Dust and Shadows

Lies and Deceit

Sixteen months ago, February 2nd, 2007

Darkness, it was consuming the land as the daylight faded away. The same darkness that filled my heart as I relished in the thoughts of every life I had taken. I have lived in darkness for practically my whole life killing, and earning pay. Such was the life of a mercenary.

Mercenary...

To be called such a thing these days out in the public got you killed. They hated the thought that there was an organization that was hired to take out people who were or were not corrupted. That for some reason the public thought they could be reformed or innocent.

Who was I to care? I did this solely for the money involved. It didn't matter what they did, or whether what they were doing was right or wrong. If they had a contract on their head, I carried it out. Tonight was no different... or at least I had thought so.

I was currently sitting in a black SUV en route to my target area and information relating to my latest contract. The only problem was, I had no idea where I was going. Only my partners would know such information just in case I was somehow caught and taken away to be questioned. Such a fail safe worked all the time because not one cop could figure out who the mercenary or the contractor was.

A few months ago my partner was replaced when he had taken a bullet for me and died letting me escape. The organization wasn't pleased, but they sent me someone else to do the job. Someone who apparently wanted to work with me, that someone was a blue hedgehog by the name of Sonic. He had the potential to become a mercenary someday and thus fit the profile to become my partner.

While we were on the way to the contract information I decided to close my eyes and meditate. It's not a normal practice for a mercenary such as myself, but it helps me clear my mind just before I start a job. People say that while meditating one can see or sense things before they happen, be it either seconds, minutes, or hours away. The only thing I could sense were a pair of eyes on me.

I didn't hear all the words that came forth from Sonic's mouth, but I managed to catch the last sentence, "...body of a god if I ever saw one." I had no idea why he had said this. Yet it was somehow the first time anyone said anything about me.

"Watch the road. If we get hit tonight before I get paid, you're going to end up like my first partner." I said that knowing that he would look back at the road. I don't know what his real intention for looking at me was, but I didn't care because he wasn't doing his job.

"Sorry. I just didn't know what you were doing. It looked like you were asleep." He was lying, but he was right. Sleeping just before a job was a bad idea since your body could save up energy, but if you only got a few minutes of sleep then your body only worked off of those short few minutes. It sometimes caused mercenaries to sleep right through an illegal act or managed to get them killed, and that pisses off a contractor.

Just as I had finished meditating for what seemed like minutes we had reached the target area. "This is the place, 'The new Mobian Agricultural Department.' It's still under construction, but that gives you an edge since no one will expect you to be here. The locker with our information in it is 6B3. Your gear was delivered to me earlier; it is currently in the back of the car. Anything else?" I shook my head and we got out of the car

It wasn't hard to find the construction worker's lockers since they were on the first floor of the unfinished building. "6B3... Hmm... Ah here we go." Sonic had a knack for understanding the code mercenary companies used to store information.

For example: 6B3, it meant that the information was stored in the sixth row, B series lockers, locker number 3. It was a simple code, and sometimes the simplest code could stump even the best code breaker. In this line of business it had somehow worked in keeping people busy, even after the contract had been fulfilled.