Chapter 1

The feeling of being watched fell over him. He knew never to turn around. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a dark ally. He made a feint as if going to it but instead he just disappeared. He was standing on top of the building opposite to the dark ally. Down the ally from where he came a small human was prancing around in the shadows. When the light hit the figure all he could see was dark clothes and long strands of brunette hair. He turned and ran over the roof tops of the flat-top business buildings going in what seemed a random pattern.

Alexandrew Orion Knapp woke up quickly. He looked over at his bedside clock and saw he was actually late for once. He stood up and moving with easy mobility put on his clothes and shoes. He was halfway down the stairs to the bottom floor and kitchen when his mom called for him. He rushed down to the kitchen to find his mom holding an envelope. It was black meaning bad news for him. The longest he had gone without one of the black envelopes was two weeks.

"Mom, do you think you can just hold it until I get home?" Alex asked. He grabbed his toast from the plate on the counter by the toaster. "We'll just say I left before you showed it to me. Please!!!! I want one day of normal school." The entire time he was begging his mom to hold off from giving it to him his face hadn't changed in expression.

"Alright. But you better hurry and leave." Mrs. Knapp tucked the envelope into a pile of other envelopes.

"Thanks mom. Bye," Alex said leaving out the door at a jogging pace. It was two blocks to the school. Living in the city had some advantages but to Alex so much was a disadvantage. He hated the crowded streets. He hated the lights that never went out. He hated the trouble in school. He didn't mind the killings though. That part of the city he took in stride and never gave a second glance at it. He'd been in the city before but this city was the worse of all of them.

He arrived at Lukestrum High five minutes before the bell rang. The school looked more like a prison than anything. The fences had razor wire on them to keep thieves and other criminals out and the children in. The gate was a security lack but still a little hard to get through. The buildings, five in all, were painted white and had metal bars on all windows. The windows themselves were bulletproof and the doors were one foot thick reinforced steel. The school board had built it just for the kids and teachers safety.

Alex stepped into English just as the bell rang. Being the first day of school again this was the only class he had known of that he had. Mr. Strum, or so the board read, led this class. He was a short bald man with no facial hair. He was a little on the chubby side. The class had assembled before the rows of desks.

"Sit where you want class," the small man said indicating with his arm that the seats were waiting. Alex was the first one to take a seat he sat as close to the center as possible. After him the other kids started sitting down. To his left sat another boy. He had black hair that was short but his bangs hung over one eye. Behind Alex sat yet another boy. This one with curly brown hair that stuck out. In front of Alex sat a short boy with short blonde hair. To his right sat a girl. She had brunette hair that hung to the middle of her back. Her eyes were hazel green.

Alex stared at her until she shot a glance at him telling him to stop staring. He returned his gaze to the teacher while subconsciously noting that most guys were staring at the green-eyed beauty. The teacher held a pile of lengthy papers. He started out calling names and handing the papers to the people that answered.

"Barnhill." A guy raises his hand and receives the paper. This keeps going till his name is called.

"Knapp." Alex raises his hand and grabs his paper. On it was his schedule. The calling of last names continued.

"Tan." The green-eyed beauty raised her hand. In one quick glance at her paper he had it mesmerized. Handy to have photographic memory. Something clicked in his head. He stared at his schedule in disbelief. They had the same schedules. Same teachers and everything.

Candace Rain Tan looked over her schedule. She forced all the information into memory. She folded the paper up and looked at her teacher. Mr. Strum looked like a nice guy and his class might be easy. This was a nice seat but all the guys acted like jerks. They just stared at her. She liked the attention but this wasn't what she really wanted. Most of them had lust in their eyes. Some had admiration. But the jerk to her left looked at her without emotion. His eyes were grey with what looked like real smoke floating through them. His curly red hair that just rested on him and looked wet all the time was attractive to her.

She put him out of her mind and watched the teacher. He started handing out sheets that contained class rules and how he graded. She grabbed one of the sheets out of the pile being passed down her row and passed the rest behind her. She spent the next thirty minutes taking small notes about the class.

