▽ ᴍᴏʀᴘʜᴇᴜs ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇx [SIDE STORY + IMPACT]

[Velveteen]

She couldn’t see Aksel in her peripheral, not willing to take her eyes from the door, but she knew he wouldn’t be far. She was a little confused by what he had said when he responded and was about to make some joke about him calling her names when both Remington and Nix reported their status. Velveteen stood stock still, but every muscle was tense and ready to spring into action as soon as the ***** they were after appeared. The dark haired vampire wanted to look her in the eye as she mindblocked her, cutting the rogue vampire off from all but her physical resources. There was a second of silence that seemed to stretch an eon before the door crashed open with a thud and the light from within blinded her for one very minute but almost fatal moment.

It was like the mental flicking of a switch and the other woman's eyes widened when she realised what had happened. Velveteen had achieved her goal but just a tad too late as the outstretched arm that held her gun went limp and lifeless by her side. Pain ripped through her shoulder and she howled in pain as her gun thudded heavily on the snow covered ground. Precious moments had been lost and Velveteen let loose with a string of profanities that could make even the most hardened sailor blush like an old lady. She didn’t have the time to heal nor grab her gun as she watched after the shadow now disappearing down the alley, wounded but still very much alive.

“Aksel! Keep on her.” The order given through gritted teeth, a mixture of pain and major annoyance, though she was pretty sure the man was already doing exactly that. When it came to hunting Velveteen was more like the maestro in front of the the orchestra - Everyone knew the part they were to play and she just kept the beat.

Already she was moving again. Her arm, hanging limp and lifeless by her side, moved awkwardly and hindered her ability to run at the needed speed. The woman became a almost invisible blur of motion as she invoked the power of celerity, propelling her forward and past the running rogue. She came to a sudden halt in front of her, cutting off her escape route. The vampire turned to face the target and dropped down on one knee, summoning the shadows to life in the form of a living, black blade that didn't quite look solid and pulsated with darkness. Surprised by Velveteen’s sudden arrival, the rogue was unable to pull up in time and ran straight onto the shadow, shrouded blade, that pierced her through the midsection and emerged at the other side. She was momentarily impaled and heavily wounded but still not dead. Velveteen grunted with the effort it took to maintain the shadow sword and she knew it was not something she could do for much longer.

“Come blow this *****’s brains out.” She knew he would be there. That was how they worked. They could count on each other like that. And she was sure as **** certain that she wouldn’t have to ask twice.

[Aksel]

At once, the atmosphere of that dark alley changed. A shift occurred, where tense silence exploded into adrenaline and terror. Instincts kicked in between the pair of women; the huntress and her prey. He watched the exchange between Velveteen and the Rogue with a practiced patience and a steady hand. His rifle rose, his cheek resting against the weapon’s length as he gazed into the optical scope. The moment the Rogue stepped into the dark, his weapon tracked her every movement, his finger resting against the trigger guard. He held his fire, waiting for the order to fire.

Again the action shifted. One moment, the target sprinted at the fastest speed she could muster in her condition, careening down the narrow path in an arrogant, straight line. She didn’t suspect they had a rifleman standing by. She believed she was in the clear, thought she had gotten away. The moment that she had stepped into that alley, she had sealed her own fate. Velveteen made his job easy, but even without her halt, the shot wasn’t a challenging one.

When the blade erupted from her back, he understood in an instant what the plan was to be. Before Velveteen even gave the order, he could see the next few moments unfold. His finger slid slowly from the guard, depressing the trigger half of the firing distance as he exhaled. The red dot of the scope’s reticle rested against the back of the rogue’s skull as she began to attempt to free herself from Velveteen’s blade. Blood soaked the ground at her feet.

He waited. He wanted to see her face when it happened.

Time crawled.

She freed herself from Velveteen’s blade and turned to flee, her good arm clutching her bleeding gut as she attempted to make her way to the end of the alley and into the street. It was then that her gaze rose to the building across the street and saw the lone figure standing in the shadows just outside the reach of the streetlamp’s glow. It was then that she saw the rifle pointed at her skull.

