Shadowplay

Chapter 12: Myriad


In truth Tifa knew she could have kicked Leon and Marcus' asses around the block several times over without breaking a sweat. Sure she risked being shot, but she'd had much worse in the past than a bullet wound.

She was staying for one reason only. She wanted to know the truth about Azure and she had to know if Hojo is involved. For Vincent… and for Gaia. Also she did not want to think that these past weeks had been a waste of time.

When Leon had said she would be a whore she had felt disgust and began to make plans for her escape in the back her head. It wasn't till Marcus had come to her and explained what they were doing that she had decided to wait it out.

Two girls from Myriad came to meet her at Leon's and they went to work with a vengeance. Tifa's hair got stripped of its lustrous chocolate-brown till it turned a horrendous straw blond. Then they dyed over it with a garish cherry red. They forced her into the sluttiest lingerie and clothing they could find, overdid her makeup to an extreme, shoved her into thigh high bright red boots and took her to Myriad.

This was Leon's idea of hiding her. Apparently he was clever enough to realise that Vincent or Reeve would come looking for her and that his house was the most likely venue. He concluded quickly that he needed her not only out of there but that hiding her in a building would be more likely to attract attention, needing guards and someone to make sure she was fed and taken care of.

This way Tifa still earns "The Boss" money, is relatively safe under the eye of the guard, and looked so extremely different that they she wouldn't get recognised. Leon started calling her "Marly" and enforced a few rules. She was not allowed to speak to anyone, she was only allowed to dance on a stage pole, she was to never address the Myriad clients and she was to make no attempt to contact anyone from Cerberus. To punctuate it he had punched her hard in the jaw leaving a nice purple-blue bruise rising. He wanted her to look like a whore and he had succeeded.

Myriad was everything a person would expect a brothel to look like. Alcoves led off the main room sheltered by heavy drapes, the sound of the music rang blazingly loud and varied in type, the furniture was nondescript, plain, dark and matte without style. Of course that didn't matter because the club was so dark the only thing that could be seen were flashes of naked and semi-naked flesh beneath strobing fluorescent light.

The only colour existed in the hypnotic way the flesh was fed to its audience. Writhing bodies, colourful lingerie, all made more enticing by the flow of alcohol and spikes of Azure. Everything else was in the dark, in shadow, kept sordid and secret away from the light. It smelt like alcohol, sweat, tobacco and urine. The rubber flooring was wet, and she didn't want to know what the one centimetre of fluid consisted of. If there was a hell on Gaia, a place where souls came to die, then this was it.

Myriad never closed. It was kept in an internal perpetual darkness maintained by the lack of windows and the double room entry preventing natural light from ever reaching within. Tifa found that frighteningly appropriate. Particularly now she found herself standing in front of a girl by the name of "Candy", who must have eaten a lot of it because she only had four teeth, learning the fine art of how to dance with a pole. She was less than inspired.

"You've been here a long time?"

"No talkin'! Put hands on pole." She grabbed Tifa's hands and smacked them against the metal. "See? Smooth, hard, like man when he's ready. You treat it like man. Think of sex and wanting and you be fine."

Tifa swallowed as Vincent unintentionally popped into her head. She shook the vision away.

"Who's in charge around here?"

"Is Jack."

"Apart from Jack…"

"The Boss. Stop talking. More dance now." She jabbed a sharp long nail against Tifa's chest forcing her to dance around the pole in a half assed attempt to look sexy and experienced. Candy Shrugged. "That fine. Men not care how good you dance with your tits." She waved her hand. "Go dress. You work later."

Candy walked away leaving Tifa in the main part of the club. Eyes watched her from every dark corner. There was no privacy here. Quickly she made her way to the girl's dressing room and snuck into one of the change cubicles. The light in this part of the club was a crap as the rest of it but it allowed her a moment of solitude, and she could lock the door and hide. She was just about to slide sideways and make herself comfortable when her wrist snagged on something behind her, it cut into part of her wrist. He hissed and jerked her hand upwards and away from the cause, a jagged coat hanger had caught on her bracelet.

The cut was negligible. She turned her hands over and tried to wipe the blood away on her skirt causing some of it to smear over the bracelet. It flared a soft violet reminder of the materia within.

"Hmm…" Opening the cubicle door she peeked out into the empty dressing room. Quickly she ran to the adjoining door and locked it before the opportunity disappeared. It took seconds to summon Shadow Wolf, but those seconds mattered. With her back to the door Shadow Wolf came to form and blinked at her patiently.

"Find Vincent. Show him the way." He nuzzled her hand and walked into the corner of the room, then disappeared. She sighed with relief.

A loud bang on the door made her jump away and unlock it rapidly.

"Get ready." The cold voice commanded. She began to prepare.

Reeve was in and out of Tifa's apartment at intervals between checking on the club, which he left in the competent hands of the WRO guards. The apartment had become an unofficial headquarters where they each returned to meet up every few hours. It had been three days since Tifa had disappeared.

Now they sat, all four of them, exhausted and drained around Tifa's kitchen table that lay covered in notes and papers. Reeve pointed at one in frustration.

