The Men of the World’s organization had a goal to achieve, and for that, they needed the assistance and support of some of the most dangerous killers on the face of the earth. No matter where they were or how much they asked for, the organization needed them to be on their side.

Kirsten had been given the task of finding three legendary killers whose feats and actions had been told from mouth to mouth across the free world like fables for the new generation. With enough effort and a silver tongue, he managed to convince two of them, and then headed to Switzerland to find the last killer on his list.

By just reading the dossier he had a feeling this killer would be the hardest to convince.

A soldier who ravaged through Iraq on his own, slayer of hundreds upon hundreds of combatants, leveled entire towns and cities, forced the United States military to retreat from the territory and dissolved Saddam Hussein’s regime, sinking it in an ocean of blood. The disaster left at his wake would fuel the nightmares of the Arabian people for centuries.

Those were the stories told about the soldier known as “Qisab” among the Arabians, and “Butcher” among the Americans, a person that didn’t know friend from foe, and was only interested in killing as many as he could.

Ultimately those stories were just that, stories, but having seen all the things he had seen, Kirsten was pretty inclined to believe them.

If it was up to him, he wouldn’t have any interest in hiring a murderer like him, but the boss offered a convincing enough argument.

“It’s best to have a monster on our side than letting it be approached by our enemies and become a bigger problem later on. Besides, I think his skills are greatly wasted in that company.” -He said.

“We are hiring monsters now, huh?” He said to himself, at least the other two assassins on his list were more reasonable individuals, a bit quirky and maybe with a few screws loose, but they clearly had a capability for discernment and civilized discourse.

He assumed it would be an entirely different matter with this Butcher felon. Suddenly, he felt an urge to protect his neck from an incoming attack.

His driver informed him they were about to arrive at the base. According to the information provided by the operators, the Butcher was affiliated to an international mercenary group known as the Crimson Rangers, whose headquarters were located deep in Switzerland’s Bjorno forest, an unusual place to settle your company, but their leader had a lot of enemies just like the organization, and thus appreciated the protection and secrecy the deep forests provided.

It took a while but the commander of the Crimson Rangers, a man named Conrad Floyd Amber, had agreed to let him into his base to have a chat under the idea that Kirsten wanted to hire the rangers’ services for a very important assignment.

Kirsten had faith the deal would go smoothly; he was confident in his persuasion skills. Still, a little bit of luck was always welcomed.

They found the path across the forest to reach the base, a zone usually forbidden for the general public so no one would notice they were there.

The road was rocky and rudimentary, but the car managed to drive through it decently enough. Then, after a few minutes of driving through curves and being wary of falling off the cliff, they finally arrived at the headquarters of the Crimson Rangers. The guard at the gate let them through when he saw their vehicle approaching and told the driver where to stop the car.

After leaving the vehicle, Kirsten was approached by the commander himself in the parking lot.

“Mr. Eyler, I presume.” -Kirsten could feel his imposing presence. His stature, his rank, his body, all of these things screamed “he’ll kill you if you prove to be a threat.”

“That’s right. You must be commander Amber, pleased to meet you.” -They shook hands, both their grips seemed to be equally strong. Conrad was surprised to see that a “puny businessman” like he considered Eyler to be had this much strength; he quickly realized there was more to him than what meets the eye.

“Your base is quite far from civilization.” -Commented Eyler.

“That’s on purpose, we want civilization far away from us for reasons you may be able to infer.”

“Yeah, I have an idea of why you wouldn’t want your old friends in the US government to find your base. I’m surprised your company is still considered a mercenary group instead of a terrorist organization.”

“The United States does consider us a terrorist organization, but if you look hard enough, you’ll see we’ve obtained the favor of the many other countries that have hired our services, even if they have direct relations with the states.”

“The hero obtaining the favor of the king’s subjects…”

“That’s a way of seeing it, but I doubt you came here only to listen to the story of my group. Let’s talk business in my office now.”

Having said that, Conrad guided Kirsten to his office located in the heart of the base. He ordered a handful of his men to entertain the driver while he waited for his client to come back out of basic courtesy for him as a guest.

“We are a small group, but each of my men’s skills are worth the ones of a whole squad of seasoned veterans.”

While walking, Eyler looked at the other soldiers in the base going by their usual routines and chores; target practice, working out, weapon maintenance, and recreational activities to not get bored out of their minds.

“Is it true that most of your men are outcasts from other military groups across the world?”

“Yes. Do you have a problem with that?”

“None at all, but it makes me curious about why they were cast away in the first place.”

“They didn’t leave their factions willingly, I can tell you that much. If you listen to their stories, you’ll find that betrayal is a common theme among them, betrayal for doing the right thing and betrayal for refusing to do wrong.”

“I would like to sit down and have a nice chat about war crimes, morals and horrifying landscapes, but my schedule is completely packed at this point.”

“Unfortunate.”

Kirsten noticed two women at the distance who seemed to be arguing about something involving a teddy bear one of them was holding in her hands. Kirsten considered that an unusual sight in a military base.

“(Do they have children here?)” – he wondered; the Crimson Rangers were truly a very peculiar group.

After a short walk, they arrived at the building where Conrad’s office was located. They were received by Conrad’s bodyguard and silently asked Kirsten to take a seat.

“Your organization must be very influential and have their own share of power to be able to contact us for a request. Still, I find it strange that you wanted to meet up in person rather than just sending me the request on paper.” -Commented Conrad while his bodyguard served him coffee in his favorite mug.

“That could’ve been the case, but the truth is, this request is rather…special, so I wanted to talk about the matter with the commander personally so we can come to an agreement.”

“I assume you don’t want us to rescue a VIP or get rid of some group that’s causing you trouble. It has to be something more critical but… I can’t really think of any other alternatives. Sensible information retrieval, maybe?”

“Nothing of that nature, honestly. It has to do with one of your soldiers.”

Conrad took a sip of his coffee while raising an eyebrow.

“Oh? You want to exclusively recruit one of my men? Why?”

“It’s common knowledge among the circles my group is into that your company was hired to provide support during the Iraq war, correct?”

Conrad remained silent for a few seconds, having a bad feeling about where the conversation was leading to.

“Correct. We were hired to go to Iraq, two years ago. It was a rather messy contract, and in the end, our clients didn’t want to uphold their own end of the deal, so we had to take some other things as a manner of payment from them, if you know what I mean. Why do you bring that up?”

“I mention this, Mr. Conrad, because during your stay in Iraq, a chain of events took place in the country that led to all factions involved to be completely dissatisfied, so to speak, or to their complete and utter destruction. According to the information gathered by our informants, one of your men had a huge role in these events.”

“Cut the bullshit already, Eyler. Tell it to me straight, what is it that you want from us?”

“I would like to meet and talk with this soldier. We know that he’s still under your command, even considering the circumstances.”

“What? Did someone send you to enact retribution?”

Eyler noticed how the bodyguard walked and quietly positioned behind him, ready to slit his throat if he said the wrong thing.

“It’s nothing like that really. It’s like you said, I’m interested in meeting him and…hiring his services.”

Conrad threw and inquisitive look at Kirsten, and after a dozen seconds of threatening silence, the commander laughed and took another sip of his coffee.

“So that’s what this is about. I was wondering when someone like you would show up at my base. So, you actually came just to talk with the girl?”

“Oh, so the Butcher is a woman?”

“No, not a woman, a girl. There’s a key difference.”

“(Wait, what does he mean by that?)” – Kirsten raised an eyebrow.

“But first, I’d like to know…”-Continued Conrad. – “I could let you hire any of my men right here, right now and get to an agreement. Most of them are very capable soldiers that would serve your cause well, surpassing any other first-class mercenary on the market, I’d even let you have my bodyguard, he too has a talent for a multitude of tasks.”

Kirsten looked back to see the bodyguard glaring at him.

“Why, out of all of them, you want to hire her?”

“My boss has taken a great interest in her due to her track record and her multiple feats across the conflict zones around the world, alongside the ones of your own company.”

“Ah, so she’s made a name for herself without even realizing it. I suppose it was bound to happen at some point.”

“For instance, we know she was the one who killed the infamous arms dealer known as Simon Glass during a train ride.”

“That’s right, used one of his own white phosphorus grenades and blew him up to the heavens. Keep this between us but, I actually sent her on that mission expecting her to be killed. Imagine my surprise when she came back, almost completely unscathed.”

“Is she as monstrous as many people say?” -Kirsten was very curious about this just to know how wary he should be of her.

Conrad took one last sip of his coffee and placed the mug on the table.

