Caeda: Death's Shadow
by demented20
Caeda is as deadly as she is beautiful, and once you're on her list, its too late.

The grandfather clock was striking midnight as Rory Gainther went back to his bedroom. He nodded to his guards as he walked in his soft slippers over the marble floors. The dark wood paneled walls added a richness to the house that made Rory smile every time he thought about how he had come up in this world. He had been born poor and started selling drugs at the age of 14 and he had quickly risen in that business, but when he got into arms dealing, that put him over the top. He had bought his first Porsche twenty years ago at age 19, and he had never looked back. There were people gunning for him though, and he knew it. Some in the criminal underworld were willing to pay big money to have Rory killed, but he knew every killer in the United Kingdom and he did business with all of them. He had even hired some Commandos to guard him, and he had installed some of the best security systems that money could buy. Sure there were people trying to kill him, but he was rich enough and smart enough to stay alive, or so he believed.

He set the alarm and all the sensors in the rest of the house came on. Between the sensors and the guards, Rory slept easy at night. He opened the door to his personal suite of rooms, stepped through the door and closed it behind him. He took one more step before the thin wire of a garrote slipped around his neck and cut into his flesh. It tightened quickly before he could make a sound. His fingers went to his throat in desperation. He clawed at his own skin, but even he knew that wouldn't work. He leaned forward and pushed with his legs trying to break the grip. It hurt worse, but it was his only chance.

Caeda hung by her bare feet above the door. Her special power keeping her firmly attached to the wood paneled wall. She was crouching like she was about to jump, but instead she pulled up. Her beautiful face was contorted with effort as she crossed the ends of the garrote and let the wire bite into Rory flesh, but then he started pulling against her. She ground her teeth and pulled up. He leaned backwards, but he started to go forward again. Caeda closed her eyes and pulled back as hard as she could. Rory's 190 pounds left the ground completely. His feet kicked and his body jerked. Caeda's body shook under the strain and a few beads of sweat gathered on her forehead. She squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the garrote even tighter. Suddenly the fight went out of Rory. He was still a moment later his body lost its waste onto the floor. Caeda relaxed her grip and let the lifeless body slip to the floor. She wiggled her fingers to allow the blood to flow again after she had been squeezing the wooden handles of her garrote.

Caeda stuffed the most silent of weapons back into its pouch and proceeded to crawl along the ceiling towards a panel in that lead to a space between the floors. She had been living in that crawl space for three days waiting for a chance to kill her latest mark. She had already gathered all her trash and waste, but she wouldn't be able to leave until the morning. She'd have to slip out after the boys and girls from Scotland Yard showed up. It wouldn't be the first time she had been forced to wait after a kill, and it probably wouldn't be the last. It was however, going to be a sleepless night, and a long flight home.

Caeda looked nothing like a world class assassin as she walked slowly towards her apartment building in the always trendy Greenwich Village at dusk. She was wearing a cream colored tube top covered by a light brown suede jacket with tight denims, colorful soft soled shoes, and a tan choker with her St. Jude medal set in front. She had her hands in her pockets as she walked, and only looked up once in a while as people came close. She did look over towards Washington Square Park. She could make out the shapes of a few people that she knew in the failing sunlight, but she wasn't going to talk to anybody. She just wanted to get back to her apartment. She loved the neighborhood, but she was always in a strange and unsettled mood after closing out a contract. It was just the nature of the job. Besides she didn't have to stay outside. She had a great view from the windows in her apartment building. She could watch the last rays of the sunset from there. Of course that view came with a hefty price, but no one ever said that the assassination business wasn't lucrative.

Caeda's legs felt encased in lead as she finally made it to her building. She reached into her small carry on bag for her keys, but the door was already open. She hurried to it before it closed. She only made it a couple steps inside before she stopped. A little old lady was blocking the stairs. Her grocery bag had turned over and its contents were all over the floor. Caeda's face twisted into a frown.

"Mrs. Havasu, how many times have I said to ask for help with this stuff when you go shopping", Caeda said as she got down on her knees and retrieved the old lady's goods.

"Oh, I am so sorry, Dear, but sometimes I think I can still do things like I used to."

Caeda put the groceries back in the bag and then motioned for Mrs. Havasu to hand her the other bag. Mrs. Havasu looked like a scolded child and handed over the bag. Caeda walked slowly up the stairs behind the old lady holding the bags up with no problem. The two of them lived on the same floor, down the hall from each other. They had met the first day Caeda moved into the building. The old lady had baked her cookies from scratch. They talked for more than an hour that first day.

