Hello Tuesday, so far you’ve managed to stay on my good side. Let’s keep it that way. If you’ve been following so far, this post needs little introduction other than another huge thank you to Arrens and Bricu my co-conspirators on this. And to Anna who suggested the card game. You guys are so much awesome and win!
Miriam arrived at The Grove early, carrying her lunch and breakfast in the same bag. She was pleasant to the lesser clerks and assistants, but her mind was on her first mission; look for funds that suggest active traitors to the Crown and the Alliance.
She poured over her own files first. One name stood out: Galaram Cobblespot, a gnome whose preferred form of magic was financial wizardry. He was active with withdrawals, deposits and linked to a series of blacked out funds. The numbers by those redacted fields–n73401, n7230401- screamed SI:7 operations. She knew where to look for those redacted files.
After her brief lunch, she headed to the secure room. The marble floors and built in steel vaults were not the strength of the room. Arcane wards sustained by contracted Magi gave the secure room its strength. It was the safest place in The Grove, and it protected the records of all transactions made by agents since Stormwind was rebuilt.
After scouring thousands of records, she found the ones she needed. Galaram was supposed to be fixing for two active agents: Jaren and Jaylen. Jaren’s designation, in the ledger, suggested he was an alias. He should not be getting his own funds. Definitive proof would be locked away somewhere else. But Miriam was clever. She crossed Jaren with other active agents in The Grove.
After hours of cross referencing and hiding her actions, Miriam had her answer.
This agent, Jaylen, was double dipping.
***
Loreli sat at a table near the bar, keeping an eye on the door for Miriam. The rogue hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a few days and was just starting to notice. But she was used to long vigils and combat naps and had at least another day or two in her before she really started to lose her edge. She’d swapped the jade dress for a white one and left her hair down. It made her feel slightly vulnerable and she still hadn’t gotten used to the violet hue she’d adopted for this task. She felt edgy but couldn’t identify why and so, left the wine glass untouched on the table.
Miriam entered the Silver Mirror at half past nine. She was dressed in a similar outfit: Dark trousers, white blouse, blue blazer with tails, but she carried herself with more purpose. The serving staff, and some of the regulars, seemed to notice. Miriam politely turned down three offers before sitting down with Loreli.
“Buy me a drink?”
Loreli smile and signaled the bartender who sent one of the girls over to take Miriam’s drink order.
“I did manage to find something. ” Miriam whispered. “I don’t know how much. But this isn’t really the time.” Miriam looked over her shoulder. “There may have been a lot more.”
Loreli instinctively followed Miriam’s gaze, without moving her head.
“I was followed. Briefly. I went to the Gilded Rose first.”
Loreli made a show of pulling Miriam’s face to her own, before placing her mouth by the other woman’s ear. “Did you get a good look at them?” she asked. She watched the door, scanning for anything unusual.
Miriam giggled before whispering to Loreli, “No. I know they were smaller than a human. That’s all. I waited at the Rose and then… Well, came here via the Cathedral district. I am positive I lost them after the Rose.”
***
Jaylen glanced up in irritation from the report he’d been pretending to read. Shaw had been increasingly irritable lately for a number of reasons and Jaylen had found it better to just stay out of his way. Though, it was amusing to watch others under fire. Things seemed to have died down slightly at the moment. Jaylen, and the gnome cowering before him were the only ones currently in the room.
“You’re back rather soon, aren’t you?” Jaylen raised an eyebrow.
“I… I…”
Jaylen eyed the gnome, she appeared to be younger than the operatives he was used to dealing with, with close cropped black hair. They were recruiting younger and younger. Jaylen hated working with new recruits. They always came in acting like they knew it all, cocky and stupid. With something to prove. Or a blathering idiot, like this one. That sort of attitude got them killed. No matter to him, really, weed out the liabilities, keep the ones with half a brain. He figured this gnome wouldn’t last much longer. He didn’t know her name and he probably never would.
“I’ve been stationed over by that accounting office The Grove. There’s this woman, she works there. She was acting strange, didn’t go the way she normally goes, when she leaves work. I followed her. But she spotted me and ducked into the Gilded Rose. I… lost her there.”
Jaylen narrowed his eyes. It may have easily been a coincidence, but he didn’t like to put coincidences and the Rose together. He handed the report to the gnome. Then got up.
“Here, teach yourself to forge a signature. I’ll check it when I get back.”
***
Loreli relaxed and tried to shrug off her irritation. She glanced around, everything seemed clear, no one seemed out of place. “We should be fine to speak. Just keep your voice low… what did you find?”
“An operative, a finger at least, has been requesting funds from the same financier. No mission details, but it is extravagent.”
Loreli quirked an eyebrow, “You don’t say? Who is it? And the financier? How do you know?” She tried to hold back her interest.
“The financier is a gnome. Galaram Cobblespot I spent the better part of a day looking through the records, cross-referencing accounts, transfers, notations of successes or failures. I managed to peak at older files of Galaram’s as well. I just went back and tracked the first instance of the operative’s appearance. He started a year after Shaw was promoted to his position. He’s been active for a while. Jaren.”
