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xp_logsAlex goes out for a coffee run, and finds something much more interesting.
Inez was tired.
Not physically; her muscles didn't do that, not as quickly as a normal human's would, at any rate, and she'd only been chasing her target for less than two minutes. He probably was tired, but he was still running, though she'd closed the distance to less than half a block.
The bullets he'd shot at her in the first alleyway where they'd met had slowed her some, but that made her all the more angry and determined to catch the son of a beesting.
No, she was just tired of chasing him at this point. It was a futile effort, even he should've realized that by now, but he refused to quit.
He ducked around the corner of a building, pushing an unsuspecting couple out of his way and into hers; another temporary distraction. Inez hurtled over the lady with an apologetic smile and a light shrug of her shoulders, then sprinted forward as soon as her shoes hit the concrete.
The man - who stood taller than her at 6' something, heavier for sure, and heavily garbed in motorcycle gear - was faster than he looked, she gave him credit for that. But that was about all she'd give him credit for. He ducked into another alley, probably hoping she wouldn't see him.
She saw him.
Only a handful of people were on this sidewalk, thankfully, and Inez did her best to gracefully - and safely - blow past them before turning down that alley herself and picking up a steel garbage can that rested against one of the walls.
Time to put this guy down, she thought to herself.
Alex was on his way down the street, looking at the list of coffee orders that he fully prepared to apologize for. Everyone wanted coffee today. And snacks. It must have been time to stock the break room again.
He didn't notice the man, but he saw the blonde woman disappearing into the alley, and frowned. People going into alleys was generally a bad sign, especially alone. Maybe she was trying to lose a tail? He stashed the list in his pocket and crept closer, peeking around the corner to see-
Holy fuck.
She definitely did not need help. But the guy she was preparing to throw the trash can at might.
Pulling back the barrel over her head, Inez hurled it at the man - not with all her might, because she didn't want to turn him into a smear on the alley floor (ok, well, she kinda did but knew she shouldn't) - but enough to send him flying face-first onto the concrete. Which was exactly what he did.
"Dammit, man," she said, slowing down and rubbing her hands together. "Why y'gotta make it so hard?" She wasn't out of breath, but she was out of patience. Reaching down, she picked him up by the collar of his jacket and pushed him against the wall. "Now you're comin' with me." No please or room for debate; his fate was sealed. At least as far as she was concerned, whatever happened to him once she turned him to her employer, well. That was another story, and not hers.
She looked down the alley way and froze when she saw a stranger looking back at her.
"Nothin' t'see here," she said, still holding him, a larger person than herself, against the wall and a few feet off the ground.
"I mean, you seem to have this under control, so I won't insult you and ask if you need help handling him," Alex said in a surprisingly conversational voice. "You might get a few weird looks just carrying him down the street. Is he going to the police or...? You don't need to specify if it's or."
Inez blinked at the unexpected tone, though she didn't lower the man down any just the same.
"Not the police, no, but it's not a bad 'or,'" she explained, then frowned and looked back at him. "I don't think so, anyway." She shrugged and pinned him to the wall, then knocked him out with one swift punch. She reached into one of the back pockets of her jeans for some zip ties, then bent down to secure his hands and legs. "So... you're takin' this all in stride. Y'in the business yourself?"
Before he could answer she fished into her other back pocket and took out a small cell phone, taking a quick pic of the guy and texting something to someone. That done, she tossed the phone next to the unconscious body, nudging them both behind a dumpster to hide them from any curious lookie-loos from the open end of the alley before looking up at Alex, one eyebrow raised in a question.
"Not this business specifically." He nodded to the man. "But you know, the things are weird sometimes business. Usually involving mutants. I'm not saying you can't just be naturally ridiculously strong, but I feel good about my odds that you're a mutant?"
She reacted to the 'M' word before she could stop herself from doing so. "A what now?" she asked, pretending as if she didn't know what he meant. She stood up to her full height - which was only 5'6" - and put her hands into the pockets of her jean jacket. She licked her lips and thought of something else to say but was saved by the buzzing of a second, nicer and more permanent phone in her jacket.
After a quick glance at it she slid it into the back pocket of her shorts and nodded, then stepped forward. "We should probably get out of here now," she suggested, walking quickly towards Alex to show it was more than just a suggestion, cowboy boots clicking against the pavement.
Alex knew a get out now look when he saw one. "Absolutely. You got somewhere to be?"
