I, ASSASSIN
Chapter Twenty-Four
Remy stood in the wide hallway leading to Marius's study on the first floor. His hair was still dripping water down his neck from the shower he'd taken upon his return back to the Boudreaux plantation. He was told to shower, dress, and take the rest of the night to rest himself.
Normally, he'd have listened. He was beyond tired and beyond sore. Unfortunately he was also beyond sleep. He couldn't be expected to fall asleep when he'd accidentally killed someone and just left the poor bastard in the woods. He had to know who the man was, he had to know if there was any new information.
Marius Boudreaux wasn't likely to be sympathetic, he realised, especially not now the Grand Master was there to reinforce the rules and decisions, but maybe his mentor would be able to offer something. Some little tidbit of information.
More than anything, he was hoping Marius would be able to offer advice, some kind of suggestion on how a man could get over murdering another. He needed to know how to deal with this and Bella Donna simply wasn't going to know. As far as he knew, she still hadn't killed a person.
It was as he was halfway down the hall he heard the voices beyond the door of Marius's office. Marius, and The Grand Master were talking.
Actually...it was more like arguing. The voices were muffled but Remy could clearly hear what was being said, and he slowed, concentrating on being as silent as a church mouse as he approached.
"I know what it means, Marius. I know the rules of my own Guild! I've been enforcing those laws for forty years!"
"It might have been an accident, but by the laws-"
"By the laws, what? We fully initiate him because he got lucky? Don't be absurd."
"Initiates become Assassins when they kill someone, father. Remy killed a man."
"That's what he told you, but he could be lying. He brought no proof with him."
"He had a gunshot wound on the ear," Marius responded.
"A tiny scratch – hardly proof."
"I only had to look in his eyes to see he wasn't bluffing. He had that same haunted look every recruit gets when he makes his first kill. Someone died today, father."
"If that's true, we need to find out who it was. If he killed an Assassin, Marius, you know you'll have to get rid of the boy. You kill one of your own, you're dead. It's law."
"I'm positive it weren't any of our men...I used ten of my most trusted and all ten of them came out breathing. I've spent most of the night on the phone checking to see if of our members or recruits is missing. Everyone is accounted for. This isn't an Assassin."
"And you're sure?"
"He said the shooter was wearing black army fatigues – field shadowwear is nothing like it. None of the stealthwear my men were out there in remotely resembled what Remy described."
"If it turns out it were an Assassin..."
"Even if it were," Marius suddenly snapped, it sounded to Remy as if he were pacing, he heard the erratic footsteps, "He thought he was trainin' and it turned ugly fast. He were out there tryin' to survive...some Thief hatin' member of the guild decides to raise a real gun to the boy and you think Remy should be the one to suffer the consequences?"
"He's going to be too much trouble, Marius. Get rid of him. Eliminate him before he ruins us all. If he brings a tree down in panic in the middle of the woods, imagine what kind of wreckage he'd leave behind on a contract if things go south? Hardly discrete. Eliminate him."
There was a long silence, then Marius asked rather shakily, "eliminate him?"
"Yes. Get rid of the freak."
"You know...You've been asking me to eliminate him since the moment you walked through the front door...you've been looking for an excuse to do it," he took a breath.
"And your point is?"
"My point?" Marius snorted. "My point is from the start you've questioned me on this..."
"It was foolish to bring him into our fold – a mutant. They're unpredictable, and dangerous. He might fit with those inbred hillbilly bastards in the Thieves, but he is not Assassin material, regardless of whatever bullshit you try to tell me."
Marius took a sharp breath, "tell me you didn't have anything to do with this...just tell me this isn't one of your set ups!"
"I had nothing to do with this. If I had set this up and he killed one of my Assassins, that boy wouldn't be breathing right now! He'd be gator food."
"You've done this before."
"Done what?" demanded the Grand Master.
"Don't play this game, father. You've deliberately arranged impossible trials to fuck over initiates without notifying the guild – upped the stakes and caused havoc."
"You're seriously reaching."
"Don't give me that...you could have set this up – make it look like an accident during training...you want him to fail."
"Drop it, Marius. I'm warning you."
"This could be your plan, have him fail either way – if he dies, you win, if he kills one of your expendable men, you get to execute him - you win."