“Well, it’s complicated. If the people that know about her consider her a monster, well, I can’t say I blame them. You wanna know how she joined our group? a few years ago we were making some inventory about our food reserves when one of my men, Aiden, found her sleeping inside one of the supply crates, she had eaten most of the apples inside. Some people in the group wanted to get rid of her, send her to an orphanage. But in the end, we decided for her to stay, and she wasn’t against the idea, in fact, she wanted to stay with us. She didn’t know how to read nor how to speak, she didn’t know anything for what we could tell, and it was quite obvious she had been through some hell of her own.”

“I see…” -Kirsten motioned his finger to tell Conrad to continue with the story.

“I trained her to be a weapon in a way I’m sure God won’t ever be able to forgive me for, and when she was ready, we left her tag along with us to some missions, she proved to be very competent…then Iraq came, shit hit the fan and she ended up splitting up from us, getting lost in the desert. She stayed there for over a year, doing God knows what. If I were to tell you the entire story, we would be sitting here the entire day, so I’ll just say this: When she came back, she brought something with her, something abnormal. In terms of skill, there’s my lieutenants, then there’s her. Some of my men doesn’t even consider her to be human anymore.”

Suddenly, Conrad’s expression turned grim. - “…Ever since coming back she’s been obsessed with that. You know, the hunt.”

“The hunt?”

“She may seem like she doesn’t care about anything, but when killing people is about, boy, it’s almost as if she has an entire encyclopedia on how to kill a person inside that head of hers. She takes some tacit pride on it, on every successful kill and every successful mission. Still, after every firefight and carnage, more often than not, I notice how she stops and has a displeased look on her face. It’s like she’s looking for something…and the people she kills are the ones who have it.”

Kirsten felt a shiver down his spine, creating an image of the monster under Conrad’s wing in his imagination.

“Oh, well…in any case, I think I may have sold you the bike already. I’ll take you with her, and don’t worry, she has mellowed out a lot during the last couple of weeks, so you should be able to approach her with no worries. One thing though, do keep your distance, just for precaution.”

“Understood.”

Conrad and Kirsten walked out of the office and headed towards the southern corner of the base; a spot pretty separated from the rest of the facility, all the way through the training field.

“She lives so far from the base?” -Asked Kirsten.

“Not really, her dorm is in the same place as the others, specifically close to lieutenant Anya’s room. She just hangs around here most of the time, all by her lonesome, and only comes back when it’s lunch time or there’s a mission briefing. -Conrad extended his arms forward, emphasizing his point. - She uses this area as her personal playground, and ventures to the forest beyond to train, keep her skills sharp and…-He made a pause, wondering if saying this would be adequate. -…talk to herself, I guess.”

“Talk to herself?”

“Sometimes I’ve caught her speaking to the air out loud, rambling as if there was someone else there, speaking with her. If I was a superstitious man, I’d say there’s a ghost haunting her or something similar. -Conrad pointed at his own head. - But it’s obvious she’s just not too well up here.”

“(Just what I needed…)” -Thought Kirsten, completely unamused, unable to accept the fact he was sent to hire such an unstable person. – “(What is the boss thinking?)”

“I’m sure you are wondering about the reason we keep a person like that here. Voices in her head or not, she gets the job done. Besides, you too would end up a bit insane if you went through hell as many times as she did.”

“I see…” -There was a logic in that reasoning, yet that apparent insanity concerned him.

After walking through the field, they arrived at an area adorned with rows of roses both red and white.

“Roses?”

“She’s been planting and taking care of them for a while now, in honor to a friend of hers, as far as I know.”

“Friend?” -Asked Kirsten, wondering who would be crazy enough to want to be friends with a psychopath like her.

“She never speaks to anyone about the people she met in Iraq, all we know for sure is that they meant a lot to her, and you know how war is…”

They moved forward, looking for the mysterious Butcher. It was common for Kirsten to see that, aside from killing people, killers also had interest in other healthier activities like cultivation, art and literature.

After walking through the path between the flowers, they finally found her, watering a row of white roses yet to bloom.

Kirsten wanted to let his jaw drop, but he managed to keep it together to not be discourteous. He had made an idea for himself of how the legendary Butcher looked like, but she didn’t correspond to his ideal of her at all.

“There she is, the one you are looking for. One of my best soldiers: Alicia, The Butcher.” -Said Conrad proudly while Kirsten stared at her.

He could have never thought that the Butcher, the infamous villain and terror of Iraq, was just a teenager.

“(Are you kidding…? Is Conrad fucking with me? she’s just a child, she cannot be more than 15 years old!)” – he thought, the only reasonable possibility was that Conrad was trying to trick him in the most absurd way possible. – “Is this a joke, commander?”

Conrad laughed out loud; Kirsten felt like he had been played like a fiddle. However, the commander relaxed and recovered his composure.

“Ah…nope. She’s actually the one you are looking for. Pretty unbelievable, I know. The most dangerous killer in Iraq is a 15-year-old child soldier.”

“You are not actually trying to mock me, are you?”

Kirsten looked at the girl, and the first thing he noticed was the cross-like scar drawn on the right side of her face. It was a thick mark, like it was a carved by the knife of a deeply hateful individual. Kirsten wondered if it was done by the man next to him, his soldiers or their enemies.

“Not at all.” -Said Conrad. – “Do you want me to prove it to you?”

Conrad took out his knife, held it by the point and threw it with all his might with the intention of killing her.

“Wait, no!” -Kirsten protested, but it was too late, for the knife was already circling in the air about to penetrate her skull.

Against all predictions she caught the knife by the handle just before it hit her, and nailed it on the table next to her; she wasn’t even looking at it as it approached. Alicia kept on watering the flowers without a care in the world.

Kirsten took a step back unconsciously, his eyes wide open, trying to comprehend how she did that without even looking at the knife. Does she have a 360 degrees’ vision?

“No matter what I do, she always sees it coming. Her senses are just simply out of this world.” -Commented Conrad containing a laugh. – “I should have told you sooner, but I didn’t expect you to require her out of all people, and didn’t expect you to believe me if I told you she was just a teenager anyways.”

“I…this is a lot to assimilate.” -During 10 years, Kirsten assumed he had seen it all, but by taking this request, his preconceptions of what was realistic and what wasn’t were completely shattered; meeting those three killers had been a bizarre experience for him.

“She’s a pretty wild child, also quite abrasive, but if you get on her good side, she’ll answer all of your questions. Take your time now, I’ll leave you two alone and have a walk around.”

Conrad walked away to let him finish his business with Alicia.

Kirsten took a deep breath to try and collect his thoughts, remembering the purpose of his presence in the base.

“(Right…Calm down, Eyler…you are a professional. No matter the conditions, no matter who she is or how she looks like, you came to recruit her.)”. -He thought to himself while fixing his tie and recovering his motivation.

He approached Alicia being too self-aware of his own movements. Meanwhile, she placed the watering can on the ground and walked up to a little statue placed in the middle of the flowers. It seemed to be a funerary statue with a silver plaque placed in the middle of its base; He counted twelve names written on it.

She sat in front of the statue and stared at it.

“(Let’s start with introducing ourselves properly.)” – He thought, going over the basics of etiquette and formality. – “Excuse me, miss. Can I talk to you for a moment?”

The girl turned around and for brief second, he got lost in her eyes devoid of all good emotions; those weren’t merely human eyes, something else lied beyond them. He also spotted yet another scar on the left side of her face, this one was thinner but longer, extending itself towards the bridge of her nose.

She analyzed him from head to toes and then turned her attention to the statue once again.

“You don’t look like the usual bigshots that Conrad brings about…don’t you have any businesses with him?”-She asked, her voice was softer and deeper than he expected.

“My business with him is already done, now I want to speak with you for a while.”

“I have nothing to say to you, or anyone else…Leave me alone.”

“The commander already told me you weren’t a pretty amicable person, but that’s ok, we don’t need to be friends if you don’t want to.”

“Whatever is it that you want from me, I don’t have it. I don’t have nothing.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s entirely true. I have heard a lot of stories about you, about the things you’ve done. You’ve left your mark in the world at such a young age, the terror of the desert and its denizens, the slayer of hundreds of Hussein’s men and American soldiers alike, the destroyer of a nation: The Butcher.” -He said with a dramatic tone to see if he could get her attention.

She turned around once again.

“And you believe those stories?”

“Are you implying they aren’t true?”

She looked down to the ground then at him. - “…Believe whatever you want.”

“Are you ashamed of those stories?”

“Who knows…?” -She looked up to the clouds, diverting her attention from him.

Kirsten analyzed her expression; he couldn’t get a read on her at all. If anything, she just looked apathetic; bored with everything.

“I’m actually curious to know how someone your age managed to do something like that. Conrad said you are rather skillful, even gave me a demonstration.”

