AN: Jett and Faye show up in this chapter. I hope you like. I have a lot of prewritten material on this story, so I'm going to try pacing my release of the chapters. Again, I don't own Cowboy Bebop. I do own Liam, Thakur, and Mike.

***

"Wow, an interview with the Boss… Damn Liam, I've been in Red Dragon for ten years and I still haven't met the Boss yet. How d'you do it?" Mike wondered. Liam leaned against the wall outside of the elevator and shrugged.

"I dunno," he replied, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his black suit jacket. He took one cigarette out and placed it between his lips. "I guess I'm just talented…" he murmured, trying not to let the cigarette fall out of his mouth while he searched for a lighter. Mike pulled one out of his pocket and held the flame out for Liam. Liam leaned forward and breathed in deeply.

"Thanks," he said to Mike, taking the cigarette out of his mouth and blowing the smoke into the air.

"No problem…" Mike smiled. "Yeah, I guess you are talented. I sure as hell didn't teach you how to move like that." Liam smirked and took another drag of the cigarette just as the elevator doors opened.

"Genetics a bitch, ain't it?" Liam winked at Mike and stepped onto the elevator. He hit the button for the 124th floor and leaned against the back of the elevator.

"Yeah, probably," Mike called through the closing doors. Liam took another long drag from his cigarette and sighed. He certainly didn't deserve the job he knew was coming, Mike did. Mike had been with the Syndicate much longer, and Mike was a team player. Liam closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He'd always been a loner, never played nicely with the other children; except Mike, but Mike had been the guy that had taken him in. Kinda like an older brother or something. He was probably only getting jobs like this because of his dad anyway.

The elevator finally came to a stop and the door slid open. Liam stepped off of the elevator to find himself in an immense hallway. There were four large men at the end of the hallway, next to a set of double doors. Liam stuck his hands in his pockets and walked toward them.

"Liam Arkwright?" one of the men asked, stepping forward. Liam nodded. "Your gun," the man said, holding out his hand. Liam narrowed his eyes.

"…No," Liam replied, staring over the edge of his sunglasses at the man. The other guards stiffened their postures, they didn't want to fight with the kid; they'd heard stories about how good he was.

"Excuse me?" the man inquired. He gave Liam a look that said, Don't fuck with me kid.

"You didn't ask nicely…" Liam replied.

"Why you little…" the larger man growled and swung at Liam, who easily moved out of the way. He stuck his leg out and watched as the man tripped and hit the floor.

"You were saying?" Liam said, nonchalantly. Another guard came forward.

"Could you please leave your gun here, Mr. Arkwright?" the second man asked. Liam pushed his sunglasses up and shrugged.

"Sure," he replied and relinquished his weapon to the second guard.

"And your other gun?"

"I only carry one."

"Sir, it's very important that you give us all your weapons," the man insisted.

"…I only have one," Liam said slowly, emphasising each word.

"It's standard procedure for all employees to have two weapons, Mr. Arkwright."

"Yes, I know it's standard procedure, but I only carry one," Liam replied, pursing his lips. The man swallowed nervously and nodded. The doors opened and Liam stepped inside. It was the penthouse at the top of the Red Dragon building. Everyone who had ever gone in that room hadn't come back out again as the same person. It was a pretty famous room in the syndicate. Supposedly, about ten years ago, two members of Red Dragon had it out here and destroyed the whole original room as well as killing each other. Liam hated hearing that story over and over again, because everyone always made a point to stare at him while they told it. He walked slowly into the room and stuck his hands in his pockets again. The desk in front of him wasn't large, but the rest of the room was well furnished. Liam leaned against a pillar and waited. The chair behind the desk slowly spun around to face Liam. In it, was an older man, who looked rather distinguished; this was Reeve Thakur, the man in charge of Red Dragon's business and security issues. He smiled at Liam and folded his hands on the desk.

"Liam Arkwright. It's a pleasure to finally meet you," Thakur said. Liam took another drag from his cigarette and stayed silent. "I'm sure you're wondering why I asked for you…"

"Not really," Liam replied.

"Hmm?"

"…You have a job for me."

Thakur chuckled. "I had forgotten how quickly secrets spread through this building… Yes, we would like to use your talents."

