Rhaef led Wei-Li into a side alley and after checking for cameras and cops, and seeing none, handed her the other gun from the pawn shop. "I hope you don't need this, but we can't really take that chance. This place can be rough and ugly. Its a place from my past, and they can't really want to see me."

As Rhaef finished talking, he gave himself over to the changes in his mind. He had resisted becoming this man again, but now to help his friends and his crew he had to go back. He allowed himself to embrace the side of himself that he'd denied when he stepped on to destiny. As he did, his breathing slowly, his posture became more loose and fluid, and his eyes acquired a cold, hard stare. He checked both of the blasters to make sure they were fully loaded and he had easy access to them. Finally, he rolled back his sleeve to reveal the long black tatoo on his arm. He turned to Wei-Li, in many ways a different person, "Are you ready? I wish there was another way, but we really don't have much of a choice."

Wei-li gave him a gentle smile and nodded.  Then, she asked in a quiet tone, "Innocent or worldly?".

She blinked, waiting for an answer, her expression and posture completely nuetral.

Rhaef nodded understanding her question, "With this crew, very worldly, and a more than a hint of viciousness." He paused and shook his head, "those were the kind of people I used to run with."

Wei-Li nodded and then pulled her hair up into a pony tail.  Her expression grew grim and guarded.  When she nodded that she was ready, she looked like a completely different woman.

Gone was the ready smile, and the sparkle in her eyes.  Instead she looked like she could discect a person as soon as look at them.

Rhaef nodded to her, slightly disturbed by her sudden transformation, but oddly comforted by it. As they were ready, they walked across the alley and knocked on the door of Larry's establishment, and waited for an answer.

An extremely tall man with sandy brown hair and a long dark coat on answers the door. And stares a the two before him, eyeing them coldly, sizing them up.  He says nothing for a good minute or so.  Then, "You got business here?" his voice is very deep, almost a low rumble.

Rhaef laughed, it had slightly sickening, manic tone to it. "Gorram it, Porter. You sure as hell know I got business here. Ain't no way Larry hasn't been watchin' the waves, and ain't no way he ain't expecting me. Tell Rhaef Sorandash is here to see him." He paused and his twisted into a manical grin, "And Porter, tell him its in his best interest to be seeing me, and not having me shot."

Porter's frown deepened at Rhaef's cocky attitude.  "I know that it ain't rightly wise fer you ta come snooping around this place, Sorandash.  You must have a death wish or something.  I bet ya Larry will want to see you ... but I sure as hell can't promise that he won't want to greet you with a bullet." Porter said in his deep, rumbling voice.  "Who's the girl?" he asked, looking Wei-Li up and down.

"Ain't here snooping Porter. And I sure as hell know this ain't a social call, but its in Larry's best interest for me and Sascha to stay alive. Might even be some profit in it, if he hear's me out." Rhaef smiled, knowing he got Porter's goat and his ego moving, which might give them an advantage if things got ugly.

Rhaef slide his arm Wei-Li hips familarly, "Sascha, baby, introduce yourself to the man."

Wei-Li leaned into Rhaef, almost like a cat marking her property.  Then she reached out a hand to Porter.  There was something in the way she held it that seemed to indicate that she didn't care if he took or or not, that she was simply doing this to please her man.

"Sascha Roszk," she said cooly standing up to her full height, and managing to add a few inches to it through her stance.

Porter looked at Sascha appreciatively then ... perhaps a bit too appreciatively and nodded the two of them inside.  He wasn't the smartest man in the world and had a weakness for beautiful woman and this Sascha girl seemed like someone worth having around.  That and the fact that Porter wasn't even going to pretend to know about Larry's business when he knew that he was aware of very little.  He wasn't a member of the Hand - just an associate.  And he knew very well that they were not people that you wanted to get on the bad side of.  Besides, long time ago Sorandash had been right up there with them.  Long time ago Porter would have groveled at this mans feet ... but he was no longer the great prodigy.  The right hand man.

