The Deadman

It’s a rental apartment with a barely furnished room.

A woman entered a room carrying around a long briefcase. She takes a look around the apartment. Sliding her hands between the sofa and objects in the room.

She confirmed something and took the briefcase she carried with her and placed it on the table in the living room. She pried the latch of the briefcase and revealed weapons parts inside.

She started assembling the weapon inside her briefcase. By the time she was done, there was an anti-material rifle she was holding in one hand.

She searched inside her bag. Took out a pistol and two knives. Then she reaches out again inside and took two suppressors out.

Her hand reached inside again and pulls out a  lever-action shotgun wrapped in leather.

She took her phone out and started dialing a number. The phone rang for a minute.

“I am here.”

“How was the trip”

“I got here unchecked. The route that you have selected was very effective.”

“I told you that it will be worth the price. You can walk in with your guns.”

She walked to the window and took a peek outside.

“I expected worse from this city.”

“Hmm, it was a shithole with a beautiful exterior. It’s not so bad considering.”

She was now back in her seat. She was inspecting the barrel of her rifle. Examining it for any problems that might occur.

“I assume that I don’t have to meet with the client?”

“No. The bastard’s hiding after knowing that CASE was after him. Wouldn’t leave his location until it was clear. Doubt it’d be clear even after we’re done with the target.”

She was frowning. There was clear doubt on her face. This was not an ordinary assignment. If anything it was a contract that would buy time for the client to find a way out of the mess he created.

“Main objective was to make sure that the target was safe. Other than that there are key targets that need killing. Makes it easy for him to  make some noise.”

Her gaze suddenly becomes sharp.

“Is that bastard really here?”

“Who knows?”

The voice behind the phone answered blankly. She was clenching her off-hand, digging her palm. Her beautiful face was twisted in anger. Unbelievable anger that makes the spine shiver.

She took a picture out of her bag. The picture showed a man in his twenties. Brown hair slicked backward, a sharp well-shaved face with confident green eyes. The man was wearing a suit and was holding the briefcase of the guy he was working with.

“The bastard wasn’t using his real name after all. It’s not uncommon in the business to do so, but being that careful must have meant something. If he was here then can you recognize him?”

“I can.”

“Good. Well, he was a secondary objective. Right now you have to worry about making sure that your target was alive and his enemies are dead. It won’t be easy with how many he had pissed off. That’s why I had you bring that beauty with you.”

She looked at the face on her folder. Her blank face frowned at the information gathered from her client. The client that they have was detestable. He seemed to be trafficking young men and women to have their organs harvested.

The price of their goods was high and even then they aren’t content enough and have somehow pissed off an ancient organization. She was not here to protect the client fully. She knows when not to step into the tails of dragons, but she isn’t unafraid of them either.

“I’m guessing that you’re moving now?”

“I am.”

She opened her duffel. One by one she took the items inside. Gloves with reinforced knuckles. A tactical vest and pockets that are full of magazines and ammunition. She took her leisure coat off and wears the vest under. She sheathed a dagger on her waist. Holstered her pistol and checked her rifle again. Concluding that her weapons were okay. She took a cloth and wrapped it around her anti-material rifle. She carried the rifle on her back and walked out of her apartment and back to the car she bought cheaply from one of the thieves in this city.

She drove to the center of the city. The Garrison was the only place in this city where the tallest buildings are. She had noticed that most of the houses here were terraced. The roads were either cobble or paved with Belgian blocks.

The main roads were made of asphalt and concrete. She had heard rumors of the city and its bright appearance fooling people into thinking that it was just another peaceful European City.

But underneath the bright appearance of the city.

What was underneath the city was a melting pot of people all over the world trying to do business in secret.

The Paradise for Criminal Syndicates.

The homeland of contraband smuggling.

And a place where the strangest things can happen. She wasn't afraid of the rumored organization lurking in the city’s shadows. But she knew how hard it would be to face monsters like them.

She arrives at the tower that she contacted. She found the emergency exit of the building and started climbing to the highest floor where the vantage point was set up for her. It was a nest with direct sight to the restaurant that the enemies of her client were attending. They were doing a meeting regarding the actions of the organization that had recently interfered with their business.

She set up her rifle in the nest. Installed the suppressor on the muzzle of her rifle.

“I’m here.’

She called her handler. Her handler was silent behind the phone for a moment before replying tonelessly.

“They are currently inside. The guy we hired said that he marked the spot where to shoot. It should be a yellow splatter under a blue line marking.

She scanned the wall she was looking and spots the yellow splatter under a blue line marking.

She took a breath, adjusted her scope, and calculated the shot.

She waited for the wind to still.

Then she pulled the trigger with empty lungs.

Hitting the center of the yellow splatter.

“Don Castelo was dead.”

Her handler said.

She wrapped her rifle with a cloth again and leaves the nest.

