Work and Play " Cameo "

It had been a long morning. It had been a long morning involving a lot of stupid questions, too much paperwork, a handful of very irritated people. That was the nature of Mr. Anderson’s business however. It was one of those things that the Capitol wanted to make sure was being managed properly. That of course was rather insulting considering the fact that Nathan was the inventor, creator, and main investor in the company. On top of that he was the main brain behind the development of the newest power source. Nathan supposed that had something to do with the fact that he was in a District. If he was in the Capitol, born and raised, there would certainly be nowhere near this sort of dictatorial oversight. It was a burden and in truth, it slowed down progress; especially because Nathan had no desire to share everything he was doing with the Capitol. They wouldn’t like it, and, by some miracle if they did, they would want a piece. Nathan did not have a problem sharing in the profits with someone who actually earns them, but the Capitol.. They were definitely not ones to really work for anything that had. They were masters of the smoke and mirrors game. Misdirection from the truth of what the real goal for the dictatorship was.



Nathan threw his dress coat on. He buttoned the two buttons on the front of the jacket and straightened his tie. He moved the silver tie clip down a little bit from where it had risen up a little from all the sitting he had been doing. He took a breath and ran his hand through his hair, looked down at his shoes and took a step towards the door. He closed his eyes for a moment and paused. He bent down a little, his left hand going onto his left knee. He rubbed his knee for a moment a shook his head; Too much time in the chair today. It was hurting a little worse today than usual. Nathan shook his head knowing he could walk it off. No worries. He reached for his hat that hung on the peg next to the door. He placed it on his head and turned the handle to the door, opened it, and walked out.



In a few more moments Nathan was in the lobby of his building. He spoke a few words with some of the employees that were downstairs at the time. He preferred to know his employees rather well. He knew the better relationship he had with his employees the more they would tell them if he needed to know. The peacekeepers were there to keep an eye on him and they must have been crazy to think that he wasn’t going to keep an eye on them as well. He could easily monitor all of their movements with the massive amount of security cameras that were placed all over the building. Security was important to him. He did not want to have any of his plans or ideas stolen by local competitors, and, least of all the Capitol, who, he was sure had their own engineers working on the designs that he had been required to give them whenever he signed the merger with them. It was alright. They were three years out of date from what he was currently working on now. Nathan smiled at the thought as he finished making his way through the lobby and passing the two peacekeepers that stood by the entrance to the building.



In a few moments he was outside and walking down the street of the city. It was warm out, and busy. There were people going to and from and that was well enough. He remained rather unnoticed, how he preferred it. He walked down the street for another few moments before he could hear what sounded to be some sort of music playing. It was an interested brand to say the least. He had nothing better to do so he decided to make for the sound and see if he could take a few moments to relax and enjoy the outdoors and clear his mind from the chaos that had happened that morning. Not to mention the fact that some walking would do his knee some good.. So, onwards towards the music.

Nathan had gotten to where the music had seemed to originate from. That wasn’t very hard to find. Of course, when he had gotten there the music suddenly changed. He wasn’t really listening to the music. His eyes were moving over the crowd of people that was seemingly filtering through the plaza. District three was a business district; a district full of people inventing and trying to better their district with some sort of device or technology. It is easy to pick out someone that doesn’t quite fit into the regular mold. Suits and business attire were normal around here, so a fiery red headed girl in no sort of business attire at all was rather easy to spot heading in the other direction of the music.

She did not seem to be much of a threat really of course. Then again, Mr. Anderson was not really ever threatened by anyone really. Either way, he carried a pistol, holstered in his belt at all times. He had rarely ever used it, or even told or shown it to anyone. Having weapons in a dictatorship government was definitely not permitted. However, Mr. Anderson had a lot of connections and was able to obtain an unregistered weapon rather easily. Despite that, he decided it might be fun to see where this girl was going and see who she was.

