This chapter may feel a little rushed. I needed to finish it today because tomorrow, I have a two week vacation starting and I plan on taking a trip to the Baltic sea.
Still, enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
"Oye, hermano." Carmen greeted her brother cheerily when she left her bedroom, finding him sitting on the living room couch. "Como estas."
"Like shit." Ricardo shrugged. "At least the stitches didn't tear."
"How did you sleep?"
"Well..." Ricardo started but was interrupted by Aaron leaving Carmen's bedroom.
"Oh, hey." Aaron hesitated, knowing how this looked. "How was your sleep?"
"Interrupted." Ricardo glared hat him. "You know that the rooms share a wall, right?"
"Um..." Aaron didn't know what to say.
"All that high-pitched squealing." Ricardo complained. "And don't get me started on the noises she made."
"Hey, I don't squeal." Aaron objected.
"Yeah, you do." Carmen laughed. "It was so cute. Why do you think I kept doing the..."
"Jesus, I don't want to hear this!" Ricardo interrupted.
"Crecer." Carmen waved him off. "You guys want coffee?"
"Yes, please." Aaron nodded and sat down on one of the armchairs.
"Could you at least lose that stupid grin?" Ricardo pleaded. "Even if I hadn't heard you, I would know just from looking at you."
"Sorry, last night was too awesome." Aaron chuckled.
"You could have said no." Ricardo argued.
"Dude, when she took off her clothes, any rational thought left my brain. I mean, have you seen you sister naked?" Aaron laughed.
"Yeah, but the last time when she was five!" Ricardo almost shouted.
"Also, his mouth was kept rather busy after I took off my clothes." Carmen interjected from the kitchen.
"That's it, where's my gun?" Ricardo looked around, the turning of his body causing pain to shoot up his body.
"Oh, callate." Carmen sighed as she walked up behind them with three cups of coffee, placing one on the table and handing the other two to the guys, bending down and kissing Aaron's cheek as she gave him his.
"Oh no, that's not happening." Ricardo shook his head.
"Oh, be quiet, idiota." Carmen huffed.
"Your sister is a grown woman, you need to accept that she can choose who to have sex with." Aaron counseled. "Even if that person is me."
"Buddy, you're on thin ice." Ricardo grumbled. "At least this was a one time thing."
"Don't be so sure, I might want to do it again." Carmen winked at both of them.
"Over my dead body." Ricardo huffed. "He can't stay for long anyway and after this, he'll go home to Portland."
"I don't know, I might start looking for some more permanent residence here in LA." Aaron smiled at Carmen.
"Dude, the ice is cracking now." Ricardo glared again.
"Bah, don't listen to him, he's harmless." Carmen laughed and kissed her brother on the cheek as well.
"I can kill someone with a spoon." Ricardo shot back.
"So can I." Aaron shrugged. "I can also kill people with my bare hands if necessary."
"Alright, stop this weird dick measuring contest." Carmen stopped them. "So, what next?"
"He's in no condition to do anything." Aaron pointed to Ricardo. "And frankly, I'm not good enough to take on Robert on my own."
"What if you went to whoever leads this organization of yours?" Carmen asked.
"Even if we knew who led it, I don't think we would be let off unscathed, given that we helped Robert." Aaron shrugged. "I might have an idea though."
"Which is?" Robert wanted to know.
"I tell you if it works." Aaron said and got up.
"What if it doesn't?"
"Then you can be reassured that I will never have sex with your sister again." Aaron shrugged. "Or anyone else for that matter."
"Then here's hoping that your plan fails." Ricardo smiled, lifting his cup.
"Shut up, hermano." Carmen rolled her eyes and also got up before pressing her lips on Aaron's. "And you come back, so I can enjoy your body again and you can enjoy mine. All night long."
"And now the ice is gone and sharks are circling!" Ricardo shouted as Aaron walked away grinning.
He quickly lost his smile when he reached his car, getting into it and just sitting there thinking about how to approach his plan. He hadn't been kidding when he said that he might not survive the day since any of the four options he could think of would likely be his end. He decided on a course of action and started a car, weaving his way through traffic until he reached CalTech, where he parked and thought about what to do.
Making a decision, he waited for a few more minutes until the lunch break was in full swing. He grabbed his bag and walked on campus, sitting down at a bench where he had the cafeteria building in full view. He opened his laptop and pretended to work on it while keeping his eyes on the people exiting the building.
