Disclaimer: I do not own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.

"I give it a 50/50 shot. 40/60 if she can hold her breath."

Both men chuckled.

So far the office building they were watching was dark and quiet, no sign of any tripped alarms. But everyone knew the building's owner had spent a fortune on security measurements. The girl's chances of making it to the office with the safe were slim, let alone her chances of actually cracking it and getting out again.

They weren't hired to help her, should anything go wrong. Quite the contrary, actually – should cops show up they were to feed her to the wolves. The only reason they were there at all was to make sure she was actually going into the building and not trying to hightail it. This was a kamikaze operation and it was intended to be.

Ames closed her eyes. It wasn't only that the air duct was dusty and full of dead cockroaches, no, now a rat had shown up, too. Oh great. "Kshh…", she whispered. "Go away." The animal stared at her for a moment with impassive black eyes, then scuttled off.

The day was looking up.

It was her own fault. This was what you got when you tried double-crossing Eduardo Castillo. This whole "break into the building, crack the safe, get the documents"-thing was meant as punishment. Should she get the documents, fine, but shouldn't she Eduardo would be just as happy.

Holding her breath, Ames managed to squeeze herself through the air vent and lowered herself to the ground, carefully avoiding the sensors hidden in the floor.

There it was, the safe. A different model than she had expected, of course. Thank God for once she had thought this through and prepared for a variety of types. She began to work.

Fifteen minutes later the safe made a soft swishing sound as it swung open. One of the best feelings in the world, better than… ah well, at least sometimes.

Just as fast as the other ecstasy, however, it died down again, left her with an empty, hungry feeling.

She made it out of the building, handed over the documents, was off the hook, for now. But for how long? She knew herself well enough to know she'd get herself into trouble again, sooner or later, most likely sooner than later.

Sometimes she felt like she was suffocating.

Ames decided to hit the bars hard tonight. The small part of her that was still a little girl still hoped for some white knight in shining armor to come and rescue her but the bigger part of her that had grown up way too soon knew that was a ridiculous idea. She was trapped. No way out.

Last time things had gone really wrong Brody had stepped up for her, who'd be there next time?

God, she missed him.

And the feeling of guilt that turned her stomach upside down didn't make things better either.

Her telephone rang. Fat Tony with a new job. Could she lift a ring off some billionaire during a charity event and replace it? At first Ames wanted to decline, but the pay was good.

So here she went again. Another job, another round in the hamster wheel.

Yep, she was trapped. For good.