"Sir."
The man on the bench turned to face the other man. It was who he was waiting for. It was the sniper, a man with the code name Artemis. He nodded and gestured for Artemis to sit with him on the bench.
Artemis nodded and sat next to the man, his briefcase perched on his lap. "I completed the objective, Sir."
The other man smiled at his code name. It made him feel important, respected. "Good, good. But we aren't finished here."
"I suspected as much." Artemis replied. "May I have my payment?"
Sir nodded and two pieces of paper from his pocket. One was a check and the other was a plain slip of paper with a name and address written on it. Sir put the plain paper over the check and handed both to the other man. "I think you'll find that satisfactory."
Artemis glanced over both papers, then opened his briefcase and tucked them inside. He noticed the other man glance at his rifle and shut the case. "I assume he lives alone?"
"Yes." Sir nodded. "You won't have to worry about any mistaken identities."
"I'll meet you again tomorrow then." Artemis smiled and stood up, clutching his briefcase in his left hand.
"I'll pencil it in." Sir smirked wryly.
Artemis continued smiling and walked away. He stopped before disappearing into the shadows and muttered over his shoulder, "Good luck finding your kids, Deck."
* * * *
Max opened her eyes and rolled onto her side. She yawned and stretched, then remembered that she wasn't in her apartment. She slapped her hand to her forehead and began to mentally berate herself, but the smell of coffee and pancakes interrupted her. She decided to be a good "guest" (or "woman who fell asleep on the couch") so she threw the blanket off herself and made her way into the kitchen.
"Morning." Logan greeted her with a smile.
"Work!" She suddenly blurted, slapping a hand to her forehead. She winced. Why the hell did I just bring work up?
"Uh... well, I already called Normal and told him that you had a doctor's appointment. You'll have an excuse." He stopped to look her over. "Are you all right? I mean, you were just concerned about work there for a minute. Stomach pains? Fever? Stroke?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Just a weird little thing there I guess. So, uh, you wanna feed the girl that fell asleep on your couch?"
He shrugged. "I suppose I could do such a thing. So, what time did you show up here at?"
She took a seat on the counter and watched him begin pulling food from the fridge. "Well, I got your page around maybe eleven-thirty and I was gonna call, but Sketchy hopped up onto the bar with his bike and started doing the best tricks I've seen in - uh... I called after, at around one or so and you didn't answer, so I bounced over. You weren't home yet so I figure a cat nap wouldn't hurt."
"I guess it turned into a cat deep sleep, huh?" He was cracking eggs for an omelet.
She smiled a bit and turned to look at the floor. After a moment, she asked, "Who was it this time?"
Logan faltered for a minute and he had hoped Max didn't notice. She did, but said nothing. "Her name was Rebecca. She was, uh, like me. The black sheep of a rich family and all that. She did some good work."
"I'm sorry." She said quietly. I wish I could offer you more.
A/N: Due to Easter madness, I could only give you this chapter. Also, my internet is getting cut off tomorrow. It shouldn't present that big of a problem though because it shouldn't be off for long.
Oh, and about idlehands452's question about maybe combining the chapters, it really only has to do with the way I have the bulk of the story set up in my Wordpad program, so it's just gonna continue to be the two shorter chapters deal. :)