Ambrose confronts his crew about a recent death and presents his crew with a new job.
CHAPTER SETUP
The crew gather at Montgomery's place, crew HQ, at his request after a body is found near the Odalis airport outback of one of the guardhouses. Montgomery needs to make sure his men know the damn rules. He also has another request of his men Monty has plans for a heist brewing.
It was 11pm when Mayson pushed open the front door to Montgomery’s place. The wooden door slammed against the wall with a crack, drawing the attention of Montgomery himself seated in the living room of the four story house. The cold stare did nothing to slow Mayson down as she heeled off her boots and shucked her burgundy sweater off tossing it over the half wall.
“Why the fuck are you calling me off a god damn job Montgomery?” Kersty Mayson, demanded as he rounded the corner of the half wall to stand in the entry of the living room. Montgomery held his stare without flinching at the demand.
“Because you’re acting like a punk ass kid running around my territory like there are no rules.” The room felt hot as Montgomery tossed an arm over his chair, his voice teeth grindingly smooth as he needled into Kersty with the explanation he gave to everything she did something wrong. And Kersty realized with an irritated frown that her face was red and warm with embarrassment.
“Don’t you fucking pull that suave ass bullshit with me. Why the fuck am I being called of a job.”
Montgomery tisked flicking a manicured finger towards the kitchen table. Kersty hated his excessive grooming and preening, it was irritating and wasteful even if Monty was handsomer for it she didn’t give a fuck.
Turning from Monty, Kersty looked toward the kitchen table eyes falling to a brown paper bag sitting on a white placemat in front of her regular seat. She didn’t think much of it until she stepped away from the half wall toward the bag and the pungent musk of shit hit her nose. The smell was stomach turning.
“What the fuck is this?” The words were practically screamed at Montgomery.
“We don’t shit where we eat Kersty.” The reply was curt, sharp and held with a stare that had Kersty grinding his teeth mouth pulled into an exaggerated snarl.
The look reminded Montgomery of the animal he currently felt Kersty was.
Most of Matthew's day had been wasted in bed, wrapped up in covers. One might have thought that after being signed on to work under Montgomery, he'd have qualms and hesitance with his things and sleeping habits. Not with Matthew. He had been tangled in his blankets, the sun streaming in the window, sleeping through the hottest part of the day. He'd gotten in late this morning after a simple enough recon and curled up in bed to get some sleep.
He'd woken at some point earlier in the day, long enough to sneak around the house, poking his head in here and there, listening to the sounds of people and the house, and anything outside before he'd retired back to his bed. 11pm was quite the time to be getting up, but he'd scrambled off into the shower, cursing under his breath about first impressions and bullshit sleep schedules.
The heat stung his back, but it felt good. Steam was wiped off the mirror after that, teeth brushed, clothes thrown on. He did get properly dressed though, props to him for taking the initiative. Slacks, a button up and a vest, forgoing the tie and rolling his cuffs up to his elbows until such a time he needed to look more presentable than he already did.
Matty made it halfway down the stairs before he heard the commotion in the other room, between Monty and Kersty. He backed up a few stairs and crouched to listen, his curiosity and natural talent for stealth would always put his neck on the chopping block, but this was just too juicy.
Eoin sat quiet in the shadows as usual watching the scene unfold before him. His mouth curled in to a sideways smirk as Kersty noticed the bag on the table. Even from his vantage point he could tell ze was feeling cornered. Monty was making a point and hopefully ze would heed it. This time.
He pushed off the wall, his jeans making barely a whisper as he came to stand to the right of Monty. He never really was that far off from him, appearing when he though necessary, otherwise content to stand in the shadows and take in the scene. At this time, he thought it prudent to be close. One hand rested on his .24 magnum, the other curled in to the loop for a belt on his jeans.
"Should I fetch the cutlery?" he asked, his voice low but loud enough for Kersty to hear. His steel gaze, flat as he took zyr in, mentally categorizing zyr. He took in zyr dress, zyr stance, the way ze looked at them. He couldn't smell zyr fear over the defecation but he was almost certain it was there.
