MAIZE

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

Eyes like small crisp flames burned bright against the dark of the city night as the slender shadow of a figure observed from afar. Amber eyes, gleaming with triumph as they set sight upon their unsuspecting new prey. One lone individual that walked along the sidewalk below, completely unaware of the hunter trailing his every move with their eyes—just awaiting the right moment to strike.

Exactly three weeks, four days, and eleven hours spent tracking this particular suspect, anticipating the day he would finally resurface from the rock which he had been hiding under. The convicted felon—ranked high on the NYPD high priority list—had finally made an appearance. Which meant his arrest would come with a hefty price for any bounty hunter on his trail. Or in other words, for Maize Ember.

The young woman continued her analysis from her perch upon the low one-story building rooftop. The man she regarded appeared to be in his mid-forties—to put it generously, consisting of the distinct features of a rather dark goatee beard, ashen pale skin beneath the heavy grey jacket he wore, and a black tuque that covered the top of his head. A nearly identical match to his photograph, the photograph currently clutched in the hands of the bounty hunter as she made the comparison.

No doubt about it.

This was her guy.

Police reports classified him as extremely dangerous—a man who gave no regard for the number of lives he had taken. His case file declared he had been owned gambling debts from a small-time business lawyer—who, at the time, had no idea who he was dealing with. The result had been his murder, along with the rest of his family. The bounty hunter did not know the whole story in its entirety, but she was aware of one simple fact; that man had gotten away with the murder of two young children, innocent lives. He had gone and disappeared before authorities had even gotten to the scene from a call from neighbours. Something like that...was unforgivable in her eyes. Which is why this would be the last night he ever walked free. Maize would make sure of it.

Pushing back the strand of silky black hair that had brushed past her eyes in the breeze, she let out a small breath of air that became was visible in the chill temperature of the night, followed by a sigh of satisfaction. Perching on rooftops, tracking lowlife criminals. Just a typical night in the city for the Ember bounty hunter—a name given to her from the rumours on the streets. In truth, she rather liked it.

Her suspect was getting closer now. Heading for the alleyway that cut into the next street over between two establishments—one being a small-time Vietnamese restaurant that served quite the good meals, and the other, the small apartment complex that Maize observed from.

This is my chance.

Taking one last breath of the cool night air, the bounty hunter waited half a second, before she sprang forward on her heels, swinging her body over the side of the ledge in one swift motion. She landed in a crouch on top of a white delivery truck that had been parked there, as graceful as a cat and startling a shocked jolt from her prey before she launched forward and tackled him straight to the cold hard pavement.

Faster than the convict could react, the woman had him flat on his stomach with his arms pinned securely behind his back, kept there by the force of her knee as she held his face to the ground.

"So...you're Antonio Marcus," she stated, his name coming out cold and unpleasant on her tongue.

The felon struggled in her grip. "What the blazing hell woman?! Who the fuck do you think you..." He turned and froze. The words seemed to die on his lips as he managed to cast a sideways look over his shoulder and saw her face, especially those amber eyes of hers. His face paled. "I-its you..." the whisper left his mouth now with a slight tremor. What happened to the stone-cold killer?

I see my reputation proceeds me.

A smirk pulled across the bounty hunter's lips. So many said how unusual her profession was, especially for a woman, as they put it. But Maize had always put their words to shame. In fact, she found her profession quite exhilarating. There was no feeling like the satisfaction of catching the wicked. This is what she lived for.

"They said...you were just a rumour on the street," the felon murmured thickly, speaking low.

"Well sorry to disappoint," she said with a hint of a smile. "But you know, I heard some other rumours that you might soon find to be true..."

Marcus froze but didn't answer, as Maize whispered close to his ear.

"The ones that you'll be going away for a very long time."

His eyes went wide, and with that, Maize abruptly hauled him to his feet by the back of his jacket and moved to retrieve the handcuffs from her back pocket. Once Antonia Marcus realized what was about to happen to him, he began bargaining, bribing, pleading for her to let him go—but Maize just tuned him out.

Those innocent lives...he didn't let them go.

