Just one more minute until that bastard shows up…

Damien let a small cloud of blue, flavored smoke escape his lips as he kept his eyes on the sea of people moving past him. These bodies—most of which were riddled with cyberware—meandered around the fountain at the center of the marketplace, bouncing from one commercial stall to another. None of them mattered. The only person that Damien cared about was his target, and this crowd was the perfect place from which to begin trailing his prey.

This mission was slightly different than the last two that Damien had received as a private hire. Though they had all involved eliminating a target, this one was of a higher caliber than the previous two, both in terms of reputation and the severity of their crimes. To make matters worse, not only did Damien have to eliminate the target, he had to extract some information from him, first. A difficult feat considering the grizzly reputation of the man he was hunting down. The only saving grace was the information that the client had given him, which had simplified his previous two eliminations greatly.

The final minute passed, and right on cue, a man in a black trench coat stepped past the fountain, touching the outskirts of the water for good luck; his signature tell. The tattooed face and metal neck that poked out the top of the coat gave the final confirmation. It was him, Ivan the Butcher.

Damien waited a passing moment then kicked off the brick wall he’d been leaning on and set off after his prey. The hunt was on.

He kept a distance of at least a few meters as his target flowed past the other market-goers. With his katana clipped firmly at his side, he’d have to take Ivan out at the proper moment and forcefully extract the data he was hiding. Normally this would be quite difficult, but the client knew a lot about Ivan, and that information allowed Damien to prepare accordingly.

Ivan, just like the two previous targets, was a big player in the human trafficking racket in Neopolis, and he’d created a lot of enemies in the city. Those enemies wanted him gone, and Damien had gladly taken the opportunity after being approached for the job by Valerie. But Ivan was also the most dangerous and arrogant of the three, and the only one who’d earned himself a nickname that he proudly donned. Ivan The Butcher. Human trafficking was just one of the ways he made money, but killing people and skinning their bodies was where he got his real kicks from.

To Damien, taking out these thugs was like killing two birds with one stone. The client probably wasn’t some saint either, but if he could profit off their beef and get rid of human-trafficking scum, why not do it? Just three more criminals off the streets as far as he was concerned.

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Ivan continued along the route that the client had suggested, and Damien continued on his trail. According to the info the client had given, The Butcher would be meeting some local thugs near an underpass at the other side of the market. He’d be taking a side path with no foot traffic, stretching up to that point, giving Damien an opportunity to dispatch his target while catching him off guard.

“Left here,” Damien whispered under his breath, just before Ivan made the corresponding turn into one of the side alleys of the market leading toward a large metal fence surrounding a slum. He followed him into the alley, only a handful of others walking by as Ivan approached another small junction. “Straight.”

Ivan initially continued straight but made a quick cut, turning into yet another side alley on the right, much to Damien’s surprise. This wasn’t part of the plan.

Crap, Damien thought as she stopped in his tracks, unsure of whether to continue his pursuit or not. He’d banked on catching his target off guard in the designated area, but he wasn’t sure if that was possible any longer. Given Ivan’s penchant for gruesome murder, it would be best to avoid a direct confrontation. But where was he going? This wasn’t the direction of the meeting place.

After deliberating his options for a moment, Damien made up his mind and inched forward. Leaning against a stone building he poked his head into the alley that Ivan had entered. He watched on as The Butcher continued deeper into the narrow passage, plunging further away from where his target location should have been. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Damien swooped into the alley and continued his pursuit. He had to think of something quick, but where could he strike? Would it be possible to catch Ivan off guard around here?

Damien’s thoughts raced as he continued down the passage. Wait too long and the opportunity—along with the payment— slips from his hand. One of the conditions of this job was that payment would only provided once all three of the targets were dealt with. Let Ivan escape and he loses out on the payment for the two previous traffickers he’d disposed of.

For fuck’s sake… Damien thought with a groan.

Then, Ivan took another left and slipped into a closed-off side alley; one tiny and secluded enough for all the kinds of transactions someone like him would take part in. Maybe this was the new meeting place for their rendezvous. In that case, this was the perfect opportunity to take out the target.

With a hurried step, Damien picked up the pace and quietly raced forward until he reached the side alley. Peaking around the corner, he could see the trenchcoat-wearing man standing still halfway down the path, looking straight ahead. Was he waiting for his meeting partner?

Eager to make use of the opportunity, Damien stepped into the alley without making a sound. Or at least he thought he did, until the figure ahead turned around, hands in his pockets and a deranged smile on his face.

Ivan pulled his hands out of the pockets of his trench coat, revealing a knife in each hand. “Looks like you need some more trailing practice, kid,” he said, his deep voice coming out more like a growl than a regular speaking voice. His wicked smile grew wider. “You should be more careful starting shit with people you don’t know. You might just end up getting butchered.”