"I had nothing to do with it and I don't appreciate the accusation," Grand Master Boudreaux remarked icily. "Now, I advise you eliminate him, just as I said."
"Why?! Why kill him?"
"That's what Assassins do, son."
"But it'd be a waste of a life."
"Not in this case. He's a waste of life being here."
"Don't you know how skilled the kid is? How valuable?!"
Remy frowned, the way they spoke of him was more of as an object than a person.
"Whomever it was that he killed out there in those woods knew where to find him."
"So?"
"You didn't know you were going to put Belle and that mutant freak in to this trial today - it was all arranged on a whim."
"And?"
"Don't play the idiot. Someone knew how to find him despite he wasn't supposed to be there. He is being tracked, Marius."
"Perhaps it was someone on the inside?" Marius queried.
"No one would dare," snorted the Grand Master. "Treason is punishable by death. This was an outside job...which means he's attracting the wrong attention. For all you know it was one of his own Guild, turnin' on him. The best thing to do is to get rid of the boy before he brings more trouble."
"I'm not eliminating him."
"What is it with you and this boy?"
"What?"
"You...your special interest in this one. This one is different from the others...you make exceptions for him, you let him away with weakness and cowardice."
"You're the one who's reaching now, father," sighed Marius.
"You got something going with him?"
"Pardon?"
"Are you fucking with him?"
Marius gave a laugh of disbelief, "no, I'm not fucking with him."
"Then what makes Remy LeBeau so goddamn special that you'd trade up your son?! Your only son."
"I need to make sure that the guild has strong capable Assassins."
"We have strong capable Assassins."
"Not right now," Marius uttered. "I've lost four masters in the past year - Pierre died of a heart attack, Mason offed himself by having a bath with a space heater - couldn't live with it after he accidentally killed the wrong person. Victor retired. And then you eliminated Robert for breaking the tenets."
"I had no choice about that," the Grand Master snarled.
"Right, yes, it was our law - we had no choice but to eliminate him after his crimes. But regardless, I've lost four - more are going to retire eventually, I need good Assassins - Remy LeBeau is going to be an exceptional Assassin."
"There's still a whole generation of future initiates to reach manhood - there's no need to put so much stake in that mutant."
"I can't wait that long. I won't be around forever, father."
There was a sudden loud crackling laugh, the kind of breathless laugh that sounded like a hiss at the end. "Oh...oh no no no, I don't think so, Marius."
Marius was silent, Remy pressed his ear against the door, wincing at the pain it caused; there was a tiny graze upon it where a bullet had whizzed by his ear.
"You cannot be serious."
"Why not?"
"You know why."
"What else am I to do? What option do I have?" Marius demanded. "I have to make plans for the future and I have very limited choices. Our current initiates...they're inept, it'll take years to get them to the level of skill that the LeBeau boy has right now. I need him...he's ideal."
"You're out of your goddamn mind."
"I see something in this kid, father," Marius sighed. "I see this...this spark...he's got somethin'. This...calculating intelligence that I haven't seen in any of our recruits. He's advanced for his age, he's going to go far...he has the Thieves cunning and the Assassins deadly accuracy."
"In theory," snorted the Grand Master. "But he hasn't killed a person yet."
"But he has," reminded Marius.
"Accidents hardly count, Marius."
"It doesn't state that in our book of laws, father. It states that if a probationary initiate kills a man cleanly leaving no witnesses, then he can be properly initiated and set to undertake the final trials."
"You don't even know if he's telling the truth," The Grand Master grunted. "We need to see a body for proof."
"Once the weather clears up I'll arrange a search party," Marius decided. "The woodland is too dense to send in a helicopter – we need to go in by foot. Properly scour the area. But we're not doing it in this storm."
"Marius, I warn you, if this victim of his turns out to be one of us, then there is no choice but to kill him."
I can't listen to any more of this, Remy thought unhappily, his heart racing, his head hurting.
Remy moved quickly from the door and headed back towards the hall. Marius knew nothing, there was no solace he could offer and the only thing The Grand Master could offer was a swift and probably painful death.
You knew this was gonna happen from the get go, Remy thought unhappily. No matter what you do, you're always doomed.
