“Now just focus on the target, nothing else. Block out the pain. Block out the wind. Pay attention! Ignore the guns that may be aimed at you. Just get from here to there alive. The target wants you dead. You need them dead. Understand?”
The Corps was in my ear by way of some sort of short wave radio. I was in China looking at some short ass lady in the kitchen of a palace. She was some sort of royalty. Even if I didn't hear it from The Corps I would have guessed it. Tiny, delicate. Apparently she and her husband have had over 1000 people executed for crimes against their organization. In a deal with the Chinese military the project agreed to assassinate the woman for five of their best graduates. I just needed to get from this rooftop that was above a 20 story building and land in her kitchen and kill her without being shot or captured by the fifty or so guards surrounding her place. Oh, did I mention that I have no weapons?
The previous day’s mission was filled with lots of damage and shit-loads of blood being spilled. Not ours of course. The Twins finally got to let loose their power and level an entire city block. Holding hands the entire time and giggling like little kids, they ran through five buildings bringing them down in moments. Separated they both had strength but together they were like a wrecking ball. Tucker, now known as “Red Eye” by me, the Twins, and Tip, got to bring down two planes with his beam. From the parking lot of a hotel he hit a plane just as it took off. I slapped him on the back in congratulations and he accidentally brought another one down. The Corps chewed us out good and long for that. Don't feel too bad. The first plane had some really bad people on it. At least that’s what The Corps told us.
As I sat on the rooftop I wondered what I would think if I went back in time about two years and told myself that I would be able to run 110mph and lift 800lbs. without breaking a sweat. I would like to think I would believe me. But I doubt I would. I tightened the laces on my boots and tucked my shirt in. We all wore the strange black suits that the guards at the program wore. Some kind of weird material that absorbed all light and reflected it at the same time. You'd think it would make us invisible but it didn't. It just made us... dark. I slid my goggles down and pulled a wool cap over my head. Cinching my gloves together as I walked over to the other side of the roof to get a running start. What the hell have I gotten myself into?
“Why haven’t you begun, Jones?” The Corps screeched into my earpiece. “I fixin’ to,” I replied. “Over.” “Remember,” he said. “Be discreet.” “Sure,” I replied as I removed the earpiece and placed it into my hip pocket. Discreet my ass. The
only 6’0” Black man in China that was about to jump from a roof and kill somebody with their bare hands and he wants me to be discreet. I crossed myself and began running. My body knew that what I was about to do was stupid but the program made me keep going. I felt my brain start to sizzle as I neared the ledge. I blocked it out and kept moving.
“Let’s do it to it!” I shouted as I threw myself from the roof. Everything moved in slow motion. For some reason I thought everything would happen fast. Jump, land, kill, run. But I was still in the air moving towards the open window... that suddenly slammed shut. Son of a bitch. I couldn’t do anything to change my direction. I was gonna hit that window and let everyone in that place know I was there. I fished the earpiece from my pocket and started talking real fast. “Need some help! Windows closed! Gonna hit it! Now! Over!”
“Cannot help you,” The Corps replied. “Team is busy on other missions. Improvise.”
Was he fucking joking? How do you improvise a crash? Fuck it. Discreet wasn’t gonna work. Loud and nasty was the only way to do this now. My brain felt like it was gonna explode. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone saw me flying through the air with smoke coming out of my ears. Before I could decide whether or not to land head or feet first I crashed through the window back first destroying a table that had to cost more than I have ever paid for a date. If I had landed two feet to the left I would’ve crushed that damned lady. She screamed and three guards rushed into the room immediately. No time to recover. Glass in my ass. I gotta kill four people in a few seconds before I get some nice bullet friends to join the glass. I snatched a large shard from the floor and throw it at one of the guards. It sliced his throat open and blood shoots out of him and lands all over the floor. Damn, even the floor looks expensive.
The other two guards run towards me with their guns drawn and slip on the blood. They actually shoot each other as they fall. Lucky me. The lady steps forward and makes a low catlike sound. She is in my face and throwing kicks that the project is blocking. It feels like I am just watching myself fight. She looks just as shocked as I must. She jumps up and tries to kick me in the side of my neck. I grab her leg and slam her back down like she was nothing but a pillow. I jerk her leg and I hear it pop as her hip gets dislocated. She screams and I dangle her upside down by her leg and pitch her through the shattered window. She lands in the bushes and I follow her outside.
“Just let me kill you so I can go home,” I say to her. “逗留遠離我你大黑人妖怪!” “I don’t know what you just said but I bet it was racist,” I replied as I advanced on her. She tried
to stand and collapsed. She held her hip and spit on my shoes. I lifted her from the ground by her hair and a bullet ripped through my shoulder. I dropped her and turned to see about twenty guards with rifles aimed at me. Then I heard laughter. I thought it was her until the ground began to shake. The palace rippled as it started to fall to the ground. A beam hit the guards and started sweeping across the entire yard burning everything in sight. This lady looked at me and then closed her eyes. I bent down and covered her face with my hand. I squeezed as hard as I could but couldn’t bring myself to look at what I did. I just remember the sound. Like a watermelon full of sloshed snow. I felt the blood land on my face as I let her go. Tucker stood about ten feet from me and just stared at me. The Twins kept running after destroying the palace.
“What?” I asked. “Nothing,” Tucker said. “L.T.” “What the fuck does that mean?” I asked. “‘Long Term,” he said. “You can’t do what you just did and not be in this for the long haul.” This was the day that I Ronald Jones died and L.T was born.
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