Sweetwater

A badger with various underground connections. Real name Rupert Short. Views Mr. Reed as competition to be hospitalised.
Mr. Reed hires Conrad to retrieve an item, which Conrad foolishly shows off in a pub, getting Slick Willie's attention. Slick Willie buys the item off of Conrad, which Mr. Reed discovers and sends Gary Heart and Norman Gates to retrieve it. Conrad admits to giving it to Slick Willie, Sweetwater's associate, and both Gates and Heart immediately lose interest in finishing the job. They instead inform Mr. Reed of what transpired.
Mr. Reed finds Sweetwater's number and calls him, as Sweetwater expects. Unfortunately for Sweetwater, Mr. Reed has many more connections at his disposal than Sweetwater does, and Mr. Reed has fewer weaknesses to exploit. He toys with Sweetwater before signing off.
Later, Slick Willie catches Heart and Gates outside Sweetwater's hideout. Sweetwater introduces himself to them, threatening Heart, but failing to impress Gates. Gates criticises Sweetwater's monologuing, poking holes in the pitiful attempt to intimidate them (well, pitiful to Gates at least): 1. Sweetwater is there in person vs. letting a lackey handle it, 2. Gates has already lived through more pain than Sweetwater could hope to deal out to him, 3. Mr. Reed must have dirt on Sweetwater, or they wouldn't even be talking.
However, while he doesn't take kindly to being bullied, Gates has no loyalty to Mr. Reed, so he is willing to cooperate if Sweetwater would just be polite about it. Sweetwater asks why he should take him up on that offer, politely or not, when Gates already claimed to have no information on Mr. Reed, to which Gates floats his theory that Mr. Reed is a machine or a foreigner. Sweetwater demands proof of his allegations, but Gates admits it's only guess work (ironically, what Mr. Reed does). Gates proposes that they can either keep fighting each other, or they can team up to try to learn more about Mr. Reed.
They compare notes, and Sweetwater confirms that Gates is being paid through a front of a holdings company that doesn't hold companies. He also reveals the item to Gates, admitting that none of his contacts are able to determine exactly what it is. Gates thinks it could have value in regards to weaponry, mostly based on the way Mr. Reed organises his "work force." Sweetwater suspects Gates of feeding him lines to get him to hand over the item more willingly, but Gates couldn't care less about it and would be just as happy throwing it in the river.
In the end, Sweetwater hands over the item and considers everything Gates has told him. Once Gates and Heart leave, Slick Willie follows them.
Category:Characters
Category:Meles