By the time Vincent Pierce-Montgomery arrives back at his hotel suite, he wants nothing more than a glass of Burgundy, a nice hot bubble bath, and a good night's sleep. It's been a very long, very stressful day; not a bit of progress has been made on the retrieval of Subject Thirteen, and he hasn't been able to get ahold of Izaya at all, either - his phone keeps going straight to voicemail, and despite leaving several messages, Vincent has yet to hear back from him (and Vincent really, really, really doesn't like being kept waiting).
When he's finished with his bath and is finally ready for bed, he ties the fluffy white bathrobe the hotel graciously provided him with around his waist and opens the door, about to step through it when he realizes he has an unexpected (and entirely unwelcome) visitor. "I do hope you have a good reason for breaking into my hotel suite, Jackal." He tells him, casually pouring himself a glass of wine like he doesn't want to smash the entire bottle over his head.
Keep calm, Vincent. Don't let your emotions control you.
"Oh, do I." His "visitor" responds, the grin on his face almost shark-like.
Vincent raises an eyebrow, something in the other's tone piquing his curiosity. "Is that so?" He asks, taking a drink from his glass while giving him an appraising look. Jackal is dressed almost exactly the same as he had been last time they'd met, wearing the same scuffed black combat boots, dirty camouflage pants, and black open fur vest; the only difference is a sizeable gold chain hanging around his neck and several large, gaudy gold rings on his fingers, none of which do anything to help detract from his unsavory, almost sleazy appearance.
"Remember when you asked me to figure out why Orihara lied to you about knowing Heiwajima?"
Vincent takes another drink of his Burgundy before setting his glass down and turning his attention entirely to the other man, suddenly much more interested in what he has to say. "I take it you've discovered something?"
"Oh, I've discovered something, alright." The delighted look in Jackal's eyes is almost sadistic in nature. "A couple things, in fact. First off..." He pulls a simple black flash-drive out of a hidden pocket in his vest and holds it out for Vincent to take. "You've got a laptop, right, Mister Bigshot? Plug that in and give it a listen."
"And I'm supposed to just trust implicitly that this isn't some sort of computer virus?" Vincent asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Look, blondie; if I wanted to give you a virus, you'd already have one."
"...Fine. But if this is a trick, be prepared to grovel." Vincent warns coldly, taking the flash-drive from the other man and (against his better judgment) sliding it into his expensive laptop's USB port. After a few seconds, the device begins to auto-install; he waits for it to finish before opening it up, finding only a single, solitary audio file contained within. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me what this is first?"
"Nope!"
Of course not.
"You certainly enjoy making things difficult for me, don't you?"
"You didn't hire me because I'm agreeable, you hired me because I'm good at what I do. Now go on, open it."
Well, I certainly can't argue with that...
Yawning, he opens the file and adjusts the volume so that it's neither too loud nor too quiet. At first, he can't tell what it is - the audio is incredibly muffled, almost as if it had been recorded from behind a wall - but after a few seconds, it clears up enough for Vincent to realize that what he's hearing is the sound of two men engaging in what he assumes to be sexual intercourse. "Jackal..." He starts, his displeasure made clear from his low, threatening tone... but before he can continue, he's distracted by a shaky, breathy voice he immediately recognizes as belonging to none other than Izaya Orihara himself.
'Really? You couldn't wait a little bit longer?'
'I've been waiting since I woke up - ain't my fault I needed to take a piss, you're lucky I was able to hold it until I was out of you.' A deeper, more guttural voice responds.
'Shizu-chan is such a gentleman.'
"Ah." Vincent sighs.
I suppose that answers that question...
Deciding he's heard enough, Vincent exits out of his media player and carefully closes his laptop. "How long has this been going on?"
Jackal is not the kind of person that's easy to intimidate, but the eerie flatness in his employer's words and the chilly look in his ice-blue eyes snuffs out any desire he might have to be facetious. Clearing his throat, he straightens up and puts on his serious face. "Not very, as far as I can tell. I think it might actually have been their first time."
"Where did this take place?"
