Session Five

The door opened onto a bare hallway created by pasteboard walls dividing the larger warehouse space into smaller rooms and halls. Leon eased the door shut behind him and stood still, listening. When he heard no immediate challenge, he slipped further into the hall, all senses alert. The walls on either side of him didn't reach the ceiling, which towered some fifteen or twenty feet over his head. Hanging industrial lights gave the room a sharp glow, casting the corners and the roof into deep shadow. The hallway ended abruptly, widening into the main room of the warehouse. Leon stood in the cover of the wall and scanned the room. Scattered stacks of crates and barrels covered the floor, leaving open walkways that lead drunkenly into the darkened corners of the warehouse. It didn't take an expert to guess the goods in the crates weren't legal. Around the edges of the room, more pasteboard walls created smaller office spaces. Most of these had closed doors, but one or two were open and spilled light onto the floor.

Leon didn't see any people, but he could hear the soft sound of footsteps and low voices from deeper in the warehouse. He tossed his cigarette on the floor and ground it out with his foot. Then he shook his right hand, letting his coat sleeve conceal the red scarf on his wrist. When he felt as prepared as he could be, he took a few slow, lazy steps into the room. He was immediately greeted by the barrel of a rifle tickling his ribs. He froze.

"Lay your gun on the floor and step back. Don't try anything funny," the burly man at the other end of the rifle said. Leon took a quick glance at the man, making sure not to expose his eyes. The man wore black clothing with heavy combat boots and a mini arsenal on his belt. He had a square face, one used to being punched, and close-cropped blond hair.

"I said lay it down," the man growled.

Leon did as he was told and stepped away from the revolver.

The man grunted and lowered his rifle. "What are you here for?" he asked.

Leon took a gamble. "Can't you tell?" he asked, looking the man full in the face.

The rifle was back in his face. Leon didn't flinch. "Is this how you treat all your business contacts?"

"Only the deadbeat addicts," the man growled. "I don't know how you got in here," his eyes flickered to Leon's right wrist, looking for the scarf, "but we don't serve your kind here. So get out."

"Tsk, tsk." Leon shook his head. "My kind?" he shrugged. "Alright then, but my boss won't be very happy when he hears that I cancelled his business offer with Andross because a no-account henchman got in my way."

"No-account!" the man shouted. He twitched, as if about to act, but just then a hand descended on his shoulder and a second man stepped into view behind him.

"There's no need for violence, Jag. Yet."

The second man was of average height, muscular like a dancer, with caramel colored skin and a shock of messy brown hair. He looked to be somewhere in his 30's and dressed in the casual style of fast, new money - a man who was making his fortune and wanted the world to know it. Leon didn't see a gun on him, but he didn't put it past him to have something small stowed in a pocket or behind his back. Jag relaxed only slightly, but at least his rifle wasn't pointed at Leon's face anymore.

"You are Lucaza's contact, no?" the slender man smiled. Lucaza was the name of the crime boss Faye and Jet had rigged for Leon's story. Posing as the crime boss, Jet had contacted Andross earlier to lay backstory for Leon.

"You must be Andross?" Leon asked.

The man smiled, revealing white teeth. "I'm surprised they sent someone so young for a deal this big."

"Perhaps they wanted you to be surprised," Leon responded.

The henchman growled.

"Calm yourself, Jag," Andross held out a hand. "He's only a kid."

"He's a Redder, boss," Jag frowned. "He's not safe."

"I'm perfectly safe," Leon said, holding his hands up. "See?" His coat sleeve slipped and revealed the red scarf tied around his wrist, as he wanted it to. He immediately went for his pistol. Jag responded as Leon guessed he would, by bringing his rifle to bear, only to find that Leon already had a gun pointed at him. Leon was hoping his faster reaction would further his Red Eye illusion.

There was no way for either of them to miss, standing this close. But Leon was counting on the reputation of Red-Eye to hold Jag's finger. Sweat trickled down his back.

"Do you really think you can outshoot me, Jag?" Leon said with a lot more bravado than he felt, hoping these wouldn't be his last words. "I'll pull the trigger first," Leon tapped a finger beside his eye.

