Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Sixteen: Intel

Jubilee continued to watch the man who had just walked into the tavern, and she leaned forward as soon as she realized that she wasn't going to be free of his presence anytime soon. She allowed her forearm to fall into a horizontal position while her other elbow sat in her hand, giving her the chance to cradle her chin between her fingers. She tilted her head to the side and forced herself to say something, desperate to push at least a bit of information from the strange man. "Tell me... What is your name?" she questioned, trying to sound as casual as possible while still showing the man that she was the one in charge. It was a quiet method of probing that Jubilee had become good at over the years. 

The man looked up at Jubilee before his eyes narrowed. "Colt," he answered simply. "But I get the feeling that you already know that information. I know that you're good at uncovering information regardless of if you're supposed to know it or not. That's exactly why I'm here to speak with you."

Jubilee's eyes went wide as an expression of vague surprise appeared on her face. She stared at Colt for a long moment before she shook her head. "I see," she commented, unsure of how she was meant to respond to his comments on the matter. She forced herself into a fully upright position once again, and she tilted her head to both sides to stretch it out. "Why are you here, Colt?" The question made it clear that she had no intentions of proving Colt right or wrong about her knowing his name prior to their first encounter. Jubilee knew how to keep certain information hidden if she believed that it would play to her advantage, and this was no exception to such a rule. 

Colt glanced to Jubilee in disbelief before shaking his head. "You already know why I'm here. You know things, and I want to know them as well," he explained. "You've got access to a lot of information. When people pass through here, you hear what they say, and I need to hear about the things that others say when they come by this bar."

Jubilee forced herself away from where Colt was sitting, desperate to busy herself with anything else so that she didn't have to pay attention to his probing words. "You sure are bold in believing that I'm going to tell you anything that I know... That is, assuming that I have any information that you want. I've worked here for a long time, but there are some bits of knowledge that you simply don't come across in this little corner of the world," she pointed out, picking up a plate sitting on the back counter before starting to scrub it down. 

"I don't think that's going to stop you," Colt told Jubilee honestly with a light shrug. "The rumors that I've heard about you make it clear that you're going to find something out if it interests you regardless of if you're supposed to hear about it. That's how you function. Unless you have a way of proving that wrong..."

Jubilee shook her head. "You sure are a stubborn one," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. She didn't know who Colt was, but she already found him to be rather frustrating. Who did he think he was, simply marching into the tavern that she called home territory and asking that she talk about subjects that he wasn't entitled to know anything about? He had an ego, and she had to admit that she was impressed with his hubris. She would never have the ridiculously bold confidence to do something like that, if she was being honest with herself. 

However, Jubilee was lying to herself slightly when she said that she didn't know who Colt was. She was vaguely aware of who he was, but the details were distant and foggy. She never bothered to look into Colt more than she had to. Jubilee knew that he was part of a large group that was suspected to be involved with shady activity, but it wasn't as if she could force him to talk about that so suddenly. Colt might have been confident enough to think that Jubilee would be forthcoming with her information, but she knew better than to rub him the wrong way so soon after they first met one another. 

"I think that you're stronger than you let on," Colt began, earning him a confused frown from Jubilee a moment later. He continued when he noticed that his words had caused her to pause in her scrubbing of the plate she had picked up. "You pretend to be a regular waitress around here, but I somehow doubt that it's the case. Everyone knows you, and you've been here for ages, but nobody has ever bothered to ask you about where you come from."