FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Questions to answer

1 year after Kara's encounter with 'Comforting arms.'

***

Andy and Sefan were walking around the base; Andy had long since completed training and was now a Lieutenant. He had climbed the ranks quickly, out doing most of the people he contended with in every aspect.

"Hey Sefan, how would you like to go for a run around the field after breakfast?"

"Sounds like fun, lets go grab some grilled cheese and then get dressed for the occasion."

Breakfast was normal. The army wasn't exactly five star quality, but when you were hungry you ate anything. They got dressed and met on the field.

"How many laps are you up for?"

"How many can you do?"

"At least 20."

"Then 25 it is."

They started their run neck and neck, neither one trying to out do the other. But that quickly ended at the end of the first lap. They were racing around the track, taking no time to finish their second through to their seventh lap. Finally Sefan got a lead and started to out do Andy. Andy had slowed slightly to allow himself to keep his energy. Sefan was on his eighteenth lap when he slowed down to a brisk jog, Andy was still at his earlier pace and was now catching up rapidly. By the twenty fourth lap Sefan had enough energy to run again, and they were again neck and neck chasing down the finish line. They finished at virtually the same time. They stopped, panting and gasping for air.

"That was fun. Hey Sefan, I got to go but I'll talk to you later on tonight."

"Where are you going?"

"Need to go see a friend."

Andy left to the barracks and got dressed in civilian cloths. He stepped onto the parking lot and got into his car and left for town.

***

Kara was at the dorm with Carlos. They were in a serious relationship; it had been going on since the day after 'comforting arms' left Kara the note. Carlos had gotten back from a test, Kara was watching TV.

"Hey hun, how was your test?"

"Awful, I'll be pleased with a 60%."

There was a knock on the door. Carlos went to answer it as he had only just taken off his coat. He opened the door and standing before him was Andy.

"Andy?!"

"Carlos!"

They hugged.

"Where the hell did you run off too?"

"Military, it was in the note I left."

"Well, good job at visiting often."

"I was busy, had a lot of work to do. Hey is that Kara? How've you been?" Kara was already up and next to Carlos.

"I'm fine. How is the military?"

"Fun, I haven't gone anywhere near a battlefield. Mostly I have been doing work in the country and some peacekeeping in south Africa."

"Well that's good."

"Are you going to give me a hug or do I have to beg for it?"

He held out his arms and Kara nearly leapt into them.

"It was boring without you here."

"Ouch..." Carlos said it as a joke, but he didn't realize Kara was being serious. The only fun thing in here life in the past year was Carlos, and even though she loved him, a little piece of her would always belong to Andy.

"You know what I mean."

For once Andy was the one out of the loop.

"Wait, what's going on here."

Now Kara felt a little embarrassed, she still loved Andy. Now she didn't know what to do. She knew she had to tell him she was with Carlos, but that didn't make it easier.

"Me and Carlos are seeing each other, I moved in about 2 months ago."

"Oh, well congratulations."

Andy was pleased that Kara found someone. He did still love her, but he was more worried about her happiness then his own. She seemed happy with Carlos, so he was happy. After hours of much needed catching up, mostly idle conversation, but none the less important. Andy had to leave.

"Well it was nice talking to you guys again. I have some other places to go during my time off, I might be back again within the next few days."

"Please do. Our home is yours." Carlos said it and meant every word of it.

"I'll see you guys around." He shook Carlos' hand and gave Kara a hug.

"Bye!" Carlos and Kara said in unison.

***

Andy didn't have far to go to get to his next stop. He had no idea how long he would be there, he just needed; some; time there. He entered my old dorm, and he removed a picture of me and Mira from his pocket. Holding it in his hand while he looked down at it. Tears built up in his eyes, it was all coming back to him. He started to tremble and he fell to his knees. He went slow, allowing his pain to well up and slowly release. First a low growling emerged from his lips, it got louder and louder until he was nearly yelling the note. Finally he did what he came to do, he screamed it out. The question he wanted answered, the only thing that was able to occupy his mind since the day of Mira's death.

"WHY?!"

He dragged out the word, and the whole room started to shake. He seized to tremble and began to stand. It surprised him when someone came in to the room; he thought that no one would bother checking up on the noise. It was someone that he had never seen before. An arctic wolf. He stood up and addressed the wolf on equal footing.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Saul; I'm escorting my friend here to see his brother's old dorm."

