"The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged."- Democritus
III. Cloak
New York
John felt sick to his stomach as he sat at the bar in the small café nursing a cup of coffee. Ever since they had received the new numbers, his mind keep taking him back to the night Joss died. He felt like abandoning the mission and making his way to the nearest liquor store and drinking himself unconscious. His eyes drifted to the mirror in front of him as he observed the male occupant in the booth behind him.
After he left the library he made his way to the work address of Marcus Walters. When he came to the office building, Walters was in the process of leaving. He started following him and tried to clone his phone but the signal didn't go through, so he had to resort to planting a listening device in the man's coat pocket when he "accidentally" bumped into him.
John stared at the man and gauged him as being in his mid 50's, brown eyes, with a pale complexion. The man had been sitting at the booth for 15 minutes and judging by the way his leg keep shaking, he was nervous about something.
He was brought out of his thoughts as an older white male, with white hair sat down in front of Walters.
"Walters, I can't say I'm delighted to be here speaking to you right now. I hired you to get results and what I got instead was a mess."
Walters fired back in a rushed hushed voice "This wouldn't have happened if you told me what the hell you planned on doing to my asset. You asked me for one of my best to accomplish your task, if you were just planning to kill her to cover your tracks, I would have sent someone else to handle the mission."
The older man scoffed "Watch your tone Walters."
Walters clinched his fist and sat back against the booth.
"So how are you going to handle this mess, there are a lot of powerful people who have a vested interest in making sure this operation goes through as planned."
Walters cracked his knuckles against his chin and leaned forward "My people are working on it." The older man narrowed his eyes signaling for more of an explanation.
"Ross made contact after the botched assignment. She left a message on the switchboard saying she was coming to have a conversation with me in person. Her last confirmed location was the Ogo Mountains in Somalia."
"How's she going to get here? Her travel credentials are flagged and her accounts frozen." The old man replied. Walters smirked "You asked me to give you the best, if you think that's going to stop her then you obviously didn't read her file."
Walters rubbed the bridge of his nose, "More than likely she's already in the States, probably already in New York."
The older man leaned forward "Can you stop her?", "Depends" Walters replied.
"On what ?", the older man questioned. Walters ran his hand down his face "On how pissed off she is."
The older man sat leaned back "What about paying her off?" Walters turned and gazed out the diner window before he replied. "She's one of our best, she has a particular trait that makes her a damn near unstoppable killing machine. We took that trait and made her loyal to us and turned her into our attack dog and..." he trailed off still gazing out the window.
Johns face hardened as he listened to the conversation, he didn't like were the subject was going"
"And?" the older mad replied.
Walters turned his gaze back to the man "And, when you abuse an attack dog, you better make damn sure you put it down the first time, because at the first chance it gets, it'll rip your throat out." The old man chuckled as he stood up "Well then, you better approach the matter like your dog has rabies and put her down, permanently. In the meantime I'll be seeing to the handling of another loose end. I trust you'll keep me informed on your progress." The older man made his way to the exit.
Walters sat at the booth for a few seconds longer, then placed some money on the table and made his way to the exit.
John paid for his coffee and made his way out of the café as he tapped his ear piece "Finch, Shaw, did you get all of that?"
"Yes Mr. Reese, I did. It seems that Mr. Walters is both our victim and perpetrator."
"I say we let the bastard get what's coming to him."
"That would be ill advised Ms. Shaw, given the possibility that Mr. Walters or Ms. Ross may be able to provide us with answers."
"How do you suggest we stop her Finch, because the last time I saved an assassin, she shot me." John sarcastically replied.
Shaw mocked back over the connection "Well I did say you had poor communication skills Reese."
"Even so, we do not know what Ms. Ross is capable of and how far she's willing to go to get her revenge, it could potentially end up with a lot of innocent people getting hurt.
"What do a contract killer and her employer have to do with Carters death?" Sam questioned skeptically.
"I don't know Ms. Shaw but I think it would be worth our time to find out"
Washington D.C.
Echoing thumps and grunts sounded out across the gym as a female figure boxed it out with punching bags. 'Joss just stay with me..please..just..Joss…God.'
She could still hear his voice and feel his hands as he cradled her in his arms before she "died". Ever since her extraction she spent her time working out twice a day, seven days a week. One reason was to get back in shape, playing mom for 15 years, made her gain some weight and loose muscle tone and definition. The other reason she worked out was to provide herself with a distraction. Every time she was bored or tried to sleep she would be haunted by flashbacks of what she did.
A part of her wanted to fall off the grid and return to New York to explain herself, to ask her son for forgiveness. To gravel at Johns feet and beg him not to hate her for what she'd done to him, not to despise her for the lie she lived for 15 years. She hated herself so much for hiding the truth from him. When they were in the morgue she wanted so bad to tell him the truth. She almost did but she lost her nerve when he told her that she changed him and then he kissed her.
She felt the burn as her eyes began to tear up. If only she had the power to turn back time, she could try to make things right. But this was reality and there wasn't going to be a fairy tale ending for her. She would have to live with her actions as a constant reminder of the price she paid when she signed her life away. She threw down her boxing gloves and made her way to the pull up bars.
A man dressed in black climbed up a fire escape and made his way into a 5th floor apartment window. As he made his way into the apartment he surveyed his surroundings. He pulled out a gun as he moved through each room to ensure no one was home. Once he cleared the apartment he began planting the evidence that his employer wanted the cops to find. He removed a bag with bottles of pills in it. He began placing the perception bottles of Anti-depressants, pain killers and muscle relaxers on the bed side table and in the medicine cabinet. He then made his way to the kitchen and placed bottles of hard alcohol in the cupboards.
After placing the evidence he sat at the foot of the bed and took out his phone and opened the attachment with his targets information on it. He waited as the photograph of a government file loaded on his phone. As he scrolled down the document he read the targets information again. 'Sex: Female, Height: 5ft 4in, Weight: 140lbs, Alias: Jocelyn Ward/Carter/Richards/Williams, Age:42, Former Employer: US Army, Current Employer: DIA, Occupation: Human Intelligence Officer, Tactical Training/Skills: Multilingual; Counter Surveillance; Close Quarter Combat; Unarmed Combat; Applied Explosive Techniques; Rapid Assault; Military Free Fall(HAHO); Precise Application of Lethal Force; Field Medicine; Extreme Environment Survival.'
His phone vibrated as he received an incoming text. He looked at the text, 'Target mobile, ETA 15 minutes.' He flicked his phone off and stood up from the bed and made his way to the bathroom. Once inside the bathroom he removed a syringe from his pocket and stood in the dark of the bathroom and waited for his target to arrive.
An: Military free fall refers to parachuting. HAHO is a technique and it stands for "high altitude,high opening"