He could see Him, then. Could see Him in her eyes.

Death.

You can’t save her.

“Tilgiv mig.”

Time froze as the rifle whispered, only the smallest breath of smoke rising from the suppressor, the flash eliminated entirely. The woman didn’t have time to scream. Her eyes, pleading, had fallen so far. Minutes ago, she was a god among men. Gifted. High on her power, and above any law that might deign to control her. Now, she was ready to fall to her knees and plea for mercy. She would find none.

Her left eye, the one farthest from the point which Aksel stood, exploded in her skull, the high-velocity round entering her cranial cavity there, passing through the ocular nerve and sucking the tissue back into her skull with the violence of its trespass. She was dead before the bullet reached the back of her brain, erupting through the wall of bone in a fountain of blood and gray matter, splashing across the snow-ridden alley as her body catapulted forward, her steps becoming unsteady and unsure before they became stumbles and her frame collapsed to her knees.

Her remaining eye blinked, rolling wildly without the brain function to control it. Her face had been pretty once. Young. Full of vitality and power. She had just made some mistakes. Unfortunately, in the world she found herself in, mistakes cost lives. This time, it was hers. Her body tipped forward, face crushed into the pavement, smashing her nose. Her body trembled once, and fell still before it evaporated, dust in the wind.

Finally, he exhaled and let his rifle fall. The muzzle pointed to the ground at his feet as he pressed his lips into a thin line. His job was done.

He pulled the slide on the rifle back, ejecting the spent shell and catching it in his open palm. No evidence that he had ever been there. He was a ghost. Invisible.

No one.

[Remington Rothfelder]

“I’m fine.” He said. He hadn’t bothered to take a look at his wound. The pain registered, but he knew that it would cause no real permanent damage, and for that reason, it could wait. His blood was black as tar, and it flowed to the surface, only to twist in the air and then dissipate just seconds later. The thrall had been taken care of, and Remington knew his sire and Aksel well enough to guess that they would see to it that the rogue was finished off. One matter was left to deal with, the cook who had puncture wounds on the side of his neck. There were two of them, because the rogue had not bothered to seal the wound. She’d bitten for arterial blood and the man had drained out in a moment’s time.

Remington sheathed his blade in the scabbard that lay across his back, and then pulled his gun into view. Warmonger. An appropriately named piece, Nix would likely recognize it as one of her constructs. He took aim carefully, and then pulled the trigger. The kickback from the firearm was strong enough that it would have sent a normal grown man back a step. He could wield it single handed. There was the splatter of blood when it contacted, but it obliterated the physical evidence of a vampire having been there. True, a medical examiner could determine that the shot had been fired post mortem, but so long as there was nothing left behind to indicate evidence of his species, he didn’t care what conclusion some humans came to.

The smells of both blood and gunpowder were thick in the air, and he nodded towards the alleyway behind the diner. “How you guys doing out there?” He asked into the communication device that connected all of the participants in the tiny massacre.

Outside, the action had not ended. In fact, in many ways it was only just beginning. There was the sound of an engine cutting off, the noise of which had been covered over by the sounds of battle, by gunfire and running, and screaming. It was clear in that moment that the members of Tytonidae were not alone, though the figure in the shadows did not reveal himself at first. While Remington was waiting for an answer back from Velveteen or Aksel, a figure in a black suit appeared. He had one end of the alley blocked by his government issued vehicle, and he didn’t seem at all bothered by the violence he had obviously witnessed. In one hand, he held a device that played Remis words as clearly as the ones that were stuffed into the ears of the other members of the team.

Tytonidae’s private channel had been compromised.

More importantly than that, the one who greeted Aksel and Velveteen had a heartbeat, and a gun he’d lifted out of a chest holster, which was strapped over a white button down shirt. Held in one hand, the barrel of it took aim at the black haired Necromancer. Confident. Had he put in a call for backup or was he acting alone, but with a foolhardy sense of skill? “Well that was certainly an interesting show.” His government badged glinted when light flickered over it.

