Maybe others would think it was a car backfiring, but he knew it was a gunshot. Then there was a second. He knew where from too. He cursed that he had no weapons on him, but guns and knives were from his other life. The life he tried to ignore and get away from and yet he was running, running towards the gunshots. Why hadn't he carried a gun. Stupid fool, the kind of stupidity that got a guy killed.
He turned a corner, running fast now, more gunshots. He pushed the reluctant thoughts away. This was his solution, and it was the right one. His mind was made up, and his body might have been out of special training for three years, but he was still just as fit. Most of all in that moment he felt so alive again. A faintly remembered feeling which felt great.
He turned a second corner and then in an instance was still, hidden by the darkness and able to observe the scene in front of him.
The car was big and black. A Bentley maybe or a Rolls Royce hard to tell. A man lay still on the ground, a pool of blood slowly spreading out. He guessed by the suit, and the cap laying on the floor this dead man was the car's driver. A second man with his back to him, stood calmly reloading his gun. A click click click and it was done. The gun's a Browning he thought, the killer a professional too like me. You could always tell.
Dammit, he cursed the gunman having to reload was my best chance, too late.
The gunman was calling out. "Mr Draco you may as well come out and face me. Don't you want to die like a man, standing up tall, looking me in the eye or shall I shoot you like a dog cowering in your car? Your bodyguard is dead. There is no help coming. We both know you are not one for guns and even if you were you would be no match for me."
Now, the car door was slowly opening and a man in his fifties got out. Suited and booted, smart suit, expensive. He looked pale in the glow from the street lights overhead. His hands were outstretched, shaking from fear.
The suited man called Draco began to plead. "Look he said what ever you are being paid I'll double it, triple it even. Just don't kill me."
"Now that would hardly be fair to my employer Mr Draco. I am a professional. I take a job, and I complete it. I have a reputation to uphold." The gunman replied. "By the way, before I kill you Mr Brownlow sends his regards."
Fearing he would be too late if he didn't act now, he improvised, throwing a large stone he had found into a nearby parked car's windscreen. The noise causing the gunman's attention to drift just for a second and so he was able covered the short distance to the gunman, and he leaped onto him.
The fight was not easy, but he had been well trained, better trained than the gunman and he had the element of surprise. So finally the gunman was suffocated by his vice like grip, and finally his hands felt the gunman's neck go crack and the man went limp.
It was then he realised Mr Draco had used the chaos of the fight to get into his car and get away from the scene.
"Bastard," said the man out loud. He was left alone to escape from this mess before the police arrived and started asking questions.
Then his training kicked in again and he calmly checked the area ensuring he had left no evidence. Luckily he had worn gloves and as the gunman was wearing a balaclava and so was covered from head to foot he was unlikely to leave much evidence. So as he had been taught he calmly left the scene the opposite way to the way he had come and went home. Always walk slowly and calmly away, never run, running attracts attention
As his breathing and heart rate returned to normal he was unsure if he was happy his brief adventure was over or if he wanted more.
It was two days later when a Mercedes glided up beside him, and a man got out and informed him briskly that Mr Draco wanted a word. The Mercedes driver opened the rear door and there was Mr Draco smiling and motioning for him to join him in the car. A different suit but again expensive he thought.
The man shrugged and got in.
"Major Thomas Breen, pleased to meet you, I am Mr Draco but you know that." Said Draco.
"How do you," started Breen
"How do I know who you are?" smiled Mr Draco interrupting. "It took a little while, but my people tracked you down; I have contacts."
"Ok so you know who I am, so what do you want?" asked Draco
"To thank you and to offer you a job." Replied Mr Draco.
"A job?" Replied Breen raising an eyebrow.
"Yes a job," continued Mr Draco. "I guess it is obvious that my people umm let me down shall we say the other night, and but for your timely invention I would be dead and that bastard Brownlow would be taking over my territory. So from what I saw and what I now know about you I want you to kill Brownlow."
Breen was tempted to deny what he was or used to be, but in the end with a voice in his head telling him that it was likely Draco knew more about him than he did he took a different tack.
"Look," Draco replied that's all behind me, "I don't kill people anymore. I was happy to help, but that's it. No thank you."
"You will be very well paid," commented Draco.
"No thank you," repeated Breen. "That's not what I do anymore."
"Didn't seem to stop you the other night," commented Draco drily. "Look," he said, "think about it, here is how you can reach me and here is a file on Brownlow. Call me in two days."
As Breen got out of the car he heard Draco say, "don't make me come, and find you again. I might get cross if you do. Call me in two days"