Niklo was currently contemplating his choices in life. He sat in his ship, currently looking at his tracker. It read a simple line. Oh so simple, but so very dangerous. Obviously he couldn’t have guessed who he was chasing, but he knew excuses weren’t going to make a difference. The words still stared at him. ‘Target Lost’ hovered there in front of him.

He knew the cost of failure, or well, he knew by proxy as not many people got a second chance in this business. Still, he found it unfair that they hadn’t told him his target had been the infamous [Admiral] of Birds of Prey. But it made more sense why he was supposed to keep an eye on him and not engage directly. Only issue was that the strike squad was approaching, with no target in sight. Which meant he was in trouble.

He had failed, not only that, he had been played like a fiddle by the [Admiral]. Baited into calling in the strike group while actually looking at a decoy, his real target already long gone. Dammit. He looked to the side and saw the radar pick up the strike squad here to clean up the threat that was the [Admiral]. He was honestly surprised that anyone would dare to go after him, but it seemed his employers had credits and power in spades.

A powerhouse from Dust making a move out here? Possible, but the ‘Why’ was what didn’t make sense. There wasn’t much out here except a few Pieces that had already been turned into stations and a few asteroids to mine. Not like it was anything valuable, but whatever. It wasn’t his job to question things. Questions got you killed.

“Red Dragon coming in, where is the target?” Red Dragon, he almost scoffed at the pretentious title they had given themselves. Sadly, he was in no position to criticize their naming choices.

“Target has escaped.” Was all he said. Did he really want to explain his own incompetence here? Probably not. He just hoped they wouldn’t turn on him right away. He knew some people did get another chance. If given time, he might even find the [Admiral] again.

“Escaped? But didn’t they land close by to make repairs? How could they escape?” The man in the other spaceship seemed puzzled.

“It was a decoy and I fell for it, sir.” He said. No excuses, not sugar coating it. He would at least be professional in his final hour.

“Stand by.” Was all the other man said, and he dreaded those words. It meant he was asking what they should do with him. Maybe he shouldn’t have started working in the underworld. Sure the pay was great, but damn were the risks high. It was obviously too late now, but if he somehow survived, he decided he would stop his criminal activities. Yes, this was the last time. For sure this time.

“Red Dragon out, report back to boss for further instructions.” The man’s voice said through the voice-spell. He released a long and heavy breath, sagging visibly in relief. He wasn’t going to die today, which was great news. Obviously he wasn’t off the hook, he barely dared to think what the ‘Boss’ would say, but it meant they still had a use for him yet. So maybe one last job was in order huh? He could always retire after this one.

“Copy that, thank you Red Dragon.” He said once his voice was a bit more stable and he started moving out of there.

Should he call the boss himself? Or would he contact him? He didn’t have the coordinates to call him, but he did have a speaking stone that was attuned to someone who could get in touch with him. Before he could decide if he should do it, an incoming call came that he didn’t even have time to accept before it was on. Seemed like the boss had called him.

“Niklo, I’m disappointed." The distorted yet familiar voice said.

“I’m sorry boss. He played me like a beginner. I’ve no excuse.” He said, knowing from previous interactions that the man, or woman, prefered people who admitted their mistakes.

“I’m not going to lie to you, but it didn’t come as a complete surprise. The [Admiral] is a tricky target. Yet I had high hopes for you. I thought you had what it takes. Maybe I was wrong?” The question seemed innocent, but Niklo was sweating as he racked his brain for the best answer. He was threading the needle and knew it.

“If I ever get him within my sights again, I won’t make the same mistake. He won’t get away next time.” He said with as much confidence as he could muster. The boss was silent for a while, and despite sitting still, Niklo could feel a large drop of sweat slowly making its way down his back.

“I like you Niklo, so I’m going to give you another job. We’ve had an issue on Trupen station. I need you to clean the mess up. Aren’t you the lucky man?” The voice said. Alright, he could work with this. Clean someone else's mess up. Easy enough. Hopefully.

“Of course. What’s the mess?” He asked.

“Just some people who got away. You know how it is. The locals couldn’t handle them.” He didn’t need to be a genius to understand what that meant.

“Do you want it done quietly or for all to see?” He asked.

