A Mouth that Praises and a Hand that Kills.

[Undefined Affections]

Elijah shrugged. "Not a clue. You'll just have to figure it out." If he'd had any idea of how to break it, he doubted he would have needed her to do it. But that was still part of the riddle that he hadn't figured out. So he was stuck like this until they managed to get rid of the curse.

"I'd recommend listening to your elders, for starters, and leaving that sassy attitude behind."

[Calette_Sentrinde]

Frowning, Leyla stood up, putting her gun away. "You've got nothing to go off of?" How did he know he needed her at all? "Knowing what you know might help, if I'm supposed to be working on this with you." She was trying to be less snarky, but he was so frustrating, and he knew just how to get under her skin. "I just want to help you." Not entirely true, she just wanted to get this over with so that she could get him out of her hair. Same difference.

[Undefined Affections]

"All I know is that you are the last piece to the puzzle." Or at least one of the last pieces. There was still something that nagged him in the back of his mind, something he knew, but he couldn't remember. "I just need your help, that's all. Perhaps we'll find something along the way that will give us a clue." For now, he had nothing else to go on. He'd been keen on getting to Leyla and getting her to understand his predicament. Now that that was out of the way, he was back to square one.

[Calette_Sentrinde]

Leyla was slightly more sympathetic, knowing that he had so little to go off of. He had still practically blackmailed her into working with him, and he could have just asked to start with. "Alright." She rubbed her forehead, sighing. "So what do we do for now?" She was planning on starting off by finding a more suitable living space, she had only come in here to clear her head.

[Undefined Affections]

"For now, I'm going to retire with no more interruptions." Elijah nodded as he turned and walked out of the room, heading toward his own, which was more spacious and comfortable. He'd try to get a full night's sleep, and if anything stopped him from doing that, he wouldn't hesitate to use his gun. All of his guns.

"Oh, here, this is for you." Elijah turned back and pulled out a small photograph from his pocket, handing it to Leyla. It was a little faded, old fashioned, and it showed himself in his early twenties holding Leyla in his lap, both of them smiling at each other. "Your insurance."

[Calette_Sentrinde]

Leyla stared at the photograph for a few seconds. She was very small, in the picture, maybe five or six years old. Something about it rang a bell in her mind, and she frowned, thinking about it hard- and then her eyes widened, realization dawning. "Eli." This man was that Eli? She remembered him, faintly, remembered him working with her father, remembered the days that he would take over her training exercises while her father was away.

How had she not made the connection sooner?

[Undefined Affections]

Elijah nodded, blowing some smoke out his nose. He was eye level with Leyla at this age, but that didn't keep him from having an air of superiority. "That's me." He nodded. "If you want more, have your techie hack into my private files." He told her as he turned away and finally headed to his own room.

He was in sore need of some rest before he had to kick some a** the next day. He knew he'd have to.

[Calette_Sentrinde]

Leyla tucked the photo into one of her pockets thoughtfully. Of course she wanted more, but since he hadn't given her access to his private files, she would assume he didn't really want her in there. Normally, she wouldn't care what he wanted- but it wasn't worth another argument. God only knew what he would steal away from her the next time he was mildly displeased.

Quietly, she turned, moving up the hall to find a room of her own.

[Undefined Affections]

Elijah let out a soft groan as he laid down on his comfortable bed. It was good to be back somewhere familiar, where he wouldn't have to worry about waking to gunfire. Sleeping on the floor the other night had not been smart. His young body could handle it, but his elderly muscles couldn't take waking up so stiff.

Now that Leyla knew of their history, perhaps she'd be more compliant. He'd been too much in a rush before to tell her all of that, but now that they had some down time, he was glad that he'd gotten it all out.

[Calette_Sentrinde]

Leyla found an empty room, settling in and stripping off most of her clothes before she climbed under the blankets on the cot. For someone with such expensive equipment, Eli should have been able to get better accommodations. Wistfully, she thought of the soft, warm bed she had left behind.

[Undefined Affections]

Elijah was woken up by an alarm in his room that was meant for that purpose. But he hated it, hated getting up at a structured time, and so he pulled out his gun and shot at the speaker in his room. He'd get it repaired later. He groaned and sat back up, rubbing his neck as he stretched, hoping he wouldn't pull anything. He did a few exercises after getting out of bed so he remained in shape, limbering up for the day.

[Calette_Sentrinde]

Isaac was already out in the main control room, working away on his laptop. He'd connected it to Elijah's computer, for the processing power. "Aha," he muttered to himself, triumphant, grinning. He knew that there would only be a more complicated hack within a few minutes, now, but he was beginning to think this was fun. It was the biggest challenge he'd had in years. When the system locked up again, he cracked his fingers, grinning like a fool, and threw himself back into his work.

"Isaac-" Leyla stood in the door, blinking at him tiredly before she walked over to collect her earpiece from the floor. "Did you sleep?"

"And miss out on this? Please." He was surprisingly chipper, for having had no lasting success.

[Undefined Affections]

Elijah came into the room as well. It was annoying to keep getting updates in his earpiece about how there was someone trying to hack into the accounts he'd sealed. Approaching Isaac from behind, he leaned over and brought up a pass box. He entered in the code: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The accounts unlocked and Isaac was let into the system again.

"You're welcome." There was a hint of amusement in his voice. Elijah walked away and retrieved another smoke.

[Calette_Sentrinde]

Isaac looked utterly crestfallen, his toy taken away from him so soon.

Leyla just laughed softly, positioning the earpiece in her ear again. "Relax, Isaac," she sighed, dropping into a chair and glancing over at Eli. Apparently, he was in charge, so she would wait for their fearless leader's instructions.

[Undefined Affections]

Elijah looked up from where he looked at his blood reading device when he felt eyes on him. He cocked a brow at Leyla, wondering why she was looking at him. "What?" He turned away and began to take long drags on his smoke stick. He remembered Kyle's words, but chose to ignore them. The gum helped him out on special occasions, and this wasn't one of them.