[FIN] Who Will it Be?

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel followed after Zevran noiselessly. Even if this was his business, it was easier to just follow his friend's lead at times. Zevran's head was probably quite clear, whereas Abel's was muddled with anxiety and fear. It made it difficult to think or to concentrate.

Fortunately for Zevran the cabinet drawer slid open easily without need for his set of picks to unlock it. If he tried the other two drawers, he'd find them similarly unlocked. Inside the first drawer was a series of file folders containing scraps of paperwork, each labeled with a particular month from the current year. Upon closer inspection, they were full of receipts and notes of numbers, with or without currency symbols.  

[TawnyAngel]

Finance, finance, finance. Zevran pulled out the file for the previous month to sort through in a little more detail for any indication of what had been bought or sold. Given the cabinet had been unlocked however he wasn't holding out very much hope. "Try the desk draws," he suggested quietly to Abel. Failing anything paper based they would have to power up the laptop and hope it wasn't password protected, or noisy.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Within the file were various receipts from actual stores. Some with similar or the same dates combined to add up to a large number of very specific items - from cleaning chemicals to vehicle supplies and any number of similar household items - but in such quantities as to be far too much for one single person to ever need, especially not in one month. All of the receipts denoted the purchases had been made with cash, not a card. The handwritten notes, on the other hand, had been written in shorthand by a handful of different styles of writing. The numerical figures were the most obvious parts, but the jumbles of acronyms alongside them weren't quite so easy to figure out.

"Oh, sure," the taller blond said as he turned to the desk. He opted to stand beside it rather than sit, just in case... something, and began to open the two drawers that the desk had. Compared to more traditional, large desks, this one was sleek and only had two slim containers to speak of. Neither held anything of interest; pens in various colors of ink, mechanical pencils, permanent markers, a box of paperclips and one of staples, a small stapler, a ruler, a small calculator... "Just office supplies in these," he noted aloud, rather disappointed. Well, as long as he'd known her she'd never been unprepared for anything... Except for when he'd punched her in the face. She'd looked a little unprepared for that. "Any luck there?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Now this was interesting. A smirk as sharp and curved as a scimitar spread across his face, and he turned it on Abel with a nod. "I would say so. Somebody has a lot of cleaning up to do, a lot of vehicles to run, and they only ever pay in cash. These notes are interesting too, I couldn't say what was paid for and I am quite sure that the people wrote them intended it that way. This is not some innocent little cleaning business, for all of this to come in one month somebody is cleaning up a number of very unpleasant messes. From her weaponry and these records I would not be surprised to learn that as well as blackmail and extortion Alyssa and her associates are dabbling in... something a little more violent, to say the least."

The Crows didn't always bother to clean up afterwards, sometimes a big mess was exactly what was required, but when they did these were exactly the sort of supplies that were required. He didn't want to get too specific about all of this though, while Abel had accepted his past as 'shady' he doubted his friend would forgive him for such crimes.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel's expression soured just a tad. "I'm not surprised," he replied as he shut the second drawer he'd been looking through and moved to peer over his friend's shoulder at the papers. No, he wasn't surprised in the least. If anything it only confirmed that any friends of hers were just as terrible as she was -- though he and his poor ribs had found that out the hard way ages ago. "I wonder what and where, though.. D'you think they're working out of that building she led us to earlier?"

Meanwhile, inside Alyssa's bedroom, the redhead had finished changing and fixing up her hair. With that done, she crossed the room in hardly anytime at all and headed out the door.  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran frowned as he scanned another page of receipts. "It could be their HQ, she went searching for her 'boss' there after all so we must assume he is there quite often. If we were to return there we might find something more? We should bring as many of these records as we can, no time to search through everything."

He might have added something else but at that moment Cloud appeared waving his feelers wildly and then gesturing towards the door.

Zevran mouthed a curse and grabbed a few more files at random before sliding the cabinet shut once Abel had had a chance to do the same if he wished. Was she going to come straight in here? If so he really hoped she didn't open the cabinet. He also hoped the hound didn't stir itself, if it did it would surely smell strangers in its abode.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"We might," the blond replied somewhat skeptically; unlike Zevran he didn't wish to take anything from the filing cabinet. "I--"

And then there was a frantic ghost balloon, bringing another sick turn of his stomach.

