by Bella Lamour
A nod from Rachelle, Julia being too busy laughing at something Jean-Luc said and batting his shoulder.
“Alright. We just need a couple shots, but he’s gotta be into it. We want no plausible deniability that Buck pushed him into it and he was just enduring.”
Rachelle had finally made it back to her administrative room where she handled payments via the telephone. “You said his girlfriend was a theater major, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Perfect. It’ll be nice and dramatic and relationship ruining.”
“That’s the goal. Now Julie, that means you gotta get Jean-Luc up and in the back in about ten minutes. We want to make Thomas look like he’s there along. Rachelle, just make sure there’s a spotlight bright enough to get a good picture on the mini-cam McAnany gave you.”
“Heard. I’m heading to the light booth now.”
Yuki fixed her gaze on Julie, who was now pulling at Jean-Luc’s tie.
“If she can’t get him out, we can still angle the shot so he’s not in it.”
“She’ll get him out. Trust her.”
Sure enough, Julie leaned back, throwing her red curls sultrily over her shoulder. But she leaned a little too far and toppled off Jean-Luc’s back and onto the floor. He immediately jumped up to help her to her feet, and as soon as she was steady, she pulled him into a salacious embrace. Less than a few seconds later, she was pulling him to one of the private rooms in the back,
Perfect.
Less than a minute later, there was an ostentatious gong, and the lights dimmed. Yuki checked to make sure Rachelle was in her spot, and sure enough, a nearly blinding spotlight landed on Thomas. He looked startled at first, and then uncomfortable as Rachelle belted praises on the VIP into the DJ mic, but quickly settled down when Sampala and Nefertiti appeared through a trick door on the dancing stage with a copious amount of effect fog.
The two women certainly knew their stuff. They writhed, and swung their hips perfectly in time with the music. Yuki knew the two of them ran an up-and coming dance studio and only worked nights to make ends meet while they built their student base, and she couldn’t be more grateful for their distraction.
And what a distraction they were. Rachelle must have told them all about how much their VIP needed to be spoiled, because they were on Thomas almost immediately.
“Time for the photoshoot.” Yuki smirked into her mic.
Rachelle nodded faintly before moving through the crowd. She played the essential Mother perfectly, checking that girls weren’t too drunk, greeting guests. It took her a solid two minutes to get into the perfect position to snap the incriminating evidence of Sampala pulling Thomas’ head into her pasty-covered breasts. Then another of Nefertiti dropping grapes from her headdress into his open mouth.
“Enjoy it while you can, Thomas.” Yuki hissed. “Alright, Rachelle, get out of there. Drop the pen camera in you handbag then go back on the floor like any other night. Julie, its looks like you’re up to bat now.”
“Can you pull up her security feed on the main screen?”
“Yeah, gimme a second. I haven’t been on a stake out in…well it’s been a long time.”
Yuki waited for the retired detective to do his thing, listening intently to the stream of flattery Julie was pouring to Jean-Luc.
Finally, McAnany was able to switch things over, and Yuki could see that Julie was giving Jean-Luc and intense shoulder massage. She had positioned both of them so they were facing towards the camera, and she had an impatient expression on her face.
“Sorry, had to make sure we sewed everything up neatly with the banker. You ready.”
A nod.
“Alright, start Mission There’s-No-Way-This-Will-Work.”
“Positivity is the path to success, young’un.” McAnany mused from behind her.
“I’ll be positive when these guys are rotting in jail. This is the most ridiculous part of the plan.”
“Trust me. It works every time.”
“If you say so…”
Julie shot then an aggravated look at the camera before reaching behind one of the cushions to bring out a tiny fake spider. She placed it just above one of the buttons on her blouse then screamed.
It was hard not to laugh as the scene unfolded. Jean-Luc jumped up and whirled around at the same time that Julie vaulted off where she was perched on the back of the couch. Yuki’s earpiece was overloading from all the screams, but she didn’t have to hear to get the comedy of the situation. Julie was jumping from foot to foot, pointing to the spider on her breast, and Jean-Luc swiped at it, trying to help the poor girl. She let him do that a few times before running out in terror, screaming about how she needed a shower. Once she was gone, Jean-Luc just stood there for a while, dumb-founded.
“I can’t believe that actually worked!” Yuki mused, going through the stills from the security cameras. Sure enough, it looked like the mousey little lackey had tried to hit Julie, and then chased her from the room. It was perfect.
“You guys know that if we do what we’re planning to do, the Black Unicorn is going to take a big hit.”
“Good.” Julie spat from where she was hiding in the bathroom. “Any host bar that won’t back up its employees is no place that should stay in business.”
“Same thought here.” Janelle added.
“Alright. Good. You’re both safe if you want to get out right now. We can even give you a lift home.”
“A free ride? Yeah, I’m in.”
“Look for the van.”
Yuki sat back, feeling in control and ready to start wreaking her revenge.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“I told you it would work.”
Yuki rolled her eyes but she couldn’t help her smile. “Yeah, yeah. Keep the celebration until after we ruin these guys.”
“Whatever you say, Captain.”
