John Wick - Chapter 96: Cassian (Patreon)

Winston had booked them first class.

The first-class cabin was fairly spacious. There was a comfortable-looking sofa seat, with a sofa bed across from it that could be reclined flat, and an adjustable TV mounted on the wall.

Elena’s seat was to Nate’s right, while Nate and John’s seats were directly in front of and behind each other. Opening the partition between them turned the area into one connected little space.

They had been in the air for less than half an hour before Elena got restless and came over to join them. The three turned on the TV and watched it while chatting idly.

Still, an eight-hour flight was far too long, especially when there was nothing else to do. Nate was getting bored enough to consider taking a nap when John, sitting across from him, somehow produced a deck of cards.

With nothing better to do, the three of them started an intense game of Texas Hold’em.

Unsurprisingly, John kept losing. Even more surprisingly, he refused to play cautiously, raising almost every hand as if he had something to prove.

They used gold coins as stakes, and after several hours of cards, John had cheerfully lost nearly two hundred of them.

Not that he was short on gold coins. He was simply terrible at poker and loved playing anyway.

After walking out of the airport, Nate set down his suitcase and stretched long and hard.

“Damn, more than eight hours on a plane. We’re finally here.”

“Where are we going now?” Elena asked John, pulling her suitcase behind her.

“The Continental first,” John replied.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary, John. Look who’s over there.”

Nate pointed ahead.

An elegant woman in a black evening gown was approaching them, surrounded by a group of security personnel.

“Long time no see, John.”

“Gianna.”

John greeted her with a cheek kiss.

Gianna looked at him warmly.

“I’m glad you came.”

John said nothing. He merely held her gaze.

At least, Nate thought it looked affectionate. Then again, John could look at a dog with those eyes and somehow make it seem affectionate.

The reactions of everyone around them were much more interesting.

Nate looked like someone who had just stumbled onto some juicy gossip. He had always wondered how these two would interact when they weren’t enemies. Now that he had finally seen it, though, he found the whole thing a little underwhelming.

Way too restrained.

Come on, you two. Why not just kiss already?

Elena, meanwhile, went from stunned to confused, then rapidly began turning red. Her inner sourpuss was clearly taking over, though it was also possible she had just watched her image of her brother collapse before her eyes.

Another person who stood out was the bald bodyguard behind Gianna—Cassian.

In the movie, his skills had only been slightly below John’s.

Right now, his expression was grim, several tense lines standing out across his forehead. He looked like he was barely holding back his irritation.

“Gianna, I’m sorry about your brother...”

John started to say more, but Gianna interrupted him.

“The fact that you came says everything.”

She held John’s gaze for another moment before looking past him at Nate.

“So you’re Mr. Lin? I didn’t expect you to be so young.”

Gianna smiled and offered him her hand.

Nate took it lightly and respectfully.

“A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Gianna.”

“Then I’ll be counting on you and John to keep me safe this time,” Gianna said with a smile.

The moment she said that, Nate could practically see Cassian growing even more irritated. He looked ready to boil over.

“It’s my pleasure, ma’am,” Nate replied politely.

“And who might this be?”

Gianna covered her mouth, amusement sparkling in her eyes as she gestured toward Elena, who was still standing there flushed and sulking.

“Oh, her? Just a hanger-on. She came to Rome for a vacation.”

“Nate!”

Elena exploded.

Gianna watched the exchange with a smile, then turned away and cleared her throat.

“Come along, gentlemen. This isn’t the place to talk. Let’s go.”

“Where to?” Nate asked.

“The Rome Continental.”

“Oh. All right, then.”

Gianna seemed to understand what Nate meant, so she explained, “The facilities and security at the ruins are still being arranged. For now, the Continental is relatively safer.”

She walked forward and naturally slipped her arm through John’s as they headed toward the car.

Cassian, looking thoroughly displeased, took everyone’s luggage and loaded it into the trunk before getting into the driver’s seat.

Nate was the last one into the car. Before getting in, he went over each of the vehicles one by one, carefully checking them while remaining fully alert.

When the others gave him puzzled looks, Nate explained, “Nothing wrong with being careful.”

Gianna seemed to understand. She smiled and nodded at him.

“Professional.”

John, sitting beside her, merely shook his head helplessly.

The three cars pulled away one after another.

On the rooftop of a building near the airport, a man in a baseball cap lowered his binoculars.

“Boss, Target One and Target Two have made contact. They should reach the Rome Continental in about forty-five minutes.”

“Do we move?”

A voice came through his earpiece.

“No rush. Let them relax first. Give it two days.”

“Plenty of people are more impatient than we are.”

“Copy.”

At that moment, Nate glanced toward the building from inside the car.

His expression immediately turned serious. He pulled out his phone and sent John a message.

“John, did you feel that?”

“That building?”

“Yeah.”

Nate continued typing.

“The next few days aren’t going to be peaceful. Tell Gianna to make every preparation she can.”

“Yeah.”

John stopped replying after that. He was probably passing the information on to Gianna.

Nate focused his senses.

One hand rested on his knee, with a throwing knife held between his palm and his leg. His nerves remained taut as he stayed alert for any threat that might appear.

Incidentally, Cassian was driving the car Nate was in.

He had originally been driving Gianna’s car, but apparently he could no longer stand the two people in the back seat, so he had switched over to Nate’s car instead.

Thinking about it, that was understandable.

Watching the woman you loved acting intimately with another man was bad enough. When that man was also someone you personally knew, no guy could easily stomach it.

Nate had thought Cassian already had it rough enough in the movie.

Reality, apparently, was even crueler.

At the stairwell, Cassian had fought John to a standstill. Then, at the subway station, he still couldn’t beat John even when John was already badly wounded.

Apparently the stat bonuses from [Baba Yaga] really did stack.

Nate couldn’t remember whether Cassian had actually died in the movie after taking a knife to the chest.

There was something else he had never understood while watching it.

Cassian had already sat down for a drink with John and exchanged information with him, so he knew exactly why everything had happened.

So why hadn’t he joined John in going after Santino?

Instead, he kept fixating on John and trying to beat the hell out of him. The most ridiculous part was that he still lost.

Nate really didn’t know what to make of that.

And this guy was also responsible for completely destroying any coherent sense of how much the gold coins were worth.

One gold coin for two drinks.

That single scene ruined the only explanation that had ever made even a little sense, namely that one gold coin could be exchanged for one service.

The value of those coins was genuinely impossible to pin down. Sometimes they were counted individually, sometimes they apparently weren’t.

What a mess.

“Hey, man. Might as well introduce ourselves. I’m Nate.”

Cassian didn’t turn around. He only glanced at Nate through the rearview mirror.

“Cassian.”

Hmm.

His personality was actually pretty similar to the old John. Both of them were the quiet, taciturn type.

Though the current John was probably a little more outgoing than Cassian.

“Uh... eaten yet?” Nate asked, trying to start a conversation.

Cassian didn’t answer.

Then Nate’s nerves snapped taut.

He sensed danger.

“Pull over!”