The girl-woman considered the task, but Sveta had a feeling she'd already made up her mind about taking it. Now all that was left to do was pay her, get her what she needed to get started, and then hope that she really was good at whatever she was going to do. Devon better be right about this.

>> "Okay then. It sounds like I'd better get to work. I look forward to your info, and my first paycheck."

"Leave your payment details at the front desk" Sveta nodded with a smirk. No-bullsh*t, she could appreciate that. She'd have to make sure she was decently paid, as much as they could afford it.

>>"Tell Devon he really owes me for this."

"Oh, he owes people for a lot of things" Sveta grinned waving goodbye "A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Gartner."

It was a few days later.

Just a few. She'd worked quick. 

It didn't hurt that she had wonderTHOT to thank for a perfect photo op. She'd gathered some real beef on a Mafia head. So, she figured she'd get that to the lady in charge promptly, right? They'd just developed, so she hadn't wasted any time grabbing them and getting here.

As she walked out of the elevator to the office floors, the receptionist tried to tell her that Ms.Sergeyeva was in a meeting. Too bad! This was important! Plus, it was cool to barge in on a meeting with important info, right? They did it in movies and TV shows all of the time. All she had to do was slam the doors open and charge in!

BOOF!

The doors to Svetlana's office wiggled a little bit. Then there was a curse, and a grunt as one of them slowly pulled open, and the 12 year old woman struggled to open the door and stride in. She fixed her hair and dress for a second before looking up to see what she was walking in to. That was embarrassing. 

Sveta hated finance meetings. She could manage her own money, and she was learning the ropes alongside Devon about big company budget things, but she was far from being an expert, or even competent in her own right. She was barely managing to hold on in these meetings enough to make the few decisions she was allowed to make.

It did not help that something banged straight into the glass door. At first she thought it was a bird, but... that was the glass door on the inside.

It was a girl.

Everyone looked up and stared. Sveta blinked, kind of glad for the interruption and kind of embarrassed for her, and got up from her chair to walk over to the door and hold it open.

"Ms. Gartner. I assume you are here to see me?"

Yup. It was full of money nerds. She was good. Ash could smell a money nerd from miles away. She had money, and it was old money. Money nerds were attracted to old money like mosquitoes, so she'd seen them a lot when she was younger. Like mosquitoes she'd managed to ward them off by beating them with flyswatters. 

Sveta came to her aid, and she straightened out her dress, giving a quick nod, conceding the need for help, while not vocalizing it. 

 "Ms. Gartner. I assume you are here to see me?"

L paused, and looked back at the door. 

"This is your office, innit?" She answered shortly, and with a sarcastic bite. She looked around at the nerds staring at her, and sniffled. "Yuh gonna send these people back to their bean dungeons to count in comfort?" She started waving the folder at the seated people as if to shoo them out. "Momma's got an important meeting, more milk later! shoo! Shoo!" 

The girl tried to look dignified as she walked in. The others exchanged surprised glances. At first look, she could have been Sveta's own daughter or something. Not everyone was privy to who all worked for Haven, after all.

>>"This is your office, innit? Yuh gonna send these people back to their bean dungeons to count in comfort?"

Sveta blinked as L marched straight in like she owned the place. There were some amused chuckles, but Sveta shot a glare at them, and they promptly shut up.

>>"Momma's got an important meeting, more milk later! shoo! Shoo!"

Okay, so maybe that was a bit much.

"Please excuse us. I'll schedule another meeting to finish up as soon as possible." she said, and the finance people, stunned and confused, filed out of the office.. Sveta sighed, closing the door behind them and leaning against her desk.

"I hope this is worth the interruption."

The eggheads and bean counters were barely out the door when Sveta started to speak. By the time she finished her sentence L had already hopped onto the deck and smacked her folder down on the table, causing several photographs to slide out of it.

"Bam!" She did her best MRO'Lagase impression, turning to the older looking younger woman and grinning.

"Lorenzo Bagati, Local Mafia head, in charge of a lot of this area. Relies on his ties through marriage to the cartells in columbia~" She acted like she was wall researched on this, but most of this was common knowledge to anyone slightly nosey. "He is notoriously hard to catch doing anything illegal, but, BUT, if his wife, a daughter of a cartell kingpin, finds out he's fooling around behind her back? Well, he'll end up fittin in a bucket!"

