Author's Note: This is the start to my new story. I am sure it is mistake ridden but I wanted to see if anybody is interested in seeing this story through because if not I don't really have a reason to finish it up. Again sorry for the mistakes. -MyaB
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for the idea behind the story.
As Above So Below
-Unknown Dock Somewhere in San Francisco; November 15th, 4:45 AM-
Delphine sucked in a deep breath as she looked across the calm waves. She closed and wiped at her tired eyes. Being up at four in the morning certainly was not any fun for the French woman. The blonde was used to lounging in bed until her phone continuously beeped her out of it. She ran her fingers through her medium-length, dyed-blonde hair and then crossed her arms. She would be lying if she said she was not nervous. One month on the job and they had thrown her on the undercover case of the century. Bust Nautilus, that was her task, and it was a task she would not take lightly at that.
The VICE department thought they could use a fresh set of eyes from an extra undercover agent on the current wide-scale drug smuggling and marijuana distribution case, so they had thrown on the "genius" rookie. At least that is what they VICE squad had dubbed Delphine. At age 24, Delphine was the youngest detective that the San Francisco police department had in decades. Not only did the young, French woman receive a perfect score on her detective's exam, but she had also been instrumental in the capture of the now notorious San Fran Sniper case the year prior which was the case that prompted Delphine's promotion. She had received special award commendation and was pushed into taking her detective's exam so that she could receive her promotion.
So here she was, waiting on the docks by some of the more sketchier warehouses in the area—a place where the majority of drug distribution happened for the low level dealers—waiting for her contact within the Ukrainian mafia to take her to meet with Nautilus' enforcer/left-hand man (or in this case woman), Sarah Manning. Delphine sighed, she did not know why Art wanted her on this case, Nautilus was elusive and had been elusive ever since he had come in on the drug scene. And, if the best detective on the VICE squad, Detective Childs, could not uncover Nautilus' true identity in the months she had been working undercover on the case, then how was Delphine suppose to? She would rather be working the big meth crackdown case because at least then she would not have to do undercover work. Delphine hated undercover work. It scared the crap out of her.
There was the sound of steps on gravel behind her. The tall woman whipped around. She was met with the sight of a short, pale, crazy-haired blonde woman. "You want to meet with my Sestra?" The woman asked in a thick Ukrainian accent. Delphine simply nodded her response trying to play cold and confident.
The Ukrainian looked her up and down, sizing her up and studying her for quite some time before nodding to herself and waving Delphine over to her. "Follow me".
Delphine could feel her hands start to shake slightly as she followed the pale woman down the docks a ways and into a large, shoddy warehouse. The Ukrainian stopped and the French woman halted behind her. She took in her surroundings, the warehouse was huge, empty, and rundown. Delphine could tell that this warehouse had not been used in at least over a decade or so.
"Oi," a British voice from behind her scared Delphine from her observations. "You the French Rachel sent?"
Delphine mustered up her voice and tried to shake the nerves off, "Yeah Britain, you can call me Paris. Everyone else on the scene already does."
"Names Sarah smartass," The British woman said, "and alright Paris. So you want in? Why should we let YOU in on OUR business?"
"Well for one, a girl like me," Delphine waved her hand up and down her body, "nobody would suspect I was working with the Ukrainian Mafia. And for two, I have a lot of connections back in France. If you are looking to expand your business beyond the United States border, I'd say getting a foothold in at least one European country would be smart, non?"
Sarah snorted, "is that right? You think we don't already have a foothold in a European country? Please. If you haven't noticed I'm British, born and raised in London. I've got my European connection."
"So why not have another? It never hurts to expand business," Delphine persuaded. "My mother is a politician and my father owns a prominent shipping company. My connections are endless and it is an easy in, oui?"
Sarah crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She chuckled and looked the taller blonde up and down. "Alright rich prick. You push two large shipping containers of our product overseas into a port in France. We have a German in France who is looking to become our newest distributor so you make sure that product gets there without ANY problems," Sarah emphasized, "You do that and we will consider letting you in as a part-time and low-level European pusher. Sound fair?"
Delphine nodded, "Oui, more than fair." Again Sarah rolled her eyes but this time instead of talking she threw Delphine a half-smile and walked out of the warehouse. It was just Delphine and the Ukrainian again.
"My name is Helena." The Ukrainian finally spoke up from where she had quietly observed the meeting, "if you double cross my Sestra and my family I will make sure to put bullet through your brain." And with that the pale woman exited the warehouse to follow her "Sestra" back to wherever they were coming from.
