The next day, she'd woken up in the early afternoon. Not even any nightmares yet. She was sure those were to come, but Asun had been too tired yesterday to even dream. She'd thrown her clothes in the laundry, took a shower and fell into what felt like a coma. Benedict's debrief had made sense at the time, but she barely remembered it now. A lot of what happened seemed like a blur.
One thing that was sure though, Isabel was there. And the ISF had labelled her a terrorist. She wasn't sure about all the corporate nonsense that had gone on there, but that couldn't be good. And Verde had said she'd been in over her head. That was bad, but the upside was that she wasn't kidnapped by cannibalistic emo kids. She'd come there with a mission, to find Isabel. That had not yet happened, so she had to keep going.
Besides, staying meant she had to talk to Merché about what happened and would start thinking about everything.. the bodies.. no. Better not. That was a future Asun problem.
She decided to call Nano. She picked up her phone and found the number she'd given her. It was ringing at least... Nano had been looking into getting a burner phone of some kind, how to be contactable and have access to her resources while she's in Beirut. Her phone vibrated against the dining room table that she was using as a desk. She looked at the phone warily but decided to pick it up anyway. "Mmhello?"
"Hey, it's Asun." The voice sounded a bit tired still, "Are you okay? We didn't see you yesterday."
Nano blinked at the table, holding the phone to her face. Yesterday.... fuck. "Asun.... are you busy? Can we meet?" She compiled her notes into a stack and put them into a drawer.
That seemed bad. Had something happened? "Yes. I have something to talk to you about as well. Do you have time now? Where do you want to meet?" "Now sounds great." Nano looked at the ceiling. "There's a little restaurant off of Armenia street called SUD Restobar. I'll grab a table." She pulled her jeans off of the couch and slipped them on, buttoning and zipping where necessary.
"I'll be right there" She said as she got herself ready as well, avoiding her friend, who'd conveniently gone to the store. A later problem. Was it smart though to go alone? She would if she had to, but it might not be a bad idea to bring someone who'd seen what she'd seen. Asun had no reason to trust Voro, she'd been happy to bring Maria out, but she was clearly in over her head, as if the rest of them weren't but that's another matter. Sabirun, Benedict and Verde were severely injured. And Ashlee likely was in the hospital fixing them up. Bryson. She'd been suspicious of him at first, but he'd really come through by the end. She texted him: "Hey, you free? I could really use some help. Related to my friend from yesterday."
Afterwards she'd head over to Armenia street. She'd gone back to her sporty attire. It may not be okay for every situation, but it sure was comfortable.
—SUD Restobar, Beirut—
Nano sat at a table that could easy seat four but only had two seats. She had a menu in front of her, but her eyes were scanning the crowd for Asun’s bright pink hair.
It didn't take too long for Asun to get there. She wasn't traveling anywhere alone right now. Uber it was. She'd cleaned up, but still she felt tired after yesterday. Probably looked like she'd seen some shit. As she'd got out of the car, she looked around. Perhaps a bit paranoid. It was pretty touristic area they were in right now. Good, so mostly hand to contend with pickpockets rather than judgmental religious assholes.
When she arrived at the place, she tried to find Nano. Saw her eventually at a place easily big enough for four. Sounded about right. She couldn't help but smile, just for a second. Asun walked up to the table: "Hey, glad you're okay. Was worried when you didn't come yesterday." And she sat down.
Nano smiled awkwardly. Asun saw Antoine over Nano's shoulder at his own table, sipping at a coffee. "I'm okay, but honestly, that's kind of to my own surprise. I acquired new contacts. The kind that i had sent Isabel here to acquire. It turned out i had my own mission, and made a window for Isabel to escape the ISF at the hotel." The awkward smile aimed at the waitress when she came by. She pointed at a random menu item, showing it to the waitress, then held up two fingers. The waitress nodded and poured water into their empty cups before retreating back to the kitchen.
"What came of the mission that i missed out on?" She took a sip of the cold water. When Asun went pale, the dark circles under her dead gaze stood out. "Um, are you okay?
Asun sat there in stunned silence for a few seconds too long. "You what? You were at the hotel as well? Sabi said she'd been seen at the hotel and the ISF was looking for her to arrest her as a terrorist. So we went there. She'd just managed to get out before we got to her."
She added in an uncharacteristically soft tone: "I just wanted to tell you that she's not been kidnapped by those cannibal emo's. But I lost her again..." She trailed off. She'd not even noticed the waitress come by. "I heard about her getting involved with folks that had something to do with superhuman brain pills or some thing like that." Nano took another sip of her water. "Did you happen to see or hear what it was that distracted the ISF so she could get out?"