"There is nothing wrong with asking for help. No one minds", Caeda said as the old lady opened the door to her apartment.

"I know that, Dearie, but I just don't want to be a bother."

"Sometimes, Mrs. Havasu, I think you don't listen to a word I say", Caeda began as she started putting the old lady's groceries in the fridge and the pantry. "Its no bother at all. Just don't ask me to organize your stack of newspapers. Now that would be a bother."

Mrs. Havasu laughed and patted Caeda on the cheek. She looked over her shoulder at the six stacks of newspapers that were all five feet high. "I wouldn't wish that on my worse enemy."

"Oh come on, you don't even have any enemies." Caeda smiled as she put the last of the food away.

"We all have folks who don't like us. Besides my late husband knew how to get under people's skin back in the old days. So I might have an enemy or two."

Caeda crumpled up the sacks and threw them away. "If you do have any enemies, it would be best if they didn't come around. Because then they would be my enemies too."

The meaning seemed to have missed the old lady all together. She patted Caeda on the cheek again. "You are such a good young lady."

Caeda's pale blue eyes sparkled and her face brightened as she laughed. "Thanks, if only that was true."

"You're too hard on yourself. You have to give yourself a chance to be happy."

"I'll try to remember that", Caeda said as she started out the door. "I'll see you later, and call me if you need anything."

Mrs. Havasu smiled and waved as Caeda walked out, but the smile fell away as soon as the door closed. Mrs. Havasu sighed and shook her head. She used the counter top to aid in balance as she sat down in a chair. She was fighting a loosing battle, and she knew it. There was a war raging inside that young woman, and she was very near the place of no return. Sometimes Mrs. Havasu thought that she was the only thing keeping her from going over the edge, well maybe Elskede helped a little too.

Caeda's cat, Elskede, jumped into her arms as she opened the door to her apartment. He was already purring. "I'm gone for less than a week and you act like its been a year." Caeda spoke softly and rubbed under her cat's chin. Elskede purred even louder. "Yeah, yeah, I love you too." Caeda put him down and the cat followed her around for half an hour until he got tired of it and went to sleep. She took a shower and made herself something to eat. She took a long look at the bottle of Rémy Martin on her counter, but not tonight. She'd had a couple drinks on the flight back over across the ocean and that was enough. Besides, Caeda had a little time to spend to her first love.

She got dressed in an old faded shirt and multicolored trousers not bothering to put on shoes, or her choker. She walked into what had been the second bedroom and turned on the lights. There were shelves on all four walls. All of them were heavy with Caeda's art. She made all types of sculptures, pottery, and earthenware. Sculpting was her first discipline, but today she planned to make a fairly intricate piece of pottery. She turned on some music and sat down in front of her potters wheel. She had already mixed her clay. She threw a lump of it on the table and got to work. All the troubles left her mind as that lump of clay became something else. Her thin fingers shaped it slowly, little by little. Caeda could loose herself in her art like nothing else. It was the last thing that her father, her real father, had given her. Her art was all that remained from the good times of her childhood. She could spend hours and hours at her sculpting table or at her potters wheel or sometimes just waiting for pieces in the kiln to finish. This night, the piece seemed to come out just right. Later that evening as Caeda left the room to let her new pot dry, she turned and looked back at it. Her father would have been proud. She went to sleep that night, and didn't have any nightmares. It was rare, but it was welcomed.

The next few weeks were quiet. Caeda didn't give it a thought. She went about her normal life. It gave her a small amount of satisfaction that she wasn't overly eager to kill anyone. At least she knew that she wasn't a blood thirsty lunatic.

She checked for new contract offers every day at the same time. Most people would have been surprised to know how organized the underworld of assassins, professional mercenaries, and expert cat burglars was. There were three major guilds that had split up the world and doled out contracts. They provided access to intelligence information, weapons, disguises, fake papers, and cover stories to help complete a contract. The guilds even offered bank accounts, medical, health, and life insurance. Caeda belonged to two of the three guilds which cost her several thousand dollars a month, but it was worth it.

Caeda rubbed Elskede on the head as she carried him into her bedroom. She went to the side of the room to an old trunk that contained all her linens. She had purchased the trunk at a state fair years ago. It had belonged to a 19th century magician, and aside for the fact that all her bed linen fit inside it, the false bottom was perfect for hiding the tools of Caeda's trade. One of the things it hid was her secure satellite link to her handlers at the guilds.

