Casual Observer

[Hayden]

[[ Runs in tandem with Runaway Train]]

Two dossiers were attached to the assignment for Nox's next marks.  He followed at a distance, wondering why he just didn't fly to Paris.  But whatever -- there was that plane accident he was in so maybe that had something to do with it.  But it really didn't matter, Hayden followed Nox. 

The train was unique.  He'd never been on one before.  Hayden checked in with his assistant manage at Harbour House to make sure things were going well. 

He kept in touch with Zef through the burner phone they gave him.  Nox seemed on edge whenever he saw him out of the corner of his eyes.  But they didn't want him to blow his cover, so Hayden stayed hidden. 

Hayden hung out mostly in the diner car, his seat on the train was less than comfortable and Nox walked through regularly grabbing something to eat almost like clockwork. 

There was a lot going on, on this train.  And a party in an adjoining car was loud and raucous.  Hayden wanted to slip in and have some fun, but he was working and it was a distraction.  But the noise drew him more and more and eventually he knew he'd give in.

[Hayden]

Hayden wasn't sure Nox was going to kill the guy. He was normal. He was Atharim. And they had a whole train ride to do it but still, Hayden wasn't sure Nox was going to pull it off.

But he did. Zef had been right. Why was he even following the kid. It would be so much easier to distract himself if he'd offered to come with Nox on his trip. Why was he shadowing him? Oh cause they thought he'd flake out.

Hayden couldn't find much out about him. He even went so far as to check out his medical records which were only found in Moscow. He couldn't reach as far as the US and even then he doubted he'd find anything. This kid didn't exist on paper, and he didn't exist in the Atharim database beyond the year he'd been in the CCD. Funny how they wanted him to get close yet forbid him contact.

Several days were left on the trip and Hayden found himself drawn to the party car. He still had to watch Nox, but what was the harm in having a little fun of his own. It was an opulent car filled with lush furniture, it's own bar and fancy people. Music played, groups caroused in various places. No one seemed to mind the added visitor. At least no one said anything until he sat down at the bar and ordered a rum and coke, and that was only the bartender asking him what he'd have. It wasn't a private party car but the party going on certainly seemed to be that way.

[Gideon]

Hiring out a party carriage on a sleeper train had seemed an entertaining notion at the time, and naturally he dragged Saelia along for the ride. Indulging spontaneity was a highlight of being filthy rich after all, and he had the time between jobs. So far it had been a wild few nights. But as the train roared on the novelty was beginning to diminish and already Gideon’s feet were itching. He was getting bored of the same faces and the same barman and the same lavish room, and the prospect of more. Well.

Right now he was holding court on one of the plush sofas, blowing smoke and outlandish stories for his rapt audience. Gideon was only famous in the right circles, but money spoke for itself, as did good looks and buckets of charm.

Though when a stranger sidled up to the bar he paused to glance amused at Saelia. The surprise was evident, but they both recognised him from the time in London. It had to have been five years since that enlightening trip, give or take. Hayden had no reason to remember him.

He necked the last of his drink and stood. The engine hummed under his feet as he made his way over.

“My turn,” he grinned. He swung himself over the bar, vape held between his teeth. When he landed the other side he patted the barman on the chest and pushed him aside. No one carried actual money these days, but he’d be compensated for the blind eye – Gideon winked to make it clear, and no protest was evident. The man went to clear away glasses instead. Maybe he was as bored of the company as Gideon was.

He smirked at Hayden. What was he doing on a train to fucking China anyway?

“Can’t be so hard, right? What was it you wanted?”

[Hayden]

A man flipped over the bar and pushed the bar man aside. It wasn't what he was expecting as he stared opened mouth in the middle of his order. "Uh. Rum and Coke. Pretty easy." He smiled at the man. The face was familiar. The voice more so. It was his job to remember faces clean up messes and know exactly who it was he was supposed to be dealing with. And there was no forgetting the raucous night in his bar with this man and his friends. At least one of whom looked familiar as well
.
He chuckled at the irony, or maybe he remembered him? "I seem to remember waiting on you last time." Hayden put his elbows on his bar and his chin in his hands and watched with interest. "What takes you to China?"

[Jaxen Marveet]

Saelia Marveet

Saelia made a licking motion with her tongue when Giddy flashed his knowing glance. She didn’t bother to stifle the giggle, a shared whisper at their private humor. Rising to her feet, she felt the giddy swirl of day-drinking beginning to ebb. With a languid grace, she wandered over to the bar, easing herself into the seat next to this blast from the past.

“Because it’s not the fucking See-See-Dee,” she quipped, lips curving into a sly smile. Stretching across the bar, she plucked a cherry garnish with a flourish and popped it into her mouth, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

[Gideon]

“Ah, infamy. I do so love the sound.” Gideon cackled, genuinely amused that any impression had been left at all, let alone one that pressed the man’s chin into his hands like a lovelorn puppy. Harbour House had been a party, but they were a dime a dozen in Gideon’s world, and that night had been more about sating curiosity than getting absolutely shit-faced. He watched Saelia saunter her gorgeous little ass over, drumming his fingers against the bar as he considered the pedestrian request for rum and coke. He didn’t elaborate on her answer about their reasons for being here, which was true enough. But he was more interested in asking questions than answering them.

“I think we’re out of coke,” he lied instead. A rummage produced shot glasses, which he presented with raised brows and a devilish grin. He poured for all of them without waiting for agreement. The first time they met, big brother had been on the clock. Not that it prevented them having a little harmless fun at his expense at the time. But Gideon barely thought about it since. He hadn’t even bothered to tell his own mother he knew about her sordid little love child. 

