CHAPTER 1

"It's Done," said the voice over the intercom, "Good job DB," came the reply.

CIA Agent Thomas Gates, better known in the field as Death Blade

DB for short

, was a weapon

himself: A black belt in Mixed Martial Arts, an ace shooter, and the Weaponry Expert for The Agency.

This wasn't a surprise, being the only agent that could handle any of the guns with both hands.

His mission - to eliminate a possible threat to national security. And that threat was caused by none

other than the Russian Mafia.

A short while later he reached his native state of New Jersey.

"How was the mission DB?" asked the chief assistant.

"Wasn't too difficult, you know how these things go..."

"Well, good job either way."

"Right. Tell the Chief I'm heading home for the night."

One boring car drive later, Gates comes home. As usual, his wife was sitting on the living room

couch, listening to the radio and watching television with the sound muted; she would do this when

nothing was interesting.

As he walked into their bedroom to get changed, he saw her guitar, sitting there in the corner, he

didn't know neither care for the brand or model but listening to her play it was one of the few things

he enjoyed, which if you were to ask him directly about, he'd say is weird as he was, "never a fan of

any genre of music, " and that to him it, "was mostly noise".

There were some songs that he liked here and there but outside of those few, everything else was

merely background noise for that hour-long drive to and from work.

He went to the living room, its entrance was on the left side, about 2 meters off the corner wall

leaving plenty of room for both it and the connected kitchen, but that meant only the kitchen was

visible from the hallway.

As he turned right towards the living room part, he saw Julia Day Gates - former US Marshall and the

wife of Thomas.

She was one of the strongest Marshalls of the country, known for her perceptiveness and keenness

to learn, she is quiet and cunning but also loud and fierce, whenever she had something on her mind

she would say it, but she also knew when to bite her own tongue.As beautiful as the day they'd met is what he thought, but even he could tell she was zoned out,

which for her wasn't normal and rarely happened, It was during times like that when she wouldn't

tell anyone what was on her mind, anyone except for-

"What's wrong ?"

"It's nothing….."

"Julia, I know you well enough to know, when you're staring blankly at the TV that something is up."

"I was thinking, why don't we try to have a child."

"Is that all there was ?" He says, with a slight chuckle at the notion that she was anxious over that

thought.

"No, I was also thinking about our past and present..."

"With you working at The Agency, I don't feel safe and I'd feel even less safe for our child."

"Well, if you want to try for a kid, then I'm all for it. And if my job makes you feel unsafe, I'll quit as

soon as we know you're pregnant, how about that?"

She didn't need to answer, because he could already see her expression change when he said that.

"Now, how about I go and grab your guitar, and you play it for me while I cook dinner ?"

"I thought you didn't like music?!" She exclaimed, questioning.

"I don't, but I like it when you play." He said with a smirk. ***

That was 1 year ago.

Gates was at The Agency.

"Today was a slow day..."

He headed straight to the chief's office because he needed to speak to him.

"Hey, chief, is there any news on the guys from my last case? It's been 5 months already."

"Nothing, after you come back they've been laying low, they must be planning something out but

what exactly...."

"Well, whatever it is, we can hopefully wait. I'm here to ask you for a sabbatical."

"That's rare, coming from you, " He says, surprised.

"What's the occasion?""It's almost our 4th anniversary and I wanted to take Julia somewhere nice, it's been a while since

we've had a vacation." He stated.

"Alright, I guess you deserve a break, mind telling me how long you're planning on being gone?"

"I'd say a month is good. I want to take her somewhere nice, but for once, I also want to relax."

"I'll talk to the board and let you know tomorrow but I'm fairly sure they'll say yes."

"Alright, well if I'm not needed here anymore, I'm gonna head home. Later chief."

"See you tomorrow," With a short nod, Thomas left. ~~~

Thomas was jubilant when he came to know that he finally got a vacation for his anniversary and

when he told this happy news to Julia she was also glad, jumping in his arms in the process and was

looking forward to it.

Soon after Thomas and Julia Gates were halfway across the world enjoying their vacation. They went

to all sorts of locations and even took a cruise ship trip. One night when they were having dinner on

the ship, a nice fellow approached them, out of nowhere.

"Excuse me, I am Jason, I hope you won't mind if I sit here for a moment?" He asks, friendly.

"Uhm, of course?" Both Julia and Thomas were surprised at the request but thought they could at

least see what he wanted to say.

"I'm sorry, I am not planning to bother you for long. But It's just that you two seem to get along so

well and…..happy," He trailed, shyly, "Actually, I'm planning to propose my girlfriend, and before

that, I wanted to ask some questions to a few happily married couples about marriage before I

propose her," He said, continuing, "I love her but I don't know if I can make her happy, so I've been

going around asking married couples about themselves and what they think makes for a good

marriage, mainly to reaffirm myself. So do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"I hope you don't take this personally but when you came up to us asking if you could sit here I

thought you were trying to start something," Julia said whilst giggling softly.

"N-no, it's alright, you have every right to, I know it's a strange request but-"

"Go ahead, we don't mind," Thomas and Julia said in unison as Jason's face lifted up in a small grin.

