"What do you mean the contracts been cancelled?!"

Ethan tried to stay calm as he stared at the older man in front of him.

"My friend, I'm sorry but it is out of my hands." The older man said in a thick Russian accent.

"Dammit Erik, just tell me what happened!"

The older man Erik was Ethan's contact for this particular job, Ethan usually preferred dealing with clients one on one, but every so often he had to take jobs offered through middlemen like Erik. After stealing the pendant, Ethan had made his way to Erik's warehouse on the eastside of town where he was supposed to drop off the pendant and receive his money, but when he arrived Erik informed him that the contract had been cancelled.

"Come friend, sit." Erik said as he offered Ethan a chair.

Ethan just stood there for a moment staring at Erik before finally relenting and sitting down, while Erik sat opposite of him behind a desk. Both men were currently on the top floor of the warehouse, Erik had converted it into an apartment slash office of sorts some time ago. The whole room had a Dungeons & Dragons theme to it, Ethan didn't know much about Erik, but the one thing he did know was that Erik loved Dungeons & Dragons. Not that Erik tried to hide it, given the chance Erik could talk for hours about the different campaigns and characters he was currently playing. It's just a bit of a surprise given Erik large muscly body, shaved head, and clean-shaven face.

Erik took out a bottle of vodka with a glass out of the desk and took a shot before speaking, "The client was the head of one of the smaller criminal syndicates in the city. They were in a bidding war with a rival organization for some properties somewhere in the city. The client won the bid but for a price far pass that of the original. The rival organization was sure that the client didn't have the money and were going to wait for the term of payment to expire."

"That's why the client needed the pendant within the time frame, it was going to be they're collateral." Ethan inferred.

"Da."

"So, what's changed?"

Erik looked at Ethan with sad eyes and spoke slowly, "Well, when the rival organization heard that the client was going to be able to make the payment. They decided to take a more violet approach and...had the client assassinated."

Ethan let out a groan of frustration, he wasn't surprised, fights and killings are pretty common among the smaller criminal organizations in the city.

"How the hell did they find out the pendant was for the client; I just stole the damn thing an hour ago. Was one of his people a mole?" Ethan speculated to himself.

Looking up, Ethan notices Erik looking down fiddling with his shot glass with the expression of a child who just did something bad.

"YOU!" Ethan yelled as he stood up.

"It was accident!" Erik yelled while trying to shrink back his muscular frame in surrender. "I did not know head of the rival organization was party member of mine in one of my campaigns. The other night after campaigning and drinking a little too much I let slip about the job."

"Erik you moron! Let alone you screwing me over on my biggest job ever, what happens when people find out you sold out one of your clients!"

"Not problem, I offer him special discount for not telling anyone."

"Special discount? You brokered the deal for the assassination!?"

Besides brokering deals for thieves like Ethan, Erik also brokered deals for assassins, most of whom were men he knew from his time in the Russian military, and who could only be hired exclusively through him.

"You are unfucking believable." Ethan swore as he squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to put off his growing headache.

"Ethan, please I'm sorry, you know Joe is like brother and you are like young nephew. I would never purposely hurt you; you and I we are two E's in pod."

Ethan's headache grew worse, he didn't even want to think about all the things wrong with the last part of that sentence. Ethan met Erik through Joe, they apparently went back a ways and said that Erik was one of the few people he trusted with his life.

"How much can you give me for the pendant?"

"One twenty-five."

"One twenty-five! That's a quarter of what I was supposed to get, I might as well try selling it on my own!"

"You can try but I wouldn't recommend it, the company the art dealer you stole it from works for is out for blood. In order to save face, they have hinted to being responsible for your clients death, a lie of course but one that benefits me and the one who actually did do it. But this has also frightened many potential buyers, this price was best I could do and I'm not even taking my brokerage fee since this is my fault."

Ethan sighed; he was tired, tired of all this bullshit. This job had been his chance to finally get him and his mother away from all of this. He didn't lie to his mother when he told her that he had been saving up for the house in Spain, but her medical bills had made things a bit difficult.

