Log: Remy, Marie-Ange

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Remy hands over some work for Marie-Ange, triggering an exchange that doesn't go well, and some chilling possibilities thanks to her powers.



It had been almost a week since LeBeau had last been in the office, conducting most of his regular business via the internet while on the go. Always on the scruffy side, he'd managed to go even further than usual, with at least ten days worth of growth on his face and his trenchcoat looking even more rumpled. Marie-Ange had heard him coming and going from the brownstone at odd hours, and Amanda's caution that he wasn't like himself was made unnecessary by a single look at the man.

He didn't even bother with any niceties, walking up to her cubicle and putting a stack of files down with a couple of pages worth of scrawled notes on top. Just the briefest look indicated financial institutions, stock listings, and accounts. Obviously, Remy was looking for some people by following the money.

"Work." He said shortly. "Dere's a list of names and some details I want found. Files have de extent of dere holdings as we currently know dem. I want final disbursement points; where dey access de money de easiest and most often."

Marie-Ange raised an eyebrow at the pile of folders and made a sour
face at Remy's request. "And you are giving this to me and not
Doug... . why?" If he was going to be short and brusque, so was she.
"This will take me all day, if not all week, and he could have the
same information to you in a matter of a few minutes. That is why he
is here."

"Because if Doug was de person best suited for dis, I would have given to him. Dis is going to require more den hacking to get me what I want, and you're better at working our European contacts den he ever going to be." Remy didn't exactly growl, but it wasn't far from. "Start wit' Reto and Blucher in Switzerland, and move out from dere."

It wasn't really the time to argue the point that she was in a better
position to know what people could do in the future then he was. Remy
was already in a bad mood, and all arguing with him further would do
would get more paperwork dumped on her desk. "Fine. " She had no
illusions that half of why she was more effective was simply because
most of their contacts responded well to a female voice. At least this
time it wasn't a Russian winter.

"Time is a factor on dis, so do you sulking later." Remy shot back as he left for his office. He would have preferred to do this on his own, but there was simply too much work and too little time to do it all in. He'd specifically ignored Marie-Ange's obvious bristling about Doug. They'd gotten lazy due to the fact that Doug's abilities at the computer had proved extremely effective over the last few missions. But there was only so much you could get a computer to do, and tying him up cracking Swiss transaction records was not only wasteful, but potentially dangerous. The Swiss financiers had the kind of money to hire computer security experts every bit as good as Ramsey, and a lot of lawyers to follow it up. Better to put them on the phone with Marie-Ange, who was picking up the fine art of balancing potential rewards against the cold threat of reprisals when needed.

It would be the height of immaturity to point out that she could sulk
and work at the same time. So Marie-Ange held back the comment, no
matter how much she wanted to say it. And it would not keep Remy in
the room, and the sense that she needed Remy not to leave right now
grew as he stepped into the hallway. "What is this for?" she called,
getting up to follow him if necessary.

"De usual. Finding ways to stop bad people being bad." Remy snapped, not liking being questioned, especially about this material. He'd seeded many of his requests in with existing work, obfuscating his actual purpose, but having to answer a lot of questions about it would draw attention to it that he didn't want. "Going to be part of de network if it fits."

"It is nothing specific? If it is not specific, why so urgent?"
Something wasn't adding up quite right, nagging at the back of her
mind. "What are you doing, Remy? What is going on?" Marie-Ange knew
better then to corner him, but took a step closer anyway.

"Dey are pieces of a much larger picture, Marie-Ange. One dat I am trying to get a handle on to determine if it is something dat involves us needed to jump up and down on de neck of someone as a result." His tone suddenly sharpened. "So unless you have de specific need to know de purpose of absolutely everything dat crosses my desk, which would involve spending de next year solely in de damn field like Remy does and missing out on you social life and shoe shopping, you can get back to you damn desk and get me de information dat I damn well need."

The last sentence came out like a lash; a vicious underlining of the fact that LeBeau's limited store of social patience was well and truly exhausted.

He was lying to her. She didn't know how she knew, exactly, but
Marie-Ange was very certain that Remy was lying. Or at least not
telling the whole truth. She turned to go back to her desk, and the
room spun a little as she turned her back on Remy. She swore quietly,
and grabbed at the doorway, stumbling slightly.

"Hurt yourself on your own time." Remy's only reaction to her sudden stumble was caustic. He'd gone from foul tempered and into cruel territory in moments, and despite his naturally grim nature, they needless cruelty was unlike him.

Remy's voice had cut in and out, like a bad recording. It took
Marie-Ange a second to piece together what he'd said. She held onto
the doorway and turned to look over her shoulder. "If you keep doing
this, none of my time will belong to you. There will be no you to give
my time to." She looked Remy in the eye, and then turned away,
picking up the stack of papers and leafing through them calmly.

"Remy don't need you precog, Marie-Ange. Just de information that I asked for." Remy said harshly, assuming that her powers had just determined he wasn't going to survive what he planned to do. That was fine. He'd already considered that his plan was most likely going to be fatal. It just depended how far he got before one of the names on his list got lucky. But it was the only way to keep them safe.

"Remy does need my precognition, if he wants to remain Remy."
Marie-Ange said flatly. He hadn't understood, and she was tempted to
explain more. But what would it change, if she did? He'd already made
decisions that put him on this path. She shook her head sadly, and
didn't let herself turn back around, even though she wanted to. If he
continued acting as he was, and making these kinds of decisions, be
would turn himself into Gambit. And there was little she could do
about it but give vague warnings.