Mikhail

1

I spotted them standing in a corner of the fifth floor of the abandoned uncompleted building.

The woman had an impatient look on her face while the young man beside her looked bored out of his mind. When she finally spotted me approaching, she released an impatient breath. I scoffed.

“Yo man you're finally here.” Mateo said, stepping forward, hand outstretched.

I glared at his hand until he withdrew it and went back to stand beside his mother.

Rita blew air out of her nose, giving me a look of disgust. She then turned to her son.

“Is he the one?" Rita asked.

“Yes mama.”

“Really, Mateo? This. . . man?” Her voice was as derisive as the finger she pointed at me then.

She was a tall and slender woman and middle aged but she still looked good all round with her exotically cut blonde hair and expensive chiffon dress. If attitude was excluded.

And she'd better not irritate me.

I'd told Mateo that I was past the point where I accepted contracts to kill bad guys. He'd had to beg me before I agreed to meet up with his mother in this godforsaken uncompleted building.

Only to earn her disrespect in return.

“Trust me, Mama. He's the best we can find. Never fails his job and leaves no trace.” Her son answered, eyes taking in my figure confidently, excitedly.

“How can you be so sure? He doesn't look like...”

Before she could complete her demeaning remark of me, I acted. I'd noticed something in the air rushing by. Without wasting any time, I pulled out my gun which had a silencer and pulled the trigger.

A small squeal told me it was a bird. One of its feathers danced and fell onto the ground in front of me. Rita squealed, stepping backwards. Mateo's expression was a mixture of fear and fascination as he took me in.

If only he knew that the hidden camera on my black jacket was also taking both him and his mother in. An assassin has got to keep some form of protection.

Fuck that idiot, Bargio. If only he hadn't showed a picture of me to Mateo, I wouldn't have had to make this a face to face. That guy was walking way past the limit of the job I'd assigned him to.

“Do you still think I'm incompetent? ” I ground out, glaring at Rita. “Or do I have to do that to you before you believe me?”

I hated it when people questioned my capabilities due to my size. I knew I wasn't the tallest person on earth, but if you would asks me, then I thought standing at five feet seven inches was quite okay for a man. It certainly didn't disqualify me as an assassin.

What? Were assassins supposed to be six feet or more?

“You don't have to prove anything. That woman made my son lose his father. I can't die too.” She sounded terrified, and that pleased me.

“Yeah, man, take it easy.” That was Mateo, trying to look all brave as he said that.

I snorted, focusing on his mother. “Who is this woman you people want me to kill?” I asked impatiently.

I'd targeted an unscrupulous child trafficker for quite a while, and I wanted to deliver on my promise to my self to free the world of one more terrible person.

The woman pulled out a photograph from her huge handbag, handing it over. “Here.”

Taking the picture, I looked at the woman in it. She was staring away from the camera and into space blankly. Her expression and posture were unreadable, and there was something forlorn about the way she sat.

Something hit me in the chest, making me feel like I'd seen her somewhere before.

I immediately dismissed the reaction, turning to Mateo's mother. “I'm going to repeat myself. I only kill bad guys. What's her crime?”

“Her name is Montserrat. She is my late husband's daughter, but he never acknowledged her legally. When she found out that he'd left her completely out of his will–only God knows how–,she decided to exact revenge.”

Tears brightened her eyes. “She chased my husband down on one of his business trips and. . . and stabbed him four times in the stomach. She called me to gloat about it. I had the police arrest her but they couldn't detain her for much long because she left no traces.”

Rita wrapped her arms around herself. “Now she's threatening to kill my son if I don't make sure everything my husband left for the two of us is transferred into her name. That woman is the devil herself.”

I took everything she was saying in impassively, but I nodded solemnly when she was done. “I'm going to need more info. Where does she live? Is she normally around people?”

“The last the police went looking for her, they said she lived in this filthy little cottage in the middle of the woods downtown.” She replied spitefully.

Filthy little cottage in the middle of the woods. Obviously, she'd been waiting for her father's money to elevate her from poverty, a place she was confined to probably because of her own laziness, to rich overnight.

“Could you please put away the gun? It gives me the heebie-jeebies.” The woman requested, staring warily at the weapon in my hand.

I tucked my gun behind my belt at my back, feeling its reassuring dig against my skin. I saw her ease up considerably.

“So I'll give you the money after the job is done.” She said.

I chuckled scornfully at her pronouncement. “I don't need your money.”

She studied me like I had cut a string or two in my head. “Nobody does such a job if they aren't in need of money.”

“Try me.”

“I'll give you money anyway. That way I can be reassured that you will remember to do this job before that woman fufils her threats.”

I stared at her in silence and watched her reach into her bag. She pulled out a paper bag with quite some weight.

“I'll give you half the amount first, then...”

“If you insist on paying me, then I want the full amount. I don't do halves.” I said sternly.

I would just give the money to a random stranger on the street.

Rita stared at me defiantly for a while. Then she let out a sigh when she looked at her son's reassuring face. “Fine. Here. Take it.”

She practically threw the bag at me. I caught it in time and made sure to issue her a heated look that made her flinch.

“Hey man. Call when it's done." Mateo said.

Nodding curtly, I left the deserted building and the area ready for my next mission. It was time to kill another bad guy. Or should I say bad girl?

The thought made me smile with relish as I got onto my bike, turned the ignition and stepped on the pedal.