Chapter 4:
Paris, finally she was back in the city that for most of the last decade she had called home. Standing in front of her arms dealer made her realize exactly how much she had missed the city and she vowed to find a way that would allow her to come back here without having to fear the police.
"Beautiful! You are back, I have missed you!" She had never been able to understand why Jacques would feel the need to do everything as extravagant as possible, that couldn't exactly help in a business that needed to stay hidden.
"Hello Jacques."
"Where is you pretty friend? The one who's beauty is only comparable to your own?" Oh yes, he really couldn't stop doing this, could he?
"She's doing something else. I need some things."
"And here I thought you allowed your beauty to lighten up my dark store just for a nice conversation." While he was a little too extravagant for her tastes, Jacques was always nice and full of compliments. That at least was one of his good points, not that she would allow something as silly as compliments to influence her of course.
"Alas no." Oh god, now she was doing it herself. "I need bullets, some spare guns and throwing knives. You know the details." She still detested the vulgar way Kirika sometimes killed her marks but after the girl had insisted that she'd learn to use a backup weapon she had grudgingly practiced with the knives. She had seen firsthand just how effective those sharp weapons could be and had therefore chosen to use them, despite the less then pleasant memories they called on.
"I figured something like that." While the man then started moving for the goods she had requested he kept talking. "I haven't seen you for, well, it must have been about half a year."
"I was elsewhere."
"Hah, that I figured out for myself. I didn't think someone would have taken you out or your pretty friend would have come by to get everything I own."
She only smiled slightly at that, recognizing the truth in the statement. That had no doubt been part of what Kirika had done during that night she still wouldn't talk about.
"But if you do not want to talk about it, then I will be quiet. So, you've been out of the city for the last six months. Do you want to hear what has been going on in that time?"
"Information is always welcome, you know that. But keep it to the last five, I was still here during the other month."
"You just didn't have need of me then, very well. Let me think for a moment, five months ago…" The way he smiled a little made her a little wary of what he was going to say. "Oh yes, at that time there were rumors that Noir had been killed."
"Really? I have some trouble believing that." But she could feel her heart thundering in her throat.
"So do I but nobody has heard of Noir since then."
"Maybe Noir decided to take a break."
"That could be true, on the other hand there was a rumor connecting the death of Noir to the bombing of an apartment building. There was only one survivor, a beautiful blonde that disappeared the day after, leaving only a corpse behind. There were no pictures of the woman but the newspapers gave a pretty extensive description, now that I think about it she looked a little like you. Interesting coincidence don't you think?" It was obvious what he suspected but there was no way that she was going to acknowledge anything.
"Very interesting but what else have you heard?"
Apparently recognizing he wouldn't get any information out of her, Jacques only nodded with a knowing smile and started telling her of the happenings in Paris during her absence.
. . . .
"So, this is it?" Together with her partner she looked at the mansion that was supposed to house those who had wanted to kill them. It had taken them a couple of days to track their targets here and now she had seen it, she wasn't sure about the validity of the information.
Kirika, probably realizing the question was rhetorical remained silent and continued scanning the grounds. Mireille however knew that her partner would remember everything she'd see and when they'd design the plan would bring the information up.
"Doesn't look like much, though." She frowned at that, it was strange that whoever was after them would have chosen to remain in a building that looked so old and hardly defendable. Had it not been for the fact that it had been bought a decade ago she might have figured this had only been a temporary base and by now was deserted again.
"There, someone is still here." Her partner pointed out, obviously having had the same thoughts. Thoughts that were now no longer important since the house was indeed still occupied.
"Good." Looking at the man, who she too had now spotted, she tried to find out where other guards might be. The area was heavily wooded and could house all sorts of dangers, from cameras to traps designed to kill them. Strangely enough, in a case like this it might be safer to go through the guards since they were at least obvious dangers.
No matter what dangers the surrounding area might contain however, it was the mansion that was their eventual target and that was where they should focus their attention. In some ways the building reminded her eerily of the Manor except that there were no surrounding ruins, or vineyard. But she couldn't shake the feeling that this place was used for some strange religious purpose as well. Maybe it was some strange kind of cult? She hadn't thought of that before and it might help in trying to track down that strange tattoo the assassin had worn.
