Caeda: The Dark Path
by demented20
World travels, high adventure, and big money lure Caeda down a shadowy road. (Part 3 of 4)

"Tell me again why you won't let me have a gun,", Amaris said as she zipped up her body hugging one piece outfit. It was the first time she'd worn one made just for her. It fit like a well made glove, hugging every curve of her strong young body. She'd made one alteration over Chet's objections. She added her mother's St. Jude medal to the front of it. "Don't think I can shoot?", she asked.

"I know you can shoot, but that's not what you're here for", Chet said in his serious voice. He looked over at his protege who was as loose as could be despite the danger she faced.

"I'm not going to argue with you", she told her instructor. "But when you said you were taking me on a trip, this is not what I imagined."

Chet cracked the smallest of smiles. "Imaginations are dangerous. Now, let's go over the plan one more time."

Amaris held up her hand. "Let's not. Its drilled in here already." She pointed at her head. "If the stuff's anywhere near where its supposed to be, then I'll get it."

Chet was so proud of this girl that he couldn't express it. He reached over and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Be careful."

Amaris tiled her head and eyed Chet. "Careful's not in the job description."

Chet's lips grinned, but his eyes didn't. "Damn right. Happy hunting."

"Happy hunting." Amaris grinned back, and then she was gone. Chet watched as she launched herself out the third story window into the air of the freshly fallen night in Mogadishu. She landed on the side of the building across the street like a human insect and climbed to the roof. She looked more like a gazelle now as she bounded from one roof to the next before dropping down into an alley out of sight. Chet inhaled and readied himself. He stepped out the window onto the ledge and did what he did best, slipped into the shadows and disappeared.

Amaris stopped moving and breathing when she saw a militia patrol go by on a Toyota. She could see a .30 calibre machine gun mounted on the roof and every guy in the truck bed had an AK. Amaris had a knife. She waited until they turned the corner to make her move across the street. Eyes were everywhere, but the civil war in Somalia had taught the regular people how not see. She passed a pile of smoldering trash as she came to a dead end street. Dead ends didn't mean anything to Amaris. She put her hands against the side of the tenement and climbed up. Amaris' strength to body weight ratio was in the highest percentiles for people in the world. She had no problem at all climbing up the wall using just her arms. The sides of the building were covered in soot, but one good thing about the gum that her body produced, it took all the dirt with it leaving her hands as clean as if she'd just washed them. It also took off sweat, which came in handy when she needed her palms dry. Amaris was getting closer to her target. She could see the patrols getting more regular and the guards looking more competent. She wasn't afraid of a regular street thug, but a motivated street thug could be dangerous because they didn't scare.

Amaris looked out from the four story building at the five story building half a mile away. She could hear sporadic gunfire coming from different directions. The idea of getting hit with a stray bullet was a concern, but she put it out of her mind. She was focused on her mission. She started moving again. The militia 'governing' office had set up headquarters in two buildings that took up most of a city block. The guards around them were thick, but Amaris had a plan for them. It was time for distraction number one.

She dropped to the ground and found a militia truck parked right where Chet said it would be. She was in a crouch as she worked her way into the open. Her steps were measured, but all of her movements were butter smooth. She reached into one of the pouches made into the legs of her outfit and pulled out a single incendiary grenade. She set the grenade up right under the gas tank of the truck and pulled the pin. She didn't waste time getting away. She was on the side of the building when the grenade exploded, sending a jet of white hot phosphor straight up into the full gas tank. The resulting explosion would have made Hollywood proud. Amaris didn't admire her work for long. She saw several guards run towards the fire, but they backed away when they realized that there were still live rounds in the fire. Amaris grinned and climbed along the wall. She dropped behind the less important of the two buildings nest to the electrical connections. The two militia buildings had a dedicated power supply that rarely went out unlike the rest of Mogadishu that had power in spurts. Amaris saw that the main went through the wall.

"Smart", she said under her breath. It didn't matter. She pulled out her second and last incendiary grenade. She put it under the electrical cable. She was on the roof by the time the grenade went off sending a shower of sparks into the night sky. The power went out, and the back of the building caught fire Amaris was causing all kinds of trouble. Men with guns started running all over the place. She could hear actions being worked on machine guns and rpg's being loaded, but they didn't have an targets. Amaris wanted to keep it that way.

She used the darkness to cover her climb down the side of the building. She counted the windows and broke through the third one from the corner. This office was dark. She felt he layout and went to the second desk from the door. She pulled out the first drawer and found the box of 3.5 inch floppy disks sitting right where they were supposed to be. The writing on them was Arabic, and there for fourteen of them. These were the ones.

Amaris turned her head towards the door when she heard gunshots not far away. She tucked the clear box of disks into a special bag attached to the back of her suit. She started for the window when the door opened. A Somali man with an AK across his chest and a flashlight in his hand burst in. The light fell on Amaris immediately. He raised his gun, and Amaris ran towards the window. She didn't pause. She just drove out the fifth story window. He stomped over the broken glass and looked out quickly, but there was nothing. She was gone.

Amaris was on the roof looking down at him. He pulled out a wireless handset and yelled into it. She didn't know what he said, but she knew her time was running out. She ran at full speed along the roof of the building. She floated, her boots barely touching the roof long enough to disturb the fine gravel. She came to the edge and didn't slow down. She flew across the opening between the two buildings, landing on the narrow hand rail of the third floor fire escape of the second  militia building. She didn't even have to get her balance after landing on the round handrail. She just jumped again and wrapped her fingers around the fourth floor railing above her head, and pulled her body up in one powerfully smooth move. Her feet hit the landing, but didn't stay there for long. She could hear activity beneath her. She climbed the wall and ended up on the roof. Amaris ran across this roof hoping that she wasn't too late.

She looked to the side of the building and saw that this building had its power back on. They must have a generator somewhere. Amaris cursed in her mind before she ran to the north side of the building and jumped. She reached her hand back, and the gum stuck to the concrete wall. Her trajectory changed, and her feet careened towards a window. She could only guess if it was the right one, but she didn't have time to count. Her feet broke through the glass panes and the aluminum frame, and she landed inside. She had her eyes closed to protect them from small pieces of glass, but she felt the two armed men standing only a couple of feet from her. They were too startled to react before she did.

She set her feet and sent a kick to the throat of the first man before she had even opened her eyes. His hands went to his throat, and before her leg came down, Amaris was spinning. Her fist hit the other guard in the eye. He was dazed, but the barrel of his rifle started to swing towards her. Amaris stepped into him. One quick elbow to his solar plexus and then a viper like strike to his throat made him stumble. Amaris unloaded three powerful kicks in a barrage that reduced this guard to a heap. She spun around as the second guard's muzzle came up. Amaris grabbed the barrel and pushed it towards the ground. The bullets sparked and ricocheted off the concrete floor. Concrete dust and bits of shrapnel flew all over the place. Amaris grabbed the rifle with both hands and pulled up on it as hard as she could. The butt of the rifle struck its owner in the nose. Amaris hit him again before she snatched the rifle from his hands. Two butt strikes later, he was out for a while. Every guard in the area had heard the gunshots from this supposedly empty office. Amaris opened the door to the hall way and cautiously looked out. It was clear, but she could hear foot traffic near. She check the magazine of the Kalashnikov. Empty. That idiot had fired 30 bullets into the floor only managing to fill both of their noses with the smell of gunpowder. Amaris tossed the gun back into the room. She ran down a corridor full of doors, trying to guess which one lead to the right office. Her intel had been based on counting windows, not counting doors.

