Baba Yaga's Arc

Chapter 2 of 7

John stands at the intersection, watching the smoke curl from the van's burned interior. The motorcade hasn't moved. No one has stepped out to investigate. The tracker on his phone still pulses two blocks ahead, but he's not following it anymore. This whole thing is a trap. Movement catches his eye near the van's rear doors. A hand, pale against the charred metal, pushing something into view. A woman crawls halfway out, red hair matted with blood, face cut and swollen. She's dragging something in her other hand, a round metal object that catches the streetlight. The medallion hits the pavement with a dull ring. Blood debt marker. Old world currency, the kind that binds two people until one of them dies. She looks directly at him across the empty street and her lips move. "John." His name, shaped by a stranger who shouldn't know it. He crosses the street before he decides to. The woman slumps against the van's wheel, breathing shallow and wet. Her hand releases the medallion and reaches into her jacket. John's hand moves to his weapon but she pulls out a photograph instead. Polaroid, bent at one corner. The image stops him cold. Helen's smile, the puppy in her arms. His wife. His life before all of this. The woman's voice comes out rough. "They sent me first. Three days ago. Different contract, same target." She coughs, blood on her teeth. "The Table doesn't want this job finished. They want everyone who touches it dead." John takes the photograph from her hand. The medallion lies between them on the ground, proof she once had the same arrangement he does now. One more job for freedom. She failed, or succeeded enough to learn the truth. The tracker on his phone keeps blinking but he knows what it is now. Not the target's location. His own execution point, marked and waiting. The woman's eyes close. He picks up the medallion, feels its weight. The motorcade engines rev once, a warning. He leaves the intersection walking away from the tracker, the contract still in his pocket but the lie finally clear.