Disclaimer: I do not own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
~ for Scarlet Garter ~
So this was it. The Tenderloin. San Francisco.
Nice city.
If you like earthquakes.
Getting into the warehouse was shockingly easy. Guerrero shook his head in disbelief. Junior had really lost it. What was he thinking, moving into a place without setting up proper security? With the Old Man hot on his trail?
A Rottweiler puppy greeted him when he opened the door.
Guerrero ignored it and looked around. Nobody home. He pressed his lips together. One last chance to back out…
The puppy sniffed his leg up and down.
Not sure what to do, Guerrero walked over to the nearest computer and switched it on for a quick glance at the hard drive. Whoever was working on this thing, he knew zilch about passwords. The chair, however, was quite comfortable. Guerrero suspected it was the fat cop's.
Something brushed against his knee. The puppy had brought him a toy.
The files on the computer gave him a pretty good idea of how Junior and the cop worked. It was ridiculous. Pro bono cases as far as the eye could see. Were they planning double suicide by starvation?
Guerrero switched the computer off again. Who was he kidding? He wasn't fitting in here. This was just not his thing.
He was almost on his way out when he noticed a small, strange light beam coming from the mezzanine part of the office. It was colorful – something was splitting the light up there, a prism perhaps. Curiosity got the better of Guerrero and he walked upstairs into what he suspected were Junior's living-quarters.
On a shelf by the window he found the source of the beam – a snow globe. And not just any snow globe, it was one of the globes they had prepared for the job in Chicago… Had Junior kept it to defend himself? Guerrero had noticed weapons stashed everywhere. He thoughtfully weighed the small object in his hand.
Just then the puppy, maybe frustrated because the visitor hadn't wanted to play with him, jumped up and gave the back of his knees a shove with its big paws. Guerrero, caught off guard, stumbled forward, the globe slipped from his hand and crashed to the ground.
Now, the puppy, seeing the stranger tumble, had already turned tail and run when the glass broke and the narcotic agent the globe contained, was set free. Guerrero, however, was not so fast. All he managed was stagger towards the sofa to cushion his fall.
Which is exactly where Chance found him two hours later, when he came back after wrapping up a job with Winston.
He didn't inform Winston about the unexpected visitor. Instead he told him he'd call it a day. As soon as his business partner was on his way downstairs, he settled down in the armchair by the couch and watched his… his… Guerrero… sleep off the impact of the anesthetic.
In the middle of the night, when Guerrero jerked awake with a mighty hangover, a cup of tea on a warmer was already waiting for him.
Chance mumbled something about bathroom and left him alone. Guerrero sat up. His vision swam, but he could have gone away.
Instead he reached for the cup and took a sip from the tea.
With that watchdog Junior had gotten himself there, he probably wouldn't make it to the door anyway.