LET'S GET SOME COFFEE AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD

[changerofworlds]

| Four months prior to THIS |

Dana lounged back in her chair - the paper in her hands flicking idly up in the light wind. The cafe around her hummed with the chatter of afternoon students and businessmen, all settled in their respective islands of calm, sipping their coffee just like her. There was music coming from somewhere - a live band in the

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[freestyle_one]

Kate Freelander, independent con-artist and all around thief and hired gun, was not, in fact, pacing the streets. She'd been watching the cafe from a rooftop across the street with a pair of binoculars for the better part of an hour.

She'd seen Dana arrive, around high noon, along with a bustling crowd of suits on their lunch break. Considering that about six of the well dressed men and women had not rushed back to some high rise corner office after receiving their beverages, and considering that this was Dana Whitcomb she was dealing with...It was more than a fair assumption that she'd be boxed in on all sides by Cabal the second she crossed the street

[changerofworlds]

Freelander was certainly taking her time, strolling across the street thinking she had the situation made. Far from it. The Cabal agents on show were there to distract her from the ones she couldn't see.

"Ms Freelander..." Dana all but drawled, sounding disinterested in the creature that slipped into the chair opposite.

"I was under the impression you were floating out in the bay somewhere - considering you stopped answering my calls two weeks ago..."

That was the problem with freelancers - they came and went at their lesure - not something the Cabal encouraged. Their policy was a little more, 'come or die'.

"What changed?" Dana, flipped to another page in her newspaper, not yet setting it down. "Need a little spare change for one of your brats or has that useless sibling of yours tried his luck at the black market again?"

[freestyle_one]

The disinterested routine. Not the first time Kate had been on the receiving end of it, and probably not the last. Didn't mean she was going to take that shit lying down, even from the woman who signed her rather substantial paychecks.

She made herself equally comfortable looking, kicking a boot up onto the table and slouching in the chair. When, in truth, she was tenser than a guitar string, she had to be around these types.

"You're a real laugh, Dana, you know? Hilarious, I think I popped a stitch. Do you have any actual business to discuss, or did you just miss me?"

Her words were not exactly dripping with love, but all and all, she was showing restraint considering what she wanted to say to that.

[changerofworlds]

"Now, now..." Dana lofted an eyebrow at the feet on the table but said nothing.

"You should be more pleasant considering I managed to persuade the Cabal not to hunt you down and sell you for spare parts. They're - shall we say - unamused by your little party last month. When they said, 'discreet' they didn't mean blood on the walls..."

This time Dana fold the paper and set it down on the table - returning her attention to her coffee.