His gaze flicked back to Montgomery as he waited for a reply. He loved the way this man handled his business and in turn, he loved his job more. His tongue flicked out to moisten his lips, the only subtle tell of how he really felt for his boss.
“Only if it’s to eat my fucking fist Wolfe.” Kersty barked back, her hands balling into white knuckled fists at her side. There was no intention to act on her rage though. Kersty could see Eoin’s hand fluttering around his gun and she had no desire to eat a bullet over shit in a bag.
Besides Eoin was not a gun shy man and Kersty suspected one wrong look at Montgomery would be all it would take to set the Lieutenant off. The two were close and despite what she thought Monty prefered the tanned, blue eyed arms dealer over him.
Fucking player.
“Why the fucking dog shit though?” Kersty stood near the table and didn’t move, the look Eoin gave her holding her in place and maybe the magnum too. He wouldn’t admit the man scared her, but her body sure gave it away.
Montgomery leaned forward in his seat elbows resting on his knees as he pointed to a piece of paper on the coffee table. “I recieved this from Tally early tonight. Couldn’t go one job without murdering someone?”
Kersty bit his lower lip eye line shifting to the floor then to Monty. “Had to be done boss.”
Montgomery bristled at the nonchalance. “You are the only person I know this stupid. What on gods green earth could require you to murder so many people.”
“They saw my—”
“Don’t scream wolf Kersty, I will have Eoin lay you out.” Montgomery interrupted, head turning sharply back at the man in the kitchen. He had no patience for the excuses that Kersty neared infamy for.
Eoin was itching to find any excuse to draw his magnum and the way things were heading, he was hoping Montgomery would give him that excuse. Things seemed a little stale of late, his supply of guns diminishing. He was going to have to up the ante soon with his business, come up with new weapons schematics, or higher bidding customers instead of the nickel and dime shit he seemed to be bogged down in. Tally might have some ideas, although, seeing her always caused a conflict of interest. Eoin really couldn't help it, no one talked shop as well as Tally. He made a mental note to text her later when he was finished here for the night.
Eoin seemed to miss the way conversation was heading and looked at the expectant eyes of his boss and mentor,
"What's that?" Damn, he cringed, pay attention you ass. nonchalant, he pulled free a crumpled pack of Lucky strike brand smokes and drew one out. He lit a match and took a long pull on the sickly sweet cancer stick.
"Sorry boss, distracted tonight." He glanced over at Kersty and lifted his lip in a slight snarl, "Wipe that grin off your face."
Fuck did he ever want to rearrange that face, that, or give the bastard a good what for. Perhaps having someone dick deep in to his backside would keep his mouth shut. He shuddered a little at the thought, better leave that up to someone other than him. He'd end up strangling the little bitch.
Sitting on the stairs, he craned to listen, hands clasped tight around the railings on the stairs as he listened to the conversation down stairs. He couldn't help but roll his eyes, a smile cracked across his lips, at the sound of Eion coming back to reality after spacing out. Matty didn't know a large part of the group well yet, but at a glance he hadn't pegged him for an airhead. Looks could always be deceiving though. Shame on him for judging by appearance.
He glanced behind him up the rest of the stairs, as if he'd heard something, but focused back on the conversations downstairs, the smell of the shit on the table heavy and thick, wafting through the house. Matthew thought to whoever the poor fool was he'd had to go scoop that dog shit up in the first place and barely contained his snicker.
Matty pulled one of his lip piercings into his mouth, clicking his tongue piercing against it, then did the same to the piercing on the opposite side of his lip, staring down the stairs, listening and gathering information. He would bide his time and wait to see when the best time to go down would be, if someone didn't find him on the stairs first.
Montgomery ticked, tongue clicking behind his teeth, while bringing his hand up to rub over his eyes. "My point, Kersty, is you can't go around killing in my territory. You're damn lucky Tally is as taken with our crew as she is. No one else would have cleaned up your mess."
Kersty glowered in Wolfe's direction, his head turning to the sound of a snicker from the stairwell. Kersty didn't say anything to the young man on the stairs though, returning his attention promptly to the men in front of her.
