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[Kel Riever]

While at the meeting room, Arcadia made some final arrangements with Vihaan.  “We have three skycars.  What we can do is have Darya pilot one, with Chris and Naomi.  That will be the car that Nadi travels in back to the hotel.  The rest of us will be in the other two cars.  We’ll all land at the university, but Darya, Chris and Naomi will be the ones who go inside to get Nadi.  Don’t worry about the car, it will be set to go and I’ll be right next to it.  Let me pass on the classroom information, and the daughter knows we are there to get her.”

The mood of the room changed as Menos’ search on the extranet for Nadi Nu turned up some rather, less than savory, articles.  First up were two local news articles about Nadi Nu being part of parties that were broken up by police.  The rowdy, property damaging kind that didn’t lead to any loss of life or injury, but several thousands of credits in property damage.  Very bad news…but not entirely unheard of.  Both times her name was cleared, but made the articles based on who her father was.  Ultimately, in each instance, she was found caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and exonerated of any blame.

The third, and last, article, however, was an arrest, and conviction of Nadi Nu for ‘indecent behavior’ in the Presidium commons.  Details were sealed and stricken from record by order of the judge as part of a plea bargain arrangement where Nadi was forced to also perform 100 hours of community service.  On two appeals, that time was reduced to only 3 hours, which she completed. 

“How…interesting,” Arcadia made comment of the article.  With a check of the time, however, there was only a bit over an hour left for pickup, so Cadi was forced to make the call.  “If we decline the job at this point, it will leave this Secretary without recourse to find another escort.  That is the kind of things that will come to hurt us in the long run.  What we can do is know that this girl isn’t everything she appears to be.  I don’t predict that eight of us, heavily armed, will have problems with this woman, and we can’t make her a prisoner, but perhaps she isn’t exactly the charmer her father sets her up to be.  Excellent find, Menos.”

Final arrangements were made.  At the appropriate time, three X3M skycars, leased for the day, arrived outside the offices of Stormhammer.  The group split up, Arcadia in her standard gear traveling with Kurik as the only car with two, Darya and the twins in another car, and the last car with everyone else.  Everyone was prepared as best as expected, and the three cars left for the upper Kithoi Wards.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Look her up on Slither and lolnet," Darya said mentioning two popular social networks.

[Kel Riever]

Now in the cars, heading to the university, Arcadia used the speaker com between vehicles again.  "Well, its a private page, though her picture and public information is nothing out of the ordinary.  Sweet, secondary school class picture...if I am reading the expression correctly."

[Kel Riever]

The total time from the Stormhammer offices to the Kithoi wards was a little over ten minutes, since the upper ward area of the university was on the closer side of the arm to the ring.  On approach, Arcadia provided the proper air traffic clearance codes to the authorities, as well as Larathos University control, and the ride in was smooth.  On approach to the Linron building, some standard maintenance could be seen being performed on the exterior by workers in vacuum suits, since the skyscraper’s highest floors were well above atmosphere level.  They were anchored to the windows of the side of the structure with powerful locks, functioning like suction cups to the window, but of course working with mini mass effect generators rather than air; part of the wonders of the modern world.

Conspicuously, the deck was well filled with other skycars, most ready to transport students to and from their classes.  It was apparent that the team was expected as their three cars were directed to a special section, cleared for them with only two other vehicles in the designated area: one a luxury stretch limousine and the other a C-Sec patrol car.  Out the teams went, with Arcadia stepping forward to keep an eye on the skycar Darya piloted.  Cadi gave a nod to her and the twins, and she kept the door open as the three exited.  “You’ll be able to jump in if you need to,” Arcadia assured them.

The landing deck was environmentally controlled, like the rest of the building (and most of the known Citadel), with the bay shielded against the vacuum outside.  Directions for Chris, Darya and Naomi were clear.  They traveled up through a long hallway and a very short flight of steps to the floor that Nadi’s classroom would be on.  Once inside the academic heart of the university, memories of whatever school the three had attended in their past came to mind.  Whatever those pasts were, however, the Linron Building of Larathos University was quite ideal.  As class was in session, there were few students wandering the halls, but those who did cast admiring, nervous or curious glances at the three who arrived.

Nadi Nu’s classroom (galactic literature, as was detailed in the directions, taught by a professor ‘Polod’) was two doors down from the short flight of steps.  The doors were of smoked glass, but left a band of clear, smooth transparency which revealed the space beyond.  It was a large lecture room, seating perhaps two or three hundred students, but only half filled.  The door was at what would be the teacher’s left and at the bottom of the room.  Professor Polod was a hanar and had his back turned to the students, momentarily, as he was posting up a feed for the class to see on the projected main display at the front of the room.

