The Hitman and His Consort

XXV - Acomplished

First Person P.O.V: VALENTIN HACKSAW

“That’s none of your business,”

I replied to him before looking back at the scene in front of us, I heard him click his tongue and lean back to his chair, for some reason, his figure seems to melt into the seat’s upholstery but that’s probably because he’s too thin, I still think he’s in no position to help in physically strenuous action because I will be carrying his mummified remains on top of rescuing a woman I don’t even know personally.

He sighed and crossed his arms, “Look, I know we started off on the wrong foot, but I just want to know what kind of person my sister involves herself with,” he reasoned,

“Your sister is a professional killer, her having a boyfriend should be the least of your worries,” I countered, regardless of whether or not she does have one I doubt my relationship with her should raise suspicion about this, I wasn’t the only one telling him that it’s not possible why he doesn’t trust me and three other people is beyond me.

I could excuse him for not trusting me. I don’t exactly look like I’ve been living a straight-laced honest life. Personally, I thought the suit would change that, but it just made me look more ‘sketchy’. On the other hand, my mother did tell me to stick with the look since I do run some honest business, that being managing one of our warehouses.

‘And I am a liar, but why the f**k won’t he just take my words for it?’

“My sister is good at her job,” He began, saying it with such a proud tone, “what she's not good at is judging people and tend to keep around bad company with the exception of Inka, who I introduced to her,” he followed and I threw a frown at him,

I don’t know exactly what the hell he wants to hear from me, does he want me to confess my sins and flaws and make him feel better thinking he was right or should I say sweet nothings to assure him that Art’s in good hands and tell him he’s wrong, because I doubt neither of those would lead to a positive outcome from this dreadful conversation.

“What do you want me to say?" I asked him, directly, I don’t know what he wants from me, and even if I did, what the hell do I owe him to give him that?

He glared back at me and scoffed, “I knew it, you’re actually a piece of s**t, huh? Why are you hanging around my sister in the first place?” he followed up, and to my dismay, he did not explain what he wanted and we’re already starting a separate conversation.

I suppose tying up loose ends is too taxing and difficult for him, poor thing. Either way, I’ve worked with his sister, who is exactly the same as him, and adapted rather quickly. I replied, “She recruited me,”

He hummed, “So you two actually know each other?” he asked again,

“Yeah, I met her first when she was going after a target of hers and met again later on again when she killed my, tentative, targets,”

“Okay, and…?”

“What the f**k do you mean ‘and’?”

“That’s it? You met twice and she recruited you?”

“Your sister is a big weirdo, I hope you’re aware of that before going off at me,” I sighed. I could feel the creases on my forehead going deeper,

“Yeah, but there has to be some sort of reason why she recruited you almost instantly—” he argued, raising his index finger as he tried to make his point.

'Oh yeah, there,'

“She thinks my mother is cool,” I said.

“What?!” he blurted.

“Ask her,” I told him as I let him marinate on the facts that I just told him, I wasn’t lying or anything, vague perhaps but not false, he sat there in silence for about a minute before pinching the bridge of his nose,

“Really?” he asked,

“Yes,” I answered, and back to silence he goes.

Dragging his hands over his face, I’m not exactly sure what sort of crisis he’s going through right now because all of it was over and done with. I’m beginning to think he’s someone who just naturally finds problems to think about because they’re not good at anything else. He’s trying to pile troubles over his head. Did he forget we’re in a middle of a mission solely devoted to his woman?

“Last question,” he announced after that blissful minute of his silence, “Are you in love with my sister?”

‘…what?—’

“That’s f*cking embarrassing—did you just ask me that?” I asked him back, where does he get that shamelessness? The same place as Denis?

“Answer the f*cking question,” he growled,

“Then what? Will we start braiding each other’s hair?” I retorted,

“I—just answer the damn question! I know damn well she isn’t paying to do this so why are you still around?” he asked, yet, another f*****g question, I was not aware that this was an interrogation and not a cease and desist mission on the Mariella lab’s staff.

“I’m around because it’s fun,” I replied for the peace of his mind,

‘It didn’t work’

He only threw me a mixed expression of a frown, a grimace, and disgust. Figuring out what he’s thinking depending on his facial expression is like reading the alphabet. He clicked his tongue and looked away for a moment before looking back at me, perhaps hoping that I was just a mere hallucination. What I said about him just stockpiling his own problems might be true.

On top of that, talking to him alone already used up the number of words I’d used for the whole year,

“You really have major issues, huh? Alright what’s your villain backstory?” he asked, leaning a bit close with an exhausted expression,

‘What the hell is he talking about?’

