He wasn't at the hotel. Pity. If he had been with her she would have helped him afford the stay. She thought to herself as her chaperone rolled up the red carpet behind her. 

Her next destination was... The station. She had him drive her there immediately. They had given her a list of Alex's past locations, future destinations and current possible accommodations. She had set out to visit every one of them herself.

"My dear Alex!! Don't be shy now."

...

Nope, not here. She exited the train station asking her chaperone to cross it off the list. "Agh, I hate the smell of coal rubbed into the air by these old fashioned steam engines."

During the drive towards the next location her chaperone made a tempting suggestion. "You could perhaps send your private detectives instead, Lady Varier"

"Yes, but no. See, as a mother, I must be insincerity-less, and using my men to hunt a troubled son down, would not be very sincere of me. Also, we're in a foreign region, so you needn't be so formal with me. Madam Varier would do," she said as she exited her extravagance-less car.

...

"Alex! Do it for Miss Joannah and Mr Vlaski! Lets give them that extra pay that they deserve for finding you!!! Come to mother!!!." 

Nope, not here either. That was the campsite. Strange, Alex should be only able to afford this one by himself? Quick on his trail, where there was the slightest scent of Alex, or even Jayden (better known to her as that Mitchell's boy), she followed.

...

"Sorry about, um, breaking your metal door, Mr Massage-shop-owner," she said, as she exited the massage salon. "See to it that he's compensated. Okay where next?"

"The motel, the medium priced destination."

"Yes, you can cross that one off, we won't be wasting our time there. That place is supervised by that stubborn mule, Beatrice Smiro. How is it going with cancelling the school trip?"

"Yes Madam Varier," he said, remembering that time they tried to buy Ms Smiro over. "The school is more than willing to accept our offer but it seems that the students have been fighting hard, against the proposal, along of course with Ms Smiro who insisted that missing youth cannot be compensated."

"No matter," she said, smiling motherly bitterness-lessly. "Send a group letter to their parents telling them the children are about to get in big trouble for bad behavior, and arrange a meeting for me with the police chief of the region right after we've finished the search. Okay, now where next?"

"The only place left would be Sunshine Saloon, where the trade was set to happen."

"And Patrick when is this trade? In six days if memory serves?"

"That is the information we've leaked to keep Alex here, but the reality is..." Patrick, the chaperone explained. Then he got closer to her to reveal more information.

"But before that, boys," she ordered her bodyguards and secretary to take a step away. "You don't get to know this one."

***

"So this Chris"

"Is actually Christina, yes. She was assigned by the overseas party to watch over the trade," Alex explained to Jayden, who knew that by "the overseas party" he was referring to the one from Shanghai.

The trade was set to occur between the Eastcoast Fishermen and the Chang Mama's Children, a Shanghai triad. The latter is meant to deliver a shipment of weapons to the East Coast within the next 6 days.

"Such innocent names," Jayden noted to himself. But Alex heard him.

"Between themselves, the Japanese Yakuza refers to themselves as chivalrous organisations. The Italian mafiaso call themselves men of honor. To those who grew up under the protection of law, it would seem that these titles, bonds, and values, are pretentious," Alex explained. "But they're not. Among the brotherhood, most of us sees Karl as a real brother. Even me, sometimes I wonder if 'boss Karl Watson' is closer to me than 'family drop-out Karl Watson'."

Jayden listened quietly while working on reaching a connection with the GPS locators, as Alex continued.

"The Eastcoast Fishermen probably began as modest fishermen, and I have no doubts that they still contribute to the majority of the east coast fishing market even to this day. Meanwhile, there has been rumors regarding the origin of Chang Mama's Children, that they started as no more than hungry street rats needing a place to belong, before they found Chang Mama."

"How could you say that?" Jayden asked, not knowing what's going on inside Alex's head. "While sharpening that blade?"

"It's the same reason I didn't go vegan, nor will I go around killing random people. I was born and raised to become accustomed to a certain level of sin, I don't have to go out of my way to change that for its own sake."

Jayden rested his hands on Alex's shoulders. He sort of liked the dark, contemplative side of Alex.

"I've reached a stable connection with the GPS locators you've injected into her. And it seems that she is... heading towards the docks."

"She's trying to warn the Fishermen, but if our sources are correct they'd be holding a gathering out at Garak Islands"

"-But your sources are wrong."

It was Luke, who entered the room without knocking. "The trade is going to happen tonight, at the Sunshine Saloon."

"Yo Luke!!!" Alex shouted in joy at Luke, who patted him on the head. Though Alex growled and ducked away while flatting bits of his hair.

"We've received an emergency correspondence from one of our informers." Luke said, dropping the letter on top of Jayden laptop. "You should head out tonight."

"We will now," Alex said, tucking in his shirt and putting on his jacket. "Hey Pajamas, do you remember what we've ran though this afternoon?"

"Yeah," Jayden assured him. "But are you sure you don't want Luke to go with you instead?"

"It has to be you, Pajamas." Alex said, exiting the room with him. "If we're lucky you'll see why tonight."

What what does he mean? Jayden was slightly confused but he thought he'd ask Alex on the way. 

"Oh and Alex?" Luke stopped them. "It seems that someone with a huge regional influence is here, and they're trying to hide their presence. Be careful 'kay?"

The conversation ended with all three of them being seriously mistaken about what's going to happen.

The first is that Alex thinking that they'd get lucky, which of course they won't. The second is that Jayden thinking that Alex would be with him en route.

***

"And the third of course, is that I am globally affluent," she said to the leader of the Eastcoast Fishermen, who sat before her. "And so for the above reasons you will do the following. You will begin by making sure that our raid on the Sunshine Saloon is, evidence-less. You will then "trade" this crate here tonight. You will fight Alex when he comes. He will get away with the crate, and the real trade will occur three days later."

"Why alter the date again?" The leader asked, but not without adding. "...Lady Varier?"

Sip. 

Sorry about that, she was feeling a little thirsty. She put down her glass.

"Because this little tramp here tried to betray us for a chance to sleep with my dear Alex," she asked for Christina, bound by her hands and feet, to be dragged in to show everyone at the saloon. "He would have acted immediately even if we didn't change the date, it's better to make it look like the facade was broken."

Sip.

There was that light gingery tang that she loved to spice up a cocktail. She locked how the glass knocks on the padding on the redwood table as she sets it down. 

She was determined to end Alex and Karl's little role-playing charade once and for all.

CHAPTER END

XXX

"Hey Alex," Jayden said to him across the phone. It was their daily love-call. "Just a thought but have you done it with Karl before? I mean it's not incest if you can't have kids right?"

"Ummm," Alex said, a little embarassed. "He did show me how it works sure."

"But he's pretty hot right?" Jayden said, walking up to his front door. "I mean, you're pretty narcissistic about your own body image and he looks just like you so-"

"What do you mean by narcissistic?!?" Alex shouted across the phone. "I'm just good at knowing what turns you on."

"By projecting your own fetishes onto me right? And also by stealing my diary."

"Ummm, about that," Alex said, quickly putting the crates away. He was going through their old stuff in the Attic, again.

"Yep, and remember how you agreed to a punishment?" Jayden said, knocking on the door. The keys weren't underneath the front door mat, nor in the garden gnome.

"Coming!" Alex said, dusting the dirt and cobwebs off himself. 

He opened the door to find Jayden... with a guest.

"Alex. Let me introduce you to 'denied and desperate Karl Watson'."