2

Caressing his fine structured chin while reviewing the stacks of paper on the cherry wood desk. Infurating the man the clutter these contracts took up to much space. Avoiding his office, avoiding the mess. But the fact was inevitable he needed to prepare to settle the contracts. Continually contemplating on which contract killer to give each particular one to Vess's breathing began to grow heavy. The price to pay for a little chaos was an extreme obsessive compulsive disorder a therapist years ago had called it. As much as he tried to calm his nervous the most irritated he became. Bringing both hands to his face rubbing and clenching his jaw. The contracts poured in before he released the first stack. He needed more potentials trained, more soldiers. More cleanslyness. Before exiting the room from the chaos Vess stood from his chair; with one jolt from his arm he pushed all the contracts, MacBook and lamp from his desk. The sound of the boisterous crash brought Domino strutting in the door. It had probably made the students jump out of their seat for the school was mostly quiet and peaceful.

I entered Vess's office where the noise shattered threw out the house. He was cocked in front of the wood chair, over looking the chaos in the office he had just created.

"Cleansly ness is next to godliness." I spoke in a calm sarcastic tone.

He eyes met mine, he did not take kindly to my remark. "Mick will accompany you on the next hit." Vess said searching threw the scattered papers."

"Yeah, about that. I work alone."

"Not this time, Domino." Still unable to raise his eyes to mine, "He is the potential we have, he has completed every class, every training with great promise."

"Then send him out."

"I can not risk the security of other potentials with him leaving a trail because I failed to train him properly. You know as well as I do there is a difference between book smart and criminal smart. A rush of taking a humans life is a rush and until experienced even the highest potentials do not know what to do with that adrenaline."

"Then have someone else do it."

Picking a paper out of the pile from his scavenger hunt and returning my stare. "You are the best Domino."

"Brown nosing is not going to change my mind." Between the distance from him desk to me near the door as he approached I discovered something in his eyes something I had never seen before. More than five years knowing this man it was shocking and frightful. At first I thought it was super natural, focusing on it lead me to believe that is impossible. He walked, talked and pissed the same as I do he is human just as I am. I knew by the paper in his hand it was another murder, I was not sure who it would be this time. I knew how to react to this, but to his eyes made me want to turn around and run threw the office door. This man I had worked over five years for had no soul.

Extending his arm with the new hit gripped between two fingers; I didn't want to leave the man hanging I respected the offer and took the paper in my hands. Stamped with Vess's signature to verify authenticity Duke Harvey was signed under the 'target' letters. "Am I suppose to recognize this name?"

"He was my business partner years ago. We are the ones that started this school. He had put out a contract on you while you continued to burry yourself deeper into our government. Marshall was the potential he trained, when you caught him he had signed the contract. Before you lived here we went our separate ways and it became a rivalry. His location has just surface."

"Help me understand your gimmick. You want me to waste someone because business went sour between your secret butt fucking days?" Enraging my self; almost shouting at the calm mannered Vess I have always known.

"No. I never seen that contract Domino. I do not know who took it, I am thinking whoever killed your family intended to kill you that night. The hitman came to a panic. Duke never allowed the soldier into the house until his mission was complete. If the hitman had blood on his close and body . ."

I raised an arm to quiet him, I understood. "Yeah, I get it."

"Now that I have your attention. Duke knew what you looked like as a FBI agent, and you don't look a lot different Domino. If he survives this contract, he will find you and kill you. He is just as powerful as me. Don't strut your manliness. This is a very dangerous mission Domino. If you are detected for entering you will probably not make it out. The only advice I can give you is: Do not flinch."