La Belle Gabrielle

[Zackary Kalen]

[[... ...Heh.]]

[Kana Lémartes]

Kana shot Zack a quick glare. How dare he! As Kana saw it, the longer Jones was alive and talking, the less fun Kana was having. Still....

It was an interesting approach, Kana thought. Very different from his own.

"Alright..." he said thoughtfully. "As this... maggot" at this Kana spat on Jones. "Doesn't appear to want to co-operate with me, he's all yours."

With that, he moved the knife swiftly away from Jones' throat, barely missing his jugular, and stepped back, smirking.

He kept calm, waiting to see how Zack would handle the situation, knowing that, ultimatley, whether he talked or not, Kana would get the kill he was looking for.

Still smirking, flickered a cupboard that stood on the far side of the room, near the rack of weapons. Opening it, he removed a decanter of red wine and crystal glass. He poured himself a glass and, dragging the chair previously occupied by Kerry McDonald to a spot just behind and to the side of Jones, sat down.

Jones stood stock-still, bewildered by Kana's actions. If anything, he was more afraid of Zack now than Kana. He'd heard the stories about Kana, and thought he knew what to expect.

He had no clue about Zack.

"Sir, I.....I don't... we were forbidden from discussing the details with anyone other than Mr Lemartes....." He stuttered, his eyes wide with terror, aware of Kana's peircing stare on his back.

[Hurray! Finally posted! About, what? A month after I said I would? Sorry >.<]

[Zackary Kalen]

Zack's eyebrow twitched ever so minutely at Jones' stammering. Let it be known, he was a patient person most of the time, but bloody hell this guy could try the patience of a damn saint. He lifted his hands to rub his temples soothingly, before sighing in a clearly irritated manner,

"Look," he said, slowly, "I don't really care. The main problem here is why Risk is alive, not whether or not your break protocol and talk to me about the details." He watched the man carefully, before rolling his eyes and standing up, his arms folded.

"Hey, I can wait," he said, "Because you're not leaving this room until I get some DECENT information out of you. And the longer I wait, the more impatient I get. And the more impatient I get," he paused, focusing a dangerous stare on the man, "The less amiable I become." He tilted his head,

"I'm gonna guess that's a dangerous thing for you. You don't know me. You haven't heard of me. You don't know if I'm going to stick a knife through your skull or give you a pat on the back. So, I'm gonna suggest you don't take any risks."

He turned around and leant back against the wall, eyes stuck on Jones as if they were stuck there with glue,

"Besides. I can always just let Kana kill you. Okay, I'd lose in the information, but it'd be a nice little time saver." He fished a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it,

"So, make your choice. Talk, or don't."

[[...blaaah. I hope that's okay. Although I'm finding the mental image of Kana just looming behind Jones with a glass of wine quite amusing.]]

[Kana Lémartes]

Jones nodded siletly, trying to form a decent sentence through his terror. Taking a deep breath, he glanced over his shoulder at Kana, who gave him a cold stare and sipped his wine.

Staring at Zack's feet, Jones began his story.

"Well...Sir... uh....We... we were given the order to... dispose of Risk by Mr Lemartes a few years ago, and uh...." he stuttered, unsure of his next words.

He started to sweat. He was becoming increasingly aware of the seemingly relaxed attitudes of both Zack and Kana, and it unnerved him.

"There was... uh... someone threw a grenade... it uh... the whole place went up... there were three of them, sir... Risk, his wife and his kid... we all saw the bodies, sir... they were pretty charred afterwards...."

He stopped, and watched Zack nervously.

[Zackary Kalen]

Zack tilted his head slightly, mulling the information over in his mind. An explosion? That was a pretty definite way to die. However it left a margin for error - you couldn't be close by when a grenade was used for obvious reasons, so there was the chance that the person they were aiming at might have been...

He stared directly at Jones taking a slow drag of his cigarette,

"A couple of things I'd like to know before we continue - who killed him? Was it definitely someone in your group?" He stood up slowly, eyes narrowing,

"And the most important question I have is...you say the body was charred? Unrecognisable? ...Are you absolutely sure that the person you killed was Risk?"