The Black hand, people used to call him, cause his hand wasn't all burnt to a crisp and clothed in a grey glove like everyone else's.  His hand was adorned with elaborate, tatooed black flames.  Way back when it had been rumored that Sorandash was going to take over the whole Burnt-Hand Order.  Curio had taken a liking to the boy ... of course, then Curio had turned up dead ... Porter didn't know much about what had happened but he knew that Sorandash had disappeared that night as well.  Most said that he had killed Curio - the ultimate betrayal - whatever it was there was bad blood between him and the Burnt-Hand.  Bad, bad blood.  If Larry didn't kill him someone else just might.  All the same it wasn't Porter's place to decide.  As much as he liked to fancy that this place was his establishment (considering it was his building and his bar) he knew very well that it belonged to Larry.  Larry would decide.  Porter smirked, and he thought that most likely Larry would decide to shoot Sorandash, and then perhaps the pretty lady would need some comforting.

He led Sorandash and Sascha inside and offered them a seat at a small table in the back corner of the the bar.  All around the room mostly men, but a few woman as well sat about talking quietly and intensely to one another.  This certainly was no 'happy hour'.  "I'll go get Larry." he cast a firm glare at Rhaef, "No funny business." he said and began making his way to the stairs.

Rhaef shurgged, "Ah hell, Porter, then what kind of business do you in this place? You can't actually harbor illusions of running a legitimate business here." Rhaef replied, shoveling the needle a little bit farther. Rhaef knew he could be pushing his luck, but, whenever he paused to consider it, he knew that they were pushing their luck just being here. So it just made sense to embrace the person he used to be a run with it. Rhaef knew Porter probably did not respect him anymore, but Rhaef's reputation still had to be feared at least a little, and he wanted the man off his game as much as possible.

When they were seated, Rhaef pushed two chairs against the back wall, so they could watch the entire bar. He seated himself, kicked his feet onto the table, lit a cigarette, and motioned to for Wei-Li to slither in next to him. She seemed to playing the role well enough. As she joined him, he leaned over, and said quietly. "Our friend, Porter has taken a liking to him, you might want to work on him a bit, when he and Larry return. Things might go better for us, if he's a bit distracted." Rhaef said as he smoked, giving the appearance of impatience as he waited for Larry.

Wei-Li contined to play her part, nodding seductively as if Rhaef were whispering sweet nothings to her.

"Just as long as you're ready to play the jealous type... should things go too far?" she answered softly.

The longer she stayed in this role, the longer it would take her to get out of it.

Rhaef smirked back, seeing an opportunity in the line to set up dealings with Porter. "Jealous, me? Baby, there's plenty of fish in the sea. You find a better offer, than take it. Ain't no skin for me. I'll have me a new doll before I'm back in the black."  A part of him sickened him to speak those words, it was a reminder of how much of his old life, he'd left behind.

Wei-li's eyes widened and for a moment, it was her eyes staring back in surprise not Sascha's.  She froze for a second realizing her slip and then slipped back into the role of the cat.

"Not as good as me lover... just remember that... nobody can take you where I've taken you..."

"That I have no doubt, baby, but you're were the one talking about me bein' jealous, and you leavin' me." Rhaef replied, sliding his around her shoulder. Leaning in, he whispered in her ear, "You're doing fine, just stay with me. I ain't liking this much either, but right now we ain't got much of a choice."

Larry was immersed in making transportation arrangements on the phone when Porter entered one of the small side rooms on the first floor of establishment.  Larry continued talking but he heard Porter come in and lurk quietly in the doorway, as soon as he hung up, without turning around he said, "Are you making it a hobby to lurk in doorways now, Porter?"

"Uh, no ... sorry, I was just -"

"Spit it out, I don't have time fer you to mumble." he collected a few papers in his grey gloved hand and turned to face the man.  Porter was bigger then him but Larry was by far the more intimidating man.

"Sorandash is here." Larry stopped dead, Porter now had his full attention.

"He's in this building as we speak?"

"As we speak, sir." Porter confirmed, a grin forming on his lips.  Larry didn't look to happy, perhaps there really would be a shooting.  Larry just nodded briskly then.  This was interesting ... very interesting ...

"Well, of course I'll go greet him." he said and set his papers back down.  Porter's smile vanished.  Larry chuckled as he noticed, "What?  You didn't think I'd want to see him?  Rhaef Sorandash, returned to the Hand ... this is a monumental day." there was an odd look in Larry's eyes though as he said this.  He knew full well that Rhaef wouldn't be returning to join with them again, he had heard too often of how over the last few years Rhaef had changed - he had become soft, weak.  And Larry was very glad for this.  It was because Rhaef had left that Larry was now had the position he did.

