Hailey only had two days left, and she knew she’d procrastinated long enough. She wasn’t naïve when it came to the things PFH did to keep the money flowing. After all, she’d gone through the AP curriculum, and studied some of their more famous operations. Men, no matter how big or small, were accountable to PFH when they handled their products. The problem was…this one was personal.

she thought for the millionth time as she strolled down the familiar PHA streets.

PFH wanted their people dedicated to the organization, but even the most dedicated person had old ties that always held them back. Even if those ties were a galaxy away. What this mission did was eliminate Hailey’s ties. With Jimmy’s brains already sanitized from an alley a kilometer from where she walked, and Coop on a different planet, hitting Mr. Cooper was the logical choice. It was wickedly clever, but the mission also hoped for more practical outcomes. The building’s militia, of which Mr. Cooper was a ranking member, had banned the PFH from doing business in their tower. Normally, Asset Protection, or some bribed or hired force, would settle the issue, but in this particular PHA’s case the cost benefit analysis stated it just wasn’t worth the extra effort.

Hailey was surprised that PFH and their competitors weren’t allowed to operate in her old home. She’d heard Mr. Cooper through the thin walls with a variety of other women when she’d been with Coop. Apparently, they wanted to be there and weren’t paid for their services. However, now that AP had a trainee from the same block, it only made sense for her to open up the new revenue stream for the organization.

Madame Desroisiers and Madame Sourd had even sweetened the pot. They’d promised Hailey a five percent bonus of the organization’s earnings over their first twelve months of operations. That could translate into thousands of dollars in Hailey’s pocket if things went well. That made her smile slightly, but didn’t completely assuage her guilt.

“Pigs on your left.” The woman strolling next to her stated.

According to AP standard operating procedure, you didn’t operate alone unless absolutely necessary. Four eyes were better than two, and four hands could carry four guns. Sometimes you needed firepower when dealing with some pissed off competing pimp. Assistant Instructor Weiss was assessing Hailey’s performance on this mission. The beautiful PFH operative was somewhere between Hailey and Madame Sourd on the hierarchy, but Hailey didn’t know anything about the other woman other than she was an active AP agent. Hailey hadn’t seen Weiss before their meeting twenty eight days ago.

Hailey and Weiss were both disguised in dirty PHA rags common among Rats. Hailey would have worn her old clothing if they’d still fit, but the enhancements made that impossible. The enhancements also made blending in among the other Rats difficult. Hailey was a healthy, athletic, competent woman now, and that just didn’t translate well into a PHA Rat. It was hard not to be confident when she knew she could take down most people in this dump.

She thought of the PHA as a dump now. A dump full of weak people not strong or smart enough to get their shit together. It made her sick to think that she’d been like this less than a year ago. That thought was her primary motivation for ending Walter Cooper. She needed to end this chapter in her life and move on to the next. Those old ties the PFH was targeting would hold her back if she let them, which is why she was going to succeed with her mission.

The hover car the police drove by slowed slightly as it passed Hailey and Weiss. Hailey was hunched over, and had grime smeared over her face. Weiss, who was naturally shorter, didn’t have to slouch, but she’d employed a slight limp which hid the otherwise predatory grace she usually moved with. They’d also rubbed crap all into her vibrantly blonde hair to the point it gave a whole new meaning to the term dirty blonde.

Evidently, their tradecraft worked because the cops continued on their way. Hailey knew they needed to keep moving or they’d become targets themselves, but she felt a surge of pride that her countermeasures had successfully disguised them.

“Focus.” Weiss noticed her distraction and pulled her back on task. The woman didn’t speak much, and the few words she did speak were instructions or warnings.

PFH had spent a lot of time and money training Hailey. They weren’t going to let her crash and burn on her first mission. It was hard for Madame Desroisiers to write off a disaster like that, but she would if she had to. Weiss was only accompanying Hailey to the front entrance. After that, she was on her own.

Weiss peeled off about a hundred meters away and went to the rendezvous point in the mouth of a nearby alley. She’d stage there until Hailey completed the mission, or was killed. Hailey knew Mr. Cooper well enough to know he’d put a bullet in her head if she thought he was there to kill him. Her job was to not give him the opportunity.

She walked up to the building’s entrance like she had a million times over her eighteen years. She had no idea if her birthday had passed. She was just too busy to notice.

She recognized a few of the guards manning the doors and scanning people. Most of the residents they knew by sight. Hailey had always been able to walk right by.

“You, stop.” The guard didn’t yell it, but Hailey glanced over and saw him pointing right at her.

She involuntarily tensed, and then cursed herself for the reaction. It only made her look guilty, so as the guard approached her, she forced herself to relax.

“Give me your print,” the guard demanded.

If the guards couldn’t identify a resident then they took a fingerprint of the individual to verify residency. Hailey knew this from the mission briefing and personal experience.

“Come on,” she complained weakly to the guard while providing her thumb.

Before putting her thumb on the scanner, the guard spit on the polyplast surface to clean it. Dirt and grime had collected around the edges for a decade or more, but the building’s few tenants who knew anything about electrical engineering would keep the small device running until it fell apart. It wasn’t like the PHA bureaucrats were going to buy them a new one.

Hailey tried not to gag as she put her finger on the still damp polyplast, but then firmly told herself to woman the fuck up. She’d lived in this place for eighteen years. A few months on a comfortable bed with smartcloth clothes and studying to be a high-priced hooker/assassin had made her soft.

