Clepsydra [ON HOLD]

Chapter 3: The Viper

Looking through the files, there's too much yet not enough going on. Sure, Stultus has my name down and wants me... dead? Alive? I don't know but he has plans for me. Question is: what are they? Is it to control me? Use me? Sell me?

    It would be stupid to do any of those things. No one – and I mean no one – is able to lock me up or bind me with chains if they try. I am reckless, yes. I am carefree, yes. I am wild, yes. But, most importantly, I am me. I do what I want, when I want, and how I want. I take any job I want and I don't do it for the money. I do it for me.

    The files are all coded, most of it isn't a known code, which is a problem. I leave in a few hours to get on a plane to Iceland, and I need the codes before I leave the house. I need them before I leave this damned room.

    I start a new program, programming it to help decode everything I can and run it against the files. Some come easy, others are more time consuming. Whatever. I'll just read the easy ones for now.

    Opening the first file, it's quite small. And, to be honest, not much is there. A few smaller files that contain even smaller names of towns in other countries, a few usernames of suppliers and quality control for the supplies for the Trade. Not much for me to go on, really it's nothing for me to go on since it doesn't include Orien.

    Other files are about the Skin Trade, buying and selling of girls, where the high targets are, where they can find certain girls, but that doesn't really do anything for me either. Neither is my line of work, really. I deal with the Laundry Lists. I'll just send that file to someone else. Someone who deals with the Skin Trade. A good person.

But, maybe...

    I press 'control + F' and type my name in. At first nothing came up for Letum, but that isn't really surprising. I type in my real name, and it actually pops up. For the Skin Trade. One that Stultus wants to sell me into. One that has a photo of what looks like my face (but it's grainy and blurry, so even I'm not sure if it's me or not) from last week as I entered the little mom and pop store, the one that's a town over from me. Fuck. At least only part of my (assumed) face is shown...? How would anyone know that it's me? It's not like I go introducing myself like "Hi, I'm Thana. I kill people for a living and my user is Letum! How are you?" That would be absurd.

I might be crazy, but I'm not stupid. There's a fine line between them, and I haven't crossed it. At least, not in public. By myself, yeah, I could be stupid, but with others, I'm calculated, cold and know my surroundings. Nobody knows my name, in either town. I'm a ghost here. Never seen. My targets never leave alive so the police don't know my face, others in the Laundry don't know me. I may train some, but they never see me. They see my mask. My one and only black and gold mask. That's my calling card to others if they see me. My drawing is my other one for the forums and the police.

Whatever. It's a fluke. No one would be willing to take the job. It's suicide. They will die before getting within ten metres from me, much less the three that they need. But, how would Dorotheos know about Orien? I never talk about him. Never. Talking generates curiosity, which in turn creates enemies. I may be tracking him, but it's fleeting. Some here and there, social media, satellite. Nothing major, nothing that can be stored or cataloged. Nothing that would give the impression that he's someone I must protect. Nothing about him being my Protected, much less any Protected. And, nobody has hacked me. Not once, so how would a stranger know? 

My computer dings to the left of me, getting my attention away from all the questions to the new file that was decoded. This one is bigger. Way bigger. I open it, and it's some of what I need.

Orien Orikr:

Age: 27

Marital status: Single