Lying in wait...

[sollie]

Sollie sat in a treebranch, watching and waiting. She mentally ran through the briefing she had had earlier. Her client had been tense, afraid. She was to look for a man with short black hair, and a brown leather coat. He would walk with a swagger, and have a smirk on his face.

Her job was to get rid of that smirk.

The man was one of those victims that Sollie actually liked to be rid of. He was, by all accounts, a monster. He was a merchant had dated one of his employee's daughters. He had dumped her, and her father had come and given him a piece of his mind. For that, he'd had the girl murdered, and her father fired. He had done this with three separate employees, and since he was on very good terms with the authorities, he would never be caught. That is, of course, until Sollie came along.

She tightened her grip on her katana, and continued to wait.

[krenz]

Krenz walked into the beautiful forest called 'foreign'.

"It's amazing that I only had one love..." he said to himself, not realizing anyone was near by... "and she had to betray me..."

He picked a flower and looked at it. "God I'm such an idiot... even flowers have to remind me of her!... and there were 3 other men she slept with... 3!" He threw the flower in the water and threw off his leather trench coat. His black hair flowed over his eyes. He fixed his classy looking glasses and sat down on a bench to take a deep breath. "A prostitute... and I still love her.......but why???........she lied....she...." He leaned back on the bench.

[sollie]

Sollie stared at the man for a minute, considering. Was this her mark?

As she watched him, she ran over the physical features she had been given. He had them. She had expected shorter hair, and perhaps someone older. But here he was; a man with short black hair and a brown coat. He also harped on about a woman...some lover.

But something was wrong. He couldn't be the one. For one, he didn't swagger when he walked. And he most definitely didn't have a smirk on his face. The client had been insistent upon this point. It was his calling card, so to speak. And here, it was missing.

No matter, though...if this was her man, she had no right to ask questions. The man would have to go.

But if he wasn't, what would she do when the real mark showed up? Would she kill this man, too, to leave no witnesses?

She debated this for a few minutes, until she heard other noises. Footsteps. She glanced over, and saw another man. Another man with short black hair, and a brown leather coat.

This man was markedly different from the man who now stood near her. He had the same hair and coat, but even from her perch in her tree, she sensed the nastiness emanating from him. He had the look. He had the swagger. And above all, he had the smirk.

"Hey, you!" He called to the other man; the one who had picked the flower.

Oh god, Sollie thought.

[krenz]

Krenz realized he left his glasses on, so he put them in his side leather jacket pocket. Krenz heard a man call to him; he looked over to see a man in a dark leather trench coat with a swagger and a smirk. There was something about that man that bothered him, but he couldn’t put his finger on it; and for some odd reason, he looked somewhat familiar to Krenz. Krenz got up and looked at the man;

“Yeah…?”

Krenz sensed an odd eeriness about this man that he hadn’t really sensed in a long time. It’s one of those feelings he’s gotten with gang members who’d crossed his path on commerce planets, or government officials on commerce planets that had nothing better to do than to crave power. Krenz however, was ready for any quick movements, as he always was; yet it wasn’t always obvious to most people.

[sollie]

Sollie knew she had to move at some point. But she couldn't make her legs work, for some reason. She knew this would get real ugly real fast.

"What the fuck are you doing here, punk?" The man, whom she had dubbed Evil Coat, sneered, walking towards the other man, whom she had dubbed Good Coat.

Please, god, just run away, Sollie pleaded with Good Coat, mentally, don't try anything, please, just GO.

[krenz]

"Anyone can come in here... and do I know you?" Krenz stood there, unafraid and ready for action. "You look familiar...and you don't seem to have very good manners..." Krenz looked into the man's eyes, showing no sign of fear.

[sollie]

"I don't have very good manners, you say?" Evil Coat said, shoving his face forward so that it was inches from Good Coat's. "And what about you? This is my turf, and you're trespassing on it. I'd say that's pretty rude, wouldn't you?" His voice was dangerously low. Good Coat, for his part, looked nonplussed. Sollie couldn't tell whether that was a good or bad thing.

