Chapter 7: VIP Treatment

Elsa's heart sank when she heard where the target was going to be. This was going to be a problem. The Nurses' Convention? The place where Anna is going to be? This amped up the stakes considerably. Of course, wherever Anna was, Kristoff would be and that bought its own set of problems.

"What's the matter?" Merida looked puzzled at Elsa's sudden lack of excitement.

"There is just a small hiccup with that," Elsa paused as she tried to figure out the best way to phrase this. "My sister is going to be at that conference with her cop boyfriend."

"Oh, how is Anna these days?" Merida asked rather excitably. "I haven't seen her since graduation. Did she go into nursing school like she wanted to?"

Elsa gave her friend a look. "That's your response?"

"Hey, I am allowed to be interested in my best friend's family's updates!" retorted the Scottish red-haired. "Anyway, it's not a problem. Just go with your sister and her boyfriend, pretend you're interested and then slip in and out for the hit. Easy-peasy!"

"Well, I guess," Elsa looked down at the tablet which was still showing her the picture of the Reinsturt family. A gleam started to appear in her eyes. "Okay," she said with new determination in her voice. "Let's do this!"

The pair of them put their heads together to figure out the best plan.

That was how Elsa found herself walking around the conference with Anna and Kristoff in tow. A VIP lanyard hung around her neck. Elsa had explained that a friend had gotten it for her as she thought Elsa would like to go. It wasn't a lie. A friend had given her the VIP pass and she definitely would like to go. After all her target was here – somewhere. Anna had been thrilled that Elsa was joining them when she had told her. To be honest, she would rather not be there. Mixing business in her personal life was something she hated to do. Keeping her family out of her business was what she always strived to do. Guess she couldn't keep them separate much longer.

All around, there were all kinds of booths selling stuff aimed directly at nurses. Things like ways to easily clean up blood – hmm, maybe she should take a look at that, union reps that would help negotiate pay rises for you, cool stationery and many, many others. She was surprised to see that it was jam-packed. Who knew this thing was going to be this popular? Perhaps she could use the crowd to her advantage? After all, it was easier to blend in with a crowd. Elsa paused in front of one of the blood cleaning booths and picked up a bottle and stared at it. The man manning it leapt into action the second he saw Elsa was interested.

"Evap-Blood-Orate on sale now!" he said, hurriedly speaking. "Two bottles for the price of one!"

"Does it work?" Elsa enquired; her eyebrows raised.

Being a trained assassin, she knew a lot about cleaning up bloodstains. Over the years, she had to do numerous clean up jobs. She had tried many products over this time period. What would make this product different?"

"Does it work?" the man faked stabbing a knife into his heart. "You wound me, my dear lady. Of course, it works! Simply spray it into the blood – works on all surfaces – and leave it for thirty seconds, then scrub very lightly – minimal scrubbing is needed – and bam! All gone within a minute!"

Elsa's eyebrows were raised even higher. This was sounding oddly familiar.

"Have you heard of Blood-Be-Gone?" the second she asked, all the colour drained from that man's face. "It sounds rather like their product. In fact," she paused for effect as she pretended to think, "didn't they release their brand-new line this year?"

"That is a completely different product!" the man stammered but he didn't sound too convincing.

"Yeah, and I'm a monkey's uncle," Elsa rolled her eyes as she placed down the bottle she was holding. It was obviously a total scam. "Later dude."

Elsa followed Anna and Kristoff through the many stands, pausing here and there to look at the mechanise. Some of the stuff she saw actually looked quite interesting. There was this prototype scrub outfit for nurses that could repel bodily fluids. That would certainly come in handy for both nurses and assassins alike. Anna picked one up and started to draw them into a story about a patient. The phone in Elsa's pocket started ringing and Elsa quickly answered it. She was glad for the excuse.

"Pretend I'm a sale's client," Merida's Scottish accent came through the speaker in a hushed tone.

"Ah, Miss Bear, nice to talk to you, I have the figures you asked for," Elsa covered the speaker and mouthed 'work' to Anna and Kristoff when they enquired silently about who was on the phone before walking off. This was one phone call she didn't want to be overheard.

"Seriously, that's the alias you choose?" there was a spattering of laughing on Merida's end.

"You were obsessed with them at school." Elsa could practically hear Merida's eye roll through the phone which only made her snigger. "You in?"

"Have you seen this Evap-Blood-Orate?" Merida asked through the phone.

"Total rip off of Blood-Be-Gone."

As Elsa spoke, she casually continued to glance over her shoulder to make sure no one was nearby. Can't have anyone asking questions they shouldn't be asking.

