Thank you so much for reading my story everyone! I'm sorry to say, unless I really drag this out more, this story will probably not be a 50K like I had hopped. Oh well.
Chapter 7- Mission Accomplished
Alex, John and I are at the airport, saying our goodbyes. Mrs. Jones booked a room for me at the Four Seasons hotel; lucky me!
"Take care of him; he's a good kid," I tell John, looking at Alex with affection. He smiles at me.
"Stay safe," he reminds me, pointing a finger at me.
"Always," I respond, giving him a hug. "I'll be back in a week anyway; I have no idea what I'm going to do for 6 days while I wait for the deadline, besides plan of course," I say. I have a feeling I'm going to get lonely; Alex and I have been living with each other for such a long time; I don't know what I'll do without him around.
"It's good to see you again, Yassen. Don't get shot or anything," John says. He's smiling, but there's a tone of seriousness in his voice.
"I'll try not to," I say. I give him a hug. A voice comes over the loudspeaker, announcing that Flight 2 will be leaving in 20 minutes and boarding has started.
"That's my cue," I tell them. I say one final goodbye, and then I board my plane. As the plane taxies to the runway, I see Alex and John watching from inside the airport; John's arm is wrapped around Alex's shoulder. I'm not certain, but I think I see Alex whip his face like he's crying. The last thing I see before the plane turns away from the airport is them waving at me.
It's about 12 o'clock, and there are about 2 days until the deadline. We're as prepared as we'll ever be. Scorpia taught me that an assassination is 99% planning, 1% execution. After all the planning, the shooting part is almost an afterthought. I decide to call Alex and John and make sure they're prepared. Mrs. Jones set it up so that we'll be talking to each other through a Bluetooth phone. Alex, John, and Mrs. Jones will be watching the White House, plus me, from cameras they placed near those locations. They will also be listening to the Secret Service radios; they want to make sure nothing goes wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if Pythia had a backup plan in case they were compromised. Although with them throwing the information in our faces like they have been, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they're getting a bit too confident for their own good.
I call the number that John gave me; he answers with a simple, "Hello?"
"Hi, how are you?" I ask.
"We've been good. Are you ready for tomorrow?" he asks.
"As ready as I'll ever be," I reply.
"Good. Now remember everything I taught you, Yassen. It will be important. Consider it a test of all the skills you've learned," he says. A test…John would do that wouldn't he? Test my skills after all these years. Well, in that case, challenge accepted. After this, I'm hoping that we can all get out of the spy business, for a while at least. Once you start down the path we're on, it's hard to get away from it; it gets harder as time progresses, too.
"Yeah, I'm hoping this is the last assassination I'm going to have to do. All I want to do after this is come back and spend time with you two. Alex is listening, right?" I assume he is. He would want to hear what I have to say.
"Of course he is," John replies.
"Hi!" Alex exclaims, sounding pleased. I laugh.
"Hello, Alex. It's good to hear your voice," I exclaim. "Is everything ready? Are the Bluetooth's working?" I ask after a moment.
"Yes they are, we tested them out yesterday," John replies.
"Good. It looks like we're all set then. Talk to you tomorrow," I say.
"All right. Talk to you tomorrow," John echoes.
"Love you!" Alex exclaims.
"I love you too, Alex," I reply. I hang up after they do. I get ready for bed, but as usual I can't fall asleep until around 2 in the morning. I can't help but be nervous for tomorrow. For the first time since I became an assassin, thoughts such as, "what if I fail?" pop into my head. Failure would mean innocent people getting killed. Failure would mean Pythia succeeding. And finally, failure would mean that John was in danger; Pythia would know that someone had tipped MI6 off. And that is why I cannot fail.
The next day, at 7 o'clock, I set up on the hospital roof. MI6 supplied me with a specialized Dragunov sniper rifle; the bullets are able to penetrate layered bulletproof glass with one shot. For this kind of job, the Dragunov is the best choice. The Bluetooth in my ear buzzes. I answer the call.
"I'm here," I say.
"Good. We have a visual of you and the White House roof," Mrs. Jones says.
"Yassen, it looks like you're a giant piece of tin foil," Alex comments. I'm wearing a reflective blanket over me so when the pilot goes over, he won't be able to look at me because it will be too bright. I'm sitting in the perfect position, with the sun bouncing right off the material.
"The helicopter should be leaving any moment now," I say, checking my watch. "Anything unusual happen at the White House?" I ask.
"All quiet on the Western Front," Alex replies. He's referring to a book written during World War II.
"Cute," I say after that last remark.
I hear the buzz of the helicopter in the distance; it's coming toward me.
"All right, here we go," I say. I make sure the reflective sheet I'm wearing covers me. I watch as the helicopter flies over my head; then I prepare to take the shot. I raise the gun slightly; I watch the helicopter through the specially made scope on the gun. I feel calmness overtake me; the calm before a storm. I block everything out but waiting for the perfect time to shoot. I feel my finger on the trigger. I concentrate my whole body on that finger. I pull the trigger back. I hear the muffled bang as the bullet is fired through the silencer. It's still quite loud, but the pilot is surrounded by the noise of the helicopter; he won't even know what hit him. I watch the single bullet pierce the window. The driver jerks forward slightly, and then slumps in his seat. The helicopter stalls out and falls down, landing in the reservoir with a big splash. Mission accomplished. Slowly, I become aware of reality again.
