Money Knows No Bounds

Chapter Sixteen

January 5th, 2020

1159 Hours Eastern

Somewhere in Downtown Philadelphia.

Alice opens the door to McDaniel's Pub. The aroma of cheap irish beer, various greasy foods, and some peoples midday sweat fill her with the urge to tell everyone in here that they were wasting their lives and that this is entirely idiotic. She never understood the purpose of pubs, or bars in general.

A place to just sit and get drunk away from home where, most likely, you will attempt to drunk drive away or make mistakes that will bring nothing but trouble. Drinking at home was better, in her opinion. You can get as drunk as you want, no cutoff point, listen to your music, and pass out on your nice bed with no problems. But, now was not the time to be thinking about such things. This isn't a classroom to daydream.

She walks over to the bar while, being as subtle as possible, looks around for John. Must be running late, she thinks as she looks up at the liquor logoed clock mounted between colorful empty bottles to showcase what this establishment had to offer.

She decides to sit two booths away from four men instead of at the bar. The bar could expose me if I glance too much at him. He is a smart guy, he knows to be aware of people who don't belong, she explains to herself inside her own head. They all talk softly while nibbling on a basket of fries and a few beers. Their conversation ends once the pub's door opens. Alice turns slightly to see who the new face was with her peripheral vision, John.

She sits slightly slouched as her hand reaches into her jacket to grab her phone, quickly snapping pictures of John meeting his men.

She can't hear their conversation very well, she hears bits and pieces. Every other word before hearing one of them speaking slightly louder than before.

"This guy can't be fucking serious, a mafia don?" The others quickly hush him down so they won't attract any attention from the useless, non attentive patrons around them. Alice notices John look around, but not towards her. She slouches into her seat further just to feel more safety of not being spotted.

She tries to take pictures of the other men's faces to send to Osiris in an effort to get more information on John's little band of guns.

"SAME DAY!" she hears him say in a raised voice. Not a clue what was the topic of conversation, she didn't want to know or care unless it was somehow about the job. She doubted it though, because nothing in the email said anything being done during the same day.

A few minutes pass before she sees everyone in the booth, except John, nodding. John gets up shortly after dropping something on the table then walking out of the pub with the plastic basket of fries the table was eating prior.

Alice waits a few minutes before leaving to make sure John would be out of the area, either grabbing a taxi or just walking, so she could remain safe. She takes out her phone as she walks down the busy sidewalk.

"Osiris, I'm sending you pictures of his guys, I need files on them as soon as possible in case I lose John. They would help me find him again."

"Fine," he replies through the phone before disconnecting the call. Seems he is still mad at their conversation before.

Alice just shrugs and uses her map app on the phone to find a grocery store close to the two apartments. She needs food and coffee if she's gonna be up all night. Sure, Point Breeze was quite a few blocks away and a taxi would be far better than walking, but she knew what time it was. The taxi would take beyond longer than walking. Well, it should, but people are assholes in this town so her walking while everybody scrambles back to work and leaving work for lunch will be chaotic and dangerous....to the people in her way.