"Not especially, just any place but here," she said, sizing up Alex and crossing her arms as she assessed him. "Let me guess... this ain't your first rodeo, so to speak?" She wasn't sure if he was a fellow mutant but he was seemingly unfazed by what he'd just witnessed, so she suspected he was at least someone who moved in similar circles to her own.
"I've got a place that's any place but here." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "A public place, I mean. An office. A PI office, actually. For mutants. Run by mutants. Etc." Aw shoot, he was in the middle of the coffee run, wasn't he? The others would understand. Probably. "It's not too far from here."
"For mutants, by mutants, huh?" she quipped. That answered her question, in a manner of speaking anyway. "Sounds like my kinda place too. Lead the way, if you'd be so kind," she said with a tip of her hat in Alex's direction.
Alex peeked out of the alley, then paused and looked back. "Completely forgot - I'm Alex, nice to meet you." His mothers raised him to be a gentleman, after all. "Let's roll."
Alex and Inez return to the XFI office, where Inez delivers some unsettling news. Also, no one will let Alex live down not getting coffee.
"Okay, I forgot to get coffee, so they're probably going to be a little miffed, but they're all good people," Alex promised as he opened the door into the entryway of XFI, gesturing for Inez to follow. "This was kind of an emergency, I'm sure they'll understand."
"No, I do not understand," Quentin said from his cross-legged perch on the front desk. "You said you would get coffee. You are here and there is no coffee. Leave and don't come back until you have it, got it?"
"I'd say don't mind him and he's just cranky before he gets coffee, but he's always like this." Alex rolled his eyes. "I'll go back out for coffee in a bit, man. I ran into a slight situation."
Inez blinked as Quentin launched right into Alex as soon as they'd crossed the threshold. She looked around to assess the immediate area, looking for alternate exits or anything suspicious. Old habits died hard; not that she didn't trust Alex, but she did only just meet him.
Putting one hand into the pocket of her jean jacket and gave a slight wave with the other. "Hi, Slight Situation, at your service. Y'all take your coffee pretty seriously 'round here, I take it? Sorry 'bout that," she said with a nod.
"We do take it seriously." Hope pushed open the door with one foot, expertly balancing various notebooks and other office supplies in her hands, Sue following with a tray with snacks they'd brought in earlier that day. "I am afraid there are some who take it to extreme levels though. If you are that desperate, there are places that deliver." She scolded the boys as she quickly set her load down on the nearest free service before refocusing on their guest and held out her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Hope."
"But if they deliver, it always gets cold and then we don't get to harass Alex about it and extort outrageous demands, for example," the blond turned to the errant coffee collector. "Since you forgot the sustenance that drives us through our hard hard work days, you're paying for the Chinese tonight, I think that only seems fair right?" A bright smile graced her lips as see set the tray down on the table and winked at Inez before straightening with a sniff, "Ms Slight Situation gets first crack, she's a guest, but you get whatever snacks are leftover after everyone else."
"You know what, I take it back," Alex said, although his smile undercut his words. "This place sucks, let's go somewhere else. The mansion's usually quiet around this time, and no one's going to gang up on me for not getting coffee for a good reason."
"Hi Hope, everybody," she said, still not sure of anyone else's name at this point. Chinese food sounded amazing to her as soon as it was mentioned, but then Alex mentioned a mansion and that caught her attention. "Wait, did you say mansion?" Not that this place looked shabby or anything, but apparently Alex and/or the others had a mansion as well? What had she gotten herself into? "And I 'preciate you saying that I was a good reason as well, even if it does mean a temporary lack of caffeine."
Quentin sighed and shook his head. "What's this big emergency, anyway?" he asked wearily, as if the absence of the promised coffee made even a simple conversation Too Much for him. "Can't be too important if you're willing to wait to drive up to Westchester."
"I didn't say it was an emergency, I said it was a slight situation," Alex said. "And the situation was we needed to get somewhere off the streets. Also the coffee's going to be cold even if I go back and pick it up since I still have to walk back here."
Sue shook her head, blonde hair swishing behind her like a short silken cloak as she gestured towards the conference room. "Ok, this sounds...more serious than one of your lost puppies. Come on, we can sit down while you bring us up to speed. Quentin, lock the doors, we're closed for business for the next hour or so, leave a note saying we've gone to lunch or something."
He muttered something under his breath that sounded like a threat to her future once he was the boss, but he did as he was instructed, telekinetically locking the doors and flipping off the front room lights to make it look like they were gone. He then followed the others to the conference room and took a seat near the head of the table and kicked his feet up. "So what is this 'slight situation,' then?"
