The Order

19

Structure. That's what my life was centered around. That's what Corporate drilled into our minds, into our subconscious. We needed to be prepared, to know what our days entailed. There was something comforting about sticking to a schedule, to having a routine that you accomplished day in and day out.

Two months had passed, and I began to fall back into my old routine. I'd wake up at eight, go for run, strength train, then work on my martial arts. If someone else was in the Knights private gym, I'd spar with them, otherwise I'd just work on some solo drills. After that, I'd take a shower, braid my hair, and then head to the dining area where I met up with Nova. We'd eat, chat, then I'd wait around to see if Liam had any meetings, I had to attend with him. If not, I'd report to James, who would give me an assignment for the day. I'd complete it, then head back to my room to work on the list the facial recognition software came up with. Even after these weeks, I've already went through thousands of names, and this task was proving more tiresome than I originally anticipated. But to my surprise, Corporate, and their assassins, have remained quiet.

Thankfully, most of the assignments James gave me had me working with Nova, who I learned was completely, and utterly batshit crazy. Before she began working for the Knights she a doctor, a genius when it came to the human anatomy. Apparently she was some sort of prodigy, graduated high school at the age of fourteen, finished med school at eighteen, and completed her residency and fellowship by the time she was twenty four. It was this knowledge of the human anatomy that made her the Knights go to woman for torture and information extraction. She knew exactly what to do physically and mentally to make a human suffer in every possible way imaginable.

This woman was unlike anyone I've ever met. I went with her to kill and threaten some drug dealers that night, and the pain she inflicted on the man was unlike anything I've ever seen. I even took some mental notes on her technique for myself. In all my years in this industry, I've never seen anyone offer up information so quickly. She was erratic, deranged even, but she was the only friend I've made here, and I liked her. Something about her, made me feel at ease, maybe it was the fact that she was so easy to talk to, or maybe it was because we both shared an appreciation for killing. Either way, both of us are pretty fucked up in our own ways.

Liam has been setting meetings left and right. Some meetings, to my surprise, went extremely well. The contracts were negotiated, signed, and we were on our way. While others... were much more difficult. More fun for me, but more difficult.

But as the days passed, Liam was actually... tolerable. The constant barrage of insults gradually slowed, and there were moments where he didn't seem like a total prick. At first, I detested going to these meetings. I loathed being around him, I hated the fact that I had to save his life time and time again, and part of me often wondered how difficult it would be to put a bullet between his brown eyes and get away with it.

I'd say our relationship grew to be more civil, that and the fact that every time we would fight, James would nearly rip us a new asshole. That certainly helped to keep the peace.

I sat at the round white table, admiring the garden beyond the large windows as the hues or orange and red lit up the sky. Today, we were meeting with the Kims, who apparently were long term clients of the Knights. They were a traditional family from China, and to my surprise, Liam was fluent in Mandarin. They didn't speak English, so I sat there, observing their body language, creating scenarios in my mind of what they could be talking about, and how they were reacting.

Liam told me that Mr. Kim wasn't a Mafia Don, if anything, he didn't know what to label him. He said he bordered more on the line of terrorist than anything, but I wasn't here to judge.

I was dressed in a long, elegant, flowy gown per Liams suggestion. Of course, I argued it, but apparently Mr. Kim was a bougie and materialistic man with sexist tendencies. Apparently, he wouldn't see me as a threat if I was dressed up. To say this made me want to end his miserable existence would be an understatement.