"Hi, Brake," Adriana said to Brake as she walked over to the van he was standing by. "Do you know what we're here for?"
"Hey, sweetheart," he said while blowing out smoke and then giving her a wink. "Sheena. Easy op. Just a transaction. Buying something he wants."
Adriana listened to Brake talking while two other men carried black cases to the van. She saw Alexander, the Joker's computer pro, come out carrying the last case.
"Good," Adriana said with relief.
"Here," Brake said and handed her a gun, which she immediately tucked into the top of her pants.
"We need weapons for this?" she asked.
"Always," Brake said plainly and winked at her before getting into the driver's seat.
The Joker came out of the warehouse in front of them a few minutes later, looking slightly more disheveled than usual.
"Hey, mami," one of them men who had been carrying cases said to her in a thick Puerto Rican accent. "I'm Santos."
"Sheena," she said politely. "Encantada," she said in Spanish. Nice to meet you.
"Igualmente," he said, in response. Likewise.
"I'm Chris," the other man with impossibly thick shoulder length blonde hair and a scruffy goatee said, and Adriana could already tell by his voice that she would not like him. "Nice to meet you, gorgeous. Surprised to see such a lovely specimen as yourself out here working with us, huh."
"Well, we gotta do what we gotta do," she shrugged as Santos walked away and got into one of the back passenger seats.
"So, do you have a man, baby?" Chris asked quickly, barely listening to her.
"I'm..not interested," she said as nicely as she could. "Sorry."
"I see," he said with a sly smile. "You like that Black guy up there. Huh? Brake? But, I'm telling you I can do things to you he's never even heard of."
"Excuse me," Adriana said, concealing her disgust and walked over to where Alexander was standing. "Please talk to me about anything."
"Uh..well," Alexander said, seeing her discomfort. "The operation is simple. We're bringing four million..it's split up into eight cases here. You'll each carry two."
"And what will you do?" she asked him.
"I test the merchandise," he said. "To make sure it's legit-"
"Eh," Adriana heard the Joker say behind her. "Enough chatter. Get in."
Alexander and Chris got into the van but the Joker stopped Adriana before she could climb in too. He stepped in front of her before she could turn to the door.
"This will be easy," he said to her slowly. "I trust you won't mess it up."
"What? Why would I mess it up?" she asked him.
"I get the feeling that you are bad luck," he said. "Just carry the case. Unless you would rather be given a list of marks."
Marks. People to assassinate.
"Okay," she said seriously. "I got it."
She climbed in and luckily the only seat available was at the end of the bench by Alexander, and across from Santos. She did not want to sit by Chris. The door shut as the Joker walked around to the front passenger seat.
"Don't worry," Chris leaned in front of Santos and said to her. "I'll keep your pretty perky ass safe. All night."
Adriana ignored him and Alexander turned to her, going over more specifics. She barely heard him.
.
.
.
When they arrived there were two very black cars parked in between a few rows of outdoor storage units. A table was set up in front of the parked cars and six armed men stood in the area between the cars and table. A man, Adriana could see was their boss, stood by the table with a slender man beside him.
They got out of their van, Brake, Adriana, Santos and Chris each carrying two cases of money. Adriana followed them as they lined up and each placed the two cases on the table. The slightly heavyset man, the boss selling what the Joker wanted to buy, pulled out a cigar and stared at her as she placed the cases on the last open spaces on the table in front of him. She could feel his eyes on her as she walked back and stood how she saw the others standing. They were about three yards apart in a semi circle several feet behind the Joker and Alexander, who were waiting by the table for the product.
Andreas was the man's name. He waved two fingers and two of the six men behind him began carrying the cases off to another table partially hidden by one of their cars.
"I need a light," he said to the scrawny man beside him, who pulled out a lighter. Andreas had an extemely thick eastern European accent. Adriana easily learned from his thoughts that he was Serbian. The servant's hands trembled horribly as he went to light the cigar, so bad that he dropped the lighter onto the damp ground.
