The Innocent Assassins

by Pema Donyo

  I would move on with my life.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Academic Record for Executive Jane Lu

  March 15th, 2014

  An Extended History of CO’s Contract Negotiation: A

  Speaking Advanced Chinese (Cantonese) As a Native: A

  Mastering the Art of Contractual Language: A

  Communication Skills: C

  Comments: You are a brilliant student, Jane. However, you need some help with your communicating procedures. For example, you should practice less averting of eye contact and more direct body language. You tend to avoid conflict in topics with nervous mannerisms. Bravery is needed in a discussion just as much as it is needed in combat.

  “One of the most important parts of being an excellent executive includes knowing the correct way to argue.” Professor George leaned forward on the table and drew his elbows up against his chest. He took off his spectacles and chuckled, like he always did before torturing his entire class with boring busy-work. “I decided today’s class should revolve around a class debate.”

  All right, so busy-work less boring than usual.

  “A debate on what?” Jenna asked. She scribbled notes on her tablet. “Is the entire class involved?”

  “Yes, the entire class will be involved. For the next week, two people will debate and the entire class will decide who wins. Today’s debate is between Emma and Jane.”

  I coughed. Surely there must be a mistake. Of all the names and pairings in the class, he’d paired Emma and me together? I thought everyone knew about the rift between Emma and I. Everyone, I guess, except Professor George.

  “But what is the debate about, Professor?” Jenna kept hitting the keyboard on her tablet. I swear the girl typed a transcript down from every class session. At least it made her a great study partner before each exam.

  Professor George smiled, the whites of his teeth appearing almost translucent. “The debate is based on a real contract executed in 1997. Amanda Hally was the client. Remember, in this business…”

  “The client is always right,” the class finished.

  “Good, good. Yes, the client is always right. And the purpose of the executive in charge of the contract is to make sure each demand of the client is met. Sometimes, this involves tiffs with Covert Operatives’ own officials. The executive in charge of this case was responsible for closing a contract involving two lives—Amanda Hally’s lover and his wife. Hally wanted her lover to leave his wife, and when he did not do so, she went to CO demanding they be killed by explosives. Her lover and his wife lived in the city. Since this was before the time of CO’s silent bomb and soundless shooters, such an explosion would have repercussions. Thus, the leader of artillery and explosives at the time, Han Samberg, wanted the board of transportation to move Hally’s lover and his wife into the country when the explosion happened. The executive did not think the move should take place—citing risks such as discovery by others. The executive’s job was to convince Han Samberg the explosives should be used in the present location. Emma, you will be Samberg. Jane, you will be the executive.”

  George handed both Emma and I pieces of paper listing important facts about the contract and a profile of the target. He set up a stopwatch and set it on the table.

  I lifted my gaze from the paper and noticed Emma staring right back at me, her expression unreadable. I knew she’d heard about me and Adrian getting back together—or if she hadn’t heard, she’d seen us in the halls of CO at least.

  “Emma, we’ll begin with you.”

  “Thank you, Professor.” Emma stood up and pushed her chair back. She strode at the front of the room behind her chair, legs draping over the other but words charging at a rapid fire pace. Talk about dramatic effect. “What you don’t understand, executive, is your insistence that the explosives should be used in the apartment puts at risk the lives of hundreds of surrounding tenants. Innocent people will be killed. Do you deny this?”

  I blinked, not sure how to first respond. Okay, there was no way Emma thought about saving the lives of innocent people. I cleared my throat. “Well, if the bomb remains localized within the apartment the targets live in, I see no reason why…”

  “Localized bombs were invented by CO in 2000, not 1997.” Emma sneered, sick and sweet. At least one of us was enjoying this. She threw back her glossy hair. “Unless you’re a time traveler, I remain unsure how your rebuttal is relevant.”

  Dave chuckled. My cheeks burned with embarrassment. Emma was great at being an executive. Better than me, even. No wonder she was bitter about not receiving a contract to handle.

  “But if we move them into the country, then they would be suspicious, wouldn’t they?” I bit my tongue right after I’d spoken. So this was why I’d bombed the Communication Skills class. George’s words echoed in my head: “Never end a statement with a question mark.”

  Which George was quick to remind me, except in person this time.

  “They wouldn’t.” Emma twisted the question to her advantage. I’d set her up to win. She leaned forward on the edge of the table, pushing out her chest. I nearly heard the jaws of all the male executives drop to the floor. Somehow, I didn’t think the late Han Samberg ever won arguments by sticking out his boobs. “If the client’s lover received blackmail threats over his affair with the client, with the condition that if he didn’t leave the city immediately, the affair would be made public to his wife. Clearly, he would try to inform the police of blackmail received, but not before CO had closed the contract.”

  “Maybe Hally’s lover and his wife have an honest relationship, and they’re stronger than any outside force which tries to get in between them,” I said through gritted teeth. “Perhaps she knows someone else was trying to be with her husband and she and her husband have recommitted their loyalty to one another even with the other woman in the picture.”

