“Hello, my Pissy Stoic…Raven was right, you do look like shit. I’m guessing you don’t quite grasp the whole sleep thing, huh?” She asked through a mocking smile that was tinged with real concern.

“I grasp the concept but practicing it can be an issue.” Silas replied smoothly. ”What all did Raven tell you?”

“Eh, that Raikov is dead and stuff. Mission accomplished. Yay, go you.” She waved a hand dismissively. Worry colored her honey shaded eyes as she asked, “Are you ok?”

“Always.” Silas said nonchalantly. Cassie arched an eyebrow, but didn’t comment further. She didn’t need to. Cassie was the only one he could confide in and he knew she would want him to talk to her. Silas leaned against the desk and stared at the fire for the longest time. Cassie didn’t say anything, she just watched him with that same concerned look. Finally, Silas cleared his throat softly, “It’s just…do you ever wonder about what all we’ve done?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean do you ever sit back and really think about all that we’ve done?” Cassie opened her mouth to interject but Silas forged ahead. “It seems to be all I ever do anymore. I sit up, most of the time until dawn, and watch as a parade of dead faces circles my mind. I can’t forget the dead, no matter what they did while alive. How could I? What kind of person would I be I could just pull the trigger and forget?”

Cassie shook her head, obviously not understanding where he was coming from, “What are you getting at?”

Silas uncrossed his arms and propped himself against the desk, “How many missions have I completed?”

Cassie raised her eyebrows as she typed, “Seventy-seven reported a success, not including Raikov.”

Silas didn’t like the swell of pride that entered her voice as she said this, “How many dead?”

Cassie seemed less enthusiastic about telling him this, “One hundred and forty-eight eliminated, not counting security details and witnesses.

“What right do I have to hold that much life in my hands?”

“It’s necessary.”

“That’s easy to say for someone who hasn’t watched the life leave another human being, to not be the one standing over their bleeding body with the dripping blade. It’s easy to say that it’s a necessary evil when it’s not you committing the act.” Silas said quietly, not meaning to be so harsh but that was the truth of it. No one could hope to understand, no matter how hard they tried.

He didn’t look at Cassie, but he could feel her eyes on him. It was long time before either of them said anything, but finally she broke the silence, “Silas, do you think that I don’t feel it as well? Every time you pull the trigger I do as well. I know it’s not the same…but every time I send you somewhere, I condemn someone to death.”

Silas was about to say that it wasn’t the same but instead just nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Instead he asked, “Do you ever think of the dead, Cassie?”

“More than I like.”

“Do you ever dream of them?” She slowly shook her head. “I do, every time I close my eyes. It’s the reason I don’t sleep. Each time I kill someone it makes me sick, because I know… I know that once I slip away into sleep they’ll be there, waiting for me.” He said in low voice. He dropped his gaze from hers to the withering flames. Nearly every time he would awake in cold sweat, jumping at every little sound. Then he wouldn’t sleep for sometimes days at a time. It was the only time he is ever truly frightened.

Silas looked up, his voice regaining its strength, “Cassie what do you know about Raikov’s head security, Alexi Davidenko?”

A crease formed between her eyebrows, “Davidenko? Um, not a lot yet, his research was next on my to-do… off the top of my head? Just that he served with Raikov in the Russian military. Why?”

“I killed Davidenko right after I executed Raikov.” Cassie’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Silas shrugged his shoulders as he tried return to his usual aloof demeanor. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Cassie started typing something and silence reigned between them for a few moments. Then she said, “You’re in luck, Silas. Alexei Davidenko was Lucia’s next assignment. His profile suggests that he was not a very nice person. I guess he has, or had really, a perverse taste for women. The less willing, the better. He was next in line to take control of Raikov’s empire. Not anymore though, I guess.”

“You were going to send Lucia to take care of him?” Silas replied heatedly. The idea of any woman being in that monsters vicinity made his blood boil. The guilt he felt immediately faded away, replaced with a vicious satisfaction.

“She knows how to take care of herself. You know that.” Cassie said with little smile.

Silas shook his head slowly and his voice shook with simmering anger, “I’m glad I was the one who killed him instead.”

Cassie nodded her head, saying amiably “Maybe it is better that you did.”

“So what do you have for me, Cassie?” Silas asked, the calm returning to his voice. He looked up at her with clear eyes. Her eyes flicked away from his for a moment to the screen as she typed. Her light brown eyes were confused when she looked back at him.

“I don’t have access to it, not all of it anyway.” She said, puzzled. She read something on her screen.

“It seems I’m supposed to brief you partially and then the rest at a later time. Huh, I wonder why that is.” She shrugged. “Anyway, here we go.”

A picture of a young women appeared on his screen. The shiver that ran down his spine as he looked at the young woman was enough to make his hands shake a bit. She was striking, yes…and yet somehow so familiar. He stepped close to the screen, his eyes immersed in his new target.

Around her exquisite face, hair the fleeting crimson of autumn leaves tumbled gently down to her shoulders and it was made all the more vivid by her fair skin but it was her eyes that ensnared him the most. Twin emeralds stared out at him, intense but somehow gentle in the way they seemed stare not at him but into him. There was a timelessness to her gaze that seemed to embody a perfect matrimony of beauty and wisdom that shouldn’t have been present in one so young.

As soon as he looked in her eyes however, something flashed in his mind, leaving a burning trial of incoherent images that seemed part recollection, part dream. Shadows, a descent into fire, and the emerging of a burning shaft of light. Pain and loss leading to despair and sorrow. He winced and touched his forehead, and the images were gone, leaving only echoes.

