It's Dangerous Business

(journalist xD Elena is a journalist)
“Well have we now” Rubi answered and took the pills out of Richard’s hand. “I don’t know this name yet.” She said wile looking at the name of the drugs. “Maybe it’s that new stuff they used on us?” Elena replied. “You’re a smart woman you know that?” A voice then replied. They both turned around. The voice was Matthew’s. Rubi raged, Elena immediately pointed her gun towards him and Richard looked at him with full disgust. “You know we needed some persons to test,” he began and came closer, “and you where perfect for it Rubi. The other two just happened to be in it to cause we knew they are your friends.” The trio just stood the same way, still watching every move of Matthew.
Then Matthew continued. “This drugs is very, how do you say, well, it makes people ‘calm’. “But with the right dosis, as we have noticed with you guys, they will be kocked out for some time.” “Why,” Elena began but Richard interrupted and then asked, “How did you do your little trick on the plane then?” Matthew laughed and continued. “Nice set up, hu? I must say nobody got harmed. But maybe the plane chrashed, I have no idea” The trio looked shocked towards Matthew. “You, let the plane crash?” Elena asked. “No, we just gave everyone on the plane a dosis to be tested including the pilot!” Richard stared at him with open mouth and full disgust. Elena was about to explode and Rubi, she just stood there, concentrated on her target and her gun toward it. “You crazy basterd!” the taxi driver then said and also got out his gun. Now the trio both had their guns pointed at him and Matthew once again laughed. “If you kill me, there are still like 16 men you have to kill after me. Cause when they know you killed me, things are going to get more and more bad.” Elena and Richard looked towards each other in full panic then they glanced towards Rubi, who still stood there. Suddenly she ran upon Matthew, he had no escape nor he had men around him to protect him. It was time for the final showdown.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder and she heard Elena gasp. "Hahaha! You thought it'd be that easy?" Matthew grinned, crossing his arms while Rubi was pressing a hand against her shoulder "Fucking son of a bitch!" she hissed and spit blood. Three guys were now next to Matthew, one of them had shot Rubi. They all had empty eyes, almost like dead or asleep. "What .. have you-" "The drugs!" Richard finished Elena's sentence "The drugs .. he gives them to people so he can use them" "At least one of you kids was listening in school, ah?" he clapped his hands and the three guys started moving. Elena immediatelly attacked one of them and knocked him out with a strong kick of her leg against his face "Wow!" Richard grinned and punshed the next one in the face, but he was faster, grabbed Richard's wrist and turned his arm, pressing it against his back. He tried hard not to moan but closed his eyes in pain for a second. Rubi meanwhile took care of the other guy, shooting him in the forehead, but more appeared and Matthew was about to leave again. "Oh no! Not this time, fucker!" she growled and ran after him. Elena meanwhile helped Richard, shooting the guy who was after him. Then they both started to follow Rubi, shooting everything in their way "Hey, we're getting pretty good at that, don't you think?" Richard grinned and Elena returned it. Suddenly Rubi grunted and disappeared. "What the .." Elena began to say, before she and Richard yelped helplessly and fell down. It was fortunatelly not a long fall, yet they landed hard on their butts. "Goddamn it .." Richard mumbled, rubbing the back of his head, Elena her back and Rubi .. "Where is she again?!" he hissed and spit out "Wow .. you are really pissed" Elena tried not to smile amused "Well .. yea?" but seeing Elena smile, made him smile again. They shared a soft kiss before they started to explore their surrounding. They've fallen through a hole, it has suddenly opened, probably a trap. A trap in a canalisation, now isn't that original? There was no way out, a small, tiny room with four walls but no escape, no door .. no nothing. "Damn it, how do we get out of here?" Suddenly they both gasped when they saw the tip of a thin sword looking out of a little crack in the wall "Like that!" they heard a subdued voice "Rubi!" they both shouted happily.
It took quite a while, all she had was her Katana, which wasn't really perfect to cut stone with, but she was able to enlargen the crack, so they could actually pull one stone out of the whole system and they were united again. "So .. now what?" Rubi asked, stemming a hand against her waist, looking around "Looks pretty .. much like Game Over to me" Richard mumbled before the walls suddenly came down "What the hell is going on here?!" Elena shouted frustrated. "Oh .. nothing, nothing, my sweetheart" a deep, yet very sensuous voice, answered. They stood in the middle of a huge, dark room, only lit by a few blue lights, all around them were dark people, all they could see of them were there shades, sometimes a little glow of one of the many cigarettes they smoked. "Welcome .. Rubi Malone, Elena Fisher and Richard Albert" another voice said, obviously grinning. "You are now where you wanted to be .. in the middle .. in the center of the biggest drug business in the whole, wide world!" the voices all began to laugh quietly and dark. "How fun .." Rubi mumbled sarcastic.

