To Be a Bird of Prey

Origins

I. The Hunter and the Prey

Chapter Five

If there was any place more corrupted than Starling, it had to be Edge City.

Walking by the riverbank, you could smell the stench of the sewage – and all the bodies floating in the water, if you knew how to differentiate between the two. Helena certainly did. She assumed Sara did, too.

Playing roommates with Sara Lance was weird; they'd mostly spent their first evening in the city looking for a place to stay. Helena would have been content with any of the abandoned factories or squatters' save havens – hell, a storage room. But Sara wanted a good vantage point.

So, here they were now, camping out in the bell tower of an abandoned church – which, Helena had to admit, was kind of funny. Two killers, about to do more killing – hiding in a church.

"Aren't you worried God will smite us down?" Helena commented once they had settled, directing her question at Sara's back; from the few hours they'd been here, she'd gathered that the other woman had a thing for staring out the windows and into the night.

It took a moment for Sara to respond. "I killed a priest once," she informed, not turning around. "At the altar, after his sermon. If God didn't smite me then..."

Helena raised an eyebrow, then asked, "Ever killed anyone I'd know?"

Another bout of silence. "Could be."

Helena had also gathered that Sara had thing for being vague and cryptic. Rolling her eyes, she prompted, "So, what's the plan? I mean, I have my methods, but I'm thinking you have some tricks of the trade that I don't."

Talking shop seemed to be the way to get Sara to pry her eyes away from the city down below; she turned around, then said, "Well, you brought me up to speed with your father's contacts in this city, so that's a place to dig. But," she added, "that draws attention. The best way is always to go to those your target never sees – the shop owner at the corner, the homeless. And of course, then there's observing your target or their associates without engaging."

"What, no tracking credit card activity in the assassins' textbook?" Helena quipped.

Sara pursed her lips. "The League doesn't exactly...keep up with the times. Not if they can help it." She shrugged. "Besides, that's not my area of expertise, and I'm pretty sure it's not yours either." She seemed to have a thought then, so she added, "My friend is Starling could help with that, though I don't think I can ask it of her."

"Is this the same friend who believes in second chances?"

"Yes."

And that confirmed the nagging feeling she'd been having about this female friend's identity, Helena thought. "Yeah, I don't think she'd be willing to help on this one."

Sara must have felt the undercurrent in her voice, because the next question leaving her mouth was, "You know her?"

"Felicity Smoak, right?" At Sara's nod, Helena said, "We've...met. And well, let's just say I'm positive she wouldn't want to help with anything to do with me." Not if she weren't under duress, anyway.

And Sara seemed to pick up on that line of thought. "What did you do to her?"

"Easy on the judgmental tone there, birdy," Helena told her, though it only made her narrow her eyes, plant her feet – and wait for her answer, evidently.

Eventually, and mindful of the game she was playing, Helena obliged. "Last time I was in Starling," she said, "I...made her hack into the FBI database while pointing an arrow to her head. Then I tied her up and left her on her office floor."

Sara went dead silent at that, though Helena could practically feel the judgment hitting her square in the face. "Hey, you still owe me, remember?" she reminded.

"I haven't forgotten," Sara said tightly. Then, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I can try and kill you, but threatening Felicity Smoak is a deal-breaker?" Helena couldn't help but comment.

"I never said I completely agreed with your ways," Sara deadpanned. "And our deal still stands," she added. "I will help you find your father."

"Good."

Sara shook her head, as if to rid herself of whatever she was thinking, and said, "We can start tonight. You said there's a branch of the Italian mob here your father would go to for help – we'll start there."

Helena nodded. "The Sabatoni family. Gotham got a little too competitive for them, so they moved their business here." She shrugged. "Johnny Sabatoni and my father were good friends – which is why Guss Sabatoni represented my father. I may have killed Guss and run the Bertinelli empire to the ground, but old loyalties die hard."

"What businesses do they own?"

"Restaurant chain," Helena informed, then smirked. "Italian cuisine."

"And I'm willing to bet there are regulars coming for the leftovers in the back alley," Sara said. "We'll do the rounds, see what we can gather." She paused for a moment, then pursed her lips. "You don't happen to have any money on you, do you?"

Helena only raised an eyebrow in response.

Sara nodded, moving to slide her mask and wig in place before she secured the two halves of her bo-staff at her belt. "We'll rob a store on the way," she said. "Let's go."

They had gone through three restaurants before they caught a break.

As Sara had predicted, they had come across the homeless next to the back alley dumpsters, either digging for food, or settling in for the night. Sara had been the one to talk to all of them. Helena had to admit, for a hardened assassin, she had a way of being persuasive without using force or intimidation; and the question of why they had broken into an electronics store and emptied the cash register was answered when Sara had given each person she spoke to a wad of bills.

However, none of the four they had found had the information they needed.

The fifth one, at the restaurant just a couple of miles away from the docks, did have something interesting to say.

Helena stood by the side and watched Sara go through the motions with the homeless woman they had come across; telling her not to be afraid, not approaching until the woman felt safe, giving her some money before asking the questions, then coaxing the answers out of her.

And at the end of it, what they knew was that there'd been a shift in the routine recently; the walks from the restaurant to the docks had grown more frequent, the shop had closed early twice in the past week, and there'd been a new kind of leftovers being dumped, which the woman didn't like. She didn't like the way if felt under her teeth, she said. Also, it had tentacles. She hadn't seen any in two days, though.