Fifteen minutes later, he saw his target. John Smith exited the building, followed by several other people talking to him as well as holding the hand of a pretty blond girl, making Aaron wonder if that was the protege he had heard about. He waited until their backs were to him and closed his laptop, quickly getting up and following them at a distance he deemed enough.
As he got closer, he acted as if he just walked the same direction and he saw all of them enter one of the buildings. The door was unlocked, so he walked in and followed the noise of conversation. At a stairway, he cursed, seeing shadows move both upstairs and downstairs, conversations coming from both directions and he decided to walk upstairs. When he reached the second floor, he saw the tallest of the group walking through the hallways with the Indian-looking guy and cursed again, backtracking his route and this time entering the basement level.
He walked up to a door that required a key card and sighed. He grabbed his kit and took out a blank card as well as his homemade decoder, into which he inserted the blank card. He used a small screwdriver to remove a sheet from the lock, revealing some cabling into which he plugged his decoder, the device quickly running through plenty of numbers.
"A hundred and twenty-eight bit encryption for a door?" he mumbled to himself. "I salute you, sir."
He looked around and strained his ears to hear if anyone was coming while his decoder worked. It took him ten minutes before the device beeped and he quickly removed the cable and screwed the panel back into place. Taking the card out of the decoder, he swiped it through the card reader and the light turned green, allowing him
He descended a level further, seeing a long hallway with lots of laboratories. Some had windows in the doors, through which he saw several people working, others had regular doors and no names, those he tried to open, finding most of them locked. He made a mental note of which he would have to pick open if he couldn't find John Smith.
A handful of them had names on it, those he also tried, most of which being locked as well, with no noise coming from inside. He knocked on those, getting no reply and continuing on, finding two open doors to labs with people in who he apologized for disturbing. He heard laughter from a lab at the back and he walked towards it, seeing a partially open door and blond hair, recognizing the blond woman that he had seen John Smith with. He inched closer to the door and for the first time saw his apparently real name on the sign next to the door, Leonard Hofstadter, slapping himself mentally, recognizing the family name and knowing who his father surely was. He steeled himself with a deep breath before going in.
"Excuse me, I..." he began but as soon as those three words had come out of his mouth, the blond woman had been pushed out of the way and John, or Leonard, stood there with a gun pointed at him.
"Aaron Gaspard." Leonard spoke his name, the gun not even slightly quivering. "Robert doesn't even dare to do the job himself?"
"I'm not here to..." he tried.
"One move and you're dead." a second male voice came from behind him before he was pushed into the lab proper, the door closing and he found himself staring at a second gun pointed at him, held by the university president.
"President Siebert." Leonard greeted his boss.
"Security notified me of a man hacking through the door to this area." Jeremy answered the unasked question.
"And why did it take you so long to get here?" Penny wanted to know.
"I wanted to see how long it took him to get through the security door." Jeremy shrugged slightly, his aim never wavering though. "And now I know what to fix."
"Glad to be of service." Aaron sighed. "Again, I'm not here to kill anyone. I actually came here to warn you."
"About?" Leonard asked.
"About the plot to kill you, which you apparently already know about." Aaron shrugged.
"I have one question before I decide whether to report you to the organization or not." Leonard said.
"What would you report me for, I haven't done anything." Aaron argued. "Yet at least."
"Conspiracy to kill one of our members is the same as killing one of our members." Jeremy said from behind him. "Just like in regular law."
"Anyway!" Leonard stopped him from talking further. "I understand why Robert wants to kill me, I understand the concept of revenge. My question is, why would you or Ricardo help him?"
"Because I believed him when he said that you and the other old guard are taking away the best jobs, the highest paying ones, leaving us new guys with the scraps of the business." Aaron complained. "Having to kill ex-wives for greedy husbands, gang bangers, small time criminals who somehow escaped justice but people want gone."
"You're an idiot." Leonard sighed, putting the gun down.
"I'm sorry?" Aaron was surprised.
"Don't you think we all started where you are now?" Leonard asked poignantly. "You think I started with jobs paying six figures or more?"
"Well..." Aaron hesitated.
"You think he did?" Leonard pointed to Jeremy, who hadn't put his gun down. "Everyone of us, when we started, had to take the scraps. That's how this works. You work your way up. You build a name, a reputation. And as your reliability rises, Archangel provides you with access to the better paid jobs."
