Act II
Messer saw the whole thing through his scope. The second hitman reappeared out of thin air and leapt down from the busted skylight to rejoin his partner. Both were now staring down at Dopey's carcass. They looked as if they were discussing something.
Messer studied the two hitmen carefully through his scope. The two were disguised in a peculiar fashion; they reminded Messer of The Man in the Iron Mask if the Marquis de Sade wrote it and had all the characters wear fishnets, loincloths, shoulder pads with something like a camera hooked to them, and masks. They were also freakishly tall and they appeared to fully embody the muscular bravado of Michelangelo's sculptures, yet there was something off-kilter about them that he could not grasp; these guys were monstrous and they liked their hits up close and personal. Messer had seen the gruesome job one of them performed on Dopey using twin blades that shot forth from some form of wrist gauntlet, the likes of which he had never seen before. Who or what were these guys? He asked himself. The boss was really scraping the bottom of the barrel these days to find hired killers, but hiring weirdly tattooed monstrosities?
Nevertheless, the realization that he was just cheated out of an assignment hit him quite hard. Casting aside all professionalism, Beck Messer made the greatest mistake of his life.
"I'm going to teach you brawny bastards a lesson about stealing somebody's kill!" he growled as he sighted the rifle once more.
xXx
"You know, I was expecting him to put up more of a fight," Ny'rath said as he looked down at the ooman's carcass.
"You didn't give him enough time. You have to remember, their reflexes are not as quick as our own, especially when they cannot see us. You have to fight in slow motion with this species and in plain sight, but that's when you want them to think they have an advantage; most of the time, they just freak out and do crazy stuff after they see us turn off our shiftsuits. The only time we have to be really careful is when they have their annoying projectile weapons, sharp objects that can pierce our skin, and other sneaky stuff they seem to come up with, either on purpose or accidentally," explained Ghiz.
"Yes, I see your point. He was already freaking out when I appeared and I reacted too quickly when he fired at my head with his small weapon," clicked Ny'rath as he leaned forward, preparing to wrench out the spine and skull. Ny'rath's trophy wall would gain a few more trophies tonight. "I'm surprised there weren't any oomans curious enough to investigate all the noise this soft meat was making."
"I think they're use to it," clattered Ghiz.
Ny'rath was about to reply when the sound of breaking glass and the soft impact of something hitting flesh caused him to look up.
At the same time, Ghiz leaped away from the window with an incredulous roar of pain and fury.
xXx
Goddamnit! Messer, in his anger, failed to sight his rifle properly. The bullet had tumbled before it struck the glass and the impact caused it to drop further, completely missing the kill zone, but he knew he tagged the one who was standing near the window right in the butt. Somewhere in the distance, he heard an unearthly roar emanating from the direction of the penthouse. Did that noise come from those guys? Messer did not want to look again through the scope to see the consequences. He had to leave the building fast so he could get to the safe house before the weird guys could figure out what happened. Disassembling the rifle took only minutes and as he ran out of the room, he made sure he did not leave any evidence behind.
The car was waiting for Messer in the alley behind the building. The driver turned to him and asked, "Did you complete your mission, Beck?"
"What fucking mission? Your boss sent a couple of goons to do my work and you're asking me if I completed my mission? You should be asking those two weirdoes he sent to do my job instead," cried Messer.
"I was told that you were the only one on this assignment," said the driver as he wiped away the spittle on his face. "If you didn't complete the mission, then you'll have to explain yourself to Mr. Rufrano. Ya know Beck, he's never hired more than one person to do a job, but of course you already knew that." The driver could not help but smile at the discomfort that caused.