After Sara had given the woman the rest of the money and wished her well, she and Helena stepped to the side. "That bit about the new food caught your attention," she stated.

Helena nodded. "You saw their menu in the window," she said. "Seafood isn't on it. But my father," she added, "he likes seafood. Actually, his favorite is a calamari stew – hence the tentacles." Her lip curled. "He was here. He ate here."

"Probably slept here, too," Sara supplied. "But, assuming that they were making the dish for him, he hasn't been around for two days." She glanced to the side then returned her eyes to Helena, and asked, "Do you know where...Johnny Sabatoni would be?"

"I know where he lives."

"Okay," Sara declared, already moving; Helena trotted along. "We'll need to circle back to that electronics store. Then we're going to Sabatoni's house."

"I can't believe you benched me," Helena muttered, from where she was crouching in the bushes behind the back fence of Sabatoni's mansion.

"I couldn't take the risk of you losing it and killing him," came Sara's dry reply in her ear; as it turned out, the purpose of their second electronics store break-in of night was to get a couple of bluetooth earpieces. And the purpose of said earpieces was to get Helena to crouch in untrimmed bushes while Sara sneaked into the mansion in search of Johnny Sabatoni. Apparently, she was worried about Helena's self-control – or lack thereof.

Helena had to say, she took offense in that.

But it was easier to swallow her pride than try and argue with an elite – and reformed, according to her – assassin.

So, she was crouching in the bushes while Sara scaled the fence, avoided the security, picked the back lock and made her way through the house in search of Sabatoni; it was sort of impressive, Helena was not above admitting.

"Anything?" she asked.

"Staff seems to be sleeping," came the hushed reply. "But I see lights on the second floor."

Sara moved so quietly, Helena couldn't even hear her breathing; the house was quiet, too. She couldn't hear any ambient noise, either.

She waited and waited, until finally, there was the softest creak of leather in her ear. And she could hear a muffled voice, as if it were coming from behind a door. In the quiet, it sounded as loud as if it were coming from right next to her.

"Found him," Sara whispered. "He's on the phone with someone. Listen."

Helena strained to make out the words, closing her eyes and regulating her breathing so as to put better focus on her hearing.

" – telling you, Frank, she's here," she heard the distorted words in her ear. "My – saw her coming – "

She found the urge to as much as clench her teeth; Sabatoni was talking to her father. About her. He knew she was in Edge City.

" – we knew she would – Sal talked in Coast – "

" – got you out in time – "

" – know when she leaves – get you back here then – "

That was the last she heard of it, and realized Sara was moving out. "Wait," she hissed, but got no answer. She growled in frustration, then rose to her feet; the rendezvous point was down the road, three houses away.

She waited in the dark for a few minutes before Sara appeared in sight; she really did blend in with the night, save for that mop of bleach-blonde hair she sported.

"Why the hell did you leave?" Helena demanded. "We barely got anything!"

"We got enough," Sara said, with an air of finality; it annoyed Helena. "We know your father was here," Sara went on, "and we know he'll be returning as soon as Sabatoni's eyes and ears in the streets tell him you've moved on – I'd say he'll probably have a few baits lying around, waiting to send you in the wrong direction."

"Which is why you should have waited until he mentioned the right direction!"

"We don't need that information," Sara told her, like she was talking to some incompetent, hotheaded child. If she didn't need her, by God, she would –

"Instead of chasing after him," Sara went on, "we'll get him to come to us."

Wait – oh, that sounded nice.

"So, what's the plan?"

Helena made to put her mask away, only to realize she didn't have anything to actually put in on – with a sigh, she sat on the ground, arranging her crossbow and mask in a nearby pile. Sara, of course, remained standing.

"You heard Sabatoni," Sara said. "Your father will be circling back when he knows you've left Edge City – or thinks you've left."

This was getting interesting. "As I assume I won't be going anywhere, how will we fool him?"

"I will need your clothes and mask – and another wig."

Helena raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Sabatoni's men are obviously keeping an eye on the ways in and out of the city," Sara said, "which is how they know you're here. We didn't come in together, which works to our advantage – if I dress up as you and leave, then come back as myself, it will create the illusion that you're not around anymore." She smiled triumphantly. "And your father will walk right into your path."

That was – it was kind of ingenious, actually. Of course, there was no guarantee the Canary would be flying back, and not just slip away. "Suppose I agree, how do I know you won't just disappear on me?"

Sara pursed her lips, and with a sigh, discarded her mask and wig. "You know who I am, Helena," she told her. "You know who my family is."

After some deliberation, Helena nodded; true, she did have some leverage – which she was fully prepared to put to good use if crossed. Not that she wouldn't use it anyway, but that was not the point.

"Okay," she agreed. "So, how will this go?"

"You usually stay a few days or a week in one place, right?" At Helena's nod, Sara added, "So, we'll wait a couple of days, and you can go after the red herrings Sabatoni has set for you, at which point I'll leave the city as you, and you will just sit tight. And after I get back, we just wait for your father to return."

Sounded like a plan. "So...we'll be here a while?"

Sara nodded. "We'll be here a while."