xp_logs | Operation: Melittology (Reply)

Doug and Illyana follow up with a contact to find out more about the information Amanda and Sarah discovered."

Lisbon was cool, but pleasantly sunny as Doug and Illyana took seats at a cafe on the outside of the shopping mall across the street from Gare do Oriente. Doug sipped at a coffee while keeping watch for their contact. Trying to put some of Remy's training to work, he attempted to catalogue the other denizens of the cafe while looking like a simple tourist splitting his attention between his girlfriend and the panoramic view of the transit station as the sun glinted off the glass and steel columns.

"All I have is a name," he whispered to Illyana as he leaned across the table, trying to look like he was having an intimate romantic chat. "I'm assuming he'll find us." Doug admired Silva's choice of meeting location. Between Gare do Oriente and the Parque des Nacoes, there were plenty of places to evade notice in the crowds.

"Anthony! You must give me more warning next time. I only have time for a brief coffee." The voice carried slightly in the cafe, obviously directed at Doug. An older dark-haired man took a seat at their table, pulling the chair under him. He had a friendly familiar expression, and waved at the barista for a coffee. "We should be clear here, but just in case." He said, much more softly.

"As I told you, Juan, we are only here for the afternoon, but we both wanted dearly to see you," Doug said convivially, his voice carrying the same way. He sipped from his coffee and nodded. "Your choice of location is good. Plenty of ways to disappear. What can you tell us?" he asked the other man as he leaned forward.

"Oomes has a reputation for being a good facilitator; gets things from one place to another quietly. He actually has a securities contract with Poland and Latvia to move diplomatic cargo, and because of that, received authorization from the German government to build a secure hanger facility at the airfield outside of Stuttgart." Juan accepted his coffee with a smile and took a delicate sip. "I would say at least ninety-nine percent of his business is legitimate, which is why the one percent is usually very high end. He's got political protection, which would make any open movements against him... unwise."

"Oomes is just a conduit," Doug said, waving his hand dismissively. "He perhaps makes some distasteful decisions, but at the end of the day he's one of a million others like him. We have no intention of moving against Oomes. It's his customers we're concerned with. That 'very high end' one percent you spoke of." He cocked his head. "What do you have on the Stuttgart airfield?"

"My young friend, I think you miss the point of Oomes. He's used because there are very few like him, and he is in high demand." Juan leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. Under the table, Illyana felt the brush of an envelope against her knee.

The blonde girl reached down, taking the envelope and slipping it seamlessly into an oversize bag chosen explicitly for that purpose. When she sat back up, she slid a pair of sunglasses onto her nose, apparently just another bored girlfriend in the midst of men’s conversation.

"I do know this. Oomes has Russian and Chinese connections as well, and he's been known to move both contraband and living cargo. For who, and why?" Silva's elegent latin shrug finished off the sentence. He drained the rest of his coffee. "And now I must be off. Tell your boss her contribution was most generous this time."

"It usually is. She has impeccable taste." Doug continued to sip his own coffee as Silva stood, his mind worrying at the problem. They knew who at least one of Oomes' clients had been, and the sort of cargo he transported. Was someone else up to the same grotesque tricks?