"He is right." Jeremy said. "This is not about age or length of service. It's about how well you do your jobs. Leonard is ten years older than you are, yet he has access to better jobs than I ever had in my career. I would have never gotten the offer for a fifty million dollar job at his age."
"You wouldn't?" Aaron was surprised.
"No." Jeremy repeated. "I might have gotten to that point but I retired before I ever got there. My highest paying job ever had been low seven figures."
"Well, shit." Aaron hung his head. "All I can do is apologize. Robert has attacked and almost killed Ricardo."
"Almost?" Penny asked.
"He survived and is safe, for now." Aaron nodded. "But I don't know what Robert will do if I don't return."
"Then you will return." Leonard stated.
"The hell I will, the guy is nuts." Aaron refused.
"No, you will." Leonard repeated. "You will feed him information that I give you as soon as it's ready."
"As soon as what ready?" Aaron was confused.
"The trap." Leonard smiled and threw him a box with what Aaron surmised being a burner phone inside. "Take this phone. When the time comes, I'll contact you with the information to give to Robert."
"What are you going to do?" Aaron asked.
"Now go. If you need to stay away from him, think of a story to tell him." Leonard ignored his question.
"Fine." Aaron nodded. "And in exchange, no word to the organization?"
"As you said, you haven't done anything yet." Leonard shrugged.
"Go." Jeremy said and pointed to the door.
Aaron began walking, with Jeremy several feet behind him, the gun concealed again but he was sure that the older assassin had it in easy reach. After he was escorted off of campus, Aaron got back into his car and just sat there for a while, wondering how to get out of the mess he had created for himself.
He couldn't run away since that would mean that the organization learned about what he tried to help with and they would hunt him down. Going to Robert might even get him killed but he didn't see any other choice. Sighing, he started the car and drove off, back to the apartment Robert had rented to stay in. He would surely be there and Aaron spent the last few minutes formulating the answers to the questions Robert would surely ask him.
He parked the car again and walked into the building, slowly ascending the one floor to reach the domicile that Robert had rented. When he entered, he found Robert kneeling on the floor, scrubbing it to clean the blood from the hardwood that had dripped from Ricardo's wound. Aaron was surprised when he realized that there hadn't been any blood spilled while he helped Ricardo down the stairs, everything seemed to have seeped into his clothing.
"Where's the money?" Robert glared at him as soon as he noticed him being there, showing Aaron what he his priorities really were. "And why was there still blood on the floor?"
"Oh right, here." Aaron nodded and rummaged in his back, quickly pulling ten fifty dollar bills from one of the stacks and throwing them on the table.
"Where's the rest of it?" Robert asked after a few seconds of looking at the money. "I had twenty grand here."
"I spent it, what do you think?"
"Spent it on what?" Robert looked doubting.
"Bribes." Aaron shrugged.
"Bribes? Cleaners cost three grand in coins."
"First of all, I didn't really have time to get coins and second, I couldn't call the cleaners in the first place." Aaron argued forcefully, even though he was terrified inwardly.
"Why not?"
"How would I have explained to the cleaners why they were taking away the stabbed body of one of ours, huh?" Aaron told him. "The organization would have wanted to know who stabbed him and also, why I was here."
"Alright." Robert accepted. "So what did you do with the body?"
"Took it to a landfill and gave the guard there ninety-five hundred dollars to look the other way."
"Why not ten full?"
"I explained to him that if he deposited ten grand or more, the bank would have to call the SEC." Aaron said. "Then the guy suggested the lower price."
"He could have deposited it in smaller amounts."
"Hey, I wasn't about to argue with him." Aaron added.
"What about the rest?"
"I gave ten grand to a student at CalTech to take an unscheduled two-week vacation."
"Why?" Robert asked.
"So I can take his place." Aaron explained. "I can't break through the firewalls from the outside, so I thought that I could get inside the network from within. And even if I can't, I can still break into the administration offices to look for the physical file."
"Why not just go to the offices and ask the people working there?"
"Don't you think I've tried that?" Aaron sighed. "They told me that they can't hand out information about faculty or staff without the permission of the university president, who is a former assassin himself and also wouldn't give me the personal information about one of our colleagues."
"What about the blood?" Robert asked, pointing at the floor.
"Knock yourself out, I'm off to move into the campus room the guy had." Aaron shrugged and grabbed his remaining stuff before quickly leaving Robert to do the cleanup.