While she was chiding herself, the scanner beeped green and the guard nodded for her to go ahead. Hailey wondered if PFH had grabbed her in the first place because they wanted to get to Walter. The fact that she was still registered in the building’s databanks indicated that the rent for her room was still being paid to the PHA. Even while she was in training, PFH had been planning for this day and laying the ground work. It was an expensive plan, and it was Hailey’s job to make it work.

Instead of taking the elevator, Hailey took the stairs up to the fifth floor. She’d taken the route hundred of times, but now she saw potential ambush sites, good fields of fire, and potential profit. Just because the PFH and others weren’t allowed in the building didn’t mean the world’s oldest profession wasn’t alive and well. It was just handled in house, and the stairwell was a well-known congregating area. Hailey passed more than one guy getting a blowey, but no one even stopped as she passed. The guys probably paid by the minute, and when you didn’t have a lot of cash you didn’t wait for a stranger to pass so you could get your rocks off.

She exited the stairwell and walked the twenty-five meters to Walter Cooper’s apartment. She only hesitated for a second before hitting the buzzer. While she waited, she brushed her hair out of her face so Walter could see her.

The doctors at PFH had done significant modification to Hailey. Modification that had taken months to heal and get accustomed to, but one thing they didn’t mess with was her face. They highlighted her cheekbones and made sure everything was symmetrical, but compared to the rest of her that was minimal. What that allowed was for anyone that used to know her to still identify Hailey Armstrong.

The screen next to the door activated and Walter Cooper’s face appeared. “What the hell do you…?” He abruptly stopped the tirade he’d been working up to. “Hailey…?” She saw his eyes widen a bit.

“Hey, Mr. Cooper. Long time no see.” She smiled bashfully at the screen and hoped it lowered his guard.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, his guard not fully lowered.

“I thought I owed you an explanation for where I went. I just kind of disappeared on you.” She went into the speech she’d rehearsed, but Walter cut her off.

“You don’t owe me anything.” He started to shut down the feed, and she panicked a little.

“Wait!” Thankfully, Walter didn’t disconnect. “You’re right that I don’t owe you shit, but I at least wanted to pass along info to Coop if he calls. I know it’s a one in a million shot, but if he ever comes back here on leave then I want him to know where to find me.” The sincerity in her voice surprised her, but it only helped sell her story. “Can I come in for two minutes? Then I’m out of your hair forever.”

Walter’s eyebrows narrowed, and she wasn’t sure she’d convinced him. “Show me your hands.”

Hailey acted perplexed, but opened up to show both her hands were empty. Walter disconnected, and there was a moment where nothing happened, where Hailey thought she’d failed, but then there was a hiss as the environmentally-sealed apartment opened up and Walter stood in front of her.

“Keep your hands where I can see them. You’ve got one minute and then…” Walter never got to finish. There was a slight cough as Hailey fired a snub-nosed pistol concealed on her person, and the 1mm dart hit Walter right in the gut.

The old hardass looked more angry than surprised as the weapon pulverized a chunk of his intestine. He fell back, his hand over his wound as Hailey darted inside and hit the button to seal the door.

She knew a cautious man like Walter would be looking for weapons, even on her, so Hailey had come up with a plan. It wasn’t hard to get a prosthetic arm and attach it to her shoulder. With a small silicone chip, the arm could do just about anything she wanted it to, so it was easy to ensure it would open up to show Walter she wasn’t carrying a weapon; when in fact her real arm was hidden below the layers of garments and carrying the small, close-range pistol.

Her plan wouldn’t have worked in another month or so.

The pistol was notoriously inaccurate outside of twenty-five meters, but it was more than capable of doing the job when you were up close and personal. PFH wanted it done up close and personal, and they’d equipped Hailey with a small camera to record her first kill for the organization.

“God damn that stings like pissing when you’ve got the clap,” Walter coughed and laughed at the same time. Bloody spittle flew into the air.

That would explain the bloody cough, but it also meant the old man would suffocate as his lungs filled with blood. Hailey was here to kill Walter, not let him die slow and painful.

She leveled the pistol at his head but didn’t pull the trigger. Her hand shook as Walter turned up to looked her right in the eyes.

“It’s harder than it looks on the holo, right.” He grinned to reveal blood-stained teeth. “But you need to finish the job girl. Put on your big girl panties and get it done.”

Despite herself, Hailey laughed. “You know you’re asking me to kill you.”

“I’m already dead.” It was then that she realized that Walter wasn’t even trying to cover up the wound in his gut. His arms were hanging limply at his side as blood poured from his abdomen.

Walter Cooper was paralyzed and bleeding to death.

“Just one question though. What outfit did you sign up with? Local gang…cops finally decided they wanted to off me…syndicate?” Hailey nodded at the last one. “Ahh…Putinski then.” Walter nodded when Hailey didn’t say anything. “They’re some ruthless bitches. Don’t forget to cover your own ass with them. If you aren’t careful the long dick of Asset Protection will fuck you just as hard as the johns you’ve got to service.”

“I am Asset Protection.” Hailey shot back.

“Well…shit…good for you kid. So what are waiting for? Protect your…” Walter didn’t get to finish before Hailey raised the weapon again and blew a hole through his forehead and scattered his brains all over the entryway.

The tremor in her hand was gone, and so was the old Hailey Armstrong. All that was left was an Asset Protection agent for Putinski Family Holdings.

After today, she’d receive her final grade, graduate from the program, and be assigned to any of the organization’s many establishments throughout human space. As Hailey exited the building, and the cold wind hit her, she wished for someplace warm. She didn’t know if Madame Desroisiers would grant her request, but once all was said and done she got what she wanted. She was assigned to New Savannah where she’d spend more months honing her skill in the field.

And then one night her past caught up to her.