The next day.

“Katie, I think I have got something. You know door 1, the door everyone comes in by? There’s a security camera there. I managed to download the footage on the day the games began, and it showed Jessica never left the school.”

“What? I thought she went home. That’s how she was late.”

“That’s what I thought too, but I think we’re wrong. She never went home. But why? I called her, and she told me she was home. If she’s at school then why didn't she come back to class? Why would she lie to me?”

“Maybe she thought you were joking?”

“I sounded serious and she knew it. I literally begged for her to come back!” Caitlin closed her eyes in disbelief. “I hate to admit it, but Jessica might be late on purpose! She wasn’t executed by accident...it’s all part of some sort of fucked up plan!”

“Why? What? How? I know I’m just randomly saying question words but how is this possible?” Katie was as confused as her friend.

“I don’t know, but I will find it out very soon.” Caitlin replied with dedication. “I need you back here.”

“Unfortunately, I’m occupied.” Katie glanced out of her car window. “I can’t come back just now.”

Caitlin didn't push it.

“In that case, good luck and...and stay safe.”

“Same back to ya.” Katie said as she turned off her phone and looked out her car window.

At the moment, she was in rural Maryland, and she was on a mission.

Arnold Ferry. A fellow black market weapon dealer that happened to be in direct competition with Ben. From what Katie knew, the two had some private issues as well.

None of this was Katie’s concern. She wasn’t here to explore. She was here to kill.

Arnold’s entire family lived in a large mansion, one that Katie was right now outside. Of course, Katie was smarter than to just charge into the house with guns blazing. She enjoyed killing, and she really needed that equipment, so she needed the assassination to be successful.

She has been here since last night, and the entire time she has been observing the mansion. She spotted at least six bodyguards. Two of them were at the door. Arnold had a wife, a son, and a daughter. Both the siblings were around 6.

All of them will have to die.

Katie grinned when she imagined a slaughter. Even better, no one would be around to stop her or guilt her.

What more could she possibly want?

Tossing the emptied McDonald takeout paper bag to the backseat, she walked out of her car.

One of the guards at the gate of Arnold’s mansion suddenly saw a figure approaching. This alerted him. The mansion was located in the rural. It wasn’t anywhere near a highway or a speedway. There was no reason anyone should be here. The only people that should be here were associates of his boss, but he didn't have anyone on the schedule.

“Check it out.” One of the guards stayed back with his hand on his weapon. The second one approached the figure. A Walther PK380 handgun was in his hand.

The figure turned out to be a young teenage girl. With every step she moved, she looked like she was about to fall over. As the guard got closer, he saw a kitchen knife sticking out of the girl’s stomach. She looked at the guard with pleading eyes.

“Please...help me...call the police...I need an ambulance…”

The girl looked vulnerable and in pain, but the guard didn't feel any sympathy. He himself has had some blood on his hands.

“Stay there. Don’t move.” He raised his weapon threateningly while taking out his radio and reporting to his supervisor. “Sir, there’s a girl at the door. She’s injured.”

Inside the mansion, the head of the security walked by another armed guard and into the dining room.

“Sir?”

Inside, a large man with a dragon tattoo on the his right arm looked up. He was having lunch with his family. His wife has just said a funny joke, and everyone was laughing. He wasn’t too happy at being interrupted.

“What is it?”

“There’s a girl at the door. She’s injured. What should we do with her?”

Arnold glanced at his family. “Bring her in, patch her up, and send her to a hospital. I don’t want her to die on my property and then have to deal with the investigation that follows. Also, while you’re at it, make sure she doesn’t see anything she’s not supposed to see.”

“Yes sir.”

“And Frank?”

“Yes?”

“Next time don’t bother me with these small things.”

“Yes sir.”

“Ok, follow me, but keep your eyes and hands in the right place. Boss likes to keep his privacy.”

The guard finally lowered his weapon and talked to Katie. Katie nodded and whispered a short thank you. She was so weak she could barely walk, so the first guard gestured at the second guard, who came over to help carry her.

The three made their way into the mansion. Despite being warned, Katie still looked around every chance she got. She expected the walls to be filled with expensive decorations, but instead the walls were clean and simple. In further contrast to her expectations, there weren’t guns or ammos just laying around either. It almost looked like the house of a normal person.

