Chapter 6

We arrived in Somalia aboard a navy supply plane, according to our paperwork we were assigned to the Embassy. We did report there but only long enough to drop off the diplomatic pouch. As soon as they assigned us rooms we met to get a plan together. Currently, Embassy personnel could come and go pretty much at will but we didn’t want to be seen leaving.

We spent the next two weeks slipping in and out of the Embassy. Wreaking havoc on the Warlords army, sabotaging vehicles and weapons. Leaving the message stop the Genocide each time, this just seemed to make him more determined than ever. Finally I’d had enough and I slipped out without Matt or Iris knowing I was going.

I stole an ancient outfit from what used to be a museum before all of the violence here. I waited until the Warlord was in a meeting with his top men before I moved up behind him. Extending my claws I grabbed his hair then ripped my claws through his neck, before twisting his head around and off. I then became visible to the other men with my claws and fangs clearly visible.

I addressed them while holding up the Warlords head. I said, “This is what happens to people that don’t listen to reason. You will stop the Genocide or the next Warlord will get the same treatment.”

I placed the head on his desk before fading from sight and slipping back out. I stopped at a stream and washed off his blood before changing back into my regular clothes. I had to stop and puke before I was done. They say the first kill is the hardest. I say if they ever become easy, there is something wrong with you.

Matt and Iris were upset with me when I slipped back into the Embassy. I let them know it wasn’t because I didn’t trust them but that I didn’t want them to have to see me like that. They finally calmed down and agreed. They wouldn’t want to have to do that kinda thing themselves but they would if they had to. They also assured me they didn’t think any less of me for what I had done.

We left with the pouch that had the Ambassador’s report about the death of the Warlord in it headed back to DC, before receiving our next assignment. That first mission sealed my code name as The Huntress, apparently the other men in the room were saying the spirit of a lioness had killed him. The Brass were happy that the mission was a success.

We spent the next three years hopping around the globe hunting arms dealers, terrorists, Warlords and anyone else that managed to become an enemy of Uncle Sam. We made contacts during that time that we were ashamed to say we knew. People you wanted to wash your hands after you shook theirs as well as make sure your watch and rings were still there.

At the start of our third year Iris was feeling sick and puking a lot, turns out all those times the three of us made love finally paid off and she was pregnant. We had previously when we decided and had a ceremony becoming an official triad, pooled our money and bought a 500 acre ranch outside Bozeman, Montana. The Brass wasn’t happy but we decided we were all going to take time off for the baby to be born.

Eight months later our daughter Susan Matilda Johnson was born. As soon as she was born the Brass started pressuring us to get back to work. I put my foot down and told them we were taking off until Susan was at least six months old. I would return to work then but Matt and Iris were as of now officially retired. They wanted to pitch a fit about it until I left a fake skull on the DCIA’s desk with a note saying “You know what will happen if you keep pushing’ and no trace of how I got in or out.”

I got my six months off and Matt and Iris received their retirement papers. I went back to work solo because I refused to work with anyone else. The Brass started giving me cases that made it look like they were trying to kill me. I managed to survive them all. The worst one though was a man that was in the US on the night of madness, before returning to his native Romania.

He was calling himself Tepest and setting himself up to become the King of Romania by killing anyone that said he wasn’t the King. By the time I got the job, he had already killed over a thousand people, men, women and children. The roads of Romania once again were lined with impalement posts.

I arrived in Bucharest expecting to have a chance to get my feet on the ground before anything happened. I was arrested at customs, apparently it was illegal now for Americans to come to Romania. That only lasted long enough for them to move me into an interrogation room. Once they did and before they could strip search me I took out the guards, ripped open the door and became invisible. After gathering up my things and removing any evidence of who I was I walked out.

Okay so this was going to take a bit more work than I originally thought. I had been told where the CIA safe house was before I left Langley. I stayed invisible until after I had stolen some local clothes. I made my way to the safe house before becoming invisible again to watch it and see if anyone else was watching it.

I knew within the first thirty minutes that the house was occupied, and that no one was watching it from the street. I waited until after dark before I slipped in the hidden entrance. I found two field agents hiding inside. They had been in the field when the King took over and couldn’t get back to the Embassy. I spent the next week working on gathering Intel on the King and arranging to slip the two Agents into the Embassy.

I found the Embassy was being watched too closely to slip them in so they had to remain in the safe house. I found out the King was a Pyro/Speedster with Wolverine level healing. He was going to take a lot of work to take out, and it was going to be bloody.

I worked out a plan, though to get what I needed I did have to see one of my contacts that made me want to shower afterwards. I left with the first part of my plan though 300 feet of fireproof mono wire. Designed to be almost invisible to the naked eye.

I needed Intel on the Palace, so I spent parts of the next four days and nights walking its halls. Finding places I could set a trap, I found several, none were ideal, but hopefully I could make one of them work. This would be my first time doing what Paladins do, taking on a rogue, only I was alone, not part of a team.

I carefully set my trap, in a seldom used hallway. I strung the mono wire at ankle height every six inches down about ten feet of the hall. I made my way back to where the King was having a meeting. I waited for the right moment to spring my trap.

Becoming visible I taunted the King saying, “Hey Kingy, I heard you were a big badass. I think you’re just a little boy that never grew up.”

I dodged a blast of flames before taking off out the door. I knew I couldn’t out run him on a straight run so I was jumping from wall to wall and around corners. I was still barely in front of him when I got to my trap. I jumped to the wall just past the trap and bounced to the floor. The King thought he finally had me so didn’t slow down before he hit it.

The first wire cut off his right foot, he fell into the other wires. His weight and speed worked against him as he fell into the other wires. He was cut into pieces, and blood went everywhere. I didn’t know how well his regen worked so I wanted to make sure to permanently get rid of all of him.

I bagged his body up in a duffle bag, along with the hall runner he had bled on. His head I carried in plain sight as I walked out of the Palace. Now for the second part of my plan, a fifty gallon drum of acid. I dropped him in a piece at a time, stirring it to make sure they dissolved. Saving the head for last I was glad I used the acid since it winked at me.

I went back to the safe house and led the agents to the Embassy. I needed to go through the Embassy since my passport didn’t have an entry stamp for Romania on it. I went out with the Diplomatic pouch since with the king dead they wouldn’t hinder my passage at customs.

I was in Hong Kong dealing with a Triad leader when I got the message, my niece Samantha had become a Paladin. Iris sent me a picture of what she looked like now I was impressed and proud of her.