Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Mark of the Phoenix ❯ Chapter 9

“Mark of the Phoenix”

Chapter 9

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*Disclaimer: The world that this story is set in and all characters therein belong to Square-Enix. This fiction piece is strictly a non-profit exercise of creativity and entertainment for people (like me) who can't get enough of this world and the characters.*

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Tseng called him into his office, telling him to drop whatever he was doing right away. Reno briefly wondered if he'd finally pushed it too far and earned himself an early “retirement” from the organization, but he pushed the fleeting notion aside. Tseng would have put a bullet in his scull weeks ago when he flipped out, if he thought he was a liability to the Turks. Just the other day, Tseng had praised him for his quality of work and reinstated him as second in command once more, on a trial basis.

 

Reno winked at the secretary as she buzzed him in to the director's office and he walked through the polished door. He stopped in confusion when he saw that Rude and Elena were there as well, but when he noticed Rufus standing beside Tseng behind the desk, the fine hairs on the back of his neck rose.

 

“What's up?” Reno asked without formal greetings. He closed the door behind him and his fellow Turks and superiors looked at him as he crossed the room.

 

“All of you have a seat,” Tseng ordered.

 

Reno shrugged at Rude and sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Rude and Elena took their seats beside him and the three of them looked up at their bosses with curious interest.

 

“Cissnei's been discovered,” Tseng announced without further delay, “and I've had no choice but to give the order for her retrieval.”

 

Reno tensed in his seat and opened his mouth but the director held up his hand for silence and gave him a firm, warning look. “The team assigned to collect her is due to leave in the morning. I can have an unmarked helicopter ready for you within the hour It will be hard to track because the tracer hasn't been installed yet, so it should afford you some advantage. You'll have a head start and all of the information you need to reach her first. Once you do that, get her away from there and take her somewhere remote to lay low until the president and I can complete the work we've begun.”

 

“What work?” Elena asked respectfully when she noticed that Reno looked too stunned to speak.

 

“We're going to do a bit of embellishing,” Rufus answered. “It's going to take time but it will result in the charges against Cissnei being dropped, if we do it properly. She'll have to cooperate of course, but we've devised a method to make it appear as though she never willingly left the organization and her apparent death was a simple case of mistaken identity—which of course it was, so that part at least will be fairly simple to accomplish.”

 

“How are you going to pull this off, Sir?” Rude inquired with an interested lift of one brow.

 

Rufus smiled dryly. “Very, very carefully. You can have the details later. For now, the thing you three have to concern yourselves with is whether you're willing to do this.”

 

“Each of you will have to make your own decision,” Tseng inserted. “Understand this: should you take on this endeavor, you will be going against your own company. For the president and I to do our work, we must operate under plausible deniability. This means that as far as anyone else is concerned, you acted on your own…without our knowledge or consent.”

 

“We have a cover story ready that will excuse your actions and clear you of charges as well when this is finished,” Rufus explained, “But you need to understand that until then, you'll become fugitives yourself in helping Cissnei. If you decide not to do this, the only thing you need worry about is keeping quiet.” His gray eyes settled on Reno for a moment, then flicked from Rude to Elena. “I think we all know where Reno stands in this, but what about the two of you?”

 

Rude and Elena glanced at each other briefly.

 

“I'm in,” Rude said without hesitation.

 

“Me too,” announced Elena a second later.

 

“So what's our cover story for this?” Reno asked in an eager tone as he stood up.

 

Tseng obliged him the information. “After you heard that Cissnei was alive and marked as a target, you did some research yourselves and found evidence that she wasn't a runner after all. Knowing that you needed more proof to clear her name, you chose to buy some time and take her into custody yourselves while you investigated.”

 

“The body found by the fire brigade was actually a deceased hooker that was close enough to Cissnei's size to pass as her, once the explosion did its work and destroyed her facial features,” Rufus revealed. “Cissnei left her ID badge and phone lying next to the corpse before exiting the building out the back. We can use that and fabricate that Cissnei was actually thrown clear of the building from the force of the blast and later found in ditch by civilians, who took her to the hospital. By the time this would have happened, she would have already been mistakenly declared dead.”

