Page 60 of The SongBird's Love
“Enough,” she said, out of breath.
Dante didn’t look surprised at all. He took out another cigarette and re-opened his window. He had barely glanced at the gun. He had a weapon pointed right to his head, yet he was quietly relaxing there, glancing at their surroundings and taking a drag of his cigarette. Eden was just furious.
“...So you don’t mind if I shoot you?” she asked, baffled.
“When people want to kill, they don’t ask for permission,” Dante retorted.
Eden let out a frustrated grunt but lowered the gun. Dante didn’t even try to take it back and instead let her cross her arms with the weapon still in hand, since she turned the safety back on.
“...Why did you kill him?”
“Why did he kill your brother?”
That question-for-question game wasn’t to her taste, and Eden answered with a glare. However, it was clear Dante wasn’t really curious. He was just saying there was no reason. People working for the Zodiac rarely needed one... Eden was too frustrated to ask or talk anymore. She was in pain from her injury and mad that each sentence she threw at Dante was coming back to her face like a stubborn boomerang. Hence, she simply stared outside, ignoring him with her arms crossed, her hand still solidly holding that weapon.
“Boss, the fourth car is calling... They are saying they want a break.”
“A break?” said Dante, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes, uh... They want to put the hacker in another car...”
Eden smiled. That was probably Loir having fun driving them crazy... The hacker had a knack for making people mad while pretending to be crazy. Although he probably was, Eden knew him enough to know that half of it was for show and to confuse people. Loir was a lot of things, but certainly not dumb. He was the best at what he was doing, and he wouldn’t have been taken if he didn’t want to. She still couldn’t help but wonder if he had done this for her or if Loir had truly chosen to be taken by the Italians.
“...How did you meet the crazy one?” asked Dante.
“...I found him,” Eden simply said. “I needed a new partner, and we ended up working together.”
“What happened to your previous partner?”
“...Who knows.”
Eden wished she knew that too. Her master had disappeared overnight. She had been desperate to find him for several months. It was the first time she was truly left alone. Her master had taught her absolutely everything about Diving and made her the best, and once she had reached the top, he had vanished. With no idea of his real identity, no clue, no lead, Eden had been desperate to find a single thing about her missing master. She had dived so deep into the Core’s secrets, she had almost not come back. It wasn’t like he was simply gone, but as if he had never existed at all... She had found Loir during one of her searches, following a lead that had guided her to the hacker’s hideout. He was a single hacker who wasn’t working with a fixed Diver at the time. That’s when Eden had understood: her master wasn’t related to Loir, he simply wanted to show her who her new partner should be. After that, Eden had stopped searching.
“...I see. Well, he was well-hidden too. What kind of hacker hides in a basement in reinforced concrete?”
“One who really doesn’t want to be found,” replied Eden. “Maybe you should start adding concrete to our golden cage.”
“I had something funnier in mind,” mysteriously said Dante.
Eden decided not to answer, once again, to his little game of words. She sighed and wished internally that Loir makes the trip a nightmare for his men. Unlike her escape on foot, it was only a matter of minutes before they returned to where she had woken up that same morning. Eden felt utterly defeated to be back so soon. She was like a runaway child who had been brought back home right away. Hence, she had a sullen face when they parked the car in front of the building. Rolf opened the door for her, a gesture that somewhat confused her until he held his hand out. With a bit of a sulk, Eden handed him the gun without a word exchanged. She was more focused on keeping pressure against her injury to slow the bleeding. The pups jumped out after her, both excited again for some reason. Unlike some of Dante’s men who walked into the building right away, Eden waited for the car transporting Loir to stop. Dante waited with her, although it was most likely just to finish his cigarette.
The men who stepped out of the fourth car looked exhausted and some were red with anger.
“He never shuts up! For fuck’s sake!” yelled one of the men before adding a long line of what ought to be Italian slurs.
“Well, it can’t be helped that you guys are little uneducated monkeys! Seriously, you don’t even know the twenty-third decimal of Pi or your classics! Oh, Eden!” exclaimed Loir, escorted out of the car.
They brought forward a wheelchair for him and helped him sit up, although all the men who had made the trip with him were carefully stepping away for some reason. Loir seemed perfectly fine, and as soon as he was in, he rolled his wheelchair to Eden as if it had always been his.
“Eden! Oh, hi, puppies!” he added, waving at them. “Eden, can you believe this? This bunch of uneducated monkeys has never heard of The Return of the Jedi, a Tamagotchi, or Pam! Ignorant primates!”
Eden ignored his rant, grabbing the handles of the wheelchair and pushing him in front of her, a little smile on. Maybe she had wished loud enough because half of the men were staring at Loir with an expression that was an interesting mix of disgust and anger.
“Kitty, do you realize? I’m a bald man in a wheelchair! Oh, gosh, this is a childhood dream of mine! Should you call me Professor L from now on?”
“You’ve always been in a chair with wheels, Loir,” sighed Eden, “just not the right one.”
“Oh, don’t ruin my fun! Anyway! What games do we get to play today with Big Kitty?”