At First Sight

by Joe Pascente

  Angela turned away from Jacobi, opening one of her bags and placed the picture between some of her clothes, zipping the bag back up. She didn’t say another word, as she led the two bodyguards out her front door locking it behind her. Jacobi couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked as if Angela wiped a tear from her eye in the reflection of the glass door. Knowing this woman for only a couple hours at this point, he could already tell she was a closed off person. She had some walls up, understandably so.

  Obviously, Jacobi knew Angela had issues with the nameless man in the picture. She had a past like everyone else. He wasn’t going to let that concern him. He was here to protect her. That was his job and he was the best man for it. He thought about taking a bullet for her again, but this time he imagined no pain at all when the bullet hit him.

  If you think positively, what could go wrong?

  II. Mission Control

  Bows was styling her hair in a sixties swirl updo, finishing up the look with two green bows that matched her shapely skintight cocktail dress. Applying the rest of her makeup, she felt the presence of someone behind her, watching her get ready. The men on her team were all scattered inside Sway, except for Rocky, who was close by watching Bows get ready from the women’s restroom doorframe. Sway was closed for the time being, because today was the day; the day the team was to accomplish their current mission.

  “Yes?” Bows asked flirtatiously.

  She applied her ruby red lipstick slowly and carefully; making sure Rocky was still watching her in the mirror.

  “Look at that fine ass. Get over here.”

  “Go find something else to do…your good-looking face is distracting me.”

  Bows smiled sweetly, looking in the mirror watching Rocky smile back at her in the reflection. Leaving her be, Rocky walked down the hall and into the main lounge where the stage was set up. Boulder was waiting for his brother on the stage and started dealing each of them a handful of cards. He was ready to gamble and take money from Rocky.

  Worm and Ace were at the bar, both smoking cigarettes and conversing. Worm had two laptops in front of him, fiddling away at the keyboards, as fast as his fingers could type. His red mohawk was now tipped with a vibrant blue.

  “What are you doing?” Ace asked, watching his comrade type a mile a minute.

  “I’m creating computer viruses and sending them to my ex-girlfriend.”

  “And, why are you doing this?”

  “Because she’s a cheating bitch.”

  Ace didn’t ask any more questions about the matter. He knew Worm had some really bad luck with the ladies recently and he didn’t want to get him going on one of his “woman-hating” rants.

  “Not only am I sending her countless viruses, I’m also closing her bank accounts and finding the most grotesque pornography I can, so I can send the links to her coworkers from her email address.”

  “Doesn’t Liz work at a preschool?”

  “Don’t say her garbage name. No one cheats on me and gets away with it!”

  “Damn. Remind me to never get on your bad side.”

  Ace took the last drag from his cigarette, still craving another. He had quite the smoking habit, especially after he took it up again after what happened with his relationship with Bows.

  “You know what, Ace? I’m glad we’re doing this mission today. This woman, Dr. Haven, deserves what’s coming to her. I should never have taken that stupid drug. Pure has messed up too many lives. This world was such a better place when everyone wasn’t looking for that spark that Pure supposedly ignites.”

  “Even before Pure, people were looking for the spark, man. Did you think you had the spark with Liz?”

  “Ah, shit, no. I mean, maybe. But that’s the whole point of Pure, right? It isn’t a maybe. It works, without a doubt, and your entire being knows this person is right for you. I guess if I think about it, when our eyes locked when we first met, I didn’t feel it.”

  “So how can you blame Dr. Haven? You knew what you were getting yourself into. Everyone who took it knew…including me.”

  Ace desperately wanted to make himself a drink, but recognized he couldn’t. Snipers had to have extreme focus and alcohol wasn’t a good strategic notion before the mission.

  “Yea, and see how well that worked out for you and Bows?”

  Worm had a horrible habit of saying things he shouldn’t have said in the first place.

  “I’m an asshole, Ace. I’m sorry, buddy. I’m just sick of the search. It’s a constant let-down with every woman I make eye contact with.”

  Watching Worm send his ex-girlfriend the viruses, Ace couldn’t help but snicker.

