How I met Death

There's nothing more beautiful than watching the sunset on a Sunday evening. I stood at my balcony and watched, I didn't bother looking down on the guards walking below me. One greeted me but I didn't reply, I had gotten tired of this life.

Even though I was constantly surrounded by guards, I felt this loneliness overwhelming me. My wife had left along with my kid, so it was just me and all the guards.

I called to my house help, but there was no reply. Noting this was the first time I had called to her and there wasn't a reply was surprising, but I blindly assume she didn't hear me.

"Eliza!" I called out again.

Still no reply, I had become furious at this point, what on earth would she be busy with to be able to ignore me.

I went back into the house and started heading for the kitchen. Less than 30 seconds I stood at the kitchen's entrance, I stopped because I noticed the fingerprint made of blood on the white kitchen wall.

"Dimitri!" I cried out. Dimitri was my top C.S.O, he was the one I could always count on. My scream was followed by silence,

"Dimitri!" I yelled again, this time there was a response but it wasn't Dimitri's.

"Mr Wesley, nice place you've got." A stranger said.

I turned around and in front of me stood an average looking man, nothing about him was unique, he even wore light clothes as if my house was some sort of vacation home next to a beach.

"Have you come to kill me?" I asked. I wasn't afraid of death, just never saw it coming like this.

The man grinned,

"You seem pretty relax for a man in your position" He said.

"I'd rather die with dignity than die begging" I said.

He laughed for a bit,

"Well unfortunately I didn't come to kill you." He said.

"Oh yeah? I'm pretty sure you just killed all my guards to get in here" I said.

"Some are still breathing I assure you. Personally I prefer sneaking in." he said, throwing back on that grin.

"It takes a lot of work to pull off what you just did, I honestly doubt you'd go through all of that just to chat" I said. At this point I had begun moving slowly into the kitchen, I was good at throwing knifes, if I could get to one in the kitchen I could end him while he spoke and if that failed there was the emergency button underneath the counter.

"I'm more of a message man and I believe what I've done is enough to pass the message" he said.

"A message makes no sense if you don't know where it's from" I said.

"You already know where it's from, we tried talking with you. It seems that didn't go as we anticipated" He said.

"Oh, so you're one of that b**ch's minions" I said. I was now closer to the kitchen counter, I didn't even know how close I was till my back hit the edge.

"Careful now, Mr Wesley. We wouldn't want to hurt ourself." He said.

"I think its time you leave." I said. I was confident I could take him, he held no weapon in his arm and if he did had a weapon it was well concealed. Also I had the advantage in physique, there was no way a skinny guy like him could take me on.

"I know you are trying to reach for the set of knives behind you." He said.

On hearing those words I immediately began to feel around for the button under the counter, before he could notice what I was doing, I had found and pressed the button.

He must have realised what I had done because immediately, he dashed towards me. I reacted with a push kick with my right leg, he stumbled back and fell. I quickly turned,pulled out one of the knives and turned back to face him. He was already back on his feet and had pulled out a blade from God knows where.

"It seems I have to kill you afterall" He said with a smile.

He rushed at me again, swinging his blade as he got close, I leaned back dodging his attack. I tried stabbing him with my knife but he took one big step back.

This guy was fast and I knew he was eventually going to get me, so I had to outsmart him first.

I threw the knife at him which got him to duck, by the time he could look up, I had tackled him to the ground. I held his right arm (which had the blade) down with both arms, at the same time using my body to prevent his left arm from interfering and then I begun hitting him in the face with my right elbow.

Five blows in and I could tell he couldn't hold on for long, he dropped his blade in a desperate attempt to break free from me and I immediately grabbed the blade, digging it into his chest multiple times till I was sure he was dead.

I laid beside his corpse as I tried catching my breath, if he had expected that I would throw my knife I would never had gotten close to him, talk less of tackling him.

After a few minutes on the floor I went outside to see where all the guards were, I had about 12 guards in the premises but I only found 3 bodies. I ran back in to my room to search for a card, I had to ransack my closet before I could find it; it was in one of my suits.

"If this b**ch wants to f**k with me then I'm gonna show her how I play" I muttered to myself, as I dialled the number on the card.

The phone rang a few times before someone finally answered it.

"Who is this?" The voice in the other end asked.

"Is this Mr. Tobias?" I asked.

"Yes, and who I'm I speaking with?" The voice asked.

"Its me, Michael...... Micheal Wesley" I said.

"Good day sir. How's the...?."

"Save the pleasantries......" I jumped in,

"I have a problem that requires your expertise"

The call became quiet, then without even a warning he came back on.