He made his way to the living room, grabbing for the remote he switched on the 60 inch wall mounted television as he dropped onto the chaise lounge, scanning the cable channels for any kind of news report that might suggest a missing person fitting the rough description of the man who had tried to kill him in the woods.
There was nothing; the rain was big news, the thunder rolling in the distance. Weather was always bigger news than murder lately, Remy realised. A sad state of affairs. A body was out there in the middle of the woods...the rain was more important. Remy looked down at his hand, the remote clutched in his fingers. I need to be careful about my powers from now on. I charged that card too much, my powers are getting stronger...I could be a danger to everyone here. Maybe I need to stop using my powers for good...
"What's on?"
Remy looked over the back of the couch to examine Bella Donna in her boxy pink t-shirt that hung a little too long for her petite frame and dangled nearly to the knees of her pyjama pants. "Nothin'," he replied quietly, he tossed the remote aside, leaving it on the weather report, he tried to slump against the back of the chaise lounge but he was far too up tight for it to happen naturally, his position ended up odd and stiff and he shifted uneasily.
Bella Donna came to sit by him, picking up the remote and shifting the station, "what's with you?"
"Sore, I guess," he confessed. Yes, he was definitely sore. All the running, the climbing, the crawling and hunching and twisting and shifting around had left every muscle in his body aching in ways they hadn't ached in years. It reminded him of when he'd first begun his Thief training years ago...that same strain on muscles that hadn't ever been used.
But in this case, it wasn't the pain that was holding him in an awkward stiff position, it was the unease. Stress was binding his muscles tighter than wires and armour. He was a murderer. That body would still be out there...someone's son...someone's husband perhaps, maybe a father. How could he ever relax again?
"Want me to rub you down?" she teased, she gently pinched his thigh playfully.
Remy brushed her hand away and pushed himself up swiftly, "don't."
"Remy..."
He moved to the window and pulled the wooden shutters away from the glass so he could stare out, the sky was lit up with lightening, so bright it almost looked like daylight for a few brief seconds.
"Is this about the guy who tried to kill you?"
Remy looked over his shoulder at her, she said in such a blasé way that it made the entire thing hurt far more. "The guy I killed," he replied, "the guy who be lyin' out there in the middle of the goddamn woods pinned beneath a tree with a broken back because of me."
"Because he attacked you," Bella Donna spoke up.
"That doesn't make it right, chere. It doesn't justify it."
"He got what he deserved, Remy. You know that."
"Just..." Remy turned towards her, "Just...swear to me that you know nothin' about this, that...this wasn't a set up, that this guy wasn't supposed to be there with a real gun."
Bella Donna stood slowly, "he wasn't supposed to be there," she said, "I know it for sure...heard Daddy say it too...he knew nothin' about it..."
He lowered his eyes to the carpet, trying to absorb this. "Does the guild ever set this kind of thing up?" he asked. He knew the answer, judging by what the Grand Master and Marius had been discussing. "Is there any chance...I mean could this be a trial?"
"I don't know what the trials are," Bella Donna confessed, "everyone gets somethin' different, unique dependin' on what their progress is like. But...if Daddy doesn't know about it, then it ain't a trial. Only he can issue your trials - at least until your final stage through your initiation."
"And then?"
Bella Donna drew a breath, "And then...Grandpere and the Trial Master will issue you the final three trials."
If her Grandpere issues me any trials, I'll be dead before I ever become an Assassin, Remy thought miserably, deciding he couldn't really determine if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Remy rubbed the back of his neck, god it hurt with the strain of thinking about the body in the woods. It was all he could think about. "I need to go back there."
"Remy?"
"I have to."
"Back to the woods?"
"Yes."
He turned and headed out of the living room, he heard Bella Donna following fast at his heels. He knew where Marius kept the keys to his Jeep, a vase in the kitchen, not far from the door leading into the utility room. He dug his hand into the vase and pulled them out.
"Remy!" called Bella Donna at his back, "What are you doin'?! You can't go out there!"
"Tell me I can't," he looked at her, "some guy is lyin' dead out there. Why did he want me dead?! Who was he? I have to see his goddamn face, I have to know who the hell I killed," he stood there near the door of the utility room, looking at her. "I have to know why."
"What difference it make when you get there, darlin'? You'll see a strangers face, you won't learn anythin'."