Banishing those thoughts for later perusal however she once more focused on the three-story building that was their target. There had been no blueprints or maps of the place to be found anywhere and now that she saw it she couldn't understand why. Surely some kind of historian would have wanted to find out the secrets of this place? The new owners might not want anyone to look around but surely someone would have wanted to investigate this place before then?
Maybe there would be information in one of the university libraries since this stakeout had proven to be mostly useless, there was no way they could predict what they'd find inside.
. . . .
Despite her high hopes, their quest for information had proven fruitless and now once again they were looking at the grounds surrounding the mansion. This time however they were dressed completely in a dark green that approached black and carrying their guns. Turning her head to Kirika she could see the girl nodding that she was ready and they set out.
Carefully moving through the trees they spotted the first roving patrol. Cursing the fact that she couldn't be certain the groups didn't use radio to keep in touch with the mansion she nonetheless targeted one of the three guards. She knew that on the other side of the path her partner was doing the same thing and it wasn't long before she finally pulled the trigger. Her target went down and even before he had hit the ground she could see one of the others do the same. A second silenced shot from her gun took out the last one and with thundering heart she moved to the group.
No radios. They had been lucky this time. With Kirika's help she then hid the bodies away from the path and hoped their absence wouldn't be missed until it was too late. Then once again each took a side of the path and barely being able to see her partner Mireille continued on through the darkness.
She could smell the lovely smell she had always associated with woods, a smell she almost liked as much as that of the sea. But now the penetrating stench of a cigarette came through it and she looked around to locate the source. Another patrol? How many people did they have here?
When she finally located the man that was obviously taking a break for a little smoke she did so by the clearly visible point of light. Had he not been indulging himself she might have walked straight by without ever noticing he was there. The fact that he wasn't walking on the path surprised her and she raised her opinion of their opponents considerably. If they had backups for their guards they might not be quite as stupid as she had started to believe. Of course, it might just be paranoia instead of strategic planning but that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.
Walking closer in an attempt to try and find the others in his group she didn't notice the dry twig until it was too late.
"Who's there?" The man reacted faster then he should have and while putting out his cigarette he switched on a flashlight.
Mireille was barely in time to duck away from the searching beam of light and waited until the man would let up his vigilance. Unfortunately it appeared as if smoking was the only fatal flaw he had since he continued looking for the source of the sound. Silently cursing she started to circle around the man in an attempt to take him from behind.
Halfway through however she found one of the others that made up his patrol group. Or rather, he found her. Standing completely still while the cold blade was millimeters away from slitting her throat she allowed the man to take her gun.
"I've got her. Look around if you can find anyone else."
She still hadn't seen the man who spoke but when he started leading her towards the other, at swordpoint nonetheless, she berated herself. She should have paid better attention to her surroundings; after all she had known there were probably others besides the smoker. But no, she had to go barging in and allow herself to be defeated by someone using an outdated weapon.
She was one of the best in her chosen profession, maybe even the second best that was currently alive. She had no illusions that she might be better then her partner, despite how it might have seemed at the Manor the girl was better then she was. Thinking of her partner however reminded her of the knives that she was still carrying. Obviously these people thought, just like she once had, that anyone carrying a gun was unlikely to have other weapons as well.
Using the ancient 'pretending to stumble trick' she had a moment where the sword wasn't in immediate danger of killing her and used the opportunity to plant an elbow in the man's gut. That wasn't as effective as it should be as he seemed to be wearing some kind of metal armor, probably chainmail. Mireille didn't let the pain stop her however and immediately dove to the left, away from the sword, and took out one of her throwing knives. She might not be in the same league as Chloe when it came to this weapon but she was more then capable of hitting a target from only a couple of meters away.
As the knife embedded itself in the man's throat she sent a silent thanks to her partner for her insistence on carrying them, although she would have probably been able to get out of this situation anyway.
"Jean? Are you alright?" The other obviously wasn't as good at stealth as his friend had been and she quickly retrieved her gun before he could arrive at the body.
Lying in wait she saw how he arrived and this time she didn't wait any longer then necessary before ending his life. Good, now she had at least taken both of them out and could continue on her mission.
"Michael? Have you found him yet?" Another one? How could she have ever believed there might not be anyone here? The woods seemed to be crawling with these annoying people. Silently she walked to the place she had heard the voice came from but when she had arrived Mireille discovered that this was probably the smart one of the group as he had taken off. That wasn't good and she immediately started to run after him through the woods in an attempt to kill him before he could reach his friends.