She caught a break when a balding bespeckled man opened a door at the end of the hall. He closed it quickly after glimpsing the menacingly beautiful sight in the middle of the hall, but it was too late. Amaris sprinted. She was running out of time. She could hear gunshots on the street, and she could hear activity behind her. They were working their way to the top floor. Amaris didn't slow as she came to the door. She lowered her shoulder and powered into it. She'd felt from the other door that these were hollow inside. Amaris crashed right threw it. Splinters were still in the air when she rolled to her feet, knife in hand. The room was dark, except for one light bulb hanging over a desk at the other end. Her target was sitting on that desk, and the bald man was standing behind that desk with his fingers itching to touch the Markarov pistol laying tantalizingly close.

"Go for it if you want", Amaris said and raised her knife a little higher. "But I like my chances."

The man looked at this nubile feminine shape and at the knife in her hand. His heart raced and his hand shook. It didn't take him long. He swallowed hard and raised his hands palms out.

"Good choice", Amaris walked towards him, her hips swaying in her tight outfit. "Back against the wall", she ordered. The man moved without hesitation. Amaris liked that type of cooperation. As soon as the man's back hit the wall, she threw the knife with blazing speed. It buried itself in the wall a couple of millimeters from the man's right cheek. He whimpered and moved away the blade.

Amaris looked at the Thinkpad on the desk and smiled. This was her target. She closed the notebook and slipped it over her shoulder into the pouch with the diskettes. She walked next to the man, getting closer than she needed to, but she liked the look on his face. This man was scared for his life and she had nothing, but herself. She was making this grown man lose control. That feeling of power and control was intoxicating. Sweat poured down his forehead. His white button down was soaked, and it wasn't from the heat. She breathed on him and pulled the knife from beside his head while looking him directly in the eye.

She took a couple steps back and grinned impishly. She turned quickly when she heard men rushing down the hall.

"In here!", the emboldened balding man yelled in Somali.

He flinched when Amaris turned, her eyes threatening to burn a hole in him. His courage suddenly gone. She snatched up the pistol. He threw his hands up high as urine ran down his leg. Amaris swung the gun at the single light bulb. She closed her eyes before the flash, then leveled the pistol at the door and fired. The men in the hall stopped and sought cover. That was all Amaris needed. She tossed the empty pistol to the guy then jumped out the window. This was getting to be her signature exit.

She never jumped far from the wall. She reached back, using her hands to catch the wall at strategic places swinging her whichever direction she wanted to go and slowing her fall. She landed on the ground softly, and ran away. At one point she ran directly between two patrol trucks who were too busy looking at each other to even notice her. Amaris smiled all the way back.

Chet came in through the door of the apartment. He was tired and somewhat disturbed by what he'd been forced to do earlier that night. Bad men should never have their children live with them. It should be a bad guy rule, but what was done was done. There was no undoing it. Chet tossed his gun onto the bed and looked around the room. The window was still open, but the curtains were drawn.

"Amaris", he called out.

She came out of the bathroom with one towel wrapped around her body and another wiping her hair. "Right here."

"Did you get it?", Chet asked after she came in.

"Of course. Don't I always?" She reached behind her and tossed him the satchel with the computer and disks.

"Did you have any trouble?"

"Would it matter if I did? I got the stuff. That's all they care about, right?"

Chet nodded and unzipped the bag to get a look at what she had retrieved. "You're exactly right."

Amaris sighed and went to her side of the room acting not like the dangerous bandit from earlier that night, but like the teen aged girl that she actually was. "So that laptop and stuff is worth $10,000?"

"It is to you", Chet replied quickly.

"Good, cause I want to go out this weekend."

"It's going to take ten grand for you to go out with some friends?", Chet zipped the bag up and started untying his boots.

"You never know", Amaris began as she lay on the bed. She extended her leg up and rubbed lotion in. She was so happy to be able to put on lotion because she had been forced to go without it because of the scent. "Its better to have ten grand and not need it, than to need ten grand and not have it."

Chet sighed and looked at Amaris over his shoulder, then shook his head. "Put some clothes on." She was comfortable in her own skin for sure. "And hurry up, we're leaving tonight."

They drove south to Kenya with a couple of East African guys that Amaris didn't know. They didn't talk unless they had to, and Amaris guessed correctly that she wasn't supposed to know who they were, and they weren't supposed to know who she and Chet were. They got Amaris and Chet into Kenya without incident. From there, it was an easy trip to Mombasa. They stayed a few miles south of Mombasa on Daiani Beach for a couple days as father and daughter, although Amaris bristled at that arrangement. To bribe her, Chet let her leave the hotel and roam around the city. It catered to tourists anyway, but Amaris found her way to the more authentic parts of Mombasa where she found out that despite the smell, she kind of liked Kenyan cuisine. On the day of the merchandise exchange, Chet left Amaris at the very nice hotel while he went out. He came back after a couple of hours. The deal had gone smoothly, the money was in both of their off shore accounts, and it was time to go.

Amaris was already packed. She was more than a little disappointed. Chet had been promising her a trip overseas for quite a while. He had taken her to most of the big cities in North America and to lots of smaller ones too. They'd done jobs in some of them, but other times he had taken her there just to allow her to visit a new place. Amaris had dreamed of going overseas though. She had thought of perhaps going to Paris or Prague, or maybe Tokyo or someplace exotic like Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, but no. He had taken her to a civil war torn Somalia instead. The couple of days in Mombasa had made up for it a little, but not all the way.

They left Mombasa on a small plane that took them to the large airport at Nairobi. Amaris wished that she had a few days in Nairobi, but they stayed in the terminal. Chet went to the ticket counter and spoke passable Swahili to the woman at the ticket counter. Amaris was waiting back in a slight huff. This trip was starting to suck, and to a sixteen year old girl there were few things worse than something that sucked. Chet came back after a few minutes and handed Amaris her ticket.

"I thought our connecting flight back to America was in London."

Chet sat down on his suitcase, and looked over at Amaris. He seemed amused. "There would be a connecting flight, if we were going straight back to the States, but since you did such a good job back there, you're going to Rome."

"Oh, ok. What do we have to do in Rome?"

Chet crossed his arms. "We have to do whatever you want to do. You can go to museums, or look at the fountains, or maybe just walk around and look at old buildings if you want to. Rome has lots of them."

Amaris' eyes widened. "You mean you're taking me to Rome like as a tourist?"

Chet nodded seriously. "Yeah, I guess I am."

Amaris shouted and threw her arms around his neck. She jumped on him so hard that he fell off of his suitcase with her arms still firmly clamped around his neck. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

"You're welcome", he grunted. "Now please get off of me." Amaris kissed Chet on the cheek as she pushed herself up. People in the area looked at the two of them. Some folks were being nosy, while others glanced and smiled. They guessed correctly that something good must have happened. Some guessed incorrectly that the older guy had proposed to the young girl. Amaris would have punched anybody in the mouth for even suggesting something so disgusting.

Amaris and Chet stayed at a hotel at the top of the Spanish Steps. Amaris felt like she had found her own little piece of heaven. She packed as much into two days as she could. Chet took her shopping, even spending lots of lira on a beautiful evening dress. Amaris had never owned something quite as nice as this dress. They took in the Coliseum and lots of fountains and statues, but she had gone to the Piazza San Pietro alone. Amaris looked around the plaza, and then stepped foot in St. Peter's for the first time. She walked around the massive church feeling very small and awed trying to figure out why they put so much detail on a ceiling that was so far from everybody's eyes. She promised herself that one day she would come back to Rome.

After Rome, Chet took Amaris to Vienna, Austria. Chet spoke with someone at the airport who lead them to a first class lounge where he ordered Amaris to change into that dress that he had bought her in Rome. She was just finishing her lipstick when Chet walked into her private changing room.

"You look nice", he told her from the doorway

Amaris had a smart remark on her tongue, but when she turned she couldn't find her voice. Chet, the man who lived in a small house in the West Virginia mountains, who usually had salt and pepper stubble on his face, now stood in a fine tuxedo looking like a man with his net worth was supposed to look.

Chet laughed. "For once, I have you speechless."

"I... I don't know what to say. I didn't even know you could be handsome."

