Participants:
| Scene Title | So Black, He's a Hole |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Minea passes on to Felix what she feels safe to, about Feng Daiyu. She also cautions him to drop it. Period. |
| Date | August 23, 2009 |
The Nite Owl is a survivor from ages past - one of those ancient diners with huge plate glass windows, checkerboard linoleum floor, and a neon owl over the entrance that blinks at those entering. Inside, there's an L-shaped main counter, complete with vintage soda fountain and worn steel stools. All of the cooking is done on the ranges ranked against the rear wall. The outer wall is lined with booths upholstered in cracked scarlet vinyl, tables trimmed with polished chrome. Despite its age, it's been lovingly maintained. The air is redolent with the scent of fresh coffee, vanilla, and frying food.
Minea placed a call to Felix. Get thee down to the nite owl. Despite that it's very close to curfew, the place doesn't close. Cops still need aplace to eat at night while they're working. So Minea's parked at the very back, nursing a cup of coffee and drumming her fingers on a thin filed on the table before her and waiting for Felix to show up.
Fel's ….taped to hell. Someone kicked his face in, and he's not had access to any healer but time. So he moves with less than his usual verve and speed, as he come in, seats himself gingerly across from her.
"Geeze kitty, you should go see Beauchamp. Maybe she'll take pity on you and fix you up" The waitress comes around, refills Minea's coffee, offers to fetch what Felix wants to drink. It isn't until, however, that the woman is gone that Minea leans across the table a fraction. Gone is the mirth and joke, seriousness replacing it. "How'd you come across Feng Daiyu?"
"Beauchamp's out of the healing business. She's lost her virtue," He means that word in the sense of having power, all unaware that it's a pun. "The only other healer I know of wants me dead." He slumps against the glittery vinyl cushions, gray with weariness. "In short….a supposedly ex-Member of the Vanguard sought me out to tell me that an alleged CIA assassin was on her trail. Counting on the ancient rivalry between Bureau and Agency to get me to take up the cudgels for her, since the spooks have neither jurisdiction nor license to operate within the borders of the US. I went up the chain a bit with that info, got nothing much. And Mr. Daiyu himself paid me a visit to more or less tell me to stick my nose somewhere else, since it was way above my paygrade. He's DIA, and he is apparently licensed to kill. I got another visit from Ruskin and another ex-Vanguard buddy. They keep trying to force me to act. But the fact is, celebrity aside, I'm a brick agent of no particular seniority or rank."
Minea licks her lips, ink tongue darting out before she sucks her lower lip in. "Drop looking for Daiyu. I burned favors and contacts, fuck, waded into enemy territory to secure a picture. Of which, got me more than just a name. As spooks go Kitty… He's pretty black. Not CIA, not even DIA. He's so deep and black that… I don't think he's even.. Legal in any sense of the word" A picture, obviously from a security camera, is pulled from the folder, followed by another and another. Full front, then profile of either side. "This him?"
The Agent's narrow face is grave, perturbed. "It is. What have you found?" he wonders, voice barely more than a whisper.
"I found enough, that I'm wondering what fox hole I've blindly stuck my hand into. I hit a wall Felix. A big black wall, and I can't get past it because no one I know has the clearance to get past it, and I have to tell you, I know some people with really high clearances"
Felix peers at her, over the band of tape on his nose. "That sounds like….what he was saying, actually. Direct presidential authorization, or something insane like that. Tell me more."
Now is when the file is opened. "Daiyu, Feng. Former officer of the People's Armed Police of China" She looks over at Felix. " He disappeared from China in 1989 shortly after the Tienanmen Square Massacre. Coincidentally, that's the same time that one Wu-Long Zhang who participated in the same thing, disappeared. Make of that what you will hmmm?" Her eyes lever back down to the paper. "My CIA buddies say that he went to ground afterward. They had files on him from an overseas intelligence gathering operation on the Korean Tongs, that's Korea's Triad. back in the late 1990s, but he was only a mid-level leg-breaker back then. Beyond that Felix, that's all that they had"
"Oh, my god," Felix says, quietly. "Don't even imply he's got ties to the Vanguard." He's gone pale, and slouches down further, hand to his eyes.
