Kami was waiting at the appointed corner for Sandra. She had replenished her ammo and changed out her Desert Eagle for another Hoshoku Zeta. Passers by who had been in the zone for long avoided her, they could tell something was up. That and she reeked of gunpowder. She also looked rather impatient, and edgy Sams were people to avoid.
After a while, Sandra approached. She was carrying a large shotgun with her, and looking absent-mindedly at the street. She approached Kami and looked up. "Hey there"
Kami looked at Sandra and took note of the shotgun. "Hi Sandra, you gonna be ok?" She walked over and gave Sandra a hug. Sandra noticed that while Kami's voice was warm, but her expression was ice cold. Kami wasn't one who normally started something, but she was obviously not opposed to racking up her body count for the evening. "Lead the way, I have your back." She smiled and winked.
Kami and Sandra left for the Yakuza for their meeting.
Sandra and Kami arrived at the Yak restaurant. It was a nice place, and not just by zone standards either. Deep thick inlaid pattern rugs, wall hangings and decorated ceilings indicated that the owner had more than a bit of extra cash to spend. Needless to say the two women looked rather out of place. They were escorted into one of the private dining rooms.
In the room were four people, two men, and two women. Sandra's contact was the older of the two, he was the shorter and more muscular than is his associate. The other Sandra hadn't met before, he was considerably younger was tall and thin with delicate, almost feminine features. The women both wearing short dresses were quite beautiful, they were undoubtedly girlfriends, geishas or both.
Inoue-sama was expecting both Sandra and Kami. He had been keeping tabs on the evening's events and while possibly curious, was nonplussed by Kami's arrival. The assistant recognized Kami, they had never been formerly introduced before, he once saw her in fight where she punched a guy who later died as a result of the injury. Not having heard about the night's events he wondered why what a top-notch Sam. was doing here with Sandra.
Sandra sat at the table, and indicated to Kami to do the same.
After Kami was seated Sandra turned and looked straight at the Yakuza leader. "I'll get straight to the point." She began. "I was unable to recover the suitcase or it's contents. Furthermore, they are somewhat unrecoverable"
Inoue-sama did not look happy, but then again he never looked happy, to hear this. He finally spoke, "Hai, please continue."
"I encountered Crusher near the Brooklyn bridge" she began, subconsciously slipping into her police interview mindset. "He was already on the run and not looking the best for it. He looked like he'd been through a firefight already." She paused. "His coat had been shot through several times, and he appeared to be bleeding" She paused for breath. "I asked him to hand over the case and it's on tents to me, or else I'd take it forcibly from him. He refused, and fled towards the bridge. I followed him on foot, eventually cornering him near one side of the bridge." She paused for breath again, and to ensure that she stayed calm throughout. "I repeated the request, and he refused. I then took out my pistol, and shot him twice. Unfortunately, he fell backwards further than I had expected, and went over the side of the bridge, taking the suitcase with him". She completed the story, looking straight at Inoue-sama, trying to keep her voice as calm and level as possible. "I watched the water to see if the case surfaced, but it didn't. I'm assuming he took it to the bottom with it"
Inoue-sama listened intently while gazing icily at the two women, he knew there were omissions in Sandra's story. He was only interested in facts, she really did shoot Crusher on the bridge, he really fell in the water, and nobody has seen either him or the bag since then. Other details were insignificant to him.
After a brief pause, "Thank you for your work Blackmore-san. Please understand that I do appreciate your efforts, unfortunately that does not complete the contract." He looked down for a moment, then back up at Sandra "I am impressed with your talents though." With a smile "You did a better job of locating the bag, and acquiring it than most others. And walked a way from a fight with Crusher. I would like to come up with a deal to make further use of your talents. Perhaps we should call that a retainer fee."
Inoue-san was no fool, he knew that Sandra probably couldn't afford Kami's price. He wanted to see what kind of deal they had and possibly make use of it for his own purposes. "I understand the necessity of not assigning tasks, beyond the abilities of my underlings, I share the responsibility of failure. I picked the right person to find the bag, however I picked the wrong person to recover it."
Inoue-sama relaxed "Would you lovely ladies like to have a drink with us?" He smiled knowingly, having heard rumors of Kami's tendencies, "Perhaps later Natsumi and Keiko will take you back for a bath." A bit more seriously, "Understand I am not in the habit of rewarding failures, but I am a generous employer, and working for me does have it's rewards."
Sandra tried to remain calm. She had the horrible feeling that Inoue-San had somehow figured out that she wasn't telling the full story. She also had the horrible feeling that he was up to something. "I understand that this doesn't fulfill our contract. Only a fool would try to claim that it did. I merely came to explain my failure to you" She tried to keep her eyes firmly on the man. It wasn't easy. the right side of her face was beginning to itch. "I do not wish for you to waste any more of your valuable time on me." She finished, trying to keep her voice clam.
"Sandra-san, you are not wasting my time. I see no problems with your abilities and your professionalism is unquestionable." He paused briefly, and looked over at the girl sitting beside him, "Keiko, please pour the ladies a drink."
"Hai" Keiko replied. With that Keiko stood up, and walked over to Sandra and Kami's side of the table. She had short blonde hair. Her delicate features were slightly flushed and stood out against her white backless mini-dress, with a matching belt. She as she poured the girls a drink she gave them each a soft smile. She stepped away from the table and waited.
Kami glanced over at Sandra and smiled. She seemed fairly relaxed about the entire situation. Sandra glanced back at Kami, wishing for all the world that she had some means of silent communication that could be more explicit than a quick glance. She didn't like this guy, and didn't like where she thought this was going. She turned back to Inoue and picked up the glass. "I thank you for you offer and your time, but I do not wish to detain you any further" She said to Inoue. "I really must be going. I have other business to attend to"
Inoue-sama responded "Thank you for your efforts, I look foreward to doing business with again."
Somehow Kami knew they would be doing business again.
Sandra slunk along the street, seemingly obsessed with her own feet. "Well that went well" she muttered to herself, then looked back at Kami. "Hey Kami, it's been fun. We must do this again sometime." She turned to face the other woman and gave something approximating a smile. "Now, you must excuse me. I've just flatly turned down one of the biggest Yak bosses in the Zone. I think I'm just going to nip off home, shoot myself two or three times and watch some TV"
"He only wishes that he was one of the biggest ones, you know" Kami replied.
"Oh." Sandra paused. "Then I'll just shoot myself the one time then. No sense in wasting ammo"
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