Adriana aggressively and hurriedly brushed the bright red temporary dye through her hair before pulling it back into a ponytail. She drew on the beauty mark and left the rest of her face bare. The text message from the Joker said that she was to be in the park 'now' but she had to disguise herself a bit first. She hoped she wasn't making a deadly mistake. From now on she would have to carry an extra container of the red hair spray and liquid eyeliner and contacts on her at all times.
Quickly, she changed from workout clothes into black jeans and a black turtleneck and ran rather quickly to the train. It would be the quickest way to get to Armor Park.
She arrived a block away from the very small park, which only spanned the length of about two city blocks. Walking quickly she finally came to Spruce Street and saw someone sitting in the dark on the bench where she was supposed to be. A man holding a newspaper.
She slowed down as she approached, using her gift to find out that it was in fact the Joker. She stood a few feet away from the bench and noticed that he was holding paper upside down. Her emotions wouldn't let her stay in his head for long. He was a bit annoyed with her.
"You're late," he said without moving the paper.
"Sorry..I wasn't close," she lied. "I got here as quickly as I could."
He lowered the paper slowly, revealing his hair at first. The street lamp beside him shone on the incredibly messy waves, reflecting green dye at the tips. The paper moved a bit lower, showing the white paint creased in the expression lines in his forehead. The paint gave his face the illusion of being incredibly wrinkled, but from what Adriana could remember from seeing him without it, aside from the enormous jagged scars on his cheeks, his skin didn't have any wrinkling.
Once the paper revealed his eyes, she could see that he was more than just annoyed. His eyes pierced her. He looked borderline furious.
"It might be in your best interest to avoid lying to me," he said. She was unable to see his mouth behind the paper.
"Okay," she said. "I was close by..I just had to disguise myself a bit..So I went back home first."
"See. That wasn't hard, was it?" he said and looked back at the paper as if reading.
She glanced around the dark park and saw a couple out for a walk and and older man walking his dog. All of them completely oblivious to the fact that the Joker was only a few yards away.
"Have a seat," he said from behind the paper.
She walked over slowly and sat, staring straight ahead, not wanting to look at him or know what he was thinking. Whatever was going on, she just wanted it to be over.
"You look nervous," he said, as if mildly amused. She could tell he was facing her, his voice went straight into her ear, but she kept looking forward.
"Why am I here?" she asked, but truthfully she didn't want to know. She wanted him to disappear. She wanted a police car to pull up right now full of officers who would recognize him and cart him off.
"To be given an assignment," he said plainly.
Finally, she turned her head and looked at him. Somehow, she was never intimidated by looking at him. It only happened from his words and actions. He smiled at bit and pulled out a rather large pair of garden shears and handed them to her.
"You..." she said while looking down at them. "Want me to tidy up the park?"
"Not exactly," he said and pressed his lips together, his smile turning very sarcastic. "That hotel. Straight ahead. Fourth floor. Room 412. There's someone you may remember."
"Who?" she said breathlessly, but she could already see his thoughts. Mateo.
"His name is Mateo, the owner of Club Core. You robbed him and them saved his life. Good thing you did because I need something from him."
"What?" she asked even though she was afraid to find out.
"I need him to die, of course. And I need you to kill him," he said as if it was no big deal.
"With these?" she held up the garden shears, horrified.
"No," he said "I'll leave that part up to you."
"Then what is this for?"
"I also need his right index finger. Kill him and bring me the finger. I need a clean cut, no mistakes, the entire fingerprint intact. That's what the shears are for."
She swallowed and controlled her shaking hands.
"And just to make things a but more fun..." he said and pulled out a cell phone. "I will be calling the police in about 18 minutes."
"What?" she asked with surprise and turned to him. "Why?"
"Why not? Adds a nice spice to things doesn't it? It takes them about seven minutes to arrive to this location. So you have 25 minutes to get in and out. That's plenty of time. There will be a black van in front of the building. It will be leaving after about 23 minutes though. A minute before you need to be out. Of course we don't want to be arrested too."
"Wait you already started counting? I have 24 minutes?"
"Yes," he said and looked at his watch. "I suppose you should get a move on."