Yang Liu had seen the black limousine just hours before while he stood under the streetlight and spoke with Mrs. Rokanovic. That he was certain of. But why it was here in the parking lot of The Runhouse was a different story. The soft hum of its running engine made it obvious someone intended to use it as a getaway car. Rokanovic had made it seem like whoever was inside the vehicle was an enemy, but had she simply been playing him for a fool? Was her husband tracking him? His brother’s safety jumped to the forefront of his mind. He was playing a dangerous game.

The cloudy night sky made for shadows that only came out when bad intentions were at play. Yang Liu and his grandmother, or in this case, Hindsight and Black Jade, found themselves hiding behind a rusty four door sedan in the parking lot of The Runhouse. Yang Daiyu was growing impatient, her dismay evident in her body language. She made a move to step out from behind the car.

He grabbed her wrist. “What are you doing?”

“How many people that stay in this ratty motel do you think own a limousine?” asked Black Jade. It was a question he had asked himself but he tended to err on the side of caution. At least when it came to his own life. “Whoever is in that car has affiliations with Yelena or they want her dead. Either way, that’s bad for us. I’m going to confront them.”

“No you’re not,” Yang Liu said.

Black Jade scoffed dismissively. Yang Liu nearly laughed at himself as well. “Are you coming?” She placed her free hand on his wrist and glared in a way that told him she had fallen back into her glory days.

“I’m not getting myself killed. I don’t know what Adrian will do with Bo if I don’t retrieve him.”

“For the best. Your foolish costume would only draw attention to us.”

Black Jade pulled his hand off her wrist with a certain conviction and then stepped out from behind the car. She made her way toward the limousine as if it was perfectly normal for an old woman to be walking through the parking lot of a motel in the early morning. She was not in her infamous black leather jacket and pants. An outfit that would surely draw as much attention as his own. Instead, she wore a pair of beige pants that didn’t quite reach her ankles, a white top, and a burgundy jacket that hung past her waist and was not buttoned. A long pearl necklace touched the top of her naval and was only a tad whiter than her hair. Yang Liu shook his head in disbelief that his grandmother had such bravado but then again, this wasn’t entirely the distracted woman that had helped him with his homework and played board games with him when he was a child.

The out of place retiree tapped the black window of the driver’s side door and placed her hands behind her back politely as she waited for a response. A few moments later the window lowered marginally. A voice came from within but the words were indecipherable from where Yang Liu was hiding. Black Jade stood perfectly still at first, speaking quietly into the car. Then she raised her hand and pointed toward the motel. The window lowered entirely and a causasian man with dark sunglasses appeared. Even from where he was far by the sedan, Yang Liu could tell the man was annoyed to have been disturbed. Escalation seemed inevitable. He let the eels slide out of their hidden compartment on the ends of his fingers and onto his fingertips. He clenched his fists nervously. Before he knew what he was doing, he was crouching beside the hood of the car with his gun drawn, held with both hands, but hanging low by his feet, not aimed at the car.

Yang Daiyu stepped forward carefully so as not to startle the man in the limousine and leaned her head down to the window. She appeared to be looking around inside the vehicle as if impressed by the elegance and class it possessed. Behind her back she was reaching for the suppressed 9 millimeter handgun she had tucked down her pants. It slid out smoothly as she stood back up. She fired one bullet into the limousine and stepped forward quickly. She opened the door, put the window back up and pushed the door closed but didn’t shut it. Yang Liu couldn’t decide which was more surprising, how loud the shot had still been even with the suppressor or that his grandmother had just killed a man in a reasonably well-lit parking lot with little to no concern for her own safety. After a moment’s thought about Black Jade’s history, he realized it was the gun.

A second later Black Jade was moving across the parking lot toward the doors of the guest rooms that lined the lot. The gaze of the tall lights in the lot seemed to follow her like those of a helicopter chasing a runaway. It struck him suddenly that no one had stepped outside to check on the noise at all. Were the people of Savagery really that accustomed to gunshots? Were they simply too worried they would become wrapped up in the violence?

