Authors Note: Long wait, I know, I'm evil, feel free to throw things, hope it was worth the wait.

Chapter 2

John kissed Elizabeth on the cheek as he left the house and she waited until he was gone before going back to her office. She took the data stick that had her report from yesterday's assignment on it and headed to her own car. Headquarters was a fifteen minute drive from the house and once there she had to go through various security measures. She showed her ID card to the guard at the front entrance who allowed her to bypass the metal detectors and go straight to the elevator.

She swiped her card through the panel inside and hit the button for the top floor ten stories up. Stepping out of the elevator she came face to face with the receptionist who waved her on through to the final step in security. A white room with a panel on the side, she stood in front of it and remained still while it scanned her eye. She said her name for the voice activated settings and was finally able to make it through to the office.

It was a large room, desks placed at regular intervals throughout and women moving around in between. There were computers on every desk and more around the sides of the room, there were times when it was like a mad house in here, when there was so much going on it was hard to concentrate. She made her way to her desk, sitting down and immediately slotting the data stick into the side of the computer. She entered a password and the encrypted files that contained her report and the camera footage were sent to the boss, whoever the boss was.

"I take it you were successful yesterday," the woman at the desk opposite said. Teyla was good at this job, probably second only to Elizabeth and that wasn't big headedness talking, it was statistics, Elizabeth had more confirmed kills than anyone else, she'd never failed to get her mark.

"Of course she was," another woman said as she walked over. Laura was relatively new to the business but she was already proving herself, six out of seven kills, the seventh only just managed to get away and was picked off by another agent a few days later. "Does she ever fail?"

"Good point," Teyla replied with a smile.

"What about you?" Elizabeth questioned. "Did you manage to get that woman you were after?"

"Took her out this morning, at about 4am, haven't even had chance to sleep yet but she had this habit of slipping out of her husbands bed in the night to go and meet up with lover boy, guess he's going to have to savour last night because he won't be getting any more of that," Teyla explained and Elizabeth nodded her head. Not every mark they took on was some evil person who'd done unspeakably evil things; some of them were regular people who'd done something to piss of the wrong person. They had their ethics though, no children was one of them and if possible children should be nowhere near the kill.

Elizabeth's computer beeped, a data stream was coming in and once she had it she hit the right keys it decoded the message. It was another assignment, another one that was going to bring in some serious money for the firm and for her, it was also another difficult one, hence why she'd been given it specifically.

She read through the information, a scientist who'd taken information to the police which incriminated the company he worked for. It didn't say what the crime they'd been committing was only that company was willing to pay a lot to make sure that the scientist was silenced. He was in protective custody at the moment, being taken care of as a witness so she'd have to find out where he was being kept. Where was the man's name, there... Rodney McKay.

The construction yard looked busy, people moving things around, preparing to send materials to constructions sites. It was a good front, made better by the good contracts that they got, it was a working front company and it brought in a bit of extra money for the firm. It meant they could be a little pickier over the jobs they chose. There were several sets of offices; it was all designed to blend in with the construction yard surroundings it had been put in. John walked into his, letting the wooden door swing shut behind him and dropping into the chair behind his desk.

"Congrats," Ronon said from the other side of the small room. "I heard you caused quite a scene at the Delphi office building yesterday."

"And where did you hear that?" John questioned, other Agents weren't supposed to know the specific details of another's mark.

"An explosion in an office building and I wasn't there? It had to be you," Ronon stated. "Besides, I knew you were after a business man, a pretty nasty one and Niam Jones was definitely that."

"I'm gonna have to stop telling you anything about my exploits before I do them," John replied opening the brown envelope on his desk. He already knew what it was, an assignment, they always sent them in these tacky brown envelopes.

"I hope it's a really bad one," Ronon said as he watched him. "I got a real crappy one, some idiot who cheats on his wives, all six of them."

"Six," John repeated.

"Yeah, it's one of the wives that hired us," Ronon told him.

"How do you manage with six wives?" John questioned. "I have enough with just the one."

"How is she anyway?" Ronon asked as though he might actually be interested. He'd met Elizabeth a few times since John had first started seeing her five years ago and the two had never really gotten along. Elizabeth was strict and planned, Ronon was the exact opposite and neither was willing to admit to the benefits of the other's method.

"Same as always," John told him and Ronon smirked, John chose to ignore it.

He looked through the papers he'd been given, all the information they had on his mark which included everything from the name of his high school to the pet he had when he was five, everything except his current location. Rodney McKay was in protective custody being hidden by the police until the upcoming court date for the company he worked for. There was a lot of money in this, probably one of the highest fees John had seen in the ten years he'd been working here. It wasn't going to be an easy assignment but then he preferred the harder ones, he liked a challenge.

She'd had to follow the officer assigned to McKay for a few hours before she'd been able to find him. He was being kept in a hotel, a pretty expensive one not far from the city centre. She'd made a reservation in the hotel opposite them, not as nice but perfectly positioned for her to get to her mark. She'd worn the blonde wig again on the way in here, she really hated that thing but it helped keep her off the police suspect list. It was sitting on the couch behind her now as she pulled the camera from her bag and set it up to record the mission. The firm liked to see visual confirmation of a kill; they liked to see exactly how it went down and examine the footage for anything useful.

