CHAPTER ONE

        Nicole sat quietly on the couch in her penthouse apartment.  The twenty year old flipped lazily through the channels on the television, waiting for her dad to get home.  She needed to talk to him about how he treats her on the job.  The door opened quietly but Nicole could hear it.  Having been trained since she was five to see and hear things that most people didn’t gave her an edge. Too bad her dad was the one that trained her.  She stood quickly and marched into the entranceway.  Her dad, having just hung up his jacket, glared at her.

        Nicole leapt at him, her hand forming a fist.  The tall lanky man reached out nonchalantly and grabbed the fist, “Nicole, did you want to talk to me about something?”

        Nicole twisted out of his grasp, “Yes.  How could you pull me off the mission?  I was there.  It would have been done before they had even reached the top landing.”

        Her dad scrubbed at his salt and pepper hair, “And you would have been caught escaping.  You know the rules.  Stealth is always the key.  If you don’t have a stealth shot you leave the mission to another day.  Besides, you disobeyed me.  I told you to take a new recruit with you.  Where was your new recruit?”

        She sighed, “I hate working with someone else.  Besides, Damien doesn’t want to do it anyway.  He always runs off.  As we speak, he’s climbing out the window.”

        He screamed, “WHAT? Go get him now.”

        Nicole nodded.  She ran to the window and saw her brother Damien about ten floors down their thirty story building.  Walking back out the door, she calculated in her mind the speed at which her brother was scaling down the side of the building.  Grabbing on to the railing of the stairwell, she launched herself over the edge.  She watched the floors count down.  At the fifteenth floor, she extended her hand and grabbed the side rail.  Using her momentum, she threw her body over the railing, rolling as she hit the concrete.  She climbed out the small window and stood on the ledge of the building.  Glancing up she saw her brother two floors above her, he hadn’t noticed her yet.  Damien reached the fifteenth floor and groaned as he saw his sister standing on the ledge next to him, “Nikki, come on.  I have to get out of here.”

        Nicole sighed, “You know Dad’s rules.  The Guild or the Army.  It’s our choice but it has to be one of the two.”

        Damien sat down on the ledge.  His feet dangling into the nothing, “But what if I wanted to do something else?  Maybe a computer technician or something.”

        Nicole sat down next to him, “Then join the Guild.  I’m sure if you just talked to Dad, he would find something inside the building for you to do instead of going on missions.”

        Damien looked at her, “No he wouldn’t.  He has trained us our whole lives to be guild members and to rise through the ranks.  If I’m not to the point you are in two years then who knows what he will do.”

        Nicole mock glared at him, “It’s Dad.  Mister Softy when it comes to us.  You could train new recruits before they start mission training.  You always said you loved doing that.”

        Damien sighed, “I guess.  I don’t know Nikki.  I just don’t want to be stuck.  I want to do something with my life.  Being an assassin doesn’t give me many options.”

        Nicole hugged him, “You will find your way.  But could you just talk to Dad already?  I’m getting tired of chasing after you every time you escape the apartment.”

        Damien nodded against her shoulder, “For you Nikki.  Nah, I like our weekly chase scenes,”  he felt her hand hit the back of his head, “Fine, I’ll talk to him.”

        Nicole nodded back, “Good.  Now let’s get back inside.”

        The two climbed into the window and slowly made their way back up to the top of the building.  Neither were in a rush to get back the their dad, Daniel Greenway, the head of the Assassin’s Guild.

        The walk up the fifteen flights of stairs was slow for the two young adults that had been trained to move quickly with everything.  They didn’t feel the need to rush with their dad being in the mood he was in.  An attempt was thwarted by a mother and daughter getting home early from their spa day and then his only son had tried to escape down the side of the building.  They knew that he was going to be in a foul mood.  Nicole glanced at Damien as they reached their floor.  She nudged him with her shoulder, “Don’t worry.”

        Damien nodded slowly and reached out to grab the handle of the door.  Before his fingertips could even feel the cold metal the door was pulled open.  Damien looked up into the annoyed face of his father.  Damien shyly smiled, “Hi Dad.”

        Daniel stared down at his two children, “Nicole, make dinner.  Damien Jacob, my office.”

        Nicole nodded and headed for the kitchen.  She didn’t want to be anywhere near the two of them when the argument started.