Inez watched Quentin's neat method of locking the place down, then followed them into the conference room. She leaned against one of the walls, crossing her arms and bending one leg up, placing her foot back against the wall, taking it in as she did so. Something started to click together into her mind. "This is XFI, right? X-Factor Investigations?" She rubbed her chin then nodded slowly. "Okay, yeah, this checks out." She's pretty she knew about the mansion and where it was now, based on a recent discussion she'd had.
"No slight situation any longer, not on my end, anyhow. That's been taken care of and is waitin' pickup." she said, taking her phone out and wagging it a few times before putting it back into her pocket. "So, who's orderin' the grub again? I could definitely go for some Chinese food right about now."
Alex looked her again, this time his gaze a little sharp, and some of the joy gone from his voice. "I didn't tell you the name."
"Not in so many words, no," Inez replied with a little smirk, then held her hands up. "I ain't here to cause any harm or nothin', what you stumbled on back there was legit my own business. And I didn't know who you were back then either," she added, nodding at Alex in particular.
"But bringin' me here and meetin' y'all, well." She gestured at everyone else and the space around them all. "It just added up to what I heard about y'all and the Underground, is all." Inez shrugged. It was none of her business how well known they wanted to be, though she was getting the distinct impression she'd heard more than they'd wanted people to hear.
Pulling out a fews pens and notebooks from a nearby cupboard and putting them on the middle of the table, Hope took a seat and pulled over one of the pens and notebooks. "You were looking for us for a reason though. You mentioned a 'slight situation'? Are you in some kind of trouble we can help you with?" She looked quizzically back and forth between Inez and Alex.
"Well," Inez started, pushing off the wall and pacing around the room. "The initial slight situation, I think, was ... Alex, right?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him before continuing, "finding me in the middle of a job. He saw what I can do and I reckon he has... talents of his own, same with y'all."
She stopped and turned around, arms crossed but a playful grin on her face. "I ain't lookin' to cause any trouble, like I said, so there's no situation for any of us, unless you consider too many people knowin' about this Underground bein' a situation."
Blue eyes glanced over at Quentin for a moment, Sue's look full of unspoken meaning and intent, something here felt wrong, fishy and if it came to it she trusted the psychic to be the one to be able to deal with the situation without concern. "The wrong people knowing about the underground is the main problem but you seem to have the advantage on us. Maybe you could explain what this job you were on was?"
Quentin gave Sue the briefest of nods and opened his mind to the guest. He did not start digging around yet, cautious to avoid any psychic booby trap Inez could have left for him, but he could at least play the role of a polygraph.
"My job was pretty simple," she started, hanging her thumbs into the pockets of her jacket. "I had to find a guy who'd been runnin' his mouth too much about a client of mine. That had nothin' to do with y'all, but, once I caught him, well..." Inez smirked a little. "He started throwin' out info he thought I'd be interested in to save his skin. Which I didn't care for, but one of the morsels he tempted me with was 'bout the Underground. I don't think you'll have to worry about him any more, though," she finished with a nod. "But who else he might've told, or who else knows, I can't say."
Alex let out a long breath, dragging his hands down his face. "Fuuuuuuuuck. Fuck. Okay. That's a problem. We're gonna need any info you have on the guy, including the last place you saw him and any known associates." If someone was running their mouth about the Underground... yeah. That was a problem.
"We do not just need any drop of information you have on the guy." Hope looked up from her notes. "We will also need anything he said in regards to that tempting morsel about the Underground. No detail might be too small." She threw a meaningful glance at QQ. "Lives may depend on it."
She was right and he had nothing to add to that. Professional mode activated, Quentin took his feet off the table and sat up straight. "Someone's got to let our people know there's a leak while we're plugging it. And you." He looked over at Inez. "Imagine what this person looked like. Every detail you can remember."
The blonde stood, eyes cold as ice as she glanced around the table, "Ok, we need to hit the streets and start getting the word out to the underground, hit all the contacts you can to get the word out. The underground needs to go to ground till we can plug this leak, in the meantime, we need a picture and all the information you can get us." The blonde nodded at Quenin and Hope, "Quentin, mail it to me and I'll run it through the database, see what it flags up."
"Wait..." Hope rose as well, her training with Doug from several years ago running through her head. "While we need to make sure no lives are at risk, we need to move carefully. Otherwise we might win this battle and save a few lives, but the true culprits will have flown from the coup with us possibly losing the war. We need to plan first before we hit the streets."
"Then let's plan," Alex said, gesturing toward the nearest planning room with one hand and using the other to get coffees delivered. It was going to be a long day.
