Alphas and Executives: Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Jason Timber

With the cab pulling up in front of the club, even with the doors closed and the windows rolled up, I could still here perfectly every word coming from the speakers within the building. Paying the fare I braced myself as I exited the cab and was not disappointed by the overwhelming sound of what passed for music here at this “fine establishment”. As I got out of the cab I was for the second time tonight greeted by the taunts of orks, as well as a few trolls, and even a few dwarfs who were wearing enough leather and chains to outfit at least 4 of their larger counterparts. Ignoring the line, and the insults,  and walking right up to the ork who was watching the door tonight, stretching out my hand to shake his, and with a quick wrist movement, he knew that I was here to see Lake, and he raised the rope for me with nothing else needing to be said. Of course this raised complaints from all of the club-goers who had been waiting in line, but that was his problem not mine, and if he worked for Lake, then it was a problem that he was used to having. Walking into the club was like walking into a brick wall of pure sound. I say sound because I don’t think that anything that I was hearing could be considered music. Walking down a short hall, with my hands over my ears, I knew that I was getting scanned by every type of scanner imaginable. I also knew that the only thing I had on me besides my credstick and my bracelet was my ceramic dagger, but that one never set off any of these metal detectors. Walking into the club proper, I was greeted by the usual flare of laser and lights flashing and cavorting about the room. The dance floor was jammed with people shoulder to shoulder jumping and rocking out. It was too early in the night for any trouble, but just by looking at the crowd it looked like it might just be a ‘fun’ night in the mosh pit. Keeping my hands over my ears I walked quickly toward the bar. Nodding twice to the bartender, and then diverting to the door behind and to the left of the bar, it opened as I approached, and closed as soon as I walked through. Luckily with the closing of the door, it also closed off the noise that was threatening to deafen me. Lake loved his club, but only because it made him money and made him look legitimate. The music was not his style, nor were the patrons. This was made obvious to anyone who got this far, as while I walked up the short staircase to his office over looking the club I was treated to the soothing sounds of  one of Mozart’s classics being played on a single piano. Entering the office, Lake was already at the sideboard, the bartender having alerted him to my entrance, “Timber, good of you to come. I was worried I was going to have to come to that pit that you call a home. Please sit down, we have business to discuss. It is still vodka tonic with a lime correct” he said as he finished preparing my drink and I walked in and took a seat across from his wide desk. Taking the offered drink as Lake traveled back around his desk and sat down, I again saw why I admired him. In a world where Trolls were looked down upon by everyone, Lake had formed himself a niche here where he was able to look down at everyone else. In stark contrast to the patrons partaking of his club’s wares, Lake was wearing a conservative business suit, with a vibrantly green colored tie. Some said it was his “Troll sense” of style. But I knew that he wore the garish ties with his conservative suits because it made him stand out even more than just being a troll. “So” I started, “What biz is so important that you were willing to leave all this” I said gesturing to the office, “and come visit me in the squalor of the Redmond Barrens” Lake laughed, having grown up in the Barrens himself it was always our inside joke that I act as though it was a place where he would never dare to go. “Well as it appears, I have an act booked for a night in two weeks, and lets just say that wherever they go, they need security” he said as he leaned back and folded his massive hands together. Now Lake knew me, so I knew he wasn’t talking about me standing outside a door with a pistol in my jacket. It had me intrigued to say the least, “What kind of band is this Lake, that they will need my kind of protection?” Lake smiled, “Have you ever heard of Shadow Play?” As they played a genre of music which I despised I honestly could tell him that I had no idea what he was talking about, but that wasn’t how our conversations went, “Of course I have, do you think I was born yesterday under a rock?” Lake smiled, and then explained, “Well then you are well aware that the band makes a killing by writing, what they call songs, spilling stories about miraculous shadowruns gone astray.” I nodded and he continued, “Well it appears that they have not just been making up the stories that their songs are about, and it also appears that the teams that