Delphine gawked at Helena's backside and shuddered. What the hell did she walk into.
-San Francisco Police Department; November 15th, 7:15 AM—
Delphine twiddled her fingers on top of her desk as Art did his usual daily spiel about what had gone on during the night shifts. It was the typical prostitution busts and low-level drug dealing. She was extremely tired having been up earlier than everybody else in the office and she wanted her daily coffee which she knew she would not be getting till lunch time. The thought made her depressed.
"Delphine," Art called out to her snapping her out of her tired state, "I want you to go find Beth and Angela and make your way back here. Everyone else, dismissed."
Delphine stood up from her desk but leaned against it. She waited until the rest of the VICE squad flooded out of the room before making her way out of their section of the police department and down over to homicides' section. She knew that was where she would find Beth and Angela Deangelis as they had got tied up in a murder case of a prostitute. Since they were the first ones on scene, they were being prepared for court alongside the homicide team. She made her way down the stairwell until she reached the first floor. Walking methodically down the dreary hallway, Delphine stopped in front of the door that read Homicide department.
She knocked lightly on the door before slowly turning the knob and entering into the office. The room turned to look at her and the homicide Captain stopped in the middle of her speech. The tall blonde just pointed at Beth and Angela signaling them to follow her out before turning on her heel and leaving the room.
She began her ascent back up the stairwell when she heard the two women come bounding up behind her.
"Thank you so much rookie," Angela moaned, "I do not know how the homicide department can listen to the boring ramblings of their Captain day in and day out. I'm thankful Art is quick and to the point." Beth just patted Delphine on the back to confirm she was just as grateful as Angela was.
"Well," Delphine drawled out, "don't get too excited mes amies, Art wants a game plan for the Nautilus case so I'm positive that will take up the majority of our day. It will be a drag, c'est vria."
"You know rookie," Angela chuckled and jokingly said, "When you talk French to us it turns me so on."
Beth smacked the back of Angela's head, "oh shush Ang, don't pretend like you got the hots for new girl. The whole department knows that you're secretly head over heels for Art anyways."
Angela crossed her arms and grunted. She gave Beth a death glare but quickly shut her mouth. Delphine snickered and shot Beth a quick smile over her shoulder for getting Angela to shut up for once. They reached the fourth floor and headed back over to their department. Delphine slipped back into the main office with Angela and Beth following and took a seat at her desk. Beth pulled up a chair next to Delphine and Angela leaned against the blonde's desk.
Art rolled the whiteboard over towards them. "Ladies, we need a game plan and fast. Delphine managed to score an in but it requires us to somehow ship two containers full of drugs over to our friends in France."
"My mother has connections in InterPol," Delphine spoke quickly, "we can do the hand off to them and let them put a tracker in the containers to see where it ships. Let the distributor take the drugs and sell them to the low-level drug dealers and then let InterPol bust the low-level dealers so as not to tip off the mafia that something went awry. We get an undercover InterPol agent to give the money back to the German distributor to make it look like the drugs sold and everything went off without a hitch."
"That is a solid plan," Beth agreed.
Angela piped in, "but what about the shipping company. Which company do we use and how do we get the drugs past them without them trying to alert federal authorities?"
"Well that's easy," Delphine spoke again, "for one, Art and I have already got permission from the FBI. As long as nothing goes wrong, the FBI is going to keep their noses out of it. As for the shipping company, I did not tell Sarah that my father owned a shipping company for nothing. It is true that he owns quite a few of them on the ports of France. I'll let Interpol inform my father of the plan."
"So who are our contacts within Interpol?" Beth asked.
"A man and a woman," Delphine spoke, "Siobhan Sadler and Paul Dierden. We should be getting a call from them later today."
Art nodded his head, "I think that is a plan I can get behind Delphine but we still need talk about the roles each of you are going to play."
"Well I know my role already," Beth said, "stay where I am within the mafia and see if I can work my way up the ladder. Having two sets of eyes on the inside of this case will be a tremendous help. Even if I only ever see the lower ranks of the Mafia, we need to know these guys inside and out."
Delphine chimed in, "I'm going to stick with my role of working with Sarah. She is pretty important within this branch of the mafia from what we mapped out so far, I believe working with her will be very good."
"That leaves me," Angela looked puzzled. "What role do I play?"
