I could feel the heavy briefcase in my hand. It looked just like an ordinary briefcase, and in fact, it was. Its content, though, that’s what was unordinary about it.

“Good morning, Mr. Quinn.”, the secretary greeted me.

I just nodded at her with a polite and actually quite charming smile. It’s not like I’m bragging about my looks, I’m not, the smile was meant to be charming. It was a distraction, so she wouldn’t notice that despite the warm weather, I was wearing gloves… I was also hoping she wouldn’t notice the slight outlines of the gun under my jacket, barely visible, but if a person knew it was there, they wouldn’t miss it.

Everyone was busy working, drinking coffee or just being too sleepy to do either of those things. It was seven a.m., we all were tired, bored and wanting to go back home, but everybody needs money. Therefore, they need a job, interesting, or in this case, not really. Some of my colleagues looked up at me, others didn’t, concentrated on whatever they were doing. No one kept their glance fixed on me for more than a few seconds, except a few women, but they looked away quickly, too, realizing I’ve noticed them.

I crossed the room and found myself in a long corridor. People were passing by, carrying folders of documents, bags or just more coffees. Everybody wants a coffee early in the morning.

Suddenly a man with two cups in his hands rushed past me, but couldn’t judge the distance properly, so he tripped in my shoe and spilled the coffee all over his shirt.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”, I started apologizing, though it clearly wasn’t my fault. “I didn’t see you, I’m so absent-minded this morning.” I looked at him, hesitant smile on my face. “I’m really sorry, let me help you…”

“No, it’s fine, it’s fine, it wasn’t your fault.”, he said quickly and looked down at his ruined shirt. “Damn. Do you happen to have a handkerchief or something?”

“Hm, yeah, sure…”

I slipped my hand in my inside pocket, carefully ran it past my gun, looking for a tissue. I threw a glance at the man’s wristwatch. I had to hurry if I didn’t want to miss the right moment…

“Here it is.”, I smiled again and handed him the closest thing to a handkerchief I could find – a serviette left from the breakfast I had this morning before going out.

He nodded thankfully and started trying to clean up his shirt. No result.

“Thanks.”, he murmured, stubbornly trying to get rid of the stains. Finally, he gave up and looked up at me, smiling awkwardly. “I hope I didn’t cause you too much trouble. If I did, I will make it up for you…”

“Caused me trouble? No, not at all.”, I shook head and grinned a little. “After all, you’re the one with the ruined suit, not me. I’m fine.”

“Good point.”, the guy chuckled. “Well, in case you change your mind…”

He pulled a visit card out of his pocket and handed it to me. I looked at it – now it was all covered with coffee and the name was barely readable. As far as I could tell, it was something like Victor F-coffee stain-nt-another coffee stain-s, but the last “s” could be a “g” as well. I knitted eyebrows.

“Victor…?”

“Vic.”, he nodded.

“Okay… Vic.”

Another glance at the watch. If I didn’t leave right now, I would waste my best opportunity to do what I had to do…

“Look, I have to go…”, I started and frowned a bit, “…but I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, sure, see you…”, he turned to leave, but stopped and looked at me again. “By the way, what’s your name? I’m sorry, I forgot to ask.”

I hesitated. Would telling him my real name be a good idea, considering what I was just going to do…?

No, definitely not.

“King.”, I finally said. “Harold King.”

“Alright, Harry.” Victor smiled. “See ya.”

He waved and quickly headed somewhere, probably to the bathrooms to clean up the mess he made. I sighed and concentrated back on what I had come for.

In about eleven minutes, one of the men, who had ruined my life, would die.

I finally got to the end of the corridor, right in front of a massive door with a small window on it; there was a sign, written with gold paint: “Jeffrey Terrence, director”. Hello, Jeff…

I came in without knocking, like I had the full right to be there. A not-very-young, not-very-thin man was sitting behind a desk, reading a magazine. When I came in, he quickly hid it under some documents and files, but not quickly enough, so I could see the cover – it was porn. Huh. Not a big surprise. A slightly confused look appeared on his face, like he was trying to remember what my name is.

“…Ah, Kellin. What is it? What was so urgent that you rushed in like this? You could knock, you know.” His smile was seemingly friendly, but his voice was sharp and reproaching.

“I have an important matter to discuss with you, sir.”

I walked to his desk and put the briefcase on it. My boss, still confused, looked at it, not understanding what’s going on.

“What is that?”

“The money. Your money. I don’t want it anymore.”

Another confused blink, and I had started to think that Mr. Terrence isn’t as smart as he claimed to be. Suddenly he seemed to understand what I was talking about and raised eyebrows.

“…Ooh! The money! But why are you giving it b-“

Click. He couldn’t finish. It’s quite hard to concentrate when you have a gun pointed to your head.

“You don’t buy silence with money, Mr. Terrence.”, I murmured softly, absolutely calm. “You buy it with bullets.”

Pft! And that was it. Just a quiet “Pft!” thanks to the silencer. If you think that cleaning coffee stains is difficult, then try getting rid of all this blood and skull fragments… The view was pretty unpleasant and I could hardly stop myself from throwing up. I stared at the body for a few more seconds, unable to react, unable to move. Then I took a deep breath and turned around, trying to win the war against my stomach and keep my breakfast in there.

I looked up just in time to see a face on the window, a familiar face… Someone was standing in the corridor while everything happened, right in front of the door, someone curious enough to look inside and see what I just did.

Oh, Victor, why didn’t you just go clean your fucking shirt…?

