Pressure Under Fire

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Max wiped the rain from his glasses. He checked his watch again -- 11:45am. Damn dramatic jobs. Who did this guy think he was requesting a hit at 'high noon' on main street? Max would have to remember to request more money when he delivered the proof. It's not that the job was impossible, not even hard. But a hit on main street during lunch hour was just a hastle. ~0~

11:50am. One more check. Clips were good, line of sight clear. Time to end this and get out of here. Something did not feel right about this job, but he could not figure out what it was. This was a cakewalk. Bank executive cheating on his wife embarrassing the company. Make it go away; wipe the slate clean. Guy takes the same train home at the same time, and leaves at the same time every day. Lunch at noon, straight up. Great for banking, bad for avoiding a bullet.~1~

12 noon. Here we go.~2~

12:01pm. Where was he? check the watch. 12:01pm. He should be here. It was lunch hour. Tony's Deli. Egg-salad sandwich. Leave at noon, there by 12:05 and back behind the desk by 12:25 sharp. Where was he?!~3~

Click!~4~

Max froze every muscle in his body. He recognized the sound of a Glock-45 being cocked. From the sound he figured it was one foot behind his head pointed directly at him. Fuck!~5~

"No sudden moves, Max. You know the drill. Now, step back into the alley with your hands where I can see them."~6~

The voice sounded refined, almost eloquent, but dripping with venom and death. max slowly raised his hands and stepped away from the entrance to the alley.~7~

Max quickly started running through his options. Run -- he would be dead before he took two steps. Attack -- the bullets would rip threw him before he could turn around. Plead -- this guy would make him suffer just out of spite. Distraction -- professional hitmen would kill before fleeing. No option, no choices, screwed.~8~

"You can stop weighing your options Max, there's no where to go and absolutely nothing you can do. Everything has been laid out exactly for this moment, all the angles calculated, all the choices figured. There is no other option than the ones that I give you."~9~

Max's mind raced thinking of the pain that was about to come. What the fuck was going on here? This was supposed to be a cakewalk.~10~

Max continued to back away from the alley entrance with his hands held out at his sides. Slowly he tried to turn his head to get a glimpse of his captor. He could just barely make out the glint of a gun when he heard the man behind him laugh.~11~

"Go ahead Max. Turn around and look if you want. It still won't make any difference. But I must insist that you drop that gun of yours first."~12~

Max carefully uncocked the hammer of his gun and slowly bent to place the gun on the ground beside him. As Max stood again, he slowly turned around and returned his hands out to his sides.~13~

The man before him was older, with grey hair and an expensive black suit. He wore a white carnation in his left button hole and had a grey overcoat and hat draped over his left arm. He smiled at Max and the blood in Max's veins froze. "And now you've met your killer. Sir Roger Eden at your service. I know the 'sir' is a bit pretentious, but it has such a lovely ring to it, don't you think? Now let's keep moving. Don't want to delay the inevitable any longer, shall we?"~14~

So that was the accent -- British. Max could tell this "Sir Roger" was disguising his identity. Max couldn't figure out why he would go through all the trouble. He had Max and there was no way out. ~15~

The two men continued along the alleyway, Max following Sir Roger as he backed down the alley. Max just couldn't believe his life was going to end this way; killed in a filthy alleyway like a damn mark! Surely he deserved better considering his illustrious career. Who was he kidding. His life was shit and he deserved everything coming to him.~16~

Max had just resigned himself to the grave when he noticed something moving in the alleyway behind Sir Roger. Was that a kid? No, couldn't be. Probably some homeless vagrant who's life too was about to come to an end. Couldn't leave witnesses around to identify you. Awfully small for a homeless man though, and is that a bat in his hands?~17~

Sir Roger continued to back into the alley, weaving around the trash bin which the vagrant was hiding behind. Suddenly and blindingly fast, a baseball bat came swinging around the corner of the trash bin and struck Sir Roger in the back of the knees.. Sir Roger crumpled to the ground, screaming in agony at the unexpected assault.~18~

Max's hunter instincts roared to life. He did not give Sir Roger a chance to realize what had happened before Max was on top of him, beating him in the face and slamming his head into the concrete below him. Sir Roger tried to scream again but could only gurgle through the blood in his mouth and throat. Roger tried to raise the gun, but Max grabbed his wrist and wrenched it violently around. They both heard the bones of the wrist snap and Roger's eyes became wide with terror and pain.~19~

Sir Roger Eden screamed through the blood.~20~

Max picked up the gun and stood. He was breathing heavily but every muscle in his body was ready to fight. Max stepped closer to Roger and put his foot on Roger's throat. max stepped hard and the screams stopped, but off by the pressure of Max's boot on Roger’s throat. Roger writhed in agony, wild-eyed and terrified. A moment ago he was about to kill Max with a single bullet to the head. Now max had crippled and maimed him, and was looking at Roger with murder in his eyes.~21~

Roger tried to speak but no words could escape his lips. He grasped at Max’s ankle trying to free himself enough to draw even the smallest breath. Roger could feel the life ebbing away from him, the world becoming dark.~22~

Max lifted his foot from Roger's throat and Roger gasped for air.. He coughed and sputtered trying to fill his lungs with air. Max took two steps back and waited.~23~

Roger finally regained some control over his breathing and slowly, painfully raised himself onto his left elbow. He looked up at Max, waiting for him to speak. "Beg" Max said. "Beg for your life and I'll let you go."~24~

