1 Chapter 1
Tartaglia can't remember exactly when it started. Maybe at the age of twelve, when he beat up three high school guys who were trying to hijacking him behind the school after lessons. Childe only seemed to be quite an ordinary, unremarkable boy, Ajax had been going to judo since childhood and was perfectly able to defend himself, that day he beat three bully teens and as a result, next morning he was punished by the head teacher. It turns out, according to the innocent «victims», ginger boy attacked them like a madman, demanding money and smartphones from three guys from prosperous families. He had to blush and turn pale together with his father, who was also called to school. Then Tartaglia realized for the first time that the world was unfair.
No longer he pretend a pioneer hero from smiling Soviet posters, he began to get into fights, inter-yard conflicts and Childe didn't notice how he gradually became involved in the dark side of society. Robbed a man on the bus, just pulled out a wallet with money from the pocket and got out at the next stop. Mild mondrage and excitement, the feeling of permissiveness, it turns out, it's so easy to take away something valuable from a person. Hop-stop in the evenings and on weekends has become a familiar thing, to hide somewhere in a doorway, wait for a belated passer and offer him the classic scheme «wallet or life?». To make it more convincing, Tartaglia took with him his father's old finka, left over from his military service, an easy-to-handle and intimidating-looking thing. In fact, Childe never intended to hurt anyone, just to scare an overly obstinate victim. But one day this childish carelessness turned into a terrible tragedy for him, which divided the world of Tartaglia into «before» and «after».
Ajax couldn't even imagine that the thirst for money in a person could overcome the passion of life, when once a man stopped by him tried to pull the selected wallet out of the guy's hands, Childe involuntarily stretched out his hands in front of him in a protective gesture and noticed with horror that his knife had sunk deep into the flesh of a man, into the heart. The face of the man twisted in a grimace of pain, he slipped off the blade and fell to the ground, shuddering in silent death agony. Tartaglia froze in place with a bloody finka in his hands, Tartaglia was shaking from the realization of what he had done right now, nausea came to his throat, and the wide-open eyes with helplessness looked around, a silent scream froze on his lips.
The next morning, all the inhabitants of their yard were gossiping about the awful murder that had been done. The bloody body was surrounded by a crowd of onlookers, who flocked to the corpse like vultures, Ajax and his mother were also there. As people say, the killer is always drawn to the crime scene. The woman was shaking her head, covering her mouth with her hand, and the boy gloomily watched as the cooled corpse was packed in a black bag and put into the hearse. It wasn't revealed. There were no traces left at the crime scene, and no corpus delicti was found either, everything was blamed on local alcoholic and junkies who simply attacked in a random frenzy, the case was closed. It was Childe's first murder, quick, clean.
Soon a new misfortune befell their family, Tartaglia's mother and father drove into a dump truck at full speed and crashed to their deaths, Childe was the oldest now, he had to shoulder the difficult burden of a breadwinner and guardian for all his younger brothers and sisters. The situation is complicated, even stalemate and seemingly hopeless, but Ajax was by no means going to give up. Now the murders have become for him not just a necessary self-defense, but a source of income. The guy rejected all moral principles and remorse, his head was now occupied with only one question: who, if not him, would take care of the youngers? Tartaglia will never allow them to end up in an orphanage. Let him forever close his way to normal society, stain his hands up to the elbows in blood, but his brothers and sisters will live in well-fed prosperity and have hope for a better future. So Ajax became a assassin.
In a nutshell, his work can be described as hunting people. To hunt down, drive into a quiet place, immobilize and annihilate, Childe memorized this sequence like a computer that easily reads program code. And now the young man was getting to his next victim in short dashes. His «client», if it can be named so, was a successful chinese entrepreneur and businessman named Zhong Li. Thirty-two years old, height – meter ninety, long hair, to the waist, came to an international economic symposium to negotiate the opening of a representative office of his company in Russia — an exhaustive description that was passed to Tartalia. Ajax didn't know exactly who ordered it and why: chinese competitors dissatisfied with the rapid growth of a young businessman, russian tycoons who now need to figure out the grater not only among themselves, but also with a new foreign player, or even a person from the outside who has some personal motives. The guy didn't give a damn what, why and who, he was paid for the body, not for questions.
