Day 159 - Nine and Seven

 Nine and Seven

 Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Smoke slipped from the muzzle and rose into the air. Seven hadn’t meant to fire, but the woman startled him. Fat and half bald, with only a bathrobe to cover himself, Anak was on his knees, weeping over his dying wife. Blood leaked out everywhere, ruining the carpet. Anak’s sobs grew louder, but Seven was lost in the smoke and ashes. Nine was yelling something. Commands or questions. The sound echoed but Seven couldn’t hear.

“You bastards,” cried Anak. He stood, but Nine put him back on the ground. Blood from his nose mixed with his wife’s.

“You okay?” Nine put his hand on Seven’s shoulder.

“What?”

“You okay?”

Seven nodded, but he wasn’t sure he heard the question.

“We have to finish it.”

Seven nodded again, but didn’t move. He watched the smoke dissipate. For a moment he thought he could see a shape, like finding faces in the fog or clouds.

Nine had turned his attention back to Anak. Anak spit in Nine’s face. Called him names. “Traitor…” “Betrayer…”

Seven’s mind came into focus. This was a member of Nine’s family. It was a cruel assignment, to make him go and kill one of his own, no matter how distant the relation, no matter how many vows Nine had made to The Dragon’s Claw and the other family heads. Anak had to die, but it didn’t have to be Nine who did it.

Seven stepped beside his friend and nudged him aside.

“I can do it,” protested Nine.

Seven nodded. “I know. But you don’t have to.”

“…Bunch a cowards--” was the last thing Anak said. Seven made sure he and his wife were both gone.

“So that’s it.”

“That’s it. He broke the code. Betrayed the families.”

“Thank you. I…”

“You shouldn’t have been assigned this job.”

That was when the baby started crying. Seven and Nine both turned towards the other room. Neither man moved. Eventually the looked at each other.

“Anak was guilty. He deserved it. The wife was an accident. But this…?”

“Would be murder,” agreed Seven.

“Yeah.”

They considered their options. Nine was the first to speak.

“If we do nothing, it’s not like we can be guilty.”

“That’s just some trick to tell yourself.”

“If we do nothing, and the kid survives, then the family will have a battle for leadership.”

“That’s twenty years down the road. The bosses won’t worry about that. And the rest of the family would either respect him or not. Whoever takes over now will have twenty years to solidify their standing.”

“I’m going to do it. Cleaner that way.”

“No. That’s probably like your third or fourth twice removed cousin in there. I’ll take care of it.”

“You’ve already done enough.”

Seven didn’t respond, instead he just left the room.

Soon the crying stopped.

Later, Seven and Nine drove away from the mansion.

“I can’t believe Anak was going to go against the other families.”

“Greed makes a man stupid.”

“That stupid?”

“It’s a big city. He had big eyes. Yeah, I’d say that could make a man stupid.”

Seven stared out the window. This would be his last night as an Agent, he thought. After this, he didn’t have the stomach for it. Agents didn’t often retire, but he would. His family might balk, the other bosses might crow, but it could be done. No one would want an Agent who lost his edge, but he couldn’t admit that. There would be no future for him if he told anyone that. No one would trust him. No one would give him a job. It was one thing to not want to be an assassin anymore, but another to be seen as weak or have no stomach. He had used his fists his who life. He wasn’t sure that he could do anything else. Maybe he could train his replacement, he thought. Maybe they’d let him do that. That might be something.

It gave him hope. It gave him something to focus on. He didn’t want to think about the house or the bodies or the baby. He pushed that down. Focused on his future. He would never talk about tonight again, he told himself. Not to Nine, not to anyone. It would be his secret to carry to the grave.

Nine looked over at his friend. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure.”

Seven shook his head. “No.”