xp_logs | Remy, Jake -- Friday

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Remy runs into someone unexpected. Right away seeing the tactical advantage, he drags Jake with him back to the mansion, and tells him what´s going on with Pete as well as his Big Plan of Spy Hijinks.

Well, it was Amsterdam. Black-lit women grinding in plexi tubes out on the facade, identical and obviously gay blond twins working the bar, the thick reek of hash in the air. Remy smiled slightly. If it wasn't business, he could have a lot of fun here.

Wisdom used to use this bar as a clearing house for a couple of the mansion's agents, simply due to the fact that no level of weirdness could cause comment here. The last several days had been a harried sucession of trips and meetings, shutting down the intelligence net and walling off contacts. It limited Wisdom's resources, but each one also burned an asset for the X-Men too.

Remy quartered the room, looking for any of the faces on his list. It seemed that Wisdom may have gotten to them first, because there was no one to be seen. That meant rousting them at their homes and businesses, something that traditionally went badly. He pulled out some money and leaned on the bar to order.

That's when he saw him across the room.

In some cases, that was the sign of true love. In this case, it was the sign of true trouble, which Remy enjoyed a lot more. He ghosted around the room towards the back, where the figure was standing. LeBeau got right up beside him before he lit a cigarette.

"Bonjour, Jake. Funny meeting you here." The stunned expression warmed his heart, and he took Jake Gavin firmly by the arm. "Sit down with me and have a drink." Remy guided him to his table, and took the seat directly across. "Nervous?"

"I´m not nervous! Do I look nervous to you?" Jake tapped his fingers on table incessantly. "Why would I be nervous? Um. Should I be nervous?"

"You keep switching sexes." Remy said mildly, ordering a drink.

"I do not! I think I´d notice it if I-- Oh. Well, that´s. Perfectly normal. I always do that on Fridays."

"Chere, homme... whatever. Look, you still working for your pare. Dat means dere a whole bunch of t'ings you want to tell Remy, isn't dere?"

Jake gave him a long blank stare, as that seemed the safest thing to do right then. "No, not really. How did you _find_ me, anyway?"

“Remy looked across de bar." Which was true. He'd been in looking for a contact, and had spotted him just finishing a conversation with Gavin. Remy had wondered where Jake had disappeared to after he fled the mansion. "Which was a lot more pleasent when we first met, Jacqueline."

Jake froze for a second, eyes widening, before he went back to tapping his fingers on the table. "I suppose. ...So, you´re back to working for a living?"

"In a sense." Remy actually scowled. "Wisdom been in touch wit' you, homme? Talk to you 'bout de mansion?" If Wisdom was tapping Infonet, things were going to get a lot more difficult.

"I´ve been in Korea for months, doing some... Yeah, no, I haven´t heard anything from anyone at the mansion lately." Jake added mentally: But if you´re back in business, getting in touch might not be a bad idea.

"Well, things have gotten out of hand. Wisdom gone off to prod de fucking Hellfire Club into a war, and guess who gets to pick up de pieces." Remy paused, and then grinned. "Oh chere, you think dat Gambit back in business, neh?"

Jake tilted his head. "You´re not? Excuse me if I don´t fall over myself believing that without extensive evidence to back it up."

"Oh, Gambit back in de business. Just a different type of Gambit." Remy shrugged. "'sides, you still alive. Dat alone should tell you something."

"We´re also in public, and you think I know something you want to know," Jake pointed out.

"True. Or maybe it true love after all." Remy reached for his drink. Gavin was a professional, but seeing him unsettled amused a small and cruel part in Remy. Maybe he really was a bad man after all. "How 'bout dis?" Remy dropped a mansion palmpilot in front of Jake.

He picked it up automatically. "Yes, this truly fills me with confidence in your reformed ways." He glanced over at Remy, and there _was_ something off about him, but, really, Jake wasn´t that naive. "No, it really doesn´t. What do you want me to do with this? Discover your secret addiction to M&Ms?"

"You could always turn it on, chere." Remy shook his head. "You sure dat you still in de game here?"

