"Are you bloody listening? Who was that?" Francis bellowed, his voice bursting through Thiago's reminiscence.

Thiago abruptly spoke,"We have to get rid of the body before anyone sees it. Once we do that, I'll begin explaining."

Francis looked like he wanted to argue, but thought against it and nodded his assent. They picked up Tyrone's cyanide ravaged body and moved it inside, then proceeded to take the weapon boxes off the pickup. Upon doing that, Thiago bolted the door, drew all the curtains and went into his living room.

Francis stood there, arms crossed and an angry expression on his face. He spoke,"When I expected to deliver this stuff to your house, I didn't exactly expect it to turn into a bloody shootout!"

"Neither did I, for that matter Francis. It seems someone from my past is out to get me."Thiago slumped onto his sofa, feeling the effects of the adrenaline wear off as he simultaneously felt cam and tired.

"Someone from your past? You must have picked a fight with the wrong asshole if they send goons with high powered sniper rifles after you! A damn good one for that matter,"Francis added, picking up the gun from next to it previous owner's corpse and examining it,"Hmm. An M40. This is used by bloody Marines, for goodness sake! Even I can't get one of these without difficulty."

Shaking his head, he took out the magazine, emptied its chamber of a bullet, carefully set it aside and said,"Right. You have an explanation to offer me."

Thiago carefully analyzed him. He was a gun salesman, after all, an illegal one as evidently shown by the kind of weapons he had sold him, but he could still turn over Thiago to the authorities after hearing what he had to say... But then, if he had been of that mindset, he might have let him handle the sniper alone. After all, Thiago was Tyrone's target, not Francis. It was still risky, but he decided to go for it.

He said,"It's too risky indoors. Lets take a walk."

Francis said,"Let's head over to my place instead. There might still be someone waiting for you in these trees, and my crib is bug free. Test it every other day."

Thiago agreed, and almost stepoed outside before remembering,"The body! We can't just leave it there."

Francis smacked his forehead and said,"Right you are, I've got an incinerator back home. We'll dispose of it there."

They put the body in a bag, then carried it to the pickup, where they put it underneath the back seats. Then, they set off.

After driving through the suburb, they came across a small, compact house. Upon the mailbox read "Francis R. Burns". Francis muttered,"Better get rid of that, I never get any mail anyways..."

Fifteen minutes later, having put the body into the rather large incinerator in the basement, and having settled down in the living room, Thiago refused his host's offer of a drink; he needed to keep his wits sharp at the moment. Francis poured himself a rather large serving, downed half in a single gulp and said,"Alright, start."

Thiago began,"I worked for an agency once, one that specialised in assassinations. Impossible was nothing to us; we managed to kill people in seemingly miraculous ways. I retired from that agency and came to live here. Now it seems someone connected to my past is trying to kill me, and the most likely person is someone related to or connected to one of my former targets. It can't be the agency; had they wanted me dead, I would have been dead before even lifting a foot into the United States."

Francis listened quietly, then remarked,"Well they must not be very good, if they sent that bloke to kill you."

Thiago pondered, then replied," No, I do not think he was sent to kill me. He was meant to be a warning shot, a signal that someone wants me dead. In fact, I think he knew he was meant to die in the fight against me. We were partners for a mission before his incompetence nearly got us both killed and so I had him dismissed. No...,"Thiago shuddered, then said,"There is always the chance someone from back home found out about me and is now trying to kill me."

"Where is your home, for that matter? And why would they want to kill you?"Francis asked.

Thiago hesitated. He had never told anyone where his homeland was, and he was not going to start now. He replied,"Where I'm from is not important. What's more important is who the attacker is... There aren't many people there who could have arranged something like this. The ones who could, are dead. That leaves my targets, maybe relatives who somehow found out my identity and are trying to get back at me. Could be that Tyrone was trying to kill me on his own, even though he was always pathetic. I don't know!"Thiago exclaimed, holding his head in his hands.

Francis pondered for a moment, then said, "Man, if these people really want you dead that bad, why don't you try moving to another part of the country? Or another country altogether?"

Thiago considered, then replied,"No, there is no use running. If they have found me here, they will certainly find me elsewhere. No, I have to get to the bottom of this, if I am to have any chance of surviving."

Francis went over to him and said,"Well man, it seems you ain't gonna find it easy doing it all alone. You ever want a hand, or find yourself in the kind of trouble we just went through, don't hesitate to call. I was in the army before this, served in Vietnam and even Afghanistan for a while before I decided to quit. It was alright in the beginning, but the fact that I saw soldiers bomb down villages full of innocents, just because they wanted to flush out rebels... Disgraceful. I didn't want no part in that kind of horeshit."

