Taylor

This was ridiculous, she should know that if she just agrees to stay here I can go look for her daughter safely. That man arrived but he wasn't one of us, just did us favors every now and again for favors in return. In this case it was the acquisition of his special sleeping medication that was strictly illegal.

I wore black clothes, as I always did and my black trench coat that covered everything I didn't want people to know I had. Guns, knives, shield generators, my satchel and anything else I carried at that moment.

I had left a few of my people keeping an eye on her and trying to get her to calm down enough to fall asleep, but I knew she'd only stay inside until curfew ended in a few hours. I was hoping that my agents on the outside would find and return her daughter by then. She'd truly despise me if anything had happened to her.

I was in a seedy part of the city that even the guards knew better than to go into. I was the rebellion that they worried about but these men were mafia, a scourge that would never go away. Even I knew better than to mess with these guys, at least on their turf.

My contact, Jack, I assumed a fake name, approached.

"What'll it be today Mr Johnson?" He asked.

The alleyway was dark and I could pick out at least four guns on me. I snorted, "Don't trust me these days hm?"

"Just making sure you really are you," He smirked slightly. "A betrayer came through here yesterday asking for my source. Said he was done dealing with me and wanted my source directly. He looked just like you."

"You know I would never ask for your source," I replied. "I don't want to know in case I get captured. They already know your name and know they can't touch you without murdering millions more than they already have."

"True enough but we never can be too careful," He nodded at one of the men. The man approached and patted me down. He took the satchel and tossed it to his boss. He patted the chameleon light belt and started to take if off.

I moved quickly and had a knife to his throat in an instant. Jack smiled, "Good boy. Stand down Dave. This is the real Taylor, the fake yesterday let us take his belt and you would never give it up unless you were dead. Plus you moved like I've only ever seen you move."

Jack opened the satchel and dropped the contents onto a desk behind him. I let his henchmen have his neck back and pushed him roughly back into the shadows he had come from. I walked closer.

"Five undamaged hard light shields," I informed him. "Just like you asked for last time I was here. Do you have what I need?"

He smiled and motioned a man over who had a briefcase cuffed to his arm. Jack pulled out a key and unlocked the cuffs and the man left. He then motioned for the others to leave. It was always best if his people did not know what he gave me.

He opened the briefcase and showed me the contents. I smiled broadly.

"Thank you Jack," I closed the briefcase. "Enjoy the shields. Oh did you have that other item I needed?"

He nodded and tossed me a pill bottle. He then frowned as he began to back away towards an alleyway, "I'm sorry my friend, but they are finally getting serious about dealing with us."

"I know, do not fear Jack," I smirked. "You still gave me what I wanted and it's more important than you letting them know about this meeting. Just stay under the radar better for the next meeting."

"I did lie about the time, that should give you a few minutes to get out of here," Jack laughed slightly before he began running and disappeared into the back alleys.

I pushed the button on the chameleon belt but it didn't activate, "Jammers."

I swore under my breath as I pulled out my modified hard light gun. The betrayers possessed the ability to jam the shield technology over an area. Hard light shields were the only type of shield not affected. I grabbed the briefcase and started making my way deeper into mafia territory, the only direction they wouldn't yet be.

The fighting had already started, I heard mafia and betrayers in gun battles nearby. The noise was somewhat comforting as this was where I was most at home. There was a single sewer entrance in this part of the town that hadn't been closed off yet. I had to make it there and get underground before they found me.

The hard light gun, probably the cruelest piece of technology they had brought back with them. Even if the shot itself was nonlethal the dispersion of heat and energy into the body often was, I'd never seen a human survive more than one shot before they completely crumpled and died from overheating. It was a terrible dirty death. My brother had died that way.

I pushed the tears back as I thought about that fateful day. The day they had returned, my brother had just returned from his training in the army. He had a couple of weeks before he had to go back. I had tried to convince him not to do it but he had insisted he had to do his part to save our country.

