With an assassin's precision Mandy carefully cut a small circle of glass out of the window with a glass cutter and let it plop into her hand.
She raised her telescopic sight to her right eye, the cool Prague night air gently playing over her cheeks. Her target – A German businessman called Heinrich Raeder, was standing in the room, making out with a blonde. After picking the right angle Mandy brought the sight down and walked over to the suitcase on the nearby desk.
Her weapon of choice for this job was a Walther P39 assault rifle. It was the ideal weapon because it was lightweight and easily assembled. After she had fitted the silencer, sight and stock to the gun body, Mandy tied her long raven hair into a ponytail.
She was just about to load a bullet in the gun's chamber when she stopped and frowned. Nobody told me about a girlfriend, she said to herself. Her Nokia bleeped indicating she had an incoming call.
"Yes." Mandy said with a clipped tone
"Sorry darling." Her French-Canadian rival commiserated. "Better luck next time." Mandy quickly took off her sight again and briefly looked through it. The previously alive Raeder was now dead on the floor of his office, blood pouring from a wound that could only be a slit throat.
"You BITCH!" Mandy shouted, shaking with anger.
"See you later." Nicole finished before hanging up.
"DAMMIT!" Mandy swore. Quickly she disassembled her assault rifle, put it back in the case and began to make her exit.
She was in a somewhat dilapidated office block in Prague's business district. She had chosen it because no-one was currently renting it and such it was totally empty, but also because she had a clear line of sight to the office opposite. Although of course, Nicole had preferred the in-your-face approach.
Mandy had for several years enjoyed somewhat of a monopoly of her line of terrorist activities. But that was until Nicole had come along. Initially Mandy had been content to just regard her with nothing more than visible disdain. But that was before she started eliminating her targets. This was the third time Mandy had lost a job because Nicole had got in first, and she was not happy. She was top dog and there was no way she was going to sacrifice it to anybody.
She took an elevator down to the third floor and walked through a deserted office to where a fire escape led down to a dark alley. The flashing lights of a police car stopped her in her tracks. The Czech police had just stopped by her SUV. Although it had Czech plates they were false, and if they ran a check on them that SUV wouldn't be going anywhere fast.
However luck was in Mandy's hands. Nicole's handiwork had somehow been discovered, and the police unit drove off to the other side of the street leaving the SUV unguarded. Mandy quickly ran down the stairs, got into it and drove away.
"I heard your job in Prague went down the plug-hole" her agent Prudence Bauer said concerned when she met Mandy in an underground car-park in the German town of Münster
"That's one way of putting it." Mandy said. "I need another job, within 24 hours."
"Are you crazy?" Pru asked her incredulously. "The Prague job was your third in a fortnight. You have to slow down, or the authorities will catch you."
"Pru, you're a nice kid really, and I like you a lot, but I need this." Mandy told her. Pru sighed.
"Another job within 24 hours, you got it."
The next day Mandy was on a plane travelling to Kuala Lumpur. Pru had come through for her. She was scheduled to meet a man called Walt Cummings, who was an intermediary to her new employer. The exact time of the meet would be arranged when she arrived in Kuala Lumpur.
Mandy got the feeling that she had cut Pru off rather abruptly when she had called. No matter, she would clear up any loose ends later.
Heavily disguised she passed through the security checkpoints at the airport and began searching around for Walt Cummings. She didn't see anybody who matched his description at all. She was just about to leave the airport building when her phone rang.
"Mandy. This is Walt Cummings. West Petronas Tower. 100th floor. Midnight." He said before hanging up. Mandy proceeded to her hotel, where the receptionist on duty informed her that there was a package for her from Pru in her room.
Mandy dropped her bags off and un wrapped the box that had been placed on her table. It was her Beretta 9mm and silencer.
"Well done Pru." Mandy said.
After a brief nap, Mandy woke herself up at about 11:30 and after dressing in dark clothes, proceeded downstairs and hailed a taxi to take her the five miles to the Petronas Towers. When she arrived she debated how to get up to her meeting place. She carefully walked around the base of the West Tower and noticed a service door with a broken lock.
Making sure nobody saw her Mandy sneaked in through the door and made her way through the pipes to the service elevator at the far end. She got in and pressed the button as high as she would go. The doors opened thirty five floors away from her destination.
Mandy walked round the corner for an elevator to take her up to floor 100, and found it. A man in his late fifties was waiting for her.
"I'm Walt Cummings." He said holding out his hand. "Please come this way." Mandy followed Cummings into an office. A woman was already waiting and Mandy glowered when she discovered the woman was Nicole.
"What's she doing here?" she asked Cummings.
