Chapter 29
"So far, you asking me questions has worked rather well so let's keep doing that. You ask, I'll answer."
They'd been on their current trail for about an hour. Angie kept the pace slow Lisa suspected since she looked like she was going for a stroll and Lisa felt like she was going to cough up a lung if they went up another steep incline. Apparently, this trail led to a small waterfall that Angie assured her was breathtaking. Right now it was the hike to get there that was taking her breath away and not in a good way. But now it seemed they were going to get back down to business. Lisa thought about it for a few yards. When the question finally popped into her head, she hesitated asking it. Even though the woman hiking a few paces ahead of her never seemed to mind her questions, after this morning, she couldn't help feel as though she might have learned enough today.
"If you don't ask me something I'll just tell you something you'd rather never have known."
Lisa saw her turn partway toward her, a mischievous smile playing across her features. Lisa couldn't help but return a small smile of her own. There was something about the way this woman said everything that made her feel… like a normal person again.
"Fine." Lisa thought about how to ask it for a second longer. "Why do you like what you do?"
"I'm good at it." Angie had slowed down again somewhat so they could walk abreast of one another.
"That's it?" Lisa looked at her a little incredulously. "You're good at killing people and you like that?" The last part just sort of slipped out.
Angie laughed. "Well yeah. You liked you're job because you were good at it."
"That's hardly the same thing."
Angie shrugged. They walked for a minute before Angie elaborated. "I don't always like my job." Lisa looked over at her and noticed that her expression seemed almost blank. "I don't enjoy killing… good people. Most of us don't." She sighed. "But lucky for them, they rarely get in our line of fire."
"Jackson showed me plenty of good people that were going to "get in your line of fire". Lisa couldn't keep the disgust out of her voice.
"I know what Jackson showed you. He had to really go out of his way to find those. For those few months, the rest of us were breathing a collective sigh of relief because we didn't have to even consider those jobs."
"So you're just a bunch of nice folks that have to do some dirty jobs every once in a while?" Now Lisa was getting angry. She didn't want to hear about how hard it was for these killers to do their jobs. It irritated her that Angie made it sound as though they were victims in any way. For the first time, Lisa felt the finely trained strength behind Angie's deceptively small frame and the hand that now gripped her arm. She found herself suddenly face to face with her hiking partner.
"None of us are nice. Never forget that. I don't like killing certain people. I don't like killing kids or innocent people but sometimes it's the job. And that part of it sucks but it doesn't change the fact that overall, I love my fucking job. For every person like you, I get to deal with a dozen bastards." Lisa tried to pull her elbow out of Angie's iron grip. She failed. A second later, Angie just let her go and started walking again. "Let me tell you about my first operation." Lisa didn't follow at first, still a little shaken from their sudden stop. Angie didn't seem to mind and continued anyway.
"In Iran, there was a son of one of the Ayatollahs that was refusing to do business with a British oil interest. His father had just died and where the father was willing to work with them, the son was not." Lisa trotted a few yards to catch up. "If that's all you knew about the situation, you'd say I was a monster if I told you that was the most satisfying kill I've ever personally carried out. But sometimes, the devil's in the details." She turned to look at Lisa before continuing. "You see he used to buy women. Mostly desperate women out of the old Soviet satellite countries who thought they were getting work visas to Western Europe or North America. Now I say women but they were rarely over 16 years old. He would get them, rape them, torture them and then kill them." Lisa had caught up with the furiously speaking woman. The disturbing story was delivered with a curious mix of nostalgia and anger.
"He liked killing them. I think he liked killing them more than he liked fucking them. The last girl he ever purchased was fourteen. He watched while five of his compatriots took turns with her. Then, he threw her into a pit of wild dogs that he'd been purposely starving for a week. He left her in there for a few minutes as they strated to tear her apart and eat her alive. Then he shot the dogs and just left them all in there while he and his friends discussed the soccer matched they'd be seeing the next day."
"Oh my God." Tears had sprung to Lisa's eyes.