Messer could only gasp, "Aw crap, what kind of a royal fuck-up did I get myself in now?"
xXx
"Pauk, what the pauk!" roared Ghiz as he crashed through the window and bellowed his rage. The vision mode in his mask had quickly tracked the projectile's trajectory to its origin in a tall building some blocks away. He switched to a different mode and scanned the building, looking for the heat signature of his assailant. He found the fleeing ooman and he roared once more, "I can see you, you dishonorable little pauk-de! You better run because when I get my claws on you, I'm…I'm…I'm going to nail your hindquarters to my trophy wall!"
"I think we have the attention of the other oomans now, Ghiz," said Ny'rath as he saw lights appearing in some of the surrounding buildings. The angry yelling and banging of the neighbors in the room below the penthouse added to the din of Ghiz's thunderous roaring.
"How the pauk am I going to explain this to the next females I see?" Ghiz bellowed as he checked the wound on his left buttock. The projectile had broken the skin, but it did not burrow too far in the large muscle. It stung annoyingly, but the wound to Ghiz's pride was worse.
"Can you walk?" asked Ny'rath.
"Yeah, I can walk!"
"Can you run?"
"Of course I can run!"
"Then shut up and go after the ooman!" growled Ny'rath as he switched on his shiftsuit.
"Ell-osde pauk!" barked Ghiz once more, as he turned his own suit on and jumped from the penthouse verandah.
Ny'rath picked up Dopey's skull and spinal column. There was just enough time to skin and hang the body. He was about to exit through the opening Ghiz made in the window, instead he checked to see if they had left any evidence of their visit in the penthouse. He made sure to clean up the little drops of blood left by Ghiz's wound. He could not help but clatter with mirth at Ghiz's hindquarter being shot by an ooman. The other hunters would be amused to hear about this incident.
xXx
Messer looked at his watch and waited for the boss to call. The driver ignored him and whistled a tuneless melody as he drove. The time was nearing five in the morning and he noticed the newspaper guys getting their bales ready for delivery. At about the same time, five police cars came roaring down the street, no doubt heading towards Dopey's penthouse. He could breathe easily now, at least for the time being. His target was dead anyways, even if he did not pull the trigger. He was just hoping to get away with his life tonight. Who cares about the pay? As long as he had his life, he was willing to forget about this assignment and go on to the next.
The ringing of the phone jarred Messer from his little reverie. He fumbled with the little cell phone before pressing the button to answer.
"Did you complete your mission, Beck?" asked Mr. Rufrano.
"Yes and no," replied Messer.
"Yes and no? What kind of an answer is that?"
"Well, the target's dead, but I didn't kill him." Messer looked up to see the driver smiling at him through the rearview mirror. The smile did not reach his eyes though.
"Beck, if you didn't kill the target, then who did?" Mr. Rufrano coldly asked.
"These two guys, I…uh…thought you sent, but now I know they weren't sent by you. I'm thinking they were from some other person or client, and I happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Then everything went to hell in a friggin' hand basket, and now I'm stuck here waiting for you to kill me, or let me live, or bury me in the desert, or drown me in a bucket of snot!"
"Shut up Beck! Hand the phone to Tell. I want a word with him," commanded Rufrano.
He complied and waited while Tell spoke to Mr. Rufrano. He just wanted this whole thing to end. The lightening of the eastern sky told him that morning was not too far away and perhaps the new day would be more congenial for him.
Tell suddenly turned around and said to Messer, "The boss wants to see you at about noon. He says he'll overlook your mistake this time. He won't pay you, but he's willing to give you another chance, but if you get into any more fuck-ups after this your ass is grass."
"Thank goodness for that!" yelped an obviously relieved Messer.
The rest of the drive to Messer's apartment was quiet and uneventful. Messer was quite happy about how everything turned out, and for that, he was truly grateful.
"Okay Beck, here we are. Remember, at noon today at Mr. Rufrano's place. I'll come by to pick you up at half past eleven," Tell said before he put the car back in gear and drove away.
Messer was finally safe at home. Now he was going to watch the creature feature movie he taped last night. What was the title? Oh, yes, now he remembered, it was "Attack of the Giant Leeches."
