Chapter 3: How not to do your job
It has been known throughout human history that emotions have the ability to cloud a person's judgment. This is, in my opinion, most prominent in the parent/child relationship. On the one hand you have the parents who have invested love, time, energy and money into bringing up a child. The pain of losing said child is so great that many parents allow emotions to cloud their judgment. In most cases, this leads to kids that have had 'cotton wool' childhoods; can't go outside to play because the roads aren't safe, can't stay over at a friend's house because a criminal background check hasn't been done on the parents…The parents natural need to protect their children can prevent the child from accessing necessary levels of independence. In my case, much the same thing happened. Obviously not in relation to sleepovers and things like that but more because, even at 18, my parent were still not allowing me access to the most dangerous jobs. They continuously went to my father, a man who was now in his 50s. I can understand this idea of thinking now, but back then, I could not.
Of course exactly the same thing could be said for me. My own judgment was being heavily clouded by emotion. It is universal around the world that at 18 kids suddenly feel a god given right to complete and full independence from their parents. In most cases, this is a bad idea. The most recent research has shown that the brain doesn't reach its fully mature, adult state until 25. 25! Meaning that kids at 18 are just that – kids! But if you want to try telling that to an 18 year old, especially me at 18, you would have gotten a fist in your face.
This all came to a head 6 months after I turned 18. I had been given the details of a new job I was going to be sent on. Except I was of the opinion that I was too good for the job and that it should have gone to a much less experienced assassin. All of my pent up frustration and anger came to a head the morning I was due to leave. Cue me screaming that they weren't appreciating my skill level and them shouting back that they wanted to make sure I was properly ready before committing me to 'the hard stuff'. The fight itself didn't last long but I was still 'sulking' by the time I was due to leave.
One thing an assassin needs to have every second when on the job is their wits about them. Something which might not happen when you are emotionally compromised. And nearly everybody gets emotionally compromised after having a fight with their parents. So it is really no surprise that I didn't see that tail that I had developed.
This job was supposed to be really quite simple. I was being sent to New York to take out a government official who was getting in the way of a 'business opportunity'. This guy was considered to be an easy hit because he liked to frequent hotels with prostitutes. For us, this is gold dust. Give a prostitute enough money or drugs and they'll do anything, including opening the door when you come knocking. Kill the target and the prostitute, take back the drugs and/or money, then leave. Easy.
Except that I was being watched, and because I was upset I hadn't noticed. I'd been in New York for 3 days and had seen my opportunity. He'd consulted with a prostitute who I had then bribed with $500 worth of the best heroin around. I had just left my room when was hit in the back of the head with a fire extinguisher and I fell on my face. As I turned around to fight back my limbs were pinned down by this sticky white crap which the dick shit then used to shut my mouth. As the sedative was injected into my neck I got a good look at his blue and red Spandex suit and the black spider sprawled across his chest. I'd just been caught by Spider-man. Shit.