En Garde

The Room That Asks Questions

   "So." Raul muttered. "Did you dispose of the body, at the very least?"  My mother sat at the end of the long mahogany desk opposite me,expressionless except for her emerald eyes that danced in the light. She was silent, as usual. But I could tell she wanted to know what went on at the castle. Why I didn't do my job.

  My mother  had trained me continuously for fifteen years, sending me out for missions as young as nine. We barely talked,yet the unspoken bond of love between us always remained prominent.

It was a funny sort of relationship we had, Mother and I. Some form of telepathic connection one usually has with their sisters or best friends. I have neither sisters nor a best friend, but Mother's delicate and seemingly distant adoration for her only child left me content enough.

  Raul,however, having not been fortunate enough to be apart of our bloodline,could run his mouth off at any time without skipping a beat. Thus he was given the honourable role of being head of interrogation. He was no less persistent today, unfortunately.

  He was clearly not in a very pleasant mood this time, probably after finding out I had killed my partner in cold blood just hours before. The fact that Mother had called him in during one of his breaks did not help lighten the severity of the situation.

  The vein in his neck looked like it was going to explode, and his bushy eyebrows were so deeply furrowed it they almost connected, forming a  unibrow and resulting in a rather unsettling resemblance to Frida Kahlo.

  If it were up to him he'd probably have stuck a paint brush up my ass by now.

  I stifled a laugh at such an absurd thought.
"Oi! Are you going to tell us what happened? Or  perhaps i should resort to more drastic measures to draw the information out of you?" He growled.

"You don't have that authority."  If Raul was going to be unprofessional, I was going to give him attitude.

  The room went silent.

  Mother nodded ever so gently in my direction, giving me the cue to speak.

  Taking a deep breath, I said, " Jon wasn't where he was supposed to be. Something was off about him. He wasn't himself. He completely threw off my Mission. He just appeared, in the exact place where the target was supposed to be, and started firing bullets into the air."

  Raul nodded sternly.
"and then?"

  "After which he turned the gun on me and said something about him being my little...puppy. Then I shot him." I finished.
I cast a nervous glance at my mother. Surprisingly, she had her eyebrows raised in amusement.

  I recounted how I had jumped to his tower after he fell. His blonde hair lay pathetically against the stone floor, and a single crack ran through his thin glasses. I remember swinging my feet and jumping onto his side of the tower. I remember picking up his handgun and aiming it at his chest, effortlessly squeezing the trigger three more times- just in case. It was then that I saw her at the foot of the castle. She had just got out of her van, however upon hearing my shots she swept back in and drove away.

  "And Margo, the target?" Raul pressed on.

  "She escaped. Must've realised something was wrong  when she heard the shots, and decided to postpone her Dead drop."

   "Rae , the point of the mission was to kill Margo during the Dead drop, as well as uncover whoever she was dealing with. You couldn't do that much?" Raul sneered.

  I could feel my blood beginning to boil. I knew I could do it, especially already having done much more. Raul was crushing my ego, and he knew it. Still, I was adamant about not letting him get to me, and putting up an indifferent front would be perfect in riling him up. At least, I tried to.

  "Jon disobeyed protocol. I did what I had to." My voice quivered with the slightest bit of rage, however it didn't go undetected by Raul.

He knew he hit a nerve, and smirked.

  "So, Marie." He turned to face my mother. "I think it's the perfect time to bring Orian in, don't you think?"