What the hell are you doing? Jet demanded over his earpiece.

Playing my part, Leon thought.

Jag stared him down but didn't speak. Leon could see the hesitation in the man's eyes. He had just enough respect for the drug that he didn't want to take a chance.

"Stand down, both of you!" Andross' voice cut through the tension like a knife. He forcibly pushed Jag's rifle to the ground.

Leon scowled, like the idea was repulsive, but he lowered his gun too.

"I don't want a shoot-out in the middle of the warehouse. You two want to kill each other, go outside. But do it after I secure this deal."

"He tried to sneak a weapon in," Jag snarled.

Andross clucked his tongue. "You neglected to search him." Andross turned to Leon, "However, I must ask you relinquish your pistol during your visit. You understand, don't you?"

Leon growled something in the affirmative.

Jag promptly came forward and took the gun from Leon's grasp. He proceeded to pat Leon down. Leon didn't have to fake the look of annoyance and indignation on his face at the rough search. Jag pulled everything out of his pockets - a half-used pack of cigarettes, his silver lighter, a scrap of paper and a pencil stub. Leon was glad he'd hidden the woolong card. "He's clear," Jag scowled when no further weapons came up.

The henchman pocketed Leon's pistol.

"I'll want that back, you know," Leon said.

Jag's only answer was to point Leon's own gun at him.

Leon shut up.

Andross walked forward.

"Lucaza told me he'd be sending an agent. But I hardly expected a Redder. Is Lucaza's deal as lucrative as he claimed it was?"

"You know Dragon's Eye's lucrative. You've got the facility, he's got the money. I've come to cut a deal."

"What kind of a deal do you think you're going to cut us?" Jag demanded.

"Jag!" Andross looked truly angry for the first time. "That is enough. I can conduct my own business." The venom in Andross' voice was palpable. So, he didn't have a good relationship with his men. Which meant that his men were new and didn't know their place yet, or they were being supplied by someone else and weren't inclined to listen to Andross.

"Last I checked, making new drugs wasn't cheap or easy," Leon said, crossing his arms. "My boss is willing to offer his support if this stuff is the real deal."

"Provided?" Andross asked.

"Provided he gets a cut, of course."

"What good is your money if you're just asking for it back?" Jag demanded.

Andross glowered at him.

"Who said the cut was in money?" Leon asked.

"What does your boss want?" Andross asked. Leon could tell he'd at least piqued interest.

"Show me the product and I'll tell you."

Andross made a dismissive motion with his hand. "You may return to your rounds, Jag," he said. Jag scowled, but turned on his heel and began a slow march around the perimeter of the room.

When he was out of earshot, Leon shook the red scarf at Andross. "This has nothing to do with the drugs, does it?" he asked.

Andross smiled. "Just as much as the color of your eyes has nothing to do with your current mental state," he said. "But you're right."

"Guess I'm not a convincing addict, huh?"

There goes all my hard work, Faye sighed.

Leon slipped the scarf off and tossed at Andross. "But really, red for danger, yellow for caution, green for go?"

Andross laughed and snatched the scarf out of the air. "You may look like an addict, but you're not irrational enough," he pointed out. "And sadly, not all my hired muscle is as smart as you. It keeps life simple when I stick to something they know."

"At least now I know why Jag wanted to kill me." Leon made a mental note to personally strangle the bartender on the way out. "How come you stopped us?"

"We're not complete savages." Andross looked genuinely offended. "Besides, I've got enough on my plate right now without trying to hide dead bodies."

Leon grimaced.

"But enough of that," Andross said. "You want to see the product?"