James stepped into the room.

"We were just here to pick up something that Eagle left behind that never got to be buried with him. We were going to put it on his grave. I just wanted to put something there, I didn't have anything other then flowers when I went on the one year anniversary, Eagle always thought that a gift should be personal. I wanted to leave him something he would appreciate. Who are you?"

He better not touch my dagger!

"I'm, Mira's, brother...Andy" a single tear rolled down his face as he said Mira's name. "And this was all my fault, I tried everything to try to change my own mind. I was there for Kara when she thought this was her fault. That only ruined that friendship and made her feel worse. I tried helping Eagle. That failed miserably. I joined the army to see if intense training and combat could force it out of my mind. Nothing fucking works!"

***

3 years ago

***

Mira left Eagle's dorm, anticipating what he had in store for her when she got back. Home made chocolate? What could he possibly use it on? She arrived at Andy's dorm. She knocked and Andy answered. He knew she was coming.

"Hey sis."

"Hi." She smiled and gave him a hug. She walked into the room. Andy had told her he needed to talk to her. She sat down and he immediately sat beside her.

"Mira, there is something important I need to ask you." she looked at him puzzled. "Are you seeing Eagle?"

It was a shock to her, how could he know so fast.

"Well, we haven't gone on a date, yet. But he is making me supper right now. and we are going on one tomorrow."

"Good. It wasn't hard to see he liked you."

"I know he liked me, but come on, he has much more pride then that. He wasn't going to ask me out. Especially if he thought I might turn him down. There was no way he was going to tell me he liked me unless I let him know I liked him back before hand."

"You're very lucky Mira, I can't tell you how much I wish I had someone."

"You'll find someone. Besides I don't even know if I 'found' someone yet."

"Who are you trying to kid? You love Eagle."

"I like him, but I never thought more of it then I did any other relationship I had."

"I can see it in your eyes. I don't know if you realize it or not, but you're smitten."

"Come of it, I am not."

"Ok, well then if you're so keen to say so then lets try an experiment. When you get back for supper; give Eagle a kiss. If sparks fly, I'm right. If not, you are; and you can go back to the way you were handling this before."

***

"That night after she kissed Eagle, she told me that she thought he was the one. They moved through their relationship at a ridicules speed. I set that speed and if I hadn't then Eagle would have gone to get groceries by himself. He would have given that guy his wallet and Mira would have lived. None of this would have happened. He wrote it in his note, that even he could see a change in Mira after she talked to me!"

Saul was next to Andy in seconds to comfort him, but he muttered under his breath 'why the hell does everyone say *it's my fault* they all blame themselves for the mistakes of others. This is bullshit.'

In all honesty I did notice the change in Mira after she left Andy's that day. But I have to agree with Saul, everybody blames themselves for my decision and for Robert's mistake. It's amazing how easily someone can believe that they made the make or break point that caused this whole disaster. I'd feel better if they all stopped trying to assign blame.

James followed suit behind Saul. Then he spoke.

"Hey, you need to get a grip."

At this Andy and Saul both looked at James. He had never been so harsh sounding in his life; the very tone was like a poisonous dart, hitting Andy right in the heart.

"Everyone is so god damn responsible. They all take blame for some mugger's actions. If I had that guy's last name I swear I would hunt him down and skin him myself. Every time I hear someone whine and say 'it's all my fault' I feel like smacking them. The only things stopping me from doing it now is that I barely know you; and I'm on a tight schedule. If you excuse me I have an item to retrieve."

He left and went into my room and retrieved my knife, asshole. Still blood stained from when I used it. He emerged from the room and signaled to Saul to leave.

"C'mon we're leaving."

They left without another word, leaving Andy with a look of shock and disbelief.

"Was that really Eagle's brother? Eagle was always so nice, that guy was vicious."

To be fair he only started acting like this within the past year. So I guess I turned him into this. This whole charade was starting to bug me; I never should have gone through with this. To be a little more kind to who ever is listening to me, I'm not actually dead. That's what I'm talking about when I say 'charade'. Let me elaborate on that for you. That note I wrote was true, mostly. Everything was right up until my last dream.

