"In The End" (It starts with) One thing / I don't know why It doesn't even matter how hard you try Keep that in mind / I designed this rhyme To explain in due time All I know time is a valuable thing Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings Watch it count down to the end of the day The clock ticks life away It's so unreal Didn't look out below Watch the time go right out the window Trying to hold on / but didn't even know Wasted it all just to Watch you go I kept everything inside and even though I tried / it all fell apart What it meant to me / will eventually / be a memory / of a time when I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn't even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn't even matter One thing / I don't know why It doesn't even matter how hard you try Keep that in mind / I designed this rhyme To remind myself how I tried so hard In spite of the way you were mocking me Acting like I was part of your property Remembering all the times you fought with me I surprised it got so (far) Things aren't the way they were before You wouldn't even recognize me anymore Not that you knew me back then But it all comes back to me In the end You kept everything inside and even though I tried / it all fell apart What it meant to me / will eventually / be a memory / of a time when I I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn't even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn't even matter I've put my trust in you Pushed as far as I can go For all this There's only one thing you should know I've put my trust in you Pushed as far as I can go For all this There's only one thing you should know I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn't even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn't even matter I had taken her two weeks to finally track him down. She wasn't fully recovered yet, her ribs still gave her quite a hard time for instance, but when she got the news that her primarily prey had made a 'business trip' to Rio, she had immediately booked a flight. She tipped her dripping cap further down over her head before carefully following the group of twenty men in the narrow and filthy streets of the favela. Hopefully, her oversized and more than worn out clothes would help her blending in the local fauna. For once, the black clouds in the sky were precious allies, they bathed the whole area in pools of darkness while the drum of the tropical rain covered any noise she eventually made. Of course, what helped her worked for her prey too... She had to be extremely cautious, this was unfamiliar, without mentionning very dangerous territory. In the short time she'd been here, she had witnessed children, with machine-guns, killing each other for nothing more than cigarettes. This time, she wouldn't underestimate her adversaries, she wouldn't repeat the same mistakes... She reached under her tattered grey coat, readjusting her bulletproof vest, a Second Chance, not as good as Mithrill's A.S. gears, but much more discreet. The vest was a bit tight since she last used it and uncomfortably rubbed the skin of the small of her back, but at least it helped her steadying her torso. 'I must have put on some weight.' She wrily thought as she saw her prey and his men rounding a corner. A long Cold Steel throwing blade was attached to each of her calves. A Taurus PT945 with two extra clips, a Steyr SPP with two extra 30-round clips too, and even two grenades in case things got really nasty, completed her equipment. 'Sosouke must have rubbed on me...' She smirked as she checked for any evidence of an ambush before heading for the same corner. Still, it was nice to see that many of her old 'contacts' were still willing to pay their debts. Being an ex-agent of the Chinese secret services certainly had its advantages... They were walking down the street and were about to turn right. She quickly ran down a parallel street before turning left and hiding behind a decayed wall. Normally, she should have preceded them here for a few minutes. She looked around, analysing the ground and the opportunities it offered. The place she had ended up to wasn't different from any other in the favela, save for what was obviously a bar, surrounded by the rusty iron sheets and plastic cloth-made 'houses' of the locals. It was most certainly where the group of men was headed to. She was about to enter it when much sooner than she had thought, she heard them approaching. Silently swearing, she quickly covered behind a pile of garbage in the backyard and observed. Her prey, got in the bar with two of his men while the others took position all around it. None of them cared to check her hiding place, though. A few minutes later, three men wearing expansive suits, obviously westerners, showed up. One of them was carrying a large briefcase. Her paranoya level was lifted a hundred floors up. Which kind of people could afford to wander around such a place dressed like that? They were like a piece of cheese in the middle of