His dying breath had been making me swear to protect this country and, if it were necessary, give my life for it. Through the tears of losing my twin, the only family I had ever known, I did. I swore to never give up until the betrayers would all dead or left.

The firefights all around me had died down, which meant one of three things. I had out run it, the mafia had won or the most likely, the mafia had been fighting a retreating battle the entire time, moving back to their fortresses. The mafia didn't use the hard light shields to create personal shield generators like one might imagine. They used them to protect structures from attack. The amount of force that would be needed to break their shields would be enough to destroy the entire city.

This city held nearly fifty million when the war started, no one knew how many it had now. The betrayers were not willing to become villains to the entire world.

The roads here were all dirt and had limbs and leaves everywhere. I heard the snap of a twig to my left. I turned and tried to bring my gun around to face my attacker but I wasn't fast enough. A betrayer closed and kicked the weapon to the side. I let go of the briefcase, knowing I'd need both hands to fight in close combat.

I deflected the next kick. My assailant was startled by my speed and strength. I took this opportunity to pull my knife from its hiding place and attack, slashing down from the right. The other was nearly as fast as I and managed to deflect it most of the way and dodged the rest.

"You are good," I smirked. "But I hope you realize that you are already dead. None of your assassins have managed to ever lay a hand on me. Don't think this will be different."

The attackers pulled out a hard light blade and connected it with my next blow. That's odd, why didn't she use that the first time.

My blade shattered at the impact and the attacker struck out again. I moved close and caught the arm. The attackers swung the other arm to hit my head. I caught that one as well and began forced the hard light blade towards my enemies chest. I got the attackers hands close enough to hold them both with one arm, wishing to look in the eyes of the betrayer before finishing this.

I took off the mask and her long flowing red hair spilled out from beneath.

"A woman?" I spit at the ground. "I hate it when they send women after me. Sending anyone on a suicide mission pisses me off but sending..."

She cut me off, "What! Are you trying to say that I didn't have a chance because I'm a woman, you pig."

I laughed, "Well who is the one at my mercy? Who is the one who lost? It's not because your a woman that you lost." I moved in close and whispered, "It's because your people have taken from me what I hold most dear. Something a woman should understand that better than a man."

"We saved you from killing yourselves," She rebutted. "You would all have been dead in twenty more years."

"Twenty years of freedom is worth being free for," I retorted. "Now, can you at least die with dignity?"

She stopped fighting my grip and I released her hands, taking the blade, "Thanks, I hadn't ever been able to get my hands on one of these before. Do you wish do die fighting or execution style?"

I asked as I picked up the gun, she just stood there. Something I had said left her shaken.

I kicked her to her knees, "Execution it is. Your crimes? Enslaving the members on an entire planet, being a party to the murder of millions. Being a party to the squalor we have been reduced to. Most important, being a party to the murder of my brother."

"Hold it right there," I heard from above me. There were men on the roof tops all around me guns aimed at me. I grabbed her by the neck and pulled her in front of me as I backed into a corner.

"Let me go or I'll kill her," I told them.

One of the men jumped down and pulled off his mask, "Katrina. You failed, you weren't supposed to engage him."

I felt something wet on my hand. She was crying.

"Oh you thought you could beat him?" The man laughed. "We still don't know why but a single agent has never been able to best Mr Johnson here."

My hand had more tears on it. I was evaluating the situation.

"Mr Johnson," The man said. "Taylor, we'd much rather take you alive then dead but anyone except you would make a much easier leader to capture, so even as a martyr you do less damage than you do alive."

My eyes shot to the middle of the street, briefcase. My eyes shot a few feet to my left, some barrels to provide cover. My eyes scanned again, sewer grate one hundred feet down the street.

It began to rain. Perfect.

"I see your eyes looking for a way out, but there is nothing. Even if you managed to make it to the sewer entrance we'd just follow you to your rebellion and put it down once and for all," He announced. I looked into his eyes and he saw the defiance in them, "Fine, kill them both."

