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The sink in Kaiser's kitchen was filled with water. It was not a large kitchen, since Kaiser lived in an apartment, but it suited his needs. He had his sleeves rolled up, washing off some blood from the job that morning. Pausing before drying his hands, Kaiser stared blankly at the chunks of gore floating in his sink, and wondered briefly if he had made the correct decision when he came here. Well, that was a silly question. There hadn't been much of a choice. He couldn't have avoided being here- that he took as fact.

A click behind him signaled somebody entering, which was odd because Kaiser wasn't expected company and he had locked the door. As there wasn't a weapon in easy reach, he opted to turn around and lean casually against the counter, arms crossed. The intruder, he saw now, was a young man, probably about half his age. He wore a black, tailored suit, and his hair was perfectly groomed. This look he knew. This was the appearance of a brand-new government agent, one of a legion of expendable New Guys that were always kept on hand for unimportant tasks. Unless something was amiss, the kid had exactly two weapons on him- a gun under his left armpit and a knife strapped to his left ankle -and the bare minimum of martial arts training, which he was sure was enough to see him through any job.

The kid held up a skeleton key for Kaiser to see as he closed and locked the front door. "Never leave home without it," he said, giving an obnoxious, condescending grin. He crossed the room and mimicked Kaiser's stance, leaning against the opposite counter. "Real pleasure, by the way," he said. Kaiser stared at him, willing his head to explode. After a minute of awkward silence, the smile disappeared from the kid's face. "I'm here to kill you!" he announced, spreading his arms dramatically. "What do you think of that?"

Oh, okay. Now it made sense. He wasn't supposed to be here. This behavior stank of youthful bravado and the idiocy that it usually resulted from. Kaiser continued to stare, doing his best not to blink. These kids were always easy to unsettle. They put on a good show for a little while, but they fell apart once they realized you weren't impressed, and then it was over pretty quickly.

He broke even sooner than Kaiser had expected, reaching into his suit jacket and withdrawing his little black handgun. "So I'll...just..."

Then Kaiser was on him. He snapped a kick to the kid's hand to point the gun away, then got hold of his wrist and shattered the arm with an elbow. Screaming, the kid dropped the gun, stammering threats and trying to pull his wrist free. Kaiser's hand snaked around the back of his head, grabbing the hair on the opposite side and giving it a hard yank. The kid spun around, hrowing him off-balance, and Kaiser kicked his feet out from under him, heaving him through the air to land on his back on the counter.

An elbow to the sternum stunned the kid long enough for Kaiser to take stock of his surroundings. No weapons within reach, except for the knife on the kid's leg, but if he went for it the dumb b*****d would have enough wiggle room to get free. That left only one thing- distasteful, but there wasn't anything else he could do that wouldn't require more effort than it was worth. Glunk. He shoved the kid's head under the water and held it there with both hands, leaning on the kid's chest to keep him from rolling off the counter.

It was great for a few moments, until the kid figured out what was going on and started fighting back. He was young, but Kaiser had been doing this a lot longer and he was still in good shape despite his age. He held his assassin-c**-victim with all the irritation he could muster, gripping him tighter the harder the kid fought back. His hands scrabbled uselessly at Kaiser's arms, but he obviously hadn't cut his nails in a while, and now there were great, bloody scratches all over. Eventually his movements weakened, then stopped entirely. Kaiser held him there a few more minutes to make sure he was good and dead, then went about the business of stuffing the body in the trash can in the alley.

Kaiser sank into one of the chairs in his living room area, and just sat quietly for a few minutes before he realized how much the scratches on his arms hurt. He looked them over, and swore loudly. "How am I going to explain this?" he said out loud, then decided it just wasn't worth dealing with and went to bed, too annoyed to even change clothes first.