We'll Always Have Paris (1 pic)                   

Art and text courtesy of nyctophobia11 -  https://www.deviantart.com/nyctophobia11

She finally stepped back into the street and looked at the sky. It would be dawn soon. She then noticed a man dressed in a black suit waiting by a black sports car. As she walked over to him, she noticed the black face mask and the shock of white hair that were his defining characteristics. ‘I told you, I don’t need a babysitter,’ she said as she walked up to the car.

 

‘Funny, that’s what I told them when they told us we’d be working together,’ he replied.

 

‘What do you want?’ she said a little annoyed by his presence.

 

‘Nothing. I was ordered to work with you so I thought I’d see first hand how you work.’

 

She glared at him, but could not sense any deception from him.

 

‘I am impressed. Not the way I would have gone about recruiting him.’

 

‘What would you have done? I mean I’m asking only so I know how you work.’ she sneered.

 

‘I don’t know, picked him off the street, probably broken a few bones, dislocated a few joints, threatened to kill everyone he cares about? That drill usually works for me. I can’t do what you can do,’ he said with a shrug.

 

Furious, she replied, ‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?!’

 

‘I mean talking to people. You seem to have a way with words. It’s something I cannot do.’

 

She then recalled and realised that not once since she laid eyes on him and him on her, that he had looked at any part of her other than her face. ‘You’re talking to me,’ she replied.

 

‘That’s business. Our business. That’s a different matter. But you held random ‘small talk’ conversations with no less than three people tonight, manipulating each of them to give you what you wanted.’

 

Her aggression dropped. Her posture changed. ‘Maybe if you were a little more charming or good looking?’

 

‘How do you know I’m not the most handsome son-of-a-bitch in the entire world under this mask?’

 

‘Are you?’

 

‘You’ll never find out.’

 

She smiled. ‘At least you know how to dress.’

 

‘Oh this? My handler picked it out for me. Said full body armour in a street in Paris at night might not paint the right picture.’

 

‘Your handler was right.’

 

‘So, Sameera, I’m hoping we can work together. The bosses seem to think we can. Apparently, you rivalled my top single mission body count in your first mission.’

 

‘Don’t call me Sameera, she said with a sigh, ‘Sameera is dead. She died in the desert years ago.’

 

‘Ah, we’re keeping our cover then. What should I call you then?’

 

‘Alwahsh’

 

‘I’m not calling you Al…whatever. Only English please? One of my few weaknesses is languages.’

 

‘Beast. Call me the beast.’

 

‘Oh. Well, clearly that makes me Beauty then?’

 

She burst out laughing. It wasn’t the quip, it was the seriousness in his tone. ‘I thought you said you couldn’t do small talk. All business apparently?’

 

‘Ah, blame Alice. She told me that when talking to my new partner, if she says something and I find I can correlate it to something else, I should try to mention that in relation to your statement. It qualifies as humour apparently, and based on your reaction, I’d say Alice was right.’

 

Sameera glared at him. ‘Who the fuck is Alice?’

 

‘My handler. Oh, right, you’ve never met her. I should introduce you two some day. You might like each other. Or not, I cannot tell.

 

Sameera smiled. “I guess she was right in her advice to you,’ she said as she leaned against the car. His body language had not changed during their entire exchange. ‘So, shall we head out or you want to spend the rest of the night chatting here?’

 

‘No, that would not be advisable. I can’t be seen in public with a mask like this. It is better we leave.’

 

As the pair drove off, Sameera continued, ‘So, you’re serious, just Jack?’

 

‘Yup, just Jack,’ he replied as he pulled into the early morning traffic.

 

‘Tell me Jack, are we the bad guys?’

 

‘I’m not sure what you mean.’

 

‘You talk only business, right? So, you’ve worked with the Collective for a while. Are we the bad guys?’

 

‘I’m a soldier, B. I’m not paid to have opinions, only follow orders. Sure, we’ve put enough people in the grave that civilians would call us mass murderers and maybe qualify us as evil by their standards, but that is how wars are won, how change is brought about, how peace is upheld. I mean you can’t be a soldier and not expect to take a few lives. That is what you are talking about right? I mean I heard you were a civilian before this.’

 

‘Not us, Jack, I mean the Collective.’

 

‘Ah. Well, isn’t that for philosophers and historians to decide?’ 

 

‘You are not very helpful.’

 

‘Ask me about the recipe for C4 and improvised explosives. That's more my speed.’

 

Sameera paused, then spoke, ‘So, if I tell you I want to investigate the Collective, would you have a problem with that? Would that be a problem for us?’

 

‘B, the Collective has my loyalty because they pay for it. But now that you are my partner, my loyalty to you is greater.’

 

‘We’ve literally just met a couple of times now.’

 

‘You’ve never been in the army, so you don’t know the code. Seriously, I got your back. And besides, while I might not care about who pays my bills, you should be free to scrutinise our employer. Due diligence and all that,' he replied, then with a pause, added, 'Also, just so we’re clear, you know he’s going to turn on you when he gets the chance, right?’

 

‘Yeah, I do. Not sure what I can do to prevent that from happening,’ she replied with a shrug.

 

‘Well, in that case, can I introduce you to the list? I’ll add him to mine for you, if you’ll maintain one for me?’

 

‘Of people to keep an eye out for?’

 

‘No, of course not. In our line of work, we don’t have time to keep an eye on everyone who gets pissed off with us or decides to hold a grudge. No, this is a list of people we eliminate in case the other dies under mysterious circumstances.’

 

‘Revenge from the grave? Didn’t take you for someone to hold a grudge.’

 

‘I’m not. And quite frankly, I don’t care. But these are usually scum we’re forced to work with to reach our objectives, and I feel if we’re not around to work with them, their value to the world diminishes significantly.

 

Sameera paused. She thought of the person Grant Hunter was, Ebony Talon was, and yet, to get ‘bigger fish’, she’d had to work with them. The world would be better off without them. She glanced to the side, out the window of the car. A new day was dawning. ‘I guess I will take you up on that offer.’