 

“Whoa, hold it a minute,” Reno said, his head reeling from all of this information. “Where did you get the hooker in the first place and how are you gonna explain her being there, much less how Cissnei's ID ended up laying next to her?”

 

“We selected the body from the morgue, actually,” Rufus said calmly. “Or rather, we had someone else do it. As for how this will work with your story, the deceased woman would have been Cissnei's contact and it's quite reasonable to assume there may have been a struggle between the two of them before the explosions went off.”

 

“The position they found the body in was close enough to the back part of the building for it to be believable that Cissnei was near that spot as well,” Tseng reasoned. “It could easily be assumed that as Cissnei was thrown just as the ceiling collapsed on top of her contact. Since Turks keep no dental records and the extensive burns destroyed her fingerprints, it explains the identification error.”

 

Rude looked impressed, but slightly doubtful. “That takes care of her `death', but she would have woken up sometime eventually and contacted us.”

 

“Not if she woke up with amnesia,” countered Rufus smoothly.

 

“Isn't that a little cliché?” Elena argued respectfully.

 

“Considering that she'll have been thrown by an explosive blast and found in a ditch with head injuries, I don't think so,” Rufus said dryly. “It's happened to others in the organization before, after all.”

 

“Happened to me once,” Rude agreed with a nod. “Not long after I joined. Some punk hit me with a lead pipe trying to get away from me and I didn't even know who I was for a month, after that. I'd believe it.”

 

“So why would she be seen three years later in Sunset Coast?” Reno asked with a frown.

 

“She was sent to a specialist there shortly after waking up and recovering from her injuries, when the doctors here realized how severe her amnesia was,” Tseng answered. “Once there, she decided to stay and lived under the name that she made up for herself.”

 

“But what about the kid?” Reno asked. “She would have been pregnant when this started, right?”

 

“Well, yes,” Tseng said with a look that hinted he didn't think Reno wasn't using all of his mental facilities. “Of course, Sadie would have been born to her a few months after she arrived in Sunset Coast. I didn't mention her because I thought that was a given.”

 

Reno sighed and shook his head. “Sorry boss. I guess I'm just worried people are gonna wonder how she lived through a blast like that without having a miscarriage, yo.”

 

“The miracle of modern medicine,” Rufus said with a shrug. “Pregnant women have survived all manner of accidents without losing their babies, Reno. Cissnei could just as easily be one of them.”

 

The redhead nodded eagerly. “Got it. The only thing I see wrong with this now is how to explain her running from the Turks. If she's not supposed to remember who she is or where she came from it might look a little funny if she sees someone from the organization and makes a run for it.”

 

“That's why I arranged for you to have a head start,” answered Tseng. “The cover story is that you three are trying to protect her until you can prove she's not guilty of defection. It would stand to reason that you would have told her the danger she was in and warned her not to trust any other Turks she saw.”

 

Reno was feeling very stupid, by now. “Right. Sounds like you've got it all figured out.”

 

“There's a catch to all of this, of course,” Rufus said grimly. “Cissnei will have to agree to return to the organization. Even under the guise of a recovering victim of amnesia, she'll be considered too great a security threat to leave the Turks. Amnesia is rarely a permanent condition and her memory and all of the company secrets she knows will be expected to return eventually.”

 

Reno sighed and nodded. “What if she doesn't wanna come back?”

 

Rufus and Tseng exchanged a look between them. “Then all of this will be in vain,” the Wutaian answered. “Her choices are reinstatement or living the rest of her life as a target and possibly dragging you, Rude and Elena down with her.”

 

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” Reno grumbled.

 

~********************************~

 

“I'll have grey in my hair before this is finished,” Tseng murmured as his fingertips swiftly pressed the keys on his laptop. Reno and the others had left several hours ago and the sun was just coming up. The retrieval team would be leaving soon but fortunately, by the time they arrived at their destination Reno's team should have already gotten Cissnei and her daughter away from there.

 

The director paused in his work to rub his tired eyes. He yawned and considered whether or not he wanted to make another pot of coffee. While they needed to work as swiftly as possible to complete this deception, he and Rufus both needed their rest like anyone else. He knew that the president was still awake and working as hard as he was because he'd just spoken to Rufus a half hour ago. It could take more than a month to finish the alterations and forgeries required for this to work and if they exhausted themselves trying to make it happen too fast, they could both get careless and make drastic errors.