"I didn't understand much of the tech talk, but basically it came down to that. This company claimed to have some method of mind control. Isabel was there to sabotage it, as the people they were going to sell it to, it wasn't very pretty. I think at least. I wasn't paying too much attention to that. We had more pressing issues..."Clearly a sore spot. Asun changed the topic quickly. "How did you distract them? With everything going on, I didn't hear much from what was happening outside. We got Isabel's friends out as well. One of them seemed quite protective of her if you know what I mean." A small moment of amusement. Gone in an instant.
The waitress came back with two servings of curry. The meat appeared to be chicken. She was gone as quick as she came. Nano smirked at the memory. “I stole one of their APVs. Rode it through town with the sirens on and they still couldn’t catch me. I’m laying low for a little for the heat to die down. I’ve been making friends in low and high places. Did Isabel look like she had a parcel with her? She owes some powerful people a delivery that she hasn’t fulfilled.”
All of a sudden, Asun realized she was starving. Her stomach was growling. She took some bites of her curry as she was listening to Nano. "That is... wow.. you took a lot of risk there." It wasn't said in a disapproving or patronizing tone, more like appreciative. "So what, you have a tank now?" She thinks on the question, "I couldn't see a parcel. She had some radio-transmitter on her phone. But I guess she knew that other communication would be blocked. But I couldn't get a close enough look. The guy I told you about, he may know. But he's probably in recovery from his emergency surgery now. Sabirun as well. I can give you the name of the hospital they're at if you want to pay your respects, or whatever you people do." Quickly she corrected herself, realizing how it could be interpreted. "Mafia, I mean, not...Wait.. I mean...." Her face turned completely red.
Nano couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m not in the mafia, though I suppose I could be flattered by such an association." She watched as Asun scarfed her lunch. “What happened to Sabirun that he’s in the hospital?”
Okay, good. She wasn't leaving the hotel only to get done in over an offensive remark at lunch. "You would not believe me if I told you. Mind control machines were not the weirdest part at that hotel. He'll make it though. Do you know where Isabel went?"
”Try me.” Nano cleared her throat. ”They are on their way to Bekaa Valley to lay low since the cops don’t wield as much power there.”
Asun shrugged, still eating. "Isabel and her friends were sabotaging the product demonstration. In doing so, they released an invisible ghost tiger that was attacking people in the hospital and even killed one girl". She said it very matter-of-factly, not expecting Nano to believe her.
Nano twitched, and her dark eyes looked around in thought. After a moment, she said ”That still doesn’t tell me what happened to Sabirun.” Ghost tiger? That’s not the wildest thing she’d ever heard, but how did they relate a ghost tiger to superhuman pills? “What was the demonstration?” That was less disbelief than she'd expected: "He got attacked by it. Claw marks all over. I... thought he was going to die. Luckily we had a doctor with us." The demonstration. She did not listen or understand much of that. She sighed, "Well I'm not really the right person to ask about this. But basically the company that was there was demonstrating this new tech. A sort of pacemaker for the brain that could synchronize some brain waves or something like that. That's how it was explained to me at least. Isabel and the people she worked didn't want that kind of tech getting out there, so they sabotaged the demonstration. I'm not sure exactly what happened there, but it went completely wrong and the person who demonstrated it had some kind of mental breakdown. I think this is what led to that tiger being called there. Which wasn't Isabel's friends plan for sure. They tried to fix it and trap it, but it broke free."
Nano's hands covered her mouth in shock. Her hands dropped so she could speak. "Let me get this straight: He got mauled by a ghost tiger that was set free when the demonstration for a mind control device. Am i correct?" She tilted her head but stared straight at her, looking for confirmation. "Maybe the ghost tiger was part of the super human aspect of the device's effect on the host?" One of her hands went to her chin as she tried to connect Isabel to the Ghost Tiger. "Maybe Isabel was running from both the ISF and the tiger?"
Nano was way more accepting of this than she'd expected. She nodded to confirm Nano's first question. "I don't really know what exactly it was. I did not get hit, but it tore right through the people that did." She paused. Why had Isabel got out of there, but the others not? "So there were three people. I think after they'd sabotaged the demonstration, they'd meant to get out Isabel and one of the others out of there, but because this thing had got free, he'd stayed behind to fix it. The other one also said she'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She seems to have got mixed up in stuff a bit over her head."
