October 21, 1924, Chicago, IL
Maksim leaned back against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. Katherine was across the street, dressed as herself again. Dressed in the same dress she'd been wearing the day he met her in front of the Bureau. The one that reminded him of apricots. She was waiting outside the Northwestern School of Law building, waiting for Jack Pritzker to come out.
They had gone out the night before looking for information on O'Banion and on Pritzker, the young man O'Banion asked them to tail. They walked to a diner near the hotel then to a speakeasy a few blocks away. And Katherine had rolled her eyes when Maksim reminded her of the names he'd given to O'Banion. But he had been impressed; she had maintained her disguise well. He had forgotten how easily he had been fooled the first two times he had interacted with her.
Watching her the night before and watching her now, he noticed that she walked differently, held a different posture, even spoke differently while in disguise. He had been surprised at her free use of slang when dressed as a boy, slang he sometimes had a hard time following. But it had been useful in her convincing others at the speakeasy to share information about O'Banion. And about Jack Pritzker and his family.
In just a couple of hours, they had learned that the Order had little presence in Chicago. With Prohibition and the bootlegging that came with it, the city had split into territories, run by various organized groups—O'Banion's North Side Gang being the one Maksim and Katherine had inadvertently gotten themselves involved with. But these groups were not thieves' guilds, not the way they were supposed to be, at least. They had also learned that Jack Pritzker was the youngest of a very wealthy Chicago family. His older brothers were lawyers—lawyers who so far had managed to stay out of any of the gangs' business.
Katherine had come to the same conclusion that he had: O'Banion was going to try to use the younger Pritzker to leverage his brothers to represent him and his gang. Katherine had scowled at the idea, and they agreed that it was not something either of them wanted to participate in. Which is why Katherine was dressed as herself and getting ready warn Jack about the plan.
Maksim straightened when he saw a group of men leaving the building. He identified Jack Pritzker almost immediately. Katherine had as well. He watched her approach the young man with a smile. He watched Pritzker wave his classmates on and return Katherine's greeting.
As Katherine spoke, she played with her necklace, holding the round locket-like pendant between her fingers and tugging it lightly from one side to the other. It was not a typical nervous habit of hers. Playing with her hat or her hair was. He almost grinned when he realized what she was doing. Playing with her necklace was a good way to distract a man, drawing his attention to her chest, drawing attention to her gender and, likely, making him feel like she was harmless. It was a clever trick. But Maksim was uncomfortable with the way it was working. Jack Pritzker was handsome. And was smiling at Katherine. And standing a little too close to her.
Maksim frowned. He shouldn't be concerned about that. He should only be pleased that she seemed to be quickly convincing Pritzker to trust her.
He watched Pritzker shake his head and take a half a step away. Katherine put a hand on his arm, her face turning serious. And Maksim stilled while he watched Pritzker look at Katherine for a long moment. He considered walking over and interrupting, but Pritzker finally spoke again. And Katherine dropped her hand from his arm and nodded. And then they turned and started walking south on Dearborn. Katherine shot Maksim a quick glance, and he knew to follow.
He scowled when he saw Pritzker offer his arm and Katherine accept, and he increased his pace, suddenly wanting to be within range to eavesdrop on their conversation. He wasn't sure what he was expecting to hear, but they seemed to be talking about music. He shook his head. Of course Katherine would strike up a conversation about music when lives were potentially at stake.
They only walked a handful of blocks, five to the south, then west a few. They stopped in front of an office building with an impressive archway over a pair of large, brass doors. Maksim hung back, eyeing the tower over the archway and wondering what exactly Katherine was doing. He turned his attention back to her just as she turned and looked directly at him. And gestured him over with a nod of her head.
They hadn't planned on letting Pritzker know he was there.
He watched her carefully as he approached. But she just smiled at him.
"This is Jack," she gestured to Pritzker. "Jack, my friend, Nick."
Maksim shook hands with the young Pritzker, who quickly returned his attention to Katherine.
"Let's go inside and find my brother," Pritzker said, stepping up to the front door of the building and held it open, gesturing them both inside.
Maksim followed Pritzker and Katherine through the marble and glass lobby and up an ornate central staircase. He still wasn't exactly sure what she was up to.
"Margaret tells me you're from California, Nick."
"We are," Maksim confirmed. He was lucky that Pritzker had clued him in on the false name Katherine had used. It was another detail they hadn't spoken about ahead of time, but a decision he knew was smart on her part.
"How do you like Chicago?" Jack asked. "Margaret says she's been distracted by the height of the buildings."
"I lived in San Francisco," Maksim said flatly. "It is not the same, but we have skyscrapers there as well."
"I forget about that sometimes," Katherine smiled at Maksim over her shoulder. And an awkward silence fell over the trip as they climbed three more flights of stairs and entered brightly lit lobby.
Jack waved at the woman behind the ornate desk in the middle of the room.
"Hello, Amelia. I need to speak with my brother. It's important."
Maksim watched the stout woman behind the desk frown at Jack. But, after that brief hesitation, she followed his request and led them back to a large office. Maksim realized where they were when he recognized the man seated at the desk in this room as Jack Pritzker's older brother. They shared the same broad forehead and dark eyes.
"Jack. What's this about?"
"It seems O'Banion is scheming to get at you again, Harry," Jack sighed, looking quite a bit less cheerful than he had been just a few minutes before.
"I see." Harry steepled his fingers in front of himself. "And I assume this pretty young thing convinced you to come directly to me…with her 'bodyguard.'"
And for the first time, Maksim saw Katherine falter, not expecting the distrust. If she had been walking, she surely would have stumbled. Maksim stepped forward, taking over for her.
