Fight to the Death
He strolled into the bar, amidst the loud music. People were laughing, some even dancing, a cacophony of noise. He walked past them all, an air of confidence, not arrogance. People respected him, if only they knew what he had done in his life. The targets he'd eliminated, the people he had "dealt" with. Mother Russia had prepared him well for his next job. Terminate the life of the man who had killed his boss's friends. The man he had been sent to kill went by the alias "The Shade". He went by the name of Nikolai Drevin and he was here to kill.
He spotted the back door and walked through. He had been tipped off that this was where "The Shade" did his "business". He saw a red mark on the ground. Blood. "The Shade" had been here. Nikolai bent down and touched the blood, he checked his finger and some of the blood had transferred onto his digit, it was fresh. He briskly walked down the corridor towards the room he knew "The Shade" was in. He reached for the doorknob. He began to turn it. Something smashed into his skull. His vision began to cloud, haziness taking over. In one last attempt to ward of his assailant he reached for his knife, however the other man stopped him, his foot connecting with Nikolai's elbow. The pain was searing, agonizing. Nikolai succumbed to the darkness.
*****
Cold water splashed onto his face, startling him. He opened his eyes, the light blinding him, hurting his vision. As his eyes adjusted to the light a figure began to form, the figure of a man. Nikolai's eyes bulged in recognition. This was "The Shade"? It was the last person he thought the elusive fugitive could've been. Then the realisation set in. Nobody had ever seen "The Shades" face and lived. He was going to die.
"The Shade" was washing his hands at a sink, located at the East corner of the room. Beside the sink was a table. On it lay an assortment of weapons. Nikolai couldn't see them all but what he could see made his chances of survival look less and less. Pistols, Knifes, this guy had the lot. But Nikolai had one advantage. "The Shade" may have weapons but Nikolai had information. And lots of it.
After he finished washing his hands, Shade reached for a syringe on the table. With sinister intent he said to Nikolai :
"This syringe is full of a chemical that I found myself. I call it Shadonium. It is a poison, unlike all other poisons. Once in your system it will leave you in agonizing torment for the rest of your life. It will never leave your body. The only way to escape it is death. So I will put it this way, whatever happens today, you are going to die. So you can tell me who sent you and I will shoot you, nice and easy. Or I can inject this poison into you now and watch you scream."
Nikolai was panicking now. He was a tough man, but not that tough. He couldn't live with poison in his system for the rest of his life.
"I will tell you everything" he whispered. He whispered something so softly, enticing "The Shade" in closer.
The Shade leant in close, waiting for the all important words. Nikolai reached for the knife in his sock, slowly but surely. He removed it, still hiding it from sight.
"I was sent by..." the last words un-interpretable and said so quietly nobody could've heard them. "The Shade" leant in closer still. Nikolai thrust his knife towards "The Shade's" throat, dispensing of all the energy he had left. But "The Shade" blocked it expertly, grabbing the knife and plunging it into Nikolai's leg.
"YOU WILL TELL ME WHO SENT YOU" The Shade" shouted at Nikolai, his voice shaking the very core of the Earth.
Nikolai whispered one last word, the word that confirmed "The Shade's" suspicions. With one word, Nikolai had given away the identity of his "Sender". One word had been all it took, Nikolai's last word before "The Shade" shot him in the head and hid the body in a dumpster. The word?
Prometheus
