For some reason, it occurred to Gabriel at that moment how the apartment was free of the odor of stale cigarette smoke.  It was a surprise because both he and Slide smoked, especially during stressful times, like this.  He realized though, that because of Ryan being a non-smoker, they had both, without request, unconsciously decided to refrain from smoking while in the apartment.

Gabriel and Slide walked into the bedroom and began assembling their small arsenal on the bed.  During the day, whatever equipment wasn’t being used was stored in a recess behind a false back in the closet that Slide had created using an old piece of plywood that he had found in the alley by the dumpster.  Luckily the plywood didn’t smell like the dumpster, or else the idea would have been vetoed immediately.

Looking at the weapons strewn across the bed, Gabriel was still amazed at how easy it had been to get their weapons through airport security.  The cases that Jake had given them in Detroit had worked better than Gabriel had imagined they would.  He had been so hesitant about it prior to their departure that he had almost left his gear behind, saying to Slide that he would surely be able to find another vendor in New York.  Slide had ultimately convinced him in the end, to Gabriel’s relief and surprise.

One pistol in his hip holster, one on his ankle, and his sniper rifle, disassembled and in the briefcase-like case at his side, Gabriel felt like he was ready to take on anything that came his way.  Even if the mysterious Asian assassin would return, he felt that he would be prepared for it.

Slide, carrying his twin Berettas, one in the holster at the small of his back, one in a shoulder holster, and finally the sub-machine gun in its case, looked almost too relaxed to Gabriel.

“You alright, buddy?” he asked.

Slide paused, looking down while adjusting the strap on the shoulder holster.  When he looked up, he still had a look in his eyes that Gabriel was unable to place.  “Yeah.  Sure am.  Why you ask?”

“Dunno,” replied Gabriel, “you seem like you’ve got something on your mind.”

Slide shrugged.

“What is it, man?  You worried?”

“Well.  Yeah, I guess.  I mean, do you think this is all gonna work?”

“What?  You mean, where we go and hunt down and kill five separate people scattered across New York City, some of whom we don’t even know for sure how we’re going to go about doing it, all without any of them getting alerted to our presence?  Not to mention the fact that we haven’t had nearly enough time to plan this whole thing and we’re just kinda doing it all by the seat of our pants.  Oh, and we have to make sure that after we do that, Ryan can crack the code on that program, or else we’re still screwed.  Oh yeah, and now we’ve got that other guy who knows I’m here who might show up again at any moment with another trick up his sneaky little sleeve.  No, I don’t think I understand where you’re coming from.  What’s there to worry about?”

Slide smiled.  “Yeah, I guess I was way out of line.”

“Damn right you were,” said Gabriel, also smiling.

He understood it now.  The look on Slide’s face.  It was the look of resignation.  He was determined to finish the task at hand, but he had already accepted the fact that they would probably not succeed.  Gabriel had to admit that the odds were definitely stacked against them.  But, he was still confident.  He trusted both Slide and Ryan completely.  They would each do what needed to be done.

“So, you wanna save the best for last, or you want to cut off the head first and then go for the rest?” asked Slide.

“Well, as tempting as it is to save the best for last, I think it would be best if we get the Boss out of the way first.”

“I agree.  If we get him, it’ll be downhill the rest of the way.”

“Right.”

“But, there’s a problem with that approach,” said Slide.

“We don’t know how to get to him yet?”

“Exactly.  Any ideas?”

“Not really.  I was hoping you had come up with something,” replied Gabriel, “you are, after all, the crazy one.”

“Yeah?  Well, you’re the organized one.  I’d expect you to have come up with something that wouldn’t get us killed after three seconds.”

“It’ll be suicide for us to try and go in there guns blazing without any plan.  This ain’t a movie.”

“Agreed.  What do we have so far?”

“How about we go over what we don’t have first,” suggested Gabriel.

“We don’t have a way in to the building, for starters.”

“No, and we don’t have a nearby sniper perch, even if we knew which window was his, which we don’t.”

“We don’t even know if he’s going to be there for the rest of the night, if he’ll be alone, if he’s expecting us now…nothing.”

“So, I guess it’s going in guns blazing, huh?”

Gabriel hesitated.  “Something like that, yeah, I guess.”

“Who knows, maybe they’ll make it into a movie.”

“I think they already did.  It’s called Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

Slide looked confused for a moment.  Tugging on the strap for his shoulder holster, he turned to Gabriel and said, “That one with Brad Pitt?”

Gabriel just shook his head and walked out of the room.

“What?” pleaded Slide, following him through the door.

**********

Two cab fares and an hour later, they were walking down a crowded street in Manhattan a few blocks from the building where the Boss lived.  Slide was puffing on a cigarette as if it were his first in weeks.  As far as Gabriel knew, it may have been.  Gabriel was trying not to look as paranoid as he felt.  Being this close to where he had so recently been almost trapped, he felt like every person that walked by and glanced in his direction knew who he was.  The sharp pain in his calf as he walked on it and tried not to limp was also a constant reminder of the gravity of what they were undertaking.

