Chapter 1

Rainer stood still inside of an eerie apartment, watching a black sedan pull up to the curb. Two men exited the vehicle, and proceeded to enter through the front door. He quickly put on his dark blue hoodie, and checked to make sure his phone was still inside the pocket of his jeans. The mold on the walls and the floorboards were giving off a musty odor, forcing him to cover his nose with a face mask. Looking out towards the city skyscrapers, he loudly sighed and waited. 

It wasn’t long until he heard the sound of footsteps walking down the hall. A knock soon followed, and the clock on the wall signaled that it was already noon. Rainer tiptoed across the room, as if he were avoiding certain areas on the floor. Once he made it to the door, he looked through the peephole to find two men standing there. 

One of the men was bald, wearing a black leather jacket, and a dirty red handkerchief that looked to Rainer as if it were from the dump. The other was a black haired Asian, with a gray hoodie, and a similar handkerchief tied around his head. Rainer unlocked the door and silently tiptoed back to the windows on the far side. 

“It's about time they showed.” Rainer thought to himself. 

           

“Come in.” he said as he grabbed a newspaper from the windowsill, pretending to read. 

Both men barged in and closed the door behind them. The bald man spoke first in a deep raspy voice. 

“Blonde hair, skinny, tall, and overconfident. Just like Veiga described, you must be Rainer Arden. Let me ask you something. Wait, aren't there supposed to be two of you?” He asked in confusion. 

Rainer lifted his finger to shush him. “I work alone nowadays. Did you know that the governor is part of a scandal?” asked Rainer, who lowered his finger and looked at the two from above the paper. 

           

“What is this? What do you think you’re doing when I'm trying to talk to you, huh?” The bald man interrogated in a calm yet frustrated voice. “Listen here you little shit, you messed up. Veiga and I had a deal, you were supposed to blow the warehouse to pieces and destroy the damn merchandise!”  he yelled. 

           

“Merchandise? You were shipping children to M-Tech labs. I would call that trafficking. Which by the way, is very much illegal in this country, from what I’ve learned.” 

“Since when has your group ever cared about the law? You’re killers for hire, you’re supposed to do the job that I paid you to do. And get this, Rainer, because you didn’t do it, we now have the police doing checks at all of our warehouses.” 

“Well doesn’t that suck?”  Rainer put down the newspaper. “Listen, I don’t care if I have to kill a few adults. But when you try to get me to kill eight-year-old kids… Well, that’s where I draw the line.” He firmly stated. 

“Yeah? Then you take their spot in the graveyard.” The bald man reached for a gun and pointed it at Rainer. 

Rainer couldn’t help but think "This guy doesn't even look qualified to wipe his own ass let alone hold that gun. Actually, this could work in my favor.”

Rainer let out a slight devious smile, “Let me tell you a little secret. Veiga has this little deal going with other assassins. If someone kills me, they get a reward from him. Depending on where you shoot and how many bullets you use, you can get a very nice payout. For example.” He pointed between his eyes “shoot me between the eyes and you win the whole pot of gold,” Rainer lowered his hand. 

           

“Then I better not miss.” he walked towards Rainer without lowering the gun, after a few steps the ground beneath his feet broke apart. A loud thud could be heard as his body landed a few floors down. The asian man grabbed a gun from his waist, but was too slow. Before he was able to unholster the gun from his pants. Rainer had already grabbed his own gun and shot a bullet through his forehead.

           

“What a shame. I set up so many other traps but he couldn’t even get past the first one. Veiga is going to kill me for this.” 

Rainer walked to the side of the building that was facing an alley. He climbed out the window, and down the fire escape. Then proceeded to make his way down the street. Behind him, people were gathering at the building wondering if that was where the gun shot sound came from. As he quickened his pace, Rainer placed the gun in a holster inside his hoodie and continued to walk down the street. There was an electronics shop up ahead, where the television in the window was on. Assuming the warehouse would be big news, he decided to watch the results of his handiwork.

           

“Our top story tonight is a bit odd. Scientists all over the world have recordings from what they believe are aliens. The Arecibo radio antenna picked up these weird signals early yesterday morning and continues to pick them up today.” The news anchor dragged on.

Really? Nothing on the warehouses?” Rainer’s phone rang, it was a number he recognized. “Fleur, what is it?” he answered

           

“Veiga just received a call about the warehouses. He already shot someone in a fit of rage, and knowing him he’ll take it out on us later.” She said with concern.

           

“Right. I’ll be there soon, just give him something else to be angry about.” 

He hung up the phone and began to walk down the street again, but kept hearing the same news story at every turn. The radio, television, and even live streams through people’s phones. Some were even taking out telescopes and trying to view the sky from their rooftops. Rainer turned the corner and entered a busy four-way crossing. As he crossed the street, he thought to himself "I wonder if they are really coming. Probably wouldn't stop Veiga from using kids as soldiers, that’s for sure.” 

When he reached the other end of the street, he found his car parked in front of an expired meter and a parking ticket placed on the windshield. "Really? This makes the tenth one just this week. I hope they aren't expecting any payment. This car is going straight into the river when I'm done with it.”

It was an old light blue car that looked like it could fall apart from just hitting a bump on the road. As he drove through a crowded city center, the large screen displayed more footage about alien-like signals. Rainer disregarded the message and made his way outside the city towards a more suburban area. There he parked in front of a small eggshell colored home that looked much like all the others on the street. Two boys, both looked like they were in their early teens, stepped outside to greet him. 

           

“What’s going on?” asked Rainer, stepping out of the car

           

“Veiga is still pretty angry. Heard him say something about how lucky you are that you’re good at killing people.” replied the first boy. The three started walking towards the front door “Did you see the news? They’re saying aliens are coming.” 

           

“That’s just the media trying to spook you, don’t listen to him Rainer.” snapped the second “Right now, Veiga wants to talk to you. Just try to calm him down so he doesn’t kill any more of our own guys.” 

           

“I’m trying to keep you guys from getting killed and you’re all talking about aliens. Is no one worried about my life?” Rainer countered as a joke, while retreating into the house.