Sam rounded the corner of the alleyway at a power-walk, stuffing the silenced pistol into his holster. He’d seen shock and adrenaline do weird things to people, but ignoring a puddle of blood and two bodies with a smile? Fucking creepy is what it was. As much as he didn’t want to put his back to an unknown, he wanted to be elsewhere even more.

The sound of running feet echoed off the walls of the alley behind him, and he couldn’t help as his shoulders tensed.

“Hey wait!” The footsteps started in his direction.

‘And this is why I don’t get involved.’ Sam sighed. ‘Now if she goes to the police, they’ll be one step closer to me, and that means I’m one step closer to a dark cell for the rest of my life. At least she didn’t see my face.’

A hand wrapped around his bicep, and Sam reacted instinctively, grabbing the small arm, twisting his torso toward the woman, and aiming the pistol at her from the middle of his chest.

“Oh, so that’s how it's gonna be then?” The woman asked with a grin on her face, once again ignoring the most important factor of their situation. “You’re just going to waltz into my life, save me from peril like some knight in shining armor, and then undo all that hard work by putting a bullet in me?”

Watching her intently as she spoke, Sam didn’t immediately remove his finger from the trigger. He was beginning to think she was off her meds, but she had a point. With a heavy sigh, Sam lowered the handgun and released her arm from his death grip.

“No, no I’m not. But you need to get out of here quickly. Suppressed or not, someone might’ve heard those shots.”

“Oh?” The woman canted her head and smiled. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. I’ll just join you, then.”

Sam felt his eye twitch.

“No, you won’t. You’ll go home, or to your hotel room, or to wherever your particular brand of crazy decides to sleep.'' Spinning on his heels, he tried to put some distance between them. Hearing her footsteps behind him, Sam walked faster, only to hear her steps get faster in time with his. At the entrance to the alley that was his next step in escape, Sam turned down the mouth of the space between two buildings, followed shortly by the woman making the same turn.

Stopping 20 feet into the small pathway between an apartment building and a storefront, Sam turned to face her directly. She was tall for a woman, about 5’10” by Sam’s guess, with an athletic and toned physique. Her face, illuminated by a small streetlight, just added to the mystery.

He could tell she was pretty, very pretty, but the more Sam tried to focus on her facial features, the less he was able to actually see of her face. It made Sam's head hurt.

“What do you want from me?” Sam demanded, blinking and shaking his head rapidly

“Well, I want to go with you.” She said with a smile on her face, “And before you try, no, I won’t just leave. I’m going to follow you, whether you like it or not. So you have three choices right now.”

Sam did not like where this conversation was going.

“Option one is you take me with you, keep me safe, and let me spend some time with the man who rescued me.” She said, nodding and holding up one finger. Holding up a second she said: “Option two is me following you at a distance, through all these alleys and other dark and scary places.” with some sarcasm and a smile she continued, “And that would just undo all your hard work earlier if I ran into another… precarious position, wouldn’t it?” She waited with a predatory grin.

“And what’s option three?” Sam asked, staring at the very attractive, and clearly insane, woman in front of him.

“Option three is my least favorite personally, you shoot me, dump my body somewhere, yada yada yada. It’s not a pretty picture, is it?” She said, looking smug as Sam stared blankly at her.

Exhaling loudly, Sam considered the options and realized that as much as he didn’t like it, she was right. “Fine, option one for now, but-”

“But nothing,” she said, cutting Sam off. “I’m going with you, now lead the way.”

Dumbstruck, Sam balked at her, mentally unable to process for several seconds.

“I’m Elayah, by the way. Ellie, if you like.” She said with a smile, clearly pleased at having argued Sam directly into her trap.

“Fine, Ellie,” Sam said with some consternation, “stay low, and move as quiet as you can.” Sam then turned on his heels and continued down the alley, suppressed pistol in hand. The PDW, with its compensator, would be too loud for the current situation. Moving down the alleyway slower than he’d like, Sam worked himself through the mental gymnastics of the situation he was in.

‘What does she want from me? Is it really just to get out of this situation?’ He pondered as he slowly rounded another corner with his pistol raised, shifting from the right side of the alley to the left. ‘No it seems deeper than that, but fuck it, this whole situation is already confusing enough as it is. Just get to the motel, pack up, and get out. It’s not like she can follow you in your car.’

“Wait!” she hissed, jerking Sam from his thoughts. “Up ahead, left side, coming out… now.”

As she finished, Sam saw a man with an AK round the corner. His eyes widened as he met Sam’s gaze, and the rifle began to rise.

Instinct took over as he leveled the pistol at the man, who fumbled with the safety on the side of the rifle. He was too slow, and Sam fired 3 rounds, two taking the man in the chest, and one going right through his left eye socket.

Ellie sprinted past as he fired his final round, almost pouncing on the body as it hit the ground like a stringless marionette. Dragging the corpse into the shadows of the alley, her hands flutteredl around his waistband. With a satisfied sound, she pulled a handgun from his pants, along with a magazine from his pocket.

“Barely even knew what hit him!” She favored Sam with a dazzling smile, briefly sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth.

