Chapter 2

It was close to five O'clock in the morning when I woke up. After all the mental work that I had done the day before, I figured I was entitled to a day of rest. Besides, it was a Saturday. I always hated working out on Saturday. In addition, to add to that, I was thinking that Jenni and I were going to have one hell of a day ahead of us. I knew for a fact that Mario would be chomping at the bit to get me back in the assassin game, even if it was just to back up my protégée.

With a groan rolled out of bed. I knew for a fact that Jenni was up; I could here the shower going. Mom wouldn't be up till about ten. She always liked to sleep in on weekends. I was always a slow mover when I first got up but I eventually got there. After throwing on all my clothes, I made sure to put my modified gun in a holster that was on my belt in the back—it was lucky that I wore an overly large blue button-up shirt to cover it up, huh? A .25 caliber went into my ankle holster.

With the chore of dressing complete, I went to my computer to check my e-mail. When the internet chimed that I had mail, I knew exactly whom it was from since it was an encrypted package from a very familiar address. Sure enough, it was from Carlos. After downloading that package and typing in the password, I had a list of ten names and profiles. The profiles were telling me where they usually went in the day and what they usually did. What surprised me were how many names that were addressed to me. However, there was a postscript.

Diavoletto,

I know that there are more names than you are used to. However, you did say this person that you were taking on was a Protégée and not just a regular student. If you back this person up and they leave a calling a card, they will earn a reputation and respect. As usual, the standard price still applies.

I wish you safe journey,

Mario

Well shit. I didn't see that one coming. I wanted my sister to be respected, and I guess Mario did too. I had a pretty good idea that he knew who I took as a protégée because I had said many times that my adoptive sister was the only person on the planet that I trusted completely. I guess this was Mario's way of helping out. I was just glad that our guns were silenced because we were going to be making a lot of noise today. With absent-mindedness, I printed off the files that Mario sent and put them in a folder for Jenni to study. After that, I deleted the file on the computer.

I had a lot to think about on my mind. Ten people. I really didn't know if Jenni was capable of this, even if all ten of the people were scumbags of the highest order. Murder for higher wasn't for everybody. I'd had a few of Mario's newbies on jobs with me and they would throw their guts up after a hit. I had a feeling that Jenni could hold up to it, I just wasn't one hundred percent sure. She most certainly did not have problems with breaking people's bones when they thought that she was an easy target.

I must have been in deep thought, sitting there with that folder in my lap when my sister came in, because she scared the hell out of me. "Hey Bro, what's shakin'."

When my heart beat settled down to something that was normal, I decided I would lay it on the line for her, even if I didn't know how she would react. I looked at my sister shrewdly, as she sat on my bed, so shrewdly that she began to squirm a little. She was wearing her regular tight fitting black jeans with the knees out and a t-shirt that said, "Fuck you if you don't like me."

I decided to come clean with her. "I e-mailed Mario last night and told him that I was going to be taking on a protégée and she could use some money and respect on the targets that you were going to ghost. I guess he took me very literally," I said, and held up the folder. "There are ten targets in this folder and we have five days to get rid of all of them. Before you say anything, the standard fee for each target is fifty thousand dollars. This is basically just standard chump change that they pay the newbies to break them into the organization. Once they get past the ten that they are supposed to ghost, their price goes up on each hit."

My sister had a very thoughtful look on her face on her face as she spoke next. "How much do you get paid for a hit? And please tell me there are no kids on the roster, because if there is, then I'm out." She said this with determination in her voice.

"Ok. First question. I get about 250, 000 dollars a hit. Moreover, believe me; I earned it through blood and fear. As for your next question. Mario has a very strict rule about killing anyone under sixteen. That is a no-no to him, and you'll find yourself riddled with bullets if you break that rule. He also has a rule that you cannot kill women unless it is absolutely necessary," I told her in a very even voice.

"I'm not about to lie to you, kiddo. I've killed 26 people and I have become somewhat numb to the whole process. It is nothing more than business to me now—save the few personal hits, I did awhile back. I have made more money doing this kind of stuff than most people will make in a lifetime. With that said," I tossed her the folder with the targets in it. "Remember every detail. We are going to start today, in about an hour. After you have it memorized, put it through the shredder on my desk."

Jenni caught it expertly and looked at me with a little doubt in her eyes.

"Look Jenni, if you can't handle any of this I will completely understand."

