1 The hustle

"Shit!"

Levi woke up with a groan, his body ached with even the slightest movement, and with a blurry vision.

He tried to get a hold of his surrounding despite the struggle but he couldn't make sense of it.

"Where the fuck am I?" He muttered out loud, "Did I lose again?"

"You're in the training hall, Levi." A stern voice of a woman rang throughout the hall, "You've failed me yet again."

"Director.." Levi in a struggle managed to get up for a while and got on his knees greeting the woman in front of him.

"Maybe I've expected too much of you." The Director looked at him in disappointment, "Your peers have long left Ruska Roma to pursue their legacy, and yet I've kept you here..."

Levi didn't look the Director in the eye but anyone from a mile away could tell the rage emitting from him.

"I've broken way too many of my bones and bled gallons of blood to simply give up now." Levi spoke gritting his teeth, "I won't disappoint you next time."

"Your tenacity is the only thing you've Levi, but I don't see you succeeding." The Director harshly said, "You won't ever be him."

"One last chance," Levi spoke looking at the Director and meeting her eye, "Give me one last chance."

The Director looked back at him for quite a long time, "You've already proved yourself worthy enough to be a part of our family but why do you keep insisting on meeting my expectations?"

"I have long realized, you don't care about filial piety to go this far just for me or for Ruska Roma." The Director continued, "Tell me, Levi, why do you want to keep going through this?"

"I just hate losing." Levi said with a sleazy smile letting go of the tough guy act, "Is that a good reason enough?"

"That greed..." The Director shook her head, "What will I do with you?"

"A week from now..." The director continued as she turned away, "Will be your final test. Whether you succeed or not is completely on you,"

"Rest well till then, Levi."

As the Director left the room, Levi took a deep breath as he stood up straight cracking his knuckle and his back while slightly stretching.

"Talk about 'weight of expectations'..." Levi muttered to himself as he dust himself off, "But seriously what is wrong with that monster, to set an expectation that high."

After a long bath, Levi shut himself inside his room booting up his computer and logging into a particular website that resembled a chatroom.

"Hey, Ramsey! You there?" Levi typed in the chat as he waited for the message opening a can of Redbull.

"Yup! You're just in time." Ramsey quickly texted him back, "I've got a good job for you."

"You know, you always say that but it always turns sour in the end." Levi typed back, "Remember Moscow?"

"Hey dude! That was completely on you..." Ramsey typed back, "Besides I didn't know the mob would be involved."

"Whatever... you say, Miss. Ramsey."

"Miss?" Ramsey typed in a hurry, "How did you-"

"I took an honest guess from our interaction over the past year." Levi chuckled to himself, "So how much is the pay?"

"..."

"Can you not terrify me like that and then skip to money like nothing."

"How much? And what is the job exactly?" Levi typed in waiting for Ramsey to reply.

Levi didn't know much about Ramsey, to begin with, they just stumbled across each other at a job and started working together since. Well, technically 'stumbled'.

He didn't really like the idea of trusting someone through a computer screen when he couldn't even figure out what she looked like or where she was from. But over the year, despite some jobs being a hit or miss, she always pulled through with it when he needed her to.

Since she was competent enough, Levi was 'comfortable' working with her as long as the money kept rolling in for now at least.

"Sigh! Here you go." Ramsey typed back sending a file alongside the text, "The job is quite simple, all you have to do is bring back a particular case. No killing required."

Levi didn't reply immediately as he read through the file carefully, "Durmstrang?"

"So our client is German?"

"That's what I thought at first, but I can't find anything about them or anything related to it other than some useless things here and there," Ramsey wrote back, "So simple, isn't it?"

"Let me see, the Russian government uncovered some old artifact in the 80s and it somehow ended up in the hands of some rich bastard. Then that rich bastard got robbed by some wannabe mob group and now a German client wants it?"

"Yup simple, isn't it?" Ramsey replied, "You'll just have to sneak in, grab the artifact, and walk out. No need to murder anyone."

"Easy for you to say, I am not a ninja in training you know." Levi wrote, "And can you stop talking to me like I enjoy killing or something."

"You don't?"

"..."

"So are you taking the job or nah?"

"Everything is too easy and too convenient." Levi wrote, "So I'd have to decline, see ya!"

"200,000 pounds."

Levi who was about to turn the chat off nearly choked on the Redbull he was sipping.

"I guess, that caught your attention."

Levi could see her cocky smile through the text as he replied, "That's even more fishy."

"Who are we kidding here?" Ramsey wrote, "Besides they've already sent me half of the reward so at least, we wouldn't be getting too screwed over even if it turns out to be shitty."

"..." Levi couldn't believe how someone could be this shameless, 'What the fuck do you mean, we won't be getting screwed over? When all you have to do is sit behind your computer screen...'

After taking a deep breath, Levi pondered if he should take the gamble on this shady job or not.

The words 'Do it for the hustle!' kept ringing in his ears as the reward money was too large for him to ignore it.

"Fine!" Levi wrote, "Sign me up!"

"Great!"

"I'll send you the location soon." Ramsey wrote, "Be safe and seriously don't kill."

"I will try my hardest!" Levi replied as he walked away from the computer and crashed on his bed trying to get some good sleep.