"I'm full of tricks, girl. Now come on, we have a limousine waiting for us."

A black Mercedes limo was at the front of the airport. Chet helped her in, and then helped her out after they stopped in old Vienna. She could tell something was going on by looking out the window. She could see other limos and people dressed in finery standing all over the place.

Amaris was in a wonderland. It was a bit cold outside, but the scene was lovely. She could even hear orchestral music spilling out from the large brightly lit building in front of her. "What is this place?"

Chet grinned and shook a man's hand before he answered her. "This is Eichenbaum Palace, and we are going to one of the Viennese's famous balls. Its time for you to learn how to travel in polite society."

"Really? This is so cool! No wonder you got me this dress."  She looked down at the dress and smiled. "So are we going inside?"

Chet smoothed his jacket. "Well, I'm going inside because I have an invitation. It wasn't easy to get."

"Where's my invitation?"

"See that's the thing. You don't have one. I'm going to use my invitation and walk right through the front door to this wonderful palace, but you have to find a way inside, and there are a couple of heads of state in that ball with all of their security around them."

Amaris looked at the three story Baroque palace behind her. It was imposing, impressive, and nearly impenetrable. Even a quick glance revealed several security people manning the roof and even a couple of guys in the niches created between the columns and the wall.

Amaris started getting angry. "How the hell am I supposed to get into this building with no intel, no plan, and wearing this damned dress with these ridiculous shoes?"

Chet manufactured a frown. "I thought you liked the dress and the shoes?"

"Not for work I don't!" Amaris' hands were balled into fists, and when she got angry like this her eyes turned into cold blue flames.

Chet patted her on the cheek. "You'll find a way. Oh, I almost forgot... If you don't find your way to the ball room in half and hour, I'm going to leave. I'm not going out the way I came in, and you don't know where our hotel is. So find your way in, or you'll spend a very cold night alone in Vienna." Chet smiled and walked past a steaming mad, Amaris. "Gutenabend, Herr Schatz. Frau Schatz, sie schauen wunderbar heute abend an!", he called out to a couple going into the palace who turned and spoke to him.

Amaris fumed for a minute or two before she started planning her entrance. She backed away across the street near a group of people talking to each other. She started looking at the building and using what she had learned. Chet and others had taught Amaris how to secure a building. She knew all sorts of way to protect structures. She had learned them just so she could defeat them. She focused her attention on the guards patrolling the north side away from the bustling street and away from most of the eyes. The north wall faced a one story coffee shop and boutique across a narrow alley. There was a wrought iron fence keeping people from walking down the alley between the imposing palace and the high end shops. Behind the wrought iron, the security people had discretely strung some barbed wire. The light was low and most people wouldn't have even seen the barbed wire until they were right up on it. Amaris knew that this was her best shot. She timed the guards' patrols and very carefully made her way towards the iron fence. She put her hands on the cold stone walls of the palace. She tried to look like she was standing there for a perfectly legitimate reason, but in the instant that all eyes were looking away from the alley, Amaris tightened the muscles of her upper body and pulled herself up onto the wall, and with a push from her Italian shoes, she launched her lower half over the iron barrier.

While hanging from the wall with one hand, Amaris used her other to take off first her right shoe, then after switching hands, she took off her left. She put both of the straps in her teeth before she turned to climb. She climbed in ten second intervals. She had to be still while eyes were facing her direction. Even while in the shadows, human eyes were great at sensing motion. If she moved at the wrong time, she would be found. She'd have a hard time explaining her way out of jail.

She climbed up the wall and through a door and into the house. The guards were good, but so was Amaris. She learned that in the near dark people rarely looked up. They were always looking for things that could trip them instead of things that could swoop down from above. Amaris had to stop and hold her breath a couple of times while security officers walked beneath her. She wasn't worried about her gown falling towards the floor because she could make the entire dress stick to her body. Once the guards were past, Amaris dropped to the floor and scurried down a flight of stairs. She stopped and slipped on her shoes, but before she could go down to the first floor, she was forced out onto the second floor by a passing group of security people. She moved away from the stairs towards the safety of the shadows on the dimly lit second floor. Amaris traveled on the carpeted center of the hall trying to stay as quiet as possible looking for another set of stairs. She strained her senses and her power to make sure that no one was coming. When she felt that it was clear, she continued down the hall.

She was getting close to another set of stairs. She could feel it, and she could hear the music from downstairs getting louder. She completely focused on getting to those stairs and down into the party when suddenly Amaris forgot all about the ball below her. She had seen something out of the corner of her eye, in the low light that her brain told her that she shouldn't be seeing. She turned fully to her right and her jaw dropped to the floor. She was face to face with a self portrait of Titian from the 16th century. Her eyes darted left and right. To her right was another Titian and to her left yet another from later in his life. She looked down the hall and saw that there were paintings evenly spaced all along the wall. She just hadn't been looking. She was now. Amaris had seen some of his works in museums in New York and San Francisco, but she had never been so close, close enough to see his brush strokes and to see how vibrant the colors were. Amaris was about to rush to another painting when she heard a girl's voice.

"You aren't supposed to be up here", the girl told her in German.

"I know", Amaris replied coolly, but inside she was furious. She had managed to slip past trained guards, but she had let some little girl sneak up on her.

"He's one of my favorites too", the little girl began. "All of his paintings used to be downstairs, but they told me that several years ago someone tried to throw wine on one. So, they moved all the really expensive paintings up here and put the others downstairs."

"People are so stupid.", Amaris said. "I love his use of color and his poses."

"Yeah, me too. Do you paint?", the girl asked as she stepped into the light for the first time. She looked to be about eleven or twelve with a cute face, brown eyes, and long dark hair that had been curled at the ends. She still had a little baby fat, but she looked like a cherub in her little girl gown. Her attitude was a older than her looks.

"My brother was a painter. I'm more of a sculptor", Amaris informed her.

The girl smiled slyly. "In that case, you should come with me." The little girl started down the hall the way Amaris had just come. Amaris followed her because she knew that this girl was either her ticket to the ball downstairs or to a jail cell.

They went around a corner and through a couple doors to an enclosed patio on the rear of the house. Amaris' eyes widened when she saw the statues out here. She saw ancient Greek, Roman, and Persian statues arranged as they would have been in the gardens of wealthy aristocrats in ages past. She saw Byzantine works and Egyptian works, but she stopped when she saw a statue of a crouching boy. She knew who's it was at first glance.

"Is this a-"

"A Michelangelo. Sure is, and it's a finished one. A couple of our neighbors brag on their Michelangelo's, but ours is finished. The Esterházy's don't even have a finished one of his."

"Can I touch it?", Amaris reached out her fingers. They were shaking. She couldn't remember the last time her hands had shaken.

The girl shrugged her shoulders then nodded. Amaris reached out and felt the marble. "It's so smooth. Like skin." Amaris traced the lines that had been carved so many years ago. She had never been this close to something so wonderful.

"We should go before we're missed", the girl said. The girl lead Amaris down the hall and into another smaller hall, before taking her down a small staircase. The music got louder and the conversations clearer. Amaris smiled internally as they came to the first floor of the opulent town palace. She was almost home free until the little girl stopped.

"Are you trying to get me in trouble?", a guard in a tux asked the little girl through clenched teeth. "You said that you were going upstairs. You didn't say anything about someone else."

The girl got annoyed. "She wanted to see the art upstairs. Does she look like a thief to you? Stop being paranoid."

The guard turned to Amaris. His face was completely humorless. "Who are you with, young miss?"

"She's with me!", the girl told the guard who backed off. "Come on", the girl told Amaris.

Amaris went down the stairs, and she was in the ball. She looked around the beautiful Eichenbaum Palace and at all the fine people. She couldn't keep the look of awe off her face. "Thank you for showing me the statues.", Amaris told the little girl.