"Now we didn't kill him because of that. We killed him because we knew his younger brother would be more than happy to deal with our clients. It didn't mean that I wasn't thinking about that little girl when I slit his throat but not before I sliced off his genitalia and shoved them in his mouth." Lisa didn't even notice that Angie had stopped along with her. She only noticed the woman again when she walked up to her and stuck her face right in her line of sight. "That's why I like my job Lisa. Most of the time, I'm killing people like that. Not all of the time, most of the time. Does that justify it? No but what can you do? If I didn't do it, someone else would."
"You really did that?" Lisa barely whispered out through lips that had nearly turned white.
"Yeah. And if it hadn't been one of my first jobs, I'm sure I could have been far more creative than I was."
"What happened to the girl?"
"I shot her in the head. Even if there had been a chance she could have survived the physical injuries, I still would have done it."
Lisa swayed a little where she stood as her stomach threatened to expel all of her breakfast. She barely felt when Angie grabbed her forearm with a gentleness that belied her earlier touch and led her over to a small rock outcropping to sit down.
"I…" She trailed off, not even knowing what she'd been about to say. She noticed Angie again when the woman pressed a water bottle into her hands. "Thanks." She mumbled before taking several long swigs. Sitting helped the lightheadedness and the nausea but it didn't help the emptiness she felt. Angie started to speak again even though Lisa wasn't sure she could hear much more of what this woman had to say.
"Life is a strange thing Lisa. You got to live one for a time that most of the world's population can't even dream about. You grew up in a world where fear, starvation, brutal abuse and hopelessness were foreign concepts to you. You only ever encountered them through fiction and news stories. They never really touched you. Not until Jackson stepped into your life. But I'm going to be brutally honest, even though I hate the guy, he's still only made you experience the most mild forms of a brutal life that most people live with everyday. Beyond what he's already done, he won't hurt you. He won't starve you or pass you around to other men. He won't take pleasure in torturing you or killing you like my first ever kill would have."
Lisa couldn't bring herself to even look at her. She didn't want to hear any of this but she didn't try to stop her either.
"I'm not saying that what he's done is justifiable but it should put your situation into context. Despite how you feel about it, you still live better and can forever live better than most of the human species ever has or ever will. If you can learn to deal with that idea, then you can learn to live again."
Lisa felt the tear run down her cheek and fall onto her knee as she stared at the ground. "I… it's not fair."
"That's what a billion women would say to you as they prayed to have a life anywhere near as comfortable as yours."
"That's not what I meant." Lisa spat irritably, hating how true the words Angie just said were.
"I know but we should get going. We have another hour before we get to the falls and I want to get back before it gets too late in the afternoon."
Lisa hated and welcomed how quickly the subject changed.
xXx
Angie leaned down and kissed Derek's cheek as he read a book and sipped at some espresso. He looked up at her and smiled. "Go well?"
She shrugged, "Hard to tell but I think today helped." She walked over to the coffee pot and started to pour herself a small cup of thick black liquid. "How did it go with Jackson?" She heard Derek give off a small chuckle before answering.
"He seemed less than thrilled." She started to sit down across from him and finally enjoy a few minutes alone with him when she heard a rapid, three beep tone come from the adjacent room.
"Shit. They don't give up do they?"
"Don't seem to." Was his simple reply.
Angie walked to the small, locked cabinet from which the sound was emanating and punched in a quick code on the electronic pad next to it. The cover popped open and Angie didn't bother to sit down as she read the short message off the computer screen.
:start transmission:
Alpha request: report status
She sighed and responded.
Bravo response: more time required to assess viability
Alpha request: estimated timeframe?
Bravo response: 1-2 months
Alpha request: unacceptable timeframe
Bravo response: required
Alpha request: unacceptable timeframe - if viability cannot be determined in 1 week, terminate subject
:transmission ended:
Angie's eyes remained glued to the final leg of the message. She stood in the same hunched over position at the desk she'd never bothered to sit down at. She clenched her jaw. Suddenly she reached out and swept the entire system off the desk and onto the tile floor beneath. The significant racket drew a concerned looking Derek through the doorway. He looked from her to the shattered computer then back again. He raised a single eyebrow in silent question.
"Bring up the backup system later would you? This one's broken."
