A Thief in the Night
Posted on Thu Jul 31st, 2014 @ 4:58am by Venin & Karx
Mission:
Vagrants, Vagabonds, and Thieves
Location: Deck 600
Timeline: After "Scoundrels"
[ON]
It was a beautiful morning at Alexander's as the early lunch crowd started to wander in through the doors. On this morning, they were greeted by staff who seemed to be just that little bit lighter on their feet and wore smiles that were just a little bit more genuine. There was an air of celebration in the bar, or if not celebration then a collective feeling of relief as though the last winds of a cyclone had stopped blowing.
Even the two Ferengi proprietors of the bar were caught up in the feeling of relaxed happiness that permeated everybody who walked through the door. Though perhaps, strangely, it was they who were the source of the lightened mood of the place.
"Good morning!" Karx bellowed as a couple of hew-mon starfleet officers strolled in, glancing at the lunch menu. "Welcome, welcome to Alexander's! Have a seat, your waitress Tan'Eya will be with you shortly. Try the club sandwich, our chef has been dying to try out his new recipe."
He had been that way all morning, and his brother was in a similarly good mood as well. At first, the staff were cautious and thought it was some kind of trick, but in the end they couldn't help but be swept up in the infectious insouciance of the brothers.
"Lieutenant. You're in all the time- I insist that you take your lunch on the house!" Venin stated with an unusual lilting quality in his voice before turning to his brother with a cheery nod, "Customer loyalty is important!"
Venin placed his hands on his hips and looked out at the packed restaurant. "You know, Brother. I think that I might try a club sandwich for lunch."
"I just might join you," Karx said, patting Venin on the back and heading back to the kitchen.
They both had the chef's special club sandwiches for lunch and although neither particularly liked it, they were in too good a mood to complain. Sitting at the chef's table in the kitchen, Karx looked up at the chronometer on the wall as he drained the last of his snail juice. It was almost 12:30 now and they would have to move.
"Brother, look," he said, putting his glass down and gesturing up to the clock. "We should get ready. We have to meet Rax with the information in fifteen minutes."
"You're right, we'd better move!" Venin said, rising from the table and pulling the tablecloth which was tucked into the collar of his tunic off the table as he went, sending crockery and cutlery flying everywhere. His look of indignation was practiced over years, making it seem as though it was the table's fault.
He waved his hand dismissively as the two Ferengi made their way out of the rear entrance and into a service corridor. "I must admit Brother," Venin said once he was sure they were alone, "I never thought that we'd come away from this venture with such valuable information. Especially not to those Red Dogs."
Karx patted his breast pocket, where he kept the lucrative data rod containing the encrypted information. "It's all about right place, right time, brother," Karx said with an excited sneer as they rounded a corner. They were about halfway to the rendezvous at this point. "But we're savvy enough to recognise an opportunity when we find one in a cargo bay." He let out a snickering laugh as they took a right turn.
"What do you think they're going to do with this?" Venin asked, having a sudden attack of conscience. "A Starfleet officer getting dragged out and shot on the promenade could be... bad for business."
His brother didn't seem afflicted with that same spark of conscience as he stopped dead, holding a hand in front of Venin to stop him too. "It doesn't matter what they do with him, brother," Karx said, lowering his voice. "We'll be light-years away extracting a fortune from our very own latinum vein!" He almost bounced with excitement as he laughed and gestured down the corridor. "Now let's go get it!"
It was only a few more turns until they reached the rear entrance of a currently vacant storefront not far from Alexander's. Rax assured them that security would be disabled and they were relieved that no alarms sounded when they entered the access code and the door hushed open.
Inside was dark, with sporadic streams of light shining in from the boarded up front of the store. The brothers stood close together as they peered into the darkness, their ears tuned for the slightest sound of movement.
"Is anybody there?" Karx hissed after a minute of peering and listening yielded nothing.
A further minute passed in silence. The Ferengi eye wasn't accustomed to seeing in the dark. The long, dreich, rainy days on Ferenginar didn't have the sharpening effect that one might have expected. Suddenly there was a gentle scratching, somewhere in the room. A perfect teardrop of flame illuminated and rose up out of the darkness until it was illuminating the face of Crelar Rax.
The dancing flame lit further embers at the head of a cigarette and was extinguished in a plume of acrid grey smoke.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen." Rax's voice lilted upward at the end of every sentence. "I trust you have the information that my client requires?"
Karx peered through the darkness, trying to see past the glow of the cigarette. He straightened his back and steadied his voice as he said, "I trust you have the payment we discussed?"
A small holographic projector suddenly illuminated the part of the room where Rax stood. It showed a planet with a series of complex annotations surrounding it. It was too far away for the brothers to make out exactly where the planet was- but it was good enough.
"Okay." Venin stated, deciding that he would take control of the situation. "A straight exchange. You hand over your data rod at the same time, we'll hand over ours."
"As you wish." Rax said in that fashionable way that scoundrels always seemed to. No-one with a scar and a bad attitude ever said anything as simple as 'alright' Venin observed as they edged closer to the centre of the room, trying not to hit anything in the dark. It was always 'as you wish'. Pretentious hew-mons.
There was a quick flurry of motion and Karx felt a gloved hand brush against the back of his and suddenly the data rod was gone. He felt a flash of panic as he realised both of his hands were empty and he turned to look at Venin, who was barely illuminated in the pale light. "Do you have it?" he whispered.
Venin's hand appeared as his grinning face was illuminated in the streaming golden hue of a transporter beam. His sharp little teeth glowed behind the data rod which he held.
[OFF]
Karx & Venin
Licensees "Alexander's"
Crelar Rax
Information Trader