From the corridor he found himself in a new foyer with high ceilings, red velvet walls and a lot of old paintings in gilded baguette frames. You can immediately see that the hotel is premium class, and even the whole floor is occupied by the presidential suite of this chinese man. Childe frowned, looking around the aisles for security, he wasn't worried about the cameras, Scaramouche (at least the young man asked to call himself like this) was an experienced hacker, he was able to hack the power system of the entire hotel complex, so there would be no electricity in the building for the next twenty minutes. Specially for this operation, a group was created, each of the participants of which performed his role on the battlefield: a team of burglars, several guys to clean up security and personnel, a main killer (aka Tartaglia) and a gunner. Everyone kept their real identities in a secret, so even if one of them was captured, he or she would not be able to betray the rest of the company.
"And now to the left, there is the door to the apartment. According to my information, all the guards have moved to sector F or to the lower floors to find out the reasons for the power outage, our guys will meet them there. How's the situation, respond?" – a pleasant female voice rapped out, despite the rapid speaking, the tone is like that of an announcer from television. Signora didn't take a direct physical part in this action, but she was almost the most important person in their business. She supervised the entire course of the operation, checked the maps, collected data and directed everyone along the routes, the woman, like a spider, connected all people together, forcing each gear to work clearly and as efficiently as possible. Ajax tightened the communication insert in his ear, moving in the indicated direction.
"I see, I'm going straight out, well, everything is clean here …" - the young man cursed back around the corner, pressing into the wall and listening to every tiny sound like an animal. There was still one security guard standing at the apartment door, a big one, twice as wide as Childe, most likely a former weightlifter, who could be broken in half with one sneeze. Damn, what's he doing here? Did the Signora not foresee such a case? One guard on duty can radically ruin the whole course of their operation, what should he do now? – "Respond, I have a security guard on duty right next to the door."
Tartaglia carefully leaned over the monolithic wall, the guard stands with his arms folded and looks gloomily out of the window at the winter sky pulled up by snow clouds, apparently, he became bored without the company of his comrades. A holster with a pistol is visible on the belt, a walkie-talkie is attached to the jacket a little higher, communication with all other posts. So Childe need to act quickly so that the man don't have time to call for reinforcements and preferably from afar, otherwise there is an option to stay with a twisted neck. On the side of Ajax, the effect of surprise, the darkness of the night and the skills of a cold-blooded killer honed to perfection.
"Damn, I knew they would take emergency protection, okay, wait a second, now I'll look for someone to send you to help…"
" No need, I'll do it myself" - Childe grins, screwing a muffler to his mauser, ok, he have seen bigger guys. Taking a deep breath and inhaling, Ajax adjusted the balaclava on his face and moved forward, feeling the adrenaline rush in his blood. The guard doesn't even have time to open his mouth, and Tartaglia is already firing two silvery bullets from the white light of the moon at him: two clear hits in the temple and in the forehead – instant death without a single unnecessary sound. Ajax catches the body and gently seats the bleeding man on the floor. Great, and now we can move on to the final boss.
The young man takes his time, listens to the silence hidden by the darkness of the night, trying to find in it at least the slightest hint of movement. Weapons at the ready, it's time to move out. The toe of the foot pushes the carved wooden door and it opens inside with a barely audible creak, no response or noise, so the businessman decided to play hide-and-seek with him, hoping to hide? In vain, Childe always brings what he started to the end. Weightless steps in time with the ticking wall clock accompany the guy on the way to the apartment. Even in the dark, it is noticeable that the room is spacious, expensively furnished, but not crammed with things. Sharp vision pays attention to any fluctuations in the air, where is the chinese man? Maybe in the bathroom? Or behind the sofa, in the balcony or in the office? The hunt has begun, the victim has been chosen, cornered, now it remains to deal with the objectionable object, get the second part of the fee and you can buy New Year's gifts for the kids.