"Fucking idiot," Andreas said as the men came back, carrying off the rest of the cases. They were counting the money on the other table. "This fucking moron-"
"Sorry," the man said to his boss. "I'm so-"
"Yeah, yeah," he said. "I tell you," Andreas said as his cigar was successfully lit, to the Joker. "This poor son of a bitch can barely light a cigar, barely can pour a decent glass of chardonnay. Good help is hard to find these days, eh?"
"Hadn't noticed," the Joker said.
"I can see that," Andreas said and glanced in Adriana's direction before looking at the Joker again.
"Ehheh," the Joker asked as another man carried off the last case to count it. "Where is it?"
"Ey!" Andreas said and waved another finger in the air and another large case was brought over to the table. The man opened it revealing a glass container, sealed, and embedded partially in black foam.
"We need to test it," Alexander said and stepped forward.
"Of course, of course," Andreas said and Alexander lifted the container so that is was upright and opened up his small test kit and then removed a small dropperful of solution to test.
"Boss!" one of the men shouted from the second table where the money was being counted. "It's short."
Andreas' eyes moved to the left in the direction of the man's voice but he didn't turn to look at him. "How much?"
"Half million," the man replied.
"So..." Andreas said to the Joker. "You only have four million."
"As agreed upon," the Joker said, not amused.
"It was 4.5," Andreas said.
The Joker said nothing.
"You said four," Andreas said. "I then said 4.5 and it's a deal. We proceed with transaction. You hung up. And now you're here with four."
The Joker was annoyed. He knew that four million was more than enough for the poisonous substance.
"You should be happy with four," the Joker said and moved to the case of poison.
"It's good," Alexander told the Joker after testing the product.
"I'm not happy with four," Andreas said and one of his men moved to the poison to seal it and placed it back into the case and closed it. "But I am not an unreasonable man. Maybe we can work something out."
Alexander looked afraid. He knew this would not end well.
"Oh?" the Joker said, sounding impatient. "I am not an unreasonable man. What do you have in mind?"
"Like you said," Andreas chuckled. "On the phone. Money isn't everything."
"Actually, I believe I said, money is nothing," the Joker corrected him. "It's useless paper."
"Haha," Andreas laughed. "You are a funny man. I like you."
The Joker was tired of the small talk. He looked at Andreas who looked away.
"I'll be direct," Andreas said and looked at Adriana. "Her."
Adriana tried not to show her panic. She calmly took a breath and told herself not to react at all. The Joker turned and looked in the direction of where Andreas was pointing, making eye contact with her for less than a second.
"Deal," the Joker said immediately and reached for the sealed case of poisons.
"Uh..wait," Andreas said, not letting his man release the case to the Joker.
The man took a step back away from the Joker, waiting for his boss's next order.
Adriana couldn't stand still. She started to walk away. The Joker turned and saw Adriana walking back to the van. He let out an annoyed puff of breath through his nose.
The Joker looked at Andreas and raised a single finger, letting him know to wait a minute. He followed Adriana to the van, able to catch up to her quickly. She heard him right behind her and spoke under her breath.
"No way in hell," she said quietly. "No."
The Joker pulled his lips in and raised his eyebrows.
"Well," he said. "The choice is yours. As long as you know who will suffer for it."
Adriana stared into his eyes. He was serious. He was willing consider this breaking their agreement. Suddenly she felt...small. Weak. The very slight wind moved a few of the green waves in his hair, but he was eerily still, waiting for a response. Hazel eyes shining through the black paint that surrounded them, looking at her expectantly for a few more seconds before he turned away. He was not patient. He would kill the entire team for the potion he wanted.
"Wait," she grabbed his wrist before he could take a step and he turned back to her. "You're serious..."
"Well, I know I don't look it," he said, tilting his head with a smile and pointing to his scars. "But yes."
"So...this.." Adriana felt a bit nauseated. "This is what I have to do so you won't kill children. This is...I mean..completely debasing myself?"
"Isn't that what you've been doing all along?" he asked. The Joker looked at her, not understanding why she was looking at Andreas and his men like she was going to be sick.
"This is what you want me to do," she said again.
"How about this," he said, as if he had a bright idea. "You go with them and you're released."
