The city I live in doesn’t shine rays of hope to people that move here, especially the college students that move to the university fresh out of high school, if anything this city has a negative effect on those that live here. Take the college kids for example, young and eager to feel like an adult they get hooked on partying, drugs, alcohol, sex–you name it. Each week getting allowances from their parents that are oh so proud that their baby is earning a degree. Those kids usually end up dropping out or getting involved in criminal activities. I know all of this because when I was working in the force I locked up most of those kids or I had to tell their parents that they’re dead. Working within East Diamond Gate was a total drag and some of the most tiresome work, though the pay was fine, You’d expect it to be when it’s the crime capital of the country.

So after all of that I moved to the outskirts of the city where it has more of a friendly neighborhood town aesthetic. Still has its problems though. Crime stretches as far as its profits.

I left my apartment complex and made my way towards one of the agency's many office buildings that they have stationed throughout the city. It looked like the town was having some sort of farmers market today, vendors of all kinds set up shop along the roads, people crowded the roads and stopped to look at many of the different foods and items they could purchase.

My shoulders couldn’t go a second without bumping into someone, as I fought my way through the bustling crowd I could see some kid with a cloak covering himself, strange to wear a cloak out, especially in a summer heat like this. The kid continued to move quickly as if he was being chased by someone, as if his life depended on it.

“Where’d that little rat go?”

“That thief’s around here somewhere.”

So that’s why the kid is in a rush. Well if you’re gonna be a thief at least try to pick your poison a little better and not steal from guys who are willing to kill to get back whatever you’ve stolen from them.

The kid began pushing and shoving through people which brought more attention around him, the goons that were after him finally spotted him and began to chase after, the kid ran looking back at them, paying no attention to what was in front. He turned around aggressively bumping into me, he looked up and we made direct eye contact with each other, as his hood slid off the back of his head. He had emerald green eyes and blonde hair with patterns of blue streaks tied in a bun, and a nose ring hanging down like he was a cow. He looks about 18, maybe a year younger.

“Sorry mister, but I’m sort of in a rush.”

The thief said as he ran off. He continued quickly through the crowd and finally vanished beyond sight. I shrugged our little incident off and kept to myself about it as the Goons finally came by me dressed in jackets with their gang's logo and name printed on the back. I could see they were armed and began to question his whereabouts.

“He was just here I thought?”

“Hey you, did you see where that kid went?”

“It’s a farmers market so I’ve seen a lot of kids around here, mind being more specific.”

The goon gritted his teeth and the two went off continuing their search, it appeared I pissed him off. But as one of them walked away I could hear him talking about the importance of what they lost.

“If we don’t find that kid the boss is gonna have our heads for losing it.”

It lingered on my mind and made me so curious as to what that kid took that was so important, if I wasn’t on my way to work a contract maybe I’d consider going after him but I’ll stay out of this one.

I finally got free of the crowd and with all of the open space I felt lighter, like I got something off of my chest. I reached into my coat and grabbed at my holsters… THEY WERE GONE, both of them, both of my guns were gone. I tried to figure out what could’ve happened to them or maybe where I left them but then it hit me.

That kid. It all replayed in my mind flashing right in front of me, he bumped into me slipping his hand inside of my coat stealing both of my pistols, kids got a talent for stealing stuff I’ll give him that, but there’s one problem, he stole from the wrong guy… There was also another problem, how would I be able to find him in time for the contract meeting.

Ring! Ring!

Ring! Ring!

Great, that’s just the shit I need right now.

“Where are you? your client is starting to become impatient and he’s getting on my ass now.”

“Yeah, yeah I know. I’m sort of in a predicament right now.”

“Predicament? No, no Whiskey, right now is not the time to be in a predicament, this is a high paying contract on the table and you’re a pube hair away from blowing it.”

“It’s fine, just buy me some time. I have to find my guns and then I’ll be there.”

My caseworker was anxious and I could tell was stressed out knowing we could lose this contract, but I wouldn't be able to take the contract without my guns. My caseworker sighed and cleared his throat.