He hurried downstairs and got back into his car, driving away just in case that Robert followed him down. In his haste, he didn't notice the Asian man walking straight for the building he had just vacated. But lucky for him, the Asian man didn't seem to notice him.
Instead of going to the hotel, he made a stop at a grocery store as well as a pharmacy, stocking up on certain items. Once he had returned to Carmen's apartment, he grabbed his bags and walked up the stairs, hoping that Ricardo wouldn't make good on his threat of punishing him for fooling around with the man's sister. He knocked on the door and Carmen opened it just a bit, the safety chain visible.
"Oh, you're back." Carmen smiled at him and fully opened the door. "Still alive, I see."
"Yeah, Robert was too busy cleaning your brother's blood off of the floor." Aaron nodded and walked in, placing the three bags with the stuff he bought on the table. "Where's Ricardo?"
"I'm here." a voice came from the couch, the man lifting his body to look at his partner and sister, his face again contorting in pain. "So, what was that plan you had and did it work?"
"Are you sure he's okay?" Aaron asked Carmen, having seen Ricardo's expression.
"Oh sure, while you were away, I put him into the MRI I have stashed in my closet." Carmen scoffed. "Of course I'm not sure!"
"I'm fine." Ricardo stated defiantly.
"If you really wanna be sure, get him to a place that has some imaging tech." Carmen ignored her brother's assurance. "So, what did you get?"
"Some food, drink and medical supplies." he told her, unpacking the bags.
"Dude, my question?" Ricardo spoke up. "What was that plan and did it work?"
"I went to CalTech, to see John Smith." Aaron said, omitting Leonard's real name.
"You did what?" Ricardo almost shrieked.
"I wanted to warn him about the plot but he already knew." Aaron continued.
"He did?" Ricardo was surprised. "Well, come to think of it, he did make me when I was observing him at that dog park. And since he didn't kill you for it, I guess your plan went well?"
"He wants to plan a trap for Robert and he'll be calling me on the burner he gave me to tell me when it's ready." Aaron told him.
"So he can kill Robert." Ricardo nodded. "Good plan, but what about us?"
"He promised to not say anything to the organization." Aaron finished.
"That's good, I guess." Ricardo nodded. "But what do we do until then? We can't stay here, at some point, her roommate will be coming back."
"That's true, but we also can't go back to the hotel, given that Robert could go there at any time." Aaron said. "Remember, as far as he knows, you are dead and I'm now living on campus."
"What?"
"That was my excuse for not staying with Robert, I told him that I bribed a student so I can take his place in order to be inside the campus network because it would be easier to hack from within." Aaron explained.
"Why didn't you try that before?" Ricardo wondered.
"You mean hacking from within?" Aaron asked and Ricardo nodded. "Because the administrative side is a separated network from the rest. Siebert is a smart man."
"There's an empty attic apartment on the top floor, but fully furnished with the essentials." Carmen interjected. "This place rents by the week, so it's easy to move out again. But it's only for one person."
"That takes care of me at least." Ricardo nodded.
"Aaron can stay with me." Carmen grinned.
"Over my dead body." Ricardo shook his head.
"Fine, if you want to be like that." Carmen sighed and grabbed a large knife.
"Jesus!" Ricardo jumped up when he saw his sister approach him with the knife. "Okay. I won't say anything again."
"You better not." Carmen huffed and put the knife back. "And now lay down again, you tore your stitches with that jump."
"Aw, crap." Ricardo whined. "Can you at least use some form of anesthetics this time?"
"Because I have them lying around?" Carmen scoffed. "Big baby."
"Use this, I thought this might happen." Aaron chuckled and handed her an ice spray.
"Okay, you just scored some points." Ricardo said. "You can sleep in her room but on the floor and fully clothed."
"Don't listen to him." Carmen smirked as she put the spray on her brother's hip. "We won't be needing any clothing when we sleep in my room tonight. And one more word out of your and I'll let you bleed a pint or two."
"That might kill him." Aaron laughed.
"That's the point." Carmen rolled her eyes. "A little near-death experience might get some sense into his head."
"Fine, I'll stop." Ricardo accepted. "I can formulate a plan on how to kill him when I'm sitting in that apartment upstairs."
"Chico divertido." Carmen scoffed while she pulled out the old, torn stitches and replaced them with new ones while Aaron held two pieces of cloth against Aaron's sides to catch any blood running down his stomach or back. "Done. Avoid sudden or sharp movements for at least a week."
