Evaded the second.
Caught the third.
Mason's eyes widened.
Agrippa looked at him.
"You've trained."
Mason froze.
"Boxing?"
Mason said nothing.
"Six months?"
"Eight."
Agrippa nodded.
"You're improving."
Then he released him.
Mason stared.
"Why are you doing that?"
"Because you're not the problem."
Mason frowned.
"What?"
"You're angry because Trent is."
Trent shouted.
"Don't listen to him!"
Agrippa looked at Mason.
"You know I'm right."
Mason's jaw tightened.
He did.
That was the moment the group began to fracture.
Trent had expected loyalty.
Instead he got hesitation.
And hesitation was all Agrippa needed.
He stepped backward.
"I don't want to hurt any of you."
Trent screamed.
"Then fight me!"
Agrippa shook his head.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because you don't know what you're asking for."
The words were quiet.
Trent charged again.
Agrippa caught him.
This time, the wrist lock came faster.
Trent dropped to one knee.
But Agrippa didn't increase the pressure.
He simply held him.
"Listen to me."
Trent grunted.
"You're young."
"I don't care."
"You have your whole life ahead of you."
"Shut up."
"You can still walk away."
Trent struggled.
Agrippa held him.
"Or you can spend the next several years explaining to people why you thought attacking strangers was entertainment."
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Mason looked toward the street.
Someone had called the police.
Trent froze.
Agrippa released him.
The five young men stood scattered across the parking lot.
When the police arrived, Agrippa didn't resist questions.
He gave his statement.
He described what happened.
He did not exaggerate.
He did not brag.
He did not claim victory.
He simply told the truth.
The officers separated the men.
Mason eventually admitted that Trent had organized the confrontation.
Kyle admitted they had followed Agrippa after work.
Jared admitted they had broken into the community center.
Blake said almost nothing.
Trent continued insisting Agrippa had attacked them.
The evidence said otherwise.
Security cameras covered the parking lot.
The police had footage.
The truth was no longer a matter of opinion.
It was recorded.
But as Agrippa watched the officers place Trent into a patrol car, he felt no satisfaction.
Only sadness.
He had seen young men make mistakes before.
The tragedy was not that they had lost.
The tragedy was that they had believed winning meant hurting someone.
The Past Comes Looking
The next morning, Agrippa received an unexpected visitor.
An older man stood outside his apartment.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
Straight posture.
Agrippa stared at him.
"You found me."
The man smiled.
"Took longer than I expected."
Agrippa opened the door wider.
"Come in, Daniel."
Daniel stepped inside.
They hadn't seen each other in eleven years.
Daniel looked around.
"Small place."
"I like it."
"Of course you do."
They sat at the kitchen table.
Daniel placed a folder down.
Agrippa stared at it.
"No."
"You don't even know what's inside."
"I know enough."
Daniel opened it.
Photographs.
Reports.
Names.
Old operations.
Old scars.
"You can't keep pretending the past doesn't exist."
Agrippa looked at him.
"I don't pretend."
"You disappeared."
"I retired."
"You vanished."
"I wanted a life."
Daniel leaned back.
"Did you find one?"
Agrippa looked toward the window.
"Parts of one."
Daniel nodded.
"Then protect it."
Agrippa's eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean?"
"Those five men aren't the only problem."
Agrippa said nothing.
Daniel continued.
"Their behavior was stupid, but somebody has been watching you."
"Who?"
"We don't know."
Daniel pushed one photograph across the table.
Agrippa recognized the man immediately.
His face changed.
"He's dead."
"Officially."
Agrippa stared at the photograph.
The man had been involved in one of Agrippa's final assignments.
A dangerous man.
A patient man.
Someone who had once told Agrippa that the only thing more dangerous than a trained fighter was someone who no longer cared whether he lived.
Agrippa had believed him dead.
Apparently, he had been wrong.
"Why now?"
Daniel shrugged.
"Maybe because someone found out where you live."
Agrippa stood.
"I don't want this."
"Neither did you want those kids at the park."
"This is different."
"Yes."
Daniel closed the folder.
"This time, the danger knows your name."
Agrippa walked to the window.
Below, children were walking toward school.
A woman pushed a stroller.
A delivery truck passed.
Ordinary life.
The life he had fought to preserve.
Daniel stood.
"You don't have to become who you were."
Agrippa looked at him.
"Good."
"But you may have to remember what you learned."
Daniel left.
Agrippa remained by the window.
He thought about Ellie.
Her sandbox castle.
Her laugh.
Her belief that he was simply her friend.
He realized something.
He hadn't spent all those years trying to forget who he had been.
He had spent them trying to become someone better.
And that was different.
That evening, Agrippa went back to Centennial Park.
He sat on the same bench.
Ellie was there.
She ran toward him.
"You came!"
"Of course."
She held up a plastic bucket.
"Look."
Agrippa examined it.
"A weapon?"