Sam, for his part, just shook his head and continued down the alley and out into the sidewalk, checking both directions and hiding his pistol in his jacket. Then he remembered…

‘The fucking mask.’ Sam realized with a mental facepalm, ‘I can’t walk down the street with it, if anyone saw me they’d be sure to call someone. Then again it’s not like we've seen anyone we need to worry about out this late other than sicarios and Ellie. It’s past 1 in the morning, but we have to take surface streets for at least the next mile, and we are bound to run into someone. But then she would see my face.’

“Fuck,” Sam grumbled, making his decision. He rolled his balaclava up to look like a normal wool hat and let out a heavy sigh. He began to move down the sidewalk at a quick, though not-too-noticeable pace when Ellie moved up next to him and wrapped her arm through his.

“Before you ask,” she smiled sweetly as he took a breath to protest, “If someone sees us, we’ll just look like a couple coming back late from a night on the town, even with you looking like that.”

Looking like that? Sam thought, confusedly looking down at himself. He thought he looked just fine, other than the war belt around his hips, this what he wore normally. Oversized flannel jacket, t-shirt, jeans, and maybe a hat.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sam asked, sounding slightly offended.

“Oh nothing,” she responded happily “You just look kinda’, hmmm… Homeless. Fancy homeless, but still homeless.” She grinned up at him as he furrowed his brows at her.

“That’s… fair, I guess,” he eyed her with a frown. “ou’re taking all this, uh, rather well, considering.”

“Well you could say I had a bit of a rough childhood.” Ellie replied, patting his bicep and shooting him another predatory grin. “But even if I didn’t, they still had to die, so it isn’t so bad."

Sam, now somewhat acclimated to her odd actions, shrugged and turned to walk down the street in his desired direction. They walked in companionable silence for about three blocks before taking a sharp left down the main drag of the city. Sam grimaced at this action but it was the fastest route back to his hotel, and thus, out of the city.

Creepy might’ve been a little harsh for her, but she was still pretty weird. At every turn, she seemed to decidedly upset and deviate from any expectations he had of the tall, lithe blonde. Still, things could have gone much worse. If putting up with an admittedly cute woman whose eccentricities barely made his top ten was the worst to come out of this night? He could live with that just fine.

***

Two blocks from his motel, Sam turned to face Ellie. “Listen, this whole deal’s been fun and all, but this is where you and I have to part ways.”

She quirked a brow and smirked, crossing her arms under her chest. “What in Morana’s seven ears makes you think that I’m going to leave after everything I’ve done tonight?” Her eyes sparkled with amusement, and laughter hid in her voice. “I like to think that I’ve made my intent to stick by your side abundantly clear.”

‘...Seven ears?.’ Sam ran a hand down his face. ‘You know what? Just ignore it. I’ve dealt with worse.’

“Listen, miss,” Sam said with a sigh. “I don’t know why you’ve decided to stick to me like glue, but you need to realize that after this I don’t have any plans. I’m gonna’ get home, to my dingy and cramped apartment, and drink myself under the table, and I know you don’t want to follow that.”

“Well, Samuel Aiden Caulfield…” Her tone was nearly identical to the inflection his wife used to when she was chastising him. She cocked her head to the side, that same infectious grin tugging at her lips. “You’re absolutely right. I don’t want to watch you drink yourself ‘under a table’ for the rest of your life, but I know something you don’t.”

Sam slowly raised a brow and made a ‘go on’ gesture with his hands for her to continue. She shook her head softly back and forth for several seconds, appearing to ponder how to say her next piece.

“I suppose you could say I’m something of a…” She trailed off, sticking her tongue to her canines in a cute way for several seconds. “A recruiter, of sorts? For a very powerful individual. I was sent here to observe you in action, report, and decide if you were worthy of a job.

“I saw you, and instantly knew you’d fit the role needed by my godde - er… goddamn employer. In addition, I’ve decided to follow you closely until we’re both safe, regardless of whether you accept the position or not.”

Sam stared, stock-still in abject confusion at the clearly insane woman in front of him.

‘Oooookay, she’s nuts. Completely nuts.’ Sam thought, trying to wrap his head around what she had just said.

“Fuck it.” He replied while shrugging after several seconds of consideration. ‘How could my life get any worse?’

“Is that a ‘fuck it, I’m gonna kill her’ fuck it, or a ‘fuck it, she can come’ fuck it?” She asked joyfully, practically vibrating in place. Sighing, Sam replied,

“The second one,” he replied with an exasperated sigh. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Wow, that almost sounded like a joke, Sam.” Ellie said, beaming at him.

Then it hit him. She knew his name. His full name. Mildly panicked now, he walked with her towards his hotel room.

‘How did she know my name?’ he thought, ‘did she pickpocket my wallet? No, I didn't even bring my wallet. I brought no identifiable information with me, I even left my dog tag at the motel. What the fuck?’

As he finished his train of thought, Sam realized they were walking into the hotel parking lot and quieted his mind, resolving to press the issue further when they got inside his room.

Pulling the hotel room key from his pocket as they got to his second-floor room, he slid it into the slot and pulled it out, opening the door for himself and Ellie. Looking around the cramped single bed hotel room, he surveyed it for any signs of tampering. He had put the do not disturb sign on the door, and it seemed they had respected the sign.