. . . .
Running as fast as she could she once more aimed at the dark shape in front of her. Unfortunately like all the other times she only hit a tree, for some reason she wasn't as good a shot running through the trees in the dark as she usually was. At least she seemed to be gaining on him and she put on another burst of speed before trying again. This time she at least hit the tree he was running past and she believed that she had seen him duck from the splinters that had rained all over him.
A clearing in the wood then momentarily allowed the moon to light her target up and she stopped in order to aim carefully. The man looked behind him when she did so, allowing her to see the frightened expression on his face. He was far too lucky however as he dove to the ground at the exact moment she squeezed the trigger, once more saving his life. Anger at herself cost her precious moments and by the time she tried to adjust her aim he was out of the clearing, leaving her to run after him once more.
Moving at her top speed she tried to regain the lost distance between them but for some reason her target seemed to be running as if Death himself was at his heels. That wasn't surprising of course, even if Death in this case was a she, but it didn't help her attempt to end his miserable life. She was finally gaining on him when his upper body suddenly seemed to jerk backwards and he fell down on the ground. Even knowing what she was most likely to see she moved carefully until she could actually see her partner's expressionless face while she was checking the body.
Panting she walked to Kirika, glad that at least this man wasn't going to announce their presence before that was inevitable. But how had the girl managed to get here before them and then not even have the decency to be even slightly out of breath? The difference between the two of them in terms of condition wasn't that big was it? No, she probably just wasn't back into shape as much as she should be.
"A hundred meters." Her partner said, the soft-spoken words sounding almost loud in the sudden silence of the woods.
A hundred meters left to the mansion, well at least they had made good time in crossing the area even if it wasn't the way she had planned to do it. Ejecting the clip she looked at it in surprise. Apparently she had fired more bullets then she had believed since the only bullet left was the one in the chamber. Putting in a fresh one she could hear Kirika do the same while they set out to cross the remaining distance between them and their target.
. . . .
From close by the building wasn't as ruinous as it had appeared from the road as she could see that in some places the walls had been repaired. Apparently the work was still going on since she could see that the tools which had been used hadn't been cleared away. Shaking her head at such misplaced trust in humanity she ignored them and walked on.
It quickly became apparent that her idea that this might be a religious cult was indeed the right one. She could almost taste the religious zeal that seemed to be pervasive in every aspect of the building. The only part, that she could see from the outside, that had been completely restored had been the chapel.
The need for religion was one thing she had never really understood, unlike the Cosa Nostra her family had not been fervent believers and the fact that she made her life as a hitwoman didn't exactly encourage thinking about an afterlife. Her partner had never shown any signs off devotion either, despite the fact that everyone at the Manor had seemed fervent believers. Although she didn't really know what it was they had believed in since there weren't that many religions that went for the assassin theme.
Religion aside however, she still had a job to do here and couldn't afford these distractions. Quietly she went on creeping alongside the wall as the two of them tried to get to the entrance unseen.
"Drop it, or your friend here dies." Looking behind her Mireille could see how a sheepish looking Kirika was held hostage by another sword bearing guard.
With a sigh she allowed her gun to fall to the ground while wondering how her partner always managed to only get caught in places where she could practically choose a weapon.
"That's it girlie, now walk backwards towards the door where we will then join the others." Following directions she walked all the while trying not to look at Kirika who took a screwdriver from the pile of tools as she passed it. When the girl finally made her move it was almost too fast to see, her left hand reached up to stop the arm holding the sword from moving while the other was used to bury the makeshift weapon in her assailant's neck.
"About time." Was all she said, for once deciding not to comment on the messy way her partner had killed.
. . . .
When they then finally entered the mansion itself she was surprised at how good it looked, apparently the restoration work had started on the inside instead of the more logical outside. Tapestry of great battles covered the walls and combined with the archaic feel of the building it reminded her of how she figured castles in the Dark Ages must have looked.
"Intruders!" Turning around Mireille shot the man who had shouted the alarm. How could they have missed him? But it was already too late, cultists, or whatever they are, had started moving into the hallway and she quickly added her firepower to that of her partner.