"The same thing you are." Cummings told her. "You've both been hired for a covert entry in Mexico."
"I can't work with her." Mandy told him.
"Why not" Cummings asked
"Well for a start, she doesn't understand the term 'covert entry'" Mandy replied.
"Hey, I'm right here." Nicole retorted. "And I'm not a complete idiot. I do know what covert entry means."
"Really" Mandy said sceptically. "That's a bit hard to understand, bearing in mind that the last time our paths crossed two days ago, you may recall you assassinated your target in his office, giving you a low probability of escape."
"I'm here aren't I" Nicole replied with finality
"Have you two quite finished." Cummings broke in sternly. "Whatever bad blood is between you two I suggest you bury it. My employer is paying top dollar for your services and he expects a result."
"How much" Nicole wanted to know.
"$5m each" Cummings replied. He opened his laptop and began his briefing.
"This is Juan Carlos Lorenzo" he said pointing to the picture on the screen. "He's responsible for 45 of all the drugs production in Mexico."
"Your employer should save himself $5m and just send one of us." Mandy said. "It doesn't make sense to send both of us."
"You'd like that wouldn't you." Nicole sniped.
"This mission isn't about cutting off an arm of a monster this is about killing the monster." Cummings said. "If you just killed Lorenzo he would have five lieutenants ready to take his place. However we've learned that all five of his lieutenants are attending a special conference in his mansion two days from now." Cummings clicked a mouse button and a map filled the screen. "You'll be dropped in a forest just behind the village. You will have to cross this dam, enter the village, assassinate Lorenzo's lieutenants, then infiltrate his mansion and kill Lorenzo."
He paused letting this information sink in.
"You'll have to remain covert throughout." He continued. "One alarm goes off and your mission is over."
Suddenly a red dot appeared on Nicole's head. Cummings unknowingly walked round past Nicole and fell to the ground dead. Quickly Mandy and Nicole threw themselves out of their chairs and pinned themselves to the wall either side of the door.
Mandy instinctively drew her Beretta from her sleeveless jacket and attached its silencer.
"Nicole. Are you carrying." She mouthed. Nicole shook her head. Cummings's killer had seen Mandy draw her gun and was silently cursing under his breath in Spanish. Mandy squinted and saw his outline in the low light of the corridor. Aiming carefully she fired a single round into his foot. He dropped his gun yelling in pain and Mandy swiftly moved out from her hiding place and gave him a double tap in the head.
She checked the corridor, picked up the dead assassin's gun and then returned to the room. Nicole was checking the laptop for any information that Cummings hadn't managed to tell them.
"Here." Mandy said holding out the assassin's gun.
"You're giving me a gun." Nicole said surprised. "I thought you didn't like me."
"Just for the record, I don't." Mandy confirmed. "But if we're going to be partners, we need to learn to work together. There's no time like the present. Besides you're not going to be much use to me dead."
"Somebody's scheduled to pick us up at this street." Nicole said pointing at a map. "He's going to take us to the airport."
"Then we'd better not keep him waiting." Mandy decided. "Okay, worse case scenario, our friend out in the corridor is not the only one, so we need to keep our eyes peeled. We're taking the stairs."
The two women moved out of the office in a standard flanking deployment, and made their way to the stairs. Nicole trained her gun to shoot anybody who was the other side and Mandy opened the door. They were clear. They moved carefully down the nine flights of stairs to the podium level. Nicole trained her gun again on the door and Mandy opened the door.
"Shut it!" Nicole shouted. Mandy did and two bullets flashed past Nicole's ear.
"Dammit. He's got us pinned." Nicole swore. "Any Suggestions"
"If one of us goes up one floor and then finds an alternative route down, we could take him out from behind." Mandy suggested.
"Good idea, I'll go." Nicole told her. "Give me five minutes then lay down covering fire."
"Copy that." Mandy responded. Carefully Nicole moved up to floor 42 and checking as she went located a second stairwell across the way. She went back to floor 41, and opened the door. The second man was still crouching by the door. Nicole waited for Mandy to fire a shot and then fired herself. However due to the dimly lit corridor she missed and the bullet went straight into the wall. Nicole fired again and the assassin was downed.
"Mandy." Nicole called "Are you okay?"
"I didn't know you cared." Mandy said sarcastically.
"Give it a rest will you." Nicole shot back.
"I'm fine." Mandy replied shortly. "Let's go." They located a stairwell to ground level. They left the building without any further problems and walked over to the alleyway indicated on the map.
A limousine was waiting for them, and they got in.
"Good evening ladies." A middle-aged man in his fifties said with a touch of impatience in his voice. "Problems?"