Gabriel looked over at Slide and noticed that his lips were pursed like he was considering something.

“What?” asked Gabriel, not sure if he really wanted to know what it was that Slide was thinking.

“Well, I was just thinking.  Why go to the mountain?”

“Huh?”

“Why try and storm that fortress of a building and look for the one guy in there that we want to find, like a needle in a haystack.  Instead of going in after him, why don’t we make him come to us?”

“Oh?  And how do you propose we do that?”

Slide didn’t answer, but reached into his pocket and got out his cell phone.

Gabriel had no idea what Slide was planning, but anything was better than walking in to certain death.  He knew that no matter how good he and Slide were together, there was no way they would make it in unknown territory with who knows how many armed guards walking the halls.

Slide was holding the phone up to his ear, now, obviously waiting for whoever it was he was calling to pick up on the other line.

“Hey, Ryan” he said at last, “yeah, it’s me.  Hey, I need you to do me a quick favor.  If you can break away from what you’re doing for a few minutes, this’ll help us out a lot.  It may even help you out a little, too.  At least buy us both some time.”

There was a pause as she responded on the other end.

“Okay, here’s the deal.  I need you to get on that forum where they posted the contract on us.  I need you to post a message saying that you spotted us walking the streets of Manhattan.  Say that you followed us without our knowledge to a building that looked like a high-end residential tower and it looked like we were getting ready to do some work.  Say that we were there for an hour or so and then left about a half an hour ago and then were able to lose you.”

There was another pause.

“I don’t know, make up some cool name that sounds tough.  That’s what we all do anyway.  You think Slide’s my real name?”

Another pause.

“No, I’m not telling you my real name.  Just get working on it, alright?  Call me when you’re ready to post it.”

Slide hung up the phone, smiling at Gabriel.  Gabriel understood what Slide was doing, but something about it he didn’t like.  “One of the biggest advantages we have in this situation, Slide, is that they don’t know that we’re here.  If we do this, we have lost the element of surprise.”

“Not necessarily.  If you think about it, your little Asian friend is going to let them know, if he hasn’t already, that we’re here anyway, so that element is going to be gone anyway.  Now, we will be giving ourselves another element of surprise if we play this right because, if what I think is going to happen, happens, they’ll never know what hit ‘em.”

“They’ll think that we were doing recon and left, so they’ll have time to relocate.  When they leave, we’ll be waiting for them, am I right?”

“Exactly.”

“Alright, let’s get to work then.”

They both picked up their pace and started walking towards the area of the building.

“This is a great idea and all, Slide, don’t get me wrong, but I have to remind you that neither you or I are gonna be able to get within a hundred yards of that place without being identified.  That happens and the whole plan will be for shit.”

“I thought of that, too,” replied Slide with that grin on his face.  Gabriel saw it and simultaneously wanted to smile along with him and slap that damn grin off.

“Well?”

“There’s this old saying,” began Slide.

Gabriel interrupted, “Oh my God.  You’re not going to start using quotes now, are you?  That’s twice already.  First the whole mountain thing, and now this?”

“Anyway,” continued Slide unphased, “They say that the clothes make the man, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, we’re gonna go buy ourselves some new clothes.”

Tired of trying to argue with him, Gabriel gave up and just followed Slide into the nearest clothing store that they came across.

Twenty minutes later, they were both dressed in new suits.  Gabriel’s was navy blue with pin-stripes.  He refused to go with any lighter of a color.  Slide was wearing a light gray suit.  He looked as uncomfortable as a cat in a bath tub.  But, Gabriel had to admit, with that suit on, Slide did not look anything like he usually did.  To someone who was unfamiliar with him except for maybe a photo or two, it would be almost impossible to identify him.

When he put on a matching fedora for good measure, it almost looked like it changed the shape of his face, making him nearly unrecognizable to Gabriel.  Gabriel put on a pair of non-prescription designer frames which had nearly the same effect as Slide’s hat.

**********

As they walked out of the store, the brisk evening air refreshing in Gabriel’s lungs, the sounds of the busy city seeming distant and unobtrusive, Slide’s phone began to ring.  He answered it immediately, grinned as he listened to Ryan on the other end telling him the plan was in motion, thanked her, and hung up.

Just as Slide hung up with Ryan, Gabriel’s phone began ringing.  He looked at the display and it was showing as a “Private Call”.  Confused, wondering if it were Ryan calling back with another question so soon, he answered the phone but did not speak.

“It’s easy for me to find you.  Even this phone number was easy for me to locate.  You can’t imagine how many people I have hunting you down, right now.  I know you are here, Mr. Slate, looking for me,” said the voice on the other end.  Gabriel recognized it immediately.  It was the Boss.

“Is that a fact?” replied Gabriel.  Obviously, Ryan’s message had reached its intended target.  Perhaps a little too soon.