 

Deciding that it was time for him to stop for a while and try to get some rest, Tseng saved his work and shut his computer down. He stood up and stretched, reaching into his jacket for his keys as he did so. His work phone rang and he sighed and picked it up.

 

“This is Tseng,” he said in a tired voice.

 

“I'm glad I caught you Sir,” Katsu said. “I'm sorry if I woke you. I heard you never left headquarters last night so I assumed you slept in your office.”

 

“It's no trouble,” Tseng replied automatically. “What do you need?”

 

“I just wanted to report that we're getting ready to leave now, but with any luck the target should be apprehended before we even arrive at the destination.”

 

Tseng's exhaustion faded under the force of an unexpected burst of adrenaline and a cold chill. “What do you mean?” he asked.

 

“I found out we've already got some agents in Costa Del Sol, finishing up an unrelated assignment. I've contacted them and told them to drive to Sunset Coast to capture the target and hold her for us, Sir.” Katsu sounded pleased and eager, obviously expecting praise for his clever thinking.

 

“Good work,” Tseng responded mechanically, hoping that the flat tone of his voice could be attributed to exhaustion instead of dread. “Thank you, Katsu. Contact me when you've got her in custody.”

 

Tseng hardly heard the young man's flattered reply. He pulled the phone away from his ear and turned it off, while reaching for his other phone at the same time.

 

~**************************************~

 

“What?” Reno said with a frown of concentration as he pressed his headphone harder against his ear. “I didn't catch that, Tseng. Can ya say it again?” He glanced at the control panel to be sure they were still flying on course and he listened intently for the Wutaian's reply.

 

“I said, there are agents in Costa Del Sol,” Tseng repeated in a tight voice, “they've been given orders to travel to Sunset Coast and capture Cissnei. What is your ETA?”

 

Reno paled. “Shit!” He looked at the navigation panel and did a quick number crunch in his head. “We ought to get there in about an hour and a half. Are these agents airborn or on the ground?”

 

“They have ground transportation,” Tseng answered.

 

“How long is the drive from Costa to Sunset?” Reno asked.

 

“A couple of hours, but they had already gotten their orders when I was informed of this,” Tseng answered. “You'll be cutting it very close, if you can beat them there at all.”

 

Reno looked over at Rude with dread in his sea-green eyes and the bald man frowned, wondering what was going on. “You have any way to contact her?”

 

“I've been trying her home number and her cell number, but there's no answer,” answered the Wutaian. “Unless I'm mistaken, she should be scheduled for work today. I'll continue trying both of her phones and if I can't reach her, I'll call her shop as soon as it's open for business and try her there.”

 

Reno swore again and wondered if the universe was conspiring against them. “Okay boss…please, just don't stop trying. I'm gonna kick this bird into high gear and try to shave some time off our itinerary.”

 

“Contact me when you've got her to safety,” ordered Tseng before he ended the call.

 

“What's going on, Red?” asked Rude when his partner flipped some switches to put some extra power behind the engines.

 

“They've already got people on their way to get Cissnei,” answered the redhead tensely, “Sounds like some people were on a job in Costa and the guys on the retrieval assignment gave `em a ring. We're cutting it real fucking close, man.”

 

Rude set his jaw and stared ahead mutely. Elena was napping in the back and she hadn't heard the news.

 

“Let her rest,” Reno advised as Rude began to unfasten his safety belt to get up and wake Elena. “It won't do any good to wake her up and tell her now. Gaia knows we ain't gonna get much rest once we get there so just let her catch up on her Z's while she can.” Reno's whole body was as tense as a bungee cord stretched tight and a light sheen of sweat was breaking out on his forehead and above his upper lip.

 

“We'll get to them, partner,” Rude assured the redhead.

 

~**************************~

 

She was just finishing restocking a shelf when her coworker called out to her from the checkout desk.

 

“Emily? There's a man on the telephone asking for you,” the older woman said as she held the receiver up.

 

Cissnei frowned. She didn't have any close male associates, and she couldn't imagine a reason why the few men she knew as acquaintances would be calling her at work. “A man?” she repeated. “What's his name?”

