04-17-2026, 09:03 PM
It wasn't like him to stick around a place long. Moscow was going to cause a problem eventually but so far he hadn't run into anyone he knew. And that was perfectly fine -- except he kept finding himself floating in the same circles. That's where the money was.
The country club was posh. It wasn't hard to fanangle his way in. He had the gold cards and the money to flaunt and a membership wasn't difficult to attain with the right names. Though most of them were false, at least for Luc Rios. This was Luc's debut run. He would hit Almaz later, but today was all about pampering himself and making it known he was here. And that Luc Rios had talented folks working for him. All a lie for the most part, none here in Moscow -- old contacts, people who he could count on to play along should someone ask about a strange man who claimed to know them.
Luc was different from most of his other personas. Though he was falling more and more into the habit of being closer to himself than he liked. Sooner or later something would screw up -- it was best to stay as close as possible to the right thing, specially now that he was technically working for the Russian mob, though Paval hadn't called on him to research anymore people.
Which Xander was grateful for, it allowed him to leave Kristian behind for a while so it didn't become the default go to guise. Luc had a foot in both worlds in Moscow -- the deep underground of the dirty pit fights and monsters and the up scale folks who paid an arm and a leg to hedge a bet on those same things. And Luc Rios was here to be that bridge.
Luc made himself at home at the bar. A whiskey on the rocks -- as top end as he could go, which wasn't top top shelf but damn near close.
The country club was posh. It wasn't hard to fanangle his way in. He had the gold cards and the money to flaunt and a membership wasn't difficult to attain with the right names. Though most of them were false, at least for Luc Rios. This was Luc's debut run. He would hit Almaz later, but today was all about pampering himself and making it known he was here. And that Luc Rios had talented folks working for him. All a lie for the most part, none here in Moscow -- old contacts, people who he could count on to play along should someone ask about a strange man who claimed to know them.
Luc was different from most of his other personas. Though he was falling more and more into the habit of being closer to himself than he liked. Sooner or later something would screw up -- it was best to stay as close as possible to the right thing, specially now that he was technically working for the Russian mob, though Paval hadn't called on him to research anymore people.
Which Xander was grateful for, it allowed him to leave Kristian behind for a while so it didn't become the default go to guise. Luc had a foot in both worlds in Moscow -- the deep underground of the dirty pit fights and monsters and the up scale folks who paid an arm and a leg to hedge a bet on those same things. And Luc Rios was here to be that bridge.
Luc made himself at home at the bar. A whiskey on the rocks -- as top end as he could go, which wasn't top top shelf but damn near close.