Assassin's Creed: Firewall

Who Died and Made You King?

Emma had all of a few seconds to take in the details of this newcomer she'd caught off guard before he was moving. She registered he was coming for her and got her hand to knife in her pocket just before she was slammed rather harshly against the wall.

"OW Mother of fuck!" She groaned, stars floating across her vision as her head pounded from its meeting with the stone. Blinking, she realized the stars weren't going away and in actuality, it was the shine of the afternoon sun reflecting off of the steel hovering against her neck. Nice, really nice. Asshole.

"Who are you?" The stranger growled, his voice deep and threatening. The pressure of the blade against her neck increased, pricking her skin.

Emma forced herself to swallow her spike of nerves, choosing instead to quirk a brow at him. Her lips twitched into a mocking grin as she tutted an 'Ah-ah-aaah' while tapping her own blade against him. He'd moved too fast for her to be able to raise it, but it'd been pinned rather conveniently between them, more specifically the crotch of his pants.

"Why don't we have this conversation like civilized people before we do something you'll regret?" She kept the mocking tone, like hell was she going to be afraid of him. This was hardly the first time she'd been held at knife point.

His lips pursed impossibly thinner, and from so close she could see his eyes flash downwards. Ha, he didn't expect that one. Suck on that pretty boy.

The pressure of the knife eased as his body shifted back. Score one for the cop! He didn't lower his blade that was, oddly, somehow attached to his arm with a weird contraption and....no ring finger. Well he was committed to his weapon she'd give him that. His right hand moved, her momentary distraction giving him the chance to get a grip on her wrist and pin it to the wall all while regaining his previous position. His grip was iron, and her knife fell from limp fingers. Shit.

"I will not ask again. Who are you? And where is the Rafiq?" His tone hadn't changed from gruff and threatening, nor had the scowl twitched a bit. Emma guessed that with manners like this, it was probably a permanent fixture to his face.

"The what? You're in the wrong place if you're looking for Rafiki. The hell do you want a baboon for anyway? Scratch that I don't want to know." She cocked her head slightly, winced at the bite of the blade and straightened again. Best time to be a smartass? No probably not, but she'd reached the point of no longer caring about the consequences of it. "Now that you've established your dominance can we please talk about this like normal people? Come on, use your words, not a compensatory knife."

"You speak in riddles, make sense woman or I shall not hesitate to kill you." Really? Seriously? He was threatening to kill her over her not answering where the 'Rafiq' was?! The fuck was wrong with this guy?

"She is incapable of speaking sense." Ah mercy! Emma never thought she'd be so happy to hear the dry tone of the Sass-master. "And I warn you against killing an innocent in my Bureau."

The stranger shifted, dropping her wrist to look behind him at Malik and Emma was surprised at the utter dislike splayed across her host's face. That level was a first, even with all the times she swore or partially undressed in front of him.

"Safety and peace, brother." The words came stiffly from the newcomer. The cop had seen it enough to know when there was bad blood, and these men had it in spades.

"Your presence here deprives us of both." Malik growled back, stalking past to drop his basket of supplies onto the table. "Why are you here Altair? I had no word of your coming."

"Uh, there was pigeon-news stuck under one of your maps." Emma offered in an attempt to cut through the rising tension between the two men, but also (and more importantly) return their attention to the fact there was still a damn knife to her throat. While Malik found the slip, the cop turned her attention to the stranger, who was watching her with a mix of distaste and wariness. Yeah well, the dislike went both ways buddy. Throwing a pointed glance at his blade arm, she raised her brows, "Down boy."