Infiltration

Today, Sunday 4th.

Michael walks in the living room to the couch where Roméo is comfortably sleeping. He shakes his body gently to wake him up but when Roméo opened his eyes and saw the jaded face of Michael, he almost startled of surprise. Michael sighs deeply and pats Roméo head.

- How was your night little young man?

- Normal, I guess?

Michael stares at Roméo face, more precisely his eyes.

- Looks like you cried. The contours of your eyes are red and puffy. Got dumped by Stella or something?

Roméo wipes his eyes quickly to try to hide his red patches around his eyes.

- That's not what happened-- and stop with that girlfriend thing, if you keep this up I'll start to believe your the one in love with her.

Michael hands him a cup of hot chocolate and sits on the living room table while flicking through files of one of his new cases.

- Me? In love with her? She's not my type at all. She looks like the kind of girl who's all crazy and ambitious one day and who'd throw you out the next day 'cause she realized she need to make her own path alone.

- Huh, seems true to life, have you experienced a similar case with one of your exes?

- Nope, I just happen to watch TV and shitty soap opera on my free time.

- Really? You don't look like the kind of guy who'd watch soap operas.

- And you don't look like the kind of guy who'd go out with a junkie.

- Hmph! Well then okay, what kind of girl you'd see me going out with?

- Don't know, the manly and.. very dominant type.

He raises his gaze from his files to Roméo's eyes. Roméo almost spits out the hot chocolate he was drinking when their eyes met. Michael's gaze is already back on his papers.

- Ehh, you don't even know how to drink a hot chocolate? I knew the new generation was lost but I didn't know it was that bad.

- Kuhh! Whatever. I hate your veteran air, as if you were older enough to criticize my generation whereas you also belong to mine. Gosh, are all police officers that cheeky?

- This speech reminds me of something-- the day I lectured an impetuous young man outside an Asian restaurant.

- Urgh, I truly hate you.

Roméo gets up and puts his empty cup on the table Michael is sat on and walks to his suitcase on the floor to choose his outfit for the day. He raises his head and takes a deep breath.

-... In the end, you didn't say what your type is.

- My type?

- Yeah, your type of girl. You tried to guess mine but didn't say yours.

- Uhmn.. cute, submissive, hot, strong and smart. Law student.

Roméo gasps loudly and turns his head rapidly to Michael as his face was slowly turning red from his cheeks to the top of his ears. He bites his lips and he even hears his heart beating and ready to explode if Michael happened to touch him.. or even more.

- Hmph. If you blush as fast as you come, you won't be able to keep any of your future girlfriends.

Michael stands up and walks away with his files, Roméo seems speechless and petrified. One last time, Michael turns his head to Roméo with an impish smile.

- Now that we both know what kind of lover we need, I hope we'll find our soulmate very soon. By the way you should hurry, Stella's waiting for you at the warehouse to get prepared for your first mission, don't screw it.

And then, he walks quietly to his room and locks it after entering. Roméo is as quiet and shocked as he's ever been, hearing Michael pronouncing those words was like a huge blast in his heart, in the good way. He can't stop his heart from beating that fast, nor his cheeks to be so red and even less his hands from shaking of excitement.

"Huh? How does he knows about-- wait wait wait no, I don't care how he heard about my mission, what's important here is his words! What the hell just happened? Did he deliberately said I was his type? Oh god, my heart really won't take it." is what he thought.

After a while, Roméo manages to sooth himself and finally leave Michael's house to walk to the warehouse where Stella is waiting for him. On his way, Roméo is worried and still nervous about the kind of work he is going to do. He arrives at the warehouse about fifteen minutes later and sees Stella in the middle of the room with one huge suitcase on the floor unwrapping classy clothes, two waiters outfits.

Stella turns her head to Roméo and her face illuminates at the sight of her good comrade on the other side of the room. She rushes to him with a big smile and puts abruptly her hands on Roméo's shoulders.

- Gooooood morning my friend! Excited for your first job huh? Ooooh this is gonna be awesome!

- Y-yeah..

- Hmm? Are you stressed?

- Yeah.. s-somehow.

- You shouldn't! I'm gonna be with you during the whole mission, you won't be left aside. But anyway! Check this out! I managed to steal very classy clothes from a dry-cleaner's in town, whaddya think?