"Yes." Mandy summarized. "A unit tried to kill us, and your boss is dead." Their chauffeur's shoulders stiffened but he continued driving. After forty minutes they arrived at a military instillation. They were handed over to a gentleman called Christopher Ramsay.
"We don't have much time." He told Mandy and Nicole. "We'll brief in the air. They boarded the Hercules C-130 and when it was in the air, Ramsay began his briefing.
"We've secured you some infra red satellite of the area you'll be jumping into." He began. "It's been downloaded on to this PDA. You'll need to enter the dam at the lower level to avoid detection, but we recommend taking out this tower guard before you do. That way he cannot sound the alarm. The village and the exterior of the chateau also contain general alarms so you'll need to be silent and quick on your feet. Your gear will be deposited in two boxes which will be parachuted with you. Any questions"
"Where's the extraction point." Mandy asked.
"In the grounds of the chateau, Lorenzo has his own helipad." Ramsay said. After ascertaining there were no more enquiries he left the two women to get changed into black jumpsuits. Both women put their guns into a pocket in the suits while Mandy commandeered the PDA.
"Why do you have to be in charge of that?" Nicole argued.
"Look, this operation isn't going to work if we don't work in total concert." Mandy told her. "We need to work with each other, not against us. Clear."
"Clear." Nicole said cattishly.
"I'm sorry to interrupt this very interesting conversation, but we're nearly over the drop zone." Ramsay said over the intercom. "Make your final preparations."
Mandy and Nicole strapped on their parachutes and helmets and moved into position. The main door opened and they both jumped out.
During the jump, the wind shifted ever so slightly, as a result, the two women landed in an open compound area. Quickly they stowed their parachutes and reviewed their satellite photos.
"Look, there's a supply truck." Nicole said pointing at the South West corner of the photo. "We just need to go up this hill, and we can get out of here."
"No we can't do that." Mandy told her. "See that fence line. And you can bet it'll be alarmed. Plus we need to pick up the rest of our gear." She switched over to the tracking program to locate the boxes. The first was over a lake right in front of them. Between them and the lake was a ruined farmhouse with three guards.
"You take out the one by the wall, then the one inside the house." Mandy suggested. "I'll take out the other one."
"Copy that." Nicole replied. They stealthily moved towards the farmhouse. A wall provided the two women with cover, and they crouched behind it. As the guard passed by Nicole took him out. They both made their way to the farmhouse and flattened themselves against the wall. They could hear the two guards discussing something in Spanish.
"They've seen the parachute." Nicole whispered. They inched slowly towards their respective targets, and swiftly shot them in the back. Nicole checked the farmhouse was clear, and Mandy looked over the lake. She could just see the faintest outline in the darkness of the canopy at the other side. There was nothing for it but to swim for it, so Mandy doffed her clothes and as quietly as she could swam over to the box and took out the pack that was in it. After swimming back to Nicole she put her jumpsuit back on.
This pack contained two sets of clothes, plus some ammo for their guns. They looked at the PDA again to plan their next move. Another farmhouse was just over a ridge a few metres further on, with two guard towers.
"Okay, if we take out the guard by the house, and the one inside and then go down past the wall, and up the ridge at the bottom." Mandy decided
"Wait, don't be ridiculous." Nicole argued. "There are two tower guards in that area. We need to kill them first surely."
"Forgive me, but you're not that accurate a shooter." Mandy replied.
"Sod off, yes I am." Nicole said with a determined air.
"Where's your brains." Mandy snapped. "If you fired and missed, he'd sound the alarm. Even if you did hit him, his mate in the other tower would see him go down, and he'd sound his alarm. Besides they're hidden by trees mostly. If we're quick we can be up on the ridge before they know what's happened."
Begrudgingly Nicole agreed and the two women started walking. They stopped by another wall, and the guard walked past their position.
"Go." Mandy whispered. They moved out swiftly, shot the guard, moved round to the front of the farmhouse and shot the second guard before he had chance to blink. Then they ran down to the ridge and up the far side. They found a nearest tree and stopped for a minute or so to catch their breath. Another guard tower was a little further up this time in the open. A tunnel to the right led to the compound's second area. The second tracking signal was coming from there.
"Okay, you can take out the tower guard." Mandy told Nicole. "But be careful."
"Always" Nicole said with an encouraging bob of her head. Mandy was filled with dread. Although they had proceeded without mishap so far, she knew that if this went wrong it was game over. Down in the valley were two more guards. If Nicole's murder of the guard was noticed that would be it.
Nicole silently climbed up the ladder on the tower and swiftly slit the guard's throat with her knife, then climbed back down again.
"See, I CAN be covert." Nicole told Mandy with satisfaction.