Minea's brows raise. "Oh, kitty. If only it were that simple"
Felix opens an eye, peers past laced fingers like a child filtering out a scary movie. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying to you Kitty, what I'll say to Ms. Ruskin and her pet Labrador. Don't touch him. Don't go near him, don't look at him. I'm suspecting that I'll get a visit from folks, just because I went looking for him, and told to forget what I saw. I wouldn't be surprised if he's former vanguard. I wouldn't be surprised at all, and that he turn coated and is now hunting them down. He's looking for Holden. I know that much. And that makes two vanguard member still alive. Possibly more"
"They had a fight in the subway. A running gun battle that killed civilians. Fuck it. We need to have an APB out on the both of them," Fel says, firmly. "There are more than a few Vanguard still out there. Eileen Ruskin, Holden, Gabriel Gray…."
"Three known. Assume that Mr. Hand Grenade is a fourth, Feng.. assume is former. Kitty, you need to back out of this. This is not your fight. Tell them thanks but.. it's far too deep for even you. The only reason I found anything was I burn a shitload of favors and made new ones. I swear, I owe my firstborn to a guy in langly"
Felix peers at her for a moment, gives an incredulous bark of laughter. "I can't. I'd like to. For once, you know, I'd like throw up my little hands and hand this up the chain. But Ruskin and whomever seem to think that I am going to mount my white horse and ride to her rescue. Fuck. I told her that if she turned herself in and cooperated, I'd make sure she didn't get the chair."
'yes well, I'm going to go have a chat with Ruskin and her pet dog. Find out what they know. Because they know more than they're letting on" Minea closes the file. Everything else, with regards to General Autumn, she won't spill.
"Daiyu's bad news"
"Tell me about it," Fel says, dryly. "Now, how did -you- run across him?" he says, laying a hand on the file.
'From you Kitty, or have you forgotten our conversation in the hospital. From there.. well, like my superior agent believes, I can pull miracles out of my ass" The file is pulled back gently from under his hand. "He crawled out from a rock. He works for no legal entity. He's operating on American soil because he can and has been ordered to most likely. Half the government probably doesn't know he exists, and the other half looks away because they don't want to acknowledge that he exists. He's so black Kitty, he's a Hole"
"And, in a sense, were he more precise, he's doing us a service. It burns me to admit it…..but we might be better off if most of them are shot in a ditch." Fel looks as if even the words taste bad.
"well, at least you seem to agree with him on one thing" Minea eases back in her seat, putting the file away. "So, other than garnering the attention of less than savory characters, how you doing?"
Felix spreads his hands. "Exhausted, really. I've got months of vacation time accrued, I should take it, you know? As if things will ever ease down." He looks dispirited. Can't even boast about Leland.
"Take it. Go to like, the Caribbean, take your roommate with you. Come back with a tan. But get the fuck out of here till your nose heals Felix. Really. I mean, every time I turn around, I hear your in the hospital. Your bills gotta be piling up"
Felix nods to her. "I….they've been taken care of. But yeah," He pulls himself up, as if too weary to pursue it all further.
"whatever it is Kitty, you need to take a break from this city, before some day, you don't come out of the hospital except in a black bag" There's a worried and sympathetic look. "I like you man, I do. Your a friend in a really cold city and I'd like to keep you that way"
Felix levels a wry look at her. "I do," he says, simply. "I already died once, it sucked."
"well, lets not have anymore sucking okay" She slides some bills onto the table, getting up. "need a ride home again?"
Felix shakes his head. "I can walk. But thanks. Go well, kid."
"kid" Minea snorts. "Right Kitty. We're around the same age. Call someone else kid. Lest I kick your ass" And with that, the brunette's loping ahead of him, heading for the door and the black SUV out front.