Muting the phone, Gabriel told Slide who it was and that his idea had worked.  “Let’s get on a move.  We need to get into position ASAP.”

Slide nodded and they began walking quickly in the direction of the building when the Boss spoke again, “You shouldn’t have come here, Mr. Slate.  It was a mistake.  This city is my turf, I am too well protected here.  Even if you were to locate me, you wouldn’t be able to get to me.  If you get too close, you’ll be dead before you know what happened.  You think you’re dealing with one of your little gang bosses back home in Chicago, or Detroit, maybe?  You’re out of your league, Mr. Slate.  Turn around and go back home and maybe we’ll call off the hunt.”

Hearing this, Gabriel knew that he had hit a nerve.  “Wow, that’s great,” he started sarcastically.  “So, you’re saying that if I just give up now and leave you alone, we’ll call it even and you’ll forget about me now, after all of this trouble?  Did you really think I’d believe that?  Do you think I’m that stupid?  Well, I guess you do.  You see, that’s your problem, Mr. Deacon.  You and the others have always underestimated me.  Ever since the beginning, you’ve just thought of me as some small time hitman that you could toss aside when you didn’t have any further use for me.  You thought I failed you in the original project, when I completed the task better than anyone else you could have hired.  Then, you proceeded to send squad after squad after me to take me out so you could forget about me and the problems that I could have caused you, which I wouldn’t have.  But you know what?  I’m still here.  And now I’m on your front doorstep, and I am going to cause you some problems.”

“You, Mr. Slate, are nothing more than a bad investment.  We made a mistake when we hired you, and that mistake will be erased.  There is nothing you can do to stop it.”

“I will agree with you on one point, Mr. Deacon.  You did make a mistake, but it wasn’t when you hired me.  It was when you decided to screw me over.  And that’s a mistake that you can’t erase.  Only I can do that.”

“Impossible.  You’ll never find me, Mr. Slate.  And now that I, and every one of your kind, know that you’re in New York, you’ll be hunted down and killed soon enough.  I’ll be surprised if you survive the night.”

Gabriel smiled to himself, knowing that the Boss was just trying to rattle him, getting desperate, “That’s funny, Mr. Deacon, I was just going to say the same thing about you.”

At this, Gabriel hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket.

**********

Five minutes passed and Slide was leaning casually with his back against the building that the Boss lived in, right next to the revolving front door.  He had a cigarette hanging from his mouth and the brim of his new hat pulled low.  He had one leg kicked up, propped on top of the briefcase resting at his feet.  The briefcase with his submachine gun inside it.  He was thinking to himself that he was sure he looked just like some gangster from one of those old black and whites.  He felt a grin coming across his face, and covered it up with his hand as he took the cigarette from his lips.

He didn’t dare glance up in the direction of where he knew Gabriel was set up with his sniper rifle on the low roof of the building across the street, waiting for his signal.  He wanted to, had to resist the urge, knowing that it would serve no purpose save possibly giving away his location to any observant guards standing around him.  Slide had already been able to mark three of the half dozen or so other suited men standing around in front of his building as armed security.  The pace of their walk, in no rush to get anywhere, but still looking alert as opposed to casual, gave them away.  Slide just hoped that his disguise and his ability to blend in with his surroundings would keep their suspicions off of him for the time being. 

The building Gabriel was on top of was the same one where the coffee shop he had been sitting in was located.  The same place he had begun to feel defeated and hopeless, thinking that there was no way for him to get in a good position to target the Boss.  Now, all he had to do was wait for him to exit those front doors that were perfectly aligned in his crosshairs.  This was the perfect position.  There was no light on him whatsoever, so even someone looking for him from a higher window of the other building would be unable to see him.  Also, there was a small retaining wall at the edge of the roof, maybe a foot high, providing enough cover in case he was spotted.

Gabriel watched Slide standing, cool as a cucumber, next to the front doors, thinking that he looked just like Bogart with the smoke curling around his hat like that.  Gabriel knew how Slide was feeling right now:  a spy behind enemy lines.  As long as nobody got suspicious, like any one of the three armed security guards that Gabriel was watching pace back and forth, it would be an exhilarating rush.  If anybody did catch on, however, it would be up to Gabriel to cover him while he pulled out.  He was ready for that, in case things did get hairy.

Now that they were in position and ready, it would just take patience, and a lot of it, to see the plan through to completion.  Gabriel thought to himself that he would not change places with Slide for anything, hoping that he was alright down there, in the thick of things.

Slide, flicked the butt of his cigarette towards the curb, watched the red amber arc through the air and skip in a burst of sparks on the pavement, and thought to himself that he felt sorry for Gabriel, lying up on that roof, waiting for something to happen, with nothing to do, unable to move for fear of revealing himself.  He knew that if Gabriel was spotted, it would be up to Slide to take out the three guards to give him enough time to get off the roof and to a safe position, and he was ready for that, in case things went to shit real fast, as they tended to do, sometimes.  He was happy to be down here, pretending to be someone he wasn’t, knowing that the guards walking right in front of him had no idea that the man they weren’t paying any attention to would be the one to kill them in a matter of minutes.  It made him giddy with excitement.  He had to light up another cigarette to keep himself calm.

