Chapter 3
“Hey, Amy,” Beca called out, opening the woman’s hotel room door. “I need to talk to you about something; it’s kind of important.”
Amy looked up, pushing the phone back slightly to silence her voice from the caller. She paused for a moment before speaking. “Oh, yeah, just a sec. I’m on a call.”
“Okay.”
Amy turned back to the wall, directing her attention to the phone as she dropped her voice down an octave. “You think your bad? You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
Beca glanced around the room awkwardly, trying her best not to eavesdrop but failing horrifically. Her face contorted as Amy let off a string of threats to the mystery caller, wondering if maybe Bumper had called or someone else. To be honest, Beca wasn’t sure if Amy knew anyone outside of Barden University.
“I’ve graduated college. I could do anything,” Fat Amy hissed through the phone.
Beca’s eyes narrowed, making her confused staring very apparent as she fiddled with her hands. Finally, Amy yelled very abruptly before hanging up, causing Beca to promptly straighten her posture.
“Okay, so, I have kinda bad news,” Beca began as Amy rushed around her room gathering items. “And I know you’re going to be fine, uh, you know, everyone’s gonna be fine, but, like.”
Amy murmured in agreement, pulling out a large drawer full of items and dragging them across the room in front of Beca.
“Oh, um,” Beca faltered. “Well, we didn’t get picked, Man. And you know what? Like, screw them. It’s not like the whole story. There’s uh-” Beca trailed off as Amy held up a black bra to her chest to check the size. “I don’t know. I still feel like I wanna tell you because I think secrets are, like, the worst, right? So.”
“Yeah, it's the worst,” Amy agreed, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her from the room. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“Don’t worry. We’ll change in the cab.”
Amy continued to drag Beca from the hotel, the bellhop quickly muttering goodbye to them before they exited the building. Before they could look for a cab, they noticed a sleek, black car pulled up to the front of the building. A familiar woman perched on the edge of the hood, dark shades drawn over her eyes. Beca eyes her for a moment in confusion.
“I heard you two needed a cab,” Yelena stated, peering over her sunglasses.
“Yes,” Amy replied cautiously. “How’d you figure that?”
“You do not want to know that. Despite what you seem to think, I do know what is weird of me to do or say.”
Beca formed a crease between her brows. “This isn’t weird at all, then.”
Amy began to make her way toward the strange woman’s car, which immediately shocked Beca. Unsure what to say, Beca called out to her with an expectant look. “Amy!”
Beca quickly attempted to hail a cab, though her arm was soon pushed down by a hand on her shoulder. Yelena had pushed her glasses atop her head, revealing a cold glare. “Your friends are in danger.”
Beca’s face fell further than she thought it ever could. She remained silent, unable to find the words.
“She is in danger. And I will do anything to get her out of it, so either you come with me now, Beca Mitchell, or I leave you,” Yelena stated firmly, releasing the grip on Beca’s shoulder as she slowly began to back away. “It was a courtesy for me to show to give you both a ride.”
It then dawned on Beca why Amy would have been so apt to get into a car with the woman. “Amy! Why didn’t you start by telling me that?”
“Usually you’re more persuadable than this,” Amy replied, exasperated, as she started towards the car once more, opening up the back seat.
Beca groaned, realizing that Amy had left the front seat for her until she noticed Yelena motioning her into the back. Grateful she didn’t have to sit next to the woman, Beca relaxed slightly into the leather seats. She ogled them for a moment, almost positive the vehicle cost more than her tuition had. Then, Beca glanced over to Amy, who was furiously fighting with something in her bag. Beca couldn’t quite see, but she assumed the woman was untangling a rope.
Beca was kicked from her thoughts as Yelena searched for a contact on the car’s touch screen. The contact she decided on had a profile picture of a man adorning a goofy face standing next to Emily, who was wearing some sort of military suit for whatever reason. Yelena clicked the call button on the number. It dialed twice before the person on the other end picked up.
