SHOT in the Back

"Former cop, huh? That's a new trick for Elena," though it honestly didn't surprise him, cops, former or not, could be just as dirty and corrupt, if not more so, than the scum they supposedly fought against. It wasn't a far stretch of the imagination to think Elena could get her claws into a few of them. "Who's running the Chings now, anyways? It can't still be old Granny Ching, she's gotta be getting on by this point." She was actually dead, he didn't know that though.

"It's not corruption or greed and I didn't quit for Elena, so don't go getting misconceptions into your head, Sieg," Lauren admonished playfully, realising she hadn't given him her name and not really caring. "And it's her nephew, Nelson, who's running 'em these days. You're right though, the old lady's dead nowadays, terrible shame."

Lauren had never shared her boss's deference to the previous head of the Chings, no matter what. Nor any real deference to much anybody other than Elena. She didn't seem to care too much about the Chings, the war, or anyone else, something which aggravated some of the Chings around her stature.

"Granny Ching is dead, huh? Shame, she was always a much more interesting opponent that old man de Luca, though I assume he'll have shuffled on too at this point if Granny Ching is dead and gone." Siegrain mused aloud to himself, "And I'd never said you quit for Elena, I'm just guessing she values your knowledge as a former member of the fuzz - a surprisingly smart move if executed correctly."

"Yep, he's made way for his son, Dominic, not sure if that's spelled with a 'k' or not, I can never remember. Are you using me to catch up, Sieg?" Lauren poured with a mock-offended look on her face. She was surprised Siegrain hadn't found all of this out earlier, it was common knowledge after all. But that, too, was telling, he seemed to be really trying to wash his hands of the gangs and start anew. Or it could be a diversion to make her think that, he seemed certainly intelligent enough.

"And here I thought I was being subtle," Siegrain replied jokingly, "I honestly don't care, but the information does help a little. But I do have a question you might be able to help me with, once I'm done here there's one more person I want to see - only problem I don't know if she's still around or not, mind helping me find out where she is?"

"Oh, I'd be glad to be of service," Lauren giggled, bowing her head as a joke. It was interesting that he'd ask her go help, though she supposed that she was just a more pleasant alternative to Elena for him. There was obviously history there, and Elena wouldn't tell we anything, though an occasional slip in expression had let her figure out enough. Lauren had been a detective during the worst times of the gang war, after all. "So who is it?"

"An old friend, Lila Summers - use to help fix up cars we stole back in the day. I figured if Elena ain't got the information I want she will, I just don't know where the hell to find her and I doubt Elena would be forth coming with the information, either." Siegrain explained, eyeing the women who was leading him to Elena carefully.

She's way to chipper and upbeat for someone working for Elena. Either she's off her head or it's a coping mechanic. He'd seen it before, people would act happy and put up a brave front on the outside, but inside it was a whole other story.

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OoC: That's me for the night, killer head ache so I'm going to go sleep it off, finish this up tomorrow if that's cool, Uri? And hopefully Beans will grace us with his presence so we can really start the plot.

"Oh I know where Lila is, what a pleasant surprise," Lauren replied happily. After all, she had been around to Lila's a few times as a cop, and as a detective she had a good memory and knowledge of the Marisol streets. She knew Lila was more busy these days, and she was happy to hear to that her business was doing well. She did, after all, like Lila, even if she hadn't talked to her that much.

She turned onto Elena's street, hips swaying in the tight skirt. During her days as a detective she had dressed more casually, usually in jeans and a plain shirt, but then again she had been a plain clothes cop, and she hadn't really cared about how she looked. Now, as Elena had taught her, appearance was important, and she had been lucky enough to be good-looking, though it had been responsible for some of the worst years of her life before she joined the police.

"Small world, eh Sieg?" Lauren asked, looking back over her shoulder with a playful grin.

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OoC: Alright, night mate. Hope the headache improves.

"Too small, apparently," Siegrain replied wryly, shaking his head slightly. "I take it you know her then, if you don't have to go looking up information or anything to tell me where she is?"

"I know where her garage is, and she should be there around this time. Your little brother could be there, fair warning," Lauren rattled off lazily, her eyes studying Siegrain with interest. She couldn't help but wonder how the released convict planned to mend his relationship with his brother, or how confident he might be about the reparation. She wondered what kind of relationship the two had. She hadn't seen Lila in quite a while either, and she wondered whether the mechanic remembered her.

"Ethan's with Lila? That's one less thing I have to ask Elena, then," And one less thing to worry about, Lila will have kept Ethan safe. "Hope she kept the brat in line, he was a handful back when he was a kid, though his heart was in the right place."

Wonder what she's trying to work out... Siegrain thought to himself, having noticed Lauren's study of him out of the corner of his eyes. "What's eating at your curiosity?"

Andrea looked over at Karl, noting how his smile didn't reach his eyes. She'd talk to him later about what happened, but the woman couldn't blame him. It had been a long day for all of them. "Yeah. It'll take some getting used to..."

"I'm just curious as to how you plan to approach Ethan after... Well, you know. How long've you been out of prison again?" Lauren replied, gauging the distance between them and Elena. She knew she'd have to search him for a weapon before he got to see her. She wasn't naive enough just to trust someone like Siegrain, even if he seemed like a nice guy.

