Whatever you do, never look them straight in the eyes...
Alex turned and fired as soon as he heard the sound, the silencer on his gun muffling the sound of the shot. The man slumped back silently, eyes still wide open, frozen with the expression of shock and disbelief. The expression in his eyes immediately faded due to the perfectly circular crimson hole that was now between them. The exit wound at the back of his head was far less neat and the resulting splatter of blood, bone and brain matter on the wall behind him was decidedly messy.
Night was falling and the small roadside diner in Transit Sector 57 had already closed. Alex had watched and waited until the staff had gone. He'd counted them carefully, five in and five out. The last to leave, the mad who was most likely the owner hadn't locked the door. Clearly he knew his property was going to be in use after hours and was turning a blind eye.
The dead man now slumped on the linoleum floor had not been alone. He'd come to make a deal with Romanov Kijczek, the real target of tonight's assassination. This unnamed man was simply collateral damage, death by association. Yet Alex felt no guilt because he knew that this still warm man was also scum. One of the unending stream of henchmen who did the dirty work for their overlords. These men were all the same and were two a penny. They lived fast, got paid well for the risk and mostly died young.
At twenty-seven Alex was already considered 'old' for those in his line of work. The money was excellent because most never stayed alive long enough to actually spend most of it. But Alex knew that there was a simple formula for lasting in this career. It was a very simple one. If you don't leave witnesses, you don't get caught. Adding inexhaustible patience and immaculate preparation to the mix made him a cut above the rest and the top of his game.
Most would call him scum along with those he was paid to kill and in some ways they were right, but he liked to think that he did hold to his own moral code. It might not be the one that his or other Sectors would openly condone or accept, but it left him with a sense of discipline that he hoped, rendered him a cut above the average messy and senseless killer.
He turned at the sound of the bathroom door opening. Romanov was whistling as he came through. It was a fatal mistake. It meant that he wasn't alert. By the time he finally caught sight of Alex, he was stood in front of him, gun aimed right between his eyes. Without moving his head, the large heavy built man with the bulging belly of a good life cast his gaze over to the slumped body of his associate before sighing. "Who sent you?"
"Zeben." Another thing Alex didn't waste in these situations were his words.
Romanov nodded slowly in realization. "Of course."
They were his final words.
Alex fired twice in rapid succession, one shot between the eyes and the other through the heart. One or other would have been sufficient for a kill, but when it came to Romanov, Zeben was sending out a message and that message needed to be sent loud and clear.
A split second after the second shot he heard a gasp. Spinning around immediately he pointed the gun between the eyes of the person who'd just come out of the kitchen. It was a girl, clearly she worked there and was leaving later than the rest. Alex could have sworn that both he and Romanov had checked the place was clear before the meeting went down but maybe they weren't as thorough as they should have been. Instinct immediately kicked in, but somehow, for the first time in his life, so did something else. He should have immediately pulled the trigger to eliminate the witness and clean the crime scene but for some inexplicable reason he didn't. Something was off. She was just a girl, skin dark and rich like moist fertile earth and a body soft and curvaceous which was characteristic of girls from the 17th Sector which they were next to. Her hand was clasped tightly over her mouth, clearly fractionally too late to suppress the sound which had already escaped from it.
Then it happened.
For the first time in his professional career Alex made a mistake.
Normally in this situation, people got scared and stared into the barrel of the gun. This girl was different. She ignored the gun and stared straight at him. So he stared right back at her. Not just at her face, but right in the eyes. He had no idea of what caused him to do it but now he was caught like a deer in headlights. Only these weren't headlights. These were eyes like molten molasses, rich, dark, sweet and sticky enough to simultaneously drown and suffocate you.
For the first time in his life Alex was stuck. He knew he should pull the trigger but he couldn't. He'd been sucked into a vat of molasses too thick to move. This had never happened to him before. He'd never seen this girl before in his life. He didn't know her. So killing her shouldn't even factor onto his radar.