"Angie, you're going to play the role of Delphine's cop stalker," Art chimed in. "I want you to follow her around. Make it look like you're investigating her but do not make it look as if you know her. We want them to think that Delphine is dirty so it doesn't look like she's working with the cops."
Delphine readily agree, "that's smart Art. All eyes have to be on me right now especially if they're still deciding whether or not they want to do business with me. I do not think it would be wise for me to come into work anymore. At least not walking in freely and making it look like I actually work here."
"Right, from now on we will contact you through your work phone. If we need you in the office then we will bring you in by police car so it does not look suspicious. I'll have Raj start building you an online profile. We need you to have a cover story," Art explained. "You need to not be Delphine Cormier kid detective but Jacqueline Laurent, daddy's little rich party girl who is into drugs big time."
"I think I can play that part," Delphine nodded her head.
"Good," Art patted the blonde on the back, "I needed you to stop introducing yourself as Delphine from here on out and go as Jaqueline. This operation can take months and months and we need you to develop a believable backstory and a believable network of friends. Is that clear?"
Delphine sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. She never thought she would have to play a character, she was a detective not an actress but yet here she was. "Oui".
-Undisclosed Location; November 15th, 10:20 AM—
Cosima was not big on any of the hard drugs that the Ukrainian Mafia tended to push but she was very fond of the weed she distributed for them. She took a drag of the joint that rested in between her pointer and index finger and exhaled. She was not very fond of illegal activities actually but she did what she had to do. That was why she was adamant about only moving the Ukrainian marijuana and outright refused to move any of the hardcore drugs they were always trying to get her to sell. Lucky she was good at her job or she was sure the Mafia would have disposed of her long ago. How she, such a tiny little woman, came to be such a prominent figure in the North American branch of the Ukrainian Mafia always alluded her. She had told her bosses countless times she did what she had to do and that was it. They lauded her anyways, held her in high regard for being one of their most effective distributors.
It was her uncanny business sense and level-headedness that got her to where she was. She was never outright malicious to those who wronged her but she was still cold and calculated and nobody messed with the Nautilus, not when the consequences were so high. Cosima did not look the type, what with her tiny frame and pretty face. She wore her hair in a dread-style fashion and flashed toothy grins to every person she passed. The glasses that adorned her face only added to her look of innocence and optimism. That was why nobody ever suspected that she was THE largest weed distributor in North America and a growing force within the European countries. They never suspected that she was the largest earner for the Ukrainian Mafia or that she could, if provoked and backed into making a lesson out of someone, be ruthless and relentless.
It all started about two years ago for her. She had brought home her girlfriend the weekend before Christmas which caused her parents to freak out. For as liberal as her parents always claimed to be, for some reason they could not handle the fact that their little girl liked women and not men. They did not accept Cosima, they kicked her out of the house and threatened to cut her off from the family and financially if she "chose" to continue down the "path she was heading". So standing on the porch of her parent's house locked out, in San Francisco of all places, Cosima decided to make a point; to send a message to her parents. She was gay, that is who she was and that was never going to change, so she and her girlfriend ran off to city hall to have a spur of the moment wedding and got married.
Of course that was the biggest mistake of Cosima's life and the marriage ended in ruins two months later but the fact of the matter was she had essentially told her parents "up yours" and cut them off before they could cut her off. That lead Cosima into financial instability since her parents paid for all her schooling and with the looming threat of being kicked out of college and the ever growing pile of debt she was incurring, Cosima started selling drugs. At first it was mostly innocent and then more and more people started flocking to get their weed from her. Then she got a knock on her door one day and came face to face with a hard looking Ukrainian man who told her to stop selling in their territory.
Cosima being Cosima just kept on selling until the day she was pulled into a big, black SUV and given an offer she couldn't refuse. Either work with the Ukrainian mafia and they would take care of her student debt and of her as well, or die because she was encroaching on their territory and did not back off. Of course she took their offer and never looked back but on the stipulation that they left her to her own devices. She was good at distributing and she did not need them running interference or making her look suspicious by having big Ukrainian men follow her around.
The Mafia had agreed as long as Cosima performed and so the dread-haired girl had formed a ragtag group of drug dealers through careful selection and vetting of people. She had first pulled Alison Hendrix, suburban girl, into it first with promises of riches and a nice life. Alison was a close friend of hers and was innocent as a fly, she fit in perfectly. Since Alison was a business major, she was damn good at marketing and at keeping track of finances, Cosima liked to call her the "Marketing Guru" and "Everybody's Favorite Financial Advisor". She had turned Cosima's little business into a soap shop front which quickly grew in popularity branching out within the United States in a little over a year due to their "After hour" services.
