It Takes All Kinds | Tytos Ardik & Aderyn Carlisle

[Natasi Fortan]

"Why does it have to be unanimous?" asked Declan Carlisle as he walked with his sister along the promenade outside the Blue Riband headquarters.

Aderyn brushed her red hair behind her ear and shook her head. She was silent for a few moments as she considered her answer. Finally, she answered: "It's a legitimacy thing."

"An ego thing, more like," chided Declan. "You can't stand to think that anyone doesn't like you."

"No," snapped Aderyn. "If it's pride, it's pride, but it's not about me. It's about the family. Who does this -- what was his name? -- think they are, to object? Father nominated me to be his successor. The Carlisles have run Blue Riband for over a hundred and sixty years. It's not his place to object." A breeze blew her hair into her face again; she huffed and batted it back irritably.

"It's a matter of principle for Dawkins," said Declan.

"What about my principles?" she demanded as they came to a halt at the vending machine to which they had been walking. "Are they to be subordinate to Dawkins'?" she demanded incredulously. "Are they heck as like. Oh, stop, it's on me," she added, waving her brother's credits away and inserting her own. They made their selections and waited. The machine whirred and sputtered. "I need something on him."

Declan regarded her curiously. "What does that mean?"

"Polite company might call it -- leverage," she said delicately, averting her gaze.

"Why don't you just take a spanner to his kneecaps and call it done?"

"Don't be vulgar." She picked up her coffee cup. "Unless -- do you think it would work? No, nevermind. Don't you know someone? I know you ran with a rough crowd before."

Declan rolled his eyes. "We flipped a police speeder once, it's not like I know -- wait, I might know someone." He picked up his cup and took a sip. "Blast -- hot! But if you're serious, I could see if I can arrange a meeting with some people who can help you get... leverage."

"Set it up," said Aderyn. "And soon -- before the board meets."

- - - - -​

Dusk was settling over the city on Entralla when Aderyn's hired car slowed to a stop. She had been applying her makeup in her compact, not paying attention to the road, so when she finally snapped the compact shut and looked around, her brows furrowed skeptically. "Are you sure this is the place?" she asked.

"It's the address you gave me, miss."

She peered out the window, her eyebrows lifting as she examined her surroundings. She wasn't quite sure what she was looking at. The address matched, but she couldn't decipher what kind of building it was from the outside. "Thank you. Wait for me here." She pushed a large bill into the driver's hand. "There's more if you wait."

"You got it."

She put a pair of large, black sunglasses on to hide her identity. "Thanks." Aderyn pushed out, pulling her black coat around her slender frame against the evening chill and went to the door. After a moment's hesitation, she pushed the buzzer to the right of the door and waited to be admitted.

[member="Tytos Ardik"]​

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

The upstairs office of Nexus Analytics Vice-President was unusually crowded today. Two Siniteen Enforcers were rifling through filing cabinets, seizing documents of interest and placing them aside for future reference. At the Vice-President's desk sat Tytos Ardik, who turned the pages of a rather thick binder at an excruciatingly slow pace. The Vice-President himself, an elderly, anemic Iktotchi observed these proceedings with increasing anxiety. He stood over by the door, hovering nervously, folding and unfolding his arms.

Occasionally he paced in front of the door, but his eyes never went very far from Tytos and his men. When he could bear the silence no longer, he finally spoke. "How long is this going to take?"

"I'd recommend you take a seat outside," Tytos replied, looking up only briefly.

"I said I gave you everything I had."

"Yes, you did say that."

The Vice-President waited for the rest of Tytos' statement, then realized with annoyance that it had already been completed. He resumed his silence, up until someone paged the intercom to the office. No one else from this office of Nexus Analytics was supposed to be here, so it came as little surprise that the voice that came through was yet another Enforcer. "The ginger's here."

Enforcers were not cut of a particularly pleasant cloth, but such was the nature of their job. They were not hired for their staggering knowledge of etiquette and social finesse. They were here to do things like this, raid offices and open doors. Tytos depressed a button on the intercom so he could reply, cutting off the Vice-President. "Send her up." He removed a stylus from the holder on the desk and stuck it into the binder, marking his place before closing it shut.

"You're meeting someone... Here? In my office?"

"I did recommend you wait outside."

----​

​

There was a buzz as the door lock disengaged, though another Enforcer opened it up before [member="Aderyn Carlisle"] could let herself in - a human male, likely middle aged. Bald completely, handlebar mustache, gold earring. Body armor, visibly holstered sidearm. "Howdy," he said, as if this was exactly the sort of person anyone would reasonably expect to open a door in an upscale district like this one. "Follow me."

A short elevator ride later, the Enforcer led her down a hall - past a grumpy looking Iktotchi sitting on a bench - and into the Vice-President's office. Tytos Ardik rose from his seat, though the two Siniteen still rifling through everything didn't seem to pay her any mind. "You must be Miss Carlisle." The Enforcer who led her up left without another word, probably on instruction.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Aderyn heard the bolt slide and reached for the handle, but before she could touch it, the door swung open. She jumped, not expecting the motion. Her surprise -- and uneasy feeling -- grew as her green eyes drank in the man who answered the door. He looked like a greasy henchman from the holofilms. She swallowed and inclined her head. "Howdy," she replied warily and fell silent as he instructed her to enter. She followed him into the elevator and then out of it again. The ginger's grey-green eyes lingered on the Ikotchi for a moment -- their odd, protruding horns never ceased to make her internally shiver -- before she followed the Enforcer into the office.