“Easy fix, I’ll have some new guns prepared for you once you’re here.”

“Sorry, but these guns have a deeper meaning to me than just any regular guns, I’ll do anything to get them back.”

“Such a weird thing to be that dedicated to but fine, it doesn’t seem like you’ll budge at anything else. Hurry and find them while I talk to the client, you’ll have only about an hour, if you can’t get here in time and the client decides to fail you, we’ll both be fired for this, so try to be quick.”

My caseworker ended the call and after that it was crunch time, I hadn’t a second to lose, nightfall began to creep around the corner as the sun began to set. I followed down the road of where I saw him last, he took a sharp turn into an alley that was past the market. I went down the alley, it had an entirely different aroma from the main road, it reeked of piss and vomit, there was a drunk around his 40’s with booze running down the side of his lips smiling as he was entranced in his drunken world, as I walked past him he blushed smiling even harder mistaking me for a female.

“Hey baby, why don’t you come here and let me show you a good time?”

“Sorry pal but you're not my type.”

“Yeah, you women wouldn’t know a good man if he fell right in front of you, pf… stupid broad.”

He looked at his bottle of booze embarrassed by rejection. I guess I understand how ladies feel when they get catcalled by some gross older man, it puts a shiver down my spine.

Boom!

Pow!

The city's nightly fireworks began, the sound of gunfire echoing through the ebony night sky rang loudly as responding gunfire from police issued pistols began, you can tell by its distinct sound, the police pistol sounds like sheet metal banging against the hood of a car, the bad guys weapons are the easiest they just have high power assault rifles and machine guns that rip through flesh. The police budget was cut pretty thin while I was on my way out, so any cop serving now just has a death wish. As i walk through the night and breath the nights air, I wonder if the air we breathe in this city is pure fresh air or gunsmoke traveling with the wind, I’ve never been anywhere else but here in East Diamond Gate so I wonder sometimes if the air in other places feels better when you inhale it, I don’t know maybe I’m just making a big deal out of nothing.

As I continued to walk to the end of the alley the sound of club music and drunk chatter began to pick up. I had just entered the club district, a street that stretches nearly a mile lined up with bars, clubs, and casinos, basically anything you’d consider sinful. Each one of the clubs is owned by a rival gang but in this district the peace is kept otherwise people would stop showing up and no one would profit.

The street was full of purple and blue lights soaring around like beacons flashing on my face, crowded lines by the hundreds waiting to get their fill of the partying nightlife. The timing of this couldn’t have been any better because if a pickpocket is going to be anywhere it’s here, dwindling their thieving hands inside the pockets of people who are too worried about getting drunk. I walked down the line thoroughly gazing upon the ocean of people that crowded the sidewalk. I kept to myself on the street and followed it down until I reached a club called the “Dirty Nights Nightclub,” where I saw the rat I’ve been searching for huddled in a crowd of people, it was almost humorous to watch his little hands slip into the purses of clueless women or the pockets of men distracted by their horniness, the only thing that kept me from laughing was the fact that he stole something precious to me. I guess that’s what you would call hypocritical but I couldn’t care less.

My legs moved on their own as I began to walk over to him, while he was distracted picking pockets. If the kid did this to me any other day I wouldn’t be as pissed, but since this happened the day of my first contract it’s a little irritating. All I want are my guns back and to teach this kid a lesson about theft.

“Hey kid, didn’t your parents teach you not to take what isn’t yours?” I questioned, alarming the boy. He turned and looked at me with a sharp gaze until his brain finally processed who I was, his skin turned white like a ghost as he began to flee from the scene. I grabbed onto his cloak pulling it off of him, he slipped away as the only thing my clutch held onto was his cloak with him not attached to it. The kid darted off from me sliding under people and hurdling over obstacles like railings and such, just to have a chance of getting away. I looked at my watch and grinned, only 30 minutes left, I accepted the challenge.

