Short chapter, but I'm really busy just about now. Updates will be slow. Sorry for the delay.
"I've had enough of your bullshit, Rupert!" Tana had nearly broken down the door to get back into Maroni's base of operations. Out of rage, not lack of access. The door swung on its hinges, but the guard had jumped right out of her way the minute he'd seen her through the peephole. He now sat trying to readjust the door in its frame while Tana flicked a throwing knife that shattered the whiskey glass in Rupert's grasp. "I told you I wasn't going to get involved politically!"
He sucked on his bleeding thumb for a second, before holding up his hands. "You got me. But I had nothin' to do withit. Boss's orders. Said it was some kind of test."
"Test?" Tana repeated coldly.
"Yes," said a voice from the top of the staircase behind Rupert. "You passed, Omen. I needed to see how deeply you could infiltrate. An' I needed to make sure you had an eye for detail. You succeeded both times." A tall, broad-shouldered man in a white suit emerged from the shadows and began to descend. "Rupert, take five."
"Yes, sir," the smaller man said gratefully, scuttling away into the darkness.
The newcomer stopped to survey the shattered glass, before nudging most of it aside with his foot and sitting down at the table. Removing the stopper from the whiskey bottle and sniffing it, he shrugged and offered it to Tana. She took it and drank, wiping her mouth and passing the bottle back to him. "Maroni. You're… wider than I expected."
"And you're shorter than I expected. Let me get to the point, Omen. I have work that needs doing. And no, it don't involve the mayor. It involves Bruce Wayne."
"The rich guy."
"Exactly. You see, it used to be that in Gotham, people lived and let live. But Wayne… nah, Wayne is somethin' else entirely. He's been sniffin' around my operations for years, bringin' them down one by one with his pretty publicized benefactorin' and such. You can understand how a guy would be a little ticked off."
"It must be so hard to live the life of a successful crime lord."
"Clever, eh? What I'm saying is that I'm planning on taking 'im down. But I'm going to do it in a way that he'll never expect."
"And what's that?" asked Tana, though she wasn't particularly interested.
"I'm gonna destroy his house from the inside out. This is why I need you, and your expertise. You're gonna sneak into his tower and get into his ward's room. That kid he adopted, you know? I want you to kill the kid and then get out of there. It'll help distract Bruce at a time that he can't be distracted, and destroy him from the heart. I understand that killing is not your M.O., but I have also point out that there is, in your own words, a 'shit-ton' of money involved."
Tana was practically x-raying him, surveying him dubiously out of her silver-grey eyes. "How much are we talking?"
"Enough. Enough to get you a nice apartment somewhere in the city and some education. I've heard that's somethin' you want. And then some. Interested?"
"You want me to kill an adopted kid in his sleep?"
"The first kill is the hardest, Omen, but it will help you in the long run. Financially and skill-wise." Seeing that Tana was unmoved, he added, "Did I mention the fact that you'll have enough to rent the apartment for the next seven years?"
At that point, the lure became too much for her. The promise of a nice home, of learning something. She nodded. "Any particular way you want it done?"
"I was thinking a knife. But to be 100% sure, some poison on the blade would be good." He raised the bottle in a toast to her and drank.