Thursday night

Chicago

The night was quiet.

I liked quiet, but experience had taught me that quiet was not always good. Chicago was a city. A City meant crime. Crime meant criminals. Criminals meant some form of disruption, such as noise.

I cruised the dark streets looking for anything out of the ordinary, but to no avail. I buzzed a few Cop cars, just for some fun and tormented a pair of Cops that worked for my Mom. For some reason Mindy had ordered me to wind them up whenever possible!

"Goddamn vigilantes!" Sergeant Fellowes moaned as he mopped up his spilt coffee.

"Did that bitch put you up to this?" Sergeant Murphy demanded.

"And what bitch might that be?" I asked innocently.

"Hit Girl!"

"That's for me to know and you to find out!" I replied, accelerating away at speed.

"I feel uneasy with the city unprotected."

"I know, Paul, I know, but Mindy did say that we could trust Petra, even if she is another annoying bitch who loves winding Cops up!" Sam Fellowes replied with a grimace.

"At least somebody is out there keeping the flag flying," Paul Murphy commented.

"Let's get back to work. We're supposed to be chasing after the likes of Petra and turning them into Sergeant Richards."

"Yeah! You going to see Marcus, this evening?"

"Why not!"

Northwestern Memorial Hospital

"Evening, Boss!"

"Great, more damn grief!" Marcus moaned.

"Not getting it in here then?" Paul asked, ignoring the presence of Paige.

"I tried!" Marcus replied with a smirk at Paige.

"Is that all you think about?" Paige demanded with a laugh.

"A good chunk of the day, yeah," Marcus admitted.

Paige laughed.

"You've already done enough damage!" Paige said, unconsciously rubbing her belly.

"So I can't do anymore damage!" Marcus persisted.

"You are incorrigible; just like Mindy and Megan..."

Paige tailed off and went silent.

"What is it?" Marcus demanded. "How come Mindy and Megan have not visited?"

"Mindy made us swear not to tell you till they had left..." Paul began.

"What?" Marcus said loudly. "You're more scared of Mindy than me?"

"No offence Boss, but, yeah," Paul admitted with a smile.

"Where are they?" Marcus said after closing his eyes for a minute.

"They are pursuing the shooter. They left yesterday for Gotham," Sam said.

"Gotham! That fucking hell hole!" Marcus exploded. "Who?"

"The whole team, Marcus," Paige said.

"Megan?"

"Yes. Curtis, Tommy, Marty, Abby, Josh, Erika and Dave, too," Paige admitted. "Chloe and Mindy have been in Gotham since Monday."

"Alone!" Marcus was appalled.

"They were the advance team. They're fine; they check in every few hours."

"Okay. Just please keep me informed!"

West 18th Street and South Indiana Avenue

I sensed that something was wrong the minute I set foot outside my apartment building.

I turned east on West 18th Street towards the 18th Street Metro Station. I was just about to cross South Calumet Avenue when there were four large cracks and four cars started to burn from the inside. Next, I could hear the sharp crack of small calibre rounds. I dived for cover, along with everybody else. I was not heading for a job, so was not 'equipped' which was not to say that I was unarmed!

I pulled out my cell and dialled a number, given to me by Hit Girl, whom I understood, was not available for an unspecified amount of time. The call was answered by a voice I did not recognise.

"Good evening, Mathilda!"

Whoever it was, they knew my name!

"Who is this?"

"I am Petra and I have cunts to hunt, so speak fast!"

"18th Street Metro Station. Explosions. Gunfire."

"Cool! On my way, I'll call you when I'm close. Stay safe."

Petra was gone.

Even though I had been on the phone, I had been looking around observing and what I saw was not good. I was out of my element, by quite a bit. I was in the middle of Hit Girl shit. I killed from the shadows, not out in the open. Not to mention that while I was armed, I was not exactly carrying my usual armoury. I debated heading back home, but no, I needed to help Petra put down whatever was going on around me.

My cell rang.

"You having fun, yet?"

It was Petra.

"I assume you are watching me?"

"Take the fun out of it, why don't you!"

"Look, bitch, we have work to do..."

"Temper, temper, Mathilda. One o'clock, down the alleyway."

I turned to my one o'clock and saw the flash of a motorcycle headlamp from between two buildings. The buildings were so close together that the alley in between was in almost total darkness. I casually headed in that direction and after checking that all was clear, I casually faded into the alley darkness.