She said nothing and neither did he. They simply stood, facing each other and staring into each other's eyes for what felt like a painfully silent eternity.
He couldn't kill her. She was an angel. It would be wrong to kill an angel!
But neither could he let her live. He was being watched. He knew for a fact that there was surveillance in this building as there was in most Transit Sector Public Buildings and his employers would be tapped into it to ensure the job got done. If it Alex botched it up in any way, or left witnesses, then he would become the target.
So he had to kill her.
He knew this, and yet even as the thought went through his head, his arm lowered of its own accord and suddenly he was no longer pointing the gun at her.
"You- you killed them!"
He should have felt annoyed that she was stating the obvious, but he was lost, not on her words, but on the melodious sound of her voice. His brain screamed that he was in danger but his body refused to cooperate. If he believed in these things he'd think he'd been bewitched. A spell cast over his all too human body. Or maybe she was a siren, like those ancient mythological sea creatures from the cartoons he used to watch as a child. Beautiful and alluring, but deadly. The second you get too close you meet your death. Maybe this was all an elaborate setup to mark the end of his career. Perhaps the powers that be had decided he'd lived too long and was too old for this business. He knew too much about too many in the underworld. He understood how thin the line was between being considered an asset and being found to be a liability. Sometimes that line was as thin as a person's mood and perception.
But this girl was no threat. He knew it. How did he know? It wasn't just in her eyes, it was also in her voice. Her tone.
The fear.
Experience meant Alex knew wasn't possible to fake genuine gut wrenching fear. It changes the baritone in your voice. This girl, her voice was melodious but fearful. He cast his eyes over her body. Oh what a body! Women in his Sector didn't have softness like that and through his travels he'd come to wonder why the hell not. His quick scan did however provide an answer his underlying question. Plenty of softness and warm flesh, but no concealed weapons.
If there were he'd happily die trying to find them.
Why the hell was he thinking like this?
He struggled to fathom what it was that was holding him back before reaching a disturbing conclusion. She reminded him of his sister. Not physically of course, but the innocence of her expression. It was like she saw him but saw straight through him. She saw not only that he was extremely dangerous, but also that he was a person. Barely seconds had passed and he hadn't even started to breathe, but it felt like a lifetime.
"Are you going to kill me?" She spoke again, softly this time in that shaky musical voice.
"No." Why was he doing this to himself? He knew it was the wrong answer and cursed himself for giving his word. Now it was literally going to cost him his life to keep it.
"But you killed those men!"
"And you talk too much!" he snapped, suddenly starting to come back to his senses.
She kissed her teeth and cut her eyes at him. A life and death situation and she cut her fucking eyes at him! If he wasn't already so fascinated with her he'd have blown her brains out for sure!
But he didn't. Instead he put the gun back into the waistband of his pants to avoid the temptation of changing his mind and killing her there and then, and grabbed her roughly by the arm despite her resisting.
"Are you kidnapping me?"
"No. For some unexplained reason I'm saving your fucking life. So MOVE!" Tugging her roughly he pulled her through the door and onto the rapidly darkening street. "This way!"
"But I live in the other-"
He didn't give her time to finish. He had higher priorities than the beautiful girl who wouldn't shut up. He wished he didn't, but he did. Ignoring the sudden shrill sound that filled the air, alerting everyone to the fact that the nightly Transit Sector curfew was about come into effect, he ran down the street, still pulling her with him. She was short and her legs worked hard to keep up with him. He expected more of a fight from her but she didn't resist or try to get away which is the first thing he would have tried to do in that situation. This girl simply seemed resigned to whatever kind of fate it was that was about to befall her.
"Where are we going?"
He ignored her.
"Why didn't you kill me?"
He didn't bother to reply and she clearly took it as him not hearing so she repeated the question. "Why didn't you kill me?"
"I don't know!" His jaw clenched in annoyance. She was being too loud.