Nano twisted her mouth to one side of her face. Isabel was in over her head but she brought this on herself having made her own bed and having to sleep in it. The question was whether to pursue Isabel or to let her go. Nano had everything that she had connected to Beirut to get. The black magpies would be stronger than ever once she got back. Maybe it was time for Antoine to get a promotion. She sighed. “This grossly complicates things. Do Lebanese hospitals have visiting hours?” she felt like she still needed to apologize to him for flaking out. Speaking of apologies: “i’m sorry I wasn’t there to help in a more efficient way. I had promised to be there and I have to admit that I kind of flaked. I was eyeballs deep in the underground and leaving in the middle of it would’ve gotten me killed. Do you still have contact with her team that she left behind?”
Asun really wanted to get to the bottom of this now. What was Isabel's role in this? It was interesting to see Nano basically at any point seem to go from concern for her, for annoyance. She must not have been easy to deal. Asun nodded. Honestly it seemed like their original plan would've been a bust anyway. "Thank you. I am still planning to look into these human traffickers though. They took two people I knew and I really would like to do something about that." Just keep going. "I don't know about visiting hours. I imagine so. I can tell you which hospital they're at and get you in touch with them. I can't promise you the guy will talk to you about Isabel though. He seemed quite protective. I can tell you who they are, but ehm. I need you to promise me you won't hurt them. They've been through a lot."
Nano nodded. “i’m not looking to hurt anyone: I just want answers.” She finished her curry without realizing it and was kind of sad it was gone. She was one step from licking the plate. “I’d be willing to help with the human trafficking thing. That crosses a line for me. But we have to be careful: we are easy targets, so we have to come at it from a different direction than as bait.” She knew deep down that the bait plan would’ve fallen through and they would’ve been in danger.
She nodded. She'd bring her to Verde. "Thank you. So yeah, as I said last time, I think they're making sure their victims are under twenty eight. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have gone for us. I've been carded a lot since I was here. I thought it was like a compliment or something, but maybe it's how they find the right people. But then still, that's a long way from all these people just going missing without a trace."
"The bouncers or even the police have to do something with that information. They've got to have some kind of dark comm where they communicate locations of targets. Phones are a no go, so it's got to be on the internet. So instead of a bait and switch, let's do a trap. We can put together a knockout team, and i can do the legwork regarding how and what they are communicating. I have the wherewithal to figure out how they're exchanging money. Nobody does this for free." She listened, finishing her curry. So good. "Yeah exactly. Someone's getting paid. Just how do they organize all of it? Anyway, I'll leave that to you. What can I do? Also, do you have a way to get in touch with Isabel? I think she changed her number.
"Not get in touch with her, but she has a new bestie that can track her. Isabel has got to be in Bekaa Valley as we speak. On one hand, we can follow your friends, or on the other we can follow Isabel. I need to at least get to her to get that parcel, whatever it is. 'Isabel will know what it is' is what my contact said." She waved down the waitress for the check. "By the way, lunch is on me. While i have some money to get me rolling here, it's not enough to gift to new contacts or buy tech that will be necessary. We need a benefactor. An investor. And i want to know more about that brain tech. Perhaps it will help me understand just how in over her head Isabel is. Do you know any doctors that would be willing to join us? You mentioned being teamed up with one during the Ghost Tiger debacle." "Are you sure? You don't have to do that." She responded to Nano's offer on buying lunch. But she was right on the other part. She had to prioritize. "Yeah, Isabel seems safe for now. So we should try to track down these cannibals. More people are disappearing." She was a bit worried for these new plans: "Ehm, sure I can get you in touch with some people. But the people Isabel worked for were pretty serious about that kind of tech not getting out. So I really don't want to get involved in that kind of business. It's fucked up." She paused again for a second: "What do you want me to tell them? Like, what do I tell a businessman and a doctor who I am willing to say will be pretty guarded about this tech, to get them to talk to you?" She was clearly out of her depth on this one.
“Then we wait. We are not getting involved, and frankly the idea of superhumans or ghost tigers are reason enough to keep a lid on it.” Nano paid the waitress and stood. “Don’t use your phone while you’re here,” she said to Asun. “Everything is tapped. We need new comms, if nothing else.”
"I think they're going to keep investigating this though. There are a lot of things that are still unclear. I can introduce you to the doctor, but she'll want to know what you want to do with it before sharing that kind of information. Does it make sense? As for an investor, I think I know someone. I believe he mentioned something about looking for new 'friends'. And he's American too! But if I know types like that, he'll want to have an idea of what he's getting out of backing you." She waited for the waitress to leave. "What do you have in mind for communication?"
She wasn't too excited about the idea of going to a hospital. They'd practically been home last year. "Sure. Let's go. And in the meantime, I'll see if I can get in touch with them. You got a car... or tank, or shall I call us an Uber?"
Nano motioned towards the black BMW parked on the street.
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