This particular Middle Eastern drug baron was a nasty piece of work.  He had made his money, as his father and ancestors before him, through people trafficking, brothels and drug dealing on a huge scale.  Michael had been sent in to get him.

The palace where the drug baron was holed up had been surrounded and most of the external guards were either dead or captured.  There just remained the central stronghold.  Michael walked in through the wall slightly to the left of the main doors.

That was when he saw her.  She was what most men would have called attractive and she was naked.

Michael thought back to the times he had touched another immortal like himself.  He had realised then that he could control the level of intimacy that he would allow in the touch.  So for someone he hardly knew the handshake wouldn’t be much different from those he experienced as a mortal.  Only it was different, everything was different.  When two immortals shook hands there was an exchange of understanding of each other that went with it unlike any handshake he would have had while mortal.  However it was so normal to him in his new state that he hardly noticed.

However when he touched another immortal he was friends with there were all sorts of things going on. There was a man he was close friends with while a mortal.  They had worked together, prayed together, hurt one another at times but learnt to forgive and go on.  They trusted each other.  So when Michael met him as another immortal it seemed natural enough to give him an embrace.  It was full hearted embrace full of love and expression from both to each other.  As the embrace lingered Michael realised that he was meshing with his friend.  He knew that their new immortal bodies were able to move through material things but this was different.  As they began to meld there was an ecstasy in his physical being that was like… well it was more than that somehow.  Any word he would have used to describe his most intimate moments as a mortal just wouldn’t do this level of intimacy justice.  And it wasn’t just physical, there was a deeper understanding of his friend’s heart that came with the embrace.  The unity was at a subconscious level also, except that now that he was immortal, the subconscious was always more conscious than it had ever been while he was mortal.

All this made what the girl was trying to do just irrelevant, like a trickle of dirty water in the presence of a bubbling fountain or a candle in the light of the sun.

But at this stage the ambush was in full swing.  The ambushers had been surprised that he hadn’t come through the door, as had the girl, but they started firing quite quickly nonetheless.  After one of them had plunged at him with a knife, he told them to stop.  He addressed them as one would children.  “Stop before you hurt someone,” he said rather ironically.

The girl sidled up to him.  Michael knew that it wouldn’t be good to encourage her so he made his surface sting slightly as she touched it.  The girl recoiled and he told her gently to go and get dressed.

In the meantime the main man he had come to arrest had gone into another inner safe room and was busy trying to get out through a secret tunnel.  Michael moved swiftly through the walls to intercept him.

The police followed in behind them.