DATE: Thursday, July 16, 1998
Place: The High Note

---- Recall start ----

Rina sits at a small table, the requested yellow rose in front of her. She 
   sips occasionally at a clearish highball in front of her--pensive, 
   distracted by the music.
JJ Malone comes in about 15 minutes late, and heads for the bar. The bartender 
   seems to recognize him and serves him quickly but without much 
   pleasentness, like a task not soon enough completed, something clear and 
   iced in a cup-sized tumbler. He wanders the room for a bit until he spies 
   the table with the yellow rose, then makes his way toward it, slipping into 
   the seat with a, "Good evening, Miss Vencenzo, I apologize for my 
   tardiness." He offers a hand almost as soon as he's seated. "Malone. J.J. 
   Malone."
Rina sets down her drink quickly and echoes the gesture; a half-smile comes to 
   her lips as she slips her smaller hand into his own. "Rina Vencenzo. I 
   think we met a long time ago, back when y'were with Un-T."
JJ Malone snaps the fingers of his left hand. "Right, I'm sorry, I'd
   momentarily forgotten. Un-T? Oh, Dillan's new name for it," he again
   supplies to himself. "Yes, quite a while ago. I...I'm sorry we haven't met
   sooner. It's...well, nevermind. John's explained our concerns, right?"
The smile is rather quickly replaced by tension--a tightness about the girl's 
   jaw, a small tilt to her head. Her eyes drop slightly as she picks up her 
   drink and takes a sip. The tigereye gaze is hard as it lifts again to look 
   across at him. "He made some things eminently clear. I wasn't aware of 
   concerns, so much as threats and demands. One of the reasons I called you." 
   There's a terseness about the words, but the anger is restrained--directed 
   not at him, but at Murphy. Her attitude toward JJ is merely businesslike.
JJ Malone's eyes narrow, expression turning hard with anger overlayed by quick 
   concentration. "What'd he tell you?" he says, a trifle too blunt to be 
   'polite'.
Rina lowers her gaze carefully, and stirs her drink. "It didn't go well. He 
   wouldn't tell me anything until after Jayson did the mojo thing, and then 
   we got back, and by then I was kinda pissed off f'bein' hauled around and 
   left in the dark like I did somethin' wrong. He yelled at me for hangin' 
   out at the Temple, I told him I was on a hunt, he said I didn't hunt shit 
   without express permission or somethin'." She lifts one shoulder, lets it 
   fall--but tension ruins the studied indifference of the gesture.
JJ Malone sips from his glass, gaze fixed perhaps uncomfortably steadily on 
   her. "What is it you hunt?"
The young woman--maybe twenty?--raises her eyes to look across at him evenly. 
   "Something that hunted me once," she answers in a deceptively soft voice. 
   "For blood. The city types know about her."
JJ Malone nods once, mouth narrowing with faint distaste at the subject 
   matter. "We do," he says conversationally, but the simplicity gives the two 
   words impact. "How long have you known about us?" he asks with seeming 
   abruptness.
Rina shrugs and takes a sip from her drink, watching him over the rim of the 
   glass as she swallows. "Four'r'five years," she answers. "Since my dad 
   started talkin' t'me about it." Another glance down at the table. "Well, 
   since I nagged him into talkin' t'me about it." A tiny not-quite-smile 
   comes to rest on her lips.
JJ Malone doesn't hide his emotions all that well, so curious interest and the 
   surpressed rage inherent in most ahrouns underlying it is there, plain to 
   see. His fingers cradle the top of the glass set before him, tips gliding 
   around the wet rim. "So, you know of the Blood Wars that happened around 
   that time," he more states than asks.
The smile fades, and she wrinkles her nose slightly. "A little. I mean, my dad 
   din't talk to me much about what was goin' on. Just how to take care'a 
   myself."
"I know your father," J.J. begins, then corrects himself. "I know *of* your 
   father, I should say. I'm sure he also warned you about how dangerous they 
   are, especially in light of how things turned out that year. I also doubt 
   he's raised an utter fool, who would go off and hunt them down solo. If I'm 
   mistaken, please correct me."
