Crimson Butterfly

Chapter Four

Ada was currently sat in the booth of a small dinner after leaving the hotel and was watching the rain beating on the window, the sun was setting and it was quite a pretty sight. She was dressed in a dark grey hoodie with a while shirt and blue jeans and white sneakers. Hardly her most usual attire but it was a matter of necessity, she didn't want to draw attention to herself at the moment as she figured out what to do now.

Most likely someone had discovered the body of the assassin in her hotel room and had called the police, she had done everything that she could to deal with any fingerprints but most likely she had left at least one or two somewhere but that wasn't too much of a problem. She had worked hard at making sure her fingerprints had never been registered in any database.

The problem was that she had been seen checking into the hotel room and the desk clerk could easily describe her and they had a name, not her real name or even Ada Wong but they did have Emily Nara and those were the only credit cards she had on hand to her at the moment and in terms of actual cash that she had on her at this exact moment, it was only a little over a thousand.

She wasn't someone who unaware of it's value but in the position she was in at the moment it wasn't very much, she could use it to buy her way out of the country if she had too but she couldn't, she needed to find out what was going on, who had sent that assassin after her and whoever was following Leon they had to be connected and if she was in danger then Leon was in danger and that thought did not sit well with her.

The rest of her belongings, what she had decided to take at any rate, were in a large black backpack under the table and her phone was in her pocket, she had a few contacts she could call on to give her a hand she was just trying to figure out what her plan of action was now, she was hoping that Leon would get back to her about any info and then she would go from there. That plan wasn't going to hold up until she found a new place to stay.

Also, she had a derringer stuck up her sleeve, it only held two bullets but she wasn't planning to get into a shoot out, it was just a backup plan in case she needed it.

Ada glanced away from the window when she heard footsteps approaching, a woman in sixties with a head of silver grey hair and dressed in a pink waitress's uniform approached with a small note pad in her hand and a pen tucked behind her ear, it looked like something out a TV show so much that it took all Ada had not to laugh in the poor woman's face. "What you having dear?"

"A small coffee and a piece of pie, thanks." Ada said, she supposed it would look a little odd if she stayed without ordering anything, they were other people in the dinner and all of them had food or at least something to drink. At this exact moment, sticking out was the last thing that she wanted to do.

"We do apple, cherry, peach or blackberry." The woman replied as she slid the pencil out from behind her and tapped it against the notepad in her hand.

"Cherry." Ada responded and the woman scribbled it down, with a smile she turned and walked away and in a few moments she returned with a plate which held a single slice of cheery pie and a steaming mug of coffee, once she placed them down on the table and Ada handed her a five dollar note she walked off.

Ada sighed and lift the mug to her lips and took a sip of the coffee, it was hardly the best coffee she had ever drunk but it was perfectly serviceable and the fog that clouded her mind seemed to lift a little and she was able to think a little more clearly now.

There was suddenly a sound of static and she looked up to see that TV mounted above the counter flickered on to life, the waitress behind the bar, a young red-haired woman, smiled apologetically as she placed the large black television remote.

As Ada finished her coffee as the static on the screen cleared up and showed a woman dressed in a grey suit holding a microphone and standing in front of the hotel that Ada had checked into she realised with a start, she pushed the plate holding the pie away and reached down to pick up the backpack and put it on before she stood up slowly but surely began to make her way to the door of the dinner as the woman began to speak.

"I am standing in front of the Hamilton Hotel in DC where just moments ago the body of a woman was found in room 452, her throat was slit open. No arrests have yet been made but the woman who was found in the room was not the woman who checked in." The reporter spoke and Ada was half way towards the door, she cursed herself for not picking a booth that was not close to an exit, that was a rookie mistake.

"The woman who booked the room, Emily Nara, is nowhere to be found and is being considered a suspect by the police." The woman continued and Ada could almost reach out and touch the door but she couldn't at the reporter continued on. "Here is a sketch of Miss Nara, if you see her then please contact the police immediately as she is considered to be extremely dangerous."

Suddenly the diner was completely silent and Ada could hear rustling behind her like several people were turning in their chairs and a few were getting out of their chairs, fuck. Since when were police sketch artists good at their jobs?! She carried on walking and grabbed hold of the handle of the door but as soon as she touched it a large meaty hand fell on her thigh.

"Now just hold on there a minute darling." A deep southern voice spoke firmly and Ada looked over shoulder to see a trucker looking at her, he nodded his head towards the TV where the sketch was show on full screen. "It's a pretty good likeness don't you think? How about you and me sit down while we wait for the police?"

She could hear people muttering their ascent for that plan and out of the corner of her eye she noticed the younger red haired waitress heading towards the phone, obviously going to call the police. Ada let her hand slip away from the door handle...and then slammed it open palmed directly into the trucker's face, she could hear and feel the cartilage and the bone snap under her hand and the man feel backwards with a noise that sounded halfway between a grunt and scream and as soon as he let go off her arm she darted out of the dinner into the pouring rain.

