Setting
Traffic is still a problem during business hours, but the paving of new lanes of traffic and the progress of construction on damaged buildings has made it much easier to travel through the area.
The area is still home to many businesses, banks, and various cafes and coffeehouses to serve the businessman on the go.
Past business hours the makeup of the business district becomes more shady, biker gangs of all kinds using the quiet area to ride around and sometimes harass people enjoying the late-night scene.
"Or is it only exclusive to stupid?" The young man asked Yanni, "Try, love. Try me and I will make sure you die in the process."
"I don't come from America. Never been there. Probably never will. Not even from earth." Her voice was tiny, but it carried far enough. She felt herself fading. "You hurt Kazen. I don't know if..." She leaned over, spitting on the ground.
"...if you've...f-figured it out yet. You hurt a man...and I love...him...can't let that go."
"Don't you have some people to...t-to run from?"
"Let's go." Jacob said, turning to head for the back entrance near the DJ booth.
Invictus. Were Invictus near?
She got up, tumbled down the stairs, and began to direct her legs to the front door. She pulled it open, and tumbled out.
And collapsed.
"Get these people to put their fucking cameras away." The Jamaican-American woman ordered the other police officers. "And help me get her into my car, we have to take her to one of the other hospitals."
Charlie and a few police officers carefully lifted Yanni, bringing her to Charlie's car as the woman climbed in with her. "You, fifty bucks if you drive us to the closest hospital." Charlotte told a man, the man clearly wishing to have a little more money.
He was probably some intern who got crapped on at work often, he was going to get some money and some credit with the women as a hero of sorts.
"You'll be okay." Charlie said to Yanni, tearing some of her own shirt to cover the more serious of gunshot wounds.
"Ja...Ja...Ja...cob..." she mumbled, though just barely. "Loch...lyn...the...y..." She grit her teeth, hissing as the shirt was pressed to her wounds.
Charlotte moved over to Yanni's side as best she could in order to make sure she was there if the woman was rolling over during a turn.
"I'm Charlotte." She told Yanni, "You don't need to tell me your name just yet, I just want you to know who to thank." She said with a laugh.
"...Kazen."
And then, she was completely out.
"Shit." Charlie said, looking up at the road. "Drive up to emergency when we get there and then go get help." She told the man driving the car, "My siren is the middle switch on the dash, lights are the first." She told him.
They would be at the hospital soon and then she could call Phinx, let her know someone who knew Kazen was going to be in the hospital soon.
"You're going to be fine." Charlie told Yanni. She wasn't sure if this was true, she wasn't sure how hurt Yanni was exactly, how much blood she lost before Charlie showed up, what kind of gun was used.
She was hoping things were far better than they seemed.
"It's being brought now, sir." One of the men answered. Lochlyn nodding once as he looked left and then right. His limousine was like his mobile office, his second home. He hated standing out in the open.
People could see him, approach him, keep him from his life's work.
"Tell them to hurry up. It's cold."
"I'm wondering if I could bother you for a moment of your time." she said to Lochlyn, lifting her voice. Her accent was obviously Russian. "I understand you are busy."
She came off as a punk-rocker or some kind of biker. "Oye." The woman said as she approached Lochlyn, a gold tooth showing as she smiled in the man's direction.
She seemed to be channeling a bit of someone that she knew very well, it was the best way she could play the part.
"I'll give you ten minutes. Not a moment more." The man said, raising a hand so that his bodyguards knew they wouldn't have to worry about the two women.
Not yet, at least.
"But, again, was hoping to catch you during a quiet moment in your office. Perhaps we could come back with an appointment?"
"We give you our number, you call us and we come check you, eh?"
"Otherwise, call me." Lochlyn said, slipping out a business card. "Directly."
"Enjoy the rest of your day."
"Should be here soon." The man answered, stepping out of the car soon after. Lochlyn was going to conduct the meeting as he did most of them. In his limo, riding around the city aimlessly for however long he wanted or until he spotted something, or someone, that was of interest.
She was clad in a black trench-coat, one that suited her feminine form, and when she saw that Lochlyn was waiting for her at the curb, she couldn't help but smile. Glancing back over her shoulder, she waved the other along before coming to stand before the man.
"We have not kept you long?" she asked, her Russian accent clear as day.
"We got here as fast as we could. It's Wing City though, traffic jams all over." The Latina woman told Lochlyn.
Once the two were inside the car would start on it's way down the street. Lochlyn looking the two over but saying nothing.
"I hear it is an impressive company that you run." she offered. "Plenty of work but not enough hands to get the job done." She rolled her jaw, putting one hand behind her head as she watched him.
"I trust our paperwork made its way to your hands."
The woman glanced around the limo, messing with whatever she could find. "Do you have those little bottles of Jack Daniels' in here? I heard these have them. Or that's jets?"