"I´m starting to wonder that myself," Jake muttered. He turned the palm pilot on though. The Xavier's codescreen blossomed up, with the intricate encryption that Jake had watched Kitty and Hank design. He knew from experience that it was pretty much unbreakable; something that his father had been unimpressed with. Remy leaned over, and touched the stylus to the keypad, tapping x_gambit into the login and a password. The palmpilot beeped and opened up. The fucker had full access.

"Son of a bitch," Jake said, blinking.

"Now, not polite say dis things 'bout Remy's mare. Oh, and chere," Remy took a sip of his drink and leaned forward. "Since you just seen dat information, you just been temporarily drafted back into de X-Men. Isn't life grand?"

Jake pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "I hate you, you know that, right?"

"Must have missed it in all de, what do you call it? Ah, sexual tension." Remy grinned.

Jake glared. "Hate you. So much. ...What do you want me to do, anyway?" It occoured to Jake that he was possibly a bit wussy. Ah well. Whatever kept him alive at the end of the day.

"Dat's going to take some time. And forty-seven more drinks. Lets go find a quiet spot." Remy picked up his palm and slipped it back into his jacket. "Look on de bright side, chere. Neither of us likely to survive dis. Dat should make you feel better."

Jake followed him, glaring all the while, and muttering, "hate you" in every language he could think of, resigned for now.

* * * * * *

Pete's office had barely changed since he left. The only thing Remy had brought was his laptop, the trenchcoat thrown over one of the chairs, and the explosion of papers that he was working through. Jake noticed idly that the door bore marks of being forced at one point.

Remy walked around the desk, liberated a small bottle of bourbon and two coffee mugs from the sideboard and flopped on to the couch. "Welcome to de war room, homme."

"I love what you´ve done with the place," Jake replied. "It really gives off that special ´serious situations are being talked about here´kind of glow, you know?"

"Remy thinking of putting a bust of Winston Churchill on de desk or something." LeBeau poured a generous amount into both mugs and passed one over to Jake.

"So, dis is de situation, homme. With Wisdom gone, dat means over sixty percent of de mansion's intelligence network is compromised. In places like Europe, it's closer to eighty percent. Dat's de first step for us. We need to shut down Wisdom's assets, burn our shared networks, and start generating new ones."

Jake regarded the bourbon thoughtfully. "Yeah, that makes sense. Going to take time building new contacts and assets and what have you, though."

"Dat's right. 'cept, of course, if dere's a homme dat's been building up an independent network using de Professor's name already." Remy pulled a file from the floor and dropped it in Jake's lap. "Guess Wisdom did some digging and found dat a Jake Gavin was starting a net dat didn't seem to be reporting to Infonet. Fact, dey thought dey reporting to de X-Men, but de Professor not seem to get the information either."

Remy took a sip of his bourbon, and smiled over the top of the mug at Jake. "You been starting something yourself, chere."

"...How the hell?" Jake opened the file, flickering through it, catching Pete´s little comments here and there. He closed the file again. "This has nothing conclusive, you know. Just.. circumstancial." He tilted his head and shrugged, dropping the file down on the floor. "Not that it´s wrong. But you already figured that."

"Oui. So, dose contacts come over to de mansion now. As well, dere still some of Gambit's old network dat we can activate, and Remy might just have an outside source dat can put us back on our feet. If we lucky, we might get back to eighty percent or so of our current resources." Remy took another sip.

"However, dis whole episode proves something important. Dat de mansion's intelligence needs to be totally overhauled, and a new approach taken. Dat's where you come in."

Jake´s eyebrows rose. "Me? In all my Courier-ing glory?"

"Dat's right. None of dis student councilor stuff. I need experienced operatives outside of de X-Men; professionals who know de world and can work in it." Remy put down his mug. "De stakes keep getting raised, and de X-Men aren't trained for dis sort of thing. I want people who can go it, get de intel, clear de firing lines, and do all de things in de shadows so de X-Men don't have to. So de next time de la Rocha or Shaw gets de idea in dey head to go poison people, we get it first."

"As much as I truly hate saying this, I agree with you." Jake took a sip of his mug. "It´d be a little difficult to organise with just the two of us. Granted, I can be different people, which helps, but I can´t actually be in two places at once. Neither can you, as far as I know."