Stella shows him with big signs the pile of clothing she was unwrapping earlier, she looks proud of her find. However, this feeling of joy isn't shared with Roméo who seems not so thrilled about his mission, he tries to smile and go along with Stella's happiness but inside, he's scared and especially ashamed.

She grabs his wrist and pulls him to the suitcase while smiling.

- I didn't know what was your size so I picked them all! Pick your poison my friend!

Hesitantly, he picks up one of the outfits he likes the most and which is his size, while staring at it he could see his own sad eyes reflecting in the almost too yellow flashy bow tie.

"She.. she doesn't seem to know what I'm about to do. It's weird though, why did Théo and Carter didn't told Stella about my role is this mission? She seems too happy to be faking it, she really doesn't know it." is what he thought.

- Eeeeh, that's what you're going to be wearing?

- Yeah.. why?

- Nah nothing I'm not judging. It's just... Looks like someone here is trying to get attention huuuh? Who do you want to impress? The sexy girls at the party right?

- Huh? That's not what I intended to!

- Yeah yeah sure~ as if I'd believe you, you secretive little thing~

Stella giggles and pats Roméo's head before taking out the outfit she chose and closing the suitcase. She hides the suitcase under rubble of the warehouse to be sure nobody would steal the precious clothing she stole. Then she calls some of her contacts to pick up the outfits and take them away.

After a whole afternoon reviewing all the leading figures from whom they must get information at the party, it's finally time to head to the night club called TaraDara in the district of Beacon Hill. On their way to this famous night club, Roméo is getting more and more nervous about his task. He didn't tell Stella that during their car ride to this district, he received new information on his mission which made him even more stressed. It said:"For your mission, head to the brothel on your right when you'll arrive at the night club, we'll lend you your clothes for the night and money to rent rooms." once again received from the same unknown number.

Some minutes later, they arrive to this beautiful night club lighted by various and bright colors which fly back and forth in the sky. There are many people arriving at the same time as Stella and Roméo, most of them in expensive cars and showy outfits who are maybe too revealing. They arrived in another world.

- God, do you see that Roméo dear?! That's crazy!

- Yeah.. I thought we could only see that in series..

Stella laughs and shakes Roméo's shoulders out of excitement and overflowing joy but when she tried to pull his arm to the party, Roméo detaches her hand from his arm with a sad expression. Stella is confused.

- Hey? The hell? You're not going to the party? Please, don't tell me you're chickening out!

- It's not that. I can't enter the party.. i-it's.. not my mission. It's yours.

- W-what?..

- Actually, I received a different text than yours. What.. I was ordered to do is going to the brothel nearby to have sex with these people and.. get information during the pillow-talk.

- N-no that's.. that can't be true right? You're kidding?

- I'm so sorry Stella I.. I couldn't tell you before, you were so happy to go and I-

- Give me your phone.

- What?..

- I wanna see it, GIVE ME YOUR PHONE.

Roméo hands her his phone with shaky hands and she snatches it from him the second she sees it. She rapidly reads the texts the unknown number sent him and then suddenly turns off his phone before putting it back in his jacket's pocket. She puts her hands on his shoulder as she wears a serious face.

- Okay, the waiter's outfit you picked is in the back of this night club in the restaurant part. The guys there are aware of your arrival so just walk in, get dressed and enter the outside party on the terrace to start your mission, I'll take yours.

- What? You want to.. switch our missions? No Stella that's.. I can't possibly let you do that, you weren't asked to do so!

As he raises his voice, the party's guests are starting to notice and stare at them with confused and disgusted airs. Roméo gets embarrassed and Stella clicks her tongue to them with a deadly gaze.

Stella whispers loudly as she gets close to Roméo,

- Roméo! Just take a good look at yourself, you so shaky you couldn't even hand me your phone correctly. You're too nervous and clumsy, you wouldn't be able to make it. Trust me and let me handle it for you.

- Stella I'm so-

- That's okay, that's what friends are here for.

She releases him with a smile and begins heading to the brothel indicated by the text, Roméo didn't have time to tell her goodbye that she was already gone from his sight.

He ends up bypassing the night club to enter in the food service part, get dressed quickly in the terribly bright and shiny locker room of the night club's waiters and walk to the doors leading to the outside party with a huge tray in his hand.

He inhales and exhales before stepping in a completely different world than his. Surrounded by rich guests, various and expensive alcohols but also a breathtaking scenery, Roméo is lost in this world he doesn't fit it. People are using fancy words Roméo doesn't even know the meaning, he sees rich men handing tons of bills to waitresses for only one drink and the chance to put their hands around their waist, whisper in their ear dirty word and ask for an extra service.

