[ Of course she's done this before. She's a troublesome little baggage. But while the Syndicate may remain on the whole magnanimous -- letting her sneak out like a teenager past curfew, scratching her itch with honeytraps of their own selection -- at some point they'll yank her leash. Hard. The organization is reconciled to a sum of money flowing out from their pockets to keep valuable assets happy; it's not as if Hei's, or Korra's upkeep is an isolated and conspicuous drain on their resources. ]
[ But it's dangerous to regard yourself, not as living out of their pocket, but as part of a grand tapestry of profit and expenditure that's been decades in the making. No matter how many of your own stitches are woven in that tapestry, no matter how much you appear to be an inextricable figure in it -- at the end of the day, you are expendable. Everyone is. ]
[ It doesn't take him long to find her. There are a few stuffy bars near the safehouse. The most suitable is a low rambling shack of unpainted weathered grey boards, set amongst marshy reeds, a red neon beer sign in one of its dark windows, and some vehicles parked around it -- mostly, he notices, pick-ups, older domestic cars, and one or two nondescript models that can only be Syndicate-owned. ]
[ Carefully, he wends his way through the smoky red atmosphere, redolent of spilled liquor, tobacco and sweat. The bar is packed, and there are a lot of young people on the dancefloor -- boys, girls, tourists, locals: he hears a jumble of languages spoken. Some of the girls are cute -- at least, they'd have been cute to the average man, a civilian, a shy college boy like Li. Right now they just look like easy targets, unnecessary desserts, the kind you don't eat because you are on a crazy drop-dead serious diet. ]
[ It's barely a moment before he spots Korra. On the crowded dancefloor, shaking her little box to the beat. She makes a pretty sight. He won't deny it. Downright fuckable: that tight body, those pert breasts and the dark sweep of her hair. ]
[ But when he elbows through the crush of bodies, tapping her shoulder, there is nothing appreciative in his manner. His voice, low beneath the thumping baseline of music, is strangely flat: ]
Next time, leave a sticky note.
[ Otherwise he'll just contact her handler to deal with her. ]
no subject
[ But it's dangerous to regard yourself, not as living out of their pocket, but as part of a grand tapestry of profit and expenditure that's been decades in the making. No matter how many of your own stitches are woven in that tapestry, no matter how much you appear to be an inextricable figure in it -- at the end of the day, you are expendable. Everyone is. ]
[ It doesn't take him long to find her. There are a few stuffy bars near the safehouse. The most suitable is a low rambling shack of unpainted weathered grey boards, set amongst marshy reeds, a red neon beer sign in one of its dark windows, and some vehicles parked around it -- mostly, he notices, pick-ups, older domestic cars, and one or two nondescript models that can only be Syndicate-owned. ]
[ Carefully, he wends his way through the smoky red atmosphere, redolent of spilled liquor, tobacco and sweat. The bar is packed, and there are a lot of young people on the dancefloor -- boys, girls, tourists, locals: he hears a jumble of languages spoken. Some of the girls are cute -- at least, they'd have been cute to the average man, a civilian, a shy college boy like Li. Right now they just look like easy targets, unnecessary desserts, the kind you don't eat because you are on a crazy drop-dead serious diet. ]
[ It's barely a moment before he spots Korra. On the crowded dancefloor, shaking her little box to the beat. She makes a pretty sight. He won't deny it. Downright fuckable: that tight body, those pert breasts and the dark sweep of her hair. ]
[ But when he elbows through the crush of bodies, tapping her shoulder, there is nothing appreciative in his manner. His voice, low beneath the thumping baseline of music, is strangely flat: ]
Next time, leave a sticky note.
[ Otherwise he'll just contact her handler to deal with her. ]