"Non, dat's true, but it's a start." Remy nodded. "'sides, hopefully it won't remain just us. Dere's a couple of potential assets in de mansion dat might decide being a shiny X-Man isn't what it's cracked up to be. Considering dat it was just Pete for so long, maybe we can start faster."

"With the subtle spy stuff?" Jake sat down on the floor, poking the files stacked there. "Where do we start?"

"Dere." Remy pointed at a vaguely tottering stack of files on the desk. "Far as I can tell, dose are old contacts, member contacts, and unconfirmed leads dat never were followed up on, or don't exist on de network. While we're shutting down de parts dat Wisdom had access to, we're going to see if dere's anything we can get out of de leads dat never were looked at."

Jake stared at the stack, mildly horrified. "I can see the fun already. I need cookies and coffee. A lot of each. If I´m going to go through half of that. Start from the top and work our way down until there´s something interesting?"

"Just like undressing a femme, oui." Remy said with a leer. He like Jake eyeballed the stack with horror while he picked up the phone and made a call. "Lorna, can you do me a favour? Need some food, about nine thousand cups of coffee, and your hand in marriage. No? Well, I suppose fresh muffins are just as good. Merci, chere."

* * *

Heard rumours about a gang in Singapore... New drug in Brasil... Possible mutant involvment in the assassination of head of state... It would help, Jake thought, if Pete's handwriting didn't wary between being very readable but in short hand, or completely illegible and consise. He was about 1/4 through his pile and he was getting a headache. A break was needed.

He glanced over at Remy, who was muttering something to himself and frowning at the contents of a yellow folder. The weirdest part of this, was that it was working. It was freaking Jake out. He didn't want to be lowering his guard with Remy, but as long as he was just sitting there... Jake shook his head. Break time. Definitely break time.

Remy could see the frazzled look from the other side of the room. The office was getting decidely small for the both of them, and LeBeau made a note to talk to the Professor. While it appeared that every part of the high-tech basement was filled, there were a couple of rooms on both the main floor and the second floor which could be remade into an area for Intelligence. There were only two of them, but-- Remy grinned at the thought as he put his folder down.

"Grab you jacket, Jake. Time for a drink or five." He said without preamble, getting to his feet and reaching for his trenchcoat.

Drink? Jake stared blankly at him, then it sank in. Drink! No more files! He was on his feet and half-way out the door before he'd even finished the thought. "You buying?"

"Only if you put out." Remy said easily, swinging his coat around and thrusting his arms through. He ignored the stunned look in Gavin's eyes, secretly enjoying the fact that he was so easy to rattle sometimes.

"Figure dat we can get you caught up before de rest of de hoard comes in to talk to you. If de rumour mill hasn't started already."

"Knowing this place, they're probably waiting to ambush me at the earliest possible opportunity," Jake noted wryly. "The place down the road? Earl's or whatever it was?" He admitted to himself that waiting for Remy solely because he didn't want the man walking behind him, was, well, pretty paranoid, considering where they were. He waited anyway, keeping half a step behind him as they walked down the corridor.

"Harry's. Dey learned to keep a nice quiet corner for us down dere." Remy said, omitting the fact that they had also learned to not seat him in Beth's section any longer, after a three day disappearance and her new tattoo. A slight smile curled on his face at the memory of her, and the sight of a red-faced Harry threatening him with a glass stein. "You drive."

Jake gave him a suspicious look, but shrugged and did as told. He liked driving anyway.

The parking lot was packed when they arrived, and Jake wasted ten minutes driving around as LeBeau-the-bastard kept giving him helpfull suggestions as to where to park. He was about ready to first park the car at the front enterance and then bash Remy's head in with the nearest motorcycle helmet, when the bastard finally relented, sniggering about a space at the back of the pub.

Jake grit his teeth together and found the space -- which was marked with XAVIER'S in huge white letters. He was going to pay him back for this, somehow.

"Dat's dose keen intelligence skills of yours, right Jake?" Remy hopped out of the car and waiting for Jake to appear, grumbling and complaining. Remy figured he'd have to buy the other man at least one drink to make up for him, but it was so easy sometimes.

