Chapter Text
~Chapter 1~
"Here you are Mr. Shirogane, " The bartender said, handing the tall Asian man his drink, “I’ve also checked and the next shuttle to the airport leaves in twenty minutes.” The bartender then gave him another smile and walked back to where ever she came from before. At ten in the morning, no one was exactly drinking besides him. Shiro sat alone at the bar stool, swishing the amber colored liquid around, and gulping down a large sip, scowl marring his face.
"Excuse me, Mr. Shirogane?--”
At the sound of the new voice, Shiro turned to see another man, place a suit jacket and briefcase on the bar next to him, following the motion with his eyes until he gazed at the man. He was tall, with long platinum hair, and thin. By the looks of him, he was definitely a businessman. His tie was perfectly aligned with his button up, his jacket was dry cleaned and his briefcase was real leather by the stitching. He took a minute and got settled into the seat on the other side of him purse, thankfully didn’t try to move her things to situate himself.
"Hello Mr. Shirogane, sorry to bother you, but I'm Lotor Galran." Mr. Galran then held his hand out, smile still carrying on his lips.
“I’ve heard so much about you." Lotor states, retracting his hand after Shiro refused to take it. "I know for example that when you found that stolen Monet painting in Florence back in 2008? You saved your insurance company what, 30 million dollars?”
Taking another sip of his drink Shiro’s frown grew, as the man mentioned his old employer.
“And then there was that stolen identity case in Venice, I couldn’t believe how many millions of dollars but I just know that when you needed them… What happened to your family is the kind of thing--"
Without warning Shiro slams his now, empty glass down onto the bar top. "You know that part of the conversation where I punch you in the neck about nine or ten times? We're coming up on that pretty quick."
The taller man’s eyes met his and he watched Lotor’s smile drop and a look of panic flashed over his features, putting his hands up in a gesture of defense, his face showing his regret in his words. “Look, I’m sorry. I just want to offer you a job."
"What kind of job?" Shiro replied with a half lidded stare.
“Do you know anything about airplane designs?” he asked, looking a little more at ease.
Shiro smirks, flagging down the waiter for another drink as he passes, "I could try giving it a shot. Just give me a pencil and one of those little rulers."
"Well somebody stole my airplane designs. Very valuable designs.”
The anger the shows across the once stoic man, only causes Shiro to laugh. "I see… So then you would like me to find them? Correct?"
"No," Lotor says, shaking his head, the neutral headed look back in place. "I know where they are. I want you to steal them back.”
Shiro looks at him in mild surprise. "Steal them back?"
Lotor nods again. "Look, one day my head engineer just suddenly up and disappears with all my files and a week later Marmoran launches an identical project? Come on, I'm not stupid."
Shiro swirls the amber liquid around again. "And you’re sure Marmoran was the one who stole your designs? I mean stealing them back seems like a stupid risk, there are probably much easier ways…"
"Please listen to me." Lotor says cutting the Asian off. "At the end of this month I have a shareholders meeting. Mr. Shirogane, I’ve already spent, five years, I’ve spent over 100 million dollars on R&D. If I go into that meeting with nothing to show for it? Then I am dead.”
Shiro says nothing, taking another sip of his drink as Lotor quickly began to flip through the stack of folders inside his briefcase. He then pulls out a thin red folder and held it out for her. “Just look at the people I’ve already hired. Do you recognize any of these names?"
Raising another brow and setting down his drink, the Asian man took the folder flipping through the papers.
Oh yeah, he knew them. He just didn’t know why these criminals would want to work with some CEO of a minor airplane company. Shiro understood that he held lots of power in the stock market but this was a bit minuscule compared to the amount talent.
“Yeah, I’ve chased all of them at one time or another” the Asian mumbled, his eyes scanning information and names. He paused at the next criminal and gave Lotor a look.
"Lance? You have Lance?"
"Is there someone better?” Lotor’s question was not smug but a genuine need for clarification that he had hired the best of the best. This guy was desperate if he was playing with fire like this lot.
"No…. but Lance is insane…”
“Which is why I need you.”
Shiro glanced at the folders again before moving his hand away to close it. The ex-insurance investigator placed it back on bar, leaning back into the stool and crosses his arms over his chest.
“No,” he said sternly, “I’m not a thief.”
“I don’t need thieves, thieves I got. I just need a good honest man,” he held his gaze, “To watch them.”
“There’s no way this is going to work.” The German said, his eyes leaving Lotor’s to glance at the master plan that was thrown across the bar top. “All of them have one thing in common. They all work alone. There is no way that they are going to work for you.”
“For $300,000 each, they will.”
That caught his attention. Shiro leaned forward again, gazing at the man who seemed to be in more of a bind than he was. Lotor leaned forward again, at one point he had rolled up the sleeves of his button up to his elbows. Dark eyes met.
“Look, for running it, I’ll double it for you. I’m desperate here, Mr. Shirogane,” He whined, moaned, did that sad frown with his mouth that made Shiro compassionate heart twitch. NOT “And that’s just the salary, there’s a bonus. Marmoran is insured by I.Y.S, your old bosses.“ Shiro perked up at that. "It’s a 50 million dollar intellectual property rights policy on these designs.”
His words hung in the air and for a moment Shiro wanted to walk away. But something he couldn’t explain kept him still.
“Now my question for Mr. Shirogane is… how badly do you want to screw the insurance company that let your fiance die?”
.~.