Not unusual but Kaz is good to his word. He steps into the museum as it's beginning to get dark. It's as if he's emerged from those shadows, dressed all in black except for the pale of his skin and the gleam of the cane he always carries.
He wanders casually through the building to the main gallery. His posture is casual but his gaze is sharp.
Altaïr is equally in no hurry as he walks. He's beaten Kaz there because the rooftop routes he knows well gave him an unfair advantage, but he takes some time in the museum before drifting to his side.
(Does he expect anyone to know or care why they're meeting? Not really. But certain habits die hard, and he's long cultivated a healthy sense of paranoia.)
It's easy, casual, just the two of them exploring and considering the exhibits. Just as anyone would, as others might be but Kaz's attention strays higher than others. A month earlier and he might have made that gesture to catch sight of his spider.
A month earlier and this meeting might not have happened, but when he had lost his spider, he'd thought of Altaïr as a means of solving their problem and not letting go of Inej's plans.
"Thank you for meeting with me. I don't know if you had meet Inej, she bartended at Mags." No sense hesitating and not diving in. "She's vanished from the city. Back home, I know some suppose. Back to our home."
He nods in recognition of the loss, managing to keep to himself that he considers it nearly as likely that Inej found some trouble — or trouble found her — and left this world in a different way. He's never fully trusted the notion that they can come and go as though skipping ahead to future pages in a book.
"We spoke briefly a few times, but I never got to know her well," he says. "I imagine she left some unfinished business behind, with such an unexpected departure."
another time Kaz might well be interested in talking others theories about what happens to those that vanish in this place but it certainly isn't the time for that. Not when he certainly doesn't need to think about being unable to rescue her from anything worse than Ketterdam.
"She most certainly did. She had looked into a few things in her time here, more than a year since I've been here myself. There were plans in place, ones that would need someone with her skills. Skills that were unmatched back home but here I've met another with similar skills, and someone that I have found no reason not to trust. So Jesper and I thought to see if you might be interested. There's more and you can change your mind once you know more but if you're not interested now, I won't go on."
Ah, there it is. The reason he's here, the reason this meeting is suffused with a sense of cautious. He's only more intrigued, of course.
"I'm interested enough to ask you to continue." He nods at Kaz. "Please, go on. And if I don't like what I hear, we can go our separate ways and this conversation never happened."
The look he gives might well be a smile but it's unfamiliar to Kaz and his muscles.
"There was a man named Latimer here, before my time here," he says, head canting as he considered the exhibit before them without really seeing anything. "Marlo would like that no one find Latimer but Inej had the desire to see what we could find and she narrowed it down to a handful of places to look."
Which was the easy part of this.
"Marlo though likely isn't going to like us looking into things. Why we need a spider involved on this job. Though we have to assume they could well learn what we're doing, and that could mean issues between us and the government. It's something we're used to, honestly."
And something he misses, but he isn't sure most would understand that.
Altaïr has heard nothing of this Latimer beyond the name he was just given, but knowing that others would hide knowledge of him immediately makes him want to seek it out. He guesses that Kaz may have anticipated this, along with the other skills he can bring to bear.
"I've had experience with that," he says after a moment. "Both the seeking out hidden figures and earning the enmity of those with power."
If he doesn't seem particularly bothered by that, it's because he's not. Lawmakers, royals, leaders of all kinds are no better than the people they have power over. That was true in the Holy Land and it's true here.
It's the answer that Kaz had been hoping for. Altair struck him much more like them than the sort that would have wanted to keep their relationship with the powers that be that have brought them there.
"Why am I not surprised?" Which is the truth. "I won't say I normally wouldn't let many go in with little warning or care about what happens but I would rather you have the truth before we go into things. At least as much as we know. I can count you in then?"
"You can." He nods firmly. For good or for ill, he wants to see where this goes. And if it is for ill, then — well, as he said, it wouldn't be the first time.
"I imagine we'll want to make plans in a more private setting than this."
Kaz chuckles at that though it's a soft, bitter sound.
"Oh most certainly, though I always did like the idea of talking under their nose. Part of me isn't certain we can hide much of anything from them, but I haven't found proof of that yet. Not entirely."
He turns to face Altair a bit more fully, offering his gloved hand. "We'll be in touch soon then."
He gives a firm shake, look Kaz directly in the eye.
"So we will." He believes it; there's no reason to wait around on such an information-gathering expedition, whatever the shape it takes. "I'll look forward to it."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
also sorry, guests etc happened
It's been life, I get it (mental texting to action)
---
Not unusual but Kaz is good to his word. He steps into the museum as it's beginning to get dark. It's as if he's emerged from those shadows, dressed all in black except for the pale of his skin and the gleam of the cane he always carries.
He wanders casually through the building to the main gallery. His posture is casual but his gaze is sharp.
no subject
(Does he expect anyone to know or care why they're meeting? Not really. But certain habits die hard, and he's long cultivated a healthy sense of paranoia.)
"Good afternoon."
no subject
A month earlier and this meeting might not have happened, but when he had lost his spider, he'd thought of Altaïr as a means of solving their problem and not letting go of Inej's plans.
"Thank you for meeting with me. I don't know if you had meet Inej, she bartended at Mags." No sense hesitating and not diving in. "She's vanished from the city. Back home, I know some suppose. Back to our home."
no subject
He nods in recognition of the loss, managing to keep to himself that he considers it nearly as likely that Inej found some trouble — or trouble found her — and left this world in a different way. He's never fully trusted the notion that they can come and go as though skipping ahead to future pages in a book.
"We spoke briefly a few times, but I never got to know her well," he says. "I imagine she left some unfinished business behind, with such an unexpected departure."
no subject
"She most certainly did. She had looked into a few things in her time here, more than a year since I've been here myself. There were plans in place, ones that would need someone with her skills. Skills that were unmatched back home but here I've met another with similar skills, and someone that I have found no reason not to trust. So Jesper and I thought to see if you might be interested. There's more and you can change your mind once you know more but if you're not interested now, I won't go on."
no subject
"I'm interested enough to ask you to continue." He nods at Kaz. "Please, go on. And if I don't like what I hear, we can go our separate ways and this conversation never happened."
no subject
"There was a man named Latimer here, before my time here," he says, head canting as he considered the exhibit before them without really seeing anything. "Marlo would like that no one find Latimer but Inej had the desire to see what we could find and she narrowed it down to a handful of places to look."
Which was the easy part of this.
"Marlo though likely isn't going to like us looking into things. Why we need a spider involved on this job. Though we have to assume they could well learn what we're doing, and that could mean issues between us and the government. It's something we're used to, honestly."
And something he misses, but he isn't sure most would understand that.
no subject
"I've had experience with that," he says after a moment. "Both the seeking out hidden figures and earning the enmity of those with power."
If he doesn't seem particularly bothered by that, it's because he's not. Lawmakers, royals, leaders of all kinds are no better than the people they have power over. That was true in the Holy Land and it's true here.
no subject
"Why am I not surprised?" Which is the truth. "I won't say I normally wouldn't let many go in with little warning or care about what happens but I would rather you have the truth before we go into things. At least as much as we know. I can count you in then?"
no subject
"I imagine we'll want to make plans in a more private setting than this."
no subject
"Oh most certainly, though I always did like the idea of talking under their nose. Part of me isn't certain we can hide much of anything from them, but I haven't found proof of that yet. Not entirely."
He turns to face Altair a bit more fully, offering his gloved hand. "We'll be in touch soon then."
no subject
"So we will." He believes it; there's no reason to wait around on such an information-gathering expedition, whatever the shape it takes. "I'll look forward to it."