Elizabeth grabbed her rifle loading it and setting up at the window; she'd made sure she got this room when she'd checked in. The window opposite was McKay's, she'd seen a couple of officer's go in and out so she knew he was heavily guarded, hence her decision to take him from here, less mess, less things that could go wrong.

Once she was set up she got comfortable near the window, it could be a long wait before she got a good enough shot and she wasn't going to shoot until she was sure she was going to kill him. The curtains were mostly closed, a sure sign that it was the right room. A quick glance from outside the hotel room door as an officer had walked in had told her that one of them was open slightly, just enough for her to see inside. She watched quietly through the scope and for a while she didn't see anything but shadows moving across the far wall of the room.

Someone stepped into view but she could only see the back of their head. She tightened her grip on the trigger, her finger squeezing it slightly ready to make the shot if she had to. The man turned around, it wasn't her mark, just one of the cops that were assigned to watch the scientist. Her finger relaxed and she went back to waiting, someone went to the door and opened it, shooing away room service, the maid made some gesture she didn't quite catch but left anyway. There was still no sign of McKay but he had to be in there somewhere.

There was noise below, music, she looked down to see a car driving into the hotel parking lot, music blasting out of it so loud she was surprised the occupant wasn't deaf, or maybe they were. She shook her head, it was probably some ignorant teenager who had no respect for the people around them, it was pathetic really. She ignored it, she had to keep her focus on the window or she could miss her chance and with the amount of money this kill was worth there was no way she could afford to miss it.

Another person stepped in front of the window and her finger instinctively tightened on the trigger. She knew immediately it wasn't McKay though, for a start it was a woman, another one of the officers assigned to watch him. She was talking to someone that she couldn't quite see, yet another officer moving to stand next to her. This guy must be pretty important if he had this much protection around him.

It didn't matter though, she had a job to do and at the end of the day McKay would be dead, her company would be paid and a chunk of that money would make its way into her bank account. This was her job, her life, she'd been doing it for nine years now and in that time she'd killed men a lot nicer, a lot more important, a lot more innocent than McKay and she still managed to sleep at night. It was a job, one she was good at.

She adjusted her position slightly to see if she could get a better view of the room, all she saw was another officer standing near the door, still no McKay. It was fine, she was a patient person, she could wait until he made the mistake of stepping in front of the window.

The music cut off as John turned the car engine off, the hotel was in front of him now. He'd been fortunate to have an acquaintance in the police force, someone who could get him information for a price. He'd slipped the man a few twenties and a few hours later he'd had the location of his mark in his hand. It was an expensive hotel, the kind that took care of your every need with a friendly smile and at the end slapped you with a bill that could probably pay for feeding the world.

He'd been told by his 'informant' in the police force that McKay was being heavily guarded and getting to him wouldn't be easy. John picked up the duffel bag from the side of him and took out his two guns, tucking them both into the back of his pants beneath his jacket where they'd go unnoticed by hotel security. He didn't like to kill cops; he'd avoid it whenever he could after all they were just good men and women doing their duty to protect the innocent. He'd do it if it was necessary though and it seemed that this time it was going to be necessary.

He got out of the car, locking it behind him and heading straight into the hotel. He wasn't worried about the security cameras, a clean up team would come in behind him to get rid of the evidence of his involvement, security footage included. His only concern was his mark and anything that stood in the way of him getting to it. If he lost his focus on that then he increased the chances of him failing and he never failed.

The hotel lobby was the same as the hundreds of others he'd been in, reception desk, smiling staff and couches for those waiting for one thing or another. He nodded his head giving a smile to one of the staff member he passed by and went straight to the elevator pressing the call button. A man walked up next to him, he too stopping to wait for the elevator and John glanced to his side to realise it was a cop, most likely one of those guarding McKay.

The elevator doors opened and they both stepped in, the cop pressed the button for his floor and John pressed the one for the floor above. They stood silently for a moment before John turned to him with a smile.

"Nice day huh?" he questioned and the cop regarded him warily for a second before nodding.

"Yeah, not one you want to spend inside," he replied and John smirked.

"You're working then?" he asked and the cop once again looked at him warily obviously choosing to lie or having been told to.

"Nah, just finished, my cousin's staying here so I thought I'd drop in on the way home," he told him and John resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He'd heard the lies officer's in witness protection told far more times than he cared to count. The truth was anyone who was looking for their witness would see right through it. If they were in the same place as the cops and the witness then the chances were they already knew where the witness was.

The doors slid open and the officer nodded his head to him politely and left. John made a mental note to try not to kill him, he seemed nice. He waited until the elevator doors were almost completely closed before he slipped out and hid himself behind a large plant as the officer walked to the room McKay was being kept in.

This was it.

