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In Edith's line of work, having her own Virtual Private Network, or VPN, was absolutely essential in order to coordinate with her handlers and middle men on jobs she received. She imagined Oscar probably had his own VPN as well, though she did find it odd that Rashaun and Mona would have one as well. They seemed on the surface like a good, honest, respectable business couple who made some money on their side, but even with their fetish business, there seemed to be far more than met the eye when it came to them. It spoke volumes that if Oscar were ever to find himself in a dire situation, like the one they were currently in, he immediately sought out his old Marine Corps buddy. Incidentally, Rashaun had his VPN set up to work the way Edith had her own.

Edith always tried to mask and disguise her work as thoroughly as possible. As much of her communication was over the internet, Edith used her VPN to mask her IP address and make it look like she was operating from anywhere in the world, randomly each day if she so chose. As she used multiple aliases, this would prevent any of them from being tracked back to any single IP address. Edith didn't stop at online anonymity either, as she had been living at an apartment that took cash for rent and asked zero questions. There was a slight chance she could still access some of her assets, but she trusted Oscar's belief that their homes had been compromised as soon as they escaped Los Feliz with their lives.

Thus, is was with reservation that Edith logged onto her encrypted e-mail and sent out a short, brief message with a hidden link for a real-time chat. She didn't know if she could even trust him anymore, as it seemed very plausible that he might have sold her out, but at the moment, he was all she had to go on and she had to hope that he could still be on her side.

"Foreign e-mail service," Oscar commented over her shoulder. "Smart. I've got a few myself."
"Completely necessary in my line of work," Edith said quietly, not wanting to have either Rashaun or Mona overhear them. "At least I know this type of service won't give up their records to the NSA. I'd be royally screwed if that were the case."
"I hear that," Oscar nodded. "Most of my work hasn't been above-board either."
"Then I can assume your Mr. Avad isn't the law-abiding importer he portrays himself as?"
"He's a smuggler and an information broker," Oscar said plainly. "He's got contacts all over the world, but especially in the Middle East. He's got a past, that's for sure, and it’s not one that I necessarily wanted to pry into. Guys like Tal-Haim come from that past."
The name sent a shiver down Edith's spine, though she did her best to hide it. "He said you two were like brothers once," she said, beginning to set up the secured private chat.
"That's a long story," Oscar said, looking away from the computer screen. "Look, all you need to know about him is that he is extremely dangerous and extremely good at what he does. Most of us look at this line of work as just a paycheck, a way to keep clothes on your back and a roof over your head. Tal-Haim.....Tal-Haim loves his job."

Before Edith could ask another question, her private chat room came alive with activity. What the hell happened?
Edith typed back a one word reply: FUBAR.
Where are you?
Edith already typed the words that she knew were about to come out of Oscar's mouth. I can't tell you, too much heat.
Then how do you expect me to help you?
Edith shook her head, wondering the same thing herself. I need as much info on whoever it was hired me for that job.
Is that it? Need to know where Hoffa's buried? The sarcasm dripped as much as it could out of typed words.
It was time for Edith to lay it on thick. My life depends on it.
I'll see what I can do. Check your e-mail. The middle man immediately logged out of the chat room. Edith promptly logged out herself and reflexively cleared all her history before she scooted away from the desk.

"That's as much as I can do right now," Edith said, rapping her fingers against chair's arm. "I'll give him thirty minutes; he's good at what he does."
"You sure you can trust him?" Oscar asked, taking the seat from Edith and lowering it for his own comfort.
"I don't know, but I've got no one else that can help me except for him. But if he comes through, I know I can trust him. I'll also know that he's going to skip town soon and go completely off the grid for a long time.
"If he's smart, he'll do that regardless if he helps you or not."
"I know I would," Edith muttered, leaning against the computer desk.

Oscar didn't reply, as he had already begun his own task. Edith watched in silence as Oscar rapidly went through page after page of e-mail from his own assortment of secured, foreign-based addresses. He would mutter things under his breath periodically, nothing that made much sense to her, like "....where are you...", "....right there...." "....already....", "....can't hide....", "....let's try that....", "....I see what you did there...." Edith was assuming Oscar was looking a way to crack Mr. Avad's database, but she also imagined that a man as careful would likely have his own VPN set up, one that would be heavily encrypted and to whom access would be heavily restricted. In her experience, Edith had been contracted to steal flash drive-hidden VPNs from certain marks, an easier, low-tech way to gain access to someone's computer network than trying to hack in.

