A/N: Both FF16 and ToTK have taken over a whole lot of my time with all the gaming and all… so… sorry about the delays in writing.
Anywho, things are coming together for some of my favorite chapters yet to come!
I don't own pitch perfect.
Chloe chuckled as Dr. Mitchell recounted a tale of the nervous intern that came in with his doctors to check on him the other day. He was so rattled when the doctor asked him a question about an equipment that he mistook as for the shelf of Dr. Mitchell's bedside table. The doctor looked unimpressed, and the medical intern was all the more shocked with his own antics when he realized what had happened. Chloe wasn't sure how to feel about a medical intern messing up big time, but at least it didn't happen during a surgery or when a patient needed emergency assistance.
Currently, they have been taking turns to visit Dr. Mitchell at the hospital. Aubrey would visit with Emily. Sometimes she would go there with Chloe. On rare occasions it would be the three of them. But it was usually Beca who Chloe accompanied. Beca would mostly delegate herself with speaking to his doctors in private, checking in on how the staff on the floor was doing to make sure she gets on their good side and have them take good care of Dr. Mitchell. Her concern for him was genuine, that much Chloe could see, even when she tried her best to hide it. She couldn't really understand why, but it only made her love her even more.
ADMIRE, Beale, you admire her, not love her… you're not actually in love with Beca, right? Maybe have some stupid crush, but not actual falling in love kind of LOVE, right? Chloe chastised herself as she caught her thoughts slipping.
She didn't let Dr. Mitchell catch on, however. Or at least she hoped he did not.
Aubrey was not with them for their current visit. She was busy trying to de-escalate the situation with Kimmy Jin. The situation being that Chicago had wanted Beca arrested for the stunt she pulled. However, Beca was lucky. There was no proof it was her doing. Beca even put on her best acting chops on display as she said that she truly did hate Chicago, that's why he enjoyed in seeing him humiliated and drenched in pig's blood, when questioned by the police, but that it was not her who did it. She added in an "I wish it were me though, that would have been incredibly satisfying," to drive home the point of her innocence.
But of course, Chloe knew it was her. They all did. Beca was just incredibly crafty. She had hired actors assuming the names of the tenants show up at a sold-out theater show, using that as their alibies, so that they wouldn't even be considered to be part of her schemes. The actors were of close resemblance, at least good enough for the security feeds that Stacie may or may not have altered to fit closer to each of their builds and physiques. Beca personally ushered them in and said goodbye to each of them – as caught by the feeds as clear as day, while their beloved tenants carried out their assigned tasks – and Beca being late for the talk with popcorn was proof of her travelling from the theater and to the university. She also spent most of the last few days in highly popular areas with CCTV footage. She was no where near the university building. Unfortunately, the university also didn't have camera footage, whatsoever, for the auditorium, which means no evidence.
Kimmy Jin was still upset, however, by the antics, and they believed Aubrey was best equipped in talking with her about their next set of plans. They needed her for this, after all. Beca was cooking up something to serve Chicago and Babel on a silver platter for her.
"Is anything wrong?" Chloe asked after noting the few minutes of silence between her and Dr. Mitchell. "Are you alright?"
He nodded and smiled wistfully. "I was wondering, if it wouldn't be too much, if you could accept this gift from me," he then said, pulling out a paper bag from underneath his right bedside table.
Chloe stood up to try and help him, but promptly sat back down as he had managed to do the task by himself. She smiled a little, seeing that he seemed to be truly getting better. If only even by a little. Chloe accepted the paper bag and saw a beautiful blue knitted scarf inside, along with a folded white paper. She was about to reach in to grab it when Dr. Mitchell placed a hand on hers and shook his head to stop her.
"Oh, come now, please, it would embarrass me if you would read my letter right in front of me," Dr. Mitchell then said.
Chloe chuckled and nevertheless agreed. "Did you make this by yourself?"