Jenni still looked a bit hesitant, but she lifted her head and looked me dead in the eyes. "Let me look through these files and I will make my decision."

"Alright, but after you finish, I want you to take a while to think everything over," I told her as I stood up and walked at of the room.

Once I reached the living room, I saw that the books Westen left were still in the exact same place as they were before. I figured while my sister was reading and thinking that I might as well do some reading on my own. I had a hard time deciding where I wanted to start first. Finally, I decided on telepathy. After all, I thought that might be a cool ass subject. Therefore, with that thought, I picked up the Beginners book. It was fairly thin and basically focusing in the proper way to give a Command that the target would think was their idea. I finished that damn book in five minutes. Damn, I love speed-reading.

The next text on Telepath had to do something with Mental Conditioning. The damn thing was almost like a psychology book. In the book, you could give certain commands and whenever the person thought of a specific thing, the command would kick in. After a while, your command would fade but the target would keep with the same pattern of instruction no matter what. It took about a week for it fully to kick in. The book gave all sorts of examples of what could be done and how.

The next book was the advanced one. The name of it was "Direct Mental Reprogramming". It was supposed to be the hardest of all three. In this book, it basically taught you how to rip a personality out of a person, along with blocks of memory, and then completely rewrite everything you destroyed. The damn book was over six hundred pages long and took me twenty minutes to read. To tell you the truth, this book kind of scared the shit out of me. There were actually people out there that could do this kind of shit.

If that was the case, I definitely wanted to be able to protect myself. To do that, I knew that I had to learn Telekinesis. Therefore, I dove into the books with a vengeance. These books were not nearly as thick and had to do with various things. One thing that came out loud and clear, though. It depended on how powerful you were to decide how heavy of things you could lift. I remember Westen saying that I was pretty powerful, so I figured I should able to do some of the things in the book. The advanced book went over many a ways to attack a person with Telekinesis, and how to block attacks.

With a final sigh, I laid the last advanced book down on the table. That was it; I had read all six books that Westen had sent. I was wondering what to do next when and idea came to me. If I could do just one little thing with control using telekinesis, then I was pretty sure that I could do the rest of what was in the books. Of course, I knew that reading the books would make Jenni a little ticked, but I could deal with that. She always liked us to be on the same level in our education.

It was at that moment that it hit me. I felt stupid for taking all of this in stride. Jenni and I were going to be fucking powerful. The things in the book said I was capable of doing fort of freaked me out, it made out a damn scary picture. A person could get addicted to that kind of power real quick. Moreover, I knew that I was just as vulnerable to the power. After all, wasn't it I that joined the Mafia for more respect. With this kind of power I could get all the respect, I needed or wanted.

To be honest, that scared the hell out of me.

It was at that moment that I decided that I would only use mind control when I had to, the same for telekinesis. I knew my sister was one the few people that could give their word and absolutely mean it. We had to be careful about how we did things. In addition, I definitely didn't want Mario to find out about this power that we had. He would definitely want to capitalize on such a thing. Not that I could blame him. If I was in his shoes and didn't posses the power, I would want someone who did.

No, I would have to talk with my sister and explain things. Explain that it was all right to practice to be as good as we can but we can't bring it into the Mafia business because that would cause too much attention. No, 9mms with silencers would just have to do the trick. Hell, it worked for me in the past, so I no it will work for her. I figured that we could leave the Telekinesis for the Rogue Psionics.

With that thought, I got back up off the sofa and headed to my room where my sister was. When I walked in, I saw her just looking at the folder with a look of disgust on her face. Now, this could be a good thing or a bad thing. I decided to wade in and chance her ire. "Anything on your mind, Sis?"

I swear to god that girl looked like she almost jumped out of her skin. I can't help it, I've always moved silently, but then again, so does she. Therefore, as not to embarrass her more, I spoke first. "So, what did you think of the files?"

This was the iron test. The test to see if she had the fire in her belly. It was the fire in her veins that would make her cold enough to blow someone's head off when the moment came. Not everyone had that little spark that could push him or her from the rational world where everything was all right, into the irrational world where you could pull a trigger and snuff out someone's life like a candle. I figured out that I could make the transition when I was only fourteen years old. I was pretty sure she had the spark, though.

