"Loved it," he said. Manny nodded. He was waiting for more. "Seen it about six times now." Manny nodded again. Jeez. The guy wanted more? "Who wouldn't like Star Trek with a Pine/Quinto combination. Or even," Josh grabbed a chair from the side and turned it around to straddle it with his hands on the back, "Karl Urban.
Urban/Pine was kind of hot. Still, that doesn't mean that I will ever put it above the original. Storylines, the idea of a whole new timeline, the entire original series was awesome. I wish I'd been born long enough ago to have seen it when it first came out instead of as reruns." He snapped his mouth shut. Passing on fantasies from a recent film was one thing, but he wondered if he had answered correctly for whatever Manny was asking.
Seeming mollified, Manny leaned forward in his chair towards Josh. Josh leaned in as well.
"Have you ever considered Pine, Quinto, and Urban?" Manny suggested. Then he smirked and sat back in his chair.
Josh wasn't sure what to say so he concentrated on
what Manny was doing. Fiddling with the main keyboard, the crackling of words they could hear was soon accompanied by a picture—an old colored episode formed on the screen.
"So," Manny said firmly. This was clearly his way of pulling them both away from sci-fi and back to the job in hand. "There's enough out there about me, forgotten son of an old West Coast family with fingers in pies looking to spread his wings into Albany, maybe reaching out to NYC
itself. I'm giving it another twenty-four and then I'm gauging whether I should be placing a call to the senator or through Alastair. We need to see how it all pans out and I need to do some work on that."
"What can I do?" Josh wanted to do something.
Anything.
"You up for learning a few systems?"
Josh nodded.
"I'm going to need a handler when I'm in the field and also someone pulling information together. I would normally do that, but I won't be here all the time."
"Yes. But." Josh sat upright in the chair.
"But?"
"Why me? Surely you have handlers and information guys at Sanctuary?"
"I want you." Manny's tone was implacable. There was no room for argument.
"Why?" Josh was confused. Why did Manny want him when he had fucked up so badly last night?
Manny just turned back to the monitors and shrugged. "So anyway. You'll need clearance and we need to go over my backstory. You already know my real name, ten minutes with Google and you'll know my uncle was Luis Altosinno. I may as well summarize for you but I do expect you to learn as much as you can about how the Altosinnos worked their area." He looked expectantly at Josh.
Josh nodded. Finding out more information about Manny—tick.
"My uncle was the oldest of three brothers, my dad was the youngest. My uncle was holding tight to a family, dealing with guns and weapons trafficking, prostitution, protection. One of the old guys who was handed this thriving concern in the late seventies and was there just as it all went horribly wrong. You know the story, gangs moved in, Families moved on. The Feds on their asses, new regulations. My uncle was shot, my dad wasn't even out of college, and it was over before I was even born. Dad, Vincenzio, hence my real name, took us away from what was happening. Moved us from San Diego up to Seattle and everything was kind of normal for a while." He paused for a moment and his eyes flicked briefly to the screen showing the Star Trek rerun.
"So you're saying that your dad was never part of any of what his brother was into?"
"No. Born into it though, knew enough to know how to avoid the main shitfest. 'Course it all caught up with them in the end. Didn't matter that my parents had nothing to do with the bad side of the Altosinnos, the surname was evidently enough. He couldn't avoid it. Dad was run off the road after some kind of grudge price was placed on his head. From whom we never knew but the cops saw the surname, connected the dots even way up in Seattle, and dropped the case."
"You never pushed?"
Manny did that shrug thing again. Josh imagined Manny hadn't left a stone unturned and wondered if he had found the person who killed his dad.
"Mom and my sister were in the car with him, I was in my first year at MIT and my family was gone. No one was going to help me." Manny sounded so matter-of-fact.
The statement was spoken so cleanly.
"Shit, Manny."
Manny waved the story away like it didn't matter, but Josh hadn't imagined the flicker of sadness in the other man's eyes. "I'm not telling you for sympathy. Jake came to MIT looking for a guy good with systems, someone in their last year. He said this Sanctuary foundation needed a guy who was an expert with computers. I wasn't happy at MIT, so I left. Sanctuary got me—reinvented Manny Sullivan.
Also, I'm good with guns. Jake liked that."
Josh wasn't even going to ask why Manny was good with guns. It was the second time he had mentioned it but that was a question for another time.
"With enough manipulation I can create a whole new persona and backstory based around the name.
Approach the Bullens. That's the plan anyway."
"That's dangerous and there's one thing that worries me. No disrespect, but you don't exactly look the part."
"The part of what? You want me to be six-two with muscles on muscles, like a thug? Or you want me to slick my hair back and wear a suit?" Manny smiled but it was an icy smile. "Hell, the name will get me in the door.
