Assassination

“That won’t be possible,” Nathan said. I looked at him in surprise. “As financial adviser for Dragonside and the person who gets food for Mortem, I can no longer avoid this.” He looked at me dead in the eyes. “We’re running out of money,” he said.

“Are we in debt?” I asked.

Nathan rolled his eyes. “No, but we might starve soon if we don’t get a little income.” Scarlet looked terrified as soon as he said that.

I sighed. “Fine. We’ll do contracts, but just to survive.”

“You’re so lazy,” Danny said.

“No one asked you,” I said roughly. James looked at me in surprise. I realized that the apprentices had never really seen me like this. “Thanks. You can leave now.” James turned on his heel and left without another word.

“Right,” Kenny said. “What have we got?” He asked Danny.

“There’s one that slightly pertains to our motives,” Danny said. “Some general has been targeted.”

I perked up excitedly. Most assassinations were hard, but assassinating people who have been in combat are the hardest. They are the ones that also happen to get adrenaline pumping through me. Danny saw the interest in my eyes.

“The person requesting his death will leave the payment next to a certain tree in a graveyard with as many details as they know about the target, and why they want him dead,” Danny said. “Although I do suspect it has to do with slightly inhumane things.”

I rubbed my hands together eagerly. “Excellent,” I purred. “Who shall it be?”

“Well, since we can all tell that you want to do it, we’ll let you have it,” Kenny said.

“I’ll go with her,” Nick said.

“Alright,” Danny said. “I think we should do one more, just in case. Kenny, this seems more up our alley.”

Scarlet swiped the paper Danny was looking at out of his hands. As she read it, her eyebrows crept up her face. “I don’t think you two should be doing this one together,” she said, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Killing an art collector who has been accused of having pleasure women who become horny because of the scent of a drug he burns? You two would be too close in a dark and tiny place.”

Danny’s cheeks went red. “What are you? Our mother?” He demanded.

“And you think that Nick and Shadow won’t do the same?” Kenny demanded.

Now it was my turn to go red. “This is a general!” I said. “We won’t have to go into any circumstances like you guys!”

“Sure,” Scarlet said.

I sighed. “You want to take this one, don’t you?” I asked her. I knew why. Looking at the picture of the man, it seemed like he was heavily built. Kenny’s and Danny’s abilities might cause more commotion than hers.

Scarlet nodded. “Yep,” she said.

I rubbed my temples. “Fine,” I said. “Kenny and Danny, you two can find another one.”

“Wait,” Danny said. “Should we give Pablo one?”

I honestly didn’t know. He was still in shock. There was a high possibility that he would screw up the kill just because he was depressed. On the other hand, Annie wouldn’t have wanted him to stay in this shell of despair forever. She had liked him because he was the exact opposite of that.

“We can ask him,” Nathan put in. “If he says no, then he can stay back to help guard the place. If he says yes, we can give him an easy mission to see how he’ll do.”

I nodded slowly. “That sounds like a good idea,” I said. I nodded more surely. “We’ll do that. Nice plan.” Nathan glowed with pleasure at the praise. He was like a little puppy dog.

“She said nice,” Nick said. I groaned. He just had to be a killjoy. “Just this once.”

“My plans are always amazing,” Nathan snarled. “At least they’re better than yours!”

“Why do you two argue all the time?” Scarlet said suddenly.

Nathan looked puzzled. “I don’t know,” he said.

“Pah,” Nick said. “You don’t know anything.”

“Lords!” Scarlet said. “Nick! Answer the question!”

Nick shrugged. “I don’t know either.” I smacked my forehead.

“How should we kill them?” Kenny asked. It was obvious that he was eager to get off the subject.

I shrugged. “However you want. Go through the normal routine. Figure out their habits and how they act. Kill them so it looks as natural as possible.” There was silence after that.

“We’re probably going to go to hell for assassinating people,” Danny said suddenly.

“At least we’ll be going together,” Kenny said.

“That was so romantic, I wanted to throw up,” Nick said.

“Nick!” I said. “You ruined the mood!”

“There was a mood?” Nick asked.

“I meant all of us!” Kenny said, red touching his cheeks.

“Sure,” Scarlet said. “You keep saying that.”

“I don’t feel like going,” Nathan said. I rolled my eyes. Of course he didn’t. Thankfully, Nick didn’t say anything.

 “Alright. We’ll all go to get our payments tonight. Start scouting in the morning. Who wants to go ask Pablo?” I asked.

“I’m not going.” We looked up to see Pablo walking in through a doorway. “I don’t feel ready.”

Inwardly, I sighed. I wished he had taken it, just to make sure that he was getting better. But I suppose you can’t push it, not when your true love died just a few days ago.

“Alright,” I said. “Then you get to stay back and watch the place.”

“No problem,” Pablo said. There was silence for a minute.

“And, if possible, I would like you to track down the movements of our former apprentices,” I added. “It seems that they have joined an army.”

“What army?” Pablo asked.

“People planning to rebel against the Protector,” I said.

Pablo frowned. “But wasn’t he elected today or something?”

“This is politics,” Kenny said. “Anything can happen.” He got up from the table. “Danny, are we ready?”

Danny stood up as well. “Ready when you are.” Kenny held an arm out to them, and together, they disappeared. Scarlet teleported without another word.

“Where’s the graveyard?” Nick asked me.

“The former country of India,” I said. There weren’t any names to distinguish different countries or cities, so we just used their old name.

Nick’s expression didn’t change, but I knew that he wasn’t overly fond of the place. He had been born there, abandoned there, brought to the Sphere as a slave, and then moved back to India, only to find that it was a corrupt, horrible place. He hated it.

“It’ll be alright,” I said. “We just have to go, scout for a few days, kill the guy, and then we’ll be finished.”

Nick nodded. “Let’s go,” he said.