As she rain through the downpour she didn't even both to put her hood up, it would just cost her time and considering she could hear shouting and footsteps behind her. Mob mentality, it didn't surprise but it did disappoint her. She ducked and dodged in between the people on the street and thankfully her pursuers were nowhere near as graceful as she was so she was able to keep ahead of them.

There was an alleyway coming up and Ada ducked into it but she didn't stop, there was a fire escape with the ladder hanging tantalisingly out of reach, ran towards it and jumped of the wall it was mounted on, her hands just managed to curl around the bottom rung of the ladder and she quickly pulled herself up on to the metal grating.

She ran up the stairs of the fire escape all the way to the roof, by the time she had reached the roof the people who were following her and had only just managed to pull the ladder of the fire escape down. She ran the large roof of the building and leapt for the fire escape of the second building, an apartment building, she misjudged her leap and metal ledge of the fire escape slammed into her gut and her breath escaped her lungs in a strangled grunt.

She would've fallen to the wet cement below and shattered every bone in her body if all her years of training in ignoring pain and shock hadn't come in to play and she managed to keep her hold on the ledge and lifted herself over and laid panting on the metal grate, she knew that she had to keep moving but her legs were burning with all the effort she had put in, she still needed to catch her breath and considering the tenderness of her a few ribs were more than likely cracked at best or broken at worst.

Keeping one arm around her middle to stop any movement from jolting her ribs she reached up with her other arm and grabbed hold of the ledge and pulled herself up with a whimper, god this hurt! She had been in pain before, there were days when the claw mark scars on her arm still burned and the jagged scar on her side that she gained when the Tyrant in Birkin's underground laboratory back in Raccoon City had thrown her into the computer console had never really stopped hurting.

But this was a fresh pain and at the moment it killed, but as much as she would like to simply curl into a ball and lay there in pain she knew that she could not do that. She had to keep moving. She walked up the steps up the next platform of the fire escape and looked into the window of the apartment.

It was dark and there was no one inside, she briefly considered using the derringer but she knew she couldn't do that since she only had the two bullets in it so she let out a breath, wincing as it aggravated her ribs, and then drew her arm back and punched the window with as much force as she could muster which as quite a few people could attest too, was quite hard.

The glass shattered outwards and Ada grit her teeth as she felt glass slice into her hand and then pulled it back from the broken window, it was quite badly sliced up and there was a fairly large shard of glass sticking out of the back of her hand, using her undamaged hand she pinched the edge of the grass and with a grunt ripped the shard out and tossed it aside.

Her hand was now painted red and it was throbbing in pain but it did not matter, the worst part was over and she could handle pain. She used her shoulder to push aside the shards of glass that rested in the window and then reached in and opened the latch and pulled the window up and crawled inside.

Going in on her stomach killed and falling to the floor didn't help either but she was inside, she got to her feet again and briefly glanced around the apartment, it certainly wasn't a bad looking apartment by any means though whoever lived here couldn't be as well as some if there apartment's only view was of the fire escape.

Still they would be able to replace a window easily enough.

Ada walked over to the door and broke it open with one solid kick to the frame, she stepped out of the room and as quickly as she was able to at the moment hurried down the hall to the elevator she spied, normally she would always take the stairs but give,n how she was feeling at the moment it could take her hours walk down a stairwell.

She hit the button and held her middle and leaned against the wall as she waited for the elevator to arrive, once it did she stepped and hit the button for the ground floor. As the elevator descended had some time to think and she wondered if she should find Leon, most likely by now he would've seen the news report and he would recognise her without any trouble.

But as soon as she thought of going to him she dismissed the idea, the people who were after her would know to go to Leon first and if her suspicions about him being watched were correct then they would knew the moment she turned up and she didn't want to put him in any direct danger if she could help it.

With a ping the elevator doors opened to the ground floor and Ada stepped out of the elevator, keeping her head low but did not put it down all the way as that would just look more suspicious, thankfully there was only one person in the building's lobby, a man behind a desk and he was looking down at a newspaper and by the time he looked up Ada was already walking outside.

By now the sun had completely set and the entire street was cast in darkness aside from the lights of the buildings and the street lights, it was still raining and it didn't seem to be dying down, if anything the rain was only getting heavier and in the quiet of the street the low rumble of thunder seemed to be right above. Due to the dark and the heavy rain Ada realised that she was completely own, the entire city would be indoors and the only sign of life was the occasional car.

She needed to find a place to stay so she could rest and heal, a sudden idea popped into her head and she frowned as she thought about it, that was an awful idea but at the moment it was also the only one that she actually had.

He was in DC and no one knew about his connection to her and at the moment he was her only chance but at the same time the last time they spoke it had...not ended well, to say the very least.

But in all honesty, what choice did she have?