  “I want to go back to the simpler days. It wasn’t nearly as depressing. Love doesn’t have to be a definite thing. It should be reckless and mysterious. Keeping you on your toes. I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely ready to let this doctor have what’s coming to her.”

  “Would you be able to pull the trigger on this one?” Ace asked, knowing Worm was a complete softie even if he did talk a big game.

  “My fingers belong on the keyboards and your fingers belong on the guns. I wouldn’t want to mess up the system we have that works so well for the team.”

  Ace chuckled to himself again hearing Worm’s excuse. He had enough of this conversation and decided he needed some alone time to reflect on his thoughts. A good amount of alone time before each mission was always beneficial for his peace of mind. It took a lot of high-focused energy to be a sniper. Sometimes, he’d be sitting in an enclosed space for days waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger.

  This particular mission wouldn’t take too long with his team working as one; they’d get this mission done within a matter of hours. Right as he walked outside Sway’s front doors, he received a text from his boss, Duke.

  COME TO MY OFFICE ASAP.

  This should be good…

  Ace made his way back into Sway and walked past Worm, listening to his maniacal laughing, typing away at his multiple computers.

  Issues…

  He then walked past the stage; viewing Boulder and Rocky play cards. Boulder had a stack of cash next to him and Rocky looked pissed.

  Ha, ha, douchebag…

  Ace smirked at Rocky like a wise guy and Rocky held up his middle finger. Walking towards Duke’s office, Ace wondered why Duke needed to see him. As he pondered this, Bows came out of the women’s bathroom all dolled up, looking a bit startled to see her ex-boyfriend standing right outside the door.

  “Ace, damn it, you scared me. Where’s Rocky?”

  “What do I look like, his keeper?”

  “Real mature.” She said, walking away swinging her tiny hips back and forth, down the hallway towards the main lounge.

  Nice job, Ace.

  Finally reaching Duke’s office, Ace took a deep breath and knocked on his door. He didn’t know why he was nervous to meet with Duke; but he didn’t like the feeling he had in the pit of his stomach.

  “Come in, Ace.” Duke shouted from inside his office.

  Ace opened the door and walked in taking a seat at Duke’s desk.

  “You wanted to see me?”

  “Yes, I wanted to make some changes with this mission. I understand you all work well with one another as is, but I’ve decided for this particular mission I’d like you to be the mission leader.”

  Ace was taken aback by what Duke had suggested, or rather, ordered, since he was the head honcho of the team. Ace had only been mission leader on a few missions that didn’t involve using his sniper rifle. But this mission involved the use of his skills, so he was quite confused by this decision.

  “But sir, Rocky always leads the missions when I’m behind the scope. I don’t understand why you’d like me to lead while I’ll be focusing on the target?”

  “That’s exactly why you need to lead th
is mission. You’ll be at the highest vantage point. You’ll be seeing more than Rocky and everyone else on the team. I need this mission to go as smoothly as possible and although Rocky has never let me down before, he can be quite sloppy with his methods. He can be too impulsive. You have great control and careful execution while you lead missions. That’s what I need for this particular case.”

  “He won’t like it. He’ll feel like I’m taking his position.”

  “Well, if he has a problem with it, he can take it up with me. And besides, sometimes people take things that don’t outright belong to them.”

  Duke nudged Ace’s arm to drive the point home. Of course Ace knew he was referring to Rocky dating (and now moving in with) Bows after their break-up.

  Why can’t everyone just let that go? Taking Pure fucked everything up for us.

  Duke shook Ace’s hand and led him out of his office. Ace had been requested to inform Rocky of the mission leader modification. From this moment on, his fellow team members had an hour before getting into place.

  Duke had eyes everywhere, and he rarely ever let on how he knew where his targets would be for the team’s missions. He had many knowledgeable informants that Ace, and the other team members, weren’t privileged to know about. Ace didn’t think about this much. He had one job and that was to follow Duke’s orders.

