Chapter 3: Mexican Standoff
The fivesome found the Yellowflag to be bustling with killers, both familiar and unknown. Chang was correct, the rumours he had leaked about this assassin seemed to be attracting many different bounty hunters and hitmen from both the surrounding area and outside the country. Roanapur hadn't seen traffic like this in a long time. Even the conflict with the Dead Men brought in fewer prospecting killers for hire. Bao came over and set their drinks down in front of them, a rum for Revy and a whiskey for Wolf. Lotton, amusingly, drank only a glass of milk. That provoked many disgusted looks from some of the less amicable patrons in here tonight. Shenhua and Sawyer sat with them at the bar, but they had no drinks of their own. They were purely here to find out about the Cat Lady.
"Place is bursting at the seams tonight, Bao," Revy said to the weary barman. "You giving discounts for the ladies upstairs or something?"
"Ah, this business with the Triad has the whole city overrun with fucking riff raff," Bao complained. Revy thought he would be glad of the business. "You hear about that?"
"Fuck yeah, I did. The boss man himself told us this was the place to find information."
"Fucking great," Bao muttered to himself. "Don't know why he's so scared, anyways. Bigger fish than this Chinese bitch have taken a swing at him. No offence."
"None taken. So how about it? You know anything?" Bao looked around the room cautiously before leaning in towards Revy. The other four all huddled around the bar so they could hear what was being said.
"Well, from what I hear, she used to live on the streets in Hong Kong. Got herself scooped up by some gang or another and now she takes just about any job she can get. Not sure who it is has it out for Chang, but it's anyone's guess. Been a rocky couple of years."
"You can say that again," Wolf said, taking a drink of his whiskey.
"That's great and all," Revy began, "but I was hoping for a lead, here. Any idea where she's headed?" Bao stood back up straight and proceeded to wipe the inside of a glass with a dishrag.
"On that front, I'm afraid information has been minimal."
"Aw, great. Another fabulous tip-off from Mister Chang. The fuck is he playing at here?"
"Beats me," Bao answered lazily. "But something ain't right, that's for sure."
"How's that?" Revy asked him.
"Well, it's obvious, ain't it? Chang goes to all this trouble to bring out the worst of the worst to do his dirty work for him with the promise of a reward. With all those bodyguards and all that money…did he really need to put the word out on the street? Hell, he coulda hired any one of you to go after this bitch alone for less than the reward is gonna cost him."
"Ah, he's playing a game," Revy deduced. "Just gotta figure out what it is he wants."
Before they could finish their conversation, one of the women who had been sitting down approached them. She smiled openly at them, much like somebody who wasn't entirely sure where they were, and when she spoke her voice was girlish and annoying.
"Did I hear you guys talking about the Cat Lady?" she asked excitedly. "We've been here for a couple days but we've had no luck yet…" She pouted like a small child, sulking. Revy scrunched up her nose like she had encountered a bad smell. The woman had bright blue hair, shorter at the sides and swept back over her head, and she wore a blue denim shirt, open at the front, with simple black shorts and lace up boots. Beneath her shirt, she had a plain grey crop top with several holes in it. Fingerless gloves covered her hands and a small, clean SIG Sauer P226 was holstered at her hip.
"Beat it, princess," she hissed.
"Aww, come on!" the woman responded. "Is that any way to talk to a stranger? Name's Daisy! What's yours?"
"I said scram, you fucking candy cane!" Dasiy pouted once again and folded her arms.
"Not fair," she mumbled, turning around and heading back towards her table. "Guess we'll have to go after the Cat Lady alone, Cletus." Revy and Wolf locked eyes.
"Had to open your mouth, didn't you?" Wolf scolded her.
Revy rolled her eyes and stood up, heading over to Daisy's table. She placed her hands on her hips.
"Alright, Cinderella, what do you know? Where do we find the Cat Lady?" There was a man sitting with the blue-haired woman, but he was almost her polar opposite. His hair was black and greying, bald on the top but thick everywhere else. He had a bushy handlebar moustache and he wore a tight black short-sleeved shirt, unbuttoned down halfway. His dirty black boots were up on the table and he had torn blue jeans on. He did not appear to carry any gun on his person, but there was a worn and chipped baseball bat leaning against his chair.
"Who the fuck are you?" he asked flippantly, picking up a glass of beer and chugging down a sizable amount of it in one go.
"Can it, redneck," Revy dismissed him. He eyed her for a few seconds. Then, without warning, he stood up from his chair and grabbed the baseball bat, bringing it down crashing into the table and knocking over the drinks.
"The fuck did you say?!" he roared. "Hear that, Daisy? This here chink thinks she's a smartass!"
"Pack it in, you two!" Bao screamed from the bar. "Making a goddamn mess of my bar."
"Oh, Cletus, why'd you do that?" Daisy asked in her aggravatingly childish voice. "These people haven't done anything to us."
"I'm sorry, Daisy," Cletus told her. His eyes went back to Revy, then, and he pointed his baseball bat at her. "It's just this one. She's got a nerve on her!"