No matter what criminals ever tried to offer her once they realized they were done for, she didn't care. It had never been about money for her—though she did admit that pay was convenient—she just wanted criminals off the streets. And she wanted to be the one to do it. What better way than as a bounty hunter? With no one else's rules or regulations weighing her down. She had never really played nice working with others anyway.

Just as Maize was occupying herself with slapping a metal cuff over one of Marcus' wrists, a small bell dinged from the restaurant next door and out stepped a small elderly Asian woman from the backdoor into the alley, holding a black garbage bag in her hand. Both Maize and the convict froze in the middle of what they were doing and stared blankly at the woman, who didn't even appear to notice their existence as she tossed the garbage bag into the dumpster. It was the restaurant owner, Mrs. Tsu, who Maize had met before on more than one occasion.

It was only as Mrs. Tsu was heading back inside did she stop and turn and notice the bounty hunter in the process of holding the scowling man.

"Chào Maize," the elder woman greeted with a small wave of her thin hand, her voice heavy with her accent. Then her head tilted towards Anthony Marcus. "You work again?"

Maize smiled and nodded her head respectfully. "Yes Mrs. Tsu," she said as she watched the old woman give a slight understanding bob of her head.

Marcus seemed to be watching the entire exchange with disbelief.

"Oh screw this! I ain't gotta stand around listening to small talk!" he snarled as he painfully tore himself free of Maize's arm lock and knocked her body aside. The handcuff that Maize had not yet finished putting on still dangling from one of his wrists as he took off running down the alley.

"Well shit," Maize muttered to herself as she calmly stood and brushed the dust off her black leather jacket.

"He run fast..." Mrs. Tsu commented as Marcus got further away. "But you run faster," she said after a moment, a knowing look thrown at the bounty hunter.

"Indeed I do," Maize answered with a smirk. "See you Mrs. Tsu!" she called before she began to pursue her escaped bounty.

"Chào Maize," Mrs. Tsu waved, before she turned away, the little bell above the backdoor giving another ring as the old woman went back inside. Maize smiled.

Now for the fun part to begin.

Antonio Marcus was currently at the end of the street, right before he made a ninety-degree turn and left her line of vision. But Maize wasn't worried about losing him. This was her absolute favourite part of the job; the thrill of the game. The chase.

She sprinted off, following the direction Marcus had gone. Her durable and light black combat boots, along with her light weight and speed, made it quite easy to catch up.

As if I would let you get away that easily.

And whether it was a twist of fate, or just some really bad luck handed down by the gods, Marcus didn't seem to think his route out carefully, not paying attention exactly where he was going. Unfortunately for him, not every street alley lead to another. For example, this one had a fence.

Maize almost felt a little disappointed as she caught the man in a corner. Proceeding forward slowly, like a cat cornering a mouse. He had nowhere to go.

That hadn't been much of a chase...

"You know, taking off in the middle of two people having a conversation like that is quite rude," she said as she advanced slightly. Marcus turned around tensely, anger written all over his face.

"I don't give a shit! I ain't going back to prison because of you!" He seethed, lunging forward and throwing a right hook at the amber-eyed woman.

Maize ducked under his hook and threw an elbow into his side. Then as he hunched over slightly, she shot up and delivered a solid uppercut straight upside his jaw. Marcus stumbled backwards with the force and fell to the pavement, knocked out cold.

That should keep him down for a little while.

Maize stared down at the motionless form and put her hands on her hips in dismay. "That was...really not impressive," she murmured to herself with a sigh. It seemed to her as though all her recent jobs had been increasingly more and more, what was the word...Boring. Much to her frustration. Her work had been getting too easy for her liking.

On the bright side however, she would receive quite the decent pay from the NYPD for this particular catch.

If I can find a way to somehow get him all the way to the bloody car, she thought with dismay as she stared down at her unconscious bounty.

It took at least twenty minutes—with an immense amount of struggle—before the bounty hunter was finally able to get Antonio Marcus into the backseat of the car. Following, she let out a tired sigh and stretched out her arms over her head, feeling the bones in her back give a slight pop before the soreness faded. Dragging Marcus all the way over to where the car had been parked had been a hassle, after all the man was nearly twice her size.