Rina glances down to the table, her jaw tightening a fraction. "No. I wouldn't 
   go after her alone. I was just tryin' to find out /who/ we were dealin' 
   with." Her eyes narrow a little in anger. "And they're not so bad when 
   /they're/ alone. It's amazing what a well-aimed Molotov can do." She 
   glances up, a hint of defiance in the flash of her eyes, the lift of her 
   chin. "I'm /not/ stupid."
"Mmmhmmm," J.J. responds with mildly disparaging agreement. "And you've had 
   *that* much experience with them that you know so well how to deal with 
   them? You may not be stupid," the ahroun goes on without pause, "but you 
   are stupid to underestimate them so much. I'll put it to you straight. You 
   want to help, you can help, but not the way you have been."
A hint of indignation shows in her expression before she pushes it back. 
   Leaning back from the table, she crosses her arms and cocks her head. "I 
   doubt you even *know* the way I have been," she says tersely. "Ask me 
   sometime, when we're not in public. I doubt you'll slap me down for it. I 
   came here to fight the good fight, and that's what I been doin'. So I been 
   tryin' t'find about about some dead chic and you guys don't want me to. 
   Fine." Abruptly she shifts, leaning forward to place both hands folded on 
   the table, looking him straight in the eye. "But maybe you could tell the 
   goons that when you treat your kin like shit and /threaten/ them, they stop 
   backin' you up." Somehow she manages to keep her voice soft, controlled, 
   and eminently sensible.
There isn't any anger in the girl's brown eyes, only a tight-held neutrality.
JJ Malone looks back at her, but then his gaze flickers past her to someone 
   passing by. In that moment, he reaches into his left coat pocket pulling 
   out cigarettes and a Bic, fluidly lighting the former with the latter in a 
   practiced gesture that takes less than ten seconds, all told. From behind a 
   haze of grey-cast smoke, he responds with a bemused snort and a small, 
   sardonic twist to his mouth that might approach a smile. "I know I don't 
   know the way you have been. That's part of the problem I'm unfortunately 
   having to deal with now," he says with utterly sincere, faint distaste. He 
   studies her for a few moments, cigarette dangling from a hand propped up by 
   an elbow resting on the edge of the table, then continues. "So, this is the 
   deal. You work with us, which means, you work smart. You show me you have a 
   measure of your father, and you'll be treated the same way. I think you 
   know how that is, so you know what I'm offering here."
Rina nods, and for a few moments just watches him without speaking--as if 
   measuring the honesty of the offer. "I'm aware," she finally says softly. 
   "And I'll do whatever I can. Provided you answer a coupla questions for me."
JJ Malone takes a drag from the cigarette, eyes narrowed in study of the 
   Kinfolk, then taps ash into a glass receptacle. "Ask," he responds tersely.
Rina purses her lips thoughtfully, and takes a sip from her drink, setting the 
   nearly-empty glass down before going on. "
"Murph said he could kill me for talkin' back, and he'd be in the right." Her 
   eyes narrow, and she watches him with a measuring look. "Is that true?"
"Christ," J.J. swears darkly under his breath almost immediately, but then 
   quiets to assess the question, finally answering with, "Not universally, 
   no." He takes a quick, longer drink of whatever it is in his glass.
Rina nods, her expression tight. "You might wanna let him know that, before 
   all the kin start leaving town. I was about ready to go back to Chicago, 
   'til a friend talked me off the ceiling." She offers an only slightly tense 
   smile.
A corner of the ahroun's mouth twitches but he goes on to ask, "Secondly?"
She glances down. "Cutter's asked me t'keep an eye on things at the Temple." 
   The dark eyes lift to him again. "Murph said if he got word of me goin' 
   back there, he'd have words f'me. Cutter outranks him." She swallows. "I 
   got friends there. I'd like t'make sure they don't get preyed on."