She was brought into a room with a bed covered in white sheets. As she laid down, one of the guards left and returned to his post while the other took out his phone. As he typed the numbers to 911, he had his back facing Katie.

This was an opportunity, and Katie seized it.

Slowly but steadily, she grabbed onto the knife in her stomach and started pulling it out.

Katie knew there would be bodyguards around her target, so she needed weapons to deal with them. There was no way she could sneak a Glock all the way in, even with her damsel in distress camouflage. A knife, on the other hand, is a different story.

It was common sense not to pull the knife out of a wound unless formal medical personnel were in place, and as Katie stuck that blade in herself before she arrived, she knew the bodyguards wouldn’t risk removing the blade and having her bleed out. This gave her a very handy weapon to use.

The guards didn't suspect a thing. No one with any common sense would maim themselves for an assassination. As far as they would see, even if Katie could manage to pull the knife out, she would bleed out before killing a single person.

As the kitchen knife was in her hand, Katie grinned. The burning sensation on her stomach helped excite her. She sneaked up behind the guard and casually cut his throat.

As the man collapsed, Katie took over his phone. The call to 911 was already patched through.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“Oh...sorry! I accidentally clicked it...I apologize.” Katie didn't just straight-up end the call. She read from somewhere that if a 911 call was abruptly ended, the phone call operators would track the location of the device and call the police.

“No problem. Be careful next time.”

“I will.” Katie turned off the phone and knelt down beside the dying bodyguard. She kicked his arm to get his attention. “Hey? How are you doing? Are you available for an interview? No answer? I’ll take that as a yes. Ok, here’s my question. How does it feel like to have your throat slit? Good? Bad? Funny?”

The guard kept on choking blood. He was still alive, but perhaps he wished he was dead.

“No answer? What a douche bag.” Katie finally decided she has had enough fun with the poor man. She dug her knife into the man’s heart. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll try it myself someday.” She searched through the body on the ground and pulled out another Walther PK380. She checked the weapon was loaded and stuffed a few magazines into her pockets. She wasn’t able to bring her Glock in.

“Now, let the termination begin. All I have to do now is sneak outside without being noticed...oh shit!”

Katie made her way out of the room just in time to run into one of the other guards.

“Hey Adam, how’s the girl doing...what the hell?”

He immediately reached for his sidearm, but Katie was quicker. She shot him in the chest two times before stabbing him in the neck.

But the second guard’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain. The two gunshots alerted everyone else in the mansion.

“Everyone, retreat to the room! Report!” The head of the guards immediately ordered as he barged into the dining room once again. This time his boss wasn’t so annoyed. He heard the gunshots as well.

“Who is it?” He demanded. He has made a lot of enemies due to his occupation. Any one of them might want him dead.

“We don’t know yet. Adam and Duncan seem to be down. Everyone else is in this room. Sir, we should get you and your family to the cars at once. We can get to the safe house from there.”

Despite being taken by surprise, the bodyguards weren’t affected for too long. This wasn’t their first time being attacked.

“Let’s move.” Arnold pulled out a handgun from his pocket and turned to his family. “Follow me closely. We will get out of this alive.”

His children looked at their father in confusion. They were still too young to understand what was going on. Arnold’s wife, on the other hand, understood how serious the situation was. She grabbed onto her children’s hands tightly.

Four bodyguards were still alive. Two moved in the front while two covered the rear. Arnold and his family were in the middle. All the men were armed. They quickly navigated toward the garage.

They expected to be ambushed on the way, but no ambusher came.

They walked into the garage. Just like the mansion, the garage was giant. It had at least a dozen vehicles inside.

“Aaron, you and me take the first car. Boss, please follow us. You two take the second vehicle.” The bodyguard captain started shouting orders. There were two SUVs in the garage, but even they couldn’t hold everyone inside. Plus, if they were ambushed on the way out, the second vehicle could stop and buy some time for the rest of the convoy.

Everyone started moving. Two of the guards moved toward the second SUV. One of them went around the vehicle to get to the driver’s seat. Just before he got in, a hand reached from behind and covered his mouth.

“Hmmm…” Before he understood what happened, a blade cut across his neck.

“What the…” The other guard climbed into the car, only to find his comrade lying down on the driver’s seat. His hand barely reached his gun before a bullet went through his brain.

