Amateurs

 *Shring!* *Clang!*

I ducked to avoid the bullets that passed right above my head and hit metal pipe behind me. "Oi! Are you retarded? There are pipes that can have dangerous chemicals and you are shooting at them. You all have a death wish or what?"

I screamed at the top of my lungs. In that narrow passage with metal pipes and wires, only a single red light lit the area which could only produce a shadow. The two stood there pointing their guns towards me.

"I guess I tricked them enough so they will not fire carelessly," I whispered. Of course there is nothing dangerous in those pipes. It's mostly water lines at most some steam lines. I was just trying to make them hesitate. This will give me barely any time, but sometime these split seconds can be the difference between life or death.

The passage that leads to the exit is on the other side of this T junction. I decided to act when the firing stopped

"Sigh! Good grief! This became a bigger mess than I imagined." I murmured as I readied myself and jumped, I quickly rolled forward and...

*Bang..Bang* *Shring!* *Clang!*

SOMETIME AGO

"Can we now talk, friend?"

Herrscher said, as he looked straight into his eyes. Khadim who was on the ground writhing in pain sometime ago was now laughing. But I guess it was an outward appearance he was keeping up with to hide his inner pain.

I could tell just by looking in his eyes, that he is in pain, and it is not the physical pain from the wound he got in his leg, there is something that is hurting him that he does want others to know.

If someone like me who has known Khadim the least can tell this much, then someone like Herrscher with whom he spent a good amount of lifetime with would not miss this. Khadim smiled and said,

"I didn't know that you were this naive. I tried to assassinate you, I sold you out, just a few minutes ago I was pointing a gun at you. Yet, you foolishly call me friend. I don't know... whether I should think of you as someone foolish or someone who thinks that calling me friend will make me loyal to you due to emotions."

"It is not my intention to make you feel indebted to me. I never want you to be someone who is below me. I just simply want the person I had trusted, the person with whom I have spent some of my precious memories with, a person who supported me back." Herrscher said while having a gentle expression on his face. "So I want you to tell me the truth. Why did you do all this? Why did you acted wanting to kill me? I know there is someone who is forcing you into this so tell me why?"

"As I said earlier it is because of my ambition." Khadim said as he looked away from Herrscher.

"I know you are lying. I can tell that much. Because if you really wanted to kill me you would not have sent those third rate assassins to kill me. They couldn't even enter my mansion.

If you really had to kill me you could have betrayed me at the port and would have just ran away. But you didn't. Is that wound on your back because you tried to kill me, or is that because you protected me?

Is your ambition really that weak that you can't even severe those strings?

So tell me what, when, where, who? Tell me everything."

Herrscher pressed forward for answer. As for myself, I was just standing there like a bystander, observing as the situation unfolding. For the most part I didn't even feel like I was the main character.

"Shadows."

Khadim said as he turned his face towards us.

"Shadows, that is the name of the organisation that is behind your attempted assassinations."

"Shadows?"

A big question mark appeared above Herrscher's head.

"Shadows is an organisation that consists of assassins, mercenaries, spies, hackers and drug lords." I said.

"You know them?" asked Herrscher.

"Yes, I once came across one of their hideouts in one of my missions. I almost died during that work." I said as I sat on the sofa. "It was a nightmare. Anyways, Shadows is not an organisation you can go against.

I was sleep deprived for a whole week because of the incident. If possible I would like to keep my distance from them."

"Well you are correct for the most part but.." Khadim grunted as he lifted himself using the support of the sofa and somehow sat on the leather sofa opposite to me. He sighed and opened his mouth." You are wrong about the organisation part.

At first glance they may look like an organisation but they are not. They are much more disorganized than they look. They are like a group of bandits. They are rogues controlled by fear. And that fear is their leader."

So according to Khadim I summarized it as such. Shadows is a rogue organisation controlled by their leader by force. Shadows is not their actual name instead it is a name given by those who have business contacts with. So in short they are Illuminati. No they are not don't take it seriously.

But they sure are secretive. No one knows much about their modus operandi. In short I don't want to get involved in this shit.

"At first as it was just jealousy," said Khadim. "And for that I went to great lengths. I had a plan and for that I required money. It was at that time that I became an acquaintance with this guy named Jin Tan Chi.

He even gave me money and I was happy that I can finally have what my heart desires. My first consignment, 5 barrels of LSD arrived to port Beirut and were supposed to be delivered to Povelital. But it all got burnt to ashes in the Port Beirut Explosion.

I incurred a loss of 237 million dollars. After a few days Jin Tan Chi came to me saying that either I return his money back within twenty four or kill Herrscher within a month. Tomorrow is the last day of my deadline. If I can't kill you now I won't see my family the day after tomorrow. 

I don't know what he wants but I won't let my family die no matter what."

Khadim pointed the gun he concealed in his pant behind his back. I would say he has balls as he hid it with safety on and fully loaded. That's scary as a small jerk can easily trigger the gun and your butt will be obliterated.