"So, how did you two meet?" He asked his first question still hesitantly.

"Well….it was a couple of years ago. We were on patrol when we met, I saw her from across the

outpost, I was just going to do my rounds. She was standing there... I believe she was inspecting her

weapon if my memory isn't playing tricks on me." Thomas replied, smiling at that thought.

"No, honey I was just getting off duty and was about to go to the gun locker." Julia corrected him."Oh, so you guys are police officers?" Jason asked, surprised.

"No, actually military. Or you could say, we were," she said with a smile, "But that's a part of the

past, as for your question-" Thomas interrupts her.

"I'll be very frank, kid. There is no secret of living a happy married life, we constantly bicker, fight,

and stuff, but no matter what, we're always there for each other," Thomas said, looking into Julia's

eyes, with a proud smile, "because we love each other."

Jason was smiling seeing their love.

"And I can get how you're feeling. You're just scared that she might say 'no' or that she might not

love you in the future as she's doing now but all I can tell you is to take a leap of faith and trust your

love." Thomas added, patting his shoulder.

"Right, marriage isn't only about spending your lives together trying to make each other happy, it's

about staying together and being there for them when the other person is driving you insane

because let's be honest, aside from those moments, you're always happy when they're around."

Julia explained.

They briefly stared at each other with a loving gaze and Thomas put his hand on Julia's.

"We hope that answered your question," Thomas stated, confidently.

"It did, more than you can imagine, thank you so much." Jason said, grinning brightly, he was honest

with them as he understood that marriage wasn't about always trying to make your partner happy

but it was also about supporting them and staying with them during the time when they needed you

the most, " wish you both a good evening and good night. Thank you once again for your time."

Jason finished. With a somewhat reaffirmed confidence, Jason left. They haven't seen him again,

until Jason got off the cruise ship, holding the hand of his now fiance.

"See what you did?" Thomas asked which was more like a statement to his wife.

"What?" She asks, confused.

"You gave him confidence and now look at him, he looks so happy"

“We gave him confidence." Julia corrected him, going for a kiss.

"Honey, I love you and all that, but..." Thomas could not help himself but burst out in laughter…

"... that was an awful line!"

"This might seem sudden but I think you would be a great mother." Thomas stated and was sure of the words that left his mouth, no doubt, he was now curious to see her being a Mom and himself a dad.

"Let's go." She said, holding his hand.

Around 7 months later….

"I wonder if I should get Julia something, maybe some flowers... Or I could take her to a restaurant, we haven't eaten out in a while," Thomas mumbled to himself, "Yeah, that would be nice," He made up his mind after debating a lot.

When he unlocked the door to his apartment everything seemed normal, the radio was playing, the TV's lights were flashing in the living room.

He walked into the bedroom to get changed, as he was changing, he yelled to Julia in the living room.

"Do you want to go out to a restaurant tonight?" He asks, waiting for her response.

But he received no answer.

It wasn't strange that Julia was always more of a fan of direct face-to-face conversations, so Gates didn't pay any mind to the silence.

When he finished getting changed he walked into the living room only to be shell shocked.

Julia's dead body, lying on the couch, beaten so badly her face wasn't even recognizable. He stood there for a moment in deep shock, completely frozen. That moment he saw a memory flashed in his mind.

He always had a soft spot for her. Even though his work required most of his time he still tried to hear the time she demanded from him but sometimes they would still argue.

"You said you'd leave this job behind. I don't want you doing it anymore," Julia said, not yelling but also not quiet either.

"Why is it such a problem?"

"What if someday, someone comes for you or me? Do you ever think about that?" She questions in the matter of fact manner.

"You know, you're all I think about when I-"

"When you're not working, I know." She finished for him.

He nodded, "We already talked about this, I told it to you then and I'll tell it to you now-"

"You know I want to be with you but I don't want to live my life in fear of what might happen. So, I'll leave you, if you need me to." She said, sadly.

That's how Julia would always end their fights and now, she is gone. He took a few steps towards her in disbelief, tears were already forming in his eyes, he was about to wrap his arms around Julia's body to cry his heart out but due to his service, his instincts got the best of him and instead, he started looking for clues after all his wife has been murdered.

****

After a good 2 hours of fruitless searching, he found something of use and something he wished he didn't find.

On both of Julia's knees there were marks that even Thomas had almost missed, and...

In her back pocket, Julia had put a pregnancy test, with the intent to surprise Thomas when he came home.

"A plus..." He trailed with tears in his eyes.

It was positive, she had been pregnant and now both she and their unborn child were dead.

The marks on her knees said it all, "star on both knees."

"Мы не преклоняемся перед властью"

It's symbolized, "WE BOW TO NO AUTHORITY."

Gates shouted with rage and tears rolling down through his eyes. His legs started to shake as he collapsed on the ground, crying almost as if his knees gave up.

“I’ll kill those bastards. Those cowards, I am gonna kill them all.” He committed to his words.

To vent his emotions he picked up his Grand Tourer and left.

****