My sister looked up at me with fire in her eyes. "Four of these files are men that are involved in child prostitution. The other six are crack dealers that your friend Mario warned to leave the City and they didn't. Every one of them has it coming as far as I'm concerned." I swear she was almost growling and her eyes were flashing. Those files really riled her up.

I have to admit that I was both sad and elated at the words she spoke. Sad because she would be walking in the Darkness with me, and elated for the same reason. It was an odd sensation, feeling happy and sad at the same moment. It was almost like a tug-a-war. However, I knew we had no time for my maudlin thoughts. We had to get ready to go hunting. That is what it was: hunting in the savage garden, to quote Anne Rice.

"So I take it that you still want to take them down still?" I asked needlessly.

"You're damn straight I do."

I took the file from her and looked at the picture of the man that she was currently on at the moment. Joseph Langley. He was thirty-six years old and was currently unmarried, thank god. He was also one of the ringleaders in one of the child prostitution rings in the city. The children were usually between six and nine, but never older. Mario had a special hatred for these types of people since he had kids of his own, that's why he wanted an example made of the child molesters in the file. The example? Usually mutilation. Low and behold, written in postscript were vague instructions on how to handle things. If that didn't change Jenni's mind nothing would. Mario most certainly wanted the jobs done in the bloodiest way possible.

I also knew that at this early in the morning that he would still be asleep. I thought to my self that now would be as good as any to get started. I was just glad the sick bastard didn't have any family to grieve for him. I could feel the coldness coming over me, just as it always did when I was about to make a hit. It was a habit, and not an easy one, to shut off most of your emotion.

It was with that that I walked over to my closet and knelt down on the floor. The boards on the floor were loose for a reason. There were enough boards that could be removed that I could bring out two specific steel suitcases that Mario called a specific Assassin Kit. It had thousands of dollars in US currency, not to mention French, German and Spanish currency.

Each suitcase was very deep to hold all the money it did. The money wasn't what I was worried about, though. Each suitcase had a set of colored contacts. The other things we had were six passports and IDs in case that we had to be pulled-over or had to leave the country. I knew that after I read all the files, we would have to put everything we had in the suitcase to good use.

Why? Because our next target was in Germany, after we finished the one in this city.

It made me a little sad that I was going to have to use my ability to let us leave. I was of two minds on the mind control aspect of the whole thing. I mean, sure it sounds great, but it also sounded like it would draw a lot of attention. I told myself that I was going to be extra careful with it. With the power Jenni and me had it was like putting a gun in kid's hands. Yes, we would have to be very careful

When I opened Jenni's suitcase, she damn near squealed. She amazed that I had got her picture on the Passports so perfectly. I told her I had professional do it for me. As for the money, we had twenty-thousand dollars in four different currencies. The cool thing was the passports, though. They were completely legit. They would pass through airport security without any problems at all. Mario had more contacts in the world, including corrupt politicians, than a person could believe. Therefore, when I gave him my sister's photograph, he was all too happy make her up six Passports, along with drivers licenses.

"Are you giving me all this is me?" Jenni asked with a hint of awe in her vow.

"This is what is called a Standard Kit. It came from Treadston when I told them I was taking on a Protégée. In case you are wondering what Treadston is, I can't tell you now. It has everything that you need. All the way to silenced 9mms to colored contact lenses to money. I did all of this for you because I had a feeling that you would figure something was going on pretty quick. Moreover, I figured that it would be better if I brought you in now."

I looked over and noticed that her eyes were dancing with excitement.

"There is one thing that you might not like and you don't have to do. Treadston wants a signed contract and I got it in my kit. Basically, what it says is that you have to take four targets a year. All of them will either be into drugs of they are climbing the chains of commands by illegal means. Needless to say, all of them are basically scumbags. So, are you still in?"

"How many times do I have tell you, you dumb ass—yes, I am. You know I would never leave your back."

That's what I always liked about my sister—a person always knew where she stood. I finally decided that we should leave the modified 9mm cannons and take the regular 9mm with silencers. I knew it was going to get ugly tonight. There would also be a lot of knife work done, so we slipped one in the holster on our belts. Jenni was going to have to cut up the man pretty bad if she was to get the message across.

"All right, load up. Oh, but before we do that we need to give you a code name. I have decided that this is the name you will also answer to when called by others or me in the business. Even in public. Officially, your name is Vedovo Nero. It means Black Widow in Italian. I think it fits you quite well.