Inez was tired.
Not physically; her muscles didn't do that, not as quickly as a normal human's would, at any rate, and she'd only been chasing her target for less than two minutes. He probably was tired, but he was still running, though she'd closed the distance to less than half a block.
The bullets he'd shot at her in the first alleyway where they'd met had slowed her some, but that made her all the more angry and determined to catch the son of a beesting.
No, she was just tired of chasing him at this point. It was a futile effort, even he should've realized that by now, but he refused to quit.
He ducked around the corner of a building, pushing an unsuspecting couple out of his way and into hers; another temporary distraction. Inez hurtled over the lady with an apologetic smile and a light shrug of her shoulders, then sprinted forward as soon as her shoes hit the concrete.
The man - who stood taller than her at 6' something, heavier for sure, and heavily garbed in motorcycle gear - was faster than he looked, she gave him credit for that. But that was about all she'd give him credit for. He ducked into another alley, probably hoping she wouldn't see him.
She saw him.
Only a handful of people were on this sidewalk, thankfully, and Inez did her best to gracefully - and safely - blow past them before turning down that alley herself and picking up a steel garbage can that rested against one of the walls.
Time to put this guy down, she thought to herself.
Alex was on his way down the street, looking at the list of coffee orders that he fully prepared to apologize for. Everyone wanted coffee today. And snacks. It must have been time to stock the break room again.
He didn't notice the man, but he saw the blonde woman disappearing into the alley, and frowned. People going into alleys was generally a bad sign, especially alone. Maybe she was trying to lose a tail? He stashed the list in his pocket and crept closer, peeking around the corner to see-
Holy fuck.
She definitely did not need help. But the guy she was preparing to throw the trash can at might.
Pulling back the barrel over her head, Inez hurled it at the man - not with all her might, because she didn't want to turn him into a smear on the alley floor (ok, well, she kinda did but knew she shouldn't) - but enough to send him flying face-first onto the concrete. Which was exactly what he did.
"Dammit, man," she said, slowing down and rubbing her hands together. "Why y'gotta make it so hard?" She wasn't out of breath, but she was out of patience. Reaching down, she picked him up by the collar of his jacket and pushed him against the wall. "Now you're comin' with me." No please or room for debate; his fate was sealed. At least as far as she was concerned, whatever happened to him once she turned him to her employer, well. That was another story, and not hers.
She looked down the alley way and froze when she saw a stranger looking back at her.
"Nothin' t'see here," she said, still holding him, a larger person than herself, against the wall and a few feet off the ground.
"I mean, you seem to have this under control, so I won't insult you and ask if you need help handling him," Alex said in a surprisingly conversational voice. "You might get a few weird looks just carrying him down the street. Is he going to the police or...? You don't need to specify if it's or."
Inez blinked at the unexpected tone, though she didn't lower the man down any just the same.
"Not the police, no, but it's not a bad 'or,'" she explained, then frowned and looked back at him. "I don't think so, anyway." She shrugged and pinned him to the wall, then knocked him out with one swift punch. She reached into one of the back pockets of her jeans for some zip ties, then bent down to secure his hands and legs. "So... you're takin' this all in stride. Y'in the business yourself?"
Before he could answer she fished into her other back pocket and took out a small cell phone, taking a quick pic of the guy and texting something to someone. That done, she tossed the phone next to the unconscious body, nudging them both behind a dumpster to hide them from any curious lookie-loos from the open end of the alley before looking up at Alex, one eyebrow raised in a question.
"Not this business specifically." He nodded to the man. "But you know, the things are weird sometimes business. Usually involving mutants. I'm not saying you can't just be naturally ridiculously strong, but I feel good about my odds that you're a mutant?"
She reacted to the 'M' word before she could stop herself from doing so. "A what now?" she asked, pretending as if she didn't know what he meant. She stood up to her full height - which was only 5'6" - and put her hands into the pockets of her jean jacket. She licked her lips and thought of something else to say but was saved by the buzzing of a second, nicer and more permanent phone in her jacket.
After a quick glance at it she slid it into the back pocket of her shorts and nodded, then stepped forward. "We should probably get out of here now," she suggested, walking quickly towards Alex to show it was more than just a suggestion, cowboy boots clicking against the pavement.
Alex knew a get out now look when he saw one. "Absolutely. You got somewhere to be?"
"Not especially, just any place but here," she said, sizing up Alex and crossing her arms as she assessed him. "Let me guess... this ain't your first rodeo, so to speak?" She wasn't sure if he was a fellow mutant but he was seemingly unfazed by what he'd just witnessed, so she suspected he was at least someone who moved in similar circles to her own.
