--------------------------------

[Vancouver, BC]

Natalie's been dragged - completely willingly - through the wintery weather to White Dwarf, the large science fiction bookstore. "--This place is just like Uncle Hugo's!" she cries, surging forward a few steps before remembering herself and returning decorously to Jon's side, reaching for his hand. "They've got a mystery bookstore attached to them, too."

Jon grins at her stop-and-go, giving her hand a squeeze before dropping it and 'pushing' her forward gently. "Go ahead and explore. I think I'm going to grab a paper and a coffee and sit in the shop for a while. Neither one of us will be any good unless we get the yens out before we leave. I hope the ferry's going to run in this weather."

Nat's phone rings before she's had a chance to do more than grin at him and take a couple of steps away. She eyes the read-out with a grimace, then retreats back to just inside the entry to answer. "Hello?" A pause, while she rolls her eyes over to locate the kin. "--Hello, David," she says neutrally, pointing toward her cell. "Well enough, thank you."

A computerized voice speaks. "Good morning, Ms. Baker. I trust you are well? I've acquired some information for you. I'm afraid the news is not good. Is this a good time to discuss this further?"

Jon grimaces a little with distaste as he seems to recognize the name coupled with Natalie's reaction, slipping leather-gloved hands into the pockets of his Christmas coat and moving to a position that obstructs view and hearing of the Galliard to passers-by both on the sidewalk and into the store. His expression is one of mild if bored patience, as if the call is mundane, glancing around at the street and the storefront as if looking for things to keep his attention and entertainment while she takes the call.

Natalie finds a little corner out of the way of traffic and steps into it, one hand half-lifted to her other ear as if to block out the sounds of traffic. "It's... it'll do. It's not the best time, but there never is, for this sort of thing. Go ahead." A glance to locate Jon and she returns her attention to the phone.

The voice continues. "A couple SWAT teams would have serious problems with this place. They're dug in tight and very much acting as if they're expecting trouble. Everyone is carrying weapons, mostly pistols and shotguns, but a couple rifles. Most have multiple weapons. Lots of silver. The ground floor is heavily guarded as is the top floor. There's a hatch on the roof, but they've got what looks like an electronic warning system up there. Or maybe a booby trap. Three of the 12 apartments look to have just regular people living in them. Two on the middle floor, one on the top. There's a lab on the second floor."

Jon glances to her after 'it's not the best time', eyebrows going up, but then looks quietly amused, and returns to his 'bored' perusal of the surroundings.

Nat hisses a sotto-voiced, "Shit," hunching over her phone as if to protect it. "Damn. What about the basement?"

Jon's eyes narrow and again glance over to her, this time quizzically--it's obvious, he is eavesdropping on her side at least--but it's also apparent he's not going to verbally interrupt.

"Largely deserted, but someone is always popping in or out to get a load of laundry. There's a few windows down there with bars on them. If you think you could get in that way, that might be best."

Natalie's free hand rakes back through her hair, disrupting the careful application of mousse she'd applied only a few short hours earlier. All of her attention is turned inward, to the phone call, so she'll have to discover the rumpling later. "What about the apartments themselves? How many people are in them? Not the civilians, the other ones."

"Hard to say with all the people coming and going. About a dozen don't look to be involved with the unsavory elements and have small kids. I'd say you're probably looking at having to deal with at least a dozen, possibly two dozen, people with guns. And silver. And two of them look a little suspicious. Not one of yours. Not the anemic types. But not entirely normal. I've seen people like them before, but never figured out what they were."

"--Suspicious," Nat echoes, hand freezing at the nape of her neck. "What, not part of your family, either? You think those apartments are over-full? Where are they all sleeping?" Now she looks over to the kin, concern and the beginnings of anger on her face.

Jon turns a puzzled look at Natalie, catching her look and expression, but only holds it for a few moments. He seems, at least to any watchers, to be predominately more interested in their surroundings than the phone conversation.

"I think everyone is indirectly, though very distantly, related to my family. Including you and yours. But I simply do not know what to make of those two. They are...." There's an actual, artificially inserted pause here. "Very difficult to explain. I suspect they're stronger and tougher than your average Joe, but not excessively so. And they didn't get that way through going to the gym. There's a few apartments that look like sleeping quarters. So I imagine that they can sleep in shifts, rotate out, that sort of thing. People come and go all the time."

"--Damn," Nat says again after a fairly long pause. The woman blows out a long breath and sags back against the wall of the bookstore. "So we've got nine apartments with too many people in them, and no one's related to either of us. I'm not even gonna go into abstract. --What about... the leaders? Do they stick to the same apartment, or do they roam around?"

"Hard to say with all the people there and trying to look at everything all at once. But the two unnatural types tend to stick in the back right room on the first floor. One of them seems to be a leader of some kind. I can't say the same for the other one. They do wander about from time to time obviously, but that seems to be where they generally stay. Mostly on the first floor. If there's not a pressing urgency, it might be prudent to lay low for a while, let their vigilance slip, then do something."

Natalie listens to the person on the other end, then begins to slowly nod. "A couple of weeks, sure. Can you do a little looking around the place right before then? We want to evict as few of them as possible - just a few people. If it all goes to hell we'll evict the entire building, but I want to avoid that if possible."

Jon's eyes narrow again, this time nearly to slits, as he glances over studies for a few moments Natalie engrossed in her conversation.

"My assistance ends the moment you plan on harming innocent people."

Natalie retorts immediately, starting to get her back up, "I'm not planning on it. If you were listening, I'm trying to avoid it. It's a last ditch scenario. We want to just evict those few people. The more information you can give me, the better our chances of doing just that."

Jon's left hand slips out to unfasten the top button of his jacket prior to slipping back into his pocket, and resuming his self-entertainment with the scenery.

"Excellent. We are seeing eye to eye on this matter. Might I suggest waiting until the persons leave the building at some future date? Surely you can simply post a lookout to alert you when this occurs, then take appropriate actions?"

"I've got... other considerations," Nat says, relaxing enough to look over at Jon, and toss him a rueful little smile. "In a perfect world, sure. But we don't have the people to keep that close track of their movements. In addition, my superintendent may want them out of there sooner rather than later."

"Your superintendent will do far greater harm than good by attempting to evict the entire building at once. But it sounds as if you know that already. Can you get someone to guard the building and to have the evictors standing by on a given day?"

The pause this time is much shorter; when Nat speaks again most of the underlying tension is gone. I'll try and make sure that's clear. --That's the plan, actually. Thanks for your help with this. I'll probably have a few more questions for you next week, if you'll be around."

"X marks the spot. Oh, by the way, your secret entry route? There's a lot of activity on the flip side. You'll want to avoid going that route if you're not looking to have two squabbles in the same fight. Just F Y I."

Natalie tenses again suddenly, though her words are - for the most part - relatively even. "Oh really. Thank you for mentioning that."

"You're welcome. Au revoir." *click*

Nat says, "Bye," folding up her clamshell phone - she still prefers using that over the Sidekick - and sliding it back into its holster. She waits until Jon's eyes are back on her before extending a hand. "Sorry about that. No more interruptions today. Let's hit us a bookstore."

Jon's response is to offer his elbow, hands remaining in the pocket of his coat, before giving a slight smile. "Unless we both turn our phones off, I don't think that's something you should attempt promising," he says, before opening the door to the bookstore to allow her admission.

[End of log]