#thread.apollo

Veer was a leader simply by chance and good connections. They had no credentials, no qualifications, no experience. Simply the eagerness of someone who’d been done wrong by the system, who wanted nothing more than to change the status quo, to save his people in the Slums.

And the Grey Lilies was the way to go for those. 

Some choose different routes.

“First time the Tears still out of the news, bhai,” they said to Apollo when their paths crossed. They didn’t think either of them had the time for small talk, but they weren’t after anything else now. Just a break.

There was always business to be done in the name of X, and they really liked to make it as difficult as possible for Mentari to shift to make the chatter die down.

He certainly didn’t intend to bust any heads from the Skeleton Crew this early, but he hoped connections within the Tears had luck already. Though several inquiries later and he was still at a dead end. 

He settled in to talking with the Tear’s underboss at a secure location, even if he could feel X breathing down his neck for such a risky move. The tension had even settled in his bones.

Zakir could safely say he was neither up-to-date nor in the loop on current affairs. There were times when his language skills made him one of the few to understand the full picture, but other times he was the one left out. As an informant, it was the safest route. 

He found himself in the Slums around midday, glad to be out of the transportation chaos in Mawar even though he knew he’d have to return by nightfall. 

Zakir walked into the first shop on the Bartori he could find and settled down to order lunch. He made it look natural as he entered the place, as if he’d happened upon it. 

And nodded in the direction of the underboss as if the other was simply a patron, before ordering. "One coffee and... the lunch special looks good, I'd have two of those. Terima Kasih."