Having just moved here from the country she had no friends. She didn't like the way the school looked. She didn't like the way the city worked. Chaos was one thing she hated.
She looked down at her desk. There was a small rectangular plate in the middle. She touched it and it came alive. A blue screen appeared with the class and Mr. Strum's name on it. Under his name were two rectangular boxes. One read username the other read password. She looked to her left and saw the red hair jerk at the same screen. The only difference was that he had a keyboard under his screen. She looked below her screen and saw another long rectangular plate. She touched it and it slid back revealing a keyboard.

Alex typed away at his keyboard. He gave the program a username and a password. It denied his password and username. He pressed control alt delete together and came up with a menu. He selected new user. He gave a username and a password. When it asked for his key he was bugged. He put in his student number assigned to him from his schedule. It was accepted.

The screen changed to a desktop view. Internet, school library, schoolwork help, and various other icons were already on there. He got rid of several he knew he wouldn't be using. By using the mouse ball and buttons that came up next to the keyboard he accessed the control panel. He found the security center and accessed it. He unlocked everything that was restricted on his name.

Alex looked up when he noticed Mr. Strum stopped talking. Everyone was looking at him. To his left he noticed that the chick named Tan had gotten to the login screen but no farther.

"Well ... well ... well ... Mr. Knapp. It seems that you have figured out the computer desks. You too Ms. Tan." Mr. Strum went on to instruct the rest of the class on how to get on. He then showed everyone how to make their usernames and passwords. This entire time Alex scoped out the system. He put up his own protection for his username. When the bell rang Alex was packed up and knew the entire school system from the computers.

His next class was Chemistry. His teacher Mrs. Lestrul was beautiful and funny. Once again Candace Tan sat to his right. Once they had sat down they opened their computer screens and logged in. Apparently none of the other students had learned of the computer desks. Mrs. Lestrul came up the aisle between them and stopped right in between their desks. She looked down at them with a smile.

Alex was looking down at his screen when she came up the aisle. When she stopped he saw it in the reflection from the glass of the screen. When she smiled he opened up a program just for chemistry. He started inputting several elemental equations. When it came out it created a scent of perfume that Mrs. Lestrul wore.

"Congraulations," Mrs. Lestrul said in a whisper that only Alex and Candace could hear.

Alex looked at the outskirts of his desks and noticed two long strips of desk like those of what covered the keyboard and mouse. He touched them and out came two holographic projectors. In the air above the desk appeared one molecule from the perfume equation. Alex sat back enjoying the view.

To his right Candace got the projectors to show a nitrogen atom. She slowly added more elements until she had a molecule of dynamite.

Mrs. Lestrul walked to the front of the class where she then instructed the class on the workings of the computer desks. While she was doing this Alex went through the copy of the "textbooks" that were on the computer. By the time Mrs. Lestrul was done Alex knew the entire Chemistry book by heart. Great thanks to his photographic memory.

By the end of the day Alex had gone through Algebra two, English two, Chemistry, World History, Criminal Justice, and Gym. In each class Alex sat to the left of Candace.

When Alex walked into his house after his walk home he found the suite empty.

"Mom!" Alex called. "Mom! I'm home!" He walked into the kitchen and found two black envelopes. He sighed and set his backpack down. He grabbed one of them and then sat on the stool at the bar window. He opened up the top and let a letter fall out. He opened it and cursed. Of course they would hold his mom till he did what they wanted.

He opened the second envelope and let a second letter fall out as well as several other objects.

Dear Alexandrew Orion Knapp,

As of September 4, 2006 we the Organization must inform you that we have a new mission for you.

A simple assassination of a drug lord.

His name is William Allandra Merium. In this envelope you will find several pictures of him, a list of buyers, and

the blueprints to his mansion. Take care of him quick and fast.

And don't forget cover your tracks.

Senior Assassin,

Locust

Alex closed the letter up and sent it through the paper shredder under the sink. He looked at the picture and blueprints before setting fire to them. When they were nothing but ashes he put them in his mother's ash tray. He went up the flight of stairs that led to his room and a room full of weapons. To a normal person this would be a simple showing of weird weapons. One wall was covered in ancient swords. Another wall had several knives and hand held objects. A third wall was covered in bows and crossbows. The wall with the door in it was covered in what most people would think an assassin would use. Your throwing knives and rifles. Stationed around the room were several racks with articles of clothing on them.