“I had just assumed it was yet another one of his sickening tests.” -She said looking at the knife she put on the table.

“The rumors talk about your great proficiency with guns of all sorts, even melee weapons, I’d think some of those weapons would be rather heavy to hold for someone your age.”- Kirsten noticed how she was feeling her hands with her thumbs, as if there was something there. He couldn’t see it, but for Alicia her hands always felt sticky with blood. -“Did Conrad teach you to use them?”

She just nodded; you didn’t need to be a genius to see she wasn’t pleased with Kirsten’s presence.

“…I see.” -Kirsten looked around, admiring her little garden of roses on the corner of that mercenary base. – “I’d like to ask, what inspired you to plant these roses?”

“None of your business.”

“It’s not like I’ll do anything with that information.”

“Still, stop asking.”

“Right… (Damn, I think I’m starting to get on her wrong side)” -Thought Kirsten, feeling the ambience becoming heavier by the second.

But then, Alicia decided to speak up before he could say another word.

“There’s only a reason someone like you would talk to me. If you want me to kill your rivals, political enemies, cult stalkers, whatever the hell they are, you have to talk to Conrad first so we all accept the task as a group. I’ll kill all the para…all the targets you require, so there’s no point for you to be talking to me.”

“Were you about to call these hypothetical enemies parasites?”

“…You are just hearing things.”

Alicia got up from the ground, walked up to the table and grabbed the knife. Kirsten felt slightly threatened.

The longer he looked at that knife, it was as if its entire nature changed by the second. It looked sharper, darker; it looked like as if it threatened to sever all life around them.

“…Still, there’s not many differences from the people I kill and parasites.”

“…I’m curious about your concept of what a parasite is.”

“A parasite feeds off life.” -She confronted him, she was five steps away from him, yet he felt like she was just close enough to kill him.

“Heh…” -It may have seemed like he was walking on thin ice, but Kirsten was waiting for a chance to start to pry on her story and motives to sway her into joining. It was time to press. – “…You know, those stories usually make sure to talk about your unquenchable bloodthirst. Those people all talked about how you pursued your victims like a hyena to a gazelle, and when you were done with one, you’d go to the next, over and over again, and when you had time, you would torture them and carve them up with a knife pretty similar to the one you are holding right there.”

She looked back at him, the void hidden in her eyes had stepped forward, and the knife kept looking sharper by the second.

“You are talking with a mercenary, with a killer, that’s what I do. If you take objection to that, you have no business hiring the Crimson Rangers.” -She said with an authoritative tone.

“Oh, I don’t really have a problem with that (just a bit), I’m just wondering if there’s a reason for such violence aside from the fact that it is your job.”

Suddenly, Kirsten felt the air becoming heavier. He felt a rising pressure in his chest, it was like the ground was trembling.

“You are implying there’s another reason? Which is it?” -She questioned; a threatening shadow kept growing in her expression.

“I wouldn’t be able to say for sure…but I got a feeling it has to do with the people those names belonged to.” -Kirsten said, pointing at the statue.

Alicia remained silent and stared at Kirsten with an ever-rising murderous intent.

“I’ve talked with many killers in my career, getting a fair idea of why they did the things they did. I can say for sure, at some point, it was indeed just a job for you, or rather just your means of survival. As long as you kept killing, you’d see the next day’s sunrise.”

“…” -Her shadow extended itself towards Kirsten’s feet.

“But then, something happened, and it wasn’t just about surviving anymore. Those savages, those enemies, those parasites…they took something from you, or rather, the people you cared for the most in this world.”-Kirsten made a pause when he noticed how the knife vibrated, as if it had come alive. - “And just like that, vengeance overcomes the need to survive.”

Alicia’s hand holding the knife moved slightly and a vision took his mind by assault.

He saw himself as his head was detached from his body in a single swift cut, a cut so fast it was painless, but soon a small stream of blood surged to the air, escaping his severed neck. He snapped back to reality and touched his neck, making sure his head was still attached to the rest of the body.

“(…Did she just…?)” -He had no way of knowing for sure, but his gut told him she had done something and almost scared the soul out of him.

She looked at him with focused eyes, her gaze told him everything he needed to know. She was no joke; she was even as good as some of the best killers already hired by the organization.

“You talk a lot, just like all businessmen…” -She said. – “…You made a lot of guesses, and some of them aren’t really too far off the mark…but if you think that you know me, you are dead wrong…” -Kirsten noticed how she clutched at her arm tightly, keeping it still, her hand holding the knife was trembling, trying to contain the already accepted order of killing him. – “…I don’t want to have anything to do with you. Leave, now.”

There was a moment of cold silence between them, it seemed like it was the end of their conversation, but Kirsten wouldn’t leave without an answer.

“One thing I’m sure of is that, you can see how no matter how many enemies you kill, they keep appearing, wars keep happening, and the people around you keep on suffering.”

“…I know where it all comes from…” -She replied. – “But they are all out of my reach…out there, beyond the wasteland, they keep moving the strings and I keep on cutting them. They think themselves gods…Invincible. If only I could get closer, just a little bit…”

“…Fortunately for you, I think I can help with that.”

Alicia looked back at him, intrigued.

“You see, I represent an organization that actively antagonizes the groups and societies that profit and take advantage of the multiple tragedies you have witnessed throughout the wasteland. Human trafficking, drug trafficking, arms dealing, nuclear weapons, eco-crime, pharmaceutical corruption, Psy-Ops…they are the people who do it everything and wash their hands from the consequences of their actions.”

Alicia remembered all the strange symbols and insignias she found in her assaults on the different crime syndicates across the middle east. Now it all made sense, those syndicates were administered and funded by the groups hiding within the realm of civilization.

“We aim to put an end to them, destroy their entire empire. In terms you’ll like: we’ll bring the war to their doorstep.”

A sudden emotion rushed through her body; curiosity and anticipation; he had managed to catch her interest, just like he wanted.

“My boss wants you to take part in this war. If you join us, you’ll be able to wage your own war against them, on your own terms, and every kill will assure you that their actions won’t ever have echoes across the world anymore.”

Alicia looked back at the statue once again, reading the names engraved on it, one by one. There was still an opportunity to fulfill her promise with the ones those names belonged to.

“What do you say? Would you like to join us? Aside from letting you work the way you see fit, we would make it worth your while, because there’s no such thing as living off good intentions and love, right?”

Alicia looked up to the sky, thinking about his offer. She knew this was the chance she was waiting for and probably the only one she would ever receive.

She was about to say something, but Conrad interrupted her.

“Hope you had a good conversation with my soldier, but there’s the brakes…” -Conrad had returned, having made his mind about how useful she is to her. – “…I won’t let you take her away from us.”

“Ah…I had a feeling this affair would end up like this since you spoke so fondly of her a while ago.”

“I just care for the wellbeing of this company and nothing else. I have long term goals, but to see those through, I have to make sure we are as strong as we can be. Her presence here is key for that, I’d reckon.”

“How so?”

“You said so yourself, she’s the Butcher. Her skill makes sure our workload lessens on the field. She’s my greatest weapon, my masterpiece, and as her creator, I just can’t get separated from my creation. I’m sure even God would understand that.”

“So, did I come here for naught?”

“That you did. Now follow me so I can get you out of my base already. If you ever want to hire us, it’ll have to be in other occasion, or rather, you’ll have to send your request formally.”

Kirsten sighed, knowing there would be no way to convince the commander otherwise. He turned to see Alicia once again and said:

“Welp, it is how it is. I’m sorry, girl, I guess you’ll have to continue fighting your war where your company takes you.” -He shook Alicia’s hand emphatically and then walked up to Conrad. – “It’s a shame, really. Didn’t know she meant that much to you.”

“If you had a favorite weapon, you too wouldn’t want to detach yourself from it.”

“That’s all she’s to you? A weapon?”

“…Just look at her. No objections, she just remains silent. In fact, you can’t even see the slightest unconformity in her face, you can’t see anything at all. She’s comfortable with being a weapon, I’m sure she made that clear to you already. As long as she’s killing whoever she wants, she won’t have any objections.”

Just then, Kirsten could see the kind of man commander Conrad was. Far from a regular military man, he had become someone quite detached from the basic moral values and ethics of the society he once fought for.

He now resembled more a warlord than a hero.

“I’m the master, and she’s the sword, even though she tries to handle herself sometimes. Only I have the strength to wield her.”

Kirsten felt the necessity to say something.

“Oh, well…you may be surprised Conrad. In my experience, I’ve learned that swords tend to be more complex than what its master thinks.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You may discover it eventually…”

After a few minutes, Kirsten and his driver were out of the base, heading back to the town where they had settled for their search.