I can hardly follow his train of thought and he uses some sort of jumbled dialect with hidden meanings. It’s almost damn near impossible for me to remain holding onto this conversation and whenever I think the discussion is over, he starts another one almost completely unrelated to the prior conversation.

“What?" I asked, not being able to decipher his stupid wordplays at the drop of a hat, making me question if it was me who’s incompetent of her generally does not make sense in any possible setting.

He sighed, dragging his hand over his face once again like it was my fault we’re not progressing on the discussion, “Your backstory, like… tell me why you became like that, or something,” he explained and I furrowed my brows,

‘Did he just casually ask—no, ordered, me to tell him about my past?’

I didn’t know I could strike as someone who would do just that. The only person I ever talk about things like this with is Rodrigo, and that’s only because he was getting paid for that. I don’t even want to do it even in those circumstances.

‘Makes me wonder what sort of twisted delusional impression he had of me and why he thought I’d f*****g tell him,’

“No,” I merely replied,

“Is it that bad?”

“No, why are you persistent?”

“I’m trying to understand you here, help me,”

“I never ask you for understanding,”

“Oh my—this! This is why I don’t want you around my sister!” he groaned, and I scoffed.

“I doubt your opinion will influence anything,” I countered, making him sigh loudly, clearly exasperated with me, and that alone made me feel accomplished. Maybe he’ll shut up and even better leave me the f**k alone.

“It’s a simple yes or no f*****g question…If someone asked me if I’m in love with August I’d say yes, hands down!” he said to…particularly no one, I think he’s speaking to himself because I do not find this interesting at all, as to why he said that out loud I’m also starting to question his sanity.

“Look I won’t pry anymore—”

“Finally"

“—but! If you ever hurt or even inconvenience Art in any f*cking way, I’m coming for your neck,” he announced or perhaps threatened, I’m not quite sure who’s he scaring or intimidating but I would like to assure him that it’s not me.

He paused after that, so I assumed the conversation was over. We watched the hectic view again. He kept the binoculars[ressed against his face again and surveyed the place. For a second I thought he’ll start blabbering again but he remained silent and I was able to take a breather again.

His sister, Arthur, is also a talkative person, but she was tolerable, in fact, I anticipate her words since she’s, somewhat, speaking more like an eloquent woman in her field of expertise. I know that experiences tend to change a person. I’m aware she’s actually quite good at what she does and is, in truth, kind of well-spoken but her personality is not as insufferable as this, this constant senseless and aimless yapping has the power to drive someone to the brink of a berserking streak.

“Disgusting…” I heard Madeline whisper again with a grimace as he looked at me,

‘…Will Arthur be able to forgive me if I killed her recently rescued brother?’

Does he honestly intend for us to fight and have I just been clueless all this time?

“What the hell is with that creepy-ass smile, ew, that gave me chills, the hell were you thinking about with a smile like that, g******e?” he added, making me frown. What the hell is he talking about now? Why does he constantly want to argue about something—

“Don’t look at me like that, you were smiling just now,” he followed up, interrupting whatever I was about to say, adding more and more to this stupid discussion.

‘…Was I seriously smiling, though?’

I didn’t notice but rest assured whatever type of smile I had was wiped off as soon as Madeline opened his mouth again, “I was thinking about your sister,” I replied, not a lie but since he’s working hard to get on my nerves, I’ll gladly return the f*****g favor.

He glared and flipped me off before shutting up again, ideal but unexpected.

After that was tiring and mentally draining hours of waiting so painful that it made me contemplate whether I’d rather live through Madeline’s constant talking or this perpetual anticipation, we even drove around town so we won’t have to stay at one point in a place to raise suspicion and despite all of that we still remained to wait.

To pass time, Madeline took the initiative to get us dinner, Chinese fast-food which is questionable because Madeline didn’t seem like he knows how to use the utensils that came with it and ate the noodles by hand.

Even I was bothered by that.

The scene had long calmed down. Around 5 PM the crumpling crowds running amok in the facility lessened at the forefront of the building, and by the time it was getting late, at around 10 PM, people started exiting the place. Madeline, who’s admittedly better than me in this particular area, had the role of seeing the faces and looking for our targets.

We’re working with very little data to catch them again another time if we fail here and in all honesty, I couldn’t be more bothered with the menial tasks like this, I just wanted the infiltration part, it’s not like killing people, as it is, wasn't exactly a source of entertainment, it depends on the other party if their involuntary participation would be interesting.

Like Niall, Niall was an agreeable guy, not quite entertaining, but he’s not a pain in the ass.