***

When I got home from talking to Robert at the hospital, I did go to my room and seek Mira's advice. Contrary to the note, she did not tell me to kill my self. I still can't believe that worked; anyone who knew Mira would know that she would never want someone to die. Also, believe me when I say, when I dream, I talk to Mira. It is not a hallucination or my imagination or me trying to think of what she would have said. It is Mira. The day she died she did some kind of black magic stuff and I don't care how it works because I can live with her. Well, I guess I was getting side tracked there, anyway, Mira told me that she was with me, I had her so I had everything I wanted in life already, except, a purpose. She told me I needed to find one, that a walk would clear my mind. So when I woke that's what I did, I was walking down town when I heard a scream. That day I found a purpose that some people would never want to have. I followed the scream to an abandoned warehouse just a few buildings down the street. I was the only one nearby so if I hadn't been there, the girl never would have been found. I walked inside to see an arctic wolf very similar to myself; standing over a female cheetah. I had brought my knife with me, I had cleaned the blood of from when I had lodged it in Roberts throat. The wolf didn't see me, so I snuck up behind him. I grabbed his muzzle and shoved the knife into his neck and killed him instantly. I turned my attention to the cheetah, she had been blindfolded and gagged, presumably after the scream I heard. She was naked from head to toe, and a mixture of blood and semen was oozing out of her nether region. She was tied down, but for my own safety I couldn't let her see me. I had decided from the moment I laid eyes on that wolf, that I would either die there, or become a killer. I rummaged through the wolf's clothing to find a gun, he had redressed himself and was probably in the act of killing the girl. I took the gun and fired one round off into his ear. That should be enough to convince whoever found him that it was me, I had to make the death brutal, so no one who could identify me could look at it long enough to notice any other important scares missing. A shotgun, I carried the wolf over to a canvas bag on the floor, he might have kept it to carry the girls body; now it would be used to carry his. I put him in the bag and left to his car, I shoved him in the trunk and made my way to the firing range. They sold guns there, and I was in the market for a cheep shotgun.

I entered the store and turned to the shop keep.

"Hello there, what can I interest you in?"

"I need a shotgun, nothing fancy just something that works." I was calm and cool. No one was going to ask many questions, they all trusted the university students.

"Does it matter what gauge?"

"Umm, 10-gauge would be nice." They were the biggest one I knew of, and bigger was better when it came to making a face unrecognizable.

"How many shells you need?"

"I think two boxes will do." I didn't really care how many were in a box; I just knew that asking for 'just one' was going to sound a little too weird.

"Well, I guess you could take this model, it's the cheapest one we have."

"Thank you that will do just fine." He hand me the boxes and gun.

"The total comes to $530 dollars." Ya, cheapest, sure...

I paid with my visa; they wouldn't be collecting on any debt there after I was done. I raced back to the car when I realized I had left the girl at the warehouse.

"Oh, shit!" I drove over to the warehouse and ran inside, she was still there struggling against the bonds. I pulled out my knife and put it to her throat. She started to cry and scream

"Shush, I'm not going to hurt you, the man who captured you is dead. I need you to listen to me. Can you do that for me?" she stopped moving and looked in my direction and nodded quickly.

"Ok, I am going to cut the bonds to your hand and feet, but don't move. Don't remove the blindfold or gag until I leave; I can't let you see me. You can't tell anyone what happened here, ever. I know that sounds weird, but please do it. I would assume that who ever captured you was talking to you, so you can tell that I'm not him. I just need to remain anonymous." At this she nodded as well. This time slowly, showing she was calming down.

I cut her bonds quickly. She followed my instructions to the letter. I got to the car and turned on the engine. As I left and turned the corner I looked in the rear view mirror, the cheetah had taken the blindfold and gag off and was looking out at the car. When I looked in here eyes I realized my second mistake. She had no cloths.

"Oh god damn it!" the part of me that loved Mira, the part of me with a conscious concern for others, was screaming at me. 'Run back and pick her up, take her with you, this plan is crazy!' but the part of me that hurt, the one that missed having a reason to live, was fighting equally as hard. He was pointing out all the ideas I wanted to hear. 'Screw her, she can call for help, make up a story, and go on with life.' Then it hit me. If she asks for help, she will have to tell them something. Why wouldn't she tell them the truth? That would ruin the whole plan. I had to get her to a safe place and convince her to keep this a secret, but I couldn't let her see me. How?

