Job One: 
Set Up

    The people of this country always annoyed him. He could hardly believe that he was related to them even by a bit, but now a days everyone was related to someone else. It was also a joke to think that you were safe. In this new day of technological advancement you were guaranteed protection by the best burglar alarms, robotic attack dogs and the like. 

    But you weren't protected from thieves. 

    Especially the famous one who was for hire. Anyone in the world could tell you his name, and it sent chills down the spines of the rich. Oh, yes this man held great power in his name and he abused it as much as he could. 

    In reality this man was barely a man. He had only recently turned eighteen, had narrowly escaped death, and was commonly mistaken for a girl in everyday living. Still, his name was a great asset. Ahura Mazda Osiris was holding the world in the palm of his hand.

    At the present time it did not feel like he was holding the world in his hand. The green haired, red eyed young man bolted up the stairs of an apartment complex as fast a physically possible. For most normal people this would be the most difficult task in the world and for Ahura Mazda... it was still a very difficult task.

    He slammed his body against the door and nearly fell flat on his face when it gave in. Finally he had made it to the roof of the building and not a moment too soon. As he was running across the cracked roof as bullet grazed his left check.

    The person chasing him had caught up rather quickly.

    As Osiris felt another bullet wiz past him he leapt over to the near by roof and landed gracefully. He continued to run until he was out of range and safe. 

    No...Osiris was never safe.

***

    "Sindiri? Are you here?" the young green haired man whispered around a corner. He was obviously worried that someone was following him. He was now in a dark and shady part of "his" town. There was always a chance that your throat would be slit if you were not to careful.

    For the Torienga, that is what Sindiri was, it was easy to protect one's self. After all if you looked like an eastern dragon you would frighten some idiots away.

    He heard something scuffle behind him. Like a flash of lightning Ahura pulled his knife out of its sheath on his leg and had it pointed at someone's neck. Someone's very fuzzy neck.

    "Yes. That's a great way to treat your partner." Said a large white and pink dragon creature. It was most definitely Sindiri.

    Ahura put the knife back into its rightful place. "I'm sorry, I think I'm being followed and I nearly screwed up a job today."

    "You did get it?"

    Mock horror passed on Ahura's face, "You doubt my amazing skills! Of course I got the bloody thing."

    "Haha. Inside we go." Sin flipped open the door with her nose. She had made her way to the door while Ahura had ranted. This door was nothing spectacular and the things behind the door were not spectacular either.

    The Torienga lead the young man into a small hallway. It was filled with cobwebs and other nasty things. At the end of this hallway was another door, that was bolted heavily. Each lock was carefully undone by Sin. When the last bar moved into the unlocked position the door glided open with a soft "woosh."

    Computers covered the walls, each glowing with an unearthly light. That's all the light the room had, and it did not need any more. What was this particular elaborate room used for? Well, despite Sin's lack of arms she was the best translator around.

    No, she did not translate languages. Her job was to translate any form of raw data that happened to contain important information. Such as someone's bank account code, or when the guards change shift at the London Museum. All the government officials assured their citizens of safety from there identities being stolen, but of course the governments never knew how to back up their promises. You see not many of them knew about the back door of the data trails. Almost any information could be obtained from them.

    This was also the way many of Ahura's employers contacted him. Using the phone was far to risky in recent times. The police had developed new ways of tracking, and person to person meetings were as risky as things could get. Anything could be hidden in a coat, sleeves attached or not. So the majority used the back door.

    Sindiri blew some stray fur out of he face. "Now let's see. You're employer wanted you to drop off the item near a plaza somewhere in Rome? No, wait here it is! He wants you to drop it off at the Trevi Fountain. The pickup man will be wearing all red, and will ask you "What's life like in Egypt?" Got all that?"

    "Yes I know already. I did not come here for that."

    "Then what did you come for?"

    "I was curious if you found any information on the things I requested. Like the special exhibit at Beijing Natural History Museum?" Sin heard the stress in the young man's voice. He was looking for something important and expensive, that was all the information she really knew. The boy had given her only a few words to search for, words that made no sense to her, but she looked anyway.

    "I did find something. There's an an exhibit at a large museum in New York. It was the one you stole that wonderful vase from. They are having an exhibit on mythical art and the like."

    Ahura kissed his partner on the forehead. "Thank you." He said before heading out the door.

    That boy was strange. It worried Sindiri.

***

    'Where are you man in red?' Ahura Mazda thought as he stood at the ever popular Trevi fountain. He watched the vendors go from person to person selling roses, scarves or trinkets. It was amusing that the world had not changed much in so many years of turmoil. And no matter what there would always be the poor.

    Once again Ahura Mazda asked himself where his contact was. If he was coming at all he was an hour and a half late. Rome may have been big, but all you had to do was take the metro to get to any of the tourist traps, and the tracks only ran two ways. Had something gone terribly wrong? Had Ahura been left with a useless painting?

    He nearly jumped out of his skin when a woman dressed in all red approached him. She was carrying a small black brief case, if it was the right person that would be filled with world wide credit. The woman brushed against him and said,  "What's life like in Egypt?"

    Score!

   "Why don't you follow me and find out," Ahura nodded to a near by café where they could exchanges cases and check if all the goods were in their rightful places. Also, if there were any bombs he would not be the only one to go up in flames.

    The little café was picture perfect. Business men sat on their laptops chatting in Italian to there friends over coffee. Teenage girls giggled as boys walked past them. Not a single dangerous person was to be found near, around or in the shadows of the little place café. It was perfect for business of all sorts, including the trade off. 

