Blair lived in a two floor residential unit on Parkside. This was a rather reclusive street in a really exclusive neighborhood several tens of miles from the city. It was officially still part of the city despite people calling it a metropolitan countryside. Anyone who had been to the south, the really deep and traditional south, pretty much said it looked exactly like that.
That was the information she had told him but before they could get there, two mechanics, partners, offered to help fix their flat tire. He felt the slowdown half an hour ago and assumed she was just being cautious. He never saw the warning sign but then these two appeared out of nowhere. Both happened to be exactly who they needed. Henry Ruthless would not kill these people. There would be serious injures though. Not Megan. Definitely not him.
The script when exactly how he thought it would go.
"Noticed you guys stuck on the road. Took a look and saw the flat tires. We happen to be headed out to a big job. Fleet of vehicles that need fixin and tweaking for a big haul across the country. We're pretty early and this looks like a quick job. We're in a generous mood"
The smaller of the two, the woman, offered.
She was naive and it showed. Either that or the two were amateurs and fooled by her innocence. Not that type of innocence. The 'what the hell is murder' kind of innocence. They didn't notice him and his unusual calmness. It was their company card that pre-determined their fates. It was a shark eating another fish. The real deal instead of the imitation that fanboy had. As the woman tried to seduce her, he was already thinking about how severe the injuries had to be. They had come to follow up on his debts. Their previous guys didn't show up so they sent another. Find out where he would be going and waited. If they were going to be this persistent, it would be a problem. He didn't want her in any danger. Cliche, yes, but she had no combat experience. He didn't either but Henry Ruthless did and there were also the experiments that had caused unknown changes to his body.
Megan agreed and apologized to him for the inconvenience. That's when the woman looked at him with a smile as though she had seen a long lost friend. Asked to exchange information in case they needed more help. It was a classic way to extract information from the target without revealing your intentions. When she paused as though what she expected to happen didn't happen, he got out of the vehicle and walked to her partner, the man staring at him calmly from the hood of his car. The man had a scar, the scarred man, had been casually looking around, expecting the woman to take care of the problem and eliminate the kid but the kid acted outside his expectations. It shocked him so much that he was temporarily stunned before he got up, the neutral expression turning into a slight frown.
He was clearly supposed to be an easy job but he was proving not to be. He was proving to be smart. Smart enough to understand what was happening, maybe, but not smart enough to avoid the situation to start.
"In. Go back in. You don't need to come out. We can fix the problem just fine. Don't worry about it"
Angry but didn't show it. Kept the professional attitude and advised him under good intent. He just kept walking though. Got close enough to take a close look at the scarred man's face. Scarred with dried up bacteria all over the edge. A fight in the past and lost badly. The scars stopped just inside the elbow where bruises continued the rest of the way. A struggle. The scarred man put up a struggle before his opponent decided to just rip him a new one. He couldn't adapt or else he wouldn't have injuries everywhere. This was a man that didn't win a lot. If he did win, he would be smirking a little. A man with one least one win under his belt would smirk. The scarred man had lost every fight he had ever been in.
So Henry Smith was confident. Confident that the scarred man wasn't a true professional but another amateur. An amateur working for a professional group of debt collectors.
"Can I see your list of operations and results? I've had bad experiences in the past and mostly do my own now"
Every mechanic took pride in their work and gladly, without hesitation, had detailed lists of exactly how long it took for them to do everything. If you read the list from beginning to end, you could easily understand what the problem was and how to fix it for next time, unless you wanted a professional to help you in one fiftieth the time at a fraction of the cost. The scarred man made no move to grab such a thing. He knew the man was a fake and the man knew he knew the man was a fake.
The scarred man made a grab for him instead while driving a pocket knife close to his throat. There was a technique called a break and jab. What you did was you grabbed at the wrist, rotated your fist to the left, and applied pressure. Do it too slow and you're adding more force. Do it too fast and the force drives into your shoulder instead. You wanted to be perpendicular to the wrist and grab it when it was parallel to your chest. The arm would be extended just enough that the opponent had the least amount of control. The knife would then pop out and you grab the handle with your right hand and drive it at your opponent. Nick the skin a little, enough to make an artery bleed and then just hold it there. You needed to make sure the guy, or gal, on the other side knew you would not hesitate to injure them. If you just held it there, the hesitation would make you look weak. Whether or not you were strong was irrelevant. You wanted them to reconsider taking any kind of action.
He didn't do that though. He quickly slashed three times. Once across the neck, the other deep into the arm, and the final slash turned into a penetration as the knife buried itself just above the stomach, away from vital organs. The man inhaled sharply before dropping to the ground, clutching at the handle. Tried to pull the knife out but it seemed to be stuck in there real good, like the boy had put on some super glue before thrusting it in.