"I just have to see him. I have to know who he was!"
"Why?! Knowin' won't make this easier..."
"Belle...I need to know if this guy was one of you. If I know, at least I have a chance to run before your grandfather kill me for treason!"
Bella Donna grabbed for his hand and took the keys from him, she had to fight him for a moment, she gazed up at him, "not now...not just yet..."
"Then when?" he demanded.
She looked around helplessly for a moment, her expression thoughtful, "after eleven...when Daddy goes to bed...we can't just head off there without bein' prepared, Remy..."
"We?" he asked, gaping at her.
"If...if you have to go then...fine, I can't stop you. But I can't let you go out there alone," Bella Donna decided, her eyes met his with steely determination.
"No...you can't come. You can't get involved-"
"That's cute, Remy," Bella Donna laughed in disbelief.
He frowned at her, "What is?"
"That you think you actually have a say in it," she replied, "You don't even know where you're going."
"Belle...if your father-"
"If he finds out, he finds out...I'll face the music if it comes to that," she rolled her eyes, "I'm not lettin' you go off into the woods on a night like this lookin' for a body on your own. You're upset and you're not thinkin' clear. It'd be irresponsible to let you do this alone."
"What good is it to take you along?" he grunted.
"I'm a tracker, Remy. Grandpa taught me...believe me, if you go alone, you'll get lost."
"What you gonna say if your father finds out?"
"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Now...we have to wait...at least until daddy falls asleep."
"After eleven, then," he sighed; right now, there was no way to avoid her coming. If he denied her the right to come, she could make sure he didn't leave by alerting her father. It was a catch twenty-two, ether way, he was going to get in deep trouble.
"I'll figure everythin' out, just be ready to leave quick; wear somethin' warm."
Bella Donna looked around briefly, making sure no one was there to see them and she pressed her lips quickly to his, then without a word, she left him standing there in the kitchen alone, the feeling of her kiss lingering on his lips and the guilt of a murder lingering in his mind.
It felt as if he'd waited all night to be ready, when in actuality it was barely a few hours; he paced back and forth in his room, he found it hard to try and settle, whenever he settled for too long his body began to hurt more. It seemed to ache less the more he kept moving...he had to keep moving. As long as he was moving everything would be all right.
It wasn't too far past eleven when he heard a soft tap at his bedroom door; it was so light he almost didn't hear it. He made his way quickly and opened the door cautiously, gazing out at her. She was fully dressed in combat pants and a dark sweater; she said nothing, simply inclined her head towards the hallway leading to the stairs.
Remy followed, heavy boots dangling from his fingers; he'd been sure to wait to put them on so he couldn't be heard out on the wooden floorboards in the hallway.
In the utility room, Bella Donna thrust a heavy dark green wax coat at him, "put this on," she whispered.
Remy pulled the coat on; it was old and smelled damp and the inside felt slightly cold and hard. He zipped it up, watching as she pulled on a similar coat of her own, she put a baseball cap on before pulling the hood up. She moved outside to sit on the driest of the porch steps to pull on a pair of gumboots over her thick socks; there was a pair of boots there waiting for him too, and a pair of socks rolled up beside them.
"Wear those," she said, her voice low.
"I got my boots with me," he reminded; his boots were still slightly damp from earlier today.
"If those boots you have there show up wet in the mornin', Daddy will know you've been out again..." she said in a hushed voice, "just wear the damn gum boots. They'll rinse right off."
"You sure he's sleepin'?"
"Yes," she glanced towards him as she tugged her left boot on, "Hurry."
Remy pulled the thick woollen socks over the thinner ones he was wearing, she'd thought of everything. Assassins training, be prepared. Her father had taught her exceptionally well; Remy wondered if Marius realised just how well. Remy had difficulty getting the boots on, they were slightly snug with the socks, but he realised at least his feet would be dry.
Bella Donna crept down the porch and towards the Jeep, she opened the driver's side door and took the parking brake off, "help me push..."
"Push?" he asked.
"I don't want the engine bein' heard...come on!"
With difficulty they pushed the Jeep down the driveway, the rain and mud did nothing to help. When they had gotten far enough, Bella Donna climbed in and took the wheel, he moved into the passengers side, and despite being far away enough from the house, he still shut the door as quietly as he could manage.