"What seems to be the problem Sir?" He asked.

"I have a house cat who is running around playing lion, you think you can make it behave?"

"What's the scale we're looking at?" He asked.

"Bring everything you can, there are no none parameters." I replied.

"And the pay?"

"100 Bitcoin. You get half when I see you, the other half after completion." I said.

"Very well, I'll make preparations to come to your place" he said.

"No, my house has already been desecrated. I'll forward you my location, when you're already on the move." I said.

"Very well then" he said, then hung up.

I grabbed as much as I could and went out through the back door, I wasn't sure if there were more hitmen lying around so I took a cab but I kept a revolver close by at all times.

I booked a cheap hotel, a few blocks from my house. I wanted to be close by to hear gossips yet a bit far not to be spotted. I didn't use card, just cash, and if I ran out, I would get out of town just to use an ATM, circle round for a few hours using different transport before returning back to the hotel.

It took almost 5 days before I heard from Tobias again, he had been busy on some job overseas. I sent him my exact locations after receiving his call, he arrived 5 hours later.

"Come in" I said as I pushed open the hotel door for him.

"How far you've fallen Mr. Wesley" he said on seeing the state of the room; I didn't allow the cleaners in and I never took out the trash.

"Well you're about to help me rise back up" I said. I was feeling confident, seeing as Tobias was here now in person.

"Where's your team?" I asked. Even though Tobias was big enough that he looked like he could take out 3 people simultaneously, he always worked with a set of people.

"I have them watching the premises incase someone tries to sneak up on us" he said.

"Good man" I exclaimed.

"Please have a seat." I said, pointing to a wooden chair in the room.

"I think I'll just stand. So what's the job?" He asked.

"A certain woman has been making some moves down in China, she's taken over things there. In fact she literally owns the country and now she's taken an interest in us....."

"And by us you mean?" He asked.

"My associates and I" I reply.

"So how come you're hiding alone?" He asked

"I didn't accept her terms and conditions, she's sent her thugs to give me a last chance to change my mind" I said. He paced the room for a bit, and asked

"I'm sorry but I thought you only did counterfeiting?"

"Yeah, what about it?" I asked.

"The lady, do you know her name?" He asked.

"No, I f**king don't. They all call her the iron b**ch or something like that" I said angrily.

"I'm sorry if I offended you but you're not the first one who has called me concerning a woman out in China. The last call I got was from a Drug Lord out in Mexico." He said, he finally decided to sit on the chair.

"Mexico? Why Mexico?" I asked.

"I have no idea, the rumours is that she's expanding her territory. You just proved does rumours are true. She's going after everyone she can." He said.

"So what do you want me to do?" He asked.

"She has called for a meeting, and I have also been invited as a chance to change my mind. But I want her dead before that meeting ends" I said.

"Understood" He replied.

"One problem though." He said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"No one knows what she looks like, how are we suppose to find her?" He asked.

"I'll be attending the party, once I have confirmed it is her, I'll signal you" I said.

"Very well then, it seems we have preparations to make" he said, leaning back on the chair.

The next few days we spent our time planning out our attack, I left the hotel I was in to something nicer. Since Tobias was around I wasn't scared, I was confident I was safe.

We had gotten a blue print of the hotel the meeting was going to be held, it was called the golden tavern. The plan was we walked in, while a sniper covered us from the building across the hotel. I wasn't so sure about a sniper but Tobias had faith in his sniper.

It was now D-day, we had arrived at China, 2 days earlier. Tobias wanted to make sure the blueprint he had gotten was legit, turns out it was. Our plan was a go, we drove into the hotel sometime around 8pm, I noticed there were a lot of cars parked when I arrived; I knew instantly that they were other invitees.

There was no security at the door, just a chaperone who led us to the bar; they didn't even bother to check for weapons and this concerned Tobias a bit.

On arriving at the bar I found two familiar faces, one was Xavier Ings; he was an arms dealer who sold his weapons to the highest bidder, the last I heard about him was that he was on China's watchlist, I wasn't sure why he would risk prison to be here. The second was a man name Malcolm Johansson; he was complicated, rumour has it that he had his hands on everything from drugs, guns to human trafficking.

"Mr Wesley" Malcolm said, he was the first to notice me.

"So the b**ch got you too uh?" He said.

I simply nodded, they both had at least 10 armed men with them. There was no way she'd let them keep their guns if she was going to show up, I kept thinking.