“That’s right.”
She climbed to the front and turned the car on, pulling around to pick up her co-conspirators. Yeah, part one was successful, but they had a long way to go.
*
The first state is Shock. This stage can last anywhere from hours to weeks or months. Typical reactions might include saying "I can't feel anything" or "I can't think clearly." Disorientation and high levels of anxiety are common.
It turns out one could do a lot of damage without ever changing out of their pajamas. The first thing Yuki did with her plethora of pictures from part one of their plan, was put them into a scintillating tabloid format, then submit them anonymously to several popular UK gossip sites. The photo editing program had taken her several hours to master, but after watching enough online tutorials, she felt like you couldn’t tell her article from the real deal. Who knew, maybe she had a career in graphic arts when this was all over.
If it was ever over.
But melancholy future or not, the articles racked up hits, shares and comments like nobody’s business. Sure, it wasn’t viral, but there was no way the girlfriend’s publicist wasn’t going to catch wind of it. And as an added bonus, she learned quite a bit of UK slang.
If she was concerned about her career at all, which of course she was, she would have no choice but drop him. And publically. It was beautiful.
The next step took a bit more work. McAnany went to a forger narc he used to know back in the day and got him to print off a fake French newspaper, which they then mailed to his dear old mother’s address. That had taken about a hundred bucks and a home cooked meal for the too-skinny tweaker. There was really no way of telling if that one worked or not, but Yuki had faith that in two to three weeks little old Mathilde was going to be vastly disappointed in his woman beating son.
Now there was just Julian.
It had taken them days of brainstorming to come up with a way to anonymously wreak havoc with his life. He had no marriage to ruin, no parental units to disappoint, nothing. They only had the charity angle.
But that proved to be enough. The whole rea
son Buck was even in America was because he was setting up the annual Fight Against Neuroblastoma Foundation gala. And it just so happened that the founder of that particular organization was very passionate about children. So passionate, he had adopted four kids from several countries, one of whom was a sixteen year old Korean girl. If there was anyone who even Buck couldn’t corrupt, it was a parent who could see their child in her.
But getting to actually have face to face conversation with him was proving to be a problem. It’s not like she could just walk up to his address, or go up to the top floor of his headquarters. No, she had to be creative.
That’s when McAnany suggested they used a more subtle method. It didn’t take much time on a search engine to find out that two of his children, including the Korean girl Seun-Ah, were into skateboarding and would often visit the local parks.
For once it was convenient that if she didn’t put on makeup, Yuki looked like a prepubescent girl.
And that was how she found herself done up with kneepads, a helmet and a board with a bunch of teenagers who weren’t quite knowledgeable about head trauma –judging by their lack of protective cranial protection.
It was fairly easy to spot Seun-Ah. There were only about three girls total in the area, including Yuki. And getting her attention was going to be equally easy.
Putting her board on the ground, Yuki put one foot on it then pushed off with the other. She picked up speed pretty quickly, and aimed herself right at the small ground Seun-Ah was standing in.
“Watch out!” She cried, at the last moment bailing and crashing into a couple of the other skaters. “Oh my god, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”
“Dude, chill. It’s okay.” That was Seun-Ah. One of her friends helped Yuki up, and she brushed off her now dusty knees. “You a beginner or something?”
“Yeah, just learned.”
“I don’t recognize you from school.”
“I just moved here, and I’m home schooled anyways. Mom told me I needed to go out and make friends, so she gave me my brother’s gear and dropped me off.”
Another one of the ground snorted, but Seun-Ah smiled. “Sounds like she just want you to not be another anti-social, Asian stereotype.”
“Pretty much.”
“Well we can show you a few tricks, so you don't look like a total noob out here.”
“Really? That's be awesome!”
“Yeah, I mean, you can't be that bad, right?”
It turns out she was. She got the basic premise down, but when it came to going any faster than an elderly person with a busted walker, she just lost her core and fell over. And bless Seun-Ah and her friends, they certainly tried. For a bunch of middle and high schoolers, they sure were charitable and supportive.
“Your foot’s on there the wrong way. Rotate it a bit.”
“Not that much. Dial it back a bit.”
“Try to absorb the shock through your knees. You lock them, you break them.”
“It’s okay, just take a breath, try again.”
After about the third hour of very thorough tutoring, they all gave up and half sat/collapsed across various areas of the skating area.
“Man, no offense, but you really suck.”
“You ain't kidding.” Yuki laughed, sitting down on a stair. Her brow was covered in sweat and her muscles were screaming, but it was kinda nice pretending to be a simple teenager for a while. Then again, it would all just be an exercise in stupidity if she didn't get invited over to Seun-Ah's house. “Just makes me wonder what my mom's going to force me into next to make me seem like a normal kid.”
“At least she cares.” The girl settled down next to her. “Lemme guess, adopted you with loving husband, then divorced, and she had custody of you and her bio-son?”
Yuki smiled. “Sister, actually. Yeah, she's trying hard but I just wanna be like Mom. Chillax.”