Loreli managed to cover her surprise with a cough. Jaylen, SI:7’s finest, was pocketing extra Seven cash? Or at least threatening the donor to augment his paycheck. This was not what she had expected. Did Shaw know?
This could be what she needed to take care of that bastard once and for all. But she needed to be sure. She couldn’t take this to Shaw without proof. There was no garuntee that he’d listen to her even with proof. He might just kill her on sight.
“Are the amounts just extravagant? Or was there something else that tipped you off?”
“The last one wasn’t too much; however, he’s been doing it since Galaram came to The Grove. Over the past five years, it could be a small fortune.”
Her mind was working at lighting speed. This wasn’t really all that surprising, all things about Jaylen taken into consideration. It actually explained quite a bit.
“How was he managing it? He couldn’t be shifting the money in his own name. Someone would have figured it out a long time ago.”
“It was a separate SI:7 code. If you didn’t know what to look for, you wouldn’t find it. And the funds were legitimate.”
Loreli narrowed her eyes, “Legitimate how?” A gnome by the bar was giving them a curious look. Loreli pulled Miriam into an embrace, giving the voyeur a glare that could either have been possessive, ‘mind your own business’ or both.
“They were all cleared. As in no holds, no trackers…” Loreli could hear Miriam exhale sharply, “This is all part of the game, right?”
Loreli chuckled with a slight nod. Nice to know she could still have this effect on people, though.
“Okay. Here’s what I need you to do now; I’m going to check into this further from my end. I want you to get up, be outraged at something I said, grab the glass of wine there on the table and throw it in my face, then storm out. Tomorrow you’re going to go to work as normal, track this back as far as you can. Compile a list of any source they may be siphoning from.” She paused thinking quickly, “Tomorrow, I’ll send you flowers in appology for my transgressions tonight. The return address on the note card will be where I want to you leave the list and any other information you can find.” Loreli sat back, running her fingers through Miriam’s hair, “You did good, do it again, make sure you’re not followed. I know I don’t need to impart to you how important this is.”
Miriam gave a slight, barely perceptible nod before she knocked Loreli’s hand away from her hair.
“How dare you touch me after you say that!” She screamed. She grabbed the wine glass and threw its contents into Loreli’s face. She spun quickly, knocking over her chair in the same manner a truly angry person would stumble. She stormed out the door, only beginning her faux-sob when she reached it.
Loreli wiped the wine from her eyes and did a rather convincing job of looking both abashed and irritated. After a moment she left the table to go clean up, terribly unintruiged by the idea of trying to get wine stains out of a white dress.
***
Once again Jeb found himself standing at the door to the Silver Mirror. Though, this time he was nervous for an entirely different reason. Jaylen had been conveniently missing for days–like no one would admit to knowing where he was, missing–up until the crazy broad at the Mirror had coerced Jeb into spying on him. Earlier today, Jeb had managed to get himself assigned to a trainee position under Jaylen’s self-proclaimed right-hand, Drin. Of course, Jaylen had popped up the moment Jeb had started digging.
He’d been extremely tempted to just turn her in. It was a rather large reward being offered. Though, technically it was hush-hush, offered only to Seven’s elite and Shaw’s most trusted. Jeb was pretty sure Drin had just wanted to gloat when he talked about how he and Jaylen had the whole situation well in hand. And people think I’m an idiot.
Jeb knew Seven didn’t appreciate him. He was a little sick of playing errand boy for jerks like Jaylen. He was capable of bigger better assignments. So, Jeb had decided to take his chances with Loreli. Crazy or not, at least she was a lot easier on the eyes.
***
Loreli still smelled of wine and this was a point of some irritation to her. I really need to think these things through. She told herself. The dress was a loss, at least for the moment. She’d been forced to change, and while purple wasn’t a bad color for her, with the slightly lavender hue of her skin and the violet dye job on her hair, it just sort of all blended together. She had just returned to the front room when a glance at the door gave her a reason to grin. Perhaps things were going to get better after all.
She moved through the crowd and met Jeb at the door, “Nice to see you again.”
He inclined his head, “Evenin’ ma’am.” He glanced back at the door.
Loreli raised an eyebrow and nodded towards the back, “Come on.” She took a chance turning her back to him, she knew it. She wanted him to know she trusted him and hopefully he would trust her too. Though, she did insist he enter the room before her. Jeb watched her over his shoulder as he walked past. This partnership was indeed tenuous.
She closed the door and leaned against a small table in the corner, folding her arms across her chest. “What’s going on? You’re really tense.”
“Well ma’am, Jaylen got a bit nosy as I was leaving.”
Loreli swore under her breath. That was now both of her contacts that had suspected someone from Seven of following them. This wasn’t looking good at all. She’d have to be really careful. She tapped her fingers against her arm, considering.
