Interviewing the Alleged Alegari (Part 4)

Posted on Wed 15th May, 2019 @ 6:55pm by Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller & Lieutenant Adam Keller & Lieutenant Damion Ildaran

986 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Deck 600 - ‘Orchids & Jazz’
Timeline: MD-02: 1215

Previously...
Part 3 and Setting the Scene, Preparing the Loft

Lieutenant Commander Jason Fisher exited Jade’s office and headed towards the main entrance to the club. He was dressed in the slightly ill-fitting black suit that Ms Lantz had managed to find and that he had hastily changed into. The purple tie that finished the ensemble matched the other Orchids and Jazz staff. Undercover wasn’t really his thing, but he had done enough of it for this particular mission. He joined Reon Velasquez and awaited the arrival of Ildaran and Alegari, as well as the wider intelligence team who would be observing the encounter.

Jade followed the commander out of her back office and found Daneel Olivaw and the others in their learning center. Quickly explaining what she needed, Daneel and Elijah Bailey readied to be servers, heading to the loft immediately, while the others changed into clothing typical of a dinner party and soon hurried after them.

Lantz checked the main floor quickly, eyes passing over Adam Keller and his wife and then coming back. It was just possible .... Heading for their table, she smiled graciously. "I'm so sorry, but I need to move you to a table in the loft. Just leave the drinks and I'll have someone bring new ones for you. Your dinner, of course, will be on me."

Adam nodded and stood. He offered his hand to Jasmine and escorted her behind Jade to their new seat. He placed himself strategically and put Jasmine out of the way of any danger. Alegari could not see her face nor would she be in any line of fire should it come to that.

* * *

Out on the Promenade decks, Damion walked with Zelda--Destiny?--Alegari toward Orchids and Jazz. He had purposely taken them on a tramway that had been rerouted because of the previous day's accident. That delayed them a few precious minutes, which he hoped would be long enough for Grax or Fisher to get people in place at the jazz club. If he could get Destiny seated at the same table where Zelda had sat when making contact with the Aenar, he might be able to unsettle her enough to get her to talk.

On the other hand, if it really had been Zelda meeting with the Aenar and not Destiny, this might be a waste of effort. Damion prepared himself to have to salvage what he could from their little excursion. He already knew the rest of the Intelligence Department was going to rib him about this for months.

"So what do you like to do when you're not holed up in a brig somewhere or being taken out to lunch?" Damion asked Destiny as they down the main thoroughfare of deck 600, which led to the restaurant.

"Dance," the woman answered promptly. "I'm not much of a homebody, but I could dance all night." She hung onto his arm, as if they had a relationship deeper than criminal and investigator, using the talents she was used to finding successful. "With the right partner, of course. Someone who knows how to hold me close and isn't afraid I'll break."

She glanced up at him with teasing eyes and squeezed his arm, but wasn't satisfied with any response he had yet made. What is wrong with this one? He isn't responding to me the way men normally do. Suddenly, she was struck by a dismaying thought. What if he's only interested in his own gender?

Her voice was honey, wine, and deepest velvet. If it were Elizabeth talking to him in those tones, Damion thought, he'd be looking for a room, EMH or no. With Destiny, though, it--grated. She wasn't the woman he truly wanted to be with, and so he resented her for taunting him with something he wanted but not with her. Except, could he really call it taunting when she didn't know he loved someone else?

That was not the mindset he should have for handling this, however, Damion told himself sternly and relaxed in Destiny's grasp. I am a besotted, reckless young fool who just flipped off his boss and doesn't care that he's about to get fired from Intelligence work, Damion told himself. I am with a lovely woman who's all over me, and I'm out to enjoy myself with her. I live in the moment, because that's all we ever have in life.

Damion chuckled. "I am not at all afraid you'll break. My sisters cured me of that notion when I was a lad. Did you learn dancing in Ireland? They dance a lot there. Was it just part of growing up, or did you take lessons?"

Destiny was confused for a moment. "Ireland? Why would I go to Ireland to learn to dance? It's something I've always done. Now there were a few lessons in some of those Latin types, paso doble and merengue, for instances. They were easy to learn, but you can't do it right if a native doesn't show you how to move," she said slyly, throwing back her head in a full-bodied laugh, just as they came to the entrance to Orchids & Jazz.

For Damion's ears only, she purred, "Now there's a Latin I bet can move!" Ignoring the man slightly behind and to the doorman's right, the woman ran her eyes over Reon Velasquez in an almost feral way. Then she suddenly shifted away from Damion and looked at him. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

The velvety, honeyed, sultry voice was gone, and in its place was one utterly businesslike, the owner of which was no longer clinging to his arm but instead was behaving as if they were barely acquainted. Oh, bloody hell! Damion thought.

 

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