"I've got a place that's any place but here." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "A public place, I mean. An office. A PI office, actually. For mutants. Run by mutants. Etc." Aw shoot, he was in the middle of the coffee run, wasn't he? The others would understand. Probably. "It's not too far from here."
"For mutants, by mutants, huh?" she quipped. That answered her question, in a manner of speaking anyway. "Sounds like my kinda place too. Lead the way, if you'd be so kind," she said with a tip of her hat in Alex's direction.
Alex peeked out of the alley, then paused and looked back. "Completely forgot - I'm Alex, nice to meet you." His mothers raised him to be a gentleman, after all. "Let's roll."
Alex and Inez return to the XFI office, where Inez delivers some unsettling news. Also, no one will let Alex live down not getting coffee.
"Okay, I forgot to get coffee, so they're probably going to be a little miffed, but they're all good people," Alex promised as he opened the door into the entryway of XFI, gesturing for Inez to follow. "This was kind of an emergency, I'm sure they'll understand."
"No, I do not understand," Quentin said from his cross-legged perch on the front desk. "You said you would get coffee. You are here and there is no coffee. Leave and don't come back until you have it, got it?"
"I'd say don't mind him and he's just cranky before he gets coffee, but he's always like this." Alex rolled his eyes. "I'll go back out for coffee in a bit, man. I ran into a slight situation."
Inez blinked as Quentin launched right into Alex as soon as they'd crossed the threshold. She looked around to assess the immediate area, looking for alternate exits or anything suspicious. Old habits died hard; not that she didn't trust Alex, but she did only just meet him.
Putting one hand into the pocket of her jean jacket and gave a slight wave with the other. "Hi, Slight Situation, at your service. Y'all take your coffee pretty seriously 'round here, I take it? Sorry 'bout that," she said with a nod.
"We do take it seriously." Hope pushed open the door with one foot, expertly balancing various notebooks and other office supplies in her hands, Sue following with a tray with snacks they'd brought in earlier that day. "I am afraid there are some who take it to extreme levels though. If you are that desperate, there are places that deliver." She scolded the boys as she quickly set her load down on the nearest free service before refocusing on their guest and held out her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Hope."
"But if they deliver, it always gets cold and then we don't get to harass Alex about it and extort outrageous demands, for example," the blond turned to the errant coffee collector. "Since you forgot the sustenance that drives us through our hard hard work days, you're paying for the Chinese tonight, I think that only seems fair right?" A bright smile graced her lips as see set the tray down on the table and winked at Inez before straightening with a sniff, "Ms Slight Situation gets first crack, she's a guest, but you get whatever snacks are leftover after everyone else."
"You know what, I take it back," Alex said, although his smile undercut his words. "This place sucks, let's go somewhere else. The mansion's usually quiet around this time, and no one's going to gang up on me for not getting coffee for a good reason."
"Hi Hope, everybody," she said, still not sure of anyone else's name at this point. Chinese food sounded amazing to her as soon as it was mentioned, but then Alex mentioned a mansion and that caught her attention. "Wait, did you say mansion?" Not that this place looked shabby or anything, but apparently Alex and/or the others had a mansion as well? What had she gotten herself into? "And I 'preciate you saying that I was a good reason as well, even if it does mean a temporary lack of caffeine."
Quentin sighed and shook his head. "What's this big emergency, anyway?" he asked wearily, as if the absence of the promised coffee made even a simple conversation Too Much for him. "Can't be too important if you're willing to wait to drive up to Westchester."
"I didn't say it was an emergency, I said it was a slight situation," Alex said. "And the situation was we needed to get somewhere off the streets. Also the coffee's going to be cold even if I go back and pick it up since I still have to walk back here."
Sue shook her head, blonde hair swishing behind her like a short silken cloak as she gestured towards the conference room. "Ok, this sounds...more serious than one of your lost puppies. Come on, we can sit down while you bring us up to speed. Quentin, lock the doors, we're closed for business for the next hour or so, leave a note saying we've gone to lunch or something."
He muttered something under his breath that sounded like a threat to her future once he was the boss, but he did as he was instructed, telekinetically locking the doors and flipping off the front room lights to make it look like they were gone. He then followed the others to the conference room and took a seat near the head of the table and kicked his feet up. "So what is this 'slight situation,' then?"