Dr. Mitchell nodded in response. "I'm not one for television shows," he said, nodding towards the small flatscreen TV hanging on his wall. "And to be honest, I feel sensitive to some sounds and bright flashing lights from the screen sometimes. I don't know if it's the medicine or the cancer," he replied with a sigh. "But one of the night nurses, she knits by the info desk when it's not too busy and she talks about her knitting projects when she comes in to check on me. I told her I used to knit myself, and she started bringing her yarn and knitting with me at night, to keep me company."
"That's so sweet of her," Chloe commented. "Thank you," she added. "But I'm impressed. I wouldn't have guessed you knitted."
Dr. Mitchell laughed, a hint of melancholy in his tone. "My wife died young. And my daughter had a bad habit of tearing her clothes a lot even when she was still very little, I don't even know how she would manage it. I started to learn how to stitch and mend the tears myself, got curious and tried out knitting her simple things. I tried out a small sweater, and a pair of gloves. A beanie too. I never managed to give her a proper scarf, I was always worried she would somehow get tangled in it and hurt herself."
"I didn't know you had a daughter," Chloe admitted, giving Dr. Mitchell a soft smile. "Aubrey mentioned you had a child before, I was always curious if they ever tried visiting you or not. You kept insisting you didn't have any family left, and I wasn't sure if it's because of the case, if they had cut ties with you."
Dr. Mitchell shook his head. "I had to give her away because of my first cancer diagnosis. I had no other family who could take her in. Last I heard, she's been adopted by some other family already. She was very young when it happened. She's probably forgotten about me, or maybe she resents me?"
There was a crack in Dr. Mitchell's tone as he asked the question, and tears in her eyes. It was enough for Chloe to get rather glassy-eyed herself. She couldn't help but feel for him. She was already trying to figure out a way, if possible, for her to help Dr. Mitchell reach out to his daughter because of it.
Because it was too painful to think about, Dr. Mitchell dying without any resolutions with this matter, or even if he does survive his illness, going back to a world where you were nothing but a stranger to your own family?
Because losing her father still stung a little, and Chloe still regretted not making any amends with him before he had gone.
"Maybe she doesn't," Beca replied as she leaned on the doorframe, arms crossed over her chest, looking out the window. Chloe hadn't even realized she had gotten back. "Maybe she's fine and happy. You shouldn't think that she resents you. Stop feeling so guilty about it. You did what you had to do to be sure she had a good life, right?"
"Y-yes," Dr. Mitchell replied wiping his tears away.
Chloe was about to say something when Beca's phone rung. She watched as she looked rather amused to hear who was on the other line as she spoke.
"Who was it?" Chloe couldn't help but ask.
"I have to go, I'll have Lilly pick you up, I think it's best I go alone on this one," she replied.
"Wait, why? Who was it? Beca!" Chloe cried out as she watched Beca make haste to leave.
"I'll tell you all about it later!" Beca cried back, "I promise! I'll buy you dinner and tell you all about it, alright? It's just safer this way," she replied. In her eyes, Chloe could see that she was asking her to trust her about it.
And trust her she did.
"Thank you for coming," Theo said, standing up from where he sat. He was in a luxurious bar, one that catered to only the wealthiest. To his right, sitting on the lounge was Pietro, who was getting ready to pour drinks in their glasses. In front of him was Becca Bella, looking at his outstretched hand unimpressed in her tailored blue suit.
Beca sat down in the down arm chair across from him, leaving him hanging. Theo simply shrugged as Pietro offered to pour Beca a drink after pouring himself and Theo some. Beca took Pietro's unused glass instead and took a sip.
"What can I do for you?" she asked.
Theo sat down and tried to emulate the same level of cool detachment that Beca displayed. "I'm sure you heard the saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend," he stated.
Beca quirked an eyebrow at him and Pietro turned to look at Theo to urge him on. "My brother is a monster, he needs to go. He's our common enemy. I'm saying I'm willing to work with you to get rid of him."
Beca chuckled. "You want him gone? And then what happens to Babel?"
"Well," Theo replied. "I'll take over, of course. But this time, I promise, everything will be different," he rambled on.
Beca laughed. "How? How are you planning to run Babel without your brother? What's the first thing you'll do? What projects will Babel pursue? The victims from RDU-90 and BLSD?"
