Warehouse Number 31 [Erzsébet]

[Marko Iliev]

Warehouse number 31 was not a particularly exciting location; with its rugged cast iron walls and ceiling and plain lighting, it was just another wide open undercover space that had various uses - construction, storage, the like. Sat between two other warehouses, it was really nothing special. Marko had originally made the purchase off-hand. He'd idealised the construction of a custom airship within its walls, but that plan never came to fruition. He had money, but not quite that much money. It became just another business to him, after that. Usually some oddball Inventor would want the space for a bigger project, and the income came from those rentals.

"Eighty Florins for the remainder of the week." He demanded loudly - loud enough so that the current tenant could hear over the consistent whirring and clunking of his machine.

The Inventor stopped the noise, adjusting the goggles over his eyes and leaning closer to the piece of metal he was working on to apparently fix a small detail. "Fifty." His answer was short and non-chalant; he didn't seem to care to listen.

"Eighty." Marko lowered his voice and narrowed his eyes, leaning against the rusted wall near to the warehouse doors.

"Fifty." The Inventor made a face like he was squinting beneath his goggles.

Fucking cheapskate Inventors. "Your time's up. Eighty, or you can pack up and leave now."

"I don't have eighty."

Marko did all he could not to hit his face with the palm of his hand. "Then pack up and leave!" He said in a slow, matter-of-fact tone. Was this guy ignorant, or was he just stupid?

"I'm not finished. I need another week, at the least."

The more the conversation dragged on, the more irritated he became. It carried on for at least another minute; all the while, the Inventor continued his ministrations, happy to ignore most of what Marko was saying over and over, until he finally lost it with him.

"Fifty, then!" He demanded, glowering. "Give me the fifty now, and give me the other thirty when you have it!"

"Oh. I don't have the fifty on me." The Inventor replied, and he begun to make a scraping noise with the tool in hand.

With an irate hiss, Marko kicked the base of the machine hard, causing the inside to clunk. That seemed to shake the apathetic Inventor, with a jolt, out of his focused mindset. "Go shove this fucking contraption up your ass!" He yelled, throwing his hands up, making a brisk turn on his heel and striding towards the doors. He needed some fresh air. And tobacco. And some alcohol would probably help, too.

[paprikathenewsalt]

Usually, Erzsébet didn't do her rounds on her own. It wasn't because she felt insecure or anything, after all, she was pretty confident she could handle nearly anything thrown her way, but it was nice to have some companionship while walking around the city and making sure everything was going well.

And when it came to the neighbourhoods in the Southern District, it was suggested to all in her platoon that going with one or two members of their squad wouldn't be a bad thing. But Eric and Les were going to be *ahem* held up for a while, and she wasn't willing to interrupt them. As much as she would have enjoyed staying with them, she did have a job to do, and she was sure something or another was up in the Factory District today. There generally was, after all.

As if to confirm this, Erzsébet could hear an awful lot of noise coming from the warehouses nearby. Not that this was unusual or anything, seeing as there were a lot of crackpot inventors that hung around the area, but it never hurt to check things out and make sure everything was running smoothly.

Well, as smoothly as things could run in the Southern District, she noted wryly.

Or perhaps not as smoothly at all, if the commotion she could hear coming from the 31st warehouse was a sign. Erzsébet furrowed her brow, a small frown playing on her lips. Seems she'd have to investigate the area on her own, then.

She walked over to the doors of the rusty looking building, unsurprised at the amount of noise coming from inside: From what she could gather, some large project was in the midst of its creation. Was being the key word, what with the fact she could hear someone yelling angrily; the words were almost recognizable, but not quite since the thick walls were muffling them.

Her frown became more pronounced as she prepared to slam her fist on the door, intent on checking that everything was in order-- As much order as things generally were in this part of the city. Which was to say, anything above an actual crime being committed.

[Marko Iliev]

One hand reaching into the inside pocket of his coat for the little cigarette box he kept safe in there (next to other things, like his wallet and usually his gun, should he need to carry it around; now was not such a time), his other lifted towards the bolt of the doors. Marko wrenched it open in one easy, yet aggrivated heave, proceeding to near tear it back open and storm outside when he came face to face with someone who had apparently been waiting behind the hefty iron divider, ready to knock.

The military. Or rather, a military woman... Unfortunately.

He froze in place, keeping a firm grip on the door, retaining his balance and doing everything he could not to walk straight into her, the scowl on his face dropping into a mere frown. He stared at her for a moment, then cocked an eyebrow. What was the military doing snooping around his warehouse? Actually, he could think of a few good reasons why… That aside, still irritated, his tone of voice didn’t soften from before when he spoke up. “Can I help you?”