"Which brings me to another point." Montgomery drew himself to stand from his seat, placing a firm hand on Eoin's shoulder as he passed around behind him. His leg intentionally brushing too close to be casual.
"Matthew get off the fucking stairs, you're not a god damn child. Join properly or go to you room." He says flicking his eyes up to look at the young man on the steps, with a soft shake of his head. Montgomery didn't mind the ease dropping, he expected his people to pickup on conversations not their own it made for good informants, but if it couldn't be done properly without being seen it wasn't worth hiding.
"Why are you killing people Kersty, you were there to pickup a shipment of drugs. There shouldn't have been any need to fire a weapon, we paid off the guards."
Kersty stiffened her back standing straighter, her breath drawing in sharp. "You don't like my excuses boss." Kersty's jaw clenches when Montgomery doesn't budge at the jib. "I told you they saw my face."
Montgomery's grip on Eoin's shoulder tightened, fingers digging into firm muscle. "Who saw your face."
"The guard." Kersty shifted his weight from one foot to another, tacky tongue licking dry lips.
"We paid them off." Montgomery repeated his voice audibly tighter.
"He wasn't the usual man Montgomery." Kersty stated dryly.
"And your first solution is to shoot?"
Kersty shrugs. "Honestly yes, bodies are easier to get rid of than rumors."
Montgomery's grip goes slack, his hand falling from Eoin's shoulder. "You didn't get rid of the body Kersty. You god damn." He pauses eyes closing, face contorting into a grimace in attempts to hold his tongue. "Don't. Just don't do it again Kersty, this is the last time. Next time you'll join whomever you kill."
Kersty nods expression less fearful than it should have been, but body tense from head to toe.
"Clean up the shit." Kersty nods to her boss and grabs for the bag, its bottom clearly damp and the aroma makes him gag as he clears the room in a few short stride to open the front door.
The lightly tinted glasses up, they squinted at the time. Time passed rather easily when she was neck deep in the accounts. Artie pushed away from the desk and padded out of the room, still dressed in their work clothes after returning hours earlier.
Her hair was pulled back, a messy bun at the base of their neck. The sleeves of his white button up where unbuttoned and rolled up to his elbows where pale flashes of color crawled down along their arms. There were still ink smudges along the sides of his fingers. His suspenders were hanging loosely at his waist, and thehe bottoms of his black slacks were cuffed, rolled about the ankles. Shoes were forgone the moment they stepped in the house. It made for near silence as they descended the stairs.
The aroma of shit was unsettling as it weaved up the stairs. His nose wrinkled at the smell. The clear reprimand reached Artemis when they grew close to the bottom of the stairs. Apparently she missed some of the 'party'. They didn't feel bothered to check their watch. She preferred being punctual, it was just a manner of knowing when to 'quit' for the night.
"Boss. Eoin," Artie greeted as she reached the last step, his hands slipping into his pockets, his eyes tracking Kersty. A strong smell like that was going to linger even after cleaning it up; a reminder that pushed the message home.
When Jesiz came back, it wasn't to the sound of good news about their shipment of Ocean. In fact, the drug dealing woman quickly realized that Montgomery had called a meeting and that yes, it meant they would need to nix the next hour or so of her plans in order to attend Montgomery's emergency meeting. Did his new dog shit the bed again? they thought with a bit of disdain. Though Jesiz didn't make it explicitly clear, they didn't enjoy how Kersty conducted his business in both word and operation. The individual couldn't rattle off five words before saying something vulgar or uncouth. It was only fitting that the entire gang would come face to face with the very thing that Kersty always spoke.
"Shit," Lenna answered almost with a sigh, "honestly Kersty, if you have to get all those urges out I'm always here."
It was a small joke to break the usual, angry-but-oddly-sexual tension between Montgomery and Kersty but also to help the transwoman relax herself as she pieced together who she needed to talk to. Tally was the obvious one, but also the hardest as the woman wouldn't fall for her usual charms nor would she pass up the chance to have the upper hand on their gang. Adam, even if she didn't know his face, would be easier. She'd texted her network of lesser informants as soon as she heard word of the murder and with enough time they would find that useful, but dirty rat.
