Faust

Cleaners

"What do you mean set up to fail?"
"I mean it literally, even if the whole thing did not go sideways, there's bound to be a bloodbath." She does a little stretch then continue "My guess is that Chinatown is about to be unified in the coming months, the power struggle is about to end, and my job opportunities will plummet."

"So, what am I? Casualties for some fuckers' empire?" My blood boils and my heart pounds hard like a war drum. I can accept being used as a gun but not as a pawn. Not when I'm completely in the dark.

"Not exactly, The casualties were the two Chinese and all of the goons they brought." I froze. There were at least 20 armed men back there.

"You're telling me everyone died in that fight? There were quite a lot of people in that plaza."

"No, the fight didn't last long the winning side had a few survivors left. "She pauses. "But I made sure no one leaves the plaza." She says in a plain tone, like describing how she takes out the trash.

"So, the blood on your trouser...."
       "One of them that I thought I finished off grabbed my thigh from the ground. Not sure what he was trying to accomplish, maybe tripping me?" She answers me before I finish the question.

"How rude." I jokingly said while pretending to be angry.

"Yeah, he was."
                                        ***

For some reason, all of this made me very calm and stoic. When I'm facing someone whose motives and agenda are unclear, I get anxious, unable to think straight, I get chewed up by the beast named fear that's caged deep in my chest.

But now things are clear to me, I found myself collected and unmoved.

"Now miss, I already know the answer, but I'd like you to confirm it. Your profession is a 'cleaner', correct?"
      Cleaner is a dangerous line of work, when you want somebody dead precisely and quietly you get a hitman; but when you don't care about precision and the target is more than a few, you get a cleaning group. They don't really care about being discreet or putting themselves in dire situations. When the employer orders a cleaning group to 'clean the building' they will do everything they can to achieve that and make absolutely sure anyone that leaves the place is carried out in a bag.

And because of the characteristics of these people, the groups that last long are usually full of battle-crazed soldiers or bloodthirsty psychopaths; and in some special situations there might be some cleaners that survive many actions, but their groups didn't. When that happened, the lone survivor has three choices, the person either quit being a cleaner or he switches to another cleaning group. But if the person survived enough times, he might get tired of switching groups (And groups might think he's a ill omen and refuse to let him join) and he doesn't really want to quit his job either, in these special circumstance the person might become a solo cleaner, those that did and remains become legends and the most expansive kind of mercenaries .

"Toke you long enough."

"Last question," there is no subtle way to ask this " should I call you vel or Vera?" She tilts her head to the side, frowning, deep in thought. I'm still pointing the gun at her just in case.

"To be or not to be that is a question......." She turns her head and looks right into my eyes like she's trying to fish out my soul. "The employer gave the instruction of killing everyone in the plaza." Her face is becoming very serious and tired all of a sudden. "That includes you."

"I think your employer is already happy with the results, and since I don't know the hirer's name, I couldn't snitch him to the others in piao jie."

Her face is expressionless. A cold and weary feeling creeps up my nerves. It's like someone is dragging a blade across my spine. Not just because of her, there's something else. I'm being watched again. But who? She says no one survived the plaza then who is it? I force myself to stop wondering and focus on the problem in front of me." What do you think?"

         "......."

"You aren't one of those cleaners that take their orders like is a decree, right? Why don't we all just call it a night and avoid further confrontation."
          She looks into my eyes again. I don't know what she is looking for. I'm not a saint nor a person worth saving, in this city we're all drowning in our own heaven, blinding our sights with this land of milk and honey so we don't see who we truly are when we look in our own reflection. But somehow the woman next to me seemed to have a clear view of this world. When she has her eyes fixated on me, I can feel that she sees through who I am deep down, after an eternity. She speaks again.
                                      ***

"I suppose I'm not obligated. Alright, you have a deal, let's call it a night." The joyful expression and mischievous smile return to her face. She looks like a child stealing candy without being caught and is bragging to her friend, I thought to myself.

"Nice meeting you, lee." She extends her hand toward me....... There is the possibility of she's lying, but somehow my intuition is reassuring me that she means no harm now. I holster my gun to my back waist (only now do I realize my arm is so damn sore) and shake her hand.

"Nice meeting you Vera."

"This feels long overdue, doesn't it?"

"It sure does. By the way...... When you say you were waiting for your business partner did you mean you were waiting for your crew? Or were you just lying?" She acts offended and says.

"How could you assume that? Ever since we met, have I not told you the truth, the whole truth, and only truth?" (So, help me, God ......)

"My apologies. So, you were waiting for them?"

"Yeah, I was, and to be honest I was only here for a couple of minutes before you came. Strange, she told me there is something urgent needs taking care of right after we finish cleaning the plaza and just ran into one of the allies after she told me to wait for her at the nearest bus stop." She seems as confused as I am.

"Or maybe......" she pauses for a second then stands up, and with her left hand she does a gesture of wiping tears.

A shimmer appears on the right side of the bus stop around 100m away, then it gets brighter and brighter till I realized it's the headlight of a vehicle. An unremarkable black car stops in front of us. The window rolled down. A woman that resembles Vera greatly is in the driver's seat.