[Phoenix]

Once she'd fired her shot into the alleyway, Phoenix tucked her handgun away and retreated into the diner. While the rest of her team finished off the work outside, she - like Remi - had thought to ensure no supernatural evidence remained of the crime. While Remi had taken care of the cook's bite marks, that left the mess she'd made of the thrall. Nix made her way to the front of the kitchen, careful not to disturb the rest of the crime scene. Laying there in a pool of her own blood, Donna's throat sliced to the boned was hardly indicative of suicide. Neither was the cook's gunshot... Suicide was out, though perhaps they could swing some sort of muddled double homicide.

It only took a few seconds to the redhead to scan the kitchen and locate a blade of similar width and sharpness to her dagger. Ideally, she'd have left the actual murder weapon, but the custom workmanship was too easily traced; the kitchen knife would have to do. Plucking it off the counter, Nix knelt by Donna's lifeless corpse, carefully avoiding all that blood, and opened the wound a fraction more. Like Remi's gunshot, any decent coroner would realize the wound's exacerbation had been done post mortem, but at least this would confuse the identity of the original weapon. With her new knife thoroughly muddied in the waitresses' blood, Nix pushed herself to her feet and returned to the cook's body. The knife was wrapped in the man's fingers, ensuring they'd leave a print, and just as quickly released to let the blade clatter to the floor. Au naturale, more or less. She honestly couldn't say the night's events had improved the diner's appeal, but she was hard pressed to think they'd deteriorated all that much, either.

Her eyes flicked to Remi and she gave a shrug. It was good enough.

What didn't sit well with her was the sound of the engine shutting off, and then the vehicle door slamming. There was no possible way the police had shown up yet. They'd taken up less than half of Harper Rock's average emergency response time - that was if anyone had even bothered to call the police. Her brow furrowed as she caught a snatch of conversation from outside; that it didn't come over head headphone meant someone else was out there.

"I'm going out," she informed Remi, freeing her handgun. A moment later, the redhead had slipped into the shadows and stepped out into the alley, disappearing from sight. On silent footsteps, she edged along the wall towards Velveteen and the newcomer. The suit, the badge, and the confident droll of the man's voice told her all she needed to know: government, and not the pencil pusher variety. Her gun raised and she took aim at the man's chest, though she'd wait for Vel's command before taking action.

For fear of revealing her location only a few dozen feet from the agent, Nix opted to reach out to Aksel, Remi and their leader with her mind, "I have a clear shot."

[Velveteen]

Unable to maintain the shadow sword, the power faltered and the rogue vampire broke free, fleeing immediately. The woman was pretty heavily wounded by now which made her movements a little slower and more awkward as she ambled away. Given the opportunity, Velveteen took a moment to heal herself of the wound that was inflicted on her and regained full use of her arm. Her fingers flexed as she stood and rolled her shoulder, watching after the the retreating target. She could see enough to see when the escaping figure came to a stop. She heard the suppressed sound of a fired gun and watched the figure fall. That was all she needed to know. The job was done. “Well done Aksel. The rogue has been taken care of guys.”

Velveteen made her way back to the diner. She guessed they had a bit of a mess to deal with and the sooner that was done , the sooner they could get the hell out of there before further attention was attracted. She didn’t spot the car or the figure leaning up against it until she stepped out of the shadows. “Was it?” She asked with a slow growing smirk in response to his comment about it being an interesting show. Her arms came up to show she wasn’t carrying a weapon as she inched closer. If he was going to shoot her then he would want to make it a good one. One bullet wouldn’t stop her and she had no doubt in her mind that the others weren’t somewhere hidden, likely watching the situation already and listening into the conversation on their headsets. Her eyes fell to the device in his hand where her own voice came back to her when she spoke. How long had he been listening? “Though I am sure you missed the best parts.” Her voice confident as she tried to keep the conversation going.

