by Jet MacLeod
“I am sure.”
“What about you? Any assignments ever get to you? I mean besides Kiev, of course,” Angie stated.
“I am sure that they did, but I don’t remember any of them, now.”
“Really?”
“You learn not to. Those that can’t get passed that have a tendency to not last long in my profession. It is a different but I understand what you are saying. I think in the beginning I had some minor issues, but they didn’t last too long.”
“Really?”
“How can I be upset when I can’t see the person I am shooting?”
“How do you shoot them then?”
“Practice.”
Angie arched an eyebrow at her and took a sip of coffee. She didn’t know what to say to Del’s revelation. Del didn’t turn to look at her. She was still staring out over the water.
“It isn’t hard to care when you can’t see their faces.”
“Then, how do you know that they are actually dead?”
“I’m usually not the only person looking at them. I would have a spotter, someone who confirms the target. Once I have confirmation, I take the shot. Once I shoot, another person closer to the target verifies the strike. They were usually a deep undercover Alphabet agent. Those were always the easy targets. It was the up close and personal ones that give you pause,” Del told her.
“Like Kiev”“
“Yes, like Kiev.”
“I am sorry.”
“For what?”
“I know that you don’t want to talk about it.”
“You’re right, I don’t.”
“I think I can understand why though. I am sorry that you had to do that. I guess I just don’t understand politics the way that I thought I did,” Angie told her.
“It usually had nothing to do with politics but national security. Don’t get me wrong, Angie, it was hard, but when you think about the cost of one life for many, you learn to deal with it. As a mercenary or an assassin for the government, you always have to look at the bigger picture or a long range plan. You can’t base your decisions on personal want or gain. The minute that you do that, you go rogue and you become the target. I might have questioned some of the targets, but I understood my place as a cog in the machine that protects our country and way of life. Most of the time, I knew a head of time who my targets were going to be and why. Sometimes, I didn’t, but I usually found out why they were eliminated later. There are only a few that I never got an answer about or understood why they were targeted. But, I knew better than to ask. Those that do have a tendency to not last long,” Del stated.
“I take that you learned that quickly,” Angie replied.
“I did.”
“What made you go into that line of work?”
“I don’t know that any one thing lead me into it directly. It was more a culmination of things. I have no real family, so no one to miss me. I was a good shot and I didn’t fail the psyche evaluations. It seemed that I had the aptitude to do it. Plus, my olive skin and quick learning of languages got me into places others couldn’t go. That meant that I could handle most of Europe. Northern Asia and the Arab States. It is amazing how dark I can get when I try tan.”
“I am sure.”
“But, even those who are like me need a break. You start to realize that you aren’t as young as you once were. You don’t fit in as well in some areas. So you start training your replacements and you end up on clean up duty or doing the jobs that no one else can. That is what happened with Cole. He trained me and became my spotter for some of our assignments. Now, I am retiring, too,” Del said.
“Did you train anyone?”
“No, I didn’t. I don’t know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. I know that there is still a company of men and a few women, but not many, that train for assignments like those. I think that fortunately they aren’t needed as much right now. So, they’ll continue to train. You see they only call us when everyone else has failed. Much like they did for you,” Del quipped.
“Where were you when you got the call?” Angie asked.
“You know I can’t tell you that,” Del stated.
“Just narrow it down to a continent for me.”
“I was in Asia,” Del muttered.
“Cold there?”
“It can be.”
“You really aren’t going to tell me about it, are you?” Angie questioned.
“I can’t. You know that. I can’t tell you anything more but generalizations and sometimes not even then. There are some things that the American public doesn’t need to know about. My job is one of them. I don’t think that half the populace would agree that I am needed to keep America safe. I wish that more people could be blissfully ignorant of the horrors of the world, but unfortunately they can’t. It sucks, but all we can do is learn from it and move on. Sometimes death gives birth to new life.” Del explained as she took another long sip of her now cold coffee.
“I guess I understand that but on a different level. People don’t know the law as much as they think they do. It is my job to know it and be able to defend it or use it as needed to get the conviction. It isn’t easy and you have to manipulate it sometimes and its wording, but I understand,” Angie replied.
“So we are alike in that way. We both take care of injustices. The only thing that is different is that mine are at little more permanently removed from the world.”
Angie laughed slightly and then said, “I guess you are right in that respect.”
Del laughed, too. She took another sip of her coffee. She finally turned to look at Angie. She smiled at her when Angie turned to catch her looking before they both took another drink of coffee.
“What do you want to do tomorrow?” Del asked her, turning back to look out at the lake.
“I don’t know. We are on a lake. We could go boating or something.”
“You got a boating license I don’t know about?” Del asked her.
“No, I don’t. But, I am sure that it isn’t hard to get one. You don’t have one?” Angie asked in return.