"You sure your dad was sleepin' when we left?" Remy asked concernedly as he stared at the rear window, he could barely see the plantation through the trees.
"Yes," said Bella Donna, "I made sure..."
"What if he wakes up?"
"He won't be wakin' up tonight," she responded, "I put a little nightshade cocktail in his nightcap."
"You what?" Remy turned and gazed at her.
"I had no choice," Bella Donna muttered, "It was either that or he'd have heard us."
"Nightshade is poisonous," he admonished, "you tryin' to kill him?"
"Look, you use just the right amount and he be out like a light for about nine hours...I've been learnin' all about poisons as part of my trainin', it's fine."
"It's fine?" Remy gave a vague laugh of disbelief, "It's called deadly nightshade for a reason, chere..."
"I calculated it all precisely, Remy. Accounted for his bodyweight, his tolerance, the alcohol. I've been learning how to dose people accurately dependin' on what I need...like how to get past people so I can take out people further in a buildin'. If you use it right, mix it with the right thing...it's perfect for keepin' people sedated."
"It could also be lethal," Remy reminded.
"Don't worry...he'll be fine," Bella Donna remarked, "I doped Aceline two nights ago and she didn't even know. Said she had the best night's sleep of her life."
Remy gazed at Bella Donna; the thought of her poisoning her family and staff made him feel almost as horrified as the thought of being a murderer. The girl was lucky she hadn't killed someone yet.
"Remind me not to tell you if I have any sleepin' problems or anything," he muttered, he turned to look out the window, "What about your grandpere? You drug him too?"
"No...I passed his room...I heard him and that whore fuckin' like wild pigs, she was squealin' like a pig that's for sure. He tires real easy these days, ain't no way he's gonna get up tonight."
"How he get it up at his age anyway?" Remy wondered aloud.
"Viagra," Bella Donna said simply, "I saw the bottle in his suitcase – he had it under his bed."
"What you doin' in his room?"
"I was lookin' to see if that whore he's gonna marry is stealin' anythin'...can't be too careful."
"You find anythin'?"
"No," said Bella Donna, "except a fuckload of diamond jewellery I'm sure he must have bought her."
Remy swept some rainwater from his face, "You think she's out to bleed him dry?"
"He's pretty wealthy...I'm not sure how much money he got, but he always told me he'd have to live several times over. No, I think she's gonna marry him and hope that she can fuck him to death so she can inherit everythin'."
As strangely disgusted with himself as he felt for the thought, Remy still couldn't help but feel the day that the old man was ridden to his grave couldn't come fast enough.
Lightning flashed bright in the sky, thunder rumbled and the road seemed to tremble beneath them. The rain pelted down heavier and heavier the further Bella Donna drove. It seemed that the trip there too far less time than it had that morning. The roads were quieter now, and Bella Donna was an excellent driver and wasn't afraid of pushing the speed limit.
"You sure picked a bad night to go on an outing," Bella Donna commented. "This isn't gonna be easy you know..."
"You shouldn't be here..." Remy fretted. "What if your family-"
"You didn't make me come here. I make my own choices, I'm perfectly capable of defending myself to them if we're caught."
Remy wasn't sure he could defend himself for letting her come though.
Soon, they were parking near the woods; this part of the woods didn't seem all that familiar and Remy shuddered a little in spite of himself, "what if we can't find the tree that fell?" he asked. It had occurred to him several times. In the dark, in such a large woodland, they could be out there all night and never find it.
"I don't know, we could be all night in there lookin'. Just...don't expect miracles. It's dark, it's pouring...poor visibility...and we have no clue if we'll be able to find the exact location of the body," she admitted as she switched the engine off and climbed out. "All we can do is try to retrace your footsteps or find to find his footsteps."
Remy winced as she mentioned body. He'd been trying to avoid thinking of that word for the past few hours now. Pushing aside his nerves and guilt, he got out and followed her to the back of the Jeep; as she opened the hatch the ceiling light switched on and Remy saw two rather large heavy looking flashlights sitting there, and a backpack.
"Take this," Bella Donna said, handing him the backpack, "just a few supplies just in case."
"Supplies?"
"Flares, a lighter, an extra battery for one of the flashlights," Bella Donna explained, "also some medical stuff, just in case one of us gets hurt," she explained she took out her handgun and gave it a good check.
