The Black Market

"Going once, twice— " the auctioneer, Ben Cattigan, banged the gavel and the sound echoed on the walls of the underground auction hall of the mansion in the outskirts of Berlin, "— and Buyer 7 wins the auction to take one vial of Compound-Z for twelve-and-a-half-million US dollars. "

Clayton Nord was comforted that a bioweapon like Compound-Z was sold for millions. Chances of gaining access to world-wide-apocalypse-causing weapon by some poor idiot were significantly reduced to a certain degree. He still had to worry about the rich idiots though.

A bioweapon was a poor man's nuclear bomb. The comparative cost of civilian casualties per square kilometer was about $ 800 with nuclear weapons, with biological weapons it was just $ 1.

Compound-Z was priced so high because it could not be replicated as the auctioneer Ben, who was in charge of this whole thing, helpfully reminded to the men and women dressed extravagantly who had gathered in the grand hall.

One vial of Compound-Z bought from the auction could only be used once for any purpose the buyer wanted; research and development to try to replicate it, to modify the strain to turn it into a wonder drug, or just as a weapon to turn the whole world into zombies.

Thankfully for the unsuspecting population of eight billion on Earth, not one participant or organizer of the auction would be leaving alive. And they can live in blissful ignorance at one less individual having the capability to the end the world.

Clayton sipped wine from his glass and nodded to Colin.

Colin put his glass down, ducked and covered his ears along with Clayton as he activated the twenty small explosive devices strategically placed around.

The bombs exploded and chaos reigned in the hall, causing dust and debris to fall on their backs as they took cover.

The explosive noise still managed to rattle Clayton's ears. The blast subsided and people were screaming in pain and fear. He rose up, took his gun from inside his tuxedo and began executing the people with single shots to their heads like ticking off boxes, one by one.

An event guard in a black suit, with blood covering his head, pointed his MP7 at Clayton with one hand as he used the other to support himself against the wall.

A gun fired beside him, the guard's head snapped back and he stumbled to the ground like a lifeless doll before Clayton could put him down.

"You are welcome," Colin said as he went to the guard.

"I had him," Clayton said. He shot one of the participants as she crawled away.

Colin picked up the MP7 of the guard he shot. "Sure."

Clayton looked around observing the carnage that was unleashed by them. Bodies lay on the ground in odd ways, some dead and some on their way to death. Clayton could organize a plan so good that not even the best in the world can succeed when they are an obstacle in his path. "Make sure that every one of the participants are dead. I will try to locate the Compound-Z. We have five minutes to burn the whole place down and get the hell out of here."

Colin nodded and began shooting them with the MP7 in the head as Clayton approached the auctioneer Ben.

Ben lay there with his back to the podium wheezing as he held his hand to his chest. "Whoever you are … know that the White Grimm … do not take lightly to … someone robbing them… we will find you … and make you pay. You will know what … true fear is then." Ben took a deep breath and tried to raise his gun with his remaining strength.

Clayton knelt to the ground and held Ben's gun down. "Do not worry about the White Grim tracking me down Mr. Cattigan. It won't be hard for them to track me when I go after them. All your friends and colleagues in the White Grim will join you shortly." Aiming the gun to Ben's forehead, he leaned down so that he could see the color of his dark eyes and said, "This I can promise you with certainty."

He pulled the trigger and killed Ben Cattigan, one of the first members of White Grimm to die by his hands but not the last, for the crime of facilitating the selling of the bioweapon Compound-Z.

Clayton holstered the gun and searched the body. He took a key and a thumb drive from Ben and put them in his pockets. He memorized the six digits on the note and tore it into pieces.

He took the laptop too, placing it a special pocket big enough for it sewed in the inside of his tuxedo. The screen was black and it had probably taken too much damage to turn on but it was nothing that he couldn't get fixed. Even if it meant extracting data from the root after dismantling everything.

Clayton moved into the access door back of the stage at a quick pace, with his gun raised to scan for threats.

He turned the corridor and came across three guards. One of them, who was carrying the briefcase quickly entered a room the moment she noticed Clayton as the other two raised their weapons as they moved to take cover.

Two shots killed one of the guards as the bullets hit his chest. He kept on shooting to keep the other one pinned down behind cover, until he was within an arm's distance with him.

The guard rose when the firing stopped to return fire but he got a knife through his eye from Clayton before he could even fire a single bullet.

He moved further down the way to the room the guard took cover in.