 

“He says his name is Tseng,” replied Kirsten with an answering frown. “It sounds important. Emily, are you all right?”

 

Cissnei fumbled with the vase she'd been putting on the shelf, nearly dropping it. She knew her face had taken on a sickly pallor. “I'm fine,” she lied. “I think I know what he wants. Mind if I take it in the back room?”

 

“Go right ahead,” Kirsten said. “Are you sure you're okay honey? You've gone awfully pale. Is this man Tseng bothering you or something?”

 

Cissnei shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I just ate something that disagreed with me last night and I'm still a little queasy.” She finished putting the vase on the shelf and hurried into the room at the back of the shop. Taking a deep breath, she picked up the phone with a shaking hand and brought it to her ear. “I've got it, Kirsten,” she said in an impressively calm voice. There was a “click” as the other women hung up the other line.

 

“Cissnei, you know why I'm calling, don't you?” Tseng's voice asked as soon as the other phone was hung up.

 

She closed her eyes and said a silent prayer. “They know I'm here, don't they?” Tseng had told her when she left that he would never contact her unless she was in danger.

 

“Yes,” he answered softly. “Listen to me, you have to take your daughter and get out of there. They're already on their way.”

 

Cissnei felt her pulse pounding in her temples as her heart rate increased. “How long?” she asked.

 

“They could come for you at any moment now,” Tseng replied, his voice subtly urgent. “Cissnei, I want you to—”

 

She peered around the corner and into the shop at that moment and through the front glass doors, she saw an expensive blue car pull up in the street outside. Her eyes widened as the doors opened and two men wearing tailored uniforms stepped out of the vehicle. They strode purposefully toward the doors and she ducked her head back into the office.

 

“They're here,” she whispered into the phone.

 

“Cissnei, did you hear what I said to you?” Tseng asked in a strained voice.

 

She didn't hear that either, because she set the phone down on the desk after informing him they were there and she was already out the door and hurrying for the back exit in the storage room. She grabbed the purse that was hanging on a hook on the wall and dropped her cellphone into the garbage bin on her way out.

 

“Reno, Rude and Elena are on their way to get you,” Tseng went on, unaware that she was no longer listening. “Go to your house and wait for them. Cissnei? Cissnei, are you there?” There was a muttered curse and a click as Tseng hung up.

 

~************************************~

 

“I just stopped by her house and there was nobody there,” Elena reported over the phone.

 

“She must already be at work,” reasoned Reno. “Rude's on his way to her babysitter's house now. I'll check the shop and let ya know if I find her. Just circle the neighborhood for now and keep an eye out for her, yo.”

 

He hung up and kept a sharp lookout for any signs of other Turks as he drove down the street. He narrowed his eyes on the street signs as he passed them, hoping he hadn't missed the block he needed to turn onto. He'd just spotted the sign he was looking for when he noticed a young woman walking briskly away on the sidewalk next to it. She was petite and she wore a white peasant blouse and a pair of tan shorts. Her light chestnut hair fell to her mid-back in waves and it bounced against her back as she hurried away from the block he was looking for.

 

Even from behind, he recognized her and his heart thudded in his chest.

 

“I'd know that ass anywhere,” he muttered to himself.

 

The hurried pace she was walking in suggested that she was trying to move fast without attracting attention to herself and it suddenly didn't seem so strange to him that she was walking away from where her shop was supposed to be, rather than towards it. He accelerated the car a little and kept his eyes on her, even as he watched out for pursuit.

 

~**********************************~

 

She heard the car approaching on the street behind her and her mouth went dry with fear. She didn't dare look behind her to see if it was the same car that the Turks had arrived in at her shop. If it was them, there was a chance they would pass her by if they didn't see her face. She was sure they hadn't spotted her in the shop so they shouldn't know what she was wearing. If she could get away unnoticed, she could take the back streets to Marie's house and get her daughter.

 

~If they know where I work then they must know where I live…and they probably know where the babysitter lives, too!~

 

Panic rose within Cissnei as she thought of Sadie. Her fear for her daughter's safety outweighed her fear for her own and her breath caught in her throat. As the car came closer it slowed down. Cissnei increased her stride and shifted her purse in her arms, desperate to reach Sadie and protect her. Out the corner of her eye she saw the black car creep up beside her. The window slid down and she turned her head away, trying to pretend she was looking into the windows of the closed shops she was passing.

