Episode 1: "The first assignment"
Kingpin was sitting at his desk when Bullseye walked in. He was holding a cigar in one hand and with the other he was flipping some files he had in front of him.
"Here I am, boss."
"Good. Have a sit," Kingpin said pointing with the cigar to one of the two white chairs in front, without raising his eyes from the files. Bullseye sat in one of the chairs, placing his feet on Fisk's desk.
"So, for how long are you willing to work for me?" Kingpin asked looking Bullseye in the eyes.
"As long as the pay's good."
"Excellent!"
Kingpin stood up smiling and took a yellow folder from his desk, handing it to Bullseye. He noticed he had, once again, put his feet on his desk but said nothing. He couldn't say he was pleased with Bullseye's attitude but he was the best assassin he had ever seen and for that he let him behave as he pleased.
"Dominik and Katya Redko," Kingpin began as Bullseye was looking at two photographs attached to the folder. "Brother and Sister; professional Russian thieves, among the very best in the world. They stole something that belongs to me. Some diamonds that I had arranged to be brought into the US. I need you to eliminate them and to bring the diamonds to me. You'll recognize them; they're green and they're like no other diamonds you've seen before. You will find all the necessary information in the folder. That will be all."
"This one's easy. You'll have your stones same time tomorrow."
Bullseye stood up, intending to leave but Fisk stopped him.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
Bullseye looked at him, a little confused at first but then he noticed a small vase with two red roses on Kingpin's desk
Bullseye sat on his newly acquired motorcycle, hidden from sight by some old trees, surveying the Redko residence, a big mansion situated in a small forest region, somewhere near New York City.
It was eight o'clock in the morning and he had been trying to find a way to get in for almost two hours, but without any luck. A tall, electrical fence surrounded the mansion; there were only two guards in front of the main gate but there were many more inside and there was too much open space from the gate to the house, making it impossible for him to sneak inside.
He was beginning to loose his temper and that might push him to do something irrational, something that he would definitely regret and in the worst case even cost him his life. But suddenly, the opportunity he had wished for appeared. At about five past eight AM, the big gates opened and a black car rushed out. Bullseye recognized Katya Redko, one of his targets, at the wheel and decided to follow her.
Half an hour later he saw the woman parking in front of a medium-sized apartment building, somewhere in New York City. They weren't in a poor neighborhood but not in a rich one either. Bullseye parked his motorcycle near by, following the woman inside the building.
Katya Redko walked rapidly towards the elevator and pushed the button. She was slightly nervous although she kept telling herself that there was nothing to fear. When the elevator finally arrived she stepped in and pushed the button to the sixth floor. But when the doors almost closed, a hand slid in between them, stopping them and then another one appeared, pushing them open. This disturbed a bit the golden hair woman with dark green eyes, especially when she saw Bullseye stepping in. Although the scar on his forehead was hidden by his black cap and he had buttoned up his coat, he still looked like a person one would usually try to avoid. However, besides all that, he was quite good looking and she couldn't help herself but respond with a faint smile to the one he had given her when he stepped in.
Katya was standing gin the back of the elevator, on the right side, almost leaning against the wall, while Bullseye was on the left side, close to the doors.
"Where to?" he asked turning his head to look at her and the same time stretching his hand to reach the controls.
"Six," she responded loudly, seeming a bit more confident on herself and smiling at him.
"What a coincidence. That's where I'm going myself," he said, responding with a sneer to her delicate smile.
When the doors opened Bullseye hurried out and started walking rapidly down the corridor but then he suddenly stopped, realizing he should have let the woman get out first in order to see where she was going. As he was looking nervously to his left and right, trying to find a solution to his problem, he felt a hand touching softly his left shoulder.
"Are you lost?" Katya asked on a sensual tone. Bullseye raised an eyebrow questioningly, seeing the woman's flirtuous approach, but then realized this could be in his favor and hurried to say the first idea that crossed his mind. "Yeah, I have to meet someone here who's gonna sell me some .. stuff, but I don't remember which apartment it was."
His response, as well as the way he looked, made her think that he was probably there for the same reason as she was.
"I think we are both here to see the same person," she said putting her arm around his. "Come with me."
Bullseye didn't protest in any way, believing the situation could be in his favor and followed the woman to an apartment door.
"Katya Redko," she told the man who opened the door. He nodded, then looked curiously at Bullseye.
"And you?"
"I'm with her."