His conviction could be seen in his eyes. If someone is so committed then I would stay miles away from him. He wasn't joking, he will pull his trigger without any hesitation I am not a righteous hero, neither do I have anything to do with Herrscher's internal matters. For me customer satisfaction is everything.

Without hesitation I pulled my gun aimed at Khadims head and pulled my trigger. 

Bang! Bang!

Smoke rose from the silencer of the gun I held pointed towards Khadim's head which is now covered in blood. The blood soaking into the sofa he sat in. In front of Khadim was Herrscher who now lay on the ground covered in blood. The beautiful embroidery made of gold and silver thread are now soaked in blood.

I went ahead and checked his pulse. It seemed weaker, well he is losing a lot of blood after all. As things stand now even if I avoided instant  death, sooner or later he will die, and if he dies I will not be able to get my hands on my favourite GTX-3000 RZ.

I cut his clothes with my knife and then used a cotton ball to clean his wound. Then I folded some bandage and applied pressure to his wound to stop his bleeding. Then I reached out for the bandages I had for emergencies and wrapped it around Herrscher's chest as tightly as possible.

Now all I have to do is to somehow make the escorts that are guarding outside aware of this mess and get the hell out of here.

The room is soundproof so I have to take a chance here. But I have a plan so lets believe in that.

Since the room is soundproof I have to open the door for any sound to get out, but if the escorts find out about me, they will definitely go after me, and with Herrscher and Khadim in this situation it will be a big mess.

Following my plan I dragged Herrscher near the exit. Then I hid behind the door and reached out to the door knob with my right hand while I straightened my arm and pointed at the glass window with my handgun in my left hand.

"You better give me bonus for this Herrscher." I said as I run a final simulation check of my plan in my brain.

In one swift motion I turned the knob open the door and pulled the trigger at the same time.

"Bang!"

The sound of the gun shook the still night followed by the sound of glass cracking as the bullet hit the window. The glass didn't break and fall. As expected of bulletproof glass. The sound from the gun and glass was enough to alert the escorts as they rushed in pointing their guns towards the window.

They saw Herrscher lying on the ground unconscious and tried to wake him up. They were definitely shocked and confused form what they saw. I took this as an opportunity and slowly exited trying not to be noticed by them.

For some reason, the one who amaturely entered the room earlier looked back and saw me as I was about to get behind the door. He without hesitation pulled the trigger on me.

"Bang!"

Luckily as for me I was already behind the door which I quickly closed and ran through the corridor.

"Heh, heh Amateurs" I said mockingly as I moved to get to the lift. The automatic doors in the lift opened as I pressed the button. "Well, I am lucky today," I murmured as I entered the lift. I pressed the button to the bottomost floor i.e. the basement and watched as the doors closed.

Just as the door I heard gunshots and metal hitting metal. Possibly they even pressed the button to open the doors but it was too late. The lift was already descending the floors.

The lift stopped at the floor I wanted. The moment doors opened around twenty men in black suit entered with handguns and automatic rifles pointed towards the wood lined cabin. They scanned the whole cabin but couldn't find me. Because I am just above them. From here I can easily get to the ground floor and then freedom!

I took out my knife and stabbed it into the gap between sliding doors and twisted it. It created enough space for me to slide my fingers into the gap and forcefully opened the door.

I pulled myself up and walked through the place hall. But instead of walking towards the exit I turned 180 degrees and ran with all my might. (As for those weak in maths it means to take a U-turn.)

That amateur bodyguard and his partner were both running towards me with a loaded gun in hand. The beautifully tiled hallway is not good for running with shoes on. 

I turned to the left to make a sharp turn but instead I slipped further. Somehow I jumped forward and ran while slipping and almost losing my balance.

I opened a door which led to stairs towards the basement. Instead of one by one stepping on each step I simply jumped down turned around and jumped of the stairs. The Amateaur and his partner both followed me from behind still aiming for my head.

"Come on give me a break," I cried as I ran through the narrow passage with pipes and wires covering the walls on both sides. They fired at me but missed it. I quickly jumped to the wrong side of the T junction. After readying myself I jumped the opposite side amidst which two gunshots were fired.

PRESENT TIME

"Dammit! those bastards" I cried as ran towards the exit somehow. I managed to somehow avoid one bullet but the other passed right through my palm and hit the floor. I threw a tear gas behind as I made my way through the narrow passage. I somehow managed to get out of the palace but I am still within the palace perimeters.

I took out my silencer and attached it to my gun. I silently creeped on the ground and got as close to the black iron door which was a second entrance to the palace. I shot the iron lock that kept it closed. After emptying one full magazine the lock finally gave in.

Well it was pointless of using a silencer as the bullet hitting the lock made a much louder sound than the bullet. It definitely  attracted some attention. I opened the door and leaped forward as I felt presence approaching towards me.

The ameature duo are definitely holding some grudge against me. They came for me running as I ran towards the main road through the maze like settlements of Udaipur. But before that I have to somehow get down from this steep hill.