"Just send the money."

Ethan takes the pendant out of his pocket and tosses it to Erik.

"I must say my friend, I always knew you were ghost, but I did not know you were also hammer. When are you going to make jump to other side of business, if you require money I have few jobs in need of someone like you."

"Give it a rest Erik, and don't expect any calls or favors for a while."

Ethan left without looking back, this wasn't the first time Erik had offered Ethan an assassination contract. Ethan was quite good at getting in and out of places unnoticed, a skill that would be quite handy to someone in that line of trade. He also knew that Erik didn't have any malicious intentions or hidden agendas when offering him the contract. To Erik a job was a job whether it be stealing or killing they were both the same to him, he had no opinion either way. But Ethan always said no, he might be a thief, but he couldn't kill anyone. Kick their ass, sure, but never kill.

After about an hour of subway rides and walking Ethan finally reach the apartments that were his home. Ethan went up to the intercoms and rang the button with his name on it, Ethan Frost.

"Joe, its me."

Ethan never carried his keys or anything that could be traced back to him on a job. After a moment the door buzzed, and Ethan was able to get inside the apartment building. He took the elevator up to the fifth floor and walked to the end of the hall to reach his apartment. Ethan opens the door knowing it wasn't locked, after buzzing him in, Joe would have unlocked it for him. Inside, the apartment was well furnished and had a chic design to it, all of it done by Ethan's mother.

Glad to be home, Ethan immediately strips down and jumps into the bathroom for a quick shower. After a quick dry Ethan puts on some jeans and a comfortable green tee, he then puts the clothes and the backpack he took off into a garbage bag and heads next door to Joe's apartment. He knocks twice before opening the door and walking inside, the inside Joe's apartment was filled with books, paper, diagrams, and computer equipment.

"What's word kid, job go okay?" The voice of an older man calls out from the kitchen.

Ethan drops the garbage bag containing the clothes and backpack on the couch before walking into the kitchen. Inside a rather well-built older man with greying hair was standing over the oven huddled over a book about baking cakes. Looking around Ethan saw that the countertop was a mess of flour, eggs, and cake mix.

"Geez Joe, what are the hell happened here?" Ethan asked as he tried to contain his smile.

Joe was Ethan's teacher and friend when it came to stealing; before retiring, Joe like Ethan was once a thief for hire one of the best in the city. They both met when Ethan was around eight, and he pickpocketed Joe's wallet and ran off with it. It was during a time when Ethan's mother was having a hard time working three job, and Ethan being young and naïve, decided to try pickpocketing to make money to help his mom. Ethan having gotten away with Joe's wallet went home only for both to realize they were next door neighbors. But instead of being angry, Joe was rather impressed by Ethan's thieving and after hearing about his mother's situation decided to take him under his wing. He taught Ethan everything he knew from lockpicking and safe cracking to bypassing security alarms. He's also the one who pushed Ethan to take up multiple martial arts, not to necessarily learn how to fight but to learn discipline and patience and to acquire the right temperament for this line of work.

"I was trying to get this cake done before you got back as a congratulations for pulling off your last job, but I can't seem to get this batter to the right consistency."

Ethan lets out a small sad laugh, "Well I appreciate the sentiment, but it's a bit too early for that."

Joe turns around, "What happened?"

Ethan tells Joe the events of the heist and what happened at Erik's afterward, Joe showed no emotion while Ethan spoke. Only after Ethan was done did Joe finally say something.

"I'm going to kill him; how could he fuck up so badly!"

"Its fine Joe, I just got to push my plans back for a little bit longer."

"Are you sure you don't want me to just kill him."

Most people would assume this was just angry talk, but Ethan knew better.

"No, beside being one of the few friends you have left, him and his people are still one of the few neutral organizations in Port Iron which is rather useful."

Unlike most criminal organizations in the city who wax and wane with alliances and betrayals, Erik's organization is, according to his words, 'true neutral'. He is neither friend nor foe to any of the other organizations in the city, not even the big three.

"I guess." Joe mumbled to himself.