[Vincent Lémartes]

Vincent sat in his chair watching his brother and his new employee torture one of his best assassins. One was already dead and number two was soon to be joining him. Vincent listened as the same answers came again and again. They all believed Joey Risk was dead. Was he dead then? Was it him that Vincent saw?
... ... Of course it was!
The real question was how much money did someone have to pay to buy that much loyalty out of someone? Enough money that they even started to believe what they were told to believe.
He sat and waited to hear the answers he wanted to hear. One of them had to know the truth.

[Belle Thorne]

After a long trek through the town, checking all of the informants she had gathered over the years, Belle finally arrived at La Belle Gabrielle.

She strode past the security guards on the door
"Miss Thorne" they nodded to her
"Boys" she smiled slightly, walking into the club and up the stairs towards Vincent's office, knocking on the door and waiting.

[Vincent Lémartes]

Vincent glanced to one of the other screens. Belle stood outside his office door. Vincent carefully placed his whiskey glass back on the table and got up from his chair. He walked over to the cabinet that contained his various rapiers. He opened it, took one out and slowly began to slice it through the air. The blade was so fine that it made a hissing sound as he did this.
“Come” he commanded through the door.

[Belle Thorne]

Belle opened the door and strode into Vincent's office

[Vincent Lémartes]

"Close the door" Vincent commanded. He waited until she had done that before he continued.
"And where have you been?" Vincent asked not looking at Belle. He continued to move his sword through the air.

[Belle Thorne]

Belle did as he asked before addressing him
"I went to visit a few of my contacts to see if I could get any more information about Risk"
she smiled slightly, her eyes focused on the sword
"didn't find out much that I didn't know, but I have more of an insight into our prey now"
she added.

[Kana Lémartes]

Jones spluttered and glanced over his shoulder towards Kana, who stared at him as he sipped his wine.

"Sir...." He started, turning his head back to Zack, "We... I.. I saw Risk in the house before the grenade was thrown... it... it definatley came from our group... I.. I think it was McDonald that threw it...the face... all of them, their faces were charred... I... It has to have been Risk, he was there.. we... we saw him...."

He started sweating and his eye twitched nervously. Behind him, Kana drained his wine glass, placed it on the floor and stood up. He clouted Jones across the back of the head sharply.

"Stop stuttering and get on with it. My patience is wearing thin." He snapped, before seating himself again and pouring another glass of wine.

((I'm working on the assumption that Joey was in the house but left before the grenade was thrown and that the other bloke was in the bathroom or something...))

[Zackary Kalen]

You and me both... Zack thought, tapping his cigarette irritably sending a flurry of ash to the ground, watching as Kana hit Jones. The problem here was very simple, and he was surprised that Jones couldn't see it. Or maybe he did. That could be why he was so nervous.

"In case you hadn't noticed, there's a glaring problem here," he said waving a hand in a dismissive manner, "Kudos to you. You blow up a house, take out a man and a family. Their faces were charred. Features burnt, identity gone," he rubbed his neck with his cigarette-free hand, easing a knot out of his muscles absentmindedly,

"So, riddle me this: how do you know it was Risk?" He paused slightly to let the question sink in, before continuing,

"I mean, this seems like a pretty big job. For a very influencial and dangerous man too. Surely you'd want to make sure you did it right, not just assume the best and knock off for lunch? Did you even bother to run any tests on the male body, just to check it was Risk you killed and not someone else?" he wrinkled his nose in slightly disgust. Zack was not a vicious person, but he'd make a better assassin than these fools if they couldn't even think to ID a body before they left it to rot.

[Vincent Lémartes]

"And what did you learn?" Vincent asked looking up at Belle, staring into her eyes.

[Hector]

Hector appeared within seeing distance of the building, but he did not take action.
He sat down and emptied his head from all thought.

He wanted to be prepared for the fight, even though he was demon!