Ajax was so carried away by fantasies about the upcoming celebration that he completely lost sight of the fact that now the victim was not Zhong Li, but himself. The male figure detached itself from the wall, came out from behind the door and was now in a winning position behind the unsuspecting Childe. The effect of surprise worked on him. A silk belt embroidered with gold threads abruptly wrapped around Tartaglia's neck, someone else's body pressed against him from behind. From surprise, the guy screamed briefly, but instead of a clear sound, only a strangled wheeze and gurgling came out of his mouth, someone deliberately strangled him with a thick cloth, not even giving him the opportunity to make loud noises. Instinct told him to immediately grab the noose and try to free himself from the grip, but self-defense skills helpfully took control of the young man's body, putting him in the state of a fighting machine. Ajax elbowed the stranger in the ribs with all his might and jerked his head back, hitting the figure standing behind him with the back of his head in the face. The man hissed in pain and loosened his grip, that's what Childe was trying to achieve, slipping out from under his belt, he was about to shoot his opponent, but he in turn grabbed his weapon and took him aside, a soundless shot hit an expensive porcelain vase, which was now lying on the floor with a thousand snow-white, like lotus petals, fragments.
But their confrontation didn't end there, a new struggle for the gun began, Tartaglia really wanted to end this case as soon as possible, but the man resisted with all his might, twisting the guy's hands. The young man, ignoring all decency, tried to bite the opponent's hand, which, however, turned out extremely unsuccessfully, in response, Zhong Li used a direct blow to the jaw, forcing Ajax to stagger to the side. Nevertheless, the weapon was somewhere on the floor out of their reach. It seems that now it's the turn of the good old fist fight. Enraged, Childe struck the man in the solar plexus, thereby knocking out almost all the air from his lungs. Tartaglia made a cut with his foot under the shin, forcing Zhong Li to lose his balance and fall to the floor, however, the businessman was not a miss. He grabbed the fabric of Ajax's uniform, thereby dragging the guy down with him.
There was a commotion on the floor, the man kicked and fought off Childe, continuing to block his attacks. At some point, Tartaglia found his father's finka in his belt, he carried it with him just as a talisman, in memory of his first "case" and never used it again, but apparently it was its turn to save the ginger guy's life again. The sharp blade of the knife flashed in the cold light of the moon, as if in a frame in a movie, Zhong Li even involuntarily held his breath, looking at this picture. He was a true connoisseur of beauty, the hood slid back to reveal copper-colored hair, the stranger's eyes glistening with wild excitement and his frozen, raised hand with a sharp army knife. Dangerous and exciting - the art of death.
The slightest slower became a fatal mistake for the businessman, the knife bit into the flesh of the thigh, forcing the brunette to cry out painfully and, from the dopamine that jumped in the blood, to rush forward with an almost animal growl. The weapon slipped out of Childe's hands, and abruptly came out of the wound, followed by thick black blood starting to flow out of the cut. It stained the fabric of the man's expensive branded trousers and it turned scarlet on the hands of Zhong Li, who was trying to clamp the wound, and left dark streaks on the parquet floor.
Ajax himself didn't notice how quickly everything changed, Zhong Li, distraught with pain and anger, knocked him back to the floor. Childe hit the back of his head painfully, for a moment the whole world faded before his eyes, and, returning to reality, the guy found that his victim was sitting on him like a predatory monitor lizard. The man brought Tartaglia's hands behind his head, squeezing his thin wrists until the bones ached, and a bloody Finnish knife was already put to Ajax's throat.
Annoyance, that's what Childe felt at that moment, until that day he had coped with every mission quite successfully, every new case went perfectly smoothly without a hitch, but now… now he felt really scared, for the first time in his life he realized how dangerous what he was doing. At any moment, you can turn from a killer into someone's prey, this is a game where you can memorize a sequence of actions, but in reality there are no rules in it. Zhong Li yanked off the balaclava hiding the face of his potential killer.
A young man of about twenty-four appeared before him with straight features, hair the color of Scotch whiskey scattered to the sides and a scattering of small dark freckles on his cheeks. The chest heaves heavily under the weight of the man leaning on him, the swollen, split lips are slightly parted, bleeding, and the pupils, narrowed to dots, are constantly looking at the businessman. From the tension of the moment, Childe licks his lips, feeling a salty taste in his mouth, he was discovered, now the guy's appearance is known to almost one of the most influential people in China, Zhong Li can easily declare a hunt for him, and more, for his whole family.
