001.1 Chapter One - A Night at Jessica's

"And that would be just the tip of the iceberg!" Jack continues to feed Veronica's nerdy dreams in a friendly manner. He looks at his watch, pretending to see the time he already knew and then looks around uneasily. "Where is Kurk? He should have been here already?" he thinks before finding an excuse to move a bit away from the others "Would anyone like a drink?"

"I'm good, I had a drink up in the balcony, but thank you for offering."

"Let me get that for you," Will says, rushing back upstairs to get both Veronica's drink and his own. As he turns to head back downstairs, he notices Richard and Eli having a quiet conversation in the corner. He considers stopping over to make sure everything is okay, but then decides against it and heads back down to Veronica and Jack, handing over her half-full drink.

He listens to the two of them talk about tech, but his mind is elsewhere. Why did a former member of Eli's squad come in here looking for him? He looked like he was ready to pick a fight. Something about the whole situation doesn't sit right with Will. He decides to try to find his way back to where ever Malachi's henchmen took Orlan.

"Ahh thank you Will." Veronica smiles taking her drink.

Malachi approaches Jack, Veronica, and Will and raises his arms as if the hug the group of them.

"Well, mes amis, we have had our excitement for the night, no?" He claps one hand on Jack's shoulder and one on Will's but never takes his eyes off of Veronica. "Let us retire to the private lounge. The crowds are becoming tiresome."

He looks around, unable to find Eli. "Where is your brother, chere? He should come relax with us, no?"

His men have taken Brennan and the wounded into another part of the club, and new security guards are positioned around the club. He appears to have increased security, despite the fact that the major threat appears to have been handled.

Jack receives an incoming message on his heads up display.

"I believe Richard and he went to talk. My brother might know that man who caused the disturbance." she will head back up to the balcony.

The club seems to have returned to normal, people are mingling again, drinks are flowing, and conversation has picked back up.

At the bar, a security guard taps a young woman on the shoulder, says something to her that causes her face to light up, and points to a small elevator in the corner of the club. A few young men and women, among the most attractive of both sexes in the club, are queuing up near the elevator with an air of muted excitement about them. There are two security guards near the end of the line, and they seem to be getting instructions over a comm of some sort.

The guard at the bar taps another young woman on the shoulder, whispers to her, and her expression suddenly looks like she won the lottery. Her friend turns and says something to the guard, but he simply shakes his head and moves on. The two women converse briefly, then the smiling one shrugs with a smile and trots off toward the elevator. The other woman follows her but is blocked by the two security guards.

Near the main entrance, two Enforcement Agents are conversing with the security men at the door.

Eli loses part of his, devil may care grin, as he answers Richard. Look, here is an even grand. It took me the better part of a month to get this much together. If she wants more for each payment, then she needs to start sending out more leads on jobs down here. It's not exactly raining high paying jobs here in the zone. You both know full well what I'm capable of doing. Get her to put the word out...otherwise it may be longer than a month for the next payment.

Eli casually hands Richard a roll of money.

Will smiles at Malachi's invitation and nods. "Of course, the private lounge sounds much more comfortable than the common room."

He catches Malachi's eye. "Eli may know who that brute was that Richard stopped. Any chance he and I can speak with him?"

Richard pockets the money that Eli gave him. "It's a start. I'll talk to her about it but she wants all of it back now, no more monthly payments."
He looks around until he finds Will and when their eyes meet nods at him as a quick greeting. "Maybe talk to the rich kid. Or better yet, have your sister talk to him. He should be able to get some money into the QZ."

Jack accepts Malachi's invitation but as he grabs his new drink, he notices the two women at the bar. "What up with that one, not pretty enough?" he asks Malachi as he rejoins the group

"My friends are going to have a little talk with the big man first," Malachi says to Will. "He may find himself quite exhausted afterward. I'm not so sure he'll be in the mood to talk." When he sees Will's expression, he smiles wide and adds, "But we shall see, no? Perhaps the big man has more force d'ame than I expect."

Malachi looks toward the two women that Jack indicates and smiles. "Nothing so crass, my friend. The private party is by invitation only, you see? One must make an impression to be invited upstairs." It's hard to tell, but it seems like the impression one must make is showing off too much cleavage or leg for women, or being square-jawed and muscular for men.

"Oh, I see," Will says. He glances sideways at Veronica to see if she has any reaction to Malachi's statement. It sounds like Malachi's gang is going to question the scarred man, and likely won't be very gentle about it. He wonders if that's such a good idea, but he doesn't want to argue with Malachi in his own club, with so many members of his gang nearby.

"Well then," he says, his smile wide. "Off to the private lounge!"

Eli looks around until he sees Will. Yeah, I could do that. My sister may ask to many questions if I ask her to talk to him. I'll figure it out.

Eli turns and sees his sister heading up to the balcony. Turning back to Richard, he quickly says his good byes. I'm heading upstairs, I'll catch you later.

"I'm coming with you", Richard says.
He doesn't really want to go into Malachi's private club area but all his friends are going there and he doesn't want to be left behind downstairs to drink on his own between strangers.
And he is pretty confident that he'll be allowed up. He's not in good standing with Malachi but he just saved the club, he's Eli's friend, and Bella should be up there as well to invite him up if Malachi makes trouble.

He just confidently follows Eli towards the secluded area.