Gabriel watched as Slide lit up another cigarette, figuring that meant that Slide was getting nervous and antsy.  Gabriel hoped that he wouldn’t get too anxious and fuck up the whole plan.  But, he trusted Slide and knew that he would see this through to the end and that he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize the plan.

Slide was feeling so confident that he started actually hoping that the Boss wouldn’t come down, forcing Slide to infiltrate the building and go up to the guy’s room and take him out up there.  He was sure that he would be able to do it without raising any suspicions, sneak up, knock on the door, splatter the guy’s head all over his posh apartment and leave before anybody knew what was what.  In fact, he was so excited by this daydream that he felt a momentary wave of disappointment when all of a sudden the area around him was stirring with activity.

It was subtle, but Gabriel noticed it, too.  The guards, who were apparently wearing ear-bud communication sets like the Secret Service guys wear, all began moving a little quicker, and with a little more purpose, getting into position by the door, by Slide.  One stood on either side of the door, and the other went across to stand at the curb of the street that was about thirty feet from the front door.  Gabriel smiled to himself, seeing the strategic faux-pas of their triangular formation.

Slide had to force a cough to cover the chuckle that erupted from his throat when he saw the guards, obviously not very experienced, position themselves in such a way that they would each be in the others line of fire when the shit hit the fan.  The guards didn’t notice Slide’s outburst, nor did they notice the fact that he bent down and picked up his briefcase and held it ready at his side.

As clear as day, Gabriel watched as Slide gave the signal, telling him what he already knew:  the moment was coming and would be upon them very soon.

The car drove up first.  This time it was a jet black Mercedes with tint so dark you couldn’t see inside at all.  Its passenger side tires squealed faintly as they scuffed up against the curb and the vehicle came to a rapid stop, right in front of the doors.  The guard at the curb went around the vehicle and stood in the middle of the street by the driver’s side door.

Slide knew he would have to act quickly once the moment came or else the Boss would get into the car, most likely bullet-proof and be off, but he couldn’t jump the gun or else the guards would surely signal for the Boss to retreat back into the building and hole up in his apartment where all the guards would converge and make it impossible to get to him without some serious firepower, like explosives and other Rambo-like stuff that Slide and Gabriel didn’t have access to.

Gabriel had to steady his nerves, taking several deep breaths, when he saw the black Mercedes come around the corner and pull up to the front of the building at a fast clip.  He couldn’t see into the vehicle but had to assume there would be two or maybe even three more armed guards inside the vehicle, and these probably a little more experienced and trusted than the ones outside the car.  He and Slide would have to have impeccable timing in order to succeed in their plan.

The revolving door began to spin, but from his angle, Slide couldn’t see who would come through.  He watched the guards by the car, trying to see a reaction from them, recognition, movement, something.  He got nothing, so he steadied himself, not wanting to blow it.  Wait for it, he told himself.

When the door began to revolve, Gabriel’s finger immediately tightened on the hair trigger of the sniper rifle.  He had to tell himself to wait, calm down, don’t rush.  It would be just as easy to be too quick to act as too late.

A blonde-haired woman in a skin-tight red dress came through the door and Slide and Gabriel both felt themselves relax a bit, each glad that they hadn’t reacted too quickly.  The woman, in her late twenties or early thirties had a beauty that only the very rich are graced with; a beauty that comes with never worrying about utility bills, finding a job, making rent.  She fumbled in her small purse and pulled out a cell phone.  After making a brief call, she walked briskly towards the corner of the building and turned out of Slide’s view.

Gabriel watched the blonde woman walk around the corner and get into a waiting limo.  She was beautiful.  Elegant.  Statuesque.  He allowed himself the moment to enjoy watching the way she walked through the scope of his rifle.

Which is how he missed the Boss come flying out of the still revolving door.  First, he heard gunshots.  The instant he did, he swung the scope of the rifle back towards the door, realizing that he had made a huge mistake.  One that could have ruined the plan.  One that could even have jeopardized Slide’s life.

What he saw through the scope when he re-centered it on the door was carnage.  Bullet holes ripped through the metal body of the Mercedes, the glass of the revolving door was shattered, the door still spinning, pushing shards of broken glass around in a circle, he saw blood on the pavement and on some of the bodies, but he couldn’t make out Slide’s suit in all the movement and chaos.

Gabriel closed his eyes for a split second, forcing himself to take a step back, calm down, realize that he had made a mistake, allow himself to move forward.  If he kept on himself and allowed himself to panic, he wouldn’t be able to protect Slide, if he wasn’t already dead.

