FastFingers leant against the white railing that ran alongside the race course. He inhaled deeply, taking in the fresh morning air. This was his favourite place in LA. It’s where he came to gather his thoughts. Right now the track was empty, but come this afternoon, this place would be full of punters, all trying to make a quick buck on a horse or two. That’s when the fun would begin. FastFingers had always found that people were at their most vulnerable when they were having fun. Couple enjoyment with money, alcohol and the occasional line of cocaine and in short, you had easy prey. At least you did in FastFingers’ game.

FastFingers was a pickpocket to most, but a valuable asset to others. Whilst he could steal watches, necklaces, bracelets and wallets from anyone, what FastFingers really valued was information. Luckily for him, mobsters had a really bad habit of writing their most valuable information down. It was all concealed envelopes passed between thugs, through a chain of command until it got to the desired destination. Unfortunately though a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link and whilst mobsters would use petty thieves and the sort to pass their messages in case the law found out, it often meant their information was there to be taken, with little to no effort at all.

That’s what had FastFingers so excited. Today was a new day and in a few hours when this place started to fill up, he’d be able to get to work. What sort of a day would it be he wondered to himself. Should he feel a few pockets and see what he could find, or should he find a prospective client? It was hard to tell. He could spend hours browsing through the endless pockets that would be here later in the day and ultimately come across nothing. On the other hand, he could risk exposing himself and his craft to a mobster in the hope that they needed something stealing for them. That second option was certainly higher stakes and that meant it came with a higher risk too but FastFingers knew the benefit of that - a greater reward.

His mind was made up. He’d find a new client and with that he stood up straight, pulled his coat around him and walked towards the club house. People would be here shortly and he had work to do.

The last few days were pretty hectic and crazy for Desiree. Moving to LA sure wasn't an easy thing. Having a lazy crewleader and a lot of paperwork to deal with made her extremely exhausted. 

That morning she decided to take a walk and to try to clear her thoughts. She was still concerned about some of the papers that were nowhere to be found. Her men were pretty incompetent and apparently lost  them while moving. She had no idea if the papers were lost or stolen, all she knew was that the people who failed to bring them were somewhere at the bottom of a river.

Her concern right then was to find a solution to get her papers back. She heard that there was a new guy in town FastFingers who according to the rumors was the best at this kind of job. She decided to try her luck and find him but there was no need for efforts as that day the heaven was in her favor. She found him. He was near the race course lost in his toughts, staring blankly at God knows what. 

She decided to approach him.

"Hello there. My name is DesireeKaira. I heard you are looking for a place that you can call home. I might have a spot left in my crew but that depends on what you have to offer in return. There's something that belongs to me. It's an envelope with my name on it. It was lost or stolen and it's really important. Find it and bring it to me. If you succeed and manage to bring it by midnight I will give you a great reward."

FastFingers listened to what DesireeKaira had to say without saying a word, before turning around a few times to check over both of his shoulders. Had he been followed? It was too early for punters to be arriving or had he been stood at the side of the track for longer than he thought?

"Have you been following me? I mean, I walked up here on my own to be by myself and now you're here with some sort of task for me out of the blue. I'll find your envelope. It's what I do, so I'm not going to say no, but you shouldn't follow people. It's weird."

FastFingers smiled at Desiree and looked around again to make sure he hadn't been set up. This all seemed a little too good to be true but he was out in the open now and anyone trying to make an advance on him, would have been easy to spot. He removed a card from his pocket and walked over to Desiree, passing it to her as he approached her.

"Next time, use this will you please? And don't worry, I'll find you before midnight. Let's call it 10pm or so. Maybe even 9..."

FastFingers walked off past Desiree, and she turned around to see him walk away. Suddenly he stopped and turned to face her. He was throwing something up in the air with one hand and catching it, examining it each time he caught it.

"I like your watch. Can I keep it?"

Desiree smiles. This person is really paranoid not to mention the fact that he is trying to act really tough. She decides to play a bit with his mind.

"It's a good thing you got my watch. You seem pretty confident in your skills so I'll make things more interesting. You have until 8:59 PM to bring my envelope. There will be 50 of my men watching you. If you fail you die. If you manage to get what I want I'll take you to Katil. He will be really pleased to meet you."