"So..I go along with this and...that's it. No more threat of you killing children-" she clarified.
"Nope," he said impatiently, wanting nothing but his potion. "Go and you've satisfied your end of the deal."
He wanted her to go. He was tired of her.
She didn't know what to do and knew she only had a few seconds to decide. This would be the last thing she would ever have to do for the Joker and then she would be free...but some part of her knew she was utterly incapable. Could she fight off six...possibly eight men, when all was said and done? She doubted it.
"I...I don't know if I can do this.." she said so quietly, she was sure he couldn't hear her.
"You can," he said like an overly dramatic motivational speaker. He patience was gone. "You can do anything you want. So? Do we have a new arrangement? I don't see what's so hard about this choice. You care so much about the children of Gotham. Enough to kill for them but not enough to pour drinks and light cigars."
The Joker remembered Andreas had just been complaining about the man who was doing those things for him.
"What?" she said, finally seeing that the Joker didn't realize what Andreas was asking of her. "You can't be this dense."
"Hm?" the Joker said, not sure if he had ever been called such a word before.
"You think that's what he wants? Me to be a waitress-" she hissed under her breath, as Andreas approached then.
"Excuse me," Andreas said as he walked over to them, interrupting. "I have a better proposition for you."
"Oh?" the Joker replied, boredly. This entire exchange was taking far too long.
"Two hours," Andreas said with his thick accent. "You know I own this facility, and there's an empty unit right there to use. Two hours and all is settled."
"Two hours for...?" the Joker asked and Adriana shook her head. He saw her out of the corner of his eye and turned to her.
"What else?" Andreas laughed and spoke loudly. "You're short half million! My men are taking a substantial pay cut. I have to give them something. So, they would like her for two hours. "
The Joker finally understood what Andreas wanted to trade.
"You wait here or come back," he told the Joker " In two hours. And the case is all yours. I mean, I can understand you not wanting to give her up permanently...I understand, I mean how often does a man like yourself..."
The Joker looked straight at Andreas. Andreas paused to chuckle again.
"Ever get something like this one here? Hahah, am I right? So two hours, my men are happy with that and we give her back, alrighty?" Andreas asked.
The Joker wasn't sure how to answer, but he was sure he had just been insulted. Strike one.
Andreas waited for the Joker's answer but he didn't receive one.
"Listen," Andreas said before shifting on his feet into a solid stance. "Case is all yours. And I can't make any guarantee about the rest of her...but I can tell them not to mess up her face, eh? Okay? Not that you would care much about that am I right? She'll be worn out, but still good enough for you I'm sure." Andreas began to laugh. Strike two.
"No," Adriana finally spoke, wanting to end the conversation.
"No?" Andreas said, giving a threatening look to the Joker, still waiting for him to respond. "Talk to your floozy."
The Joker said nothing.
"No?" Andreas said. "Her answer is no. No, then no case."
They were all quiet momentarily. Andreas glanced back at his men and then back to Adriana and the Joker.
"Okay, beautiful," Andreas said to Adriana, his tone softening. "Maybe six at once is too much eh? How about three the first hour, then three the second. It will be easier on you-"
"Ayy perfect!" one of Andreas' men shouted after overhearing. "She got three holes, perfect!" The other men laughed and gave sounds of approval.
"So?" Andreas looked back and forth between her and the Joker, finally realizing that the Joker was not going to force her to comply. "Listen to me," he said now facing Adriana. "What is the issue? These are handsome men, right? I'm sure you would like to actually have a handsome man right?"
"Answer is no," Adriana said again.
"Why? You can't take six handsome men for two hours? But you can.." Andreas looked at the Joker with a bit of repulsion and made a strange condescending hand gesture. "You can take this type of...monster type freak or whatever-"
Strike three.
The sound of gunfire made Adriana immediately drop the ground. Andreas' body dropped in front of her. He had blood coming out of his chest and abdomen. By the time gunfire stopped, which took about five seconds, all of Andreas' men were dead, including his servant. As Adriana climbed to her feet...she could see that Alexander was dead. The case of poison had been hit by a stray bullet and was eroding the table that it was sitting on.