Child’s Play
Pepper narrowed her eyes some at his usage of the word “let”. Surely he didn’t think she wanted to be captured and held against her will, or that she hadn’t learned from her past mistakes. Of course, there had been a time where she, like any other agent, had been an inexperienced rookie. A time where she was much less levelheaded and tactful.
A time where she would have found the assassin in front of her to be intimidating. He was a skilled professional, clearly, though he was grossly underestimating her.
He would very soon come to regret that.
“… So you’ve been instructed not to kill me, then?”
Well that certainly made things simpler, didn’t it? He likely wouldn’t hesitate to injure her, but if murder was off the table…
Then she hadn’t much to lose.
The radio came to life a moment later, the sharp, aggressive voice of Pepper’s superior filling the air.
“-reen? Green, is that you?! Dammit! Answer me!!”
The agent spared a glance at her captor, taking a moment to consider the best way to handle her precarious circumstances. As outright defiance would likely pose to much risk, Pepper decided that stealth would likely serve her best in this situation.
“… Shi-Long.” The man’s given name felt foreign on her tongue, but she supposed that was very much the point. Pepper Green, who was so very fond of formalities, had never referred to the man so casually.
And so, he would no doubt understand that something was very wrong.
“Apologies for worrying you but… something has come up. I need you to put our current investigation on hold.”
Pepper felt reassured by the considerable pause that followed, taking it as a sign that Lang understood that something wasn’t right.
“Green… Don’t tell me you-”
Pepper swiftly interjected, speaking not in English, but instead in her superior’s native language. It was extremely doubtful that Shelly was familiar with Zheng-Fa’s native dialect, but Pepper, deciding not to take any chances, chose her words with extreme care.
I have to go. Trust your instincts, Lang.
She could almost see Lang’s deep set frown and bristling posture, his keen eyes clouding with concern.
“Grr…. Fine.” He growled, clearly displeased, “I’ll stop the investigation, but you had better hurry, got it? I’m counting on you, Green.”
“Yes sir.”
“Not yet.” He replied truthfully. “But I wouldn’t count on it to last, Miss Green.” It was true that he mustn’t kill her at the moment, but his client made clear that it would eventually come to that, so De Killer stayed patient like he always did.
He watched her carefully when she spoke to her superior. De Killer didn’t miss her glance in his direction and responded with an indifferent look of his own paired with a hint of polite friendliness.
While his kidnapped victim spoke with Agent Lang, De Killer listened attentively. Just in case he had looked into possible communication lingo Interpol could use and tried to acquire the necessary knowledge as good as possible with the little time he had left. He covered only the basics. Thus he had found it easier and more efficient to let Miss Green do the first step and communicate with Interpol herself. The time would come when he would contact Interpol himself. For now it was best to keep suspicion to a minimum.
The assassin was fluent in several languages and since the incident involving the president of Zheng Fa, De Killer had made sure to learn their language, chinese, too. He wouldn’t have allowed himself to take on another job involving citizens of Zheng Fa without having updated his language skills at least a bit. But he was genuinely surprised when the agent switched and spoke a single sentence in that language, even more so that she used a dialect De Killer wasn’t yet accustomed to. He could only make out the first part of it... have to go... Trust... The end of the sentence... it ended with the superior agent's name, didn't it? How very interesting.
De Killer made a mental note to himself to look into that curious dialect of Shi-Long Lang when he found the time. Finally he heard the words he expected to hear and nodded approvingly. With a quiet clicking noise, the radio transceiver was turned off.
"This will do for the moment. Well done, Miss Green." De Killer set the radio transceiver aside and brushed off an invisible speck of dust off his suit.
With a short glance at his watch, the assassin rose and added, "Now then, we have to go. Do I need to sedate you again or will you be cooperative?", he asked generously. They still had time, he could put up with a little defiance if it would come to that.
"And by the way, when did you start learning the different Zhang Faian dialects?"