I turned the car around and drove back to the warehouse. She was still in the window looking out. I parked the care outside and pulled the hood of my sweater up. I got out of the car and took of the cloths of the wolf, I bundled them up and walked to the door; making sure every identifiable part of me was covered. I opened the door and pushed the bundle of cloths in. Without a word I closed the door and walked back to the car. I got in and started the engine, I went to turn up the radio but someone caught my hand. I jumped back and reached for my knife, but before I could grasp it I stopped. It was the cheetah.

"Well, I guess this means you didn't want to leave without seeing my face?"

"More like, I didn't want to leave without offering you a job. The man you just killed was a professional...problem solver. This was his way of taking care of a deal that went, well, a little south. I was his secretary and he blamed me. He was going to kill me, you saved me. So, do you think you can kill like that for a living?"

"I would be delighted." The way those words sounded even sickened me.

An instant partnership was born. Her name was Shirane, it was the oddest name to pronounce (I would often call her Sharon by accident but she would instantly correct me, "Sheerraaannee" dragging out every syllable. "You have to put emphasis on the A." she would say, sometimes that woman annoyed the hell out of me. She still does. Well, to continue this lengthy explanation, I had to go to my dorm; one last time. I planned it so perfectly, it was almost sickening to see so much effort go into running away. I made sure of the position of the body and all sorts of other little details, right down to the note. When I thought everything was ready; I checked the dorm above me. The guy up there always played Call of duty 4 about now, and he blasted the volume. I tied a string around the trigger to the gun and used a mirror to see when someone was about to fire a gun. I timed it extremely close, but just far off enough to make him turn away from his game and question himself. I was about to leave when I heard Kara walking up the hall, I knew it was her because she was sobbing uncontrollably. My heart sank a little and I decided to make sure of something. So I went out to the car and to Shirane.

"As an assassin I would need to track people right?"

"Yes..."

"And I have tools to help me do this right?"

"Ya, I have some bugs with me now, why?"

"I need a few; this is going to take a while."

She handed me some small devices. "Knock yourself out."

I went back into the dorm and snuck my way to Andy's dorm. He was gone and Carlos was a work so I didn't need to worry about remaining stealthy once I got in. I bugged ever room in there, and I bugged Carlos' wallet as well as Andy's. I wanted to make sure that after I left, my friends were ok. I was sure that the bugs were hidden well enough, so I moved on to Kara's dorm. I turned the knob slowly and moved quietly; but quickly into her room, she was face down in her pillow crying. Every part of me wanted to comfort her right now but I couldn't risk it. I bugged her knapsack, her purses and the rest of her dorm. I thought about the fact that she might move, so I bugged her suitcases too. I was later thankful for this when she went to see Saul. I tapped the phones too, that way I could follow her where ever she was going, I wanted to make sure she didn't follow the same path I did. When I was done; I left, without a single word. It hurt me to leave that place, without telling Kara that I wasn't dead, that I found hope, I got better. But I needed people to think I was dead, I needed someone to tell them I was dead. I needed to vanish.

***

So I guess that clears up the confusion. Which brings me to the last mistake I made that night, the reason I went back, the reason I ran into Kara at my dorm, the reason I just called my brother an asshole. The bloody knife, I cleaned the knife after I threw it at Robert, but I forgot to clean it after I killed the wolf that was now lying in my grave. My brother was now in possession of the only thing that could prove I was still alive, and he had no clue. I needed that knife, I still need it. It was the only thing I had from my parents, my only tie to them. It was something that I needed to keep unseen, but I needed none the less. He was going to throw it away. But I had a plan, I was gonna get my knife back.

I arrived at my own grave; I tracked my brother's progress to get there. I was disguised as someone else, an alias I created about 4 months ago. A black wolf (I died my fur when ever I used it) and I had a small plastic ring in my throat, it was used to change my voice; placing it required some medication to suppress the gag reflex and someone else to put it in correctly. To finish of the look, a fake patch of skin and fur custom fitted to me was placed in my ear, coving the hole where I was shot, a new suit, complemented by a watch. The only part of me that could be recognized as me and no one else were my eyes, I had a mark on my eye, the one distinguishing part of me that I could not change (without permanently damaging my vision) I had remembered all the fine details that day, but the one thing I forgot was sunglasses. I made my way to James and Saul and without a word I kneeled down next to my own grave and said a silent prayer, I kissed my palm and placed it on the ground in front of my headstone. No one in the world can even try to describe the feeling of looking at your own name on a head stone, the only thing I can compare it to was the feeling of going into Acoma, and that's only because it had a similar cold slime to it. But that feeling was like a base coat on a painted wall. All the other feelings came close to covering it up, but I have nothing to compare them too, it was just, eerie. The knife was on the grave; but I couldn't take it yet, James was watching me. When I stood I was greeted face to face with the face of an arctic wolf, my heart almost stopped, me and my brother both had the facial features of arctic wolves, we got it from our dad. It was Saul; he looked similar to James, close enough to be confused as a cousin. He never saw me before so there was no way he could see through my alias. He thrust a hand forward.