“Did you manage to recruit that assassin, sir?” -Questioned the driver, having the bad feeling his boss had failed in his endeavor.

“Ah…I’m afraid that her commander put a stop to the recruitment process.”

“That means she’s not coming with us?”

“Not really…you see, when you recruit someone to do anything, sometimes you have to give them some time to think about your offer, and thus, you make sure that they have a way to reach out to you once they’ve made up their mind.”

“So, that means…”

“Exactly. I better keep an eye out on my office’s phone in the meantime.”

When he shook Alicia’s hand, he gave her his calling card which contained his phone number and his office’s number. If she really wanted to take him up on his offer, then she would find a way to make the call; an experienced assassin wouldn’t have much problems with such a simple task.

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Kirsten had the feeling that things would go his way, he only needed to be patient.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, she never made the call to confirm she’d join up, but he wasn’t going to give up just yet. He’d wait for as long as it took for her to reach out to him, or at least that’s what he thought.

When it was 5 PM, his phone received a call, but not from the one person he was expecting.

“Hello Kirsten. How’s the recruitment going?” -It was his boss, the leader of the organization, merely known as the “Man of the sunflowers.”

“Hello sir. Unfortunately, her actual handler proved to be quite jealous and got in my way.”

“That’s a real shame, then are you admitting that you failed at your task? Should I send someone else to take care of this?”

“There’s no need for that, sir. Don’t worry, I made sure she received my calling card, if she’s interested, she’ll call me soon. Now it all depends on her answer.”

“It’s not wise to leave things up to chance, Kirsten. But since you had no better alternatives, you made the right choice. I’ll give you twelve more hours, if she hasn’t responded by then, just come back, I’ll take care of the matter on my own.”

“…Understood. Thanks, boss.”

“Don’t be a stranger.”

He ended the call and Kirsten sighed with relief, he had been given a new frame of opportunity, but nothing guaranteed him she was going to make that call during that time.

“You seem to be in quite the pinch, boss.” -Said a voice from the bottom of the room, it was Kirsten’s lead operator and part time secretary, Emilia Blaire. She was comfortably hanging around, sitting on Kirsten’s couch while watching tv and drinking hot chocolate.

“I wouldn’t call it a pinch; the recruitment process just became more complicated than what it needs to be.”

“If I wasn’t familiar with the Sunflower man, I’d think he’d use brash methods to force those people to hand her over and drag her into the organization. It’s weird, I wonder why he gives the assassins so much freedom to act on their own and give them a careful treatment.”

“You already know the answer, Emilia. They are fighters, maybe the strongest in the entire world, and we follow the boss’ philosophy of respecting their strength, no matter how…peculiar they may be.”

“We would have better results if we hired proven professionals in the freelancer market. Instead, we are told to bring in the weirdos and obvious psychopaths just because they have something that makes them stand out. They got skill, sure, but for all you know they’ll chop your head off on a whim at any moment of the day. In my opinion sir, that’s going to blow up in the organization’s face one day.”

“It’s still too early to jump to conclusions, Emilia. Relax, they work for us because our interests align with theirs. Besides, they are not that bad, they just think differently; their minds don’t work like yours or mine.”

“They are freaks and that’s about it.”

“You say that as if you weren’t one yourself, Ms. No Emotions.”

“You are the one who put that nickname on me, and there’s a huge difference between a spy and information broker and a serial killer that takes pride in her plans to kill a certain number of people, like that poison girl one of your colleagues brought in the other day.”

“Oh, so he managed to bring that one in. She’s actually a freelancer, you know?”

“She may as well be the exception to the rule of the assassins we hire.”

Kirsten laughed off Emilia’s concerns. Even if she was right, the boss’ decision was absolute; the assassins they recruited were special, not only because of their skills, but also because they all held a special kind of determination that no other human possessed.

It was a pretty slow day with little to no progression on his current mission or any other task he had at hand. He was at least pleased with the fact that he managed to recruit the other two killers on that list, and if worst came to worst, they would have to suffice for their incoming campaign to destroy the global elites’ society known as The Imperium.

This campaign would take the organization to new horizons, or doom it altogether, and it was in Kirsten’s best interest for it to be a crushing success.

He closed his eyes, and remembered he had been in similar situations throughout his life, where everything he could do was to wait, even if it was painful to do so.

In the end, some of those occasions ended in soul crushing conclusions which defined the way he was up until then.

“(Here lies Kirsten, the failed spy.)”

He opened his eyes at the sound of the phone ringing and quickly picked it up. The call was coming from an unknown number. He didn’t want to raise his hopes, but maybe this was his lucky day.

“Hello?”

“…Mr. Eyler?” -It was her voice, undoubtedly.

“Oh, it’s you. Have you considered taking my offer? What does your commander think about it?”

“…I escaped from the base.”

Kirsten became shocked at hearing that sentence, his eyes wide open. Suddenly, he found himself uncapable of uttering a word.

“Mr. Eyler?”

“Oh, my apologies. I got distracted for a moment. So, where are you now?”

“I made it to Hegelstad, five kilometers away from the base. I’m calling from a public phone near a lodging house south of the town, in the plaza. Probably the commander already noticed my absence, so it’s a matter of time he sends people to search for me. Tell me where we can meet up.”

Kirsten managed to get his thoughts in order and react accordingly.

“Ah…Don’t worry! I’ll be there soon, we are a couple of hours away from that town but we’ll get there as fast as we can, so stay put and don’t get into trouble.”

“…I don’t think that will be possible.”

“What? Why not?”

“There are some people here, looking for trouble.”

She ended the call, leaving Kirsten alone with a deafening silence.

“I guess that means she’s on our side now.” -Commented Emilia.

“We have to find her! let’s go!”

Kirsten got up from his desk and rushed out of his office, followed by Emilia who wasn’t as enthusiastic about this as him.

He had to hurry up before the situation escalates because someone was stupid enough to aggravate her.

His driver was waiting with the car outside the building, the three of them entered the vehicle and headed to Hegelstad through the highway. The driver was speeding through the road as fast as he could, fortunately there weren’t any other vehicles coming or going by the same route.

It was already night, if she stayed in the shadows, it would be difficult to find her, or at least that’s what Kirsten thought.

He wouldn’t need to search for long, he only needed to follow the trail of corpses.

Alicia was a simple person, she had a handful of goals she wanted to achieve before she died, all of them tied to the one thing she cared for the most: hunting”.

She first killed a man when she was ten years old, and from that moment she knew what she wanted to do with her life.

After being under the Crimson Rangers’ wing for so long, she had almost lost all hope of hunting down the people she wanted to kill the most, but Kirsten had offered her the miraculous possibility of finally completing her objectives.

Now she had a chance to fulfill her promise with her old partners, with herself and with the one person that comprehended her better than anyone else.

She wasn’t lying when she said that there were some people looking for trouble. While she was speaking on the phone, she felt the presence of multiple people approaching her slowly from the back. They waited patiently for her to finish her call and face them.

They were big men with black leather gloves and dark coats. The way they carried themselves made it obvious to her they were very experienced and not to be taken lightly; professionals, like the ones she had heard about from some of the soldiers at the base.

“What’s the deal with these suckers?”

“(It’s obvious they are here for a reason.)”

They were a group of five, and Alicia was completely sure they were packing heat under those coats just in case the situation went south. She looked beyond them, and noticed there was a sixth stranger, hidden atop of a building, aiming down the scope of a sniper rifle. She could see the glow of his laser sight posing itself on her.

The man at the center of the line, probably their leader, stepped forward and said the first word.

“Hello, missy…are we safe to assume that you are the soldier known as “Butcher”, correct?”

“God, if we are going to have to deal with idiots like these from now on existing is going to be a pain in the ass.”

Alicia turned around to face him and separated her feet from one another, making sure her center of gravity was completely stable.

“What would you do if I was?”

The man found the reply funny and chuckled a little hanging his head low, then regained his composure.

“I gotta say I’m surprised. We had received the information but, I still couldn’t believe it. Who would have thought that “The Butcher” would be just some kid… that said, you are way taller for your age.”

“…What do you want from me? Are you with Kirsten?”

“We are not, and he doesn’t need to know about us. As to why we are here, we are here to relay a message. A message for him and for the entire organization he represents.”

“…Then why don’t you wait for him to arrive? Why are you talking with me?”

“That’s because it’s a message only you can deliver.”

The man searched through his coat and took his gun. A luger, a very old-fashioned weapon, but that man had a penchant for the dramatic and symbolic.

“We were waiting for an opportunity like this one. We were waiting for you to make your way out of that base” -He said as he aimed at her center of mass. – “We’d like you to make them know, that the Men of the World’s path of conquest is coming to an end.”