  That’s how he made his livelihood. That’s how he stayed safe as an undercover bartender. That’s how he lived his life, even if he occasionally wondered what it’d be like to be a decent person that didn’t assassinate people for a living.

  Then again, he didn’t think about this much.

  Rocky had just lost all his money to his brother, once again. Being the troublemaker he always was, Ace thought this was the perfect opportunity to let Rocky know he was going to take his position as mission leader. The look on Rocky’s face was priceless when Ace gave him the bad news. And as Rocky made his way to the front doors of Sway, Ace heard him punch the lounge wall slamming open the front doors to light up a joint.

  A hazy cloud of white smoke lingered in the air, with the strong scent of some fresh marijuana. Ace also made his way out the front doors of Sway and caught a strong whiff of it. He tiptoed behind Rocky and tapped him on the shoulder.

  Rocky scoffed. “What do you want?”

  “As mission leader, I want your head in the game, so no more of this.”

  “It helps me focus.”

  Ace grabbed the joint from Rocky’s lips and threw it on the pavement. With a giant grin on his face, Ace casually walked back inside Sway. He noticed Bows leaning against the bar with her arms folded, having just witnessed the interaction between her ex-boyfriend and her current boyfriend. She discerned Rocky was pissed by the way he kicked Sway’s red velvet rope over.

  Still smiling, Ace shouted, “Get ready! We’re out in five flat.” Turning towards Bows, he whispered, “Your boy toy has quite an anger problem.”

  Bows turned away from Ace and stomped off towards Boulder who was still counting his earnings from his brother. Worm was now sobbing at the bar saying, “What have I done?”

  He was regretting sending the computer viruses to his ex-girlfriend. But, Ace was in the happiest of moods. He was actually excited about this mission, especially the part where he would be ordering Rocky around. He looked down at his phone and there was another text from Duke.

  DON’T LET ME DOWN.

  Ace kept on smiling, knowing he had this mission in the bag. He knew the mission was going to be a piece of cake, being an overconfident type of person he aimed to be. After all, he was the leader now and when he was in control, things always turned out better than expected.

  What could go wrong?

  CHAPTER 3

  UNDER CONTROL

  I. A Plan is Starting to Appear

  Angela rubbed her tired eyes. The obnoxious sounds of Mr. Hicks’ snoring kept her and Jacobi tossing and turning most of the night.

  Angela was the first to wake up after finally falling asleep for a stretch of hours and stood next to the hotel suite window beside her bed. The Watermark Hotel was nothing short of a high-class hotel with all the amenities one could ever want. Angela opened the curtains and stared off into the distance watching the ocean’s beautiful blues and greens splash around for miles. Pressing her cold hand against the warm window, she longed for a quick swim.

  With her two bodyguards hovering around her, Angela began to feel like a prisoner. She walked into the main room of the luxury suite to find Jacobi putting a white undershirt on, rubbing the eye snot out of his sleepy eyes.

  “And how’d you sleep, Dr. Haven?”

  “Delightfully. Thanks to the soothing sounds Mr. Hicks was making through his nostrils all night.”

  “Tell me about it. I threw every pillow I had at him to get him to simmer down, but he was dead to the world.”

  “One of my bodyguards is a heavy sleeper; that’s comforting.”

  Angela made her way over to the kitchen area and began to make some hot tea to wake herself up. Jacobi hit the floor and began his morning ritual of doing 100 pushups. Angela couldn’t help but glance over in his direction, as Jacobi had quite a muscular body. He abruptly turned his head towards Angela and caught her checking him out. Of course, Angela averted her eyes straightaway, examining the kitchen countertop. Jacobi just smiled and continued his routine.

  “I was thinking of going for a swim this morning. I love being in the ocean, it just makes me feel—“

  “Sorry, but that’s not going to happen today, Dr. Haven.” Jacobi interrupted.

  Standing up again, Jacobi knew he wouldn’t be able to finish the rest of his morning pushups ritual if he’d have to get into it with Dr. Haven.