Shucking off his flannel, he pulled the PDW from where it hung under his shoulder, dropped the mag, racked the slide to eject the chambered round, and set it on the small kitchenette counter. The then pulled the pistol from its holster and contemplated what to do next.

“I imagine you don’t want to do that here,” said Ellie, rousing Sam from his contemplation as she dumped her coat and strode through the hotel room in a tank top. “Blood is horribly difficult to get out of this kind of carpet, and I imagine the hotel has your card on file.”

“What makes you think I was planning on that?” He asked the bemused looking Ellie, who had now flopped herself on his bed, her long, pale-blonde hair spilling around her head like a halo.

“Besides the fact that you look like you’re trying to psychokinetically bore a hole through your gun? From what I can see, you’re going to do one of three things. Option one is you’re going to press me to figure out how I knew your name, and I’m going to have to tell you the truth, and you’re not going to believe me, we’ll go round and round like that for a couple hours until you decide you just don’t care.

“Option two is that you’ll cut ties, shoot me a few times, and leave, but that’s the least likely option, and personally my least favorite too.”

Sam stared at the woman in shock and mild annoyance. Those were indeed the options he was cycling through in his head before she started this conversation.

“Option three,” she said with a smile, rolling onto her side to face him directly and giving him a lovely view in the process, “Is the ‘fuck it’ option. You decide that you just don’t care anymore, we have a lovely night together, and you decide to accept my offer.”

Briefly, she stared down and to the left, her eyes becoming glassy for several moments before she frowned and sighed disappointedly.

“And there goes option three.”

“I… What the fuck?” Asked Sam, setting the pistol on the counter in front of himself and looking back up to the woman. She was staring at him with a sad smile on her face from his bed, but the more he looked at her face, the harder it became to focus on it and the worse his head ached.

He squinted briefly, shook his head, and closed his eyes before exhaling and turning around. He pulled a frozen burrito from the fridge behind him and shoved it into the microwave before looking back to Ellie.

“What’s the job?” He asked as the machine quietly hummed next to him, looking at the woman as she suddenly sat up from the bed with a bright, toothy smile.

“Really?” She asked energetically, bouncing on the bed several times as Sam struggled to make eye contact. “You’ll work for me?”

“Hold on,” he said, holding up a hand to forestall her., “I just wanna hear what the job is before I make a decision.”

“Oh,” She stated, sounding slightly disappointed, “Well, I can’t give you details until you actually accept the contract, but it’s relatively simple. You’ll go somewhere, hunt targets of importance, train locals, and change the course of history!”

Sam snorted as the microwave pinged in front of him, and he seriously considered the offer from the over-excited woman. In truth, it was nothing different than what he’d been paid to do in the past by the government.

“I’d like to meet your boss before I agree to anything.” Stated Sam, playing ‘hot-potato’ with the steaming burrito as he walked over to a small desk and chair across from the bed, sat down, and set the burrito on the table to cool.

“Well, you’ll probably die before you ever meet her.” Said Ellie, fidgeting anxiously with her hands in front of herself and not meeting his eyes.

“It’s a ‘her’ is it?” Asked Sam, beginning to work at the laces of his right boot. A woman definitely narrowed down the list of ‘candidates-who-would-have-me-kill-people’ in his head, and he set about trying to identify his new benefactor.

“Fuck, I…” She trailed off before sighing. “Yes, it’s a ‘her’. She needs someone to work for her in a somewhat delicate situation, in a place that’s currently tearing itself apart.”

‘So, third-world country.’ Thought Sam as he unlaced his left boot. ‘Possibly personnel extraction, maybe restabilization of a government to protect manufacturing or resources.’

“Okay, not too bad,” replied Sam with a nod, looking up from his boots and absently munching on the burrito. “I’ve done that kind of work before. What’s the pay?”

“Let’s just say it’s high, but negotiable.” She answered with a chuckle, laughing like she heard an inside joke. “Great benefits package.”

“Fair. I’m gonna have to sleep on it, though.” Said Sam, taking the final bite of his burrito. He threw the wrapper into the small trash can in the corner of the dingy room, and walked over to the bed, internally smirking at Ellie’s concerned but hopeful gaze.

“You get the bed tonight,” he said, grabbing a pillow and one of the blankets neatly folded at the foot of the bed. “I’ve got the floor.”

“I…” She hesitated, brow drawing down into a worried frown that was almost… endearing. “Aren’t you concerned about them finding us?”

“Yeah, but not really,” he stated with a shrug. “City of a few hundred thousand people means it’s gonna be hard to pin us down. I’m gone in the morning, you coming with me?”

He tossed the pillow down by the foot of the bed and spread the blanket. Getting into a comfortable position, he pulled the cover over himself and waited for a response.

“Okay then…” she answered softly, sounding genuinely concerned for the first time. “I don’t really see anything happening tonight, but I am worried about tomorrow.”

“What, are you psychic?” Asked Sam, feeling sleep rushing up to meet him rapidly.

“That… depends on your definition of psychic.”

Sam just snorted at his unusual companion before sleep overtook him.