The Matchmaker

[Grimn]

The man walked quietly down the busy street, the sharp business suit set him apart from the usual tourists in their brightly colored Hawaiian garb. The hot midday sun beat down on the Brazilian fishing village and sweat dripped from most of the people’s sun kissed bodies. However this man seemed to remain cool despite the sweltering heat. He walked purposefully, a quick step but not seeming to be in a vast hurry. A smaller man ran ahead of him, the look of fear on his face. The smaller man ran into a run-down fishing shack and hid behind some boxes. The door to the shack opened and the heat resistant man entered and looked around. Seeming to find nothing he left the shack and the hidden man breathed a sigh of relief. He waited over an hour, time seeming to crawl by before he slowly made his way to the door. He opened the door slowly, the sun had already begun to set and the world was cast in a slight orange hue. The man exited the shack and looked around…nothing. He breathed a sigh of relief and began to laugh. He raised his hands in triumph, screaming up to the sky. “No one can find me…I am a ghost” laughed the man. About the same time that his words were uttered a high velocity round entered the back of his skull and exited right below his eye socket. Gazing through the scope was the same suit clad man from earlier. That man is me. I am a hitman for hire and I am very good at what I do. I make terrible men pay for what they do in this life. They say that the church preaches forgiveness. I believe that forgiveness is between the individual and God. I am simply there to set up the meeting.

[Grimn]

A Hard Lesson

Cuba is a very unusual place. The country attempts to portray to the rest of the world how stable the country is and how they have figured everything out. However if you really ever go there then you will see just how paranoid everyone there is. The government attempts to crack down on everyone in order to sniff out and prevent the countless coups that are being thought up. The people are constantly trying to leave the poverty and despair in their home country and flee to Florida. All around Cuba humans do terrible things to one another. This wasn’t my problem. My problem was one Ramon Hernandez, the leader of a local gang in the inner city. Hernandez had set himself up with a lucrative empire that involved drugs, kidnapping, and prostitution. The people of the inner city had to pay Hernandez a protection fee in order to keep from their bodies being displayed in the tree branches to the rest of the town. Anyone caught trying to remove the bodies would be found joining them from what I was told. This man was marked for death and I had already penciled him into a meeting with the god of his choosing when I departed the flight that brought me to Cuba. The benefit of traveling to smaller countries is that security is lax and whatever security is there is usually able to be bought off.
It had only been a short time in the hotel before I unpacked all of my necessary equipment and departed onto the muggy streets of the city. I already knew the location of where Hernandez would be. He was essentially the leader of the city, everyone was afraid of him so why would he try and hide? He had a deal with the government to keep them out of his affairs and the police were as crooked as they came. The guise that I was using was that of an arms dealer that would be attempting to sell arms to the gang. After a brief security check I was sent through. No one thought it odd that the suitcase that was being carried by the suit wearing man was full of weapons and ammo. Why would they, he was an arms dealer peddling his wares. After a short journey down a derelict hallway the man found himself sitting opposite the leader of the gang, one Ramon Hernandez. The light had faded with the setting sun and the shadows covered most of the Hernandez’ face. With a click the suitcase opened and the suit clad man had withdrawn a pistol and showed it to Hernandez. The man’s bodyguard moved closer to inspect the weapon and then relayed the information to his boss. “My man says you wears are cheap” laughed Hernandez. “I spare no expense in my equipment” said the suit man. “Hahaha” laughed the boss. “Get him out of here” laughed the boss. “But Ramon Hernandez you have a meeting to attend” said the suit clad man. “No your meeting is over” said the gang leader. At that moment the time bomb at the bottom of the suitcase went off and a flash bang grenade stunned the entire room.
The suit clad man reached into the case and withdrew two already loaded pistols. With two short bursts he took out the nearest guards and after three more shots the other two had fallen. He aimed the pistols at Hernandez or where Hernandez should have been. The gang leader had already jumped down and was almost back into the hallway, almost as if the flash bang had not even affected him. The hitman gave chase and soon heard the shouts of gang members following him. “Kill this bastard” screamed the gang leader. Hernandez hit a wall and then quickly turned to the right and dashed around the corner. The hitman did not give up and soon found himself face to face with Hernandez, a swift sewage river blocking off his escape. “Goodbye Ramon Hernandez” said the hitman raising a pistol. The city lights flickered on overhead and Hernandez’ face was illuminated. The hitman hesitated for a moment as he saw the cloudy film over Hernandez’ eyes. Now he knew why the blind man was unaffected by the flash bang grenade. The whoops and hollers from the gang members drew every closer as Hernandez dove into the sewage river behind him and was carried away. The hitman watched as his target went farther and farther away from him.
That had been four years ago when he was just beginning his new line of work. That assignment had taught him many things. He had taken pity on his prey because he bumped into walls and it had cost him. Hernandez missed his appointment and it was completely the hitman’s fault. He sat in his study, reflecting about this particular assignment. It had taught him not to allow his actions to be clouded by his emotions or pity. If he did then he risked losing another target. It had been no easy task escaping from the oncoming gang but he had managed to make his way back to the hotel. Afterwards Hernandez never left his compound and no one was allowed to directly see him besides his immediate bodyguard. Essentially making him untouchable to the outside world. The people of the city paid a heavy price for the hitman’s mistake. Hernandez had sent out his death squads the next day to kill anyone that they felt like killing. The death of those people haunted the hitman to this day and their ghosts are what kept him from making a similar mistake. Now no one was allowed to miss their appointment. The hitman did not discriminate on race or gender or disability. The only criteria that had to be met in order for him to schedule you an appointment was that you did not value the life of others.