Right.

Thanks for the single review I got. I was really glad to get it. This update is dedicated to you (and everybody else: feel ashamed).

I started writing the new chapter already. As nearly nobody is interested enough to write me at least a few words... I've grown a bit annoyed. And offended. So I'll go on a holiday. Next update: in a year the soonest.

PS I'm perfectly aware of my currently childish manner I handle this with. But I feel truly bad about your ignorance.

Chapter 10 – Demon

"Get off him or I kill her." The man's voice was emotionlessly cold and calm. The icy barrel moved from the back of her head to its side but the menace just increased. Her head was pulled back and she was forced to lean it on his soon-to-be-killer's shoulders. A freed lock fell in her face, its jolly pink colour mocking death and danger.

Alex slowly moved further, his hands falling down from his prey. The man collapsed to the ground, already slipped in unconsciousness. Alex fixed his eyes on his wife, their gazes burning as the silent thoughts were exchanged. He slowly took a step closer to the leader. Her eyes closed as the man's pull tightened on her neck. The barrel was pushed painfully into her skin.

"You are the same one." Alex stated in an even voice. Rose knew this side of her husband and hated when it came to surface. It was the personality of an assassin. It was needed. Needed to survive, to save the world, to fulfil the mission. But that didn't mean she had to like it.

"The same one that tried to kill me in London." He must have taken another step; she felt the effect in the tenseness of her capturer. "Unsuccessfully, may I mention."

"Stay where you are or I kill her." He took a deep breathe; she felt it on her back. "And you don't want this, do you?"

"Nobody wants people's deaths save for… assassins, for example."

"Would it be a gossip then?" Rose sensed as he shook his head maliciously. A joyless chuckle escaped her captor's lips. "I don't think so."

"Gossips? Are gossips that you base your strategy on? Gossips?" This wasn't going to be anything good, she thought, but Alex's voice was calm, almost soothing despite the meaning of his words.

"You might be lethal. You can call yourself whatever you want to, I don't care. Even though you are named Demon, you aren't one. You are not immortal."

"The only question is which of us would die first." He nodded a little. "Release her."

The attacker's replying laugh was violent but forced. "I think you misjudged the situation. I am the one giving orders here, not you!"

"Release her and you may live." The quietly even, emotionless voice made her shudder. There was a frightening edge in it; the edge of a man protecting his family and being ready to kill whoever gets in his way.

The man swallowed. Alex didn't miss the sound and sourly smiled at him. "You know I'm right. If you kill her, I will search for you in the rest of my life." She hated when it came to this – still knowing that it was true. He would kill him, go after him, haunt him until he died. Alex considered Rose the sense of his life and would kill for her without a second thought. And she knew it might be true. Maybe, it had been her that saved him from the craziness each spy experienced at some point.

The cold determination, the hole in their soul, the lack of sense – living for nothing, for saving unknown people from death, but unable to save themselves. The same, soldiers serving in a heavily attacked and ruined country experienced. And there were not many ways out. Getting retired before it hits. Getting crazy, dreaming with dead, soul wandering on ruined, destroyed land forever. Kissing one's own gun, the bullet going straight in the brain.

Or, sometimes, falling in love.

His whisper was emotionless and quiet yet completely comprehensive. "I will not rest until I can have your head ripped off. You will have to run in the rest of your lifetime. Either that or turn back and fight me. The question is…" his soft voice was almost kind at this, raising goose bumps on her arm, "Are you sure enough that you can kill me to risk pulling the trigger?"

Her blood was frozen in her veins as the man hugged her closer to his body. She pushed back a desperate screech into her throat. Alex knew what he was doing. He must have known what he was doing.

"You know who I am and what I am capable of. Now decide." She felt the barrel tremble at the side of her temple for a second. She shakily took a breath. The next thing she felt was a strong thrust to her back and she found herself falling towards Alex. He embraced her tightly, the tenseness and fear radiating from his body.

Two men stepped to the man. Rose looked back into the eyes of her almost-killer. He was dazed, like a snake by the charmer. She took large gulps of fresh air. It had been close. And it was ended now. Move on, she ordered herself. Move on and forget it.

Mrs Jones motioned them to follow her into the office. She wasted a last glance for their team-mates, their eyes wide open, their gazes disbelieving. She understood them. It was pure luck the attacker had heard about them – and mainly Israeli gossips about the "shadows". Alex had got the nickname "Demon" at Mossad, after a littler mission – their victim yelled he could not possibly exist and to stay away of him because he was a Demon of the worst sort. Other agents often joked about that and the name stuck on him.

And sometimes, when he fell into his assassin-mode, the nickname was truly right.

Inside the building, the colonel was gasping for air and kept repeating he didn't know how such an incident could happen. The deputy head waved him to shut up and nearly closed the door onto his nose. The soldier didn't let himself be ignored and reopened the door.

In the office-room, she turned back to the couple.

"I'm very sorry for this… incident. The security system obviously isn't enough."

His voice was still the same emotionless assassin-toned he had used. "They must have followed you… This would explain the plain number and the need of surprise. I don't think they knew we were here, they just stumbled upon us. Otherwise the attack would have been more planned – and most likely lethal."