  “First of all, call me Angela. Second of all, you can’t tell me what to do. You were hired to protect me and I’m allowing that…but only from the sandy shore. I apologize if you get a bit hot out there in your suit, but every job comes with unfortunate aspects.”

  “Being out in the general public, when you’ve already been attacked, isn’t the smartest idea right now. I can draw a bath for you, if you’d like?” Jacobi asked, being completely serious about his suggestion.

  Angela wasn’t pleased with his condescending tone. “I don’t want to lay in a bathtub. I want to swim in the ocean. I get it; my life sucks right now. I can’t do a lot of the things I did before I created Pure, but I will not stop living the life I want for myself. Swimming in the ocean relaxes me. It’s something I need. And I need it today.”

  Mr. Hicks woke up abruptly and sat up from the couch he was sleeping on. He decided to chime in without even opening his eyes.

  “No, he’s right, Dr. Haven. We can’t allow it. I’m sorry—”

  “Oh, now you’re up! And like I told your bullheaded partner, call me Angela!”

  Angela obviously wasn’t going to get her way with these two, so she poured herself a cup of tea and stormed off to her room, slamming the door behind her.

  “Someone’s cranky this morning.” Mr. Hicks muttered, stretching his arms above his head with a loud yawn.

  Jacobi just smirked and said, “I’ve got her under control.”

  At that very second, Angela was slipping on her new light blue bikini, forging a plan of escape from her overbearing bodyguards.

  II. In the Driver’s Seat

  “I think I’m going to throw up,” Bows declared, holding her hand over her mouth. With her other hand, she squeezed Rocky’s arm in the backseat of Duke’s blacked-out van. “You suck at driving, Worm!”

  “That’s because he’s wiping the stream of tears from his crying eyes.” Ace shouted in an irritated manner.

  Being the mission leader seemed to be a stress for Ace and the mission itself hadn’t even started yet. He wasn’t comfortable with his team being distracted, especially with emotional relationship issues.
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  “Piss off! All of you! I’m just going through a lot at the moment!” Worm shouted back, blowing his nose into his linen handkerchief.

  Ace rolled down the passenger side window and exhaled loudly. “Get it together, Worm!”

  The van was cramped with the teams’ weapons and high-tech computer systems. Everyone felt nauseous from Worm’s topsy-turvy driving. Ace immediately regretted his decision to designate Worm the driver, all for the sake of keeping his mind off things.

  “Lizzy broke my heart. I can’t even think about her with another man. It’s driving me crazy! I could kill that two-timing slut!”

  Another car cut in front of the van and Worm suddenly slammed on the brakes, causing his snotty handkerchief to fly across the dashboard and onto Ace’s lap. This, of course, enraged Ace to no end, and so he threw the handkerchief out the window.

  “Hey! That was given to me as a Christmas present from Lizzy!”

  “Pull over, damn it!”

  Ace had apparently had enough of Worm’s antics and awful driving. Worm pulled over and shut off the engine. Ace took the keys out of the ignition and handed them to Boulder.

  “You’re driving.”

  “If you insist, but I was drinking this morning.” Boulder grumbled.

  Ace grabbed the keys out of Boulder’s hand and tossed them to Rocky.

  “You’re driving.”

  “I don’t have a license.” Rocky said, glaring at Ace.

  Bows spoke up and asked, “Why don’t you have a license, babe?”

  “It expired and I never went to renew it. Remember? The day I was supposed to go, you wouldn’t let us get out of bed.”

  Ace’s blood pressure was skyrocketing at this point. “Bows, you’re driving!”

  “Don’t speak to me like that!”

  “I’m the mission leader! It’s your job to follow my orders!” Ace argued back.

  Bows climbed up front and switched spots with Worm. “You don’t have to be an ass about it.”

  “I don’t have time for this bullshit. I’ll drive. Switch spots with me, Bows.” Ace unbuckled his seat belt and opened the passenger side door and stepped outside. It was a steamy 95 degrees out and climbing this morning. Wiping the sweat off his brow, Ace stomped towards the driver’s side of the van as Bows sat calmly filing her nails in the passenger seat.