Given the unexpected opportunity for reunion, he determined there must be some juicy dirt here somewhere, though. They were related by blood after all. He and Saelia would just have to do a little digging. ”What brings you to China?” He pressed one of the shots closer.

[Hayden]

Hayden saw the lie for what it was. A means to push boundaries, to see what Hayden would do. Coke was typically one of the more well stocked items in any bar -- sure they could have run out but Hayden doubted any of the people here were drinking Rum and Coke, or any of the other varieties of such a drink or the cola by itself. These were not those sort of people.

He leaned back and picked up the shot when offered. He raised the glass with a nod and then downed the burning liquid. Normally that would be his last shot, he'd follow it with a beer chaser in a bottle following that so he didn't get totally wasted while working. But he wasn't working. Though he still had to be careful he was technically on the job still. Just not the one he actually enjoyed.

And to that point he had to think up a semi-truth to tell because he hated lying. "Me? Truthfully, I'm here on a job. Just not the job." he said with a smirk. Though his father might disagree that this was the job and the bar was just the side thing. But fuck his father.

Hayden turned and looked around the car placing his elbows on the bar and leaning against it with his back to the model and his friend. Information about the night in the bar was slowly filtering to his mind as he tried to recall their names. He could look it up. Easy enough to do but it was more fun this way. "Though I'm only on wait and see until we get to China. Part one of the job finished not too long ago." He turned back around to his two companions. "I might be looking for something fun to do in the meantime." he said with hint of the underlying meaning behind things. He had to stay away from Nox, best way to do that was to entertain himself some other way. Though this crowd was unlikely to slum it as they say. But there were other sorts of fun, and drinking was one of them.

[Gideon]

Hayden downed the shot like a champ. A prerequisite for any decent bartender if you asked Gideon, and he was pleased to see they weren’t going to be suffering the company of a total bore. Not that there weren’t ways around that, but his pride might have been a little injured to think they were actually related in that case.

As the man spun around to survey the room, Gideon leaned his arms on the bar. He gave Saelia a look which consisted of half a smirk, but was also to gauge her mood. Last time he flirted a riot just for the amusement of their insider knowledge, but shock like that only had value once.

“Assassin? Spy? Professional party-crasher? Do tell me more.” He took a puff and exhaled a cloud of smoke that smelled like candyfloss. He wasn’t sure he believed any of it. The trip was practically a week long, and no one travelled that way for work unless they were dirt poor. Which he happened to know Hayden was not. He pushed across another shot, grinning. “No good fun starts sober,” he said, then straightened to flourish an arm out at their riotous little gathering. “Welcome to our little kingdom. Pick your poison.”

[Hayden]

Hayden nodded and lifted the shot again with a smile. "Here's to not being sober." Though he did need to keep his wits about him. While he didn't have to be all eagle eyed reporter right now he did need to stay out of sight. Nox couldn't know he was being tailed. And tailed by him might confuse matters. Though the second shot did dull the brain a bit more. Enough to feel nice and relaxed. And really who'd believe his story. Hayden grinned wickedly. "All of the above."

Hayden wanted to recreate the movement of flipping over the bar like his friend had done. The model -- Gideon.... Last name didn't matter. He remembered the last ad for the Marquis line. An ex girlfriend -- though she wasn't really a girl friend, a girl his father set him up with raved over the line of clothes. Though his mother frowned at the girl's choices. Ariel her name was... But that was all Hayden really remembered.

Instead Hayden walked around the bar. "See I'm professionally crashing your party back here." He hip checked Gideon out of the way and grabbed the nozzle clearly marked Coke and a bottle of rum and made his drink of choice. "And see this is the Coke. Not quite the powdered kind you might see out one of them party tables out there. But I still have some work to do while drinking the night away."

Hayden sipped at his newly poured rum and coke and smiled with a certain flirty smile at Gideon. "Because I might have to kill the guy I'm spying on later and I can't be too messed up. Shots do a number on the brain. You want to liberate me of my vices good luck. I know every trick in the game. Remember Professional party crasher." Hayden leaned back on the bar and looked over his shoulder at Gideon's friend. "You are Gideon Marquis and your lovely friend is a Steel Tycoon's daughter. Saelia, if I remember right. Took me a while to dig up those memories. The truth seemed much more like a fairytale so he went with it. If they believed him there would be fun stories to tell. If they didn't he'd still have fun stories to tell -- they'd just think he was out of his mind crazy.

[Gideon]

Hayden took the second shot. Good for him. But it was the fact he sauntered around the other side of the bar that made Gideon laugh out loud, and decide that even if dear Saelia proved bored with the interaction, he was finally curious about big brother.

“Far be it from me to argue with the professional,” he grinned, shrugging off the infiltration. He was aware of the rather blatant flirting, but did not much acknowledge it. Or at least no more than Gideon was an outrageously smouldering flirt in general. Maybe those genes just ran in the family. Dear maman did get knocked up by a fucking kid, after all.

The stuff about killing he didn’t really believe, but it was a fun fiction, the kind Gideon might tell himself to impress those around him. Or amuse himself with their stupidity. Though he half winced at Hayden’s denigration of Saelia down to the identity of daddy dearest and his accomplishments. Unlikely to go down well with her, but he was curious to see how Hayden would handle her temper if she snapped him down to size. “And you are Hayden, professional party-crasher, spy, and assassin.” Gideon waved the introductions aside. The guy must have had it hot if he actually remembered their names. Or he really was a spy.

“Unless the guy is me, I can’t say I care too much. But what’s he done to warrant the spying?”