I sat down at the counter of a bar that I don’t go to very often, and looked around. The place had an odor that made my nose feel dry which I assumed was probably from crunched up peanut shells all over the floor. The only thing nice was the record player they had playing smooth jazz in the corner, but even that had a downside, it looked like they only had one vinyl that they played on repeat. I pulled out a private file only addressed to me, and opened it.

Inside of that file was the paperwork of my next target.

Case file 0-1

Target: Ajax the Silent

Age: 26

Skills: Axe handling

Crimes: Murder and Armed Robbery

Target For: Elimination

The people paying me to kill this guy just got robbed by him a couple of days ago and barely escaped, he runs his own little gang that terrorizes people at the dead of night. Not only do I get payed for his head, I also receive a bonus for however many of his gang members I can bring in as well, which shouldn’t be too hard. But first I’d like to unwind with a drink before I get my hands dirty.

I tapped the counter trying to get the bartender's attention, he walked over while cleaning out an empty glass, and leaned on the counter as if he was interested in what I had to say.

“Well what’ll you have?”

“A bottle of Whiskey. Bring a smaller glass as well.”

”You bet.”

The bartender nodded and turned his back to me, reaching on the shelf to grab a bottle of Whiskey and a smaller glass. He set both down in front of me. I opened the bottle and poured the Whiskey into the glass slowly. As I drank for a little a dispute erupted between two men in the bar, yelling at each other over who had the prettier wife. I listened in order to be entertained while having my drink, and waited until their argument began to sound stupid and pointless “Your wife has horse teeth,” “well your wife looks like a dude,” type of crap.

I grabbed the bottle and swigged down every last bit of it and slammed it down. I walked over to the two men and stood face to face with them, as they stood up the rest of their buddies stay seated within the booth. I grabbed a small photo out of my pocket, the photo I received of Ajax from my file earlier. He looked about 45 years old and wore overalls with nothing else underneath, just his bare skin, his beard was long and ginger and it looked like it could nest a flock of birds. I lifted the photo next to his head and sarcastically tried to figure out if it was him, I might as well mess around with the guy.

“What the hell do you think you're doing kid?”

“Is your name Ajax by any chance?”

I questioned even while knowing the answer. The fact that I had a photo of him and knew his name raised his suspicion of me naturally. But before any actions could be made, I reached into my trench coat and pulled out my pistol from my chest holster aiming the gun right between his eyes.

“BANG!”

The bar went silent, the only sound was the scratching of a record that needed to be reset. I waited to see if his goons would react in his defense, and they did, they all drew out small sidearms. I drew out my second pistol from within my chest holster and began to open fire faster than they could even comprehend, within two seconds I emptied both pistols out on them, so much flashing came from my pistols it looked like we were having a photoshoot for some A-list celebrity. The gun fire stopped and before they could even get a shot off, their bodies all collapsed to the ground full of bullet holes, each hole leaking out blood. The gun-smoke choked the air until it finally had cleared out.

I tapped my watch and sent a notification to my caseworker letting him know the job was complete and the main target was eliminated, plus the bonuses. That’s one leader, and eight henchman, which means my total payout would be $260,000.

Once I wait for the clean up crew I receive my payment up front in cash, what an amazing job, right?

The clean up crew finally arrived and handed me my total of $260,000 which had to be divided due to expenses and damages. $60,000 went to the agency I work for, $40,000 to the cleanup crew as thanks, with all of the damage and bullet holes I left in the bar the owner took $70,000 plus $20 for the drink, which leaves me at $89,980 which in today's economy isn’t as hot as you think. Now in 2048 that much is worth around $10,000 in 2022.

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I paid my fees and left the bar with another job completed and slapped down on my assassin resume. I walked back into the world where killing makes a living if you do it the right way, not really a world I enjoy living in but one I’ve adapted to and gotten used to by now.

I walked through the halls of my apartment and went up the stairs to the second floor. I stay closer to the wall because the railing is barely kept in place. When I try to sleep I get kept up by babies squealing for their mother at the middle of the night, and in the afternoon I get to hear abusive husbands yell at their wives and children after a rough day at work, it’s like a symphony of life playing a masterpiece, in result of all of that I turned to other methods of peace, methods I didn’t believe in when I was younger.

