This chapter is a bit longer than previous ones. We finally get to start on the action! Woohoo!
Also, this is totally unrelated, but if you guys didn't know, I'm the biggest Teen Titans fan ever, and now they might be coming back with a season 6? Next story might be a superhero au. Im feeling incredibly inspired binge watching all five seasons of the original show.
Anywho, onto chapter 6!
Training was so exhausting, it had become second nature for me to sleep through the roar of the generator. The more educated I became on Yuma's intel, Kanon's little gadgets, Anon's first aid, Flower's guns, and Rin's fighting techniques, the more comfortable I felt here. I had lost track of the days. It didn't worry me too much anymore. Just like my old life, this one seemed… alright.
"Len."
A heavy bag landed on my stomach, taking the breath out of my lungs. Rin stood over me. She was wearing jeans and a tank top. I had never seen her in normal clothes before, and it took me off guard.
"You have just, like, shook me or something," I grumbled, pushing the bag onto the bed next to me.
"We're leaving."
My gaze snapped to her. "What?"
"We have a contract. You're coming with me."
That simple sentence was enough to make me second guess everything. "Do… do you really think I'm ready?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Are you?"
"I don't know."
A sigh escaped her. "You're not doing the killing. You're just tagging along. How are you gonna learn if you don't participate?"
"It just… it still feels like I just got here."
"It's been almost two months."
Two months. My funeral was probably over. My parents thought I was dead. The thought was surprisingly mild. It was my friends I was more worried about.
"If you don't come now," she continued. "Then when?"
I rested my hands on the bed, thinking. "Where are we going?"
"Chicago. Our target is a gang member."
The bag she had thrown at me was my duffle. It contained the list of items I had memorized, as well as an outfit of civilian clothes.
"So, you coming?"
Could I actually kill someone? I wouldn't be doing the killing. But could I watch someone kill a person? In my new line of work, I didn't have much of a choice.
"Yeah."
She nodded in approval. "Change into those clothes, and meet me in the main room." Without another word, she turned out of the room. All the other beds were empty. The clock on the wall read seven o'clock. In the morning, I assumed.
After getting used to the tight uniforms, and even learning to appreciate the maneuverability and comfort they offered, it was weird wearing normal clothes. I felt an unexpected bout of homesickness as I looked at myself in the mirror. The showers of our bathroom were behind me, reminding me that I was nowhere near home, and yet it looked like I was getting ready to go out drinking with my friends. Or go out to eat. Or go watch a game with them.
I hadn't done anything apart from training in almost two months. No drinking, no games. Just school, basically. It was like I was back in college. Every waking moment of my life was planned. I hadn't even had the chance to try out that comfy-looking couch in the living room and flip through the channels, though I had caught the others doing it in their free time.
It felt like just yesterday when I left my parent's home state for my apartment. And yet the last few weeks had been the longest of my life.
Dwelling on it would only make it worse. With a final deep breath, I ran my hands under the cold water of the sink and splashed it in my face. Worry about this later. Later. It was always later, just putting it off. When would I finally have to face the facts?
I left the bathroom to find Yuma digging through the cabinets in the kitchen. I furrowed my brow at him. He was wearing his normal uniform.
"You gonna change?" I asked him.
He cast a look over his shoulder at me. "Me? Nah. I'm not going."
"Why not?"
"It's a simple job. You and Rin don't need us for this one." He continued his search. "I swear, if Flower ate my fucking barbeque chips-"
"It seems kind of dangerous. Just the two of us. Why don't you all go every time?"
'Too much work," he answered, shutting the cabinets. "Getting you two fake IDs and plane tickets was enough. I don't wanna bother doing it for all six of us."
"We're flying?"
He paused, turning to me. "Flower is driving you guys to the airport. And she better be going grocery shopping on the way home," he muttered. "Come on."
I followed him out of the room.
Everyone was gathered around the table, going over the last few details of our contract. Both excitement and anxiety rose as I saw them, only Rin, Flower, and I not in our uniforms.