They walked into the packed bar, Harry seeing remy and rolling his eyes. Remy flashed back a smile, and suppressed a groan as Harry's eldest son took their orders as they sat down. No Beth, then, LeBeau thought, ordering a bourbon for himself.

"Guinness," Jake ordered, narrowing his eyes at Remy, before sighing and rubbing his nose. He slouched back in the seat. "So, what was it you want to talk about?"

"You. Or more specifically, what you're going to do for me in de immediate future." Remy sighed and cracked his neck. "Remy going be out of town de next few weeks, back and forth. Got a lot to do wit' Wisdom out dere, and I need someone to coordinate wit' in de mansion while I'm away." Remy had been thinking for the last while about his next move, and Jake Gavin's ostensibly willing recruitment had opened up some new possibilities.

Jake nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. However, I..." he hesitated, then gave a mental shrug. Oh what the hell. It wasn't as if Remy wasn't already aware of it. "I trust you about as far as I can throw you, and that's not very far, believe me."

"But dat's not really de issue, Jake, since you 'bout as trustworthy." Remy grinned as their drinks arrived. "I know you've been rolled de Professor's name 'round for Infofax, and I know dat you been involved wit' some types dat not 'bout to show up on Xavier's christmas card list. But dat's not an issue."

Remy look a long swallow and caught Jake's eyes with his own red on black glare. "Because none of dis is 'bout us. It's 'bout dis school, and keeping it one step ahead of de thousand bastards just like us dat might want to burn it to de bedrock. Betray it, and de one thing de X-Men are good at doing is putting a lot of power to bear on a single point. Like, say, either of our heads if we go rogue."

Jake acknowledged his point with a nod. "They are very good at breaking things when they want to. I heard something about Mistra? So, okay, I already said I'd work with you, and I will." He met Remy's stare, eyes darkening a little. "I don't go back on contracts."

"Bien. Den dere's no issue here." Remy sat back. "Which is good, because Remy very sure dat you not going to like de other part of de job dat we going to be doing here."

"Somehow, I knew this was coming. All right, what?"

"De X-Men are good at breaking thing; announcing dey presence wit' pillers of fire and toppling buildings. But dat's not always what's going to be needed. As well, dere going to be thing dat de school and Xavier's can't be associated wit'. Dat's where we come in." Remy took another drink. "Some of de folks here don't fit as X-Men, and some of de student's growing up in different directions as well. Might end up being able to stop problems before dey need an island dropped on dem."

Jake eyed him. "I'm expecting badness any second now, just so you know."

"Dat means dis job now has a field componant. Hope you up on you training, Jake." Remy said with a grin.

"A field comp..." The penny dropped. "Oh nonono. I don't do that. I'm not an agent. I don't do the active stuff! I haven't used my gun in..." he had to pause to think about it. "...years!"

"Guess dat you better schedule dat Danger Room session sooner rather den later." Remy wasn't bothering to hide the fact that he was enjoying this. "Brush up on all dem skills you been letting rust. Maybe do some shooting wit' dat Bartlet. If she can shoot a tenth as well as she bitches, den you going to be a crack shot after her through wit' you."

The bastard! The bloody red-eyed son of a bitch bastard! Who looked amused at Jake's horror, damnit. Field work, of all things! Why the hell had he said that he never backed out of a contract? Maybe he could claim temporary insanity? Not that it would matter much, since as far as Jake was aware, quite a few of Infonet's clients were, in fact, clinically insane and would probably not appreciate insanity being used as an excuse to terminate a contract. Damn, damn, damn.

"Glad to see you look so excited, Jake." Remy waved for another round as the other man lunged for his alcohol. "Like I said, if you lucky, none of us survive dis."

He gulped down the beer and reached for the one the looks-like-guy-at-the-bar handed him. "I'm going to die. I'm dead. I really, really hate you, you know."

"Oui. Remy well aware of dat." LeBeau grinned, sipping from his newly refreshed drink. "So, now dat you know 'bout de plans for de future, how you settling in?"

