https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf3/outpost42/notes/57971/

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Club Vertigo
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Maneuvering through the Central Bazar was the easy part. Finding Lergo was going to be much harder. Opening the door to the club, all of Jessica’s sense were accosted simultaneously. Exotic drugs, incense, and smoke-filled her nose. It was not an unpleasant smell but it made you instantly aware that this was not a typical watering hole for the masses. The attire ranged from glittering formal wear to the worn and tattered cloth of thugs and bounty hunters waiting for their next score. The walls of the place were covered with expensive art and tapestries giving it a luxurious feel even though the outside of the establishment appeared ready to be condemned. Some lights were dimmed to produce shadowy corners where bodyguards would be obscured from view. Other lights shone brightly to illuminate card tables and couches where the Syndicate could do their business. White noise filtered out most conversations probably from sound dampeners placed in a concealed location. Only bouts of laughter punctuated the noise fog allowing one’s eyes to drift there when a distraction was needed. This place was a textbook haven for criminals and their organizations. Letting her eyes drift around the room, Jessica spied her target. Now it was time to get his attention.

Eyes began darting as Jessica entered. For most in the club, this would mean nothing, but these men were not normal men. Leaning into one another the closest guy at the door whispered into the ear of one of the men at the table as he stood up and began walking past Jessica as he climbed up the steps to the building.

Coming to the front door, a small page could be heard as he slipped in. The office was dark, but the chair at the desk area was filled it appeared yet had their arm hiding from view. The man knew he shouldn’t wait as he stood there as he pulled at the PaDD. “Sir… he tracking showed up her as you suspected. I don’t think she is aware of your presence, your ship’s cloaking device and slipstream engines got you here in plenty of time… but I have to ask… is it wise to let her play these games at your club… you always told us to keep her away from these dealings.” said the small mousy man as he took a deep breath, as the chair slowly turned around.

As the chair came fully around, it was clear it just wasn’t anyone there as Aedan came into full view as he stared at the man carefully. “Oh… she was bound to go poking into one of my holdings she shouldn’t be in eventually, and I am very interested in seeing how this plays out… I take it she is disguised correct?” Aedan asked as he stood up as he adjusted his suit as he walked toward the man.

“Yes… she doesn’t have the normal golden locks but… the tracker says it’s here. We didn’t have a chance to run a facial recognition yet,” he said as he handed the PaDD to Aedan.

“Good…” Aedan replied as he walked over to the window area, it’s view let him see the entire club as he looked around as he took a deep breath. “Let’s see what she wants from here, and inform Mr. Creed I owe him for the tip.”

“Yes sir, I will have the men watch her but keep the distance… anything else I can do for you?”

“No… I am just going to enjoy the show for a bit, tell Commander Zavala to bring in the men though for the council meeting… and let them know I will be here in person for once, so make sure no deaths happen while I am here… or they won’t find themself back to their own holdings.” Aedan said coldly as he smirked widely as he followed Jessica as he felt a slight sense of pride in his wife. “What are you up to Mrs. Teller,” he said softly to himself as the lackey departed.

Aedan Teller

Drifting down the staircase, Jessica’s steps appeared to make her seem to be gliding over the water. The click of her heels was buried in the thick plush carpeting as her fluid gait carried her to the bar. Shaw had the schematics on the club. The club was designed so that from certain vantage points the proprietors could watch everyone entering and exiting it. Jessica just needed to find her spot that she could control.

Slipping into a seat she sat crossing her legs so that anyone watching would let their eyes flow over her body. The position allowed every feminine curve from her calves to her thighs to her hips and points northward to be examined. It only took a heartbeat to feel every man scoping her out. A long time ago, Jessica learned that the fewer men actually saw the more enticed they became imagining removing every sleeve and pant leg exposing the smooth skin underneath. She was their present to open and play within a shadowy corner or a dim room with just enough light to admire all she could give them. It wasn’t long before her mark ventured over to her.