"I… um…" Theo stammered. He hadn't thought this far ahead. He turned to Pietro looking for answers and Pietro poised to speak in his behalf when Beca raised a hand and waived it off.
"If you're going to be a puppet for someone else, then why should I help you?" Beca then asked, looking Theo straight in the eyes.
Theo paused and looked thoughtful for a minute.
"I'll be different, I'll be good," he settled as an answer.
"But you don't know how to run a company," Beca replied. "If you're doing this just so you can have the respect you think you are entitled to and live a good life, then you're doing this for all the wrong reasons. Besides, I understand what you're saying, you want to help me kill your brother. But I'm not a hitman, or an assassin, for someone else. Neither do I advocate for a brother killing another. Sort your family problem yourself, and before you act like you're in the big leagues, think what you need to do first, what you should and can do. If you take over Babel, you'll be responsible not just for the profit your company earns, but for your employees as well, and their well-being," she lectured.
"I…I…" Theo tried to search for words, but he was left with nothing to say.
"If that's all, I best be on my way. Good day to you, gentlemen," Beca then said with a sigh as she stood up and leave.
Theo watched as she disappeared from view while Pietro started rambling on about their secondary plans.
But Theo didn't hear what they were.
Beca's words echoed in his thoughts, causing him to take pause and reflect on what he has done with his life and what he wants to do next.
Yes, he wants to stop Chicago, but then what?
What can he do?
How can he be better?
Beca looked rather amused as Bumper fixed his hair and nervously fidgeted about. Donald and Uni readied the whiteboards with their targets and distributed summary pamphlets for terms they were planning to use while discussing the fruits of their research and planning.
All the tenants were gathered round the small meeting table in the law firm, all eyes on Bumper.
Bumper asked Chloe if he could borrow her pointer, a slim plastic stick with a pink and soft bunny plushie at the end of it, to help with his presentation.
"Everyone, we are gathered here today to," Bumper started to say before Aubrey shut him down.
"No one's getting married today, Allen. Get to the bottom of things fast, we have a lot of planning to do and very little time."
Bumper cleared his throat and took a deep breath before slamming the bunny pointer to the heart of the white board. "Alright, no more messing around, we're because we all want to take Babel down. We'll do it by striking at the heart of their illegal activities. We'll make use of Babel's paper company!"
The tenants started applauding his speech, Amy even threw in a whistle. A paper company was nothing new to Beca, but it might be news to everyone else, and thus Beca prompted Bumper to explain what he meant. "The uninitiated would like clarity, after all."
"Right, boss," Bumper replied. "A paper company is simply put, a company that only exists on paper. A more common term you might have heard would be shell companies. Babel, evil conglomerate as it is, most definitely has a few. Technically speaking, while we were under employment by Babel E&C, we existed as a separate fake company, for example. Either as a financial accounting firm, for the auditing of expenses former goons like us used, or as a fake waste management company. That's not the primary use paper companies have for Babel though. Nope, their shell companies essentially exist to open bank accounts, buy assets, the likes."
"In other words, it's a way to move money around and other financing activities. They're not necessarily illegal," Beca then interjected. "But Babel, I can assure you, have some that could get them behind bars."
"Like the boss said," Bumper seconded before pointing to several companies that the words "Paper Company" in the middle of the white board point to. "Those companies are all under Babel, mostly start-ups designed to fail, others are used to buy up land and real estate without being directly linked to Babel. Others are set-up so they would seem to be their own organizations, but all are actually owned by Charles Walters, Jr. aka Chicago. Some of the lands from the real estate company are illegally acquired, for example, either using underhanded tactics or being bought through insider info. Babel will legally acquire them as a company, while the profits all go to Chicago's pockets. Others exists simply to go bankrupt after building up their potential and getting investors to pump money into Chicago's pockets over lies. The worst would be the fake charities that could help give Chicago and Babel certain tax breaks, with the funds all funneling once again to secret, off-shore bank accounts."
"Okay, sounds like he could get in trouble with that," Jessica then said.
"But we don't really get how this is the nail in the coffin for Chicago Bullshit and Babel," Ashley then added.
