• After about half an hour of planning I finally came out with two solutions and three back-up plans. No matter what, there had to be more back-up plans than solutions. That was one of the golden rules of Killing, along with escaping undetected, have a good cleaner, and wash your tools when you were done using them. There were more but they involved specific scenarios. Like if there were witnesses around, just act like one. Some of them saw you, but not everyone. And if one of them tries to pin the blame on you, blame someone else and make up a story. I never had to do that, and I still wasn't expecting to. If Warehouse 57 did exist, and if it was a brothel, and he was torturing someone, I was expecting it to be loud, private, and perfect for a Kill.
    Assuming all this was true. I was taking this all for truth very quickly, but I never did like to wait when someone dear to me was in trouble. If I had any news that Uhali was being hurt right now I'd get Amelia first then head straight back to the Scrap Pile. It was taking everything I had to not just go in there guns-a-blazing.
    I took the scrappy sword and stuck it into a long bag slung over my shoulder. This would be a silent job. Even if it was loud, it was never loud enough to muffle a gunshot. But then I saw the Mauser beneath where the sword was, tossed in carelessly. I don't even remember packing it. It was one the side where the engraving was sticking up. 'Love, Isis'. I wonder what it would say now? "Hahaha, Isis'. This could all be another trap. Maybe she was smart enough to be devious after all. She did tell me she would do whatever it took to become at the very top. That might involve my demise...
    And what if she was telling the truth? What if that damn half-breed really did get herself captured? Right now the risk of her getting tortured was higher than the risk of this being a trap. If it was, I would Kill everything in sight, then go straight for Isis next. Screw Guile. I'll go for the head honcho herself.
    But as I remembered the look in her eyes as she shyly presented me with that gift, my heart wavered. There was always a pang somewhere deep within me for her. The nights we shared, the dates we had, the love we gave...really those were some of the best moments of my life. I would be lying if I said I still didn't have feelings for her. But our lines of work wouldn't allow it.
    I took the gun as a good luck charm and took off, dressed in my usual work clothes; black trench coat, dress shirt, slacks, boots, and gloves. Infira was in winter now, while Alihagos had it's hellish summer. Despite dressing warmly, I could still feel the cold air lashing at me. At least I was use to it now. When I arrived earlier in the day I could barely breathe. It was colder now that it was night, but bit by bit I was getting use to it.
    The red light district wasn't too far from the harbor district, but it would have been an hour's walk. There was no way I was going to walk so I hailed a cab.
    "Where to?" the driver asked in a cliche manner.
    "The Pink Palace," I replied, giving him instruction to go to the most popular brothel in the city. I did a bit of research, and the Pink Palace was the biggest brothel around. It mentioned a few others surrounding it, but I haven't heard of the Warehouse. I guess it wasn't popular enough.
    "Oh looking for a good time eh? Might I suggest Warehouse 57? Best brothel in all of Constantine. Right next to the Pink Palace too!" Ah, so it did exist.
    "No, I'm meeting a special girl at the Palace. I think I'm finally gonna pop the question to her." I smirked nervously.
    "Don't get sucked in by those sluts man. They're just gold diggers, that's my advice, but whatever you want pal." We were off in a matter of seconds. I chose the building next to the Warehouse because I needed to sneak it from the side, window-to-window style. The back was going to be guarded of course. The windows were my best bet. Anyway if I told him I was going to the Warehouse and he caught wind of a murder the next day, I could consider my a** reported. Killer's were widely known across the land, but if they didn't have an official contract and Killed for their own interests, they were criminals. Raven chose me because she knew I wouldn't Kill for myself...or at least she thought. This was all for me.
    When someone hires a Killer, they have to send the contract to the police, which would be the CMF in this case. The Constantine Military Force was the biggest army in the world, and they didn't cut slack for anyone. If they didn't get a contract with the guy who's going to be Killed, and they found a body, it was over for me. I've done these risky things before, working under Isis. The war between her and her two competitors was fought under the CMF's radar, but they knew what they were doing. It's not until they would get the public involved that they would start bringing the hammer down. And I was on my own this time. Constantine also had a death penalty. Isis wouldn't be able to bail me out if I was caught...