“You should fucking light that on fire and see which idiot steps on it” Rae’s voice murmured in to Kersty’s ear as she flung her arms over xyr shoulders, pressing her chest into Kersty’s back. Rae was one of those odd people that liked the way Kersty did things; shoot first, ask questions later.
“How good of a look did the bastard get of your face?” She gazed at the bag of shit, “Really, fucking light up that little fucker and see what happens. I got a lighter somewhere.” She stepped away from xyr to fish around in her tight jeans. She pulled out the pocket, the white lining bereft of anything.
“Fuck.. that was a good lighter.” She tugged her braid in frustration, a tick that had developed over the years of drug use. She adjusted the bag strap that crossed over her breast, her computer in the bag attached to the strap, she was never without it, some speculated she even took it to bed with her. She hadn’t known Kersty long, and usually wasn’t one to trust so easily, but had found that she really liked xem. She watched as xe disposed of the bag, waiting for xem to come back inside.
Eoin stood stoic, letting Monty run hands over him. It wasn’t a new tactic, to find Monty’s hands on him at some point in time during any meeting. He thought it was either a sign of comfort, he scoffed at that thought, or a way to disarm the people he was surrounded with. Eoin’ mouth curled up in a ghost of a smile, almost like he was the trained guard dog and his master was soothing his temper before he was unleashed in to the unsuspecting crowd. He liked that analogy, he could live with that. Essentially, aside from running the arms side of things, that’s what he was. The last defense, the snarling beast at the door to Hades himself.
Eoin watched as people started to arrive, his eye drawn to how close Rae was getting to Kersty, odd. the thought was fleeting as he moved on and inclined his head slightly to Artie. His hand still near his weapon, it didn’t stray far, he trusted no one aside from Ambrose Montgomery, he had no reason to.
The house quickly filled with people Montgomery’s crew arriving in droves from every corner. Which was satisfying to Monty if he had anything to say about it. He like their promptness and readiness to do the jobs he had lined up. Monty pressed a hand to Eoin’s back while Kersty handled the bag of shit, giving a solid press to the muscles between the man’s shoulders, almost missing the miniscule smile.
“Sit down Eoin,” he murmured at Eoin’s side turning from Eoin the next second to take his seat back in his favorite round chair [house floor plans]. “The rest of you find a spot, I have a job for all of us.”
Kersty toss the bag of shit aside, just outside the front door on the lawn beside the walkway. Ze would deal with it later. As ze tossed it aside Rae pressed herself up to zes back, drawing a startled yip of protest out of xem that had xem turning and pushing the brash woman away from xem.
“Fuck off Rae you psychopath.” Kersty muttered, scrubbing a hand through zes long hair, ze wasn't attracted to Rae ze hadn't known her long enough. Ze did find her personality appealing, brash, forward and wild like xem or at least how ze was before Montgomery got his claws him xem.
Montgomery sighs audibly for his crew, a quiet hurry up, tipping his head gently to one side. “Lenna love please don’t tease the children.” He huffed the curve of a soft smile on his lips, he loved Lenna unlike the way he loved any of his other partners. She was a friend from his younger years, he had known her before she was who she was now, back when Lenna was Lawrence and even then Montgomery had enjoyed Lenna’s company. The pair shared a deep understanding of one another.
Kersty buffed a fist into Rae’s shoulder as ze pushed past her, a soft playful punch like a brother to a sister. Zes progress was halted though when Monty, without missing a beat, pointed to the air freshener on the kitchen counter. Kersty rolled zes eyes in reply.
“Hey Matty-poo wanna pass me that Febreze!” Kersty cooed disgustingly.
Matthew snickered when he was reprimanded on the stairs, smiling brightly for Monty off the side of the stairs, baring all those altered sharp teeth, lips stretched tight in a wide grin. He idly stepped down the stairs, "Tell me not to be a child but treat me like one, classy, Monty."
All the people finally flooding in made him smile too, seeing Artemis on the stairs, and Jesiz and Lenna. It was nice to see everyone all gathered in one place. In a crew like this, it was sometimes uncommon, everyone always taking care of various business or other. The collective group together was nice, and Matthew's interest was peaked to hear that Montgomery had a job for all of them. He smiled that wicked grin of his, excited for a new job.