She was moving away rather swiftly and he wanted to make sure that she was not onto the fact that he was following her. He knew relatively well how to track someone without being noticed. Hell, it was rather easy considering the fact that he looked closely like everyone else that was walking around. He might be slightly better dressed but, unless you knew what you were looking for you really wouldn’t notice that at all. He closed the gap between them and kept her within eyesight, a few individuals between the two of them. More than enough distance for him not to seem too conspicuous. Of course, he wasn’t really sure why he was following the young girl. He could easily tell that she was not quiet old enough to be out of the reaping stage.. It was strange to see a young person without a guardian around with them, which intreaged him a little bit more. Either way, he would see where she would lead him.

The woman before him was moving swiftly. It made sense that she would be. Nathan was sure there would be some peacekeeper somewhere that would chalk up what she did to some sort of civil disturbance or disturbing the peace. Whatever. Most charges like that were told bull crap anyway. They were meant to keep people in line and for the citizens to know who exactly was in charge. Nathan hated that concept. The whole notion of a dictatorship was a complete joke. Nothing of the such would ever last forever. It had been a while since anyone had had an uprising but still. Nathan shook his head and snapped out of his train of thought and kept his eye on the prize.

The redhead had ducked into a small store and was looking at items up and down the isles in the store. Strange. Had she spotted him. Unlikely. Perhaps she was trying to blend in and not seem suspicious. If that was the case she would certainly not go out the back door. That would be suspicious. Nathan kept his eye on her from the doorway. He picked up a tabloid from a stand next to the entrance to the shop. Surveilance was easy. Perhaps he should pick it up as a hobby. He looked down at one of the articles for a moment and then back in time enough to see her coat slightly buldge as she had been on the liquor isle for just a moment. A small grin appeared on his lips as he shook his head. Young people.

Then the redhead did something extremely strange. She seemed to almost show off her steal as she made for the back of the store and made a rucus. Nathan had semi expected her to make for the back door as soon as she had taken the bottle, or, whatever it was that she had taken. In a moment he had turned the corner to the building as she had started darting down the street. A round little man popped out the door after her wearing a white apron. He followed her about a block down the street before he bent over, hands on his knees from the run. Nathan suffled past him swiftly and the man never even looked up. He certainly didn’t realize that Nathan was in pursuit as well. She had ducked and dipped into a few different allyways as to avoid her pursuers. It had worked as Nathan was basically lost as to where she had gone. Perhaps chasing someone wasn’t really part of his bag of tricks. He took a breath and placed his hands on his hips and he looked around the streets and allys. Better pick one and hope for the best.

He started walking down the ally he had chosen and a side alley came into view. He walked past it and out of the corner of his eye.. there was his red head. Of course. He did not want to spook her, if she wasn’t already. He turned and walked down the ally, still about 50 feet away from the young woman. He got to within about 30 paces before he spoke. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed him yet..
“ Care to share a swig lass?” Was what came out of his mouth. A strange line for him to say but hell, its out there now.

The girl seemed rather sociable. She had a moment’s hesitation whenever he had spoken to her. No real surprise there. She extended her hand to shake his and he grasped her hand firmly and smiled in response to her offering him the bottle and her name. He grasped the bottle by the neck and looked at the brand and the type of liquor that she had been drinking and nodded. Whiskey. Good choice. Although, it was rare to see a woman drinking Whiskey. He would have taken her for more a vodka girl, but hey, what did he know. He took a breath and then a swig. He felt the liquor slide down his throat and it tingled all the way down. He took another breath before handing the bottle back to her…

“ Well, it depends on the day really.” Responding to her question about the early drinking. “ Some mornings are better than others, and, in this instance a drink might be warranted.” He said with a smile. “ As to me.. Well, I like a good stroll in the streets. You never really know what sort of people you might run into. A classy business man here, genius inventor there, out of less teenager…. Right in front of me.. “ He said with a smile. “ “ No worries here though.” He said as he crossed her arms and sort of looked her over for a moment, trying to figure her out. “ My name is Nathan.” He said as he had almost forgotten to answer that question, or intentionally done so. He wasn’t really sure which. “ What about you. What brings you out here other than the thrill of stealing, creating loud music, and the feel of something burning sliding down your throat.” He said with a shake of his head. He can’t argue. The desire to break the rules had more than once crossed his mind. He was a tribute to that theory considering the pistol he had concealed in his belt.