"During the game of hide-and-seek in your childhood days, it seems you lost a lot," said Mr. Beard standing, with his hands folded over his paunch.
Suddenly he bent, grabbed Ishtar by the arm and pulled her out of the dark spot where she was hiding.
Tears streaming while standing infront of him, "cease your whining!" Mr. Beard ordered.
He went through his mind for a second while giving her a sneaky eye.
"How could you forget who we're?" He asked abruptly, "all the vital information, the weapon skills that that took me sweat to teach you...! How for heavens could this happen?" Putting on an attitude and a confounded gesture, Mr. Beard blamed Ishtar, right in her face.
Ishtar stared at him in a wondering surprise.
"Weapon skills...! Vital information...! What're is he trying to mean?!" Since she was already exhausted by the troubles of a long night and the loss of memory, mentally she couldn't resist.
"You know what, I feel too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to afford thinking upright.
"When you see me with a paunch," as his syle, Mr. Beard stood with his hands folded over his slight belly, raising his head up and eyeblows, "you take me for a weak, right?"
"No! Why should I?" Innocent and desperate for safety, Ishtar denied swiftly.
".... this retarded grownup fool in the middle of nowhere within the woods bla bla bla, of course can I see how you're looking at me _ insults written all over your face, right?"
Mr. Beard still wasn't sure that the young lady was going through a memory loss.
However, the reason for wisely manupilating her with lies was to attain proof that it was true she couldn't remember anything about herself as she was claiming.
Besides eyeing Ishtar as a stranger he saved, Mr. Beard wasn't an ordinary grownup with an ordinary lifestyle; hence the very reason he had trust issues.
He went further to make accusations, playing on her mind, just to penetrate her conscious so he can extract truth to content with her defense of amnesia.
By the confounded looks on Ishtar's face and gesture, it was obvious that he had already succeeded in getting her on a roller coaster, puzzled with question marks plugged on her innocent face, speechlessly.
And now a delicate idea crossed Mr. Beard's mind.
In his mental, "It's three years every since my ride to die assassin was shot dead in Spain. This might be another opportunity for me to replace him with this innocent young lady," he looked at her from head to toe, "attractive with a very stunning body structure."
Worriedly, "he wanna take advantage of my body!" Ishtar got Senstive about the way Mr. Beard moved his eyes around her.
"How loving are the heavens to me!" Out of excitement, he spoke out loud.
A perturbed look spoke Ishtar's mind, "What? You can't say that! Am not going to allow you touch my body, No!"
"Touch your body! Hahaha," he wondered how quickly Ishtar misinterpreted his reaction and laughed.
"W What's funny now!" Ishtar stuttered in shame.
"Alright, what I've just said out of excitement is nothing for you to worry about, okay? Now, here is the deal: uh..., starting tomorrow, you will be training your muscles and skills a lot to call your body back in shape."
"Is that why heavens love you so much?!"
"Said don't mind that, okay? Anyway, what I meant was, I've been so lazy doing nothing for quiet some time. Now am excited that your training is gonna keep me busy for some good time."
Mr. Beard had to lie, to cover up his reckless statement which he made out of excitement.
But what Ishtar didn't know was, to Mr. Beard she was going to be the replacement of his long unlived assassin. Hence Mr. Beard's source of excitement.
"Let's get inside," he moved.
"Excuse me," Ishtar requested calls him, "uh, can you please tell me what really happened to me to loose my memory? Besides, could you please remind me my name if you don't mind?"
Mr. Beard stepped back a bit. He didn't know her name for sure and didn't know what to tell her. Eyes rolling from Ishtar's head to toe, as a wise man he said, "Uh, you mean you don't remember the code name we use in the field when you're on assassin missions? Come-on, Black Rose!"
He forged a name real quick.
"You mean my code name is Black Rose?"
"Forget it and it will cost you a lot more next time."
"Wait!" As he turned to walk on, she called him back again. "One more thing _ Uh.... I heard you saying 'assassin missions'. You mean my job is to take lives?"
"That was, is and will always be your job," he confidently told her. "And, expect no mercy while in training because out there, expect no kind humans."
Suddenly Ishtar delved deep in thoughts.
"Is anything the matter?"
"Uh, no!" Ishtar replied with confidence.
"Good, now let's get inside so you can rest. Tomorrow is a very busy day for you."
When they got inside the shelter, Mr. Beard went ahead to open two of the ten black bags which were piled up in one corner, "hope this answers all your questions!"
The bags were full of bundled hundred notes in stucks of tens of thousands, all in dollars.
"Wow!" Ishtar exclaimed in wonder when she saw too much cash.
"Your mission has always been to destroy the mobs in dirty businesses, kill the leaders and return home with photographic evidence."
Mr. Beard further more open a small private room. Inside were different faces in pictures pinned on a wide board on the wall.
The ones marked X are burning in hell right now.
"You mean I killed those gentlemen?"
"What matters is they were bad people to be in the society; kidnappers, human traffickers, drug dealers _ now this moron," he pointed out one of the photos, "used to kiddnap kids, extract their organs and sell them."
"What?" It was really shocking.
This information planted on Ishtar's mind got her convinced.
nd the picture drown to her that she was only dealing with bad insurance dealers, coccine dealers, human traffickers the list goes on, it easy for her to believe due to her amnesia