"Do you have any idea, what this woman wants from us?" Xavier asked, he had slowly walked up to me and we had exchanged pleasantries, Tobias had gone up to the counter to get a drink but he still had his eyes on me, the rest of his team stood around me like they were my personal bodyguards

"No, I do not" I said, with my eyes roaming the room; the bar had two entrances, one which we had just come in from and another that is probably for staffs only, the wall facing the counter was made entirely of glass, so you could see the pool out back; and also the next building, which the sniper was suppose to be positioned. They were sofa's and tables arranged round the room and then there was the counter close to the second door, one man stood behind the counter and behind him, all assortments of drinks.

It didn't take long more and more people kept pouring into the bar, it would have felt like we all came for a party if not for all the guns.

I looked over at Tobias, he was still at the counter, slowly sipping his drink. The room had become rowdy, everyone seemed to know or have heard of someone. But I knew all of them, their money always found its way to me, one way or another.

After a while the second door swung open, the first face I saw was one I never expected to see; it was Dimitri, and after him followed a few other guards I recognised were mine. At least now I know how the hitman got into my house.

Behind them followed a woman; she was dark in complexion, wore a red, sleeveless gown with red heels. She easily had heads rolling as she walked into our midst.

"Good evening, gentlemen" She said, her accent wasn't American nor anything remotely close to African, it felt more British.

"I am sorry for keeping you all waiting, I am your host...."

"Are you her?" A voice asked, cutting the woman off before she could finish speaking.

"I'm sorry, who are you talking about?" She asked.

"The iron whore or whatever the hell she calls herself, are you her?" The voice reiterated. I tried finding who said those words, my eyes landed on a man know only as Nick; his white hair earned him the nickname of Santa, he was an arms dealer.

"It is very disrespectful of you to address me in that manner, good Sir." She said, putting on a cold smile. I tried locating Tobias, I saw him leaving the counter but he now seemed lost in the crowd.

"I doubt you are her" Malcolm said, he had made his way to the front and was now addressing her face to face unlike Nick who stood in the crowd.

"And what makes you say that?" She asked.

"Because if you were her, you would know that everyone gathered here has no issue sending you to go see your maker. Yet you approach us with just a handful of guards" He said.

"A handful? Last I check you're in my house" she said

"Indeed, and I'm guessing everyone here works for you since no one batted an eye when we walked in with all those guns, but I could just shoot you right here and now. Tell me, is there anything stopping me from doing that?" He asked.

She laughed for a bit and then signalled to one of the guards, two walked over to the glass and that was when I realised that they were curtains that could be used to cover the glass, as the guards cover it.

The second door opened again and a man who was bound hand and legs was carried into the room, the bartender left almost immediately. The bounded man had a sack over his face and wore only a singlet and blue boxer.

One of the guards took the sack off his face and even though his face was beat up, I immediately recognised him; they called him Don Park, he was a drug dealer, but I also heard he was into human trafficking.

"I believe some of you may know this man. Just like all of you, I also sent him an invitation and the next thing I knew he set off to plan my execution" She said.

She walked up to where the guards had Don Park kneeling and stood behind him.

"I was told that among men such as yourselves, I had to show that I wasn't f**king around, well this is me not f**king around" She said. I watch her raise her right arm and quickly drive her fingers into Don Park's neck. I was sure she had no knife or concealed weapon, so I wasn't sure as to how her fingers were sharp or powerful enough to puncture a man's neck like that but I saw it happen.

Don Park felt on his side struggling to gasp for hair as he choke on his own blood. The room went quiet, nobody spoke, not even a whisper, Malcolm had disappeared back into the crowd. That was when I felt someone grabbed me by my shoulder, I turned around quickly, it was Tobias

"I'm guessing that's our target" He said, I simply nodded. Tobias pulled out his phone and was dialling the sniper he had positioned.

"Is that suppose to scare us?" Nick asked.

"The men and women we've killed and buried collectively could populate a small village" He said.

"I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?" She asked.

"It doesn't matter, because you'll be dead before the end of this night" he said, he took another step forward and his goons followed, some immediately taking off the safety in their guns. The women's guard also followed suit, it was about to be a blood bath.

In that minute, Dimitri spotted me in the crowd. He stared at me, he had this look on his face, couldn't tell if it was either guilt or he was surprise I was still alive.

"Leave us" I heard her say, I looked over at her, she had just told her guards to leave. She was either crazy and wanted to die or was pretty confident in her safety.

The guards took Don Park's body and left through the same door they came in with.

"Now if you feel you can take me on please step forward" she said.