“Shit!” The guard captain cursed as he turned and saw two more of his comrades lifeless. Fortunately, the garage door was already opened. Wasting no more time, he stepped down on the gas pedal...or on what he thought was the gas pedal.

Instead, he reached nothing. A look down made him furious.

“Who the hell removed the gas pedal?”

The answer was obvious.

Meanwhile, the one who removed all the gas pedals in the cars in the garage walked to in front of the SUV. She raised two black handguns, both of which she took from the guards, and started shooting at the two men in the front seats.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

By the time she ran out of bullets, the SUV’s windshield was still perfectly fine. It was modified to be bulletproof.

“Take her down…” Realizing there was no escape, the last two bodyguards tried to take down the assassin. One of them reached out of the opened car window and pulled his handgun out.

Bang. Bang.

Katie dodged to the side as bullets hit the ground and the wall. She pulled out her kitchen knife and dashed toward the car window from the side. Before the guard could turn around, Katie jammed her knife into the man’s chest.

At that point, the guard captain has gotten out of the car. Using the car’s engine as cover, he pulled his gun out and shot Katie in the back three times.

Arnold was out as well, but he didn't run blindly out of the garage. He was instead checking out the surroundings to see if the dead girl was the only assassin.

Dead silence. Nothing. It seemed like the girl was the only one. Good. Now he just needs to find out who’s behind this...

His good mood disappeared when he turned back to the car again and saw the girl he assumed was shot and killed burying her knife into the guard captain’s chest.

Blood crept out of Katie’s back and stained half of her body, but she didn't seem to care. If anything, she seemed to be enjoying moving around and touching her wounds.

She wasn’t wearing a bulletproof vest, but bullets still didn't seem to be able to stop her.

“What...what are you?” His gun was loaded, but he didn't dare rise it.

“Ouch.” Katie stretched slightly and touched the bullet holes on her back. “Arnold, isn’t it? Arnold Ferry?”

Arnold gulped as he quietly put his wife and his children behind him.

“That’s me.” Even now he tried to flip the table. “Who sent you? Viper? Arsenal? Ben? Whatever you’re offered, I can double the price. I can triple it if you take out the one that sent you.”

“Oh yeah?” Katie rose her eyebrows. “Tempting. By the way, are those your family?”

Arnold’s face twitched. He knew what Katie was suggesting, and he didn't like it. “It’s an unspoken rule that whatever grudge there is, it’s not going to be brought upon our family.”

There was in fact a rule like that, but it was more said than done. It mostly existed when the victors wanted to take over the influence and assets of the defeated as a way to gain loyalty. In other cases, as long as you aren’t caught red handed, no one would care. People like Ben, who have a personal grudge, would be more than happy to eliminate anyone their enemy cared about.

“Huh?” Katie shrugged, not really minding. “Here’s the thing. You will have to die. There’s no mistake in that. But if you can pay me something, I just might let your family live.”

“Arnold!” The woman cried in fear.

“You have no respect of the tradition!” Arnold growled in anger. He didn't want to give up everything he earned through years of work at gunpoint, but he couldn’t just let his family be slaughtered either. The choice was killing him.

“What did you think? I’m a hitwoman. I kill for profit.” Katie didn't back off. She was no longer the naive girl when the games began. She has tortured and killed innocent and guilty alike. Plus, is Arnold really a good person? He’s an arms dealer. He has directly or indirectly caused the death of countless. “Now, make your choice. Of course, you can shoot me right here right now, but I have to warn you, I’m a tough bitch to kill. If you fail and I’m forced to kill you, well, I’ll probably have to take my frustrations out on your family.”

“Arnold!” The woman turned to Katie. “It’s not happening. If you want to kill us, get on with it.”

“Oh. How sweet.” Katie smirked before turning to the pair of children. “But what do we have here? Tell me, what will happen to your children if both of you are gone? Best case, they’ll end up in an orphanage. Worst case, hmmm, starving to death can be a rough way to go, even by my standards.”

By killing Arnold, Katie earned herself access to purchasing Ben’s arsenal, but Katie also knew Ben wasn’t a long term solution. If he was compromised, she would need another source of weapons.

As Ben’s competitor, Arnold must have quite a stash as well. If Katie could get that stash, she wouldn’t have to rely on Ben for quite a while.