"Now for the hard part," Oscar grumbled, wiping his brow clean. He set his jaw firm and once more began to delve through a new set of protocols that he had uncovered. He was now working with what looked like some very complicated computer code, his fingers flying across the keyboard while text rapidly scrolled upward before Edith could read anything. As her eyes began to glaze over from the script, Oscar grunted loudly with exuberance, causing her to jump. Suddenly, a set of small windows began popping up across the screen, each of them quickly blinking into camera footage of various places. Before she could try and make out where any of those locations could be, Oscar pulled down a new menu and selected something quickly, causing all the small windows to disappear, then begin popping up again. Smoke billowed in many of the windows, while on several others, vehicles with flashing lights and official markings were parked in front of a taped-off entrance.

"That's Avad's place," Edith gasped, pressing her face just above Oscar's shoulder so she could get a better look. She didn't need Oscar to help her identify the far too recognizable places she had been just the night before. She began to realize that each of the windows had playback options beneath the live footage, as well as a pair of pull down bars. Before she could begin pointing at the windows she wanted to blow up, Oscar opened up a completely different option windows and rapidly punched in a time value. Then, just as quickly as Oscar had gained access to this treasure trove of information, he began closing everything up while multiple download bars appeared in a small window. Every single bar filled up one after the other, and like that, Oscar was finished, going back and erasing all of his tracks on Rashaun's computer and the browser before he pulled away from the computer, stretching his arms over his head with a massive relieved smile on his face.

"What did you just do, because I'm pretty sure I'd be impressed if I was able to catch any of it," Edith said with a frown.
"I was able to hack into Avad's into a backdoor I created a while ago," Oscar said. "A bit of an insurance policy for myself."
"You say that like you thought something like this could happen," Edith said, crossing her arms.
"Something like that," Oscar said evasively.
"What were you downloading, then?"
"Just the last 72 hours of recorded footage from his mansion, off of all his cameras," Oscar explained. "It's probably the least protected portion of his network, ironically enough."
"Makes sense," Edith reasoned, catching on to Oscar's drift as she'd been able to do for the better portion of the night. "He has nothing to hide at his home."
"Right, but everybody else thinks otherwise. It's a waste of time to try and backdoor your way into any other part of the network, there's stuff that only he has access to, stuff so sensitive he'd know right away if someone was trying to hack their way in."
"Okay, but I only saw you go through camera footage. Did you get anything else?"
"I didn't need to," Oscar explained, a wry smile breaking across his face, tapping his temple with two fingers. "Avad has his greatest secrets locked up in the most secure network of all."
"So he dangled a fake prize in front of everyone, so that he could see who exactly would bite," Edith said, beginning to see the pattern.
Oscar nodded. "And to see how big a bite they would take. Your employer took a nibble. Tal-Haim waited to see who would bite from a distance. But those suits...."
"Took the biggest bite of all," Edith finished.
"We didn't kill all those guys," Oscar said. "And you know there aren't a whole lot people with the juice and the audacity to go in loud like that."
"Who then?"
"I still need to find that out, and that's going to take a bit of time," Oscar said. "Anyway, take a look at your e-mail, maybe your guy has something on that end."

Edith nodded, pushing past Oscar to bring up her e-mail. Just as she hoped, a heavily encrypted new e-mail was waiting for her, the sender name nothing more than a random set of ASCII characters that would change with each new message. Edith punched in her 20 character password string to open up the message, but found herself disappointed to see a short message waiting for her. "He's reaching for his tools. Stay out of the forge!" she read glumly. "The hell is that supposed to mean?
"Sounds like a warning, if I had to guess," Oscar guessed. "Your guy didn't do you much of a favor."
"He must've gotten spooked, he's usually a lot more informative when he gives me information," Edith said as she closed her e-mail and deleted her history. "He's one of the big reasons I've been able to keep a leg up on my marks and over my competition."
"Gotta do what you gotta do to corner the Korean cat thief market, right?"
"My record is completely clean," Edith sniffed, "and that's because I'm that damn good at what I do."
"Maybe that's why Tal-Haim wanted you to work for him."
"Should I be flattered?"
"You should be worried," Oscar scowled. "It's like I said before: Tal-Haim takes a good deal of pride in what he does. And what he does is use people up and discard them like garbage. He's had his eye on you for awhile if he was trying hard to get me to talk you into working for his people."