“Tsarina, what can I offer you today?” A man answered, presumably the man from the photo. “Or should I say, for the second time today?”
“That was your fault, Rick, for being in the city with a fancy car.” Rick mumbled something incomprehensible, likely talking to another person. Yelena scoffed before speaking again. “I need a boat. I assume you are still in the area, no?”
“I’m close enough. You know, you are very lucky I liked your sister, or else I wouldn’t be letting you bother me like this. You’re just like she was, always running up your tab. I hate it.”
“You like me; you can’t help it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rick replied, followed by the muffled sound of a car door shutting. “I’ll meet you by the pier. Is your little gal pal not with you? Figured she’d have just bought you a boat herself, the little case of nepotism she is.”
“Why do you think I need a boat in the first place?” Yelena grinned as she pulled up behind an extensive line of traffic. “Don’t worry, though; Kate will be fine. I know how much you’d miss her.”
Yelena quickly hung up, mumbling her goodbye with much less energy than she had prior to the mention of Kate. She bit the side of her cheek. No one else could ever see it, but she worried about the other girl. Yelena knew she would be able to come to the rescue in time, but something about the traffic inching slower ahead of her made her mind wander to the possibilities.
Beca and the now undistracted Amy share an odd glance, knowing they each shared the same question.
“Who’s Kate?” Beca asked, her tone genuine.
Yelena remained silent, nothing but the sound of the engine filling the car. For a moment, Beca thought the woman might not reply at all until she spoke in a cautious, unsure manner, unlike anything either of the Bellas had seen from her. “I don’t know how to tell you what I need to tell you. She will be angry with me.”
“Who will be?” Amy replied, looking as though she were about to unbuckle herself at any moment.
“Your friend. Her name is not Emily.” Yelena paused, choking down an untimely laugh as the traffic finally ceased. “Junk. I do not know how she says that with a straight face.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Are you serious?” Beca asked, becoming somewhat shrill. “I have seen her license. What are you even trying to do right now? Stop the car.”
Yelena grumbled in irritation, taking the next corner harder than she usually would have, emphasizing that she would not be stopping the car. “Everything she told you is fake. She is twenty-four, and her name is Katherine Elizabeth Bishop of Bishop Security. You can look her up.”
Beca felt her face pale as she recalled the previous night. Emily had slipped up and called herself the wrong age. Beca picked at her fingers, staring out the window. She didn’t want to believe what was said to her, but everything was too much to be a coincidence. Beca whipped out her phone and quickly googled the name. Not only did she find images of her friend, but also to find the woman’s company had produced the phone in her hands. “Oh my god.”
“I’m honestly shocked that none of you have ever noticed. It is not exactly like she is unknown to the world.”
Beca scrolled through the images, leaning closer to Amy to allow her to see. She was particularly drawn to one image where Kate had been walking along a busy road, but she wasn’t the image's main focus. Instead, it was from a news article about none other than the Hawkeye, who’d been walking down the street with the woman they thought they knew.
“Why would she keep this from us?” Amy asked, continuing to watch as Beca scrolled through countless images from public interviews the woman had participated in, many wearing the suit they saw in the man’s profile image.
“She works for an intelligence organization. I don’t want to breach some sort of contract, but she met you on an op.” After she had finished speaking, Yelena promptly pulled into a parking space. She stopped momentarily, leaning over the steering wheel to glance around. She spotted Rick below and grabbed Kate’s bow and quiver, which had sat in the passenger seat.
Yelena opened her door, motioning for the other girls to follow her. She awkwardly threw the bow over her shoulder, cringing at how it felt against her back. She moved to open the car’s trunk, taking note of the Bellas staring at her. “What is the problem?”
“Nothing,” Beca mumbled through strangled laughter, seeming to have relaxed a bit. “I just wasn’t aware we were in the fifteen-hundreds.”
“Excellent effort, but guns were made long before that. Anyhow, you do not offend me; This is your friend’s weapon of choice.”
