Cathouse: Know Thy Enemy

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Jubilee and Sarah meet up with Vanessa at the X-Factor office to let her know what they've found out about Barry.

The X-Factor office felt very, very empty. Jean-Paul was doing surveillance on Laura who was undercover in the brothel. Every day that went by with her in there made Vanessa feel worse, but it also pushed the metamorph to want to get this case closed as quickly as possible. Bishop was out working a legit, paying case so it was only the mercenary in the office for the time being. A fresh pot of coffee filled the wide, open office with the delightful scent of caffeine, which Vanessa probably didn't really need but wanted anyway. She knew the ladies from Snow Valley were due in any minute and made her way over to the coffee pot to pour herself a cup. Jubilee and Sarah had worked with her long enough to be able to endure Vanessa on caffeine, anyhow.
"So, got one of those for us as well?" Jubilee asked, holding the door open for Sarah before heading toward Vanessa. "Cause dude, caffeine is definitely needed right now."

"Agreed." Sarah nodded, shrugging off her jacket and laying it on the back of one of the office chairs. "We can't possibly talk business before everyone's had their coffee."

"Former colleagues do not get to sponge the colleague coffee," Vanessa told them both with the hints of a smile tugging the corners of her mouth. "You get client coffee. It's a day old, cheap and terrible." They didn't actually have client coffee set out anywhere, but Vanessa let the idea of it set in before she pulled mugs out for Jubilee and Sarah. "You get three day old doughnuts, too."

"But are they good three-day old doughnuts?" Jubilee asked, watching as Vanessa made their coffee, she wasn't quite vibrating on her feet, but Jubes always had the air of someone that could jump in any direction at the merest flick of a reason.

"They are decent three day old doughnuts because we don't want the clients to think they are being poisoned but we want to keep them thinking that we really need their case because if we had their case then we could feed people same-day doughnuts." She finally flashed the women a smile and pushed their cups toward them. "You can cream and sugar yourselves. That's too much responsibility for me."

"If I was going to poison someone, I'd put it in the good doughnuts." Sarah took her cup of coffee and sipped it tentatively, grinning over the mug. "And how is your coffee still better than the stuff we get at Snow Valley?"

Vanessa grinned. "I get Laurie to do all the shopping for the most part and that girl can actually cook so she does stuff like buy us the good coffee and not whatever the hell it is Frost keeps over there. Though, you would think that calling yourself a think tank would make you sound important enough to get better coffee. I remember it being sort of sludge-like and usually days old since it was so bad that people wouldn't bother making new coffee."

Moving over to a bean bag chair that was positioned across from the futon Jean-Paul had randomly deposited in the office on way, Vanessa gestured for the other two to join her. "I'm really hoping you guys have actual info for me and you're not just here for the better quality coffee."

"Of course we do. We found the guy in the trafficker database. Barry Thistledown is a fucktard who likes to ship mutants to the highest bidder." Sarah deposited herself in the chair, leaning back to stretch. "I hate traffickers."

"Not just any human trafficker either," Jubilee added, sliding bonelessly into another of the seats as she took a sip of her coffee. "Madripoor traffickers, about double the level of scum-bag then your usual run of the mill trafficker."

"I fucking hate Madripoor dicks," Vanessa grumbled, shaking her head. "And he's a mutant-centric dick, just lovely. I hate these people. Really, truly loathe them. I don't think he's shipped any the girls out of the brothel he took over. At least not yet. I'll have to have Laura try to ask around and see what the girls know, see if anyone's disappeared and the like. How connected is this guy?"

Sarah shrugged. "Connected. Mostly centered around Madripoor and other places that think trafficking is a great fucking idea, but he seems to want to branch out to New York and specifically District X. We can all guess why."

"High concentration of goods," Vanessa muttered, disdain dripping from her words. "Do we run into the trouble of pissing off anyone fearsome if we take him out? Or, more importantly, anyone who would come after us for the inconvenience of taking out their supplier? I'm sure most of them wouldn't care, but if someone with motivation to track us down for taking Thistledown out of the picture might be involved we may need to tread more carefully."

Sarah shook her head. "As far as I can tell, nobody's going to think this asshole is important enough to retaliate. He may think he's important, but none of his clients are exclusive. They'll find someone else to give them a fix."

"So I figure I'm gonna be joinin' Laura in some undercover work, better if I take this guy out then her. I assume you're gonna be wantin' to use her in District-X again?" Jubilee replied, pulling a packet of cigerettes from her back pocket and waving it at Vanessa. "Mother may I?"

Vanessa raised an eyebrow with a clear look of disapproval on her face. "Hell no. Non-smoking zone. We keep a sidewalk for that. And, aye, I don't want her taking anyone out. I could, but if you're volunteering I won't say no. I'm worried about her in there. She puts on a brave face but there's no way to not be affected by that. I'd rather have someone I could trust in there watching her back, aye?"

Jubilee shrugged and put the packet back into her jean's pocket, "Understandable. I'm assuming you've got a way to contact her? We need to work out my entrance strategy, might be better if she brings me in as someone she knows, that way it's less weird if we're buddy-buddy."

"I've got designated check in points with her. You can tag along when I meet up with her." Vanessa gave Jubilee a visual once over and frowned. "I don't wear me when I meet up with her. We should get you as not-you looking as we can for that."

"Give me the meeting time and location and I'll meet you there, dude," Jubilee replied, opening her phone to take a look through her contacts. She had a person who could fit her in last minute for a hair appointment, and she'd get the rest of what she needed clothes wise today. "I think I can handle the 'no looking like me' thing, and we'll have to let the other's know what's going on."

Sarah nodded. "I'll keep an eye on the lovely world of human trafficking. If something changes, or looks to be going south, I'll call you as soon as I see it."

Vanessa nodded. "Great. I appreciate your help on this. Sarah, I"ll be in touch if anything turns up on this end either. And Jubilee you should have a text with our meet time and location in a few hours along with the number for my prepaid so you can get hold of me should anything turn pear-shaped while you're inside and Laura is unable to get word to me. Aye?"

"Affirmative captain," Jubilee said with a grin and a wink, setting her cup down as she stood from her seat. "I'll see you later."