Inez watched Quentin's neat method of locking the place down, then followed them into the conference room. She leaned against one of the walls, crossing her arms and bending one leg up, placing her foot back against the wall, taking it in as she did so. Something started to click together into her mind. "This is XFI, right? X-Factor Investigations?" She rubbed her chin then nodded slowly. "Okay, yeah, this checks out." She's pretty she knew about the mansion and where it was now, based on a recent discussion she'd had.
"No slight situation any longer, not on my end, anyhow. That's been taken care of and is waitin' pickup." she said, taking her phone out and wagging it a few times before putting it back into her pocket. "So, who's orderin' the grub again? I could definitely go for some Chinese food right about now."
Alex looked her again, this time his gaze a little sharp, and some of the joy gone from his voice. "I didn't tell you the name."
"Not in so many words, no," Inez replied with a little smirk, then held her hands up. "I ain't here to cause any harm or nothin', what you stumbled on back there was legit my own business. And I didn't know who you were back then either," she added, nodding at Alex in particular.
"But bringin' me here and meetin' y'all, well." She gestured at everyone else and the space around them all. "It just added up to what I heard about y'all and the Underground, is all." Inez shrugged. It was none of her business how well known they wanted to be, though she was getting the distinct impression she'd heard more than they'd wanted people to hear.
Pulling out a fews pens and notebooks from a nearby cupboard and putting them on the middle of the table, Hope took a seat and pulled over one of the pens and notebooks. "You were looking for us for a reason though. You mentioned a 'slight situation'? Are you in some kind of trouble we can help you with?" She looked quizzically back and forth between Inez and Alex.
"Well," Inez started, pushing off the wall and pacing around the room. "The initial slight situation, I think, was ... Alex, right?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him before continuing, "finding me in the middle of a job. He saw what I can do and I reckon he has... talents of his own, same with y'all."
She stopped and turned around, arms crossed but a playful grin on her face. "I ain't lookin' to cause any trouble, like I said, so there's no situation for any of us, unless you consider too many people knowin' about this Underground bein' a situation."
Blue eyes glanced over at Quentin for a moment, Sue's look full of unspoken meaning and intent, something here felt wrong, fishy and if it came to it she trusted the psychic to be the one to be able to deal with the situation without concern. "The wrong people knowing about the underground is the main problem but you seem to have the advantage on us. Maybe you could explain what this job you were on was?"
Quentin gave Sue the briefest of nods and opened his mind to the guest. He did not start digging around yet, cautious to avoid any psychic booby trap Inez could have left for him, but he could at least play the role of a polygraph.
"My job was pretty simple," she started, hanging her thumbs into the pockets of her jacket. "I had to find a guy who'd been runnin' his mouth too much about a client of mine. That had nothin' to do with y'all, but, once I caught him, well..." Inez smirked a little. "He started throwin' out info he thought I'd be interested in to save his skin. Which I didn't care for, but one of the morsels he tempted me with was 'bout the Underground. I don't think you'll have to worry about him any more, though," she finished with a nod. "But who else he might've told, or who else knows, I can't say."
Alex let out a long breath, dragging his hands down his face. "Fuuuuuuuuck. Fuck. Okay. That's a problem. We're gonna need any info you have on the guy, including the last place you saw him and any known associates." If someone was running their mouth about the Underground... yeah. That was a problem.
"We do not just need any drop of information you have on the guy." Hope looked up from her notes. "We will also need anything he said in regards to that tempting morsel about the Underground. No detail might be too small." She threw a meaningful glance at QQ. "Lives may depend on it."
She was right and he had nothing to add to that. Professional mode activated, Quentin took his feet off the table and sat up straight. "Someone's got to let our people know there's a leak while we're plugging it. And you." He looked over at Inez. "Imagine what this person looked like. Every detail you can remember."
The blonde stood, eyes cold as ice as she glanced around the table, "Ok, we need to hit the streets and start getting the word out to the underground, hit all the contacts you can to get the word out. The underground needs to go to ground till we can plug this leak, in the meantime, we need a picture and all the information you can get us." The blonde nodded at Quenin and Hope, "Quentin, mail it to me and I'll run it through the database, see what it flags up."
"Wait..." Hope rose as well, her training with Doug from several years ago running through her head. "While we need to make sure no lives are at risk, we need to move carefully. Otherwise we might win this battle and save a few lives, but the true culprits will have flown from the coup with us possibly losing the war. We need to plan first before we hit the streets."
"Then let's plan," Alex said, gesturing toward the nearest planning room with one hand and using the other to get coffees delivered. It was going to be a long day.
