BLACK WIDOW

acquiescence

acquiescence
(n.)
the reluctant acceptance of something without protest

•••

"still, I feel like I don't have control sometimes."

•••

The Black Market. The Deep Web.  Basement bars. Gangs. Mobs.

All places where Natalia could find the work that she yearned for. Over the years, she realized that she couldn't live without a little violence. It was who she was. It was who she was designed to be. It had been five years since she worked for the KGB.

Whether Natalia liked it or not, she had been programmed to. She was raised to crave blood. She was trained to yearn to kill. And thats just what she was going to do. She was advertising herself as a spy and an assassin for whatever anyone needed. Sure, she had to start low, but it didn't take long for people to realize that the Black Widow was for hire.

She figured that as long as she wasn't doing these thing for Russia or for Hydra, she wasn't doing anything too bad. What she was doing now was of her own free will. She wouldn't accept a a job that seemed to drastic.

Now, Natalia was working for sophisticated mobs and high paying mafia bosses. Politicians ordering hits. Asking for information. What she liked about this version of her profession is that she got paid. She got paid a lot. She was paid enough to where she could buy new lives. Buy safe houses. She had complete and solid covers. She could be whoever she wanted to be.

And that helped so much. Hydra and Russia were always after her. Always in hope they could get her back. But Natalia was never going back. S. H. I. E. L. D. was always on he back too. Hank Pym kept them off her tail for a while, but he resigned from S. H. I. E. L. D. the year that Natalia defected. Now some of their top agents were always after her. S. H. I. E. L. D. didn't really try to bring her in. They really only spied on her. Kept tabs.

She could never rest.

"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature."

And it had. She was moving country to country, house to house, name to name. Natalia Alianovna Romanova was a name long lost to her.

She lifted the heavy metal plate from the street just enough to where the was room for her to slip her small body through into the sewer systems.

This current task should be easy, she thought to herself as she dropped to the bottom of the tunnel, her feet splashing the dirty drainage water around her.

It was just an Irish mafia boss. His death will most likely spark a war between the families, but Natalia thought, what the hell. It'll be fun.

She jogged through the tunnel, on their way to the street where a gala was being held. She could have gotten in and killed him the fun way, but she needed to get this one done quickly.

She had to meet another employer. A woman. She was in London, so she had to get out of Ireland as soon as possible. The meeting was set up for tomorrow at six. And she couldn't just blow this woman off. It not like she was desperate for work. She could find anything any day. But this woman was ready to pay one million dollars if Natalia succeeded. And she never failed. Not in seven years. And never before that.