She giggles as she walks away.

FastFingers slowly opened the door to the Memento Mori HQ and stuck his head inside. He was early, but he still wasn't sure whether this was legitimate or something more sinister. Perhaps it could be a sting operation by the local cops he thought to himself. He decided it seemed a little elaborate for that, so decided to proceed cautiously.

With his head poking around the door he  was greeted with the ugly face of a young henchman, who didn’t seem too pleased to see him. FastFingers winked at the man and swiftly opened the door fully. In almost one movement he removed his hat and threw it to the bodyguard who reacted quickly, catching it.

“I’ve been meaning to teach my hat stand to catch for weeks. Kudos.”

FastFingers patted the surprised man on the shoulder and grinned.

“I’m Freddie Garrett kid, otherwise known as FastFingers. Be a hero and tell me where I can find DesireeKaira please. Oh and do you want to buy a watch?”

Desiree is at her desk dealing with some paperwork for Katil when one of her men knocks on the door. She asks him to come in. As soon as he comes he informs Desiree that there is a strange man looking for her at the entrance of the HQ.

She smiles.

"8PM and he is already here. I'm impressed." 

She then tells him to allow the gentleman to come in. 

FastFingers walks into the office and turns around to the man who held the door open for him.

"Thank you and please tell the young one with my hat that I'll need it back before I leave. Oh and you don't want to buy a watch do you? That other fella wasn't too keen on talking to me. What do you say?"

The man also ignored FastFingers so he walked further into the room and smiled at DesireeKaira. He removes a white envelope from his suit pocket which has Desiree scrawled across the front of it.

"I'm ever so sorry, I'm early, shall I leave? Perhaps you're busy right now? I can come back if you please?"

FastFingers was grinning now. He thought he had made it clear that this sort of task was his bread and butter. Ask FastFingers to crack a safe and it would take him some time. Ask him to rob a bank and he'd need to ask for help. Ask him to find and steal information. There wasn't anyone better.

Desiree didn't look amused by FastFingers' grin.

"Ha! I'll stay. You know what, usually when something like this comes into my possession I open it and despite your little challenge, and threat I might add, I was very tempted. In this instance though, I haven't. I have no idea what's in this envelope and right now I don't particualrly care. Here it is, as you asked, and you can have your watch back too. I'm disappointed in myself thinking you'd come and find me wearing something valuable."

Fast Fingers dropped the watch and envelope on Desiree's desk.

Desiree is sitting at her desk working on some papers for her boss when FastFingers stepps in. He smiles and starts talking about something. Desiree is too lost in her thoughts that she doesn't hear a word the man is saying. She is thinking that he is too loud and overconfident. Does Katil really need someone like him in his crew? She takes the envelope and shredds it to pieces then looks at FastFingers and grins.

You are so confident and constantly blabbering about how good you are yet you failed to realize that it was all a set up. You see after meeting with you I found the papers I was missing. The papers were in a box which we didn't manage to unpack by that time. So I came up with the idea of making a fake envelope and give it to one of my men, the so called "thief". 

She crosses her arms and stares at FastFingers.

This being said I have to admit that I am quite impressed with your skills but on the other hand I think there's this side of you which is not real. Regradless of it I will keep my word. You brought me the envelope and I'll let you meet Katil. 

She calls one of her man and instructs him to take the gentleman to Katil's office.

Oh! One more thing. Before meeting you I did my research on you. The watch was fake. 

FastFingers followed the man along the corridor from DesireeKaira's office to what must have been Katil's office. He knew he'd pass the test, but FastFingers wondered what Desiree meant when she had said there was a part of him that wasn't real. Sure, he knew he was brash, but in his mind he had good reason to be - he was good at what he did. What's more, he had witnessed many a time when the quiet were stepped upon in this world and he wouldn't let anyone step on him, powerful or not.

Nonetheless, despite all of this, FastFingers knew he had been genuine with Desiree. He hadn't hidden anything and whilst he tried not to care,  he found himself a little annoyed that she had suggested he had been anything but.

FastFingers and Desiree's man stopped outside an impressive door that had a simple sign to its right that read, 'Katil'. The man grunted something hard to hear and knocked on the door.