“Oh, so that’s what’s up, huh?”

Alicia tilted her head to the left.

“Do you really intend to kill a kid?”

“But you are no regular kid, are you? You are The Butcher, the “ultimate killer”; it would be foolish of me to not take you seriously.”

“…I thought you weren’t taking me seriously.”

“Oh?”

“It’s a shame…this is all you can do while being serious.” – The moment she finished that sentence she took out her own gun from her jacket, a quickdraw, faster than what his eye could perceive, and shot him in the chest.

Time slowed down for everyone involved in this unfair showdown, 5 against one, in other circumstances it would seem like the conclusion is quite clear, but that was never the case while facing the Butcher.

While he fell to the ground, Alicia redirected her aim and stabilized the pistol with her other hand, opening fire on the other assassins before they had a chance to fight back.

She shot another one in the neck and the one by his side through the frown. The third one managed to react and took out a silenced Uzi from under his coat and shot a burst of bullets towards her, at the same time, the sniper at the other side of the street opened fire, intending to hit her chest.

Alicia jumped backwards, avoiding the bullet storm coming in her direction and gunning down the fourth attacker, shooting him first in the right leg and then nailing him in the head.

Then, she rolled to the side to avoid the incoming fire from the sniper and took cover behind a tree.

Against all odds, the leader had managed to survive the shot in the chest, he had put on a Kevlar vest for safe measure; it paid up to be prepared.

“You brat!” -He yelled as he got up from the ground with difficulty. Even while wearing armor, being shot can shake you to the core.

The leader backed up and hid behind a vehicle close by alongside his remaining ally who had made the sound decision of taking cover the moment he saw his teammates being disposed of with superhuman speed and reflexes.

“Falcon-1, you got visual on her?” -He asked through the intercom to their sniper support.

“Negative, she’s hiding behind the tree.”

The leader decided to go for a bold move and told his partner:

“I’ll flank her by the left side, you go for the right side. Even if we just force her out of her cover, Falcon will take the shot.”

“Got it!”

The assassins walked out of their cover and approached the tree by both sides, intending on ambushing her and opening fire the moment they crossed her line of fire. Every step they took was harder than the previous, they could feel the sweat running down their faces. The leader kept his nerves under control but he couldn’t say the same about his partner, who seemed like he was going to misfire his gun at any second due to how much his hands were shaking, a little bit more and he would surely piss himself; they clearly made a mistake by bringing him to that mission.

When they were close enough, both professionals dashed to the side of the tree and opened fire. It took them two shots to realize she had vanished.

“Where is she!? How…Did she leave!? Falcon-1, what happened!?” -The leader called for the sniper, thinking he would have an explanation, but he was just as puzzled as them. But then, he noticed something that the other two were too low on the ground to see; the tree’s leaves rustled, opening a gap between them.

It was too late to react. The truth was, she hadn’t gone too far, she was right above them.

Alicia took aim and shot, the bullet flew across the street and pierced his right eye and skull through the scope. Then, she threw her knife to the leader’s neck, nailing the carotid artery.

The last attacker panicked and emptied his gun on the tree’s branches, hoping to at least hit her once, but while he was shooting carelessly, she descended from the tree and put herself in position on the ground, on an angle to have a clear shot on him and pulled the trigger, forcing his trigger finger to come to an abrupt stop when the bullet pierced right through his brain.

The leader kept agonizing on the ground, holding onto the knife that had caused him such a lethal wound; he was not long for this world.

He stared at her as she got up from the ground, and on that moment, he was capable of seeing what is only perceivable when you are so close to dying.

He witnessed the abysmal energy emanating from her. An energy composed of pure violence, threatening to consume all the life around her; the power only a monster possesses.

She turned around to face him and stared at him with a pair of dehumanized eyes.

“You should have shot me and then relayed your message, maybe that way we all could’ve had a happy ending.” -She said while checking how many bullets she had left inside the magazine; only one bullet, better to use it wisely.

For the first time in his life after becoming a professional killer and extinguishing dozens of lives in an impeccable and precise manner, he felt so overburdened and small.

If he had known this job would end up like this, he would’ve rejected it. He was hired to kill a “second rate mercenary who wouldn’t stand a chance being so far away from home.”

And instead, there he lied, defeated by a purebred killer.

“Agh…You…you demon!!!” -He weakly raised his gun, grasping at the final chance of killing his target and completing his job before perishing, but she was quick to the aim and executed him just like the others.

She had emptied the mag of her right-side gun.

“(Saving ammo…)” -She thought and reloaded the magazine.

“Poor zaps, I wonder how much they were promised for killing you.”

“Probably the standard quota.”

She looked around and noticed that they had made quite the scandal, but no police nor civilians were approaching to see what was going on.

“Weird.” -It was an intriguing mystery, but she didn’t have time to solve it as she noticed a shadowy figure rushing through the street, away from the scene. Whoever he was, he was clearly connected to the people that just tried to kill her.

If that was the case, hopefully he would lead her to what remains of their strike force.

Alicia quickly walked up to the corpses and took a pair of their pistols, placing them around her belt, some spare mags and the silenced Uzi one of them had, without forgetting about getting her knife back from the leader.

“Now we are packing heat! Let’s chase him!”

“Freedom is very intriguing.”

“This is such a warm welcome to our independence.”

Alicia rushed through the street, following the tracks of the straggler.

She didn’t care for whoever those people were or why they wanted to kill her. The things their leader said before she killed him were echoing through her head. They clearly believed in something; they were working for a bigger cause they loyally followed.

Whatever this cause was, she was more than glad to crush it.

“They started a war they won’t win.”

There was 1 hour of travel left to arrive to Hegelstad, even while driving at full speed. Kirsten hoped to arrive at the place and pick her up before something bad happened to her.

However, deep inside he knew he was being silly. After all, what could ever happen to an experienced killer like her?

Instead, he worried about those “troublemakers” she talked about. They would die needlessly if he didn’t make it in time.

Emilia stared outside the window, trying to make sense of the reasons that led to the organization, namely its leader, to consider seriously hiring someone that is more fit to destroy nations for wetwork.

She reviewed every point and fact, her dubious background and the files on the other two killers that were brought into the organization. Ever since she started to work for them, she always wondered what the boss was thinking, she had never seen him in person, yet his decisions always ended up changing her surroundings.

Deep inside she didn’t want to question his decision, so she tried for the first time in so long to adopt someone else’s mindset to try and reach the same conclusions as them.

Emilia recalled what Kirsten said about the comments Conrad made when he was at the base.

“He kept calling her a weapon.”

“(…A very destructive weapon, in fact.)” -She thought, imagining that “weapon” as she shot her way through a barrage of enemies.

Then, right after imagining that situation, she realized what was the most plausible reason the leader of the organization wanted to hire the Butcher for.

“(Could it be…? …then he’s really serious about this little war of his.)” -She concluded and looked forward, towards the road.

If that was the kind of plan the boss had for using her, then all she could do was to keep on supporting the organization the best way she knew, and of course, making sure that the Butcher fulfilled her role to perfection as well.

That was her oath as an operator.

Time went by fast until they arrived at the town and directly headed to the plaza, trying to keep a low profile. Even if they were in a hurry, it was tantamount they didn’t draw in the attention of the authorities.

However, as they drove through the street to reach the plaza, they discovered that the access was blocked by the police.

A huge crowd had gathered around the area, wondering what was happening.

“This seems far too convenient.” -Commented Emilia.

“Let’s get out and see what’s going on. Wait here for us.” -He said to the driver, who nodded in agreement.

Kirsten got out of the car and approached a police officer who was speaking through his radio. He managed to hear a little bit of what they were saying.

“…We cannot clear the street yet; the chief’s friends are facing difficulties…”

“Understood, we’ll keep the public at bay.”

“(There’s clearly something going on here.)” -Thought Kirsten as he approached the officer. – “Excuse me, officer. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“We have blocked off the entire plaza, sir. We received reports that there may a potential terrorist threat in the premises, thus we have evacuated the townsfolk and cordoned off the area.”

“A terrorist threat?”

“A far-left group that vies for political influence through extreme means, nothing too unusual on this corner of the world. In any case, the area is off limits, sir. If you are looking for lodging, you can try the motel at B. Avenue.”

“I understand. Thanks, officer.”

Kirsten walked back to the car. Emilia stared at him, puzzled.

“Found out anything?” -She asked.

“The cops are covering something. They created a very convenient story to keep people away from the plaza.”

“Do you think this has anything to do with Butcher?”

“It’s highly likely. We must find a way to get past the police’s perimeter.”