«Who is your employer?» - he speaks English, as far as Ajax can determine, - quite well, but from the excitement in his voice, a barely noticeable oriental accent was heard, the knife presses more tightly against the open area of the skin, the blade literally rests against his neck, threatening to cut the guy's throat. Childe will blatantly lie if he says that he isn't afraid. He is scared, scared to the point of stupefaction that this person can find his family and deal with all children: kill or harm Anton, Teucer or Tonya, - «Answer!»
But then, quite inopportunely, their tense dialogue is interrupted by the ring of a phone call – a song from the opening of Smeshariki. Ajax looks at the phone that fell out of his pocket, damn, he also forgot to turn off the sound, a funny selfie of a little girl with a wide cheerful smile and the signature "Bunny (Tonya)" can be seen on the screen. God, not this, not now.
«I need to answer the phone» - Ajax says in one breath, still feeling the cold metal on his neck. He shoots his eyes in the direction of his smartphone, which vibrates and continues to repeat the same melody over and over again. Zhong Li just smiles nervously, watching such impudence, came to kill him, and now he's going to call someone.
«Don't you want anything else? Decided to talk to one of your bosses, huh?» – the businessman shushed, looking discontentedly at the screaming gadget.
«No, it's a call from my sister» - Tartaglia explained reluctantly, - «Five minutes, give me less than five minutes to talk to her, and then do what you want».
«Why should I believe you? Give me at least one reason why I should agree to your proposal,» - Zhong Li smiled coldly, more and more amazed at the impudence of this red-haired boy, his throat is about to be cut, and he is worried about some kind of call.
«Five minutes isn't so long, yeah? Besides, the New Year is coming soon, the time of miracles and all that, - the fact that the man still deprived him of his life already gave Ajax a chance for a more successful outcome. He needs to gently put pressure on man, put him into a state of shock. Sometimes fate can make great jokes, – «I have to answer my sister's call. What if she can't sleep without my voice?!»
Zhong Li once again glanced at the phone screen and at the person looking at him with the most sincere (Childe wants to believe that his acting talent will be enough) plea. With the toe of leather shoes, the man pushes a smartphone to Ajax's ear and accepts the call.
«Hello?» – an uncertain child's voice is heard in the receiver.
«Tonya, bunny, hello!» - Tartaglia replied as cheerfully as possible. His life was still held on the tip of the knife, but now the blade has retreated a couple of centimeters back, not bad for a start.
«Childe! Why didn't you pick up the phone for so long?» – Zhong Li didn't understand girl's words , Ajax is relieved to realize that his opponent doesn't know russian, it means there is no reasons to be afraid that his conversation with his sister will be overheard.
«Oh, you know… I was busy with a very important thing, yes, you know I'm the most important person in the toy factory! This is a very responsible position» - while this legend still affected his youngers, they believed that their beloved elder brother was working in a very cool place. However, Tartaglia assumed that another year or two and he would have to come up with a better excuse – «Did something happen?»
«… give me phone!» - the voice on the line changed to a brisk boyish one, Ajax had no difficulty recognizing Teucer in the speaker, - «Childe! Tonya is so nasty! She makes me eat porridge, and I want cookies!»
Zhong Li tensed, hearing the changed timbre, but didn't take any action, the voice still sounds childish. The guy lying under him doesn't resist and doesn't try to break their little truce. With help of the light phone screen, the man can see Childe's face in great detail, a bruise began to turn purple on the young man's cheekbone, a small scratch remained on his neck, blood dried on his lips. Only the eyes, like two sapphires, shine brightly with crystal blue. Even being hundreds of kilometers away from his little interlocutors, Tartaglia tries to keep his face, smiles good-naturedly and speaks clearly. A quiet and insinuating voice acts on Zhong Li like hypnosis. Blooming lips with a slight half-smile move quickly, pronouncing words and friendly smiling, when he listened to the answer coming from the phone. The man wish that same voice would also gently and tenderly whisper something in his ear.
«You can't have cookies! Childe said that you must to eat porridge in the evening!» – it seems that a serious conflict was brewing on the other side of the line. Ajax need to act quickly before Tonya and Teucra have time to fight yet.
