The Deadman

After spending hours in the hospital bed after Wilson left. He had concluded how different their lives were. Now that he thought about it, maybe this side of the world existed back in his world, but was well-hidden and buried deep.

Those who live in an interesting world live interesting lives. 

It was because of this that he could understand why Robert’s life was a bit wild compared to his.

Not to mention that he at the moment had a semi-automatic pistol chambering a .50 Action Express pointed at his temple. In front of him was the same she-devil who he tried killing days ago. He wondered if Wilson failed at negotiations, then again, she would have shot him dead already.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t kill me.”

“I’m thinking about it.”

Sofia Rita Grimaldi snuck in the middle of the night with a Deagle. It was overkill, but she found it reasonable to deal with Robert after fighting him.

“You have changed,” she said sincerely. “Or will you always be the kind of guy that doesn't show how good he is?”

“I mean Professionals need to have standards.”

She pushed her gun on his forehead. It was starting to leave a mark on him as she pressed it forward. Robert’s face didn’t change. He looked at her straight in the eyes with the light of the room on her back. She was wearing a Doctor’s coat and the ID on her breast was meticulously crafted to look like the ones that the staff was wearing.

“I guess so. I saw the documents. But I want you to tell me what you did.”

Robert frowned. He recalled how he escaped to Palermo. He told her that after he shot and killed someone. He was recruited by an outfit in Palermo, and then after some unfortunate massacre got involved with CASE.

After listening to it she still didn’t lift the gun. It was simple. Even if the misunderstandings are resolved and even if she was forgiving enough to someone who shot the person she had cared for.

Anger. Resentment. Sprinkle them with enough rage and all that trust and love would evaporate. Robert, no, Kato believed that there was only one woman that he knew who’d be so rational and kind. And he watched her die without not being able to do anything other than hold her hand.

Sofia Grimaldi was different. She ran on emotions and the way she functioned made it clear that she only had an interest in those who she deemed worthy enough to enter her heart.

Robert managed to get into her heart. But after what had happened. This woman had become a mercenary working for clients who paid her well to kill. She has the talent for this kind of work. A dangerous woman who had emptied her heart. And her emptied heart was told that it was all a misunderstanding and an honest to god mistake. All that years of the resentment and it was all a misunderstanding?

What kind of saint would forgive that? She wasn’t. He wasn’t going to forgive easily. It was reasonable not to after they shot each other. It didn’t help that a barrel of a gun was pointed at his head.

She wore no trinkets on her body. Robert had not checked and he was confident that the charm that was handed to him would protect him enough to fire the double-barrel hiding under his blanket.

“They paid us a lot to get off this. I hate that I can’t pull the trigger right now. Oswald,” she said blandly. “I pull this trigger now then a gun will fire and kill what I care about.”

Robert didn’t flinch. He kept on looking at her without interest. If anything there was no fear. Not anything that made Robert feel the gun on his head.

“Do you regret it?”

“Hmm?”

“Killing my cousin.”

“I do. But not that deeply. Honestly, it was an accident and things like that happen. I didn’t steal. I just ran without saying anything. You know how they are. Reason alone isn’t enough. They’ll make me a scapegoat.”

She held the gun to his head. Because of the light, he couldn’t look at his face properly. The human heart was complicated and irrational. Robert knew that no amount of excuses could get rid of that.

Really, why do I have to deal with your relationship problems? Robert sincerely thought as he looked at the ceiling.

“You didn’t call. Didn’t even try to reach me out.”

“I forgot because I was afraid.”

Robert really did. It was because he was afraid. That was the reason. The simplest reason why he ran and ran until he found himself as an Enforcer working for CASE was because of his own fear.

“You’re not a coward,” she said with certainty. “I know that you are not. No one would try that unless they aren’t.”

She kept the pistol trained on his head. Her finger was still on the trigger. With the light adjusting his vision, he could see the mixture on her face.

But that emotion hardened. Replaced with rage and then it was gone. She snuffed it out and holstered her gun. Robert raised the shotgun hidden from his blanket and placed it aside. She chuckled bitterly at the sight of that shotgun.

She took something from her pocket, lit it, and started smoking inside his room. Robert groaned and fished out one cigarette from her pack. He snapped his fingers and lit the tip.

“Shit, I miss my chance to kill my first love.”

“You still can,” Robert pointed at his head.

“Can’t do it now. I don’t want to trouble them. I hate it. Why can’t we just kill each other as thugs should?”

“Because Wilson got your weakness. I’m sure that if he didn’t find that. Do you really think that you’d be smoking with me right now?”

The she-devil grinned, “Yeah, I’d happily blow up your head. Are you lucky or unlucky, Robert Oswald?”

“I’d like to know too.”