 

“Cissnei.”

 

She stopped abruptly and tingles shot up her spine at the sound of that familiar, longed-for voice. She'd forgotten how sensual it was. She couldn't believe it, so she turned and looked at the face peering out of the open car window. Vivid, firebrick red hair framed a fair-skinned, sculpted masculine face. The hair was fluffed and semi-feathered, with long wisps dipping down to hang on either side of his face. It was very long in the back, but bound into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. The unique, single crescent tattoos marking each of his high cheekbones matched his hair in color. A pair of oval shades concealed his eyes but he reached up with his free hand and lifted them so they sat on his forehead. Beautiful, sea-green eyes surrounded by a fringe of ginger lashes gazed up at her, squinting in the morning sunlight.

 

“Get in the car,” Reno said.

 

She came back to her senses then, remembering the danger she was in and guessing why he was here. “Stay away from me, Reno,” she demanded as she started walking quickly again. He followed alongside, keeping one eye on the road.

 

“Where do ya think you're going?” he snapped. “Cissnei, get in the damn car!”

 

“No! Leave me alone!” She began to jog, her shock at seeing him again rapidly giving way to fear. He wasn't there to take her in his arms and tell her it would be all right. He was there to kill her, just like the other Turks.

 

“Aw, hell,” Reno snarled as he got caught behind another car. He couldn't risk losing her so he abruptly threw his rented vehicle in park and got out of it. Cissnei looked like a frightened doe as she looked over her shoulder at him and she took off at a dead run, heading for a line of shops up ahead.

 

“Wait!” Reno cried ineffectively as he chased after her. “You've got it all wrong!”

 

Cissnei didn't look back. She had a head start but his longer legs could cover more ground than hers and she couldn't stay far ahead of him. She reached the line of buildings and turned, running through the alley between them. Most people would have called it a stupid move, especially since there was a fence blocking the other side. Her plan wasn't to escape him through outdistancing though. She couldn't do that, so she chose to lure him into the secluded alley instead so that she could draw her concealed gun without bystanders seeing.

 

She ran to the fence and turned around to face the way she came in. Reno charged into the alley a couple of seconds later and skidded to a halt as she drew the pistol out of her purse and took aim at him.

 

“Down on the ground,” Cissnei ordered grimly.

 

He held his hands up slowly, looking at her with an oddly bewildered expression on his handsome face. “Listen to me,” he started to say.

 

She clicked off the safety. “Get down on the ground!” she repeated more urgently.

 

Reno complied, easing himself to his knees and then onto his stomach. The desperation and fear in her eyes told him everything. She only saw a Turk when she looked at him. Maybe that was all she'd ever seen. He clenched his jaw as fresh, unwelcome pain constricted his chest. He didn't think she could hurt him worse than she already had but the new pain proved him wrong.

 

~I should just say “fuck it” and leave her on her own.~

 

The thing was, he couldn't do that. Even if she'd never trusted him and had never seen him as anything but a puppet for the organization, he still couldn't let anything happen to her. Not if he could help it.

 

“Cissnei, I'm not here for the reason you think I am,” Reno tried to explain as he stretched out on the cement. He looked up at her to see her backing away, keeping her gun trained on him. “Why won't you listen!”

 

Just for a moment, her eyes softened behind the glossy fear and he saw the longing in them. “I wish it was true,” she murmured. She took a deep breath and hardened her expression. “Stay where you are and don't move until I'm gone. I'll shoot you if I have to, Reno.”

 

~Oh please stay down,~ she silently begged him, ~Even if you are here to kill me, I still love you. Don't make me shoot, Reno!~

 

She could have tried to cuff him but Cissnei had too much respect for his limber fighting skills to get close enough to try. He didn't try to move and she kept her gun and her eyes on him as she pressed her back against the wall and eased by him, careful to keep all parts of her body out of range in case he decided to launch into motion and grab her.

 

When she made it past him, she ran out of the alley without looking back.

