The Neo-Metropol Heist

38: Jaeger

Jaeger stood amongst the crowds and adjusted her restrictive formal black dress awkwardly at the shoulder.
The people around her were off a different breed, chattering amongst themselves about how many millions they had made this year, new investments that were going to triple their outlays. She didn't understand half the words they were using.
She shifted awkwardly as she drained the last of her wine, feeling her pistol scrape against the inside of her leg beneath the cascading frill of her dress, the only aspect of her outfit that she felt at all comfortable wearing.
Vikki had always been the daughter, she recalled randomly, flowery skirts and bows. Jaeger had always felt more comfortable in jeans and jackets - her parents had known this, and they'd accepted it. She was a girl born to idolise her father, so each of them took one child and raised her.
Jaeger glanced across the room and saw Stewart, who nodded at her and tapped his ear. She nodded back and he disappeared back into the crowds.
She had to admit, he looked quite suave out of regulation dress and in his tuxedo, much better than Oscuro would have done, bulging out of the shirt. She wondered if they would have been able to find a shirt to fit his muscled neck.
She'd discovered the dress on her desk a day before, hand-delivered by one of Sergei Castells' lackeys, she didn't know how much it had cost but she'd never heard of the designer and nobody else was wearing it, so she assumed it was expensive.
Sergei Castells was nowhere to be seen, but the night was still young. Garistag and his men weren't part of the guestlist, either, they were waiting in the secure basements below the building, watching and waiting for something to happen that was serious enough to require them to break up the party.
The whole thing was as tense as piano wire - Sergei Castells had so many enemies, the 'investor conference', which was essentially a brag, was a dangerous move.
And yet, he still did it. Because he could, he knew that he was damn near untouchable. And so were his riches.
Jaeger turned and admired one of the pieces on the nearby wall. An original Picasso, most likely priceless and simply left out amongst a crowd of people who could have been anybody. Just because he owned it, and nobody could take it.
Castells, for all his theatrics and wealth, was just the big kid in the playground that had all the best toys and wanted the other kids to know it.
Jaeger had never liked that kid at school.
She sighed and turned to walk towards the bar, wading through the mingling crowds and feeling less and less uncomfortable with every step she took towards alcohol.
The barman was one of Castells' freakish pale servants who all sounded like characters out of the Bible. He had white hair neatly combed back against his head, he met her eyes with a smile that may or may not have already been there.
"Hello again, madam," the barman said, inadvertently adding worries about her wrinkles to Jaeger's growing list of worries, "looking for a refill?"
Jaeger nodded and handed him the glass.
"I shall put the cost on your credit tab," the barman said, refilling the glass and handing it back to her, "do enjoy the rest of your night."
The man bowed, unable to smile anymore than he already was, and waltzed to the other end of the bar to deal with another request for wine.
Jaeger sighed and leaned back against the bar, listening to the band play. They were a classical troupe, with old brass instruments, mixed with a modern synth artist. The sound was abhorrent, and the band were probably obscenely expensive to hire. Another statement.
"You look like you belong here less than I do," came a voice.
Jaeger turned to her left and found a man leaning up the bar, sipping on a small glass of what looked like whisky. He had perfectly groomed, coiffured black hair and striking green eyes. His lips were full and curled into a practiced, confident smile.
She recognised him almost immediately, her heart lurching, her adrenaline pumping.
She had seen this man's face just a few hours earlier, when she was flicking through the security files given to her. This was one of the two men who had been seen with Edward Helten over the past few weeks.
This was one of the men who had apparently been banned from entering the building, and yet, here he was, brazen as ever.
If there was any doubt that he was up to no good, the fact that he'd already circumvented the most advanced security system in the world was a good argument for the assumption that he was.
Say something, her mind urged.
"Yeah," she choked to the mysterious man in the sharp tuxedo, "not my scene."
The man leaned back and held out a hand.
"Daniel Dismas," the man said, "and you are?"
Somebody who knows that you just gave me a fake name, Jaeger thought. She didn't need her bullshit sense for that - Dismas was the 'penitent thief' who had been crucified alongside Jesus Christ. So the man was cocky, he might as well have called himself 'Robin Hood'.
"Yasmin Jaeger," Jaeger replied, taking his hand.
'Daniel Dismas' smiled.
"Pleased to meet you, Miss Jaeger," he said, taking a sip of his whisky, "that's a very unusual name, if you don't mind my saying so."
Jaeger gave a fake coy smile to keep him on the line, she couldn't give anything away.
"German," she said, "I couldn't tell you what it means."
Dismas nodded and put his drink down.
"Hunter," he said, "I know a bit of German. It means hunter."
Jaeger shrugged, trying to do 'ditzy'. A man like him would fall for ditzy.
"Well, you learn something new every day. Thank you for the lesson, Mr Dismas," she said, "what about Dismas? That's pretty unique."
"It's Greek," Dismas replied, "if you're interested, it means 'sunset'. Not nearly as impressive as 'hunter', though."
"Well, what can I say?" She replied, "I guess I'm just impressive."
As she said the words, she lifted her arm awkwardly on purpose, tipping her glass and sending the wine spraying across the lit plastic bar.
"Oops!" She exclaimed, "I'm so clumsy."
Daniel Dismas smiled. Hooked.
The bartender came rushing over with a cloth, scooping the wine away from the guests and onto the other side of the bar so none of them accidentally dipped their sleeves into it.
"Can I get another one of those, please?" She asked once the bartender had finished wiping it up.