    They sat at a table away from the door, and far enough from the windows that no one could snipe them, unless they were a perfect shot or inside the building. No one human, alien or otherwise could managed to aim though the mass crowds and into the building. Yes, it was absolutely safe, Ahura Mazda was sure of that.

    The woman smiled at him. She was older then him, and could have been her mother, but she was still quite attractive by most standards. It crossed Osiris' mind once or twice why anyone like her would want to join up in a mess like this, and her remember what it was all for. The money, the art work, the priceless things thrown into a deep dark collection. With a sigh he set himself back on track, "Now. What will you be having today?" He asked.

    "A coffee, and a gift from you if all goes well." She touched his leg with her foot under the table. Oh yeah, she REALLY wanted that painting.

    Ahura shifted uncomfortably. "You'll get it, as long as I get what I want."

    "What if I want a bit more?"

    'Where's a good excuse when you need it? Maybe I should tell her I'm gay or something... I don't think she'd fall for that if it were true.' He cursed himself. He was good at lying, it was practically a second job, but this woman had one of those auroras around her. It was hard to explain, all Ahura knew is he had feelings about certain people that were usual right. Maybe all those rumors about him having "magic" were actually true or it was just a side effect of his genetic alterations. Right, he had to come up with a witty retort.  "You might get it, but it depends on how much I get paid."

    The woman giggled. "Fine then. Shall we talk over coffee?" The woman waved over the waitress. "I'll have a mocha and my friend here will have..."

    "Chai, Please."

    The waitress nodded and hurried off.

    The lady in red looked at Ahura expectantly. "Let's just exchange... things and get out of here." Ahura said, omitting a private thought. He had a very bad feeling.

    The woman looked very disappointed, but slid the case over to him with her foot anyway. Ahura slid his case over to her in the same manner. Then, the drinks came. This was something Ahura could focus on besides the very frightening woman in front of him. Who ever said "Looks are everything" were wrong. Very wrong.

    What next? Would she drop the spoon she was holding just to make Ahura pick it up? Of course.

    With a clatter the spoon well to the ground. The lady in woman cursed, "Why am I such a butter fingers?"

    "Relax, I'll get it." Ahura Mazda, the always polite to women, bent down to retrieve the spoon. The funny thing is, he never had much of a chance to pick it up, he was distracted by the shattering glass and screaming waitress.

    Automatically Ahura dived under the table for the suit case and flipped it open. It had nothing but shredded news papers in it. So, this woman had set him up to have him shot! He let out a curse and scurried to grab the painting. He could not risk the law enforcement getting his fingerprints on file, then again he had to split or he would never have to worry about things like that again.

    Another gun shot went off, this one did not shatter the window, but his phony employer fell the the ground with a gurgling thump. That was definitely enough inspiration for Ahura.

    Quickly and as careful as possible he fled to the back of the café. While all the other people inside and outside of the café were running about like chickens without heads he was slipping away into the back allies, praying to heaven that the assassin would not follow him.

***

    Meanwhile the master assassin cursed at her inept partner. It was not because he had just shot there employer, it was really about a master missing such an easy shot. The wing woman clutched her gun tightly, "I missed... How could I have missed?"

    Her partner had nothing encouraging to say, he was rather shocked that the best assassin in the known world had managed to miss, and he was very shocked when he took a bullet to the head. He was also very dead.

    She snickered. Now there were no witnesses and she could get out of this Scott free after she killed her target. That would not be to hard either, he had run off into one of the easily accessible back alleys, at least that's what she gathered. He would be an easy target with his bright green hair and brightly colored clothing.

    What an idiot thief.

***

    Ahura waved his metro ticket to the young man and proceeded to the escalator unhindered. He looked around nonchalantly, everything seemed normal. No one was following him, no police, no one with a trench coat or duffle bag. Anyway, how many times could a man get set up in one day?

    No. That was a bad question to ask. Why did he ask himself that? It meant that he was challenging the universe, and the universe would answer it. Something bad was going to happen.

    Then he absent mindedly walked into someone or rather something. It was an alien, which was obvious because of its height. Ahura may have been on the shorter side but when he had stand on a chair to come face to face with someone he knew something was wrong. This alien was rather draconic in appearance with a dragon like face and long curving horns, besides that it resembled a demon for the lower reaches of Hell. It was a light gray color and had bright green eyes, that seemed to be extremely cross.

    "Watch where you're going midget," It hissed.

    "I'm very sorry Sir! I was day dreaming, and... do I know you?" Ahura Mazda blinked a few extra times. There was something familiar about that glare.

    "Ahura? Oh! Thank the stars you're alive! Let's go over there!" The creature grabbed the young man and dragged him over to a rather secluded corner. So apparently Ahura did know him.

    "Maverick?"

    The alien nodded, as he turned to face the short human. "Sin called me, she said to try and find you at the Trevi fountain. When I showed up it was utter chaos and when they brought the body bag out..." Maverick was whispering. He knew quite well that someone was probably spying on them right now.

    "I'm fine. Just go home and forget what you saw. I know I'm going to." Ahura said with a sigh. "Oh, and NEVER call me "Ahura" again. Say my full name or surname."

    "Oh yeah, you are perfectly fine." Maverick snickered. "Still, be careful. I don't think this assassin is going to leave you alone for much longer."

    "Ha. He'll never catch the King of Bandits, unless he's the universe's greatest assassin."

    Little did Ahura Mazda Osiris know what he was going to face the universe's most deadly and feared assassin.