a rats's nest! They had to have a heavy support team hidden somewhere around. She forced herself to calm down, breathing evenly. If that was the case, she had to be in complete control of herself. As the westerners neared the entry door, they disappeared of her field of vision, but she soon realized she could hear everything, thanks to the thin walls. ------------------------------------------------------------ "Ahh, my friends! Welcome! Welcome!" Paolo Gomez exclaimed after his men searched his three guests. His quite handsome face contorted in a fake smile when he greedily eyed the briefcase. He gestured toward a table. "Have a seat and a glass of tequila!" The man who carried the briefcase wordlessly sat at the table, but purposely ignored the glass placed in front of him while his companions took position behind him. Paolo chuckled. "It's very impolite to refuse an offer of Paolo Gomez..." The threat was clear in his tone. The sitten man met his gaze steadily, showing absolutely no fear. "Don't play around with us, Mr.Gomez, we have nothing in common with the farmers you so much like to terrorize. If I had had a word in the matter, I wouldn't have treated with you and your boss in the first place." He didn't even tried to hide his contempt. At this words, Paolo pulled up a knife from his pocket and swiftly brought the blade inches from his offender's face. "Don't insult me, old man! 'You' came to me asking us for our help! 'I' did you dirty work!" He didn't even have the time to finish when his attention was brought outside by the cries of his men and regular detonations. His two guards nervously drew out their guns, not knowing what to do, while Paolo ran to the door. He was almost out when one of the thugs literally fell in his arm. He was desperately trying preventing his intestine from spilling out of the large hole in his belly. Paolo brutally pushed him back and backed away in utter stupor as his man fell backward like a ragged doll. An unnatural silence fell on the scene. Paolo turned around to find that his two remaining guards were also lifelessly lying on the floor and that two guns were now aimed at him. The man slowly stood up, making his chair loudly creak when he slid it away. "Dirty work, indeed. However, it appears that you weren't even able to do it properly. Two of the soldiers you were supposed to eliminate survived and were able to report in. They gave quite detailed information to their supervisers about our own employees and the engine 'we' lend you. You'll understand that it is impossible for us to keep business with you and Mr. Don Jose..." Paolo tensed, fully expecting being shot at. His grip on his knife tightened. If he was going down, he wouldn't go alone. Instead of that, the man simply opened his briefcase, which was full of US dollars. "Here is the rest of the promised payment." With that, he quietly walked past the frozen drug dealer, his bodyguards exiting shortly after him. ---------------------------------------------------------- Melissa applied the last touch to her make-up and gave herself a once over. Perfect. The red gown she wore was a real killer. It had spaghetti straps which were tied behind her neck. It also left her back completely bare while it flew down to her ankles and was slitted up to mid-thigh on the right side. She wore red court shoes, a silver necklace with a single tear- shaped saphire and simple diamond earrings. Satisfied, she finally put on a long-haired wig. She smiled at her reflection in the miror en-pied of her new hotel room. Even without the wig, she was a completely different person dressed up like that. Her disguise would hinder him from recognising her as well as lure him in her trap. She frowned, thinking back about Paolo and what had happened earlier in the favela... - Outside, Melissa was equally stunned by the events of the past few minutes. She watched the three men leave, hesitating on whether or not she should tail them and finally deciding against the idea. She had no idea of what she would face. Too risky. Besides, she wasn't even a member of Mithrill anymore. She would just drop them a line. The corpse of one of the goons was lying not far, staring at her with blind eyes. She could easily see the kind of specific damage the bullet had done. A normal hole at the point of impact, but an enormous one in the area where the bullet had exited the body. The bones had shattered like glass while the flesh had been lacerated by the kinetic energy. High velocity bullets, which meant snipers. And highly qualified ones if she was any judge... Large quantities of blood were already washed away by the rain, mingling with water and mud. In a few hours, nothing would remind anyone of what had happened. This men were already forgotten. Mankind was nothing. Mankind meant nothing, no matter how much blood was spilt. She would be forgotten soon too. Melissa shook her head when she realized that Paolo had run out of the bar with the briefcase and was fleeing for all he was worth. She