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Colin took the passenger seat with his coffee. Greg climbed into the driver’s seat. I sat in the back and started gearing up as the van pulled out of the garage and onto the street. Traffic stayed light this time of night.

Colin spoke as I worked. “You still seeing that stripper?”

I answered as I pulled on my gloves. “Yes.”

“And Samantha?”

I pulled on the other glove. The material pressed cool against my skin. “Also yes.”

Greg kept his eyes on the road. Street signs passed in quick succession. “You’re still getting married right?”

I answered as I loaded the handgun. The magazine clicked into place. “I am.”

Greg sighed. “Seems overly complicated.”

I secured the weapon in my holster.

“They both have their uses.”

Colin laughed from the front seat.

“The Collective drags everything out. They should have handled him weeks ago.” Colin said.

I kept my eyes on the road and spoke quietly.

“They’re businessmen pretending they’re not killers.”

Colin smiled at that.

“And we’re killers pretending we’re businessmen.”

The conversation continued as we drove. Colin shifted slightly in the front.

“Speaking of loose ends. They found that body in the dumpster behind your stripper’s apartment. A homeless guy discovered him. The medical examiner could not do much with the condition he was in. Nobody reported him missing until almost a week later.”

I glanced at him, “Were you able to handle it?”

Colin shrugged.

“I redirected it.”

The van continued through the city and then onto quieter roads. Headlights cut through the darkness. Trees lined the sides. The road narrowed as we approached the estate. The massive mansion loomed ahead, set back behind manicured lawns that the night had turned lifeless. Private security lights swept the grounds at regular intervals. The iron gate stood closed. The long driveway curved under tall trees whose branches reached overhead like silent watchers.

We killed the headlights and stopped short of the gate. Before we stepped out, I pulled the black rabbit mask over my face. The mask settled against my skin. The world narrowed through the eyeholes. Colin donned his pig mask next, the snout and wide grotesque features turning him into something obscene. Greg slipped on the fox mask, its sharp snout and slanted eyes giving him a predatory silhouette.

Greg moved first, vanishing into the shadows along the tree line. I watched from the van as he took out the three security guards with ruthless precision. He caught the first guard near the gate. The silenced pistol popped once and the man’s head jerked back. A spray of brain matter and skull fragments splattered across the pavement in a wet arc. The body crumpled without a sound.

The second guard turned at the noise. Greg was already on him. He fired point-blank into the man’s face. Bone shattered and pink-gray pulp exploded outward, painting the nearby wall in dark streaks. The third guard managed to raise his radio halfway before Greg drove a knife under his ribs, twisted, and then put a final round through his temple. More blood misted into the night air. Greg dragged the bodies into the bushes. The wet drags left faint trails on the concrete.

We approached the house on foot. The front door was unlocked. We slipped inside silently. In the foyer I stopped. Two large suitcases sat packed and ready by the door, along with a leather briefcase and a set of car keys on the table. Edward knew the Collective was closing in. He had been preparing to run.

We moved deeper into the house toward the study. A large desk sat in the center. Edward sat behind the desk with a glass of whiskey in his hand. His two sons stood nearby, one beside the bookshelf and the other closer to the desk. All three looked up when we entered. Edward stared between the three of us, monsters wearing animal faces in his own home. The Collective’s displeasure had been made clear for weeks. Warnings he had ignored while he packed his escape bags.

“I… I can fix this,” Edward said. His voice cracked immediately. “Tell the Collective what they want. I’ll repay every cent.”

I set my gloved hand on the back of a chair. “You threatened to expose names when the losses caught up with you. You know the sentence.”

Edward stared into the hollow eyes of the rabbit mask. Something shifted in his expression.