Sonia trotted close and both Abel's pokemon stayed near the pair of humans as the Zoroark threw her illusion up around them again. "I'm not really interested in finding anything out about them, I'm more interested in finding s**t about her." It was true that perhaps they could find something out about her there, to him it seemed much more likely they'd find more about her in her own home than her workplace.

Presently the office door opened and Alyssa strode in - fully dressed in silk pajamas and unaccompanied, thankfully for them - and left the door wide open. She passed by the filing cabinet without a second thought for it and instead plopped herself down in her desk chair, pulled out her phone and began to navigate through it, and this time she didn't go for any of her games.  

[TawnyAngel]

Hardly breathing Zevran gestured behind Alyssa's shoulder and gave Abel a quizzical look, if they could see what she was doing...?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel nodded silent agreement and, with his heart threatening to beat out of his chest and his stomach threatening to empty its contents - or lack thereof - again, he reached for Zevran's free hand and carefully, carefully stepped closer so they could peer over her shoulder at her phone. By the time they got close enough, though, Alyssa had found what she'd sought and lifted the phone to her ear. The quiet, muffled sound of the phone ringing a couple times floated up from under her red hair before a woman's tired voice answered, though it was difficult to understand her exact words.

Alyssa's were another matter entirely.

"Hi Mrs. Dirksen," she said cheerily as she cradled the phone against her ear with her shoulder, freeing her hands so she could open up her laptop. Her head tilted the way it was afforded them the perfect opportunity to see not only her screen - the computer awoke and loaded a login screen, as Zevran had predicted earlier - but also her keyboard. Her fingers flew deftly over the keys as she typed in her lengthy password. Complicated though it was, it would be easy for both men to see, and probably came as no surprise to anyone involved that it was about herself. Abel didn't focus on her fingers so much as he did her words; something she said rang a bell he couldn't place. "I was trying to find your husband earlier so I could talk to him about something important, is he around?" The muffled voice on the other line sounded affirmative; Alyssa's demeanor brightened as her laptop thought about her password momentarily before it began to load her desktop which, probably unsurprisingly, was another picture of her Houndoom. "Yes, of course; I'll wait, thank you."  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran held Abel's hand, and his own breath.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Apart from the picture, her desktop was rather plain. It had the standard few icons - internet browsers, recycle bin, computer folder - with two additional, identical ones at the bottom simply entitled 'spreadsheets 2016' and 'spreadsheets 2016 (copy).' While Alyssa waited, she opened the former and, when the file prompted her for a password, she dutifully typed one in - this one not at all like her laptop's password, and seemed more generic than personal - and waited for the file to accept it. It did, and began loading the contents.

Just then a more masculine-sounding voice compared to the previous spoke into the phone, and Alyssa straightened up just a tad. "Yep, hey boss," she said casually, her gaze more or less focused on the screen in front of her. The file was indeed a spreadsheet, full of figures and sections all spelled out, clear as day. A series of tabs along the bottom were labeled with the month and went all the way back to January. The current open tab was labeled November. Abel wasn't sure what exactly it was apart from some finance or accounting bit, but with the amounts in the figures and the layout, it was quite clear it was for a business -- or organization of some sort, even though the file itself gave no indication whatsoever about what exactly that organization was. "Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about something important. So listen, I know it's sudden but I have to go on a trip to Sinnoh tomorrow morning, I'll be gone for a few days. I--" She paused when the voice on the other end interrupted, and she waited somewhat patiently for the man to finish. "I know it's sudden, but like I said, it's important, and it'll only be for a few days Michael, alright?"

Michael? Abel frowned a very puzzled frown. That rang a bell too...

"And I--" A pause, during which Alyssa frowned rather heavily and shifted the phone to her other ear. "Yes sir. ...yes sir. Yes, of course I have it. ..yes, last month's is in the file too," she said as she clicked down to the tab reading 'October'. It opened to reveal a page almost identical to the previous one, except this one was much more filled out and lengthy compared to the November page. "I'll stop in tomorrow morning and bring a copy of it for you. If you ask me, I think Kiersten's the one doing it, she--" The voice continued, and the redhead adopted a flat expression as she pulled open one of the pair of drawers at her desk. "Sorry sir. Yes, I know." After pulling a mechanical pencil out, she clicked it rapidly to bring the end out quite a bit, then with both hands underneath the desk and with practiced ease found a specific spot with her fingers and pressed the tip of the pencil into it, prompting the bottom of the drawer to lift upwards a bit.