Roger stared at Max in disbelief. Was he serious? Was he really going to let him ? Yeas he was. He didn't have the gun pointed at him and there was a look of, what was that look? Grief? Sadness? Roger could not believe it, the fucker had gone soft.~25~

Max looked down on roger with contempt. "I said, beg for your life."~26~

Roger smiled up at Max. He feigned fear and despair and began to bed Max for mercy. "Please, please don't. Don't kill me sir. I beg..."~27~

The gunshot echoed off the walls of the alley. Roger's head snapped back and slammed hard against the ground. Max stood frozen, gun smoking still aimed at the spot where Roger’s head had been only seconds before.~28~

There was a shuffling from behind the trash bin and Max swung the gun in the direction of the noise. A small girl peered around the corner and looked up at Max. She was holding a baseball bat. ~29~

Leave no witnesses. "Who are you? Speak up girl, or you'll have a bullet between your eyes."~30~

The girl scowled at Max. “That’s a nice thank you for someone who saved your life. My name is Rosie. there has been a mistake, but luckily you solved that problem." Rosie stood up from behind the trash bin and smiled at Max.~31~

Max lowered the gun, but didn't take his eyes off the little girl. "I have to leave, the police will be here soon. I can't leave any witnesses. Nothing personal, just business."~32~

Rosie frowned at Max and crossed her arms across her chest. she let out an exasperated breath then bent to pick up a black leather hand bag behind her. "I guess you'll be wanting your money for a completed hit. Should I add a bonus for killing me as well?" Rosie held the bag out at arms length and dropped it at Max's feet. The bag landed with a dull thud.~33~

Max looked perplexed. What was with this girl? she couldn't be more than nine or ten and way too upper crust to know about hitmen. "Just what do you know about 'hits'? And how old are you, seven?"~34~

"I'm eleven years old, thank you," Rosie spat. "And I know enough about professional hitmen to hire you. Well, him, but it should have been you. Damn FedEx.. Can't even deliver the right package to the right hitman. By the way, thanks for not shooting my father. He may just be a boring banker, but he is my dad."~35~

Max looked dumbstruck. His mouth hung open and he starred at this little girl in complete confusion. Just what was going on? He understood what the girl was saying, but that couldn't be right. An eleven year old set up a hit? "don't play game with me girl, tell the truth. What's going on here? Who are you? What's in the bag?" Max raised the gun again and quickly stepped away from the bag at his feet.~36~

"Jesus Christ, don’t you people ever trust anyone? can’t you figure it out? I set up a hit against my dad, then I changed my mind. You can't just cancel a hit so I hired a second hitman to kill the first. FedEx mixed up the packages. You should have received the second contract, not the first and Mr. Sir roger here should have received the first contract, not the second. I couldn't just let him kill you. That would be wrong. It wasn't your fault that FedEx mixed up the mail."~37~

During Rosie's explanation Max's arms slowly dropped to his side, mouth dropped open and eyes widened. Max thought to himself "Damn, I've got to get a new job!"~38~

Max realized his mouth was open and quickly shut it. He shook his head to clear the confusion. After everything Rosie had said to him, only on question came to mind; "what did your dad do to you to warrant a contract on his life?"~39~

Rosie rolled her eyes and sighed. Then, as if everything were simply matter-of-fact stated, "He wouldn't buy me a car."~40~

Max had finally had more than h could handle. He roared at the girl, "You're only eleven! You can't even drive!"~41~

Rosie's demeanor quickly changed to one of a spoiled kid. She crossed her arms and stamped her feet on the ground. "So?! I wanted a car and he wouldn’t give me one! All of my other friends have one, why can't I?"~42~

Max slapped himself in the forehead. He couldn't believe this. This girl was a terror and she had no sense of right or wrong. She thought it was okay to kill her father because she was a spoiled rotten brat and didn't get her way. ~43~

A moment of clarity hit Max. He raised the gun and pointed it at Rosie. The girl's tantrum stopped immediately and she said, "Please. Let's stop with the tuff-guy bullshit. Take the money for saving my dad and don't spend it all in one place."~44~

The gun rang out again. Rosie's face contorted into one of complete confusion before she crumpled on the ground. Max reached into his coat pocket and took out the contract on the banker's life. He then reached into Sir Roger's coat and removed the second contract. He wrote on the outside of the envelope "You'll thank me later" and placed the envelopes next to the girl.~45~

Max then reached into the leather bag and removed a wrapped bundle of money. five-thousand dollars for his troubles then moved the bag next to the girl. He bent down and checked the girl's neck for a pulse. Her pulse was strong and fast. Scared stupid. Max checked her arm. The scratch from the bullet had barely even bled. Damn rich kids, can't handle anything.~46~

Max removed the clip from the gun and emptied the chamber. He placed the gun in the bag and stood to leave the alleyway. Max picked up his gun that he dropped and placed it in his coat. Max then casually strode out of the alley onto the street. He could hear the sound of sirens in the distance.~47~

Max was two blocks away when he saw Toni's Deli from across the street. He noticed a help wanted sign in the window. Max carefully crossed the street and made his way into the deli. A quiet bell tinkled in the back of the store. A fat butcher in white stepped out from the back room and asked if he could help Max. Max replied, "Yes. I need an egg-salad sandwich. And I'd like to speak to someone about your help wanted sign."~48~