MIXTAPE: 'Hypnotize' - The Notorious B.I.G.

[xp_changeling]

Image by Mackinzie



London. Gabe was learning that it was Kevin's default location in Europe. If he was on the continent and no one knew where, the odds were best he was in London. This time, it was a small boutique hotel tucked away in a three hundred year old house in Camden. Although, this time, it was Kevin in his female alt Nora that met him at his room.

"Lots to do today. Master class is starting." She said with Kevin's wolfish grin translating over directly.

“Oh good,” Gabriel said, trying to sound as neutral as possible. He was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the tiniest bit — a wee bit, as he believed they said here — hungover. “A Nora day.”

It was Gabriel’s belief — though he’d never said it aloud or suggested as much before now — that Kevin largely kept Nora tucked away around his younger male protege, and that when it was time for Nora, it usually meant trouble for Gabriel. (Through his light mental fog, a thought nagged at him that this might have been rooted in misogyny. He dismissed the idea and chalked the negativity up to jetlag.)

“Don’t suppose,” he said after a second, “this master class includes a double espresso.”

"Sure. There's a good place on the corner. I'll catch you up with the plan there." He said, and led him out. It was a dreary summer day, lightly raining, and Kevin turned up the collar of the light jacket he'd added to Nora's ensemble. Kevin always expressed the powers of clothing in crafting a persona and right now, with his outfit, walk and presentation, Nora looked professional and successful, high end brands but chosen with taste as opposed to based on price.

Gabriel donned his sunglasses, a move whose stereotypical spy connotations didn’t quite bother him if it made the world more palatable. “This always been your neighborhood?” He studied her. “And when did you go shopping?”

"First time I was here was in 1955. Oh man, you would have loved it. I was an awkward hayseed." Kevin said, in Nora's tones. "I was sent to learn polish from Christian Kane and maybe toughen him up. First thing we did was tour his favourite shops. He's a bit of a clothes hog, if you hadn't noticed."

"I hadn't." Gabriel hadn't. They arrived at a café that Gabriel likely wouldn't have noticed on his own, or more likely would have bypassed in favor of something with the veneer of third-wave coffee culture. There was something vaguely cosmopolitan about London that primed him to approach it like New York and not to embrace its at times more European airs. "You want anything? I'll buy."

"Just a cappuccino. I'll give you the briefing once we get our drinks." Kevin said as he settled into a table.

Gabriel ordered, nodding at the table as he paid. After a brief stop by the WC, he sat down. "I imagine you're about to say something like, 'I appreciate a coffee shop that doesn't ask what kind of milk you want,'" he said, finally taking the sunglasses off. "But," he watched the cashier, "she did ask. I guess I give off that vibe."

"You know, it's funny how much form can influence taste. As Kevin I would say exactly that. As Nora, I've been using oat milk. I'd make a joke about 'how you milk oats' but that's too 'dad joke' for her." He said, sliding over a copy of the London Time, folded so it concealed a photo and a few typewritten pages. "Kad Youcef. Head of an African cartel moving weapons, drugs, and mutants. He's ready to level up and needs access to proper financial support to launder his profits. He also considers himself a bit of a playboy, which is why we use Nora to distract him slightly. But you're going to need to sell him that you're the person who can unlock legitimate financial channels for him."

Gabriel absorbed this quietly as a cafe employee brought over his demitasse and a froth-filled mug for Kevin. He nodded in thanks, drumming his fingers on a table. "Well, it's whole milk," he said after a sip of his espresso. Weapons, drugs and mutants. He'd never discussed it with Kevin — obviously — but the stakes of every assignment seemed to keep getting higher, and he wasn't sure when it had happened. "So I need to seem well-connected," he said after a second, his voice low. "And rich? Maybe not rich. Wealth adjacent?"

"Your call. You need to represent a concern big enough to wash tens of millions through." Nora said. "Like I said, this is Master class. You've shown you're an effective operator. Now it is time to let you start making the decisions in the field; strategize and develop your own networks, figure out what resources you need and how to deploy them, and out of all of what is left to learn, what you think you need to prioritize. You pull this off and you've proved that it's time to move you to the next level."

"Master class includes the word class, you know." Gabriel, now on his second sip, wondered if it would be tacky to lower the sunglasses again. He still hadn't looked at the material inside the newspaper, mostly because he thought someone his age opening a newspaper would seem ridiculous, even in England. "It must be nice for you." He should have ordered a biscotti. "Being able to do a little nip and tuck for every little operation."

"I am a lucky boy." Nora joked. "Seriously though, we need you to be part of the strategizing now. You'll hate it. More responsibility, a few more days in office monthly. This is the only job you get punished with a promotion."

Gabriel simply raised an eyebrow as he stirred the espresso, then downed the rest of it. Now, he decided, wasn't the time to raise objections, so he'd save them for later. "You obviously have your concerns," he said, nodding at and pointing to the paper. "So?"

"Youcef is connected to another group who uses his services occasionally which I need information on. If we can find out how they pay Youcef, it will give me a path into finding more about them. Once that happens, we can flip Youcef to Interpol and shut down his business. So you don't need to develop a long term plan for them. Just something that will hold up for a couple of months."

"Ah." Gabriel said, some understanding reaching him. This was temporary. It was, really, a test. "So you're the in," he gestured with a free hand to Nora. "And we're, what, associates? And I'm some kind of... financial something." The espresso hadn't kicked in, and he didn't feel ready for this. "Maybe I'm some kind of fixer. More believable that way."

"You tell me." Nora smiled in a way that was absolutely Kevin. "What's the best approach for him?"

Gabriel groaned. A Nora day. He was grateful for the sunglasses. "How much time do I have to figure that out?" He hadn't so much as peeked at the reading material.

"Meeting is in about six hours." Nora said. "Should I get you a second coffee?"

Gabriel slowly exhaled. "Yes. And a third, unless you've got anything stronger."

"My old drill sergeant used to say, 'if you can't take the joke, you shouldn't have signed up'. Although, frankly, he was a racist piece of shit, so maybe don't take his advice." Nora said with a quirk of her mouth. "You got this, kid. Even if you don't believe it yet, I do."

"Yeah." Gabriel sighed. He felt like there was some larger picture he wasn't seeing, but he couldn't put his finger on it. It wasn't just the talk of additional responsibility, but something was nagging at him, and he didn't have the piece of mind to articulate. He studied Nora again, really looking at her. "It's coded wealth, I bet," he finally said. "Tailored suit, an ostentatious accessory, but well-groomed assistant with a nice-looking watch or something like that, not Gordon Gekko, new-money flash. The vibe is black Mercedes SUV. Not red Porsche." His alternate-universe mafia alter ego came to mind. He wanted a cigarette. "Don't tell me if I'm close or not." He lifted the newspaper slightly. "Haven't done the required reading yet anyway."

Nora looked at him for a long minute before nodding. "I'll get you that second and third coffee."

Comments

[xp_topaz]

I love Gabe and Kevin - er, Nora in this case - logs. The mentor/mentee vibe is so good.

[xp_wildchild]

There's a really nice symmetry here - Gabe chalking his thoughts about Nora to possible misogyny, Kevin(Nora) commenting on his(her) old drill sergeant being a racist. The bookend poses about clothing selections, Gabe getting coffees, and then Kevin(Nora) getting coffees.