Katya turned and looked at Bullseye both pleased and surprised. She didn't understand why he hadn't just say his name, which probably was on the guard's list, if he was there for the same reason as she was. Nevertheless, she felt quite attracted to him and decided to play along.
"Yes, he is an old friend who's interested in buying as well."
"Fine. Come in."
Bullseye wondered what did she came there to buy but once inside he was distracted from his previous thoughts by what he saw around. Although they were in a relatively poor neighborhood, the interior was richly decorated with Chinese furniture, ornaments, patterns and prints, the dominating colors being red, orange, brown, green and black. The thing that intrigued him the most was that the windows, besides having long, thick curtains covering them almost completely, had the glass painted black, which was making it impossible for the sun to get in. He didn't pay too much attention to this, concentrating more on discovering what was Katya doing there and whom did she come to see.
Bullseye followed Katya, whose arm was still clung to his, but soon afterwards he felt one of the guard's hand on his shoulder.
"You wait here."
Bullseye gave the guard a menacing look, but decided it was best not to attack yet and just wait and see how things would go on. Without saying a word he sat down in a nearby armchair while Katya stepped forth into the next room. Then she turned left and entered another room, disappearing from Bullseye's sight, a fact that made him frown, as he couldn't see what she was doing or whom she was talking to.
Katya knew the way very well, as she had been there before a couple of times. She entered the room feeling a bit nervous and even scared, approaching slowly the man sitting at a small table, in a dark corner of the room.
"Already back for more?" the man asked.
"Please, I really need them."
"No problem, if you have the right sum ... Plus the money you owe me."
"I .. don't have it, but in two or three days I will have enough money to pay you five times the sum I owe you. Please, just one, one little pill."
The man stood up, coming out of the shadows to reveal his identity -Li Sang, the vampire Bullseye had to kill a while back. He approached her and for a while just stood there, thinking and looking at Katya with a faint, devilish smile on his face.
"You know what, I think you won't have to pay me that money any more. I'm kind of hungry at the moment and you could satisfy my needs perfectly."
Katya gasped in surprise at first but then relaxed and resigned herself. She needed those pills so badly that she was willing to sleep with Sang to get them. Unfortunately, she soon realized that he was hungry literally speaking, when he pounced upon her, with his mouth wide opened and his long, sharp canines exposed. She gave a loud cry of fear and panic when he grabbed her arms and pulled her violently towards him, intending to bite her neck.
Bullseye was startled by her scream and jumped from the armchair only to see that the two guards who had been standing near by were approaching him with an odd expression on their faces. When they were close enough Bullseye made a sudden turn and waved his cloak in front of their eyes in order to distract them. He kicked the first one away, and then turned to the other one, twisting the hand with which he was holding a gun, making him drop it, after which he punched him hard in the face. He quickly picked up the gun and shot the two men directly in the heart, their vanishing bodies proving they were vampires.
Sang was distracted by the gun shots, which gave Katya the opportunity to push his arms away and even kick him in the stomach. While he was standing up Katya intended to kick him again, this time in the head but she did it out of a self-defense instinct, because she was no fighter. Thus Sang easily anticipated her move and with his supernatural strength grabbed her leg and smashed her into the wall behind him, rendering her unconscious. Sensing someone approaching, he reached for a gun that was lying on the table but before he could grab it, a knife impaled his hand to the table.
"Oh, is that any way to treat an old friend who comes to visit?" Bullseye asked ironically from the doorway, with his head tilted to one side and his arms crossed.
"Haven't you learned anything by now, you pathetic human?" sang asked laughing, as he was reaching out to remove the knife. "We are immortals, we .. ," he stopped all of a sudden, feeling as if sulfuric acid was flowing through his veins, burning his flesh. He looked at his hand that was impaled to the table and saw a yellow-greenish substance spreading on his arm from the wound, disintegrating his flesh.
Bullseye smirked at him.
"Garlic! Hmm .. delicious. Gotta love it!"
Sang looked at him in shock, his right arm turning to dust in mere seconds. Before he could even try to figure out a way to escape, he gasped when another knife impaled into his throat. Bullseye watched with delight as the vampire's body turned to dust, as a result of the garlic essence on the tip of the blade.
Then, he noticed Katya lying unconscious on the floor nearby but didn't pay much attention to her at the moment. He remembered something else and searched some drawers for a small plastic bag in which he put a little ash from Sang's body.
Finally, he took a glass of water he found somewhere in the room and approaching Katya, he poured the content over her face.
"Wake up sweetheart."