EllaLouise motioned to the pictures, showing a young blonde woman, maybe 19, 20 years of age walking right up to the man, them talking, and then kissing a whole lot. "That's where I come in. My friend here got him to open up to a photo op pretty quick, if I do say so myself!" L was clearly on cloud 9, bringing this in so quick. It was honestly Exhilirating, this stuff. She felt like a spy or something.

"If you want more, I can go after the other side, but I figured this would show you I'm no slouch!"

L was nothing if not energetic; for a moment she seemed like a child in a child's body as she hopped up to the desk. The illusion only lasted a moment, however, as she slammed a bunch of mafia research files down with clear pride.

>>"Bam!"

Sveta jumped a little, and walked over to take a look at the files.

>>"Lorenzo Bagati, Local Mafia head, in charge of a lot of this area. Relies on his ties through marriage to the cartells in columbia. He is notoriously hard to catch doing anything illegal, but, BUT, if his wife, a daughter of a cartell kingpin, finds out he's fooling around behind her back? Well, he'll end up fittin in a bucket!"

Sveta's eyebrows ran up. She knew about the former part of the information, it was not hard to find out when goons were going around making it clear for everyone, but damn, that last bit was new. The blonde woman was clearly not the cartel wife. She did not look like much at all, actually. In another life, with worse luck, Sveta could have been just like her...

>>"That's where I come in. My friend here got him to open up to a photo op pretty quick, if I do say so myself! If you want more, I can go after the other side, but I figured this would show you I'm no slouch!"

"Excellent job, Miss Gartner" Sveta smirked, poring over the photos. "We can definitely work with more info like this. By the way... does she look Russian to you?..."

There it was. The look that said she'd hit paydirt. A wry smile came to her face as Sveta looked up and down at the photos, and then spoke. The eternal 12 year old gave a proud bow as she was praised, and tilted her head a bit at the questioning of the woman's identity.

"TaterThot? Nah, She's a local mutant that can walk through walls and stick people in things. Sorta neat, actually. I coaxed her into working with me on this." She sat up straight as she accentuated that it was all her plan. After all, couldn't let the Juniper get the credit for this! She'd worked hard on it, dangit!

All those google searches, and then stumbling upon the perfect person at the perfect place to make her look like a genius investigator? Hard work! All Tater had to do was french a fat man in a wife beater.

"Why do you ask? Something I should know?"

Ms. Gartner seemed pleased with herself. She was allowed to, she had done a good job with this investigation, especially for someone stuck in a child's body.

>>"TaterThot? Nah, She's a local mutant that can walk through walls and stick people in things. Sorta neat, actually. I coaxed her into working with me on this."

Oh. Friend had been literal. The kid had set the mafia guy up for a photo op with someone she knew. That was... risky, to say the least. If things went south, Gartner had just gotten her friend into a whole lot of trouble.

>>"Why do you ask? Something I should know?"

Sveta tilted her head, thinking.

"Because whatever part of the block this guy doesn't control, I think belongs to the Russians. Or they are trying to edge in, anyway. You never know what would get stirred up..." she sighed "Are you sure your friend was alright with being involved in all this?"

L was indeed pleased with herself. Tickled pink, actually. She kicked her feet up onto the desk and started picking at her finger nails as Sveta chimed in about the russians.

"Yeaaaah, working on that one. They are a little tougher to crack. Sooooo, gonna need more time. And money. More money." Did she really need more money? Nope. Did she WANT more money? Yep. There was a gold laced kitty cat hand bag releasing next week that she needed to live.

"Expensive, espionage."

She asked about her friend. Why did she care about that? L raised an eyebrow. "Oh, we took care of it. They sent a hitman after her and I tazed him in the gouch, like... ten times. It was hilarious." Yes. This all really happened in a thread.

"Ol' Tater will be fine, boss. Don't sweat it!"

Surprisingly enough, things seemed to be progressing. At least as far information gathering went. L had really gone the extra mile. She was a bit of a wild card, but not unreasonably so. And Sveta would have been too obvious if she started investigating the Russians herself.

>>"Yeaaaah, working on that one. They are a little tougher to crack. Sooooo, gonna need more time. And money. More money. Expensive, espionage."

Sveta arched an eyebrow. Okay. Maybe a bit too confident. Her and her friend.

>>"Oh, we took care of it. They sent a hitman after her and I tazed him in the gouch, like... ten times. It was hilarious. Ol' Tater will be fine, boss. Don't sweat it!"

"Oookay" Sveta raised a hand "Hitmen are not good. And I can get you some money, but this is not exactly on the books. I'm not paying you to fight these people. If things get hairy, get the hell out."