Chapter 6: The Black Willow 3

Mary stretched; it had been a long night, Ann her sister sprang from her bed dressing in a hurry. “I start work at the palace today!!” she shrieked in glee. “Yeah, yeah, so glad uh huh,” Mary grumbled not quite ready to get out of bed. “Sister get up! You have to see what I am wearing now! Come on get up!” she shrieked again, grabbing her sister’s arm almost pulling Mary out of bed. Groaning Mary sat up sore all over last night’s job had been a hard one, “alright, alright, I’m up geez!” Mary almost growled she loved her sister but there were times that she could be a pain in the ass.

Trying to not upset Ann, Mary really didn’t give a rat’s ass about the palace or the empire, but this was a good start for her sister. At least she would be legitimate, her sister never expressed a real desire to play the games Mary and their guardian did. She also never really wanted to know what Mary was doing when she was away, it seemed because she could read at a high level that she was in demand teaching and being a nanny. At 16 Ann was extremely beautiful; this slightly worried Mary making Ann a target. Damn it! with the jobs she was starting to take off world now she was gone for days at a time.

Sighing she knew she worried far too much but then again being that worried all these years HAD kept her alive. Thomas was finally starting to slow down, the years having finally caught up with him but each day he still stretched with Mary. Hell, Ann had even gotten into the stretching each morning with them, now her body was also starting to tone up making her even more beautiful. This was what Mary was afraid of, a lovely young beauty like her, as innocent as she was would be fair game to the many playboys, among the not caring royals. Mary listened with pretended interest as her sister Ann prattled on and on about the palace and palace life.

Preparing to leave soon after Ann did, Mary took Thomas aside, “You have to meet her each night, I won’t be here for a week this is the first real high paying job and will be the most difficult to date. If I do this I am afraid I will be in a much larger demand.”

“I don’t see how any job would be difficult for you Mary, your tech is far from anyone’s detection systems,” he said low so Ann wouldn’t hear.

“It’s not the tech I am worried about it’s the mark he’s been known to pay assassins off, you know I’ll work for the highest amount, I have no loyalty except to my family and Jim and I don’t really expect him to ask a favor for a long time. As I told him when we went our separate ways, it better be damn important or I’ll come for you.” she answered.

“Look Mary, you have a good head on your shoulders, you have been taught by the best of all in the city, hell the whole world, girl. Oh yes, I know about all your training, I may be old but I still have ears everywhere as I heard you do.” Thomas said. Mary smiled slyly, yes, she had kept tabs on him also. They both smiled, then Mary told Ann to be good as she would be gone a week and wanted to hear all about it when she got back. Sighing Ann wished her luck and kissed her cheek, after they left she contacted all her spies in the city to watch Ann they’d be paid when she returned. With that she set out to the space port she almost had enough to get her own ship, it had taken time but this job was the one that would get it for her.

The trip out was boring as usual giving her time to work on her tech, she had kept up with Jim hearing about some of the improvements he had made, damn it he’d already passed her on the cloak but she had far surpassed him on the voice configure box and the matter through matter transmitter. Shit, she felt she was back in the lab with him all those years ago each trying to outdo the other, sighing she knew he would always out do her with whatever he was working on. He was brilliant to a fault, and from what she had heard after the war he had all but disappeared, it seemed his family had lost most of their holdings but was still prized by the emperor.

She had heard about a new space station on the outskirts of the empire with more advanced weapons than anything she had ever heard of. For some reason she felt that Jim had a hand in that, checking further she was sure of it, then she heard about the shields, son of a bitch. They were what really impressed her, hell with those she could do her jobs directly and never be touched. Oh well, there was always wishing, the ship docked two days later Mary was ready. Heading to her contact she again donned a disguise, this time an old poor woman. The contact wanted her to kill a high ranking official, nodding she listened to everything. “All right, first you pay me but know this if the man can offer me more I will forego the job,” she said. Nodding the man paid her 10 times what she was going to ask for, hmmmm they obviously thought her tech was better than it was or, here she sighed, this was a trap.