They moved towards the trio and started to surround them, there was no escape. The laughter got worse and the trio just stood there cirkling around with their guns pointed out. “There’s no escaping these guys” Alpert thought with panicing a little. Elena and Rubi also didn’t looked pleased over the situation. Suddenly a guy near Richard slammed his gun out of his hand and then charged. Rubi turned around and shot the guy in the head. Then, chaos started once again. When suddenly the guy who talked before grabbed Elena and got her at gunpoint. “NO!” Richard yelled and the guy just pushed the gun more against the reporter’s head. “Let’s take this business in a serious matter now” the guy said with his deep voice. Richard and Rubi knew they couldn’t do anything at the moment now, so they just threw their guns away. “Thet’s more like it” the man said. “Now we’re gonna talk for a moment”

Rubi growled and showed her teeth for a second, then spit out and gave in, crossing her arms "I am listening" the guy nodded satisfied and the others sat back down on the throne like seats, listening to their companion talking to the enemies. "So, how come you guys are so addicted to danger?" he purred, still holding the gun to Elena's head "Money" Rubi answered cold. "Ah .. Money. Well .. you are just some annoying parasites and the world won't miss you guys" "Ah! Rubert! Tell them our plan before you kill them! It's too good to be untold!" one of the guys in the row shouted, the others grunted like a group of happy, wild pigs. Richard and Rubi gave each other a meaningful look and grinned. "Stupid, aren't they?" she whispered, Richard nodded grinning but he was still obviously nervous. "The drugs .. nice little things everyone would buy. To feel happy .. satisfied and good. Fulfilled." he grinned, showing messed up, brown teeth "But everything has a bad side too .. they will be happy indeed, but they will be happy under our control. They will all become addicted, like it's typical for drugs, they will want more and the more they will want, the more we have them in our hands. This way, pretty soon everyone will be under our control, cuz everyone will want more drugs. So simple and so wicked" he laughed. Rubi rolled her eyes "Wow, fascinating" she clapped before she stroke out and punshed her fist in the guy's ugly face "Slut!" "Get her!"

Richard knew this was the right time. After Rubi had punched the guy he grabbed Elena out of his hands. “Oh, my God!” she yelled, cause the gun Rupert had just fired and the bullet just missed her head. “Rubi! We gotta run!” the taxi driver yelled at her over the sound of gunfire. “Got it!” she yelled back and fired more shots, then following them. They ran for their lives, Alpert thought it was time to finally call in the cops cause they knew what was going on this time, but he didn’t want another speech of Rubi saying it’s a waste of time and they could get into jail to. They ran left then right then left again and they couldn’t hear the guys following them so they stopped running and rested for a moment. The trio gasped for breath and were happy they got out in one piece. Elena however still stressed she just escaped death, catched her breath and began to talk. “That was, really, thank you!” she said thankfully. “No problem” Rubi and Richard said both at the same time. And the trio could smile again, but not for long.

"Not so fast!" a voice arose behin them. All tree spinned their heads back and captured Matthew. Rubi narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists "No merci this time!" she growled, grabbing a gun faster than Matthew could open his mouth again and simply shot him. "Rubi!" Elena shouted "What? He's an asshole.." "But what shall we tell the cops?" "Ah you and your cops" she rolled her eyes "The truth I guess" she simply started walking again. Matthew wasn't dead, he was laying on the ground, moaning quietly as the pain took over. No one cared, none of his companions. They were all trying to get outta here before the police would find them. "You have a mobile?" Rubi asked Richard. He pulled one out but showed her that there was no signal. "Damn canalisations" she mumbled.
Soon they found their way back out and they all took a deep breath of the, more or less, fresh air. "Better than down there at least" "Still poluted" the blond journalist grinned.
"Hello?" Richard suddenly said. He had already called the police and was now on the phone.