With a heavy sigh Ada picked up the pace of her walk, he lived in DC but he was a still quite far away from her.

As Ada walking down the dark streets she suddenly stopped, she was certain at that exact moment she heard something over the steady fall of rain that was not thunder, she closed her eyes and listened for a few moments, she could hear the rain falling, she could hear the sound of it popping against the sidewalk, she could hear the sound of thunder and underneath all of that she could hear a sound that was unmistakable to hear a sent a jolt of fear up her spine.

Footsteps.

She spun on her feet, ignoring the pain, and peered into the darkness. She couldn't see anything but just like earlier in the park that didn't prove anything and she knew that she wasn't imagining anything, she had heard footsteps. There was someone following her.

The metal of derringer pressing against the inside of her wrist suddenly felt a great deal more comforting as she turned around and hurried ahead, going as fast as she possibly could given her current state and not wanting a broken rib to pierce a lung or a kidney, she supposed in some ways it was a little fitting, if anyone was ever going to kill Ada Wong then it was going to be Ada Wong herself.

After a few more minutes of half walking, half stumbling down the street Ada stopped when she realised that she could no long hear anyone following her, the rain was starting to lessen from a heavy lashing to simply a steady downpour and the thunder sounded further and further away and she was certain of it, the footsteps were gone.

And then a hand came out of nowhere and clamped around her mouth, before she could scream a thick arm clamped around her waist and pulled her into an alleyway, she tried to break the hold but it was strong and the hold around her waist was causing so much pain that for a moment that she thought that she might be ill.

Suddenly there were lips at her ear and words soaked in a Russian accent were being hissed into it. "I am sorry my dear, I am afraid that you have certainly upset someone and they have decided that you can go no further, I truly do regret this but...money is money no matter the work." And suddenly she could feel cold steel against her neck.

Ada quickly slammed her back and it collided with the man's nose and he dropped the knife while cursing and letting go of her as he stumbled back, Ada let the derringer slip free from her sleeve and spun around to point at the man and her lips pulled into a tight frown.

The man was a giant compared to Ada, he was at least six and a half feet tall and he was bald and built like a brick house, his nose was broken and Ada's lips twitched as had to fight herself to stop from smiling, broke two noses in one day in one hour, that was a personal best.

The man's eyes opened and his eyes were full of hate but that quickly faded away as soon as he saw Ada pointing the small pistol being pointed at his chest, he slowly put his hands up over his head. "Easy my dear, don't do anything that you are going to regret later."

"Oh, one of us is going to regret me shooting you but it isn't going to be me." Ada quipped as she kept the gun trained on his chest, it was the biggest target after all.

To her surprise the man laughed loudly, a full body chuckle that made him shake. "You are a very funny woman, I am surprised. I do not know many funny women."

"I'm sorry to hear you keep such unpleasant company, now. Who are your employers, what do they want with me? What did I ever do to them?" Ada asked.

"I do not know." The Russian replied with a shrug.

"Don't lie to me, I am really not in the mood for it. What do your employers want with me, what I have done to them and why are they playing games with me!?" Ada shouted, she mentally chided herself for loosing her cool but she wasn't in the best mood at the moment.

"If I knew Miss then I would tell you, I do not work for anyone. I am freelance. A woman came to the hotel where I was staying and showed me a picture of you and offered me a large deal of money, she wanted you dead and that is all that I know." The spoke and Ada frowned.

"What woman? What did she look like?" Ada asked.

The man opened his mouth but he never got to say a word as a loud gunshot sounded out and his head snapped backwards, blood and brain matter painting the walls of the alley. Ada's eyes widened and she ducked behind s large dumpster.

She held her breath for a few moments and then poked her head out from behind the dumpster, opposite the alley was a small office building and a sniper would have a perfect vantage point of the alley.

But there was no sniper on the building now, there was no one up there. It didn't make any sense, why take out another assassin? Was it competition, had whoever was behind this stupid game put out an open contract on her? No, that didn't make any sense. They had their own assassins, that woman in the hotel would rather die than betray her employers and the Russian man had said he'd been specifically approached by a woman.

That meant there was at least one group and one individual that wanted her dead, but there was something else that didn't add up, something that she didn't know how to feel about.

Why did the sniper kill the Russian? Did it really matter who killed her so long as she was dead and on top of that, why didn't they even try to take a shot at her after they killed the Russian or why didn't they shoot her first? The only answer she could come up with was...

The sniper didn't want her dead. They wasn't trying to kill her, they were trying to save her.

Ada was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of sirens, either someone had called the police after hearing gunshots or the police had come to look for her after being called from the dinner and they heard the gunshots and assumed that it had something to do with her.

Either way, she had to get out of her.

With a groan Ada pushed herself to her feet and began to walk, right now it didn't matter that she was dealing with factions who either wanted her dead or wanted something from her.

All that mattered was getting somewhere safe.

End of Chapter Four

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