Chapter 2: Rules of the Game (see Ch1 for all disclaimers)
The Thin Man, Anthony, sat down crossed his legs and lit a cigarette. This would be the first job he had since he had nearly died a little over a year before. He badly needed the money that it would bring him should the man, known simply as "Chief", hire him. He had been training, working to get his body back into before injury condition for the last eight months. Before that he had nothing but bed rest thanks to the sword puncture that nicked the pleural sack of his right lung. Anything even as strenuous as walking to the bathroom had exhausted him but he seemed to be back to his old self with only occasional difficulties; but those he ignored.
When he answered the internet advertisement for a professional killer he had expect to have an interview like with every other job he had as an assassin. This time a lackey of his prospective employer told him that there was no interview, Chief didn't care to hear what he could do but he wanted to see it. When he had responded to the email he asked what they meant. Their reply took him quite aback, they were having a competition and the last two standing would be hired. For a moment he had hesitated after reading it. Who wouldn't have? He had one thing on his opponents though; he knew they would underestimate him. They always did.
He heard his computer happily chime, "You have mail." He sat down at the computer and looked at what he was sent. Most of it was spam for Viagra and home mortgages but he had one with the subject, "Rules of Conduct" sent from the re-mailer "Chief" used. It was a short e-mail all the jest of which was anything goes and no killing of the opponents. It made him feel better to know that even if he somehow failed the competition he would still be walking away with his life. At the bottom of the mail was a list with the names of the people he would be competing against. Many of the names he had heard before but a few were new to him and that didn't come as a surprise there always seemed to be young men of few morals who thought the life of an assassin would be glamorous. What did surprise him was the late entry of a Lucrezia Danress. Female hired killers while heard of were often the tigresses of the killing world preferring the hunt alone and would normally shun a competition like the one Chief was holding. "Oh well," he thought. "At least it will keep things interesting."
*-*-*-*-*
"She couldn't have just quit," said Natalie looking over at the Asian angel in the passenger seat. "She couldn't have and not telling us? That isn't like Dylan at all."
Alex adjusted her Ray-ban sunglasses. "I know, she didn't even return my black suede Manolo Blahnik boots or the Metallica CD of Jason's she borrowed. That isn't like her, but do you think Charlie is lying? It isn't like Charlie to lie to us." Natalie hit the brakes and made a u-turn in the middle of a busy intersection. Around them other vehicles hit their brakes to keep from running into the two young women in the black sports car. "Where are you going," asked Alex looking at her watch, "We have to be at Catherine Hardy's at four o'clock."
"We are going by Dylan's. Charlie didn't say anything about not stopping by. He just said we shouldn't call her," said Natalie with a sly gleam in her eye.
"You're right he didn't. You can be really sneaky sometimes Nat." With a whoop they roared down the road. Ten minutes later they parked the car in front of Dylan's old apartment building and walked up the walk and rang the bell like they had hundreds of times before and like those times before the bell was once again out of service. Just then old Mr. Johnson, Dylan's downstairs neighbor from 5B came out with his beagle.
"Hello girls," he said the dog tugging anxiously at the leash.
"Hello Mr. Johnson," they said in unison.
"Going up to see your little friend?"
"Uh-huh," said Alex grabbing the door before it closed.
"Seems she must have a new roommate, I saw a girl about your height," he pointed at Natalie, with curly brown hair moving in earlier. Seemed like a right nice little lady. Funny name though." He scratched his head trying to remember. "Can't seem to remember it. I suppose you already know it though. I better get Barney here for a walk before he does his business on the side walk."
"Bye Mr. Johnson," said Natalie watching the old man take his dog to the park across the street. "Dylan has a roommate?"
"That can't be," said Alex. "Dylan loves her privacy and with as messy as she is I don't know who would want to live with her." Natalie flashed her a look that said "Be nice."
"You know I love Dylan but she wouldn't be the easiest person to live with." They walked up the stairs to the second floor and down the hall to apartment 10B. Alex knocked on the door. There was no answer.
"I didn't see her car out front maybe she isn't home," said Nat with a shrug.
Alex knocked again a bit louder, "Maybe but I hear music inside." Just then the door opened and the young woman that old Mr. Johnson described stood there.
"What do you want," she asked nastily.
Natalie smiled her thousand watt smile and said, "Hi, we are looking for Dylan is she home?"
"Dylan who? Jeff," she called to someone they couldn't see. "Do you know a Dylan?"
"No. Who's at the door babe," call a man, presumably Jeff back to her.
"We don't know a Dylan," said the young woman trying to shut the door but Alex was quicker and inserted her foot. "Dylan Sanders she lives here. About five foot five, red hair, green eyes. Sound familiar?"