“Whom am I speaking with?” a man on the other side said. “You’re speaking with Richard Alpert, sir” Richard replied. “What’s the matter Mr. Alpert?” The man asked then. “Uuh, we are at some,” he glared at Elena who mimicked the ‘canalisation’ word, “at some canalisation” he then finished. “We have found ourselves in some trouble and we could use your help.” “Hmm, what kind of trouble?” the policeman then asked. “Drugs business…” the taxi driver then replied. “Oh dear, What street are you in?” “I don’t know” But at that moment Rubi came running towards them saying it was Macarthur Boulevard. “Oh, I see the street sign it sais MacArthur Boulevard” Richard then said. “Okay, We’re on our way Mr. Alpert, we can discus further on there in person.” Te policeman replied. “Thank you sir, bye” And with the cop saying “Bye” as well, Richard hung up and then Rubi said “Let’s see if your plan then really helps. Cause if Matthew gets captured and the other drug ‘lords’ will find out we’re the ones behind it, we will get them on our sleeves as well.” Richard started to get nervous when suddenly they heard police cars coming near.
Elena stared towards Richard and then said “I hope we wont get jail time” “So do I” the taxi driver said and gulped when the first police car arrived.

"Are you two nuts?!", Rubi suddenly interrupted when the obviously naive journalist and the taxi driver came closer to the arriving police cars. "You really want to end up in prison don't ya?!", the killer went on. "Just think... you really believe they would take us serious if we tell them about manipulating drugs a circle of crime bosses in the canalisation; that we were poisoned in a plane and jumped out with parachutes and survived in Ghobi desert; made our way back to China and then flought to Cambodia where we met the boss again, kidnapped him on our room, shot one of his mercenaries, killed another thousands on the streets and now escaped a deadly trap under the... Space Shuttle Museum in Washington?! Suddenly Richard as well as Elena looked at her friend. "WHAT?!", she said looking at them deadly serious. "I really... didn't think it was THAT complicated!", the blonde journalist had to admit and dragged Richard around the canalisation entrance. "What now?!", Rubi hissed, when she quickly followed them. "They will... see the blown up doors and walls down there and probably find it themselves... then we're anonymous callers", Elena grinned. "Are you Mr. Alpert, sir?", a friendly american voice suddenly interrupted and they soon recogniced the police suit and a passport saying "Police Officer Jack Eko, Washington Police Departement". "So much for anonymous", Rubi mumbled, turning her head away form the officer.

“Oh dear” Richard then replied. “Are you sir?” Mister Eko said. Rubi walked slowly away and Elena started to talk. “Yes, he is sir, but we must tell you, everything we say is the truth.” Eko turned towards them with a confused look, and Richard said, “Sir please, if you don’t mind, I will begin at the beginning.” When Richard told the story, the policemen had the details all wrote down. “Well, it is strange all this mess.” Eko then replied. He put away his notebook and then Alpert asked, “Are we, can we go now?” “Yes.” The policeofficer then replied. “But if we find anything, anything at all, that doesn’t fit with your story. We will try to find you.” He then walked away and the trio stood there, lucky but also with a strange look on their face. “This is just weird.” Rubi then said.

"Uh ... yah... weird cop", Elena said confused when she watched Mr. Eko calling some officers to him and then go down the canalisation. "You get rid of that mobile now and then we get the hell out of here as fast as possible", Rubi said. "My mobile?", Richard asked and looked at the killer with a weird look. "They know your number and ID... if they found out we killed anyone, we're done", Rubi went on explaining. "I see...", the taxi driver answered and soon the trio waved a taxi to the street to get in. "Where to?", a kind of not so good mooded old man said. "Uh...", the three said in the same moment. "Where to?!", the man repeated.

“To the airport” Richard said at first. Elena and Rubi got in the back and Richard decided to take place next to the driver. He missed the fact to drive around the whole day, but then he would never have been to Washington! Okay… It wasn’t a successful trip, since those drugs business went all around it. Rubi just sat as usual looking out of the window. And Elena was starting to sleep. Richard began to think which would be their next destination. Maybe Los Angeles? Somewhere in Europe? He didn’t know. As long as they would find another drug guy who they can take care of. As Matthew said, there might be 16 more.
When they arrived at the airport, they all got out and paid the taxi driver. “Thank you fo-" but Richard already slammed the door. Elena and Rubi just watched with weird faces. “What?” Alpert replied, and they all went to the airport’s entrance. When they got in they saw journalists running all over the place around a man with grey/brown hair. They overheard some journalists saying “Mister Lapidus! How did you survived the crash!?” “What happened on the plane!?” “Where there other survivors!?” Richard suddenly said towards Elena “Hey, that was our pilot!” When the pilot said he wanted to be alone for a moment and the journalists backed away, the trio found their chance, and started to make their way towards the pilot to find out what all happened.