Slide knew the Boss was coming when he saw the two guards begin moving towards the door.  He prepared himself, hoping Gabriel was doing the same thing, and then saw the Boss come running out the spinning door with a large leather briefcase in his hand.  He was unmistakable and he immediately took aim with his briefcase, held steady down by his side, pulled the trigger and started ripping bullets in the general direction of the Boss and the two armed guards coming to escort him to the car.  The closest armed guard went down first, taking three rounds directly to the chest, several bullets careened past him, slamming into the waiting car.  Two bullets found their way towards the Boss, but hit his briefcase and didn’t appear to continue through to hit him.  He must’ve packed for a long trip, thought Slide. 

Slide was moving as he fired, sidestepping to the right, in front of the revolving door.  His hope was that the guards would hesitate shooting if their line of fire would possibly put patrons still inside the building at risk.  Perhaps they weren’t just hired to protect the Boss, but other residents as well.  He was also counting on the strategic disadvantage of their positioning to prevent the one on the far side of the car from shooting, for fear of hitting the Boss or the other guard.

Which they apparently weren’t.  Or, at least, they weren’t paid as well by the other patrons, because shots rang out, aimed back in Slide’s direction.  He heard the glass of the revolving door shatter behind him as he kept moving to the right, heading for a support pillar to take cover.  He fired again, towards the Boss, hoping to hit him and not the briefcase this time, but now he was using the case as a shield, crouching low and backing towards the waiting car.  He was able to take out the second guard, who was firing his handgun wildly in his direction.  A bullet struck him in the head and he fell backwards onto the hood of the vehicle.

Just as he was taking cover behind the pillar, just wide enough to provide a small amount of cover, he saw that the driver’s door of the car was opening, another armed guard getting out to aid in the gun battle.  And, as he was ripping the briefcase open to take out the submachine gun and reload it, he suddenly wondered to himself why the hell Gabriel hadn’t done anything yet.

When he heard more gunshots, Gabriel knew that Slide wasn’t dead.  He reopened his eyes and immediately saw Slide, behind the support post, taking cover from the two armed men standing on the driver’s side of the vehicle, with their backs to Gabriel’s position.  One guard was firing a pistol and the other, the driver of the car, was firing a shotgun.  The pillar that Slide was ducking behind was being ripped to shreds by their constant gunfire.

He also noticed that the Boss was holding a large case in front of him, towards Slide, and that he had backed up to the Mercedes.  He was now opening the passenger side door, and trying to slip in.

Gabriel immediately took aim of the Boss, knowing that Slide would be alright for a second.  He lined up the back of the Boss’s head and quickly pulled the trigger.  Had he taken a half-second more, his bullet may have hit home, but because of his rush, he pulled the shot and instead it went right past the man’s head and into the case he was holding.  The impact of the high-velocity round from the sniper rifle caused the Boss to drop the case.  He turned, hearing the loud gunshot from behind and then ducked into the vehicle, slamming the car door shut.

Gabriel saw that the driver was beginning to duck back into the car, as well, and realized that he would lose his chance if he allowed that.  The car would speed away and their one chance at getting the Boss would be gone forever.  He took aim on the driver and began pulling the trigger back.  This time, he forced himself to slow down, even though every fiber of his body was screaming for him to hurry, shoot!  He made sure he had a clean shot and then pulled the trigger, just as the door was beginning to close.

The bullet ripped through the driver’s head, spraying the interior of the car with a fine red and gray mist.  The body of the driver slumped and then fell out of the vehicle, lying on the ground beside it.

Slide saw the case get ripped out of the Boss’s hands from Gabriel’s first shot and then saw as the driver’s head exploded a moment later.  He took aim with his submachine gun and fired a spray of bullets at the car, quickly realizing that his suspicions about it being bullet-proof were accurate, as the windows remained intact as the bullets ricocheted off of them.

He then ducked back behind the pillar and quickly popped out on the other side and fired a quick burst at the remaining armed guard.  The burst hit him square in the chest, knocking him quickly down to the ground.

The driver’s door swung shut and the engine revved.  The Boss had apparently slid over to the driver’s seat and was planning on making his escape solo.  Gabriel wasn’t able to get a clean shot of the Boss as he pulled the door closed and cursed as he realized that he may still get away after all.

Slide came around from behind the pillar and ran up to the car, trying to yank on the passenger side door handle, but it was already locked.  He slammed the butt of his gun against the window, trying to break it, but only cracked it slightly.

Gabriel fired one shot from his high-powered rifle, hoping that maybe the increased velocity would penetrate the window, but it didn’t.  Even if it had, he couldn’t aim due to the dark tint, he had no way of knowing exactly where to try to aim to hit the Boss.

Suddenly he realized what he needed to do and readjusted his aim to the front driver’s side tire.  Quickly, thinking of the card at Jake’s, he fired and then moved his sights to the rear tire and fired again.