Suddenly, a woman's hand rests on Roméo's shoulder which makes his startle and almost spill the drinks disposed on the tray he's holding with one hand. When he turns his head around, he recognize a familiar face; the woman he briefly met at the Asian restaurant, Ally.

- Eeeh~, I didn't know you were working here cute boy! You're the one who saved us from Danny Fidga, right?

"That's the woman Michael was trying to avoid that night I think.. She seems expressive but not so bad, I wonder why she's not his type.." is what he thought.

- Y-yeah that's me, I didn't think you'd recognize me that fast..

- Well of course! How could I forget the men who literally saved my life that night? But I'm curious, I never saw you here before, is it your first day?

- Yeah, you can say that..

Ally lowers her gaze to his chest and notices, well hidden on his bow tie, the initials "D.M" written in a flashy yellow that appears almost invisible by bare eye. She grabs his arm, her expression changed, she looks more serious than ever.

She whispers,

- Working for David Martinez, huh?

Roméo nods his head.

- I knew it. Who are you here for?

- Some people I need to get info on. Why?

- You saved my life that night, it's my turn to help you tonight.

- Huh?

As her arm is wrapped around his, they start walking on the terrace and Ally starts acting in a exaggerated way to not draw attention to them. She fakes laughing out loud and praising Roméo's service in order to walk through the crowd to the other side of the huge terrace to get a better view of every guests. When they managed to arrive at the other side, she releases his arm and leans against the wall. She places Roméo is front of her to talk discreetly.

- So, who are they?

- Hmn George Dawkers, James Willow, Tom Holmes and Harper Myers.

- All junkies. What does David wants from them?

- From what I understood, they are all bad payers. They owe him a huge amount of money and they always manage to slip through his hands whenever he wants to talk to them.

- So you just need to ask them why they didn't repay him yet, right?

- Yeah that's the plan but I'm not sure of what kind of method I should use here.

- Well, I know Tom personally, let's say we spent good times together~..when we were seeing each other, I remember him talking about his father's fortune.

- What do you mean?

- Hm, he recently inherited his deceased father's fortune and apparently hid it in a foreign country to "preserve" his money for real matters. If I can give my opinion, that's bullshit. He's just trying to flee from his debts in the USA to another country under a new identity.

- So if I learn about the country he placed his money in, David will be able to get it back..

- That's the spirit boy! Look, tonight I was searching to spend the night with someone and since you're on a mission, I guess I'll spend few hours more with Tom. When I'll get the country name, I'll text you, here's my number.

Took out of her purse, she puts a paper with her phone number in the chest pocket of his outfit discreetly. Some seconds after, a woman walks to them with a red skin-tight dress and a splendid make up, Ally recognizes her, it's Harper Myers.

- Hey there Mrs.Spellman, how surprising to see you once more here tonight. What were you doing? Trying to hook up with this prole? Oh please dear, you worth more than him!

- Hmph, in life you must taste every meal, why not tonight? And that cutie boy is to my liking.

- Well, Ally baby.. I must say this waiter is not so bad. If you don't manage to take him to your room, I could try something.. he's not underage, is he? I wouldn't want to be caught with a minor boy in my room again!~

Ally gulps and grabs quickly Harper's arm before she places her hand on Roméo. He seems annoyed by Harper.

- Buuuut let's not talk about him tonight! Let's have fun here and drink everything we can! What do you think of that?! That boy over here is working, let's not disturb proles when they're on the job, we're not bad girls, are we?~

- Of course not~.. then let's check the bar, I saw some of our friends there!

Ally manages to bring her away from Roméo to let him begin his mission but before walking away with Harper, she whispers in his ear "Good luck, I'll handle her for you, wait for my texts." and then blends in the crowd with her.

Roméo stares at them walking away to the bar and exhales, he is nervous.

"Ally is handling Tom and Harper, she looks trust worthy and.. it's not like I had a better choice. She seems to know many things on them and even to be friends with them, I can't waste that chance. It's time for me to shine!" is what he thought. Roméo stares at the crowd facing him. He is filled with courage and resolution, after being so much helped by Ally and Stella, he can't fail his mission, he must find what he is searching for at any cost.

Next Chapter: TaraDara Night Club.