The Collector

Prologue

He wasn't surprised to find him there. On the contrary, he had been expecting him. He closed the door to his penthouse apartment and proceeded to loosen his tie, as he walked to join the masked man who was sat, perfectly relaxed, on his $14,000 couch.

'Tobias Williams?' The masked man enquired; though Tobias was certain the man was already confident in who he was.

'Yes,' he said. 'I presume you are the collector?' He casually wandered over to his drink cabinet and poured himself a scotch; Macallan, single malt, aged to perfection. 'Scotch?' He raised an empty glass in the direction of his guest, but even with the mask covering the lower half of his face, Tobias could see the man's expression harden.

'I'm here to collect your fee.' He said, ever so slightly turning his head away from the glass that was being offered.

'I'm going to need some proper confirmation.' Tobias said, carefully placing the empty glass back onto the silver tray next to the crystal decanter. He closed the cabinet and fully removed his tie. He didn't like the thought of having something around his neck while this man was in his presence. He turned back around when he heard something light being thrown onto the coffee table. He glanced down to see that the man had slid five printed photos across the surface towards him. He picked them up, taking a sip of his drink as he examined them. Every image was of a man, taken from different angles with today's new paper in the frame. Each picture was of the same person, the man Tobias Williams had hired Deathstroke the Terminator to kill.

'My employer hopes that these will be to your satisfaction.'

'Oh yes,' Tobias grinned over the top of his glass which he held to his chin as he mulled over the information he had been presented with. 'The bullet through the head was a nice touch. Clean.'

'I believe we agreed on nine?' The collector rose from his seat and for the first time Tobias was able to get a good look at him. He wasn't tall, probably no more than five foot four. He was slim, but beneath his perfectly tailored suit, his muscles were defined. He looked young; Tobias quietly concluded that the man before him was likely barely an adult. But if his reputation was anything to go by, then he was not to be underestimated.

'Nine million, well spent.' Tobias said. 'I presume you don't want it in cash. Would be rather heavy.'

'I'm going to give you a code for a secure transaction line. Once I'm sure the money has gone through, we will be done here.' The man remained standing whilst Tobias fetched his tablet from its stand on the kitchen island. When he returned, the collector was looking down at the city below with a pensive expression.

'Not a fan of heights?' Tobias asked, placing his scotch on the coffee table so he could enter the password onto the screen of the tablet.

'I'm quite fond of them actually,' the collector said quietly. It was first time the icy, professional exterior had budged through their entire interaction. But no sooner had the glimpse of humanity appeared, it was gone. He gave the secure codes and quietly waited for Tobias to finish.

'There, all done. Makes you wonder how people used to hire hit men before online banking.' His joke was met with silence. The collector checked his own device, staring at the screen for a few moments. He then locked it and placed it back into his breast pocket.

'Mr Williams, it appears we are done here.'

'Excellent,' said Tobias, his attention momentarily returning to the coffee table, to swap his tablet for his scotch. It was then that he noticed the images were missing. 'Where are the...?' He glanced back towards the windows, but the Collector was gone.