“Perhaps, but I heard enough to know you might have something that we are looking for.” The agent stood and started walking towards her keeping his gun raised and ready. “And I want it now.”

Just then Nix’s thoughts were pressed into her mind and she replied in kind. “Stand by. Let’s see what it is he thinks we have. We don’t really need a dead agent on our hands as well.”

The vampire’s head tilted and her brow furrowed a little. “Oh I doubt it but tell me...what is it you are looking for? Maybe I can help you.”

“First of all, if your friends don’t want to see you dead they should come out of hiding.” His voice had risen in volume so as to make him heard in all corners of the darkened alley way. “I know there at least three of you. If you give me what I am looking for maybe we can make the rest of this go away. Who are you working for?” He was a cocky son of a ***** and obviously clueless. It seemed that he did not know what they were or he wouldn’t even be attempting to do this alone. The fact that he only thought were three meant he hadn’t heard Aksel at all which could be used to their advantage.

“Aksel stay out of sight and keep your gun on this guy.” A faked nod of defeat was given as she called the others out….two of them. “Nix. Remi.” Shortened versions of their names used only. The Agent would be hard pressed to identify them with such little information. “He is onto us. Come out.” Her grin didn’t waiver. He couldn’t kill her. Not with one shot and one shot was all he would get before he was dead. One lone agent? Yeah she wasn’t too worried but she was curious about what he thought they might have.

[Aksel]

‘Out of sight,’ she had said.

Invisible.

Clearly, she forgot who she was talking to. Even right in front of people, he was invisible. He was a bland, ordinary guy. Easily overlooked. He blended in with whatever scenery you put him in. He was just a natural born neutral like that. At least, if you were to ever ask him, that is what he would tell you. Quietly, he pushed the rifle’s action back into place and retreated further into the shadows, skirting away from the streetlamp that glared down on the empty side street with its harsh, artificial glow. He really was invisible. He was a ghost.

By her command, his rifle rose, cheek pressed against the guard along the rifle’s stock as he watched the agent confront his faction mates through the optical scope. He let the sight rest just below the man’s sternum. Low on the chest, it would avoid the heart at the least. He aimed to maim, not to kill. They wanted him alive. He exhaled, a habit of his he intended to break momentarily as he watched through the scope, letting the scene unfold in front of him.

Now was one of those moments where the adrenaline had peaked, teetering upon the edge of decline just before the game kicked into overtime. A break in the routine. His body reacted accordingly. He could feel the buzz of energy that rolled through him after the kill. Not necessarily a high. He didn’t enjoy the work like most would think. To him, he was there to offer a penance for the crimes these people had committed. It was a job. A serious job. And he took it seriously. What he felt now was his body preparing for another wave of action, his friends once again toe-to-toe with the danger that threatened to bear down upon them all.

And you are hiding in the shadows, useless and impotent as ever.

With grit teeth, he focused. His world narrowed to the task at hand, his finger moving to rest against the trigger as Velveteen called the others out from hiding. The Dane resecured his grip on his rifle, not taking any chances with the prey at hand. In silence he steeled himself, his aim as sure as ever. His mind was focused, a finely tuned machine that could ignore the consistent wailing of its own gears, the sneering, chiding voice all but lost in the singularity of his determination. It was crucial that he retained every piece of information that came to him, his eyes locked on his target, straying only to the figure of his commander in short, periodic glances. He wasn’t sure if the signal would be by voice or by signal, and he had prepared himself for both.

In silence he waited.

In darkness he watched.

[Remington Rothfelder]

There was a look exchanged by Nix and Remington once their work was done. She shrugged and he smiled. Simple as that. Her method worked. With as much criminal activity as took place in Harper Rock, a couple of extra homicide cases would end up most likely lost in the shuffle. That, or the police would pin them on a deserving criminal for whom there was not enough evidence to put away. Remi had seen that in the past. No surprise that he was not a fan of government authority. As upstanding as people with badges might have acted, most of them were still just people. People with agendas and motivations that had nothing to do with the altruism of fighting on the streets for stability and safety of the innocent populace.

