And here's chapter one! (drum roll please)

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One

When I opened my PO box, all I expected to find was a few envelopes containing bills and some ads. People didn't really write to me. Oh, yeah, I found those bills I was oh-so-happy to have, but I found something else there, too.

If I never see another yellow envelope in my mailbox again, that would be too soon. Of course I didn't realize I hated those types of envelopes then. I simply pulled it out with the rest of the mail and went outside. That was where I took a closer look at it. It was addressed to me, Sven Vollfied, but there was no return address. The handwriting my name was in seemed familiar, so I pocketed the rest of the mail, lit up a cigarette, and opened the envelope. From it I drew a sheaf of paper with a scrawled letter:

Hey there, gentleman!

I hope you're doing well, though I'm afraid if you're reading this, things might get a bit interesting. Hopefully they won't suspect I mailed this to you, since the last time I saw you was at Lloyd's funeral, two years back.

Anyway, I'm in a bit of trouble. I won't go in to detail because there's still the possibility that you won't be bothered, and it's not safe to write it down anyway.

So, with that said, I need to press the importance of the contents of the envelope. Do not let anyone know you have this, and do NOT, I repeat, do NOT let anyone take it. It's a matter of life and death. It sounds dramatic, but for once I'm serious.

Don't let the bad guys get you!

Love and peace,

Chaos

P.S. Meet on March 21st. Doesn't matter where; I'll find you. Good luck. I have the sneaking suspicion you'll need it.

I stared at the note a while longer. The hell? I wasn't quite sure what to be pissed off about, and decided on all of the above. She was being presumptuous, she was putting me in a dangerous situation without telling me what was going on, she casually brought up the death of my partner and best friend, and she was being her usual annoying self. Why she was contacting me after all these years, I had no idea.

Once I finished fuming, I checked the note again. The 21st was three days from now. Who were these people I should be worried about? Then the most obvious question occurred to me, one that should've come to mind the second I finished the note. What was in the envelope?

A world of trouble, if I know her, I thought sullenly, reaching once more into the envelope. When I withdrew my hand, in it was a disk in a clear case. It had no markings to tell what it was or what it contained, and I could only assume it was important. Judging from Chaos' note, so important some would kill for it.

I quickly slid the disk and the letter into the inside pocket of my jacket and tossed the envelope into a nearby trashcan. Deciding to check out some bounties at Annette's café, I began to make my way down the street.

"What's the matter, Sven? You look troubled."

I looked up from the flyer I was reading for the third time. I would look it over, only to find I hadn't read a single word on it. Even the price of the guy's bounty kept falling right out of my head. "It's nothing."

Annette snorted.

I couldn't tell her. Even if Chaos hadn't wrote it, that was just common sense. The disk was obviously trouble in a clear plastic case. If I told Annette about it, that would just put her in danger. So I faked a yawn. "I guess I'm just tired."

She knew I was faking, but decided to let it slide. "Maybe you should go get some rest, then. Don't go after a bounty. If you're not completely with it, you'll get yourself killed."

I sighed and picked up the cup of coffee on the counter next to me. "I suppose that's true."

Annette just shook her head, wiping out a glass.

I finished my coffee quickly and left the payment on the counter. When I left the café, it was around nine in the morning. The moment of peace I had as I paused outside the door was my last.

I hadn't walked a hundred yards down the road when an official-looking man in a black suit and dark sunglasses stepped into my path.

"Mr. Vollfied?" he asked.

I took a wary step back. "Who wants to know?"

Whenever someone replies like that, it's obvious they're the person in question. So the man continued. "Did you receive a disk from a certain person named Chaos this morning?"

I refrained myself from answering with another 'wh-' question. "I haven't checked my mail yet."

The man regarded me for a moment, then said, "Well, if you have, please call this number. Believe me," he continued with sickening sincerity. "It's for the greater good." He turned and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me holding a card with nothing but a phone number on it.

"It's for the greater good," I mimicked. "Yeah, right." But I knew that excuse would only hold them off for a while. They could easily find my post-office box and open it up. Once they did that, they would instantly realize that I had indeed checked my mail.

Then they would know I had the disk, whatever it was.

I resisted the urge to pull it out and look at it again. Doing that would probably just get me shot; I had no doubt they were watching me.

I shook my head. Look at yourself, I thought ruefully. You're acting like you understand what's happening.

Sighing, I reached into my pocket for another cigarette, only to find an empty carton. I peered into it to see if there was one last one before resigning myself to a trip to the liquor store. This looked like it was going to be a hectic three days, and I didn't want to go through a hectic three days without a pack of smokes. Besides, Chaos never let me smoke around her. So whenever she swung by, not only was I put in life threatening situations, but I was going through withdrawal, too. Damn her. Might as well get something to deal with that as well when I went to get another carton.

The lady behind the counter gave me a weird look when I made my purchase, but it didn't matter what she thought. My life was going to get weirder.

I stepped back out onto the street. Almost immediately, there was a click and something hard and cold was pressed against my temple. "Mr. Vollfied."

It wasn't a question this time. The guy from earlier sounded pretty ticked. "You work pretty fast," I commented.

"The disk, Mr. Vollfied."

"And if I say no?"

"We take it from your dead body."

Yikes. That didn't sound too good. "Can I think about it?"

"No."

"Oh. You aren't leaving much of a choice, are you?" My mind was racing, calculating possibilities. If I could get him to point his gun away from me for even one second…

Huh?

This wasn't making sense. It was broad daylight on a crowded street, there was a guy holding a gun to my head, and no one seemed to notice. I mean, you start waving a gun around in public and people are bound to realize something's going on. So then why was I apparently the only one aware of this?

I slid my eye over. There he was, clear as crystal.

I moved my hand towards the gun.

He pulled the trigger.