Sera?” There is a pause, before Kaylee sighs out a “Patch him through and Sera? It’s Thatcher now, not Sumter.”

The tone beats three times before ‘John’ hears a vaguely familiar voice, “Hello, Mr. Dantes. I apologize, he is unavailable. I’m his sister, Kaylee. I’m acting in his stead, how may I assist you today.”

There's a brief pause as Silas runs through his mental Rolodex. Kaylee. The name isn't unfamiliar, but he's having a hard time pinning it down.

"Ah," he says. There's a momentary pause as he parses this, but it doesn't stall him long. "I don't believe we've had an opportunity to speak before; I'm John Dantes, with the Fiddler's Green Dinner Theatre out in Bay Ridge," he says, his voice cordial. "My friends call me Silas, though; I include your brother in that number. Richard's been very good to us." His tone is warm, but he's frowning as he speaks. Acting in his stead is not the sort of phrase one typically uses when someone is just out to lunch or something. It could be nothing more than an odd turn of phrase, but…

Well. He has some news to deliver. Best get that out of the way. "Recent circumstances — including a hospital stay — have significantly delayed our grand opening. But I recently ran into an old friend of mine from back home, someone who I was hoping would be able to handle preparations in my stead and get things moving again. As Mr. Ray has invested a sizeable portion of money in us, I wanted to inform him," he explains, his tone amiable and polished.

He pauses for a moment, taking a sip of water; when he speaks again, his tone is closer to his usual tone of voice. "But business aside. How is Richard, these days?" he asks, letting the barest hint of his worry show through in his voice. And why are you acting in his stead? he thinks, but does not say.

He can’t see it, but brows shift upward on Kaylee’s head and the man now has her full and uninterrupted attention. Back home. Something about the way he says…. And the name Silas is familiar, as is the business itself. “I’ve heard of your dinner theater and I’m sorry to hear about the problems. I’ll make a note of it for when he’s back.”

As for Richard, well… “I’m…. I’m not sure when he’ll be back.” Tucking the phone against her ear, held in place with her shoulder, Kaylee scribbles the information about the show down on a scrap piece of paper. “If you are who I believe you are, that means you are one of Liz’ group.” That gets Bob’s attention, but Kaylee waves at him to mind his own business, the turning where the back of the chair is to him. An illusion of privacy.

“Which means, you’ll probably learn from her soon enough,” Kaylee looks out over the Raytech grounds. “My brother was possibly kidnapped by a close associate.” There is a flatness to her tone. “Though, we are looking into the possibility of someone using their identity, as a disguise or otherwise.”

There's a full beat of silence as Silas sits stock still, considering that. "Okay. Before I go on here, let me make sure we're on the same page," Silas says, his voice calm and even. "Your brother was possibly kidnapped? Or your brother was kidnapped, possibly by a close associate?" he asks.

“Oh, he was most definitely kidnapped,” Kaylee assured the man on the other end, her tone getting a glance from Bob. “We have it on video. The whole thing,” she adds. He can hear the feeling of helplessness in her voice. Kaylee rubs the bridge of her nose and sighs. “We’d rather it wasn’t.”

A stranger will always be far more preferred than a friend. There is a loss that comes from that kind of a betrayal.

Another moment of silence. "Okay," he says, mostly to fill airtime as he chews on what she's said. There's another momentary pause. "I don't want to press on a sore spot, Kaylee, but… this has kinda blindsided me. I could see someone tryin' something on your brother, but he doesn't strike me as the sort who'd be easy to get the drop on." There's a pause as a horrible suspicion creeps up on him. No. Couldn't be.

Full video. Close associate. Okay. "When… when did this even happen? And how? If you've got full video, I'm assumin' it happened either on Raytech's turf, or on the turf of someone who's friendly with ya. I could see a close associate gettin' in, but how'd they get out with him?"

What even happened?

Now that was an awkward question for Kaylee to answer. She squirmed in the chair hesitant on how to answer that. There was no way around it, her head dropping forward to press fingertips pressed to her forehead. Well… Kaylee reluctantly admits, “Let’s just say they used….a… a personal shortcoming against him to drug him.”

It was the delicate way of saying Rue swung her hip, stuck her tits in his face, and roofied him.

Over by the couch is a choked, snort of laughter. It brings the woman’s head up with a snap. Bob knows he’s in trouble before he even angles the apologetic look her way, only to have it met with a flat look of irritation. Really, Bob?

Brows furrow a bit further and Kaylee turns the chair back to him. “After that a teleporter popped in and popped out with him.” That bit rushed, egged on by her discomfort with the subject. “All this happened a little over a week ago, it’s in the hands of the authorities, now. That’s about all I have really.”

Silas is, again, silent for a moment. "Slick," he says grudgingly. "And it sounds like it was well planned, too," he says a moment later — another dollop of praise, rendered extremely grudgingly. Teleporters complicate things.

He exhales, letting out a long, slow sigh between his teeth. From the way Kaylee's answers have been phrased, it seems likely that that's about all he's going to get… which is fair enough. He's a loose friend and a sometime business partner; they didn't even have to tell him this much. "Thank you for telling me this," Silas says sincerely. "If you need help with anything, feel free to give me a call; Lis has my number." He doubts they'll take him up on it, but the offer has to be made.

"Anyway!" he exclaims, forcing a more jovial tone as he shifts the subject. "Jason Tyminski will be out to the boat, probably sometime in the next few days, with the hopes of resuming preparations for the Grand Opening; I've already apprised the security guys, but I wanted to apprise you as well." He hesitates for a moment, then adds, "And I hope your brother turns up safe and sound."

“I have no doubt, my brother will return.” Kaylee believes that with every fiber of her body. “He’s a Ray after all.” They had a way of surviving thanks to their father.

“Otherwise…” Kaylee slowly turns the chair around and leans against the desk. “Well… lets just hope he comes home safe.” There is a threat in those words for who ever took, Richard.

“Have a good rest of your day, Silas.”


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