    Luckily I wasn't planning on getting caught. I was going to have to take a secret agent's approach, if those even really exist. Isis once told me they could have. It sounded like a joke but she had all sort of specially trained soldiers. Those Ten Agents of hers were real ball busters too. Each one was skilled enough to take out small units of the CMF by themselves. They were the models of perfection. Not one of them has failed in doing anything they were assigned. Guile losing to me was a first any of them have heard of, but it was still a tough battle. He countered everything with expertise; traps, assaults, barrages, everything. If it was a hand-to-hand fight I'm sure I would have lost. But in the end, a special technique stopped him.
    "Ok, we're here," the driver said, awakening me from my deep thoughts of the past. My mind has been going back in time lately. Was the present really not worth living? I've become pathetic.
    "Thanks." I paid the fare and got out of the cab. I was right in front of the Pink Palace. Already I was swarmed with hookers. I might have already caught something!
    I just pushed past them and made my way inside. I would need a room first, one that was on the same side as the Warehouse.
    "Welcome to the Pink Palace sir, would you like a room?" This clerk wasn't even cleverly dressed. She was straight out naked,
    "Yeah, on the west side please. I have a sort of superstitious thing about sleeping on the west side of a building..."
    "Aw that's so cute! Well we have plenty! I'll give you a top floor...you can scream all you want at the top..." she said and winked slyly. The higher the better...but what did she mean by scream? I knew this was a whorehouse, but why would I scream? That was a bit unsettling.
    On my way to the top I kept trying to figure out what kind of person could capture Amelia. Guile was tough, so I could understand that, but another one? How come I've never heard of him then? I was suppose to be the best, I should at least know the name of competitors. Amelia was also the best, and we were tied. So this guy...he was better than me. Memphis Ura. This didn't sound right for some reason, but Isis sounded so sincere. There wasn't a hint of lying in her tone. Maybe I got stronger and she remained the same then? Amelia was caught before after all. She should really consider training harder then.
    When I opened the door to my room there was a woman reading on the bed, sprawled out in skimpy clothing. She smile brightly as I came in, but before she could speak...
    "Get out."
    Her face took awhile to respond, but it fell into a venomous glare as she darted out and slammed the door. This wasn't good. I didn't realize the rooms came with girls...now someone saw my face. It wouldn't take long until they realized the death next door had something to do with me. Now I was really on the clock.
    I opened the window and climbed out. The gap between the two buildings wasn't that big at all, but it took a bit of skill to jump from one fire escape to the other. Even more so to do it quietly.
    My hands and feet landed softly on the railings, only causing a small jingle of loose metalwork. It looked like no one has used it in years, but at the same time I can envision people escaping the bill quickly, being rough on the catwalks.
    It wasn't hard getting into the Warehouse at all. Now I knew where it got the name from. It was one huge warehouse with all kinds of kinky materials. It looked closed at the moment though. There were empty cages with odd contraptions used for self-pleasure everywhere. I could guess where Amelia was now...
    My first plan was to get a wire across the roof with several knives dangling from it. It was used to keep enemies away during an escape. I could cut one end of the wire, and it would swing down into whoever was in the way. There were usually more, but since there was only one exit, only one was necessary.
    When I was done, I scanned the floor below. My exit would be the same window I came in, so I would have to set up a different trap, just in case the first wouldn't get him. If he was stronger than me, I would have to rely on these traps. Some people might think of them as cheap tricks but being a few steps ahead also made a Killer stronger. Whatever it takes.
    Just then the lights went on, and already everything was down the drain. I was not expecting this at all!
    "Up there!" a female's voice cried from down below. I looked down over the railing to the floor to see...
    The Ten Agents.
    I WAS BETRAYED!!!!
    Without even thinking I tried to get through the window to the outside, but suddenly the catwalk was ripped off from the wall and I was sent plummeting down to the ground. My shoulder made contact hard, cracking in several places. I didn't stay down for long though. At once I jumped up to my feet and drew my rusty old katana.
    The Ten Agents of Area Zero; Isis' strongest soldiers. All of them surrounded me in a matter of moments, with Guile among them. Then WHAM! Something made me fly across the room and crash against the wall with devastating force. A bone broke, but I wasn't sure which one. Normally someone would be in too much pain to keep focus, but my eyes caught onto something more painful...
    Isis' smirk.