Alex went to the wall with knives and grabbed one that had a straight blade but the handle was engraved with dragons and demonic forms. Alex went to a rack and grabbed a black arm guard. He than walked back to his room and dressed up in street clothes. Under his black hoodie he had a knife pouch which he put his knife in. He hid the arm guard with a sleeve of the hoodie. In one of the dressers in his room he pulled out a sewing kit. He pulled out the pouch of sewing needles. Out of this pouch he took twenty needles. He inserted these into his arm guard where he could easily access them. Once in the arm guard a poison that Alex was immune to was smeared onto the tips.

Alex went down stairs and out of the apartment building. On the streets he walked to the subway station a block away. He bought a ticket and jumped on the subway train heading close to the city borders up in the rich family section. It was a good half hour train travel. The train had to travel through a bad section of the city, well worse then the other parts, before hitting the nice section. At the next stop a group of teenagers got on. The six teenagers made the total number of people in his cart a small thirteen.

The leader of the gang came to a stop in front of Alex.

"Hey wannabe, move your in my seat," he said as the other gang members moved in around their leader. Alex just stood up and moved. The leader sat down while the others followed Alex to his new seat.

"Wannabe, move your in my seat," said another gang member. Alex got up again and moved down to the other end of the cart. They followed him again. When they surrounded him again Alex sighed and stood up. He grabbed a hand hold and just stood there. "Now your holding my handhold."

"Listen choose a place and I'll stay away," Alex said letting go of the handhold.

"Okay. I choose this cart. Now beat it." The six gang members were now standing around him waiting for him to move. The train stopped before Alex could move. Three people got off here and a mother with her young daughter got on. The leader of the gang saw her and went right up to her. He whispered something into her ear and got smacked in the face. He turned back towards her after looking at his fellow gang members. They moved to the mother and daughter and snatched the daughter away. They pinned the mother down as if they were going to rape her.

"Stop now," Alex said just loud enough for them to hear. "Stop now or I will make you stop." The gang laughed at this. The leader went to undo his belt buckle but fell down to the floor instead. Alex had revealed his arm guard on his left forearm. "Leave them alone." What was left of the gang crowded around Alex.

"Or what?" one of them asked in a mocking tone. Alex looked him in the eye. The teen got scared looking into the swirling gray mass. The teen left the group and went to help the lady and her daughter get up. After that the scared teen went to the other side of the cart where he waited patiently to get off.

"Four versus one," another teenager said. This teen was at least six foot five and with muscles that put Hulk Hogan to shame when he was at his peak. "Get moving now. We'll have our way with these two then you can have them."

"No I'm sorry. But I won't let you touch them again. And if you somehow manage to it'll be the last thing you do." Alex stepped toward the tall teen in an angry motion.

"Hahahahaha like you scare me puny boy," the teen said with a laugh in his voice. The tall teen signaled to the others to grab him.

Alex saw the signal and immediately put out two of them with needles. The third one he simply kicked in the chest. The teen he kicked in the chest fell backwards gasping for air. The tall teen moved in and pulled one of Alex's arms behind his back in an attempt to hurt him. Being trained to endure pain Alex let the kid pull all he wanted. A pop reverberated through the air. The teen let Alex's arm fall limply to his side. Alex turned around and glared at the teen. He pulled off a roundhouse kick in the cramped space knocking the big teen to the ground unconscious.

Alex sat down in a nearby seat while the mother grabbed her daughter close to her. He grabbed his dislocated arm and relocated it back into its socket. Alex then leaned back and closed his eyes momentarily. A soft tugging on his jeans brought him out of his thinking. In front him stood a blonde hair blue eyed girl that he couldn't mistake as the young girl he just saved. In her hand was a folded twenty.

"My mommy says this is for helping her. She knows its not much but hopes it will do," the young girl said. Her voice was young and had a pleasant tone to it. She held her hand palm up with the twenty dollar bill in it. Alex grabbed the girls hand with a gentle ease and closed her hand on the money.

"Just tell her to smile and I'll be rewarded enough." He pulled his sleeve down to cover his arm guard when he realized it was showing. Alex looked over to the mother and daughter and saw them beaming at him. Alex nodded and leaned back again.