"Heiwajima's apartment."
"Why were you at Heiwajima's apartment?"
"Cause that's where Orihara was."
"And why was Orihara at Heiwajima's apartment?" Vincent asks, once more narrowing his eyes. Jackal seems nervous, almost guilty; if his demeanor is anything to go off of, then there's a good chance that he himself might be behind this particular... complication. If that's the case, he'll need to be taught a lesson - and Vincent would be more than happy to be the one to do it.
"I don't know, honest. I didn't catch up with him until he was already there." Jackal informs him, all traces of cockiness gone in favor of his instincts.
"What do you mean, you didn't catch up with him? What were you doing that allowed him to get a head start?"
"Recon. You wanted me to figure out everything I could about him, right?" He asks, kicking a plain, medium-sized duffel bag over to the other man. "Well, with him out of the way, I was able to snoop around his apartment... and I found something pretty interesting." He says, pointing at the bag. "Bet you'll never guess what it is."
"Money?"
"Nope."
"Drugs?"
"Nope."
"Porn?"
"Lol, no."
"Well, then I give up. What is it?"
"Open it and see for yourself." Jackal tells him, his toothy grin returning.
Vincent raises an eyebrow before unzipping the duffel bag, opening it to find himself face-to-face with... a face. "What the hell?" He breathes, his eyes widening. Upon closer inspection, he realizes that it's not just a face he's seeing; it's an entire head, encased in a sealed glass jar filled with some sort of clear chemical solution. The head appears to have once belonged to a woman, its soft, feminine features so beautiful it's almost unnatural.
"I know, right? Freaky, isn't it? Almost looks real. At first I thought it was some sort of hyper-realistic sex toy, but then I got to Heiwajima's and... well. She doesn't really seem like Orihara's type."
"It's real." Vincent stares down at the floating head, filled with a kind of wonder he hasn't felt since he was a little boy.
"Oh yeah? How are you so sure?"
"I just am."
Jackal snorts. "Yeah, well, if it is real then Orihara's either a freak or a murderer. Either way, he's been naughty." He says, flopping down on the suite's expensive black leather couch.
"You're wrong, actually... there's a third option."
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
Vincent takes the jar out of the bag and holds it up to the light for closer inspection, trying to see if he can determine the head's ancestry by its appearance alone. If he had to wager a guess, he'd say its owner was most likely of European descent... though where exactly in Europe, he isn't sure. "It's alive."
"Seriously? It's a severed head." Jackal scoffs. "How the hell can it be alive?"
"Perhaps alive isn't exactly the right word... but it's not dead, not in the sense you're thinking of."
"Are you feelin' okay, boss? Cause you're not making a goddamn lick of sense."
"Let's just say that nothing is impossible and leave it at that." Vincent returns the head to the duffel bag and zips it shut, locking it away in the safe that came with the room before turning towards the other man. "Before you go, however, there's something I'm curious about."
"What is it?"
"The audio from earlier... it sounded like it started towards the end. Did you not record anything before that?"
"Actually, I did... but then the strangest shit happened. I'm listening to Heiwajima and Orihara goin' at it, and then all of a sudden, boom! Power outage. Most of my equipment shorted out, I lost everything I'd recorded already. Ended up having to switch to a backup, hence the shit quality."
"...Is that so?"
"Yeah. Look, I know it sounds like some half-assed excuse, but I swear-"
"I believe you, Jackal." Vincent says, his attitude suddenly much, much more pleasant.
"You do?"
"I do." Taking his wallet out of his pants, Vincent counts out ¥100,000 and hands it to the other man.
"What's this for?"
"Consider it a thank you gift. You've been more helpful than you know."
"Well, I ain't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth." He pockets the money, a little weirded out by the American's sudden mood swing.
"I'll contact you with the details of your next task after my meeting tomorrow. Until then... have a good night, Jackal."
"Yeah... will do." Shooting him a curious look, Jackal heads out into the corridor and shuts the door behind him. Alone at last, Vincent finishes his glass of wine and climbs into bed so he can finally fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.