"Actually she doesn't. I moved in just a few hours ago and I am renting this place from a woman with black hair, rather gothic looking, what was her name?" The woman scratched her head much the same way Mr. Johnson had done a few minutes earlier. "Jeff do you remember the woman's name who gave us the key yesterday?"
Jeff then emerged wearing nothing more than a towel around his waist. Natalie eyed him appreciatively. "What," he asked his girlfriend.
"The woman who gave us the key, you know the one you said reminded you of Morticia with a page boy cut, what was her name?" The couple looked at each other then Jeff snapped his fingers, "I've got it. Lucinda."
"Lucinda? No, it was something else similar," said his girlfriend. "Lucille? No, wait it was Lucrezia. I don't remember her last name though but it wasn't your friend Dylan. Are you two sure you have the right place?"
Natalie and Alex looked at each other. "Pretty sure. And your name was," asked Alex.
"Oh I'm Alantra. Just Alantra. You can't have more than one name if you want to be a star."
"Thanks Alantra," said Alex grabbing Natalie's arm and leading her down the stairs. Once they got back to the car she said, "I feel like I just stepped into the twilight zone. Why was it that only Mr. Johnson made sense? If it wasn't for him I would have sworn that Dylan never lived there, just Hyundai girl."
"Lucrezia? Strange," was all Natalie said a thought tugging at the back of her mind like the beagle did on the leash. "I still want to know what happened to Dylan and what Charlie isn't telling us. Do you think Bosley knows anything?"
"I doubt he knows any more than we do Nat. Let's hurry up, make our meeting with Mrs. Hardy and then we can worry some more about Dylan. The two angels got in the car and sped away.
*-*-*-*
Dylan arrived at her new apartment late in the afternoon. She wished she had an excuse to go back to her old place but she dropped off the key with the new tenant the day before.. She opened the door and went it. It wasn't her at all but she had to admit it was nice, much nicer than what she had just left. "Hello Dylan," said a voice from the living room. She turned and saw a man not much older than herself sitting on the white leather sofa. He wore a grey Armani suit that looked too big for him and she found herself comparing him to Anthony. Since the night of the ME2 Premiere she often found herself comparing men in suits to him. "I'm Agent Mitchum," he said coming towards her and holding out his hand. She didn't shake it so he put it self-consciously into his pocket. "I am glad you decided to help with this assignment. Charlie highly recommended you."
"Charlie is a great boss," she said looking at the man in front of her.
"Well," he began awkwardly, "Here is your new ID; driver's license and passport. You are now known as Lucrezia Danress. Your history is in the folder on the coffee table. You might want to look it over and memorize it. These men you are going up against won't go easy on you if they learn you aren't who you say you are."
Dylan stood there not saying anything. She was a bit angry that she couldn't tell her friends what she was doing and she missed her car; it might not have been the nicest or newest in the world but it was her baby.
"I still think you would be better off dying your hair. If that wig falls off, I don't want you to have any problems."
"I won't," she said.
"Good you do talk. Well Chief, he is the man you will be working for, has a stable of assassins. He is looking for two special ones for a client of his. This wasn't a problem before so we thought we found out what he was looking for in candidates but he threw us for a loop."
Dylan sat on the couch her feet curled up under her, boots still on. "My God no," yelled Mitchum. Dylan quickly stood and got into defensive position. "No feet on the couch. If you can help it don't even sit on it. Everything here is for show purposes only." Dylan relaxed and looked at the man in front of her and lost her temper.
"Listen, I don't mind doing this for Charlie; he has been a father to me, but if you expect me to give up my name, my friends, my apartment, my car and my hair color I'll sit on the damn couch if I want to and how I want to." She sat back down and laid on the full length of the couch, feet up.
Mitchum glared at her. "I don't have time for you to be a brat."
"Sounds to me like you have no choice so what was the loop that Chief has thrown at you?"
"There is a competition. We have another person who will be competing too just in case you don't make it. You aren't to take him out. If you have to take a fall for him to get in to Chief's organization do it."
"So you are saying you want me to take a fall for your guy," asked Dylan exasperated. "Why is it because I am a woman?"
Mitchum eyed the petite woman in front of him wearing the page boy cut black wig. "Partially yes," he said and Dylan crossed her arms and made an 'hmmmp' noise. "And partially because this man is FBI. You'll be able to identify him from his eye patch and crooked nose. The crooked nose is real by the way, but we do have a good makeup artist making him look tougher. Anyone in this competition has to be tough."
"I'll do just fine."