"I knew it," Merida said in a knowing whisper.

"So, I repeat my question; are you in the convention?"

"Look to your left…," Elsa moved her head to the left, "No that's too far…" Elsa's eyes finally landed on a familiar red hair. Merida waved at her when they made eye contact. She was standing about a hundred metres away by some union reps. "Bonjour mon amie!"

"Hallo," Elsa said in her Norwegian accent, trying not to laugh. "Also, French Merdia? Isn't that practically treason for a British person to say?"

"Ssh," Merida said, and the two dissolved into laughter. "Besides, Scotland loves France, it's the English that doesn't. So technically not treason for me."

There was a small pause as Elsa rolled her eyes. Maybe they should get this conversation back on track.

"So, what's the plan?" Elsa suddenly realised that a couple of people were coming towards her. "The products aren't going to sell themselves without the right marketing strategy. We will need a killer one."

As the people passed by without a glance at Elsa, she let out the breath she was holding.

"Smooth," Merida sniggered. "I think you may want to check out the ladies' room the next floor up."

"Huh," Elsa raised her eyebrows as she made her way towards the stairs. Ignoring the rope that blocked the stairs, she ducked beneath them while making sure that nobody saw her. Once upstairs, she pushed open the door to the ladies bathroom. "Now where?"

"Try your luck in the middle stall."

Behind the toilet, Elsa found a large silver briefcase. When she opened up, she found a slick black looking sniper rifle.

"Ooo an Nr.6 M24," she whispered in awe as she ran her fingers across it, "Leupold Ultra M3A scope, 416R stainless steel barrel, high precision and high accuracy rifle. Man," she peered through the scope and a warm smile came over her face, "I love these babies."

"Do I need to leave you two alone?"

"Shut up," Elsa muttered while more snigging could be heard on the other end of the call.

"You better be quick; they just went in for the presentation."

Merida hung up the phone and sure enough, Elsa saw a dozen texts from Anna asking her if she was coming to the presentation. Elsa quickly replied that she was happy roaming around the conference and will meet up with her later before she focused on the task at hand. That was going to be her excuse. Let's hope Anna bought it. Instead of worrying about her sister, she decided to focus on the task at hand. The sniper rifle had come detached, so it would need. As an expert on snipers, it didn't take her more than thirty seconds to get the sniper locked and loaded. Poking her head out of the bathroom, she saw that she was completely alone.

Making her way along the upper floor, she opened a map of the building on her phone. Merida had shown her the best route to get a bird's eye view of the speech. There was a door just up ahead which led to the upper level of the room where the speech was being held. Once inside, she ducked down to make sure that she wasn't seen.

"Welcome to the new world of Nursing!" Doctor Ralph Reinsturt was saying with his arms in the air while people went crazy down below. "Are we all ready to be amazed?"

Elsa didn't bother to pay much attention to the speech as she readied her sniper. Through the scope, she focused it on the crowd to see what she was dealing with. There were six security guards and in the fifth row from the front, ten seats from the left, she could see Anna and Kristoff cheering. Well, hopefully, they didn't mind seeing a guy being killed right in front of them. She focused the scope back onto Doctor Ralph Reinsturt who was walking up and down the podium talking into a microphone. She waited for a few seconds as she waited for the right opportunity. This was going to take precision and skill – both that she had ample of. As she watched the presentation unfold, Reinsturt paused for a fraction of a second – which was all she needed. She held her breath as she focused the crosshairs on the target.

Her finger pulled the trigger. A bullet went whizzing through the air and went straight through Reinsturt's skull killing him instantly. He didn't even see it coming. It was all over in a matter of seconds. The second he was shot, blood spurted all over the stage and there were screams from the crowd. Kristoff leapt into action shouting for calmness as he identified himself as a policeman. Everyone was in full fledged panic mode. Nobody was looking in her direction. People seemed to be clambering over each other in an effort to get out of the room. The guards were being overwhelmed by the sheer panic in the room.

Elsa silently ducked out of the room and walked along the corridor in utter calmness. Not a single person noticed her less than panic gait or that she didn't seem scared at what happened. They were all screaming bloody murder – literally – and running for their lives. Dismantling the sniper as she walked, she hid them in her many jacket pockets. Using the panic that she had created, she allowed herself to slip out with the crowd avoiding all security guards. None of the security guards saw this either. They were all running back to the presentation room to attend to her target or trying to get the stampede under control. Sirens could be heard coming towards them. Looks like the cops had been called.

"Nice work," a familiar voice spoke right next to her. As Elsa turned, she saw Merida grinning at her. "Clean and efficient."