"Smooth!" Petra said approvingly in her electronically enhanced voice.

She was astride her black motorcycle, looking as menacing as ever.

"So, I assume you didn't drag me into this alley to fuck me, so what's the plan?" I demanded.

Petra looked me up and down before responding.

"It would definitely be a consideration!" Petra laughed.

I did swing that way, but not right at that moment.

"You can eat me, once the city is safe, Petra, so wind in those hormones!"

"You are no damn fun, you know that!" Petra whined before getting serious. "It's the fucking Sicilians again!"

"Is that all?"

"You're shitting yourself, just like I am, so let's keep perspective," Petra growled back. "Those explosions were set to cause maximum terror, now look at this..."

Petra produced a tablet computer from beneath her seat and showed a map of the city. "

You see these points. All have had explosions in the past half hour. So the Cops will have gone to the sites of the explosions, now look here."

Petra pointed to an area that had no point marked, it was where there should have been an explosion and if so, it would have completed a circle.

"That point will have no cops," Petra finished.

"Maybe the bomb didn't explode," I countered.

"Fucking crap choice!" Petra replied as she pointed to the map. "Go find your tools and meet me here."

"Thirty minutes!" I announced and left the alley, heading back towards my apartment.

Thirty-five minutes later I parked my old, beaten up, SUV round the back of an eight-storey apartment block. I grabbed my equipment from the trunk and ran up the external fire escape. Once I reached the roof, I scanned it before stepping out and running to the far side. It took me another six minutes to assemble my sniper file and dial Petra.

"Overwatch is ready!" I called.

"About fucking time!" Petra growled. "What do you see?"

I aimed my scope at the point where we expected to find something, exactly what we were looking for I had no idea. I scanned the roads, the intersections and then the cars and buildings. Finally, I stopped dead on a store. I recognised it immediately; it belonged to a friend of Tony's, back in New York.

"They're moving in on Nikki's store," I told Petra.

"Nikki?"

"He's a friend of a friend; an Italian. I think the Sicilians are staking their claims to this City."

"Like fuck, they are!" Petra replied. "How many?"

"Looks like twenty or so."

"Can you trim them down and cover my back?"

"Not a problem!"

I watched as Petra showed herself, down near the store. She drew her Tactical Katana Swords and I heard her challenge the cunts as I took aim on the largest man there.

I caressed the trigger and took a breath.

"You're fucking with the wrong people, motherfuckers!"

"Vigilantes cazzo!" One man growled in Italian. {'Fucking vigilantes!"}

"Sicilian scum!" I growled back.

Then the head of the man exploded like a melon and pandemonium descended on the street as I started slicing into the Mafioso. The blood looked so good as it flew through the air. I saw men dropping to Mathilda's bullets as she covered my back so I could continue my fight forwards. I felt a bullet hit my chest, then another. I ignored the pain and channelled it to my advantage, turning it into anger and violence.

I saw a Mafioso move into the store and head over to where I could see Nikki cowered, with his wife and two sons. I ran in and drove both blades into the man through the back, almost cutting his body in half as I withdrew the blades. I nodded to Nikki.

"You are safe!" I said, as Sergeants Fellowes and Murphy came in the rear of the store, pistols raised and dragged the family to safety out the back door

"Dio vi benedica, Petra!" Nikki called as he left. {"God, bless you, Petra!"}

I turned as three more men entered the store.

"I've lost you!" Mathilda called out. "You have six left!"

"I'm okay; Nikki's out. I can take them!"

I rapidly broke down my rifle and ran down the fire escape.

I heard Petra's yell as I went; the fight had begun.

"Come get me, you bastards; you sure do bleed a lot!"

I arrived at the store minutes later and found Petra lying on the floor. I could see blood on her armour, but it all seemed to have come from the dead bodies around the store. She stirred.

"I think I fell!"

"You have a bullet scrape on the side of your mask. You were knocked out."

"Did he get away?"

"No, he didn't!" I replied, holstering my pistol and looking towards the back door and the dead body. "Let's get you back to your feet."

"Not bad for a day's work, if I do say so, myself!" Petra said, looking around as she stowed her blades on her back. "Anyway, how about that promise?"

"What promise?" I asked.

"You said I could eat you, once the city was safe!"