[paprikathenewsalt]

Erzsébet was about a few inches away from accidentally punching the man's chest before she quickly pulled her fist back to hold her arms behind her, spine rimrod straight, head held high, expression neutral with just a hint of a frown.

She always had to come across the irritated ones, didn't she? Hopefully he wouldn't cause too much of a fuss so that she could execute her job quickly and in peace. A hope wasted, she knew, but surprises did occasionally happen; maybe it would happen today as well.

"Pardon the interruption, sir," she began, deciding trying to sneak a glance behind the taller male wouldn't be worth it since she felt it was more important to look professional; besides, there was no way she would manage to get a good look with the height difference she was facing. She wouldn't have even needed to do this if Les had been here, the man was considerably taller than her and would have peered over this guy's shoulder with ease. "But I require that you allow me to verify that everything is in order."

She took the man's appearance in: Typical clothing found in this area, though the material didn't seem too overused; a trenchcoat for no reason she could fathom outside of the usual 'might be concealing a weapon in there' suspicion (or maybe he just wanted to look mysterious or alluring, she had seen some guys dress stupidly like that before); unhappy expression; body taught as if he was ready to kick the door open or shove her out of the way... Great, he wasn't going to make her job easy for her, was he?

"Simply normal procedures, you understand," she added, because maybe if she stated this wasn't due to some personal vendetta or because she wanted to fuck around with someone's precious time, he would let her get this over with as fast as possible. "You are the owner of the place, I presume?"

She spoke that last bit almost as an afterthought; if she wasn't speaking with the owner but instead with an employee, this would take much longer than was necessary. And she rather hoped she would be able to get back to Eric and Les before they finished. At some point, maybe.

[Marko Iliev]

The grating sound of the Inventor continuing with the construction of his machine - the scraping and the banging and the occasional whistle of released steam - rattled around the interior of the warehouse, causing Marko to wince ever so slightly. "That would be me, yes." He replied to her question through gritted teeth. 'Simply normal procedures', she had said. Well, Marko didn't like his property being searched, especially not by the military (but really, who did?), however, that was somewhat of a relief to hear. At the very least, she was not here to find him accused of anything. Were the military to come arrest him, they'd surely have sent several men, as opposed to just the one woman.

He made a glance back over his shoulder breifly, before turning back to her again. "I've a... Client working inside." He stressed the word 'client' bitterly. "So make it quick."

[paprikathenewsalt]

Erzsébet didn't even budge at the noise, what with having grown used to it a long time ago; she did, however, find herself having to do her best to suppress a look of sympathy for the poor guy. Inventors were never easy to handle, and the one currently working sounded awfully immersed in their project.

However, that was quickly replaced by a small sense of annoyance at being told to speed things up; as if she didn't already know that. "Sir, I will take as much time as I need, but as long as there are no interruptions or disruptions, I can assure you it won't take too long." Her tone was neutral but curt, mostly because she was trying not to tell the guy to get the hell off of her back, she knew what she was doing. She had been working for the army for the past seven years, after all, and the only reason she still had her position was because she was efficient in her work.

She toyed with the idea of simply shoving the man aside and forcing her way in, but she had no real bone to pick with this man and Erzsébet, unlike some of the other men in different squads, still felt respect for the citizens of this city and did her best to treat them gently. They had enough to go through, she didn't need to bully them just because of her position on top of all that.

Though she knew this would probably come off as odd, she decided to ask him to enter; usually, those with little to hide or who didn't completely loath the army stepped aside. She kept an eye out for hesitation and reluctance, it was generally a good indicator for anything that was amiss.

"Care to let me inside and possibly show me around? I may have to ask you to let me look at things more closely and other such things, but for the most part, so long as you cooperate and show me what the place is like, I can get back to doing my rounds faster."

Either this would calm him down or irritate him more; it didn't really matter, however, as long as he did as he was told and gave her no sign of hiding anything. She could live with the resentment most folk had against those in uniform, after all, but she needed to know whether he would cause unnecessary trouble or not.

[Marko Iliev]

So she did want to take a look around, after all... Great. Marko didn't keep anything accusing - or, in that respect, important - stored in the warehouse. Perish the thought; when renting it out like he did, anyone could have gotten their hands on his belongings. Documents and the like were all kept locked away in the safety of his house - in a locked box, so that even his housekeeper couldn't pry. Hence, he really didn't have a good reason to deny showing the woman around... Asides from his grudge against the military, and the fact the Inventor was working - loudly - in the middle of the room.

Still disgruntled, he took a step back from the doorway to allow her inside. "Come in, then." He made a backward nod with his head, motioning for her to proceed over the threshold. Meanwhile he tucked his cigarette box back inside his coat; a smoke would have to wait until later, so it seemed.