"Forgive us the intrusion, Mr. Pritzker. My friend and I have no more interest in getting involved with O'Banion than you do. Our current situation is a product of mistaken identity."
Katherine, having regained her composure, nodded. "We only arrived in Chicago yesterday and got mixed up with O'Banion. We were only looking for a night of safety and peace before continuing on our trip."
Maksim's eyes snapped to Katherine, both amazed and concerned at her use of the phrase. Both Pritzker brothers seemed to have noticed as well. After a single tense moment, Harry nodded and his face split into a welcoming smile. Katherine let out a noticeable sigh of relief.
"We haven't had anyone from the Order in touch in a long time," he said, shaking his head and gesturing to two chairs. "Tell me exactly what is going on."
Jack leaned against the windowsill while Katherine and Maksim settled into the chairs, and Katherine started the story with walking into O'Banion's flower shop.
"He wasn't exactly forthcoming with us about that state of things in the city, but…long story short, he offered up a place to stay in exchange for some information. And asked us to tail Jack here and report back." She glanced over at Maksim, who picked up the story from there.
"We gathered some information last night that suggests O'Banion's intention is to kidnap Jack as a means to get you to work with him."
"It wouldn't be the first time he has tried to strong arm me into getting involved in his business."
Jack chimed in. "I'm not surprised he didn't tell you the truth about the Order."
"Yes," Harry nodded somberly. "Things have been in a bit of disarray these last few years. The sooner we get the 18th amendment repealed, the better off we'll all be. We have had to essentially leave the gangs to their business and try to focus our attention on the politics. But," he smiled ruefully and spread his hands wide, "as you can see, even that doesn't always work. These gangs are always searching for power, control. I believe there are Templars amongst them, despite the fact that they are essentially working against the laws the Templars are in support of. But the power the gangs have, Torrio and his second, Capone, in particular…it's too tempting for them." He shook his head again. "Ah, well. Enough of our city's politics. You two likely need a better place to stay than in the heart of O'Banion's nest."
"That would be lovely," Katherine smiled, glancing over at Maksim for approval. He nodded. And briefly debated the best way to go about discreetly collecting their things from the hotel. Even though he was hesitant to leave her side, he knew she would be safest here, in the office building, rather than trying to sneak back into the hotel dressed as herself.
So Maksim left Katherine with the Pritzkers and made his way back to the hotel.
He nodded to the woman sitting behind the hotel's front desk before he headed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He had just reached their floor and fished the room key from his pocket when he noticed someone coming up the stairs behind him. He stopped in front of the door, and shot a quick glance back at the stairs. It was one of O'Banion's men, short and stocky and clearly armed. He started to unlock the door, but turned back at the voice that called to him from the top of the stairs.
"Oi. Where's the kid?"
"Doing his job," Maksim replied levelly.
He started to turn back to the door of his hotel room, when he noticed a second man coming from the other end of the hallway with a menacing grin. It only took a moment to recognize the Templar from the train. He scanned the hallway quickly, assessing his options. There weren't many. Other than going through the room, he had no other exits. If these two wanted a fight, he had no way to avoid taking them both down. And they sure looked like they wanted a fight.
He looked back at the one who had come up the stairs behind him. O'Banion's man had pulled a gun from his coat, and Maksim wasn't about to wait and let him take aim.
Maksim took one long stride towards the stocky man and swung his arms, boxing his ears with as much force as he could. The man stumbled half a step, but Maksim grabbed his head and yanked it down, slamming his knee into the man's face with a satisfying crunch and shoving him against the wall.
By this time, the Templar had run up behind him. Maksim spun around only to meet a brass knuckled fist. He blocked the second swing with his forearm, giving him just enough time to release his hidden blade and drive it into the man's throat. Twice.
He quickly unlocked the door and dragged both bodies into the room. He wiped at the blood trickling down his temple with a bath towel, grimacing as he realized how much it stung. He held the towel to his head while he used his free arm to shove the few stray items from the room into his duffel. He dabbed at his head a few more times before snatching the bowler from the Templar he'd stabbed and pulling it on. The bleeding had slowed, but not stopped. He'd have to hope the hat hid it just enough to not draw attention.
He locked the door and slipped out the window and down the fire escape, ducking into a small cluster of people as they crossed the street in front of the hotel.
He moved from crowd to crowd as he crossed town back to the Pritzker's building, pausing only once to lift a handkerchief from a banker to wipe at the blood slowly seeping from his temple, trying to keep it from actually dripping down his face. He kept the hat on until he reached Pritzker's office where Jack, Harry, and Katherine were sitting and chatting amiably.
Katherine smiled up at him, but her smile dropped and her eyes went wide the moment he took off the hat.
"Oh my—what happened?" She stood abruptly and took three steps towards him before going still just shy of reaching him.
"O'Banion's men," he said grimly. "And a Templar. We have to leave the city. Now."
A/N: O'Banion and the Pritzkers are real people. Dean O'Banion really did operate the North Side Gang out of a flower shop in Chicago. And the Pritzker brothers really were lawyers (and their family has made quite a few contributions to the city of Chicago). However, any association with Templars or Assassins it totally my doing. 'Cause, you know...they're not real.
And a shout out to my lovely reviewers, Kate, OhEyal, and beafstew (welcome to the party!). So happy everyone is still enjoying the story.
So here's a question for my readers: I've got pictures of key characters posted on the tumblr I made for this, but I have other pictures of things (some locations, a couple of dresses, etc.). Anyone interested in seeing pics other than the characters, let me know and I'll post them. Otherwise, I'll just stick with faces and the occasional song.