He strode out of the room then, right past Porter and out into the bar.  He spotted Rhaef immediately, sitting against the back wall, his feet planted atop the table, a cocky grin on his face - so typical.  There was a woman with him that appeared to be his current fling.  The Rhaef of old had always been dripping with girls ... so something told Larry that this lady was nothing but an act.  Probably some whore he'd picked up on the street, paid a pretty penny to in exchange for her pretending to be head over heels in love with him.  Larry smiled then, "Rhaef!" he said, "Well, look who the cat dragged in.  An' that is some cat you got there." he said, motioning to Wei-Li, then ignoring her completely.  "Thought we'd never see the likes 'o you again 'round these parts.  You in some kinda trouble?" Larry said, cutting right to the chase.  He knew full well that the only reason the great Black Hand would come crawling back here was if he needed something - and he'd have to need it pretty damn bad too.

Rhaef rolled his eyes, Larry had not changed. He was still a disingenious pig, but Rhaef sensed that he might be able to play that.

He waved his cigarette dismissived at Larry. "Cut the shit, Larry. You don't want me here, and I sure as hell don't want to be here. But the gorram captain of the ship I hired's gone and got himself arrested and the Alliance is looking for me." Rhaef ground out his cigarette, allowing the shirt to fall open and reveal both guns on his legs.

"So, let's cut to the chase. You don't want me on your planet, and I ain't exactly desirous of being here. But as long as the Alliance is looking for me, well then, we've got to work together. I mean, ain't no way, I survive in one of their prisions. So if they catch me, its in my best interest to co-operate." Rhaef paused flashing a wolfish grin.  "Cause think about this Larry, I go down - its your operation I'm offering up first. The Alliance ain't going to look to kindly on a capo operating in their own backyard."

He paused again, "And just so you don't get any funny ideas, I made it clear to Sascha's friends that if I'm not back in an hour to take a file I left with them to the Alliance, so it would not be in your best interests to have me killed neither." He paused again, lighting another cigarette. "Not that you could, Porter maybe, but you were never good at getting your hands dirty."

Wei-Li watched the exchanged through seemingly disinterested eyes.  She gave a slight raise of the eyebrows and tilt of the head when Larry called her Rhaef's 'cat'.  The justure itself was more than a little cat like.

She said nothing but let a slight smile form when Rhaef mentioned her friends.

Rhaef watched and waited. His eyes followed from Larry to "Sascha" to the rest of the bar. He sensed he was pushing the limits of their hospitality. He turned to "Sascha." "Sascha, babe, why don't you go get us some drinks? And let the men finish their business talk. Then we'll get out of here, and find us some real fun." Rhaef said with a pat on her hips to get her moving.

Even as he did this, a part of Rhaef felt slimy inside, this man was dead - but he kept coming back like a gorram zombie who wouldn't die. "Now Larry, despite all I said, I didna come empty handed." Rhaef reached into his pocket and set the drugs he filched from the hospital on the table. "The street value of this is more than enough to pay for what we need. But more than that, if you hurry, you could clean out the Alliance hospital. Their entire security team is out looking for us, so you call your inside man there, you could clean them out, without anyone knowing. Pretty sweet haul for little risk on your part." Rhaef said with a smirk.

Wei-li gave Rhaef an almost possessive look before walking away, or more to the point slinking away.  Her moves were more than a little provactive.  When she reached the bar she gave a luxurous stretch before pouring a mix of for drinks.

She was glad for her time at the club, having learned from the tenders how to mix a good drink.  She filled the tray with a beer, a white russian, a Gin and Tonic and scotch straight up.

She took her time mixing the drinks.  She didn't want to push Rhaef, she definitely didn't want to push Larry, and over here meant that she had some cover should things go south.