"All these transactions can't just be for Azure. Look at the cost of some of these. These four for instance are the exact same amount of gil over several days. This one is the approximate value of Azure on the street so we can assume that is what it is, but this one is different again."

They had discovered nothing at Leon's property and since they were forced to get serious. They were now dredging through every connection from one person to the next. Currently they were investigating business associates of Leon's by pulling their transaction details. Vincent took the form from him and shook his head.

"Something is happening here. Bigger than the circulation of a drug."

Barrett shifted uncomfortably. "We need to find Tifa. I got a bad feeling."

Cid had been surprisingly quiet during all of it. He was more worried than he was letting on and it showed in his silence.

"I'm gonna go call Shera..." He walked out.

They shared knowing looks and kept their thoughts to themselves. Vincent went back to the topic at hand.

"Where does this guy live?" He flipped the paper over to check the name on the back. "Michizane Abukara?"

Reeve shook his head. "Officially I have no idea, he's staying in a hotel on the waterfront. He's big money, playboy type I gather."

"And this one?" He handed Reeve a different sheet.

"Same again. Big money, long-term holiday spender staying near the water." Vincent raised an eyebrow and they gathered all the clientele forms together to check over them.

"Every single one of them? That's not a coincidence."

"Different hotels, but all on the water. All of them five-star accommodation with private suites and high security detail for high-profile customers."

They were all pondering the significance of this new information when the light above them flickered. It dulled into a low glow, fighting to relight itself and failing. Vincent rose, slowly withdrawing Cerberus from beneath his cloak. The uneasiness spread, the air growing thick with the feel of materia driven magic. In the corner of the room the shadows spread and started to encompass the walls only to be sucked back in on itself when it formed. Reeve almost died on the spot.

"KILL IT!" Barrett's arm shot out about to open fire only to be shoved down by Vincent.

"NO! It's Tifa."

Reeve unstuck himself from the floor and dusted his coat trying to regain his dignity. "The thing is Tifa?"

"No. It's hers, she sent it." Vincent dropped to one knee and looked Shadow Wolf in the eye. "She sent you?" The Wolf growled, padding past Vincent to the closest window and then looking back expectantly.

"I will let you know what I discover." Reeve merely blinked and watched as the two disappeared. He looked at Barrett, equally as confused the big man shrug.

"Dun look at me. I got nuthin'"

Cid walked back in, looking considerably more at ease. "Hey. Where's Vincent at?"

Neither of them could answer.

...

Vincent leapt from rooftop to rooftop keeping pace with Shadow Wolf. The wolf didn't have the problem of having to run it, it just seemed to phase from one point to another. Disappearing into mist and reappearing a way in front of him. It was about fifteen minutes after they began that Vincent started to suspect where they were going, so it came as no surprise when Shadow Wolf stopped on the edge of a building and looked down to the red-lit Myriad below. Vincent crouched at his side, his fingers gently and distractedly petting soft ears.

Shadow Wolf nudged him once and disappeared, melting into shadow and air. His job was complete. Vincent remained looking down at the movement below. Guards, lost lives moving in and out of the trashy venue. He knelt that way realising there was no way he could get in it without being recognised or attracting attention. There was only two ways into Myriad. The front entrance and the staff entrance. Both were heavily guarded.

He stood, starting to turn away so he could tell the others when a black car pulled up to the front of the club. Vincent paused, only half interested in who was going to climb out of the ostentatious vehicle. He huffed an exclamation.

"Well... I'll be damned."

...

"Look at this one." Barrett passed the record to Reeve. They were each going through records and trying to find connections.

"Same hotel as these two guys. Same amount of gil transferred. Look at the amounts though, these two are exactly the same. One million gil and then seven hundred and eighty thousand gil, then another one million. Everytime there is a flat million there is another seven hundred and eighty following it the next day."

Reeve nodded. "So the two transactions are connected somehow. Perhaps a before and after payment."

"Assassinations?" Cid raised an eyebrow.

"Could be." They shared a moment of silence contemplation at the prospect. It did not last long however as Vincent came out of nowhere and startled them back to the present. "Vincent! Did you learn anything?"

Vincent nodded slowly. "Tifa has been taken to the Myriad."

"You saw her?!" Barrett jumped to his feet.

"No I did not. Shadow Wolf led me there and so I know she is within. But there is no telling what condition she is in or how long she will be there. I couldn't just walk in without causing an uproar."

Reeve sighed. "This is my fault."

"I do not think so. Tifa is capable, if she wanted out I believe she could make it happen. She is choosing to stay and she is giving us time to follow the trail."

"So we still have nothing." Reeve sounded dejected.

"Not necessarily. I think I saw the boss tonight."

They all looked at Vincent expectantly. "Anyone we know."

Vincent smiled, humourless, a slight tilt at the corner of his mouth.

"Oh yes... I saw Tseng."


Note: JJ Mentioned the room was bugged, just wanted to clear that the office in Cerberus was not bugged, the monitor / surveillance room was the one they put the bug in. They had to have some place to talk off the floor without being overheard.
The Turk boss, not Reno! Though Tifa knows Reeve isn't a Turk she just wanted to frighten Leon.