"You're welcome", she replied. Amaris' mouth nearly dropped open again. This girl spoke German as easily as everyone else in Austria, and yet her English sounded like she was from the Mid West in the States.

"You speak English?"

The girl chuckled. "Of course I do. I knew you were an American when I first heard you talk. Your German's really good, but you have to work on your diction. You only get that with practice."

"Your English is perfect, no accent or anything", Amaris told the smiling 11 year old.

"I get lots of practice. Well, I better find my parents before they get mad. Nice meeting you."

"Wait, I'm Amaris." The two shook hands.

"I'm Alisha. Maybe we'll see each other around."

"Yeah, I hope so."

Amaris found Chet and came in behind him. "Glad you made it. I was starting to worry. Well since you're here, I'd like to introduce you to some people from Zurich..."

They stayed at the ball for a few hours before going to the Imperial Hotel and staying a night. The next day they flew back to the States, but Amaris didn't mind the long trip. She had actually had a good time. The flight from Vienna had stopped in London before continuing across the Atlantic to Washington DC. From there it was a three and a half hour drive to Chet's house in West Virginia. By the time they got there, both were too beat to stay awake long.

Amaris went back to school the next day, and had to tell her classmates all about her trip. She left out large parts of the stories of course, but her classmates spent their free time listening to Amaris talk. They were used to this popular junior missing classes, but she never got behind in her work. Chet wouldn't allow it. He would sign Amaris out and make her coordinate with all her teachers, so that when she stepped back in the classroom she was ready.

After her trip, Amaris spent the next several weeks with the Hesse's. She considered that home even though she spent as much time at Chet's place as she did there. There was something at the Hesse home that she couldn't get at Chet's, a sense of family. Amaris was able to be much more open with Ruth and John about her trips, but she still didn't tell them everything. They eagerly waited for the stories. They hung on every word, and Amaris loved them for it because she knew that they could have been jealous, but they weren't. They knew that she had skills that they didn't have. They had learned early on that Amaris was geared for this sort of thing, but they were living quite full lives of their own. John had started his adventure in the Marine Corps. He was following in his father's footsteps.

Amaris had been in the crowd on John's graduation day from Parris Island. Mr. Hesse had been there too, but now everyone was a little worried about him. He had started to get bad migraines. Amaris had seen his headaches bad. Mrs. Hesse had even taken him to a specialist in Charleston. He was doing better while the family sat and talked, but he looked tired more often. Amaris was worried about him, and she kept a close eye on him. When he didn't have the headaches, he was as normal as could be, or as normal as he ever was. Mr. Hesse was never the sort of man who lit up a room. He wasn't too tired to drive Amaris to Pittsburgh like he had been doing for years. Chet rode with them this time. The two men talked baseball the entire way. Amaris had learned about sports over time just so she could be in their conversation. She didn't talk much once she reached the cemetery though.

She was on her knees tending the garden she had planted around the four tombstones. Chet and Mr. Hesse were standing a distance away. Mr. Hesse always gave her privacy when she came to cemetery. Amaris would tend the flowers and often began to talk to her family, telling them about her life as it was at the moment and all the things that had happened her recently. Chet hadn't been with Amaris to the cemetery before, so he asked, "Who planted those asters?", while Amaris worked at the lilies.

Amaris didn't get a chance to answer.

"Been a while!", they heard a voice call from behind just before a diesel engine rumbled to a stop.

"Rooster", Amaris called and stood up quickly. Rooster's coveralls were dusty from his work finishing another burial, but a smile was spread across his face as he used a rag to wipe the sweat from his brown dome. Rooster Jackson was in his late fifties, but with the energy of a man half his age. His gate was uneven and his legs were bowed, but nothing seemed to slow him down.

He stopped walking as he came to the car. "Mr. Hesse, good to see you as always." The two men shook hands hardly. "Rooster, this is Chet", Mr. Hesse introduced the two men. They too shook hands. "Real name's Roger, but in my day I used to make the ladies crow", Rooster bragged with his big grin and wink at Amaris. His gold incisor shined in the sunlight. "I try to take care of that garden while Amaris is away." He turned towards Amaris.

"You do a wonderful job", Amaris told the heads groundsman then turned towards the small garden.

Rooster looked at Chet. "I don't do that for anybody, but Amaris. She plants a new flower, I take care of it for her. Sometimes when it doesn't rain, I have to carry water in buckets all the way from the tractor house over there." He could see the look of appreciation on Amaris' face, and that was enough for him to keep doing it as long as he could. "I saw Marlene here a couple months ago", he said after some consideration. He knew how Amaris felt about her aunt.

"You did, huh", Amaris said to dismiss it.

"She's the one who planted those purple asters. I've always liked them, but umm... Amaris you should give your aunt a call or write maybe." He knew he was treading on family wounds. Those types of wounds were the worst, but he felt this his duty.

"I don't know where she lives anymore, and I don't have her number." Amaris didn't want to talk about it.

Rooster reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and retrieved a folded sheet of paper from inside it. "I asked her for it when she was here. Been waitin in my pocket for you." He sighed and turned to leave. "Well, nice to see you Amaris, Mr. Hesse, and nice to meet you Chet. I hope you're not too hard on her. She's a good girl, even if she doesn't show it all the time." Rooster climbed onto his backhoe drove off.

There was more sports talk on the way back to West Virginia, but Amaris didn't take part in it. She sat in the back seat. She was lost in her own thoughts when Chet turned around to look at Amaris. "You've never mentioned anything about an aunt to me."

"Nothing much to say", Amaris replied curtly. Her emotions were turning a bit dark, and Amaris was mad about that. "She kept me for a year after the attack on my family, then she let me go back with DCS. Just left me there. She never called me or wrote." The look on Amaris' face made those wounds look fresh even after all these years. "I haven't thought about her at all", Amaris lied.

"Now that you have her address, you should write her a letter", Mr. Hesse said before he pulled around a slow moving truck on the highway.

"Why should I?" Amaris' voice had a touch of venom in it.

"Because right is right, and blood is blood Amaris. People have reasons why they do things, and sometimes we don't know until we're older."

Amaris sat forward in the seat. "She didn't leave you at some horrible institution, she left me. Why don't you write her?"

"If she was my aunt I would", Mr. Hesse said calmly. He wasn't going to get sucked into an argument.

"She doesn't have to if she doesn't want to", Chet spoke up to defend Amaris.

Mr. Hesse wouldn't have any of it. "That's the difference between a child and an adult. Children can do what they want to do, but sometimes an adult has to do the right thing even if they don't want to."

Chet didn't take offense because he knew those words were directed at Amaris. Chet knew the dangers in letting Amaris get in touch with her living relatives, but he couldn't get in the middle of this too much. He decided to stay out of it. He just wished that his moral center was as rock solid as Ted Hesse's was.

Amaris struggled with it for a while, but she sat down with some blank paper and a Bic. She started writing, guessing that she wouldn't have much to say, but nine pages later she decided to wrap it up. Amaris put all her contact information on the letter and walked it all the way to the post office. She wouldn't have to wait long for a reply. After school a week later, the phone rang.

"Hello", Amaris answered with a trace of annoyance.

"AMARIS!", the voice on the other end of the phone line screamed.

"JULIA!", Amaris squealed. She hopped around the Hesse's kitchen like a little girl. Tears rolled down her face at hearing her cousin's voice for the first time in nearly 6 years. They talked for hours, never repeating the same story. Later, Amaris spoke with Cooper and Brant, but not with her aunt. She wasn't at home, but no one would say exactly where she was. Amaris didn't press it. She was overjoyed to hear from her cousins again, and they were happy to hear from her too. They had explained that they had tried to find her years ago, but they had been stonewalled by the agencies in Pittsburgh. They all decided not to dwell on the past. After the phone call finally ended, Amaris called the ticket office and booked a flight to Bismarck for that Friday. She knew that she would face some pain, especially at seeing her aunt, but Amaris had learned to face unhappiness. She would take a chance on a bit of pain for a later reward.