Yang Liu moved along the sedan, still crouching as he did. He stepped onto the concrete strip that ran adjacent to the first floor of the motel. It was covered by a dilapidated red roof that doubled as the walkway for the second floor. Every ten feet or so a light was fastened to the ceiling but most were burned out and useless. For the first time, he appreciated Noel North’s lack of interest in motel upkeep.

“Nai nai, what was that?” he asked as he approached his grandmother, the magnitude of her actions still simmering in her demeanor.

“They don’t have a getaway driver now.” She never slowed a bit as she passed Yang Liu.

“How do you know he was with her?”

“Instincts.”

They climbed the flight of stairs at the end of the concrete strip and doubled back along the second-floor walkway. The parking lot remained empty, not a curious soul around. Though, eyes were surely peeping through closed blinds and curtains. Yang Liu passed each door and window with caution. Black Jade did not. Disbelief in his grandmother’s disregard for possible threats shook him at first but then he began to emulate her. Something he would never tell her and hoped she didn’t pick up on. He figured that was unlikely.

Room 14B was no different than any other room. Its battered door stood as proud as it could against the terrors of the outside world, too incapable of realizing the real dangers were inside. A thin strip of light peered out from under the door. Mrs. Rokanovic appeared to have no intentions of ambushing them. Or was that what she wanted him to think?

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Black Jade placed one hand on the gun in her waistline and the other on the handle of the door. He took in every detail of the savvy veteran’s work. She closed her eyes and listened intently to what the room had to tell her. Yang Liu had never seen his grandmother use her powers. And to be honest, there wasn’t much to be impressed by visually, but deep down he knew she was sensing every living thing on the other side of the door. She had claimed on many occasions that that single ability had kept her out of countless sticky situations. No one got the jump on Black Jade. Eventually, she stood up straight and opened the door. Her movement was so casual Yang Liu wasn’t sure if Mrs. Rokanovic was inside or not. His curiosity was fed quickly.

“Black Jade.” A smooth voice he recognized came from the far corner of the room before Yang Liu was through the threshold.

“Yelena Rokanovic. How long has it been?” Yang Daiyu’s voice was somewhere between friendly and hostile. Whatever the relationship dynamic between the women was could not be deciphered in their exchange. Yang Liu stepped to his grandmother’s side. Black Jade continued before Rokanovic could answer, “You can tell your gal in the bathroom to show herself. We have no reason to shed blood.” There was no faint glow beneath the bathroom door. No sound coming from within. Black Jade had perceived the concealed woman’s presence. Her intentions remained a mystery, but there would be no surprise at least.

Rokanovic gave a smile that told them she was happy to see Black Jade was still cunning and on top of her skills. “Bella, come out here.”

The bathroom door opened slowly. A thin blonde woman dressed in all red and wearing a store’s worth of jewelry stepped out. She wore no expression on her face. Before Yang Liu could truly gather anything else of her appearance she was falling backward against the doorframe. Arms flailing, gun falling from her hand. She hit the floor with a heavy thump and lay there in an ugly heap. A bullet through her forehead.

No one spoke for a moment as Yang Liu and Mrs. Rokanovic stared at the dead woman.

Yang Daiyu slid her 9 millimeter back into her waistline. “That’s for making me leave the house.”

“Still a cold-hearted bitch, I see,” Mrs. Rokanovic said.

Yang Liu was taken back by the comment. No one had ever spoken to his grandmother like that. Not that he knew of anyway.

Black Jade was completely unfazed. “What do you want, Yelena?”

The crime lord gestured toward a ragged looking chair across from her as she leaned forward and grabbed a bottle of wine from the coffee table between them. “Want some?” Black Jade curled her fingers in a nonchalant way that told her counterpart she would take a glass as she sat down in the chair. Hindsight took a place behind the chair like a cautious observer.

“A cabernet. Nothing expensive.” She handed the glass she had just filled halfway to Black Jade and looked at Yang Liu to offer him a drink as well. He rejected the offer. Less from a lack of desire and more due to the fact that when he made eye contact with Mrs. Rokanovic his chest tightened and his mind seemed to go blurry for a moment. All he could manage was a befuddled shake of his head. By the time he had the courage to speak it seemed uncomfortable to change his mind.