Caeda loaded up the special laptop and downloaded the contracts that were being offered to her. In the beginning Caeda had taken every contract that was available to her because she was trying to build up a reputation. These days she only took the contracts that were specifically offered to her. She had two on the list right now. One of them wasn't offering enough money, but the other one was worth it. It was time to make a phone call. Next to Caeda's throwing knives in the secret compartment were a group of disposable cell phones. Caeda opened one of them, got dressed, and went to the park. Once she was out in the open, she made the call.

"This is Caeda", she said into the phone.

"Good morning", her handler answered her in a business like tone. He was the only person she ever talked to at this guild. She didn't know his real name, just like he didn't know hers, and he was forbidden from recording her voice under treat of death, just like she couldn't record his. The guilds had rules.

"Contract number 147881-b. I want it."

"You got it. The deposit is heading to your numbered account right now. You already know where the pickup location is for today. I look forward to your confirmation call. Good hunting, Caeda."

Caeda's face was emotionless again as she ended the call, and started walking towards the Hudson River. She got to the river and milled around for a while. She used a rubber band to attach a rock to the back of the phone before dumping it into the river. Caeda decided to jog back home. Then it would be time to get the intelligence info from the secret location for the day, and then it was time to go to work.

Caeda's next mark lived in an old ethic Irish neighborhood in Philadelphia. The area wasn't what it used to be. Other groups had moved in and some of the old spots were gone, but Patrick 'Paddy' O'Leary just couldn't move out of the area he had always lived in. He could have bought just about any house he wanted, but his old house was the only one he had ever wanted to live in. Everybody knew where Paddy O'Leary lived. People passed him on the street and smiled. Some smiled at the face an older man, but others smiled out of fear. They remembered when Paddy O'Leary ran the neighborhood like a medieval lord. He had done things in his past that would make a soldier blanche. If he wanted something to happen in those days, his boys made it happen even if it meant someone had to disappear. He had scaled back his activities, but Paddy O'Leary still demanded respect from those who ran the rackets in Philly. He kept his crew young and sharp as he got older. They knew to look out for any sort of danger, but they had never faced a danger like Caeda.

She sat down the street from Paddy's row house for nearly an hour. She had ordered a cup of decaf coffee and drank it slowly while reading the Inquirer. She watch a group of men pull up to Paddy's house and walk inside. She observed for a while, but she knew what sort of insertion this had to be. She left the money for the coffee and the paper plus a tip on the outdoor cafe table before she walked around the corner out of sight. Later that night it would be go time.

Caeda's eyes narrowed as she approached the mob soldier under the cover of the shadows. Caeda had learned how to use every shadow. Her nimble body slipped in and out of them like a phantom. She could use each shadow to her advantage. The mob soldier inhaled on his cigarette and looked around in a circle. There was a light in the alley that lit the area, but not well enough. He couldn't see Caeda even when he was looking right at her. She moved cat quick when she wanted and was as still as calm water when she had to be. The guard had no chance. She flashed from the shadows into the light like Death itself. She raised her leg and kicked the mob enforcer in the back of the knee. Before he could cry out, Caeda wrapped her arm around his neck. She pulled up and back with her arm at the same time she pressed down on the back of his shoulders. Her slim body suddenly turned rock hard as she jerked. His neck cracked. All his weight hung from her arms, but she barely struggled as she pulled him into the shadows next to the rear stairs. He was out of sight unless someone looked right at him. Caeda glanced at the back door, but had no notion to enter it. There were seven or eight other mob soldiers in that house, and Caeda knew that she didn't have to deal with them. She slowly pulled off her gloves and walked up the stairs. She jumped up and started climbing up the dusty bricks of the row house. She climbed between the windows taking care to stay in the shadows. The flat wall of the house was little challenge to her strong arms and shoulders.

Caeda knew that Paddy's bedroom was on the top floor. He kept that floor all to himself, or at least that's what the intelligence information said. She would find out soon enough. She put one glove on and tried the windows. His room was on the fourth floor and it was a nice cool night in the City of Brotherly Love. She checked to the windows to see if she might get lucky. The second one was unlocked. It was a small window though, over a bathtub. Caeda put her other glove on and started climbing inside. She had to be careful because the surface was still wet. She was careful to not disturb a single drop of water as she pulled herself into the room. She walked on her hands over to the other side of the tub. She balanced on the edge of the tub, pulled off her right arm and lowered her body using nothing but her left arm. She felt out for the floor using the finger tips on her right hand. They brushed the hard tile floor. Once her palm touched, she shifted her weight to her right arm and brought her left arm down. She split her legs out and stepped with her hands towards the middle of the room. Once she was away from the shower curtain rod, she brought her legs together. She then brought her knees down towards her chest and slowly rolled to her feet. Once her boots touched the floor, she finally exhaled. She stood up quickly and opened the door. It made a little noise, but only someone very close would have heard it.