“Ugh, out of booze again.”

One thing my fridge has in common with my bank account is that they’re both always empty, which isn’t to my surprise since I blow most of my contract money on more bullets, booze, a little bit of food here and there, some smokes, and sweet, sweet beautiful guns. No, I’m not some gun nut that shoots cans in their backyard for a little fun time hobby while pretending how bad ass they’d be if they joined the army, I need my guns because… I kill stuff.

The names Whiskey, don’t bother figuring out my last name because I don’t have one, same goes for parents as well. I worked as a street cop for a while and worked my way to detective within two years, but I don’t do well taking orders from a guy that sits behind a desk all day, so I got released and figured I’d become a gun for hire at your expense. It used to be easy to become one, you’d register and wait for the mail to arrive with your registered license giving you permission to kill any jackass you’re paid to. Due to assassin casualties and clients not getting results, which led them to being figured out and gunned down by the person they planned to kill originally. So the “Agency of Assassins” changed their name to the “Agency of Elite Assassins” making it where you had to go through academy training and earn a certificate in a selected course of your choice.

If I remember correctly there were 5 classes to choose from that you could earn a certificate in. Swordsman, sharpshooter, arsonist, pet master, and last but not least gunslinger.

Swordsman- The art of the blade, specializing in the use of any melee weapon and many different sword forms.

Sharpshooter- Trained to get it right with the first shot going right between the eyes from 3,000 yards out, efficient and lethal.

Arsonist- Some of the most psychotic people with a burning rage inside of them, literally. Trained to kill using fire and certain explosive devices.

Pet master- They specialize in bonding with animals, not just any. Exotic animals that are born to devour anything they see. Wolves, lions, bears, just depends on the animal they connect with. Most people that sign up for this certificate get eaten before graduation.

Gunslinger- This just so happens to be the specialty I signed up for, we gunslingers specialize in the art of gun-smoke, we train to become fast with our pistol like a swordsman is with his blade, and efficient like a sharpshooter.

This past month has been the Great Depression for trained assassins, and world peace hasn’t been achieved so I doubt it’s because everyone's in a good mood. My only guess is that the higher ranked assassins are receiving all of the good jobs from top clientele such as mob bosses, government officials with dirty secrets to hide, and anyone else that's willing to put up a high price for revenge. All of the other jobs ranging from decent to horseshit pay are given to the low ranking or unranked assassins such as myself, but that’s just what I’m guessing.

Ring! Ring!

Ring! Ring!

I yawned while awakening to the sound of constant ringing, I rubbed my eyes and sat up, the ringing continued and became more bothersome with each ring. I looked down at the coffee table that sat beside the couch I’ve been napping on and grabbed my watch. I clicked a little button that answered the call, waiting for someone on the other end to speak.

“I hope your skills haven’t dulled out with the lack of jobs for unranked assassins.”

I couldn’t help but give a slight grin knowing my caseworker has called, which usually means there’s a job coming up.

“I don’t need a guy that sits behind a desk running paperwork all day questioning my skill, but to answer your smartass question, yeah… I’m ready for a new contract.”

“Okay. Good, if you manage to complete this one it will be your first contract completed leaving you 9 more until you get your rank, your rank will determine your jobs, so try to take these seriously.”

“What do you mean by my first? I’ve done at least eight jobs already.”

“Exactly, you completed jobs which are just little missions assigned to you by a random client, with a contract you’ll be signed to a client for a certain period of time in order to kill a more difficult target.

Hearing that this would be my first contract and I would need 9 more, killed all drive I had to finally become a ranked assassin. Completing 10 contracts just seemed so far away. Even as unmotivated as I am, I still need to complete them in order to make a better living off of this business. I'll work my way to becoming the best top ranked assassin in the world, that will surely pay the bills. In this world crime pays and killing sells. Some people are willing to kill anyone for a contract but I limit myself to killing the scum of the earth, the people that the world could do a bit better without, which doesn’t make me any better of a person but why would I care, I get paid and I look like some sort of hero, not that I care or anything, and honestly I don’t get treated heroically, just more like a human in his right mind.

I walked over to my coat rack and put my gun holsters back around my chest, followed by my dark brown trench coat on top.

“I’m heading out now, have the paperwork ready by the time I’m there, it shouldn’t be too long.”