"I -- " Aderyn said, her eyes cutting to the Enforcer who left and shut the door behind him, leaving her with [member="Tytos Ardik"] and two others, who didn't seem to register her presence. " -- Sorry. Yes. Aderyn Carlisle. How do you do?" She approached the desk, reached across it to offer a hand. "Forgive me, my brother -- the one who arranged this meeting -- didn't tell me your name. Just that you might be able to assist with a... business matter."

She looked at one of the men -- she guessed -- rifling through the cabinets. "I believe he impressed upon his contact that this was a matter requiring some discretion," Aderyn said uneasily, bottom lip (painted magenta in the car moments ago) disappearing between her teeth as she turned her attention back to Ardik.

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

"Tytos Ardik," he introduced himself, shaking her hand. Her brother hand't told her anything? Maybe if he had, she wouldn't have shown up. "Not to worry. The Helix Syndicate prides itself on discretion."

There was an audible thump as one Siniteen removed another stack of files from a cabinet and placed it off to the side. Yes, discretion. Everyone on his payroll knew that loose lips sunk ships. Or maybe more importantly to them loose lips led to termination - not the employment kind. Tytos lowered himself back into the large office chair, gesturing for [member="Aderyn Carlisle"] to take one of the seats on the other side of the desk. He reclined comfortably.

"And what business matter did you need resolved?"

The Helix Syndicate resolved all sorts of business matters on behalf of corporations here in the Alignment. Usually union disputes, strikes, protests. Usually with stun batons. Blue Riband didn't really lend itself to causing those sorts of problems, however, so maybe this would be more interesting than what the Syndicate regularly got.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Aderyn wondered if this business -- Nexus Analytics -- was one of the fabled fronts of the Helix Syndicate. The man behind the desk seemed to be at home in this office. But as the ginger looked sidelong at the men rifling through the filing cabinets, she couldn't help but think that this was not the man's natural habitat. She returned her attention, and her glassy green gaze, to the man opposite the desk. "It's a matter of... convicting, you might say," said the young businesswoman delicately. "A member of the board of directors for my company is making a fuss about endorsing my claim to the Chairmanship. It's a futile effort, frankly," said Aderyn, glancing down at her fingernails briefly.

"I will be confirmed by the board, but it's the point. This is a family business, the family will decide who is in control. But I am eager that my tenure starts as I mean it to go on," said Aderyn. "That is to say, unanimously agreed by the board. So, I need some kind of leverage on this board member. Something I can use to..." She hesitated. "Convince them. I don't want to kill them or hurt them -- I don't think it will be necessary -- but I need something on them that I can use to obtain their compliance."

Aderyn looked across the desk, eyebrows lifting. "Is that something you can help me with?"

[member="Tytos Ardik"]

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Didn't want to kill or hurt? Tytos understood he was dealing with an uninitiated (so to speak), but this was next level reluctance. Besides, maybe blackmail didn't physically hurt, but... There was a psychological toll. Men got paranoid. Paranoid people don't sleep, and people running off a lack of sleep aren't known for their rational decision making process. Knowing that someone could undo you at a moment's notice was not a pleasant experience. Not that Tytos knew firsthand.

Why would he?

But he wasn't being asked to educate [member="Aderyn Carlisle"] on the potential consequences of blackmailing a member of her company's board. He was just being asked to do it, so he probably would, as long as the price was right. And coming from the Blue Riband, he had little doubt it wouldn't be. "We do have expertise in this area, yes," Tytos replied. "Give us his name and personal information and you'll have a usable dossier in three to five business days."

Three to five business days. You'd think he was mailing a parcel. The Syndicate engaged in enough blackmail already that it was, more or less, the same level of mundane.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Aderyn bowed her head. This was it. The dirtying of her hands. She twisted the ring on her right ring-finger, the platinum of the band buffeted to a shine after generations of use. She wouldn't be the first Carlisle to edge towards the extra-legal side of things. Her ancestors had earned a fortune in trading illicit goods, running blockades, and smuggling. The buckets of credits had been used in part to wash the Carlisle name clean. Blue Riband was the result of a century-long effort to rehabilitate the family's reputation. She twisted the ring over and over, the dim office light flashing off the metal into her grey-green eyes as she stared past it, into the ether.

Finally, she looked up. It couldn't be that easy, it simply couldn't. She raised a perfectly manicured ginger eyebrow. "I think we're missing a step," she told [member="Tytos Ardik"], her eyes locking with his across the desk. "I'm sure you don't provide this kind of -- service, I guess, for lack of a better word -- out of the goodness of your heart?" Aderyn clasped her hands around her knee -- if only to stop from twisting her ring -- and furrowed her brow. "What's this going to cost me?"

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Truth be told, a price was likely already being paid. For [member="Aderyn Carlisle"] to request someone to blackmail one of her colleagues - and show up personally - one could only hope the room wasn't wired. But it probably was. Not that this was likely to come up again, the Helix Syndicate did still have its privacy policy in place for favored customers. It was the disfavored ones that had to worry. Beyond that, however, Tytos did still prefer actual money. He preferred it more than the company of most people, in fact.

Yet he still managed to sound aloof when he answered Aderyn's question. "We don't miss steps here," Tytos assured her, not entirely sure himself if that was meant to be ominous. "You'll actually receive an invoice once our investigation is complete. Then the information will be handed over once we've confirmed payment."

This was not an especially elaborate job for once, so the usual negotiation of a payment plan could - thankfully - be skipped for once. No one was ever happy to hear they would be charged periodically for x-amount of months. And that's generally when they tried to haggle, and that was when the arm twisting started. It might have been entertaining once. Now it was just routine.

Tytos smiled, weakly and without warmth. "Just credits."