Family Ties

[Frank Laun]

The ringing and buzzing of his cell phone shook Frank from his sleep. He had been out on a hunt all the previous night and had gotten in around sunrise and sacked out. He reached over and looked at the caller ID. He sighed when he saw it was his older brother. He hesitated for a second before he finally groaned and opened the phone.

"What the fuck do you want?"

"Nice to talk to you too Frank. Father wanted me to call and see if you were still in New York?

"Yeah, I'm still here..ya know I have a job and shit here, I don't just mooch off the family...."

"Well thats good to hear, look We're going to be there in a couple days along with a business associate and Father is giving a speech down at the waterfront about the new shipping legislation he is trying to get passed, and we were wondering if you and some of your uhhh contractor associates could provide undercover security. You will be paid well of course."

"Yeah you bet your ass we'll get paid good, I can probably arrange something with umm my employer, I'll get back to you"

With that Frank clicked his phone shut. It was lucky he had decided to just sleep at the Guild House instead of driving back to his apartment in Ramsa. He got up and threw some jeans and a t-shirt, and his trusty old boots on and headed to Connor's office, hopefully the Guildleader was around.

Frank was happy to see that there was a light coming out from under the door. He walked up and banged on the door.

"Yo Connor, you in there? You're not gonna believe the job offer I just got!"

[Connor Batten]

Fortunately, Connor was a little friendlier than 'what the fuck do you want', but he still wasn't a morning person, and he'd still found himself stuck in his office before ten that morning.  He never liked that, but part of being Guild Leader and still being able to take hunts was putting in the extra time.  Cobriana and Shane did it, too.  Even so, he wasn't the happiest of campers.

The one thing he had working in his favor was that he'd actually gotten a decent night's sleep, unlike Frank.  Connor didn't get too many of those, between hunters calling him to go get massive tigers under control, Val issues, and Anya issues, not to mention regular guild business.  Last night had been a small blessing.  Still, it would take more than just one decent night of sleep to make up for the rest.  At least he didn't let it ruin his mood.

"Come on in," he called without looking up, recognizing Frank's voice and a generally pleasant tone.  All it'd take for him to get out of the line of fire would be a little twist of his chair, so he didn't look terribly paranoid when his hunter entered.  That confidence regarding his surroundings made talking to people in his office a lot less stressful for everyone involved, since he looked perfectly at ease.  "What's going on?"

[Frank Laun]

Frank was pleased to see that Connor was in his office and seemed to be in a decent mood. He knew the Guild Leader's old lady or whatever had just had a kid, and that Connor seemed to enjoy the whole being a Dad thing, despite all the lost sleep. Frank had also heard about the tiger thing...which seemed to really suck for everyone involved.

"Man, its not a typical leech hunt kinda deal, but I just got us a call that could make us a fat paycheck from Uncle Sam. Apparently my shit bag Father is giving some kinda damn speech in a couple days down on the waterfront, and my brother, the wonderful chief of staff that he is, called me this morning to try and arrange security. He asked me if me and any of my associates would be interested and doing some undercover work, I guess the Secret Service got tired of looking after their sorry asses...But anyway, you up for standing around for a couple of hours and getting some good money?"

Yeah it would probably be boring. Frank had grown up listening to his Father's speeches, and they were usually dry and tedious. In fact, Frank really couldn't stand listening to them, and hadn't since he had moved out and joined the Corp. But money was money, and if he could get some of his over blown taxes back...why the hell not?

[Connor Batten]

The tiger situation HAD sucked for everyone involved, though Connor was secretly of the opinion that the specific incident he was thinking of had sucked worse for him than the other two.  He'd been the one between the tiger and the table, after all.  He just wasn't the sort to whine about it.

Now, Connor was all for fat paychecks, especially for his hunters, but this really didn't sound like their sort of gig.  Taking guard duty on something high profile like that could get his people's faces out there, and they didn't need that.  They had enough to worry about with their jobs without politicians and human hitmen getting involved. 

"Frank, that's not really our thing.  We could pull it off, you know that, but the hunters here have enough trouble with supernatural baddies without having to deal with humans on top of it.  Do you really think your dad's going to need us for this?  None of us are cheap, and if you're talking about a security detail, you're talking a few hunters on it.  You really think the threat requires that kind of firepower?" he asked, watching Frank carefully.  If so, Connor could pull some people in, preferably some with military background.  Erik, despite the tiger troubles he'd been having, would be a good choice.  He'd want Sitara or Skye on a building somewhere, though it'd probably be Sitara with Skye having had her baby.  He still swore he was going to talk Skye into getting her husband to join up, but in the meantime, he'd figure the rest out, if it was necessary.

[Frank Laun]

No, the threat didn't really require the fire power, but their wallets might enjoy the money. Frank didn't expect anything to happen. It was probably just paranoia on the part of his brother that even lead to the call in the first place.  His brother always thought someone was out to get them, and would always over book security for every event.

" I know its not our usual gig, and I can respect you decision if you want to keep the guild out of it. But really man, Me, you and like Skye or Sitara would probably be enough. And they WILL pay good, and in advance or we won't show up. Its gonna be 2 or 3 hours of listening to boring ass speeches, then making sure they get out of the area safely and then its over and we're richer. Kinda sounds a bit easier than killing leeches, but a lot less fun."

Frank enjoyed killing leeches, but he also liked getting paid just to show up somewhere and if he could get his friends in on it too, then hey...why not.

[Connor Batten]

Connor really wasn't so sure about it, but he sighed, understanding what Frank was doing.  Eh, why not?  Sitara would be on a roof somewhere, Frank was the guy's son, so it wouldn't be weird for him to be there, and Connor wasn't exactly the kind of guy who stood out in a situation like that.  Actually, he was betting Frank's brother would take one look at him and LAUGH.  Connor knew his shit, but he never looked the sort for bodyguard jobs.  Everyone either assumed he was scary badass because he didn't have Jaxon Church's build or something, or they thought he was a joke.

Frank's brother sounded like the sort that would think it was a joke, especially upon meeting Sitara.

"Skye's still on maternity leave, so it'd be Sitara on a roof.  I'll go, and if you think that'll be enough, I'll see what she says.  You're only thinking three of us?" he asked, needing those details.  He'd be asking for a full file on what they were going to be doing, so long as they all accepted it.

[Frank Laun]

Damn, Frank hadn't thought about Skye still being out with the baby...he was meaning to go by and visit them. But Sitara was as good or better than Skye depending on who Frank heard it from. He figured they were probably evenly matched. But Connor really didn't have much to worry about. All they had to do was show up, Plain Clothes, blend with the crowd, and look for crazies. If they saw one, then they just had to put them down quick, and Frank had no doubt at all that Connor was capable of doing that quite easily since he did kill vampires for a living.

"Aight, so Sitara on the roof, then me and you in street clothes and kevlar in the actual crowd wandering. And I'm going to have one more person helping out. You can check him out with his Guild leader if you need to. His name is Mike Anderson, he's a Frost hunter and a good friend of my younger brother. He's a computer guru or some shit, so he's gonna be watching the news feeds and doing electronic intel stuff for us while we're out there....just kinda like an eye in the sky."

Frank was about as anal as they come when planning a mission. That attention to detail had saved his life, and the lives of his men countless times. Even though he didn't anticipate any kind of trouble here, he wasn't going to to dick around and half ass it...he was planning this like he would plan a hunt or like he would have planned a covert op for the Corp.