"Daddy! Daddy! Do you have to work? Can't you stay here and play with me?" the little girl asked her father enthusiastically.
"Sorry sweetie." 'Daddy' known to most as David Maxwell, picked up his daughter. "Daddy has an important job tonight." The little girl frowned disappointedly. David smiled. "But I promise I'll play as soon as I get home." She lightened up at that.
"Okay Daddy." She beamed at her father.
"But right now Pumpkin," he put his daughter down "I have to go pick up your Uncle Anthony for work."
"Okay! I'll play with you when you get home Daddy." With that she turned to go play with her dolls.
"Bye sweetie!" David called over his should as he walked out the door to his car.
"Oh man! Tonight's the night I prove that promoting me wasn't a mistake!" David thought to himself. He had been assigned head guard of one of Mr. Takatori's guests.
Now David was not a dumb man. He knew that his employer had some shady dealings. He even knew that there was a special group of bodyguards hired to protect him. But he figured that he wouldn't be called for those, which was fine.
A few minutes later he arrived at Anthony's apartment. "Hey bro." He said to his brother as he climbed into the tiny Honda.
"Hey." He muttered and stared out the window. "You have to swing by Trevor's, he can't get his car to start. Angel said he'd be there too." Anthony mumbled.
David eyed his brother suspiciously, normally he was more cheerful then this. "Sure, no prob. Hey Tony… What's got you so down? Normally your more excited about a job then this."
Tony glared at him for a few minutes and then his face softened. "Sorry 'bout that Dave. It's just Jenny wants me to go with her to Thanks Giving and meet her parents…" He trailed off.
"Oh? Isn't this a good thing? Isn't this the same Jenny you seem so into?
"Well yeah… but I'm afraid that her parents won't approve of me…" he stared at his feet sadly.
"I'm sure they'll love you!" he smiled "Oh, there's Angel and Trevor on the curb."
David slowed down the car. Angel and Trevor piled into the back seat of the car.
"Hey guys!" Angel called enthusiastically as ever.
"Hey Angel." David flashed him quick smile from the rearview mirror. "What's new?"
"What's new? What's new!? Only my man Trevor here!" he ruffled Trevor's hair to empathize his point.
"Oh really?" asked Tony with genuine curiosity.
"Yup! Trevor here just gave up hi bachelor status!"
Tony smiled and turned around to look Trevor straight in the eye. "You dog you! So you finally popped the question to Katrina?" Trevor silently nodded. "Well good for you!"
David looked at Angel through the rearview. "What about you Angel? The rest of us seem to have a special someone. What about you?"
"Well…" Angel gave them a sly smile. "I'll tell you about it on the way home. 'Cause we're here."
~*Two hours later*~
David and the others were posted at several different spots. Angel and Tony had been placed at the front entrance while Trevor covered the back. Being the head of this particular security detail, David was stationed in the control room for the cameras.
"Hey, David." Angel's voice crackled over the radio. "I think I saw something moving down the hall. It's probably just a rat, but I'm going to check it out okay?"
David looked at his screens. He hadn't seen anything, but these were old cameras, they could have missed it. "Okay, but be careful." He warned.
"As always boss."
Angel walked down the corridor slowly. Even though he knew Tony was only a few feet away and he could call for backup, he still felt uneasy. He looked around nervously for a cat, a mouse, a bird, anything that would explain the shadows he'd seen. He turned suddenly hearing a loud noise from a corridor to his left. Peering down it Angel didn't see anything.
"There's nothing there. It's probably just a mouse or something." He said trying to calm himself down. It didn't work. He slowly walked down the corridor.
Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He felt along his shoulder to find out what was the cause of the pain. His fingers came across the soft end of something embedded in his shoulder. He tired to pull it out slowly, but still managed to let a gasp of pain escape him. When he finally got it out he saw it was a tiny dart with feathers on one end and a needle on the other. The needle was almost empty.
Angel guessed there had been poison in it, he was right. He felt his heartbeat slow and his limbs getting heavy. He felt a dull pain in his lungs as he tried to draw breath. Slowly he sank to the floor. The last thing he heard was footsteps running towards him.
"Angel! ANGEL! Oh my God!" Anthony had come to see what was taking him so long. He came across his friend lying sprawled out on the concert breathing raggedly.
"Angel! Hold on! I'll-" Tony felt something tighten around his neck cutting off his breathing. He struggled to get free, but whoever was holding him was strong. Kicking and clawing at the wire that was slowly closing on his neck. Tony struggled to get out of his attackers grasp. Then the flailing stopped, his desperate gasps for air slowed, the cord slackened and Tony's lifeless body feel to the ground next to his friends. His attacker put his weapon away and walked over the corpses.
"Tony! Angel! Trevor! Where are you guys!?" David cried worriedly into his radio last time he had contact with Tony and Angel that was when Tony went to go help out Angel. He hadn't been looking at Trevor's screen and when he finally checked it he saw Trevor lying face down on the pavement with a dark liquid pooling underneath him.
"Trevor!" David yelped as he saw the screen. He ran out of the control room to try and help his friend.
When he got there, there was a large pool of blood under Trevor's body. David tentatively pushed Trevor's body over to see if he could help. Once he moved the body he saw four long slash marks in his throat, still gushing blood.
David gasped at the bloody sight of his dead friend's wounds still fresh. He got up and backed away, but just as he turned and was about to run for help he heard it.
"SHI-NE!!!" he heard shouted.
He saw a redheaded figure with a dark coat running at him. Before he knew it he felt the cold steal of the figures katana embedded in his throat. The blood poured into his throat going down his trachea and into his lungs. His throat felt like it was on fire with pain and the rest of his body started to go numb. Slowly, from the blood-loss, David sank to the floor as the dark figure watched with a frown. As the last strands of his life strayed from his body, David's last thoughts went to his daughter. "Sorry sweetie, I can't play now." Was his last thought before he died.
The redheaded figure frowned at the mans slow death. He must have miscalculated the pressure on his katana. He shrugged to himself and called into his microphone.
"Siberian, Balinese, Bombay. Perimeter cleared, close in on main target."
He quickly wiped his sword on the dead mans clothes and headed to finish the mission…