The engine of the car revved and it slammed into gear, just as a bullet from Gabriel’s sniper rifle ripped through the front tire, followed by a second to the rear tire.  The car lurched forward, the rims of the driver’s side wheels sending out a shower of sparks as they ground on the pavement.  Slide, still bashing against the passenger window, got the idea and fired into the passenger side tires, flattening them instantly.  The car became a sled as the spinning rims flung the remaining rubber off and sliced deep grooves into the roadway, spitting orange sparks like some huge version of a child’s toy.  There was no controlling the vehicle and it quickly came to a stop again as it slammed into the curb, the driver unable to turn it with no traction.  The front axle snapped with a loud cracking noise.

Slide ran up to the driver’s side door and fired a burst of rounds into the crease at the door frame, hoping to disable the locking mechanism, then he ripped the door open, reached in grabbing the Boss by the lapels of his suit coat and threw him out onto the ground, where he fell, sprawled out on his back.  Slide then stood over him and stepped on his neck with his new patent leather shoes that were already torn to shreds.

“Where’s the computer to send the message out that the contract is terminated?” asked Slide, leaning down towards the Boss’s face.

Gabriel took aim at the Boss’s head, braced by Slide’s foot.  He saw that Slide was leaning forward, saying something to him.

“Fuck you, bastard,” said the Boss.  His final defiance.

“Wrong answer, asshole,” replied Slide, straightening back up and taking a step back from the man.

Before he could realize what was going to happen, before he was able to try and lift himself from the ground, Gabriel took the shot that he had been waiting to take for so long.

As the Boss’s head was pulverized by the round traversing his skull, Gabriel was overcome with a sense of utmost relief.  He knew, now, finally, even though it wasn’t quite over yet, the rest was certain.  There was nothing left in his way.  No obstacle he wouldn’t overcome.

He closed his eyes, and laughed softly to himself.  He was looking forward to going and cleaning up the rest of the advisors and then going back to Ryan.  He imagined her telling him as he walked in the door of the apartment that she had cracked the code and that the contract had been terminated.

**********

He was imagining all of this, letting himself get carried away by the thought, when he became aware of the sound of soft footsteps behind him.  He’d been caught.  Someone had located him and they had him in their sights.

This time, however, he wouldn’t allow his distraction to cost him, as it just had moments before.  He knew what was happening, but acted as if he were still unaware of the other’s presence.  He kept his eyes closed, breathing deeply, still feeling an amazing sense of relief, as if this person behind him were only another afterthought, something that was already taken care of, but just didn’t know it yet.

When the footsteps were so close that he knew his stalker was standing over his prone body, Gabriel quickly spun around, reaching up to grab the weapon that had been aimed at his head.

He grabbed it and pulled the stalker down towards him, spinning himself again so that he, now, was the one on the top, in control of the weapon.  It wasn’t a gun, as he had expected, it was a hypodermic, much like the one that he had used on his first kill.

And the man holding it was none other than the Asian man who he had fought to a stalemate on the bridge.

Their eyes met.  Gabriel recognized it in the man immediately, knew again, for certain, this man had the Talent.  If it had been anyone else, he would not have hesitated to kill him, but he hated to kill someone that was part of his world.  Someone he knew understood the world as he and so few others did.

“What is your name, killer?” asked Gabriel.  “Tell me and I may not kill you.”

“If you spare me, you are soft and not worthy of the reputation your name holds.  And if you spare me, I will have lost all self-worth.  I am nothing now, so kill me, or I will kill myself.”

Gabriel shook his head at this and responded with sincerity, “No, I won’t spare you because I am soft, I will spare you because I recognize something in you that is rare.  Something that I would hate to have to destroy.  You and I are alike.  We see the world the way it is meant to be seen.  Understand it in a way that many others never will.  I cannot let someone like that die.  People like you and I need to work together, there are too few of us as it is.  Don’t you understand?”

The man looked at Gabriel dubiously.  Then, he said, in a weak voice, “But, one of us must die.”

“No.  You see, there is no point.  I gain nothing from killing you, the one who hired you to kill me is dead.  And you gain nothing from killing me since even if you succeed, you will have no one to reward you for your efforts.”

“They are not all dead.”

“You know as well as I that the others are nothing without this one.  I will kill them without any effort at all.  This one was the head.  Without him, the body will cease to function.  I probably wouldn’t even have to kill the rest, but I will because I will see this through to the end.”

There was a long pause as the Asian considered what Gabriel said.

“You make a strong argument, sir.  I will honor your request, though I am humbled and ashamed.  And my name, if you require it, is Asuka.”

Letting the other assassin to his feet, Gabriel said to him, “Asuka, there is no need for you to feel humbled or ashamed.  You are a worthy opponent.  On any other day you would have just as much of a chance of besting me as I did you.”  Motioning to the hypodermic, Gabriel continued, “And you obviously know how to do your homework.  I assume that the liquid in here is zinc-phosphide?”

“Of course,” replied Asuka with a grin on his face.

“Now go, before my brash friend comes up here and ruins all the progress I just made with you.  I’m sure that you and I will be seeing each other again in the future.”

Asuka gave a quick bow, turned and went down the back fire escape of the building.