We trailed off back into a new alleyway that for the most part was empty, nothing but trash rolling around in the wind. He turned a corner up ahead and I followed, I turned right… Right into the barrel of one of my guns. The kid held my gun up to my nose, holding it as steady as he could, I guess if this was how I was gonna go it made sense to go by one of the bullets from my gun… WAIT! no it doesn't, that's my damn gun, I shouldn’t die to my own gun that would just be embarrassing, I can only imagine what the other assassins back at the office would say.

“Hey did you hear about the guy who died from one of his own guns?”

“Yeah how pathetic, I can’t believe someone like that worked here.”

“Embarrassing, guess the guy chose the wrong specialty.”

I know I wouldn't be alive to hear all of the talking behind my back, but still just the thought of it makes me anxious.

“Woah kid, you should watch where you point other people’s guns.”

“Shut it old man.”

“OLD MAN! I’ll have you know I’m only 26 years old for your information.”

“Good for you, still older than me.”

“Well then maybe you should try respecting your elders.”

“Saying that just makes you sound old, you do realize that right?”

“No, that's not the point. The point is that you took something that doesn’t belong to you.”

My words came out calmly to help the kid come to his senses even though I was the one being held at gunpoint.

“Yeah so what? I steal stuff from everyone.”

“So that makes it right?”

“No, but it makes it fair.”

Gripping the gun I could tell he wasn’t experienced with a firearm before, he held it loosely meaning if he fired it, it would probably fly out his hand. Also, his grip would make it easy for me to take it out of his hand. The question that roamed around was would he actually shoot me? Which is something I’m not willing to find out.

Whoosh!

My hand swiped at the barrel snatching it from his hands, while in the motion I could see the expression on his face changing from a bratty thief to a kid who just shit himself, he stood there eyes bulging from his skull in awe by what he had witnessed. I smirked at the kid and slid my gun back into its holster.

“Well kid, consider yourself lucky today, I’m in a rush so make this quick and hand over the other one.”

I smiled while pulling my coat sleeve back revealing my watch underneath, everything was going just as smooth as could be, now I just needed the kid to hand over my other gun.

“I… I don’t have it.”

His face turned burning red and he began to turtle up into the thickness of his hoodie's collar.

My smile went away with his words, this kid just couldn’t give me a damn break, it was one thing after another.

“So then where is it?”

“I had… I had to use it to pay off some thugs that were after me, I already had sold what I stole from them, so the only thing equivalent to it was your gun.”

“So to save your ass, you traded off my gun?”

“Ye. Yes.”

“Okay kid, so how are we gonna make things right?”

Shrugging wasn’t the answer I was looking for, but he did it anyway.

“Alright fine, show me where those thugs are and we’ll call it even… Alright?”

“NO WAY! They’ll kill us, those aren’t just any thugs. They work for the head commander of the Wild Legions gang.”

“Who? Sorry but I’ve never heard of them, I’m on a tight schedule here so let's get moving.”

The Wild Legions gang? Must be some group of guys that are trying to make a name for themselves. Hopefully this doesn’t take too long. I'm down to 20 minutes now. Depending on how far the agency is from wherever the gang is located makes all of the difference at this point.

I followed the kid a couple blocks down to an abandoned hot dog stand that was barely held together, tagged with graffiti of the gang's logo and explicit language. The area of the hot dog stand wasn’t too big so the little crowd of delinquents looked a bit larger than it really was. I counted maybe about 20 guys armed with melee weapons and a couple of guys with small sidearms, most of them are younger guys in their 20’s and 30’s while the two of the strongest toughest looking ones look around their early 40’s. Most gangs that are trying to get their foot in the door start around this size and try to expand through criminal activities, the goal is to try and get ranked on the agencies top 100 targets board which is a free for all for assassins trying to get the big bucks from the big heads. That’s probably the best method for a small gang to get recognized by the bigger fish. Only ranked assassins within the top 20 can participate with the board which is why it makes it special because that means you're dangerous enough to have to face off against the top 20 best assassins in the world according to the agency.

We stood out of sight of the gang observing them. They seemed to be celebrating something, I looked at the kid and could feel the fear vibrating off of his body. He was sweating bullets that looked more dangerous than mine. I gave the kid a large pat on the back and some encouragement.