"Ready to go?" Flower asked.
I fiddled with the strap of my duffle bag. "Yeah."
"Cool. Your flight's at three. We better get going."
Already? I didn't even know this trip existed ten minutes ago. And we were already leaving for the airport?
Yuma must have noticed my nervousness. He clapped me on the shoulder. "First mission, huh?"
"If you don't want to count LA," Anon added with a laugh.
"I don't," he responded. "You got this."
I sighed but didn't respond.
Rin stood tall. "Len, I wouldn't be inviting you to come if I didn't think you were ready."
"I'm good," I assured them. "Let's just go."
"Flower. We're out of chips."
She rolled her eyes. "Not this shit again."
Rin turned her attention to Kanon as Flower and Yuma began their bickering. "We'll be back in two days," she promised. "We'll be at the airport at seven on Saturday. If you don't hear from us-"
"I know, I know," Kanon waved her off. "Expect the worst."
I gulped. Kanon laughed at me. "Don't worry, new kid. This one's a walk in the park. I promise."
"Okay." I wasn't convinced. Flashbacks of running out of my apartment, jumping onto a moving semi, almost getting shot… I definitely wasn't convinced.
After a brief goodbye, Flower ascended the stairs with Rin and I in tow, and opened the door.
"Relax," she said quietly as we entered the airport.
It had taken us a few hours to reach it, almost half of that time spent hiking to Flower's car. I had never expected such a quiet girl to drive such a badass Hummer.
"How are we gonna get past security?" I asked with a low voice. My eyes darted to the face of every stranger, and I felt tense enough to snap in half. I hadn't seen the public in months. It was a lot harder than I remembered.
"These bags are specially designed to hide our… things." She walked calmly next to me, glancing only occasionally at people as they passed by. Great Falls International Airport was crowded today.
The scenery of the airport was beautiful, and I tried to distract myself in it. We stepped onto an escalator with a rocky sculpture right next to it. Water trickled down peacefully.
We're on our way to go kill somebody.
There were statues, seats, gift shops, and people rushing to and fro. It was a typical airport, except for the wooden, rustic feel and the multitude of life-sized animals that posed around the building. They looked real enough to jump out and bite me. I was jumpy enough that a few times, I thought they were going to.
Somebody is going to die because of us.
The line for security was fairly short compared to other airport lines I had stood in. I tried to take deep breaths, distract myself, anything to keep me from trembling. If anything's gonna give us away, it's me. I was worried I was going to sweat through my shirt.
Rin stood next to me. She was calm and collected, glancing around the airport curiously, blending in perfectly. It was almost infuriating how easy this was for her.
One of the guards had a dog. A german shepherd. I tried to avoid my eyes as he walked down the line with him. Rin didn't even seem to notice them as they passed us. They passed us. They didn't stop us.
What am I facing, here? I wondered. Getting caught with stuff like this… what would happen to me? What would happen to Rin? What would happen to everyone else? I wasn't risking my own safety, but that of my whole team.
I wouldn't be inviting you to come if I didn't think you were ready.
With a deep breath, I managed to clear my mind, pretending that I was the same old Len leaving to visit his parents. We had reached the front of the line. Rin walked ahead of me, probably to ease my anxiety, and set her back down in one of the bins, removing her shoes as well. I did the same.
She walked into the metal detector, pausing as it scanned her, and stepped out with ease. The only sound I could hear was my heart thudding frantically in my chest.
This is it, I thought, glancing at our bags as they disappeared into the machines. Caught before you even started.
I stepped into the metal detector. Rin didn't even look back at me.
The machine scanned me. I tried to keep my expression blank and indifferent. It was nearly impossible. I felt like everyone was staring at me, constantly shooting me suspicious glances, narrowing their eyes at me. But, in reality, every member of security had their eyes trained to the task, their expressions bored, and was just trying to get through another day at work.
They have no idea that there are assassins passing through their security right now.
I stepped out of the metal detector unharassed. Rin met me at the other side. Our bags appeared at the other end of the machine, and I felt giddy with excitement. We did it. We did it.
