[HEARTS] and [GHOSTS]

 

It was a normal enough day when it started. It was devoid of work so he spent most of it helping run the coffee shop, making sure Rayna hadn't done anything else silly every now and then throughout the day. He'd taken to avoiding her even more than usual...her bouts of mood swings were starting to irritate him, in top of the fact that he knew she'd want to start pushing him for information like the family heads were still doing. He honestly couldn't be bothered. Helping maintain the coffee shop was safe, normal – though he did have a lot of comments from 'regular' customers about his new smoking habit.

Yes smoking habit. Funny enough it wasn't real – yesterday Lukas had went out and found one of those silly fake cigarettes, grabbed a pack to put in his blazer pocket for show, and was now using the common habit to cover up for any more...incidents. God forbid anymore idiots sicked a nurse on him. He honestly debated actually picking up the habit, but then he remembered his initial experience trying to smoke years ago and rather disliked the idea of inhaling smoke, thanks. But ugh it would have been a nice stress relief.

He dropped in to check on Ana. Spent a few hours in and out of the shop. Made a few purely social phone calls. Normal, right? Yeah, until about 10pm at night. Shop had just closed, and the assassin had made his way upstairs, holing himself up in his room as he continued to avoid Rayna. He hoped she was less moody by the time their...whatever the important job was rolled around. He didn't feel like dealing with her in heels and pissed off. Maybe he'd get her something it hopes of soothing the feminine rage...he supposed he could replace that switchblade that was ruined.

This thought was interrupted by the straining sounds of his ringtone from his bedside table, and he lazily muted the television before grabbing the phone to eyeball the number contacting him. Of which there was none. Huh. He squinted at the word unknown critically for a second, wondering if he should pick up. Figuring the worst it could be would be a wrong number, or maybe a telemarketer, he picked up – after all, who else could it be? This was his public phone – no business allowed on it, at least not on purpose, it was all 'friends' ho had no idea who he was, and people who knew to speak subtly when they used this number.

“Hello?”

”Hello Mr. Madeleine. I have a job for you.”

Unfortunately, it was a little hard to call wrong number on this one. All he could say was, she better have meant a home delivery of doughnuts and coffee.

”You will be paid your usual fees. I need to find someone and extort money. I know this is far beneath your... skills. However you are the only one I can trust. I know you can not trust me, as I am but a mysterious voice on your phone, but believe me. I bare you no ill will.”

Feminine, vaguely distorted, distinct enough to tell it as computerized. 'Fucking voice changer' he thought irritably, attempting to keep his thoughts on normal things rather than the quickly rising how did they find my phone this has never been connected to anything they can't have traced it through my disposables how could they find this phone-

”My employers, the Italian mafia, do not wish to contact you due to... issues between your groups. I frankly do not care, however, as they asked me politely to help. So, here I am. Your target is Scott MacGreggor. He works for the Colonial Construction group, they have a site at Monterrey and 55th. He will be there from Monday to Friday, eight am to five pm. Find him. Inform him that we require the 500 dollars he owes for the procedure. You will paid upon receipt of the money from the target.”

“Who is this?” he finally managed, quite glad his voice sounded far less shaken than he felt. In fact it sounded nicely demanding, just how he wanted it. In his panic, he hadn't even realized he'd stood up somewhere in the middle of all this. Not only that but he'd moved to unconsciously look out his window paranoidly. Knuckles white from gripping his phone so tight, he tried to breathe, tried to calm down – and tried to resist the urge to go tell Rayna they may have a problem on their hands. Someone had found his public phone. He didn't care what this bitch said to try and convince him she wasn't any harm she had his phone that wasn't even remotely associated with his job and was asking him to extort someone.

”No questions, not yet.” There was a pause, and Lukas got the distinct impression of smugness from the next part. ”Mr. Madeleine, do be careful. If I can find you, others can.”

'Not good enough.' “Who is this?”

”You are not ready to ask. and I am not ready to answer.” was the infuriatingly cryptic answer. ”Good luck, Lukas.”

Click.

For about thirty seconds, there was little else Lukas could do but stare blankly outside his window, phone still held against his ear tightly, his mind racing and yet standing still at the same time. He just...he couldn't comprehend someone knowing and using his public phone – 'shit now I have to wipe traces of that call' – the most work-related calls he got on there was his uncle posing as his false wealthy father, or Rayna simply pretending to be his business partner. Never...nothing like this. All Libertine contracts went through his boss, and they were not relayed by phone – too risky, he was called in and briefed in person. For that matter he rarely met clients. It...it was...just beyond his comprehension.

He began to pace, debating what he should do. Surely there as more to this than a simple extortion job – maybe this was a warning. The voice had mentioned the Italians – had they found Libertine? Surely not, for years they'd had no idea Libertine was associated with the Russians even remotely – that was the ploy that kept everyone guessing, Libertine was never directly associated with the Russians, even jobs were handled carefully so the information of who Libertine was associated would never get out. It was to ensure they got all business possible – their rivals would call on Libertine, unknown the Russians were behind it. It also kept the government guessing.

