Another Day...Another Chapter

Chapter 2 Days Gone By
Shin Lao had met the Viper close to 6 years before. Her parents had brought her over, with the help of the local Triad boss, Boss Tanaka. Unfortunately for almost everybody involved, Boss Tanaka had gone back on his original deal with her parents and raised the price of her immigration. When her parents, humble owners of a small store in Brooklyn, had been unable to meet the price Boss Tanaka simply kept her, not even offering them the chance to pay for her eventual release. What Boss Tanaka saw in her however was a young bit of clay to mold. Of course she had tried to run away on numerous occasions, but the beating and desolation, punishments for her transgressions, had eventually left her loyal and ready for what the aging gang boss had in mind. She was trained, both mentally and physically, to be an assassin. Her young body and mind were shaped quickly into a killer. At the age of 20 he sent her out on her first kill, coupled with the Caucasian he often hired.

The Viper and Shin Lao, who went by the moniker of Ghost we sent out to kill a local store owner who had gotten the police involved when he was told to pay the protection money or lose his store. Of course the police proved a minor inconvenience and were quickly persuaded that there was nothing illegal going on under Matsuo Tanaka’s roof. Unfortunately for the store owner, that was far from the truth. This was Shin Lao’s first kill and she was terrified. Despite all of the Boss’ training and programming, she still didn’t want to kill anyone. The rifle in her hand had shaken wildly as they discussed the plan. “Think of this man as the worst person in the world. Imagine him as the person you’d like to put a bullet in the most. I find that helps most of the time.” The Viper had told her. “What if it doesn’t?” the young girl asked, still frightened of taking another human life. “If it doesn’t then that’s what I’m here for.” He cocked the two hand cannons that he had taken from his shoulder holsters beneath his overcoat. She was instantly frightened and nearly began to cry. He put his arm around her shoulders and smiled. “Don’t worry sweetie, these aren’t for you. I just meant that I’m here to finish it if you can’t. Don’t worry about Boss Tanaka if you don’t have the nerve.” This had been the first bit of warmth that she had been given in nearly 8 years and she smiled a little, her narrow brown eyes shiny from the tears that almost had fallen from them.

The plan had been simple. Shin Lao was to sit on the adjacent roof and wait for the man to leave for the night. If she missed or he didn’t come out, then the Viper was to finish things “up close and personal”. Shin Lao looked over the picture that had been given to her of the target. No name was in the file on the job. The Viper had told her that that was the way it was so that no one got too involved in the target. “It’s just a nameless face that had committed some wrong to the family. No family, no friends, no personal involvement. Just a face and a gun.” He had told her. She wondered about this man, and how he had become so cold and such and able killer when he wasn’t so much older than herself. However she didn’t have much time to ponder the other man’s back-story as she heard the bell of the store’s door jingle. She peered over the buttressed roof and checked the face of the man leaving the store with her picture. They matched and she leveled her rifle.

The man peered around, as if expecting what was about to befall him. He had gone against the Triads and knew his days were numbered. The police had called him and told him of their findings and that it was dangerous to bring such slanderous charges against someone who was such a large contributor to the community. But he knew differently and so he wasn’t surprised at all when the hushed shot came from an unseen elevation, hitting him square in the shoulder, spinning him around and knocking him to the ground. He went into shock before he had time to be surprised by the tall white man that walked up to him and declared “Boss Tanaka sends his regards” and fired several rounds into the man’s skull.

Shin Lao had of course imagined this man was the one person on this planet that she had wanted dead, Boss Tanaka. However her hands still shook and her eyes were still bleary with tears, sending her shot down and to the left. Through a great strength of will she had pulled the trigger and fallen behind the buttress to hide from the scream of pain the man had let out. She didn’t want to see. She heard the voice of the Viper, the man who had comforted and reassured her not a half hour ago. It was now cold, and sounded like Boss Tanaka’s. “Boss Tanaka sends” his regards, then came four of the loudest noises she had heard in her life as he emptied the rounds into the man. She had had only moments to cry when the light footsteps of the other killer were heard coming through the rooftop door. She opened her eyes to see him kneeling in front of her, his dark glasses slipped slightly down his nose, showing two dark brown rings around his dilated pupils. She then realized that he was scared as well and she smiled. “It’s never easy taking another life, no matter how long you’ve been in this business. Only the truly wicked and insane relish this type of job. I do it for the money…and other reasons.” “And what reasons would those be?” She asked, slightly emboldened knowing that she wasn’t alone in her fears. “Personal” He replied and pushed his glasses up. “Now let’s get out of here, those shots were loud enough to wake up hell itself.”

That night she had cried herself to sleep. She didn’t want to be a killer, but she really had no choice. Boss Tanaka owned her and she had to do what he wanted her to do. That was her first job, and her first run in with the Viper. Six years had passed since that night and there had been hundreds of jobs since then, both solo and coupled with various others of Boss Tanaka’s henchmen. But she had loved the times that she had to run with him. He didn’t leer over her like the others did. At twenty six she was gorgeous by most people’s standards. Tall, lean, well muscled her body was well a product of her training and knew it drew attention from the twisted bastards of Tanaka’s gang.

So here she stood, in a Detective’s office, a free woman thanks to a man that was just recently dead wishing it were otherwise. She cried in this man’s office, whom she had only met twice. The Viper’s words from her first job kept coming back to her whenever she had a moment to herself. She had very much loved him, but the job had kept them apart in that capacity. “Mind if I have a seat Skinner, I have a lot to tell you.” “By all means fill me in.” He poured her a glass of his whiskey and she sat in the obligatory, incredibly uncomfortable chair in front of his desk.