"Let's not break out the champagne just yet." Mandy said. "Down here." They moved down the ridge, and silently walked to the tunnel. Another supply truck was waiting, with two drivers discussing various items. The two women went through a utility door halfway down then made their way up the ladder at the far end of the corridor.
Silently Mandy opened the hatch at the top and gave Nicole a hand up. They moved to the edge of the hill and noticed down below them two further guards and a guard tower. Together Mandy and Nicole took out a guard each then carefully climbed down the hill. The tower guard was facing the tunnel with the two drivers and was thus completely oblivious to what was going on. The second parachute had landed right behind some scrubland. In the wrecked box was a silenced sniper rifle.
Carefully Mandy took out the tower guard and the two supply truck drivers, then changed direction and took out the guard by the compound gate and the guard in his office at the top.
"Okay move." She told Nicole. "If my memory of the infra red photos is correct, there is a guard in the open. He'll notice his dead colleagues in a minute." The two women ran down to the compound gate, and opened it. The guard Mandy had noticed was engrossed in some boxes and didn't see them enter.
"Look there's somebody in the office, across the way." Nicole said pointing at the building with lights on. "He's going to spot us, if we walk past him." She silently made her way to the door of the building, then opened it and swiftly shot him twice in the head.
Mandy was halfway to the canopy near the supply truck when the guard under the canopy spotted Nicole in the office and raised his gun. Mandy rolled out of the way, and shot the guard before he had time to fire.
"Get in the truck." Mandy said to Nicole in a furious whisper. They climbed in and after a few minutes the supply truck moved off.
The road to the dam turned from tarmac to gravel in a short while, and it was extremely bumpy in places. Neither woman said anything to each other. Mandy was busy looking at something on the PDA. Nicole spent her time looking at the various crates in the truck. The primary items in the crates appeared to be cheese and sausages for presumably the chateau's kitchen.
After ten minutes of travelling in the back of the truck, Mandy gave her a dig in the ribs and motioned to Nicole that she should jump out of the truck. Nicole didn't understand over the roar of the engine what Mandy wanted her to do, but before she had time to ask Mandy had shoved her out of the truck.
Nicole landed hard on the gravel road. She looked up angrily at Mandy who had jumped out with her.
"What is your problem?" Nicole hissed.
"My problem is you." Mandy replied in a furious whisper. "By taking out that guard in the office you almost killed me."
"He had an alarm right next to him." Nicole shot back. "If I hadn't taken him out that would have been it. Mandy, if after today you decided to hate me for the rest of your life, then that's fine. To be perfectly honest, I really don't care. But if we carry on like this we are going to get caught. And if that happens, you'd better hope God is with us, because nobody else will be."
Nicole's outburst seemed to have an effect on Mandy, who relaxed her posture, and let her anger dissipate.
"I realize I haven't exactly done my cause any favours by taking your assignments." Nicole continued. "But you were right what you said on the plane. We have to learn to work together, and for what ever reason is just isn't happening. We need to stop giving each other attitude."
"I'm just too used to working solo I guess." Mandy conceded. "I just need to adjust that's all." Nicole held out her hand as a sign of peace, and Mandy took it then embraced her rival.
"Well now we've got in touch with our inner woman, let's carry on." Mandy said as they broke apart. "We're going up here." She said pointing up into the trees. They walked up into the forest and Mandy handed Nicole the PDA.
"There are pictures of Lorenzo and his five Lieutenants in there." She told Nicole. "You need to memorize them, because we won't be able to look at them later." Nicole nodded and looked at the pictures as she walked. After ten minutes Mandy ordered her to lie on the ground.
The supply truck driver had stopped with a puncture and got out cursing his luck. He walked to the back of the truck to get out the spare and tools. He stopped when he saw mud on the top of the spare wheel. He looked around the surrounding countryside to see if he could see anybody. Mandy and Nicole held their breaths in the forest their hearts beating.
The driver gave up after a while, and turned his attention to the flat tyre. The two women breathed again for the first time in five minutes.
"I don't want to do that again." Nicole mouthed. They moved off silently as cats. After twenty minutes of walking they reached the dam. The truck driver had mended his tyre and drove down towards the dam.
Mandy had just received some up to date satellite photos of the dam and the village, and both her and Nicole looked through them.
"Okay, I'll take out the guard in the tower, then the guards on the ground. You go down that service ladder and up through the dam and let me in through the gate." Mandy told Nicole.
"Got it" Nicole said. She waited for Mandy to dispatch the tower guard then she crept silently towards the ladder and climbed down. Because of the distance down to the service door they were in fact two ladders with a staging post of sorts in between. Nicole stopped at the staging post and carefully inched her way down it. The service door opened and a guard started to walk towards the ladder. Aiming carefully Nicole gave him a double tap to the head.
