Blood Oath (Ruby Rose/Ares fan fic)

Two

"Oh, my God! Ares, I'm so pleased to meet you. I just wanted to say I am such a big fan of your work. Seriously, I've been following you since a long time and I feel so honoured that you've come after me... Out of every hired assassin in the world who could have found me, it had to be you. When I found it out I couldn't believe it, you can't imagine how much I've been looking forward to meet you. Do you remember the work you did for the Italians in Boston? It was amazing, honestly, I saw the pictures with my mouth open. You didn't waste one single bullet, perfect shoots all of them. And the Washington one? Oh, my God! That was even better. When I found out that you were the one designated to kill me I almost passed out from shock. Sorry, I'm overwhelming you, right? Yes of course, you just woke up and here I am blabbering. I'm afraid that this is one of my biggest flaws, talking too much I mean, even if I don't talk to anyone most days actually... well, besides my cats. By the way, I want you to meet Bonny and Josie, or Bonaparte and Josephine if you prefer being formal. Anyway, I'd better shut up or I'll give you a headache."

Ares blinks to clear her mind before staring at me utterly shocked with her beautiful eyes wide open. I guess that my unbearable verbal diarrhoea would be able of leaving her speechless... if she wasn't a mute already. Damn! I always manage to make a fool of myself; I'd better control my mouth from now on. I smile trying to look calm, although probably I'm looking like an idiot. My guest fidgets in her seat and for the first time she seems to understand that she's handcuffed to the chair. After fighting to break free in vain for a few seconds she stares at me furiously again, clenching her jaw. Mesmerized, I look at her tattooed hands closed into a fist, her lips pursed in anger, her squinty eyes that seem to send red sparks towards me and her jaw clenching even more. Well, if looks could kill I'd be struck down on the floor right now.

"I don't advise it... kill me, I mean. It's pretty obvious that you want to do it and not only because someone has payed you. Don't make this personal before speaking to my boss, please. Not everything is what it seems. Those handcuffs are special, electronic as you can see: you can only open them with a six-digit code... and I'm the only one who knows it. I don't doubt that you'd be able to stand up from that chair thanks to your skill even tied up but, if you kill me, you will never be able of taking them off... unless you want to amputate your hands and feet, of course. They're made of a special metal too, a simple electric saw won't be able to cut them. So... why don't you relax and I tell you how I knew that you were coming after me? It'll take at least 15 minutes for Winston to arrive so we have plenty of time... Yes, I'm talking about that Winston, the owner of the Continental hotel in New York City."

Ares stares at me cautiously right now because she's recognized the name of my boss, who's occasionally one of her bosses too by the way... Raising an eyebrow, she relaxes on her chair and nods waiting for me to start talking. I smile happily: having a personal talk with an assassin and living to tell the tale is a privilege only for certain specially-chosen people.

"My name is Nira, I'm from Boston and I'm 25 years old. I'm very smart, you know. I graduated from the MIT when I was just 17 and at age 19 I already had hacked the servers of the highest institutions of the State, of banks, of big companies, all of them... I was driving the FBI mad because they were trying to arrest me without success but my life was pretty boring actually; let's just say that I was unable to find a challenge that was just right for me... till Winston knocked my door and he asked me to work for The Company. I refused, of course."

My guest looks at me shocked again; there's no easy way to say "No" to a member of the High Table, the council of high-level crime lords, they don't handle refusal well and Winston was no exception.

"When he asked me why, I answered that I knew them. You think you're so smart operating behind the scenes, using those beautiful gold coins instead of consecutive numbered banknotes, with your retro dressed telephone operators and paper files. You think that if you work 'old school' you won't leave a trace on the Internet but that's impossible nowadays. Yes, I don't have access to the paper files with typewritten reports of your works and a picture of every member, but I do know how to follow the breadcrumbs and I see your footprints: telephone messages, plane and train tickets purchases, security cameras everywhere, hotel reservations, movements in bank accounts, files from hospitals, police or firefighters, forensic reports, satellites and drones... I have access to all that information and I can use it to get a good impression of what you're doing. I knew how things worked within The Company and I didn't want to get into so much trouble, you join the underground but you can never leave it: it's a lifetime commitment, you can't have normal emotional relationships and all that... You of all people should know that after everything that's happened with John Wick."