Names and background didn't carry over in new made-up identities, but bad habits did. When the child had ran out, breathless, and informed him that he was needed, Karl dropped the cigarette from his hand and extinguished it with a twist of his heel.
He spared a glance at dark alleyway behind the restaurant for a familiar pair of cold steel eyes. Seeing none, Karl nodded at the kid and spoke back an affirmative in Mandarin before he handed him one of the cases, the lighter ones, while Vladimir now carried the other two towards the back door.
The kitchen was loud, filled with a certain chaos that the Asian people embraced in as much as they liked their moments of zen, calmness, and nature. The child scampered ahead of him, leading him into one of the backrooms guarded by two heavy-set Asians with buzz cuts, staring at the Slavic supplier with scrutiny, before taking up the cases he offered them and the razor-sharp smile that accompanied the live-free-die-hard mantra his identity carried with him this time. Maybe Matt O'Shea wasn't that far gone.
When the brief security check was finished, Vladimir straightened his black tie and straightened his dark suit before walking into the staging area for this deal, the cases of merchandise following right after him.
Once his eyes rested on his partner, he found it hard to look away. It had been months since he had last saw her, nevermind heard from her. But business on the east coast including private matters had sustained him long enough to be able to hold himself back and see her earlier.
For now, all he could do was give her a nod, from one business partner to another.