Wolves and Men

He was standing there for only about twenty minutes or so before he saw his friends come down the escalator. They didn’t really stand out except for how pale they were, compared to the tanned, both natural and fake, bodies around them. There were four women and two men. They wore natural looking bright clothes. One of the men, Marco, was wearing a ridiculous Hawaiian shirt with a flower pattern on it. They approached Simon and without a word he turned and led the group outside toward the garage.

When they reached the moderate sized SUV, Simon tossed the keys to Noemi. All seven of them, threw their small bags into the back, piled into the vehicle, and drove out of the parking lot.

When they reached the abandoned warehouse that Simon had set up as home, Noemi pulled the vehicle into the parking area, while Lorenzo jumped out and closed the door behind them.

“Nice place, Simon!” One of the women said in Italian, “First class all the way!”

Simon looked at her wryly, “Silvia,” He replied in Latin, “if I wanted First Class, we would be in an uptown suite in a five-star hotel. As it is we have work to do.”

Marco said in Russian, “Are we playing the language game? Can I play too?”

“All right, knock it off all of you,” a young redheaded woman said in Spanish jokingly, “Simon? Are we going to show off our language skills to each other or are you going to tell us why in the name of God you sent for us to come to this rat-infested hell hole of humanity.”

“Yes, let’s get down to business shall we,” Simon replied in Italian. “This job is way too big for me to handle on my own. I wanted to come here first though and check on a few things. First, I raided the shipping yard office a few nights ago and I have been going through the manifests. I haven’t had time to go through even half of them, but there are discrepancies, sometimes pretty big ones between the pickup and drop off. Not on paper, but the money trail isn’t adding up, that’s where you come in, Sofia.”

The raven haired woman nodded her head. “Do you have a place for me to set up?”

Simon nodded to a loft area behind them. “You should be able to find everything you need up there. I’ve made a few purchases here and there. If you need upgrades or anything else just let me know and I’ll get them for you within the day.” Sofia nodded and made her way up the loft stairs.

“Marco, I tailed a group of young-looking Asians to a building in downtown Little Tokyo. I marked the building and have been watching it over the last few days or so. There is definitely something there. Whether it belongs to House Himura or just some gang headquarters, we need to find out, either way, that’s our ‘in’ to see if House Himura has anything to do with what I have been looking into at the docks.”

“No problem, but I’ll need a good hide with line of sight so I can set up my LLD and recording equipment.”

“No problem there,” Simon replied easily. “I already have a reservation for you under the name of Thomas Caine in a nice little hotel kitty corner to the building with beautiful line of sight options to two sides of the building.” Marco smiled and sat back.

“Valentina, I need for you to get a hold of the building schematics for the building in question as well as see about getting us the full layout for the other two House Headquarters. I want to be prepared if the wrong people start to get wind of what we are doing. I have no intention of being a ‘guest’ of either House.” The red-haired woman nodded.

Simon didn’t need to go into detail about the last time he and a few of the others had been ‘guests’ of a rival House. His vampire body didn’t hold any of the scars of the wounds that he received during his stay, but the pain, and the memory of it, was seared into his mind for an eternity.

“What about me?” a sandy blonde man asked.

“You, Lorenzo? I need you to go procure a helicopter that will be ready when we need it to be ready. The warehouse has an operable ceiling, we can park it right inside, hidden from the eyes of casual observer.”

“Great,” Lorenzo replied dryly, “Should I buy it or just lease it?”

“That’s your area. We have the money for either. I leave it to you.” Lorenzo nodded.

“I guess I’m supposed to pick up some cars too?” Noemi asked. Her bright blue eyes sparkled even in the dim light.

“Of course, the same as last time different makes different models, with at least four different license plates for each. Four cars should suit us just fine, don’t overdo it,” Simon replied.

The short haired brunette smiled broadly, “Could you make it any easier on me?” She said with a laugh.

“Silvia,” Simon said turning to last of the group. Her wavy light brown hair reached just below her shoulders; her piercing hazel eyes were looking at him expectantly. “I want you to keep with Marco and Sofia. If they need anything custom, that’s your job.”

Silvia, sat back and had a grimace on her face, “Why don’t I ever get to do anything fun?”

“What did you have in mind?” Simon asked.

“I hear the underground fight circuit here is really brutal. Maybe I can find some weapons fights to get into?”

“You still have that Duelists mentality to prove yourself, don’t you? People don’t really fight for honor or chivalry like they did two hundred years ago.”

“I’m not stupid, Simon,” Silvia shot back. “I know what fighting is now. It’s ugly and deadly and nobody takes a woman seriously. If I hadn’t wanted to be the best so badly then maybe I wouldn’t…have, I…I, wouldn’t…” she trailed off.

Simon said calmly, “This isn’t the eighteen hundreds anymore and we aren’t in France either.” He looked at her as she scoffed and shook her head, throwing her hair in front of her face. “Alright, if you want to go, go. But while you are there kicking the crap out of guys, don’t forget to keep your ears open. We have a job to do.”

Silvia eyes lit up as a smile crossed her lips, “I would have gone anyway.”

Simon rolled his eyes to the ceiling, “I know.”