they have been stealing the stories from are worried about their own operational security. So as of late, although their music has driven them to the top, they have been more worried about who is coming at them from the bottom.” Now I completely understood what this was all about. Lake had this band coming in and he was afraid that his normal security, which was excellent, wouldn’t be able to handle a full team of professional runners coming in to clean up a possible security breach. Now it was my turn to smile as I leaned back and crossed my arms, “So, Lake, what extra security were you thinking of asking me about here?” This is where I got nervous, because all of a sudden Lake’s smile evaporated, “What have you got Timber, because when it comes to this kind of thing, you know that I am all out of my league.” Lake was right about that, he knew as much about the ‘mojo’ that I threw around as I knew about the guns that everyone else in the world seemed to favor. As he stared at me nervously across the top of the desk I could see the worry in his eyes. This club was all that Lake had, I mean asset-wise, Lake was a very talented fixer, but this is where he made his real money. It was also where he hid all of his dirty dealings. If it wasn’t for the club, Lake might find himself right back in the Barrens, and that is somewhere where I knew that Lake had vowed he would never live again. He would never again just be some dumb “trog” from the barrens with nothing to show for his life. I also knew that it meant he was willing to pay out his nose for this one, and I was gonna use that to my advantage. Now to be fair, I wasn’t gonna take advantage of my friend, that is how you lose friends, but I was gonna make sure that we had everything that we needed to be prepared and ready, and for everyone involved to be payed for services rendered. So with that in mind I decided to just jump into it, “75,000, all up front, with an extra 50,000 if there is an occurrence that has to be dealt with, and you will pay to replace all personal equipment lost during said encounter.” Lake sat back in his chair stunned and then blinked twice, of course this was before he almost threw himself across the desk at me, “Why you little daisy eating long eared piece of drek, what do you take me for, an idiot. What do you take me for, some low-level Johnson who has no idea how the game is played. Why the hell would I pay that much for a simple job like this?” I didn’t even flinch during his entire tirade, I simply sat there and listened, he went on for a few more minutes, but that was the gist of everything he was trying to get across. When he finished and leaned back into his chair I started again, “Look Lake, I can tell you exactly where all of your money is going. The upfront 75000 is 25000 for equipment and costs associated with setting up security for the event. Now most of that will be equipment that will be your property which we will simply be using as part of your security team, you can probably even write most of it off on your taxes. The other 50000 of the upfront cost goes to cover the team of specialists that I am going to hire to supplement security the night of the event. Now as for the other 50000, that is the hazardous duty bonus. That will be paid out in the event that there actually is a confrontation that results in casualties. That money will be used to cover hospital bills of the specialists who are here that night. If it is not needed for hospital bills, then half will be returned to you, and the other half will go to the team as a bonus. With that kind of backing I can get you a crack team in here. A team so good that if it got out they were running security, it might just cause anyone looking for trouble to think again. Now, do you want me to do this the right way, or just throw some extra bodies in the way of the bullets if they start flying, because warm bodies of “would be” security types are cheap.” Lake took a moment to consider all of the implications that my offer put on the table. In the silence of his thought, I noticed that the song had changed to a very nice violin solo, although I did not recognize the composer. Finally Lake had come to a decision, “18,000 for the upfront costs. 37500 for the salary, and 40,000 for the hazard pay, and you can have a 5000 fee for putting it all together for me.” Now there was what I liked about Lake.  He didn’t just sit there and haggle, he weighed what I had said, and came up with a solid counter offer, but just because it was solid didn’t mean that I was gonna roll over like some trained poodle, “40000 for the salary and you have a deal Lake.” With a smile Lake leaned forward, “You know you could have got more from me” he said as we shook on the deal, “Yeah, but I didn’t want money to come between us” I said as I leaned back and took a sip of my drink, now that biz was done I could start to enjoy myself a little more, and let’s be honest, Lake always had the best Vodka.