Glancing over his shoulder at the thin canister on the counter, he reached over, setting it in Kersty's hand, "Anything for you, Kersty-love." Keeping a hand on it as he leaned in towards them a little, smiling as he rounded around them to take up a spot leaning over the back of one of the chairs in the living room, eyes lingering on Kersty for a moment before his full attention was on their boss.
[SMS SOUND]
Lenna Croft you have a text from Ambrose Montgomery.
[READ NOW]
Rae rolled her eyes as Kersty punched her arm and took the furthest seat, “whatever asshole” she muttered under her breath in jest. She flopped down pulling out her laptop and setting it on the table. Rae tapped the
password in and giving her braid a tug pulled out a pair of computer glasses placing them on so she could both watch her computer screen, and the meeting at the same time. She clicked her tongue against her teeth as her gaze moved over all the people gathered. Rae found herself glad she lived outside this house, in her own basement suite, all these people creeped her out.
Her focus moved from the meeting to the screen and back again. she brought up the program she needed and then waited for things to get started before she tapped out anything she should remember. She had a habit to toning people out, and didn't want to miss anything tonight, especially after the dog shit fiasco. She didn't see the problem with what Kersty did, hell she would have done the same but things didn't roll that way with these people. She was going to have to pay more attention to the way things were run if she planned to stay in this crew for long.
Eoin sank down to his chair, his steel gaze passing over everyone. He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text over to Tally, mainly so he wouldn't forget to later. He needed to head down to the warehouse and take a quick inventory out of what shit supplies he had left, he had briefed Monty on the situation earlier. Eoin leaned back, casually, and watched.
"Now now, what sort of mother would I be if I didn't ruffle the kids' feathers a bit?"
The two of them sat on opposite sides, Jesiz further to the left and Lenna closer to her lover. It was always like this, the two of them being the oldest of the gang. Despite her quirks Lenna considered herself a parental figure (although Jesiz might have disagreed) to the younger members, even if that meant sometimes hitting on the ones who piqued her interest. It was never serious of course, she wasn't fond of people who were too many years younger than her (she was no cougar).
Jesiz, in her silent glory, chose to prod over zyr phone, waiting for the next alert about zyr shipment. Ze still had time, too much time. Unlike many of the members in the household ze didn't have that sort of relationship with anyone so ze felt oddly at ease compared to some of the more emotional members of the gang well except maybe Rae.
"Just work on the program and be done with it you addict," Jesiz muttered under zyr breath.
Rae or Snow as ze so fondly knew her only reminded zyr of the type of people that went after zyr's supplies. Twitchy, scatter-brained, and volatile. The only difference seemed to be that she kept herself under control better than most (Jez attributed that to Monty's micromanagement) and the fact that she was essentially coding all day. Sometimes Jesiz didn't want to think about how ze wasn't completely apathetic about zyr other crew members. Sometimes ze needed to convince zerself ze was.
"If we're all here then, can you tell us what this is about?" ze asked, "I just received word from Paolo that three kilos of Ocean have hit the docks."
[ SMS SOUNDS ]
Ambrose Montgomery, you have a new text from Lenna Croft!
[ Read Now ]
Montgomery smiled at Lenna’s quip, but the soft curve of his lips faded quickly the lines of his face becoming pronounced as a deep frown crossed his lips. The crew was gathered and Montgomery steeled himself, preparing the brief seconds before he spoke.
In the kitchen Kersty let loose a spray of air freshener, settling the metal can aside once the air was saturated in fake chemical flowers. Ze choose to ignore the kids playful name though, an unsettled feeling coiling in Zyr’s stomach. Kersty wasn’t much into the kid, nor understood why Monty wasted his time. Plus the kids stupid teeth were enough to make Kersty’s vag ache at the thought of them nicking delicate bits. Ze really didn’t want any part of shark week.