That was when he hear the slam of the vehicle door, and much like Phoenix, he let the shadows envelop him for the second time in the evening. He became wrapped up in the darkness, and invisible to the naked eye as he pushed his way through the door leading into the alleyway. He caught the tail end of the conversation between Velveteen and the man in the suit. He did not pull his own weapon, instead watching the scene unfold. Nix had the man covered. Aksel, somewhere else, probably looking through a scope, probably also had the man in his sight. If the agent moved to pull his trigger, he would end up on the ground, twitching in a pool of his own blood before the round ever left the chamber.

The suited man’s threat was essentially null and void.

He had to think quick though, because both he and Nix had gone invisible and Remi did not want to reveal more than was necessary. “We’re coming out now.” He whispered into his headset. Even though he was already outside. The sound of it played through the little device that the agent was holding. Really the Shadow was just trying to stall for time. And it worked like a charm. No sooner did he give the assurance than the over-confident agent began to spill exactly what it was he was looking for.

“I picked up that you are on the trail of the reporter. I don’t know how you found out about her or the information she has, but that doesn’t matter. You are just another group of hapless mercs who have stumbled onto something much bigger than yourselves. If you turn over any leads you have, I will be sure that what I have seen here stays between us.”

Remington, by the time the agent had begun his little spiel, had already made his way around the man so that he could see if he could either pull the door to his SUV open or see anything through the tinted windows. As it turned out, he could do neither. He reigned in the sound of frustration that wanted to bubble out of him. A brow lifted though, when the subject of information came up and he curiously wondered what that might be about. Could it pertain to the existence of vampires? In. The hands of a reporter?

He moved without thinking. One foot in front of the other, he was just a foot or so behind the agent before he even knew what was going on. His gun was out and he slammed the stock of the rifle against the back of a head. The agent went out like a ******* light, and as he crumpled to the ground, Remington’s shadows began to dissipate, allowing him to slowly appear. “I will load him into the SUV.” He offered, having the grace to look the tiniest bit sheepish. Well. He figured they needed to get the guy to a secure location and extract whatever information they could out of him. But. They couldn’t do that in an alleyway with the possibility of police about to show up.

So he bent to pluck the guy up off the ground, awaiting Vel’s orders.

[Phoenix]

Vel wanted her to come out of hiding? Phoenix frowned, about to step out and drop her cover when Remi's voice crackled over the headset. Of course, just shedding her shadows would have been a mistake - who knew how this guy would react to having a person suddenly appear from thin air a dozen feet away? Quickly enough, Phoenix's frown turned to a smirk. 'Clever man,' Nix silently praised Remi; if nothing else, the white lie bought them time. She would have followed his lead and confirmed her acquiescence to Vel's command, but she figured she was a few inches too close for the ruse to pay off. The Shadow hadn't a clue how this arrogant man would react if he heard a voice creeping out from the darkness.

Since the agent would suspect both individuals were still inside the diner, Nix backed off into the shadows near the door. Once she'd given him enough space, she'd reveal herself. Above the sound of the agent's rambling, the only indication that someone had left the diner was the faint crunch boots on snow, and even she had to concentrate to hear it.

But this guy... this agent, whoever he was, had no idea what he'd stumbled upon. Blinded by his own arrogance and ego, Agent Dumbass was oblivious to the danger the group posed - though really, if he had half a brain in his skull, he'd realize a coordinated group of killers was probably bad news. Failing that, Vel's creepy little smile should have given it away, but he just kept on rambling. Phoenix decided he'd come out when he stopped to breathe.

"What the sweet **** is this guy on about?" she asked her team a split second before Agent Dumbass crumpled.