"Hey, Chet", Amaris called as she ran into his house after school Friday afternoon. She had been bubbling with enthusiasm all week long. She couldn't wait to see everyone. She went to her bedroom and started packing up some clothes. Her wardrobe was split between the Hesse home and Chet's.

"So you're going to North Dakota?" Chet leaned against the door frame while Amaris packed. She had to hurry so that she could make it to Pittsburgh for the flight. "I thought you didn't want to see your aunt and cousins."

Amaris stopped packing and looked off into the distance for a moment. "It's been in the back of my mind, but I didn't know how much I missed them until I talked to Julia."

"What about your aunt?"

Amaris wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and turned to look at Chet. "I miss her. Mr. Hesse was so right. There has to be a reason for what happened. She wouldn't stop caring about me all of the sudden. I'd be dead without Aunt Marlene. The doctors were ready to give up on me, and she wouldn't let them. She made them try everything to keep me alive, and here I am."

"You didn't clear this trip with me", Chet tried a different tact.

Amaris zipped her bag. "Didn't think I would have to. Thanks to you I have plenty of money to work with, and if I can get by people trying to kill me, then I think I can handle baggage claim without adult supervision." She put her bag over her shoulder. "I'll be back on Sunday night."

"You presume a lot, Amaris."

She turned towards him. His face was hard and his body was loose. Amaris had seen that look. She dropped her bag. "Chet, you're my teacher, and I respect you. You can probably keep me from making my flight on time, but you'd have to kill me to keep me in this house. So unless you're ready to explain my disappearance, wipe that look off your face." She picked her bag up. "My flight gets back at 9:45 Sunday night. I'll see you then." Amaris turned and walked out the door.

Chet smiled as the door closed behind his student. There weren't many people who would defy him like that. The Broker was right. That damn girl was fearless. She wasn't even scared of him. Her training was entering its last phase

Amaris took a taxi from the Bismarck airport to the Breck's new home. It was about three miles from their old one and a little smaller. Amaris jumped from the car before it had stopped because she saw her cousins filing out of their house.

"Hey, you guys have room for one more!", Amaris called out.

"No way!", Cooper exclaimed. She met her cousins half way. Twenty-three year old Brant lifted Amaris off the ground in a big bear hug and spun her round. He had been 17 the last time they'd seen each other. He looked like a man now, and so did 21 year old Cooper. Bruce Junior looked a lot like his father, but with the kindest eyes she would see on a man for a very long time. Amaris only saw Julia after Brant had put her feet back to the ground. Julia was standing a few feet away sobbing.

She had thought often about Amaris, and didn't know what had happened to her. All that fear had built up inside of Julia. She would think about Amaris living in foster care around people who couldn't love and care for her the way she was supposed to be loved and cared for. She had felt sorry for Amaris every day since they had been torn away from each other. She couldn't help but think that it was partly her fault, and now she stood only a few feet away from the cousin that she loved so much, but she couldn't make herself step any closer.

Amaris closed the distance and put her arms around Julia. They cried on each other's shoulders. "I missed you", Amaris told Julia. It summed up everything she felt. "Where's Aunt Marlene?", Amaris asked, trying to sound natural, but the emotion made it to her voice anyway. She was terrified of facing her aunt. Amaris wasn't sure how she would react, and she knew that her emotions were fragile.

Brant and Cooper and Bruce Junior looked at each other. "We were just heading there."

The tone of Bruce Junior's words hit Amaris like a hammer. She'd heard that tone coming from her own mouth, but only when she told somebody that she was going to visit her family's graves. She was relieved when Bruce turned into a hospital parking lot. That relief melted when the five of them entered the cancer ward.

Marlene was lying a bed with machines hooked to her arms just like Amaris had been all those years before. Her skin was ashen and every movement looked tortured, as she slowly turned her head towards the doorway. Her face brightened to a weary smile when she saw all her children standing there.

"We've got a surprise for you", Cooper told his mother. He pulled Amaris to the front.

At first Marlene frowned and looked confused. Cooper had just pulled his sister to the front.

"Julia?", Marlene asked weakly, but no. Julia was standing next to the door. If that wasn't Julia... The short hair and those eyes. "Oh my God!", Marlene cried out loudly enough to get the nurse's attention at the station in the hall. She turned her head away and tried to move her body away as well. "I'm sorry", she muttered over and over again.

Amaris rushed to her aunt's bed and knelt down. She took her aunt's hand.

"Its okay", Amaris whispered. She could hardly talk though the emotion. Amaris put her other hand on her aunt's forehead. She tried to turn her aunt's face towards her, but Marlene had found strength enough to resist. Amaris stood up and leaned her face over. "Its okay", she told her aunt again.

Marlene turned to Amaris with her face distorted in grief and guilt. "I always wanted to get you back. I never meant to abandon you. So much happened. I kept telling myself that I had no choice. You must hate me."

"I love you", Amaris told her aunt.

That caused Marlene to cry out and sob uncontrollably. "You don't have to lie cause I'm sick. You can't forgive me!"

"Aunt Marlene, I already have." Amaris kissed her aunt on her forehead. "I think I forgave you a long time ago. I just didn't realize it." Now the two of them cried together. Marlene held her niece for a very long time, trying to forgive herself for what she did years earlier.

After her medication, Marlene fell asleep. Amaris didn't want to leave, but she went downstairs to the cafeteria with Cooper and Julia. Brant and Bruce Junior stayed upstairs to talk to some hospital people. While downstairs, Cooper and Julia explained how Bruce Senior, neither called him Daddy or Father, tried to ruin Marlene's life during the divorce. He had brought in experts who testified that Marlene was unfit to raise children, and that she was unable to work. While at the same time, he attempted to sabotage her job at the school. In the midst of the divorce, she had been forced to drop her petition to have Amaris returned. By the time she was in a position to try and get Amaris back, the officials in Pittsburgh were no longer cooperating.

Amaris, Cooper, and Julia were finished eating by the time Brant and Bruce Junior joined them at the table. Both wore long faces. The siblings shared looks, but no one said anything around Amaris, but she had finally had enough.

"What's going on with Aunt Marlene?"

"The doctors say that she's responding well to the treatment", Bruce said.

"But?" No one said anything. "Come on, what is it? What's wrong?", Amaris demanded.

"The insurance won't pay for the next phase of her treatment", Brant answered angrily. "They said that they will pay only a portion going forward, but the hospital won't give us anymore credit."

"How much do they want?", Amaris asked.

"A lot. More money than we can come up with. We're already borrowed to the max on the house and credit cards." Bruce Junior was exasperated. He had been racking his brain trying to find more money."

"Can this hospital do wire transfers?", Amaris asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure they can."

"Good then take me to the finance guy." Amaris wouldn't explain what she was doing. The Breck's sat outside the finance office for an hour wondering what Amaris was doing. When the sixteen year old came out, she and the finance director of the hospital were smiling and shaking hands.

"You are a wonderful young lady, and God'll bless you", the woman said.

"I hope so", Amaris said as she joined her cousins.

"What the hell just happened?", Brant demanded. He was frustrated.

The finance director turned to the Breck children. "Your cousin has paid the balance on your mother's account, and has set up an expense account that will be able to provide care for your mother going forward. I'll make sure the insurance company plays ball. She should be able to get her treatment."

"How did you..."

Amaris just smiled broadly. She felt so good that she couldn't express it. She and her cousins just jumped around laughing and crying. They had been doing a lot of each.

Amaris spent as much time with her aunt as she could, but her time in North Dakota was all too short. Chet was waiting at the airport Sunday when her plane landed. They didn't say much to each other the entire trip back to his house. They didn't really speak until the next day at breakfast. Amaris told him about her trip. He listened. After Amaris was finished he sighed.

"So, are you still mad at me?", he asked.