“It should be no surprise to any of you that we’re not alone in this city. We wouldn’t have much of a business if we were.” Montgomery’s voice was solid in the quieting room. “Should be no surprise either of my infamy. The lot of you were never part of that past, but for those of you less incline to pay the fuck attention Jackson Demin use to run this place. Him, Tally Huntington and I, you could say, reigned supreme, kingpins whatever fucking hollywood status you want to give us. And I killed that mother fucking fraud, the only person who survive the mess was Tally our good friend,” Montgomery laced the last with uncharacteristic sarcasm, his green eyes darting between the faces of his crew, briefly settling on Eoin.
“Tally isn’t one of us, you all know this, and she never agreed with what I did.” Montgomery laced his fingers together, tucking them under his chin as he leaned forward. He didn’t want to have to say what came next, the words left his stomach with a bottom out feeling. “We’re about the clean house boys and girls.”
The room felt oppressively silent as Monty's words hung in the air. Eoin shifted in his seat as he locked gazes with Monty. there was a silent understanding in that fleeting moment. He would follow Ambrose Montgomery in to whatever it was he had planned, if that meant taking down Tally, so be it. He pulled his Magnum out and set it on the table.
"How much asset has she gained?" he asked, usually he was apprised of things before they sat to meet with the crew, it felt strange to be so out of the information loop, "And how much of that is a direct gain because of our business?" It was a valid question.
Eoin and tally shared a mutual shipment partnership that kept both coffers healthy, except lately. He had a feeling the weapons he had been receiving were not from the regular sources. If Tally was purposely cutting him out, it was a problem. He hated problems. Problems cause his boss a great deal of stress.
He would handle it tonight, when he headed down to the docks. Tally and he had enough of a history for her to be honest with him, or so he thought. He supposed sparing her life might have at least gotten him that much. He cracked his knuckles.
Snow smirked, "Could I get a team to help me hack in to their mainframe? I could download her financials or anything else she might keep in her secure server?" Ever since she started up with the crew, it was one firewall she had wet dreams about breaking down. She glanced at Mathew, "Maybe jaws there can get me close enough to upload my virus?"
Montgomery's words were blunt as usual. Articulation, at least among his subordinates, wasn't one of his strong suits. He was clear that he wanted Tally Huntington and possibly the rest of her little rays of sunshine dead to cement his status as ruler. He, in his usual, domineering demeanor couldn't stand to have opposition and the fact that Tally's secession took a good portion of Denim's men unnerved him even more. Lenna could feel the tension hang as Kersty tried to remove the pungency of Tally's warning, wondering if she ought to calm her leader somehow. She knew Tally too, not as well as Monty, but enough that she'd feel odd without the ginger picking up their scraps. Though that woman didn't know her as "Lawrence" Lenna was sure that Tally had some inkling of her identity back then (it was Odalis's unspoken secret). There was even a time when she let Lenna borrow one of her hair ties. Part of her wanted to ask Monty to reconsider, but the other part? The other part was her heart saying that she ought to stand by the man she loved.
"If it has to be done there's no helping it," Lenna sighed, "from what Jennifer told me, she's itching to push you off your throne. That prank of hers is just the start."
The blonde-haired woman turned to her drug dealing friend.
"Any progress on our friend Lorenzo?"
Jesiz nodded her head.
"He should be coming to shore tonight."
"You say it with so little enthusiasm Jezebelle, what's wrong?"
"I don't trust addicts," ze paused, "unrecovered addicts."
"Well regardless he and Adam will be our in to finding Tally. It's your job to convince him that he ought to get into drug trade."
"I know my job well enough," ze hissed, "I won't fail you Montgomery."
Her eyes flicked to Eoin and down to the hand perched on his weapon. It was wise not to trust anyone. Artemis took a seat on the arm of the sofa, ze’s hands drawn from zir’s pockets to cross over their chest. Ze was picking at zir lightly painted nails.
Silence took the room as Montgomery began t speak. The metaphor spoke hadn’t been lost on them. Tally was going to die, one way or another. There was no real loss felt by the whole situation. Ze barely knew the woman. Business was business that way. Ze carried no extra baggage or emotions into business.