"What's that for?"
"Insurance," she remarked. "If one guy was out there with a gun, there could be more..."
"You thought this through rather well considerin' it's all on the fly," Remy admitted to her.
"Look, you have to think on your feet when you're an Assassin, I know Daddy has told you that. When you told me you wanted to do this, I knew we had to be prepared," she explained. "You don't go off in the dark and the rain without having preparing, or else all that's gonna happen is that we're gonna get lost, be in the dark and end up probably dyin' of hypothermia."
Remy watched as Bella Donna put a bag around her shoulder, "hypothermia in Louisana?" he laughed a little, "Not likely."
"Don't you remember that cold front we had about four years ago?" she asked, "when it hit below freezing?"
"That was winter," Remy reminded. "And it was a fluke. We never see weather like that here."
"It was still damn cold," she reminded, she adjusted the strap on the bag. "Never thought I'd ever see here get as cold as it did then. I remember wishin' so bad for snow."
"It didn't though," He remembered, feeling strangely envious of those days, when life had been much simpler. When snow had been something to wish for, not freedom and innocence.
"I've never even seen snow up close," Bella Donna confessed.
"Never saw it 'til I went up North," Remy stated, the memory seeming distant, "me and snow don't mix."
"What's it like up close?" she asked, putting her hand in the bag and taking out a thin strip of silvery fabric.
"Cold...crunchy...it stings like a mother fucker," Remy gazed down at the strip of fabric in her slim fingers, "what's that?"
"Shine a flashlight on it..." she encouraged.
Remy picked up one of the heavy flashlights and pointed it at the fabric, it was reflective. "I get it," he realised, "tie it on the trees, find our way back faster."
"Exactly," she nodded.
"Where you learn all this? Girl scouts or somethin'?" he asked.
"Some of it," she answered, "but...grandpere used to take me campin' before his arthritis got too bad. He taught me a lot this stuff. We'd go out on night hunts – it was always more exciting and a little scary at night."
The thought of Bella Donna and her grandfather out here left him feeling ill at ease. Even as a child he'd been training her to be a better killer, subtly teaching her about survival and strategy, waiting for the right time to make her deadly.
Bella Donna pulled a folded piece of paper out from her coat pocket and flattened it out on the blanket that was laid out in the back of the Jeep; on closer inspection, Remy saw it was an aerial map of the area, quite grey and fuzzy, "Okay...I checked my daddy's maps at home, I think I have the area narrowed down," she took a red permanent marker from her pocket and marked off an area on the map with an 'S', "I know the direction you went off in at the start is right around this area here..." she explained.
Revisitin' the scene of the crime, Remy realised as he glanced over his shoulder at the woodlands as she spoke. And Belle is treatin' it like an orienteerin' adventure.
"I'm guessin' you followed the sun part way to keep an eye on your direction to get out," Bella Donna continued, "And...you exited somewhere around this area..." she turned and gestured towards the woods with her red pen, "I can't pinpoint the exact place you came out 'cause we were drivin' around the perimeter tryin' to find you when we found you," she explained, "but it's roughly here..." she put a large red 'E' on the map. "We're parked here..." she drew a 'C' on a spot of off road.
"Okay..." he nodded, examining the map.
"The sun set over the west and you were heading north-west for a time."
"How'd you make that out?"
"Standard, when people are lost without a compass they sometimes use the sun for direction. So...if you did that – and you probably did - we need to keep going south-east, we might stumble upon the body..." she explained, she handed him a compass.
"Might..." he repeated, feeling deflated and sick.
"Might is a damn chance better than never, cher," she turned to look at him.
He looked down at the map, trying to read it; an aerial map of a thick woodland told him nothing helpful.
"What if I wasn't goin' north-west? What if I zigzagged and went north-east?"
Bella Donna raised her eyes to him, she had no answer.
"There were ravines...and thick trees and thickets I had to work around, had to do some climbin' and crawlin' under shit. I didn't go straight..."
"Look, this is all we got to go on. I've done the best with the information I could get. All we can do is hope that somethin' will look familiar," she explained, "come on...we need to get started...sooner we get started, sooner we can can find this asshole who tried to kill you and the sooner we can get out of here."