"Hello, my name is Saul, if you don't mind; may I ask how you know Eagle?"

"I'm a good friend of his; we played World of Warcraft together. One day I was in town and I heard him behind me. I knew his voice from all the times we talked on Skype. His obituary was right above my best friend's. I couldn't make his funeral so I decided to come today. On the anniversary."

James came up from behind me; and put a hand on my shoulder. He was trebling I turned to look at him, remembering not to make eye contact, but out of the corner of my eye; I could see his face. It was one of shock, but he had a broad grin on his face. He was crying.

"Hey, James; are you ok?"

"Saul, go to the van, I need to talk to him for a sec."

That son of a bitch, he saw through the disguise. I wanted to know how he knew, but I couldn't ask him yet, Saul was still there.

"All right, I'll be in the van then, just don't hurt the guy. You've been acting strange lately."

I could hear the concern in his voice, he knew something was up but he didn't know what. He was in the van before James made his move.

"What the fuck were you thinking?!" he was gritting his teeth, trying hard to hold back the pain he was feeling.

"I found a purpose and I needed a way out. An opportunity presented itself and I took advantage. I made sure everyone was alright; I even had a scare with Kara. She was going down a slippery slope to sever depression so I stepped in. I brought with me a suit that allowed me to heat up or cool of any part of me, it was designed to allow me to blend in on an infrared camera. But I used it to let her know someone loved her. Why does it matter, you carried on everyone was living and I was happy, I was sick of living life to fulfill what everyone expected of me, now I live life changing the way people live. I have killed some of the worst people in the world. An assassin for hire, for the good of the people. Making a real fucking difference. The military was after Hasim Al'muif for years. It took me 4 months to track him down, I even talked to him face to face and told him my intentions before I killed him. That bastard killed over 30 million people during his life time. Who knows how many lives I saved that day? So do you want to know what I was thinking? I wasn't! But I did a damn good job otherwise!"

"So you abandoned your friends and family, to become a killer? Well at least your note had one true statement in that last section. You are dead. I want nothing more to do with you!" I could see all the hate and anger he built up; flowing into those words. Whether he meant it or not, it still hurt hearing those words. A single tear rolled down my cheek.

"Well, I guess I have to go now; I'll be taking my knife with me. But before I go; tell me, how did you know it was me?"

"Because I gave you that watch for your ninth birthday..." He pointed to the one I was wearing. "...and it still has the little engraving I had put on it there 'families stand strong.' Written on the side. Wearing it now is a very mockery of what it means, I hope you know that."

"I'll remember not to wear things people gave me then. Good bye, brother."

He shrugged and walked off to his van. I picked up the knife and slowly walked back to my car. I had a big mission coming up soon; this was going to be the first time I had to kill someone to keep my identity a secret. I had to kill the only other person other then me and my brother who knew my mother was an arctic fox, her best friend, the commanding officer at the nearby military base.

***

The mission was planned perfectly, I had a route in and out, I had the blueprints of the complex memorized, but I didn't count on something that I should have thought of. Andy.

As soon as I found out about his 'joining the army' stunt; I tracked him. I had set up cameras outside; the base looking in at it, I had snuck in several times to place bugs in the barracks. I took on this mission for personal reasons, someone was looking to have a general killed, Tommy Langmuir. This man happened to be mom mother's best friend. I know this because he always called my brother asking how I was doing and sending him what ever aid he could. For this I thank him, even to this day, but he did something I can never forgive him for.

I entered the base the same way I always did, a hole in the fence; just big enough to crawl through. It was next to a rather large bush; about one meter away from a dense forest. I wore the suit that me and Shirane had engineered, it was similar to the suit that I wore the night I was with Kara, when I wrote her the note from 'comforting arms', but it's sole difference was it's ability to appear holographic; it was an ingenious idea. The skin tight cloth reflected light at angles, so if I was lying down in a field of short grass and someone looked at me, they would see a mirror image of the grass at an angle, allowing me to be invisible in open terrain. This was virtually useless indoors, but then again, so was everything else that wasn't a disguise. That's why I always wore one under my suit; I could get in undetected, and then blend in unnoticed.