"Out of prison? 'Bout two or three days, needed to clean myself up and stuff first." He thought back on it for a moment, recalling what he'd done over the last few fays. "I just figured I'd wing it, never been one to plan much of anything through. I've always just done. Allows for impulse and the adrenaline rush that comes from the unknown and means things can't go wrong with the plan because there isn't one to begin with. People always panic when things don't go according to plan, chaos and anarchy I can deal with, I use to reveal in 'em, panic is just annoying. There's a fine difference you pick up on after a while, after all."

"An interesting philosophy, one I'm all too used to, unfortunately. Pretty common out on the streets. Quite a few psychos used to 'revel in chaos'. Led to some pretty nasty events," Lauren explained, musing. "'Course now, I just go with the flow, tend to make things up on the fly. A lot of the times the higher-ups plans don't according to, well, plan. Some of 'em have lost touch with what's going on at ground level, if you ask me."

"That's because they're don't have to get their hands dirt," Siegrain murmured, eyes narrowing slightly, "they're high enough above the rest of us that they can make the plan and have it go wrong yet still get something out of it, that takes a little talent, but it's rather hard to commend them for it when it comes at the cost of them dumping more crap on the rest of us."

"Exactly," Lauren smiled genuinely. Siegrain had said exactly what she had thought, and it was nice to be in the sane page as someone. "Then you get the people loosely related to the heads, people who just have to attend functions and maybe kill the odd person, who think they're above the common thug or hitman. They don't think about what they do, the effects they have. They don't realise that the reason they were born into wealth is because there are people on the streets selling drugs, selling themselves just to survive."

"Entitled people are the worst," Siegrain agreed, nodding his head. He'd fought with everything he had for anything he ever got, nothing was ever given to him, passed down to him or anything of the like, so the people that thought they were kings and queens because of who their family was? They were the worst kind of scum.

"People will do almost anything to survive - when the chips are down and there's nowhere to run, people are just as bad as animals when it comes to survival instinct, nine out of ten times, give a choice between saving themselves and someone else, a person will save themselves. It's a natural thing to do, we can't fight base instinct. It's why those that don't fear death are either idiots of lying to themselves: if you#re not afraid to die how are you supposed to push yourself past your limits to survive when faced with it? If you don't fear death you can never find that urge to dig deep and find the strength to keep on fighting to live."

"Precisely. I came from an orphanage, and in there, there were people who joined the gangs as a way out, a way to escape the poverty and depression. And some of them picked on the other kids. I was one of those other kids at the time, and I hated 'em. But every once in a while, I would see older kids, rich ones, and I could never figure out where they were from, until I realised these were the kids that recruited orphans, the ones with ties to the families."

Here she paused for a breath, thinking back. "And I remember how they used to look at the us, how they used to look even at the bullies dealing drugs to survive. Like they were some piece of gum stuck to their shoe that they couldn't get off. And while it didn't make me pity the people answering them, it made me realise a disgusting truth, that even though some people had to fight tooth and nail for where they were, there was always going to be someone born into it, without ever having to work."

"And it's those people who fear death more than most, but just don't have the courage to use that fear to better themselves. They never had to."

"Makes you wonder how they'd take it if they got their title and money stripped away from them, they wouldn't last five minutes in this world." He was sure of that much, he'd killed enough people to notice that the look in their eyes when the moment was coming was different depending on their background. The rich and so called powerful would face it with wide, fearful eyes whilst those that had been on his level would glare back with grim defiance as one last 'fuck you' moment.

Carlotta shrugged. "It's a pretty difficult place to adjust to," she admitted. "It's built to withstand sieges and stuff, so it's hard when you're used to living in normal houses. We've got a TV upstairs," she informed Andrea. "But Myrrh's collection of movies is rather outdated. They're old, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you looked through it."

"My thoughts exactly," Lauren nodded, she couldn't help but wonder what conditions Siegrain grew up in. She also wondered how Elena had grown up. She knew Chris had grown up in worse conditions than her. "Were you born in Marisol, as a matter of interest?"

"Yeah, though mom's side of the family is from Europe originally," Siegrain said, not really putting much thought into why Lauren would ask such a question. Wasn't like there was anything important to hide. "Dad wasn't a nice guy, got himself killed by getting involved with with shit he should have left well alone, though he did give me some good advice before he bit it. Also made so good examples on what not to do. Mom went not long after dad, so I was left to look after Damon and Ethan, couldn't get money in a legit manner so I went to the streets for cash. I started out minor, but it all got way out of hand way to quickly - I got drunk on it all, the rush, the chaos, the power to do what I wanted. All that mattered at the end of the day was that my brothers were okay."

"At least you did have that as a motivation, even if you were drunk off the power. Better than some, I suppose. I never had anything complicated like that until..." she trailed off, shaking her head. "Anyway, I don't think you would have gotten quite as far as you did without such a powerful motivator."

"Motivation means nothing to a warrior when his purpose is corrupt, for he has become no better than the monsters he slays. One of the shrinks in the joint said that to me during a session, and looking back on it all I'm inclined to agree." He waved off her words, regardless of why he'd done it, he'd still done unforgivable things. There was no excuses for that; no redemption for the likes of him.