Edith's skin bumped up at the mere recall of what Tal-Haim was trying to do back in Redondo Beach. But before she could begin to contemplate just what Tal-Haim might have wanted with her, there was a loud knock at the door. Edith hastily closed all the windows she had open. No sooner did Mona poke her head into the room, her eyes settling directly on Edith. "We're ready for you now."

A different sort of anxiety came across Edith now.

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Tal-Haim's employers were extremely displeased with his uncharacteristic sloppiness. It was not a particularly enjoyable phone call he had to make when he discovered his men were battered in the cellar, while Oscar and Edith had long escaped. It would be useless to try a direct pursuit, as he knew Oscar well enough to know that the young American would have gone to ground and gone off the grid within minutes. After all, it was exactly what Tal-Haim would do had he been placed in the situation. However, Tal-Haim had lost on his gamble that he could cow his former charge into doing what he was told. To say that relations between the two men had soured would have been a gross understatement; they could never be anything short of bitter enemies since the old days. The old Oscar who did as he was told and looked up to him and Avad was gone the minute he had been betrayed.

Within minutes of Oscar's escape, Tal-Haim too had cleared his operation out of the commandeered Redondo Beach house, which by now would have been a smoldering ruin populated by little more than three bodies with bullets in the back of their skulls. The unfortunate young man who had lived there had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it was bad luck for him that Tal-Haim picked his home as opposed to anything else nearby. He hadn't even had time to ask what was going on before one of his men shot him in the back of the head. He was joined by the late Uri and Yuri, his bumbling countrymen who allowed Oscar and Edith to escape who paid the price for their failure.

He and his men drove calmly to Long Beach, just east of where they were originally, and set up base in an abandoned warehouse on the north side of town, one notorious already for its crime and violence. Little more than a boarded up derelict covered in graffiti and filth, Tal-Haim knew he could run his operation out of there without any interference. He didn't suspect Oscar and Edith would flee far. If Oscar was to retain some resemblance to his former self, than Tal-Haim knew the persistent young American whatever he could to find out just why he was betrayed in the first place. It would do him no good to go directly after Avad, he would have close to zero leads at all on Edith's mysterious employer, and he would have been smart to avoid Tal-Haim at present until he was fully ready. Instead, Oscar was likely to go after the faction who attacked Avad's mansion in Los Feliz. Avad already knew who those people were. All he had to do now was wait until Oscar made his move before Tal-Haim would make his.

Tal-Haim's thoughts returned to speculation. He couldn't quite wrap his head around what exactly Avad had that was so valuable that he was willing to sacrifice useful assets in order to simply gauge his enemies' strengths and dispositions. Whatever it was, it had to be absolutely invaluable for Tal-Haim's number to be called. Tal-Haim and his services didn't come cheap and he was paid top dollar. And as good as Oscar was at what he did, Tal-Haim knew Avad's strengths went deep enough that even Oscar was considered expendable.

It was enough to make Tal-Haim chuckle as he watched the local news reporting on both the house fire and the gun fight, decrying the violence occurring on one night. The two incidents would only be a harbinger of what was to come.

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Edith thought it strange that she wished Oscar would have watched her shoot. Oscar had excused himself in order to finish following up on the suits who raided Avad's mansion, remaining on the computer in order to save time before the two of them headed out for good. Somehow, her feet felt as vulnerable under the scrutiny of Rashaun, Mona, and all their equipment as they did when she came to inside the pillow case.

But there she was, fulfilling her end of the deal while her bare feet were thrust towards the camera while she flashed as genuine a smile as she could. Wordlessly, she pulled her toes back and scrunched them forward intermittently as continued to smile vaguely towards the camera.