***

The scene of the crime was in the center of the city. He was walking to the crime scene when an officer stopped him. He takes out his ghost badge and showed his credentials to the officer.

“Ah, Detective, I thought there was one already?”

“This is a big case.”

“The Witnesses are on the first floor, sir.”

He continued walking to the scene. He found the carnage. The restaurant was said to be the usual place where the Bosses come here to pay respect to an old timer. Don Ronaldo Castelo. A retired crime lord who had settled in the City of Saint Lucius to live the rest of his life supposedly in peace.

Unfortunately, the Don’s wish to die in his bed wasn’t going to happen.

He approached one of the Witnesses. He took out his tape recorder and asked him.

“Can I ask what happened here?”

The man looked at the tape recorder. He opened his mouth and was trying to form the words to tell him to go away when he held himself back after seeing his Ghost Badge. Cupping his chin, leaning his elbow on his lap. The man nodded slowly as he answered.

“They have a meeting like they usually do. But it was around twelve when a shot came from the east. Something went through the Don and his brain got splattered. Thinking it was some trap. It became a large fight. They started accessing and blaming and then the guys on Don's side started shooting.”

There were cars in the parking lot that were full of bullet holes. About five were dead on the lot while there were blood trails left indicating that the rest escaped after the police started rushing to the scene

“You think there was a problem? Someone ambushed them to make a message?”

“Who knows?”

The Witness eyes the pack of cigarettes in Robert’s pocket. Robert takes one and hands it to him.

“Anything else? I see CCTV is installed here. Did they already secure it?”

“There's no videotape for today. The owner doesn’t roll it when these guys are around. It’s a secret meeting and they don’t want anyone looking at what they do.”

It made sense. Robert asked for more information. Any detail that the Witness could remember. The rest of the information that the Witness had was something he was hiding. Robert understood that guy was reluctant to tell anything because of the people involved here. He was about to persuade the Witness when Agent Wilson sauntered into the crime scene looking at the place with a stressed demeanor.

He gestured for Robert to follow him. Robert strode next to him to the scene of the crime and found  the forensic team clearing the room for any evidence. Using his senses all at once. He noticed all the important things leaving an aura of gold. The red markings he could see leaving a trail in the form of shapes. His line of sight followed the entry point and then found the bullet lodged in the drawer. It had been marked by the officers on the scene.

Then he focused on the seats. Don Castelo left his trace in the room.

Agent Wilson took an initial report from one of the officers. He skimmed the report and groaned loudly. Robert took the report from him.

“So he was shot with an armor-piercing round from a .50 caliber rifle.”

“Bullet checks out. The forensics team traced the probable path of the bullet and after asking around. They did notice an open window in one of the buildings that had a clear view of the restaurant.”

“They work fast.”

“They do. No, it’s more like they are used to this. But this was one hell of a shit storm we have here, Oswald. If Rubio Ferric was making this noise then there was a probability that he was trying to sow chaos to throw us off or it could be another power-hungry bastard.”

“It’s going to be a problem then?”

“More than that. I doubt many of them are going to be willing to talk now. Don Castelo was one of the reasons that these gangsters are being well-behaved. He’s the wise man who advises them to play ball and with him dead the ones left are the mobsters from Italy, Russia, and the rest are folks who are coming here to fuel their turf wars.”

“You think Ferric ordered the Don killed?”

“I don’t know. He might have. I can get why he would since he just made a big fire and everyone was getting heated up. But everyone’s going to be on their toes now.”

Robert folded his arms. He checked the scene again and pocketed his recorder after stopping it.

“Guess we’re assuming that Ferric was part of this.”

“He was part of this. This makes me wonder if he was in the city actually. Then again, if he leaves or tries anything. We’d catch him. There’s going to be one hell of a seat that needs to be filled up and with how things are. I doubt they’d be so keen on being friendly right now, shit.”

He looked stressed. Then again this man was balancing the situation between these crime syndicates and the supernatural world.

His foot  was on each side.

While Robert’s job was to find the bastard connected to the folks smuggling humans and harvesting them for their innards.

Honestly, all this scheming and plotting was troublesome. Nonetheless, he already had a job to find the bastard. Where should he start this time? There wasn’t much clue and he can’t exactly pinpoint anything. What Agent Wilson knows was what he knows.

Robert tried to search his memories. And yet there was nothing other than the blur of memories that he could remember.

He visibly groaned.

“What now?”

“I don’t know. Hmm, I’ll dig up some information. Go through the list of associates and people he had made contact with. And if there was no choice then I’ll have you go to the Rosaritas. Those women know a lot of things.”

“Oh, them. You don’t want to go there?”

“They aren’t fond of people like me, Oswald. And they are much more amiable to the Commission. But if you do come for them. It’ll be hard as well since they’d be asking favors personally.”

The Rosaritas were not easy to deal with.

The modern witches of the 20th century.

And Witches like them were very hard to reason with.