"Hey hey! Mr. Lapidus!", Richard yelled, when the three were running behind the pilot, who was on his way to the ticketsell. The man seemed to stop walking when he turned around with a confused look on his face. "Mr. Lapidus, sir!", Richard said again when the trio already catched up and stood behind him in the line. "What.. who... I saw you on the plane!", the pilot answered deadly serious. "Yes! We also were on it! You.. we... we know what happened but we didn't know who... why... what happened to the plane!?" Elena, Rubi and also Frank Lapidus himself stared at the taxi driver who was explaining things faster than he could even think about what to explain next. "Calm down, kid!", the grey haired man then said. "Y'know... I knew it from the first moment. These guys in their smokings.. they just didn't look like any normal passengers", the pilot explained. "Who.. could you... do you know any names?!", Richard asked further in all his enthusiasm. "Well. Only thing I remember is when that... that Smith guy came in. He knocked the Copilot out and then he... went towards me. I woke up later, when the plane was on it's way right to Cambodia. I have no friggin' idea how the hell it made it not to crash!" "Now that's a story... Smith guy you say?", Rubi wanted to know. "Yah. Smith.. Smith... Ja" "Jayred Smith", Rubi finished. "Yah, that one." "I know him... but... first of all, Matthew gave the passengers some drugs, mixed in all kind of drinks and food. He wanted to test the effects of his weird little pills. We could make it to jump out, when the plane was starting to shake and the rest of the bodyguards were about to attack us... guess they followed us wth parachutes, or else you would probably not be alive anymore."

Lapidus watched them with a weird look. “Well am I lucky” he then replied. “By the way, I also have the flight manifest of all the passengers, maybe some other guys are on it” Frank then started. “That’s a great idea!” Elena said. “Also if those guys are anywhere out of your reach, just call me and I will give you a private flight towards the destination you want.” The pilot also said. “Thank you very much” Richard then replied. "Anything to get those bastards down." he replied. and the trio watched him this time with a weird look. Lapidus then said, “Well, I will get the manifest you fellows just wait here”, and took off in a hurry. “Well he is a nice guy” Rubi then said. “Yeh he is,” Elena said. But Richard noticed something, someone following the pilot in his tracks. “uh, girls?” the taxi driver then started. “I guess we need to help him find his manifest” “Why?” Elena asked. “Cause he’s been followed” and Alpert started to walk in the pilot’s tracks as well. “We never get any rest, do we?” Elena then said to Rubi. “Seems not” she replied. And the two women went off to follow Richard.

"Hey hey! Not so fast", Elena warned the taxi driver, who was already about to run after Lapidus and the mysterious stalker. Richard backed back a bit and the women were able to catch up. "We should follow him in the crowd", the journalist suggested and pointed to the direction of some people, who were about to go to their plane. "Good idea", Rubi nodded and already dissapeared in the crowd. The trio was able to follow the pilot for a while, when he went in the direction of the hangar. "Excuse me sir, you have to show me your passport", a woman at the entrance said. Lapidus dragged out his passport and the lady nodded and let him pass. "Now what?!", Elena hissed, when Frank went further into the plane hall and the stalker seemed to be gone. "We need a plan...", Richard mumbled. "You and your plans", Rubi rolled their eyes and went straight to the woman and the entrance to the private planes. "Excuse me, could you tell me where the toilets are?", the killer asked the lady, who looked at her with a confused look, when Rubi gave a signal to Elena and Richard to simply sneak around the entrance via some pillars who were placed in an optimal way for the two to get in without beeing seen. "The toilets are this direction, miss", the woman then said and pointed the way for Rubi. "Alright, thank you", she said looking at Elena and Richard who were running behind the woman into the hangar with the planes, where Lapidus just entered. The problem solver could make out what Elena wanted to say, when the journalst moved her lips to "What about you", but Rubi simply shook her head and pointed to the hangar, she would wait here.

