Thorns Of A Rose (Daredevil)

Chapter 33 - The Cards We Were Dealt

Daredevil.

Matt stood in all black, his mask covering the top of his face as he faced an old woman. She held a walking stick for support and stood barely 5'2 inches. Flames rose up behind him. He hadn't caused them, not directly.

He had found the warehouse that the Chinese used to pack their heroine. He'd found the workers, not a single one of them capable of seeing him... they were blind he discovered. Busily working away at their individual packing tasks like they had no other purpose in life. Gao had seen him though, shouted a warning before her armed men came running resulting in a fight that Matt of course had one, but not before shots had been fired at drums of flammable liquids kept in the warehouse.

Gao's men lay on the ground motionless, the old woman the only one left standing as she eyed down the masked vigilante.

"All those people. You took their eyes." Matt said.

"No." She shook her head. "They blinded themselves." Her English was perfect, as Rose had always suspected it had been. Gao had no other way of communicating with Matt so she spoke in English, despite hating the sound of the words on her tongue.

"Why would they do that?"

"Because they have faith." She replied simply.

"In you? And your drugs?"

"In something beyond the distractions of your world. You have taken that from them. Now... they will have nothing."

Matt composed himself, knowing he had other things to ask her. He knew he should ask about Fisk right away. The Kingpin was his priority, but that wasn't the question that left his mouth.

"You know Rosalie King." It wasn't even a question. Turk Barrett had confirmed that Rose had dealings with the Russians and Japanese. That was human trafficking and gun running, drugs weren't going to be a very big shock at this stage. "Nothing gets moved around Hell's Kitchen without her help and approval, right?" He continued, using his knew found knowledge from Barrett.

"Miss King..." Gao echoed, "is not the flower she disguises herself to be to the rest of the city, as you have now discovered. The petals only cover her thorns."

"And how many thorns does she have?" Matt asked in a half whisper.

"Cut the head of the flower off and find out for yourself." Gao taunted.

Matt remained still for a long moment, the two still facing each other in a standoff. He soon decided to move on, ask what he should have asked to begin with. He took a few calms steps forward. "You're going to tell me about Fisk."

The old lady's reply was not what was expected. She spun on her seemingly fragile heels, keeping hold of her walking stick and with the free hand palming Matt hard in the chest, sending him fly backwards and skidding along the ground.

He groaned as he began to sit upright only to discover the old woman was gone.

Rose.

"Rose." Dino came running up to his boss once she and the other men had returned from their venture with Barrett.

It was late now and in ordinary circumstances everyone would have been home already. But these were not ordinary circumstances. Rose had one of the men monitoring the bug she'd placed at Nelson and Murdock at all times plus they'd been training around the clock. And then everyone had stayed back late for Barrett's visit.

"What is it?" Rose asked the youngest of her men.

"Martinez said to get you the second you got back. He's on monitor duty." Dino nodded over his shoulder and back to Rose's office where Martinez sat at the desk with headphones, listening in.