She climbed down and walked to the service door. She heard two men discussing something in Spanish. Swiftly she moved out into the corridor and shot them both. The sound of a lift came to Nicole's ears. She located the appropriate door and opened it. The guard coming down in the lift didn't know what hit him as two bullets passed through him. Nicole quickly moved to the lift and shot his friend at the top. Then she pressed the button to take her up to the top of the dam.
Back outside Mandy had moved to higher ground and was waiting for the right time to shoot the two guards on patrol on the dam. The supply truck driver annoyed at the locked gate had sounded his horn, and was now in the process of having a serious row with the guard on the other side.
Mandy didn't know Spanish very well, but guessed that the guard had orders not to let him through and the truck driver wasn't budging. Directing her attention back to the dam, Mandy noticed a brief flash of an automatic weapon. The two guards on patrol heard the shot and turned round only to be gunned down by Mandy's sniper rifle.
The guard at the gate and the truck driver were incredibly still arguing and hadn't noticed the three murders of their colleagues. Mandy strapped on her sniper rifle again and crept down to the gate. The truck driver reacted badly to a joke by the sentry and had stormed off, right into the barrel of Mandy's Beretta. The gate sentry had an intimate encounter with Nicole's knife and went down. Nicole opened the gate for Mandy and the two women ran down to the far end of the dam. Mandy shot the lock off the utility door in the large metal door and they crept through.
They paused briefly behind a second truck to reload.
"Can we take the truck?" Nicole asked. Mandy shook her head.
"No, the citizens of the village would hear the noise." Mandy whispered. "We'll have to walk." There were two guards between the women and the exit gate. Mandy took the guard in his hut, Nicole the guard in the building. After they went down, the two women got changed into their civilian clothes, hiding their Berettas in their jeans. They started on the 2km walk into the village.
The village of Los Pados and the Chateau where Juan Carlos Lorenzo lived were actually on the same piece of land. It served one purpose, to house his five lieutenants. Either one of the five was capable of taking over the business empire, which was why Mandy and Nicole had to kill all five. Their names were; Joaquin de la Vega, the second in command, Diego Alvarez, Alejandro Caldelas, Bernardo Diaz and Eduardo Barrerio.
The temperature had dropped two or three degrees by the time Mandy and Nicole arrived in Los Pados. Not that either woman minded this for a second. They had been trained to ignore such vagaries in temperature. After the guard had been taken out at the village entrance they ascended the stairs and walked under the archway. When they got to a set of steps Mandy motioned Nicole to stop. From the satellite photos Mandy had noticed someone in a room round the corner, and he would have to be taken out before they proceeded any further.
Silently shrugging her sniper rifle off her shoulders, Mandy stole down the steps. She stopped two steps from the bottom of the flight and raised the rifle to a firing position. She fired a single round into the room, and the occupant fell backwards
Mandy silently walked down to the end of the road and spied a guard outside a house. Concealing her position as before she took out the guard, then waved Nicole to join her.
"I've got an idea." Nicole whispered. "The upper floor of that house is in direct line with the house at the top of the hill. I could probably take out the guard outside there from that upper room."
"Okay, but you'll have to be quick." Mandy warned, surrendering the gun. Nicole made her way up to the house and opened the door. She moved through the kitchen and stopped by an open door
"So what did you think of the Carne Asada?" a man's voice asked his friend.
"Not bad, but my mother still makes better" the other man replied. They both chuckled quietly to themselves. Seeing they were preoccupied, Nicole silently walked past the doorway and padded up the stairs. A man was listening to a gramophone record in one of the upstairs rooms. Nicole quietly slit his throat and he went down. She quickly checked him to confirm his identity. It was Alejandro. One down, four to go. Nicole continued up the stairs and found the open window. Aiming quickly she took out the guard outside the second house.
Mandy saw the guard go down and quickly moved to the door of the second house. A guard opened the door and was cut down. Mandy quickly moved into the house. A radio was playing classical music and someone was moving about in the next room.
"Is someone there?" a voice asked. Mandy swiftly shot the occupant twice in the chest. After confirming he was Eduardo, Mandy went out of the house via the back door. In front of her was a wrought iron gate. After checking no-one was in sight, Mandy walked down the stairs and paused by an alleyway to wait for Nicole.
After Nicole had shot the guard, Alejandro's two guards who were alerted to the shot ran up the stairs. Nicole killed them with her Beretta and went up to join Mandy. They both walked down the alley, but stopped when they heard balcony doors being opened above them.
