“What the…” Reign was rising to her feet as I reached out, grabbing her arm and stopping her, even as I called for the others.

“Stop!” I ordered.

“Wise.” The old woman smiled.

“You said she’s drugged…”

“Sodium pentothal.” I stared at the older woman. “I recognize the fucking taste of that one. They dosed us with it in training so that we’d know.”

“Ah, the joys of the APS operatives. It’s one of over three dozen chemicals used in our particular creation, but it’s very effective, nevertheless.”

“So, truth serum?” I asked, and she nodded, reaching out and taking my cup, then taking a long draught from it herself.

“This way we both know where we stand,” she explained. “Finish the tea, boy, and we can get this over with.”

I nodded, knocking back the hot tea and wincing as my mouth was burned.

“Damn…that’s hot. You mind if I…”

“You can have water after this. I know that trick as well, boy, flushing the substance as quickly as possible.” The old woman smiled, and I grinned ruefully at her.

“So, ask away,” I suggested, smacking my lips and pulling them back, before running my tongue across my teeth. “Tingles…”

“First of all, are you looking to betray us and claim the bounty by killing us or selling our location?” the old woman asked, and I answered before I thought about it.

“No. Provided you don’t try to hurt me or my team, we’re fine with leaving you be.”

“Good.” The woman smiled, then gestured to me. “Your turn, boy.”

“Are you intending to kill us?”

“Not at this time,” she said. “If you keep faith with us? Not at all. If you become a danger? Then yes.”

“Okay, about all I can expect.” I grunted, gesturing for her to ask the next question.

“What will you do if we let you leave?”

“Go to kill Tyrannus.”

“Who…” She hesitated, then cursed, gesturing for me to go next.

“What do you intend to do with us if you decide to trust us?”

“We’ll offer you occasional contracts, as well as some training, and the benefit of our experience, as well as introducing you to certain markets that aren’t available to the usual grade of merc and assassin.”

“Why…dammit,” I growled, having to wait for my “turn” again.

“Who is Tyrannus?”

“An ex-army corporate stooge who I think is involved in the deaths of my old team, and who fucked me over, stealing my suit and emptying my cred account.”

“Fair enough…” She nodded, clearly respecting the reasoning.

“Okay, why would you offer us contracts and help?”

“We’re old—most of us, anyway—and we’re tired. With your help, we could officially die off. We’ve got more than enough credits to last us the rest of our lives. We were assassins for years before we became Stinger, and we commanded high fees until the end.” She shrugged.

“While we don’t need the creds, we’d like the peace and quiet. One of us could claim the bounty on our head, but it’s only two hundred and fifty thousand, and then that one is back out in public, a target again. If they ‘retire’ publicly? They’ll be hunted by up-and-comers who want to say they killed us. We’ve no interest in that.”

“Also, we’d like to occasionally go out and kill some fuckers who need killing,” another voice called out from the back of the room, and I grinned.

“So—” I bit my tongue.

“It’s okay. Speak.”

“Okay, so you want us to claim your death?” I asked. “We get paid, you publicly die, and we all move on with our lives, except that on occasion you’ll have jobs for us?”

“Assassin and bounty hunting jobs,” she confirmed. “Very well-paid ones. You’ll take your own, of course, from time to time no doubt, and you’ll make a good name for yourselves, as we’ll help you, if we feel like it.”

“Why?”

“Because while some of us are happy to retire, others are goddamn bored to shit and have a list of motherfuckers who need to be shot in the face,” another voice called.

“And if we don’t want to do the job?” I asked the one who seemed like their leader, as she poured us both a coffee this time.

“Depends on the job,” she admitted, passing one over to me. “Most of the time? We’d be annoyed but that’s it. Now and then, though, there’s a few motherfuckers who have crossed lines, corpos who have executed families for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We’re the only consequence most corpos ever come across…So, believe me, there’s a list.”

“And we’ll be paid for this?” Luna asked.

“Highly.”

“I’m in, boss,” Reign said softly. “If you are, I mean?”

“Us too, you know, if…” Gessh added.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“I’ve got a mission already.” I held my hand up to forestall them. “I’m not discussing it, so don’t fucking ask if you want this to end well. It has no real bearing on you fuckers and this deal, and will probably help massively further down the line. But it’s to do with friends of mine, and their lives are at risk, so do not push.”

“Very well.” The old woman settled back and crossed her arms. “I will not pry, except to ask, will your mission be likely to prevent any jobs we request you do?”

“No,” I said. “It was always my intention to do other jobs as well, build my reputation and grow as a merc. This fits well with that. Bounty hunting and assassination doesn’t concern me. But I have a few house rules.”

“Go on.”

“I won’t hunt innocents, nor children,” I said. “If I’m going to kill some fucker like Lucky? No issue. I don’t give a damn about species or whatever, but some scumbag? Yeah, fine. You want me to kill some kid to teach their parents a lesson? I’m out. I’m APS. We bring judgment—we don’t break it…at least, not those of us with any self-respect.”

“That…is more than acceptable. It would have been a condition of ours as well, had we not already been observing you.” She smiled.

“Joy! Anything I should be aware of?” I asked.

“Not that we wish to raise now. Suffice to say that we’d been considering this as an option before this, although, I’ll admit, the current situation has moved our timeline up.”

The older woman sighed, then gestured vaguely above us.

“The stealthed assassins make it clear that another knows we exist, and our probable location, therefore, it is time.” She stood, gesturing for us to stay put as she called out in a loud voice, “I call for a quorum and a vote!”

Others appeared from all around the massive apartment, and we looked at one another in shock, seeing how many there were, and how heavily armed they all were.