 

~*******************************~

 

Reno dragged himself to his feet and lunged out onto the sidewalk, looking every which way for Cissnei's retreating form. She'd already gotten out of sight and he knew he'd have a hard time spotting her again now that she's shaken him. Snarling with frustration, he dug out his phone and dialed Rude.

 

“Hey, it's me. I had her but she thought I was here to kill her and she got away. She's gotta be heading there to pick up our kid, so just stay there and wait for her. Maybe she'll listen to you, man.”

 

He frowned at Rude's response. “What do you mean, ya haven't found the babysitter's house yet? You're lost? Shit, just keep looking for it. I'm on my way.”

 

He replaced his phone and jogged back to his car. As he got into it, other passing drivers yelled at him for parking in the street and he flipped them off and started the vehicle. He searched through his pockets for his copy of the directions and started off, hoping he could catch Cissnei there and get her to listen to reason.

 

~*************************************~

 

Cissnei couldn't risk circling back around to get her car—she might be spotted by the Turks that had come to her shop if she did. She kept moving, going by foot until she could either find a cab, get a ride from someone that didn't look suspicious, or steal a car if she had to. The only thing that mattered to her right now was getting her daughter and getting away. She replaced her gun in her purse but kept the bag open in case she needed the weapon again.

 

Normally the cab services in Sunset Coast ran from their respective business garages and people had to call and order one to pick them up. A select few did their business on the streets the way most cab companies did in Junon and formerly, Midgar. She kept her eye out for one while she hurried through the back streets and stayed alert for signs of pursuers.

 

She didn't have any luck finding a cab, but she did find a convertible parked on the corner of the next main street. The hood was down, which would make it easy for her to jump in and hotwire it. She kept a wary eye out as she turned onto the street and approached it, hoping the owner wasn't nearby. After a few moments, she deemed it safe to proceed and she hopped into the driver's side and reached down to fool with the panel under the steering wheel. As soon as she got it open, an alarm went off in the car and she hissed a curse, her fingers working with practiced skill to disarm it. She found the culprit wire and pulled it free, making the alarm stop.

 

“Forgot to disarm it first,” she said with a sunny smile at an elderly man who looked at her curiously as he walked by. She took her keys from her purse and pretended to use them, managing to ram one of them far enough into the ill-fitting keyhole to look convincing. The man lost interest and moved on, but she kept up the act for the sake of other passersby. Covertly manipulating the wires with her other hand, she pretended to twist the key in the ignition. It took a couple of tries before the vehicle started up and she sighed with relief as she put the car into gear.

 

She drove as fast as she could without risking a speeding ticket. Marie's house was halfway across town. She could only hope that she could beat the Turks there and get away before they arrived. If she'd had the time she would have stopped at a payphone and called the babysitter to tell her to take Sadie, get out of the house and meet up with her somewhere. Unfortunately there weren't many public phones available on the back streets and she'd be too exposed if she took the main streets. She suddenly wished she'd turned her cell on and made just one phone call before she threw it away to keep them from using it to track her.

 

~*********************************~

 

“Sadie! Marie!” Cissnei hollered out for them as soon as she got through the front door. She closed it behind her, twisted the lock on the knob and slid the chain into place for good measure. “Where are you?”

 

Marie came around the corner from the kitchen, holding a damp glass in one hand and a dishtowel in the other. The middle-aged woman looked at Cissnei with concern on her plump features.

 

“You're here early,” she said, eyeing Cissnei with worried hazel eyes. She reached up and tucked a wayward strand of graying, strawberry blonde hair behind her ear. “Emily dear, what's the matter?”

 

“We have to leave,” Cissnei answered, closing the distance between herself and the other woman. “I don't have time to explain right now, Marie. Where's Sadie at?”

 

“She's upstairs,” the woman said with growing alarm. “I just put her down for her early nap a few minutes ago. Emily, are you in some kind of trouble?”

 

“I'll tell you in the car,” Cissnei replied as she hurried up the stairs. “Just grab your purse and Sadie's bag while I get her!” She didn't wait to see if the other woman complied. She took the stairs two at a time and charged down the hallway to the little room her daughter always napped in when she was there. The little girl stirred in the small bed when Cissnei opened the door and she looked up at her mother with surprise and delight. She couldn't tell time yet but she knew her mother usually didn't pick her up until some time after her afternoon nap.