As soon as Rhaef opened his mouth Larry's smile dropped from his face and was replaced with a scowl.  The man was still as big of a cocky pain in the ass as ever.  Black Hand, he thought with scorn.  Well he wasn't that anymore.  He'd lost his place here.  He'd been driven out, left to the birds.  Rhaef couldn't handle it in the Hand without his precious Curio.  And Curio hadn't wanted him around anymore.  Nope, Rhaef Sorandash wasn't the Black Hand anymore, he was a nobody.  Larry was the man now.  "I'm pretty sure I don't much appreciate yer tone 'o voice." Larry growled, "Ain't appreciating it at all.  You come all this way ta set me up with an' ultimatum?  I don' think yer really in any position ta be doin' that.  Ya really think that my boys can't cover up whatever dirt ya left with that whore's friends.  Bet their just a bunch 'o junkies anyway." he raised his hand to stop Rhaef from saying anything to that, "I ain't ignoring the threat ... don't get me wrong.  But yer gonna have ta excuse me if I'm not feelin' quite trustworthy of ya."

He watched as Rhaef had Wei-Li get up and head to the bar.  And laughed outright at Rhaef's offer.  "You always were a clever one.  Too clever fer yer own good." there was a hint of something ... something secret to Larry's voice.  He wanted so badly to tell Rhaef that he was nothing now and that he, Larry, was the man to be.  But he knew he couldn't so he just smiled, trying to stay cool and calm.  "So we make a business deal?  You give me those an' I call my men ta clear out the hospital in exchange fer what?  What do you need?  'Cause I'm a busy man, Rhaef.  I ain't got all day ta be playin' games with ya.  Got real business ta be attending to."

Rhaef laughed silently to himself, as the scowl appeared on Larry's face. He'd gotten to the man, Rhaef'd made the right choice by preying on Larry's pride.

As Larry spoke Rhaef shrugged, disinterested in his threats. "You know Larry, I don't gorram care how you feel. Even if you've been elevated to my place, don't ever think you replaced me. You'll always be an errand boy to the Hand, unless you end up running the show." He paused and lit another cigarette, "but you're right, we both have things to attend to. What I need, and I believe its rather simple, is a cover. I need you to disappear my friend and I here."

He paused and leaned in to the man. "I'm guess you got a couple of bodies on ice, you'd like to get rid of, and at least one capable hacker. In fact, if I remember right, you were one of the best yourself, back in the day. What I need is a some sort of car wreck, that leaves a couple of bodies badly burned, and those bodies to read the records that the Alliance has looking for me."

He paused again, "Look Larry, I know you hate me. And would rather shoot me than see me walk out of here. But how often does an opportunity like this come around. The Hand does not know I'm here. You can dispose of a couple hot bodies and a hot car, which you no doubt want to anyway, and you clean out an alliance hospital and quintiple your investment in the deal. Or you could kill me, chance that you can't be the information I've got stowed away in multiple places, and take the meager pitance, the Hand has on my head." Rhaef reclined exhaling smoke into the air. "I'm guessing a smart business man can put emotion aside, and see where the profit is in such a deal."

Larry's frown deepened and his hatred for Rhaef burned, he had forgotten that stupid cocky smile, the disinterested look in his eye.  It'd been a long time, and Larry didn't much like seeing it again.  He wanted Rhaef out of his establishment ... and now.  "I ain't stupid, Rhaef, 'spite what dillusions you might have.  I don' want ya here.  An' if all I gotta do ta get you gone is fake a few records - well then that's a simple piece 'o cake.  Porter!" Larry shouted and a second later Porter was at his side.  "I want ya to form a team to go pay the hospital a visit - they got real low security right now so we gotta act fast." as he said this his eyes never left Rhaef, it was as though he were trying to prove to this man that he was an important man now.  'Course he'd never admit that that was what he was trying to do, "I want Benji in charge." he tossed Porter the few bottles the Rhaef had set on the table, "We want more 'o this stuff an' whatever else Benji can find that's 'o high value."  Porter nodded and left the room, although sulking slightly, obviously upset that he hadn't been put in charge of the job.

"As fer you two," he gestured to Rhaef and the girl he was with, "Well, I think yer deaths can be arranged."

Rhaef watched the man as he worked. Rhaef begrudgingly had to admit that Larry had gotten much better at his job. "Sounds fair, Larry. But I want to see the records cleaned myself." Rhaef said holding his image together for a few more minutes.