They went faster towards the hangar. When they arrived they heard someone opening up a plane. They both looked around the corner and saw that Lapidus was luckily still alone. When they observed the area more they saw a man on the other side of the hangar. “There’s the little bugger” Elena said. “How are we going to take him out?” Richard whispered. “Leave it to me” Elena said and Richard sighed and nodded. When Elena sneaked her way to the guy on the other side, Richard had her back to see if anything would happen to her. He also saw Lapidus looking for the manifest in the cockpit. When the pilot had found the manifest he left the cockpit. Richard turned his head away from the corner.
When Lapidus came out of the plane suddenly the figure who also was waiting came out of his shelter and pointed a gun at his back. Then, Elena jumped on him with a yell. The pilot turned around in schock when he heard a gunshot behind him. It nearly missed him and also nearly missed Richard when he turned his head away again from the doorway. He sighed once more, and then ran towards Elena to help her out. When they knocked down the unknown man, Lapidus just stood there with his mouth open and frowned eyebrows. “That was to close” Richard said and Elena walked towards the pilot. “Now we can safely go back” she said to him. “Thank you for that” the pilot said still with the same expression. And they went back to the airport.

When they left the hangar through the small door again and went back to the entrance, they came pass the woman again. "Uh, excuse me, what are you two doing in there?", she asked with a strict look. "It's ok, they're friends", Lapidus said protectively and patted their back to let them go first and left behind them smiling at the woman. "Rubi!", Richard said, when she was sitting on a bench in the main hall. She stood up and joined them again, where she found a stressed Elena, an excited Richard and a smiling Frank Lapidus. "Now... you got the manifest? What about that little stalking bastard?", the killer asked. "He tried to attack me... but friendly Miss Fisher helped me out", the pilot said still smiling a bit. "How you know ... my name?", Elena then asked a bit confused. "On one hand I know and love your reports and on the other hand you're also in the manifest, sunshine", he laughed, when she blushed a bit. "Thank you a lot!", she then grinned. "Can we get back to topic now?", Rubi said. "Sure sure... so, I'll just hand you the manifest. Y'know, it's better for me to leave it to you guys, I'm just a pilot." "Hah, I'm just a taxi driver! And I almost got killed under attack of heavy equipped mercenaries of the biggest drug lords in the world!", Richard said, when Lapidus laughed and pat his back again. "But you're one tough guy, I saw that a minute ago, Richard", the pilot said smiling. "I hope you get those bastards down... just call me whenever you need me. I gotta go get my plane repaired now anyway... don't know what they did with the system in the cockpit", Frank ended his speech and then smiled towards the trio again. "Try not to get yourselfs killed", he said, leaving the airport to the hangar again. "Oh well. Now let's take a look at that manifest. We already know the Smith guy, but it's better for us to check out where he was from and stuff. Maybe we find out a little more 'bout him", Rubi suggested, taking a seat on the bench again, followed by Elena and then by Richard.
"Now take a look at that...", Elena said, when she saw that there were also pictures of the passports of every single passanger. "And take a look at that!", Richard repeated and pointed at Matthew, who was also listed. "Hah. 'Job: Businessman'", Rubi hissed, when she read the job of the drug boss.

After going through some other pages, “Hey look my job’s on the list to” Richard said with full deligt. Rubi and Elena watched him with a weird look and the taxi driver’s smile vanished immedialty. “Sorry” he said. “Charming picture though” Rubi said and she smirked. “Hey!” the brown haired man then said. “Guys, quiet down be serious now” Elena said. Then they all turned back to the manifest. “It seems here’s Mister Smith.” Elena then continued. “here he is Jayred Smith, 45 years old, and this passport sais he’s from,” Rubi said and took the manifest, “Los Angeles” Rubi looked up towards the other two, and they just stared back. “Something wrong with it?” Richard then asked. “Yeh, it’s a long way from here don’t you think?” Rubi then answered. “Maybe we can”- but Elena was interrupted by Richard once again. “Look what his job is!” he said in full disgust. Rubi and Elena then watched with a confused look back to his passport copy. “Oh.” Rubi said and Elena laughed amused. Richard sat back in his seat again with an angry face and crossed his arms. “He isn’t worthy of being a taxi driver” Alpert then said. And Rubi and Elena then both laughed.

