Faust

Colleagues

    Feels like I've been in that room for ages but the truth is I've only been there for 20 minutes. Nan leads me towards the same emergency exit that we came from.
            The woman in the cheongsam is leaning against the exact camouflaged wall. She looks like she's been waiting for us for a while.
          "Fuck does she want now?" I heard nan whispers to himself in Chinese.
           "Xiao. Do you mind?" Nan asks in Chinese.
            She doesn't react to nan. She just keeps switching her gaze between my face and the cigarillo in my mouth.
          "Missy really thinks this fucking Bie San can do it?"  She asks nan in Chinese while sizing me up and down like she's thinking about which part of me she's going to break first.
      "Yes. And so do I. Now would you piss off please ?" She doesn't say anything but steps away from the wall and moves to in front of me, within arms' reach. The air is so thick it feels like I can cut it with a knife.
Try me.
           I start chewing the end of the cigar until a small bit of it detached from the rest of the smoke. I positioned it on my tongue.
She smoked my cigarette with her left hand before.
          "Xiao. Take it to miss Qin again if you want but....." Mid-sentence, I see her pupils expand slightly which gives away what she's about to do.

           Her left-hand moves in a blur, trying to strike my throat with her purlicue. I block it just before it hits me with my right hand while my left hand went for the gun under my right armpit. But before I can pull it out I realize the former strike was a decoy. In the corner of my eyes, I see a thin dagger in her right hand approaching fast.

            Good move.

            Right before she pierce my skull with the dagger I spit out the end of the cigarillo in her face. No matter how well-trained you are, when a moving object is about to hit your eyes. Your eyelids will automatically shut. And that one blink gave me just enough time to dodge her attack and put a gun barrel under her chin.
            The whole process didn't last longer than 3 seconds.
           "Nan, you need to enhance the security. Even a fucking Bie San can whack a personal guard of miss Qin." I said the whole sentence in Chinese. It's been a while since I last spoke mandarin but I'm pretty sure they get it.
           I move the gun away from Xiao's chin. She's rubbing her eyes so hard that I'm afraid she might do more damage to herself than me.
           Nan gives Xiao a small handkerchief and sighs deeply. He then opens the emergency door and leads me back into the stairways.
***

"Never know you can speak Chinese," Nan says while we're walking down the stairs.
"I thought you did a whole background check on me?"
"I did. But you take little to no jobs from piao jie so wouldn't assume you can speak mandarin."
"In case you forgot. You folks despise outsiders. The only jobs in piao jie are either toxic as hell or pay way too little for me to care."
Nan let out a laugh. His grin is back.
"Yeah, we can be a bunch of cunts sometimes."
Nan pushes the elevator button while I take another drag of the cigarillo.
          The taste is growing on me.
"What else do you know about me ?"
"Ha. Not much to be honest. Just some normal stuff. Where you live, who you associate with, and what people in your line of work think of you. And....... that's it. I don't even know your full name." He stares at me, waiting for me to give him an answer.
"I don't know yours either," I answer him dryly.
"Nan Shi Pei."
"........."
"........."
"I'm not going to tell you mine just because I know yours."
"You son of a dog........" He rolls his eyes and curse in Chinese.
A notification came from my phone. Qin Yan sent the down payment. Exactly 70,000 dollars.
"That. Right there is more than a month of my income." Nan signs. Who would have thought this guy likes to chat this much?
The elevator door opens. I followed nan inside.
"And did you find out I survived that negotiation during the background check ?"
"Na. I was the one that paid the cleaners to kill everyone that night. For what it is worth, I didn't know you were there." Nan shrugs.

I watch the elevator door close while thinking if it's possible to shoot him in the head
and escape this place alive.

"Then how did you find out I was there?" I take another drag to calm myself down.
"I took a guess. I know you guys became very close and starts working together not long after the thing. So I have some of my guys in the station trying to pull out anything from that night. Of course, they don't keep data from five years ago. But they do have the record of fining the same car speeding tickets 6 times in the spent of an hour."
Damn you. Viv.
"And what are the odds that there's an arson case at the lanes stating that a car exploded for no apparent reasons the morning after the incident? After that, I paid a visit to the well-renowned Stynx which just so happens to be a few blocks away from the explosion. And bribed someone to vouch for me."
My right hand clenched into a fist before I realize.
"Imagine my surprise when I found out everyone in there knows you. And when I ask about how you and the cleaners know each other, they said the younger sister always brags about how she almost killed you when y'all first met when she's drunk."
            For fuck sake Viviane........
"After that, I went to Stynx every night looking for you, but you never show up. After 2 weeks I decided to pay vel a visit."
The elevator door opens as we reach the break room behind the kitchen area again.
"Nan." I stops after I made sure no one is in the room.
"What is it?" He stops as well.
"Why are you telling me all of this?" I extinguish the cigarillo in an ashtray by the elevator.
Nan smiles a normal smile. "First, though as short as it's going to be, you will be in Miss Qin's service just like me. And I value the trust and honesty between colleagues. Second, I respect you. What you did in that room and in the hallway isn't something any street punks or third-grade mercs can pull off. Third, I got this intuition telling me we could become good friends."
           Wow......he genuinely means those words.
"Funny. All my intuition's telling me is to put lead in your head." I say. Unironically.
"Ha. I'm looking forward to it." He lets out a loud laugh before walking back to the kitchen area.
***
As we arrive at the front gate of this place. Nan gives me a business card. There's only his numbers and the Chinese word 'Nan' on it.
"If you run into any trouble in piao jie give me a call. I'll see what I can do as long as I don't have orders to kill you." I raise the card to my forehead and do a salute motion with it.
"Good luck. Mr.Lee." Nan gives my shoulder a pat before he strides back into the jiu lou.
   I put his business card in my back pocket. And walk out of the building.
      "Thank you for your patronage......." The receptionist stutters after she sees me walking out.
"Hello, June. I'm deeply sorry for my attitude earlier. A rough night, as you can probably relate to." I give her the same professional smile I did when I first arrived.
Then returned to the pavement and blend in with the crowd. Starts moving towards nochnaya.

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