SSS 2 - Damage Control Part 1

Something’s going on out at the pool. It’s shaped like a big avocado and a small avocado stuck together, with a cute island in the middle with palm trees. The white loungers surrounding it are all full, but the black uniforms of the resort staff stand out clearly. Like six of them are at the pool. There aren’t any lifeguards or medical people near the commotion, so everything must be OK. Still. All the palm trees and planters make it even harder to see anything.

The desk girl in the lobby turns away from those huge windows and the beautiful day outside, returning to her phone, only to shriek in surprise.

Three figures stand alone in the huge lobby, reflected on the polished floor. The desk girl didn’t notice them approaching.

An Asian girl with a neat bob wearing a skirt and a blouse, her face hidden by huge sunglasses.

A busty beauty with luxurious curls and pink highlights, dressed like someone who is only pretending to be modest.

And a brunette with a messy little pixie cut.

The brunette frowns and looks at her taller friend with the curls. “We can speak English, right?”

“Of course, you idiot.”

“Hey, I was paying attention to extradition laws. Not lingual practices. You speak Spanish, don’t you?”

“Are you fucking with me?” the busty girl asks.

“Of course. The reservation’s under Craven,” the brunette says, smiling at the desk girl.

Getting checked in is a breeze, but as they pull their suitcases toward the elevators, Aki drops back, phone in hand.

Amy and Olivia look back.

“Go on,” Aki says as she accepts a call.

Olivia rolls her eyes and punches the button. The suite is spacious and overlooks the pool area; they can see the beach on the other side of all the palm trees. Everything looks crowded. Beaches and palm trees comprise all of the décor, with white sofas and lots of Egyptian cotton. The room is fine; Amy’s just on edge. She lets go of her suitcase and goes straight to the mini-bar while Olivia goes out onto the balcony, leaving the door open and letting in the hot, humid, salty air. Amy takes her a beer, which she accepts with a sigh. Olivia gazes down at the people around the pool.

“Someone set fire to that palm tree,” she notes.

“Smoking weed. Do they smoke weed here?” Amy asks.

“Of course.”

“Because I could go for some weed.”

Olivia’s grumpiness isn’t lost on Amy, but she refuses to humor it. Aki arrives, and they hurry back into the room to intercept her.

“Was that them?” Olivia asks urgently.

Aki nods, neatly lifting her suitcase to the dresser and collapsing the handle. She situated it the way that she always did, then set down her purse.

“We have a meeting,” she says.

“A meeting?” Olivia balks. “What does that mean?”

Amy grimaces. “I was afraid of that. There’ll have to be some conversations. Right?” She looks to Aki for confirmation.

“Conversations?” Olivia stops to take a breath. “We did all that for conversations?” she asks more calmly.

“Olivia, this is the Yakuza.” Amy glances at Aki. “These are not people who have a high tolerance for mistakes.”

“We didn’t make mistakes this time,” Olivia cuts in.

“I know. That’s why this is our resume piece. But they know everything. We’ll have to convince them.”

“Oh my god. I thought we were good,” Olivia moans, dragging her hand over her face. “All that bullshit.”

“We are good,” Amy says firmly. “It’ll work. If Aki didn’t think so too, she wouldn’t be here. We’ve got this.”

“You’ve said that before,” Olivia notes sourly.

“Look. The plan was to be rich and famous. We fucked it up. Now, we can’t be both. That means one or the other,” Amy tells her, annoyed. “You want to be famous because you got caught or do you want to be rich because we’ve identified a niche that needs to be filled?”

“This business model of yours is crazy.”

“No, it’s perfect. Not just for Japan. If we can make Meredith Powers into a hero and turn CCL into a hit again, we can do it with anyone. Not just the bad guys. Failing companies. Greedy companies. There’s nothing we can’t get done with social engineering.”

“You’re acting like you’ve invented something new,” Olivia accuses. “This is just scamming people. Look how it worked out for Jussie Smollett.”

“He was a fraud. We’re real. It’s not the same,” Amy argues.

“Real what? Real serial killers? Jesus.”

“Mass murderers,” Aki notes disinterestedly, not looking up from her phone.

Olivia scowls at her. “Excuse me?”

“Mass murderers. Serial killers and mass murderers are two distinct things,” Aki replies with a yawn, still scrolling. “We are one and not the other. And I haven’t killed anyone. I just give advice.”

Advice which, if Amy had listened the first time, things would’ve played out very differently. The three of them would be enjoying the same privilege that Meredith Powers will be soon.

But she hadn’t listened.

“She’s right,” Amy says tiredly.

“Fuck it.” Olivia throws her hands up. “I don’t need to hear this right now.”

“Where are you going?” Amy asks as Olivia stalks away.

“I’m going to go tan and get drunk. We can go out in public here, right?”

“Yes,” Amy calls after her as Olivia disappears into the bathroom and slams the door.

Amy sighs. “Are we actually good?” she asks Aki after a moment.

Aki puts her phone away and nods slowly. “They are impressed.”

Amy has indeed identified a niche; the right opportunity for a startup to do some disrupting… so to speak. But every startup needs support. Aki comes from an influential Yakuza family. They can provide that support, but they won’t do it just because Aki is related to them. They have to trust her and her work.

Well, the work they did on Meredith Powers should speak for itself. To engineer a scenario that can open doors for a person and change the trajectory of an organization is a desirable service. Amy just has to get this business off the ground. Her dream of taking a shortcut to the top of the ladder publicly in America is dead, but nothing is more important than a fallback plan. If she can’t be the best publicly, she will be the best in the shadows. And rich.

“You should talk to her,” Aki says, sitting on the sofa.

“I know.” Amy checks her appearance in the mirror, then taps on the bathroom door and lets herself in to find Olivia donning a black bikini. It’s stringy with a high waist and some gold bangles. As usual with Olivia, it’s aggressively cheeky. She looks gorgeous, but her teeth are grinding. No pictures. No Instagram. They all lost something that night at CCL House when they fumbled the ball.

“Let me,” Amy says, grabbing the clips away from Olivia and taking over fixing her hair.

“I got it,” Olivia snaps, trying to grab them back.

Amy gets in her face, then wraps her arms around Olivia’s neck, forcing eye contact. Olivia opens her mouth, and Amy kisses her. Olivia’s all stiff for a second, but she quickly softens. She’s still scowling when Amy pulls back.

Amy caresses Olivia’s cheek, then runs her fingertip along Olivia’s soft, full lips.

“I know you’re mad at me,” she says. “I know it was a lot of work.”

“You bet your ass it was,” Olivia growls.

They all did the same amount of work. It’s just different for Olivia. She has the killer instinct, but she’s not business-minded the way that Aki and Amy are. She chafes at labor that doesn’t involve an immediate payoff. Months of stress and toil have led to this moment.

“Don’t worry. It was worth it.” Amy smiles. “And you’re going to love Japan.”

[ More Damage Control next Saturday. Shamelessly unrelated to this chapter, the Yurizine is out if you want it. A new story will begin after Damage Control ends. ]