"Oh my God, I have never been so glad to see the sun!" a smiling Aurora said as she raised her face to the yellow orb as it slowly lowered over Manhattan. The two had followed the train tracks through the tunnel until coming out at a new platform half a mile away from their point of origin. Cops swarmed the surrounding streets to the Garden and its subway below but once breaking ground at street level the pair quickly vanished into the mass populace of the massive city community. From there Stryker's plan was to find a cheap motel where they could hold up, hide and plan their next move.
"There I was right."
"What, right about what." Aurora inquired as she glared the little room with contempt.
"He did write an email about an hour ago. A good two hours after unleashing The Reaper on us. The bastard could have at least warned us what he was setting loose upon us all," Stryker said as he sat behind Aurora's lap top set up on the little card table sitting beside the single bed.
"This place is a shit hole!" she commented as she reached into her backpack for something fresh to wear after giving herself a field dressing on her shoulder.
"Did you even hear me? Fat Daddy confirms sending in a new player. Too bad he didn't name who it is, but I know."
"Oh yeah…..ooooh, The Reaper!" Aurora said in a condescending tone.
"Don't be coy with me."
"Why are you scared Stryker? I never seen you back off from a mark," she said slipping over her head a clean black tee shirt.
"You don't understand, this guy's an unknown. A complete rouge assassin who is called upon to take out agents like no other cleaner I ever heard of. No one even knows who the hell he works for. He comes in, takes out the target and vanishes like a phantom."
"So then who trained this guy if he's that good, he had to be trained by someone, some agency."
"From what I heard he's self-trained."
"Like Jimmy Vegas, that hit man wannabe is the only one of us who was not part of any sort of law enforcement. At least the others were cops, KGB or in our case CIA members. To be at our skill level Stryker, you need real training in weapons and other combat skills. Where did he get that good, if he is all you say he is?"
"Aurora, I've been on a hell of a lot more missions than you. Before and after you were in the CIA. I've heard the stories of a man with no name, no past and no association to any government agency. Self-trained as the story goes, in all weapons of war and all methods of hand to hand combat. He's nothing less than a killing machine."