"I see you already got yourself started before you properly introduced yourself," Rashaun said from behind the camera.
"Well, I figure the camera was already rolling; I did what felt natural," Edith replied succinctly, her anxiety beginning to shrink once she allowed herself to perform.
"Who are you, then? Our fans would love to know what kind of girl loves to show off her feet without being asked."
"My name is Elena, and this is the first time I've ever showed off my feet for a wide audience."
"Ah, so you only did private viewings before."
"I don't just let anyone enjoy my feet," Edith said with a wry grin, forcing the thoughts of her bare feet being molested just hours earlier by Oscar out of her head.
"Tell me about your feet then. What make them so special?"
"Well, I wear a size 7, for starters," Edith said, crossing her ankles in mid-air while she waved her toes back and forth while she reached a finger up to run along her instep. "And my arches are super high."
"Is that from you being really active?"
"Super active, I'm always on my feet, so I love having special attention paid to them when I'm not working," Edith replied smoothly, blending a good portion of honesty with her embellishment. Thoughts of last night were forced away once more.
"Your feet look pretty smooth and well taken care of for you being so active," Rashaun said. "Probably from all that special attention."
"Well, with what I do, it's really important I take care of my feet," Edith said truthfully, rotating her hips so that she could display the sides of her feet while she rested the heel of her right foot on the ball of the left.
"Bet your feet smell."
"They do, I have to admit," Edith laughed. "I haven't really found anything to help with that either."
"Have you tried different shoes?"
"I can't, there's only so many types of shoes I can wear on the job. I find myself wearing a lot of closed-toe shoes, especially boots."
"Would have loved to have seen a pair of those boots."
"Me too, but my favorite pair got destroyed not that long ago," Edith said with a frown.
"That's too bad. Maybe if you’re lucky, one of your future fans will buy you a new pair."
"I should be so lucky, but that would be nice."

Behind Rashaun, Edith saw Mona motioning to her silently to turn over. Edith obliged, rolling onto her stomach while keeping her feet elevated behind her, crossing her ankles playfully as she did. She was facing away from the camera, which she figured was probably taking a close look at her toenails. Edith looked round her to smile at the camera.
"I can see that activity you talked about," Rashaun said, "You've got some chipped polish going on."
"Yeah, I can't exactly give myself as many pedicures as I would like," Edith explained. "Just some regular wear and tear."
"But all things considered, your feet do look pretty flawless. Now, even with your work, have you always taken good care of your feet?"
"Sure, I was raised to by my mother."
"Was it a cultural thing?"
"Not really, unless proper foot care really is a Korean thing," Edith said thoughtfully, remembering her mother lecturing on just how she needed to look after her feet.
"I guess a lot of people would assume that of Asians in general, though I'm sure it's not always the case."
"Well, I'm pretty Americanized myself; I grew up in Orange County."
"No kidding? Where at?"
"Costa Mesa," Edith lied.

Once more, Mona motioned for Edith to roll back to a sitting position, though now Edith stretched her legs out in front of her, keeping her ankles crossed. She could see Rashaun swooping in to capture close-ups of her feet. "Now, you mind if I touch 'em real quick?" Rashaun asked. Off set, Edith noticed Mona rolling her eyes in exasperation.
"Sure, go for it."

Rashaun's warm hand practically engulfed her entire foot as he held her foot up around the heel with his free hand, running his thumb back and forth across her sole. Edith couldn't help but giggle just a bit from the inadvertent tickling.
"Your feet are pretty soft for you being such an active woman," Rashaun said as he continued to inspect Edith's foot. He stuck a finger between her big toe and second toe, momentarily causing Edith to flinch out of fear that it would tickle much worse. Instead, it caused her toes to spread involuntarily and made Rashaun beam.
"Just lucky I guess," Edith shrugged. She had always been afraid her feet developed far too many calluses and rough spots, but apparently, she was wrong.
"Do that toe spread for me again, that was pretty sexy," Rashaun said.
"What, this?" On command, Edith waved her long toes before spreading them out, holding them wide for Rashaun.
"Yeah, that, that's damned sexy," he said. "Where'd you learn how to work it like that?"
"Oh, well, I've dated a couple of foot guys before," Edith said bashfully, brushing her hair behind her ear. "I guess I just learned how to play to the right audience."
"If you dated a couple of foot guys, it probably means you probably like having your feet paid attention to."
"Yeah, I guess so," Edith said.

