AN ALLY AMONG KILLERS

Carmen stood in the elevator as it descended down to the hanger bay. She had been contemplating how she was going to go about killing this target she had been given. It wasn't that she had doubts about doing it, she just wasn't sure if she was ready to kill an actual living person. It was one thing to shoot at digital targets in a training simulation and another to kill a real person. She had been trying to prepare herself for the moment when she would pull the trigger. For a male it may be different to just kill someone since men are able to channel different emotions and do what's necessary. For a woman it was different. This woman might have a husband, children and so on. Strangely enough a part of her felt at ease with killing, almost as if this was something, she’d done many times before. But that couldn’t be possible, but then again, she couldn’t remember anything before her training so who was to say she hadn’t killed anyone before today.

The doors opened and she walked into the hanger bay and was amazed at the vast array of ships the Syndicate owned. There were heavily armed fighter ships, transports, large assault carriers and many other types of ships. It dawned on her that the Syndicate was a very resourceful organization. They were very wealthy from the looks of it and they didn't mind showing it. In the end they were a crime organization and that meant that most of these ships had probably belonged to the Federation at some point and had been stolen. It didn't matter to her since she figured that most of them were given new identification codes so no one would know of their previous owners.

She walked by a separate hanger and looked at the number and saw that she had come to the hanger bay Levi had told her about earlier. As she walked in her jaw dropped in awe of the ship, she would be traveling in. It wasn't like the others she had seen. It had a very sleek design, but was still massive. She noticed that it was designed for combat above all things; it had twin plasma cannons on the front and sides. After taking in the size of the vessel she looked around for her pilot. There were several soldiers posted around the ship and technicians who were working on the ship. She walked up to one of the guards and asked him where she could find Mina. The guard pointed towards the loading ramp so Carmen decided to walk onto the ship.

She walked up the loading ramp and the decor of the ship instantly caught her attention. The walls were decorated with digital photos of her achievements during her training and had large touch screens. She glanced around and saw a room that she guessed was the crew quarters. Carmen poked her head inside and saw a large circular shaped bed and a dresser along with a weapons case and an armor rack. The armor was an assortment of black plates and several high-tech devices. It looked as if it had never been used, she smiled as she was going to enjoy wearing it.

"Like what you see agent?" Said a voice from behind her.

Carmen looked to the doorway and saw who she believed to be Mina. She had a slender form, dark red hair, brown skin and stood as if she owned the place. From what she saw this woman had a lot of confidence, but didn't look any older than herself. If this was Mina, she had a feeling that they were going to get along just fine.

"I like the ship, it's very appealing. I didn't know the Syndicate gave every one of their assets such lavish vessels."

"Well not everyone. They seemed to have a lot of confidence in you and as I recall the commander said you deserve the best."

Carmen eyed her with curiosity. "Why does the commander consider me to be so special?"

The woman laughed. "Commander Draysiah clearly pointed out that you're the first female asset that has ever gotten a perfect score. Every training session you had you aced it and no female has ever done that. If you ask me, I think she's trying to buy your loyalty, but I'm just a pilot what do I know right?"

"Yeah, you could be right though. I take it your Mina?"

"That I am, I presume Levi told you what I am here for right?"

Carmen nodded her head, but assumed that from the way Mina spoke that he must've left something out. "He said you’re my pilot and that you wouldn't be doing any of my dirty work."

Mina rolled her eyes with a devious smile. "Okay, for starters I'm not just a pilot. I specialize in espionage and computer hacking. I'm also a very skilled fighter. Before I was a pilot, I was a in special ops, but they moved me here because I was sick of guard duty. Syndicate never really has use for the big guns during these times."

Carmen smiled at how enthusiastic Mina was. Her demeanor and personality resembled that of a diva and she carried herself with enough confidence that her emotions alone could probably kill someone if they were a weapon. Her voice was also very commanding which made Carmen figure that there was more to the woman in front of her than what she was being told. However, she didn't have the time to try and cipher information from her new pilot, she was given a job and the clock was ticking. She looked up at Mina and noticed that she too was studying her.

"You have nothing to fear from her. She's probably the only one in the Syndicate who won't try to kill you. Just befriend her, you're going to need her help at some point."

Carmen was still trying to get used to the voice in the back of her mind. After hours of debating with herself about what to do about it she realized that she was okay with hearing herself talk. Although she had an underlying feeling that the voice in her head wasn't just herself talking. It was almost as if the voice was her, but something about it seemed a little off. At times the voice sounded like herself and other times it was as if it had its own personality and thoughts. The crazy thing was that it was just a voice and she would have to choose whether to listen to it or ignore it.

"So where are your quarters?"

Mina pointed across the hall at another room which mirrored hers. She walked over to it and looked inside and could see that it was indeed the same. Carmen noticed that for a pilot she sure did have a lot of accessories. She wondered if Mina would actually assist her during her missions, from what she told her she could be very useful in helping her find her targets and getting in places she didn't belong. She continued to walk around the rest of the ship and was liking what she saw. There was a large room with a digital projector that showed a map of the entire galaxy, a food storage room, several cargo-holds and another room which acted as a conference room. The ship didn't look as big as it was from the outside, but it was a very deceiving vessel to say the least. She followed Mina who had walked into the cockpit to prep the ship for launch.

"So how long will it take us to get to Cryot II?"

Mina sat down as she plotted the course for their journey in the ship's computer. "We should be there in four hours if we leave now. unless you have some unfinished business here that you need to take care of?"

"No, I'm ready to go now. I'd rather get this job done so I can get this anxious feeling off of me." She responded slowly as she sat in the copilots' seat.

Mina smiled as she started the ships engines. "Trust me, that feeling of anxiety isn't going to go away after your first kill. Your most likely going to feel that way for a few missions."

Carmen looked at her somewhat surprised. "You say that as if you know it from personal experience."

Mina shook her head. "I haven't been an asset just a soldier. I've worked with other assets before you and they said the same thing as you did. It took them a few missions, after that it just became a normal feeling."

Carmen nodded as she didn't want killing people to become a normal feeling. Although if it happened then she wouldn't try to change it. This was her life now and she was going to have to get used to it. It was too late for her turn back now, yet she still didn't know what made her choose to join the Syndicate. All day she been having this weird feeling that there was something wrong. She still was unable to remember anything past joining the Syndicate six months ago, but she couldn't dwell on what she couldn't understand at the moment. The only thing that mattered now was getting to Cryot II and doing this job. After this job she would find the answers to her questions.