Robert quietly smoked his cigarette. After a quiet ten minutes, she stomped on the butt of her cigarette and went to the doorknob. She gave Robert a glance before taking her to leave.

Robert relaxed visibly and stared dully at the text sent by Wilson. It was a text assuring him that there should be no threat from Grimaldi’s team.

He doubts that he’d be so calm if it wasn’t for the text. He was sure that he would shoot first. She could have killed him. He could have shot her as well. But Robert didn’t want to fight either. He guessed that some of that affection was still around. There was simply no reason for him to do that.

 

*  *  *

 

Outside of the hospital, Sofia could sense the eyes gathered on her. If she made a mess she knew that it would have been over. That she wouldn’t walk out of the hospital alive. If it was just her, she wouldn’t mind risking putting a bullet on Robert’s head.

“I was sure that you’d come out of that place as a corpse.”

Sarah Woods waited for her outside. She parked her compact car on the side of the road while looking at her PDA.

“I thought of shooting him. I really did. Now, don’t look at me like that. It isn’t about whether I still care or not. But we got their eyes on us and if we tried anything. Do you really think that my family would be left alone?”

“Nope. I don’t know where they are even with my connections. Even if we killed Wilson, someone else would do the job for him. And these people aren’t the kind that we need to be watching us. Shit, I should have listened to my gut.”

“Too late now.”

Sarah Woods pocketed her PDA. Sofia Grimaldi sat on the hood of her car and stared at the building.

“You can still go and shoot him, you know.”

“I wanted to marry him.”

“What?”

Sarah raised a brow. Sofia looked at her and then stared blankly at the walls of the hospital.

“It’s true. I had thoughts like that. He was my first. He treated me well enough that I’d certainly think it wouldn’t be bad. But you know how things are.”

“So you do care.”

“I did. I spent years thinking about why he ran. I even tried to kill him days ago. I’m not so forgiving. But I guess a good part of me wanted to give a reason not to do it.”

“You’re more emotional than I thought.”

“Says the girl who persuaded me not to shoot his head.”

Sarah gave her a firm and decisive look. It was a look that made it clear that she had no reason to doubt her judgment.

“Because it’d draw unwanted attention to us and you’d have a lot to lose if you let that emotion control you. Our mistake here is that we got involved with this client. I told you, getting involved too much in this side of the world is a mistake we must never make. Making an enemy of these secret societies is the fastest way to end our careers. We killed a lot of Wilson’s men and he was gracious enough to let us go and make use of us instead.”

Agent Wilson was a pragmatic man. He was a guy who knew how to compensate for his loss, invest, and make sure that it meant something. They weren’t so kind as to just let it go. If it wasn’t for the list of reasons that Wilson kindly gave them.

Sarah wouldn’t have backed down. Sofia would have tried her best to put a bullet on the people that their client wanted dead. She would have tried killing Robert in the end.

It was beneficial to stop. If the target they put on their back wasn’t enough to convince them. Then the men outside of Sofia’s family house were enough to rein in her anger.

They attracted a lot of heat from people that they wanted to avoid. To continue was a death sentence. They needed to think of the consequences and think to themselves if this was worth it.

Sarah concluded it wasn’t. So she persuaded Sofia that it wasn’t as well. Wilson gave her an idea of how to convince Sofia to stand down and listen.

Sofia heard Robert Oswald’s reason as well. Real or not. It was enough to rationalize that they needed to think about whether this was worth bleeding for.

It wasn’t. If anything it was one way out of the contract they made with the client. Being associated with an outfit that sold innards and blood was bad for people like them. There weren't a lot of people in the world who’d trust freelancers who worked with people cold enough to harvest the organs of people.

Sarah also wanted to know if she could really convince Sofia to stop. It was also Sarah’s way of wondering if she could reign that rage of hers that wasn’t easily conquered. If she would be rational enough to understand the danger.

She was a good partner. One of the best that Sarah had the pleasure of working with. She was good at her job. But her temper was something that she wanted to test.

If she didn’t care and just tried to shoot Robert Oswald. She would have ended the partnership right and there. She appreciated the skills that Sofia had. But working with someone who couldn’t hold back her rage was not worth it in the long run.

Their job could be messy sometimes, but most of the time it required discretion and silence. It was rare for her to go all out for a job. And when she does it becomes messy like this.

Sarah took her PDA out and looked at the email. “Looks like we got leads on where our dear client is. Agent Wilson has sent a list of targets for us to kill.”

“Is he paying us well for them?”

“He is. Most of them look like they are part of a human trafficking outfit. I guess they have decided to take out these people and cripple their manpower.”

Although they lost their previous client, their new client paid well, and being friends with someone like him who is well connected with international organizations made more sense than some bastard dealing with blood and organs of people.