Katarina Durand
"The fuck do you mean 'we're lost'!?" the woman shouted at the burly man driving the car. She knew she shouldn't have let anyone else but her drive this marvelous hunk of metal. It was a wonder that her goon hadn't scratched it yet.
"All I'm sayin is that I don't even know where we're goin, tis' all," the burly man calmly stated. Katarina suddenly managed to get more frustrated at his calm demeanor rather than the fact that they were lost. This nincompoop didn't understand the ramifications of this entire operation, did he?
"Jim, I swear to Christ you'd better find out where we are right now before I get even more mad," Katarina threatened. The woman sighed as she looked out the window. What a hell-hole this place was. She partially understood why Jim could have gotten lost; all these streets had the same, run-down appearance.
"With all due respect, Miss, this wouldn't have happened if we had some sort of GPS device," Jim stated as he looked for some sort of way-point he remembered seeing.
"I'm telling you, I don't want to give anyone another facet to track me," Katarina replied, staring out into what seemed like a void of penury and misfortune. It wasn't long before she received a call from a contact of hers, the same guy who asked her to do this job in the first place.
"Hey, what do you need?" she asked in a dull, monotone voice as she answered the call.
"Moonman, you seem diff'rent. Whass wrong, bud?" the man on the other end answered. His voice was deep and somewhat garbled; both of them used used speech modifiers for any type of communication, in an effort to preserve their anonymity.
"Nothing. Tell me what you need," she reiterated; she was in no mood for formalities or small talk.
"Naw, I don't need nothin'," the man stated,
"I jus' wanted to ask how it's been goin'. I'm jus' as much exited for this hoo-hing as you are,""I bet you are," Katarina replied dryly,
"Listen, I'm kinda busy right now, I'll get back to you later, okay?""A'right, a'right. I trust we'll be in touch. You're my man, Moonman," the man said as he ended the phone call. Katarina sighed as she put her phone away. She looked at herself; she wore a neat, yet rather short, black dress. Too elegant for this city, possibly too elegant for the expo itself. It probably didn't matter, she had her goons with her for protection. Boris and Jim both wore grey suits. They didn't like it; she didn't care.
"Say, Miss, vy don't ve ask for some direction?" Boris asked with his Eastern-European accent. Katarina looked at him, sitting in the back of the van. She was about to deprecate him for suggesting the very idea of mingling with some locals, especially in this part of town. Truthfully, however, they needed assistance.
"Fine," Katarina sighed,
"Jim, pull over near that group of three people. They don't look like any sort of gang, they'll probably be willing to help."Jim complied as the black van stopped beside the group. The group looked shady, no doubt, but who didn't look shady in this city. Two guys and one girl. The girl looked rather peculiar, with an eccentric hairstyle, while the two men looked rather combat-hardened, not an unusual sight to see. Boris and Jim silently prepared their handguns, in case anything went down; Katarina expected the only exchange would be one of information, not of bullets. As the car idled next to the group, Katarina rolled down her window.
"Say, would you kind strangers know where that Technology Expo even is, I seemed to have lost my way," she asked, trying to seem as innocent as possible.