The longer she stayed there the harder it was to keep her concentration from wavering. She didn't take her eyes off the room though and whenever she caught her mind wandering she refocused it on the window. She didn't get her 100 percent kill rate by not having the will to be patient, the determination to keep her mind on the task even when it took forever to accomplish. She'd wait until the perfect moment and somewhere in her mind she hoped that this was actually the right place, she hadn't actually seen McKay yet.

She rolled her shoulder, allowing herself only a brief moment to work her muscles before they could start getting stiff. When she looked back through the scope she saw him at last, exactly as he'd looked in his picture. He didn't seem happy, she couldn't hear him but it looked as though he was complaining about something. She tightened her finger on the trigger for what felt like the millionth time and aimed. She would probably only get one shot at this, it had to be a good one, it had to be a kill shot. She aimed for his head which was difficult because he kept moving it but she managed to get her aim right and started to pull the trigger.

The door to the room he was in burst open and a second later there were gun shots. It was a man, she couldn't see his face properly but she could tell it was definitely a man. He was shooting everyone, mostly non lethal shots that would leave the cops incapacitated but also leave one hell of a mess behind. She'd already lost sight of the scientist so she aimed at the newcomer firing a shot but he was moving around so much that she missed and the bullet hit the wall.

He knew she was there now and he dropped to the floor, she couldn't see him anymore and she kept a tight hold of the riffle taking another shot where she thought he might be. A hand appeared at the bottom of the window and started shooting toward her, how the hell had he figured out which window she was at already?

She was forced to drop back away from the window, hitting the floor herself now and only just being missed by the bullets flying her way. Some of them came into the room, lodging themselves in the back wall; others hit the outside of the building. This guy was an idiot, no idea how to pull off a covert operation and that was a key part of this business, not getting caught. He wasn't even looking at where he was firing, just shooting blind.

The scientist was gone and a competing Agent was shooting at her, pinning her down and despite her success rate she knew this was a lost cause. She grabbed for her case and dumped her rifle into it, she had to crawl beneath the window to get the camera stuffing that into the bag as well, there was no time to put things in nicely.

There would already be a commotion in the hotel across from her and it wouldn't be long before it spread to the street. The police would start sealing things off trying to find both shooters; she had to be out of the area before that happened. She grabbed the blonde wig, pulling it over her head and tucking her brown curls into as best she could in the limited time she had. Hopefully the idiot that had screwed this up for her would get caught by the cops, if his half cocked style was anything to go by then they might have him already. If not then she'd have to examine the security footage back at the office, maybe his face was on there.

The scientist was gone, he hadn't even seen him leave and the shooter across the street was no longer firing. He stood up, keeping his eye on the window he was sure the bullets had come from, it made sense, it was directly opposite the room and was probably the only one that would have been able to see through the partially open curtain. He'd fired a few shots in that direction, he had no idea if he'd hit them or if they'd just cut their losses and got out of there.

It didn't matter, he needed to clear the area, there would be plenty more cops there before long and clean up teams needed to be notified. They'd clean up any mess he'd made, the figurative kind not the literally trashed hotel room he was leaving in his wake. The cop he'd seen in the elevator was lying on the floor in the corner, he was unconscious from a bump on the head he'd taken on the way down but the gun shot was a superficial leg wound, he'd be recovered and back on duty in a few weeks tops.

Leaving the room he slipped the guns back underneath his jacket and walked to the elevator joining the crowd of panicked people that had overheard the commotion. The elevator was already full so he went for the stairs, slipping out of the corridor unnoticed and making his way down to the bottom floor. The hotel lobby was almost as panicked as the upper floor had been, the hotel employees were trying to keep everyone calm while remaining that way themselves.

John didn't pay them any attention; he went straight for the door and with all the fuss going on around him he was able to leave without being stopped. He walked out onto the street, walking away from the entrance just as two police cars pulled up, more would likely follow.

He couldn't believe he hadn't got his mark, he always got his mark and thanks to the interference from whoever that had been with the rifle he now had to go back to the office with his less than perfect kill rate. He'd have to get him later, there was no way some sniper hiding in a different building was going to ruin his success rate. Across the street was the hotel the shooter had been in, he looked up to where the window was, even from ground level he could see the bullet marks he'd left in the building, he could only hope he'd hit the shooter too. He figured it was most likely a competing Agent; the scientist's former employer had probably hired a couple of firms to make sure the job got done. The idiots obviously didn't realise that that's when things got messy. Having more than one Agent after the same mark was always going to end in disaster even if the two were from the same firm, competing Agents, those from different firms, that was never going to end well.

Someone came running out of the building, a blonde with a large bag and there was something familiar about her. He crossed the street to get a closer look at her as she made her way to her car; she opened the back door, putting the bag in the back seat before climbing into the front. She looked around her and that's when he saw it, that blonde looked one hell of a lot like his brunette wife. It was Elizabeth's face, Elizabeth's eyes, hell those were the earrings he'd bought her last Christmas.

What would Elizabeth be doing here? Why would she be a blonde? He shook his head, no, he had to be wrong, there was no way... was there?

TBC