"Ricardo." The occupant ordered a young man who was patrolling below. "Where is my 99 Spurling? I sent that idiot down to the wine cellar twenty minutes ago"
"My apologies Señor Alvarez, I will investigate the delay" Ricardo replied
"See that you do Ricardo" Diego finished before shutting the doors.
"Are they talking about wine?" Mandy whispered to Nicole who nodded.
"Our Diego has very expensive tastes." Mandy told her. "The 99 Spurling is only made and sold in the South of England which means he'd…"
"Get back." Nicole suddenly hissed. Ricardo had heard the two women whispering and had climbed up the stairs to investigate. He walked into the alleyway, but didn't see anything. He started to walk down the stairs back into the wine cellar.
Mandy and Nicole were hiding in the street their hearts beating once again.
"I need one of those stress free jobs." Nicole told Mandy who grinned. They both stole down the stairs into the wine cellar. Ricardo was muttering to himself as he searched for the bottle of 99 Spurling that Diego had requested. After a few seconds frustration got the better of him and he threw a bottle of wine to the floor in anger. Nicole quickly shot him and she and Mandy entered the cellar.
"Colemont Red." Mandy noted. "2003 vintage, not a bad wine actually."
"How do you know that?" Nicole asked.
"My agent knows the woman who produces it." Mandy replied. "She lives in Holland, if my memory serves me correctly." The sound of drunken singing came to their ears as they walked through the cellar.
"So that's where the 99 Spurling is." Mandy grinned. "Someone's drinking it." They walked up into the house proper and Nicole shot the guard on the balcony.
They went through the back door and out into an open courtyard. Using the sniper rifle Mandy killed a guard patrolling in a second courtyard. Both women silently walked down the steps and split up. Mandy went towards the second courtyard, while Nicole went to a small house at the far end.
"Is that you Federico?" the owner asked when Nicole entered.
"No sorry." Nicole told him as she shot him through the neck. After confirming him as Bernardo, Nicole left, and joined Mandy down in the courtyard who told her that Diego was dead. More singing came to their ears as they stood in the courtyard, they decided to check it out bearing in mind they still hadn't found Joaquin yet. They quietly approached the drunken man and Nicole stabbed him in the neck, managing to retrieve the bottle of wine before it smashed on the cellar floor. She took a sip.
"Not bad." She appraised. "Do you want a bit, there's still some left." Mandy took the proffered wine bottle and took a swig. Nicole had checked the dead man, but it wasn't Joaquin.
"Dammit." Mandy silently swore. The two women went back out into the courtyard again and through the gate opposite Eduardo's house, then down the hill to the bottom.
"Could he be that first guy you shot?" Nicole asked pointing to the open window above their heads.
"Could be" Mandy replied. "Only one way to find out"
Nicole shimmied up the drain pipe and carefully climbed over the window box into the room. But the occupant wasn't Joaquin.
Nicole climbed out but accidentally dislodged the window box and it smashed on the ground. She swiftly slid down the drainpipe and the two women aimed their Berettas at the door in front of them. Nobody thankfully had heard it.
"You secure our entry into the Chateau." Nicole told her. "I'll deal with Joaquin."
"Copy that." Mandy said. They split up and Nicole ran to the door. She opened it and the smell of chemicals came to her nose. The fumes were so powerful that tears began to run down Nicole's face.
"Ahh! Another failure" an elderly man shouted in the next room.
"I think you could say that." Nicole said to herself. She wiped the tears from her eyes and killed the man with her Beretta. But that wasn't Joaquin either. Nicole exited the house coughing, and walked back to where she and Mandy had entered the village. She spotted another door that they had both missed. This had to be it.
Cautiously Nicole opened the door and quickly shot the two guards warming themselves by the fire.
"Come on Carmelita." An impatient voice snapped "It doesn't take you all night to get dressed"
"I'm coming!" Carmelita shot back. The man stormed out of the room and Nicole killed him with her knife. They had found Joaquin. Nicole left the house and went back to Mandy.
Mandy removed a set of keys from the two dead guards in front of the wrought iron gate that led into the Chateau. She unlocked the gate and shot the single guard patrolling the exterior. Hearing a noise behind her she swiftly pivoted to find Nicole running towards her.
"I found him." Nicole told her breathlessly. "That's all five dead."
"Come on." Mandy said. "We're going through the wine cellar." They opened the doors to the cellar and entered the chateau.
A guard was patrolling a garden area as the two women emerged from the wine cellar. Nicole put her knife to his throat and he stiffened.