“Let’s have a look around, see if we can find a way through.”

They got back in the car and continued along the road, circling around the plaza. While the car advanced, Kirsten thought about what he caught from the conversation the police officer had over the radio.

“(… “The chief’s friends are facing difficulties” …?)”

All Kirsten knew for sure was that Alicia was inside the police’s perimeter, and whatever was going on, the police wouldn’t let anyone get close. There was only a handful of groups and individuals that had such a sway over the authorities in that country, including the organization itself.

Suddenly, Kirsten noticed two police patrols coming up the road from the direction they were heading towards.

“Reinforcements, maybe?” -Asked Kirsten, without expecting any real answer from anybody.

“Not at all. If they were they would have come right behind us. That vehicle is from the patrol that is already present in town.” -Deduced Emilia looking back, watching as the police car disappeared by the corner of the block.

“They are already backing off? Why?”

“Maybe the situation has changed.”

They kept driving around to reach the northern bridge that had a connection to the plaza, expecting to encounter a tight police barricade that prevented them from coming through.

Instead, they found the place completely abandoned; the path was clear.

“Were they ordered to leave?”

“Seems like it. But it’s not something that should happen on the fly. It also means that the access to the plaza won’t be restricted to the civilians anymore.”

Kirsten walked out of the car and headed to the bridge where he noticed a blood trail on the ground.

He quickly called Emilia to come and check on it.

“Hmm…the blood is fresh, so they just passed by. Whoever it is, they were badly injured, probably shot.”

“You think it’s from her?”

“I wouldn’t be sure…guess we’ll find out if we follow it.”

They followed the blood trail with the eye and noticed it went all the way towards the forest line a block away.

That’s when they noticed the black smoke rising up from behind the trees. Someone had started a fire.

“We have to go there!” -Said Kirsten as they went back to the vehicle. The driver obeyed without a question and headed towards the forest through an old road used mostly by explorers.

He had no proof or way of knowing, but Kirsten had a gut feeling that this was all linked to Alicia and her arrival to the town, knowing that he would get there to pick her up.

Halfway down the road they made a turn to the left and started to ascend through the mountain.

After a minute, they were able to see the origin of the fire.

There was a house hidden in the middle of the trees, it was probably used for private lodging for wealthy clients. The house was set on fire and was slowly being consumed by the flames. There were also a few corpses on the ground, it was obvious they were gunned down, even from inside the car.

“What the hell happened here!?”

“Hey, Kirsten!” -Called out Emilia. – “This one’s still alive.”

He walked up to the one Emilia was holding in her arms. He had been hit in the left lung; he didn’t have much time left as blood kept rising up to his throat.

“Who are you people? What happened here?”

The man opened his eyes, and the moment he saw Kirsten, he tried to attack him with the knife in his pocket. But he was too slow and weak to even scratch him for Kirsten grabbed his arm with the knife and took it from him.

“Why did you do that!?”

The man coughed and abandoned all hope.

“Yoouuuu…released that monster… *cough …you are a monster too…our world is doomed…” -And with those last words, he perished.

He was clearly talking about Alicia, but she was nowhere to be found.

Kirsten took a look around, and after a few seconds of uncertainty, he found another blood trail heading towards the forest, descending the hill and right back at the town. Maybe just a survivor of the attack, but Kirsten had no other clues to follow.

“I found a trace, let’s follow it.” -He said to Emilia then went into the forest following the red stains over the leaves on the ground and tree’s crusts. Emilia followed suit having noticed the blood trail herself.

The driver stayed behind and got back into the vehicle to return to the town through the trail they came from.

It seemed like Alicia had lost a lot of blood, but the trail kept going, Kirsten was very impressed. All of this served as evidence that her skills were true to her legend.

A few minutes before, the cloaked man Alicia spotted kept running through the plaza, escaping from his impending doom, heading towards the bridge as it was the closest escape route.

He stopped at one point behind a building’s pillar and made a phone call to the police chief.

“Hello?”

“Chief, pull your men back, now!”

“Are you done with whoever you were looking for?” -Inquired the chief.

“Don’t make questions, just call them back to HQ!”

“Alright, I’ll make the call.”

Once done with that, the man tried to catch his breath before starting to run again, then a burst of bullets flew towards him, hitting on the pillar behind him and hitting him in the face with the gravel that flew from the impacts.

“Shit!”

Scared, he rushed in a panic towards the bottom of the street to reach the turn of the corner and head towards the bridge, but while he was running, she shot a burst of bullets again and nailed him twice over the shoulder, making him lose his balance and fall on the ground for a second. He quickly regained his composure and kept on running while bleeding out slowly.

He felt his heart burn as he ran for his life, his muscles losing strength, his sight was becoming blurry; this was supposed to be an easy hit job, to just kill the girl and walk away, make it seem like a regular assault, but things turned upside down in the bat of an eye. He wasn’t even sure when things started to go wrong.

The moment he saw the Butcher take out her gun at such a fast speed, he knew many people would die.

They had underestimated her, greatly. She was clearly not a normal person, not with such a superhuman speed and agility. As he ran, he wondered to himself: “Who would create a monster like her?”

He finally made it to the bridge and crossed it as fast as he could, even if his legs already wanted to give in. Fortunately, the police chief had listened to his order and told his men to back off. This was a strictly covert operation, so they had to make sure that the regular members of law enforcement didn’t spot any of the agents on the field, nor their target in question.

He headed straight towards the trees and went up the mountain; the safehouse was pretty close by.

They used a two-floor house reserved for private lodging as their base of operations on the field, the rest of the crew in charge of the logistics and strategies were inside, waiting for a report. He didn’t have enough breath to tell them over the radio while he was running. Besides, he actually wanted to preserve his life and survive this ordeal, that was the whole point of the operation.

As he finally walked into the clear and found the house, he was received by the concerned looks of the sentinels watching the front of the house.

“What’s wrong!? What happened!?” -They asked. He found it difficult to articulate a single sentence, he was out of breath and his nerves were completely shattered due to the stress, and couldn’t concentrate because of the pain affecting his mind.

“T-the-t-they ar…”

“Get him inside, check those wounds.” -Ordered one of the sentinels, and thus, the others helped him to get in and sat him on a corner and went to the kitchen to look for the first aid kit and a glass of water, all while the others tried to calm him down.

“What the hell happened down there!? where’s the rest of the team?” -Asked John Calhoun, the actual leader and intellectual author of the operation to pull the hit on the Butcher.

One of the guards finally brought him a glass of water and he drank it all in one gulp.

“Ah…ah…they are all dead.”

“What!?”

“The Butcher…she pulled out a gun and killed everyone! She was fast…too fast!”

“Even if Adam and her group had her cornered!?”

“She was fast, I tell you! I didn’t even see her move as she pulled out her gun and shot him in the chest. I…I couldn’t do anything, they…couldn’t even hit her once, I could only run away…she saw me, she was the one who shot me.”

“Did she follow you here!?” -Asked John, and without waiting for an answer he pulled out his radio and said: - “Everyone, stay alert, the enemy may be approaching the area, if you see anything suspicious, shoot on sight!”

Everyone took the safeties off their guns and stayed alert, looking for the slightest movement among the trees and bushes.

One of the sentinels headed towards the right side of the house to look for the target, but his life was cut short by receiving a shot to the side and a shot in the head.

A sentinel at the front noticed the sound of the body falling to the ground and raised the alert.

“We got contact!” -He said as he dashed towards the side of the house and aimed his rifle searching for the enemy.

His partners witnessed as he received a burst to the center of mass and neck, then dropped to the ground. Alicia was done playing hide & seek and rushed out of the bushes, opening fire on the nearby enemies and dropping the two that were approaching. She realized the Uzi ran out of bullets and discarded it without a second thought.

“This must be their little den.”

“Lights off.” -She took out the pair of pistols on her belt and shot the power switch, plunging the inside of the house into darkness.

The people inside the house turned on their flashlights and quickly addressed the situation.

“She shot the power switch! Sentinels, come in! is anyone out there!”

“She must have killed them all…” -Said the man that brought the report to them, in a sudden state of crippling hopelessness. – “If we want to survive, we have to make a run for it.”

“You shut up already.” -Said John, unwilling to back off. – “I’m going to have her head served on a plate.”

The guards took positions around the house, weapons aimed forward, making sure that if she were to get into the house, they would be able to neutralize her easily. Alicia knew this, assuming that they were self-respecting professionals and were going to give her a tougher challenge than the ones she killed a few minutes prior.

With that in mind, she started to look around, and noticed one of the corpses had a few things that would be pretty useful to her and took them.

