Chapter 2
She looked over at Alex. She knew that this woman would probably get her killed. She figured it was a fitting end to her run. They were giving her this assignment as her "retirement." If she could survive, then she could leave without worrying about them coming after her for more.
She went back downstairs to her unmarked SUV and grabbed her two cases and a soft back pack. She went back upstairs and into the apartment. She placed the cases on the small kitchen table and threw the backpack at the couch. Alex watched her but didn't say anything. She just stood there with her arms crossed across her chest. Liv eyeballed her, but didn't say anything to her as she started going into one her cases. Alex's eyes widened when she saw the broken down rifle spaced out in the case.
"You weren't kidding, earlier, were you?" Alex asked her.
"No, I wasn't."
"You don't get out much, do you?"
"That depends on what you mean," Liv told her.
"You don't deal with people much, do you?"
"Not in the traditional sense, no. Mostly the only way I've dealt with people in the past was in eliminations. This would be a complete change for me."
"So you've never been on a protection detail?" Alex asked her.
"No, ma'am, I have not."
"Well I guess this is going to be really interesting for both of us."
Liv didn't answer her. She pulled out her scope only and grabbed a chair. She sat back a good distance from the windows and began to check for lines of sight. She grabbed a small notepad out her back pocket and began to make some notes on angles. Every now and again she would write down something at length that made Alex curious.
"What was that note, there, about?" Alex asked, breaking her concentration.
"What note?"
"The notes that you are making," Alex replied.
"I am making notes about where you could be shot from. I'll go explore those areas later to make sure that no one has set up a hide yet. Until then, I will mark areas on the floor that will be okay for you to be at. I will move the furniture accordingly."
Alex just stared at her. She couldn't believe that she was being so clinical about the situation. This was her life, didn't she understand that? Couldn't this cold assassin see that?
"You don't understand why this hard for me, do you?" Alex asked.
"It isn't my problem, Alexandra. I am here to keep you alive. I am here to protect you. I don't have to be your friend. I don't have to care about the life that you are leaving. I have to care for your safety and your well-being. I am sorry. I don't do people well."
"I can tell."
Liv ignored Alex as she continued to study everything outside the window. She could feel Alex watching her. It was a little unnerving but she had a job to do and she was going to do it. She had to keep Alex safe. She hoped that Alex wouldn't fight her once she made her a regimen to follow. She read the file on how difficult Alex had been with the other agents and agencies. She would have to lay some ground rules for her to follow.
Liv sat down again across the room on the couch and stared at the apartment's only door. Alex continued to watch her. She didn't move when Liv changed positions. She stood rigid and angry. Liv didn't seem to care. She continued with her assessment of the apartment.
"You'll be found from the couch. It is the safest place for you in the main common areas. If something does go down, it will give you the clearest points to hide or to escape. Do you understand that, Miss Cabot?"
"I do."
"Can I show you what I want you do?"
"No."
"Are you going to let me help you?"
"You are my body guard, right?"
"Not exactly."
"Then what are you?"
"I am here to make sure you stay alive. I am here to protect you. You will do what I tell you to do to accomplish this. You will not be going out in public unless it is necessary and I will tell you when it is okay to go out. I know that you might not like what it going on, but that isn't my problem. I need to coordinate our departure for a safe house outside the City. I want you to stay here and stay low. I have some things to check out. Can you do that for me?" Liv asked her.
"I don't really have a choice in the matter, do I?"
"Unless you have a death wish, no, you don't," Liv replied.
Alex walked across the room and sat down on the couch. She got next to Liv to see if she could use her close proximity to make Liv uncomfortable. Liv didn't say anything about how close she was to her. She just pointed at the door.
"That is the only entry and exit besides a window."
"I noticed."
"Then, you need to be constantly aware of how to get to it. The only problem with that is that it is the only entry and exit. That means that they first people in who might try to hurt you know that as well. They are going to try to block it. If they can't block it, they are going to try to flush you out of it. If they flush you out of it, there will be someone or something there to take you or kill you. If they try to flush you out, you need to get to a window and get out. I would suggest that one there with the fire escape," Liv told her, pointing at the window across the room.
"And, if I can't?" Alex stated.
"Then, you fight your way into the bedroom. There is a closet with an attic access. You will climb your way to the roof and hide. I will leave preparations up there for you."
"Preparations?"
"Yes, there will be a dump phone and a pistol. I'll show you how to use it later. There will be preprogrammed numbers in the phone. The first one will be for me. You will call me and I will come faster than you can imagine. The second number will be to the Marshalls. They will send a team as fast as they can, but it won't be fast enough. The third number will be the FBI. Same deal with them. The fourth number will be 9-1-1. That is your last resort. You will call us all in order. You will only tell the 9-1-1 operator what you can and never who you are. Do you understand?" Liv asked her.
"What? Wait? You aren't staying here with me?"
"Oh, I am. But, I have some things to do first. I need to know, that if I am not with you, that you can handle this. If you can't, we leave tonight. No questions asked. My priority is keeping you alive. If you can't handle this, tell me now and I'll have a car downstairs in five."
"I can handle this. How long will we be here? Can you tell me that?" Alex asked her.
"That depends on you and how hot things really are here."
"How long will you be gone?"
"Not more than an hour," Liv stated as she stood up from the couch and went back to her cases.
She replaced her notebook and her scope. She pulled out a small compact five shot pistol. It was a custom .45. She checked it and made sure that it was loaded. She walked back to the couch and handed it to Alex.