This day was different, every day the base had standard patrols, and routes that they took. But they were nearly all gone, a few scattered scouts remained here and there, but absolutely nowhere near what was normally there. At first I was skeptical, but when I saw that there was a large group of soldiers in another room I loosened up. There was an important briefing going on, this was perfect; so long as Tom was not there. I took one more look at the picture given to me, to make sure I could identify Tom. Tom was a lynx, he was in his 60's now. His fur was kept nice and neat, but it was still quite dull and faded, betraying his age. His most prominent feature was the part of him I hated most, his eyes. They were like coal; there was no color, just a sea of black. It was something out of a sci-fi movie. And those eyes could pierce through steal with their very gaze. He was supposed to be in his room, it was an office in the main complex, the administrative building by my guess. His office was overlooking the field in front of the barracks, most people would have taken advantage of that; and shot him from a range. But I liked to do things more personally. I had no trouble getting to the building; I took out a device, a jammer that disabled cameras within 50 yards. I made sure no one was looking; then I took off the suit, folded it, and put it in a small bag that clipped around my waist, but hung at the base of my back. A reverse fanny pack. The disguise I wore was standard military issue clothing. A pair of camo pants, an olive green under shirt and a camo jacket. I rolled the sleeves up, a more casual look. I didn't have a hat on, I would have gotten one if I had the chance; but the opportunity never came about. I sighed audibly

"*sigh* I guess it's time." Talking to myself was one way I got prepared for a killing. This one was going to be hard. I entered the complex and turned of the jammer, putting it in the pack with the suit. I made my way up to the top level, no one was inside the building; I was unbelievably lucky. I opened the door to Tom's room, slowly. I needed to make sure that he didn't hear me come in. Tom was facing out his window, looking up into the night sky. I saw his ear twitch; the jig was up.

"I have been expecting you. What took so long?"

"Bull shit, you heard me come in. Don't try to psyche me out; I think I deserve a little more credit."

"Aye; and that you do...they know about you."

"Do they now?"

"Well, mostly; yes. They know your name, your signature, and most importantly; your alias. What they don't know, is that you are who you say you are. I haven't told them that."

"So, they think I stole my own identity?"

"I guess that's one way to put it. They think that 'Eagle' is dead, your ruse worked in that way. They also think you stole the identity to remain unidentifiable."

"Well, I worked hard on that ruse. Hurt a lot of people doing it, but got careless; James knows."

"Damn, that must have hurt you huh?"

"Not as much as what I have to do now."

"So, since I'm going to die here anyway. Who hired you?"

"Can't tell you that. What if you had bugs in this room? The client would lose al protection."

"Well then, can you tell me why they hired?"

"With what you did, I doubt you could narrow it down, so why not? I was hired to kill you because of your role in the death of 400 people. Do you remember? 24 years ago, you and 4 other operatives were called in to save hostages who had been taken at an apartment building. You had an order to breach the complex, take out the terrorists, and get the hostages out safe. You learned that one of the hostages was working with the terrorists, but you went ahead with the plan as you would have. After the breach; bang; clear, the terrorists were down and the hostages were released. In that apartment complex there were 100 hostages, the terrorist disguised as a civilian, opened his jacket and revealed a bomb jacket. You did the worst thing you could have. Do you remember? You shot him. He opened his jacket and revealed the bomb, therefore, he had demands and he wanted them met. If he had just wanted to kill people he would have blown it up then and there without the fancy show. You reacted on fear, instead of training. That bomb had a kill switch on it. It exploded, and 30% of the people there that day died. 3 of the 4 other operatives died. The only survivors were you and my father. He was traumatized and put on sever anti-depressants, they raised his blood pressure to extreme heights. They contributed to a heart attack that caused his death. So, my client; squarely places all blame for this on you, and I strongly agree."

He gave a loud huff "You honestly think that your father's death was my fault?"

