“What are you doing here Monroe?”

He ignored me. “Were you surprised when your girlfriend turned into one of the monsters you were trained to track and kill?”

“Never saw one before. I think they were all annihilated by my time or our time.” I stopped and stared hard at his eyes. He knew something I didn’t. “Are you saying your marines were killing them?”

His grin was tainted with a sick looking joy. “See you do catch on when necessary.”

“How many?”

“Lost count overall, but in the thousands. Your masters and mine had only one thing in mind, which was total domination. Both of us played out part in their plans without questioning them or the men and women who set everything in motion.”

I felt used but knew that was part of what Monroe desired from me. I didn’t know and didn’t really want to know what he believed he might convince me to do where we were now.

He slid the knife back in its sheath and turned slightly as if wondering who might still be behind him.

I didn’t care. My first kick landed solidly on the side of his head heel finding the soft spot in front of the ear. He dropped unconscious at my feet. Without waiting or thinking, I lifted him by the head and when his neck was stretched, broke it with a single angry twist.

I stripped him of his gear and weapons one of which was a projectile pistol that looked old by design. It felt heavier than a laser but more like it belonged with my fist around it.

I stuck it in my belt behind my back. He had also carried a packet of key cards. Each had an alphanumeric code and nothing more. I jammed them in the pouch in the front of my knapsack.

Before I went after Margaret, I opened the elevator doors and dragged Monroe’s body into it, pressed down and strode down the hall were I’d seen them carry Margaret.

Monroe had revitalized the assassin and now, I knew, I might not be able to jam the monster I once was back into the mental compartment were I needed him to live so I might exist with any comfort.

“I’ll save her and after that deal they with me,” I said with a confidence I knew I didn’t dare to believe. As an assassin, I enjoyed my work, disengaged from a vastly corrupt society run by the same type of people Margaret was bred to serve.

And I wondered if, this place, the portal brought me to might also be controlled by them. If that were the situation allowing me entrance would prove to be their undoing.