My cousin the sniper

Chapter 1: Jen

         "Umm.." She said in the telephone. "I... need... kind of... help..."


"Out with it!" I was kind of harsh, but who wouldn't be. It wasn't as if I was in any favorable position to listen to stuttering.


"I need cash..." She finally got it out of her.


"How much?" I ran a mental scan over my assets and accounts, figuring how much I would be able to pull out on a short notice. Not more than 900k in a day, more than that would take two days.


"Ten dollars..." Her tiny voice answered. Ten dollars. I mentally shook my head and hung up.


Indrid looked at me with his ice blue, almost white eyes.


"Kah?"


"Jess."


"Keh?"


"Wanting money." This got his attention more than the standard questions Kah and Keh, who and what.


"How much did she need?"


"Ten dollars." I said without moving a muscle. Indrid stared at me. "Cash." I added and he almost broke into a smile. I had very seldom seen Indrid smile, and his whole face changed from  grumpy to normal in 2 seconds. But then he composed himself and was back to the stoic face in less than 5 seconds. He was simply amazing. Nobody wanted to work with him on account of he wasn't behaving human. He behaved like an emotionless robot. Some said we fit together, but truth be told, we only accept each other, liking was too far on the vulnerable emotional side any of us would ever go. But we worked together better than anyone else, and we worked better with each other than with anyone else, if that made us fit together then so be it.





         "Ten dollars..." He muttered and tapped his computer.


"I'd better go and make a delivery." I replied and checked my wallet. Zero cash. I looked up at Indrid, he checked his wallet and produced ten one dollar bills.


"Tell her they're from me." He said with a wry smile that didn't reach his eyes and handed the cash to me. I raised one eyebrow.


"Tell her they're birthday present from me. I don't want them back."


I nodded and got up from the floor on the back of the van where we hunkered and stretched my legs. I grabbed my jacket and scrambled over the low wall console to the drivers door and got out.


"While you're out you might as well get us something to eat."


"Roger." I said and closed the door.





         The sun was shining, but a chill wind was blowing so I pulled on my jacket. It was the beginning of May and soon the schools would end and I would get calls from relatives wanting me to babysit. I never babysat, I had more important things to do than babysit. Like hunkering in the back of a van with a non-human co-worker surveying a building. Maybe I should try to babysit for once? I immediately erased that thought from my brain. Then I would get stuck with kids recognizing me everywhere I went and calling me when they needed something their parents wouldn't provide. Like ten dollars when you go to the Mac Donald's with your friends and you discover you're short on cash.


I ambled over the road and broke into a jog for some blocks then turned left to the mall. I went immediately to the food section and discovered the Mac Donald's sign. I stopped behind a column outside and looked through the glass walls trying to spot my cousin Jess. She was sitting with a bunch of friends around a small table in the corner. They were so many they had pulled up extra chairs. She was sitting on the end with a boy at her right. She had only a glass of coke in front of her and the boy was nursing a coffee. Their friends though were wolfing down hamburgers and fries, and slurping their cokes. I was about to dial her and ask her to come get her money when I suddenly remembered with a flash.





         It was her birthday today. I did a mental smack in my head and had to smile at myself. Even Indrid had known it was her birthday. That bastard! I walked into the restaurant and lined up behind a gangly kid with piercings all over his ears, out of sight from my cousin and her friands. When It was my turn I ordered a big mac, big fries and big coke. I topped it off with a big ice cream and paid with my card. That would be my birthday present for her. Last year I hadn't even remembered her birthday so I thought this was an improvement.


As I sneaked closed to her table trying to look as if I was looking for a table I heard the end of their conversation.





"Dude she's not gonna call back, so just forget it."


"She's probably forgotten it again"


"Has she ever remembered your birthday?"


This got a head-shake from Jess.


"She's probably working... she's working a lot." Jess defended me and sagged slightly. The boy on her side draped his arm around her shoulders. Oh, boyfriend? I thought as I slid the tray in front of her. Her friends stared at me and she jerked up.


"Congratulations." I said and a smile spread across her face. I waved with the one dollar bills and smiled back. "And Indrid sends his best, he heard you were in need of cash."


This got an openmouthed stare from her.


"Who... wha... Indrid? He really sent me...?" The incredulous look on her face made me laugh. Her friends were staring at us and didn't understand a thing.


"So... you're working partners then?" She grinned.


"Don't you start you too, I'm the only one he gets along with longer than three hours..."


"You've been confined with Indrid in over three hours?" Her eyes went wide as saucers.


"Who's Indrid?" A blonde girl to my left interrupted.


"He's this really cool guy... he's..." Jess started but then broke off and looked at me. I had started backing away.


"I won't prevent you from telling about him. Just remember, if you talk too much he'd probably have to neutralize you." I glanced around at her friends. "Then he'd probably dispatch everyone you've talked to, everyone you know and everyone you've had contact with. So I'd watch my mouth if I were you." I winked and then exited the restaurant and made my way to the food-market. I didn't know what her friends were thinking but I hoped she knew I was being serious.


         I bought the food and returned to the van.


"How did it go?" Indrid asked as soon as I had settled down behind the monitors with him.


"You tell me." I guessed he'd tapped into the security cameras and watched the whole show.


"She's very fond of you."


I snorted at this statement. Nobody had ever been fond of me.


"If they made posters of the GA-agents she'd have your poster in front of her desk."


"And your poster would hang above her bed." I retorted and opened the bag of carrots, picked one and offered the bag to Indrid. He took a carrot and stashed the bag on the box between us and we lapsed into silence only the carrot-crunching breaking it.


"She told her friends you're this really cool guy." He turned his ice cold eyes and surveyed me. I met his cold gaze square on. "Told her you'd go into annihilation mode if she told her friends any more." We kept staring at each other for a long time, then he probably decided he didn't need to kill me and we returned to the monitors.








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