“I know what you mean, my dad is always trying to get me involved in all these different Asian things so I don't lose my heritage or culture. And I'm just like...Dad, I'm Korean. Joining the anime club is not going to help me on that front.”
This time she let out a genuine guffaw. “That's priceless. And my turn to guess, you go to a private school were there are a total of five Asians, and one of them is Indian who always has people telling her they don't understand how she's actually Asian?”
She shared the laugh, tilting her head back. “How did you get that so accurate, home schooley?”
“Why do you think I asked to be taken out of the private academy my dad shipped me off to? I just always felt so out of place there. Like I was too much of an other. Now, it's nice to not have to worry about that for my schooling, but I realize I lost what little social interaction I had when I left.”
“Aw that's rough.”
“Yeah. I think if I just made a couple of friends, my mom might lay off for a while.”
“Well I don't think you're awful. You should come over for dinner tonight, we can take some selfies that you can send to your mom, I can parade you around in front of my dad, it'll be a productive time all around.”
“Really? You'd be down for that?”
“Sure, why not. As long as you promise not to ever try to board again without a helmet. ...and possibly adult supervision.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
We sat there for a bit, before the tallest of the group rolled away for a bit, then returned with sodas. They just talked and occasionally tried new tricks until the sun just started to set. At that point Seun-Ah whipped out the fanciest looking cell phone that Yuki had ever seen.
“We're done at the park, please come pick me up.” She said brusquely before snapping it closed.
“Your dad?” Yuki asked.”
Seun-Ah shot her a look. “The chauffeur. Dad's busy with some sort of charity thingy and won't be back until seven at least.”
“Oh, right. That makes sense.”
So they waited a bit more until a beautiful new car parked in the lot and honked loudly several time. Yuki knew that McAnany would probably be drooling over the shining transport, but she wasn't exactly a car person.
“Come on, slow poke.” Seun-Ah jibed, jumping to her feet and running towards the vehicle. Yuki followed, and before long, she was on her way to David West's house with his teenage daughter.
They pulled up to a wrought iron gate and the chauffeur rolled down their window, then swiped a card through some sort of security thing. There was a bit of a pause, and then a buzzer before the gates slowly swung open.
Yuki tried not to gawk at the long, fully paved drive way they drove down. And was that-Yup. There was an actual roundabout with a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in the center. Is this what rich people did when they had too much money? No wonder he was so involved with charity. Two statues of MLK would be just tacky...
Her internal critique of their decorating dwindled as they reached the actual mansion. It was massive, with several floors and dozens and dozens of windows. This time her mouth did drop open, but she managed to recover as Seun-Ah led her inside.
They crossed paths with some sort of chef, who was busy prepping something in the kitchen, before they both plopped down in front of a massive TV with all the latest gaming systems in front of it.
“Where are all your brothers and sisters?” Yuki asked, craning her neck around at the surprising empty house. It was almost creepy that it was so large, but so entirely empty.
“How do you know I have brothers and sisters?”
“Well, you've got a stack of comics on the bottom shelf of that bookcase over there. Low shelves are for young people, because older ones don't like to have to bend down. Above that are several of my favorite YA novels that have been released in the past few years, and above that are a ton of study guides and encyclopedias. Judging by the beanbags and electronics in here, this isn't a room that your parents come into often, so I just put the pieces together.”
“Geeze, you are smart.”
“Nah, just
observant.”
“Fine then, let's see how your skills of observation work on multiplayer mode.”
It was hard to not lose herself in the fantasy. If only she could just hole up and live in this world of opulence and leisure. If only she could be a girl who didn't have to worry about taking down three juggernauts who were out for her blood. If only...if only...
“I didn't know we were having company.”
Yuki jumped, surprised out of her wistful thinking. She looked up to see a middle aged man with salt and pepper hair standing in the doorway, looking at her curiously.
“Oh hey, Dad! This is my new friend. I invited her over for dinner. Hope you don't mind, we were just chillin' and playing some games.”
The man beamed, and for a moment Yuki almost felt guilty for her deception, but that faded quickly as they headed towards the kitchen. The chef they had seen bustling about earlier was gone, but left behind was a platter of delicious looking chicken parmesan and roast vegetables.
“This looks great,” Mr. West breathed, looking quite relieved. “Just what I needed after a hectic day at the office.”
They all sat down to eat around the kitchen island, but Yuki's stomach was churning. How was she supposed pull this off? Oh hey, I tricked your daughter into letting me into your home so I could tell you about how I was violently raped. By the way this chicken is marvelous!
No, not quite. That would definitely not work.
Finally, an opening came when Seun-Ah's phone started to ring.”
“Is that a call?” Her dad joked. “I'm surprised you kids even remember that that's what phones are actually for; not just texting and all your apps.”
“Very funny, Dad. Oh, it's Javier! I gotta take this, excuse me for just a moment.” She giddily hopped off the tall chair she was perched on and skipped out of the room.
“They always warned me about this age...” Mr. West grumbled before turning and looking to Yuki. “I bet your mom hates it just as much when guys call you too.”
She nodded, quickly calculating her opening. She had to do this, she only had one shot. “I imagine this is a scary time for parents.”