“Money trails always lead somewhere,” Artie spoke, sliding off the tinted glasses to wipe them clean with the edge of zir shirt. “If I'm able to get a look at her financials, then we’ll have a deeper understanding of exactly how much she’s sitting on and perhaps even what she plans on doing with it.” If taking Montgomery out was on Tally’s agenda, then it would be proactive to find out how. And of course, to take her out before that happened.
Working closely with Snow to get this done wouldn’t be a problem for zir if ze needed to. Artemis could pick apart the numbers if Snow did the "heavy lifting". In order to hide money, there always had to be a business front to hide it. Artie would have to weed through the books again to find if any such businesses were misplacing their money and fucking with their trade. Numbers didn't lie.
Still leaning over the back of one of the chairs, listening to the conversations going on around him, he was making mental notes of every word, of every gesture, of every tone. When Snow addressed him though, he couldn't help but smile, looking over at her. He snapped his teeth and gave her a single pop of eyebrows, settling in on a smirk. He was definitely hot shit.
"I can help anyway you need me, Snow. Point and release." His smile was a little more sincere, "If you need me to map a clear path or cover your ass while you do your work, consider it done."
Matthew had no qualms with taking Tally out. She had some connection to the boss, and if this is what the boss wanted, this is what he was going to get. Matthew didn't know her, still so new to the crew, and even if he did, this was what Montgomery wanted, so he'd execute it to the best of his abilities.
The hollow bottomed out feeling swilled into a solid ball of regret in Montgomery’s stomach as his crew put in their two cents. They were cool, calm and utterly unmoved by the announcement. Montgomery knew they were not as close to Tally as him, but their indifference shook him. Tally up to this point part was a welcome fixture within their business and a little shock from them had been expected.
Montgomery sat back his face a mock mask of resolve and bit his tongue inside his mouth lips parting with a soft breath in, an anxious tic. Deliberately looking away from his crew to Eoin, his eyes followed the line of Eoin’s arm to his shoulder, though never making eye contact.
“Appears you all have a solid plan of action.” Montgomery spoke while counting the folds in Eoin’s clothing, not entirely certain how he felt about that revelation. “I had expected a few more questions and maybe a gasp or two. Seems I’ve been running cold ass crew and didn’t even know it.” Montgomery let himself laugh and even smile though it did nothing to lift his spirits.
“Artemis and Snow are right though money trails, distribution logs and accounts will be the first pieces of information we’ll need. We have nothing on Tally besides Eoin suspicions, recent weapons shipments have been questionably smaller, but Tally’s sales do not seem to have diminished. I think it is best we figure out what she’s up to. If she’s stockpiling guns we need to know and we need to fix it.”
Kersty stood silent in the kitchen xyr’s mind nearly shutting down at the announcement. Kersty had been within Montgomery’s ranks for just over two years, but he wasn’t an associate yet, still considered one of the fringe like Matthew. But he had spent time with Tally, seen how she and the boss and even Eoin and Lenna interacted. There was an air of closeness brought on by years business together and likely other things too, and though Kersty didn’t show it in his face he was at least startled.
“Hate to interrupt this god damn morgue of a conversation, but we can’t all go stomping around Tally’s place. You know as much as she loves us, or did love us, or fucking whatever the hell sort of—” Kersty bit xyr’s lip and shook xyr’s hands in front of zem at the aborted sentence. “What I’m getting at Montgomery,” Kersty moved towards the group as ze spoke. “Who is going where?”
Montgomery didn’t look back at Kersty. “We’ll split up.”
“Who, what, where and when boss?” Kersty crossed xyr’s arms, eyes shifting between each individual in the room.
Montgomery's jaw clenched at the impatient and insistent press. If Kersty was good at anything it was button pushing.
Listening to Kersty, Eoin found himself growling at the back of his throat in threat, a subconscious reaction and one that wasn’t loud enough for anyone but Monty to hear. He planted his hands firmly atop the table, making a loud smacking noise, before he slowly stood up, eyes dilating slightly with anger. His chair fell back behind him before he let out a shaking breath, consciously trying to fit in to a facade of calm. They needed instructions right now, not a bullet in the head.
