#ornith

"Not our finest establishment, but it'll suit our needs. Tell Ezila to get these slackers to their post. I haven't seen a goddamn soul here." "Yes, Ornith." Rodek pulled the handset off a nearby phone, but didn't dial, letting the message go across all the other sets in the place. "Now then. Time to get down to-"

The chair Ornith was getting ready to occupy suddenly turned around, and an older, tawny Owl's face came into view. "Business?" Ornith paused for a New York second, then replied, "Hey, hey, hey, what's the big idea? You stole my line, and now you stole my chair." "The name's Phodilus, and if I could just have a moment of your time?" "I'm a busy man, and I can't really say that-” "Sir, we just found a bunch of our men dead in a closet." "What?!" "Ezila-" "Ahem.” The older Owl had an expression like sugar. Or perhaps a cake of some sort. "Fine, then, lady. What do you want?" "Now then, I recognize that you have a... thing... to keep running, and that that's very difficult even in the best of times. But it's also come to my attention that some of your work resulted in a certain Bubo Barr getting shot in her right lung." "Business is... business." Ornith said, with a twisted mouth. "Oh, certainly. But I do have exactly one thing to say." Phodilus stood up, cutting a very impressive figure, especially for someone of her age. "Don't you dare lay a hand on one of my girls ever again."

With that, she walked around the desk. Rodek made to grab her, but Ornith, feathers uncomfortably ruffled, motioned for him to stop. Phodilus left the office, then the building, unscathed.

Days later... "What do we have on her?" Rodek pulls out a bunch of slightly pompous-looking manila folders. "She lives in a cabin on her own, way outside Advent. Not sure how she took out our men, and I don't think we want to find out." "What about her job?" "Retired and wealthy, as of a year and a half ago." "Family?" "Parents are both dead, unsurprisingly, no children, husband died a history book ago." "Okay. Okay! What about her friends? Like... this Bubo chick?" "Bubo lives on the top floor of a ritzy apartment. We make a scene there, we'll have too many losses to cut. There's also a woman named Varia, but her home is in the Caelus district. Chalice, who runs Stratotello. You remember what happened last time. “The target's also kind of close to some of her ex-clientele. Solus, a kid lives in Southern Nuage, but we haven't been able to put a finger down there ever since that Scandiacus lady became chief. And Otus, but he's all the way out in Vellie. Not sure we could get away with anything in such a tight-knit community so far away."