Nick didn't wait for her to finish that statement, he had grabbed one of his goon's' guns and had begun firing in her direction. She stood still, as Nick continued firing. In about 3 to 5 seconds he was out of bullets but she stood there like he wasn't aiming at her to begin with. They were a few bullet holes on the wall behind her but I think, infact I was sure a lot of the shots fired hit her.

"Would you like to borrow my gun?" She asked, she had on that cold smile. Nick couldn't believe what he had just seen, he hurriedly tried to grab another gun but as he looked away, the woman began dashing towards him, by the time he turned to face her, she had done to him what she did to Don Park.

Nick fell on the floor, instantaneously dropping the gun as he tried stopping the blood gushing out his neck.

"Well? Who else?" Everyone took a step back and stared in disbelief, I turned to Tobias, he should have gotten his sniper to take the shot by now.

"Tobias, what the f**k." I whispered.

Tobias nodded negatively, I didn't understand what he meant but he didn't try speaking to me.

"Ah yes, is there a William Tobias in here?" She asked. My heart sunk instantly, me and Tobias' eyes locked for a second, then he looked over to her.

"Over here" he said.

"Your sniper died quickly, I just thought you should know that"

"F**k" I muttered, I knew Tobias wasn't going to let this slide because the sniper was his brother; Tobias never allowed him get into the battle but only allowed him fight from a safe distance.

Tobias dashed at her, he didn't try shooting, I believed he also was thinking the bullet thing was a trick. He pulled out a dagger he hid under his suit and swung across her neck. The knife hit her and I saw sparks almost as if 2 metals had hit each other, Tobias took a step back. He threw a hook with his left arm and I heard his bone snap, he drew back, he wasn't winning this fight not even by a long shot but he was one who didn't back out of a fight.

After the left arm, he tried giving her a round house kick with his right leg, it felt like he hit a concrete wall, he let out a scream as he hopped back on his left leg and slipped on the blood already on the floor. The rest of his crew who stood beside me watched in horror as he lost a limb with each attack.

She walked towards him and he tried stabbing her but she simply grabbed his arm and broke his wrist. She wasn't human, I was now sure of it. I heard Tobias screamed in agony and she quickly ended his scream with one knee right in the face, she let go his arm and Tobias fell back, blood began gushing out his nose.

"Alright then, I believe we've gotten over the thought of murder" she said.

There was no open window in the bar, the only breeze that came in was from the AC but it felt more cold almost like a storm was approaching.

"Now I believe you are all curious as to why I called you all here" she said, then walked back and knocked on the second door. After knocking, guards came out and proceeded to taking out the bodies on the floor, among the guards was Dmitri. Our eyes locked paths again, this time it felt like he was trying to say he was sorry but I didn't believe it was necessary. If I had gotten a chance to join the winning team, of course I would take it, who would be stupid to choose death.

"You are all business men, one way or the other but your greatest commodity is information and I'd like to purchase all of it." She said.

"You speak in riddles," Xavier said, everyone turned and looked at him. No one had dared spoken since Tobias was viciously destroyed.

"Oh I'm sorry about that Mr Ings. Allow me explain. Information is the one thing that keeps the underworld flowing, from knowing who wants what to delivering to knowing that you've gotten your pay. All this requires information and what I want is to be the centre of that information. I want a situation where the wind doesn't blow if I did not permit it to." She said.

"So you want control of our operations?" Xavier asked.

"No, I don't need your money, your operations are yours but I need to be able to have access to everything you have access to and yes that also means your money." She said.

"You want to own us" Malcolm said.

"Yes, I very much do. Do you have a problem with that?" She said.

"I do, better kill me now and get it over with" Xavier said, everyone turned and stared in shock.

She smiled and signalled her guards, they proceeded to grabbing Xavier and dragging him pass the door, Xavier's guards were unsure of what to do. They simply watched him being dragged away

"Any other objections?" She asked.

There was no reply

"Good, now if you all would excuse me I'd like to go say hello to another guest, please make yourselves feel at home. The bartender will offer you anything you want, its on the house." She said, the bartender immediately reappear from behind the door and she left just as quickly as he had appeared.

It didn't take less than 30 seconds, they were already whispers going round, I joined up with Malcolm, he was whispering with two other men I couldn't recall their names.

"Is she human?" One asked.

"She might be an alien" Another said.

"Come on, you all heard the accent. That's one hundred percent British." Malcolm said.

"So what? Aliens can't learn our language and accents? Didn't superman speak English like an American?" The first asked.

"I'm sorry, did you just reference a comic book?" Malcolm asked.