We hadn't done anything yet. It was just security. I tried to hide my smile from Rin as we descended another flight of stairs into the terminals.
"Not so bad, right?" She said, her bag slung easily over her shoulder. It occurred to me that she probably had that same sniper in her bag. And yet I was the one that was worried.
At first glance, Chicago didn't seem so different from LA.
We left the airport without a hitch. Rin hailed us a taxi to a nearby hotel. Despite being surrounded by so many people, I felt strangely alone with Yuma and the others with me. If I wasn't here, Rin would probably be here alone. I wondered if she felt the same way.
After a brief ride, we stepped out of our taxi in the heart of the city. A giant building loomed over us.
"We have a reservation," Rin said politely to the clerk. "Under 'Anderson.'"
I turned away to hide my smile at the generic name.
Once again, without any trouble, he gave us each a keycard, directing us to a room on the fourteenth floor.
We rode the elevator without a word.
I just traveled through public with a gun in my bag. I was amazed.
The hallway was empty. The carpets were gold, the walls white. It seemed to be the general color scheme of the entire hotel. We stopped before our room, and Rin glanced down the hallway, looking for any other person. There were none.
"When we go in, don't say a word until I tell you to," she whispered to me.
I nodded. This entire trip, I'd be her shadow. Doing nothing, saying nothing, just watching. And following.
She swiped her card into the door and entered.
The room was simple, but sparkling with its white walls and golden carpets. A bed, a couch, a TV, a mini fridge and a microwave. The bathroom was clean, with freshly folded towels and a perfectly clean mirror. I stayed behind her as she stepped in, opening a pocket in her duffle bag, and pulled out a small circular object. I recognized it as one of Kanon's gadgets. She threw it onto the bed and began nodding her head slowly. Counting.
When she got to ten, the object beeped and flashed green.
"We're good," she said, grabbing it and setting it back into her bag.
"What's that?"
Rin chuckled softly. "Kanon calls it the 'Tapper Tracker.' It senses cameras and microphones in the room. And we're clear." She dropped her bag onto the bed. "Grab your wallet and your gun."
Without questioning, I did as she told, slipping the wallet containing my fake ID and tucking the holstered gun into the waistband of my jeans. "Aren't you bringing yours?" I asked as she took her wallet out, setting it in her pocket as well.
"No. I can't hide mine as easily. These fucking jeans-" She glanced longingly at her uniform in her bag. "They suck. If things get rough, you're in charge." The only other thing she took from her belongings was a small pair of binoculars.
Oh no.
"But it'll be fine. We just need to scout out our vantage point." She zipped up both of our bags and pushed them under the bed. "Let's go."
With our key cards in hand, we placed the Do Not Disturb sign on the outer handle to keep any maids from finding our stuff and left the building.
"Our client told us that our best chance of finding the target is in a warehouse along Lake Michigan," she told me, her voice low. The streets were crowded, and no one was paying attention to us, but I still found it a bit unnerving how she talked about it in the open like this.
"A warehouse?"
Her eyes searched the streets as we walked. "Yup. According to the client, he's a dangerous person to hang around. I imagine this warehouse isn't in the best part of town, either."
The tall buildings completely blocked out the last lights of the setting sun, casting the streets into a premature darkness. "Do we know his name?"
"The target?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah," she answered. "It's Dex. He's a pretty young kid, eighteen according to his record."
"He has a record?"
"Len. He's a gang member. Of course he has a record."
Eighteen. He was still a kid.
"How much are they paying us for this?"
She shifted her hands into her pockets. The temperatures were dropping, and she was in a tank top. With one more glance up and down the street, she sighed. "Eighty-five thousand."
"Jesus," I gaped, trying not to let my emotions run wild. The last thing I needed to do was draw attention to us.
She shrugged. "I guess he managed to really piss some people off."
