Lightning Cloud

Curiosity Almost Killed The Cat

"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."