"…Who's the mark?" Liam said, dropping the cigarette on the floor and stepping on it. Thakur watched him quietly and narrowed his eyes.

"You get right down to business, don't you?" Liam leaned over and picked up the cigarette stub and slipped it in his pocket. Thakur pushed a button on his desk, and the screen behind him lit up, showing a photo. "This is Jett Black. He's forty-seven years old, a former ISSP agent and a former bounty hunter. A few years back, he and his partner caught a rather sizeable bounty and invested it. They now own The Blues Café, downtown. It's a casino and night-club in one. He is your first target." Liam studied the man's face for a while. "This is your second target, his partner, Faye Valentine," Thakur continued, another photo was shown. "Not much is known about her past, we're guessing that she's about thirty-two years old."

"Why are they marked?"

"Does it matter?"

"…Not really."

"Let's just say their eyes are too sharp and their mouths are too big, shall we?" Liam nodded. "Your final target is very elusive. A hacker, called 'Ed', has been poking around in our files, looking for info on these two people, as well as a few others. The hacker then, after he had gotten all the info he needed, sent us a little present that wiped about a quarter of our databanks. This hacker has been traced to Earth, but it seems that he jumped the first flight out to Mars, so you'll need to do some hunting on this one." Thakur placed a disc on his desk. "This is all the info on them you'll need, habits, likes and dislikes, favourite hangouts, vices, etc… We'd like this to look like an accident if possible."

"Fine."

"Good. Welcome to the top floor, Mr. Arkwright…."

***

"Okay, Jett, thanks for the info…. Hey, you and Faye might want to take a vacation or something, just get away for a while."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Jett asked the face on the screen.

"They know."

"Who?"

"Red Dragon… They know you've been informing to ISSP. I think this is a great time to take a looooong vacation."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Jett, don't be an idiot, think of Faye-" the screen went black. Jett sat back and sighed. Faye was downstairs in the club, rubbing elbows with bigwigs, and flirting. He heard a loud click of a safety being flipped off.

"Nice joke, Faye, but I'm not gonna give you more money just cos you have a gun. You tried that already, remember?" Jett said, smiling. He turned in the direction of the noise and saw a tall, thin man standing there with a large gun pointed at his head.

"I'm not Faye," he said in a soft, slightly accented voice. Jett stared at him, taking in the details. He was wearing a black suit and tie, typical to the Red Dragon employees, and a pair of sunglasses. Jett could see a long, ragged scar down the right side of his face, but what really attracted Jett's attention was the green, shaggy hair, and the long, thin structure of his face.

"…Spike?" Jett whispered, his eyes growing wider. The man winced involuntarily at the calling of that name and cocked the gun.

"Name's not Spike, Mr. Black. Can you put your hands where I can see them?" Jett raised his hands a little so that the man could see he didn't have any weapons. "Good, now where's your partner?" the man asked. Jett shrugged casually and glanced behind the guy at Faye, who had just entered the room. She had her gun drawn and pointed at the intruder. The man noticed Jett's sudden change of attention and ducked just as Faye pulled the trigger of her gun. Jett quickly grabbed his own gun out from under the seat cushion and pointed it at the intruder who was on the ground. He had his gun pointed at Faye.

"We've got you outnumbered mister…" Faye said, her lip curling up a little at the corner.

"I've dealt with worse odds," he replied. Faye gasped slightly as she got a better look at him.

"Spike!" she exclaimed, lowering her gun barrel, just a fraction. The man took advantage of her surprise and swung his legs around, tripping her. He grabbed her gun, and pointed it at her head. He pointed the other one at Jett.

"I don't know what's with you two, but I'm not Spike," he replied, seemingly irritated. "Now, please, just die quietly so I can go home?" He cocked the gun next to Faye's head. She grit her teeth and closed her eyes, waiting for him to pull the trigger. She jumped at the sound of two gunshots and gasped.

The pain never came. Faye opened her eyes slowly and saw Jett leaning over the intruder, whose shoulder was bleeding pretty badly. Jett's arm was sparking a little; the bullet had missed hitting anything organic. Faye stared at the unconscious man's face while Jett opened his shirt to get to the wound.

"…Jett…" she whispered as he covered the wound with a cloth and picked the man up.

"I know… I have a feeling I'm going to regret not killing him…"