Minutes later, Slide came up the same way, still brushing dirt from the sleeves of his ruined suit jacket, a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth.

“What took you so long?” he yelled, arms outstretched.

“Ah, it looked like you had everything under control,” Gabriel said, looking down at the ground.

“It was that blonde in the red dress, wasn’t it?  Tell me the truth!” now Slide was smiling around the cigarette held between his lips.

Gabriel smiled and nodded.

Slide laughed hard, then said, “I’m telling Ryan!”

“Oh, you think you’re so funny, don’t you?”

Reaching into his pocket for his cell phone, Slide looked at him with an expression of mock anger, “Funny?  It’s the least I can do to get you back for almost getting me killed!”

Gabriel ran forward and tried to wrestle the cell phone from Slide’s grasp.  He heard the phone already ringing on the other end.

“Hello?” he heard Ryan’s voice on the other end, muffled behind their hands as they fought over the phone.

“Let go you bastard!” yelled Gabriel.

“Fine,” said Slide letting go.

Gabriel tucked the phone up to his ear, “We did it,” he said.

“More like I did it,” yelled Slide.

Gabriel heard the sound of relief in Ryan’s voice when she breathed, “Thank God,” and he knew that they were all feeling the same.  “Oh, and Gabriel?” she continued.

“What’s up, Ryan?” he replied.

“I’ve got some good news myself,” she said.

“Did you crack the code?” he asked.  As he said this, Slide settled down but a large grin crept across his face.  Gabriel felt one on his face, as well.

“Well, I had a little help”

Gabriel felt confused, but elated at the same time, “What kind of help, divine intervention?”

“I guess you could call it something like that,” she replied.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I’ll explain when you two get back here.  It’ll be a lot easier to show you than to tell you.”

“Alright, if you say so,” said Gabriel and he hung up the phone.

Slide hesitated a moment and then asked, “Are we in the clear?”

Gabriel nodded, “Looks like it.”

“Good, ‘cause I can’t wait to get the fuck out of New York.”

They began walking back along the edge of the roof towards the fire escape that would get them down to the alley behind the building.  “Oh?  And why’s that?”

“Are you kidding?  This place is murder!” said Slide, laughing as the words came out of his mouth.

Chuckling as well, Gabriel said, “Very clever.  You get that from one of those cheese-ball movies you watch, or did you manage to come up with that one yourself?”

As they climbed down the steep, rusty stairs to the dingy, wet alley that smelled of urine, they began to hear the distant whine of police sirens.  Neither Gabriel or Slide were surprised, nor startled.  Police response was an inevitability in their line of work.  In fact, the sound of sirens was often comforting to Gabriel, he found, because he associated it with the completion of a job.  Now, climbing into the back of a taxi with Slide, both of them carrying their briefcase-looking gun cases, hearing the sirens closing in, he felt an elation rising from the pit of his stomach.  It was a euphoria that he had never felt before.

**********

Arriving back at the apartment, Gabriel was so excited all that he could think about was catching another cab to the airport and getting the hell out of New York and going back to Chicago, in the clear, and starting fresh.

When they walked through the door, Gabriel and Slide were both laughing about something funny that Slide had just said, but their mood suddenly soured the second they both noticed that there was more than just one person in the room awaiting their arrival.

“Don’t even think about it,” said one of the men, dressed in a gray suit, already holding a semi-automatic handgun at his side.  He had noticed Gabriel and Slide’s instinctual response to begin reaching for their firearms concealed under their clothing.

They both stopped, knowing that they were at an extreme disadvantage, having been caught off-guard, unprepared, and completely unsuspecting.

“Fuck,” muttered Slide under his breath.

Having a moment to get his bearings and examine his surroundings, Gabriel noticed that there were only two men in the room along with Ryan, who was sitting at the ragged couch by the far wall.  She had a calm look on her face, which pacified Gabriel, slightly.  Either she was better at controlling her emotions than he had imagined, or there was something else going on here that he didn’t know about.

The tension in the room was palpable.  No one moved or made a sound for at least a full minute.  The only movement was the eyes.  Everyone’s eyes darted from one to the other person, checking hands, facial expressions, trying to read each other, trying to figure out what was going to happen next.

Gabriel decided he would be the one to make the first move.  Slowly, as to not startle the other, unknown, men, he began to raise his hands to shoulder height, well away from his firearm.

“Alright, you got the drop on us,” he said.  He felt Slide following his lead behind him, half in, half out of the doorway.  “Now, what the hell is your business here?”

“Sir, my name is Special Agent Bauer, I’m with the Federal Bureau of Investigations.  I was sent here by the Bureau to assist in your dilemma.  Myself and Special Agent Stephens have been here for nearly two hours helping Ryan with the computer problem that you have been having.”

Gabriel’s eyes shifted to Ryan and the look on her face confirmed what was being said.  They weren’t there to arrest them, or to kill them, they had come to help.

“But how?” he asked.

“How did we know that you needed help?” offered Special Agent Stephens, who had been silent and unmoving until then.

