Life as a New Hire Ch. 19

I hit the small hotel fitness center with Mona, the fourth member of Rachel's team. It helped. What helped more was the constant reminder that I worked with smart people. Mona's mother was dead as well, killed on an undisclosed mission with the SD when she was ten. She could understand my sense of grief and confusion.

We didn't cry and hug. It wasn't something she could do with a man. Give a decade, or two and she might come around. Instead,

"Thank you for Constanza," Mona said quietly to me as we exited the center.

"I measure a person's life in the lives we save...as well as the ones we take," I enlightened her.

Before that moment, I didn't really consider killing people to be all that praiseworthy an endeavor. Today I had been in a situation where my life had been in immediate danger. I was glad the other guy ended up dead. Since I was prepared to keep acting stupidly, I was grateful for those who would murder people so that I could remain both noble of purpose and alive.

"She is close to me...she helped me grow up after Mom was gone," Mona opened up a tiny bit.

"Aren't you a bit angry with me?" I asked.

"Initially, I was very angry. Then I heard your words and I knew you spoke the truth of the matter," Mona exhaled. "She should have died. She deserved death for what she said."

"No one..." I started to comfort Mona.

"For a member of a Faith that exults in the harshness of martial conflict, you spend an inordinate amount of energy struggling to keep people alive," Mona noted. "I'm glad I helped deal with those Latin Kings now. It was a mission worth doing."

"What?" I stumbled.

"Didn't Buffy tell you?" Mona regarded me. She smirked. "Yeah, we hunted them down late Sunday night and into early Monday morning. I doubt the few who escaped will ever be back."

"Why haven't I...anybody heard about this?" I worried. Mona looked at me somewhat perplexed.

"Cáel of Ishara, we always take the bodies of murder victims, cut them up, place them in large drums of acid and ship them to Canada," Mona informed me.

"Aaahhh...thanks for telling me that. Let's both agree to not let Buffy know that I know, okay?" I requested. "She'll get an inordinate thrill thinking she knows something I don't."

"As you wish, Cáel of Ishara," Mona nodded gravely.