Leon nodded. Andross motioned for him to follow. He led Leon down the left side of the room, following one of the makeshift paths between shipping crates. Leon tried to identify some of the product in the crates, but all the labels had been carefully peeled or scraped off and none of the lids were even the slightest bit askew. Andross led Leon through one of the doors in the pasteboard walls. The door opened up to a small room concealing a black metal staircase that led to an upper story of the warehouse. Leon hadn't noticed any stairs or upper floors earlier, but then again, the industrial lights did a lot to hide anything higher than their bright glare and the upper story lay comfortably in darkness. They wound their way up the staircase to a catwalk that ran the perimeter of the second story of the warehouse. Lit by soft-blue lights at floor-level, the stairs and catwalk would be near-invisible to anyone below. Plate-glass windows set periodically into the walls allowed glimpses into an extensive set of labs that dominated the second floor. The catwalk overhung the floor below by several feet, and anyone on the second floor could easily look down and survey the work going on below them while remaining in obscurity. Leon could see people below shifting crates and preparing them for transport, but he still couldn't tell what was in them. If only he could transmit video feed to Faye and Jet and not just audio. He whistled. This setup was more extensive than they thought.

"I apologize for Jag," Andross said as they walked down the catwalk. "If I had my way, he'd disappear. But then I'd have to answer too many questions."

Leon's guess was confirmed. Andross wasn't fronting this whole op by himself. Someone with deeper pockets and more manpower was putting up a good majority of it. That, or his superior didn't trust him and sent henchmen like Jag to secretly oversee Andross. "Yeah, it sucks having to take orders from higher-ups, doesn't it?" He put his hands in his pockets, fishing for a cigarette before he realized Jag had pocketed those too. He sighed.

Andross frowned, but he covered it quickly. "I can't say it's all bad," he said like he was choosing his words carefully. "After all, orders or no, the drug is quite lucrative."

"The Red-Eye?"

"I suppose you could still call it that. After all, Dragon's Eye's roots are in Red-Eye. But it's much, much stronger." Andross smiled mysteriously and ushered Leon through a door set next to one of the plate-glass windows. He unlocked it with a small plastic card he pulled from his pocket and ran through a scanner beside the door. The lights on the scanner turned green and there was a click as the door unbolted itself.

Leon noticed similar scanners next to each door on the second floor, all of them with solid red lights. Did that mean Andross locked his scientists in as well as his strangers out? With a shrug, Leon followed Andross into the lab. Although he'd noticed scientists working in several other rooms, there was no one in this one at present. Instead, the room was lit with a soft green glow and it was warmer in here than outside. Rows of low tables full of dirt and small plants bisected the room. Glass cases filmed with moisture covered the tables.

Andross walked over to a smaller case to one side of the room and lifted the glass lid. He withdrew a small tray from the case, full of seedlings just beginning to sprout. "Do you know what this is?" he asked.

Leon gave it a second look. "It's Grey Ash, isn't it?"

Grey Ash? Jet sounded impressed.

"Precisely."

"Isn't that stuff rare though?" Leon asked.

"It was. It's still not prolific, but Venus discovered a way to cultivate the plant after the outbreak of Venus sickness several years ago. It's buyable now, but it costs."

"I thought this stuff couldn't grow on Venus," Leon mused.

"Up until recently, it didn't. But a few years ago, they found a way to mutate it so it would. We've recreated those conditions here, in these incubators," Andross gestured with the tray at the other tables in the room.

"Yeah, but all these plants here are babies," Leon pointed out.

"We're still being supplied largely by our carrier on Venus. Until we have enough of the stuff growing here, that is." He slipped the tray of Grey Ash back into its incubator and shut the glass lid.

There you go, there's proof. Villanova's based on Venus, selling Grey Ash to this punk, Faye said.

See if you can't get him to name his supplier, Leon, Jet said.

"So what exactly are you doing with it all?" Leon asked, brushing off the comments coming through his audio feed.

"Well, a few months ago, some Red-Eye makers started to experiment, adding different substances to the drug to enhance its effects. When the Red Dragon fell, so did the value of Red Eye. The Syndicate had a monopoly on it, so when they disappeared, so did most of the Red Eye makers. What was left of the drug was low quality stuff. No one wanted it. But, a few of the scientists figured out that if you add Grey Ash to Red Eye, even the low-grade stuff, the effects of the drug are increased exponentially. And, that being the case, the price increased exponentially as well."

"Naturally," Leon said.