He threw the glass away, which broke into pieces when smashing into a nearby furniture, while Katya woke up in a state of shock, coughing because of the water she had swallowed. Bullseye didn't have the patience to let her recover, so he roughly pulled her up, almost dragging her out of the room.
"Come on girl, ye gotta stand on yer feet. I can't carry ye all the way. Not my fault ye're an addict."
"I'm not an addict. There are some pills I need; they're medicine."
"Yeah, that's what all junkies say."
"What happened to Sang?" she asked, starting to come to her senses and remember everything that had happened.
"He's dead. I killed'em. There's his body," he pointed to the heap of ash on the floor. "What's left of 'em, anyway."
"Your burned him? How long was I unconscious?"
"I didn't burn'em. That's what happens to vampires when ye kill them."
"Vampires?" she asked laughing.
"Yeah, vampires," he responded irritated by her amusement. "Didn't ya scream 'cause he wanted to bite ya?"
"Yes, but that doesn't mean he's a vampire. That's absurd. Anyone can put on a pair of fake teeth and .. "
"Wait! Hold on a sec'!" Bullseye yelled all of a sudden, as if snapping back to reality from some sort of trance, not having paid attention to what she had just said. It was probably because the whole vampire business was quite new and confusing to him as well. "What the bloody hell's going on here? Why am I having this stupid conversation with ya? C'mon girl, I have work to do."
Saying that, he grabbed her left arm and pulled her violently then pushed her forward, pressing his palm against her back.
"But what about my pills?"
"You won't need them where I'm gonna take ya. Now move, I don't have all day."
He pushed her again but she turned, pushing his hand away, a thing that infuriated him and made him grab her arm again and pull her towards him. The menacing look on his face made her shake with fear but she found the courage to stand up to him.
"Who are you and what do you want with me? Are you with the police or something like that?"
"Police? Me?" Bullseye burst into laughter, letting go of her arm, but then suddenly returning to his previous, serious attitude. "No."
"Then .. " Katya began but stopped when she saw him starring at her with something that looked like a friendly smile on his face. "What?" she asked curiously.
'You'll not be a good girl and come with me nicely, will ya?"
"No," she stated, trying to hide her fear.
"Hmm .. " he muttered, tilting his head to one side, the smile on his face widening.
She just stood there looking at him confused when all of a sudden his hard fist rendered her unconscious.
When Katya woke up, she found herself in the driver's sit of her car, on a side road near the mansion where she and her brother were living at the present.
"Sleep well?' she heard a Bullseye's voice behind her, in the back sit. Turning to look at him she felt something scratching her abdomen and realized that he had bounded her to the chair with a sharp, metallic string, that he was holding tightly form either side.
"What did I do to you. I don't even know you."
"Let's make this short before I loose completely loose my patience. You've got some green stones that I want."
Katya kept silent for a few moments, taking a more serious attitude, thinking at the priceless green diamonds she and her brother had recently stolen.
"Fine. Then release me and I will bring you the diamonds."
Bullseye began to laugh.
"D'ya think I'm an idiot? No darling, I'm, coming with ya and take the stones myself. Now ya'll be a good girl, take me inside, cut the power to the electric fence and show me where ya keep the stones or else .. "
"No, please!" Katya cried out as the metallic wire cut through the first layers of her skin and a little bit of blood started dripping from the small cut.
"Get going. Now!" he ordered and then loosened a little the grip, allowing her to start the car.
Because the car had black windows, the guards at the gate didn't notice Bullseye sitting in the back, thus they had no problem getting in. Once inside, Katya didn't stop the car in front of the main entrance, but drove to the garage behind the house.
She buttoned up her jacked so that no one would notice the cut on her abdomen, and they had no problem with the few body guards who were guarding that area of the house, as they thought Bullseye to be a simple guest, a friend of Katya's.
The tow of them quickly made their way inside, heading straight to the control room. Luckily, there was no one there and Katya easily turned off the power to the electric fence as well as all the surveillance cameras, just like Bullseye had told her to. When she finished doing that she approached Bullsseye, pressing her hands against the wound on her stomach.
"You know, there was no need for you to do this. I would have given the stones to you anyway."
"Really?" he asked disbelieving. "And why would you do that? I'm a stranger to you, unless, ... you know who I am?"
"No, I don't. But I would love to."
Bullseye sneered and raised his eyebrows impressed by her boldness, after which he slowly removed the black cap he had been wearing, revealing the target shaped scar on his forehead.