“I have one, but I don’t know if the great State of Tennessee will take it. Mine is a little more...how shall we say? Military grade licensing. I don’t like having to explain that if I don’t have to. It makes some things a little more difficult. Plus, we are trying to maintain a low profile. We can’t really do that if I am out flashing credentials. I am not supposed to be noticed. I have to blend in with the locals. Hence, why I have no tattoos or other distinguishing marks,” Del answered.
“What about your scars?”
“What about them?”
“They define you,” Angie quipped.
“That they do, but they aren’t military IDs or government credentials. And, no one can see them without me letting them. I’ll look into it if you really want to go. I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Really? That is all it takes? Just me asking?” Angie questioned.
“I have no need to punish you. If you want to do something that we might be able to do, then we will do it. I will have to research it and make sure that I have certain particular safety measures and the like in place before we can do it. But, taking a boat out on the lake doesn’t seem to be too hazardous. I don’t see much in the way of possible problems, unless you can’t swim or they don’t give us life jackets to wear. Other than that, it should be doable, if you wish,” Del told her.
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
“I am not your jailer. I am your protection. As soon as you realized that, it made my job simpler.”
“Who says that I realized that?”
“Oh, trust me, Princess, you know that I have your back and that I will make sure that you set to court on time and in one piece,” Del quipped.
“Do I?”
“Yes, because if you didn’t, you would have run away from me by now. I think that was the problem with all the other protection details that they gave you. You didn’t feel safe with them. Trust me w
hen I say I understand that completely. They don’t have the training that I do. They don’t see the threats that I do. They don’t have to, but I did. It was my life if I didn’t,” Del told her.
Chapter 13
Del got on her laptop and reserved a small pontoon boat. After she arranged for an early afternoon harbor time, she made sure to pull her license and doctored it enough that no one would ask. She sipped some coffee while she found her records and began to “update” them to Tennessee’s standards. It would make things easier for them when they got to the harbor.
She sipped her coffee some more and was thankful for her training with Cole. He truly had taught her a lot more than she realized during their sessions. She smiled as she drank more coffee. She knew that she should make some more or go to bed, but she wasn’t mentally ready to go to sleep. She knew that Cole was worried about her and she knew that he would protect them both. She sipped her coffee and wondered if she would go back to him once this assignment was over. She really didn’t have a home. She didn’t have a place to go. She was like so many that have served…just adrift through life.
She got up and decided that going to bed was the best the thing that she could do for herself at the moment. She headed back into the kitchen to set the coffee maker for the morning. Once it was set, she rinsed out her cup and put it in the dishwasher. She was about to head to her bedroom when she looked up and saw Angie watching her.
“Can’t sleep?” Angie asked her.
“Not that I ever really do, but no, I was actually heading to bed. Did something bother you? Can you not sleep?” Del asked her, coming out of the kitchen.
She looked Angie up and down trying to figure out if she was hurt or something. She didn’t see anything physically wrong with her, but there was something in her eyes. Del couldn’t put her finger on it, but she could see it plain as day. Angie was emotional and she didn’t know how to deal with it. Emotions got you killed. She knew that lesson first hand. She had been trained to not show emotion and get the job done, but Angie wasn’t a normal job.
“I miss my own bed is all. I’ll be able to sleep when I go to bed. It really isn’t that late.”
“It is past midnight,” Del stated matter-of-factly.
“That would be an abnormally early bedtime for me back in New York,” Angie answered.
“Did you not sleep much?”
“No, I really didn’t. I was always trying to prepare for court. It was a necessary evil. I not only had to look professional. I had to look good and sound good while I did my job. I am not ashamed to admit that I was good at it,” Angie replied.
“I’ve seen your cases and your file. I know that you were good. Hell, it seems you were one of the best. But, it was your sheer determination that pushed you into your current predicament. I know that there were three others before you took them. What was it about that case that made you feel like you had to win? What was pushing you so hard?”
“Justice,” Angie replied simply.
“Justice? What about justice? You think that you can really affect the world from your chair in a court room? That isn’t justice that is playing with fate by jury.”
“That is justice in this country,” Del stated.
“True, we put the criminal’s fate in the hands of others, but there has to be someone who is willing to stand there and present the case before them. There has to be someone who will stand up and tell them why what they did was wrong,” Angie told her.
“You have valid points. I am not trying to disagree with you. I have just been taught differently. But, I think that has more to do with our jobs and upbringing more than anything else. The justice system needs more people like you, but I think that need more people like you in high power. Then, maybe a difference would actually happen,” Del added.
“You are just trying to placate me.”
“Not really. I am just tired and I am sure that this conversation is best saved for a later date. There is no reason to fight about something we are possibly never going to see eye to eye on. I think that it would be safer just to let it drop.”