“Yeah.”

“For that, you have Slide to thank.  He contacted us during your separation and advised us of the circumstances of your plight.  At the time, we decided to remain uninvolved, allowing you to fix the problem that you created for yourself, allowing you to redeem yourself in the eyes of the government, to prove, as Slide has explained to you, that you were not a concern to national security.  We did, however, maintain a close surveillance of your operation, of which we were extremely impressed, by the way.  During the surveillance, we realized that there was no possible way, with the tools that you had access to, to solve the problem that Ryan was so confident she could fix.  Instead of sit back and watch you fail, even though, for all intents and purposes, you had succeeded, we decided to assist in this matter.  This way, we were assured a satisfactory completion of the situation without becoming directly involved, while at the same time, by offering our services to you in this way, we feel that we will in no way be indebted to you in the future, nor you to us.”

Gabriel was impressed by the eloquence of this otherwise silent man and almost had the feeling that the entire speech he had just given was something that he had rehearsed, or maybe given the same, or similar speech to many people over the course of his career.  Regardless, he was an experienced field agent who understood the many nuances and complexities of the situation, able to look at it as a whole and not merely in black and white like so many government agents seemed prone to do.  Even though he wasn’t happy that they had been under such strict surveillance the entire time without knowing it, Gabriel was glad that this agent was the one who had been assigned with the task.  He was confident that this man would be true to his word and that all debts would be paid off now that this was over and done with.

“After you finish cleaning up the rest of the advisors here in New York, which I’m sure will be in no way difficult for you, there is just one more thing that we must ask of you and your friends, Gabriel,” continued Special Agent Stephens, as if reading Gabriel’s thoughts and wanting to prove to him that they were still in control.

“Oh yeah?  And what’s that?” asked Slide.

**********

Pascinetti was sitting at his favorite table in his favorite diner eating his favorite breakfast when he got the call telling him that his employers had all been killed.

A big piece of his half-eaten stack of pancakes suddenly lodged in his throat.  After he coughed it out, he muttered into the phone, “All five?”

“Yes,” came the reply over the phone.

“Who are you and how do you know this?” asked the Lephrechaun.

“I know this because I killed them all,” replied the voice that Pascinetti knew sounded familiar, but somehow couldn’t place.  “And you know who I am.”

“I do, do I? he asked, shoveling another forkful of syrup covered pancake into his mouth, chewing it a few times, then swallowing it hard.

“We’ve met.  I sat across from you, where you are sitting now, and you told me that you would protect me.  Then, you sent a hit team to my apartment and blew it to shit trying to get to me.  It didn’t work.”

Suddenly, the Leprechaun recognized the voice and realized it was Mr. Slate.  A cold wave crashed down into his full stomach, making him feel like he was going to be sick.  “Where are you, you motherfucker?  I’ll come after you with everything I’ve got.”

“How’s breakfast there, buddy?” asked Gabriel, calmly, on the other end.  “You look like you’re about to choke on those pancakes.”

The Leprechaun looked around him frantically, expecting to see Gabriel sitting at an adjacent table, but he didn’t see him, didn’t recognize any of the faces around him.  Everyone was minding their own business, eating their breakfasts in peace.  A bead of sweat trickled down the Leprechaun’s face, stinging the corner of his eye.

Gabriel spoke again, startling the Leprechaun, “You know, you really might want to slow down, I’ve heard that eating that much is bad for your health.”

“Whadda you know, anyway?” asked the Leprechaun, now getting frustrated with Gabriel’s attitude.

“It’s not the pancakes I’d be worried about if I were you, it’s the syrup.”

At this, the Leprechaun gagged, spitting what remained of his last bite of food out onto the table.  He pushed himself back from the table and quickly stood up, ripping his bib from his yellow shirt.  He started walking towards the front door of the establishment.

“Alright you little shit, what did you do?  Where are you?  I’m gonna enjoy watching you die.”

“Sorry, little man, but I think that it’s going to have to be the other way around this time.  You see, your routine is too easy.  All I had to do was sit at your table before you, and put a little, oh, let’s call it ‘special sauce’, into that syrup container that they have there at the table that you used so liberally.  The rest, as they say, is history.”

“You wouldn’t do that.  You’re lying.  It’s too messy.  What about the next person that uses that table?  You wouldn’t risk killing innocents to get to me.  I know you, I read your file.”

“You’re wrong about me.  I’d do anything it took to get to you, you sorry, sad man.  You invaded my home!  That’s crossing the line.  And let’s just say that the details of that little situation are taken care of.  I don’t have to worry about any innocents, if that puts your mind at ease.”

Suddenly, the Leprechaun noticed that he couldn’t feel his extremities and realized that he’d been walking outside, but couldn’t remember now where he was going or why.  Then, he realized that he was holding something up to his ear and didn’t know what it was or why he was holding it there.  He took it away from his head, looked at it for a second, and then, everything disappeared. 

The world went black.