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She squeals and jumps up and down, throwing her arms around my neck and peppering me with kisses.
“How are we getting all of them?”
I had almost given up and decided to hunt them individually. I take a deep breath. “There’s a Fourth of July parade in the city. Stryker owns the fourteen story building two streets over. While the parade is going on, our targets plan to meet in the top floor C suites. We’re going to blow the building up.”
At fourteen floors, it’s one of the shorter high rises in the city, but the tallest one within three blocks, so it seems much taller than it actually is.
She just stares at me for a full minute. “Brian, I don’t know. What about all those innocent people?”
I don’t give a fuck about innocent people—especially now when it’s been so hard to find a time and place where they’ll all be together. And taking them all out at once requires explosives. There’s no other way. I can’t run in with guns blazing and take out twenty people all assembled together, not even with a partner. And Mina is still too new in her training for such high stakes.
I’ve killed multiple people at once, but not multiple criminals and their body guards all in one tight space. Usually it was untrained and unarmed people. Cooks, servants.
What? I’m thebadguy.
But everyone who will be at this meeting will be armed, partly because although they are allies, none of them trusts each other.
“There won’t be innocent people around. Several streets near the parade have been blocked off. It’ll be well after business hours so no one else but our targets and their entourage of fellow criminals and body guards will be in the building, and we aren’t blowing the entire building. That would require way too much explosive material. There are limits to even what I can source. We’re setting the bomb on the floor just under them.”
6
BRIAN
Two weeks later. The day of the hit.
Mina is waitingwhen I get to our dungeon room carrying a package, and a flat cardboard box, along with a bag with some other supplies.
“I want to go,” Mina says.
I shake my head. “You can come with me tonight, when the building blows.”
“But what’s the point? It’s going to be boring. Nothing’s gonna happen. I don’t even get to go inside.”
I level a glare at her, and she crosses her arms over her chest like a petulant teenager whining about curfew.
“I would never take you out for your first time if there was any chance something could happen to you. It’s way too early in your training.”
“Do I at least get to wear weapons like a badass?”
I chuckle. “Yes, you get to wear weapons like a badass. And Kevlar, like me.”
I know she wants to ask why we’re going to be wearing full assassination gear if it’s a distance kill, but I like to have my bases covered. We’ll be out and about together near a lot of people, and I have a few enemies out in the world. The last thing I need is someone to think my guard isn’t up and go in for an easy kill. And I definitely can’t risk it with Mina.
“What’s in the box?” she asks.
“A special delivery. It’s what’s getting me into the building to set up the bomb.”
Mina sits on the edge of the bed and watches me while I work. Two days ago, I ordered a Longines watch to be delivered with expedited delivery and a signature to Mr. Stryker on the top floor. The extravagance of the gift will ensure I’m able to get on the elevator and up to the top floor for the signature. But it’s not so extravagant as to raise questions.
I just got finished impersonating a delivery driver and stealing the package and a scanner off the truck less than an hour ago. This particular delivery is scheduled for the very end of the day so Todd will never know it was there. I almost shot him for having the name,Todd.
I’ll have the package in the hands of the target and it’ll be off Todd’s list of deliveries before he needs to know it was ever there.
The guard at the Stryker building should remember me from several weeks ago when I last delivered a package and planted the listening devices.
I use a the knife from the side of my boot and remove the packaging label, careful to slice beneath into the first layer of box so as not to rip the label.
“Bring me the laptop,” I say without looking up from my work.
