Cathouse: Wake Up Call

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Crystal calls X-Factor and surprisingly finds a person answering.

Crystal still had the card given to her more than eight months earlier. The card was a simple one, not bearing anyone's personal name. Crystal didn't need a name on the card, though. The name of the agency, and the phone number on it, were all she needed. Using her own personal phone, Crystal dialed the number displayed on the X-Factor Investigations card and waited to hear a voice on the other end, not sure whether she'd be reaching someone at the office, a machine, or an answering service.

It was still early in the morning so no one was actually in the X-Factor offices. After ringing several times the line re-directed to the phone sitting on a table just outside of Vanessa's bedroom. Groaning in a most childlike manner, Vanessa tried to convince herself to ignore it on the first ring. On the second she felt guilty. By the third she was clumsily reaching for the receiver and getting it up to her ear.

"'Ello?" Her voice was still rough with sleep and she hadn't thought about the fact that it was the landline until after a bit of a pause. "X-Factor Investigations." Anyone calling her personally would have used her mobile, right?

Crystal hadn't spoken to Vanessa very much either in person or over the phone, but they'd had multiple conversations, so she recognized the voice as belonging to the woman she had spoken to regarding Haven. Of course, the voice did sound a bit different, and it never hurt to verify who you were talking to. "Hello, is this Vanessa Carlysle?" It was also possible that the blue woman was going by a different name now, so it was good to check and make sure that she was being addressed in the proper way.

Vanessa rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm and shook her head in an attempt to jar herself toward more coherence. "Aye. What can I do for you?" The voice on the phone sounded vaguely familiar, but she was pretty sure any voice would sound vaguely familiar at the moment. The mouthpiece of the phone was rotated away from her mouth so she could yawn without being heard.

"This is Crystal Amaquelin," Crystal told her. Even without an audible yawn, Vanessa's sleep-filled voice had been hard to miss. "I apologize for waking you up. I believe that I may have a case for you, but I can call back to discuss it at a later time."

Another shake of her head and a small slap to her cheek and Vanessa sounded much more alert than she had a moment ago. "No, now's fine. What's up?"

"There are a group of women who are being injured in District X," Crystal explained. "They work at a place where there has been a recent, ah, change in management. The place is now permitting a certain type of clientele which until recently was not allowed. It appears that these women are now being abused on a regular basis by the men who seek their, ah, services. The women were comfortable with their previous, ah, supervisor, but I do not believe that they consider it a good place to be at this time."

Oh, code. They were talking in code here. Vanessa wasn't big on speaking in code, personally, which is why she chose the blunt route in her response. "So the whores have a new pimp who is letting them get smacked around and the old one didn't?"

"I do not believe that they refer to themselves that way, but yes." Crystal was well aware of various terms that could be used for these particular women and their place of business, but had chosen to avoid using any sort of derogatory terminology when speaking about them and the way they made their living. The words Vanessa had used were not very pleasant or respectful ones.

"Not when they talk to outsiders, but when they are talking amongst themselves? Aye, plenty of them use the word 'whore.'" Which wasn't exactly the point here and Crystal was potentially a client so Vanessa reminded herself to not quibble over terminology. "Are they street walkers or escorts? Or I suppose working out of a brothel if anyone's still bothering to try to operate those."

"The place where they work is a brothel," Crystal confirmed. "Whether or not they see clients elsewhere is something that I do not know. I did not interrogate anyone, I simply asked a few questions as I treated the injuries of a woman who works there. It is my guess that even with this conversation, the only reason that she spoke to me at all about what has been happening is because I am a mutant, just as she is."

"There's no point to a brothel if you don't engage clients there," Vanessa told her, mostly so she would have time to think. Girls being potentially abused in a brothel under new dictatorship. It's possible they were no better off under the last pimp or madame. She could get the whole thing shut down easily enough. All Vanessa would need to do is gather enough info and get it to cops who would bother to give a damn. "I'll need to talk to at least one of the girls and the old management if it's possible. If you can manage to get me at least one contact inside then I can look into it."

"I will see if the woman I spoke to is willing to speak with you and able to give the needed information," Crystal replied. "Should I come by your office later today or tomorrow to discuss this?" At the moment, while Crystal knew she wanted something to be done to help these women, she wasn't quite sure what it was exactly that she was asking Vanessa to do or what it was that X-Factor investigations could do.

"Give me a call or a text or an e-mail when you know something and we'll figure out a time for you to come down and fill me in. If you know something today then I'd rather hear from you today rather than tomorrow. A lot can change in a day sometimes. People can die in a day and if they're being abused that's still a possibility." Vanessa would need coffee soon. Running, coffee, shower. Then she would be awake enough to think through this.

"I will do my best to obtain the information quickly," Crystal promised.