“Stay here.” She said, as she slipped back out the door. She made her way down the hall and glanced past the entrance into the main room. No sign of midnight hair, let alone anyone as tall as Jaylen. That didn’t necessarily mean anything at all.
Stepping out into the main room, she gave Jaylen’s description to one of the serving girls. Loreli told her he was a very powerful and important client and was to be treated with the utmost courtesy and respect. She told the girl she was to be informed immediately when he arrived. The serving girl nodded, slightly saucer-eyed and Loreli headed back to Jeb.
“We should be clear for now. I’ve got a look-out just in case.” She took up her original spot leaning against the table.
“Begging your pardon, ma’am but a look-out ain’t gonna do much good against Jay if he’s really determined.”
Loreli sighed and inclined her head, “This is true.”
“That disguise aint gonna fool ‘im either, by the way.”
Loreli narrowed her eyes, “It was never meant to stand up to close inspection.” She tapped her foot, “Do you have something for me or are we going to sit here and go over the SI:7 handbook all evening?”
“Jay came back this morning. General thought ’round Seven was that he’d been in Darnassus, but no one’d say for sure. I did hear Drin mention Channi to Jay. Said there’d been some complications in Northrend. Drin seemed to think Channi was in Stormwind.”
Loreli nodded and wrestled with her temper. She didn’t want Drin anywhere near Channi. Jaylen was bad enough, but Drin was just creepy.
“I’m pretty sure Jaylen told him to back off, but I ain’t for certain. I should be able to keep a closer eye on Drin at least, seeing as I’ve been assigned to be trained by ‘im.”
Loreli blinked out of her thoughts. This could either be very good, or very bad. On the one hand, he was right, he would be privy to most of Drin’s activities. Seeing as Drin seemed almost permanently attached to Jaylen he’d be party to most of those as well. Unless Jaylen decided it was time to break up with his best SI:7 buddy. On the other hand, that might make it even more difficult for Jeb to get away and deliver information to her.
“You realize what this means, right?” She asked.
Jeb nodded, “Well aware, ma’am. Can’t rightly say as I like it, but those bastards deserve to have their own games turned ’round on ‘em.”
Loreli sighed, “That it?”
“It is. I know it ain’t much, but to be fair, ya only gave me a day.” He shrugged.
Loreli nodded stepping away from the table, “True. But I made a promise. ”
“Ma’am…” He put up a hand stopping her, “I can tell you don’t normally do this sorta’ thing and well, my momma raised me right. I ain’t never pressured a lady into somethin’ she din’ wanna do and I ain’t about ta start.” He got up, holding his hand out to her, “So, you jus’ uphold your promise ta keep me outta’ harm’s way and we’ll call it even.”
Loreli frowned and started to blush. She raked a hand through her hair to cover it. She hadn’t meant to be so obvious about being frustrated with constantly trading on her body for this sort of thing. Well, don’t I feel like an ass. She was silent a moment longer before opening one of the drawers in the table and producing a deck of cards. “What’s your name?” She asked, as she began to shuffle.
He hesitated a moment, eyeing her. She couldn’t blame him. All information in this game was vital. A mere name could hold way more power than anyone bargained on.
“Folks call me Jeb, ma’am.”
“Well,” she pulled one of the chairs from the table and, gesturing him into it, “you a gambling man, Jeb?”
He raised an eyebrow at her, taking the chair. “I been told I play a fair game of cards, ma’am.” He watched, feeling slightly apprehensive as she continued to shuffle the deck.
Loreli took the chair, “Here’s what we’ll do. You win, I’ll take better care of you than most of the girls here.” She gave him a wink, “I win, you go back to Seven for just a little bit longer but report to me.”
He shrugged, “I figured I’d be doin’ that anyhow. So, how’s ‘bout this? You win, I give you a date and names ta go with it. What you do with ‘em and how you put ‘em together ain’t none of my concern. Anyone asks, I don’t know you and I certainly ain’t got no clue how you got ‘em.”
“Names and dates for what?” Loreli asked.
“For places them jerks meet and whatnot. There’s a whole lot more than just Sevens in this ring, ma’am. And if ya win, I’ll give it all to ya, just so long as you keep your end of the bargain.”
Loreli nodded, holding out a hand, “Agreed.”
They shook on it but Jeb didn’t immediately take his hand back, “Hand me those cards. I been watchin’. You’re way too good at that and I hope you’ll forgive me for sayin’; I really hope you lose.”
***
A few hours later, Jeb returned to the SI:7 building, whistling, and walked right into Drin.
“Oh shoot! Begging your pardon!” Jeb said, trying to duck around him.
“S’alright.” Drin replied inclining hid head at the younger man, “What’s got you in such a good mood?”
Jeb grinned and shrugged, “I just played the best damn game of cards s’all.” He nodded to both Drin and Jaylen who was coming in from one of the other rooms.
Jaylen frowned watching Jeb leave. “Keep an eye on him.” He told Drin.
“Eh, he’s alright.” Drin insisted.
“I’m sure he is. Keep an eye on him anyway.”