Then came Rachel Duncan, the cold woman with a knack for sweet talking people into working for Cosima. Cosima had met Rachel at a soap convention down in Los Angeles. Rachel was the head of a semi-big corporation known as Dyad which was the leading seller in lotions and was hoping to branch out into soaps. The blonde woman had stopped Cosima and asked her what her secret to success was. Cosima laughed and told her the truth because most people took it as a joke.
"I sell Marijuana in every soap package," Cosima flashed a smile and chuckled. "It's a real hit with the hipsters and the hippies."
Rachel then launched into an explanation of how she was bored to tears with her current line of work and wanted a cut of Cosima's business. Cosima agreed and told Rachel that she would get her cut as long as Rachel came to work for Cosima down in San Francisco as her head of recruitment. After the conference, Rachel quit her job, packed her bags, and headed for San Francisco to join the ever growing gang of criminals. She was the one who recruited Sarah and Felix about a month later.
Rachel had found Sarah and Felix one night about to get arrested for prostitution on some shady back alley streets. She had for some reason been drawn to Sarah and felt compelled to intervene. Rachel had offered the officer a large sum of money for the release of both Sarah and Felix. The blonde had found out that Sarah was Felix's pimp and that the two had been living on their own in some danky art studio for years. They both looked strong and in need of a helping hand so Rachel offered them a job as Cosima's enforcers. They being criminals themselves, thought nothing of it and immediately took the position eager to get out of their current lifestyle.
Lastly, Helena came into their lives just a couple months ago. There was an incident with an unruly dealer who had ripped off Cosima's branch of the Mafia, so the Mafia sent her Helena. A Ukrainian hitwoman.
All of them made up Cosima's most trusted group of people, her Lieutenants is what they were. And they were the only group of people to actually know what the mysterious Nautilus looked like because they were the only people Cosima trusted.
Cosima put the joint in her mouth once more and pushed her fingers to her temples. How her branch had grown so large so quick was due to this group of her friends. They weren't her Lieutenants, or at least they were more than her Lieutenants, they were her friends. She took one last drag from her joint before quickly flicking it on the ground and stamping it out. Cosima could hear Sarah approaching.
"Hey Cos," Sarah yelled to her as she made her entrance into their office. "I met with the French chick, she sounds like she is gonna be a good asset."
"What took you so long to get back?" Cosima asked.
Sarah shrugged, "I had breakfast with Cal… and then a little more than breakfast with Cal."
Cosima laughed and shoved Sarah once she got close enough, "ew gross. I totally did not want to know that you got it on with Cal."
The familiar clack of high heels on tiles signaled the approach of the ever lovely Rachel Duncan. "You're still sleeping with that thing of a man?" her frigid voice asked.
"Why do you care Duncan?" Sarah rolled her eyes at the blonde.
Rachel rolled her eyes back, "I don't. I just think he makes you soft which is bad for business."
"Oh yeah," Sarah smirked and approached the blonde. She brought her face closer to Rachel's, "or could it just be that you're jealous that I'm not still bangin' you?"
"I don't get jealous, thank you very much".
Sarah brought her fingertips up to the other British woman's cheek and stroked it lightly. "My little Rachy is a little hurt I see."
"Screw you Manning, I'm not yours anymore," Rachel spat her words at Sarah.
"You already have screwed me Rachel", Sarah grinned and then chuckled. "But I left you because you could never give me an ounce of emotion".
Cosima sighed and stepped in before things could snowball into a bigger mess. "Enough", she spoke calmly but with a lot of authority, "stop it now. I don't need two of my Lieutenants in a damn lover's spat."
Sarah began to object but Cosima cut her off, "Rachel you keep it in your pants and stop trying to piss all over Sarah like she's your territory to mark. And Sarah stop taunting the woman, you only ever make it worse and everyone knows the only reason you're still sleeping with Cal is to make Rachel jealous."
That got both the women to shut their mouth, "where are the others? This meeting was supposed to start fifteen minutes ago. Why are you guys all so late it's like, super unprofessional and rude?"
"Excuse me," Rachel started, "you're the one who is usually late so everyone else figured that had at least thirty minutes before you actually showed up to the meeting Cosima."
