𝖳he Horde (On Hold...)

Gambit

Across town, a lounge bar was always open.

Some people attended the massacre of the disused tunnel, staring at the television hanging near shelves filled with bottles of alcohol.

There, sitting on one of the chairs and looking up at this screen, Ellie Staple was holding her glass of vodka with an olive bathed in liquor.

In her bruised eyes reflected the images of the safe and sound hostages sitting in ambulances with a blanket onto their shoulders.

Dressed in a dress with long sleeves and turtleneck, she sits on this black vinyl stool, silently. Then she fixed the olive in her glass, her professional look barely concealing her anxious expression displayed on her face.

After a while, a man in a suit came to sit naturally next to her, before ordering a Scotch On The Rocks. Without a look, he replaced his long black jacket properly, then he sighed, patiently waiting for his drink.

"Well done." He finally opened his mouth.

She kept staring at the bottom of her glass, while the man's drink came in front of him before the bartender went to serve another client.

"That's a great work..." The man continues sarcastically, taking his drink just like her.

"I didn’t know he was going to reappear tonight." She replied.

"Sure. Who could knew?" he said. Then he raised his eyebrows. "That said, that’s why we exist. To arrested them before they even started something. And this guy had the time to get out of his hole and play the vigilantes for one night. 'Vigilante'... That’s a strong word." The man continues before raising his glass to his lips, preparing to drink a new sip. He then puts his glass on the bar, thoughtfully. "Your only action in this case is to have imposed a curfew in the city and delay Crumb’s capture by making phone calls to the chief of police..."

"I acted accordingly to prevent him from attacking more people. Moreover, if the police acquire this case, they will only judge him without worrying about a possible relapse. We need this investigation back to complete this task for good-- " She says defensively.

"You have sown chaos in Raven Hill before the eyes of several witnesses and now everyone is aware of it, thanks to the little surprise that Elijah Price left us. How do you want to act in the shadows if people have the ability to see us ?" He says in return, relentless. "You have failed and revealed our identity to everyone. At the slightest mistake, they will suspect us."

"Our organization has never really been revealed. They have speculation and a face. Elijah was a murderous madman who dreamed of a world where heroes and villains had their place. Of the billions of people, how many would believe his accusations ? Our name, our location remains unknown. They don’t have anything really concrete except videos of people who are different and could be faked."

"Faked enough to ignore the fact that a doctor attempted to kill a criminal not judged and murdered a patient with a possible tumor ? Let’s not talk about the fact that Price was supposed to end his days in the hospital..." He snaps.

"I had no choice, I followed the protocol..." Replies Staple bitterly, regretting this failure.

"Of course. But it would have been, how can I put it... appreciable if no one had discovered it." He contracts his jaws. "Rule number one : no witnesses. It is not complicated."

"We were dealing with a real genius." She retorted firmly as she finally turned to him, her eyes right into his. "If at any point you thought you had a head start and a spirit worthy of his to be able to predict what was going to happen, perhaps you should have intervened. But you didn’t do it..."