«Kittens, listen to me and tell everyone else. First we eat buckwheat, then for dessert tea with cookies, sweets and everything you want. Understood?»
«All right!» – the boy and the girl agreed in one voice, the elder brother has always been an authority for them, after the death of their parents, they had no one closer than Tartalia, Ajax looked at the numbers in the screen, damn, his five minutes are almost over, something needs to be done urgently, - «Will you be back soon?»
«Yes, yes, I will try to get things done as soon as possible» - he will protect his family, a plan has just matured in the young man's head, - «Don't make fuss, big greetings from me to everyone! Bye.»
The call ended, and with it the time allotted to Childe for a break came to an end. There was a deathly silence in the apartment, no wind noise, no alien breathing, even the heart seemed to freeze in place and stopped pumping blood through the body. Ajax turns to face his enemy and looks at him intently from the bottom up, carefully peering into the elegant oriental features. He licks his lips, dry and salty from blood, and stares straight into the man's darkened citrine eyes. There is something frightening and at the same time attractive about it, like that trick where the fakir holds a blue absolutely not hot fire in his hands. But here the flame is real, inviting and burning, intertwined with a wild roaring whirlpool. Zhong Li involuntarily swallows, fascinated by this phenomenon, and Ajax grins so brazenly and teasingly that the stone heart involuntarily skips a beat, the pulsation is given by an electric charge throughout the body.
Man didn't notice how he losed his vigilance, and Childe is in a hurry to take the advantage of. A knee blow to the groin, a sharp deflection in the lower back and maneuverable handwork allow Tartaglia to throw off the businessman and freely get to feet. He staggers from side to side through the bright flashes in his head, an activated earphone reaches his ear, from which the Signora's voice strictly broadcasts.
«Ajax, respond, the whole plan is rolling like a shit, the building is cordoned off, riot police and special forces are moving here, get out of there as soon as possible» - despite the still remaining commanding tone, there is a slight excitement and confusion in the Signora's words.
«But what about the task…»
«I don't care, I'm disconnecting from this operation, I'm not participating in this circus anymore» - the earphone beeped for the last time and fell silent. Somewhere in the corridor, heavy footsteps of army boots were heard, Tartaglia know this sound very well, in a couple of seconds the capture group would explode here.
Somewhere in the corner, Zhong Li's stifled painful moan was heard, the man was sitting leaning against the wall, blood was still flowing from his wounded thigh, so a decent dark puddle had already formed on the floor. His leg was numb and almost stopped obeying, Zhong Li was shaking feverishly from shock and pain, his long hair stuck to his sweaty forehead, and his hand was hopelessly clutching a serious wound. He's still alive, damn it, but Ajax don't have time to finish him off, the gun is left somewhere on the floor, his father's finka has completely disappeared, and the footsteps outside the door are getting louder. Childe pulled a balaclava over his face and gave Zhong Li one last quick glance. Tartaglia rubbed him well, and the wound is serious, in a couple of minutes businessman will die from blood loss, his work can be considered as finished. Picking up his phone, the guy hastily retreated to the open terrace, and then completely disappeared somewhere in the dark.
There was a deafening crack of wood, a heavy boot broke down an already open door, what a barbarism. One by one, the fighters ran into the apartment, checked the perimeter and reported on the progress of the operation. The room was instantly filled with sounds, people, light from lanterns – all this broke the atmosphere that reigned until recently. All the magic, all the illusion melted away, as if at the click of the fingers of a cunning illusionist. Zhong Li silently looked at the snow-white tulle curtains swaying in the wind, behind them just a few seconds ago that man disappeared.
«Childe» - Zhong Li remembers the name that children called his killer so many times. He tastes it like an expensive sparkling wine, which turns his head, carrying both a bright explosive holiday and grave consequences coming in the morning. The palm of his hand holds tightly to the handle of a razor-sharp finnish knife. The body is noticeably weakening, thoughts are confused, several specialists are already running to his aid, and the man clings to the image of pure, electric blue eyes, a freckled face and a hoarse, affectionate voice with the edge of consciousness. Even if the stranger is an incubus, Zhong Li will certainly do his best to find and meet him again.