He approached close to the wooden door and shots fired from the room through it.

He shot back and quickly took cover to the wall beside the door.

Silence filled the air for a moment as Clayton tried to calm his heart down from the near death experience. He bought his breathing back in his control and tried to open the door, and pulled his hand back swiftly as shots fired through the door again.

"You won't get the briefcase from me so easily!" the woman yelled from inside.

"You have nowhere left to go woman," Clayton said. "Your best option is to just give it up. Then I will make sure that your death is quick and painless."

"You best get on your way man," she said. "The White Grimm will send more men to secure the briefcase; you don't have forever to keep on besieging me and exchanging fires. It will be best, if you get going before they come for you."

Clayton checked the time on his watch. The woman was right. Time to try another approach. "What's your name?"

She hesitated for a moment. "Claire. What about you?"

"My name's not necessary here. Let's make a deal, Claire, your life in exchange for the briefcase. It's not my way, letting one of my enemies walk away without any consequences, but an exception can be made considering the situation at hand."

"How about my offer?" Claire said. "You leave now. Maybe you can get to live for some time before the White Grimm comes for you. Take my deal Mr. 'My-name's-not-necessary' and you get to live longer. You never know which way the fight leans towards until the very end."

"Any fight that I am part of, Claire, will always lean in my favor. And I won't be leaving without that brief case."

"Too bad. We are at a stalemate cause I won't give up the brief case."

Clayton took the grenade out of his tux and held it in his hand. "Can you guess what I am holding in my hand?"

"A white flag to announce your surrender," she said, laughing faintly.

"No, Claire. A grenade that I am considering throwing your way. The only reason I am holding off on it is cause I want the contents in the briefcase intact."

Claire was silent for a moment. "How about we go back, to the moment we were discussing about the deal."

"Its fine by me," he said. "Like I said, your life for the briefcase. No tricks. You have my word."

"I am gonna blow your brains out if you try to go back on our deal," she said. A faint sound clicked as the door unlocked. "Come in slowly with out your weapon."

"All I want is the brief case." Clayton holstered the gun and took the pin out of the grenade without even a single twitch. He clutched onto the grenade firmly with the lever still in place, opened and entered the door. "Believe me when I say you don't want to shoot me, it won't be good for both of us."

Claire still had her weapon trained on him. She snorted when she saw the grenade primed without the pin. "Looks like you have a death wish for someone so young. How old are you? You look like someone who should be in college."

"I get that a lot. My age won't stop the grenade as it takes you down with me if you shoot me."

"Let's get on with it." She raised the arm handcuffed to the briefcase. "I do not have the key with me."

"We will have to cut off your wrist then." Clayton grinned.

Claire raised the gun. "I dare you to try."

"Calm down woman, I have the key with me." He took the key slowly out of his pocket and stepped forward.

"No," She said. "Stop right there. Throw the key to me."

"Are you sure? You can't open it with the gun aimed at me. Let me do it." She nodded hesitantly and Clayton stepped forward. He pointed to the table. "Place it there."

Claire kept her eyes on him as she put the briefcase on the table. He approached her with one hand still holding the grenade, he used the other to push the key into the hand cuff's lock slowly.

Their hearts were on overdrive and they breathed quick breaths as the tension filled their bodies full of adrenaline. Clayton turned the key and the handcuff was released from the briefcase.

"Now I am gonna leave," Claire said as she pulled her hand back and stepped away from him.

"Sure." Clayton held out the key to the handcuff. "Your hand is still cuffed to it."

She came forward to take the key.

He threw the grenade to the floor, driving her gun's point away from him as shots fired into the walls, and tried to take the gun away from her. They struggled and fell to the floor backwards with him on top of her as they fought for the gun.

Clayton took the gun away from her as she let it go. She covered her head with her hands and closed her eyes shut firmly as she trembled waiting for the grenade to go off.

She closed her eyes shut firmly as her body trembled awaiting the grenade to go off.

She opened her bewildered eyes to stare at Clayton laughing. "What …?"

He put the gun on safety and pushed it away on the floor. "It was a dud, Claire."

"What do you mean?!" she screamed as she tried to get him off of her and put him on his back.

"I carry one with me for this exact reason," Clayton said. Claire had strength in her, he experienced it in the brief struggle they had and didn't want to underestimate her so he restrained her hands above her head and handcuffed them.

He caressed her cheek with one hand while the other held on to her hands above her. "It is a good way to bluff the naive ones."