“So… Weapons are a normal thing, then… For Kate, I mean. I guess I just can’t imagine her doing anything violent or, like, against the law.”
“She is not against the law. She is privileged to be above it,” Yelena replied, rummaging through the bags in her trunk. She slipped on her widow’s bites and shoved a blade down her beltline before pulling out a large handgun.
Beca exclaimed loudly at the presence of a real weapon as Amy stared with big eyes. Yelena stared at them angrily, sighing as she let the magazine fall into her hand. Her eyes glazed over the bullets she had. “I tell you all of these things, and you still are surprised I have a tiny little gun?”
“Look. Man. I am a regular person who has never seen anything like this up close,” Beca shrieked, using her hands to steady herself against the car. “Is that really considered tiny?”
“Everything is small once you hold an XM25.”
Amy’s eyes widened significantly more while Beca held an incredulous stare. Finally, Yelena packed up her trunk into a single bag, dumping it on the ground next to the car. Beca’s mouth slacks open before snapping shut.
“It is an RPG-”
“I know,” Beca interrupted, holding her stare. “I took a class with my old boyfriend.”
Yelena raised a brow, slamming the trunk shut.
“He was a history major.”
“And you dated him?” Yelena scoffed, leading the pair down the rickety wooden stairs to the docs. The smell of the salty ocean hit her like a wave would, the corners of her mouth lifting into a small smile at the scent. Beca didn’t reply and instead walked silently behind her.
Yelena pulled a small slip of cash from her coat pocket, patting it into Rick’s hand once they’d approached. He gave her a short glance before peering into the envelope with a smile beginning to form. “Have I ever mentioned that you are my favorite customer?”
“Awe, see? Yes. I knew it,” Yelena grinned. “I knew I was.”
He let out an irritable, almost strangled, noise that could be interpreted as laughter if you tried hard enough. He then motioned his head towards the boat docked next to them. “Can fit about thirteen people, including the driver. Got a med kit stashed under the seats in the front, life vests under the rest if you deem them necessary. A flare and other generic boat items are next to the wheel. I assume you want to keep a low profile, so I’ll meet you back in the cove around the bend there, alright?”
“Yes, Sir,” Yelena replied, her tone dripping with a sort of smugness as she stepped onto the boat, not bothering to look back at the man. Instead, she dropped the bow onto one of the larger seats, collapsing it before she did so.
Beca and Amy scurried onto the boat after her, barely having enough time to drop into a seat before Yelena started the boat.
“So, what exactly is the plan here?” Beca asked, raising her voice slightly over the sound of the boat. Yelena wasn’t going very fast to avoid detection, but it was still loud enough to impair their hearing.
“That depends,” Yelena replied, glancing back at them. Then, she motioned her head to Amy. “What did you have planned before I intercepted the both of you?”
“Well, I figured I’d send Beca up top to create a distraction. And I’d go in the cabin, take out the staff and blow the place up.”
Yelena’s gaze narrowed, her brows meeting in the middle. “And you can do that?”
Amy nodded.
“Okay,” Yelena said, drawing out her vowels in disbelief. “Then I will go with you. You will follow my lead.”
“So, do you, like, work for the same organization as her?” Beca asked, referring to Kate. Yelena could only imagine that the woman felt incredibly awkward using this newly acquired name.
Yelena snorted loudly, which slowly turned into a louder laugh. “Ah, no. But you are very funny if that is what you think.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Amy inquired, motioning toward the gun in Yelena’s belt. “You just have a personal gun, then?”
Yelena turned in her seat to give the woman a solemn look, somehow driving the boat without using her eyes. “No, I have unfortunate news that I am not sure how to give in a way that will keep you on the boat. So I will just say it. Patricia, I am in Spain to kill Fergus.”
Beca’s jaw dropped, her brain stalling for a moment before she began to push herself towards the edge of the boat, farthest from Yelena. On the other hand, Amy seemed to almost completely disregard her notion.
“You can just call me Amy, yeah?”