"Good shot. Well done, Yassen," Mrs. Jones praises.
"Thank you," I reply.
"Hold on…something's happening," Alex says.
"What? Where?" Mrs. Jones suddenly sounds tense.
"The White House. The guards on the roof…they all fell down at the same time," Alex says.
'"Code Red, code red. Alpha Team C is compromised. I repeat, Alpha Team C is compromised. Requesting backup immediately."' A man's voice says over the radio.
"Hold on. There are people on the roof now," Mrs. Jones says after a moment of silence.
'"They're dead. They're all dead. How the hell did this happen?"' someone says.
"One shot closer to heaven. S—t!" Alex curses angrily.
"What?" I say. I would tell him to watch his language, but that doesn't really matter right now.
"Invisible Sword," Alex replies.
"Uh, explanation?" John asks.
"Scorpia did this before. They used nanoshells with cyanide in them. They give someone a shot, the nanoshells, which are covered in a thin layer of gold, travel to the heart. When a radio wave is released, the gold breaks up and the people die," Alex explains briefly. "Now we know how they were so confident the roof would be clear," he says. He sounds really upset. "I should have seen this coming. I should have…" he trails off.
"Alex, it wasn't you're fault. No one knew about that part of their plan. It's lucky we found out about the part of their plan we found out about. It's lucky we got here in time to stop it. I'm sorry this happened, but you can't blame yourself. Blame Scorpia for inventing Invisible Sword," I suggest. I have no idea how else to try and comfort him.
"Yeah…I guess it is all Scorpia's fault," Alex says. He still sounds defeated, but he's not nearly as upset as he was before.
"Well, Yassen, you'll be home by tonight. While we're waiting for you, we'll try to get this situation at the White House cleared up. There are members of Pythia being taken into custody as we speak. Good work," Mrs. Jones says.
A few hours later, I'm on a plane back to Britain. Mrs. Jones, Alex, and John are waiting for me when I return. As soon as I step off the plane and into the airport, Alex races over and gives me a big hug.
"Hey, bud," I say, messing up his hair a little. I smile affectionately; he really missed me I guess.
"I'm glad you're back," he says as he pulls away from me.
"I'm glad to be back," I reply. I missed Alex and John a lot, even though I was only gone for 8 days.
"Well, everything was sorted out at the White House. The guards had been given shots; vitamins, the doctor said. Turns out he was working for Pythia; no surprise really. Everything besides that is good; the Pythia members are all locked up; there won't be a problem from them anymore." Mrs. Jones concludes. "Yassen, there's just one more thing," she says.
"What's that?" I ask.
"A few days ago, we got an alert on our computer. Someone is searching for you." she explains.
"Who is it? Do you know?" I ask. This is worrisome.
"No, we don't, but we will find out. As soon as we figure out whom, we'll stop them. You don't need to worry about it. I just wanted to let you know. You've all done a wonderful job. Goodbye, Alex, Yassen, John," she says. She looks slightly sad.
"You're sure this isn't something serious?" I ask.
"We'll handle it. Go back to living a normal life. Don't worry about it," she assures me. I nod. "That's good. Well, shall we go home?" I ask, looking at Alex and John.
"Yes, we should," Alex agrees happily. We drive home in John's car since that's the one we took to the airport. That night, Alex, John, and I sit on the couch and watch TV. We stay up till past midnight; Alex falls asleep and I put him to bed. John decides to go home shortly after.
"It's good to be back," he says as he's about to leave.
"It's good to have you back," I say.
"Did you cry, after you thought I was dead?" he asks. He looks at me with a mixture of concern and curiosity.
"Yes, I did. You're the closest thing I ever had to a father,"
He nods. "Alex loves you so much; he had nightmares all the time you were gone. He kept dreaming you died somehow; he really doesn't want to lose you, Yassen,"
"I know. I don't want to lose him, or you, either," I say. "You know who tried to kill you, right?"
"Ash. Yeah, I know. After all those years…to have him betray me…and Alex's godfather, too." He gives a hollow laugh. "Its funny how at the same time I went back to MI6, he went over to Scorpia." He comments.
"Ironic, isn't it? How good people can turn bad because of one tragic event in their life?" he says. I nod, remembering how I had stabbed Ash in the stomach.
"Or how bad people can turn good, because of something special happening," I reply. That special something was Alex. He was the one who showed me that I couldn't keep living the life of an assassin; I had to get out. I got out, but only because of him.
"Thanks, Yassen," John says, holding out his hand toward me.
"For what?" I ask.
"For taking care of my son when I couldn't be there for him," he says. I take his hand and shake it. Then we hug, just like we use to when we were on missions for Scorpia.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, my whole body is relaxed. For once, it seems like everything is going to work out. Maybe, with enough luck, it will.
That's the end of the story! The last chapter is very short, I admit, but I think ending it here is perfect! There will be a third book titled The Final Mission.