Darya and Chris were sharp eyed enough to spot Nadi Nu based on the pictures in the data transferred to them.  Her coloration was much like her father’s, though her light green skin was very vibrant in tone and the mottling was closer to a scarlet than maroon.  She wore a black and white suit, also like her father, instead of a hood or even a full robe.  Nadi was about half way up the room, sitting between a young human woman and an asari, her peers who snickered under their breaths at something they clearly found funny while the professor wasn’t looking. 

A giddy chime sounded loud enough to be heard by the class and a bit through the door, causing a few heads to turn and the three young peers to immediately sit up properly.  The hanar professor turned, and Nadi sheepishly switched off the alarm which had come from her omni-tool.  Muffled through the glass door, Professor Polod’s voice could be heard, saying, “This one grants your permission to leave, Nadi.”  Standing and politely bowing, Nadi Nu excused herself and made her way to the door while the class spent its final minutes in session.

Upon exiting the door, Nadi eyed Darya, Chris and Naomi immediately.  She said in a sweet tone, “You must be here to bring me to the hotel.  It’s nice to meet you.  I’m Nadi Nu."
 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"I'm Darya Nabiyeva. This is Naomi and Chris. It is a pleasure to meet you," Darya said. "And as you suspected, we're here to escort you to the hotel. What are you studying?"

[Kel Riever]

"Oh, the classics.  Lots of reading," Nadi said with a smile.  She looked around at the three, then leaned in towards the group.  "I know it's a bit out of the ordinary, but I'm really aching for a fishdog.  I know this really great place!  Do you think we could make a stop?  It's kind of on the way."

[TheMajonese]

Chris raised an eyebrow and gave Naomi a questioning look. His sister turned away from Nadi, held her right hand like a pistol up to her head and pretended to pull the trigger. That was all he needed to know about Naomi's point of view on Nadi's request.

 

"I don't think this is a good idea", Chris said to the salarian with a sigh. "You can get something to eat once we're at the hotel. So let's get to the skycar."

[Kel Riever]

"Right, very important business," Nadi said, with a serious look on her face.  "I understand."

Bel Nu's daughter said nothing more until they exited to the university's landing area, where the three skycars awaited.  "Wow, there's a lot of you," she remarked.  Then she spotted Menos Hishau and exclaimed, "Hey!  Who's the cool looking guy?  I hope I get to ride with him!"

[TheMajonese]

"Let's just stick to our plan." With a nod to the skycar that Nadi was going to fly with Chris added: "I'm sure you will get to know our salarian later." It seemed a bit overcautiously to do everything exactly as planned but since this was the first time Chris worked with people he didn't know it would be best to keep everything as simple as possible.

 

Naomi climbed into the skycar and sat down in the back. "Hey Nadi, there's a comfortable and absolutely save seat right next to me!", Naomi said with a smirk. "If I were you I'd take it."

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos couldn't help but laugh as he saw the target they would be escorting come out and throw praise his way. He had to admit, she was damn good looking. But he'd been with enough women to know looks weren't everything. 14 years old was too old to be messing around with college tail anyway, in his opinion.

 

"Don't worry about a thing, Miss Nu..." Menos said as he stuck his head out of the window of his skycar, "The wonder twins there are good people. They'll keep ya safe enough." He said with a laugh, hoping his words made their outfit seem a bit less scary to deal with. Folks didn't have their guards up so much if they weren;t scared of the one they were dealing with.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Nadi, do you mind if I call you Nadi?" Darya asked. "What kind of food do they usually have at these functions we're going to?"

[Kel Riever]

Nadi smirked and winked at Menos, then climbed in the X3M she was assigned to.

"Oh, the usual little tiny pieces of overpriced nonsense appetizers," Nadi answered Darya as she sat next to Naomi.  She leaned between Chris and Darya for a moment, smiling at Chris, then telling Darya. "It's excriment; they're always cold by the time they come out, except if they're supposed to be cold, then the bits are room temperature.  Yuck!"

Abruptly throwing herself back against the seat, Nadi Nu looked out the window to one of the other team's skycars.  Is that a robot I see over there?"  Then she turned to Naomi with wide, curious eyes, moving her head slightly closer.  "I bet you're the dangerous one, right?  I like danger, myself..."

Darya was taking off at that point, and the other two skycars from the team were following, with everyone aboard.  Nadi leaned forward again, activating her omni-tool in the process.  "All right!  On our way!  You like music, right?  Let's get some tunes going for the ride back!"

With lightning fast fingers, Nadi used her omni-tool to access the skycar's audio system.  Suddenly  music  blasted out from the skycar's speakers, full volume.