"The next flight to Los Angeles is ready. Please get on your plane now", a friendly woman's voice said through the speakers. "Let's go!", Richard hurried, when he already grabbed the manifest and put it in his jacket, while going - or running - into the plane's directon. "Your tickets please", another woman at the entrance asked. "Uh... tickets... riiiiight... where to get one?", the taxi driver said and blushed. "Oh boy. It's ok, he's with us", Elena then laughed and showed the lady three tickets, Rubi just bought. "Let's get going", the killer said and got in the plane to LA.
"Oh man... where to start looking for anything?", Elena worried when she went through the details on Jayred Smith's passport in the manifest. "Taxi driver... we should contact the central of the LA taxis then", the blonde haired journalist suggested and waited for a reaction of Richard and Rubi, who sat on the opposite side of the four-seated-corner of the plane.

“Well since I’m a Miami taxi driver and he’s in Los Angeles” Richard began, but Rubi interrupted him with “Don’t complain!” “No I won’t!” The taxi driver began. “It’s just that, maybe I know the head of the taxi driver business there” Richard then said. “That’s wonderful!” Elena then smiled. “Hey, I didn’t said I knew him!” Alpert then continued. “But maybe the head of my taxi driver company does. But I don’t have his number anymore, since I had to get rid of my cell phone earlier,” he said while staring at Rubi. “Okay! Take it easy! I’m sorry for that!” She then replied. “Phone books exists, and so does internet” Elena then suddenly said, with already taking her PDA out. “Since when do those things have-“ Rubi started but Elena already asked what the head of the Miami taxi company was. “It’s Faraday, Charles Faraday.” Richard then replied.
When Elena googled him, a stewardess came towards them to ask if they wanted to drink something. With generously declining her offer, with bad memories left of their other experience, Elena poked Richard on the shoulder and asked if the man on her PDA screen was the man they where looking for. A man with black hair, a short beard and a moustache. “Yeh, that’s him” Richard then said. “Well write down his number, then we can call him when we land,” Elena then said. Richard wrote down the telephone number with the hopes he could give them the name of the boss of their next victim.

"Tempus fugit", Elena mumbled, when she woke up after another few hours and saw herself landing in Los Angeles. "Wow, must have been our ... 5th flight now?", Richard yawned, when Rubi poked him. "Yah... if this goes on like that, we'll coming around the whole world", the journalist grinned, when she grabbed her backpack and left the plane. The taxi driver and the killer came after her and saw themselves on another airport, looking like all the others they visited before. "So... guess we leave here and then you call your taxi guy", Rubi said, walking straight to the big entrance of the airport and watched the traffic passing by. "Busy streets", she mumbled, sitting down on a bench on the street she just came out, when Elena sat next to her and Richard asked her for her PDA.

As soon as Richard typed in the phone number he stood up to go to a little more quiter place. The taxi driver got a bit nervous. He might get a speech first why he hadn’t showed up for work the last few days. ‘Beep, beep, beep’ “Hello, Miami taxis central, Charles Faraday speaking.” Richard closed his eyes and said “Hello mister Faraday, Richard Alpert here.” “Alpert!? The Alpert!?” Faraday said. “Yes sir it’s me,” Richard then replied. “Where the hell have you been!? You haven’t showed up for work for at least 2 weeks and then you call me!” Richard held the phone a bit away from his ear cause his voice came out loud. “You better explain yourself, NOW!” Richard then got the telephone back at his ear and said “It’s a long story sir…” “Well I’ve got the time!” “Excuse me sir but this mobile phone hasn’t, the battery is almost dead.” “No excuses!” “I’m not making a,” Richard then stopped talking and started to think how he could ask it friendly. “Sir I called you to ask if you maybe have the number of the head of the LA taxis central.” “You’re not going to switch places are you!? You are one of my best people here!” “No sir I’m not,” the taxi driver said with a smile. “Well then why do you need it then?” “One of my friends in LA wants to try this job.” “He or she can also start here if he or she would like it.” Faraday said with a sarcastic tone. “Very funny sir, but could you give me the number please?” “I certanly can, hold on for a moment” Richard sighed and was glad he didn’t got a speech with the word ‘fired’ in it. “are you still there?” “Yes sir.” “Okay here’s the number.”
Richard sat down on the bench next to Elena again. “Well you’ve got the number?” Rubi aksed and the taxi driver handed her a paper. “Nice!” she said and then gave it to Elena. “Nice job Richard” she then said. “I’m not fired…” Richard then said with a surprise on his face. Elena laughed, “Thank God you aren’t, you’re one of the best taxi drivers I know!”

