“What do I say?”

Julie seemed to be getting very nervous. “You need to calm down, you don’t have to accept every job that comes through. Remember they have to sell the job to you, just go up to her and listen.” Julie seemed to settle down a little at this thought, “I have never seen this woman before which means that she wont know you are new to this unless you act like it.”

Julie took a couple of deep breaths and whispered under her breath, “confidence, talk with confidence.”

Julie glided across the bar with Faux elegance that Jason recognised as uncharacteristic of her, but he had to admit that it made her look like a pro. She slid into a bar stool next to the woman and placed the mule on the bar next to her. Julie slid the drink toward her with a stern look on her face, but had an eyebrow cocked signifying her interest in the woman's request. Jason slipped in the seat behind Julie and ordered a drink to avoid suspicion from the other patrons.

“Thank you for coming over. My name is Jessa Conley, and I desperately need your help.” The woman admitted. Julie's expression softened if only slightly, “I'm listening, what's the job?”

The woman searched her thoughts on how to start, “My family was part of the first group of colonizers on nexus a century ago and have since risen to prominence in the upper city. My father was accused of sympathizing with the revolutionaries outside the city. The citadel investigators found reasonable evidence to suggest this and we were stripped of our political power and disgraced by the socialites in the upper city.” the woman paused for a moment as if for dramatic purpose. Julie spoke up in the void of conversation. “That's sad, but I don't see what that has to do with my line of work?” Julie's words seemed to snap Mrs. Conley out of daze.

“Oh of course; my father passed away a few days back and the city has already organized a gala to auction away all his possessions, and they didn't ask my permission to do so. In Fact a group of enforcers showed up last night and took much of my fathers private collection. One piece in particular is of substantial value to me and I'm going to hire you to steal it back. Its a classic “Tyson TYPE 2 cruiser”. I know it sounds ridiculous but this vehicle has been in my family's possession for over a century, in fact dating back to the old world.

Julie’s Fasaud broke as her eyes widened. “Oh, well this not what I expected..”

“We will take the job, but something like this is going to need a lot of preparation. What does the timeline look like?”

Jason spoke up to Jessa's surprise.“And you are?”

“This is my partner,” Julie started to say “but he's right, what's the time frame for this job? Its going to take quite a bit of work.” Jason realized that Julie was a class A bullshitter. Every line, whether it was the truth or a bluff, was delivered as if she knew exactly what she was talking about; he wondered how much of that she learned from the club and how much she was just inherently gifted with. Either way she was great at thinking on her feet.

“Well, we will have to work fast. The gala is coming up in a week, I didn’t think that there would need to be that much planning. I hope that's not a problem?” Jessa said, embarrassed by her lack of forethought.

“This Complication is not going to be cheap…” Julie rubbed her chin, “I think we will have to have a significant bump up in pay to even come close to that timeline.”

“ I can pay 100,000 credits now.” Jessa sounded confident in her price, but she could tell by Julie's expression that the price was not right.

“If we are stealing a car we can't just get on the fiber rail and ride it home. That price will barely cover a ship and crew for evacuation, and I can’t take a risky job like this for such low pay.” To Jason's surprise Julie stood up to leave the table. Her exaggerated refusal to do the deal came most certainly was a sales tactic she learned from the clubs.

“Wait!” Jessa was obviously frantically searching her mind for a new proposition. Julie stood with her back to Jessa waiting for the rebuttal that was obviously coming.

“What if I hire you and the ship's crew separately?”

Julie flashed a slight smile to Jason as she turned back to Jessa. “I'm more interested now, would I have my choice of ship and crew?”

Jessa waved off the question. “I know nothing about ships. Ill leave it up to you.” Julie picked up the mule and raised it as if she were going to give a toast. “We have a deal?”

Jessa lifted hers in agreement.

“We have a deal.”

______________________________________________________________________

Jason and Julie didn’t stay for pleasantries, they had one week to prepare and execute a heist from the center of the city. That meant high levels of security, high levels of risk, and no room for mistakes. Julie had made their potential gain from this job quite lucrative, it was very impressive. The two walked in silence back to Jason's apartment. Jason poured two glasses of whisky and slid one to Julie.

“How can you be drinking right now?” Julie said with a small amount of judgment in her tone. “We have one week to prepare for this thing and we have not even the slightest hint of a plan.”

Jason sipped his drink, “But I do have a plan, or atleast the start of one. To get the full picture I need the layout of the Gala venue. We also need a crew, but I think I know the perfect one.” Jason sipped from his glass again, we need this stuff fast. ‘Give me your communicator.” he asked, Julie took the wrist mounted unit off and handed it to Jason. After tinkering with the unit for a moment, he handed it back to Julie.

“I transferred a list of things for you to get from the upper city, and the directions to Omars, in case you Don't remember how to find his place.”

“How could I forget it's like the only place in the upper city that I know. What are you going to do?”

“I'm going to see about our flight crew. My plan involves their ship and a tractor field emitter, which I didn't see on their ship when we were with them. We will meet you at Omar’s when we have everything Then we can stay there and we can come up with a full plan.” Jason stated downing the rest of his drink.

“Sounds good” Julie replied as she walked from the apartment before she turned back for a moment, “If you need anything else let me know ok?”

Jason nodded as she left. He knew that he was going to have to figure something out if he wanted to get a his hands on a tractor emitter since they had been outlawed for the public for over a decade. That issue would need to be resolved later, the job at hand was getting Sam and Eric to agree to this risky job.