An Assassin’s Offer 2

? is the name of the head assassin. He doesn’t have a name because there was nothing that I thought really fitted and I thought it would be better to just let him remain anon.

"Why do you have to do that?" Camrey asked.

"What?"

"Mix ecstasy with your healing." The dark robed man continued to press up against Camrey who was aware that he was the only thing holding her up. When the wave of dizzy happiness had subsided Camrey lifted her head from his shoulder and tried fruitlessly to see into the deep black hood. Had the man she had only known as ? changed at all.

"What’s the job?" she asked conscious that she wasn’t going anywhere soon. She had been trained by this man and he was strong and graceful as a cat. His whole body was unusually tense and she couldn’t help but wonder why.

"You work for me finding safe houses for my employee’s."

Camrey’s first question was: "Why me?" he pushed himself off her and chuckled.

"I’ve never met anyone who can run like you." He said and coming from him it was high praise. "If you wanted to hide, I would never find you."

"Yes you would, you found me tonight."

"By accident, I’ve been looking for you for weeks."

"Hmm…" so that was who it had been.

"So how about it?" he asked.

"Do I still get to live where I like?"

"If you want."

"What’s my pay like?"

"5 a month." Camrey nodded keeping her face blank but inside she was in turmoil. Should she? "Plus extra for planning difficult jobs."

"I thought you planned difficult jobs."

"Not if you want to." Camrey thought for a while and he waited patiently.

"All right, but don’t try and find out where I live or who my family is or I’m gone." He nodded and they shook hands.

"We’ll meet where we used to." He said and she nodded.

"Okay."

"What do you want your code name to be?" he asked turning around to the door.

"How about shadow." She said and when he looked back she was gone…

~.~.~.~

Camrey waited in the doorway of a safe house that was headquarters. This brought back old memories from when she was in training to be an assassin, she would wait here and sure enough there would be a disturbance on the other side of the square and she stepped backwards through the open doorway into the dark interior. No one noticed, no one ever did. She turned around to see three people sitting round a table all studying her from the blackness of their hoods.

"Shadow, meet tiger, snake and spider." ? Had opened the door and now they both sat down at the table. ? Was indistinguishable to the rest of them and Camrey felt like the odd one out. Only the one named spider was different she felt that if he wanted to he could disappear into his own shadow and she felt his eyes on her as ? explained why he had brought her into the organization. They all nodded except for spider who ? took his silence for one of acceptance. They got up and went out and ? turned to Camrey who smiled at him.

"They’re my best, tiger is brutal and snake is deadly but spider is probably the one who will succeed me." He said this probably with his eyes closed but Camrey couldn’t tell.

"I noticed that, he seems to be… different. Where did you pick him up?" he turned to her and she felt the urge to shiver.

"The slums of zallas."

"But that’s gang territory."

"Exactly."

"How old was he?" Camrey asked.

"Old enough." Came his reply. "Anyway, I’ve put together a file on our safe houses your office is through there." He pointed to a door and he got up. "I’ll see you when I see you." He went out the room and Camrey took a deep breath before getting up and going to explore her office.

It was what used to be her bedroom. Where the bed used to be there was a desk, on it there was a file and a cup with a quill and some ink. The first thing Camrey did was to move her desk so her back would be to the high window. The window would give her the advantage of seeing the person who came into the room before they saw her. Next she went to the wall panel in which she had left a few things the last time she had been here.

Camrey breathed on the panel and it slid to the side. Inside there was a set of clothes. They were black and as she pulled them out and shook out three weeks worth of dust she sighed. Back to wearing assassin’s uniform. She put the hood away as it would be pointless to wear it but slipped the rest of the clothes on over her own. She wore her hair loose as a little rebellion against how she had been forced to wear it when she had last worn these clothes. The effect was one of dangerous beauty which Camrey liked.

Sitting down at her desk she opened the file and commenced reading.

Safe house 1:

Location: 105 Hamley road, western districts.
Security Cover: Abandoned building.
Entrances: 6
Password: Yeti

Safe house 2…

It didn’t take Camrey long to read the file, it was short and contained only minimal information. She would have to go and inspect these houses for herself.