“Well kid, go get em.”

“WAIT! WHAT!”

“Shhhh, you don’t want them coming over here do you?”

He shook his head “no” so fast it nearly gave me a headache.

“Alright then… Just go over there and ask for my pistol and I’m sure it will all play out smoothly, they all seem to be in a good mood so I imagine this will play out fine.”

Some pick pocket going up to a bunch of meatheads like these, no way things will go smoothly, in fact I’m planning for the worst.

“But I thought YOU were gonna get your gun back? I was just here to guide you.”

“Well yeah… But then I realized how easy I was letting you off the hook. Listen if things go wrong I’ll be right here to back you up, besides if you don’t do it who knows what I’ll do to you.”

“Okay fine… I’ll… I’ll go.

“That’s the spirit kid, now before you head off I haven’t caught your name, I wanna make sure I can tell the tale of the kid who heroically died to get my gun back that he desperately stole, kind of like what those bards do in a fairytale.”

Gulp.

“Don’t say things like that, anyways it’s Denzo Mineman."

“Never heard that name before, I guess it’s only proper I share mine in return… The name’s Whiskey kid, that’s all. Just Whiskey.

“Okay, if I’m gonna do this, I at least want to know why these pistols are so important to you.”

“Don’t worry about it kid, they just are, so hurry up and go get the other one.”

“Fine, don’t tell me, probably just some silly sap story that I don’t wanna hear anyways.”

Denzo began to shuffle his feet as if he was trying to resist his own movements, he continued to walk towards the gang of delinquents as they all drank and listened to loud music.

The music died and for a second there was dead silence… Then shouting.

“Hey who’s the kid?”

“Beat it bud, do you got a death wish?”

“Um… My name… My name is Denzo and you guys have something that isn’t yours… Well it wasn’t mine either but…”

One particular voice shouted out from the rest, one that sounded familiar.

“Hey Lance, isn't this that kid from earlier?”

“Oh yeah, he’s the one who gave us the boss's new gift.”

“Well yeah that’s the thing, I…”

“Did he now?”

A deep voice eagerly spoke out of turn, a tall man wearing a legionary skirt and gang affiliated jacket with a velvet cape attached to the back, came from the inside of the hot dog stand. He was tall and had short black hair with a sharp jawline. So that must be the commander.

“Hail Caesar!”

One goon shouted.

The members all kneeled to him like he was a king.

“The names Val Caesar, commander of the Wild Legions and the most fearsome crime boss in the whole city.”

Ha, talk about blowing smoke up your own ass… So far so good kid.

“Um Mr. Caesar, that gun you received…”

“Oh yes, It’s a marvelous piece, I was so happy to have received it that I’ve allowed my men to throw a party in honor of my happiness.”

Pretty self absorbed kind of guy he is, what do these goofballs see in him? It must not be that hard to start your own gang these days.

“The thing about it is, I need you to give the pistol back to me.”

Oh boy that did it, the silence spoke loudly, Caesar's smile became a quick frown as did everyone else’s. Caesar stared down at Denzo observing him as if he thought Denzo was telling a bad joke. I could tell I would have to intervene soon before it got ugly.

“HA… HA… HA. It seems like a kid like you doesn’t know his place. You ask to take my gift back when I haven’t even gotten the chance to use it yet.

Caesar snapped his fingers and pointed at the ground right in front of him, two of his stronger guards grabbed Denzo and carried him over, dropping him on his knees right in front of Caesar. Caesar drew my pistol from his belt and cocked it back, he smiled with a boastful grin and aimed the gun down at Denzo.

“Allow me to try it out first before I hand it back to you.”

His pearly white smile grew as his mouth stretched farther and wider with a psychotic joy. Denzo began to panic and look around for me to help. As I watched from afar leaning on the side of a cold damp building I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, I slipped one out and popped it between my lips and started walking over without lighting it. Just as Caesar was about to fire, my footsteps caught his attention.