“What?” Yelena almost laughs. “That is it? I am a contract killer here, paid to kill your daddy, and all you say is that?”
“I just found out that he’s been keeping me from being a millionaire my entire adult life, and the only reason he’s even here is for that money.”
“No, I know that. It’s just,” Yelena paused. “When people find that out, usually, I get a bottle of hot sauce to the face, no?”
“Is that supposed to be some sort of saying?” Beca squeaked indignantly, yet to have moved from the corner of the boat.
“No. When I first met Kate, I was supposed to kill her friend. I didn’t, of course, but she threw a bottle of sriracha at my head. I had just made her macaroni and cheese. Can you believe?”
“Did you just refer to sriracha as hot sauce?” Beca replied incredulously, her disgust seeming to have drowned out her fear. “It’s not even that spicy.”
“Oh, I like you very much.”
Yelena quickly and abruptly killed the engine. They slid open the divider, which separated the front from the back seating, leaping to the larger ship to catch the smaller boat before it made contact.
“I need you to take those with you up there,” Yelena said, pointing towards the bow and quiver as she secured their boat with one of the ropes. “Leave it out of the way. She will see.”
Beca stood, clinging to the bow awkwardly as she made her way toward Yelena. Yelena kneeled, digging the toe of her shoe into the metal beneath her. She held her hands out, allowing Beca to step up as she pushed the smaller girl onto the upper level.
Yelena cringed as she heard Beca clang around slightly but relaxed after a moment once she was confident no one had noticed. She straightened her posture, eyes darkening as she rested a hand against the swinging door of the back of the boat. “Let us see what you can do, Amy Hobart.”
Beca carefully slid the bow behind a deck chair, crouching behind the sitting girls.
Kate looked over, eyes widening at the sight of her bow. She made brief, albeit emotionally charged, eye contact before turning back to look at Fergus with the crowd. She could feel Beca approaching behind her, but she kept her gaze purposely fixed on the men in front of them.
“Guys, you know what we should do,” Beca began, peering out towards Fergus through the group, hoping the other girls would get the hint. The Bellas turned very abruptly, staring at her in awe.
“Where did you come from?” Fergus asked, anxiety welling in his tone.
“What?”
“You weren’t here before.”
“I’ve been here the whole time,” Beca began, pushing the hair out of her face. She took note of Kate nodding briskly in agreement as she spoke, the woman glancing back and forth between her and the man. “I’m just small.”
Fergus glanced between his bodyguards, looking for confirmation, but they only shrugged.
After a moment, Beca grew annoyed with the silence, deciding to stand instead as she spoke. “It’s just- If we only have ten minutes left, I saw we spend it doing something we love.” She glanced to the girls in the room, raising her brows with wide eyes. “Let’s go out like Bellas. And sing one more song.”
They all spouted out irritated disagreements. Even Kate looked at her in contorted confusion.
“I think we should sing one more song!” Beca exclaimed, raising her voice over the chatter, trying to calm herself enough that it didn’t become shrill as it did minutes beforehand. Beca resisted the urge to slap her palm against her forehead as the Bellas continued their argumentative chatter. “Guys! I just want to sing so bad. We really think you’ll like it.”
Fergus scoffed, turning toward his seat. “You want to entertain me? Then knock yourselves out. Nine minutes.”
“Let’s make it a loud one, guys,” Beca cheered quietly as the Bellas stood with her. She forced a broad smile before dropping into a whisper. “You guys are terrible at reading signals.”
They all began pushing the furniture out of the way, making room for their performance as Kate lingered around a particular chair near the boat’s railing.
Beca led their performance, allowing the other girls to join in as they made their way toward the back of the boat, positioning themselves in a performance-fit formation. Beca quickly touched up her hair as she made her way back, shooting Fergus a courteous glance.
Kate felt beyond ridiculous, singing and dancing during a hostage situation. She could feel her pride pulling away at the edges. She knew Beca’s eyes were on her throughout the performance, but she never once met her gaze. She couldn’t decide if it was out of shame or embarrassment, but she decided it was something to stow away for a later time.
