Chapter 7

That night after work, Rosalie arrived at her apartment with her Chinese takeout dinner. After the Joes had left, the day turned into a day of hell.

First, that jerk Orlinsky and his White Bull friends made cracks about Danny. Then, Dante got on her ass for telling them off. Aside from this morning's visit, is had been a horrible day.

Behind her, Rosalie heard the sound of the window that led to the fire escape of her second story apartment open. Intuitively she knew who was at her fire escape.

"Lady Scarlett," he greeted.

"Hey, Sir Ian." she replied.

"How was your day?"

"Terrible. Orlinsky and a couple of the others were making cracks about Danny..."

"Can they not leave the dead in peace?"

"I wish they would. Dante got on my ass after I told them off. We think he's starting to suspect something."

"I believe Dante suspects Sara Pezzini, at this moment. He had a great hatred of her father and now of her as well, I believe."

"We also believe Dante will try to kill Williams. Williams wants to talk about the White Bulls, so he can retire with a clear conscience. Dante want to be rid of him and quickly."

"I observed something that may be of use to Agent McCartey's investigation, earlier tonight." Ian said softly.

"You found something on Dante?" Scarlett was elated by that idea.

"No. Not Dante. I observed how Orlinsky upset you earlier, and followed him for a while instead..."

"Why did you follow Orlinsky?"

"I intended to make him pay for upsetting you."

"Dragon..." Scarlett said in an exasperated tone. "Why?"

"The same reason I'm helping you. We are friends."

"Yeah. I probably would do the same thing for you or any of my friends. So, see anything helpful to us?"

"I watched him demand a payoff from a pimp down on South Jackson Street."

"A payoff? Orlinsky is a White Bull. That would get Internal Affairs on his back; the only problem is we suspect there may be White Bulls in IA as well."

"That's not all, Shana." he paused for a moment. "I saw him demand the payoff, and the pimp refused. Then he shot and killed the pimp and one of the pimp's hookers saw it all."

"There's a witness, Ian?"

"Yes. I believe she's known on the street as 'Syren'. You should have Agent McCartey go out and pick her up, put her someplace safe until this is finished."

" Nice job, Ian."

"It was my pleasure, my lady. But not the only reason I came tonight."

"What do you mean, Ian?"

"The White Bulls have made an alliance of sorts with known terrorists."

"This is something I'm not going to like, right?"

"Correct. I've discovered where some of the White Bulls' money goes; it isn't good, Shana. They are funding several Cobra operations; they have been for the past two years. And in return they are provided with a wide array of weapons."

"Damn. That's not what I wanted to hear. I can't get out of this now, although that's what Jake's going to want. But knowing that is going on..."

"The White Bulls are Agent McCartey's jurisdiction; but the terrorists fall into yours. I believe you should be very careful."

"Going to have to be. There's no choice."

"How did the meeting with your friends go?"

"Perfectly, Ian." Scarlett said with a soft smile, "They had no idea that the one they're looking for was standing in the same room with them. The wig was perfect, thanks for suggesting it."

"I thought it would help. I knew if your friends know you as well as I do, they would have recognized you behind only the contacts."

"It's been awhile since we really had time to talk, Ian. You want to join me for some dinner and we can catch up a little."

"I'd love to, My lady." he said with a familiar smile.

Scarlett retrieved another bowl and scooped out another serving of shrimp fried rice and a couple of eggrolls for Ian, while he poured some soda for the two of them.

"So," she said setting the bowls on the table. "what are the others doing now that the Black Dragons have been disbanded?"

"I'm sorry, Scarlett, but I do not know," Ian said softly.

"How come?"

"I'm not sure. After the unit was disbanded, a few weeks after you were reassigned; we were ordered not to contact any of the others. You never received those orders because it would have exposed the Black Dragons to the Joes. And that could not be allowed."

"So, when I contacted you, you really weren't supposed to talk to me..."

"I know."

"But you did it anyway?" she asked.

"Yes. You are still a Black Dragon, as well as my second, I would have answered no matter what." he paused for a bite of eggroll, "Have you ever needed to reveal your enhanced abilities to your new unit?"

"Thankfully, not yet. It's hard holding back all the time, but it would be harder trying to explain all the things connected to the Black Dragons." she admitted. "So, you still working for that bastard?"

"Yes, although I wish I could strangle him at times. The job pays well, so that would probably not be a good idea."

They ate in silence for a while until Ian spoke again,

"My job does not allow for much of a private life, but I would like to know. Do you have someone special in your life, Lady Scarlett?"

"Yes, Sir Ian. I do have someone."

"Who is he?" Ian asked, interested in this new subject of conversation.

"Snake Eyes..." she answered softly.

"The one you sent me to see, that explains a lot."

"What do you mean?"

"It becomes obvious that you have someone when your eyes take on that certain light. I noticed it last time we spoke here. You miss him..." Ian's words were more of a statement of fact, a fact that he saw quite plainly.

"More than you could imagine, I saw him just today. It hurts to have been so close and not be able to let him know I was there."