After the credits were transferred and then confirmed, Mary left on her way to kill the man. Mary had worked the whole time on the ship refining her MTM to pass through the castle walls apparently, they were made of a different stone that interfered with it, Mary had worked a week at home and almost had it but she needed the real thing to test it on. Passing the castle she went to a little used wing and took readings, satisfied she set her plan for that night. Checking her network she had no messages about any traps but still wasn’t sure, something didn’t feel right.

That night a shadowy figure moved with ease through the moonless night, the guards were on high alert, someone had leaked information that the official’s life was in danger. Phasing through the walls she snapped the MTM off to conserve power, this having saved her life a few times a minute’s worth more of power, was always a god send. Setting up she moved like a light breeze through the castle to her target. Entering, the man was asleep, creeping up she saw that he wasn’t alone, Damn it! Oh well. First she made sure the other man stayed asleep, then she took a small needle from her pouch. Injecting the man, he woke up screaming but only a moment, she heard guards rushing to the room activating her MTM she moved to the wall, when the door burst open, the guards moved to grab her but she was through the wall and out.

Damn, damn, damn! Running wasn’t something she had to do. Rounding a corner she changed her disguise to an old woman and moved into the shadows. Many guards moved by yelling they were looking for an old woman or young girl, WHAT!? It had to be her contact. Changing to a guise of a young man she looked through the city for the man who contacted her. In a pub on the opposite side of the city she found him. Siding up to him she listened to his tale about his poor uncle that he had been killed, never one to pass up information she recorded all she heard. When the man went to relieve himself, she put him to sleep. In a small hut outside of town she awaited him to awake, then the real fun began after 3 hours the young man was pleading, begging, confessing everything, satisfied she cut off his cock and balls shoving them into his horror stricken mouth.

Leaving the body outside the castle with a note that read, here is the one who hired me for the assassination, come for me and I will come for you. Do not make it personnel and neither will I, look for me and I will know. The Black Willow. After that life became more interesting for her, though from that point on she researched her targets for a week at least then decided to take the job or not. For the next 5 years many thought they had her, though then the one) night, that changed Mary and her life forever. h no one ever really got close, as her fame spread so did the price of her jobs increasing till finally one job was enough to keep her and her family a year. 5 years later, she’d grown extremely, rich her family wanted for nothing, then the one night, that changed Mary and her life forever.

Ann, now almost 21 had, had many proposals for marriage, she always asked her sister if he was a good catch or if he was right. Mary always said no, she knew all the dandies they wanted her for a trophy, something she knew her sister wasn’t and wouldn’t be. Mary had taken a job across the galaxy and was on her way home, her ship one of the fastest in the empire, she’d made the trip in 2 days, was on her way back with a day left when Thomas called. His tear stained face had Mary worried the look of hopelessness was even worse. “Mary, I can’t find her, no one has seen her all day, I have tried all my contacts and no one is saying anything,” he blurted out. “ I’ll be there in a few hours they may not talk to you but to the Willow they will!” with that she increased her speed, this was a little used engine she had installed, with it hers WAS the fastest.

Returning home Thomas wasn’t there, she found him an hour later dead in an alley a knife in his back. Hmmm, walking to another ally way she reached in and grabbed a small man. “You will tell me everything now or the death I give you will be the slowest that I can find, you do know who I am?” she snarled. Shaking the man nodded and told her everything about Duke Gregor’s guards killing her guardian exactly which three it had been. Paying him she advised him to spread the word the Willow was out for blood and anyone withholding information would die a slow, painful, horrible death.

Walking the streets she waited for the guards to leave she followed them, learned where all three lived and waited for the first. Just before he died frozen by the stun beam he told of the son of the Duke liking beautiful women that he had taken a young raven haired beauty that morning he’d watched for a month, he said that she was to be tortured and used repeatedly, he realized the error of what he’d said when he saw the look of blood lust in willows eyes. Right before she cut the guards throat she whispered in his ear that the girl was the sister of the Willow and the Duke’s son was living on borrowed time.