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The Company
Time: Friday, June 15, 2012.
Place: LHR.
Last Event: Flying from Chennai to London.
After collecting their bags, the Agents move off through the airport, alert for signs of the contact mentioned by Ms. Varma. This comes in the slightly unexpected form of a pasty, seedy-looking man in the crowd, who brushes past Vinnie in such a way as to get Vinnie's attention without being too obvious about it. The stranger stuffs something into Vinnie's pocket and keeps walking. Vinnie decides to adjourn to the men's room to examine whatever was handed off. Klas and Zhang duck in behind him, making a show of freshening up as they keep watch on the exits. What Vinnie finds in his pocket is a slip of paper, 1.5 cm by 5 cm, with an address printed on it.
Vinnie rejoins the others and nods toward a large map of the city on the wall. After the group circles round, screening him from sight, he reveals what he was given. Qoqa uses her knowledge of London to locate the destination – it's in the East End – and plot a Tube journey that will get the group to within a few minutes' walk of the place. Without further ado, the Agents trudge down to the station. The ride to Mile End is long and uneventful. On ascending back to street level, Qoqa leads everyone to the address on the slip of paper.
The destination certainly looks inauspicious: an apartment above some kind of greasy kebab joint. The paint on the door is flaking, and the view through the smudgy window is of a dusty, crooked staircase vanishing upward into darkness. On checking the door, Vinnie finds it unlocked. He signals for Klas, Lev, Paul, and Zhang to join him, and the five go upstairs. The other half of the group ducks into the restaurant to grab a bite to eat, figuring that this will attract less attention than loitering in the street.
On reaching the top of the stairs, Vinnie finds another unlocked door. The apartment beyond is dingy and unfurnished, and it appears that the power is out. As it's hard to see anything up there, Zhang dashes downstairs and asks Qoqa for her ubiquitous cigarette lighter. Qoqa just glares at Zhang and heads upstairs herself. The flickering flame sheds enough light to enable Qoqa to spot a mobile phone sitting on the floor. When switched on, this proves to be fully charged and to have only one number stored in memory.
Since the man at Heathrow made contact with Vinnie, the Agents decide that it would be best for Vinnie to remain the group's nominal leader for the moment. Thus, he's the one who calls the number on the phone. Vinnie reaches a man who identifies himself as "Frank," who asks a few questions about recent events to which only Vinnie would likely have answers, and then recommends calling his brother's minicab office to hire cars. No more information is forthcoming.
After consulting with the others, Vinnie calls the minicab company. The conversation is short and a little strange: "Are you Vinnie?" "Uh, yes." "Right. Three minicabs to the usual address?" "I suppose so."
Within minutes, three cars pull up outside. Before unlocking the doors, the driver of the lead vehicle points a digital camera at a couple of the Agents and checks something on a tablet computer. The group seems to pass his test, because a moment later he signals to the other two drivers and then all three pop doors open. Distributing the more dangerous team members evenly among the cabs, the team piles in and the procession gets rolling. The destination proves to be west and a bit north of Mile End, toward Camden.
Eventually, the cabs drop the Agents in front of what looks like a block of particularly ugly apartments. The driver of the lead vehicle says, "You want the seventh floor." Then the cars roll off, leaving the group standing in a less-than-wonderful area of Camden, in front of a decidedly rundown building. Almost at once, they spot suspicious-looking characters: a couple of young hoodlums who are trying too hard to look casual, people slouching in a car up the road, and somebody watching from a window across the street. Hamid notes that the punks are carrying poorly concealed weapons; Klas sees that one of the men in the car is surreptitiously pointing a microphone; Wen observes that the watcher in the window is using optics of some sort; and Qoqa happens to notice all of this.
There seems to be little to do but go inside, where the group discovers that the lift is out, the stairway is dark and filthy, and the general state of repair is terrible. There are a few skeevy-looking figures skulking around, but nobody is stupid enough to trouble a mob of 11 people, several of whom are physically menacing. On stepping out into the dimly lit seventh-floor hallway, the Agents are accosted by a woman dressed like a prostitute. She quickly identifies Anabel, introduces herself as "Belinda, the fixer," and hands over the keys to six apartments.
Once everyone is out of sight in one of the dingy, totally unfurnished units, conversation progresses until each side is convinced that the other is telling as much of the truth as they care to admit. As far as Anabel and Qoqa can tell, Belinda is what she claims to be. Qoqa and Wen warn Belinda that there are at least three separate sets of observers outside. The fixer says that the hoods on the street are hers, and knows that the men in the car are police detectives in the area on unrelated business. However, she has no idea at all who the watcher in the window might be, and suggests that the Agents check that out if they're worried.
After that, the team starts raining down demands on Belinda, requesting lockpicks, cleaning supplies, first aid gear, and so on. She says that she'll do her best to procure this stuff, but warns that as there's a budget, it would be best to keep equipment orders to a minimum until the mission parameters are clear and everybody knows what they'll need. The Agents acknowledge this, but stress that they cannot operate without any gear, and point out that they're also going to need beds if they're supposed to be staying in this dump. Belinda promises to do what she can, says that she'll return by the following evening at latest, and then takes her leave. Chaturvedi, too, has to go, explaining that he intends to rejoin Ben across town and see what he can arrange for the group. Paul and Zhang make sure that he gets safety to a taxi.