“I honestly don’t care. We need them gone. Understand?” Of course he did. It almost got him curious as to why these people needed to die, but he knew when not to ask questions.

“I’m more than happy to clean that mess up for you.” He said, actually relieved that he had been given a task. It meant he would survive, most likely.

“Good, I’m sending you the details.” The scrambled voice said as his terminal turned on and several documents popped up on it. He hated how it seemed the boss could control so much from a distance.

“Thank you boss.” He said.

“I hope this is not the last conversation we have, so good luck.” The voice said before the com-spell cut off.

He wasn’t some nobody in the underworld, but still he felt like a child in front of the boogeyman when he spoke with boss. He hated it, but the pay had been too good, and now? Now he didn’t have a choice. He knew hiding would be futile, so he picked up his terminal and started to go through the different files.

It seemed his next destination was Trupen station, not far from here either. Maybe that was why he had been picked and not killed? It didn’t matter but he sure was happy someone else had failed so close by. He set his destination and started to go through the files while he traveled.

***********************

He leaned against a building, a hobo sitting next to him, while he surveyed the library. They had gone inside a while ago. He was dressed to blend into the background, with skills working to make it hard to even notice him. His targets were far from easy. Two adventurers, above level thirty, with three others close to or above level twenty.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Not impossible, but definitely risky, if he was to do this by himself. Obviously, the boss didn’t want another failure and had provided him with more agents. The five of them were inbound and would arrive in a few days, so he would do the prep work. He hated adventurers though. Unpredictable and crazy bastards. Not like he could refuse the job however.

He had tracked them to the library fairly easily. It wasn’t hard when all of the local underworld was basically trying to suck up to him. Still, he couldn’t wait to see them for himself. You could only trust second hand information so much. So he waited for them to come out. What were they even doing in a library? Such a boring place to be. But they had been in there a while apparently.

When they finally came out, he was surprised to see that they weren’t actually five, but six. There was a girl with them that wasn’t in the files that the boss had sent him. Shit, already an unknown. The adventurers seemed exactly as their recently updated files in the adventurer's guild said they were. The two most dangerous were clearly the rat and the shark. The only mage was the kid, but he was by far the weakest of the bunch, only recently past level ten.

But that new girl, he knew nothing about. Which was not something he liked. They stayed together for a while before they finally split up. He hesitated for a bit, but decided to follow the new girl. He knew enough about the other five, but who the hell was she? He followed her back to a decent hotel where she went into her room, and didn’t move for the rest of the day.

Shit, should he contact the boss? No, not yet. He should probably look into things a bit more first. No one wanted to hold their subordinates' hands. First he needed her name, which was so simple it was boring. A local who worked in the hotel just checked the name for him. A few minutes later said agent walked out of the hotel, and gave him a paper. Unfolding it, he saw the name.

Maya Nomekop. Huh, that was such a familiar name. He felt like he had heard that name before. Nomekop. Checking his gear, he pulled out an amulet and checked the engraving. Shit. Eratz Nomekop. One of the best enchanters and inventors on Dust. He still remembered how much the damn thing had cost him. His first ‘real’ item, back in the day. Had saved his life more than once too.

That was his daughter? What the hell was she doing here? He would have to check. Pulling up a scroll, he activated it and sent a request to the closest mage guild. It didn’t take long before the scroll filled itself with information and he decided to check it out in a more private area. Walking back to his own place, he walked into a back alley, and deeper into the more dangerous part of town. Stopping at a door, he knocked before someone opened it.

Without a word the guard let him inside and he was soon in his room. The hideout wasn’t the nicest, but out here he didn’t have much of a choice. Unfurling the scroll, he checked out the information. Eratz Nomekop. Inventor, Golem builder, enchanter. Specialized in magical circuits. All things he more or less knew. The man had never been married, no public class or level listed, as expected, but he had confirmed being over level 40 publicly a few years back.

He was one of the best on Dust after all, at least in the top twenty. Niklo continued to scroll down, but there wasn’t much else. No mention of any children. No girlfriend or boyfriend either. The man had retired ten years ago and lived like a hermit since. Well, he had already been rich by then so who was he to judge?