Amaris shook her head. "No, I know you have the family skills of a goat. I don't hold it against you." Amaris sighed and stood up from the table. "You might be mad at me though."

"Oh really, what for?"

Amaris swallowed hard. Chet was one of the only people who could make her nervous. "I had to help my aunt with her medical bills."

Chet frowned. "Had to help?"

"Yeah, you see, the insurance was going to cut her off."

Chet drank the rest of his water. "So how much money did you give her?"

"All of it."

"What!"

"Yeah, I gave her all of it."

"You gave your aunt $80,000 dollars!"

"You sound like it was your money. It wasn't it was mine! And I can spend it how I damn well please!"

"Watch your mouth with me, young lady! I didn't help you make that money so you could waste it."

Amaris' face turned bright red, then the color drained. Her eyes turned as cold as death itself. She slid on her coat and picked up her bag. "I'm going to try and forget you said that me." She walked past Chet and out the door, but she never would forget.

After that day, it took work for Chet to get back in Amaris' good graces. She lived with the Hesse's, and spent more time with her friends. A couple of weeks later, Julia came to the Hesse home to visit. John Hesse had tried to make sure that Amaris and Julia weren't really sisters instead of cousins. Julia only spent one day in West Virginia on that trip because she and Amaris went off to Philadelphia. Julia was visiting Penn. She was thinking about applying to the Ivy League school. It was on that trip that Amaris first went to Villanova and met the head of the art department, a friend of her father's named Edith Perlov.

Back in West Virginia, Amaris was avoiding Chet. Usually all Chet had to do was come to the Hesse's house, but Amaris didn't want to go. In the past, Mr. Hesse would have talked her into going, but he protected her. He and Chet actually got into an argument over it once. That day, Amaris did go with Chet. She knew that Mr. Hesse was no pushover, but Chet was the most dangerous man she knew.

They were in the Jeep heading back to Chet's house when she asked, "Why do you treat Mr. Hesse with so much respect. I've seen you in action."

"You've almost seen me in action, and yeah I respect Ted for a few reasons. He's a good guy, and on top of that he'd be a dangerous adversary. He couldn't take me if I knew he was coming, but he could kill me at my mailbox from a mile away without breaking a sweat. A man like that should always be respected, besides... He's been right. I had no right to say what I did to you. Damn it, I've forgotten what its like to care about family. Mine's been dead for so long. I have to remind myself that your aunt and your mother were twins."

"Identical twins."

"Yeah, identical twins. I'm sorry for what I said. There, is that better?" He wouldn't look at her. He couldn't even manage to put on his tough guy airs.

"Look, I'm not perfect. I spent that money as much for me as I did for Aunt Marlene. I couldn't save my parents or my brothers, and I don't know if this money can help save my aunt, but on both of those things, I can say I tried. It wasn't much in either case but..." Amaris sniffled and wiped her eye. "In either case, I can always say that I tried."

Chet reached out and put his arm around her shoulder. "I understand. I really do. So, now that we're patched up as best as we can be, how about you and me making some more money?"

Amaris chuckled. "Yeah, I'm kind of in need of funds right now." The next few months would be interesting for Amaris. It would bring an end to some illusions and open her eyes to reality of her life.

That summer, Amaris found herself in the forests of El Salvador working on small and large unit tactics with mercenaries based there. It started out as fun for the teenager until a man had died during training. Amaris had pressed on with the rest of the soldiers. She learned about ambushes and stalking and patrols and other facets of warfare. The entire time, Chet was treated like a king by the mercenary leaders. While they were in Central America, Chet and Amaris did a couple of jobs in Panama, and one in Colombia. The job in Colombia had been against a cartel. She had been a little nervous about one, but it had also netted Amaris her biggest payday to date.

For her seventeenth birthday, Chet and Amaris were in Paris. Amaris had always wanted to go there. It was beautiful in the summer. The trip wasn't all fun and relaxation. They were there to work too. After celebrating her birthday at the Eiffel Tower, the next day, they were getting ready for the mission.

"So you're going to be a Swedish beauty for this op", Chet began. "I hope you've been working on it."

"I've worked on it, but I'm part Swedish anyway. Won't be hard.", Amaris assured him. She was wearing a tight low cut dress, that she normally wouldn't have worn ever.  Her cleavage, curves, and a nice sampling of legs were all on display.  It all went well with the long blond wig she was wearing.

"Okay let's do this."

For Amaris this was all high adventure. She was at the bar sipping some old cognac. It was right then that Amaris got her taste for Rémy Martin. She was trolling for some attention though. She sat at the bar, and some guys came up to her. Most were handsome Frenchmen, but she was waiting on one man in particular. She saw him at a table looking at her while she chatted with a guy, pretending that her French was broken. One guy just wouldn't leave, she finally told him to leave. He got up, and she was alone. Chet had told her a lot about her target. She knew his tendencies. If it was up to her, she would have gone over to him and initiated contact, but Chet had assured her that he would have been turned off by that.

"Would you like me to fill that for you?", the man asked her in the Queen's English.

"Would you", Amaris said with a Swedish accent. She saw his smile widen when he heard her speak.

"Give the lady another."

He sat next to her. "Thank you", Amaris told him once her cognac was replenished. She slowed down on it though. She had to keep her head clear.

"I'd do a lot of things for a woman as beautiful as you."

She batted her long lashes. "I bet you would, but my mother told me to never go with fast men."

He laughed. "And your mother was right. It's a good thing I'm a gentleman."

Amaris laughed. "I do not even know your name."

"Lloyd."

"Nice to meet you Lloyd."

He smiled and looked down the body of this young woman. He could feel his hormones rising. He leaned forward and inhaled Amaris' scent. "Ummm you are so beautiful. What's your name?"

"Have you earned the right to know my name?"

He smiled. It was quite charming really. "What can I do to earn the right?"

Amaris ran her hand up the inside of his thigh. He reacted, but kept his cool. Amaris went all the way up, and she felt him shiver. "Oh, well, I can think of a couple of things you could do to earn the right."

He leaned towards her. "I am yours to command."

"I have a room. Do you want to come to my room, Lloyd?", Amaris asked him with fake innocence.

He reached into his pocket, set two £20 notes on the bar, and took Amaris by the hand. "Yeah, I want to go to your room." He smiled and lead her to the elevator. Once in the elevator, he leaned down and kissed the side of her neck. He pecked at her skin with his teeth. Amaris ran her hands along his back and then up and down his chest. Her breathing quickened, but she had to keep her head.

Lloyd ran his hands up her skirt. She knew that she should pull away, but she didn't. She let his hands roam. He knew just where to touch her. A moan escaped her lips. It wasn't planned or staged. Lloyd was good. He dove his head to the tops of her breasts, then the elevator stopped. She licked her lips as the doors opened. He pulled his coat back onto his shoulders. Amaris quickly pulled down her skirt. A middle aged woman getting on the elevator smiled at the two as they started down the hall. He had his hand on Amaris' firm young leg before they got halfway to the room. She kissed him, and pushed her tongue into his mouth. He sucked on it, and pushed her against the wall. She reached into her small handbag and handed him the key. He swiped it and pushed the door open. He was on her again before the door closed. The only light came in through the window from outside. In the near darkness Lloyd kissed Amaris on her lips then worked his way down her neck to her chest.

"Let me get undressed", she said in passable Swedish to keep up the charade.

"What", Lloyd asked between heavy breaths.

"I have to get ready for you", she told him and pulled away. She started towards the bathroom. "I will be ready for you then", Amaris said in broken English as she stumbled towards the bathroom. She went in and closed the door. The light flicked on as soon as the door closed.

Chet was standing with his back against the wall. There was no humor or jest on his face. He was all business. "Is he there?", he mouthed.