And I could hear my own words echoing in my head: “You don’t buy silence with money… You buy it with bullets…”

As I slowly went through the realization that I had just gotten in some really deep shit, I did the only reasonable thing I could think of back then – I ran.

* * *

Somewhere in the middle of the corridor I could finally take control over my legs and slow down. No, running wasn’t an option. I had to find that guy Vic and… and what? Kill him? Pay him to keep his mouth shut? I couldn’t do that, certainly not, this way I would just turn into someone pretty much reminding my boss. I had to think of something else, fast…

And here he was! Walking fast a few feet ahead of me, looking around all the time. Even from here I could see the panic in his eyes, this desperate look, saying ‘What should I do now, how should I react, who should I call…?’ I knew this look too well – I had seen it before, a few times, mostly on my own face.

The distance between us was getting smaller, and in a minute, I grabbed his shoulder, stopping him. He turned to me, trying to keep calm, but the fear on his face was obvious.

“I-I-I just saw you dropped your wallet, and w-wanted to give it back, I didn’t mean to spy, and I didn’t see anything, I swear, just… H-have it back, here, t-take it…”, he put his shaking hand in his pocket. “P-please, don’t hurt me, I won’t tell anyone anything, I-“

“Shh! Calm down, man!”, I hissed. “Take your hand out of the pocket, now… Yeah, that’s better. Is your phone in there? Were you calling the police?”

Victor’s eyes widened in horror.

“N-no, I wasn’t, I really wasn’t! M-m-my phone isn’t even there, I promise I was just-“

“Speak more quietly, you’re attracting attention.”, I murmured, watching the people walking past us. “People are watching you, and therefore they’re watching me, too.”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I-”

In this moment I heard a scream behind me. Oh great. Someone had found the dead body. I felt the panic starting to form somewhere deep inside my chest. I had to get out of there, now, quickly.

“What…” Vic’s eyes widened more, if that was even possible.

“Let’s go. Let’s go, now.”

I started dragging him towards the elevators. I didn’t want to, but I had no choice, otherwise the police would interrogate him, and I didn’t know what he might say. Maybe there was a better option, but I didn’t have time to think, I just wanted to be anywhere else than there.

“No, I don’t wanna come with you, let me go…”

“Shut up, shut up, goddammit!” I pushed him in the elevator and came in after him. Behind us, a complete chaos was forming, some people were screaming, the alarms were screaming even louder, more coffees were being spilled… The doors closed and we finally found ourselves alone and safe. After I made sure we’re going down, I turned to him. He was watching me, and although he was trying to look tough, his whole body was shaking.

“You’re not going to kill me, are you? Please, don’t, you don’t need to…”

“I won’t.”, I sighed, then added sharply: “But I will if you don’t stop rambling, I need to think. Okay? Okay. Thank you.”

The alarms kept screaming. I was just hoping we’d get to the exit before they block it. Maybe if we managed to get to the car fast enough, they wouldn’t notice we’re missing…

The trip down seemed endless. It was a big, ten-story building, and going down from the tenth to the first floor would take a few minutes. Suddenly, the elevator stopped. I looked at the small screen – we were at the fourth floor. Why were we stopping…? The doors opened and the small crowd that rushed in almost smashed us.

Oh, yeah. I should’ve predicted that – everyone wanted to get out of the building as fast as possible. It was all because of the stupid alarms, people didn’t know what’s going on, and afraid there might be a fire, they were frantically trying to leave the building. Pressed against the wall by all those sweating bodies, dressed in suits and short skirts, I reached and grabbed Victor’s hand, to make sure he wouldn’t try to mix with the others and get away. My eyes met his and I could see how panicked and terrified he really was. And, truth is, I wasn’t much less scared than him.

Finally the elevator stopped once more, this time on the right floor. The moment the doors opened, all the people rushed out, hurrying to the exit. I followed them, still gripping Vic’s hand and trying to look as confused as everyone else so I would become just a part of the crowd. This seemed to work, because no one really noticed us. Good.

We found ourselves outside seconds before the guards arrived and locked the door, not letting anyone else go in or out. Once I realized we got away successfully, I could finally take a normal breath. I threw a glance at my ‘hostage’. He wasn’t struggling anymore, he just let me lead him to my car without saying anything, eyes fixed on his shoes. He had given up, perhaps, or he was just pretending… I decided to stay cautious, in case it’s a trick and he decides to attack me, though this didn’t seem very possible.

I gently pushed him to the passenger’s seat and closed the door after him, then I got in the car myself, quickly locking the doors once we were both inside. Victor was staring at the ground silently, afraid to look at me. I stayed quiet too, started the car and drove off. I was still scared and feeling sick, I could almost see the blood and the small pieces of brain scattered around Jeffrey Terrence’s office. The thought of this made me want to throw up once more, but I took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on something else.

I felt the gaze of Vic on me, as he finally spoke up, quietly, barely audible.

“…Are you okay…?”

“What?”, I glanced at him. “Yeah, I’m fine, of course I’m okay, why did you think I’m not?”

“B-because you don’t look okay, man…”

I looked at him again. He was watching me, obviously still scared of me, but now curious and… what? Slightly worried? What was that for? I kept my eyes on him for a few more moments, then stared back the road.

“I’m fine.”, I repeated.

“Okay…”, he hesitated. “…Where are you taking me?”

I sighed.

“I wish I knew… but I have no idea. Somewhere, where I can take some time to think.”

“Oh…”, he nodded and went silent again.

I threw one last glance at him and then concentrated on driving, and behind us, the police sirens kept singing their song, until we were too far to hear them.

No one was following us. I was safe. For now.

END OF CHAPTER 1.