Thiago shook his hand, and said,"Yes friend, the world is full of bad things, and you never quite get over them. I'm one of the best people to hear that from, considering my past life... Well, no point dwellin in the past, we have enough to deal with in the present."

Francis suddenly lurched downwards; Thiago thought he was going to fall over due to tipsiness and reached out to break his fall, but then saw that Francis was reaching for a key under the table.

"It's best if you don't return home tonight, with all them bastards around. I have an apartment five houses down the road to the right, you should stay there. Same bulletproof window shit as all the windows in this shithole and my truck. Oh yeah, take this Colt Python too. Never can be too careful, and this'll put a stop to their tracks, or a really big hole in 'em if a bullet lands."Francis handed him the keys and the gun.

Thiago thanked him profusely for his generosity, and headed out of the house, being careful to look around for assailants.

Three houses down the block, he heard some leaves snap suddenly in the bushes behind him, and a softly spoken swearword. He wheeled around, drew out his gun and rushed over to the bush, pointing it directly at the figure crouched behind.

The figure sprung up, and Thiago's finger tightened on the trigger when it said,"Please, don't shoot!"

"Michelle?!? What the hell are you doing here?" He lowered his gun and inquired in disbelief.

Michelle put her arms down and sheepishly replied,"I saw the whole gunfight you just had, I hadn't gotten very far when it started. Then I saw you put the body in the truck and leave... I snuck into the trunk before you guys left. Then I decided to follow you to wherever you were going. Now I'm caught."

Thiago went up to her, still full of disbelief and exclaimed,"Considering that I was attacked not three hours ago, and that you saw me kill a person, you decided to follow me?"

"Well, you didn't exactly kill him, he did suicide with something on his shirt. And I wanted to know more about you after all that."

"Even though I'm not exactly an English teacher, ever heard the phrase, curiosity killed the cat?" Shaking his head, Thiago said,"What about your parents? Haven't they noticed you're gone?"

"Naa, my dad's working and my mom's gone over for a dinner by this rich woman in the city."Michelle hesitated, then pulled out a pack of cigarettes from her jeans and began to light one up.

"Great parents you have. Leaving their daughter home alone so that she can follow around men with guns and smoke..." Thiago went up and pulled the lit cigarette from her mouth, throwing it away.

"This is maybe not as deadly as my gun, but it will still kill you eventually. As per the phrase I chanced to see once upon an American movie channel, not cool."

Michelle exclaimed,"What do you care? Mind your own business."She reached for another one.

Thiago remarked,"So you are telling me to mind my own business, when you can not even mind yours?"

She blushed and admitted,"Well, life gets pretty dull here in the suburbs sometimes. I'd rather get shot then wait for the weekend and sneak out with my boyfriend at night."

Thiago looked her straight in the eyes and said in a very serious tone,"I'm not your parent, neither am I the best man to take advice from, but believe me, you don't know how it feels. And you definitely don't want to know either. I'll drop you off home, but from now on, you must not, as they say, hang out with me anymore. I am nothing but trouble."

Michelle stared back at him with a determination that took him aback slightly and said," What if I don't want nothing but trouble? Huh? It's my choice, I will hang out with whomever I please, and if you don't want me to hang out with you, point that gun at my forehead, and pull the trigger!"

Feeling the vehemence in her voice, Thiago felt a mixture of pity and apprehension. This poor girl must really be neglected by her parents to want to talk to a killer like him, and dance with danger. After considering it for a while, he said,"Fine, do as you wish, but you have to make me two promises first."

She said,"Name them."

"First, if we are ever in danger, even slightly, you will run as fast as you can back to your home, and not look back. I will prevent anyone from coming to you. Second,"He reached out and pulled the half finished cigarette from her mouth and stubbed it out with his shoes,"No smoking. I'd rather you be hit with a bullet then kill yourself slowly. Now hand over the rest of the pack."

Thiago eventually coaxed her out of the rest of them, hailed a taxi that happened to be crossing by, and set a destination for Michelle's house.

Upon reaching the house, Michelle turned to him and asked,"What will you do now?"

He answered,"For now I will lie low somewhere away from the house. There I will decide how to proceed further."

From the driver's seat, a soft Asian voice spoke,"I do not think you are going anywhere."

They both spun around. The driver was pointing a semi-automatic right at Michelle's heart, and he was facing Thiago. Grinning, he remarked,"All this seems rather familiar, doesn't it Luka?"