CHAPTER ONE

Merc dropped down through the hatch into his hideout. It really was a dark dank little room… The computer equipment took up a corner of the room, several different screens flashed different satellite views and radio signals. In another corner sat a table. The remains of food; noodle boxes and pizza cartons, were all over it and three chairs sat around it. In yet another corner was a bed. Hardly ever did he and Faith go to bed at the same time. Kate dropped down behind him.

"So this is where Faith lives? It's a bit of a dump," said Kate looking around the room.

"It may be a dump, but it's been my home for years and I've never had a problem with it," said Merc looking slightly hurt.

"Oh I'm sorry. Its very, er…" said Kate.

"Never mind, its okay," said Merc, waving a hand dismissively. "Make yourself at home. Take a seat, your welcome to whatever is left of that pizza." Kate opened the lid of the pizza box and decided that the flies buzzing around it looked more appetising than the pizza itself.

"Ill be alright I think," she said, lowering the lid on the pizza box again, slowly, so as not to wake it up.

"So… you're a runner? Sorry if I've ever shot at you or anything." said Kate awkwardly. "You know, just business and all that."

"Likewise, sorry if I've ever, you know, kicked any of your friends in the head or thrown them off rooftops or anything," shrugged Merc. There was a nice hefty long akward silence. Thankfully this was broken by Jacknife and half a swat team poured down through the trap door.

"What the fuck are you doing Jacknife?" yelled Merc.

"Sorry Merc, this side pays better." Said Jacknife smiling and pulling out a gun. He levelled it at Merc.

"Don't try any of your ninja shit. If that gun even comes close to leaving its holster, Kate will be eating lead in seconds." Jacknife smiled. Two of the five swat men grabbed Kate and started leading her to the trap door.

"Get her out of here and back to the spire. You three, deal with this piece of running trash." Jacknife turned and followed Kate and her captors out of the hideout. Merc lashed out with a brutal high roundhouse which caught one of the swat guys on the jaw, breaking it, knocking him out and sending him spinning to the floor. Merc pulled out his gun and shot the second. The third squeezed off a burst from his sub machine gun. Bullets ripped up Merc's leg and side. He dropped his gun and fell backwards. The swat man approached for the kill. Merc felt around beside him till his hand wrapped around something heavy. He swung it up and lobbed it at the swatman. While the bottle shattered on the swatmans shoulder pad, Merc darted forwards across the floor and tackled his legs from beneath him. Merc rolled on top of the swatman and sent a straight nose-breaker at him. Helmet or no helmet, the swatman was knocked out. Merc got up, blood running down his side and climbed out the hatch. Jacknife's boot hit him in the face. Merc caught sight of the swatmen throwing a kicking screaming Kate in to the back of a van before he dropped back down into the hideout.

Jacknife dropped on top of him. Merc looked up at Jacknife through bloodshot dulling eyes.

"You are a piece of scum, you know that Jacknife?" he groaned.

"Oh, you cut me really deep that time Merc." Jacknife feigned injury and clutched his chest sarcastically. Jacknife dragged the barely conscious Merc over to the computer table and smashed him onto it, sending monitors and sparks everywhere. He threw Merc to the floor again and smashed one of the hard-drives on him. Merc tried to punch Jacknife, but he was weak from blood-loss so it was sloppy. Jacknife pulled out a gun and pointed it at Merc.

"I would say some sort of cool last line, but this isn't Hollywood and nobody is even around to hear it." Jacknife pulled the trigger a few times before dropping the gun and walking back across the room to the hatch.

Merc didn't know how much time had passed, but he knew that Jacknife was gone, Kate was being taken away, and that if Faith didn't hurry up he was probably going to die without seeing another friendly face. Merc didn't like to consider himself as a sentimental man, but it would be nice if he saw her again. Just one last time before the 20 or so bullets in his body did their job. It had been a struggle, but somehow, Merc had managed to pick up Jacknife's gun, drag himself to a corner and barricade himself behind a table. In hindsight it wasn't such a good idea, what if Faith came and he was still back here alive but to weak to call out and she left and he never got to tell her where her sister was. That would be bad all around. Merc thought he heard someone drop into the room. Did he really hear it or was it just his imagination? No, it was a person. They were walking around. Merc coughed experimentally.

"Oh god no." said Faiths voice. Then the table was ripped away and light flooded in. there was Faith. There was a brief conversation and then he died. Had he told her what he needed to? He couldn't remember. He couldn't even remember why it was important. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered…