Chapter 6 – Malachi

The redhead bows her head slightly to Mal, and he smiles at her,

“You’re very welcome, but you now have us at a disadvantage.” She laughed, it was light and wonderful,

“I rather think I did from the get-go. I knew who you were when you walked up on my altercation with Joey outside. You are celebrity figures you know, Vampire Royalty no less.” she smirks, saying nothing else on the matter of her name. The plate of food arrives, delivered by Molly, who looks at them and then at the redhead, she sighs, “It’s fine, I invited them to sit with me. I promise that I will eat all of this food.” Molly nods and walks away returning a moment later with a large glass of dark fizzy drink.

“Cola to wash it down. Just don’t say I never do anything for you girl.” The red head chuckles,

“Never, Molly. I can’t lie, can I?” Molly pats her shoulder,

“No, you can’t. But still.” Molly smirks a little and goes back to the bar. Ash hums,

“You don’t lie?” She tilts her head,

“Can’t.” she corrects him, holding up a finger, “Lying makes me physically sick, a perk of being me I guess.” She starts to dig into the food and sighs gently, she takes it slowly, seemingly monitoring the entire pub, while studying them as they sit opposite her. “Along with terrible sleep habits and problems with food when I’m grieving.” She looks a little astonished that she’s admitted that, then studies the burger in front of her. Mal furrows his brows,

“You’re in mourning?” She looks at him more closely, or at least he thinks she is, with those glasses on it’s hard to tell. She nods slowly,

“I lost my brother-in-law about a week ago, but it was nine months ‘in the making’ as it were. Cancer. I’ve not been sleeping well since he got the diagnosis, but the problem with me feeling like I don’t want to eat only started after he died.” Mal nods, and wants to reach for her, but keeps himself in check. Ash sighs,

“I’m sorry.” He’s barely able to look at her, but when he does, she smirks,

“Wasn’t you. But I appreciate the sentiment.” Ash looks at her, seemingly astonished, “I don’t like it when people apologise for things that they had no control over or say in. I understand that there isn’t really a better thing to say, but it just bugs me.” His lips twitch gently at that,

“Yeah, I get that.” Mal looks her over again, “You’re really not going to give us your name, are you?” she shakes her head playfully, a sly grin cracking her beautiful face,

“Not if I can help it, for now at least. I don’t know you well enough to trust you with my name.” Her brow furrows slightly, and she takes another mouthful of burger. “It’s not just my secret anymore, there are others that rely on me not being known. But if it makes you feel better you can call me whatever you like. I’ll respond to most things if I know it’s directed at me.” Mal smirks,

“Like how most of the people here call you, ‘Boss’?” She chuckles,

“That’s because I am their boss. It’s a title, not a nickname.” Mal mulls this over, “So people call you by your full names all the time?” he smiles,

“I’m mostly called ‘Mal’ and he’s ‘Ash’.” She frowns at that, but nods. “What’s the matter?”

“’Mal’ means ‘bad’. Malcontent, malfunction, malignant.” She shudders at the last one, “I won’t be calling you that unless you insist. I’d rather call you ‘Kai’, unless that’s a non-starter.” He smirks,

“I like it, especially when you say it. It’s nice.” Ash looks at his brother, but smiles.

“Are we all going to have to call you that now?” Mal, now Kai nods puffing out his chest a little.

“I’m changing it. I prefer Kai, no one has ever thought of it before and I’m kind of embarrassed I didn’t notice it before. We’re three-hundred and eighty-four now, how did I not see that Mal means ‘bad’.” He downed the rest of his whisky and rolls the glass between his hands. Ash puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Sometimes all it takes is a fresh perspective and you see things in a whole new light. Like our work issue, we just need a different perspective and it’ll become clearer.” Kai nods. She hums,

“You have a problem?” Mal looks at her, she seems genuinely interested, so he shrugs.

“Someone is moving crates in and out of our dockside warehouse and we have it on camera, but nothing in the paperwork is showing anything off at all. We have no clue what they’re moving, or if it’s our stock they’re taking. But the numbers are right at both ends, so they must be adding stuff to our shipments or something, but we’ve never been able to track down one of these crates to see what’s being moved. Or any reason for it to be happening at all.” Ash nods,

“We don’t know who’s behind it, but we have grainy footage of crates being moved just before a shipment leaves and just after it arrives. So, we know something shady is going on, but not what or who or why.” She chews her mouthful of burger, sips at her drink then picks up some chips and some napkins. Laying them out on the table.

She places one napkin at each end of the table, then places five chips on the table, one at each end on the napkins and three spaced out in the middle.

“Your paperwork,” she points to one napkin, “Your supplier’s paperwork.” She points to the other napkin. “Warehouses at each end will have paperwork…” The two chips just in from the napkins, “And the ship’s manifest in the middle.” She indicates the final chip. “What do you know has to be accurate?” Ash points to the two napkins.

“They have to be, we’re getting the right stuff, and they are receiving the right stuff on the return journey.” She nods,

“Have you checked the other paperwork in the middle of the system?” She points to the three chips in the middle. “The ship’s manifest has to be accurate to what’s on the boat, or else it’d be showing up red flags at every port. The warehouses have to be receiving the stuff from the boat, and again it has to be accurate to what comes in and goes out with the boat or customs would be knocking down your door.” Ash nods, following

“So, either the paperwork in the middle is accurate, or someone is altering the paperwork after the fact to hide the shipments.” She nods,

“If someone is hacking the systems to change the data, it should be traceable with the right tech guy looking for you. But pulling this off would also require someone who knows when your shipments are moving, so maybe someone at your house is feeding them information, or just outright hacking the systems for an unknown third party. The ones from the footage at the docks, maybe...” She trails off and continues to eat her food quietly.

Meanwhile, Ash seems to be processing this new information. She watches him curiously as he continues to mutter to himself and make notes on his phone. She looks out the window briefly then swears under her breath before giving two short sharp whistles towards the Gargoyle, who stands and moves to guard the bar, while she stands and moves to the door.

“Please stay here, I do not want to have to explain to your father how I got his sons killed in a bar fight.” She cracks her knuckles and neck before striding over to Eddie, who whispers something in her ear, making her smile a little more maliciously than he thought would be possible. “Finally. Keep the civs out of this if you can.” Eddie nods and heads over to the table.

“Do not interfere, she is more than capable of dealing with him.” Ash looks up and finally sees what’s going on,

“Holy…” Eddie growls softly,

“Don’t swear in front of the kid.” He points to Tommy who’s now creeping to the window to watch. Ash nods and swallows the word, moving to the window to get a good view, but doesn’t leave the pub. Kai follows and watches as she squares off to the giant of a man from earlier. He’s all muscle, broad shoulders and over seven feet tall now he’s standing. She’s a foot and bit shorter, but she shows no sign of fear standing in front of him.

She stands ready to fight, and he looks at her, clearly furious. Kai notices something that he hadn’t had on him when he’d been here before. The man is now carrying a large machete, or something similar, he’s not sure from here. The redhead crosses her arms,

“Really, Joey? You think that’s going to worry me?” He smiles and pulls out a gun from his waistband. She tilts her head a little. “Okay, that’s more like it!” She lowers her centre of gravity a little and prepares. He leers at her,

“I just want my wife, and we can leave peacefully.” He spits at the ground in front of her.

“That’s just the problem, my dude. You can’t have her.”

“Says who? You? You’re a filthy little bitch, and have no say in my marriage.” Kai puts his fist in his mouth, knowing that that’s definitely the wrong thing to say to her. She straightens from her fighting stance and walks straight up to him; his gun now pointed directly at her head.