"Does this mean anything to you?"
To his surprise however, the sight didn't scare or confuse her but instead made her extremely happy.
"Oh my God! You're Bullseye? The famous hit man?"
"I'm impressed baby. Most people fear me; how come you're so happy to see me?"
Katya approached him slowly and placed her hands on his chest. Bullseye frowned in surprise at her action, but didn't stop her. She was a beautiful woman and he didn't see why he couldn't take advantage of the situation and have a little fun with her, until he had to kill her, anyway.
"I've always admired you and have eagerly awaited the day when I could meet you, hopping that maybe we could .. collaborate?"
Bullseye became even more intrigued, and Katya approached him even more.
"The pay would be extremely generous. What do you say?"
"And your brother?"
"He would be your first assignment."
Bullseye was more and more impressed by Katya's behavior. He had never met someone who was that excited to have met him. He wondered if it was only one of her tricks to save her life or even lure him into a trap to kill him. But the look in her eyes and the lack of fear and enthusiasm in her voice showed the opposite. He took her small, delicate hands that were resting on his chest and kissed them.
"I'll think about it, but now I want the stones."
"Of course. Come with me then. They're in a safe, in my brother's study."
When they were approaching the door of the study, Bullseye saw two guards coming and began walking faster towards them, looking all self confident, as if he was in his own home.
"It's all right, he's a friend," Katya informed the bodyguards who were at the point of drawing out their guns.
Bullseye stopped in front of them and all of a sudden stretched his arms forward with such a quick movement that it scared the two men who thought he intended to hit them. But he just stood there with his arms stretched out, his palms raised and the usual psychopathic look on his face.
"Nothing up my sleeve, " he said beginning to wriggle around his hands, making a paperclip appear out of nowhere in each of his hand. He brought his hands together and turned the paper clips into two small, thin needles. Then he held one of them in each hand, starting to move his hands in front of the men, making them follow his every movement. Finally, when his hands were moving fast enough and the guards' attention was distracted, with a swift movement he sent the two needles flying towards their necks. The guards' lifeless bodies dropped instantly to the floor.
"Wow, the rumors are definitely true; your skills are amazing but there was no need to do that. I told you, I .. "
"The stones're in there?" Bullseye interrupted Katya, pointing towards a nearby wooden door.
"Yes."
"Any more guards inside?"
"No, just my brother. He likes to be alone. But I can bring them to you," Katya told him on a very self-confident tone, approaching him and wrapping her arms around his neck.
Bullseye smirked and grabbed her arms, turning her around and holding her tight, his chest pressed against her back.
"I'll get the stones myself, as for you and me working together, well, ye're a pretty girl, baby, .. " he whispered into her left ear, kissing her softly on the neck " ... but I've already got an employer and business .. " he paused and made a small knife appear in his right hand, " .. comes before pleasure."
Katya panicked, but didn't have time to scream or struggle because Bullseye covered her mouth with his hand and the last thing she felt was the cold blade of the knife cutting her neck.
Bullseye still held her in his arms and then dropped her gently to the floor holding her only by her right arm. When she was close to the floor he dropped her, letting go of her hand with a gesture and a facial expression that showed a slight trace of disgust. He took out one of the two roses Fisk had given him, bent down to her and traced it along her lips, chin and neck before placing it on her chest.
"Sorry babe," he said gazing at the expression on her face -her wide opened eyes showing panic and fear and her mouth almost ready to scream; Bullseye however had a mocking smile on his lips and a satisfied but also insane look in his eyes.
Half an hour later, when Dominik Redko's trustworthy man, in charge of the Redko family's protection, was informed that the electric fence and the security cameras had all been shut down, went to inform Dominik.
When he stumbled upon the corpses of Katya and the two bodyguards in front of the study he immediately informed all the guards to search for any possible intruders.
Then, he rushed into the study to see if Dominik was still alive and to his surprise he found him resting in an armchair, as if nothing had happened. He looked like he was napping: his head was tilted to the right, propped against his hand. The only thing that drew the man's attention was the red rose on Dominik's lap; he knew his boss wasn't too fond of flowers. Then he remembered the red rose he saw on Katya's corpse.
"Sir, are you all right?" he asked concerned; but there was no answer.
He approached and placed his hand on Dominik's shoulder.
"Sir?" he asked again, but when his fingers barely touched him, the man sitting in the armchair collapsed onto his own knees and the man could clearly see one of Dominik's favorite knives impaled into the right side of his neck.