Run. Cry. Die.

Business as Usual

Somewhere along the lines of getting told to complete his case and being told that the accidental assassination of a mob boss had made him a wanted man, Phantom managed to find himself running across the rooftops of Venice with nothing but a revolver, five bullets, the clothes on his back and four angry men following him with seemingly infinite ammunition for their assault rifles. Did I mention that that the police were also after him?
"Uh oh." He thought aloud, the rooftops were coming to an end and the only way out of this would be to go down. Down into the water.
"Good thing boss sent back up." He muttered sarcastically, distinctly remembering his boss saying, "It's just a street thug, you'll be fine!"
He glanced behind him at the four men fast approaching and did the utmost stupidest thing he could think of.
He jumped.
The four men watched as the man fell to the water and hit an empty boat, swaying it from side to side as it bobbed in the water, almost going under from the sudden weight change.
By the time he had regained his balance, the attackers had found a way down too. They faced him, guns drawn.
Sirens wailed in the distance. He had three minutes to finish this off.
"You've got five bullets left and there's four of us. You can't afford to miss." On the attackers spoke. He seemed to be the leader.
"Neither can you." Phantom smirked. The four men looked down at their weapons that had been sprayed with water. They cursed and tried to dry the rifles off giving him enough time to shoot all four dead. A bullet through the forehead, works on everyone.
Those four men wouldn't be bothering him anytime soon, but the cops that had just come around the corner might.
He knew he couldn't out run them in a paddle boat and getting to dry land wouldn't happen any time soon so he had three choices. One, get arrested. Two, blow his cover. Three, run. Well, run meant dive in this case.
The officers surrounded him and started to bark orders until he took a deep breath and jumped into the water, leaving his jacket, shirt and revolver behind.
He nearly laughed at the idea of them trying to get fingerprints off the gun or DNA off the shirt. It would match to a dead man after all, but that thought got cut short as bullets started piercing the surface.
He dived further down until he could touch the bottom of the manmade river and followed it down, following the curves and junctions until he felt far enough away to resurface for air. The police would search for him until they found him, he had no doubt about that, they wanted him for more than just killing mercenaries, but searching for him would prove more difficult than arresting the man he had buried under the new building site.
"Dov'è andato?"
"Chi diavolo è questo tizio?"
"Fantasma. È morto tre anni fa."
"Impossibile!"
He listened to their arguing for a few more seconds before diving back under and swimming away, faster this time, and closer to the bottom so he wouldn't run into any propellers or oars. By the time his lungs had started to burn up, his eyes were starting to darken and he threw himself up, pushing off the concrete that lined the ground beneath him.
The canals had narrowed and cafes lined the sides, sidewalks disappeared around corners. He looked around with relief, a crowd of people had just exited a bar. He jumped out of the water and joined the crowd as the police rounded the corner. They spotted him as he joined the crowd then lost sight of him.
"Non puoi nasconderti per sempre! Sappiamo chi sei! Fantasma!" People immediately separated at the sound of his name but he had long disappeared. People feared him, but because he could kill without a second thought. He could vanish without a trace and never be found. He had supposedly died seventeen times in the last seven years yet he just continued to pop up then disappear again.
Halfway across the planet, a man found himself in a completely different situation to Phantom. He found herself so safe that he had become bored. Sure, he may have accidentally managed to get himself arrested for stealing nuclear bombs from North Korea via a computer, but they just shipped him off back home for his boss to deal with. Now, he sat behind a desk with nothing to do except remind people to wait their turn for the boss' congratulations on completing yet another job.
He had been sat that that desk for days and his only relief had been when his good friend, Mr Hacker had given him a virus to upload to the boss' system, ending with them both in ten tons of trouble and a three week suspension from any computerised objects. The worst punishment any tech guy can be awarded.
"Hey Finch, check the Italian news. Any channel will do." Someone wandered past, barging into the boss' office without knocking. Three gunshots went off and the person who had been in an important meeting with the old man came out, terrified and pale. She only got paler when the young man's face came up on the TV screens around the room.
"It has come to my recent attention that a young man, known globally as Phantom, has been the centre of attention in Venice during the aftermath of Antioco Balestreri's assassination and the shocking reveal of his illegal smuggling ring known as L'Unione globale delle armi." The Italian president spoke his obviously rehearsed lines for his country and millions more to hear, "This man should not be feared. He is nothing more than a child living in a man's world and he makes money from living in a world terrified of his name. Phantom is a man just like you or I. He is nothing special. He will be brought to justice, he will face the punishment given to him by our nation. Phantom is nothing but a small child playing with fire."
Over the top of the news cast, Finch could hear two men screaming at the tops of their lungs in the office, despite it being sound proofed.
"YOU LIED!"
"YOU WANTED A DIFFICULT ONE!"
"I DIDN'T WANT TO BE CHASED ACROSS THE ROOFTOPS OF VENICE BY FOUR GUYS WITH ASSAULT RIFLES WHEN I ONLY HAD A FUCKING REVOLVER AND FIVE BULLETS! I NEARLY DIED FOUR TIMES IN FIFTEEN MINUTES!" The younger of the two men screamed before a three minute pause came in the screaming and the older man shouted, "GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!"
"FUCK YOU! FUCK THIS WHOLE FUCKING JOB! IT'S FINISHED!"