“What can I get you,” a soft voice in an accent she couldn’t place whispered in her ear from behind. He hadn’t touched her yet but the way his breath cascaded down her neck, Jessica knew it would only be a matter of time until the stray hand found her thigh, waist, or other curved feature on her body. He was so close meaning to throw her off guard by his presence. Coming up from behind was a mark of control unless the target was expecting it.

“Depends,” she turned slowly facing the voice. The gentleman was exotically handsome with dark eyes and hair to match. His skin was the color of someone who was born in a tropical place. This man was used to women melting when he began to dote attention on them. Licking her lips to moisten them, she let the tip of her tongue linger long enough to hint as opportunities later. “I might just want to get you something.” Jessica let her voice carry a sultry purr. It was meant to numb his mind with thoughts of how he could change its pitch and cadence with some intimate attention to call out his name begging for continued.

“Maybe later,” he signaled the bartender for his standard brand of exotic ale meant to make Jessica more loose and pliable. “Right now I think I should get your name first. Jafan Lergo,” he extended his hand.

His skin was cool to the touch indicating he as completely at ease. “Pleased to meet you,” Jessica shook Jafan’s hand letting her index finger trace his in a sensual motion from the tip brushing down to the sensitive skin of his wrist.

“And I don’t get the pleasure of an introduction,” he turned to get the drinks that silently had appeared behind him. Extending one to Jessica she took the delicate fluted cup bringing it to her lips for a sip.

“Only if you are a good boy,” she replied after swallowing the sweet, yellowish colored liquor. Its silky texture with white fruit and citrus notes could not be anything but Cristal. The drink had survived among the affluent since 1867 when it was created for Tsar Nicholas the second. “So what are we celebrating,” she set the drink down on the marble bar tracing the lip of the glass in lazy circles with the tip of her finger.

Meanwhile above in the office suit…

Aedan looked down as the man began to make a play on Jessica from his vantage. Aedan wasn’t one to let people play with his property very often, sometimes swaps could be made but that was always in a much more private arena. Place his finger to his ear Aedan activated his comm. “Remove him,” Aedan said before he began to adjust the cuffs on his coat as he exited the door as he began to come down from his perched retreat.

Back at the bar…

“That I have found my companion for this evening,” he wrapped one hand around her waist pushing slightly to indicate she was to follow him.

“And if I say I am waiting for someone Mr. Lergo,” she held her position in the seat.

“Then I say someone is going to get killed because I don’t come in second place to anyone,” he leaned forward whispering in her ear. Years of training prevented her from withdrawing backward as his lips kissed her neck below her ear and then lower in the soft curve where her neck met her shoulder. Inclining her head slightly to give him more skin she drew in a deep breath feeling a hot sensation ripple across her body where his lips had touched. “So save a life,” he extended a hand, “come with me?”

Up above the scene, Aedan exited his suit as he kept an eye at the dealings below “Sir… what do you want us to do with him?” said the security right outside the office as he followed his boss as the two got to the lift that led down to the bottom level of the club. “Kicked out, or made an example of?”

“Oh… not sure we need an example… not yet at least,” Aedan said as the two began to travel down to the second level, the man from the office to the left of them as all three began to walk over to the bar area. Standing off to the side Aedan watched as he nodded at the men nearby as they all left posts to come to surround the pair.

Back with Jessica, the man who was all over her seemed to not have a very keen tactical awareness as four large men from club security seemed to surround the man.

Lergo had the suave and charm down to a science. An unwary woman would be completely captivated by Jafan Legro until she was discarded to the streets if she was lucky. To one of his crew if she was unlucky. “I am not worth anyone’s life,” Jessica replied taking his hand. “Maybe a weekend of your time perhaps but nothing more.”

As Jessica’s hand slipped into Lergo’s, her body stiffened. Shifting her body she felt the sharp edge of the bar press into her lower back. Shaw where are you, she growled angry her partner had not warned her the mission was failing. Her peripheral vision caught movement all around her. Four men dressed as club security were approaching their position fast. The spread would make it impossible to push through them without having to take multiple men on at once. With the bar to her back, Jessica had nowhere to retreat to. She had to find another route out of Club Vertigo.