Remi's silhouette - and Warmonger's - looming over the body answered any question she may have had. Not exactly what Vel had asked, but nicely done nonetheless. Laughing, she made her way over, slowly shaking her head. "Well that was one way of dealing with him..."

Without missing a beat, Nix darted over and opened the SUV's back hatch. There were four of them - no way would they be squished in the back seat with some strange guy. That mean he got the honor of being crammed into the trunk with whatever other junk this guy carried. Which was apparently a lot, judging by the toolboxes and cases scattered around the trunk.

Honey brown eyes flicked to the device that had been dropped the second Remi's gun had made contact with Agent Dumbass' skull. The thing now lay in the snow, transmitting intermittent bursts of static and the occasional echo of the group's own words. Leaving it there just wouldn't do; plucking the radio from the ground, Nix turned it over in her hands, inspecting the device's craftsmanship. A frown furrowed her brow as she glanced to Vel, "Remind me to have a look at our headsets later and get together with Ari to better encode the transmissions on our the frequency. We'll need new headsets to decrypt the transmissions, but I'd rather things not be... compromised again anytime soon. Oh, and shotgun!"

With that, the redhead bolted for and slid into the passenger's seat of the SUV.

Crunch.

Beneath her on the passenger seat sat a file folder and a half eaten doughnut. 'Just because you keep your car clean doesn't mean everyone else does... Look before you leap, next time,' she scolded herself as she brushed the bits of sugar off the seat onto the not-so-pristine floor mats. Government issue or not, the vehicle was filthy. Once she'd finished her pseudo cleaning, what was left was an icing smeared manila folder. Disappointment crept over her the second she opened it: there were only three pieces of paper in the damn file, and one of them was completely blank. Browsing the minimal contents, her brow furrowed in thought; the photo and page covered in a series of jotted and crossed out notes detailing failed leads were the only things of worth here.

"Hey! The idiot has a file!" she called out, placing the information up on the dash as she inspected the photo. Taken from a distance, the woman's plain features and an mousy brown hair didn't stand out, but the rather large beauty mark on her cheek did. "Jacqueline Northrop..."

[Velveteen]

Once Remington responded, Velveteen nodded and smiled at the agent. Her hands were still held up, loosely, while the gun was pointed on her. That was the normal thing to do right? A sign of defeat? Whatever it was it gave the other a sense of being in charge and with that he began to talk. The dark haired vampires head tilted much like that of a curious animal and her pale orbs remained fixed on the sweaty, overweight human’s face. Her grin broadened. She liked these games. He obviously thought they knew something about something and already he had given them more information than he was aware of. It only served to make Velveteen that more curious about what he was talking about though she was certain it was likely something uninteresting and of little consequence. She would be surprised to later discover how wrong she was.

Just a she opened her mouth to push for more information the agent slumped and slide down the side of his car. It took her a moment to realise what had happened and when Remington appeared she gave him a look that asked at what point she told him to do that. An expression that appeared once again only moments later. “Oh now you want to wait for me to tell you?” A crooked grin appeared. “First you lift him and then you put him. Then you drive us out of here.” She was being a smartass and her tone made that plainly obvious. “But be quick. We really should get out of here. And now I really want to know what he is on about. Aksel. Come on.” Her voice carried clearly down the alley but for all she knew he could have been standing beside her already.

Velveteen climbed into the back. Her mind was already racing as to where to take him and what means would be needed to extract further information. If a government agent could so easily assume that paid mercenaries were involved then more than one group of people wanted this reporter and now Velveteen wanted to know why. Perhaps if they did find her first they could use it to their advantage somehow. Any benefits, however, were just a bonus, it was the hunt she loved. Humans didn’t really provide that much of a challenge but it could be a fun little distraction from the monotony that had settled in more recently.