For a few minutes, our conversation ceased. I followed her as she wove her way through the city. Wherever this place was, it was a long walk. The darker the sky became, the more people we encountered. There were groups of young people laughing and casting us glances. There were some people walking alone on their way home from work. There were one or two people stumbling drunk through the city. Every time I spotted someone watching us for a little too long, my mind flashed back to the gun tucked in my jeans. I let myself have the satisfaction of being Rin's guard, but I knew that, even when I had a gun and she didn't, she would probably be more effective than me in a fight. But hey, a guy can dream.
"Have you been here before?" I asked, noticing how naturally she seemed to traverse the city. We had been on the streets for almost an hour.
She nodded. "There are a lot of contracts here."
We had torn away from the tall buildings of downtown and found ourselves in the outskirts. The skyscrapers were replaced with run down, abandoned buildings.
"It's probably best we try to stay out of sight down here," she advised me. "We're in gang territory."
So, instead of following the sidewalks, we began darting through empty alleys. We gave up walking for jogging, and, eventually, we found our destination.
The building was small, probably only two floors tall, with a slanted roof and an array of broken windows. A ragged chain-link fence stood around the entire property, discarded pieces of machinery littered the area outside, and the building's brick walls were chipped and decaying with age. At first, it was hard to see any signs of life. But the longer I stared at it, the easier it was to see a faint light coming from inside.
"Our guy has to be in there," Rin said, peeking around the wall of our current alley.
"Why aren't we just doing it tonight?" I asked her.
"The client paid extra for us to do it in front of him."
"...How much extra?"
"Almost double what he originally offered."
Damn.
"Plus," she continued, scanning the street separating us from the building. "We need to get a feel for the area. We need to know where we're gonna take the shot from, and where we can escape. And, if that doesn't work out for any reason, we need to know backups. And a way to improvise. This guy has followers. If we killed him without any planning, they'd be on us in seconds."
I scanned the buildings around the warehouse, trying to figure out what Rin was thinking.
She turned to me. "Where we going?"
"What?"
She nodded towards the building. "The target is in there. We need a vantage point. Where do you think we should go?"
"Rin, I don't fucking know-"
"Then look."
This is my first fucking mission, I thought with a sigh. Nevertheless, she seemed reluctant to give up, so I looked towards the buildings once more.
To the left of the factory was another abandoned building. That one, however, was in much worse shape than the factory itself. It had fallen into such disrepair that it seemed like a strong gust of wind would be all it took to knock it's wooden walls to the ground. I wasn't eager to walk into it.
To the right was an empty, dirt lot. Next down the street was a parking lot for what looked like an apartment complex. The billboard next to the building flashed annoyingly, the light clearly close to dying. But the parking lot had cars in it. People lived there.
It would probably be better to find somewhere high up, I thought, looking over the building. It was one… two… three… four stories tall, had a flat roof, and most of the lights were out. Probably cameras, though. And it's three lots away from the warehouse.
"How far can you shoot?" I asked her.
She shrugged. "Point me somewhere and I'll tell you."
I nodded towards the building. "There. The roof. You could probably get a good shot through the windows."
Her eyes followed my gaze, and she nodded. "Good thing I brought the binoculars."
After checking the street for any inhabitants, we crossed in a brisk jog. The apartment building, was, to my dismay, locked with a code.
"Shit," I muttered as I pulled at the metal door. We had followed the sidewalk from the parking lot. Decorative rocks were on either side of the path. The light underneath the door flickered occasionally.
Rin furrowed her brow, then widened her eyes as the headlights of a car passed behind us. Someone was coming.
I tensed up, but Rin stepped into the rocks, pulling me with her. She leaned casually against the wall. Taking the hint, I set my hands in my pockets. Her back was now to the door, but she was only inches away from it.
"But she was the one who was late on rent-" Rin began talking complete nonsense to me once we heard the car door shut from the lot. She continued speaking until a girl walked up the sidewalk next to us. She cast us a single short glance before inserting her keycard into the door and pulled it open.
