Gun of Ashes

”Actually, if you think about it carefully, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have gone to Black Mountain Hospital, and what happened next, making Arthur accept all this, wouldn’t have happened, right?”

Lorenzo retorted.

”So I’m just giving you a little bit of a hard time.”

Eve wasn’t ashamed but rather proud. From her tone, it seemed she still had plenty of tricks up her sleeve to mess with Lorenzo, after all, he was the one who taught her.

Lorenzo fell into an awkward silence. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say, but then he stopped in his tracks, while Eve wore a triumphant look as she walked forward. Lorenzo reached out, grabbed her shoulder, and pulled her to a stop.

”What are you doing!”

Eve reacted strongly, looking at Lorenzo with a face full of vigilance. In a sense, she was also testing where Lorenzo’s boundaries were, to avoid overstepping them inadvertently.

”We’ve arrived.”

Lorenzo didn’t look at her but took out a note he picked up at the hotel from his pocket. It had an address written on it, right here.

”A tavern?”

Eve looked at the booze-filled tavern ahead, looking incredulous.

”You arranged to meet someone here?”

”Of course.”

”Impossible, you’ve been with us all along.”

Lorenzo didn’t have time to contact his friends. Eve began to feel that Lorenzo thought he couldn’t win the bet and was starting to give up.

”Yeah, but there’s no contradiction between the two, didn’t you think my friend had already anticipated me coming here and prepared everything?”

With a devilish smile, Lorenzo was full of confidence.

”Eve, we’re friends, right?”

”That ’friend’ isn’t part of the bet.”

Eve thought Lorenzo was trying to use a loophole in her words to win the bet, but Lorenzo shook his head, and his smile gradually disappeared, becoming serious.

”Eve, do you know, when words are mixed with lies and truths, it becomes hard to tell apart? Our job this time is like that, Hebdo must be hiding something... I know he’s on our side and he won’t harm us, but I hate this feeling, this feeling of the initiative being in someone else’s hands.

So I need to find a way to take it back.”

Lorenzo pushed open the tavern’s door, looked seriously at Eve.

”So whatever you see next, I hope you can help me keep it a secret.”

Eve was left a bit baffled by Lorenzo’s sudden change, it seemed the situation was always under Lorenzo’s control, and before, when Eve was being annoying, it was just Lorenzo playing along with her.

Lorenzo pulled Eve along through the crowded people and reached the bar.

”What would you like to drink?”

The bartender had a thick beard, so dense it hid his mouth when he smiled.

”Drinks can wait.”

Lorenzo pulled Eve over and said to the bearded man.

”This is Eve, Eve Phoenix, yes, the Phoenix you know.”

Regardless of the growing astonishment in ”Beard’s” eyes, Lorenzo continued to speak to Eve.

”This is Heracles Christie, the friend I mentioned.”

Eve still didn’t quite understand, and then she felt something itchy on her leg, as if something furry was rubbing against it. Before she could look down, a big rat jumped up onto the bar.

”Oh, I forgot to mention, this is Polo.”

Lorenzo patted Polo’s head with a victorious smile.