Prelude

"You know how I came up with the idea for the Triple-X program?" The black guy with a pretty brutal scar on his face began spouting his usual bullshit he had said a thousand times by now, "Skateboards and swimming pools."

"Skateboards used to be stuck on the ground. Adolescent transportation. Then 1977 happens-"

"Jesus Christ! Stop dude." Bruce said sipping on his bourbon, "I thought you would be done after your 'Lion in a cage' speech but you only downgraded to skateboards and swimming pools. Look around you... what do you see?"

"Young reckless people, dancers, people way too drunk for their own good, and that guy who is selling some drugs, I presume." The man answered, his face not satisfied with how he was interrupted,

"That's true, but what I want you to see is that I don't give a fuck. I am in charge of creating this beautiful mess, and you want me to handle responsibilities?" Bruce laid back on the couch, "I have told you several times before that I am not the guy you're looking for, let alone someone patriotic. I could give two shits about this country. So agent Gibbons either you enjoy the party or you can leave."

"That's the same excuse you have given me for the 15th time." Gibbons chuckled, "I can repeat to you verbatim on what you're going to say or do next."

"I am surprised you still haven't got a clue about it then." Bruce shook his head with a heavy sigh, "I came here to L.A. to enjoy my life and not to dillydally around with you."

"I have heard that before too. Listen, Mr. Walker, I know you were for a fact involved in the incident that happened... what four months ago in Miami? 107 dead people including the drug lord who was already apprehended and a burnt mansion."

"Sure, you can deny as long as you want to and I can't do much because we made it clear on my first visit that I have nothing on you than a drone footage of your meeting with John Wick." Gibbons continued, "But I have also made it clear that I know of your identity and since I know John Wick, you can presume I know about you too."

"Oh, a man with so much information, a government agent at that... and you're not going to stop people like us?" Bruce said sarcastically, "What if we murder the president next?"

"Because I know for a fact you won't. They don't touch us and we won't touch them. But do you seriously think for how long the organization has been running for no one know anything about it? Do you think no one investigates all the piles of dead bodies and missing people?"

"Peace comes with a price and the non-spoken agreement is a price we pay to keep the High Table from doing something insane such as assassinating the president. And it's not just America... most powerful countries know about this very well."

"Sure you do." Bruce sarcastically nodded trying to push him further, after all, he was quite surprised with this revelation since no one but the members of High Table knew about this.

"Mr. Walker, the enemies you've made along the way, have been leaking some information about you. You are alone and left out, from what I've heard." Gibbons said not biting his bait, "Though I admit, they all suspiciously disappeared after I told you this the last time."

"That is indeed very suspicious, Is that why you're here again?" Bruce said with a concerned face, "To talk about how I might have killed a group of armed men single-handedly and then had something to do with your so-called informants? I am guessing, you think I killed them too?"

"I am really worried something is wrong with your head, Gibbons."

"Thank you for your concern, Mr. Walker." Gibbons said grabbing the drink he had ordered, "Okay, I'll play your game for a while, let's say, I believe you're just some young millionaire who popped out of nowhere and bought a club in L.A. to party and enjoy life as you put it. But what does, a club owner and 'millionaire' such as yourself would need to run a secretive mercenary company for?"

"Does this place look like a mercenary company to you?" Bruce pointed around him, "I am sure you think that those junkies over there are hitmen? Maybe those bartenders are my secret army?"

"Words travel around quickly, whether it's the underworld or not and I am just relaying you what I've heard." Gibbons said, "Though your method of advertising can be considered good enough, but this way you'll likely never land a real work."

'This is playing out well.'

Bruce was smiling on the inside with how things were going, sure opening a mercenary company sounded easy but it was the furthest thing from that. Especially to make it legitimate. With only him and Suki, it was hard to earn people's trust, when most companies dealt with literal armies.

He was young and his looks surely weren't helpful in earning people's trust for jobs. So similar to how he was when he started with the continental, he needed to build up his reputation from the ground up.

The underworld was big enough for everyone to play around in, so finding a place for him wasn't that difficult for him. But the problem was that his connection to the underworld didn't mean he wanted to dictate by its rules.

After all, if he was going to do the same things he did back then, then the whole point of going through the trouble of getting out was completely worthless.

-------------------------------------------------------

A/N:- So, I am trying to look at the John Wick world from a broader perspective, since it's not the world involved. So there might not be complete similarities. And hence the whole, secret agreement plot.

And John Wick 2 happens quite soon after John Wick 1 but I am going to push that plot a little further for now...since with the new movie coming out soon, I want to make sure I get most major details right since we still don't know much about the high table and so on.