"This is for you and only if you have to use it."
"I don't like guns."
"I don't like bullets, but the people out there use them both. This is just for protection and only as a last resort. You are to run first and call me."
"I got that part."
"Good. Now, stay here and don't even think about going out. I'll be back as soon as I can. I have to check in with the local Marshalls that were in charge of you. I will find a place for us to hide where no one would think to find you. Until then, we will stay here," Liv told her.
"Fine."
"Alexandra, I know that this isn't ideal for either of us, but as long as you do as I ask, it will be an easier and quicker relationship until your court date."
Alex didn't respond. She reluctantly took the pistol from Liv and held it. Liv waited until it seemed that Alex was able to handle the weapon effectively. She gave Alex a look and went back to the cases. She locked them up and grabbed them.
"I'll be back soon. Lock the door and bolt the chain. I'll call the phone in my bag over there before I come back. No one has that number. I will call only once. I will let it ring four times and hang up. Let the phone ring. If someone leaves a voice mail, hide. If someone calls and doesn't let it ring four times, hide. Under no circumstances are you to answer that phone."
"Yes, Mistress, I understand," Alex answered her sarcastically.
Liv just rolled her eyes. She knew that Alex was going to test her, but what Alex didn't know was that Liv was about to test her. She wasn't going to speak with the Marshalls or the FBI. She had already had the only briefing that she was going to get. She and Alex were on their own. Alex didn't know that yet, but Liv knew that she would have to make her understand how venerable she really was. Alex was in for a surprise.
She didn't know that Liv was testing her. The next hour would set the tone for their unorthodox relationship. Liv knew that she would have to have Alex back in the City in six months. Alex didn't even know that much. They weren't letting her know when the case was going to trial because they knew that Alex would demand to be there for the whole trial. Liv wasn't going to let her know where they were going until they got there. She figured the less that Alex actually knew the better off she would be. No one would be able to find her, if she didn't know where she was going until she got there.
She waited outside the apartment's door until she heard Alex lock the door behind her. She started to walk away when she finally heard the chain and bolt being slid into place. She smiled as she walked down the corridor. She made sure that she counted each step. She looked at each door until she made it to the elevator.
She pushed the button to go into the parking garage. Once she was in the garage, she made her way to her unmarked SUV and put the cases back in the hatch. She sat in the driver's seat and turned on the radio. She waited a few minutes and tuned in to an AM station. She waited a few minutes and she could hear Alex moving around in her pack.
She smiled. She knew that Alex was a naturally curious person. She knew that Alex wasn't going to sit back and not give her some sort of grief about basically being under house arrest. She was a social person and in the elite circles of New York. This world, this entire operation was a completely foreign idea to her. She couldn't fathom the depths that she was about to fall into and have to learn to survive in because it meant her life.
Liv turned the radio up. She knew that the bug would only give her limited range. She pulled out of the space and started out of the garage. She would go to the building across the street. It had the best vantage point and many places on the roof for an assassin to make a hide. She was going to investigate and use it to scare Alex.
It wasn't meant to hurt her. It was meant for her to realize that Liv was there to protect her and keep her safe. She would have to do something drastic so Alex would learn to trust Liv's instincts and her knowledge.
She read the file four times before she realized why she was chosen. She pulled into a space behind the building in question. She reviewed the file once again. She shook her head and then hid the file again in the secret compartment. She got her scope and a laser pointer and made her way up to the roof. She was amazed at how easy it was for her to gain access. It was just another reason that she would move Alex.
She made her way up to the corner of the building and hunkered down. She waited. She lay there in wait, because she knew that Alex would get curious and go to the window. She was good at waiting. She knew that it wouldn't take her an hour to make the move. She might have already missed in while she was driving, but she doubted it.
As she sat in the corner of the building, with her scope in hand, she began to think about where she would take them. Money wasn't going to be a problem. She'd made sure of that. The Alphabet soup wouldn't be a problem either. She wasn't about to tell anyone where they were going or where they were once they were there. She was a lone agent with a mission. Her own handler wouldn't even know where she was. She was a government ghost. It was her job. She was good at it. She was going to make Alex a ghost, too.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught movement. She'd been surveying the rooflines and looking for other vantage points that she might have missed being in the apartment. She turned at the movement and caught Alex standing in full view of the window. She reached in her pocket and turned on the laser. She shined it right onto Alex's chest. It was only a warning, but it would serve its point.
She watched through the scope as Alex saw the red light. She backed up away from the window and ducked behind the couch. Olivia waited. She ran the laser around the room a few times just to be sure that it wasn't a fluke and Alex had really seen it. Then, her cell rang. She smiled. She turned off her laser pointer and started her way back to the SUV.
"I'm on my way," she said into the phone.
She didn't need to look at the caller ID. Only one person had that number, and it was Alex. She smiled as she made her way to the apartment. Alex could learn quickly. She actually listened to what Liv had told her. Liv thought that maybe she could get through to her now and Alex would actually do as she asked without question or reservation.
She decided that they would leave that night. She would use the dark as cover. She would slowly pack the SUV so if any of the Alphabets were watching, they would think that she was unloading and moving in. Getting Alex out tonight would test not only her abilities, but also the Alphabets determination on watching Alex. Tonight, they would learn that Liv never took a job she couldn't complete and she always did it her way. Tonight, they would become ghosts.