An Alternate Meeting - for @scarabwings

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

Jake has been circling around a target in an obscure European town for almost a week, but getting to him has been-- frustrating. There's someone else circling around him, too, and he really doesn't want to get her in the crossfire. Khonshu is getting impatient, but he's not compromising on this. The fucker is going to die soon enough, he just needs his moment.

He finally decides to deal with the lady first. Maybe if he can get her to back off he can get this done, finally.

He finds her outside the target's apartment building, in street clothes rather than the suit, coming quietly up behind her where she's clearly casing the place. "So are you looking for somebody in particular, or are you just really into architecture?"

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[scarabwings]

Layla's always had pretty good situational awareness. He's still quiet enough that he doesn't trip her radar until he speaks, and she tenses a little as she half-turns toward him. Her smile is friendly enough that it's not completely fake, but wariness lingers in the set of her shoulders and the shift of her feet.

Not surprising, given she's a young woman, alone, foreign, being approached by a strange man. Even less surprising, given she's been trying to find an angle of approach for robbery - commissioned, not her people's relics, but valuables stolen during a bloody conflict - and has spotted this stranger a couple of times. Not enough to read him as security, or a rival thief, or just someone who lives in the area, but enough that his features are familiar.

"Architecture," she says. "Do you know how few buildings survived from that era? Most of the town went up in flames in the late 18th century, so most of the buildings are new." If you can count 200-year-old buildings as new.

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"Yeah, except that particular building went up more like twenty years ago when they tried gentrifying this part of the town," Jake says. He has no idea if that's true or not, just like he has no idea whether she's bullshitting him. He hopes she is, because this is him trying to call her bluff. He leans all casual-like on the lamp post next to him, not really trying to not look threatening, because if he can scare her off, he won't have to convince her any other way to get out of the gods damned way of his op.

[scarabwings]

Her eyebrows shoot up, and she just stares at him for a moment, like she's struggling to decide whether to be amused or offended. She might be bullshitting about her interest, but her knowledge is, apparently, entirely genuine.

"You have to be joking," she says. "Even the windows in that place are at least twice that old. More, probably - anyone who could afford to buy that place wouldn't have to worry about drafty windows driving up the heating bill."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

Okay, either she's right or she's even better at bullshitting than he is. The offense seems genuine enough. Jake can't help it: he cracks a smile. "All right, fine. But you're not here to look at architecture. I've seen tourists. They sketch and get up close to the brickwork. You're casing windows and fire escapes."

[scarabwings]

"Americans and Europeans, maybe," she says, with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Egyptians know how to respect old architecture, and not poke at it until it falls apart in our hands."

She narrows her eyes slightly as she looks up at him - not far up, she notes, he's only a couple of inches taller than she is. "Why are you so interested? You're not part of their security, and you're definitely not with the police."

She knows the look of police, even in plainclothes. Of officials in general, really. He doesn't fit.

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

No, no he does not fit. But neither does she. He considers a moment, weighing the value of truth over another bluff. "I've got business with somebody who lives there," he says at last. "And I don't want to get anyone else caught up in it."

[scarabwings]

"Ah," she says quietly. "That kind of business."

She studies him warily for a moment, though her thoughts are running far closer to enforcer, or perhaps friend or family of someone hurt by the man who owns that building, than to assassin - let alone supernatural assassin.

"I'm not backing off. I'm here for a retrieval, and if things get messy here, my clients lose their one shot at getting back a little of what was taken from them."

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

Well, at least his instincts were good: she's not here for anything legal, either. He huffs a little sigh. "And my employer isn't exactly patient," he mutters, mostly to himself.

Khonshu rumbles back, over his shoulder, "JUST GET IT DONE, JAKE."

Jake looks up at the building again. He's not about to do anything to hurt the woman, especially if she's really here on a mission of restitution. But Khonshu won't wait, and she can't wait because his mission is definitely going to get in the way of hers. Goddamn. "Maybe if we coordinate, we can cover for each other," he suggests finally. "Get them both done at the same time."

[scarabwings]

Her teeth worry briefly at her lower lip as she weighs her options. It's not that she's never worked with anyone else before - but they've all been vetted, and if not known quantities, at least calculated risks.

"That's a lot of trust to put in a stranger," she says.

For both of them. She could turn on him as easily as he could turn on her.

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"It is," Jake agrees with a nod. "But I'm not saying we need to work together, if you aren't interested in that." Also, he has no real desire to have anyone watch him murder a guy in cold blood, let alone a pretty lady thief. "I'm just saying we coordinate. Plan to do our ops at the same time. Stay out of each other's way, and confuse anyone who comes on the scene after."

[scarabwings]

And have a convenient scapegoat, the nagging sense of caution at the back of her mind whispers. But if that's what he'd wanted, he wouldn't need to approach. Just shadow her back to her home base and find something to plant.

"All right," she says. After a moment, she offers him a hand. "I'm Nadia." It's the name on her current ID, which is close enough to the truth when she isn't currently expecting to see him again.

This might be awkward later. She has no reason to know that now.

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

"Jake." He takes her hand for a brief, brisk shake, and a wry sort of grin. He can share that because, after all, he doesn't exist. "Obviously neither of us are locals. Want to grab lunch while we plan out our coordinating?"

[scarabwings]

Her immediate assumption is that his name is as fake as hers is. That's fine - it's something to call him for the span of a few days, at most. Less, if things go well.

"Sure," she says. "There's a little coffee house a couple blocks that way." She tips her head toward the far end of the alley, the street running parallel to the one they've both been casing.