What? I flicked my hand down and quickly turned on the hard light belt on my waste. The first few shots before I moved behind the barrel bounced off. The rain would make it last for less time than normal and be weaker. It might take two more shots. I had pulled her down with me. She was still crying.

"Hey Katrina," I said, getting her attention. "We can make it out of this, but you have to help. Take this and cover me." I handed her one of my two guns. "This is your moment of choice, you can shoot me in the back and prove everything I've ever said about you and your people, or you can help me and prove that hope still exists in this world. The choice is yours."

I came out from behind the barrels at a full sprint, the rain would now be an advantage, it would make hard light guns far less accurate. I made my way to the briefcase and then let myself slide feet first into a man at the other side of the street from my starting starting position.

His shield had given out from the rain. Guess they hadn't checked the forecast. My shield had been modified by one of my scientists to be resistant to water damage and stronger in general. I came up and stabbed the hard light blade into his chest. He gave me an odd look as I smiled a moment before I turned it on. He screamed out in pain as I turned so he would absorb the next few shots. I turned the blade off and put it in my satchel.

As I dropped him and started to move I noticed a few shots coming from where she was hiding and heard a grunt above me. The man that had been talking to me had disappeared, coward. I pointed and yelled, "Get over there as soon as you can." I saw her nod before she had to duck for cover.

I got to the sewer hatch and started pulling it up. My shield took a hit and I swore silently. I got the cover off the rest of the way and used it as partial cover as I started giving her covering fire. I wasn't really aiming too much just getting heads to get down. I had never been good with a hard light gun and the rain made me terrible. She began running, my shield took another hit. I heard the generator wind down, recharging and swore, not so silently.

I dropped the briefcase into the hole started down the ladder. I saw her above me and then I saw her expression become one of horror as I knew she had been hit. She took a second hit and fell down on top of me and we both fell to the bottom. We needed to find a pool of water, quickly. Her body had already began convulsing, I had never been able to save someone who had taken two shots before.

I took a grenade off of my belt and handed her the briefcase and closed her hands around it.

"Leave me," She said. "You'll never make it out of this sector if you take me with you."

"You are one of us now," I told her softly. "And I never leave one of my own behind. You will live with my help or die in my arms." She was still able to speak, that was good. She was very strong.

She smiled at my words and closed her eyes, her grip on the briefcase was good. I picked her up and began carrying her out of there. I left the grenade on the ground. I saw one of the soldiers climbing down the ladder. He saw me and I smiled. I aimed my gun at the grenade and fired. The last entrance in this sector is closed. Something I'd been meaning to get around to anyways, glad I hadn't until now.

I went deeper into the sector, they would be conducting a purge of the sector soon, but they would start with the outskirts and would not make it to the middle before daylight and then we could just disappear into the crowds of the city.

First I had to find that pool of water. I heard running water ahead and rushed on. She had nearly lost consciousness which, in the case of this injury, ensured death.

"Stay with me just a little longer," I encouraged her.

"I'm burning up," She complained. "I'm so hot I can feel blood starting to boil."

She had minutes left, I'd been traveling for maybe two and she might have that number remaining before there was nothing I could do. I smiled when I saw it. I had made it to a storm drain and it was still raining.

I had no time to do this the nice way. I took the briefcase and looked into her eyes, "This is going to hurt, a lot."

I ripped the clothes from her body and carried her into the water and kept her head above the water. I was freezing, this water would kill me as surely as it was going to save her. I didn't care, I couldn't let the one I could save die.

I lost feeling in my limbs and lost consciousness to her carrying me out of the water.

(Sorry for the book I just got this, rush, and couldn't stop, still don't want to but I figure I'll continue this sub plot after someone else posts, in other words please don't have my character interact with another after he left for the mafia meeting. Just for now. :) Thanks)