"It's what I deliver," Elsa said with a two-fingered salute.

"I best be heading off before I get spotted," Merida surveyed Elsa. "Excellent work Winters. I'll be seeing you."

Elsa watched as Merida disappeared into the crowd. It was only a few seconds after that she heard a panic voice calling her name. The voice belonged to her sister and suddenly Elsa felt herself being attacked by a massive hug by Anna.

"Oh, Elsa it was so scary," Anna cried at her. "One second he was standing there and the next, there was blood all over the floor!" She then flew into a hysterical string of words that Elsa couldn't understand.

"It's okay Anna," Elsa said, patting her sister on her back. "It's over now."

Elsa didn't really know how to react to her sister sobbing. In the background, she could see Kristoff talking to local law enforcement about what happened. She wondered what he had seen or heard. Perhaps he had seen her enter and leave? No, that was ridiculous. He had been far too focused on her target. Turning back to her sister, she pulled her in for a tighter hug. She just hoped that Anna couldn't feel the parts of the sniper as she sobbed on her shoulder. In the background, more sirens could be heard and more police and EMTs reached the scene. Several of them were wheeling out a body bag on a gurney. Guess they had declared him DOA.

"So, do they know what happened?" Elsa asked when she saw Kristoff walk over to them.

"Not a clue," Kristoff shook his head. He looked very solemn and serious. "I honestly don't know what happened." He watched his girlfriend who seemed to be in a daze. Perhaps the shock of what happened finally paralysed her. "Give it to me straight Elsa," he stared into her eyes and Elsa felt her pulse quicken. Did he know? The fear from before slowly etched back into her brain. "Did you see anyone run through the convention? Anyone acting strange? You were out there."

"No, sorry," Elsa shook her head. Her heart rate lowering back to normal as relief worked its way through her. Of course, he didn't know. How could he? "I didn't see anything abnormal."

"Damn it," Kristoff swore loudly. "Elsa, I can tell you anything right?"

"Of course!"

Kristoff took in a deep breath before responding. "I think it was a hit."

"A hit?" Elsa was struck dumb. Perhaps Kristoff knows more than she gave him credit for. "Like as in mob or assassin?"

"My money is on an assassin," Kristoff replied. "I am sure that all these cases are linked. There is an assassin out there and I am going to catch him."

"Yeah," Elsa had an awkward smile on her face, "I am sure you will."

This was not good news. She did not need him snooping around. This was going to make life even more difficult for her. She looked over at her sister, who was swaying back and forth. Perhaps, she should get out of the game while she could. If her sister found out…. What would it mean?

A small vibration in her pocket alerted her to the fact someone was trying to call her. Reaching into her pocket, she saw that it was North calling her. Did he already hear about the hit? Well, it was his job to have eyes and ears everywhere.

"Hello North," she said when she pressed the 'answer' button. "I gather you have already heard what happened here in Austin."

"I have indeed, great job Elsa, the funds have been transferred to you."

Elsa looked at her phone that just pinged. Sure enough, there was a five-thousand-dollar deposit into her bank account. A smirk came over her face. Guess she was going to get that couch she wanted after all.

"Thank you bossman."

"That's not why I am ringing though."

"Oh?"

"We have a problem back here in Burgess. You are needed here right away."

"What kind of problem?" Elsa's eyes narrowed.

"A former member of our organisation has gone to the cops about the recent contracts. Have you heard of a Dallas Linwood?"

Dallas Linwood…that name did ring a bell in her brain. Her eyes fell on Kristoff and it all clicked.

"He's Kristoff's boss," Elsa breathed.

"Who?" North sounded very puzzled which wasn't a usual response from him.

"My sister's boyfriend," Elsa quickly explained. "Isn't he a Captain in the homicide division in Burgess PD?"

"Bingo," North said. "Guess what the informant gave him."

Elsa's veins turned to ice. "A list of all our names including mine."

"Bingo again."

Elsa turned to look at her sister and Kristoff. If Kristoff saw that list, he would be able to put two and two together and come up with four – that she was a secret assassin.

"What do I have to do?" she whispered urgently.

There was a small pause.

"Find that file and then eliminate him. We can't have anyone in possession of this knowledge."

Elsa gripped her phone with determination. "Yes sir."

A/N: I hope that everyone enjoyed this update! More to come!

Reviews:

Collington: I hope you enjoyed the plan! Yeah Kristoff is, isn't he?

Camilia Sky: I did enjoy adding Merida! Kristoff is slowly reaching the truth, isn't he?