[Kel Riever]

.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Darya looked in the rear view at Nadi, and remembered what it was like being a teen. She saw the place Nadi had mentioned before they got in the sky car.

 

"Eh, what's a little detour," she said. "We'll go to the drive thru."

 

Darya pulled into the drive thru.

 

"Welcome to Adhe's. Can I take your order?" the voice said.

 

"One fishdog meal," Darya said.

 

"Please pull up to the window."

 

Darya paid using her omni-tool, and took the bag from the cashier. She closed the flap on the canopy, handed the bag to Nadi and drove off continuing on their way to the hotel.

[TheMajonese]

"Hey, you could have asked if we also want to order something!", Naomi complained to Darya from the rear.

 

Chris just laughed at the look on Naomi's face then he turned to the front again and made himself comfortable in his seat. He honestly had no idea how someone would try and kidnap Bel Nu's daughter if she had a whole group of guards. "You seem to be used to escorts like this one", he said over his shoulder to Nadi when the skycars reached the hotel and began to descent.

[Kel Riever]

"Here, have some of mine!"  Nadi broke her fishdog apart, pushing half into Naomi's hands while shoveling the other half down her throat.  "You went *chew* so fast I was going to *chew* tell you theee best place for fishdogs *chew* is the Zakara Cafe.  Yum!  That hit the spot, though.  For whatever dumb reason, Avina doesn't have the Zakera Cafe in her system as a restaurant, which is a crime."

Darya heard over her private com, "Darya, Cadi here.  Saw your detour.  Let me know if there's any problem."

Nadi couldn't here what was being told to Darya, but she seemed to notice Darya listening.  Nadi made a bemused expression.

Then, as if what Chris said finally caught up with her, or doing a mental U-Turn after racing ahead with her thoughts, Nadi leaned forward, now yelling over the music.  "Hey, my father has a pipe rammed straight into his cloaca!  The last bunch of idiots were stupid; go here, go there, don't do this, straight to the blah, blah, BLAH!  You think they'd ever stop for a fishdog?  Or listen to music?  Because ooooh, somebody might, what, exactly?  I never went anywhere I didn't want to go!"

Landing near their suite was smooth as could be, with the other skycars in the group waiting for Darya, Chris, Naomi and Nadi to enter the hotel before putting down themselves.  Nadi practically burst out of the car, throwing her hands in the air and yelling, "Woo Hoo!  Party time!  Someone break out the drinks!  There has to be a jacuzzi in this place.  Don't worry about a thing, everyone, my father's picking up the tab!"  Nadi then went bounding towards the door to go inside.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Darya ran after Nadi. "Hey, slow down a bit. We have all night," Darya said. "Work with me, here, and you'll still have fun. Technically I wasn't even supposed to stop for that fishdog. So are we good?"

[TheMajonese]

"Thanks!" With a grin Naomi took the fishdog and began to quickly eat it before the skycar landed.

 

Chris just shook his head. "I guess you will never stop eating...how can you still be that slim?", he asked while getting out of the skycar and following the salarian. 

 

"You know, it's all in the genes...", his sister replied almost whispering. Then her voice became normal again. "You should get that girl before she somehow accidentally drops down an elevator shaft.  I know that salarians are fast but she's like a squirrel on ecstasy! I'll take a look around in the meantime."

 

With a sigh Chris turned to catch up with Nadi and was glad that it was Darya to advise the salarian to slow things down. He didn't like to be a partykiller even though he sometimes had to be. Actually not just sometimes..., Chris thought when he spotted Naomi surveying the suite's kitchen.

[Kel Riever]

The first skycar lifted off using its autopilot, once its four passengers had disembarked.  The suite was on the 20th floor of the Placidity Resort, and the car lot was on the same level, 30 meters down.  As the second skycar came in for a landing, Nadi was already throwing the doors to the bedrooms open.  

"This one is mine!" Nadi shouted, loud enough for everyone to hear, as she claimed the end room down one of the suite's hallways.

Arcadia was the pilot of the second car and first one to jump out.  She seemed agitated as she briskly walked into the suite, her eyes following the direction Bel Nu's daughter had gone.  Seconds later, the speakers throughout the suite started pumping out more loud music.  

"Woo!  That's Seirenes!  They're at the Dilinaga Concert Hall tonight.  Can't believe I'm supposed to go to this stupid event of my fathers!" Nadi was yelling so she could be heard from her room.

Shaking her head in disbelief, Arcadia started to say, "How interesting, that was going to be our other client..." Then she was interrupted by the door chime to the suite.  "Speaking of which, one of us should always be on the door so I'll do that."  Cadi went to see who was ringing.