He scrolled down past the public file he had asked for on Eratz to look at the one on Maya Nomekop. It was empty. Completely empty. No known residence, no known parents, but strangely, she existed in the system. Only there was no information about her. Even stranger, the file containing only her name had been made about nine years ago, but clearly the girl was older. A lot older.

A secret child? Who was she? Maybe she wasn’t related to him at all? More questions he didn’t like. In his line of work, knowing was half the battle, and right now, she was a big question mark. Plus, he didn’t know how she fit in with the other five. Well that wasn’t surprising as he didn’t even know why they had to die, but she seemed to be working with them, to a degree. Maybe helping them?

So many questions, and many of which he had no way to get an answer, at least out here. So he picked up the very special speaking stone, and tapped it lightly to initiate a call to the other one linked to it. He understood the need for it, as it was made to be untraceable, unlike most com-spells where you needed to more or less know where you were sending it too. After a few seconds, someone spoke up.

“Yes?” The voice asked.

“This is big N, I’ve run into something unexpected. A girl that calls herself Maya Nomekop seems to be working with the other fives I’ve been sent to kill. I’m missing data on her. I could only pull the public stuff out here, but she is a ghost.” He explained.

“That is indeed unexpected. How is she working with the other five?” The man asked while he heard him doing something else at the same time.

“They were all in the library all day. I don’t know exactly what they are doing, but they stayed for a long ass time. I didn’t dare scry them as they have two rather high level adventurers.” He explained.

“Alright. I’ll update you tomorrow.” And before he could respond, the connection was cut. Rude cunt. Well at least it was less stressful than dealing with the boss.

He lay in bed for a while, the locals had given him the best room, or so they claimed. He was here for a job anyway, not like it mattered much, and without his backup, he was not going to try something against that kind of group.

He also knew he didn’t have that much time. They had apparently more or less locked down the station, but they would have to start letting through some ships soon unless they wanted to alert everyone that something strange was going on here. Probably at least the big hauler ships for now at least, to make sure trade wasn’t slowed down too much. Still, from his understanding, the boss wanted them gone ASAP.

**********************

The next day he stalked the group of five, who was clearly on guard. It wasn’t anything obvious, but he could see them let their eyes wander here and there as if they were expecting trouble at a moment's notice. Obviously, with their classes, they had no chance of spotting him.

They went around buying trinkets and equipment for some of their other members. Nothing that would truly be an issue for them, of course, but they were clearly gearing up. In the afternoon they went to the library again and met up with the other girl. They went inside and he waited for around an hour before sending a local in just to see what the hell they were doing in there.

Going through old newspapers apparently, a lot of newspapers. Like all of them from what the agent had said. Strange, what were they up to? He still hadn’t gotten the call back from the other asshole, so he did his job. He waited outside for them to be done.

Like the day before, they stayed for a rather long while before going back. They split up after a bit and went their separate ways. It was strange. Were they working together? But then why were they staying in different hotels? It was clear it was safer to stick together. He hated not knowing and as he went back to the hideout and lay in bed, he wondered why they hadn’t gotten back to him.

Only when morning came did they actually call him back. And for once, the other cunt didn’t seem smug or superior like they usually were.

“Add the girl to the list.” The voice said without any hellos or anything. Right to business. He could respect that. Still, he needed to know a bit more if he were to take her down.

“Any info on her level and class?” He asked, being a bit annoyed at having to ask. They were professional, weren’t they?

“No. We have no info except that it is Eratz's daughter, publicly at least.” The voice explained. Strange if even they didn’t know anything.

“Not even a clue, or anything? You know how unknowns usually turn out, right?” He couldn’t help but ask. It might have been a mistake to insinuate incompetence.

“Watch your tongue. I know very well the dangers. Consider her a level thirty threat, considering how young she is, I doubt she is that high level, but knowing Eratz, she probably has a lot of dangerous items to make up for it.” He nodded along to that, it only made sense.

“What about the father? I haven’t seen him but if he comes after me, I’m pretty sure the mission will be a failure.” He said. [Enchanter] type classes were notoriously difficult to deal with. They usually had all kinds of random items to make your life difficult and were therefore hard to predict. Especially someone as high level as Eratz.

“You won’t have to worry about the father. Just deal with the daughter, alright?” The voice said, and before he could answer, the turd had cut the connection. He really hated that guy.