Boxes & Smoke

Box 1

Alexei 

"I just killed this girl's grandfather and now you want me to apply as her driver?"

"No! Not just a driver-- but a driver with a substance!" The woman wearing office attire beamed at him. "Listen, Alexe- Carver I mean, we need to get close to our enemy to completely tear them down. And you're the one perfect for the job"

"This is stupid"

"You're our best assassin in the faction. So for our boss, you need to take this mission"

Carver approached the couch in the room and crossed his legs as he stared intently at the woman. Just one push and she might even kneel in front of him begging for his approval on the job.

"And what do I get in return?" Carver continued.

"The boss would grant any of your desires. Let it be money, recognition, a rise in position-- anything"

"Those are the same things I get whenever I complete a bounty" Carver was never fond of the driver application in the first place. He might be the faction's best assassin for all he cares, but that doesn't mean they needed to send the same man for a ridiculous job. "I do not get why you would take me for the job, where I murdered the old man of the house. It's a complete idiocracy to do that. They could track our main headquarters and would wipe out the organization. And by that time, I would be dead"

"No one could do it but you,"

"David could. His hands were an expert to wheels and stuff where I've lived my whole life targeting people on their heads"

Melissa sat down beside him. She met his eyes while Carver returned the look in the most uncaring way. "Listen, Alexei,"

"Code names are meant to be used" He answered.

Melissa reached for his hand. "They've been tracking down the killer of the Schleifer, and we needed to take extra precautions. Once they've known that this killer is a part of our organization, we would have a hard time fending them off. So we needed someone to act as a spy to gather information. And with that, you could sabotage their plan. Because, we could estimate that at any time soon they'll declare war on every organization, including us"

Carver batted her hand away, "Isn't that what we all wanted? Rage war between the mafia. And let the underworld know who's at the top"

Melissa heaved a deep breath. "If a war were to happen, our organization would be at a disadvantage. Even if we got you in our faction. The moment you've completed the bounty in killing the head of the Schleifer, that had already hinted at an upcoming battle. And we needed to be prepared. The Schleifer mafia is not easy to deal with, in just a talk of their words and briefcases, they could even make their connections a lot wider internationally. So, we needed to sabotage that and be the first ones to cut their connection to neighboring organizations and take it to our care instead"