[paprikathenewsalt]

Erzsébet nodded briefly before stepping inside to the sudden explosion of noise that came to greet her; she could have flashed the man a smile, as she usually did when she made impromtu searches such as this, but she was still ticked off about earlier.

Besides, the man clearly resented the fact she was part of the military: He might have gotten offended if she tried showing any signs of friendship. (This wasn't always the case, granted, but judging from past experiences, it was best to keep this as impersonal as possible.)

At first glance, the interior of the warehouse was very much what she remembered most of them to be like: Large, with a tin-and-concrete sort of appearance, more space than was being used, bright lighting that made everything look dull and artificial, steel grate sidewalks close to the ceiling. And then, there was the Inventor's contraption.

She wasn't even all that sure what his goal was (from what she could tell, this inventor was a man, at any rate), but she knew better than to question it. Whatever it was, either it would fail spectacularly, succeed beautifully, or end up going in a direction no one had even expected. But she didn't have time to figure out what he was doing, she wanted to get this over with.

"How long have you owned this warehouse, sir?" she asked, glancing over the steel staircase and the small door near the back of the large room. She decided that the room would be a good place to start. "And what's behind that door over there? I'll also have to take a look if that's a room, you understand."

She didn't flinch when there was suddenly a shrieking whirr heard from the machine the Inventor was working on, though her gaze had snapped sharply in his direction. "... If you could also tell me how long they've been working here and how much longer they'll stay, I'd also appreciate it." She didn't need to be psychic to guess this was the source of much of the man's strife.

[Marko Iliev]

With his hands in his pockets, he followed her around on her tour of the warehouse, looking incredibly bored all the while. “I’ve owned this place for five years.” He told her, his tone of voice plain. “Give or take a few months.”

His eyes, at that moment, slid sidelong towards the door at the back of the room. “Behind there is the office.” He told her, unappreciative of the fact she wanted to look in there, in particular. Then again, if she was searching out anything unusual, the small back room was probably an ideal place to look - not that Marko was stupid enough to leave anything unusual anywhere in the warehouse, of course. “Technically, anyway. There aren’t any documents or anything kept in there.”

Once again, when the noise of the machine piqued up again, he shot the Inventor a harsh glare, resisting the temptation to give his loud contraption another friendly kick in the ass. “He has been here for two weeks.” He grumbled, before raising his voice to a purposefully loud volume, so that the Inventor himself could hear over all the noise, hopefully. “And his time’s up! He was just about to leave!”

[paprikathenewsalt]

'At least he's answering,' Erzsébet noted thankfully, chalking that up as a point for him being without suspicion. Though that wasn't nearly enough, it would at least make things easier for him if things suddenly went awry at any point, if that were to happen.

Well, depending on what she found, really, but that went without saying. She continued on her way to the office despite his claims of there being nothing of worth in the room. They all said that, after all. "Even if that's the case, I still need to verify that things are in order and that there aren't any unwanted surprises around." Not that she could really do all that much alone, but she was pretty strong and she was sure she could manage to take this fool on if things decided to get out of hand. "I gather there isn't anything of note I should know about the office before we enter it?"

She was pulling the door open when he answered her about the Inventor. Erzsébet glanced over her shoulder to take one more look at whatever machine the engrossed man was banging away at, not even bothering to wince when it made another horrific screeching sound from wherever an engine was going. "If he's causing you trouble, I suggest lodging a complaint to the police," she stated calmly, turning back towards the office and muttering under her breath. "Not that they ever do any good, mind you, but the army doesn't deal with this kind of thing unless it's important."

The room she stepped into wasn't too big, all things considered, but it was large enough that it couldn't be considered cramp. Not that that would have been possible, anyway; it was bigger than a broom closet and barely had any furniture in here as it was. And speaking of said piece of furniture, the desk looked pathetically abandoned against the wall, a plain lamp sitting on one of the corners, with a tiny pile of unmarred paper sitting on the centre; there was maybe two or three sheets at most, and the pen that had been weighing them down had rolled off onto the chair.

There was no doubt that the man here spent as little time as possible in this room, and she could hardly blame him for it. The only other thing keeping this room from being excruciatingly dull and void was the carpet resting on the wooden floor. "Anything else about this warehouse I should know about, sir?" She considered asking him for his name but brushed the idea away just as quickly as it came: There was no need for it, at least, not yet.

She stepped over towards the desk and opened the drawers; empty, more blank paper, a pile of pens that rolled along in it, the cacophony of sounds the Inventor was making nothing more than background noise by now. All that was left was to lift the carpet and make sure there was no trapdoor or anything ridiculous like that underneath it, and then she could leave.