    "I can't believe how naive you are kid," she laughed, her hand on her waist as she walked over to me. "You really believed everything."
    "How...how did you..."
    "How did I make it sound so real? Simple. I lied to myself," she answered before I could finish asking. "If you believe a lie long and hard enough, you believe it to be truth and you can lie to the gods even. I kept telling myself how horrible I felt to betray you and justified it with selfishness. Your Killer Instincts didn't even detect my lies, did they? Remember kid, I'm billions of years older than you. I'm from the ancient times when Alihagos was called Egypt, back when I was known as the Pharaoh Hatshepsut. History only records a bit of my life. After awhile, I disappeared completely. All these years I've wandered across the earth, but now I think it's time I actually became a ruler again, don't you?"
    Her sharp eyes fell upon me, showing her true form now. "Years of perfecting my techniques gave me mastery over every single aspect of my body. Including my muscles!" She slammed a kick right up my stomach that picked me up off the ground about ten feet. As I came back down her knee dug deep into my stomach, knocking out all the air in my lungs and breaking all of my ribs, but she didn't let me fall. I lied resting on her knee, unable to move. "You were so easy to trick. I almost can't believe it. You thought you were the strongest? Hah! Bow before your next queen! Maybe I'll even let you live..."
    I slid off and landed on my side, barely thinking...blood flowing from my mouth...
    "Memphis, finish him off," she said. So there really was a Memphis. From the shadows stepped out a guy with extremely white hair. If the sun were out I probably wouldn't have been able to look directly into it...but his eyes captured all my attention. Blood red. He wasn't human. "Lobo, meet Agent Zero-Zero; the true strongest Agent. My lovely pet Guile is indeed powerful but nowhere near Memphis' strength. I found that you had the potential to be and deemed you too great a threat to allow to live."
    All the while I could see the dark expression on Guile's face.
    He didn't like what he was seeing. This wasn't the Isis he loved. Everyone else looked empty; perfect soldiers. One of them was wearing a mask though, so I couldn't tell what they were thinking. Amelia was no where to be found...
    The white haired Agent stepped over to me and lifted me up by my collar with little effort. He was about four inches taller than me. My feet dangled as he brought me up to his height. "You're suppose to be Killer 13? I heard that guy took out that strongest Killer. You...you don't even look like you can beat on Guile!" he laughed loudly. "Or maybe Killer Wraith was just a sniveling weakling?"
    I brought my forehead down on his nose with vicious force. It was enough for him to let go. At once I drew the Mauser Isis had given me and aimed it at her. Her eyes were wide open with shock; she wasn't expecting me to bring a gun. She predicted everything but the gun, something I wasn't even planning on...she was a Killer!
    "..." I aimed up and shot the wire with the knives hanging from it. Everyone's attention turned to the point I shot, and at once I took off as fast as I could. I had to use a makeshift exit and jumped through the window on the first floor. With a small head start I ran through the alley and into the street, screaming for a taxi. One stopped right in front of me and I jumped in as fast as I could.
    "Where–"
    "ANYWHERE!" I didn't know how long the knives would stall them, but if they were the best then I bet none of them hit anyone. But still, they had to at least dodge them. That would give me enough of an opening.
    "You look like you've seen hell dude!" the new driver said and took off. "You need to get to a hospital!"
    "No...not the hospital...take me...to...the airport..."
    "...alright then..."
    I had enough money to pay for the fare, and enough to buy a one way ticket. There was no way I could go back to the hotel room. Isis would be there. Also I didn't have weapons anymore. I dropped the sword and the gun. Even my teddy bears...the ones Raven gave me...I didn't have those either. Those were my last memoirs of her...and the guns Amelia gave me.
    Now...I literally had nothing.
    "Where are you going?" the driver asked. It was a long drive to the airport, and talking would keep me awake.
    "The Junkyard..."
    "That barren wasteland? That place is too violent man!"
    "It's perfect for me..."
    Perfect for me...I knew when I had the energy I would break out in rage. Isis betrayed me...and like an idiot I looked the other way...I wanted a friend so bad I didn't trust my Instincts. But how far did this conspiracy go? Was Cole in on this?
    My brain was fuzzing...it was too painful to think...all I was sure of was...Isis was freakishly powerful...
    And...
    I would never see her again...
    I would never see anyone ever again...
    I had enough.