"We can't stay here." She knew saying so wasn't necessary but did so anyway and together they continued firing letting the smell of burning cordite fill the air until, far too soon, she could hear Kirika's gun click empty. Their adversaries had noticed this as well and made use of the lower rate of fire to close in with them. Sheer numbers overwhelmed her and, like Kirika, she was forced to go hand to hand as well.
Now the advantage lay with the cultists, besides wearing armor that protected them from a whole range of useful moves they also had the numerical advantage. Ducking under a sword that had been intended to take her head off she grabbed one of her remaining throwing knives and used it with unerring precision. Unfortunately the little weapons weren't much use against swords or armor and she needed the rare target of an unprotected head. Which was becoming exceedingly rare as more and more of her opponents started wearing helmets.
Shooting a glance in her partner's direction she noticed the girl using an appropriated sword to fight off five of the cultists. She was good enough that they couldn't go one on one with her but because the hallway wasn't that wide they had some trouble with their teamwork as well. Dodging her own opponents she wondered if there was any weapon the girl wasn't a master in. She herself had always been more then happy with her gun but right now it would have been nice had she been able to use a sword even half as well as her partner.
The sound of a shattering sword was suddenly heard and for a moment the fighting stopped. In the ensuing silence she could dimly hear metal falling on the ground and looking in Kirika's direction she could see a dumbfounded cultist looking at what little remained of his sword. The girl he was facing however hadn't stopped moving and cut his throat before rolling over the floor and picking up the shard of sword lying there. This she then threw at one of her other surprised opponents, lowering that number to three.
That had all happened so fast that it seemed as if barely any time had passed and Mireille used the opportunity to grab her gun and shoot two of her own opponents. That left only two and she was pretty certain she should be able to take them. How to actually do that however was something she still needed to figure out.
Suddenly one of her opponents reversed his action and instead of taking a swing tried to stab her. Not having enough time to get out of the way she tried the same thing she had once seen her partner do and used her gun to block the sword.
As she did so however she could feel her arm almost buckle under the sudden pressure, while a shockwave traveled up her arm. Kirika had never mentioned it hurt this much! Although she had managed to avert the immediate danger the man's sword kept her pinned down, leaving her open for an attack by the other. Regretfully she let go of the gun and jumped backwards, hoping that this might save her life.
Luckily it worked as her gun was still pinned to the sword, preventing the man from trying to stab her again, although she wasn't as lucky in averting the stroke that had been meant to take of her head. While it missed any vital areas she still received a long and painful gash on her left arm. Now, without even her gun she was starting to get into real trouble.
Checking her throwing knives revealed she had only one left, although she couldn't really say where all the others had gone. Throwing it might kill one of her opponents, although it would be a tricky throw and she wasn't certain she could manage that right now. She was relieved however to notice that her opponents had merely removed the gun instead of deciding to actually use it.
As they noticed the tiny knife in her hand however a grin appeared on their faces but remained silent as they slowly approached. A quick look behind them showed her that the whirlwind that was Kirika still had two opponents to deal with as well, so no help would be coming from that direction. Not saying anything herself she tried to think of a way to use her solely remaining weapon while she was slowly backing up. Both of her opponents seemed accomplished swordfighters and she didn't doubt that were she to try and dive between them she would be dead before getting to her feet.
How could she deal with this then? A desperate plan formed in her head but while it made her even more vulnerable to those two in front of her it might just work. She couldn't come up with a better plan either so she took careful aim before throwing her last weapon.
Laughter came from the two men facing her as the knife passed them without touching but further in the hallway one of Kirika's opponents grabbed at his throat as his lifeblood started to spurt out. It hadn't been a clean kill but it would do. Her partner, now with only one opponent left dealt with him in a few short but powerful moves before finishing the one Mireille had wounded.
"Kirika!" The desperate cry still almost came too late as her retreat was blocked by the door she was now standing against. Looking in the eyes of the two men she could see there would be no mercy for her, once they were in reach she would die. Two nearly silent plops from her own gun however caused incredulous looks to appear on their faces before they crashed down to the ground in a clatter of metallic noise.
Looking behind the corpses she could see her slightly bruised and battered partner still aiming in her direction before slowly putting the gun away and offering a slight smile. A smile that changed into an expression of pain as a crossbow bolt suddenly appeared in her right shoulder. A horrified expression on her own face Mireille looked further in the hallway and noticed, mostly hidden in the shadows, a man trying to reload his crossbow.