Cosima just stuck out her tongue and huffed, "I am the boss. It is okay for me to be late, plus I have classes. Being a grad student in Evo Devo is tough stuff."
This time a more manly British accent broke into the room followed by three sets of footsteps, "yes but we all know Cos that the only reason your ever late is because you're getting it on with some random for one of your classes."
"I object!" Cosima pointed a death glare at the lanky man who had an eyebrow cocked at her.
"Everyone here knows that your history of evolutionary development class ends at 9:30," Felix said crossing her arms at her while Alison stifled a laugh behind the man and Helena just looked on bewildered.
"Cosima…gets it on?" the crazy blonde-haired woman asked in her thick Ukrainian accent which only caused Alison to actually burst out in laughter and Cosima to blush a dark shade of red. Sarah ran to high five Helena and Rachel just rolled her eyes as the situation unfolded.
Cosima pouted, "Everyone just shut up and sit down. You all suck and we have a meeting to get to."
The gang continued to laugh and poke fun at her but ultimately took their seats and listened intently to the words their boss spoke. Cosima did not know how she ever got into this mess but here in this office with her gaggle of assholes, she was kind of glad she did.
-Little Coffee Shop on the Pier 39; November 15th 12:00 PM—
Delphine stared at the menu of her favorite little café. She was glad for the reprieve from work and the chance to get some damn caffeine in her veins. She had about an hour to take a breather from the case and for that she was grateful. The café was completely filled so the blonde French woman had been waiting quite some time for her order to be taken. However, she did not mind due to the fact that she got to people watch from her seat near the front door of the café. It pleased her to try guess their stories and lives based on little details and their appearance. It was one of her favorite past times.
There was a man who sat two tables down from her booth. Most people would assume he was a lonely man who was very business oriented by the suit he was wearing. Which was not completely wrong. On his left hand a wedding band lay on his fourth finger signifying that the man was married. He had a small stain that looked a lot like baby food from where Delphine sat on the color of his ruffled white button-up, which means the man had to have at least one baby but by the way his shirt was ruffled down low she could also assume he at least had one toddle as well. The man had bags underneath his eyes which only supported Delphine's baby theory and his hair was ruffled rather than well-kept which meant, most likely, that this man had a busy morning and not a whole lot of time to get ready. His blazer was left unbuttoned and his white-collared shirt was not tucked in, which either meant that this man was a bit of a slob or that the man had a more laid back personality and was not uptight.
The Auburn hair man typed at his laptop extremely fast however which told Delphine that this man was also very work-oriented and serious about what he did. Even on his breaks which ruled out the man being lazy leaving her laid back and relaxed personality theory to be true. His eyes were glued to the screen and on the table behind the laptop sat a book, The Legal Environment of Business. The man was most likely a corporate lawyer.
"Can you just let me in? I'm starving man!" a raised groan caught Delphine's attention and her ears perked up as her gaze settled on the front desk of the café near the front door. It was a small brunette woman with her dreads in a bun. She had a nose ring in her right nostril and black glasses adorned her face. She was very cute Delphine thought. She looked like a very easy-going person by the way she dressed. A simple deep red shirt with a black scarf that had rhinestone skulls on it.
"Please dude," her melodic vice spoke up again, "you can find at least one seat in this joint".
"I'm sorry ma'am but the place is beyond packed," the worker apologized.
Delphine did not know what compelled her but she let her voice pipe up as she chimed into their conversation, "the lady can sit with me". The worker gave her a look but the French woman just smiled politely. She shorter woman looked over to her and gave her the biggest, toothiest and cutest smile Delphine had ever witnessed, it was a fangy-toothed smile and it was charming.
"See dude," the woman laughed and patted the guy on the shoulder, "this pretty lady gots me".
The worker gave Delphine a half-smile and conceded. Delphine looked at the smaller woman and waved her over. The brunette did not hesitate and made her way towards Delphine's booth, promptly sitting across from the blonde. The woman reached her hand out to Delphine.
"The name is Cosima," the smaller one said shooting the French a broad grin. "Thanks for saving my ass."
Delphine took her hand in her own. Carefully, keeping Art's words in her head, she replied, "The name is Jacqueline, Jacqueline Laurent. Enchanté.''
Cosima shot the French woman her winning smile and replied back, "enchanté".
...
If you liked it and want more please leave me some feedback! Also I am always open to constructive criticism, if you have some complaints please do it in a way that can help me improve my writing. Thanks for reading guys/girls!