"Besides, even though he totally screwed me over this time, I guess I still kind of consider him a friend too."

Joe grunts, "Fine, I guess. But besides that, I got to tell you kid, I'm proud of you. Not just for how you handled yourself during the job today but for everything with your mother too"

Ethan takes the comment in stride but deep down it meant a lot to him, growing up Joe had become a second father to Ethan. Ethan's birth father had died in a car accident a couple of days before he was born. His mother was with him when a drunk driver ran a red light slamming into them, his father and the drunk driver dying instantly. His mother was rushed to the nearest hospital where two days later she gave birth to Ethan. According to his mother, his father was a great man with a big heart who was excited about being a father. Ethan's one regret is never getting the chance to meet his father and hopes that if his father is looking down at him, that he is proud of him too.

"Well, I'm about to head back to the hospital to see mom, did any jobs come in?"

A strange look comes over Joe's eyes.

"Joe, what is it?"

"A job showed up about twenty minutes ago, and at first I thought it someone making a bad joke but it seems to check out."

"What is it?"

"See for yourself."

Joe exits the kitchen with Ethan following behind him, he goes over to his computer and opens up a file and then moves aside for Ethan to read.

"Someone wants to rob the Eckharts!" Ethan exclaims.

"That's why I thought it was a joke at first."

Ethan couldn't blame Joe for thinking that, the Eckharts were one of the big three alongside Riverside and War Kings. The big three were the most powerful and dangerous organizations in Port Iron and together they basically owned almost half the city.

Ethan continued to read the file; the time frame was two weeks, and the target was a USB drive that had a built in GPS device.

"Did you ping the GPS to see where the drive is at?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah, and its already inside the Eckhart estate. That being said in my opinion, their price of ten million is still too low."

Unlike Riverside or War Kings, the Eckharts weren't just some gang or organization, they're a family who's ancestor date back to the founding of Port Iron.

Ethan looked at Joe, "And how many turned this client down before coming to us?"

"About three from what I can tell."

All things considered, fourth place isn't too bad I guess, Ethan thought to himself, ten million is quite the payout. Problem is the Eckhart estate is a fortress guarded more heavily than the White House, and the floor plans to the estate were burned to keep the layout of the house a secret.

"Don't say no right away, let them stew for a bit as punishment for making us fourth on their list. And make sure to toss this into the incinerator." Ethan said, pointing toward the garbage bag as he walked toward the front door.

"Alright, say hi to your mom for me." Joe called out.

By the time Ethan reached the hospital for the second time that day it was already starting to get dark. As he got closer to his mother's hospital room, he could already hear Diane inside complaining away about something.

"She asked me as a favor, but I just don't feel comfortable catering an event in that place, it could ruin my company's reputation."

Diane owned and ran a successful catering company in the city, she took her company and its reputation very seriously.

"True but it could also bring in even more business." Helen, Ethan's mother replied.

"I don't even think I have enough people for a place like that." Diane continued to protest.

"Come on, that's what temps are for." Ethan said as he walked in.

Diane and Helen both smiled as he walked in and gave them both a peck on the cheek.

"Why does she need temps when she has you." Ethan's mother said.

"Well I pretty much walked into that one." Ethan said as he rolled his eyes.

This wasn't the first time Ethan's mother had offered up his services to Diane, he's already helped her out twice before serving as a waiter and bartender, respectively.

"So, what will it be this time, waiter, server?" Ethan asked Diane.

"No, you'll be bartending again." Answered Diane.

"Alright and where and when will this event take place?"

"This weekend on Friday at the Eckhart estate."

Ethan froze, he couldn't believe what he just heard, "You're joking, the Eckhart estate!?"

"Nope, not a joke, someone I know requested me as a favor." Diane grumbled.

This is unbelievable, Ethan thought.

"Give me a sec, I got to ask Joe if I can have that day off." Ethan said as he stepped outside the door and called Joe.

"Yeah?"

"Joe, did you already turn down the client?"

"No, I was literally just about to message them now."

"Good, tell them we'll take the job."

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