"Foul servants of the Beast! You will suffer for the death of the faithful!"
"No!" With that shout of defiance she sprinted toward her partner and diving to the ground, she grabbed the gun that had dropped. Continuing in a roll and ignoring the pain this caused in her left arm, she ended up in a half-crouch with the gun aimed right between where she suspected the man's eyes to be. By now he was once again bringing his own weapon up so she didn't hesitate and pulled the trigger.
Noticing with more than a little satisfaction how the man keeled over she decided to check the different rooms that could be reached from the hallway. There didn't seem to be any other immediate dangers however so she quickly moved to her partner. The girl was gritting her teeth in pain but was obviously dealing well with it.
"How bad is it?"
"I'll be fine." That didn't help in finding out the extent of the damage but Kirika was smart enough not to dismiss something like this too easily. If she said she was fine it meant that she was capable of continuing the mission and wouldn't need medical attention until after that.
"Well, whoever that Beast of his was I don't think he'll need to worry about it anymore." Mireille tried to joke, although she did wonder what the man could have been talking about.
Shaking her head in order to get herself to focus on the here and now she looked at all the corpses spread over the floor and realized they might have killed everyone currently in the mansion. The man with the crossbow, who she discovered to be dressed differently, had probably been the leader. This left them with nobody to interrogate meaning they would have to go and look for information.
She hated looking around a place she had just killed this many men. There was always a part of her that shouted she should get away before anyone would show up that might identify her later. On the other hand she was pretty certain nobody else would be coming here but that didn't mean they should dally either. While she thought everyone was dead that didn't mean it was true. Splitting up might therefore not be the best idea with both of them wounded so after making sure they were once again armed they started looking for clues.
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Post-fic comments: Okay, finally a chapter of a decent size :-) Unfortunately after this there is only the epilogue left but then comes the sequel. About the sequel, I've got bad news and news that might be good or bad depending on how you look at it. First the bad, I'm not nearly as far along as I wish I was with writing it. I'll probably have about 6000 orso words written before I stop today but most of that will be only the first chapter. Where a scene I had originally thought to be about a thousand words orso decided it should be over three times that. Then the other news, it will be a crossover.
Even worse, it will be a crossover with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is basically a bridge where I will end this storyline and start one for another story (which I finished several months ago). But that other story is a Buffy story, well not Buffy actually since she has only a couple of lines, so it will be a crossover. Now before you all start crying that I shouldn't do that, the plot is far more Noir than it is Buffy, so there won't be any non-human badguys or be about mystical artifacts. Well, unless you count Dawn ofcourse since she is basically a mystical artifact made human.
So now that I've managed to lose most readers for the sequel which will be posted in the misc/buffy crossovers part of the site I want to thank everyone that reviewed and actually comment on the reviews posted since I last thanked everyone by name.
Anagro: Thanks for the comments and I'm kinda sorry that it wasn't as clear as I had hoped it to be, well it was meant to be a little unclear but from your and other comments it didn't work as well as I'd hoped.
The Oracle: Thanks for reviewing
ParadigmShifter: It's always nice to hear praise, thanks. And with the posting thing, yeah it is difficult and it can be rather annoying when you still can't post a story six months after you started writing it. Especially when you do then suddenly get strange ideas, like what would happen if Dawn dressed as Kirika during Halloween '97? That particular one bothered me so much I actually had to write it first and the sequels are still bothering me.
Section-Eight: Thanks for reviewing and would you believe me if I said I was sorry about blowing up the apartment? Me neither, but I thought I'd try anyway. The positive comments were welcome of course but I'm even more happy that you told me what you didn't like. I personally don't like writing flashbacks but I wanted to try if I could get them to work anyway, obviously I couldn't get them to work good enough. Oh well, next time I'll do it differently. The secret sanctorium as you called it was something else I wasn't really happy with but I needed someplace for them to recuperate so I grabbed one of the oldest ideas around. It wasn't all that important where they went anyway and if I had found a more decent way to do it I would have used it, just like I would have preferred something different in the prologue. After all, the annoying old lady is such an overused concept and I rather like doing things nobody else has thought of.