"Make a sound and your dead." She pronounced. "Nod if you understand." The guard nodded. "Good Boy. Take us to Juan Carlos Lorenzo." The guard obediently lead them through the house to a large hall with a huge ornate staircase. Someone on top of the landing saw the two women and opened fire. Mandy and Nicole managed to move out of the way, but their hostage was cut down by the fusillade. Mandy waited for him to reload and shot him with her Beretta. They climbed the stairs, but were immediately pinned down by a second guard to their left. Nicole grabbed the dead guard's MP5 and gunned him down. She ran over to him and grabbed his MP5. She ran towards Mandy on the other side of the landing, tossing her a submachine-gun.
"This door's open." Mandy said. They both went through and down a corridor. A guard spotted them, but he was shot before he could do anything. However the guards in a nearby room saw their colleague go down, and laid some covering fire outside the door. When they paused the two women moved in and cut them down.
Suddenly there was a click of a hammer behind them.
"Drop your guns ladies." A Mexican voice said to them. "Someone wants to see you." They were both frogmarched back through to the large landing where they had both entered and through a double set of doors at the far side. Then they took a right turn into an ornate bedroom suite with a grand piano in one corner.
The occupant turned round to face them.
"Leave us" Lorenzo ordered his guards. When they were alone Lorenzo regarded the two women who'd been sent to kill him.
"Mandy and Nicole" He said grandly. "The legend precedes you. Although I do admit to being slightly confused, I heard you seduced your targets before you eliminated them."
"We only seduce people for their information." Mandy told him.
"Well I hope the person who gave you the intel for this operation was worth it, because he hasn't done his job very well. Even if you kill me, I have five people who can take my place."
Mandy and Nicole didn't react to this piece of information. Their mission had been a complete success. Lorenzo had no idea that his lieutenants were dead.
"You're right." Nicole said. "Our intel was wrong. We should have found out about your lieutenants. We don't have to kill you though."
Mandy wondered what Nicole was up to. This wasn't something they'd discussed. Another legacy of the fact, that this was their first combined mission.
"What are you suggesting?" Lorenzo asked "What could you give me that I don't already have." Nicole put her arms around his neck and gave him a passionate kiss.
"I could get used to this." Lorenzo said reverentially.
"There's something I have to tell you before we go any further." Nicole told him sadly. "It's about your five lieutenants."
"What about them." Lorenzo said darkly. Mandy saw Nicole take out her knife from her jeans and fought back a smile. Nicole moved closer so she could whisper the 'secret' information.
"We killed them!" Nicole announced before burying her knife in Lorenzo's neck. The drug dealer collapsed onto the floor, blood pouring from his neck wound.
"You really had me going then." Mandy said with a relieved smile. "Don't tell me you enjoyed the kiss though." Nicole shook her head
"It was like kissing your uncle. Your great uncle" Nicole told her. Mandy scooped up Lorenzo's Colt .45 and put a single round into the door frame. The guards outside reacted to the shot and Mandy gunned them down. Then just to make sure she put a single round into Lorenzo's head.
Nicole checked the guard's MP5's and after giving one to Mandy, the two women walked out of the room and down the corridor. Two guards at the end turned a table over and used it for cover, firing their weapons. Mandy and Nicole ducked behind two pillars as the bullets whizzed past, then when they paused to reload, downed them with two quick bursts.
They opened a door at the end to a second landing, with skylights in the ceiling. Mandy quickly noticed a guard on the roof through the glass and fired the Colt upwards. The guard overbalanced and fell to his death through the skylight. The two women were about to descend the stairs when a guard in the library at the opposite side of the landing fired his weapon at them. They took cover by a fireplace and when the guard emerged Nicole shot him straight between the eyes.
Two more roof guards jumped through the skylights in a shower of broken glass and landed atop the library bookcases, one of them was immediately killed by Mandy's Colt. The second started hosing the bookcases with his MP5, paper and bits of leather and wood flying in all directions. Nicole managed to exit the library and run round to the other entrance to shoot the guard in the back. He fell off the bookcase like a sack of potatoes and landed with a thud on the carpeted floor.
"Mandy are you okay." Nicole asked her partner.
"My arm's cut from flying glass, but I'm okay." Mandy reported. "Let's get the hell out of here." Nicole nodded and helped Mandy up. They descended the stairs only for a guard carrying a mini-gun to open fire on them. They took cover by a desk at the right of the door at the bottom of the stairs, letting the mini-gun tear into the pictures opposite. Mandy waited until he'd run into the room and shot him in the back. She grabbed his mini-gun, and checked his ammo supply. Good there was some left.
She picked it up and fired it down the corridor massacring a squad further down in the room at the end. Nicole followed her taking out a guard that was hiding down a side corridor.
