002 New York City

The apartment was still as empty as she had left it two months ago, and Jess felt a wave of loneliness as she entered the living room.

So quiet, it was almost nauseating, she suddenly felt sick.

But she ignored the sensation, and she didn’t remove her heals. Instead she just dropped her bays where she stood, and walked across the floorboards. Each step echoing through the large empty room, and down the full-length windows that looked over the New York City skyline.

“Fuuuuuk,” she yelled, through the vacant rooms. A long pronounced vent vibrating far too long. One the neighbours would have heard, if she didn’t own the empty apartment next door also.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” She bent her knees toward the floor to balance on her heels, and brought her hands to her face.

She had failed. More pathetically then she had ever failed before.

The mobile rang, interrupting what an outsider might have labelled as, ‘her moment.’

She reached for it from the smallest piece of her matching luggage set.

It was Leslie, and she sure as hell was not ready to explain the distraction that had occurred in Japan. She wasn’t prepared to hear the word “fail,” in a sentence that included her name. Instead she threw the phone across the floorboards. It bounced once, twice, then landed safely facing up. Still flashing for attention.

She gave in. “Leslie,” she answered.

“My darling Jess, you must be home.”

Jess didn’t reply. Instead she looked at the roof in frustration.

Leslie continued. “So. If you’re already home, then that must mean that our little agreement has taken,” he searched for the words, “taken a beating, so to speak.”

The comments were followed by laughter, and not from Leslie, but from others somewhere in the room with him. She wondered where the room was, and if Ian was there.

“I couldn’t find him,” she started, the first thing that came to mind – but Leslie knew that already.

“Even with the maps, the directions and the assistance of my staff? Now that, I find hard to believe, not with your skills Jess.”

“Your staff,” Jess started with an angry tone, but then reverted back to caution. “Themselves are not so easy to locate. And when they are, sporting an umbrella with a ridiculous “Hello Kitty” logo embezzled on it doesn’t do much for my cover.”

“Now listed here you little bitch,” Leslie quickly changed his tone. “You don’t ever take a swipe at my staff, my directions or my maps. Even with all your training and your so called…physical attributes, don’t you go thinking for a second that I won’t tear into your New York, Sydney or Berlin mansions and rip your fucking arms off.”

Jess didn’t blink.

“That’s right princess,” Leslie continued. “I know all your homes, even that cute little bungalow in Thailand you bought last year. Your money is in the same drowning boat as your skills, and I only I can rescue you.”

“I’ll find your man,” Jess replied calmly.

“Damn right you will.”

“And then you will leave us alone, for good.”

“I’d say that’s a definite possibility.”

“It’s not a possibility you arsehole, it’s a fact.”

“Careful my dear,” Leslie took exception to the tone then changed his mind. “We have a deal don’t we?

“Damn right we do,” Jess reached for her notebook from her luggage. “The subject has moved then?”

“Hong Kong,” replied Leslie. “You fly out tomorrow.”