When the train came to a screeching halt Alex stood up. The doors opened and Alex stepped out onto a nice clean platform. The mother and daughter also got off here. Alex looked back into his memory for directions to the mansion. He came up out of the subway station and started a brisk walk out of town to the rich part of the outskirts.

Standing at the gates to the Merium Mansion Alex took note of all the guards. A guard approached Alex asking if he had business.

"As a matter of fact I do. I'm here to buy some important items." The guard nodded and opened the gate. Once he stepped through the gates they closed behind him and four guards surrounded him to take him up to the mansion. They progressed slowly. When they finally got to the front they didn't go in instead the moved around to the side. They entered a small room with a small table and two chairs. When invited to sit in one of them Alex did so. Two guards stood outside of the door while the other two left.

Soon after taking his seat a big man entered the room. Remembering the picture Alex stood up in respect to William Allandra Merium. The big bald man smiled and sat down. Alex sat back down in his seat and looked at the drug lord.

"So what brings you up here?" asked the big man.

"Buying." As Alex said this he slid up his left sleeve under the table. The biggest problem would be the two guards. A thought came to him and he hoped it would work. "Listen I'm not entirely comfortable with those guards there. I mean how do I know you won't kill me after you got my money. Jeez what am I going to do to you. I'm only a kid." The big man nodded knowingly and Alex knew he had won. Overconfidence was a great ally.

"Guards, can you please leave us alone." The guards took off without a second look.

"Nice place Mr. Merium. How long did it take you to get this sweet place." Alex said all this unemotionally.

"About twenty years. So down to business. What is it you want to buy?" This man wants to get straight to business, so be it, Alex thought. He slowly pulled out a needle from his arm guard. He put his left arm onto the table letting William get a look at it.

"Alright to business. Hope you led a nice life." Alex threw a needle right into his neck. The man slumped down so he was resting on his right arm. Alex stood up and walked out. At the fence he was asked if he was happy. He just shrugged and left through the gates.

Once he was back on the subway he pulled out a cell phone. He flipped it open and dialed a five digit number.

"It's done. Now let her go." Luckily enough no one else was in the train cart. He closed the phone and rode in silence to the station by his home. The ride home was uneventful and a good chance for Alex to rest.

When Alex stepped into his apartment again he was greeted by his mother. They hugged, enjoying their time together. Alex broke the hug apart and said he had homework to do. So Alex went upstairs and into the room of weapons. He returned his unused knife and his arm guard. He took out the sixteen remaining needles and put them in a small jar of water. The water washed off and disabled the poison. Returning to his room Alex fell onto his bed. He was out in a matter of minutes.

When Alex woke the next day he was famished. He went downstairs to find his mom cooking eggs. There was some bacon on a sperate plate covered by a paper towel. He went into the cupboard and grabbed another plate. Out of a drawer he grabbed a fork. His mom shoveled his scrambled eggs onto his plate. She then went on to grab a glass and fill it with apple juice. Alex shook some pepper onto his eggs and dug in. He ate three eggs and four pieces of bacon.

Alex went to school on a full stomach. First and second period went by uneventfully. Except for his constant watch of Candace. In Algebra two they started on synthetic division. Alex caught onto the concept really fast. Candace on the other hand had some trouble. Mrs. Glover the math teacher was swamped with students needing help. Being considerate and not wanting to add to the group around Mrs. Glover Candace just sat at her desk looking down. In this class when you did class work you were allowed to work in groups.

Silently Alex moved his desk next to Candace's. Candace looked up at him and Alex could see sadness in her eyes.

"Hey don't go crying,"Alex said softly so no one else could here him. "Let me help you. It's easy once you get the pattern down." Candace looked at him as if trying to see some greater reason as to why he was helping her.

"Okay," Candace said. Alex went on to show her how to set it up and how to get her answer. Soon enough she had it down. They finished the class work easily and just chatted.

"So tell me why were you about to cry," Alex said softly. His voice sounded concerned and Candace couldn't resist confiding in him.

"It's my dad. He wants perfection from me. When I couldn't grasp this concept I thought I was lost. You see he beats me when I'm not doing perfect. Most of the time it's easy to do perfect in school, because if I do say so, I am smart. My younger sister though gets it even worse. She's not that smart so she gets hit so much," Candace said. Alex took note of her voice and noticed that she was telling the truth, but was holding something back.