Bounty Hunter [REWRITTEN VERSION]

Chapter 13: In Need Of A Plan

Z

Standing solitarily upon the flat roof above the streets below, Z watched the parading crowds, observing with interest. These people celebrated to happily, so freely. They had no idea that any one of them could lose their lives, if he felt like it. Because that was the power he held as an assassin, the power to decide who could live and who should die. And yet the world below him remained oblivious, unknowing, and happy.

Foolish. Lies. Ignorance.

Because that was all it was.

He listened to the voices, carrying up towards the roof where he remained too high to be seen. He heard laughter from below and he smiled. Ignorance. How nice it must be, he thought.

Footsteps approached from behind, but he had already heard them slide up to the roof before they made their presence known to him. He didn't turn. He knew who it was.

And if they were back that could only mean one thing.

"They got away." He said, voice cutting through the night air as smooth as a blade through water. The steps halted in their tracks. His tone wasn't questioning, he was stating a fact, a fact that he knew because he had witnessed it himself.

"You saw them then," one of the two responded. The woman, her voice hard as he felt her cold gaze at his back, and Z smiled.

"Indeed."

There was a pause of hesitation before the woman spoke up again. "I don't understand you. If you wanted them, then why let them go? Wherever you were, I know you could have taken them out easily and they never would have seen you coming. Why just let them get away—especially after you ordered the attack on their safehouse?"

So many questions.

One couldn't possibly hope to see the bigger picture with a view so small.

"Because, Silan," Z answered simply, chuckle touching at the edge of his voice as his eyes glittered down on the street. "Think of how boring that would be..."

ALEC

Once they had put enough distance between themselves and their pursuers, they stopped running and Alec gratefully collapsed his back against the nearest wall, leaning on it for support as he fought to catch his breath. Neither Kishan nor Maize seemed to be in that much better of a state.

Kishan sunk to the ground, back slumped against the opposite wall from Alec as he inhaled air. Maize on the other hand had propped her elbow up against the brick to steady herself as she too caught her breath.

They remained like that for a silent few minutes, the only sound in the narrow alley being the distant chant of music and their own heavy breathing. As the adrenaline rush began to fade and a calm stillness took over them, Alec could feel the weight of his two comrades gazes as the reality of what just happened hit them.

"What the fuck just happened back there?" Kishan asked, his voice uncharacteristically low.

Alec couldn't answer.

Back when they were speaking with the man who held him at gunpoint, Alec had acted like their appearance had come as no surprise to him, but that was a lie. While he knew they had still been out there looking for them, he had no idea how they could have found the location of the safehouse. It hadn't even been a week since they left the city. Precautions had been taken before and after their departure to ensure that wouldn't happen. And yet, somehow, it did.