"I hope so. I don't like the idea of sending a little girl in there," said Mitchum. Dylan was really starting to hate the agent. It was all she could do not to show him what a 'little girl' could do. "You are signed up already. You need to show up at this address tomorrow evening," he said handing her a piece of paper. "Don't lose it. That paper is your invitation you show up without it you aren't getting in. Good luck. I'll show myself the way out Lucrezia." With that he left her standing in the middle of her new temporary home.
She unfolded the piece of paper. It was an e-mail someone, probably Mitchum, had printed. It simply read, "Date: September 23, 2004 Time: midnight Place: 2020 West Moreland Avenue. Dock 12, Warehouse 3." Tomorrow night she was going to the commercial port and she wondered why bad guys such as her ex-boyfriend O'Grady and this Chief liked places like that.
Dylan sat back down on the white leather sofa as the phone rang. "Damn! Where is the phone in this place?" She found it on the fourth ring hidden in the kitchen looking like a state of the art appliance that bore little resemblance to a telephone.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hey Lucy," said the voice on the other end. It was Bosley. "How's it goin' girl?"
"Hey Bos," she said feeling tears well up in her eyes. It hadn't even been a day yet and she missed him and the angels. "It sucks."
"That bad? I could talk to Charlie."
"No, don't. It would only make that prick Agent Mitchum, think that I can't do this job."
"Did he say that? Maybe I'll have to give him a good talking to. Tell him he can't treat my Dylan that way."
Dylan laughed. It was nice knowing that Bosley was there for her. "Don't worry Bosley; I can take care of him and anything he throws my way. How are Alex and Nat?"
"Worried about you. Charlie told them today that you quit and didn't want to be contacted. They took it bad."
"I figured they would," said Dylan jumping up and sitting on the kitchen counter. As she did so she thought, "Take that Mitchum."
"If you need anything let me know 'kay," he said sounding concerned.
"Just my old life. It was hard enough going from Helen Zaas to Dylan Sanders but now Dylan Sanders to Lucrezia Danress. I liked Dylan, I don't even know who Lucrezia is," said Dylan tears flowing freely now.
Bosley shushed her and said, "She is you. Don't you forget that and when you go back to being Dylan again we will all be here waiting for you."
That made Dylan smile. "I love you Bosley," she said sniffing away the last of her tears.
"Love you little sister," he said then hung up. Dylan did too then decided to explore and get herself acquainted with Lucrezia "Lucy" Darness' life.
The Thin Man, Anthony, sat down crossed his legs and lit a cigarette. This would be the first job he had since he had nearly died a little over a year before. He badly needed the money that it would bring him should the man, known simply as "Chief", hire him. He had been training, working to get his body back into before injury condition for the last eight months. Before that he had nothing but bed rest thanks to the sword puncture that nicked the pleural sack of his right lung. Anything even as strenuous as walking to the bathroom had exhausted him but he seemed to be back to his old self with only occasional difficulties; but those he ignored.
When he answered the internet advertisement for a professional killer he had expect to have an interview like with every other job he had as an assassin. This time a lackey of his prospective employer told him that there was no interview, Chief didn't care to hear what he could do but he wanted to see it. When he had responded to the email he asked what they meant. Their reply took him quite aback, they were having a competition and the last two standing would be hired. For a moment he had hesitated after reading it. Who wouldn't have? He had one thing on his opponents though; he knew they would underestimate him. They always did.
He heard his computer happily chime, "You have mail." He sat down at the computer and looked at what he was sent. Most of it was spam for Viagra and home mortgages but he had one with the subject, "Rules of Conduct" sent from the re-mailer "Chief" used. It was a short e-mail all the jest of which was anything goes and no killing of the opponents. It made him feel better to know that even if he somehow failed the competition he would still be walking away with his life. At the bottom of the mail was a list with the names of the people he would be competing against. Many of the names he had heard before but a few were new to him and that didn't come as a surprise there always seemed to be young men of few morals who thought the life of an assassin would be glamorous. What did surprise him was the late entry of a Lucrezia Danress. Female hired killers while heard of were often the tigresses of the killing world preferring the hunt alone and would normally shun a competition like the one Chief was holding. "Oh well," he thought. "At least it will keep things interesting."
*-*-*-*-*
"She couldn't have just quit," said Natalie looking over at the Asian angel in the passenger seat. "She couldn't have and not telling us? That isn't like Dylan at all."
Alex adjusted her Ray-ban sunglasses. "I know, she didn't even return my black suede Manolo Blahnik boots or the Metallica CD of Jason's she borrowed. That isn't like her, but do you think Charlie is lying? It isn't like Charlie to lie to us." Natalie hit the brakes and made a u-turn in the middle of a busy intersection. Around them other vehicles hit their brakes to keep from running into the two young women in the black sports car. "Where are you going," asked Alex looking at her watch, "We have to be at Catherine Hardy's at four o'clock."