Gunny trained her to calculate her options. The problem was Jessica Teller had no options for escape past fighting or shooting her way out.. This place was armed to the teeth. She had a weapon but even if she was lucky enough to fire off the rounds needed to take out the approaching men she saw, there were the men she didn’t see. The men you didn’t see were the ones that caused you the most harm. There was also the clientele. The expensive suits and designer dresses worn by the clubs patrons did not mean those people were any less deadly than the mercenaries lounging about in their rugged workwear. Any shot, precise or stray, would turn Club Vertigo into a shooting gallery. Her only play was to leave quietly, pray Shaw was watching from his vantage point, and use Lergo for leverage when the timing presented itself.

Tightening her grip on Lergo’s hand, Jessica rose quickly from her seat ready to react. The smile on her face was plastered there from years of fieldwork as her heart began pumping faster priming her body for action.

If there was one thing Aedan was certain of, Jessica knew they were suddenly surrounded, and if there was one other thing Aedan knew, this man had no clue who she was. A pitty Aedan thought, he could have saved himself so much pain if he just had.

“But a weekend away is not really in the cards is it.” Aedan chimed in as he pushed through to get to the front between the security forces.

All the years of training did nothing for Jessica during these first few moments seeing her husband appear out of thin air. His pace was relaxed, controlled which meant he wanted her and Lergo to feel the weight of his arrival. Frack me she thought watching her husband focus his penetrating stare on Lergo.

Intelligence taught you four covenants to stay alive in the field. They were nicknamed the four no’s: Know your mark, know your surroundings, know when you lost control and under no circumstances develop an attachment Each one of these four covenants Jessica had broke resulting in her current predicament.

Lergo was supposedly the big fish on Farius Prime yet like all things in the animal world there was always a larger fish circling the waters. She apparently did not know her surroundings because she was effectively pinned without an escape route. Jessica had not seen the point when she lost control of the situation. It all seemed to be going according to plan until it wasn’t. Of all the covenant’s no attachments was the singular one she was failing at the most. Aedan was going to blow the current operation.

Every step forward by Aedan increased Jessica heart rate so rapidly it caused an echoing swoosh in her ears. Her stomach clenched threatening to vomit up everything she had eaten in the past two hours. Words escaped her as Jessica’s throat closed stopping even the breath from exiting her lungs. Aedan, his name was on the tip of her tongue but all she could do was stare wide-eyed at her husband forcing her breathing to stay calm and level.

“Mr. Teller,” Lergo’s smile faded as he greeted the man approaching him. It was rumored that Aedan Teller was about yet no one had seen him at the club in months. Lergo shifted uncomfortably understanding that if Aedan was seeking you out, you had better run. Sweat broke out along the man’s brow as if he were thrust onto a baking desert landscape. He stumbled for the next thing to say to the man before him. Lergo was a powerful criminal lord in his own right but when compared to Aedan’s influence Lergo was someone the universe would forget with a snap of Aedan’s fingers. Chance meetings like this fueled the rumors, Aedan Teller was the babayka of the criminal underworld.

“Mr. Lergo, what did I tell you about trying to find strays at my club, always check if they have been collared… isn’t that right?” Aedan said as he looked over at Jessica, his piercing blue eyes looking over at her before looking back at the man.

Listening to Aedan’s choice of words made Jessica instinctively pull back her hand layering the right over the left. For some reason, Aedan was not revealing to the club that his wife was standing here. She knew Aedan didn’t need to greet her as Mrs. Teller for Jessica to know her husband recognized her even with the wig and makeup so what was he doing. The question was why. There was some angle here, Jessica was missing. Replaying the sentence over in her head gave Jessica a clue as to Aedan’s mindset. ‘Mr. Lergo, what did I tell you about trying to find strays at my club.’ The keyword here was stray. To stray meant to deviate from the direct course, leave the proper place, or go beyond the proper limits. As his icy blue eyes fixed on her own Jessica read the warning. She had strayed from her course as his wife, leaving the penthouse without a word, and going to someplace she should never be. He had chosen this word carefully and for her.