"Good." Mandy said relieved as she looked carefully out of the window. "The rear exit's just at the end of that side corridor." Mandy took the left wall and Nicole the right and they met by the exit door.
The two guards guarding the gate at the rear of the chateau nervously fingered their weapons. They had heard the gunfire from inside, but no clues as to whether the intruders had been killed.
They got their answer very quickly. A burst of gunfire from Mandy and they both fell to the ground dead. Mandy and Nicole made their way outside, but a third guard pinned them down behind some boxes. A quick two shots from the Colt courtesy of Nicole killed him.
"Get the gate." Mandy told her tossing her the keys. Nicole unlocked the gate and Mandy drove the truck parked in the courtyard out into the grounds. Nicole jumped in and they drove off. A guard fired from behind as they drove out only managing to break the passenger side mirror. Aiming the Colt carefully in the fog that enveloped the grounds Nicole shot him clean through the head.
"That's the Colt empty." Nicole said
"Don't worry." Mandy told her. "We've still got some MP5 clips. I took them off the guards in the courtyard." They turned up a hill and drove a little way then turned another corner only to come across a guard running down the hill. Mandy turned the wheel sharply and the truck crashed into a bank. The two women left the truck by the same door as the guard opened fire. The windows disappeared in a shower of glass as bullets tore through it. Using the wheels for cover, the two women reloaded their MP5's and waited for the guard to come closer. Nicole fired at him from underneath while Mandy caught him with a burst as he went down.
"Come on, the helipad's this way." Mandy beckoned. "We'll have to run the rest of the way." They ran up a ridge and down the other side. The two guards guarding the helipad didn't know what hit them as 9mm rounds tore through their bodies. Nicole could pilot a helicopter and so she took the controls. When they had lifted off Mandy took out her PDA and sent an e-mail to Captain Ramsay.
'All mission objectives fulfilled. Extraction in progress' she wrote. She sent the message and within a minute or so, Ramsay was on the intercom.
"Well done congratulations." He said. "Your employer's representative is in route to give you your money. Where should he meet you?"
"I have a warehouse on Fenderia Street in Burbank." Nicole told him. "Ask him to meet us there."
"Copy that." Ramsay said before signing off.
The sky was turning blue after Nicole and Mandy had completed their 40 minute trip across the border to the warehouse. A bespectacled slightly balding middle aged man was waiting for them in a suit and tie.
"I'm Mike Novick." He introduced. "My employer regrets that he cannot attend, but I can assure you, that I can fulfil his obligations on his behalf." The two women nodded and Nicole let them all in to the warehouse. She showed Mike where to connect his laptop to give him internet access and within ten minutes the wire transfer had been completed; $5m into Mandy's off shore account in Aruba, and $5m into Nicole's Swiss account in Zurich
"Once again, congratulations on a job well done." Novick said shaking both their hands. Mandy detected a slightly nervous demeanour about him as she shook his hand. When he left, she turned to Nicole who was opening a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne and pouring it into two glasses.
"He works for the government, I'm sure of it." Mandy said
"What makes you say that?" Nicole enquired handing Mandy her glass.
"He's just got that look about him." Mandy said. "Thank you."
"To a successful mission" Nicole toasted.
"A successful mission" Mandy agreed, clinking her glass and Nicole's together.
"What are you going to do now?" Nicole asked conversationally.
"Rest for six months probably" Mandy smiled.
"You don't have to though." Nicole said. "I'm sure I could find us another job we could do together. Bypass our agents."
"Pru would love that." Mandy grinned. "No I think I will have a rest this time." She drained her glass. "I know we got off on the wrong foot." She told Nicole. "But I just wanted you to know it was a privilege to work with you."
"Likewise" Nicole replied. The two women shook hands and parted.
Six Months Later
"Good Afternoon." Nicole greeted the receptionist on duty at the Hotel Kempinski in Hamburg. "My name is Gemma Abrams, you have a reservation for me"
Nicole had lain low after her joint mission in Mexico with Mandy, but now was back in action. She had been hired to seduce a bank clerk, so that a terrorist group called Southern Star could rob the vault. Her target would be at his regular night club at eight o'clock the next day, which gave her time to settle in.
She entered her room only to find a bottle of wine and a glass on the table. Nicole frowned. She wasn't aware she had requested any wine.
"Your friend ordered it for you." The receptionist told her "Would you like me to tell someone to take it away?" Nicole told her to hold for a minute and looked at the small card that had been left with it.
'Thought you might want to try this' the message read. The wine was a Colemont Red 2004 vintage. A grin broke over Nicole's face. Thanks Mandy she said to herself.
"No that's fine. Can you send someone up to open it please" She requested.
"Of course" The receptionist acknowledged.