Gun pointed, finger on the trigger and Bang! Followed by a thudding sound of a falling body. And then next Bang! Guy who was sneaking behind me now lies dead. One of the perks of having two guns is that lovely possibility of firing in two directions at once. Lowlives I am hunting today are quite a foolish bunch, I mean, I gave them a chance to surrender, it's not like they don’t know who I am, but eh well, I guess it stated “Dead or Alive'' so I suppose “Dead” it will be.

“One, two, three, four…“, I pointed my gun and started counting aloud. “Sixteeeeeen!!! Juuust right, for I have eight bullets in each mag. So how will it be, you guys surrender and let me through to your boss, or do you want me to relieve the world of the burden of your lives?”.

Some guy in the back pointed his gun and shouted: “Do you really think we would surrender to one little girl?!”. Every one of them started laughing, so what could I do? I started shooting, they started falling, the whole thing lasted maybe ten seconds at most, though I could swear that on the last two shots my guns sounded weird. Well it does not matter for now.

After reloading I made my way to the far end of the building where I supposed the office was. Actually the building was surprisingly big. It was some kind of warehouse I think, visibly degraded over time. It was old, over twenty, maybe fifty years old, possibly some military installation, at least layout suggests it, with a lot of easily defendable positions and I think there were some leftovers from the gun emplacements. Eve would love it here, she is a total history freak, oh well maybe I will bring her, after all the fuss will quiet down. But considering how this place is built, and that the only security here was this little welcome party at the lobby, I am really starting to doubt any sensibility from the boss of this… What was it? Mafia, terrorists, well whatever, I will ask later when receiving a bounty.

It actually took me a while to reach the office, not like I was making any haste, after all they must be pretty sure that I am dead by now. I mean who would suspect one girl to mow down eighteen guys in such a short time. They all make this same mistake, and this time I was so nice to send a warning note beforehand. Owww now I get it, that’s why they concentrated their defense on entrance, they thought that it would stop me. They are adorable, it’s such a shame I have to kill them.

The entrance was really grand, solid double doors with golden knobs, yeah I think this was some drug cartel this time. I tried to open them but they were locked. I suppose they are not so stupid as to completely believe in those “defenses”.

So since the door was locked, I decided to knock… With my foot.

Both wings flew forward shattering the huge window on the other side of the room. This was a pretty big room, definitely the boss's office. It was like someone would take a room from some palace and stick it into this warehouse. White walls were covered in paintings, at least 5 hung on each side of the room, there was also quite richly embroidered carpet lying on the floor, waaait a moment, is that marble? At the end of the room, was this huge wooden desk, and behind it, there he was, my next paycheck. Your typical drug lord, white suit, black shirt, short dark hair, and of course he is smoking a cigar. He did seem quite shocked about the door flying past him, but overall was giving this vibe of having complete control over the situation.

“Welcome, the infamous HailFire I presume, you seem to live up to your legend. Please do tell me, did you like your welcome party?”, the tone of his speech was calm, yet I couldn’t avoid hearing an ounce of frustration from it.

“Oh well, you know your boys were quite eager but could not keep up with my pace, real lightweights you know. Oh but maybe you would entertain me more, would you?”.

His face’s color started to resemble a fresh beetroot. “First I would like you to meet my friends: Yevhenij and Ivan”. Two burly guys who were standing in the corners of the room now came forward. Both were around two meters tall, bald and wider than normal door frame. They were your typical musclehead bodyguards.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Oww you shouldn’t have. I thought gorillas were quite expensive and you brought two of them”. That was it, Mr Big Boss here looked like he was ready to blow his top. Pointing the finger at me he uttered only one word: “Go!”

I smirked under my nose; did he seriously think that his two gorillas could take care of me? But it took me a moment to notice what they were doing - taking something that looked like a vial from their pockets and quickly gulping the mysterious content down.

“Let me test on you our newest product”, said Boss and suddenly I realized that two gorillas are… even more resembling gorillas, and angry ones at that. Their skin darkened, black veins popped out, and an empty gaze not unlike that of a rabid beast. Damn I hope it’s not that…

“Angel Dust”, spoke the Boss. Oh I want to punch that irritating smug face so much but I need more intel.

In that instant both gorillas rushed at me, swinging their overgrown arms.

Hitting the air where I stood a second ago.

Well there is only one cure for the Angel Dust: lead. Lots of lead.

Crack! At this moment I knew…

“Not again!” - Triggers shattered under my fingers. I know those guns were cheap, but its the third pair this week!

“Having a problem little girl?”, said the douche sitting across the room.

I really had enough of his teasing, but the info…

This instant, a huge fist smashed straight in my chest, squeezing all of my breath.

“Just don’t damage her face much, we might have a use for it later!”, the mobster burst into laughter.

At this moment a red veil clouded my sight, and I felt a fire welling inside my veins.

“You have lost your use to me!” I said, and sent a closer one of the gorillas crashing into a wall, what’s left of him anyway. Even the Angel Dust could not suppress the primal fear the second one must have felt, as he froze. I shortened his suffering in one swipe, severing his head from the overgrown body.

“You are next!” I pointed at the shriveling pile of fear across the room. “Just before you die, tell me where in the nine Hells did you get the Angel Dust.”

“I… I… ddd..ont kk..now, got shipp… ment from ann…onymous sss...ource from dd...ark www...eb.” 

“Something more! You know I am starting to think I have no use for you, you know?

Contract says Dead or Alive, and to be honest I always think that the alive part is too much of a bother for the likes of you.”

“Ttt...his ggg...uy… El_ShaddaiaaaaAAAAAARGH!” - In that moment my boot “slipped” onto his precious jewels and sent him flying through the window… well, the hole in which was the window anyway.

“Well, that’s it for today”, I thought to myself while brushing off the invisible dust on my shoulder, “It’s high time to retreat for now”.

And I called HER.