"You two are fucking crazy," Revy told them, folding her arms. Her bafflement and confusion replaced any desire to fight that had been there earlier.
"You see?!" Cletus insisted. "Goddamn she-devil!"
"Listen here, you fucking brainless-!"
"What my friend here trying to say," Shenhua interrupted before things got too heated, "is that we after Cat Lady too! Perhaps we help each other, yes?"
"Wow," Cletus quietly exclaimed. "You speak less English than I do."
Wolf erupted with laughter at the bar, almost falling out of his seat. Sawyer, too, had to resist the urge to chuckle.
"We're waiting for her, you see," Daisy explained. "We know just where she-"
"Shut your fucking trap!" Revy warned her, terrified that some of the onlookers might hear this information. She wanted it all for herself. She came in closer to Daisy to hear what she had to say. "You got information on her? Spill it."
"Well, she's hiding out at an inn just up the road. Think they call it the Wilted Lotus. And if we're not mistaken, she's going after Chang tonight." Revy grinned like a maniac, taking a step back from Daisy.
"Is that so?" she mused. "Well, thanks for the info, Cinderella. But you ain't getting to her first." Without warning, Revy took her Cutlasses in hand and pointed them both at Cletus and Daisy. Taken completely by surprise, Wolf and Lotton jumped out of their seats and readied their own weapons. Shenhua took her kukri in hand, one towards the two strangers and the other relaxed at her side. It was at this point that they began attracting the attention of some of the others in the bar. A small group of bounty hunters approached from the left side of the bar and aimed their weapons at Daisy and Cletus while another gang of thugs stood ready at the opposite side of the room. A circle was formed in the middle of the room, however, by Daisy, Cletus, Revy, Wolf, Shenhua, Sawyer and Lotton as they all tried to gauge who they should and shouldn't be hostile to.
"How about we all calm down?" Bao called from behind the bar, desperate to avoid another decimation of the Yellowflag. He had managed to keep it intact for too long to bear losing it again now.
"Shut it, Bao!" Revy spat at him. "I'm going after this Cat Lady and ain't none of you following me."
"Strictly speaking," Wolf began, pointing his gun to the back of Revy's head as she was focused on the other two, "I was on the hunt before any of you. That makes me first in line to reap the rewards." Revy made a noise of ridicule, taking one of her guns away from the strangers and pointing it at Wolf. With Cletus's baseball bat pointed at Revy, Daisy cocked her gun and aimed it at Lotton, who responded in kind. Shenhua and Sawyer had only melee weapons, of little use if a shootout broke out, but they held them at the ready regardless, their attention trained on Cletus and Daisy. Tensions rose considerably and none of them were quite sure if they could trust any of the others. After all, only one of them could get the reward and it was clear few of them were in a sharing mood, effectively putting them all at odds with one another.
Before anyone could make a move, the door of the Yellowflag opened slowly. None of the killers wanted to let their guard down, but they all subtly angled their gaze towards the newcomer. As soon as they deduced who it was, they ceased their hostilities and broke the circle they had formed. It was the Cat Lady, no doubt. Her hair was long and black, coming down either side of her face, and she wore a beautiful grey cheongsam with dark blue trim. On her fingers, she had polished silver nekote, a weapon of Chinese origin resembling long pointed claws. The name she had been given made more sense now. She walked forward slowly, coming all the way into the room and stopping in front of Revy. She spoke only a single word.
"Chang?" Revy exchanged a look with Shenhua and they both nervously shrugged their shoulders.
"You asking if I'm Chang?" Revy questioned the assassin. The Cat Lady narrowed her eyes.
"No Chang?" she asked. Clearly, she had barely any English. As they considered how to proceed, one of the thugs from the right side of the room emerged from the shadows bearing a long bowie knife. He tried to drive the blade into the Cat Lady's back while she was distracted, but there was a reason she had a reputation. Her left hand darted up into the air and curled back downwards, the blade of the bowie knife stopped mid-stab by the nekote. Then, the Cat Lady ripped the knife from the thug's hands with only two fingers and whizzed around on the spot, her free hand slicing towards him with such speed that the others would have missed it if they blinked. Nothing happened at first as the Cat Lady just stood there and watched her stunned would-be attacker. It was only after five seconds or so that they all realised he was not stunned, he was dead. Blood gushed from the fresh wound inflicted on his throat by the nekote and he stumbled to the ground. The Cat Lady gave the others an untrusting look before taking her leave. After she was gone, nobody in the bar moved for almost a full minute. Amusingly, that was when almost everyone barrelled through the side door and fled, no longer tempted by the promise of money.
"Well, that was interesting," Wolf said, breaking the silence.
"Interesting?!" Shenhua blurted out. "If that your idea of interesting, I hate to see exciting day for you." Revy started for the door without a word.
"The hell do you think you're going?" Cletus barked at her.
"That reward money just walked out the fucking door. And most of the competition shit their pants and went the other way. You guys coming or what?"