"So I don't know what to do. Should I, like, harass her about it? Because the bill's in my name-" she continued talking even after the girl disappeared inside. Just as the door was about to slam shut once more, Rin put her foot between it. She paused, listening for the girl, and then relaxed.
"Maybe not the best idea," I said once it was safe. "We can't guarantee someone'll walk in or out tomorrow in time."
She peered into the hallway. "I have a card scanner in my bag, I just didn't think we'd need it. And that," she said, turning to look at me. "Is why you always bring your bag. Even though I don't."
I chuckled, following her inside.
Our footsteps echoed loudly, and we exchanged no words. There was no doubt that everyone in the building could hear the conversations bouncing off the walls in this hall. After silently climbing the concrete stairs, we found ourselves on the top floor.
Now to get to the roof.
All the apartment doors looked identical. At the end of the hall on the fourth floor was a door that stood out like a black sheep. Instead of the white, wooden doors we had seen, this one was grey and metal. A Do Not Enter sign was plastered onto it.
Great. A locked door.
My eyes widened as Rin set a hand on the handle, pushing it open.
Guess not.
There was one more small set of stairs, another (surprisingly unlocked) door, and we set foot on the graveled roof.
"They don't lock the doors?" I asked her as she shut it behind us.
"You'd be surprised," she said. "People rarely go where they know they're not supposed to. Plus, even if they do, I bet the owner doesn't give a shit. I'd bet you a lot of money that everyone in this building thinks that door is locked when none of them have ever tried the handle."
"But what if it's locked tomorrow?" I asked, kneeling down next to the edge. There was a small panel, maybe half a foot tall, lining the roof.
"I have lockpicks in my bag." She lowered herself to her stomach, looking towards the warehouse. She pulled her binoculars from her pocket.
I let out a laugh. "You seem to have a lot more in your bag than I do."
"You'll get the rest of your stuff eventually," she said, peering through the lenses.
The factory was too far to see with my naked eye, so I waited for her diagnosis. She observed the scene for a few long minutes before lowering them.
"I found him," she said softly. Handing the binoculars to me, she continued. "Right side. Poker table. He's got grey hair. There's a lamp right above him."
It took me awhile just to find the warehouse and steady my hands enough to look through them accurately. These things were amazing; it was like I was standing just outside the building, peering in through the windows.
There were dozens of people inside. Tables were set up, and some were drinking, others talking intensely, and others gambling. Our target belonged to the final group. Focusing on the right end of the building, I spotted the table Rin was referring to. Sitting at the table, along with a few other guys, was the grey-haired target. Dex. He had a pile of cash in front of him.
"I never understood the whole dye-your-hair-grey- trend," I said, lowering the binoculars.
She chuckled. "Me neither."
"So, we can see okay from here. Will this work?"
"How will we leave?" She quizzed me.
"Well… there are two exits on the first floor. We can escape through the one that isn't facing the warehouse, and retreat back into the alleys we came through."
"You don't think people will see us?"
"Not if we go at night. You said the client wanted to… watch. How's that going to work."
She looked pleased. "He's going to be at the warehouse tomorrow. Tomorrow night."
"Then it all works out."
With a curt nod, she looked back towards the warehouse. The sun had completely set by now, and the streetlamps flickered along the sidewalks. The light of them reflected in her eyes as she gazed at the scene. "How're you feeling?"
I furrowed my brow. "What?"
"You're about to assist in an assassination, Len."
"...Yeah. I know."
"And how do you feel?"
Never in my wildest dreams did I think Rin would ever be concerned about how I was feeling. "...Nervous. Anxious. A little freaked out."
She blinked, her eyes still trained on the building. I expected her to give a response. She didn't. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on in that head of hers. Those eyes were completely glossed over and lost in thought.
"Do you think we should head back?" I asked.
There was a pause, and then she sighed. "Yeah. Let's head back."
The walk back to the hotel seemed even longer than before.
So, like usual, I've written ahead quite a bit. My backlog of chapters is monumental. I just finished writing chapter twenty. So don't worry about this story getting cut short! Lol.
Thanks for reading guys :)