A minute passed. Complete silence on the outside. Nothing on the kitchen, nothing on the living room, nothing on the second floor’s quarters and nothing at all on the roof. The assassins remained still, finger off the trigger but ready for anything, some of them could feel the cold sweat running down their faces; they wouldn’t dare move a single inch if that meant giving off signs of life.

John Calhoun darted his eyes around, looking around the windows, attentive to the slightest move he could perceive on the outside.

But then, the silence was shattered when the kitchen’s door was blasted open and a smoke grenade thrown inside.

“Smoke! She’s here!” -Yelled one of the guards, the smoke quickly spread throughout the room hindering their field of vision.

One of them caught a glimpse of the bullet heading straight to his head before perishing. His partner witnessed it and quickly sprayed the room with bullets, hoping to hit the target on the blind. Alicia quickly came out of the smoke, cut his right tendon with her knife and shot him in the backside of the head point blank.

The rest of the assassins rushed to the kitchen to intercept her. She received the first one to turn on the corner by shooting him four times in the center of mass with her dual pistols. She could hear a crowd of footsteps approaching from both sides. Knowing she didn’t have a chance facing all of them at the same time, she made a quick decision and jumped out of the window.

The crew had problems knowing what happened due to the smoke, but all they knew was that she had escaped through the window. John sent two men outside to search for her while two of them rushed to the upper floor to see if they could snipe her.

While the two assassins looked around outside, she took cover on a corner of the house. Alicia waited for five seconds and came out of the cover, opening fire on the two targets. Hitting the first one in the center of mass and the other around the neck and head.

Suddenly, she had a piercing cold feeling in her arm; a bullet managed to hit her from a burst coming from the second floor. She quickly stepped back to avoid the incoming fire from the shooter on the window and shot back, forcing the shooter to take cover.

Alicia’s right handgun ran out of bullets so she quickly discarded it and rushed towards the front of the house.

There, she quickly hit the floor as a storm of bullets came out of the windows when the remaining targets inside spotted her.

One of the targets kicked the door open intending to deal the killing blow but she was quicker to the trigger and put two shots in his chest then continued rushing while the body provided cover as he fell to the ground.

There were only six of them left, including the one that managed to get to the house before her.

She still had mobility in her right arm, the bullet was stuck inside the muscle; she was still capable of putting up a fight at her top performance.

“That was just a lucky shot, they’ll need more than that!”

“Be prepared, we are going back in.”

“Aye, aye.”

Alicia took out one of her personal pistols out of its holster to replace the absence of the other handgun, spotted another window in the eastern side of the house, and before the second shooter could get into position to take shots at her she jumped through the window, tackling the assassin standing right behind it.

He tried to strike back but she quickly shot his arm with the pistol in her left hand and executed him with the other.

The others noticed the scandal and the closest rushed to the hallway where he heard the noise.

There was no place to take cover, so Alicia decided for a head on approach.

The assassin made a turn on the corner and opened fire, missing the first shot of his shotgun. Alicia aimed and shot his right leg forcing him to kneel and she quickly anchored herself around his neck with her legs and started to squeeze the oxygen out of him, and while he was struggling, her right arm moved on its own and killed him, plunging her knife at the side of his neck.

Two men approached from the end of the corner. She quickly displaced her weight towards the opposite side and lied on the ground, once again to use a corpse as a shield.

The couple shot with precision and fully-automatic. Luckily the corpse was wearing a Kevlar vest that absorbed the bullets.

She extended her left arm forward and counterattacked, engaging with the enemies on the crossfire, her sight being obstructed by their flashlights’ intensity and their rifles’ firepower; she didn’t have the factor of surprise on her side anymore.

Eventually, they both needed to reload. Alicia made the decision of taking a gamble with her life.

“Get the one on the left.”

“You got it.”

She holstered her pistol and took out the knife, then placed her boots on the body’s chest and applied all of her legs’ strength to push it towards them, then when they reloaded and peeked out of their covers, Alicia rushed towards them and jumped using the body as a platform.

With her knife on her left arm and the pistol in the other, she sliced through the assassin’s neck and nailed a shot on the other’s shoulder. The remaining target however reacted fast enough and managed to counter attack nailing a bullet on her hip when she landed. Alicia managed to ignore the pain and finally gun down the remaining enemy. He slid down the wall behind him as he perished.

“Woooohh! That was hella intense!”

“Too close for comfort…”

Alicia tried to get up, and that’s when she felt the accumulated pain coming to hit her like a train. She found herself uncapable of getting up from her knees, her arms felt heavy, her head hurt and her sight became blurry. She wasn’t capable of controlling her breathing, she had completely lost control of her body.

“…Ugh…ah…” -She tried to gasp for air, but her throat was dilated, closed shut.

“Alicia! Get it together! We can’t stop here yet! Come on, breath in…breath out. Relax.”

“(I’m trying…)” -But the pain extended across her body, even moving a finger felt like it could bring a massive amount of agony.

The world around her slowly distorted, the air smelled like ashes and death. The smell of rotting flesh became sharper and stronger than ever. She felt as if something was trying to drag her into hell as the ground below her turned crimson red and the faces of those she knew, friends and enemies, family and traitors, appeared on it, accusing her, yelling all sorts of curses.

She closed her eyes and tried to control the pain. Slowly, her body gave in to her mind, regained her grip on reality and the horrid nightmares around her slowly faded away.

“(The world won’t waste a chance to kill me. They all think they are better than me, thinking the world dances around their palms…)”-She thought to herself.

Meanwhile, John Calhoun and the messenger approached from the other end of the hallway intending on flanking her.

“She’s weakened, this is our chance…” -He whispered at the messenger while giving him a gun to help him kill her. They quickly turned on the corner and managed to catch a glimpse of her, briefly.

“(…I’ll devour them whole.)”-She finished, regaining the strength in her legs and rushed forward, escaping the sudden barrage of bullets from John and the messenger.

“Let’s get her!” -Ordered Calhoun, the combat suddenly became a game of cat and mouse, tracking her around the building.

Everyone else was dead or dying, the messenger was suppressing all his urges to drop everything and run away, knowing that the man besides him would shoot him in the back the moment he tried to make a run for it to the exit. John Calhoun was determined to complete this mission and present the Butcher’s body to his contractors.

They went back to the living room. Alicia had left a blood trail that stopped abruptly in the middle of the room, right over the mattress. They started to look around for the faintest signal of her presence.

The silence became deafening for Calhoun, so at a lack of better options, he decided to taunt her so she would give off her position.

“You really live up to your name, Butcher! You wasted all of my men with mere pistols. You know, you appear to be more of a gunslinger than a Butcher, does that name have to do with all the people you have tortured to death as the stories say!?”

“What are you doing!? Don’t provoke her!” -Warned the messenger, but he wasn’t listening.

“I heard all about it, the huge mess you did of the Arabs back in the day. Who would have thought that a mere child wielded such power, skill…and was capable of such inhumane cruelty."

Still no noise, but he was sure she was close by, and that she could hear his voice loud and clear.

“I actually doubt you are even human. A mere child wouldn’t have made it this far, actually, you would have died like a charred and raped corpse in the desert in any other case, but you didn’t. The devil whispers in your ear, and you are his most loyal servant. I’m sure you can hear the voices of your victims every night, haunting your dreams. You aren’t the kind of killer whose conscience doesn’t torment you. It must be so tragic, knowing you won’t ever be able to live a life without killing people.”

“Please, stop!” -Said the messenger, feeling an impending doom approaching.

“You are at the mercy of your own destiny; you cannot choose by yourself. You are a murderous slave that will continue to kill to please her masters. A pathetic brat that should’ve been impaled up the ass and left to rot under the sun!” -At that point, John was expressing his own disdain for others that weren’t him. He didn’t feel anything for his dead comrades, from the moment he met them, he wanted to see them all dead by a side of the road.

He was rotten to the very core, and Alicia could smell it.

Suddenly, he heard a gurgling sound behind him. He turned around and saw the messenger standing still. He remained still like a statue for a solid second until his body collapsed and his head got detached from his shoulders. Somehow, at some point, she managed to get close enough and decapitate his last ally without him being able to sense it.

A shiver crawled up his spine; he didn’t want to admit it, but the truth was that he was not in control of the situation anymore.

He kept looking around, finger on the trigger, a cold sweat running down his back, now he was the one thinking about making a run for it and escaping an assured death.

But then, he heard something fall at the bottom of the room, in the kitchen.

He quickly turned around and shot the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen, it was very slim so the bullets would make their way through.

He heard a small whimper, that was enough to draw a smile on his face; He had landed a shot on her successfully.