“This is Ashlin McGuiness, age twenty, and daughter to Kenneth McGuiness and Susan Sharp. Her parents have been divorced for a year now and she lives with her mother in Chicago. Her father is an architect that lives in L.A.” Cassie went on, not noticing his lapse.

“What’s her mother do?” Silas asked as he stepped back.

“She’s a nurse at Mercy Hospital in Chicago.”

“Is that where I’m headed than? Chicago?” Silas asked as he sat on the edge of the desk and crossed his arms.

“No, I don’t think so; she just booked a flight to Seattle. It arrives in three days at 6:45 pm. Apparently, she’s going to visit some friends for a couple of days. I’ve sent her dossier to you.”

“Thank you…So why is she my target? She seems innocent enough.” Silas asked, scrutinizing the girl’s picture. He still couldn’t shake the feeling of familiarity when he looked at her.

“She’s not a target, Silas. It says here that you’re not to harm her and escort her here. To D.C.” Cassie said, her eyes narrowing as she read the orders to him. Her video stream had moved aside to allow him to examine the picture.

Silas froze, not really comprehending what she said, then repeated, “Escort?”

“That’s what it says.”

“Are you reading it right? Maybe you should put your glasses on…”

“I’m reading it right, Silas.” Cassie said in an exasperated tone while rolling her eyes. Silas knew she hated her glasses.

“This isn’t a job for someone like me; this is a job for the local authorities. I’m not a bodyguard.” Silas protested.

“I know, it’s weird. I can’t access the reasons behind it though. It just says it come from the Director himself. Whatever that means.” Cassie muttered as she typed something on her keyboard, and then shook her head. “The firewall to the Director’s network is pretty damn strong, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Just give me a few minutes.”

“No Cassie, it’s protected for a reason. Besides, I have feeling you will be ordered to tell me soon enough. So you said three days from now… today’s Monday, right?”

“It’s Tuesday, Silas.”

“Right, Tuesday…..so that’s Friday at 6:45 pm. Can you tell me the gate and flight number?” Silas said, pulling out his cell phone and noting the date and time.

“Wait, you’re really going to do this blind?” Cassie asked, her voice tinged with disbelief

“Yeah, should be exciting...been too long since I’ve had to.” Silas replied loftily, still looking down at his phone.

“So, you’re saying you don’t need me...” Cassie said softly. Something in her tone made Silas glance up only to see her cheeks flush crimson. His eyes darted back to his phone screen, not answering her and hoping she hadn’t seen that he saw. “Um… Gate 7, flight 223.”

“Thanks.” He finished his notes and slipped his phone into the pocket of his pants. He brought his eyes back up to Cassie’s. “Cassie, I have a question.” Silas said his tone serious once more.

“Ok, shoot.”

“Can you tell me where Berial’s last assignment was located?”

“Umm…hold on a sec…..ah, here it is. Berial was last in Tokyo. He was to eliminate a Yakuza family that was funding terrorist activity in the Middle East. His last report was a couple of days ago. He was on ship heading towards California, the report says.” Cassie read before chuckling softly, “Berial on a boat…I’d pay to see that.”

Silas crossed his arms after smiling briefly at her quip, and turned his back to stare out the window at the heavy snowfall. So Berial couldn’t have been in Moscow. Then who else could it have been? The assassin absently ran a hand through his thick hair and his shoulders rose and fell with a small sigh.

“How come?” She asked from behind him.

“No reason, just wanted to know.”

“Silas, are you ok? I mean to go on another assignment so fast?”

Silas looked back at her, held her gaze for a few moments, then nodded his head “Yes, I’m fine. Shouldn’t be that hard to just grab her and take her to Washington. It was good to see you, Cassie, I’ll report back when I have the girl.” He smiled one last time, and began to turn away from the screen once more.

“Silas wait.” Cassie said suddenly. Silas stopped and half turned towards her, the folds of his leather coat swaying around his legs.

“Yes?”

“Please be careful. Something doesn’t seem right.” She said quietly.

Silas gave a short bark of laughter, “Yeah, the feeling seems to be contagious.” Cassie smiled sadly and then the screen went back to his desktop.

He pulled off his long black coat and threw it over his handsome office chair, and then he undid the strap to his harness, draping it over the couch after he did. His leather gloves soon followed. He picked up the harness and rolled his shoulders a couple of times before walking to the far wall. He reached up to a shelf at eye level and shifted a red book with black stripes running down the spine.

There was a series of sharp clicking before the whole shelf slid parted smoothly. Sterile fluorescent lights flickered on behind the false bookcase to reveal a vault of weapons and ammunition. Assault rifles, various types of handguns, sniper rifles and many different bladed weapons lay behind shatter proof glass. Silas put a hand to a small metal plate to the side of the vault, and it warmed as it read his prints. Luminous keypads appeared on each of the glass doors.

Silas stepped up to the section of handguns and rapidly tapped a four digit code into the pad. The case hissed and the glass door popped ajar. He opened the case then pulled one of his side arms out of the holster at the small of his back. He ejected the clip and tossed it in a shallow drawer underneath the case. He then did the same with the other gun. Silas threw the harness in the drawer as soon as it was empty of spare clips. He then placed his knife on the large desk before turning back around to the vault and tapping the metal plate with his forefinger. The lights dimmed and the bookcase slide back into place once more.