 

“Mommy!” Sadie sat up and held her arms out.

 

“Hi there, Dumpling,” Cissnei said with a forced smile as she picked her daughter up and cradled her in her arms. “Hold on tight to me, okay? We're going to leave and we won't be coming back, but we'll find a better place to live.”

 

“Buster,” Sadie cried with alarm, her small hands reaching out for the chocobo plushy on the bed. “Don't weave him!” She was a bright child and had started talking at an earlier age than most, but as with most toddlers she had trouble pronouncing some consonants and vowels.

 

“It's okay, I've got him,” Cissnei assured her as she bent down and picked the toy animal up. “Now be a good girl and do as I say, okay?” She did her best not to let her anxiety slip into her words, wanting to avoid scaring Sadie as much as she could. Children could sense these things however and the child looked at her with round, sea-green eyes.

 

“Kay Mommy,” Sadie replied. She was obviously getting scared but she was handling it remarkably well.

 

Cissnei smiled at her and kissed her on the cheek. “Good girl.” She turned to head out the door and she heard a car pull up outside. A knot of fear reformed in her belly and she went to the window and pushed the blinds aside to look down at the street below. A car had pulled up in the driveway behind her stolen convertible, but it wasn't the same vehicle as the one driven by the men who showed up at her job. This one was a green two-door and the solitary Turk that stepped out of it and headed for the front door hadn't been with the other two.

 

~How am I going to get us out of here? They've probably got agents all over the city looking for me now!~

 

Her only chance was to get herself, Marie and Sadie out the back door before the man could break in. Her purse was downstairs and with it, her gun. She held her daughter more tightly in her arms and ran out of the room, down the hall and toward the stairs.

 

“Emily, there's a man in a suit outside,” Marie called as she picked up her purse and started reaching for Sadie's bag. “Do you know any well-off gentlemen?”

 

“Don't open the door!” Cissnei hollered as she started down the stairs. Marie paused halfway to the door with a frown and Cissnei reached the bottom of the stairs and started toward the foyer, intending to grab her purse from the hall tree and get her weapon out.

 

There was a sudden sound of cracking glass and a neat bullet hole appeared in the stained glass window on the front door. Marie stood there looking confused for a moment and Cissnei saw the bloom of red spreading over the back of her shirt, between her shoulder blades and to the left.

 

“Marie!” choked the brunette as her friend toppled onto her back. The woman's features were waxen and she stopped breathing almost instantly. She'd taken a clean shot to the heart. There was a blow to the door from the other side of it and it shivered on its hinges. Getting her gun was no longer an option. Cissnei turned and pressed her daughter's face against her chest to shield her eyes from the body. Sadie whimpered with growing fear as her mother began to run away from the foyer and toward the back of the house.

 

The door slammed open and a shadow filled the hallway. Cissnei turned with wide eyes, backing away from the unfamiliar Turk that stood there. He walked in with his gun raised and aimed at her. She pressed her back against the wall near the back door and she knew she'd never get through it before she and her daughter got shot down.

 

“Close your eyes baby,” Cissnei instructed her daughter in a shaking voice as she held her tightly and prepared for the end. She heard another car peeling up to the curb outside but the Turk didn't seem alarmed by the sound and she concluded that it must be his companions.

 

“Cissnei,” the young man said as he advanced and regarded her through his designer shades. The faint sound of running footsteps could be heard outside. He opened his mouth to say something more to her, but there was a sound of muffled gunshot from the open doorway behind him and he jerked as two crimson stains grew on his white dress shirt…one on the left side of his chest and one on the upper right. Blood trickled out of his mouth and he made as if to turn, but he fell to the floor before he could complete the motion and lay there sprawled out, his movements quickly ceasing as death came for him.

 

Cissnei's eyes went from his body to the pair of new silhouettes in the doorway. Reno stood there with Rude by his side and both of them had their silencer-equipped guns trained on the fresh corpse. Reno looked up at Cissnei with an unreadable expression for a moment, then shared a glance with his partner and walked in, replacing his gun in his concealed holster as he did so.

 

Cissnei's mind was a jumble of confusion and fear as her ex approached her.

 

~*************************************~

 

-To be continued