"Here," Daniel Dismas said, "I'll get it."
He removed an expensive looking terminal from his pocket and paid the bartender, who thanked him and removed a new bottle of wine from the rack below.
"Actually, I was drinking the... the other wine," she laughed.
"You'll like this one, it's nice," Dismas said as the bartender poured the deep red wine into the glass.
It was obviously a much more expensive vintage. He was making a statement.
Jaeger was getting very tired of men making statements.
She picked up the glass and sipped it, admitting that the wine was very good. She wondered just how much it had cost the man she'd met just a couple of minutes prior.
"So, what's your racket?" Dismas asked, sipping his drink.
"Pardon?" Jaeger asked, pretending she'd misheard, "oh, I'm a publisher," she lied.
Dismas raised his eyebrow and nodded.
"A publisher?" He said, "you know, I have a great idea for a novel."
Jaeger smiled, an inadvertently honest reaction.
"You wouldn't believe how often I hear that," she replied. She was a bit rusty at social back and forth, the only thing she'd been involved with that came close to flirting being her interaction with Stewart in the car, but she didn't think she was doing too badly.
Dismas laughed, showing his white teeth.
"I guess you don't want to talk business," he said, "it's probably been done already, anyway."
"Most of it has," Jaeger said, "how about you?" She knew that his alter ego would be researched and rock solid, but she decided to test it anyway.
"I'm actually in the lunar business," he said, "my company owns two of the outposts and one of the orbital stations."
"Wow," Jaeger giggled, "the moon, huh? That must be interesting."
Dismas nodded.
"It's all right," he said, "more paperwork than you'd expect, and I don't actually get to go up as much as I'd like."
For a moment, Jaeger realised that people in the room she was in would actually be talking about how many stations they owned on the moon, and they wouldn't be lying.
"I've always wanted to go to space, you know," Jaeger said, smiling and inching closer to Dismas, "maybe we can do business sometime and you can take me up."
Dismas smiled, but there was something else there, had she tried to push her luck? Had he rumbled her?
"I'm not sure what business a lunar investor and a publisher could have but I'm sure we can find something," he said, "why don't you give me a call soon and I'll take you up on that?"
She smiled, and he drained his drink and scratched his ear. Jaeger realised somebody was feeding him information.
"If you'll excuse me, Miss Jaeger, I have some mingling to do, god help me. If I don't kill myself before we do, I hope our paths cross again," he said.
Jaeger nodded.
"I do hope so, Mr Dismas," she said, "enjoy your night."
"You too," Dismas said, bidding her good night and leaving the bar.
When he was gone, she drained her wine out of principle and tapped her ear.
"Stewart?" She said quietly, so as not to look insane.
"Yes boss?" He replied over the earpiece.
"Can you check something?" She asked, "I need you to do a search of lunar bases and orbital stations and check if any of them are owned by a Daniel Dismas."
Stewart went quiet for a moment, obviously searching the name on his terminal.
"I'd do it myself but for the life of me I don't know where I'd put a terminal in this fucking dress," she whispered.
"Well, you look stunning, boss," Stewart said with a chuckle.
"Go fuck yourself, rookie," she responded quickly.
"I don't think I could afford it," he replied, "OK, no results for a Dismas. The lunar stations are owned by five separate companies and none of them are pinging results for a Daniel Dismas. The only orbital stations are CastellsTech installations."
"How unsurprising," Jaeger drawled, "one of the guys in the security files is here, says his name is Daniel Dismas. It's a cover and he's up to something."
The earpiece crackled for a moment as Stewart went silent.
"You want to bring him in?" He asked.
"No, I'm going to keep an eye on him for a while, no point breaking up the festivities yet," she replied, wondering if she was making a mistake, "I'll keep you updated."
She clicked off and stepped out into the crowds, looking for Dismas, or whatever his name was. Before she could find him, she noticed another man, immediately recognising him as the other man from the security files.
Before she could react, the man jumped onto a table and raised his hands to his mouth.
"Excuse me," he called out loudly across the room, "ladies and gentleman, may I please have your attention?"
Jaeger was planted to the ground for a moment. What was he up to?
"There is something they aren't telling us," the man shouted, "it's as many of you suspected - Sergei Castells has been replaced by a fabricant. He's lying to you all!"
Jaeger suddenly found herself running, she saw Stewart appear from the other side of the table the man was stood on, bursting from out of the crowds.
"Soylent Green is people!" The man yelled as Jaeger leaped forward to grab his legs, missing him by an inch and pulling her dress down awkwardly as she rolled to the ground.
"Don't eat the food, it has microscopic tracking chips in it!" The man yelled, jumping away and awkwardly dodging a grab from Stewart, "they don't want me to share the truth, but I must."
Jaeger was up on her feet as the man tried to jump away, and she cut him off with a firmly raised arm to the jaw, dropping him to the floor.
Between them, she and Stewart pulled the man to his feet and handed him to one of the security men who appeared from the elevator, immediately discrediting the lie that the event wasn't being closely monitored by big men with guns.
"Open your minds!" The man yelled, his blonde hair falling across his face, grinning as the security put him into an arm-lock and pulled him away.
"What the hell?" Stewart asked, rubbing the back of his head, "what was that guys problem?"
Jaeger narrowed her eyes as the man was dragged away towards the elevator.
"I don't know, it was..." something clicked in Jaeger's mind, "shit, he was a distraction. Shit."
She looked around the room desperately, glancing over the condensed crowd. Daniel Dismas had disappeared. Her heart sank.