Chapter 12 I'm here

Wade checked his watch. 12 pm. Exactly midnight. He scanned his surroundings, squinting in the dark before he heard footsteps behind him. Wade turned around.

A dark figure walked out from the shadow, approaching him. The night was dark but from the lights from the nearby buildings, Wade could make out the shape of the person in front of him. 

Male, taller than him, and stronger too. There was something about this person that Wade couldn't quite put it. He had a feeling in his gut that something wasn't right.

"Hey, what's up for dinner?" Wade said the code word, one hand tucked in his trousers pocket casually. 

"Cheese and hamburger," the contact replied in a gruff voice. 

"Alright. You sure are full on that one, huh?"

The man nodded.

"You got what I wanted? Hand it over," Wade suppressed a down frown and pressed a button on a small device that was in his pocket before he pulled his hand out, acting cool.

There was a slight hesitation from the contact. He then took out a small thumb drive and was about to hand it over when their eyes met, the contact noticed that something was off. Without warning, the contact took out a gun hidden behind his back and pointed at his head. Wade froze, surprised written across his face.

The black mask twitched slightly. What he takes as a smile hidden beneath the mask the other man was wearing. 

Finally Wade knew why he felt something was off. It wasn't the same person in the nightclub yesterday. It was a different person! 

That's right. Their sizes were slightly different, slightly. The one in the nightclub was a little smaller in size and leaner.

That only means... Only meant.... It didn't take long for Wade to come up with an explanation. Their information was leaked! The real contact could be in danger or already dead. Why was their information and missions getting leaked every now and then? 

Fuck! There was a fucking mole among the cops.

The code word was correct but the contact didn't answer the second one correctly. Mark had changed the codeword and made it extra long with two questions. Only a few selected people knew the correct one. The night before, Mark had communicated with the contact on the change of codeword.

"Wait!" Wade called out. "Don't you want to know why we discussed being here?" He decided to use stalling tactics on him. 

The man in front of him shifted slightly, uncertainty washed over his face. 

"Spill it out now!" He barked at Wade, his grip on the gun tightening.

"Okay. Here's the thing," Wade passed a piece of white paper to him, noticing that the man didn't seem like a professional killer.

The man looked cautiously at it, using his free hand to open it which caused him to be slow and clumsy. The moment the man saw the words 'Meet me tonight, on the rooftop', he knew that he had been tricked. He dropped the paper quickly.

Wade grabbed the opportunity and used his momentum against him, flinging a small knife at the fake contact. The other man failed to dodge it in time. The knife hit its target, wedged into his thigh.

In school, Wade was a champion marksman in archery and shooting. Although he may not be good as a certain someone, he could still hit his target perfectly. Thanks to those sports, Wade was lucky to be in this line of work. 

Somewhere behind him from afar, a shot rang out. The sound of piercing flash and skin resounded in Wade's ears as he glanced down and saw what had made that noise. 

He looked down and saw blood oozing out of his thigh. 

"Fuck! There are two of them?!" Wade clenched his thigh and threw himself behind a chimney to avoid the bullets. 

He spun around and fired his gun. 

BAAM! 

The sound of his bullet hitting metal told him that he missed. 

He was surrounded, front and back by two men who wanted him dead badly. 

These people want to stop him from finding Edward Mattson. But why? Why all the trouble? Edward Mattson was a businessman who had some money in his pockets. If it was really for money, Wade would have believed it. Unfortunately, Mattson's money and properties were left untouched. 

Wade slowed his breathing, gritting his teeth as he tried to cope with the pain. The stinging feeling in his thigh was becoming more and more stronger. 

He pulled his phone out and texted a quick message to Mark. Another bullet bounced off the chimney he hid behind. Footsteps neared him, the sound of shells clanging onto the rooftop. 

It was now or never. Wade slipped his watch off his wrist and tossed it at the man's feet. The man shot the watch a few times, smoke billowing from it. Wade rolled out of hiding and fired at the fake contact.

However, the second man knocked his head from behind just as Wade's finger pressed the trigger. Another bullet was fired, piercing through the head of the fake contact. 

Then another bullet was fired. Wade felt the whole world spinning before his eyes as he held his head and tilted to one side.

Before he hit the ground, the last face he saw was that pair of familiar dark eyes and the scent of sandalwood perfume mixed with cigarettes. 

He felt a hand around his waist, holding him tightly in place. Something warm pressed against his skin, a finger presumably, pushing back his messy hair from his forehead.

"L-Luciano," he breathed, recognizing the tattoo on the other man's neck. 

Was he hallucinating from the pain? To think that the person he thought about before he faints was his enemy.... Wade wanted to laugh at himself for being ridiculous.

"I'm here," he heard Vincenzo said, those words seemed to be very comforting to his ears. The world around turned pitch black, darkness enveloping him and Wade blacked out.