Kate felt an almost imperceptible twitch in the boat beneath her feet. She knew something was happening and that it involved Yelena; how else would her bow be here? Right. Her bow. Kate’s eyes snapped towards the chair, slipping through their performance to grab her weapon.
Before anyone noticed her disappearance, the quiver was over her shoulder, and her bow was already assembled, an arrow notched.
Their performance was abruptly cut short as everyone began noticing the situation. Many of the girls stared at her with wide expressions, some of whom had even taken to sitting at their surprise.
Kate focused her arrow on Fergus, slowly closing the distance between them. Rather than acting out of fear, he simply laughed as his men began pointing their guns at her head.
“Have you never heard that you should only ever take a gun to a gunfight?” Fergus asked.
“Never phrased like that, but I guess there’s a first for everything. There was this one time Jack told me he was pulling on my foot, and I guess you can still make out what he meant-” Kate mumbled, her voice humorless. “Whatever. Doesn’t matter. Drop them before I make you.”
Before Fergus could reply, Kate let a small smile fall upon her face. She watched as Yelena peered in one of the open windows along the boat’s wall. The woman gripped the window sill, leaning in to maneuver a finger under one of the guard’s shirt collars. She yanked him from the room, pulling him out the window as a range of shots rang out from both the man being pulled out the window and the guard still standing. The sound was quickly drowned out by the shrill screams of the girls around her.
Kate felt a wave of relief at the sound of the man hitting the water, though it soon filled with tension as she realized the wall was splattered with blood. She gritted her teeth at the thought it could belong to Yelena.
“Look what you did!” Fergus yelled to the man next to him. “You just shot one of your own. What is wrong with you?”
The man stood still in shock, his hands still gripping the gun as they shook. While Kate had no doubt these men had killed before, she knew it hadn’t been friendly fire before. So she took this opportunity to let an arrow fly, watching it imbed itself into the gunman’s hand at the exact moment a knee connected with the side of his head. Yelena had swung in through the window, knocking him into the back wall with great force.
“Do you know how annoying this has been?” Yelena exclaimed, glaring at Fergus as she flattened out her jeans. “Why do all of your men go for the hair first? I had to take it down.”
“What?” Fergus shouted, though it was apparent he was more confused by the situation than by what she was saying.
Before Yelena could continue, a large crash sounded through the cabin as the window above them shattered. Amy fell through, landing in a squat as she blasted her father with a fire extinguisher she had acquired from somewhere below. Yelena hid her mouth with the back of her hand as she laughed, watching Fergus fall backward with the strength of the white powder. Amy quickly ditched the fire extinguisher, giving them both an exaggerated thumbs up as she led the Bellas off the boat by jumping from it.
Yelena didn’t follow behind, so neither did Kate. Instead, she stayed and watched as the woman pulled out her gun, training it to the man’s head.
“Yelena,” Kate said, her voice warning.
“They set up explosives down below!” Beca yelled, half of her body dangling over the side of the boat. She was the only one who hadn’t jumped yet.
Kate groaned, rubbing her hand against the side of her face. “Just go!”
As soon as Beca was no longer in sight, Kate launched herself at Yelena, the gun going off just before Kate grabbed her forearm. Kate had no intention of preventing his death, but that didn’t stop her from cringing at the sight. Disregarding it the best she could, she pulled hard on Yelena's arm, sprinting.
The explosions began just before they reached the edge of the boat. Kate pushed Yelena back first overboard before leaping over herself. She knew she hadn’t cleared the dock below when she saw the metal under which she would fall. She pulled an arrow from her quiver, hoping it was the right one. Her theory was confirmed when it clung to the boat, allowing her to hang off the side of the upper deck as explosions went off above her.
