Chapter 3 - The Duel

Valerie stood in her hotel room, staring out of the window. For the first time in her career, she felt conflicted about a mission.

Her former boss and mentor, Anya, had gone rogue. Her organization had assigned Valerie to bring her to justice, dead or alive. But the mission wasn't that simple.

To make matters worse, Anya had kidnapped Iris, her handler, and was holding her hostage in an unknown location. She had damaged and disabled a lot of the organization's resources, meaning Valerie was going in blind and without support in this mission.

Valerie knew just how clever, dangerous and resourceful her former mentor was. She had taught her almost everything she knew, meaning it would be very difficult to outsmart her on this mission. And she wanted to rescue her friend, even if her organization didn't seem to particularly care about Iris's status.

She couldn't understand - why had Anya turned against her organization? She knew her old teacher, and this didn't seem like something she would normally do. She was missing a lot of information, and it only served to further sow seeds of doubt in her mind. She didn't know if she had it in her to succeed in this mission.

After all, her last direct confrontation with Anya had ended very badly for her. Valerie's mind went back to when she was still a student of Anya.