“Twelve are here…” the woman said after a few seconds. “Twelve of the thirteen is acceptable. I call for the death of Stinger, and our retirement, with these four as our successors. Do we have any who dissent?”

“I do,” a large figure growled, stepping forward. “For years, I’ve been stuck down here with you fuckers. I want to be free!”

“Any others?”

Silence reigned.

“I call for a vote. All those who agree, raise your hand and send me approval.”

Eleven of the twelve did so, and the twelfth cursed.

“You all know why I say we should still work, but that’s fine! I retire as Stinger!” he said. “I quit, although I’ll be bound by the rules we agreed, and I have no issue with these claiming the bounty—”

“Very well…”

“Provided they agree to a single job for me.” He stood straighter. A massive gamma cannon rested against his shoulder as he reached up, pulling off his mask, and revealed a horrifically scarred face. “They’re to kill Anthos Black, with no help from any of us. Once that’s done? Aye, I’ll agree that we can be called upon for training.”

I cursed as a new job was sent to me, and I hesitated before reading it.

“This Anthos Black…does that job stop us claiming the bounty here? Because that’s gonna add to the time that fucker’s come looking for you. You know that, right?” I asked.

“No, that job, while deserved, as he’s a scumbag flesh peddler and war criminal, is separate,” the old lady said. “I’ll agree that you should be made to prove your competence beyond basic thuggery. Kill Anthos Black, and we will agree to train and adopt you as our successors. We’ll guide and act as your handlers, taking a percentage of the jobs we choose for you.

“You’ll have the option to take or refuse any of the jobs—save that of Anthos—and regardless, you can claim Stinger’s head. The only difference is that we will not train you, nor offer any advice and access to the advanced markets, until this job is done. Do we have consensus?” The old lady looked around, and this time even the scarred man nodded.

“Then it’s up to you. You may leave here now, no hard feelings, but you leave without the bounty, or you accept our offer, and the game begins.”

“The game?” I asked.

“All of life is a game, boy, the greatest game of all. Take it from a master assassin—nobody ever wins. It’s all just about accruing points and shiny achievements until you lose.” The scarred man grunted, and I nodded to him in understanding, before looking to the other three.

Luna and Gessh were clearly uncomfortable with the situation, but the opportunities this represented? Hell, yes.

Reign practically vibrated with excitement, and she shot me puppy-dog eyes as soon as I looked to her, making me snort in amusement, before I pulled up the job notification and read it over.

Job Offer

Kabutt and his team will carry out the assassination/execution of the war criminal Anthos Black without assistance or advice from the Stinger collective.

· 1 x Assassination of [Anthos Black – Location attached].

In exchange, Kabutt and team will receive upon completion:

· Access to the Assassins Jobs list.

· Access to Advanced and Master level training.

· Access to Advanced, Specialist, and Master equipment and artifact markets.

Accept

Refuse

“Well, looks like we’re in business together then,” I agreed, seeing massive potential for my little corpo scumbag hunting intentions, when combined with the training on offer here.

Then I accepted the offer.

We were permitted to grab a drink—not drugged, thank fuck—and I quickly downed mine, ordering the others to keep any questions to themselves for the next half an hour or so.

That order was—of course—utterly ignored, as they amused themselves by questioning me when I couldn’t help the responses.

Questions like “What do you really think of Reign’s ass?” and “How often do men really think about sex?” were the tip of the iceberg. Although, thankfully, they were respectful of my privacy enough to not pry on certain topics.

They focused on anything they thought might make me blush, including asking whether I wanted a foursome with them, and whether I’d actually do it, if I thought they were offering.

They waited until I admitted that yes, I’d love to have all four of us in a bed, before the sisters admitted that it’d never happen and they only liked me as a friend.

I knew that. Fuck’s sake, I was ninety-nine percent sure that Reign felt the same, especially considering she couldn’t physically have any “fun” and I had my own damn rules about not shitting where I ate. That wasn’t the point, though. Because when highly attractive ladies offer basically a gang-bang just to see whether you’d be interested, and you’re under the influence of psychoactive truth serums?

You say the absolute truth and curse your goddamn tongue the entire time it betrays you.

By the time the girls had their fun, and I’d flushed my system of the drug, the oldest of the Stinger collective was back, and I accepted a transmitted recording of someone dressed as Stinger being shot, falling to the ground and dying.

“Who was that?” I asked in a low voice, hoping they’d not just killed one of their group to mock this up.

“A criminal,” the woman said. “He lived on the seventeenth floor, but four days ago he beat his partner half to death in the lift. When it opened on the lobby, I was there, observing as usual, and I decided the world would be a better place without him in it.

“We had been contemplating this path before now, and had intended that we would hire someone to hit him, as we released them. That would have addressed the immediate issue, of course, but there would have been loose ends to tie up. This way, you may address any you find yourself.”

“Such as?”

“Such as the fact that many upcoming assassins will seek to raise their own profile by eliminating the upstart who killed Stinger.”

“We’re going to be drawing a target on our backs, aren’t we?” I asked, getting chuckles and nods from the other Stingers around the room.

“Get used to it, kid,” said the unmasked man, shaking his head. “Believe me, I didn’t sleep deep for at least ten years, and it wasn’t from nightmares. The worlds of assassins and bounty hunters are fun, but not for the faint of heart.”

“Well, thank you so much for that inspirational speech,” Reign replied brightly. “Now, is there anything else? We’ve still got a job left to do tonight before we can sleep.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Let’s go pay that pig-fucker Tyrannus a visit.”