She never quite saw it that way before, and she had answered Rashaun honestly in that instance. The truth was that Edith adored having her feet played with. Her feet were extremely sensitive in that regard, and if anyone was able to properly push those buttons, Edith was capable of performing to such a level that she was sure her partner would never forget the experience. It was what made the night before so terrible for her, as Oscar had unwittingly taken something she loved and perverted it into something else entirely. It was like seeing someone using a treasured possession of hers in order to coldly murder someone. She may have forgiven Oscar for those transgressions, but it was something that she could never, ever forget completely. Edith did her best to keep it buried, especially in light of everything else that was going on, as she needed Oscar on her side. Despite his sincere apology to her, and the fact that he had been trying his very hardest to keep her alive throughout the entire ordeal, Edith simply couldn't let it go all the way. She just hoped it wouldn't come out at the worst time.

Edith could vaguely remember the conversation she was having on camera from that point, and it seemed both Rashaun and Mona noticed her distraction as well. The shoot quickly began to wind down. When Rashaun finally said "Cut!”, a massive wave of relief washed over Edith, who hastily stuffed her shoes on and briskly walked out of their makeshift studio, pretending not to hear Rashaun when he asked if she wanted to take a look at the raw footage. Edith had been enjoying the shoot up until the very end, at which point she began feeling like she was plastering a fake smile on her face so that she couldn't show Rashaun and Mona her turmoil.

She pushed into the bedroom, where Oscar casually looked over with a quizzical expression on his face. He promptly began shutting down Rashaun's computer, turning off his monitor first.
"That was fast," he said with a half-grin. "Rashaun usually milks these shoots."
"Oh, well, I guess we just got everything he needed," Edith said with a forced chuckle.
"So we're good then? Debt all squared away and everything?" Oscar asked, flashing thumbs up for emphasis.
"Yeah, I think we're good," Edith nodded. She needed to get the topic off anything that related to foot fetish. "Did you learn anything? Where do we go next?"
"Shit, someone's eager," Oscar said through a slight laugh. Edith didn't reply immediately. Oscar cleared his throat. "Well, since you're dying to know, I've gone through as much of the footage as I can and I hit on a pair of cats I recognize."
"I'm assuming they didn't get killed last night."
"And you'd be correct. These two are a couple of hometown guys, ex-Blackwater, ex-Army Rangers, all that good stuff any mercenary would like to put on his resume."

Oscar produced two print outs, placing them on the computer desk right in front of Edith, who was leaning over to examine them closely. They were a pair of mug shots, one of a pock-marked black man with shortly cropped black hair and a large scar across his nose, the other of a round-faced white man with a completely shaved head and a slightly drooping right eye. Both men were scowling into the cameras, while a placard with their information was placed in front of each man: Reynolds, T.D., and Vellano, A.M.

"They each served close to 3 years in Leavenworth for profiteering, fraud, and theft," Oscar explained. "As soon as they escaped, they pretty much left the grid entirely and started working in the underworld. They're just hired guns at this point, and they've done stuff for the Russians, the Triads, even some stuff for Avad. But the last few years, they've been getting steady work from a man named Viktor Kruchenko."
"Kruchenko? I've heard that name before," Edith said.
"Wouldn't surprise me, he moves in your circles too if he ever needs to acquire something he couldn't normally get his hands on."
"So what is he, an arms dealer or something?"
"Amongst other things," Oscar said, narrowing his eyes. "But he is otherwise the biggest arms dealer in California. He's got connections all over the former Soviet Union. He's been one of Avad's biggest competitors."
"So Mr. Avad was really an arms dealer this whole time, behind that art broker front?" Edith asked skeptically.
"Amongst other things," Oscar repeated darkly.
"But if he and Avad were rivals, why would he go all out on Avad's place? If he moves in my circles like you say he does, don't you think it would make more sense for him to just hire a thief to steal whatever it was he thought was there?"
"Nah, not if he thought he could deal a major blow to Avad's operation while stealing whatever it was he thought Avad had over there. He might have even thought he could get Avad himself. He probably expected a bigger welcoming committee."
"Okay, all that aside then, how do we find Kruchenko?"
"Finding him is the easy part," Oscar said grimly. "He's got his office in Century City."
"Then that's we're going, right?"
"Right," Oscar said, punching a fist into his palm. "Now we get to turn the tables on him."