"If you don't mind my asking, how did you two meet?" Ian's question was simple in it's nature, as if he was asking about the weather.

"It all started when the GI Joe was being formed. I was running the candidates through a hand to hand refresher course. They all thought it was a big joke having a puny, little girl teaching men how to fight. I made a pretty good example out of one, but I still had to prove it wasn't a fluke. I asked Snake Eyes to be next, told him to throw a punch at me as hard as he could. His punch was awkward but phony. I threw him easily; too easily, even if I had made use of my 'abilities' it shouldn't have been that easy. Halfway through my throw I understood that he was letting me throw him. He never lost control. He had the skill of a high ranking black belt. He was so good that he didn't need to win, he had nothing to prove; he was the best. So he let me win to save my pride..."

"And if you had used your abilities, and had he not held back like he did, who would've won then?" Ian asked; his interest was growing.

"To be honest; I'm not sure, Ian. I haven't been able to answer like that since before the Black Dragons." she answered softly.

"Then, what happened, Lady Scarlett? I'm certain that your story is not finished yet."

"You're right, Ian. The story doesn't end there; that was only the beginning," she said as she took a drink before continuing.

"I was fascinated. I had to find out more about him. I caught up to him going off post that evening, and got him to admit that he'd studied martial arts in Japan. That was all I was getting out of him on that subject. You'd think he'd belonged to some sort of secret society that isn't supposed to exist."

"You're one to talk, Shana. We belong to something that 'officially' does not exist. Everyone has secrets to keep." Ian stated simply.

"You're right," she sighed. "We all have secrets. I just wish I could tell someone about the Black Dragons, it's one of the best kept secrets I have."

"You just wish you didn't have to keep it like that." Ian said, "As you were saying..."

"Yes. He admitted having studied martial arts in Japan, and he would say no more about it. We walked and talked about everything. I found that underneath that hard-boiled mysterious aura was a small town boy who missed his home and was very lonely... By the time we had decided to take the ferry to Manhattan for dinner we were friends." she paused to take another drink.

"A lot of bad things had happened to him. I remember thinking that for a guy that had been through as much as him, he didn't have a lot of meanness in him... Everything was fine until the accident."

"Accident?" Ian asked, unable to stop his own curiosity.

"Months later," she began softly. "we were on a desert operation. It was supposed to be a simple hostage rescue. Yeah, simple. Halfway around the world in a hostile country with no support. There was four of us in the lead chopper; Rock 'N Roll, Grunt, Snake Eyes and me. We were flying real low, the doors were open and the rotors were kicking up enough dust to re- sand the Sahara. Grunt was wondering if the planning honchos had thought to refit the helicopters with dust filters on the air intakes. That's about when our engine stalled out." Ian remained silent as she paused.

"The stick jockeys up front did there best to get us down intact but it was pretty hopeless, they gave us the word to jump. Rock 'N Roll and Grunt were already out the door when the tail rotor stalled and we started to spin, the spin slammed the door shut on my web-gear, trapping me; Snake Eyes could have jumped clear. We were slowing towards the other helicopter and I told him to leave me and get out, but he didn't. He was trying to get the door open when we hit the other chopper..." she paused to take a deep breath, "the aviation gas lit up immediately and a plume of burning vapor punched right through that plexiglass door window...and hit Snake Eyes square in the face like a box full of Roman Candles. The crash knocked me out cold; Rock 'N Roll told me later that he saw Snake Eyes carry me out of the wreckage with his head still in flames." she cast her eyes to the floor before finishing. "He was standing there holding me safe with his ruined mouth opening and closing in his ravaged face... and no sound coming out."

Silence prevailed for several minutes before Ian spoke;

"He must love you very much, as much as you love him."

"I love him. I just don't know what I did to deserve him. He didn't have to save me that day. One thing I learned from my days in the Black Dragons was to look your death in the face. I was ready, a little scared, yes; but ready."

"As Daniel would say, 'He saved you for a reason, that you needed him to do so.' Daniel was right, all things are fated. The two of you were most likely meant to meet and he was supposed to save you that day."

"Danny would say that, knowing him. Then he'd argue the point with me, until I gave in and agreed with him."

"That's what I liked about Daniel." Ian said. "I believe I should go, it's late and you have to be a the precinct building in the morning."

"Yeah, I do." Getting up from her chair, she began to clean the table off. "Thanks for the intel, Nottingham. I'll have Jake go find the witness, Syren. And, the three of us will keep an eye out for Williams. I just hope we can keep him alive long enough to catch Dante."

"I trust you will." Ian said, as he went to the window. "Goodnight, My lady."

"Goodnight, Ian."

Ian climbed down the fire escape and walked into the night street. It was early in the morning now and he had to get back before he was missed. Ian thought. ~I will help Shana to bring Daniel's killer to justice, On the honor of the Black Dragons, I swear it.~

Just a little note: I found the details of Scarlett's story in an issue of the comic book; unfortunately I forgot the number and haven't been able to locate the issue yet.