  Emma laughed, cold and hollow. “No man who ever cheats on his wife has an honest relationship.” She narrowed her thinly-lined eyes. There was something both menacing and warning in her gaze. “Since Hally’s lover wanted a break from his wife but still stayed with her, then there is an external reason he stays with her. Not because he loves her.”

  All right, she was definitely talking about Adrian now. She wanted to play personal? We’d play personal.

  “Hally’s lover stayed with his wife because there was something strong between them. They couldn’t be broken up because of any other distraction. If Hally’s lover wasn’t always faithful to his wife in the past, he was certainly faithful after he ended it with Hally.” I couldn’t help myself. “Hally needs to understand destroying her lover and his wife is not going to make her life any better, or cause her lover to come back to her. He’s made his decision. He’s not going to leave his relationship.”

  “Time’s up!” George set down the stopwatch and shook his head. He was shaking his head… at me.

  I cringed. The debate had so not gone in the way I’d planned.

  “Jane, did you argue Hally shouldn’t have a contract at all?” He massaged his temples with both hands. “You also used personal defense instead of logic. Class, who do you believe won this argument?”

  No one needed to say it out loud. Emma had won. The pitying looks on the faces of my classmates was enough confirmation.

  Professor George scribbled something down in his notebook. No more contracts for her, probably. I winced thinking about what he was writing. How had I let the argument get so personal? Worse, how had I admitted to the entire class I didn’t even believe in using murder as a tool of revenge?

  “You’re getting soft.” Emma’s voice shook me out of my contemplation and back into the classroom. Her arms crossed over her chest and she flicked her hair back behind her shoulders, pin straight and an ombre blonde. “I’m not sure how well your view will help you in your next contract. If you have a view at all, that is.”

  At least I have a contract, I wanted to retort. But I didn’t say anything, because no one els
e in the class had a contract either except for me. Saying so would be singling out everyone in the class, not just Emma. I bit the inside of my cheek. How was it possible I kept receiving contracts while no one else in the class did? My inbox was always filled with contract requests. Sure, I’d handled Croyden’s pretty well, but shouldn’t other students in the class get a chance at managing one too?

  Especially Emma. She reeked of jealousy. I had to admit, it was crazy she hadn’t been assigned one yet. Professor George needed to give her a contract.

  After class ended, I walked over to Emma. She bristled when I first approached, her arms tightening over the books held to her chest.

  “Emma, I want you to know: I think you deserve a contract.”

  “I don’t need your pity,” she spat.

  I nearly stepped back in alarm. Whoa, no need to act like a wild animal.

  “Can we drop this battle between us? I don’t want to feel like I’m always fighting you, Emma. We used to be friends, remember?” My voice strained over the last question. Yep, I’d finally brought up the long-forgotten friendship. “Five months ago, we were best friends.”

  “And now we’re nothing.” Emma’s cold brown eyes fixed on mine. “Congratulations. You have it all. You have Adrian, you have contracts, and you have myths about you circulating through CO involving your daring getaway from a kidnapper in Rome.”

  “Okay, well the last part isn’t totally true…”

  “You wanna know something else? I did make a move on Adrian.” Her tone strained with regret and anger. Her glossed red lips punctuated each word. “I kissed him.”

  “What?”

  “I kissed him after he broke up with you at commencement and told him I wanted to be with him.”

  I pursed my lips together. “And then?”

  “He walked away from me.”

  I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

  “We connected during the mission we had together, while you were gone. Or, I thought we did anyway.” For the first time in my life, Emma stood before me as vulnerable. I’d seen her as strong and willful, never in tears over a guy. It struck me suddenly, the depth of emotion she had to feel for Adrian to make her act this way. “Then you came back and he ignored me.” She swallowed hard. “It was like I didn’t even matter. I thought, maybe if you broke up with him, then he would see how much better I would be with him. How he belonged with me instead of you.”

  “Emma…” I reached a hand toward her shoulder, trying to comfort her.

  “Don’t touch me!” Emma swatted away my hand and staggered backward. One of the books almost slipped out of her hands, but she grabbed it before it could fall. The corners of her eyes were wet, yet no tears fell down her cheeks. “I don’t want your pity. I don’t even want your forgiveness.”

  “Then why are you telling me this?”

  “Because you need to know.” Emma opened the door and glanced back at me. “Be grateful. He doesn’t want me or any other girl. He wants you.”

  Before she could close the door, another man opened it wider. Emma stepped back and wiped away the moisture in her eyes. The man before us dressed in a black suit, similar to the one Adrian wore during our last date. But this man—old and bald and short—looked nothing like him. He was one of those men I always saw at receptions for CO, in fact. The kind who always stood around Adrian and supposedly were in close contact with the CEO.

  Nah, I shook off the thought. Not all old and bald guys worked for the CEO or Adrian. Impossible. There was no way the CEO was looking for me.

  “Miss Lu.” He ignored Emma, staring straight at me. “The CEO requests a meeting with you in fifteen minutes in his office.”

  Never mind.

  ****

  You never bother to envision a picture of the head of the board of your state’s education. You don’t bother to see who the CEO is of Kellogg’s or who the President’s main receptionist is. But you know they’re real, you believe they’re real, there’s no question they’re real.