Once Cadi had cleared the person at the door, she opened it.  Another salarian was there, older, with a light, silvery dress in his hands. "I am the Nu's family tailor.  This was ordered by Secretary Bel Nu for his daughter, to wear for tonight's event.  Shoes have already been delivered, ah, there they are; the box on the table.  The dress has been fitted for her usual measurements, and so there should be no issues, but if there are, please call me at least an hour before you leave so I may make adjustments.  Here is my number."  The salarian transferred his contact information to Arcadia's omni-tool.  She took the dress and the tailor left.

"Nadi," Arcadia called out, doing her best to be polite, "Your gown has come."

It so happened that Nadi Nu bounced out of the passageway at that point, into the living room where Cadi was.  Nadi took one look at the dress and exclaimed, "Ew!  I am so not wearing that thing!"

[Cknarf]

Kurik winced slightly at the auditory assault that he had been subjected to upon entry. It didn't take him long to locate the controls, and turn the music down to a more reasonable volume.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Uniforms never are fun, are they?" Menos asked with a smirk as he laid out his cards on the table, literally. The old blue deck of playing cards split as he began to shuffle them expertly,  "Personally,  I wouldn't want to wear a uniform either. But Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Darya sighed. "It's only for a couple of hours. Please, put it on. I got you the fishdog. You do this for me, yes?"

[Kel Riever]

Nadi looked sadly at Darya, "Why, do you want me to look horrid?"

Pouting, Nadi went down to the room she had picked for herself again, throwing a scornful glance at Kurik for turning the music down, before passing through the bedroom door.  The tinted glass partition that hid the room from the outside while still providing a decent view was closed.  Nadi went to use the controller to slide it fully open, removing the barrier to the outside and the balcony.  At that point, she thought she sensed the presence of someone else so she turned and found Kurik standing in the doorway.

"Uh, privacy?"  Nadi stared at Kurik, then murmured something under her breath and went back to the living room. "I'll put that dress on when it gets closer to the time to go, if it has that creepy turian leave me alone."

At that point, Nadi noticed Naomi rifling through the kitchen, pulling things out of cabinets.  "Don't even worry about it," Nadi told Naomi.  "I'm ordering room service anyway.  Tell me what you want and I'll add it to the list."  The young salarian daughter had a seat at the same table Menos was sitting at, used her omni-tool to call the front desk (and while waiting for a connection, asked Menos, "What are we playing?"), and then started ordering.  "Yes, room 2005.  Send up a bowl of Rannadril noodles.  Also, your best fishsteak...the twenty four...that's the largest, right?  Oh send three.  The algae weed...seasoned!  I can't stand it raw.  Sure, if it comes with bread, I don't eat it but someone here will.  While you are at it send some shellfish up...in lemon.  I had a human introduce me to it, and it's delicious...no you don't have actual lemons?  Just flavoring?  I thought this was a highly rated hotel?  Fine, just put seasoning on it.  Four orders.  Oh also send up a sampler plate while you are at it...for two...two of those...yes then I suppose it would be for four.  Oh, and we're drinking, so I'd like two bottles of whatever your best clear alcohol is...and then some flavored...I don't know, send something asari!  That'll get me in the mood!  How long?  Can't you be faster?  Fine. Yes, there's a woman with blue hair at the door, do not mess with her, she's going to look everything over before you get in...bodyguard stuff, you know.  Right."  

While Nadi was pretending to listen to the order being read back to her, she looked sweetly at Menos.  "Entertain me!" she pleasantly requested while pointing one long finger at the cards.

[Cknarf]

It was clear that the young salarian was going to be a handful. Adding alcohol to the mix would only make their job more difficult.

 

That's the last thing she needs. I'll intercept it at the door.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"That's a mighty generation act there, Miss Nu." Menos commented with a bemused smirk, finding her antics quite enjoyable as he pushed his deck into a neat and orderly pile, "Tell me, you ever play Blackjack before, Miss nu? Or would you like something a bit...unorthodox in a card game?" He asked to her question, as he brought the deck up with both his hands, and smiled as he suddenly moved his hands rapidly, making them a second long blur to watch, and opened them, showing the deck of cards had seemingly disappeared.

 

He laughed a bit as he reached into his hood, pulling back the hood a bit as he pulled out the deck, and pulled off the thin and clear rubberband he'd slipped onto the deck as he reshuffled the deck, still chuckling to himself, "I love sleight of hand so much. Took me forever to master it though..." He said as he glanced towards Darya, and held up one of his hands, wiggling his fingers a bit, "3 Digits make it a bit trickier then 5, but you learn to make due with time."