"We are going by Dylan's. Charlie didn't say anything about not stopping by. He just said we shouldn't call her," said Natalie with a sly gleam in her eye.
"You're right he didn't. You can be really sneaky sometimes Nat." With a whoop they roared down the road. Ten minutes later they parked the car in front of Dylan's old apartment building and walked up the walk and rang the bell like they had hundreds of times before and like those times before the bell was once again out of service. Just then old Mr. Johnson, Dylan's downstairs neighbor from 5B came out with his beagle.
"Hello girls," he said the dog tugging anxiously at the leash.
"Hello Mr. Johnson," they said in unison.
"Going up to see your little friend?"
"Uh-huh," said Alex grabbing the door before it closed.
"Seems she must have a new roommate, I saw a girl about your height," he pointed at Natalie, with curly brown hair moving in earlier. Seemed like a right nice little lady. Funny name though." He scratched his head trying to remember. "Can't seem to remember it. I suppose you already know it though. I better get Barney here for a walk before he does his business on the side walk."
"Bye Mr. Johnson," said Natalie watching the old man take his dog to the park across the street. "Dylan has a roommate?"
"That can't be," said Alex. "Dylan loves her privacy and with as messy as she is I don't know who would want to live with her." Natalie flashed her a look that said "Be nice."
"You know I love Dylan but she wouldn't be the easiest person to live with." They walked up the stairs to the second floor and down the hall to apartment 10B. Alex knocked on the door. There was no answer.
"I didn't see her car out front maybe she isn't home," said Nat with a shrug.
Alex knocked again a bit louder, "Maybe but I hear music inside." Just then the door opened and the young woman that old Mr. Johnson described stood there.
"What do you want," she asked nastily.
Natalie smiled her thousand watt smile and said, "Hi, we are looking for Dylan is she home?"
"Dylan who? Jeff," she called to someone they couldn't see. "Do you know a Dylan?"
"No. Who's at the door babe," call a man, presumably Jeff back to her.
"We don't know a Dylan," said the young woman trying to shut the door but Alex was quicker and inserted her foot. "Dylan Sanders she lives here. About five foot five, red hair, green eyes. Sound familiar?"
"Actually she doesn't. I moved in just a few hours ago and I am renting this place from a woman with black hair, rather gothic looking, what was her name?" The woman scratched her head much the same way Mr. Johnson had done a few minutes earlier. "Jeff do you remember the woman's name who gave us the key yesterday?"
Jeff then emerged wearing nothing more than a towel around his waist. Natalie eyed him appreciatively. "What," he asked his girlfriend.
"The woman who gave us the key, you know the one you said reminded you of Morticia with a page boy cut, what was her name?" The couple looked at each other then Jeff snapped his fingers, "I've got it. Lucinda."
"Lucinda? No, it was something else similar," said his girlfriend. "Lucille? No, wait it was Lucrezia. I don't remember her last name though but it wasn't your friend Dylan. Are you two sure you have the right place?"
Natalie and Alex looked at each other. "Pretty sure. And your name was," asked Alex.
"Oh I'm Alantra. Just Alantra. You can't have more than one name if you want to be a star."
"Thanks Alantra," said Alex grabbing Natalie's arm and leading her down the stairs. Once they got back to the car she said, "I feel like I just stepped into the twilight zone. Why was it that only Mr. Johnson made sense? If it wasn't for him I would have sworn that Dylan never lived there, just Hyundai girl."
"Lucrezia? Strange," was all Natalie said a thought tugging at the back of her mind like the beagle did on the leash. "I still want to know what happened to Dylan and what Charlie isn't telling us. Do you think Bosley knows anything?"
"I doubt he knows any more than we do Nat. Let's hurry up, make our meeting with Mrs. Hardy and then we can worry some more about Dylan. The two angels got in the car and sped away.
*-*-*-*
Dylan arrived at her new apartment late in the afternoon. She wished she had an excuse to go back to her old place but she dropped off the key with the new tenant the day before.. She opened the door and went it. It wasn't her at all but she had to admit it was nice, much nicer than what she had just left. "Hello Dylan," said a voice from the living room. She turned and saw a man not much older than herself sitting on the white leather sofa. He wore a grey Armani suit that looked too big for him and she found herself comparing him to Anthony. Since the night of the ME2 Premiere she often found herself comparing men in suits to him. "I'm Agent Mitchum," he said coming towards her and holding out his hand. She didn't shake it so he put it self-consciously into his pocket. "I am glad you decided to help with this assignment. Charlie highly recommended you."