Beca smiled. "You can also use paper companies to make illegal purchases in the black market. Not necessarily on drugs and weapons. The simplest would include priceless artifacts and stolen artwork. Chicago makes money illegally and through a few white-collar crimes. He'll buy art legally using these money, as well as throw in a few stolen pieces of artwork, and say, sell them through an auction or a legal entity such as an art gallery."
"Wait, are you saying he's laundering money too?" Flo then asked.
Denise chuckled. "Of course, at this point, what else would he not do?"
"Not to get into the weeds of things, Chicago does in fact have an art gallery called Douteux Gallery," Bumper added.
"Which, coincidentally, translates to doubtful gallery," Beca added. Chicago really thought he was being cheeky and clever there.
"Tom, our old boss from Babel E&C, was highly involved in a lot of the shady side of the business. That's why he got paid the big bucks. He had ledgers or expenses and transfers, the likes that he would hand in to the art director at Douteux since she handled the money laundering side with the art gallery. Unfortunately, that's the limit of our knowledge there," Bumper concluded.
"And that's where we come in to fill in the blanks," Beca then said, taking over the conversation. "Me and Chloe tracked good ol' Tom to a bar where he's doing a regular stand-up routine," she explained, remembering the boos of the crowd at the bar where Tom was. He was not a funny man, not even remotely close. But he had been out of a job, recently divorced, and currently living in his car. He only had an old childhood dream of making it big and becoming famous. He apparently strongly believed that comedy was the way to go and the bar owner was an old college buddy of his.
Beca scowled a little, remembering their 2-on-1 talk with Tom in his makeshift dressing room after his routine. The talk was fruitful, but she most definitely did not like the flirty eyes he was throwing Chloe's direction the entire time. Thankfully Beca's glaring was all it took to keep him in line, otherwise, she might have actually broken his nose.
But that was all in the past now. Two days ago, in fact. They've been very busy.
"Anyways, he gave us the rundown of his usual routine with the ledgers. He would go to the art gallery and into the highly secured office of the director. In there were two desks, the director's and an accountant who handles all of the legally dubious transactions. Files are kept on a closed server only accessible through the accountant's computer. The hard copies are all destroyed afterwards and the accountant finds ways to make things appear as if all their ducks were in a proverbial row for the legal side of things," Beca explained.
"Which means that all the proof we would need for all of Chicago's illegal activities, especially the financial ones, would be stored in that computer," Chloe then added. "The accountant only comes in once a month to work on all of this. She's apparently very efficient with her job."
"How secure is this room we're talking about?" Benji asked.
"Two guards are posted outside the door, with a security cam pointed at the entrance the entire time. To gain entry, you need to enter a code on the electronic keypad attached to the door. The room auto-locks the moment the door closes, although you can easily open it from the inside. The room doesn't also have any windows so that secured door is the only way in," Beca explained.
"Sounds like mission impossible," Amy commented rather reflectively. "How can we try to get in?"
"The art director owns an incredibly rare piece of artwork called Jackson Martin's Nothing," Chloe explained. "It's so rare only Jackson Martin and the art director who bought the piece from him has seen it."
"The plan is to get access to the office under the pretense of wanting to see Nothing, get the director out, use that time to get access to the files, get out, and hand all of the incriminating evidence to the one prosecutor hunting down Chicago and Babel, Kimmy Jin so that she can bring Chicago to justice. Of course, we'll be making a copy of our own just in case something happens to the prosecutor," Beca explained.
"Okay, easy enough, how do we get the director to let us see Nothing?" Cynthia Rose then asked.
"We won't see Nothing," Stacie explained. "The art gallery hosts private tours at night that you can book, this also allows the rich and powerful to browse through what they have on display, make purchases, and all that, in their own time. They also host bigger private events. However, we have the perfect twosome having a tour of the at gallery set for tomorrow night, hence the crunch time."
"You lost me there," Flo commented.