Caeda pulled her pistol out of its holster and walked towards one end of a hall in the semi darkness. The door to a room was open, but the room was empty. She started down the other way. She saw a light go out under the door at the very end of the hall. Caeda hurried, but made no noise. She put her ear close to the door before she reached out and opened it. The door was quiet, but Caeda entered the room quickly and close the door behind her. There was a single man standing near the center of the room. He was wearing an old t-shirt and some black trousers. His grey hair was still wet from his shower earlier. His back was to her, and he made no effort to turn around as she came closer to her.

"You must be the one they call Caeda", he said after a knowing sigh.

"On your knees", Caeda ordered him.

He turned around as he went down to his knees. He raised his hands and looked up at his executioner. "I thought they might send you after me after a while. They say that you're pretty close to the best. I was just too damned cheap to spend the money." Caeda looked down at Paddy and his wry smile. He didn't look afraid, just resigned to his fate.

Caeda looked down her sights and her index finger started to curl towards the trigger.

"Can I get a last request?", the old man asked.

Annoyance flashed across Caeda's beautiful face. She didn't have to give him any requests, but she wouldn't say no. "Ok, but I'll tell you the same thing I told the last guy. Don't ask for anything stupid."

Paddy chose his words very carefully, as they could be his last. "I grew up around bad men. When I was young man, I could walk into a room and make the flowers wilt, but you... You are different. Why do you do this?"

That was a good question, a question she avoided asking herself. "The first time I killed a somebody, I didn't cry or shake. I didn't laugh or gloat either. I just walked away and went home. I realized that I could do this, and that I'm good at it."

"Don't the murders weigh you down? Mine weigh me down every day."

Caeda shouldn't be talking to him, but he had hit a nerve. "Murdering murderers doesn't weigh me down too much."

Paddy looked down and chuckled. "I used to tell myself the same thing. It causes a pain that eats at your very soul. It eats it little by little until there is not a damned thing left."

"Pain ate mine away a long time ago.  Before I'd ever killed a living thing.   There's nothing left for the killing to eat", Caeda said. "I just have one hope left. One day I'll meet to my last mark and all the pain will go away."

Paddy nodded slowly. "I understand", he said. "I understand completely. If you had come for me twenty years ago, maybe I could have taken all that pain away, but instead you get to take mine away." He paused and looked up at her.

Caeda was working hard to keep her face impassive. She didn't want to answer any more questions. He had already broken through to the real person beneath the assassin even if he didn't know it. She buried the emotions that had started to rise in her and once again her index finger started curling towards the trigger.

"You've told me what I wanted to know, and you have a job to do", Paddy began. "Just one more thing. What's your name, your real name? I'd like to know that before I die."

For some reason, Caeda wanted to answer him. She wanted to tell him who she really was. She wanted him to understand her personal pain. A man like him would understand, but no. He wasn't her last mark. Just her current one. She shook her head ever so slightly.

He nodded again. He understood.

"Do you have any children?", Caeda asked trying but failing to keep all emotions from her voice.

"Three children and seven grand children", Paddy answered with pride. "Two doctors and a school teacher. I didn't want any child of mine in the rackets!"

"Turn around", Caeda ordered him.

The old man turned slowly and kept his hands up.

Caeda raised her pistol. He couldn't see her eyes starting to water as she moved her finger towards the trigger for the last time.

"I'll pray for you", Paddy said.

Caeda hesitated and a tear rolled down her cheek. "Maybe He'll listen to you, because He's never listened to me." Caeda aimed and fired two shots into the back of his head. She caught the body and laid it on its back tenderly. She wiped her eyes, then reached down and closed his.

"At least your children will get to say good-bye. That's more than I ever got."

Caeda went to the bedroom window and opened it. She climbed out to the wall and closed the window before she climbed down to the street and got away. She headed to New York quickly, but deep inside she didn't want to go home. She would go to sleep when she got home, and she would have nightmares, but she had nowhere else to go. Caeda showered and changed clothes once she got back to her apartment and didn't bother fixing any food. She sliced a lemon, opened the bottle of Rémy Martin and starting drinking, hoping to forget everything from the last several hours, and avoid the bad dreams. She finished the bottle and passed out on her bed. Then the nightmares came.

To be continued...

Link to the first Caeda story.

Caeda: The Art of the Kill

This story is a little different than what I've done in the past.  I hope everybody enjoyed it. More Caeda to come very soon!

comments encouraged: dem2@hotmail.com