“It’s been too long, Yang Daiyu,” Mrs. Rokanovic said. It surprised Yang Liu that the criminal knew his grandmother’s name. Neither of them had said it in their earlier discussion.

“Not long enough if you ask me,” replied Black Jade. “What is so important that you would drag me from my home at this hour?”

“To be fair, I didn’t tell your grandson you had to come tonight.”

“Get to the point,” Black Jaid said. It was true. He had claimed they could do all this the next day. But as usual, Yang Daiyu insisted things were done her way.

Mrs. Rokanovic lifted her glass of wine to her lips. When she was done with her sip, there was a lipstick stain on the clear glass. It sent his mind wandering toward non-business fantasies briefly. “The Storyteller is working with Ellen Pakarhanni.” She spoke casually but there was an underlying tone of concern.

There was silence in the room. Like the kind at their dinner table most nights. Yang Liu knew his grandmother was processing the information, deciding if it was something that concerned her or not.

Eventually she said, “Why would I care about that?” It was strange to hear her essentially admit to not knowing the importance of something.

“Because they have been creating a new kind of criminal. Incredible ones. Deadly ones.”

“Savagery is full of terrible men and women. You’d stumble across one on any street corner. Or in any motel room. Or anywhere else really. The worst ones are in The Underside if you ask me.” The blatant disrespect of Mrs. Rokanovic’s character had no effect on her.

“There are very few, if any, criminals like these. These men and women make the rest of us look tame. The Storyteller is doing some of his best work for her.” Mrs. Rokanovic took another sip of her wine. “Their first project managed to capsize a container ship in the Watson River that had a shipment of Teranium and several other necessities to create Onu Tech.” Now it made sense why Mrs. Rokanovic would want to speak with her old nemesis. Black Jade was known for her work with Onu Tech. He looked down at the eels attached to his fingertips.

“Were they intercepting the goods or trying to ruin them?”

“Adrian’s men were unable to find anything in the river so our guess is that they were intercepting it.”

“Why not just steal it normally then? Keep things dry. Why capsize the ship?” asked Yang Liu. His voice brought two sharp glares from the women as if he was interrupting.

Despite her agitation, Mrs. Rokanovic answered. “Ellen has someone or something deep below the Watson. It got a hold of a few of Adrian’s men while they were diving in search of the lost cargo.”

It was Black Jade’s turn to take a sip of her wine. “What does that have to do with me?” she asked.

“Adrian wants to work with you. He thinks you’re the only one that knows enough about Onu Tech to figure out what Ellen may be doing with it. He doesn’t want her growing too powerful.”

Black Jade put two and two together quicker than Yang Liu. “So he’s making a run at the penthouse? He wants to be the Soul of Savagery?”

Mrs. Rokanovic smiled. “What self-respecting criminal in the city doesn’t? Besides, Adrian has worked hard. He’s turned the Iron Crew into the most formidable gang in the city. Runs the organization like a military unit. He would be a good Soul for the city.”

“I can’t argue against that,” Yang Daiyu said. Nor could Yang Liu. Though he wasn’t sure what exactly that meant in a city like Savagery. Adrian Rokanovic was a bad man, there was no doubt about that. And he expected to be fighting the criminal for years to come. He was sensible and well-respected by nearly every other criminal and gang in the city. He was the kind of man that could unify other men and women of power. That was dangerous. But Ellen Pakarhanni was pure evil. Given the opportunity to hold too much power at her fingertips, she could turn the city on its head.

Mrs. Rokanovic continued after allowing the crime fighters a few moments of ponderous contemplation. “And since your grandson was as helpful as to hand deliver a man Adrian knows you’d do anything to keep alive, I would say the three of us will be working together for the foreseeable future.”

Yang Liu could see all the pride and satisfaction he had felt in himself when he had used Mrs. Rokanovic’s secret affair against her glowing in the woman’s eyes now that she had revealed her husband’s true purpose in working with Yang Liu. The notion that he had not been as cunning as he thought infuriated him. He could feel bad choices working their way into the forefront of his mind. Luckily for him, his grandmother spoke before his anger got the best of him.

“Fine. But I’m in charge.”