“I wasn’t trying to start an argument.”
“I know. I might have. It is something that I do. It helps me get more information.”
“What more information do you need about me? You got an entire dossier on me from the Alphabets, as you put it. You had your mind made up about me before you even met me.”
“I wasn’t far off with my judgments.”
“Really? And how is that? Do you care to explain?”
“Not really.”
“Of course not, go on and hide behind that tough girl attitude, Del, but know this: I can see through it.”
“There is nothing to hide, so that doesn’t surprise me.”
“Yes, there is and you know it. You are hiding so much behind that butchness that you wouldn’t know what to do if a true emotion walked up and bit you on the ass. But, that is your prerogative. I am going back to bed. Good night, Del,” Angie told her, leaving before she could respond.
Del stood there for a minute and wondered what she meant. She didn’t hide behind her training. Her training made her more aware of everything around her, even her emotions. She kept them at bay because it was safer and it was better for her in the end.
She knew that Angie was a beautiful woman and one hell of a lawyer, but they were from two different worlds. She shook her head as soon as the thoughts came in it. She couldn’t look at Angie as anything more than a mark. If she did, she was liable to get hurt and she didn’t think that she would be able to survive it, again. No, Angie was so far off limits that Del wondered how long they would be able to stay together before she pushed. She couldn’t leave her side, but she would have to find a way to be near enough to protect.
She pulled out a burner cell from her bag and called Cole. He would know what to do. He warned her that she might get too close and she needed to make sure that she took care of it before anything actually happened.
“Yes, Montgomery, what do you need now?”
“To talk,” she said quietly as she walked out onto the deck.
She knew that she didn’t want Angie to hear her conversation, but part of her was also looking for the quiet of the night. She hated to admit to Cole that he might be right, but she needed someone to talk to and unfortunately, it couldn’t be Angie. He would just have to understand.
“About?”
“I don’t think that I am the right one for this case.”
“You don’t?”
“No, I don’t. I think that she needs someone more…specialized in protection. She needs a body guard, not a killer,” Del told him.
“And, is that what you think you are?”
“I am a killer. I am a paid mercenary for the government. I am an assassin, nothing more, nothing less. I think that you would be hard pressed to find anyone to disagree with that statement who actually knows me, Cole and you know that,” she hissed in the phone.
“That is where you are wrong, Lieutenant. You are a survivor. You are a patriot and loyal not only to your country, but your men and your beliefs. You fight because you can and you have the training and stomach for it. Not everyone can do that, Delia and you know that. That girl has you spooked, but I don’t understand why? What is it about Angie that frightens you?”
“She doesn’t frighten me,” Del lied.
“She reminds you of Yulia, doesn’t she?”
“More than I want to admit,” Del stated.
“I wondered how long it would take you to see her as a woman and not a mark.”
“You’re not helping, Old Man.”
“I am not trying to help in that department. She needs you and you need her. We both know that the suits of the Alphabets can’t protect her, not like you can. You will be the only thing that makes sure that she gets to that courthouse. They don’t care enough about her to see it through. They’ll do their best, but she would get loose and that would be that.”
“I kn
ow that,” Del replied.
“Then buck up and deal with it. You really are her only true chance and I think that she knows it, now, too. Look, I know that she might remind you of Yulia, but she isn’t her. That woman is Angela March the terror of the New York Prosecution office, better known now as Emily Sullivan, non-descript Midwestern American.”
“I know that, too.”
“Then, what seems to be the problem.”
“I think I care for her too much.”
“I don’t see the problem in that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it means that you’ll keep her alive.”
“SARGE!”
“Listen, Girlie, this isn’t Kiev. This is the real world and welcome to it. You want to find your peace, then find it. But, first befriend that woman and learn how to act properly in public before they unleash you on the rest of the populace. Just think of this as a trial run of retirement.”
“Cole, I don’t think that is going to help.”
“Where are you anyway?”
“Tennessee.”
“Where in Tennessee?”
“Paris,” Del replied.
“You took her to Paris? Wow, I am sure that was shock to her system. Wish I could have seen her face when all the ‘Godly’ folk started inviting y’all to Sunday Service. That must have been a sight. Well, your face would have been, too, but wow, just wow, you went to Paris.”
“We did. It was odd. And, you would have laughed.”
“She’s understands you better than you think, Del.”
“Umm…where did that come from?”
“Just a thought from an old friend, Girlie. Just remember to be patient with her when you can. I know that it will be hard and tedious for you at times, but not all of your training is going to help you with this mission. I know that you know how to function in public, Del, but this is different. You’ve never been one to deal with personal matters very well in a private setting. And now, your life is tangled with hers in nothing but a private setting. Just relax, sit back and think things through before you do anything rash,” Cole told her.