John Wick - Chapter 63: The Darkness of the High Table: The Plan (Patreon)

Maybe it was anger over what Joe had gone through. Maybe Winston’s constant testing had finally gotten on Nate’s nerves.

Or maybe it was both.

Either way, the irritation in Nate’s voice was obvious.

Winston didn’t answer immediately.

He simply turned toward the sparring area and watched as Joe drove John backward, punch after punch.

After a while, he said, “Nate, you’re remarkably perceptive. Your talent and insight don’t match your age.”

Nate said nothing.

Winston continued.

“Do you know how the High Table came into existence?”

Nate remained silent.

“Hundreds of years ago, more than a dozen families sat down together and came to an agreement.”

“They decided war was too expensive and blood feuds were too foolish. It would be better to divide territory, distribute their interests, and bring all their dirty business to the same table to negotiate.”

Winston stared into the distance, his voice calm.

“That table became the High Table. Eventually, they established rules around it.”

“With no need to constantly undermine or destroy one another, the families followed those rules and cooperated.”

“The rules eventually became a system.”

“And that system grew into a monster.”

“Over the centuries, their power expanded until even they could barely control what they had created.”

“And the people sitting at that table today have long forgotten about family or whatever ideals they began with.”

“They recognize only two things.”

Winston raised two fingers.

“Money.”

“And the ability to make people fear you.”

Nate stared into his eyes.

Winston continued, “You asked whether I wanted to overthrow the High Table. I told you I didn’t have enough.”

“Do you know what I meant?”

Nate didn’t answer.

“Power.”

Winston looked back toward the sparring area.

“The High Table has spent centuries building an entire ecosystem around itself. Remove one person, and there are a hundred more beneath him. A thousand. Ten thousand.”

“You, John, and Joe are all exceptionally capable. Taking on ten people is nothing unusual for you. Even a hundred might be possible under the right circumstances.”

“But that still isn’t enough.”

He paused.

“It took me half my life to understand something.”

In the sparring area, Joe slammed a hook into John’s arm with a dull thud.

“Rules exist because people believe in them,” Winston said. “Before you can chop that table apart and burn it for firewood, you first have to make people stop fearing it.”

Nate was silent for a moment.

“So you want to be the one who stands up first and calls everyone to resist?”

Winston didn’t deny it.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Nate said. “Why are you doing this? Because of Judy?”

The familiar smile finally disappeared completely from Winston’s face.

“That’s only part of it...”

He paused, his voice suddenly dry.

“I had an older brother.”

Nate noticed Winston’s fingers curl slightly.

“My biological brother. His name was Frankie.”

Winston’s voice softened. There was something almost gentle in it, yet every word came out clearly.

“He was a good man.”

“Far better than I ever was.”

“What happened?”

“I watched him take a bullet to the forehead and fall right in front of me.”

Winston’s expression didn’t change.

“He was a hitman too. A very good one. Every bit as capable as John is now.”

“And he still died just like that.”

“Killed by a High Table assassin.”

Winston looked at Nate.

“Is that reason enough?”

Nate fell silent.

Winston’s gaze dropped to the floor of the sparring area, as though he were looking through the wood at something far away.

“So this is revenge?”

Winston turned back toward him.

“Not entirely.”

“Or rather, I’ve already had my revenge.”

“I killed the previous manager of this hotel.”

“Then I killed the Adjudicator who tried to come in afterward and take everything for herself.”

“I took this building from the High Table.”

“But it still wasn’t enough.”

“Because I want to change something too,” Winston said.

Nate frowned but remained quiet.

“There are parts of the High Table’s business that disgust me.”

“Human trafficking is one of them.”

“After I became manager of this hotel, I found a list in the previous manager’s desk.”

Winston looked directly into Nate’s eyes.

“There were 137 children on it.”

“Beside seven names was the word ‘Arrived.’”

“Beside all the others... ‘Loss.’”

His voice hardened.

“I’m not talking about something that happened decades ago.”

“I’m talking about now. This year. Last month.”

“It’s still happening.”

“Their trafficking network spans four continents.”

“Every year, thousands of children are taken from different countries. The ones with the best physical potential are sent to training camps.”

“The ones who fail are fed into the rest of their underground operations.”

“They have an entire system designed to extract everything they can from those children.”

“They operate more than a dozen transit points along different borders.”

“Thirty children packed into a single shipping container.”

“The living are transported onward.”

“The dead are dumped along the way.”

For the first time, a crack appeared in Winston’s voice.

“I couldn’t tolerate that kind of filth.”

“So over the years, I’ve used whatever means I had to quietly save as many children as I could.”

“Elena and Judy were among them.”

“Those who wanted to stay could remain at the hotel.”

“For the others, I tried to find their families.”

Winston looked at Nate.

“The High Table needs to be cleaned out.”

“Wouldn’t you agree?”

Nate didn’t hesitate.

“Yes.”

“On that, we agree completely.”

“My problem is what happens afterward.”

“If we bring them down, how do we keep everything from turning into the same thing again?”

Winston smiled.

“We take away their power and establish a new set of rules.”

“Clean rules.”

Nate frowned.

“That won’t be easy.”

“Can you actually do it, Winston?”

“I believe I can.”

A confident smile appeared on Winston’s face.

For a moment, there was something almost youthful about it.

Like the young man from years ago who had stood outside the Continental and put a bullet through the Adjudicator’s head.

“All right,” Nate said.

“Then what do we do?”

“We gather every ally we can.”

“Then we hit the High Table hard.”

“That ancient, rotting organization has been comfortable for far too long.”

“We need to remind them what pain feels like.”

“What fear feels like...”

Nate could tell he wasn’t finished.

“And then?”

“We show everyone in this business who still has a conscience, but is too afraid to resist, that the High Table isn’t invincible.”

“They are not absolute authority.”

“Once decent people realize they can fight back, resistance will follow naturally.”

“And when that happens, everything we’re trying to accomplish becomes much easier.”

Joe and John had stopped sparring.

Both of them were now looking in their direction.

Winston held out his hand toward Nate.

He met Nate’s eyes, his expression filled with expectation.

“So, Nate Lin.”

“Do you want to join us?”

Nate said nothing.

He simply stood, took Winston’s hand, and shook it.

“Next time, don’t test me like that.”

“I don’t like being manipulated into someone else’s setup, Winston.”

He hadn’t explicitly said yes.

But his answer was obvious.

Winston looked at him almost like an older relative looking at someone from the younger generation.

Then he smiled.

“All right.”

“Maybe we should make things a little more familiar between us.”

He gave Nate an amused look.

“How about ‘Win’?”

Nate’s expression became visibly awkward.

After a moment, he forced the word out.

“...Win.”

Winston said nothing.

But the smile on his face became noticeably brighter.