Marie-Ange meets with Daniel Boudreaux

[x-tarot.livejournal.com]

Marie-Ange meets with Daniel Boudreaux, head of the Assassins' Guild in New Orleans.



Marie-Ange had thought she'd prepared for everything. Letting her precognition go non-stop without medication to stave off the worst, she had planned out the best way to make contact, the right people to talk to. Her training had directed her when the precognition gave her no answers, which was more often than not.

She hadn't quite been prepared for the unexpected early summer thunderstorms in New Orleans. Even with an umbrella and raincoat, the inexpensive kind from Target, she still arrived at the mansion with her hair and the hem of her skirt wet with rain. She hoped it would be the only thing that went not as according to plan - and suspected it would only be the first.

The man at the door couldn't be properly described as a butler, since her idea of one did not involve someone in their late twenties, built like a defensive end and barely contained by the decently cut suit. He compared her to a list on his PDA, and then motioned for her to follow him. She could also tell that she was being watched during the walk from the door down the hallways and finally to another room. He took her coat and umbrella, before ushering her through the door.

"Merci, Carter. I think dat you can leave us alone. I doubt she's likely to try anything inappropriate." Daniel Boudreaux was sitting at the end of an antique table, a stack of files in front of him, as well as an open laptop and several phones. With his accent and setting, it might have even been possible to mix him up with LeBeau, but one look dispelled any confusion.

Daniel was a man built on an impossible scale; easily six foot three or four, his shoulders were a broad as a railway tie and his thickly muscle arms ended in huge hands. He had once been a good looking man, but his dark, Gallic features were marred by thick ropy burn scars down the right side of his face and across his chest. His right ear was entirely gone, and the scars pulled at his mouth when he spoke.

"You wanted to speak wit' me?"

"May I sit?" At the answering nod, Marie-Ange took a seat, legs crossed at the ankle, hands folded neatly - and clearly visible - in her lap. "You must know who I am by now, and who I have been working for these last few years. I certainly had to explain myself to enough of your people." She gave a shrug, as though the repeated explanations were of some small annoyance, but a necessary one. "I have need of the Guild... "

"... but I haven't heard anything yet of de Guild having a need of you." Daniel's mouth twitched into an unpleasant smile as his gaze dissected her. There was something brutal in his stare; lurking just below the surface and not matched with his polite words and tone. Remy had once warned them about Daniel, making it clear that he was an opponent that even with his powers and training, LeBeau would not be overly confident to face in a fight.

If she was going to have any hope of managing this without the whole world coming to an end, Marie-Ange thought at least a large part would be holding her own against this man in this meeting. She had no illusion that if he wanted, or if he believed the circumstances warranted it, Daniel Boudreaux would not even hesitate to destroy her. So the fear she felt only barely showed, in the set of her jaw and momentary pauses before she spoke. "As I said, you know who has trained me. I am sure you have reports on what I am capable of. I am not going to insult you by repeating what you know. What you have not been told, unless I am very mistaken as to my former employer's security, is that I am precognitive."

"Dat so?" Daniel got up from his seat and walked over to her. He placed his one hand on the table and the other on the back of her chair and leaned down to stare at her, his massive frame drawfing hers and his scarred face inches away from hers. "So tell me what happens next den."

There was no way he could not hear the sharp intake of breath. She wasn't foolish, if Remy had warned them about this man, she was not going to try to put up a front of false bravado. "Either you refuse me outright, and I go to the second-best chance of accomplishing what I need to do, or you force me to prove myself before you agree to anything at all. Which I could elaborate on, there were a number of possibilities that came up when I read cards for you." She paused, frowned as though in thought for a moment, and then looked up. "Also someone with connections to this house is working for your sister. Ah, the building itself, not your family, and not anyone who has direct access to you."

Daniel's eyes narrowed, and without relinquishing even an inch, he pulled a phone from his pocket and thumbed a number. "Carter, I want you to bring in Carras." He put the phone back. "Dere is a gardener dat we found a few suspicious numbers on a prepaid phone in his apartment. De numbers went to national call switches, so dere's a possibility dat dey just telemarketers. We've been looking for more... guess you'd say evidence."

"Belladonna's people are paying him in cash, not very much, with a promise to bring him to New York if he performs well." Marie-Ange said. At least, that was her best theory. There was no way the man's accounts had not been investigated already, and the outcome in the cards for the gardener had been either death... or travel, and then death. "Of course, she will probably just have him killed and then left in New Jersey." It was cliche, but dumping a body off the Turnpike was all too popular for many reasons.

"We'll see." He said, as a few minutes later Carter appeared, shoving a Hispanic gardener ahead of him. "Bonjour Jose. Just need to interrupt your work for a moment. Tell me, how much is my sister paying you?"

"Que, Senor Boudreaux?" He said, but to Marie-Ange, the man's eyes had already betrayed him. "I don't understand. I'm just--" He was cut off as Daniel grabbed him by the front, pulled him off his feet, and slammed him facedown on the table. He wrenched the man's arms behind his back, and reached into his pocket.

"I like to think of myself as a fair man, Jose. I gave you a chance to answer me with honesty. After all, you could have been removed with de others after my sister's deposing. But I gave you a second chance." He held both the man's wrists with one of his own, and with the other reached into his pocket. "In return, you're providing my sister with, what, plans of de new Guild home? Estimates of manpower here? My schedule?"

Daniel clicked open the cigar cutter and slipped it over Jose's index finger. There was a metallic clack, and Jose's screams went higher as his finger bounced on to the table beside his head. "I want de truth, Jose. I can ask you four more times with de same results. A fifth time, and it will be your cock on the table with dose fingers."

It was unnerving to watch, and Marie-Ange was unsettled, mostly by the fact that she had no grounds to speak up. This was not how X-Force had done things, but this was also not her place, these were not her people, and while she could not keep the revulsion from showing entirely, she kept her mouth closed and her expression mostly blank.

"Just who visits! That's all, I swear!" Jose writhed in the grip, blood flowing freely from the severed stump on his hand. Daniel looked back at Carter and Marie-Ange.

"Just one finger. Sometimes de simpliest method is de easiest." He smashed down with a huge fist, and Jose's screams stopped as he was battered unconscious. "Carter, Ms Colbert is going to be working wit' us for de time being. See dat she's given all de information she needs 'bout contacting us, where to go when called for briefings. We'll discuss terms once you've settled in. I can't wait to hear what it is dat you need de Assassins for." Carter nodded and pulled the unconcious man off the table.

"Wait," Daniel said, looking at Marie-Ange. "our guest was de one dat discovered Jose was de traitor. Seems like she should take responsibility for him. Dere's one penalty for betrayal, Marie-Ange, and dat's death. You want to make a pact wit' us, den you going to live under our laws. Carter, see to it she dispatches him herself."

That would be the test she was expecting. Or part of it. Marie-Ange was prepared to err on the side of caution. She stood, careful to not touch the unconscious man, or the blood that had smeared on the table. "Shall I return to my apartment afterward, or would you prefer to continue this meeting?" Either way, Cartier would of course report back to Daniel, and Marie-Ange intended to demonstrate the more lethal, and evidence-free aspects of her imaging power. They would expect that much out of her.

"We done here for now. Dere's a few things dat I need to take care of. Carter will be in touch about our next meeting."