  The same way we looked at the CEO of Covert Operatives, ladies and gentlemen.

  Everyone knew he was elusive. He made speeches and delivered newsletters. You wanted his name? Jack Waterman. All established executives became familiar with the men who worked for him, many of the senior executives worked in close contact with him and saw him on a regular basis.

  But agents? Agents never saw him in person.

  Maybe it was to keep some sort of distance. Some sort of barrier of professionalism, a semblance of hierarchy within the corporation. The CEO could not be bothered with his employees. He had better things to do, other occupations to fill his valuable time.

  Which somehow included meeting me.

  I opened the door to the CEO headquarters, peering in. I half-hoped there would be lots of other executives waiting in the lobby, or a missing receptionist which would prevent me from meeting the CEO. Nope. Definitely a receptionist and no people in the lobby. My stomach twisted.

  I pulled myself up to my full height, though the flats I wore made me significantly shorter than most days. “Jane Lu here to see the CEO.”

  The receptionist nodded and pressed a button on her keyboard. She waited for something to appear on the screen and then waved her hand. “You can see him now.”

  I took a deep breath and started toward the door. I didn’t even know what the CEO looked like! Most agents didn’t. Wow, how had I never asked Adrian about the CEO? Ridiculous. Worse than ridiculous, it was stupid. I was an emerging executive and I didn’t even know my company director’s…

  All thoughts flew out of my head the moment I entered the office. It wasn’t because the man in front of me had a long scar extending from his left eye down to right above his lip. It wasn’t because he stood against the desk instead of being seated in the giant leather armchair behind the desk, and it wasn’t because this man was barely older than forty.

  It was because his eyes were so familiar.

  “Sit down, sit down.” He gestured toward the chair. His voice was as gravelly as I remembered from when I’d eavesdropped on the meeting between him and my boyfriend. “Make yourself comfortable.”

  I sat down, studying his features all the while. I supposed there’d been an image in my mind of the old, mob-boss-esque character who was wise enough to be everyone’s grandpa and old enough to have seen the end of World War II. But this guy was barely old enough to be my dad. This was the fearsome and elusive CEO of Covert Operatives?

  The man lifted himself from the edge of the desk and walked behind it. He sat down and interlaced his fingers in front of him, resting his elbows on the sturdy oak. “You are wondering why I called you here.”

  I feigned stupidity. “I was wondering what your name was.”

  The man chuckled. “Bold. He did say so about you.” The reference to Adrian sent a chill up my back along with worry about what exactly he had said. “My name is Jack Waterman. Please, call me Jack.”

  He pulled out a cigarette box from his desk drawer and withdrew a cigarette. There was an easy grace to his movements, the confidence of a king sitting in his throne. He removed his lighter from his coat pocket and lit the cigarette. “I am not here to harm you, Lu. I am only here to get to know you.”

  If he felt completely comfortable, I felt anything but. “Why me, sir?”

  “No, ‘sir’ needed.” He waved the cigarette in the air after a long drag and exhaled, letting the smoke circulate in front of me. “Jack, remember?” He took another drag and exhaled slowly, watching me all the while. “My protégé has taken some interest in you, it seems. And it occurred to me I have never taken the time to introduce myself.” He stubbed the butt of the cigarette on the glass ashtray in front of him. “Please forgive my rude manners.” The smoothness of his words and tone contrasted the harsh command I remembered him giving to Adrian, the insistence Adrian stay away from me.

  “You’ll have to forgive me… Jack.” I stared down at my hands. “But I assumed y
ou would be older.”

  “Old enough.” He lit another cigarette. He caught my eyes glancing up to watch him. The look was charming, like the president to the cameras during the inauguration address. “Cigarettes are always best within the first two drags, I’ve noticed. Nothing like a fresh cigarette. Or a fresh alliance.”

  “My alliance to CO.”

  “Of course. I will play no games with you, Lu. I want to make sure your alliance to CO is strong.”

  I bristled. “Of course it is. This company is my life.”

  “You heard about the recent scandal involving a spy in CO?” Jack rested the cigarette between his thumb and index finger, but made no move to take another drag. “Seems like Adrian worked himself up over it for a few good months.”

  “He’s trying to protect CO.”

  “Yes, he is.” Jack took another drag. He exhaled, causing my lungs to fill with the secondhand smoke. “He called off the investigation yesterday. He seems to think this spy had a change of heart. The boy is convinced the spy no longer exists.”

  If Adrian had called off the investigation, then I would be safe. I could go back to leaking information for the CIA without worrying about being caught. I suppressed the urge to dance around the room in happiness since my cover hadn’t been blown, because Jack’s eyes were fixed on mine like a scientist studying an experiment.

  “Sounds like wonderful news.”

  “Is it?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The boy seems to have more faith in his operatives and executives than I do. It is about power, Lu. It is about power and maintaining control over others. My method is how this business succeeded before me. My method is how this business will succeed after me.”

  Well, Adrian and he sure seemed to have the power-loving thing in common.