"Where a few grams of Red Eye went for a couple hundred woolongs, this stuff goes for a couple thousand. And, not only do we have a nice supply of Grey Ash here to make the stuff, but we're pretty much the monopoly on it, meaning we can charge as much as we want."

"And that brings us to the deal my boss would like to offer you."

"Go on," Andross motioned for Leon to leave the room. Leon did and Andross followed, closing the door securely behind them.

"You've got a nice establishment here. And you've got a plan for the future. Lucaza likes that. I take it that with the stash you're growing here, you're" Leon glanced around and lowered his voice, "looking to cut ties with your Venus supplier?"

Andross gave one slow nod and motioned for Leon to follow him once more. He led him down the catwalk and into another room guarded by a security scanner. This one didn't take a card, but scanned Andross' fingerprints instead. Andross lay a hand on the scanner, the light flashed green, and the door clicked open. Andross led Leon into a small private office with a desk, a computer, and a few filing cabinets. Otherwise the office was mostly bare with grey walls matching the grey doors and floors.

Once the door closed behind him, Andross relaxed. "We can talk freely here. My supplier has too many ears out there," Andross waved a hand toward the warehouse. "But you're right. My supplier's getting too demanding. I'm not the only planet she ships this Grey Ash stuff to, but I'm her biggest seller and she's upping her share of the cut. I'm not into that. I want to make my own profit and quit funding her little revenge campaign."

Revenge? Faye asked. Revenge on what?

Leon almost shrugged before he realized the motion would be out of place.

"Offer me something less than what she's taking," Andross continued, "and I can pretty much guarantee you a deal. What does Lucaza want?"

"Lucaza will help you front this operation, cost, expenditure, whatever. He wants rights to the drug and use of your facility here. He'll even let you keep most of the profit you make off the drug provided you let him take royalties."

"And what does he get out of all this?" Andross asked.

"Do you realize what you're sitting on, man?"

Andross raised an eyebrow.

"You're sitting on the beginning of a Syndicate. A monopoly on a drug that no one else sells yet? A variation of Red-Eye? Hell, you could be the next Dragon. Add some fangs and there you go. Lucaza's got the fangs, if you've got the guts. What do you say?"

Andross was silent for a long moment.

Leon was beginning to wonder if the man wasn't as ambitious as he'd first thought. Would he take the deal? Or was he loyal to his Grey Ash supplier?

Finally, Andross spoke. "And what sort of trust do I have that this promise is real? I'd never even heard of Lucaza before he contacted me yesterday. How do I know he's the real deal?"

Hook, line, and sinker, Jet murmured.

Leon slid the woolong card out of a hidden slot in the heel of his shoe and flipped it between his fingers. "Call it an act of good faith. It's yours no matter what your answer is. But this is the kind of money Lucaza's sitting on. He's been laying low for years, collecting agents and resources under the radar. Now he just needs a viable outlet to fund and he'll have his Syndicate. And you won't be dependent on your Venus supplier." Leon held out the card.

Andross hesitated. "How much is on the card?"

"See for yourself," Leon smiled.

Andross took the card and popped it into the computer on his desk. After a moment, the screen displayed 25,000,000 woolongs nicely nestled in a Ganymede bank ready for transfer.

Andross' eye went wide. "Twenty-five million?"

Even Leon had to hide his surprise. They were laying it on a little thick, weren't they? "How much Dragon's Eye does that buy me?"

"For that much? Hell, you can have half my stock."

Leon laughed. "I don't need that much. A few vials will do."

"You can have the cream of the crop," Andross muttered. He turned away from the computer. "C'mon, I'll take you to the lab."

When Andross turned his back, Leon took the moment to surreptitiously glance at his computer desk. Lying halfway under the computer was a piece of paper that looked like a shipping docket. Leon could only see the outermost edges of the docket, but one word caught his eye. A name. Villanova. And underneath? A shipping address on Venus.

Just so readers know, there's no combination of Grey Ash and Red-Eye (to my knowledge) in Cowboy Bebop and I am not a chemist. So, I hope I've created a believable new drug, but it and it's effects (described in forthcoming chapters) are not based on any real drug or pre-existing effect in Cowboy Bebop.