"Well then... let's see", Elena mumbled, when Rubi and Richard took place next to her on one of the benches in front of the airport. "Hello?", the journalist suddenly said, with her PDA on her ear. "Ah, very good Mr. Smith", she smiled, when the other two had a shocked look on their faces. "We just wanted to", Elena wanted to go on when Rubi grabbed the phone and talked further.

"Where you are" she continued the sentence. Elena still blinked surprised and Richard sat there, his forehead wrinkled, staring at the two women as if they were crazy. Well .. they obviously are. "I am Mrs. Haas. Yes." silence for a while, no one except Rubi heard the answers from Mr. Smith "I am not on your list, I know. But I heard from a close friend of yours, that you may need help with security." again silence "I am the leader of a great security company called Chemonix, we can surely help you" silence. "Can I meet you? .. You are still in LA? Ah, good! It's close to us, yes! Yes, we are all around America!" "She can surely fake a good german accent" Elena meanwhile whispered to Richard, who nodded, squeezing her hand encouraging "Saturday .. 2p.m! Great! Thank you!" Rubi got off the phone and grinned "All done, sweethearts!" she got up and headed towards the airport exit "Wait! Where ya going?!" Elena shouted after her, trying to catch up. "Buying ammo"

"Holy crap, she does know where to buy weapons anywhere, doesn't she?", Elena said a bit confused, when she and Richard tried to catch up. "And ... where?!", the journalist shouted through the noises of cars, people and other stuff on the streets on Los Angeles "Just ... around the... oh crap, this is LA isn't it?", Rubi suddenly mumbled, when Elena and the taxi driver stopped behind her. "No, it's China, you only dreamt the rest of our journey", Elena smiled wth a serious look on her face. "... you kidding?", Rubi answered totally confused now. "No. I am God, I am talking trough the body of this innocent human being." The killer poked Elena's face, when the reporter backed away. "The hell you doing?!", she laughed. "Being confused", Rubi responsed and wrinkled her foreheaad. "Now this IS LA isn't it?" "Yah, it is", the blonde woman laughed, while Richard watched everything with a weird look on his face. "Now, Saturday, 2PM you said?", Elena asked. "I did." "And... where?" "Uh... gimme your PDA, please." "For god's sake..." Elena handed Rubi her PDA once again, so she could call again to ask where exactly in Los Angeles they would meet in one day.

When Rubi came back again from her second call to Smith, she said once again “Saturday 2 pm, I got it now.” With Elena grinning towards Richard who gave a smile back they proceed towards, once again, a hotel to sleep in.
“Hey Rubi!” Richard yelled towards her, “when was it again!?” “God damnit I KNOW!” she yelled back. Richard grinned and Elena pushed him at his shoulder. “You shouldn’t tease her,” she said with a wide grin on her face.
Suddenly they walked in a shopping street. Lots of people were walking around, and Rubi was one hell of a show to stare at with all her equipment. Then she turned to an alley where there were, once again, less people and… “A gun shop, here we go again” Richard said. “Good evening, and welcome to Yves DuPont’s gun shop. How may I be of service?” a rough man just said, fast covering his right shoulder with a sweater, after looking towards the trio. “Yeh, we’re here to buy ammo,” Rubi then said. After leaving the shop, Alpert asked the two women if they saw him covering up his right arm. Elena responded with a sigh, “Well, I hope it wasn’t that symbol again, or else we’re screwed.” “You know, could we just go to find a hotel now? I’m hungry and I need some sleep” the taxi driver moaned. “Here is our tough taxi driver” Rubi said and started to chuckle. “Hey! What’s got that to do with this!” The taxi driver boasted off and Elena started to laugh. “I guess he’s just humorous cause he’s tired and hungry.” “Yeh, and I thought I got very fast “bad tempered” when someone made a joke about me,” Rubi said frowning. And the two woman started to run towards the bad tempered taxi driver.