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Tim Carlisle needed to get out of town, and fast.

Why, oh why, did I listen to her!? he kept asking himself as he frantically stuffed as much as he could into a pair of duffel bags, including a cache of a little over $5,000 in hard cash that he always kept on hand in case of situations like this. He wanted to give Edith Cho a piece of his mind, but it seemed like she too had gone to ground after somehow surviving the gunfight at the Avad mansion in Los Feliz. Carlisle was kept awake by the horrifying thought that he had sent an affiliate and a partner to her death, only to feel instantly resentful when she miraculously made contact with him and asked him to dig up information on her ultimate employer.

Carlisle had a bad feeling about this new employer even before he issued the assignment. He had never seen a job of such simplicity offer such a high payout, and it was only with reluctance that he went to Edith. Edith naturally snapped up the job and went about her customarily professional manner in preparing for the break-in, as she was never one to balk at any high-paying job, so Carlisle did everything he could to help her succeed. Asides from obtaining the mansion's blueprints, an increasingly wary Carlisle did his best to glean information about Edith's mysterious new employer. However, the employer remained anonymous and faceless in the dealings, but otherwise seemed like he was legit, as he forwarded half of Edith's payment to her as well as Carlisle's own cut, which he was stuffing away right now.

Against his better judgment, Carlisle began to poke around the employer's business again, only to get spooked once he managed to learn anything of meaning. Without hesitation, Carlisle sent out a vague, cryptic warning to Edith and began to make his arrangements to get as far away from Los Angeles as he could manage. Once he gathered everything he needed, Carlisle immediately departed his Toluca Lake apartment.

He began to allow himself to breathe, but his newfound paranoia had him constantly checking his mirrors in case anyone was following him. There were a handful of other cars on the road this particular Saturday morning, other drivers who went about their lives who may or may not have heard about Los Feliz. They at least were safe from the knowledge that Carlisle currently possessed.

Carlisle was still a few blocks from one of the major streets. Rolling through an industrial area, Carlisle made a quick stop at an intersection. As he began to drive off, a large white van suddenly backed into the street right in front of him. Carlisle slammed on the breaks, causing his head to snap forward painfully. The van's driver, a large, bald-headed Hispanic man, casually stepped out of the front seat and began to walk towards the back of his van. Mumbling to himself, Carlisle put his car into reverse and began to back away just enough to give him space to simply drive around the van altogether. He didn't get very far before another car slammed into the back of his own. This time, Carlisle whiplashed hard into his steering wheel.

"What the hell!?" Carlisle cried. He looked back at the offending vehicle, only to notice that it too was missing its driver. It took all of two seconds before Carlisle figured out what was going on. He quickly reached into his back seat to grab the important duffel bags he had brought with him. As soon as he twisted back around in his seat, Carlisle found himself staring down the barrel of a silenced pistol that had been jammed through his open window.

The gunshot was the last thing Carlisle ever saw. He slumped sideways into his passenger seat, dead.

-----------------------------

The woman brandishing the silenced Glock 19 calmly slid the weapon into holstered pocket on the inside of her coat. She took a casual glance at Tim Carlisle's face, now forever stuck in a look of surprise while blood began to flow from the gunshot wound. Blood spatter and brain matter coated the passenger's side window. Careful not to get any blood on her, the woman reached in and pulled the duffel bags from Carlisle's lifeless hands. Meanwhile, one of her partners took a crowbar and smashed it into the trunk's lock, causing the trunk to pop open.

"Couldn't wait for the keys?" the woman asked with a smirk.

Her partner ignored her, pulling more items from the trunk while the woman appreciated her handiwork. Within seconds, her other partner that had pulled the blocking van into the middle of the street appeared in a mid-size black SUV, pulling it alongside Carlisle's car. The woman and her remaining partner immediately dumped their newly acquired plunder into the SUV and piled in just as the SUV sped away from the crime scene.

Her phone rang immediately. "It's done," she answered.
"Good," said the voice on the other end of the line. "Return to the Forge and await further instructions."