"Charlie is a great boss," she said looking at the man in front of her.
"Well," he began awkwardly, "Here is your new ID; driver's license and passport. You are now known as Lucrezia Danress. Your history is in the folder on the coffee table. You might want to look it over and memorize it. These men you are going up against won't go easy on you if they learn you aren't who you say you are."
Dylan stood there not saying anything. She was a bit angry that she couldn't tell her friends what she was doing and she missed her car; it might not have been the nicest or newest in the world but it was her baby.
"I still think you would be better off dying your hair. If that wig falls off, I don't want you to have any problems."
"I won't," she said.
"Good you do talk. Well Chief, he is the man you will be working for, has a stable of assassins. He is looking for two special ones for a client of his. This wasn't a problem before so we thought we found out what he was looking for in candidates but he threw us for a loop."
Dylan sat on the couch her feet curled up under her, boots still on. "My God no," yelled Mitchum. Dylan quickly stood and got into defensive position. "No feet on the couch. If you can help it don't even sit on it. Everything here is for show purposes only." Dylan relaxed and looked at the man in front of her and lost her temper.
"Listen, I don't mind doing this for Charlie; he has been a father to me, but if you expect me to give up my name, my friends, my apartment, my car and my hair color I'll sit on the damn couch if I want to and how I want to." She sat back down and laid on the full length of the couch, feet up.
Mitchum glared at her. "I don't have time for you to be a brat."
"Sounds to me like you have no choice so what was the loop that Chief has thrown at you?"
"There is a competition. We have another person who will be competing too just in case you don't make it. You aren't to take him out. If you have to take a fall for him to get in to Chief's organization do it."
"So you are saying you want me to take a fall for your guy," asked Dylan exasperated. "Why is it because I am a woman?"
Mitchum eyed the petite woman in front of him wearing the page boy cut black wig. "Partially yes," he said and Dylan crossed her arms and made an 'hmmmp' noise. "And partially because this man is FBI. You'll be able to identify him from his eye patch and crooked nose. The crooked nose is real by the way, but we do have a good makeup artist making him look tougher. Anyone in this competition has to be tough."
"I'll do just fine."
"I hope so. I don't like the idea of sending a little girl in there," said Mitchum. Dylan was really starting to hate the agent. It was all she could do not to show him what a 'little girl' could do. "You are signed up already. You need to show up at this address tomorrow evening," he said handing her a piece of paper. "Don't lose it. That paper is your invitation you show up without it you aren't getting in. Good luck. I'll show myself the way out Lucrezia." With that he left her standing in the middle of her new temporary home.
She unfolded the piece of paper. It was an e-mail someone, probably Mitchum, had printed. It simply read, "Date: September 23, 2004 Time: midnight Place: 2020 West Moreland Avenue. Dock 12, Warehouse 3." Tomorrow night she was going to the commercial port and she wondered why bad guys such as her ex-boyfriend O'Grady and this Chief liked places like that.
Dylan sat back down on the white leather sofa as the phone rang. "Damn! Where is the phone in this place?" She found it on the fourth ring hidden in the kitchen looking like a state of the art appliance that bore little resemblance to a telephone.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hey Lucy," said the voice on the other end. It was Bosley. "How's it goin' girl?"
"Hey Bos," she said feeling tears well up in her eyes. It hadn't even been a day yet and she missed him and the angels. "It sucks."
"That bad? I could talk to Charlie."
"No, don't. It would only make that prick Agent Mitchum, think that I can't do this job."
"Did he say that? Maybe I'll have to give him a good talking to. Tell him he can't treat my Dylan that way."
Dylan laughed. It was nice knowing that Bosley was there for her. "Don't worry Bosley; I can take care of him and anything he throws my way. How are Alex and Nat?"
"Worried about you. Charlie told them today that you quit and didn't want to be contacted. They took it bad."
"I figured they would," said Dylan jumping up and sitting on the kitchen counter. As she did so she thought, "Take that Mitchum."
"If you need anything let me know 'kay," he said sounding concerned.
"Just my old life. It was hard enough going from Helen Zaas to Dylan Sanders but now Dylan Sanders to Lucrezia Danress. I liked Dylan, I don't even know who Lucrezia is," said Dylan tears flowing freely now.
Bosley shushed her and said, "She is you. Don't you forget that and when you go back to being Dylan again we will all be here waiting for you."
That made Dylan smile. "I love you Bosley," she said sniffing away the last of her tears.
"Love you little sister," he said then hung up. Dylan did too then decided to explore and get herself acquainted with Lucrezia "Lucy" Darness' life.