Amaris nodded. It was time for her to go. She had done her job. She was getting $5,000 for leading Lloyd into this room. She went to the already open window, pulled herself up and looked down to the alley six stories below. They were facing away from the city. Chet had made sure of that, so had no fear of being seen crawling up the wall in a tight cocktail dress like a lizard. She climbed out the window and up the wall. They had another room on the eighth floor.

Amaris wondered what Lloyd had that someone needed, but she was learning not to question much. People with money did what people with money wanted to do. She did like Lloyd. She wondered if she could get back with him once Chet had gotten whatever he wanted from him. She climbed into the window on the eighth floor changed clothes, then waited.

Her youthful energy, and still raging hormones, got the better of her. She did something that she knew that she should never have done, but she climbed out the window of the eighth floor room and ended up back in the sixth floor bathroom where she had been not too long before. She wondered if Chet needed some help. She listened for any sounds. There were none. She should have gone back the way she came. Instead she looked. The door was cracked, and she took a peek. She would never forget what she saw.

"No!", Amaris yelled and rushed into the room. Chet turned quickly. He was on a knee leaning over the body of Lloyd. There was blood all over the place, all over the floor and all over Chet. Amaris put her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. She scene was horrid. Lloyd's face was beaten and misshapen, and there were two neatly spaced holes in the center of his chest. The only gun in the entire room was a silenced Walther in Chet's right hand.

"You killed him." Amaris couldn't breathe, and she felt faint. She wanted to lean against the wall, but she knew better than to touch anything else.

Chet stood up. "You have to help me stage the scene. Come on, snap to! You know what to do."

Amaris did know what to do. She reached into Chet's back pocket and got out his spare gloves. They were too big for her, but they would do. The first things she did was find the key card that she had handed to the dead man.

"Put the card on his chest", Chet told her quietly. She tossed it down then went to the closet and took out a towel. She spent the next five frantic minutes wiping down everything that she had touched. While she wiped down everything, Chet turned out Lloyd's pockets and took off his watch and rings. After the wiping was done, Amaris took off the sheets from the bed and then the extra sheet in the closet. She took all the sheets and blankets and comforters and tied them together. She tied one end to the radiator and coiled the rest under the large window.

Chet was kneeling over the body. He reached into a pouch and pulled out a plastic container. He motioned for Amaris to come closer. She did, but with revulsion. Blood was oozing from Lloyd's body soaking the carpet, turning it crimson. "Put his hands on his chest."

Amaris took his arms by the wrists and put them on his chest. Dead human weight, even something as relatively light as an arm, felt strange.

"Put his palms up."

Amaris twisted Lloyd's dead hands into a position that would have been painful had he been alive. Chet opened the container and started squirting gasoline on the body, paying extra attention to his palms and fingers. He made sure to splash gas on the key card.

"Did you kiss him?", he asked.

Amaris nodded.

"Open his mouth."

Amaris reached out and pried Lloyd's mouth open. His jaw popped and moved unnaturally. Chet had broken his jaw. When the mouth was open, Chet squirted a liberal amount of gas into it. "Ok let's get ready to go."

Amaris went to the window. She took up the towel that she had used to wipe down everything and stuffed it down the front of her pants. She then took the coil of sheets and blankets and put it over her shoulder. She climbed out the window and started up to the eighth floor.

She hoped to be out of sight when it happened, but she had been on the outside looking through the glass, when Chet had tossed a single match down onto Lloyd. The fire burst to life. It burned where Chet had concentrated the gas, but soon Lloyd was just burning. Chet looked up at Amaris and gave her a look that got her moving. She climbed up the wall to the eighth floor while Chet ripped the television from its mount. He looked at the body and squirted the rest of the gas onto it before tossing the plastic container into the flames. He knew it would only be a moment before the smoke alarms went off. As soon as they did, Chet took the television and threw it through the window, breaking the glass and causing a huge noise. With that done, he hurried through the broken window. He took a good grip on the sheets, and started climbing.

Amaris had planned to tie the sheets to the radiator in the eighth floor room, but she hadn't had enough time. She took a good grip on the sheets and leaned back. She felt all of Chet's 200 pounds pulling against her, but she was strong. All the years of training had made Amaris' body incredibly dense and hard. No one could ever guess her weight within ten pounds because she was always heavier than people figured, and she was much stronger than anybody thought.

She set her teeth on edge, squeezed her eyes shut and pulled. Her body shook as she strained with all of her might to keep a grip on those sheets. She trembled from the effort, but she held the sheets while Chet climbed up her hastily tied rope. She relaxed when Chet's gloved hand clamped onto the window sill. He hauled himself inside, and Amaris quickly jumped up and tossed the sheets out the window. They fell down towards the ground, making it look like whoever had killed Lloyd had climbed down from the sixth floor instead of up. Amaris' rope came to within eight feet of the ground. That was perfect for an easy getaway.

"Good job", Chet congratulated his pupil. Amaris pulled off the gloves and threw them at him. She knew better than to say anything. That could be a disaster. Instead she stormed off to the bedroom and waited. Amaris and Chet weren't really staying in this hotel, but they couldn't leave now either. They had to wait. A couple of hours later, Parisian police knocked on the door. Amaris gave Chet a look that got him moving. He went to the bathroom and closed the door.

"Can I help you?", Amaris asked after opening the door.

"Sorry to bother you", the police inspector began in English after announcing his presence in French. "Did you hear or see anything out of the ordinary within the last three hours, Miss?"

Amaris was still shaken up. More than anything she wanted to say yes. She wanted to tell the man everything that had happened, but she replied. "No, I've been in here for the last few hours. I heard a big noise and then the fire alarm came on, but it went off really fast. I looked down the hall, but everybody was going back into their room so I didn't even bother to leave."

The man looked at her nodded. "Thank you for your time, Miss."

"No problem. I wish I could be more help." She closed the door.

Chet came out of the bathroom. "Excellent", he told Amaris and put his hands on her shoulders. She pushed him off and went to the bedroom again. It would be hours still before they could leave with anonymity.

The next day, they were at the Charles du Gaulle airport, and Amaris hadn't said a word to Chet since the day before. "Stop being childish Amaris", Chet told her after a sip of coffee.

"I'm not. I've been thinking about all the places you've taken me in the US and over seas. Did you do that every single time? Every time you send me out to snatch some little this or that, you're going off completing contracts."

Chet sighed and sipped his coffee. "Not every time. Sometimes I just wanted you to see the city or the area, other times we were at a place so you could get training, but yeah I did jobs in some places too. You always knew what I did, be honest."

"No I didn't", Amaris told him. "If I had of..."

"What? You wouldn't have come with me to all those places that you wanted to see? You wouldn't have made all the money that you used to help your sick aunt, or to buy yourself all those art tools? You would have done it all."

Amaris shook her head. "No, I wouldn't have. I can't believe I enjoyed it."

"Of course you did. It gives you purpose and it makes you feel powerful when dozens of people try and stop you, but none of them can."

"Stealing is one thing, but what you do is another", Amaris told Chet. "Testing my skills might be fun, but there's nothing fun about what you do."

"Maybe there's not, but there are some people in the world who deserve to die." Chet uncrossed his legs and leaned forward.

"What about Lloyd? What did he do?"

Chet didn't say anything at first.

"So he didn't do anything?"

Chet sighed. "He was an arms smuggler. He's been responsible for more dead bodies than I ever will be. The slaughter in Rwanda, who do you think helped get the guns and mines past the UN blockades? That's right, the guy you were kissing on last night. There are evil people in this world, and when they piss off the wrong people, guys like me are there to make sure that they are disposed of like the trash that they are."

"Did you have to beat him like that? Why didn't you just kill him and be done with it?"

A trace of annoyance ran across Chet's face at Amaris' question. "He resisted", Chet answered quickly.

"You mean you had trouble with Lloyd?" Amaris had to hear how the great Chet had been tested by someone because he usually went around like he was next to invincible.