“I did not know you were visiting Farius Prime,” he tried to be affable adjusting the sleeves on his coat searching for an angle to get out of this encounter. The movement by the men behind Aedan reminded Lergo to keep his hands where they could be seen. Lergo’s men in the club would be prepared for action however only a fool that had never met Aedan Teller would attempt something. For every man you saw, Aedan had ten more you didn’t. At least he was talking about this woman instead of business. She was beautiful but beauty did not amount for anything right now. Now Lergo had an escape plan. “She arrived alone and without a ring or collar as you put it,” he turned slightly to retrieve the drink behind him.

Shut up you idiot, she blinked slowly feeling her legs go weak. Whether or not Lergo realized it, he just added a hint of impropriety to the conversation. ‘Always check if they have been collared… isn’t that right?’ played back in her head. Jessica wasn’t fast enough to shield her ringless finger. Aedan’s comment let that observation slip from a visual thought to a public comment. Always check if they have been collared was a blatant remark to her loyalty to her husband. To be loyal meant faithfulness to commitments or obligations. The fact Aedan hadn’t hit the man hard enough to force him to eat only soup for the next month was a good sign for Lergo. Still he wasn’t the one that would be leaving for a private meeting with Aedan in the next few minutes.

Lergo needed Aedan to understand this woman meant nothing to him. It was a pity that women had to be so beautiful in this line of work. She would have been an excellent accessory for as long as she was useful to Jafan Lergo but no woman alive was worth going against Aedan. As she said earlier, she was not worth killing over. Whatever she did to fall onto Aedan’s sensors was her issue not Lergo’s. “I did not realize you had an interest in her.”

“Do I strike you a man who gives a damn Mr. Lergo?” Aedan said as he placed a hand on the man’s shoulder as he placed a pressure point to make the man shrivel as he pulled him off the bar. “Now gentlemen, make sure he finds his way home… how he arrives is going to be up to him.” Aedan said as he shoved the man into his nearest security as a hard thud could be heard as the man his meat and muscles.

Aedan Teller

Jessica swallowed feeling her mouth go dry. With Lergo gone she had lost her leverage. She was also now alone with her husband. “I think we need to talk,” she spoke in a neutral tone. Barely perceptible whispers erupted around her immediate vicinity. The rest of Clube Vertigo was still participating in their hedonistic pursuits. When Aedan wanted to make a scene he did. When he wanted something subtle, it remained that way. Aedan was giving her the option of a quiet retreat and she would take it. Not one of the people around her was brazen enough to look at the spectacle head-on. It was only side glances and peripheral views taking in the scene.

Jessica moved in step with Aedan as he led her through the club. More eyes were falling upon them but it out of curiosity than suspicion. The glances from both men and women told Jessica the patrons were all taking stock of Aedan and his choice of companion for the evening. Facial recognition programs would be in full swing as well as conversations about her identity would dominate the tables. The only stroke of luck was that Jessica knew nothing became public knowledge without Aedan’s control. Scramblers would be primed stopping the flow of any information in and out of his club. Her identity was as secure as Aedan deemed it needed to be. Without all the attention squarely on her, it was only natural for her to scan the room without impunity. Almost as shocking as finding Aedan here was the actual patrons of the club. Gruto Zapal, Valsi Jakin, Sion Janrand, Maxir Tillie, Daro Vene, Kuna Brenau, Runa Anen. The faces of the name’s in the club she noticed were a living dossier of the who’s who of the intelligence world. Teller had always been on their radar when she was an intelligence analyst. Until this second she had no idea how deep Aedan ran in the underworld community.

One other word from his only sentence to her drifted to the forefront of her mind: My club. How did Aedan own Club Vertigo and she had no clue was the first question followed by a plethora of others as she no longer thought about Shan’s mission.

Lt. Commander Jessica Teller.