cursed and left her hiding place to discreetly follow him. Yes, she would be forgotten. But before that, she had something to do... - Not very surprisingly, Paolo had changed from his usual big hotel in downtown to another one, he had changed his return ticket for an ealier flight in two days too. But apart from that, he hadn't changed his other habits much. The first evening after the meeting, he was already in the lobby of his new hotel with two babes... "'Guess he's figured that if his little friends wanted him dead, he would be feed for worms by now..." Why they hadn't killed him was a mistery to her. The only reason she could think of was that they didn't want to get involved in a war with his boss. Nevertheless, something in the back of her mind was naggingly telling her that she was set up. She shrugged, it wasn't like she had anything left to lose anyway. A brief pang of regret gripped her when she thought about a peculiar young captain. In many respects, it would have been so much better if she had just died in the jungle... Her arrival didn 't go unnoticed at all, that was the least that could be said. She slinked in the lobby towards the bar, each of her steps drawing more lustful eyes, even some admirative whistles. A little smile playfully tugged at her lips, She wore casual and military clothes for so long that she had almost forgotten what it was. She sat herself to the bar, ordering a scotch. She didn't have to wait long before a man approached her and offered her another drink. She had to elegantly brush away two other admirers before seing her prey finally enter the lobby. He noticed her right away and confidently walked to her. And so, the evening had gone like this, Melissa and Paolo, flirting with each other until they decided to go upstairs... Paolo followed her in the lift where they were alone and came on her as soon as the doors were shut. She forcefully suppressed a shudder of disgust when he began to greedily kiss her neck and grop her breasts. Thankfully, the elevator soon came to a stop and she shied away from him. "Mmmh, you don't get any of this..." Her voice was velvet. She playfully tugged at his tie, leading him in the hall. "We have all night..." She suddenly backed him against a wall, pressing herself against him and cupping his crotch with her left hand. "... And I intend to take my time..." He sucked in a breath. "You sure know how to talk to a man, baby." He wrapped his arms around her waist and led her to his suite. Then he released her and turned his back to her to open his door. "I'm gonna make you scream like you never have..." Behind him, Melissa's eyes were those of Death itself. -------------------------------------------------------------- The Major Karirin quietly entered the command room and took his usual place behind Thessa. "We just received a report from Brazil. Don Jose's right hand man has been murdered." He handed her the copy of the police report. She winced when she saw the pictures. The scene of crime was a complete butchery. "He was involved in the disaster that was the KTP-0358 mission, wasn't he?" "According to our sources, yes, he was." Karirin confirmed. "A private vendetta?" Karirin tensed slightly. He didn't like what he was about to say. "Apparently so, but not from a concurrent..." Thessa looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?" "Witnesses testify that he was last seen in the company of a woman. The description doesn't match her, but... we know for a fact that Melissa Mao was on a flight for Rio de Janeiro six days ago... And the police collected a great deal of fingerprints at the crime scene. We ran them in our data base, I'm afraid they're hers..." Thessa's brain refused to process the piece of information... AN: I know, it's a bit cliché, especially the 'He sucked in a breath. "You sure know how to talk to a man, baby." He wrapped his arms around her waist and led her to his suite. Then he released her and turned his back to her to open his door. "I'm gonna make you scream like you never have..."' line (I burst out laughing when I wrote it). What can I say? Too many bad spies movies... As for making a former special executive operative of the Chinese secret services of Mao, well, I figured she had to have a troubled past. How does someone end up in a secret military organisation like Mithril anyway? For those who like these kinds of details: - The Taurus PT945 is a double-action pistol that shoots 45 ACP (magazine capacity: 8 rounds). - The Steyr SPP (Special Police Pistol) is a double-action pistol that looks like a submachine-gun, it can be used in full-auto mode. It shoots 9mm NATO (magazine capacity: 15 rounds, but 30 rounds available). - Cold Steel is a knife factory (obviously). - Second Chance is one of the most renown body armor factory, appreciated for the reliability and comfort of their products (and believe me, you want it both! No, I don't work for them). And once again, thanks to all my reviewers!
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