"You saw her as well as I did, she is basically bullet proof, and she broke a man's bones like he was made of toothpick." The second said.

"Doesn't mean she's a f**king alien" Malcolm said.

"Then what else can she be?" I asked.

"........I'm thinking she's an activated" Malcolm said.

"A what?" The first asked.

"A few years back, a few countries started buying Uranium, in large quantities from the black market. So I was forced to do a little digging and I found this place where people with a dormant gene in their system were trying to force out that gene."

"Genes? And you wanted to call me out for referencing superman?" The second said.

"Yes, because unlike your bulls**t about superman, this place actually existed, I have seen it with my own eyes" Malcolm said.

"So what? They just started making super humans?" I asked.

"Not really, the process of activating the gene was dangerous, the test subjects rarely survived and those who did never really got any powers. Hell, the only improvement I saw was on a woman, her name was Daisy." He said.

"Another woman?" I asked.

"Yeah, but she wasn't super human per say, she simply became more smarter. She was just another slut when they brought her in, but after the experiment she acted as if she had a doctor's degree from Havard, her IQ score was off the chart. Then 3 days later she was found dead after trying to escape the facility."

"How did she die?" The second asked.

"She was exposed to gamma rays for a while, it killed her." Malcolm said.

"So how come this one's alive then?" The first asked.

"Maybe they perfected it, or maybe they found a way to lengthen the lifespan." Malcolm said.

Just then she walked back in, blood was gushing out of her head and she had changed her clothes to something more local; she was wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans.

"She's bleeding" I whispered.

"I told you she wasn't superman" Malcolm whispered back.

She approached the counter and the bartender poured her a shot of tequila. She took a sip,

"It seems your friend Mr Ings has one hell of a driver" she said.

"If he did that to you then he was worth more than all this guards put together" Malcolm said from afar.

She empty her cup and asked for another.

"Was? You seem to assume that I got him" she said as she took a sip from the second cup.

"You know what, I think I just found my first order of business....." She said.

"Listen up, if you're currently holding a gun, I need you out there. You're looking for a man named Alexander, he's travelling with an Asian kid, Mr Ings' kid. Kill the driver, bring back the child unharmed." She said, she turned around and stared at us.

"I believe some of you here worked for Mr Ings, so you know who exactly I am looking for...."

"You will never find him" a voice said.

"Who said that?" She asked, I watched as a young man walked up to her, his legs shook with every step he took.

"Now what did you say?" She asked when he was now standing in front of her.

"I know Xander, if you couldn't get to him the first time you're never going to find him. He basically reinvented the definition of disappearing from the surface of the e...eh......." He didn't get to complete does words before she slit open his throat, her fingers were like sharpened iron.

"Great now, you've gotten blood all over me" she said and then pushed him to the floor to continue dying slowly.

"Well what are the rest of you waiting for?"She asked.

Everyone of the guards began scrambling for the exit.

"Wait!" She yelled.

"If any of you try running or try anything funny, I will find you." She said.

They all paused wondering if to move or stay.

"Well, don't just stand there" She said and they all hurriedly left.

Now, it was just us, I quickly did a head count we were at least 10 in the room currently.

No one spoke or even moved, the young man was still struggling on the floor, he had reached his limit and was no longer trying to fight it.

Then I decided to break the silence

"Partnerships built on fear tend not to last long......" I said.

".......You've showed us what you're capable of and why we shouldn't try crossing you. But why should we make any deal with you? What's to stop our fate from becoming that of our dead friends after you've gotten what you want?" I asked.

She looked at me and smiled.

"You're right, there's no guarantee that I won't kill you after I get what I want. But you don't know what I want." She said.

"You're new to this but from what I've seen, dying now and dying later are pretty much the same, especially when it ain't natural" I said.

"So you prefer to die now?" She said slowly getting up.

"I've looked around, you're not getting any better representative from my locale, you need me. If you kill me now, you don't get what you want, just another dead body to take home." I Said, I was taking a gamble but I was sure of it.

"What did you say your name was?" She asked.

"I didn't, but you can call me Michael" I said.

"Ah Mr Wesley, I knew I recognised you" She said.

"Very well then, what assurance do you seek? Definitely I cannot give you my word, that won't hold much water, so what then?" She asked.

"I need to know what you are looking for" I said.

She smiled and signalled for another drink,

"Come join me. You look like a man I could work with" She said and proceeded to offer me a drink.

I took the drink and sat beside her as everyone watched expecting her to kill me any minute, I slowly took a sip of the tequila, th re was no turning back now.