Successful Negotiations

Eugene and madam la Avise sat by the small table of Samuel, who was slowly sipping his whiskey. He took the glass from under his table, clearly hiding it from someone. The man sat in silence and so did the lady, patiently waiting for words of the owner. Her attitude was the exact opposite in contrast to the one she showed during their infiltration into the bar, which annoyed Eugene. He was expecting it to be a small chat, and then they would move on, but sitting by the uncomfortably tiny table, watching over a middle-aged man drinking alcohol in a room filled with bones and dusty shelves was not as engaging as one would expect. Eugene was bored quickly and broke the quick silence first.

"So, do you have two last names? Why so?"

But the man did not even react to the boy's question, instead, he made another sip of whiskey and audibly sighed.

Eugene did not like this reaction, he narrowed his brows and crossed hands, "Whatever, I should not have expected a nice conversation from someone, who sophisticatedly named the bar after himself."

This time, the comment did not fly through Samuel's head, he raised his tired eyes to Eugene. So did the lady, but with her brow raised.

"Give me a break, young man. Anyone would dive into thoughts from the sudden meeting with an unwanted past." He redirected his gaze at the woman, "Especially when someone who at least twice as young as myself mentioned it. May I ask for your name?"

She glanced over Samuel and then turned back to Eugene, who noticed it and immediately declared, "Pacifica, or rather Pacifica la Avise. The daughter of a weird noble family."

The woman suddenly nodded in agreement, "Not quite right, but this will do for now."

Samuel blinked a few times, being dumbfounded, and moved the glass of whiskey aside, perhaps assuming he had more than enough alcohol for today, "Not quite right indeed, I heard of the la Avise family, but did not expect you to be nobles. Anyway, the question still stands. Is my last name the only thing you know about me?"

The woman drilled Samuel with her burning gaze, a soft, but cunning smile materialized on her face and she said, "Who is to say?"

"As nasty as rumours tell!" snorted Samuel in displeasure and then looked at the man, "To answer your question, yes, I have two last names. Flâneur is the one I am generally known by, and Faust, my real last name, should be known only to my closest friends and apparently this gal."

"Why did you change it?" Eugene leaned forward in excitement, the information flow finally began!

"This story is not as exciting as you might think," he peeked at the lady once and a few more times while speaking, "I am from Germany. In the early 20s, my brother-in-law started a construction business. It was quite successful, and he was generous enough to give off shares to family members, including myself. But then these morons from Workers party applied pressure to many businesses. I did not like it and decided to sell off shares and move to France. Of course, relatives were not happy about this move, they called me coward and wished me failure in a new place. You can tell how much it hurt to hear something this cruel from your own family... But oh how the tables have turned! Now the Workers' party is in charge, Faust family have lost all of their assets and some members even ended up in prison!"

Madam la Avise slowly nodded after hearing out his story, making Samuel frown a little and return to his whiskey. Eugene felt bad about the turn of events and tried to comfort the man, "This really sucks! I hope they are doing good. Did you try to move them out of that hellhole?"

Samuel smirked, "I helped them as much as they wished me good will in a foreign country. I refuse to bear the burden of the Faust family."

"Huh?" Eugene widened his eyes upon hearing his words, "But they are still your family, this is way too cruel!"

"Well, the lady over here is seemingly in agreement with me." Samuel smiled at madam la Avise. Eugene followed his gaze and noticed an immense sense of loneliness materialized through the lack of gradience in her emerald eyes, as if he was now looking not a precious gem, but rather dark moss in a thick forest.

At once, the lady hid her face from Eugene's sight, but as soon as the man tried to present a question, Samuel proceeded with his talk, "Anyway, I did not spare my precious time to be lectured by a greenhorn. You want to know about the mess inside the bar?"

"That's right." the woman snapped out of her gloom and regained her sense of urgency. The light yet again shined brightly in her pupils.

"May I ask you from which agency are you from?"

"We are not a part of any."

"Then why did you bargain with fossils? I could tell you everything for free if it did not appear in the newspapers."

The woman smiled and arrogantly declared, "What kind of businessman would make an offering without equal exchange?"

"Moreover, there were no guarantees that you would not just kick us out anyway if we simply explained the situation." added Eugen, facing forward with a calm smile.

"Quite. Would you like to hear everything that happened from the start?" wondered the man, and Eugene replied, "Yes, please."

However, immediately after followed the lady's protest, "No, thank you, we can't waste more time here. All I need to know whether the Death Surgeon visited this place or not. And was he the one to be captured here?"

Eugene squinted at her, but did not say a word. As much as he hated it, she was right, and it is better to leave this place as fast as possible to not further delve in explanations to the police how did they end up in owner's office.

"Thats correct, last night he was the one to be captured-"

"How many people were with him?"

"Huh? Three, I believe. One left earlier, before the gun fight, the two, including Monsieur Christopher, were dragged out of the bar, and the final one must still be at the police station. He said that he forgot the way back home."

"The last one is for sure, Douglas…" sighed Eugene and wondered, "I guess, we will have to go after him."

"Not necessarily," yet again protested the lady, "Can I make a request? Could you call to the police station and tell them the address of Ledru 1?"

Eugene hummed at her request, but did not say anything. This way they would not need to waste time on fetching his friend, they can simply meet up at Christopher's home and work all together from there.

Samuel nodded in agreement, took out a note with a pen from under the table and wrote down the street name. Then, he glanced over the lady who already stood up and asked, "Is this all you wanted to hear?"

"One last thing. You did not recognize any of the people with Monsieur Surgeon, right?"

"That's right."

"Then it is time for our departure. I will talk to Martin regarding the fossils, they will be sent to you as soon as possible."

"But what if you will send me a duplicate?"

"No need to worry, every single piece of installation was perfectly burned into my memory."

She smiled and pushed the door to the outside of the office. Eugene jumped off of his chair and followed her, while waving to Samuel, who said his last regards to the pair. Yet again, no one inside the premise seemed to care about the intruders, though now there were more eyes directed at these peculiar visitors.

Without trouble, the two left the bar and ended up in a hallway, and this time there were few people who tried to clean off the mess caused by the culprits. Eugene came closer to the woman and shared his concern regarding the little information they got.

"Hey, Beatrice, is it really fine that we are leaving like that? We do not even know what the hell happened in the bar, who shoot, the reason why my brother and your servant were blackmailed. We only confirmed our assumptions that he was indeed here, this is not enough to find him!"

The woman was silent for a brief moment, but as soon as they reached the entrance door, she stopped Eugene from leaving by grabbing his hand. She pushed him aside and noticed, "The one who lacks understanding is you, but not me. I would not hear any new information from further interrogation."

Eugene narrowed his brows and impertinently ordered her, "Then tell me everything you know! This case is as important for me as it is for you. Without me, you would not get this far!"

The woman widened her eyes in disbelief and surprise, but afterwards jerked her head, arrogantly gazing at Eugene, analysing him. The man, though, did not back off, he was determined to get the information out of her. Eugene was done with the silent treatment he received from her throughout the journey. He tolerated her attitude, assuming she bore the equivalent lack of understanding of the situation.

Madam la Avise stood silent for a little while, and so did Eugene, patiently waiting until she will give up on the secret. Luckily, their staring contest did not last for too long.

"Then I will tell you everything I know if you insist, though I would like to talk on the way to the car. For now, our sightseeing trip is over, and it is time to return to Vera."