“Not another distraction. Fine, the more the merrier I was looking forward to testing it out.”

I stopped and plucked out the cigarette between my lips and held it between the tips of my fingers.

“It’s a she by the way, try to handle her with more respect, then maybe the gun will respect you.”

I lectured.

“I knew you were crazy.”

Denzo replied.

“Alright so who's up first?”

I drew my gun from my holster and held it in my left hand and held out an extra clip of ammunition in the other, shit was about to go down and with 10 minutes left I had to make this quick or I’d be out of the job.

“Men, I order you all to attack this man at once.”

Each goon had their weapon of choice drawn out and ready to use. My primary target was anyone that had a pistol in hand, the guys with melees such as pocket knives and baseball bats could wait last. Caesar grabbed Denzo and held him as a hostage just in case his men couldn’t get the job done. One by one they rushed me, I kicked over one of the benches the hot dog stand provided outside and used it as cover, I instantly opened fire killing two men holding pistols, both of their bodies fell to the ground as the other gunman fled behind cover. I bit down hard onto my cigarette with a smile as I fought, to me this was the most exciting part of the job even though I’d rather not get my head blown off. I began to hum a melody of a jazz song I heard earlier today at the bar as two guys with knives rushed at me lunging their blade at my neck. I dodged both strikes while swinging my head back away from the tip of the blade.

Woosh. Woosh.

I kicked my leg up at the hand of the goon closest to me and knocked the blade right out his hand, the blade flew up into the air and landed sticking down into one of the benches, then finished him off by swinging my foot into his jaw. The other guy with the blade kept swinging at me and finally got a good slash on my shoulder, blood began to drip down my arm. That’s unfortunate I was hoping I’d be able to go unscathed for this matchup. He swung his knife at me from over his head, I caught his arm and loaded two shots into him. A couple more minutes and I had 12 of them already dead or knocked unconscious. The other eight got the right idea and began to run away in fear, I dumped my empty magazine and slipped in the only other one I had.

Caesar stood in the same spot clutching onto Denzo this time with a wobbling hand that could barely keep my gun steady.

“You think you can just come here and mess with the Wild Legions and get away alive?”

I smiled.

“Well yeah, that was sort of the point actually, now hurry up and slide the gun over and I’ll forget about all the trouble you put me through.”

“I would do what he says, he’s crazy.”

Denzo encouraged.

“Shut it kid, either you walk away or my finger might just slip on accident and pull the trigger.”

Caesar threatened. Though part of me didn’t want the kid to die for some reason, and another part of me sort of didn’t care. Not only was Caesar shaking but Denzo was shaking as well, almost as if he'd been buried in a foot of snow for a night. I gripped my pistol a bit tighter in a struggle of trying to figure out my next move, what should I do?

“ I don’t have time for this, will you just leave the kid out of this and give me back my gun.”

Caesar took his aim off of Denzo, finally… An opening. In the transition of aiming the gun from Denzo to me I pulled my gun up and fired without having to take aim, confident in my shot. Caesar fell back against the wall of the stand and slid down leaving a trail of blood down the wall that was behind him. Denzo with his eyes tightly shut finally opened them and turned around to see Caesar deceased.

“Target eliminated.”

“Don’t ever do that again.”

Denzo pleaded.

I slung my gun around my finger like a true western movie star and rested it back inside of my holster. I stared down at my watch and only had 5 minutes left until I lost my chance at becoming a ranked assassin. I walked over to Caesar and took back what was mine, placing it in the other empty holster.

“Together at last.”

“Thanks for saving me even though this mess is my fault.”

An apology wasn’t what I was expecting but it was still nice to hear.

“These pistols don’t have super abilities, or an ultra charge that beams energy as powerful as the sun, or unlimited regenerating ammo, to anyone else they’re just guns, but someone special gave these to me, so losing these means a lot to me, it’s sort of like when you’re a little kid and you have a favorite toy that makes you happy. For me this is that toy, just a more dangerous toy that little kids shouldn’t play with.”

“Yeah I get what you mean.”

