Monday, October 17th, 9:37 A.M.
As it turns out the armoire was stacked, with
clothes. Not clothes for me, clothes
that are better suited for being put on, then slowly and sensuously being taken
off. As I tried again to drift off to
sleep, I cursed the fact that I didn't have access to something, anything, that
would have distracted me from Rinoa.
Rinoa didn't spent the whole night in the hallway crying, but the
thought of her doing so never left my mind.
By the time dawn came around I was long since awake
and long since ready to get started on going to Amcan. Rinoa wasn't in the hallway when I ventured
out into it. I don't know where she slept
but I hope it was somewhere comfortable.
When I came down to the kitchen, I found Sam digging
around looking for breakfast in the particularly empty pantry. Meanwhile Gin was drinking his coffee while
being engrossed in The Financial Times, which is something I've never said
before. They didn't notice me standing
there at first, so they went on with the conversation they were having.
Sam, setting aside a box full of tall dark bottles,
said, "I know you like your liquid lunches, but do you have anything resembling
a normal meal?"
Gin, not looking up from his paper, said, "My
definition of normal is different from yours.
Also, I don't get drunk all the time.
I'd be a pretty shitty businessman if I did that."
"Really?
Then why do you have more alcohol in here than food?"
"Alcohol gets better with age. Food, not so much."
"Well, at the very least, you should have some
cereal."
"Why would I have cereal in my house? I don't eat cereal."
"Then, what do you usually have?"
"Three cups of coffee and my fill of the half
assed business reporting I get from this rag."
Once I heard coffee I thought I'd enter the
conversation. "Do you take your
coffee as black as the newsprint you're reading?"
Sam was shocked by me showing up unexpectedly and
spilled a package of macaroni, which he promptly went about cleaning up. Gin folded his paper down, looked at me, and
said, "Good morning, and no. I like
my coffee black, not off gray with advertisements in vivid color."
Still on the floor, Sam said, "Did you sleep
well, Hato?"
Instead of helping Sam, I responded, "Yes. I am well rested and ready for work."
That comment was directed toward Gin. He responded by finishing his coffee, getting
up from the table, and saying, "Great, Hato, follow me." Gin then lead me out the kitchen through the
living room. As we did so, Rinoa was
coming in from outside. Gin took notice
of her. "You, what's your
name?"
Bleary and haggard, Rinoa responded,
"Rinoa."
Gin replied, "Rinoa, come with me." Gin continued on through the hallway in his
house, with Rinoa and I following behind him, untill we reached what looked
like Gin's office. It looked to be no
larger than the bedroom I had back in Moenia Prima, expect there was a large
desk with several display cases behind it.
The desk was topped with a laptop, phone, and other things you'd expect
in a normal office. The display cases
had booze. Large and small bottles of
booze with different metals, trophies, and other assorted awards sitting behind
them. Gin started leafing through some
papers on his desk and while he talked to us.
"Hato, you know that plane I mentioned last night?"
I responded, "Yeah."
Gin, now checking the drawers of his desk, said,
"It's going to take me some time to get everything together. It usually takes a couple of days to put
together flight manifests, clearance to go over international borders, and
other assorted bullshit. What'll take
the most time is fuel. Fuel is a highly
valued commodity, most especially plane fuel."
Rinoa, having now shaken the cobwebs from her eyes,
said, "How can we help?"
Gin looked up from his desk and said, "I knew
it was good to grab you. What I need is
money. I think I'm going to have to
bribe someone in the International League-"
Rinoa angrily cut Gin off, saying, "Those blue
helmeted dipshits?"
Without missing a beat, Gin replied, "Yep, they
who poorly keep the peace. Anyway, I
need to bribe someone in the International League in order to get some plan
fuel. In order to do that, I need
cash."
Looking around Gin's office, Rinoa said, "You
have an office like this, yet have problems with cash?"
I, not thinking anything of it, added, "Yeah,
plus that bed I slept in last night was too luxurious to be cheap."
Rinoa got this offended look on her face and said,
"You slept in a bed last night?"
In a bit of perfect timing, Gin, having searched the
drawers on either side of his desk, opened the middle drawer of his desk, which
caused his face to light up. "There
they are!" Gin then pulled a
handful of papers out of his drawer, placed them on his desk, and closed the
drawer. "These are invoices for
various places that owe my company money.
Every day, you take one of these invoices to the business, tell them
that I, Mr. Ayah, want to be paid in cash, not check, then bring the money back
to me."
Wanting to get to Amcan as quickly as possible, I
said, "Why don't we just take care of all the invoices today?"
Gin replied, "Because a kid your walking around
with a large amount of cash is considered suspicious by the troops from the
International League."
Rinoa found another flaw. "Why don't you just hit up a bank for
cash?"
Gin shot back, "Again, the International
League. They would be made aware of a
money withdrawal of that amount and become suspicious of my company and
me."
Finding another flaw, Rinoa said, "How about
taking out an amount of money over several days?"
Just as quickly as before, Gin replied,
"Because activity like that is also suspicious."
At this point, I felt the need to summarize. "So you want us to collect on some
invoices for you, in cash, bring them back so that you can bribe some officials
to get some plane fuel so that you can fly me to Amcan?"
As he nodded, Gin said, "Yep."
As she turned to leave, Rinoa said, "I'm going
to get cleaned up first. Maybe I can use
that nice bathroom Hato used last night."
As I watched her leave, I thought something and
asked Gin to confirm. "Was it wrong
for me to mention that bedroom?"
Nodding again, Gin said, "Yep, but don't
worry. Once she cleans up, she'll feel a
lot better."
I hope he's right.
Later.
Hato Shurtleff
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