The Last Heretic

THE DEAL

Jillian landed in the dirt, glancing around the trainyard for signs of life. A stray mongrel sniffed a pile of garbage in the distance, its forked tail swatting at flies on its back. A train lay still on one of the many tracks, its wheels melded to the metal of its rusty graveyard over years of derelict slumber. The place was deserted. Abandoned. Her protégé cleared the wall in a single jump, landing in a roll next to her mentor.

"Alright - stay back and lay low. I got a bad feeling about this meeting from the price alone. If anything happens...wait for my signal before you reveal yourself."

The gravel crunched under her feet as she walked over the train tracks and towards a derelict warehouse. The moon was high in the night sky overhead, casting its calm and gentle glow over the abandoned trainyard. She could hear the quietest little pitter-patter of the girl's footsteps on the dirt a little ways behind her. It was hardly louder than a drop of water hitting the ground. She needed more training.

The girl slunk through the shadows behind her mentor as the woman calmly walked along the gravel and dirt of the abandoned trainyard. Her footsteps were nearly silent, but not silent enough. Jillian glanced in her direction, her eyes piercing her soul as the girl crouched behind a rusted traincar. Not silent enough.

The woman shook her head and walked towards the warehouse. Out of sight. Evelyn exhaled and listened. There was a heartbeat no more than a hundred yards away. It was irregular. She quietly stepped out from behind the traincar and paced towards the mysterious sign of life. She smelled the breeze - sweat. Human body odor.

She peered around the corner of another traincar and spotted the source: a mercenary. A guard, by the looks of it. He had an automatic rifle slung over his shoulders. A cigarette in his lips. Another guard walked out from behind a pile of gravel and tightened his belt.

"It's fuckin' cold out tonight. Boss say how long we'll be out here?"

The guard with the cigarette chuckled, "The lady just walked in, so probably not much longer. Want me to grab you a blankey? Make you a nice hot cup of tea?"

"Yeah, fuck you too. I just don't get why we gotta be out here in the first place. That lady's rich right? Buying that shit with daddy's money I'll bet. You ever see a rich kid try something fishy?"

"I hear ya. Waste of fuckin' time, this is. Honestly surprised we don't just shoot her."

The other guard picked up his rifle leaning against the gravel pile, "Hey. You don't rip off rich guys. They'll just put a hit on our heads."

"Mercs killin' mercs, huh?"

"I'm serious! You hear about that shootout in the east end? Some drug dealer got ripped few days before. Sent a kill team and everything. High bid, too. Rich guy."

The other guard exhaled a wisp of smoke into the night air, "You're fuckin' paranoid."

He walked up to him, "Paranoia keeps me breathing." and flicked his fingers at the man, "Gimme me a smoke. You owe me, anyway."

The man grumbled and pulled the pack out of his pocket, handing it to his colleague. The hair on the back of his neck shot straight out. The air instantly energized. The flash of light singed the eyebrows off his face as the man before him exploded into a fine red mist. Evelyn's eyes widened. The blood covered the merc's face as he just stood there. His cigarette sizzled as the red liquid boiled on the ember tip. He hadn't even processed what just happened when a robed figure stood next to him and placed its hand on his face.

Evelyn flinched as the man's head popped like a fruit under the tire of a carriage. Fragments of bone and sticky bits of his brain slid down the side of the traincar behind him as he crumpled to the ground. The figure walked away, vanishing out of view behind a rusty shipping container. The girl could feel her heart pounding as she struggled to control her breathing and keep it as quiet as possible.