• “How is recruitment” a man asked from beneath a long black hooded cloak “umm …..Well” Nicola stuttered, in truth recruitment was down to zero but the short man did not tell the cloaked man that. That is to say he lied and as we all know from those long and rambling lectures from every adult in our lives lying is bad. In this case this particular lie was very bad. This lie started things that are in fact bad. instead of saying “why scary cloaked man whose name I do not know even though I have worked with you half of my life (which wasn’t saying much )recruitment is in the flusher” he said “fine” short and sweet the way Nicola like it the cloaked man paused “fine?” the man probed “ fine “ Nicola repeated
    “I am pleased Nicola “the man with the cloak said “is there anything else sir “Nicola asked with his head down “yes the new assignment is on your desk and I want the high rated assignments doubled up on two maybe three teams each that means by the end of the week I want ALL of the men and women on those sheets dead before our clients have the time to complain and you of all people know how fast a pissed off government official can complain “ the man in the cloak was yelling now his face was sheathed in darkness but it was easy to tell from what Nicola had heard that if his face was visible it would be bright red . The man in the cloak or as Nicola called him behind his back cloaky usually had a calm disposition but every so often when the revenue was shall we say not up to par he would explode on some unfortunate who happened to be in ear shot cloaky continued to rant about how the entire agency was a giant organization of incompetence and tomfoolery all Nicola had the courage to do was nod look at his shoes and mumble “yes sir “after 10 minutes of non stop yelling the phone rang. Cloaky picked it up his hand became visible for a second. It was an odd shade of gray it was quite wrinkled and it looked like it hadn’t seen thee sun in years. Not surprising seeing as that they are underground both literally and figuratively. The phone call was short lots of silence on cloaky end and the buzz you hear when someone on the other end of the line is talking but you are not holding the phone. when cloaky hung up the phone he spoke in his normal voice “Owen Wolfe 134 Conway, Orlando Florida” Nicola knew what to do “how old” was his only question and “15” was his only reply Nicola turned to face the door when cloaky croaked out “and don’t screw it up” Nicola exited the door and went down a flight of stairs turning a corner and going down another he repeated the process until he got to a hall of rooms. he walked to the end and knocked on the door to the left a small women of about 14 answered the door “hey nic” she said in flawless Italian “hey Alice” he said in the same language only a little less fluid “what’s up Nic “she asked in English to help the man out “I need your help Alice ….again” he barley whispered “again” Alice chuckled “with what” she asked with a smug smile “I have to go collect a new kid and he’s 15 so he wont like me I need something that would bring in a teenage boy …”
    “….A teenage girl”. Alice finished the sentence she was already packing her stuff in a backpack she put on a hoodie and grabbed her phone and iPod and walked out of her room with nic following her . he ran to catch up “thanks al” he told her he smiled but was sick to his stomach as he always was when recruiting as if she was reading his mind Alice frowned “ I hate doing this aren’t there enough assassins” Nicola smiled “in the eyes of the hood there are never enough assassins