"Okay” he paused, “here's the plan. I'll set up a meeting with Tally, in the meantime, I want Mathew and Snow to gain access to the main secure server in their safe house. Take whomever you need to gain that access. Once Snow has uploaded her virus it should up-link to our systems?" Snow gave him an affirmative nod, "then Artemis will go through the files from our own remote server to find that paper trail we are looking for."
He turned to Lenna, "that just leaves you to find us the proper information on their safe house, surely you can sweet talk your way right up to the front door?" He chuckled slightly, "I want to know ways in and out, whose rooms belong to whom. Type of fire power... numbers... guards, people. Everything. Can you handle that?" He asked Lenna even though he knew the answer, she was good at what she did. "Remember we need to take the organization down... not just Tally. You all know that even without a figurehead an organization will still run. We need to gather as much Intel before we just walk in and gun her down.”
Eoin gazed at Kersty, "No hothead decisions." Eoin turned his body so that he could see Monty, "Does anyone have any questions or something to add?"
[SMS SOUND]
Lenna Croft you have a text from Ambrose Montgomery.
[READ NOW]
Jesiz shrugged off her boss's observation. Ze supposed that Tally's involvement with the old version of Odalis Soul was much more intimate than Ambrose let on as he seemed almost hurt by the crew's lack of protest. Well, not that he would have put up with any. He needed to control everyone's feelings and situations like these separated the fringe associates from the truly close partners.
"It's all business Montgomery," Jezebelle replied, picking a piece of dirt from her nails.
Eoin added his own input regarding how to pick up ground on Tally's plans, assigning Matthew and Snow to break-in duty while Lenna would dig up whatever dirt she could find. They couldn't do much without figuring out what cards had in her hand (body aside) and as it were, Jesiz couldn't do much to help them. There were perhaps thirty more minutes until Paolo would leave on his own, not a big issue but she liked doing things in person whenever possible.
"Do we know of anyone else's location?" she asked, "in any case I can convene with you after picking up my delivery and alert you of any oddities during pickup."
"I'm already on it," Lenna replied, pulling out her phone, "those boys and girls will be shadowed from every corner."
[ SMS SOUNDS ]
Ambrose Montgomery, you have a new text from Lenna Croft!
[ Read Now ]
Kersty shoved his cell into his pocket with a curt shake of his head.
“No the plan seems clear enough. I’ll take Matty, Snow and Artemis to Tally’s server farm across town. They’ll get the evidence you need and then I’ll bring the kids home.” Kersty rolled his shoulders, taking a deep breath.
“I do hope you don’t find what you’re looking for though.” Kersty looked to Montgomery’s back, his eyes going soft around the edges. He sort of felt bad for the old guy, this business was tough to those on top. Kersty never thought he’d suffer another territorial dispute of this scale again.
Montgomery ticked turning to look at the man staring down his back. “I hope we don’t find anything either. It’d be nice to keep our best supplier alive and a war off our hands.” Montgomery glanced to Lenna and Jesiz, looking over his lovely lady and his skillful trafficker.
“No Jesiz we don’t where Tally’s people are or what they’re doing. So while you're out watch your back Jesiz.” Montgomery smiled at the drug dealer, even if she wasn't in bed with him he did care about her. Jesiz had always been good to him and his business, she was trusted and skilled at what she did. “You go handle your trade and meet us back at the house in a few hours.”
Monty hummed his approval, a soft gravely sound toward Lenna. That is my girl. He loved how social she was, beautiful manicured nails hooked into so many people, so deep they couldn't feel it. Even Montgomery was at her beck and call, Lenna could bad her pretty lashes and Monty was gone. She was his princess, always had been, and there was nothing he wouldn't do for her.
“It’s settled then. Kersty take the kids out to play, while the adults talk business.” Monty looked to Eoin, a little hitch in his chest as he looked down at his cell in his hand and the messages there. Still my loyal pup, He thought.
[SCENE COMPLETE]
TEAM ONE MOVE TO LESS QQ MORE PEW PEW
TEAM TWO MOVE TO NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO SERVICE . . . DRESS NICE!
EACH SCENE PICKS UP 30 MINUTES AFTER THIS MEETING.
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