"Yes, of course sir," she said with a roll of her eyes as she removed her empty hand from underneath the drawer so she could reach in and carefully slip her nail under the board to pull it out, spilling the various contents into the actual bottom of the drawer as she did so. It looked identical to the false bottom save for a small ridge along all four sides for the board to rest on and a tiny hole in the bottom towards the front through which to lift it. Apart from the other contents that had spilled down into it were a few small, black USB sticks. "Well I hope you both had a pleasant evening," she said as she withdrew one of the sticks, inserted it into her laptop, closed the file, and pasted a copy of the file into the USB folder that popped up. As it transferred, she took the opportunity to clean the innocuous supplies out of the false bottom, leaving only the other couple USB sticks before placing the board back on and dumping the supplies on top. The drawer returned to looking completely normal in all other aspects before she closed it again. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow Mr. Dirksen."

Mr. Dirksen. Mr. Michael Dirksen... Why did that ring a bell? Where had he... oh. Oh.

Abel sucked in a nearly silent breath and squeezed Zevran's hand a bit harder than he meant to as he realized just where and in what circumstances he'd heard - or seen, rather - that name before.

Alyssa was still talking. "Yes sir. ..yes. Good night." Once the other voice had ceased talking, she ended the call and slumped back in her chair with a slightly vexed groan. It didn't bother her for long; after just a moment or two she straightened back up, removed the USB stick now that it had finished, and closed her laptop. Taking the hint, Abel and Sonia immediately backed away from the desk lest Alyssa back her chair into them or walk their way, but she did neither. Her chair spun to one side and she stood, passing by the filing cabinet once more and instead heading out into the living room, leaving the office door open still.  

[TawnyAngel]

Dirksen? Abel seemed to know the name from the sudden pressure on his hand, and this must be the boss who had been unavailable earlier. Were they career assassins he wondered or on a small island like this was the net spread further, more general brutality and criminality? Of course his hunch could be wrong but with all of those cleaning supplies he doubted it.

What these people were doing could be worried about later however, for now he was interested in the contents of that hidden draw. Alyssa had not closed the door, might return, and so he made no move to grab them yet but he did tighten his hand on Abel's and glance up at the taller man with an expression of concern.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel waited with bated breath in case Alyssa returned, but instead of her footsteps he heard someone's voice start speaking mid-sentence. A moment later they stopped and a pair of people - neither the same as before - began speaking in the middle of their own sentence, poking fun and telling jokes. Laughter could be heard in the background. "Must be watching tv now, I guess," he whispered aloud as he stepped closer to the laptop and pulled it open. It displayed the login screen again. "s**t. D'you remember her password? I think I only remember half of it," he admitted quietly as his hands hovered uncertainly over the keys.  

[TawnyAngel]

When the noise started up Zevran relaxed slightly and then nodded to Abel. "I remember," he clarified and as he spoke he reached around to tap it in; he'd been repeating the phrases she'd typed in over and over in his head since he'd seen them. Some people had the knack of just dropping information like that into their mind and keeping it there - Rinna had - but he was less fortunate and had to keep turning it over if he didn't have somewhere to write it down.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Thanks," the blond said with feeling - mostly relief - as his friend reached over to input it. What would he have done if Zevran weren't here? He wouldn't have made it this far, that was for damn sure. Would he have gotten anything at all to go on if he hadn't let him come too? It was very likely he wouldn't have. Heartened by the knowledge that he had at least one thing to wield as leverage and with his heart still racing from playing the role of a spy, Abel moved to stand in front of the computer as it accepted the password and displayed Alyssa's desktop again. "I wanna check out this other file here, I dunno why she'd bother having a copy of it," he murmured as he clicked on it, leaving Zevran to inspect whatever else on the desk he felt so inclined to check. As he expected, the file prompted him for a password. This one he remembered, so he carefully typed it in.

It didn't accept it.

Frowning and puzzled, Abel double-checked each key as he typed it in a second time, but again it didn't accept it. "That's... weird."