"Pretty well, until I discovered that I need to update my last will and testament ASAP." Jake glared. The man was truly evil. And he refered to himself in third person. Jake wondered for a moment whether it signified a severe case of disassociation, or just plain weirdness on Remy's behalf. "There's more people around now, than when I left." He thought of something. "And did I misread the journal system, or is Dr. Grey back from the dead?"

"De red-head? Oui, guess so. Mind you, returning for de dead isn't all dat hard. It's not rotting is de problem." Jake look confused and Remy shrugged. "Six months as de slave of a voodoo queen. You learn dese things."

Jake blinked, then he looked at his beer. "I think this is spiked. And, I... don't think I want to know. Remind me to ask you about that if we ever go to Haiti, though." He tilted his head. "You know what I've been wondering? How old are you?"

"Good question. Thirty-three, thirty-four?" Remy shrugged. "Some where 'round dat. Things a little hazy on de date of my birth, or even de year." LeBeau's casual acceptance of the mystery of his past was just a little too casual to be honest.

Slight startlement was appearant in Jake's eyes before he could stop it. That couldn't be right, he remembered... He pushed the memory away, focusing on the present. "I bet you're a Leo," he said, nonsensially. "Or a Scorpio. ...I read Cosmo, yes."

"Dat comes as a shock. Really." Remy said flatly. "Here Remy always figured dat he was a Cajun." Not only did he think astrology was nonsense, but it was always fun to needle those who took it seriously.

"Nah, the Zodiac doesn't include a Cajun. A serious oversight, I'm sure." At least he had the power of the babble behind him. Jake gave himself a mental headshake and turned his attention to his Guinness. At some point, he was going to stop losing it whenever Remy was near. Now was a brilliant time to start.

"Dey sorted you out a room, yet, or you found someone to shack in wit' on you own?" Remy said with a nasty sparkle in his eye. Jake scowled back at him, to his entertainment. One of Jake Gavin's advantages as a shapeshifter was the ability to 'mingle' with all options under the sun.

"Oh, I thought I'd shack up with Ali, but she said she wasn't quite up to threesomes yet," Jake shot back. All right, apparently he was going to start around the time the bastard stopped with the sexual innuendos. Damn, that would be never. "So I suppose I need to dig up who ever is currently in charge of handing out rooms."

"Try dat Summers. Bet he already got a rota worked out and everything." Remy lounged back in his chair, waving for another drink. "Dere's a couch in de office you can use for now. I'm back off to Europe in a day or so, so you're going to be in dere enough over de next few weeks."

Jake thought this over, then stared at Remy in true horror. "That means I have to go through your stack of files too! ...I need more booze." He finished off his Guinness and looked up hopefully for more. "What will you be doing, anyway?"

"De same thing dat I was doing when I ran into you. De rest of de network dat Wisdom compromised has to be shut down. See how much we can save, and what we can reroute wit' your connections." The waiter came by with another stout for Jake, already knowing enough about the habits of the school staff to automatically refill drinks. "Figure dat if we lucky, maybe forty or fifty percent we can get before de whole thing gets compromised."

"Which countries are you hitting? I could get you some help, I think. Bonita is available..." Jake trailed off. "But we can talk about that back at the office. This is break time. With booze. And, er, small talk." He gave Remy a considering look. "Do we do small talk?"

"We could trade funny assassin stories." Remy said glibly. He tipped back his drink. "Don't suppose you've heard any good jokes?" The sarcasm was dripping off LeBeau's voice.

"An assassin and a courier walked into a bar... No, there's no funny there. We could talk about food," Jake offered, ignoring the sarcasm. He was always ready to talk about food. And frankly, out side of business, there wasn't a lot he could think of to talk to him about.

"Food sounds like a good plan. Dere's a good restaurant down de street, and it takes your credit card." Remy said as he got up.

"Of course it does, I have only the very best of credit cards," Jake replied automatically, following Remy. "...It's not Cajun, is it? Because if it is, you're buying."

"Non, Little Italian place dat Lorna likes." Remy pulled out a wallet and extracted a credit card. Jake had just recognized the wallet when Remy tossed it back to him. "Guess I'll use one of de Jake ones den."

Jake pocketed the wallet, muttering about thiefing, red-eyed bastards.

"Well," he sighed, "at least I like pasta."