She held her breath for what felt like minutes, but in reality, it was only a few seconds before Yelena resurfaced from the water. Kate pulled her arrow from the hull, dropping into a roll before leaping onto the smaller boat. She stepped on the edge, hooking the toes of her back foot under the short railing to keep herself from falling in. Most of the Bellas were already on the boat, if not just about to board, as she reached down to the water, grabbing Yelena’s hand to pull her up.
As soon as everyone was on board, Amy began steering the boat toward shore. Not even a second had passed before Aubrey promptly vomited over the side of the boat. Oddly enough, none of them were surprised.
Yelena and Kate sat at the front of the boat while the Bellas took up the back. Kate was mainly surprised that none of them had asked her anything about what had happened yet, though she chalked it up to being in shock.
Yelena left her seat across from Kate to sit next to her, leaning heavily against the synthetic leather of the seats. Kate realized the actual reason no one had asked her anything when Yelena pulled the edge of her wet shirt to Kate’s face. “It would be very foolish of me to let you walk the streets bloody.”
“What about you?” Kate replied softly, watching as the red seeped into the white fabric.
“I will be fine.”
Yelena sat back after being satisfied with her work, the water dripping off her clothes steadily. She leaned her head back with her arm over the back of the boat, closing her eyes. Despite not seeing her, Yelena could feel Kate curl her feet onto the seat next to her and press her dry cheek into Yelena’s wet arm. Yelena could tell they were almost to shore by the slight change in temperature.
Yelena was ripped from her stupor at the sound of Beca’s voice. “Emily- I mean. Kate, I was kind of hoping we could all talk about some stuff when we get back to the hotel. I mean, like, I have some stuff to tell everyone, and you might have some stuff to tell everyone, maybe.”
Kate’s body went rigid against the seat, her gaze hardening into the side of Yelena’s head, who kept her eye trained on the empty sky. “You told them?”
Yelena remained silent, letting her eyelids droop almost to the point of shutting.
“Yelena, why would you tell them?” Her voice rose.
Yelena sighed, picking her head up. “What was I supposed to do?”
“I asked you not to!”
Beca looked between them, deciding to re-insert herself. “Guys, really, it’s fine. I’m happy that we know now.”
Kate stayed quiet, biting the inside of her lip.
“My sister used to tell everyone that pain makes us stronger, I’m pretty sure that she picked it up from Mama, but I do not remember,” Yelena began, her voice small. “Your friendships will grow stronger just like that, yes?”
“While that is so Russian, it doesn’t make anything better. I trusted you with this,” Kate replied, sounding calm at first, though slowly devolving into anger. “And frankly, I don’t care what your sister thought, Yelena. None of that means shit to me; Natasha is dead.”
Kate’s face fell as soon as the words came out of her mouth. She opened her mouth to say something, to at least take back what she said, but everything she thought to say seemed to catch in the back of her throat.
“Yes,” Yelena replied slowly, though her movements were quick and choppy as she stood, allowing most of her weight to be supported by the side of the boat. “She is.”
Yelena was off the boat before it had time to hit the decaying ramp of the hidden docking area. Rick stood before them, looking as though he were about to say something before Yelena shouldered past him.
“Yelena, please. I’m sorry,” Kate called to her, but Yelena didn’t turn back. Kate sighed, instead making her way towards Rick.
“Is something going on there?” Rick asked, motioning towards where Yelena had once been and then to Kate.
Kate sighed. “No. Yes. I don’t know. I messed up. I don’t want to talk about it. I think she’s upset with me.”
“Yes, you definitely seem like you don’t want to talk about it. How about this instead.” Rick pulled out an arrow from seemingly thin air. It looked like a standard arrow until you reached the end, where a large, unseemly explosive sat. Kate almost felt as if it were staring her down. “Would you do me the honors?”
Kate hesitantly took the arrow from his grasp, notching it in her bow. She held it back much longer than she would’ve ever needed to, long enough for her arms to ache from doing so. The large boat out in the distance had already begun to sink, but the flames were long gone. They needed as much evidence destroyed as they could manage. Finally, after an agonizing wait, she let go, setting an endless fire to a ship she once tread.