She turned her head away from his hand to the side, with her face red. "Do it! Get it over with."

He took his gun out of the holster, cocked it and pointed it at her head.

She shut her eyes.

Clayton hesitated to pull the trigger. That was a first. He was trained to kill in cold blood without a second thought since he was a child, and had taken his first human kill without breaking a sweat when he was just sixteen. But now as he held the gun to her head, he couldn't get himself to shoot her, and that rattled him more than someone taking a life for the first time.

He was a weapon trained to kill, and lead others like Colin. Killing efficiently was what he was best at, and not being able to kill someone when he knew it was for the best… The memories of his training flashed back in his mind; General Nord screaming and berating him as a ten year old Clayton struggled and cried at being forced to smother his own pet dog, Max.

He extinguished the emotions from his mind like he was trained to do, desperately before it could get a chance to break his shield. "I gave you my word, didn't I?" he said, his voice breaking slightly, as he got up and turned away to hide whatever emotions his face showed. He never felt this swirling emotions inside him even once, before he met her. "Your life for the briefcase."

She opened her eyes in surprise and stared at him.

Clayton had his emotions under his control just as Colin entered the room. "Clay, we need to leave, now."

"In a moment." He turned back to Claire and lifted her to her feet. "Now listen to me carefully Claire. I discovered about the auction three days ago, while investigating another thing unrelated to White Grimm. It took me only a week to bust this whole auction down, so imagine what I can do when I have all the time in the world, to take down the White Grimm. They won't stand a chance and even know what hit them.

"Leaving even a single person alive ... is not the way I operate in, Claire. I am disciplined and do not take the rules I made and operate under lightly. Exceptions will be made today for I gave you my word. But come tomorrow, when I am hunting down every single person related to White Grimm or Compound-Z, and I find you in my path. I will put a bullet in your skull without a thought. Second chances are very rare in our line of work, so I suggest you utilize it fully and go work somewhere where you are less likely to cross my path. Do you understand?"

"Yes." She struggled against her hand cuffs as she pulled her hands apart. "Get them off me then, we will go our separate ways."

"Not so fast." Clayton picked up the key from the ground and placed it on the table. "Only after we leave."

He hesitated before he took out the burner phone and put it in her suit pocket. "The burner phone is new and custom built. Untraceable. There is only one number saved in the contacts. If you come across any important information regarding Compound-Z, I am not aware of. Give a call to the number in there ... If I need you then I will reach out to you."

He took the briefcase and was about to leave.

"Is Clay your name?" Claire asked.

"Only people close to me or those who are dead know my full name, Claire. You are not close to me so I would suggest that you do not tempt death."

Clayton tapped Colin's shoulder and followed him as he set out the door with the gun raised, clearing the area of enemies.

They entered the garage, and Clayton stopped Colin behind a car to check up on the contents of the briefcase.

As he opened the briefcase with the digits he had memorized from the note on Ben, Colin spoke as he kept watch for any enemies, "Getting sloppy by not checking the contents and giving out your number to a woman. Tell me the truth Clay, did puberty hit you after hiding within you all these years?"

Clayton grunted in response at that jab. He confirmed that there indeed was a red vial of Compound-Z in the briefcase.

Colin got serious as they walked to their car. "Mercy. In the short years I have spent with you never once did I see you show mercy to someone."

"What about it?" Clay asked as he opened the door.

"Nothing," Colin said when they were in the car. "The squad would have been proud if they got to see it."

Clayton started the car. "Well you can tell it to them yourself. We are gathering the old squad back together."

"If only it would be that easy," Colin said. They have gone their own ways since we disbanded after the stint in Middle East. Will they even want to get back together?"

He drove out of the mansion grounds. "They have no choice and neither do we. We need to dig up everything we can about Compound-Z, analyze the information and come up with a plan. Something tells me that the situation won't end with White Grimm. Once we take care of the Black Market problem, we will get on a flight back to the US."

"What about Russia?" Colin asked as he checked their rear to see if anyone was following them. "The Pentagon hired us to help Ukraine, we can't just abandon the whole operation in the middle."

"The Russians are planning to do something with Compound-Z, Colin. I don't have a single idea what it even is and I can't let it be. We need to dig out the deepest buried secrets with Compound-Z."

In an hour, they would be in the air on a chartered jet, getting out of Germany's borders. Clayton will take his time to find out everything about White Grimm and burn them to the ground.