"I believe you were the first strike, a domino in the chain, but never the less; an important piece of the puzzle. "

"Well, I must commend you. You are picking your targets based on a moral code. That is something hard to find in your profession. Unfortunately I can't die here today. Oh, and by the way. I was expecting you, because we found out who your assistant was; and how she found potential clients. We knew about this op before you did. That meeting down there was to make it seem easier to get in." I knew it was too easy "and that meeting, is also the staging area for our set up. You won't kill me, because you won't be able to kill the man that I have lined up to come in; oh..." he looked at his watch "20 seconds."

"Oh, you rotten..." 15 seconds

"Dirty..." 10 seconds, my voice started getting excessively loud

"SNAKEY..." 5 seconds, I could hear foot steps running down the hall toward the door

"BASTARD!" I reached for my pistols. The only back up plan I had ever needed. I pointed both of them forward and made a dive for Tom. Without shooting. Putting both guns to his head and flipping over his head, with the great agility I inherited from my mother. I got behind him and put the gun in my left hand to his neck, and the gun in my right hand straight at the door. I wasn't going to shoot the man that came through that door, I couldn't, I wouldn't.

"Freeze!" Andy's voice came in a commanding tone. He was pointing an M16 right at me, I wasn't wearing my alias disguise, so I looked just like I did right before I left. He look at me and with a cocky smile, he thought he was looking right through a disguise; that didn't exist.

"Andy..." I was hurting, I wasn't ready to let him know. This was going to be painful.

"...I'm sorry, Andy. But; this is my purpose, my goal, my ultimate use. Besides, a guy's gotta eat." With that I opened my mouth and took a large bite out of Tom's neck, in between the collar bone and the shoulder. He yelled in pain. I could taste the blood in my mouth.

"Andy, I can't kill you. You have done nothing wrong yet, and I have no personal vendetta against you. Please, don't make me drag this out."

"Sir, how the hell does he know my name?!"

"I don't know, just kill the bastard!"

"Andy! Tom is about to die, there is nothing that will stop me from killing him. You have the power to end me now, but it will be a big mistake. The wound I just put on his neck will cause him to bleed out. If he wants to live he needs medical attention in the next 3 minutes. I will not hesitate to shot anyone else that tries to kill me, but you're safe. When Tom dies you have a choice, track me down, hunt me, and kill me like a wild animal, or you can let me leave. If you let me leave, one day, I will tell you what you need to know. All I can tell you now, is that I miss Mira as much as you do."

At the name of his sister Andy was totally baffled.

"ANDY! SHOOT HIM NOW!"

"Why did you send me up here alone sir?" Andy was piecing it together, he had doubts, that was enough for me. I wasn't going to let him figure it out while I was still there, I had to leave before he finally came to the point.

"60 seconds Andy, enjoy them."

I let go of Tom and jumped backwards through the glass. Connecting a steel wire; 5 centimeters thick; to the base of the window as I jumped. I repelled down the building and made it to the field before any alarms were sounded. When I got to the fence I heard soldiers running after me. They wouldn't find me, I had my escape route planned and they wouldn't find it. It took me three weeks to make the tunnel. It wasn't anything large, just big enough to stash me and 5 days worth of food and stay concealed. The entrance was covered by a wooden trapdoor, covered by 2 inches of fake grass. It was at the opening to a field full of dead grass, so the entrance was indistinguishable from the ground. I opened the entrance; got in; and closed it. With more then 10 seconds to spare. I pulled out my pocket pc and connected to the cameras in the military base. Tom was in the hospital section of the base, but they wouldn't be able to help him. I had washed my mouth with a mixture of peanut butter and water. He had an allergy, I hadn't used a very high concentration of peanut butter; so he didn't begin to feel the symptoms till I jumped through the window. That combined with the blood lose meant he wouldn't make it. What I was interested in was where Andy was. He was in the barracks, looking at his hands. I turned on the audio.

"Why, didn't I shoot him?"

I saw Sefan come out of the corner of the camera.

"Because he's good. He knew you, somehow, and he used what he knew against you. You weren't expecting it that's all, you'll remember that mistake next time he tries to use a mind trick."

"That's not all, Tom specifically want ME to do this. Why?"

"He trusted you, he wanted to see you perform in an important; stressful situation. He underestimated the assassin, that was apparent when he asked for only one person, and when he didn't request any snipers."

"I guess, I still need to think about this for a bit."

I sighed heavily. Andy, I wanted to tell you, I really did, but I couldn't. Not yet. Not until I have finished what I started. Now I have but one question to answer. How I'm going to convince you that I'm not still alive?