She shook her head helplessly. "You need to move from here."

"You have known you will be attacked?!" The colonel's voice trembled with anger. He didn't bother with the strange looks he got, he was not going to sit in silence while bloody spies talked above his head.

"It was quite obvious." Alex's tone was mocking, but his expression indicated he was wondering about the next step.

"Then why aren't you at a safe house? You endangered my men's lives by walking in here!"

"Your men are soldiers and if their lives are seriously endangered by the attack against us… Well, the army seems more and more pathetic by the time." He mumbled himself barely audibly. Mrs Jones opened her mouth but Rose preceded her.

"We are not going to hide in a so-called safe place waiting for them to find us. We have known the price when we started this and we won't step back now that the danger showed up. We have known it was going to have some kind of revenge and continued doing it. We are not going to hide."

"Heroes die early."

"We are not heroes only people knowing their methods. They won't stop whatever we do. The only way to stop them is by execution the organization itself." Rose nodded herself. "This attack hasn't been planned. It's completely random they found us. Leonore is getting more and more nervous by the time. This action showed her distress – Paige cannot compensate her lust for our blood. It's her that is taking the lead – into death. A bit more time and we will be able to catch them."

"Who the hell is this Leonore?" The colonel's eye twitched.

Mrs Jones answered while the two communicated between each other soundlessly with their eyes. "Have you ever heard of Scorpia? It's a terrorist organization concerning sabotage, corruption, intelligence and assassination, these are what the letters stand for, on six continents. It was founded decades ago, in Paris by retired assassins. One of these founder members was Levi Kroll." Mrs Jones explained the colonel quickly.

"Was?" The colonel asked. Alex looked away.

"Was." Mrs Jones cleared her throat. "Leonore, his former lover, and Samuel Paige, his right hand are the ones who… inherited his business after his… death." She looked at the couple.

Alex shook his head. "We are going to wait here until the next occasion comes. Do your job and we will do ours." His tone ended the conversation with its determination.

Mrs Jones sighed. She had known at the beginning it had been a wasted try but she had had to do it. She fought herself for long moments. The order had been clear enough, but she was sick of all that. They had already tried the "higher power" strategy and it hadn't turned out good. Keeping their information would not help them and they would lose even that little trust in SO they had. And this information was not going to avoid them, the couple was going to find it out, sooner or later. She decided.

"There might be another reason for the haste they work with… Yassen Gregorovich…" His face darkened even more if that was possible. "Last week a last will surfaced from the Russian mafia. It names you as his rightful heir."

"Impossible." The word was forced out through his teeth, a hiss escaping his throat. Rose placed her palm casually onto his shoulder but Mrs Jones could know she was holding him back in case he would jump up. The touch seemed to sooth his nerves a bit and she continued.

"The document originally applies to your father but with his death… I will not go into the boring and incomprehensible details, the summary is that all the money he collected, all his possessions now fall upon the person who inherited John's. And this person is you."

"No." He used all his mental strength to relax his fingers from the hard fist. His nails had scratched his skin and now thin blood-brooks were flowing from the little half-circles. She took his hand and intertwined her fingers with his.

Mrs Jones kept speaking, but he hadn't heard a word. A face appeared in his memory, the face of a murderer. A man who killed for money but never hurt children. A man who died in his arms, in order to save him. Alex had sworn to kill him for the murder of his uncle, but after getting to know the bigger image, the case was not that simple.

He was friends with John Rider, or Hunter as he had known him. Assassins would never let their emotions affect them, but he let Alex live, more than that, saved his life several times, for the sake of a long-dead friendship. Because his father had saved his life during an assassination.

Cossack, the blond Russian man, who shot a man for letting a chest fall, who worked only for the money. Who investigated, killed, destroyed. Just like him, Alex did. The only difference was the reason behind the acts. Money here and… why was he doing it? Because he was forced? Because it ran in his veins with his blood? Did motivation matter that much?

He saved his life.

He killed people. He even killed Ian… His head was spinning around and he didn't know the answer. Only guessed. He would never know what the situation was when Yassen pulled the trigger and ended the life of the man Alex was grown up by. His uncle could have had an equal share in the act, giving a reason to be killed. Alex knew that. Spying was not about playing with the rules of fair play. If you misjudged the situation, you were killed in the very second.

He saved his life.

He killed people.

And now everything he had killed for, everything he had gained with assassination, everything was Alex's possession. By the law.

He felt like he was getting crazy. He sighed and decided to ask something he was able to understand and see through.

"What do you know about Leonore and Paige anyway?"

"They are somewhere in the country." Alex raised an eyebrow. "We don't know yet what they are doing here… Paige had some connections with the English mafia when he was younger. Their business in Israel was pretty much blown up. We're still clearing up the situation y-" She shot a quick glance at the colonel sitting next to her, "the death of Kroll left us with. We will tell you everything we get to know."

Examining their expressions she sighed. "I promise."

To be continued… (someday, when I'll be a grandma telling fairy tales)