A London Reality [London, England]

[Nox]

The booth Nox chose was in the corner, he sat so he could glance up and watch the bartender. Wasn't much unlike what he did at Kallisti. A pang of guilt stabbed at his heart and he set into looking up information about his first mark. He said he'd look at them all. Said he'd not make a blanket assessment. He had a name, a company and all the basic information that the Atharim had on him.

And he had the whole Atharim database at his disposal. Among other things -- that the Atharim didn't necessarily count on. Nox didn't plan on using Sage, but he was always there. Always watching and every once and a while his friend would point him to an article that would be helpful. He hoped that would be the case this time too. But for now he dug deep himself. He'd done it all his life. He and Aurora. That also pulled at his heart strings. He still missed his sister. Missed his sweatshirt but it had been for a good reason. Even if he'd just been looking at another guy. They were over. Nox had to remind himself -- he was doing nothing wrong.

The bartender brought Nox fish and chips with his drink that he remade when the food was ready. He'd brought water with lemon before that citing "It'll go better with food."

Nox smiled at the personal service. "It's Nox, by the way."

He smiled back with a tip of his imaginary hat. "I know. Hayden." Hayden returned to his position at the bar and Nox watched him walk away biting his bottom lip. He let his imagination run wild for a few minutes before he settled back into his work. The Atharim had very little proof that this guy was bad. Nox needed to find something or the deal was off.

---

The business man in question wasn't killing people. He wasn't using people -- at least nothing that could be out and out be contributed to the power of the gods. He was good at what he did. And the details of the Atharim were even harder to dig through than Nox had anticipated.

He sat in the booth with water and more food delivered by Hayden and a brief respite of flirting was had each time the bartender arrived and left. It was a nice distraction and Nox anticipated that had been the idea. A bell tolled signaling last call and Nox looked at his watch almost expecting it to be earlier than it was. "Fuck."

There were two glasses of wine left on the table from when Hayden made an interruption. Hayden locked down the door after the last guest slipped out and nodded towards the entrance Nox had come in through, "Your way is still unbarred."

"I'm working on it. Just a bit slow today." Nox was a little stiff from sitting all day. He wasn't sure how people did it all the time. He hated it.

"Don't worry about it. Stay as long as you like." He said sitting down in the booth next to Nox. "I guess you were serious when you said only one."

Nox smiled. "My dad drank himself to death. I prefer not to follow in his footsteps, so I don't tempt myself with numbness."

Hayden nodded his head. "You just say whatever, no matter what?"

"No point in hiding things. People will either beleive me or not. Lying gets me no where. I'll keep a secret, to save lives, but that's different."

"So you're always blunt and to the point."

Nox shrugged. "Try to be. Though I'm not very good at articulating my feelings or thoughts. I tend to ramble and talk non-sense."

Hayden chuckled. "Okay, so I'll be blunt then. You wanna go upstairs? I'll work out those kinks in your neck, and we'll see where your not drunk self takes this? Or do I have the wrong idea."

Nox laughed. "No you got it right. I'm not in town long."

Hayden stood up and grabbed the two wine glasses, downing one that he'd started and nodded towards the stairs. "You work for some very shady people, staying in my very shady guest apartment, totally expect you to disappear in a day or two without word. But I'm not going to pass up a chance to see that body naked, so I figure you like blunt. I'll be blunt."

Nox laughed. "I like a man who knows what he wants." The words left his lips and Nox didn't look back as he shut his laptop and followed Hayden upstairs. It seemed he'd gotten the answer to what the owner thought of having the Atharim for guests.