“Your turn kid, what’s with the pick pocketing, don’t you have parents or something?”

Denzo looked away as if it would be enough to avoid the question.

“Hey well that’s not fair, it’s your turn now kid.”

“Well it’s complicated… My parents say I should try to grow up and stop acting like a child even though I’m only 16. They want me to start working the family business and they put a lot of pressure on me, I never knew what I was good at until I stole my first wallet, after that I was inspired to use my skill in pickpocketing to earn enough money to buy my own crew and start a gang that I could lead, the plan wasn’t to be a bad gang, just a gang where we could be free to be young and goof off, I didn’t realize the violence and danger would still follow that. so I ran from home and that’s that.”

Denzo began to walk away with hands in his pockets.

“Heading home kid?”

“Nope, I’m gonna make a quick stop to the clubbing district and scrounge through a couple more pockets.”

BOINK.

Denzo fell into my arms after I applied a totally safe knockout technique. Even though he screwed my career I still didn’t want this kid to ruin his life, I could tell he wasn’t all too bad. Before leaving the scene I sent the location to the agency for a cleanup crew. Just more money out of my pockets. I held Denzo underneath my arm and headed off to the agency.

I entered my caseworkers office and encountered the client just as he was about to leave. My caseworker sat at his desk squeezing the life out of a stress ball.

“Well it’s about time Whiskey, glad you could join us.”

“I’ve waited long enough to get this contract worked on, my sons out there causing trouble and I need to find him.”

“Well Whiskey looks like you and I both will be out of the job.”

The client was worried, flustered and paced around the office until he saw the boy I was carrying under my arm.

“Denzo?”

“Oh you know him?”

Crying with joy the client pointed at his son.

“That’s my son Denzo, he’s the reason I’m even working this contract in the first place, you found him, what happened?”

“Oh this, he was tired and so I offered to carry him while he took a nap.”

The father took his son from my arms and held him with joy.

“I don’t know how protocol is around here, but I’m willing to still sign that contract and mark it completed since you managed to find my son.”

My caseworker looked at me with a big ole greedy smile on his face.

“Well sir if you just sign these papers this will confirm the completion of the contract and that you agree to transact the amount of payment due for our services that you requested.

My caseworker slid the paperwork seductively, he winked at me while the client began to sign. My caseworker then gave me a thumbs up, I could tell that this made up for my tardiness.

“I thank you again assassin, if I ever need your assistance I’ll make sure you’re the first I contact.”

The father and his son Denzo walked out of the agency office. I watched Denzo sleep as the doors closed behind him, not sure of when I’d see the kid again, but for now I wish him the best. My caseworker’s eyes turned into dollar signs as he counted our contract payout plus the money we got for killing Caesar. I guess someone had a contract that was up for grabs and without knowing it I completed it, which allowed me to finish two contracts in one. A total of $2.2 million. My caseworker was so happy he decided to cover the cleanup fees which put a smile on my face as well, for once I had enough money to cover my ass for a week.

“Well I don’t know how you did it Whiskey but you managed to pull it off.”

“I guess everything just sort fell in the right place I guess.”

“Just try not to be late next time.”

“Yeah I’ll look into that, so when did we start looking for missing persons?”

“Oh yeah, the agency expanded to taking contracts of other sorts besides assassinations since missing persons lead to danger a lot of the time and the police don’t have time to handle those, so now we can choose to accept them or not, which no complaints here as long as the pays good.”

My caseworker tossed an envelope on the edge of his desk full of cash, I grabbed it and slipped it down into my coat pocket. I smiled with that cigarette still being chewed between my teeth.

“Are you gonna smoke that or eat it?”

My caseworker asked sarcastically.

“Oh, forgot I even had this, I guess I’ll light it once I’m home, I need to unwind.”

I left the office and headed back home, I could use the comfiness of my cloud foam mattress just about now. I walked into my room and plopped down onto the bed, the cigarette I forgot to light again fell from my mouth as I fell asleep instantly. Nothing better than falling asleep after a hard day's work.