"He had been a Royal Marine, and he didn't lay down. I would expect nothing less. He knew his best chance was to get at my weapon. We went at it for a moment, but then I put him down. Like I said, there are some people in the world who deserve to die."

"It doesn't matter Chet, not to me. There might be some people who deserve to die. Maybe Lloyd deserved to die, but most people deserve to live. Like my family, Chet. They derived to live, but it was someone like you who killed them."

Chet got angry and snatched Amaris' wrist. He was so quick that even Amaris didn't have time to move her arm away. "I would have never. Those men who killed your family were amateur monsters. I'm a professional. I kill my target and those who try and stop me from reaching my target. I've never killed one more person than was absolutely necessary to close the contract. My very first job was messy, but I completed it with only one person dying. You have the skills now to avenge your family. You can't tell me that you wouldn't use the skills you've learned to kill the men who tried to ruin your life."

Amaris was prepared to scream her pureness of thought, but she knew that Chet was right. Her silence confirmed it. She knew that if she ever found one of the men who had killed her parents and brothers that she would kill him. Killing was the only thing that they deserved. She felt her mind and her argument crash in on itself, because Chet was right. There were some people in the world who deserved to die.

"You have been trained to be deadly", Chet told his student. "You knew deep down what you were being trained to be. You are a deadly weapon, the most deadly weapon, and that's what you've always been. That's why you lived when your family was killed. That's why years of pain could not destroy you. You are the strongest of them all. Death can't get its hands on you because you command him. You have all the skills Amaris. You have learned it all. You didn't learn how to shoot like you can, or how to handle knives like you can just to be a thief. You are a weapon, and you control Death. You tell him when to come. When you call him, he always comes."

Amaris knew it. All those years, her training had been geared towards ending life. She remembered the feeling when she had shot a deer the first time. The power over life and death was intoxicating to a girl who had been powerless for so long, but she had learned plenty of lessons from Mr. Hesse. One of them was that she always had a choice. She made one now.

"You might be right, Chet. I knew someone was paying a lot of money to train me, but no one can make me do anything I don't want to do. When we get back to the States, I'm done."

"Its not that easy", Chet said.

Amaris looked up at him. He liked the look in her eyes. He like everything about it. It gave him pause, and anything that gave Chet Perkins pause would have caused another man to shit his pants. He just didn't like what she said next.

"I've made up my mind, and that's all there is to it. No more training and no more jobs. I'm finished."

Amaris paused her story as she thought back on that time. Chet was right. If only it had been that easy. Although at the time, it seemed like it would be.

Three months after the events in Paris, Amaris was in the art area of her high school putting the finishing touches on a clay sculpture of an eagle in flight that she was making for the front of the school. It was the school's mascot, and when finished, it would replace the painted eagle that had started to fade. She had been working on this eagle since the beginning of school, but it would be ready for plaster soon. Then Amaris would personally oversee the casting process when the bronze was poured. She had simply sent off her first bronze statue to be cast and the caster had changed the position of the figure's arm. Amaris could have beaten him bloody. That wasn't going to happen to her glorious eagle. She was working on the detail around the eyes, when she felt the door open behind her. It was probably Miss Wills, or maybe Spence, a sophomore who had become her assistant and errand boy, but it was neither. She felt the movement and knew who it was.

"I was told that I would find you here", the Broker said in his strange accent.

Amaris put down her carving tool and turned. She was happy to see him, and it showed. "I feel like I've been living in here trying to get this statue finished. How've you been?"

"Not too bad. I keep busy, as I see you have been." The Broker stepped closer and looked at the eagle, while Amaris took the time to re-wet the clay. "Magnificent", he said after walking around the eagle. "This is not the work of a mere teenager. I have listened to Mr. Hesse talk about your talent in this field for quite some time, but now that I see it with my own eyes, I understand the affect it had on him."

Amaris shrugged. "I just have really steady hands and good eyesight."

He walked up to her. She was growing so tall, he noticed as he came closer. He wasn't a tall man, but she almost as tall as he. "False modesty is never a positive trait. We are all good at what we are good at. Embrace your talents."

Amaris appraised her benefactor for a moment. "As long as we're talking about sculpting and not that other stuff that I don't do anymore."

"I'm talking about whatever you do, Amaris. I didn't come here to try and convince you to do something that you do not want to do. Have I ever done that?" He was looking her in the eye.

"No", she had to admit then looked away.

"And I never will." He went back to admiring her eagle. "I simply came to see how you were doing. I no longer get updates on your training because you pronounced yourself trained."

Amaris wetted the clay again and moved one of the bright lights away from the clay to keep it from over heating while she wasn't working on it. "I was almost finished anyway, Mitya. Chet himself said that I only had one lesson left. He made ten mistakes when he came into my room last year to scare the hell out of me. I've figured out nine of the ten, and I don't really care to figure out the last one."

The Broker took off his coat and sat down. For a moment it looked like the weight of the world was on him. "This world is a complex place. There are dark forces in it."

"And I don't want to be one of them", Amaris said quickly. "I've been around enough to see how the bad lives right next to the good."

"Bad and good live next to each other inside of us sometimes." He sighed. "I wish there were easy answers, but there are not. I wish there was no a need for a balance to be maintained, but there is. That is how things have always been, and that is how things will continue to be. Some of us must sully ourselves in order to allow others to live cleanly."

"Is that what Chet does, sully himself?"

"We all have our reasons for what we do. Your friend Chet-"

"He's not my friend. And I can't worry about the balance of the world. I've been trying to get balance in my life for 8 years, and I still don't have it. I mean, its a lot better than it used to be, but I can feel that crushing guilt and pain every day. I just push it away. Push it more and more, maybe one day it'll go away, but it never does. It just chases me day after day. Sometimes I'll go days without thinking about it, but that only makes it worse. How could I forget them? How could I want to push their memory away? Then the bad feelings come, the dark feelings.

"Mitya, I liked what I used to do. I mean it was fun, but after what I saw in Paris, it won't be fun anymore. I didn't really do it for the money. I did it to feel really alive, and free. What Chet does doesn't make you feel alive." She paused, and blinked back tears. "I've got this part of me that is... is not me. I don't want to be what it wants me to be. I'm sorry, Mitya. I'm sorry you won't get a return on all that money you invested in me, but my life is my own. Its messed up, but its mine."

The Broker sat forward in the simple wooden chair. "Your life has always been your own Amaris. Did anyone ever say that you had to continue training in order to stay with the Hesse's or to keep my patronage?"

"No", Amaris had to admit. She looked away again.

"You chose to continue to train, for reasons that only you know." The Broker stood up and went over to her. "I will say that fate has a way of forcing our actions. I do believe that you are destined for a certain path, but I will not force you down a path that you do not want to follow, and I will not allow any of my associates to do that either." He sighed. "All of this is bigger than just you and I, but from the beginning, I have always wanted to see you whole again. When I first saw you, I don't think an atomic weapon had the power to part your lips and put a smile on that pretty face of yours. But here you are happy and healthy."

"Thank you Mitya. I just hope I stay that way."

The Broker nodded "Me too, Amaris. Be well, and remember that I am always here to help you. Do not hesitate to call me if you need anything."

He stood up, and was surprised when Amaris stepped forward and hugged him tenderly. It meant a lot to know how much this young woman thought of him. It wasn't easy to get inside her heart. He knew how tightly she kept it locked. His first thought was how different she was from the cold and angry twelve year old she had been, but in a flash he realized that this was who Amaris was supposed to be. Perhaps all the training and the lessons could not mold Amaris enough. All that hard work could not fundamentally change Amaris Johanssen from what Donald and Annalise had raised her to be, but the Broker was wrong. Amaris was only one catastrophe away from losing herself, and the seeds to her next tragedy had already been sown.

... to be continued.... part 4 coming soon!!

More Caeda to come very soon!

comments encouraged: dem2@hotmail.com