Just another afternoon- the buzzer went off, but since Howard didn't command me to respond, I didn't bother. Paul and I were in the middle of a game, and my opinion hasn't changed one bit- he needs a retrovirus.

"Sarah!! It's time to go kill!", Paul and I heard over the intercom, seconds later.

"Who?"

"The Anarch!", Howard yelled back. Wow, just her? I guess he doesn't need me or himself, though. He's a normal and she's killed much worse by herself.

"You know where he is?" She sounded like she was eager to kill him, probably just for the fun of it.

"He's assaulting Brutus Mando's base right now! I told them to delay him.. get ready and get the fuck over there NOW! The Anarch's a normal and he has lots of them. Don't break secrecy."

"On it." Click.

The Anarch, eh? Well, that ends it for him. Sarah rips throats like she chops cucumbers. If he's as good as we think he is, he'll get to last a whole five seconds before she just opens up on him and he falls in pieces, either through gunfire or the blades o' death. Byebye, Mr. Anarch. Nice not knowing ya...

"Shit, that guy is so much meat unless he gets outta there.", Paul muttered, thinking my exact thoughts.

"He's so much meat anyway. You really think any one man can stand against Howie and his stormtroopers? Wait, screw the stormtroopers.. what about her?!"

"Yeah, she'll kick his ass. But it's interesting how that guy knew where to attack."

"He's just a freak, that's all. An aberration. You'd think they would have already killed or recruited him if he had any hope in the first place. But yeah, that is weird. He's so much like an Enforcer it isn't funny."

"Not much weirder than the rest of this."

"Nothing is much weirder than the rest of this."

Several hours later, as Howard was down at the viewscreen playing with me, Sarah came onscreen, in as bad a mood as I've seen her in, ever. The reason was as unexpected as her anger- she didn't manage to kill him, and she told us that she'd simply be writing a report and didn't want to talk about it. Howard turned off the screen, silently, saving her the trouble. He didn't say anything after he turned the screen off.

Woah. She actually didn't succeed for once?! Sarah really didn't kill the son of a bitch? Shit, this guy is good. I figured that once Sarah got into weapon range- let alone close-combat range- he'd be Anarch gibs before he knew what hit him. But he actually managed to avoid a few of Sarah's strikes? Damn. Howard wasn't visibly upset- obviously a bit pissed off, but not visibly upset- but I haven't seen Sarah that angry at anything before. She's obviously not used to not actually getting whoever she was assigned to kill- she's always been considered the best killer in the organization. And she is- I doubt there's anyone in the Illuminati, except maybe Howard and me, who can kill as efficiently as she can. The Anarch is going to die a painful and bloody death sooner or later, I know, but where will he strike next? Probably nowhere.. when the Illuminati get paranoid, up goes the security.

Howard, of course, had already researched everything I could find on the Anarch before Sarah called- which wasn't much. No birth records, no fingerprint matches, nothing. It's like he popped out of thin air, which got the both of us thinking about the same thing; nothing needed to be said. Some Illuminatus probably has a hand in this. Howard didn't bother to contact any Illuminati about it- there was no information that could be exchanged. Sarah prepared her report as she flew home, and Howard and I read over it. Even though it was written in a dry, technical style, Sarah's rage shone through. He sacrificed normals and got away. She shot at him a few times, but it was from too far away and he managed to evade (actually dodge?) the bullets. Enough said, really. It's how he evades the search afterwards that I'm really curious about.

And, of course, she was absolutely fucking furious at herself when she got home, punching walls as hard as the implants would let her and uttering profanity continuously. "I FAILED!! I fucking FAILED!! That Orwellian motherfucker's still out there somewhere, doing who knows what, and I couldn't motherfucking STOP HIM!!" Howard didn't bother to look up.

"Sarah, shit happens.", he said without expression. "You know that as well as I do. If it wasn't for secrecy he'd be dead meat."

"Yeah.. I know.. but.. DAMN IT!!", she almost screeched, flat-handing the nearest wall with plenty of power. If not for the advanced construction, it would have reverberated throughout the mansion- as it was, it was just a loud slap of flesh on metal.

"Sarah.. it probably ended up being impossible.", I consoled her.

"No- you guys don't get it! I could have had him! Damn!"

"This was your first mistake in.. how long?", I asked.

"One and three quarters of a year for serious mistakes.", Howard said. "But until now, her targets have always ended up dead."

"So then.. why?", I asked.

"He.. dodged me. The fucker dodged me. He knew what I was doing, he knew how to move.. and I even think he knew about the secrecy rules! He might not be human.. he might be an Enforcer.", she finally concluded, sighing and plopping down on the couch next to me.

"One hell of an Enforcer.", Howard and I said simultaneously.

"Yeah.. well, if he shows his ugly mug anywhere around here again.."

"If I get the chance, I'll kill him.", Howard said. "He'll show up again."

"Not for a while..", she said, shaking her head. "He managed to escape, but his forces are gone.. he had dozens of normals with him.. a lot of this was in my report. I personally wasted three fourths of his guys."

"Anyone who can control that many normals in that society..", I began.

"Yeah.. we should assume someone's behind this. Can't think why.", Howard said. "There's better ways to go about this. He'd have to be in constant contact with that Enforcer, and if we start checking things, which has already been done as a matter of course..."

"Annoying business, this is.", I noticed. He nodded at me as if to say 'No shit.'

"Yeah.. guess Murphy's at it again.", Sarah yawned and said. "Some asshole thinks he can follow in the footsteps of the guys you waste. Gotta love the stupidity. I'm still so pissed about this. If you wouldn't have remembered to command secrecy I would have probably broken it. I'm going to go sleep this off." Nobody stopped her.

Howard just shook his head as she went upstairs. "If we would have went...", he said, slightly morose.

"He'd be dead, yes.", I said. "C'mon, now you're acting like her, like you should have known what would have happened before it did. You can pretend to omniscience, can even approximate it with computers and all that, but nobody knows everything. You know that. And I doubt anyone will blame you for something your servant, the best assassin in the world, wasn't able to do. They have the report and they know she was seriously going after him."

Howard turned to me and smiled a bit. "You're cheering me up, as usual. Next time that asshole shows up we're going to eat him for lunch. But that made me look bad. Oh well. That's it for him. Let's get my mind off this." And we played.