"Andrea Di Marzo, he's someone who works in the Italian diplomat's office, and his assistant, Camille Benign, have a private visit of the gallery tomorrow night. I've already made arrangements on the guest list and updated their pictures to that of Beca and Chloe," Stacie then said and smirked. "I would've volunteered with Bree, however, Mr. Di Marzo is Italian and I figured Beca could fit the role more properly. Besides, Andrea is typical feminine name in the US anyways, so I figured we could pass with that. Not to mention, I already have my assignment for the night," she added with a sigh.
"So, we are gathered here today for a reason, right?" Jesse asked. "What is it? Our mission, should we choose to accept it, and I already have a feeling we all would?"
"Well, I'm tech support in a van," Stacie grumbled.
"And I'll be the guard on duty for Stacie," Bumper commented.
"I should probably with you guys since I'll recognize the files we want faster than anyone else," Uni then volunteered.
"Right," Aubrey commented. "I'll stay here in the office as back up and I'll handle Kimmy Jin since Beca seems to raise her BP every chance she gets."
Beca simply shrugged with regards to that comment. "Lilly will be keeping an eye out for Kimmy Jin, we can't let our enemies deal with her beforehand. DSM already seemed irritated with her after she stepped in to help with the bloody joke we pulled," she went on to say with a cheeky smile.
"Oh, what about me?" Emily eagerly asked.
"Well, Emily, Mr. Di Marzio and his assistant do exist, after all. And they're currently on a trip to New York. You'll be their welcoming committee. Having said that, I'll need CR, Amy, Donald, Benji, and Denise on Team Barden. We'll discuss you're assignments in details after we adjourn. Flo, Jessica, Ashley, and Jesse, you'll be on Team Douteux. You'll be backing up me and Chloe in the gallery."
"And I'll discuss your assignments with you after we adjourn," Chloe added. Their current tactic was to divide and conquer what with their limited time for preparations.
"Any questions?" Beca then asked. "None? Alright then, it's time to make Chicago pay and take down Babel."
Luisa hasn't slept much in the last few days. She's never met someone who would become such a thorn to her side until she had met Beca Bella and her rag tag team of lawyers and over-reaching ordinary tenants before. After the humiliation of a lifetime Chicago experience and new legal woes thanks to the streamed confession from the new union leader and the vision team leader. On that end, a new prosecutor, someone named Kimmy Jin, seemed to also be closing in on them, but the attorney general was at least shutting her avenues for pursuing a case against them for now. It annoyed Luisa how this new prosecutor seemed to be all chummy with the Posen and Beale law firm, however.
That's why she knew that they needed to get even.
More than that, she needed to get rid of the problem once and for all.
Starting with the biggest threat to their plans.
The worst thing Beca Bella could have done was show her methods, reveal her hand, leave little clues behind. Now that they knew about her and her connection to the Italian mafia, Luisa knew that it would only be a matter of time before she would find an ally or two from her home country.
The enemy of my enemy…
And that's what she did find.
The video call connected on her laptop just as she took a sip of her morning coffee. She probably looked like a mess from the lack of sleep, but she hoped her smooth words could sway her potential ally to her side. That or the mutual hatred they share for Beca.
"Buonasera," she had greeted, doing a quick math in her head of what time it would be in Milan due to the time difference. "Thank you for accepting our request from the call, English is fine for this conversation, right? If not I can call in a translator."
"I understand the language well," the man replied with a thick Italian accent. "You said we have a mutual enemy, one that we would be eager to both rid ourselves of?"
"Yes, Beca Bella," Luisa then said.
The man smiled and ran a hand over his thick and luscious black hair. "Go on then," he replied.
"Thank you, signor," Luisa replied.
"Oh no, please, I insist, call me Paulo."
"Ah, yes, Paulo," Luisa corrected and smiled. The man in the call looked eager to hear what she had in mind.
And Luisa couldn't help but be eager to share it.
She was looking forward to finally hearing the last of Beca Bella.
A/N Pt 2: Nyehehehehehehe
The next chapter is fun :D
Having said that, some big events are about to happen in like the next 5 chapters or so, which means updates may take a while longer. Please bear patience with me as I work on them for updates.
It'll be worthwhile, I promise.