"How can you not know?"
He wanted to kill her and her stupid questions, he really did, but now wasn't the time. He stopped and suddenly turned into a dark alley, raising his finger to his lips for her to hush.
She didn't get it.
"Where are we-" This time one harsh stare was enough to silence her and restore her fear. He really didn't have the time or inclination to be dealing with the extra layer of difficulty he'd just dragged along with him. Sentimentality is what got people killed. He had seen it over and over again and had no intention of becoming a statistic tonight. He'd dump her as soon as he could and leave the job of killing her to someone else. There were several metal crates along the side of alley that they were now in. Alex headed straight for the fifth crate along and ran his hand along the back. This was the money drop off point. There should be a wad of cash taped to the back of the crate, the balance of his payment for the hit.
But here was nothing there.
Alex felt a pounding of his chest and he began to sweat. It was news of the worst kind. He hadn't been paid! Instantly he knew it meant three things. First, there had definitely been surveillance at the site of the hit so they knew he'd left a witness behind. Second, henchmen would have been instantly dispatched to take both him and the girl out. Third, they would know that he'd come and look for his payment so this would be the most likely location for an ambush-
"Get down!"
He felt her hand grab him and pull and as he was on his way to hit the ground he actually heard and felt the bullet that flew millimeters past his face.
He stared at her, shocked. She'd literally just saved his life and probably didn't even know it. Maybe he was meant not to kill her so that she could save him.
She really was an angel!
But there wasn't time to say anything. Instinct and adrenaline kicked in with full force. Pulling his gun he shot his head up briefly before discharging the remaining three bullets at the spot where he'd seen a shadow move. He was rewarded with the sound of a man groaning.
Without hesitation he took the girl's hand. "Run!"
Thankfully she listened and was a fast runner. They were nearly at the end of the alley when he heard the shot and instinct made him push himself in front of them and pull them to the ground. Once there he pulled her tightly against him and rolled them both to the side where they could shelter behind the nearest crate.
The fact that she looked soft was nothing to the way she felt in his arms. It was distracting in the worst kind of way. But there was no time to enjoy it. Now there were voices in the alley. He recognized the sound of Sector Patrol officers shouting questions. The sound of gunshots must have alerted them and their exchange with his assailants sounded terse.
This was his chance! With the greatest reluctance he let her go and grabbed her hand again. "Let's go!"
Her response this time was immediate. They fled the alley and ran to the end of the street. Once there he paused, trying to gain his bearings. He knew the route to that particular alley, but needed to think where the safest place to run to would be.
"This way!" The girl pulled at his hand this time and led him down a cross street. "I know where we are!"
With nothing left to lose he allowed her to lead them down what looked like a dead end. At the end she followed the fence until she came to a slight warp in it. Pushing firmly, it opened like a gate and there was darkness on the other side.
Alex was stunned. He had never seen anything like it. He knew damn well there hadn't been any gate there until the moment she'd started to push the fence. He eyes the darkness beyond warily. "Which Sector is through there?"
"No Sector."
That made no sense. "Like another Transit Sector?"
For the first time she smiled and it lit up her face. "Like outside of Sectors!"
It was a concept he struggled with. But suddenly something bothered him more. As she turned towards him he saw the front of her hoodie. It had a familiar red stain. "You're bleeding!"
"Huh?" Her eyes widened with shock and she looked down, quickly touching herself. "No, not me. It must be..."
He followed the direction of her eyes to the front of his shirt. There was blood. Significantly more than hers.
"You're hurt." Suddenly both her eyes and her voice softened significantly. Whatever she must have thought of him seemed to be overruled by the fact that he was injured.
And he was. Now that he thought about it there was pain below his ribs on his side. Maybe the adrenaline of the moment had stopped him from immediately feeling it.
"Come quick and we'll look at it when you're safe." She held open the gate and he had no choice but to follow her into no-man's-land.
And by no choice he meant he had nothing to lose…