Maybe I should have thought things through before I knocked him out...then again, there's always next time.

One thing maize was glad for, was the lack of people out tonight, meaning there hadn't been many witnesses—save for Mrs. Tsu. It was always such a bother when civilians would intercept off the street in the middle of her job to question whether or not what she was doing was 'legal'.

She was a bounty hunter, people, was that so hard to understand?

At least now that her bounty was securely tied up in the back of the old navy Honda, Maize could go collect her pay. With a toss of the silver keys, that didn't belong to her, she got into the driver seat and began the quick ten-minute drive over to the 88th precinct.

She parked the 'borrowed' vehicle in front of the entrance—ignoring the few observers as she stepped out and proceeded around the back to haul out her bounty. Unfortunately, somewhere within the time it had taken to get here, her convict had regained consciousness and was currently proving to be somewhat of a nuisance as he began obnoxiously shouting angry curses—muffled due to the dark hood over his head, courtesy of the bounty hunter. However, he was still making enough of a ruckus that it was beginning to draw unwanted attention.

I'll have to remember to gag the next one, Maize thought silently as she held him by his cuffed arms and dragged him around to the front of the vehicle. As she looked up, she found herself already face to face to face with none other than the 88th precinct captain himself, Riggis Norman.

His arms were crossed in front of his sturdy form as he watched the bounty hunter through dark russet eyes. He was a highly admirable man, with many accomplishments under his belt from the time before he was made captain. He was the only person Maize would consider in terms of a 'boss'.

Also, unrelated, earlier that night she may or may not have 'borrowed' something of his. Borrowed without asking.

"You have something for me?" The Captain questioned, his tone in its usual formality. Though the look in his eyes suggested he was not in the happiest mood about something. "My car back perhaps?" There it was.

"Not quite," Maize replied with a smile as the captain raised one of his eyebrows, "something much better in my opinion," she said, and that's when she pulled the hood off Marcus's head.

Riggis stood still for a moment before his face broke into a small grin of amusement. "Ah, I see. Nice work, Ember." He nodded his approval.

Maize flashed him a teasing look. "Would you expect anything less from me?" she asked.

"Point taken."

Maize smiled as she tossed the keys into his open palm.

"Thank you," the Captain said dryly, placing his keys into the pocket they had been missing from. He also made a mental note to watch Maize around his car keys more closely from now on—this hadn't been the first time, nor did he suspect it would be the last, unfortunately.

The next thing Maize did was hold out her hand, a blunt gesture indicating what she wanted. The Captain gave a briefly exasperated shake of his head as he chuckled with amusement, hand digging around inside the pockets of his jacket. He had experience working with Maize long enough, so naturally—as soon as he realized she had taken his car—he figured what she was doing and came out with the envolope already intact with the check from the NYPD. He handed it over to the hunter's outstretched palm, watching it disapear into her leather jacket.

"Pleasure doing buisness, sir," Maize said as the Captain took over and got two nearby officers to releived her of the criminal she had been paid to bring in.

Marcus protested the entire time. "No! Hey! You'll pay for this, bitch!" he yelled at her.

"No, actually, I got paid for this," Maize smirked.

Antonio Marcus growled at her before he was dragged away into the pricinct and out of sight. The Captain followed soon after.

Maize let out a calming breath, smiling slightly. Then without another thought, she turned away and walked along the side of the department, where a sleek black Yamaha R1 awaited her. Now, this beauty belonged to her. Not a bad ride, if she said so herself.

Brushing away strands of hair from her eyes, the bounty hunter slide her helmet over her head and closed the visor as she mounted atop the bike. The engine kicked on and roared to life as she shoved the keys into the ignition and gave it a quick turn, feeling the ripple as the vehicle purred beneath her.

Sometimes I just really love my job.

Then she tightened her grip on the handles and sped out of the alley, down the vibrantly lit streets of the city, feeling nothing but the weight of the envelope in her jacket and the rushing wind in her hair.