If I'm right about you, Good Coat, then you're a fighter. But if you're a sensible one, you won't fight unless he strikes first. I don't want you provoking anything unnecessarily. Sollie thought. She should have leaped on Evil Coat while she had the chance. But now, for some reason, she waited. She wanted to see where this would go. And besides, this would make the job a little more interesting.

[krenz]

Bewildered but unafraid, Krenz stood his ground.

“That’s odd, I didn’t think anyone really owned this forest…,” He said looking at him, slightly but gently sarcastic “I’m not trying to start a fight; but you just don’t seem to be the type who would own any part of this forest…”

[sollie]

Even from the treebranch, Sollie could sense the anger coming from Evil Coat. His hand reached out and grabbed Good Coat's collar so fast it even surprised her.

"You're right," He said icily, "no one owns this forest. But if you want to live, you'll leave now."

There was a glint of metal by Evil Coat's thigh; a dagger. Sollie could see it, but Good Coat, from where he was standing, couldn't.

Sollie's grip on one of her throwing knives tightened, but still, she didn't move.

[krenz]

Krenz had to think fast, he sensed that at any moment, there would be a moment where he would need to react. Krenz decided that now would be the time, once threatened and touched like this… it was time to take action. Krenz did a quick move - he quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and kicked him in the crotch with both knees as hard as possible, hoping to pry him off with some sharp pain; it took him years to master this kind of move.

[sollie]

Evil Coat collapsed to his knees, groaning.

Sollie sat in the tree, stunned. She blinked twice.

Well...I guess that's one way to do it, she said, I don't have to try and sort out who's who, and it gives me a clear shot...here goes...

With that, she threw the first knife. It landed in the center of Evil Coat's back with a sickening thud, severing the spinal cord. Before his body collapsed, Sollie leaped out of the tree, and with two swift strokes of her blade, he was dead.

She turned around so that her back was to Good Coat, took out a handkerchief, and wiped off her blade.

"That was rather unorthodox, stranger." She said. She didn't know why she was speaking to him, exactly--it was an assassin's duty to be silent--but in this case, she somehow got the feeling that it would be all right.

[krenz]

He looked at the woman, slightly stunned.

"Well...there was something about him that bothered me... he reminded me of 1 of 3 of the men that slept with my girl friend... well... ex-girlfriend" He looked at her, somehow he felt he could trust her.

"He seemed like he was ready to kill me, I couldn't wait for him to kill me first...I thought I was going to need to do what you just did...for me..." He took another breath "He did do something didn't he?..."

[sollie]

"He had three girls killed; all of them were women he was dating. Considering that, I don't think he would have hesitated in killing you. In fact, considering he had a dagger hidden in his hand, it looked like he was planning on killing. But I was only doing my job; I wasn't intending to save any lives."

She hesitated just a moment, then realized she had sounded a little harsh. "I would have had to kill him anyway, whether he went after you or not, but I wouldn't have wanted to deal with more dead bodies than I originally came for, especially if one of them was an innocent bystander. And with people like him, you never can tell what they're going to do. They don't believe in fighting fair, which I guess is one of the reasons why people like me exist."

"Anyway, I feel I should apologize. For hesitating that long, I mean. I should have jumped him the instant I realized he was my intended victim."

Sollie swore at herself mentally. Why was she babbling like this, and to a complete stranger? Lip-flapping like that got one killed in this line of work. At the same time, though...something about it felt right. Almost cathartic. And she had the distinct impression that she could trust him.

[krenz]

"No, it's quite alright." He said in all honesty "It may sound odd, but I may have needed that anyway. " He paused for a moment and then went on.

"Sometimes it can release the build up of frustration for me...although it's probably not as good for me as simply reading a book or something" He gave a slight smile. He then went back to a serious face and gave a slight look of worry. "...I was so sure that he had slept with my ex-girlfriend... " He paused again and thought.

"You know... if you wanted me to keep this thing a secret... well, I can if you want. Is this your only job or is this your side job?" He asked curiously.

[sollie]

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that. I'm sorry, but considering the nature of this job...well...let's just say I have many enemies, and if they knew you had talked to me, they'd use you to get to me. And you couldn't tell them what you didn't know.

"But thank you for keeping my secret; I would appreciate that very much. What's your name, stranger? I was calling you "Good Coat" when I was hiding in the tree, and it sounds kind of silly now."