<em><strong>Taikoo Shing, Eastern Hong Kong</strong></em><br/><br/>It's the middle of a mall, one of the many,<em>many</em>mid-to-high-level malls in this region of the Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone.  It's busy, but then again, in what remains one of the busiest places in all of China - though it had not been part of China for close to fifty-five years now - to expect anything less than 'busy' was to show certain irrationality or insanity.  Currently the view was wall-to-wall businessmen, mid-level corp employees short of execs and plenty of wage-slaves packed into the tea and coffee shop owned by Starbucks-NetCafe Industries Alice too sat in, the smell of synthetic tea and soykaf pervading the air amidst a collage of perfumes and colognes.<br/><br/>Her soykaf (or tea, her preference) would be better-tasting were it not for the handsome elven man sitting across from her, reading something on the backside of his eyeballs through AR no doubt, and sipping at his tea with mannerisms far beyond the level of those here, like a man from high society.  His hair was slick back, immaculately set, and his features were prominent and perfect to the eye.  A laugh, a sip, and a glance over to Alice with a smirk before he sat down the tea only to sit back, cross his legs, and rest his arms in the lap of his Synergist (c) Business Suit.<br/><br/>"Go on, drink, enjoy." he said, his voice coming out soft and smooth, the type of smoothness that comes not from telling the truth regularly "Every little nuyen has to count for you, doesn't it?  Considering how far in the hole you are with me and the people I represent... what did you spend it all on again?  Bills and restitution, wasn't it?  What a shame..."