JJ Malone scowls visibly, his chin jerking in a quick, cutting motion. "And I 
   outrank Cutter," he says reflexively. His scowl deepens and his expression 
   darkens even further, his fingers begin tapping the tableclothed surface 
   with nervous energy as he collects his thoughts momentarily. "If you want 
   this deal," he says carefully, "you do what we say, and if anyone has 
   issues with it, they come through me. That's how it always works, you and 
   us," he recites; she may be able to pick up the subtle mantra-like quality 
   to his intonation, making a phrase a spar clung to for support. "Cutter 
   won't have the right or the justification to make you do something like 
   that unless *you* choose to do it. And if you do so outside of us working 
   something out about it first, then there's no deal."
Rina takes a breath and lets it out. "That's why I asked *you*," she says 
   tersely, looking across at him. "I gather that's a no."
"It means," J.J. begins slowly, then pauses--it's becoming clear this ahroun 
   is more of a thinker than most, "until something is worked out, I would 
   prefer you did not go in there without one of us around. If this place is 
   as bad as Cutter says it is, you're in grave risk, whether or not you 
   recognize it."
Rina hitches a shoulder slightly, and glances down. "The whole city's bad, and 
   I'm at risk hangin' out in the park late at night. But I know that, and I 
   gotta job to do." She looks up, cocking her head a little to look across at 
   him. "You mean with any of you, or with a Walker?"
"Any of us," is J.J.'s response. "Any of us considered past their Testing, 
   that is." He leans forward, voice dropping into quiet intensity. "Knowing 
   what I do of your father, he's probably instilled you with the desire to 
   fight the same battles we do. But this job you feel you have to do is the 
   same as ours. And you'll last an even short amount of time than one of us 
   with your attitude. If you *were* one of us, I'd knock you silly for what 
   you just said, and if you're not careful, I will someday. We don't take 
   stupid risks, and you especially shouldn't, because you're no good to 
   anyone dead. Capiche, paisan? Or, will it take the hard way to teach you 
   that?" he finishes with deadly seriousness.
Rina meets his gaze evenly. "Capisce," she says simply.
"Good." J.J. straightens in his seat. "Because I won't repeat myself." A brief 
   pause to inhale the rest of the life from his Winston, and he goes on in a 
   less confrontational tone. "We're in the middle of something right now 
   which prevents us from taking immediate action on the Temple, but if you 
   can keep within the temporary arrangement...I'd like you to continue with 
   your observations. You may very well pick up something critical to both 
   problems. Because of the risk involved, I'd like you to stay in contact 
   with one of us, John if you're comfortable with him, or I can find someone 
   else if you're not, both to keep us informed and to make sure you aren't 
   tampered with. The same courtesy will extend to you."
Rina studies his face as he speaks; a hint of response flashes into her eyes 
   as he makes the 'request.' She nods assent when he finishes speaking, and 
   says, quietly, "John's probably not the best choice. I know it was full 
   moon when he talked t'me, but it was a fuckin' disaster." Her gaze narrows 
   slightly. "And I d'no who else's in town, so."
JJ Malone laces his fingers together, supporting them in the air between 
   himself and the Kin, looking at her over the construct. "Easily done. Do 
   you have any kind of preference?"
Rina lifts a shoulder and lets it fall. "Low rage," she says dryly, offering 
   him a slight smile.
JJ Malone's mouth twitches sardonically. "Very well. Someone will be in touch. 
   Now, I need to go," he goes on abruptly, draining his drink. "I'm late to 
   work."
Rina raises an eyebrow. "You work nights?"
JJ Malone's sardonic smile widens at the question. "Yes." Without explanation, 
   he stands, begins to leave, stops himself, then turns as if remembering. 
   "Good night, Ms. Vencenzo."
Rina flashes an insouciant smile, getting up herself to offer him a hand. 
   "Thanks a lot. Glad we could talk."
JJ Malone seems a touch taken off-guard by the hand offering, but recovers 
   swiftly. The handshake is perfunctory. "Yes," he says, then heads out 
   through the thinning crowd.

---- Recall end ----