"Gracias, hermana." Ricardo smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek while glaring at Aaron.
"Now lets eat." Aaron said and produced the food he had bought.
Meanwhile, the big Asian man that Aaron missed walked into the building the other man had just vacated. It had taken him a while to find this particular assassin, the man hiding well and avoiding the hotel or other organization assets. Kenta walked upstairs and walked the hallways, trying to find the apartment that Robert was staying in. When he reached the third floor, he smelled the telltale scent of bleach and soap and when he reached the apartment it came out of, he pushed against the door handle, the door opening without a problem.
"Who the fuck are you?" Robert asked when he looked up from his cleaning.
"Robert McNamara, you're a hard man to find." Kenta said in his gravelly voice.
"Dude, you choose the wrong guy to rob." Robert scoffed and got up, walking up to what he saw as an intruder to use his martial arts training against him.
To his surprise, his attack wasn't just blocked but countered, the large man easily defending against Roberts attack and then countering it, pushing the man back towards the couch, which he fell on after tripping against the leg of the table. Surprised, Robert grabbed his gun from the table but when he was pointing it at the intruder, the man had reached him and swatted the gun away with what seemed to be a sword or large knife, the tip of which was now touching his throat.
"Fuck, who the hell are you?"
"My name is Kenta." Kenta told him. "And I need to know something before I decide to kill you."
"Wait, you are..." Robert realized who that name belonged to and began to truly feel fear.
"A gang was taken out a few weeks ago." Kenta started. "While it looked like a gas leak, it was in fact one of ours that did it. There are only a few members of the organization in the city and most are retired."
"And why would you care about some gang being taken out?" Robert wondered.
"That's my business." Kenta stated. "Was it you?"
"Me?" Robert laughed. "The only job I did was take out some guy using a car accident. But I heard about this thing you talked about. Trust me, this could have only be done by one man."
"Who?" Kenta asked, pushing the blade harder against Robert's throat.
"John Smith." Robert said. "He's in the city as well, did you know that?"
"I know, I met him." Kenta nodded. "And I also know why he's in the city."
"But who else could have done that job you're talking about." Robert argued. "Smith is well known for making his kills look like accidents or natural deaths. So a gas leak is right up his alley."
"I will take your words into consideration." Kenta said, lifting the blade away from Robert's face, the man visibly relaxing. "If you lied to me, I will find you wherever you go."
"Hey." Robert got Kenta's attention and threw him a phone. "When you find John Smith, tell me. I need to avenge my brother."
"If you want to kill him, you need to change your priorities." Kenta said. "The man I work for has something else in mind for John Smith, if he is guilty."
"Screw this, he is mine!" Robert shouted but Kenta's glare quickly shut him up.
"When we find him and he's the one, then you can have your shot with him. But you are not to kill him." Kenta stated with a finality that Robert didn't dare challenge. "And one last thing. That job you mentioned, the accident you caused to kill your target. Was that the accident this morning on the crossing of fourth and main?"
"Yeah, why?" Robert asked confused but instead of getting an answer, Kenta's blade swiped across his face, causing pain to explode in Robert's neurons and the man to scream. "What did you do that for?!"
"You even have to ask?" Kenta hissed, his face an inch away from Robert's. "We do not kill children. You're lucky that I don't kill you where you sit."
Robert suppressed any words of retort, knowing that he was on thin ice with his man. It had taken him a while to recognize the man but now he knew that he had been face to face with probably the deadliest assassin that has walked the planet in centuries. Mulling his face, he went into the kitchen to take care of the two blade wounds in his cheeks.
"So?" Mark asked when Kenta exited the building. "Was it him?"
"Unlikely." Kenta grumbled, the man's subconscious superiority complex getting on his nerves. "I need more information."
"So, what do we do now?" Mark wanted to know.
"You go back to the motel, I'll tell you once I know more." Kenta stated and walked off.
As he walked through the streets, Kenta fought a battle within. On the one hand, he owed his employer his loyalty but on the other, he considered John Smith a friend, one of the very few he allowed himself to have. If John had truly killed his employer's son, then Kenta might have to choose where his loyalties lied.
I'll end the chapter here. I know, it focused more on other characters instead of our favorite couple but don't worry, they'll come back ^^
Review please :)