Bound by Deception

33.1 A Confession

"The exits are still the same, right?"

"Yes. Well, we have a new exit in Madame's office. I don't know where it is though."

"I have no doubt it's under her desk."

"Are you sure?"

"She's cliche like that. Trust me, it's under her desk."

"Alright. The office is nearly empty today. There are some agents, but if we go through the Northeast entrance close to Corduroy Tavern we can slip past most of them." Kazuki looked up from the map that he and Aria were holding. "Do you have your comms? I know you guys won't need them to talk to each other, but we'll need recorded proof of her betrayal."

Aria tapped her earring. "Yes, we have them both. What were you saying about the agents? I know usually on the weekends there are around twenty."

"There's fifteen today. Two of them are my wife and Yasmine, and I doubt they'd try to stop us."

"What happened to the other five?"

"Dead." Kazuki's expression darkened. "They died in another attack on Thursday."

"These attacks have been increasing."

"They have. It's suspicious."

"We'll have to add that to the list of questions we ask Madame. Do you think she'll reveal her mega plan to us as easily as we're expecting?"

"Who knows? She'll probably think that she can kill us anyway. Madame's the best, you know that, right? It's the reason that she's the head."

"But we're the Gemini Killers," Sterling added, entering the room with a bag of arsenal and two water bottles. "Adding you, Kaz, we'll be undefeatable. Not even Madame can stop us."

"Tone down that cocky attitude, Drazek," Kazuki warned. "You don't know what you're up against. Aria and I do."

"Shoot me, then," Sterling muttered, dropping onto the couch. "How do you guys know that anyway?"

"Madame's punished us before," Aria said distractedly. "Before you came, Kazuki and I worked on a mission together. Long story short, we fucked up. Big time. Madame had us tortured by her hand. It made us stronger, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt like hell."

"So? You weren't as strong then as you are now."

"We had killed twenty people by then. All of them from the government," Kazuki said darkly. "Those hits are reserved only for the best, Sterling. Don't underestimate her."

"Fine." He dropped to his knees and pulled Aria onto his lap, releasing her legs from the tension that had built up in them. She sent him a scowl, and he shrugged. "Your knees will thank me later. What do we have?"

"We're entering via the Northeast entrance," Kazuki explained. "There are fifteen agents, but we're only going to have to fight thirteen. There's only one exit in Madame's office, and Aria thinks she knows where. Our first order of business is to destroy that exit, then, which will be your job, Sterling. Aria and I will get to the computer and work our magic."

"What if Madame is there?"

"Stall her. Keep her away from us," Aria said. "For as long as you can. Just...just don't hurt yourself."

"Hey, you know nobody can hurt me," Sterling said gently, squeezing her hand.

Aria scowled. "I'm serious, Sterling. No fooling around."

"Fine."

"Well, that's our basic plan." Kazuki rested on his knees, sighing at his handiwork. "Are you both ready to take down Hades?"

"Not really," Aria confessed, tapping the map. "But we don't have much of a choice, do we?"

"Nope." Sterling slung the duffle bag over his shoulder. "Let's go kick some assassin ass."

~***~

The plan that Aria and Kazuki had created was executed to near perfection. Just like Kazuki had said, there were thirteen agents in the office, all people whom Aria had never seen before, and all who tried to attack them. They split into groups to attack each person separately. Sterling and Kazuki, both using a chained weapon, managed to fend them off, and Aria using her favorite weapon - a pistol - disabled them in limbs that would eventually heal. She wasn't looking to kill them as they had once been her colleagues and she understood that they were only doing their job. She noticed, though, that they weren't as adept at fighting as other assassins were; she reasoned that they must've been new recruits, which would explain why they were working on the weekend.

The bodies fell one by one on the floor, soundless and unmoving. Blood stained the cotton shirts that Sterling and Kazuki had worn; they chose wisely not to wear their usual, expensive garb. Aria, in Nela's old dress, didn't notice any blood on her since the color matched the fabric.

"That was too easy," she said when all was said and done, and they were alone in the office in front of Margot's mahogany door.

"Eerily so," Sterling added. He took a stethoscope from his bag and pressed it against the door. "I don't hear anything."

"With that, you probably won't." Kazuki opened his backpack and pulled out a small scanning device. He passed it over the door, then squinted at the small square in the center of the machine. "There are some traces of heat inside, but it's not a large enough group to be a body."

"She may not be in then," Aria said, and she gently bumped Sterling aside to rattle the handle. She shook it three times, then slid a knife from the sleeve of her dress. Pushing the tip into the lock, she twisted roughly on the handle and the door cracked open soundlessly.

"Gentlemen first," she said, bowing and gesturing for Sterling to enter.

"How kind," he scoffed, smirking and sliding in. Kazuki and Aria waited outside, listening to the rustling and soft slamming that Sterling was doing as he worked his magic. Moments later, he reappeared, his hair tousled handsomely and a smear of smoke on his cheek.

"I've deactivated the defense system and found the main cameras," he said, opening the door to let them enter. "There's nobody here, at least, not anyone that I've seen."

"My scan showed that much," Kazuki grumbled, following Aria inside. The girl immediately strode to the computer system she located at the end of the room, noticing out of the corner of her eye the destroyed desk and blinking red light from underneath one of the wood pieces.

"Help me with this, Sterling," Kazuki said, drawing the young man's attention away from his girlfriend and dragging him to the desk. 

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We're getting closer to the big finale! And we also have a showdown coming up. What will happen during this? 

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