John rushed to the kitchen to finish her off if it was necessary, but when he arrived at the kitchen, he saw no body aside from the ones that were already there, and also a gas leak quickly filling up the room, and a frag grenade without its pin over the oven.

“Dammit!”

The grenade exploded, igniting the gas and setting everything on fire. The safehouse would soon succumb to the flames.

John Calhoun had survived the blast, albeit barely. He slowly crawled out of the house, escaping from the heat of the flames. His legs had been damaged by the explosion and was bleeding profusely. He couldn’t believe he had been defeated by someone marginally younger than him.

Still, he made the mistake of thinking that he could win a battle against one of the greatest killers roaming the earth.

Once he was out of the house, he kept crawling forward until a pair of boots entered his field of vision. He slowly looked up to find Alicia, who was crouched, looking at him with remarkable antipathy.

He could tell that she too was injured, she had multiple gunshots staining her jacket and pants with her own blood. It was absolutely amazing she was still alive, even more that she still had the strength and willpower to walk and move around as if nothing had happened.

She was truly a monster, and he had made a mistake approaching her as if she was just a regular target. They should’ve gone all out, like the boxer who has his opponent on the line.

She slowly got up from her position and walked behind him.

“…What are you looking for, killer?” -He said finding it hard to draw breath. –“…Money? Fame? Do you want everyone to fear your name? is that why you are going to join Kirsten in his little vanity project…? …Monsters think alike, I guess… People like you just want to tear it all apart, ruin everything…for everyone.”

“What’s this guy on about? If they hadn’t attacked us none of this would’ve happened.”

“Just so you know…you won’t have it easy. No matter what, there will be someone out there strong enough to stop you… everyone like you, including Kirsten, deserve the most painful of all ends! …You won’t warp this world to your twisted wants!”

“Don’t believe your own delusions when you are about to die…” -She said as she placed her hands at both sides of his head. – “…That’s a bad habit vermin have.” -Then, she snapped his neck, putting him out of his misery.

Finally, the job was done. All in all, it was a very explosive and violent welcome to their newfound freedom.

She stood still for a second, inhaling the smell of ashes; even that was better than the rotting odor those people carried.

“…”

“Hey, Ali.”

“Hm?”

“You still got bullets stuck in your body, you know?”

“…Right.”

She walked up to a tree, leaned on it and took out her knife. She proceeded to take off her jacket so the fabric wouldn’t get in the way, no need to take off the shirt.

She took her time to take out the bullets from inside her body with the point of the knife, ignoring the piercing pain of the procedure the best she could; no matter how much time it passed or how many times she did this same procedure, she could never get used to the pain. One by one, in between of groans and whimpers, she managed to take out the four bullets that managed to hit her. They coincidentally all hit in an angle that got them stuck in the flesh instead of piercing through.

She gasped for air once she was done, she felt an acute pain in her chest that fortunately dissipated as time went by. Her legs felt a bit weak, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Her clothes, however, were still a bloody mess.

“A lot of time has passed, and that man is nowhere to be found…we can’t go back to the base now.”

“What should we do then?”

“Let’s make our own way through, let’s get away from here for starters, go somewhere else.”

“Great! We are going to take the entire world by assault! What do you say if we travel to the city and visit the Millennium magazine headquarters?”

“That place only exists in the novels, Ten. That’s not a real place whatsoever.”

“Oh, come on…it would be great if it did exist though.”

“You like those books a lot, don’t you?”

“They are great in their own way. That Lisbeth girl reminds me a lot of you!”

“Don’t compare us.”

There was nothing else for her to do there. She decided to walk away from the scene before anyone else, be it a civilian or law enforcement, came around to see the mess she caused.

Alicia descended by the mountain, walking through bushes and avoiding fallen trees, it took her a while until she was back at the ground level.

“Now, what do I do with these clothes?” -She said, looking at herself, the blood was already starting to stick to her body.

She wandered by the sidewalk, heading north for no reason in particular. She had already assumed that Kirsten wouldn’t come to get her, so she and Ten were already making plans for the future like where to stay and how to earn cash to travel through and finally out of Sweden.

After walking for a while, the blood loss started to weigh on her body. She leaned on the wall to find her balance. With that number of injuries, it was obvious she wouldn’t go too far.

“I can’t continue like this.”

“Where could we find a place to rest? This side of the town is desertic.”

“That’s not what worries me. The injuries…I have to do something before they get worse.”

But before she could think about what to do and where to go, she heard a couple of voices coming from the other end of the street.

Hooded individuals approached her, one of them was carrying a pocket knife and the other a revolver. They spoke in Swedish, so the meaning of their words eluded her, but their intentions were as clear as day.

“Hm…”

“These idiots are really everywhere, it’s the first time we have encountered so many of them in one night.”

“(If this is how things are in the civilized world…)” -She thought as the pair of thugs reached to intimidate her, and when they noticed she wasn’t reacting to their threats, they quickly became aggressive.

The one with the pocket knife tried to grab her by the neck and plunge the knife’s steel into her gut, but his fist clutching it was suddenly stopped by a strong and steady hand that prevented it from advancing any further.

“(…I have a lot of work to do.)” -She finished her train of thought, tightened her grip and leaned in to rip out his throat with her teeth. The thug felt the most agony he ever had in his life when her jaws closed shut around his throat and started to pull backwards.

The thug died in a state of shock as he fell to the ground holding onto his mangled neck, staring at the girl holding the missing piece in her mouth and then spitting it on the ground like chewed bubblegum.

The second thug panicked and jumped back before realizing that he still had a firearm, so he raised his gun to neutralize her.

“(Take care of this one, Ten.)” -She spoke into her mind.

“Aye aye, sis!” -She replied, and she quickly assumed control. The wounds didn’t mean anything when she was at the front. She had been eager to stretch her legs this entire time.

She dashed towards the thug, knife in hand, while he unsuccessfully tried to land two shots on her as she pounced in a crouched posture.

She cut his belly with finesse and when he was on his knees, she ended it all by plunging the knife’s point all the way from under his jaw, towards the brain.

The corpse dropped to the ground at her feet. Once again silence settled around them, and just like with the barrage of enemies that came before those two junkies, no one was there to witness their murder.

There was no one else left to bother them now. Alicia felt a lot pressure being released from inside her body. After a few seconds, she was capable of cooling herself down to a normal temperature.

“Freedom…is complicated.” -She said while letting the remaining air in her lungs escape through her mouth.

“But it’s way better than being stuck in that company for the rest of our lives.”

“I won’t ever…work for him again…” -Alicia looked up to the starry sky. Nothing had changed up there since the last time she looked at it. Her friend’s favorite star was still there too, shining brighter than all the others. She enjoyed the time they spent together, even if it was short-lived. –“I won’t be his sword ever again…”

Alicia sat down, her back against the wall, and almost fell asleep due to the exhaustion.

She closed her eyes and her conscience started to drift away. It would seem like her life would fade right there and then, and despite the circumstances, she would be ok with that. However, her death would be postponed for later.

She heard the sound of a car’s door opening and closing and two pairs of footsteps approaching. She hoped that they weren’t cops, otherwise she’d have to muster up whatever dribble of strength she had left to try and get out of this situation, but luck would smile upon her this time.

“…Alicia?” -She recognized that voice, and slowly opened her eyes. It was Kirsten, he had come as promised. – “I see you have been rather busy while we got here.”

“…A bunch of idiots pushed my buttons…they were professionals but, they didn’t play their cards right.”

“Still, that you were capable of killing them all…and then some…” -He said, referring to the corpses at her feet. – “It’s nothing short of impressive.”

She slowly got up from the ground, making her injuries all the more obvious to him and the ones nearby.

“They wanted to get you too…I would like you to fulfill your promise before getting yourself killed.”

“And that I will do…” -He said, showing his hand to her. – “…You are truly the powerful killer that the stories talked about. You are fit to work for our organization. I, as one of the highest-ranking members, would like to welcome you to the Men of the World.”

“What a nice name.”

Alicia reached out and shook his hand.

“Right…let’s get along.”

“We are going to be the best of pals; I can already tell.”

“Excellent. Now, get in the car, Emilia will take care of your injuries.”

They got in the car and drove away from the scene before anyone else showed up. Soon, the police would find the corpses of both the muggers that tried to assault Alicia, the ones in the plaza, and the ones deep in the forest along with the house reduced to ashes.

These discoveries would lead to an investigation, but it wouldn’t bear fruits thanks to the influence of the Men of the World.

The global elites thought they were the only ones with so much influence over the law and order, but something kept growing in their shadow, ever stronger and ever greater. A threat so terrible that, for the first time in a century, the elites would feel a shiver down their spines at the realization that they weren’t the only apex predators wandering the earth anymore.