Lukas paused, staring at his now black-screened phone as if it had offended him. He honestly...couldn't figure out what was going on at the moment. He didn't know what to do. He was just...dumbfounded. He would deny this later, but when a shrill ring came from across the room, he almost jumped out of his skin, and threw the phone he was holding on his bad so quickly you would think it had scalded him. It took a few seconds for him to realize that was not the phone that was ringing, though – his disposable was lit up on his bedside table, calling him over.

Cautiously, as if it would pounce at him at any moment, the assassin made his way over to it, and peered down at the number that was calling. His entire body sagged with relief when he saw a familiar number – though admittedly, he probably should have been more worried. Just a few minutes ago someone had called his public phone with a job, and now Kravec was calling his disposable? It didn't bode well. He answered anyway, though – after all, it was...

“Boss.”

“Lukas” the distinct Russian lilt on the other end was abrupt, and he didn't even have to say 'I have a job' – the way he spoke said it by itself. Lukas debated for a split second if it was a good idea to mention the fact his identity had been compromised, but he was torn – they knew him, they knew him number, and by extension where he lived – not to mention, a failure at secrecy like this was frowned upon, and the last thing Lukas wanted was a stained image in front of his boss. He was so utterly torn, he almost didn't hear what Kravec said.

“I apologize for calling somewhat late, though I suspected you would be awake. We have just received an...odd call, for a job. For you, specifically”

His stomach felt as if it hit the floor.

“I feared foul play, I thought it best to contact you immediately. Has your cover been compromised, or has anything happened? They asked for you by name – and we are all aware you would never do a job outside the Libertine alias, so...you can understand our concern.”

The fact that Kravec's tone actually gave away a genuine trust was at least somewhat comforting – normally that statement would be a warning, not any sort of bona fide concern. Unconsciously, the assassin shook his head, despite the fact his boss couldn't see it. He couldn't – he couldn't say anything. It was dangerous on several counts, because, well...if they could find him to call him, what else could they do...no, he wasn't going to think about it. He'd...he's deal with it. He wasn't going put his reputation on the line, and if that meant putting the organization on alert for a bit, then so be it. He'd deal. For now, he'd play dumb. Admittedly he did feel a bit bad for lying to his boss...for a few seconds, anyway. Kravec should have known by now, though – being raised by Vasha, bullshit was one of Lukas' specialties.

“I...I don't think it's been compromised sir, no, there's been nothing suspicious around here. Everything's calm – save for Rayna bitching about being laid up, but otherwise normal.” There was a pause, a voice in the background, followed by a very abrupt switch of language, which told Lukas someone who wasn't meant to hear this was near Kravec.

“Ja doverjaju vashemu mneniju, Lukas, no u menja budet polozhit sredstva na boevoe dezhurstvo vozle magazina. I hope you don't mind.”

'Agents on the lookout nearby...ugh. It's a small casualty to suffer I guess.' “No boss it's fine. Better safe than sorry. What did the phone call say, though? Or are we going to pretend this offer never came through?”

Voices again, followed by “Podozhdi minutku – Brianne, I'm on an important call, can you go busy yourself in the other room, dear?” A few moments of talking to his daughter, before she finally apparently left, and his boss was finally able to speak freely again. “They requested you for a job, and had said they already sent you the information. I would say she, but it was obviously a voice changer – they could have been any gender. They informed us it was an extortion, a simple enough job, would not even take you long, and that the fees were on hold in an offshore account for once the job was completed. We have checked the account – the money is there. So, Lukas, this comes down to you – do you want to take it? Something about this is very...off, I am sure you agree. It is for this reason we are giving you the option to choose whether to complete it or not. That and, this is obviously not a Libertine job. They wanted you.”

'No pressure or anything.' He'd never been given the option to say no to a job, so this was certainly a novelty. He'd competed to take a job with other Libertine members before, but never been given the option of refusal – not that he ever minded. Went to show how much this had shaken up even his boss.

The bigger issue was...what did he do? He didn't know if...if he wanted to risk denying the job. Every fiber of his being screamed no, that anyone that had found him and ever-so-casually called him like they were asking to borrow a cup of sugar as definitely someone he didn't want to help, but...he was more worried of the consequences. If he said no, what would they do? Expose him? Blackmail him? For being an assassin that was expected to take orders no questions asked, the idea of being held under someone’s thumb made his skin crawl.

It was...a simple enough job. And if he was cautious, he shouldn't get into too much trouble. And if he completed the job, perhaps they could learn more on who, exactly, this was – if they contacted him again, he could patch it through to Venedict, perhaps, and ask him to analyze it. That was assuming the best, though. He was honestly, genuinely...torn. Common sense said avoid it. Self-preservation said do it to avoid any potential messes. It was a horrible dilemma. If there was one thing that was constant about Lukas though, it as that he was very concerned with his own life, and his quality of life.

He didn't like it, but his self-preservation instinct said his best bet was to take the job and do it right, then maybe he would be left alone.

“It's simple enough, and I'm a big boy, boss.” gain, despite not being able to be seen, he forced a confident smirk, hoping it could convey in his tone. “I'll do the job, and we'll see what comes of it. Either we can track it if they call back, or they won't call back at all. I'm hoping for the latter, personally.”

“Me too, Lukas. Me too.”

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This post is a oneshot. It is locked for this purpose. Dated on April 4th.