The very thick, dark-skinned tower of a man slapped his hand on Jet's back so hard, Jet almost tossed his lungs out into the open air with the force.
"Nice to see you again, sir!" Appledelhi Siniz Hesap Lufen, father of the strange, unexplainable entity that is Ed, laughed in a booming voice. Jet assured himself of his balance before scratching the back of his head with one hand and offering his other hand to Appledelhi. Appledelhi shook it fiercely and grinned a very Ed-like grin.
"Ed tell's me you have some questions. After another bounty, then?"
"How did you end up with this gig?"
"Come into my trailer and I'll tell you all about it! Macintosh! Put on the kettle!" He called into the door of his trailer. His assistant's voice responded tiredly, "Macintire, sir," as though he had to correct him seventy times a day.
Appledelhi motioned Jet to enter and followed him in. There wasn't much room to do anything what with all the geological equipment and maps rolled up and filling every available bit of space that wasn't occupied by the fold-out bed, small kitchen and Macintire. Appledelhi pushed Jet down by his shoulders so that he was sitting on the bed. He himself sat on a canvas chair he pulled out from a closet.
"Well, I'm not much for leaving things incomplete so I was somewhat reluctant to leave my work. But the money's a good thing when you have a kid to take care of. You know how Ed eats, too." He laughed heartily and craned his neck to see if his trusted assistant was working on that tea. "And of course, the flattery. They greased me up pretty good begging me to join the team."
Not that the story wasn't interesting, but Jet needed to get straight to his reason for being here.
"Do you have any idea who came up with the idea for this film? Like, who's behind it?"
Appledelhi scratched the broad expanse that was the back of his neck and smiled. "Well, you should know that."
"I should?" Jet's eyebrows knitted together. He ran his hand over the imaginary itch on his cybernetic arm.
"Well, yeah. I'm not sure what sort of a game you're playing here. I mean, the whole thing was that broad's idea." Appledelhi said. He laughed again, reaching over and slapping Jet on the back.
"Broad?" Jet didn't like where this was going. He hoped it wasn't where he thought it was.
A little frown appeared on Appledelhi's face. "Yeah. Faye. Faye Valentine."
It was going exactly where he thought it was going.
* * *
Faye stood in front of the building the napkin had identified as the location of the pick-up. What she found in its place was a hair salon. This couldn't be right. What the hell would a hair salon have to do with Faye's package? Was this all some sort of trick someone was playing on her. Something to lure her out into the open?
She whipped her body around, her gun appearing in her hands seemingly from nowhere. People on the street gasped and scurried out of her way. This was probably not a good idea, she thought to herself. After all, she hadn't a clue who or what to aim at. She was also pretty woozy from drinking. Whoever was watching her knew exactly where she was and was probably not drunk. She tucked the gun back into it's home under her arm and sweater and walked cautiously into the hair salon.
Inside, the normalcy was surreal. Women sat in the waiting area flipping through magazines and gabbing with each other. Other women towards the back were getting washes, cuts, and styles and chatting inanely about different topics. Dance music was being pumped through the various speakers hanging from the walls. It's been a while since Faye got to sit down for a haircut. She went up to the receptionist area, feeling very out of place. She leaned towards the young woman behind the counter, "Er...I'm Faye Valentine."
The girl looked at her strangely then began flipping through the appointment book. "Who's your appointment with?"
Faye bit her lip, "Um...I don't have an appointment. I got a phone call saying I was supposed to pick something up."
"Oh...okay. It's you. We were waiting for you. Are you a regular here? Seems sort of weird that someone would leave something here for you to pick up." So much for getting some answers. The girl leaned down under her desk and pulled out a large cookie tin and handed it to her, "Here you go. Have a nice day."
Faye took the tin up in her arms and wandered outside with it. She walked down the street until she found a park and an unoccupied bench. She pulled the lid off the cookie tin and drove her hands inside.
"What the hell is this?"