“Oh… it’s starting—start the car, start the car—” Madeline gushed as we watched a cluster of staff leaving through the gates and not the main entrance and exit, some were on cars while some are on foot, there was even what seems like an employee shuttle I suppose the better part of this plan is about to start.

I did as he told, we watched as some of them just waited out front, and I am just wondering if his ‘expertise’ would help him in this situation, how fast can a person recognize and discern a face in a sea of people I know he’s older than me for three years but there is almost no way that he would—

“Right, one is waiting out front and the other left by a car, black Honda, license plate 3JBK069, let’s get the one on the front first,”

“Wh—”

“Drive out to the front! I’ll grab the guy with the red beanie—that one, and then drive away! Quickly!” Madeline barked, still keeping his eyes on our target as I did, and crawled his way to the backseat,

Again, not exactly a team player but the idea of him yelling orders pissed me off, either way, I did as he said and I must say it’s been a while since I did something like this the casual drive-&-grab, I drove quite the length before taking a U-turn being in the same side of the street as the target, and even before we were close I heard him open the doors.

Also, I know that co-workers are not people that make good connections with each other, but the distance between these people makes it obvious that they internally hate each other and just want to get the day over with and go home.

‘Our guy is up for a big surprise,’

When we got close enough, Madeline jumped out of the car at a speed that I did not expect him to have and grabbed the guy’s beanie, and grabbed the back of his hair as he dragged him back at full speed to the backseat of the car, it was definitely startling but the moment he and the target were inside the car I floored the gas pedal and drove away the door shut close by itself with the momentum.

“Aaghh!—ahhughh—Ahhhh!”

“Stop yelling!”

“AGGHHH! HELP! AGGH!”

I glared at the rearview mirror just in case we were being tailed, and it seemed like we weren’t but during that, I caught a glance of Madeline wrestling with the target, and since this is his guy he did a pretty good job in subduing him and putting him in a chokehold and the man passed out soon enough.

“Whew…one down,” Madeline said as he climbed back into the passenger seat,

“And where will we find the other?” I asked, and he shrugged.

“Man, I don’t know, he went that way,” He replied pointing to the opposite direction we were heading,

‘Of, f*****g, course… ‘

I couldn’t stop the urge to sigh. What the hell are we supposed to do now? I can’t just take another U-turn and go through the same f*****g street again. That said, I need to trash this car soon too, and that building is swarming with surveillance cameras.

I’ve already trashed a lot of cars before but these missions alone already cost me more than I’d normally do, either way, I think my mother would love to know that the reason was that I found new company and she’d assume I’m finally forming relationships.

“What if we meet him there?” Madeline commented,

“Meet him where? Or did you set an appointment with him?” I asked back with an eye roll,

“Wow. I didn’t know you made a joke, f*ck you by the way, but what I mean is that we can try to meet him to at which point he's generally heading to,” he explained and I sighed as I try to map our routes into my head,

‘F*cking…damn it’

Turning to the next intersection I tried to put his suggestion into play and waited until we decided that tonight is a miss for my target, something that he won’t seem to acknowledge because he still had the binoculars pressed against his face, that thing has to be equipped with night vision but he does constantly shift between juts looking around and looking through them.

Like he has the chances of finding the target in this situation—

“FOUND HIM!”

‘Like hell he did! What?!’

I looked in the direction he was looking and saw a small gas station convenience store, pretty empty and since it has glass walls, it was easy enough to see who was in there.

‘There has to be some sort of backlash for getting this amount of luck, it's f*cking ridiculous,’

“Do you have a gun?” Madeline asked, his hand opened at me expecting me to just hand one over.

I did but that’s not the point.

He then shoved it in his sweatpants and the bulky and thick material helped to hide the shape and presence of the gun itself. He gestured for me to park somewhere on the side of the road while he left and went inside the convenience store.

I’m pushing my limits when it comes to waiting, I don’t recall a time where patience was an option for me until I met Arthur, it took a few minutes but soon enough, our target’s car pulled up right beside mine. The window on the passenger seat,

Revealing none other than the esteemed mascot for anemia: Madeline himself. Wearing a smirk as he had a gun aimed at the target’s temple, sitting on the driver’s seat.

“Two down,” he announced. Perhaps he does deserve some praise. This was a surprise for sure, but a welcomed one,

I nodded, “Good, follow me,” I replied as I drove ahead, our next destination being the usual abandoned warehouse far away from the city, Inka did tell us to ask them ‘important’ questions so that’s what I’m going to do.

‘Finally getting into the fun part,'