Once in the care she started searching the pockets behind the seats and glancing through the papers that littered the small back seat for anything of interest. Her attention was distracted from the task when Nix found a file. The woman leaned forward and placed a hand on the headrest to peer over the redheads shoulder. “Is that reporter he was talking about? Does it say why they want her? Who she works for? What information she has?” Of course the questions were coming before the papers could really be read but if they were going to assault and abduct a government agent, she had to know it was for a good reason. The sound of sirens began to wail off in the distance. “Let's move. Just in case they are coming this way.”

She sat back and sunk into the soft cushioning at her back as that mischievous grin dance across her lips once more. She did so enjoy an adventure.

[Aksel]

Click.

The rifle’s safety snapped into place without effort.

I told you. Entirely unnecessary. You aren’t even needed here.

He lowered his weapon, the muzzle pointed idly against the sidewalk. The agent had crumpled against his car like a fallen house of cards. His sweaty, heavy frame made the tall Dane want to call him something in the vein of ‘Meatball.’ He was sure that he was the butt of the bulk the jokes exchanged over the water cooler in some government basement. He had the air about him of a desperate man, pushing for the scraps of attention from his superiors like a dog at the floor of the table of success. He clearly put more worth into himself than he deserved. The ease of his disposal proved that much, his mouth clearly writing checks that he, as an agent, was clearly not ready to cash.

In that dingy basement office, somewhere near Harper Rock, his colleagues gathered around in a small knot of equally worthless lumps of flesh to exchange jokes at the meat sack’s expense. They were likely unaware that they had seen their friend for the last time.

Black orbs scanned the street, sweeping from the front of the diner where pale, artificial light flickered through dirty windows and spilled into the snow-dusted wastes, to the cramped alley in the back of the restaurant, the small gathering of vampires converging on the agent’s S.U.V. like a pack of predators, claiming the spoils of their victory. Tonight, those spoils were little scraps of information and half-eaten doughnuts, mixed haphazardly with used pens and dirty, unmaintained tools scattered across the cab of the truck. When he was satisfied that the man had been alone, he shook his head and frowned, the expression thoughtful and sincere as he looped the rifle over his shoulder once again, approaching the vehicle in silence.

He was inches from Velveteen’s elbow when she called him along. He didn’t comment. His back was turned to the black wall of truck as the others made their way into its iron belly, leafing through the miniscule file of information that, judging from the questions and the severe lack of their answers, offered little in the way of anything useful aside from the usual tip of the iceberg, leaving much to be desired, generating only more questions. He pushed his back to the truck, not leaning but leaving no space, assuring him that nothing could find its way behind him. A practice that Meatball should have learned earlier in his training. He waited silently, watching the mouth of the alley as the others searched. Something picked at his mind, bothering him. It wasn’t right. Something just wasn’t right.

You’re just being overly paranoid, as always. Your stupid hunches are useless. You’re always wrong anyway.

Idiot. ******* moron. Goddamn useless waste of space.

Kill yourself.

Die. Just ******* die.

His lips twitched at the corners of his mouth, turning down as he exhaled in thought. A poorly trained agent, acting solo against an entire group of what he believed to be heavily armed mercenaries. Even Meatball was smarter than that. He just had to be. It made him uneasy, leaving him with the feeling that he was being watched. That feeling always settled heavy on his shoulders, but now it was too much to ignore completely. It was more than the voice, watching everything he did. It was like ice trailing down his spine. He cringed. Something felt very wrong with the entire scene. It all felt very fabricated. The pieces fell into place, but they didn’t mesh together, and it grated on his nerves.

He opened his mouth to say something when the sirens grew louder, the sound like a sharp wail as the wall he had stood against, along the opposite side of the street that ran the length of the diner’s side began to flash blue.

The police were here.

They were out of time.

Without a word, he pulled the door to the S.U.V. open and slid into the dark vinyl seat behind the driver’s door. His rifle slipped from his back, the stock resting between his feet in the floorboard as he used its length to support his weight, leaning forward and quietly watching as the blue flashes against the wall grew bright. Police cruisers began to pile into the street in front of the diner, pristine snow crunching beneath a dozen tires.

One by one, the sirens were silenced.