Once their handler and fixer are out of their hair, the Agents settle their rooming arrangements: Anabel with Wen, Hamid with Klas, Jili with Paul, Lev with Qoqa, and Vinnie with Zhang, leaving an apartment unoccupied for later use as the mission demands. Nobody is impressed by the lodgings or by the prospect of having to sleep on dirty floors for the night, but at least Belinda stocked some essentials: cheap food, enough cleaning supplies to wipe the grime from the bathrooms, and basic hygiene items. They spend the night tidying up, and then shower off in tepid water that smells of rust. Vinnie finds his efforts to cook a proper meal for everyone foiled by a complete lack of cookware, and adds kitchen equipment to beds, blinds, tools, and many other things on the team's growing shopping list. Then it's time to get some uncomfortable sleep.
On Saturday, June 16, the Agents are awakened by Belinda pounding on Vinnie and Zhang's door. She pulls a large wad of grimy banknotes from a purse that also contains a pistol, a stun gun, and several phones, and tells Vinnie that it's money for furniture. She suggests that the group keep a low profile while shopping, and try to fit in. She adds that she'll bring the items the team requested by evening, or by Sunday morning at latest, and then departs, muttering something about how Vinnie is a stiff for not laughing at her jokes.
The Agents use the day to furnish their accommodations. Vinnie rents a cheap van, and then he Anabel, Qoqa, and Wen hit the shops looking for bargains. Between Qoqa's knowledge of London, Vinnie's business sense, and Anabel's feminine assets, the four manage to get some excellent deals. By evening, the van is full of mattresses, kitchen equipment, and similar household wares – and by night, the five apartments are appointed about as well as student lodgings. Belinda drops by as the group is cleaning up, drops off lockpicks for Vinnie and cleaning supplies and first-aid gear for Qoqa, and says that business will start in earnest in about three days.
With nothing special to do until Tuesday, the Agents decide to settle in and get to know their new neighborhood. Everybody takes a little time on Sunday to stroll around the place and become familiar with the lay of the land – and Lev, Qoqa, Vinnie, Wen, and Zhang stealthily examine other things, like which windows can be used for speedy escapes and what areas are completely out of sight of streets and lanes. It soon becomes evident that just about none of the exterior lighting works, and that the cheap security cameras were vandalized into submission years ago. Of course, this affords a lot of shadowy hiding spots. Wen also notices that while the punks outside and men in the car are no longer around, there's still a watcher up in the window across the street.
Vinnie is especially thorough in his rounds, and pays a visit to the basement, access to which is via a door whose lock has met the same fate as the lift, lights, and security cameras. Down there, he makes the acquaintance of some young men who laugh at his manner of speech but seem to recognize a kindred spirit. After some initial awkwardness – eventually smoothed over by Vinnie buying a few bags of ganja by way of a peace offering – Vinnie manages to establish a rapport with the hoods. He learns that the police rarely stop by the building, and that there's no proper landlord, just a nameless council agent. Upon returning to the seventh floor, Vinnie gives most of the weed to Jili but saves a bit in order to make brownies with it – not because he plans to eat them but simply to learn whether his recipe with rich Italian chocolate is compatible with the classic stoner delicacy.
Come Monday, most of the team lies low. Vinnie, however, decides to see what he can do about fixing the lift, and possibly about getting hired as the building's custodian, which could be a useful cover. He soon finds the electrical closet, where he confirms that the lift's circuits are fine, just powered down. While he's in there, he also stumbles across a checklist on a clipboard, which bears quarterly signatures of the council's inspector, not to mention contact numbers. Before calling those numbers and trying to finagle a job, Vinnie returns to the basement to consult with the locals on the fate of past custodians.
In the basement, Vinnie finds the leader of the local gang weighing out bags of ganja. The lad is surprised to see Vinnie so soon, given yesterday's purchase, but appears to recognize the value of return business. He tells Vinnie that he has never seen a caretaker in the building. Vinnie thanks him by offering him some of his baking from the previous evening. The gift amuses everyone present, but is received in the spirit in which it was intended . . .
. . . until the gang boss starts choking, clutching at his throat, and wheezing, "Nuts!" Vinnie realizes that the leader must have an allergy to the walnuts and almonds in his brownie recipe, and tells the other gang members that he has a friend upstairs who can help. With the choking man in tow, he's escorted to the seventh floor, where he bangs on Qoqa's door. Qoqa immediately recognizes the problem, and solves it with a quick shot of epinephrine. As soon as Qoqa's patient recovers, he yells angrily at Vinnie, who's escorted from the room by several hoodlums.
Fortunately for Vinnie, Qoqa manages to connect with the hooligans' leader, who recognizes that she saved his life. Qoqa convinces the boss to accept Vinnie's actions as an honest mistake, and suggests that it's a happy coincidence that they met – surely a bunch of hard types occasionally need an off-the-record medic? The young man agrees, and launches into a long story about a friend getting shot and dying for want of treatment. Qoqa eventually manages to parley this into an understanding: She'll serve as the gang's street doctor in return for unspecified future assistance.
After Qoqa brokers her deal, the hoods depart, shooting nasty gazes at Vinnie as they file out. Vinnie decides to stay well away from the basement for the rest of the day, and heads for the roof to examine the lift machinery. This proves to have seized-up bearings. Vinnie makes a mental note of the repairs needed, with an eye toward mentioning it in his bid for the caretaker position.