Deadly Target: Force of Nature

Chapter 4 Put It Out There

As we headed to the kitchen, Bean wanted to say something, but I jumped in before she could. "How sensitive is this information? I mean, is it like your grandma's secret ingredient, or are you trying to give me stocks and bonds type s**t?" I asked Samantha, stopping and looking at her.

Samantha laughed and patted my shoulder. "Well, I would like for you to have some kind of finances to look forward to in case something happens." I took that as a sign that the information is dangerous to have in one's knowledge.

I looked around and informed them that we could not talk up on top. We had to go below.

Samantha laughed and said, "Assassins never change. They think someone is always listening."

"I assure you I am not your normal assassin. I let you live, didn't I," I said, giving Samantha a glare.

Samantha looked at me with a slight curve of her mouth and said: "Trust me, I have the same setup, you are not different from me, and I would have given you a run for your money."

We both gave a strangled laugh together as Bean looked at us, amused. We proceeded to the basement, and Samantha began to talk. I held up a hand and told her to shush and hit three buttons on a panel behind the wall. A trap door opened that led underground.

Samantha laughed. "Ok, I don't have that Batman."

As we went underground step by step, Samantha and Bean looked around at the setup that I had. Books after books of information, a computer station set up with security footage and camera angles of the house. Everything that an elite spy or assassin would need to get the job done. Bean goes to ask a question, and I cut her off.

"Where are the weapons? Over here."

I showed her a closet with a face recognition program that has every gun known to man. I tried not to smile, but the look on her face was priceless. It was like seeing a baby walk for the first time.

"You like it? You don't have to worry down here. You are well protected, now down to business." I set the coffee down on the table in front of them. "What's going on?"

Samantha began to talk with a sigh like she didn't know where to begin.

"I know you know what I am."

"Yes, I do. You're a Black Marker," I replied.

"You are smart, Aza, the best I've seen. You like challenges," Samantha said. "I kept a special eye on your file when you came to work for us. You were so young. I noticed our company gave you special cases because they knew you would not ask questions."

"That's me, no need to wonder. Just do the job, get out, get paid, simple. I did get curious, though."

"What do you mean?" Samantha asked the question like she already knew the answer to it. I just continued to speak.

"I took some files from my last job."

"Really!! Why would you do that?" Samantha asked if she was surprised.

"I could not figure out why my last assignments involved a really high important person, a teenager, and a nurse. Then it had special instructions".

"What kind of instructions?" Bean chimed in.

"Like make it look like suicide, or only kill them and no other casualties, make it look like a heart attack, make sure no one questions the situation, you know things like that. Sometimes companies would want you to do special instructions to go with a person's lifestyle. For example, if a target had a heart problem, they would say, "make it look like a heart attack."

Bean then made a face of understanding. "So if they said they have to be taken out by a sniper rifle. Then that is what you would do?"

I gave her a quick nod. "Exactly."

"When you worked for our company, you came across some files that you should not have," Samantha said.

"I did read the papers, but it did not really give me a lot of information. The papers that my commander gave me only had the targets on them, nothing else. I did grab papers as insurance after I did a job. I like to have insurance. Some things just didn't add up," I said.

"Well, we believe that….that…."

"Apparently, you might have killed innocent people," Bean said, cutting Samantha off.

My head snapped from Samantha to Bean quickly. I am not that damn stupid. There is no way I would have made that mistake. My face must have shown it because Bean took a step back.

"I WOULD NEVER MAKE A MISTAKE LIKE THAT!!!" I said sternly with anger laced in my voice.

Samantha took a step toward me. "How would you know? You never ask questions."

She was right. I never asked any questions. I just did the job, but this one just didn't seem right, but I did it anyway. I had already felt guilty. Now, I feel worse. Samantha started talking, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"There's more." She gave me a pause to see if I was ready. I looked at her so she could continue to talk.

"These people had nothing to do with the Mafia," Samantha said. "They may have been involved in The Organization." My eyebrows were raised. I never thought about them that much. I figured that they were some typical lowlife not worth my time.

"The Organization thought that you might have heard or read something that needed to be kept a secret," Bean said.

"As you know, we are contracted out to any agency that sees fit to use our expertise. It does not matter if they are doing something illegal. Our agency works like that," Samantha said.

"Ha!, I laughed. I thought we worked for the government." There are no questions. "I never really looked into it. I'm an ex-marine, and when I left, I did odd jobs for sure, but our agency only told me it was for the government. I never asked questions. I just did as I was told."

"We all did," said Samantha. "We just let them operate without question. Anyway, during your time when you left the Marines to come and work for us, your docket was pretty impressive. They love the fact that you did what you were told. So when The Organization asked if they could employ you, they knew it was with no questions asked. You left and went to the Caribbean. Do you remember the Caribbean?"

"Yes, I do," I said, "It was a weird assignment. I had to infiltrate the head crime boss Joseph and kill him. The only thing was that I believed Joseph was not the leader, and I expressed that with as much emphasis as I could. My handler said no questions, just do the job and get back. So I did the job. I may have borrowed some paperwork that entailed some important information that could shut down who I thought was the Mafia."

"Well, they believe that you have more information than you let on," Bean commented.

"Of course, I'm not stupid. I never heard of the people that they had me target. I could never find an unknown young girl, a nurse with special skills that kept investigating victims that came into the E.R., and a very naive judge. Come on, it looked like a bunch of bullshit. But as for the files, I grabbed them all. I never even tried to read them. I just grabbed them, stuffed them in my bag, and moved on. I never knew what they were," I said.

Bile started to rise in my stomach. I knew what files they were talking about. I just didn't want to tell them just yet. I wanted to make sure I could trust them before I tell them more of what I knew.

"Ok," Samantha said. "Now, I believe we have the same information. It's funny because these people think that we are just idiots with guns. Highly effective idiots, but still they think that we don't ask questions and we never will."

I laughed so hard that I thought I was losing my mind. "Are you serious?" I asked angrily. "Do they actually think that we don't have brains? It takes skill to do what we do and not just by pulling the trigger."

"Yes, I know that," Samantha said, annoyed. "They came for me recently, but that is another story to tell. I figured it was a matter of time before they came for you after finding some of your paperwork."

"Ok, let's just get to this file that turned us into potential dead people." I was ready to get started trying not to waste any more time.

"Alright," Samantha said. She started to look through the file cabinet.

I looked at her and asked, "What are you doing?"

She looked at me. "Looking for the files."

I started laughing. "They are definitely not in there."

"Oh well, where are they?" Samantha slammed the cabinet door.

"In my safe." I pointed towards a fridge.

"OOOOH!!!!" Samantha sounded surprised. I opened the safe that was in the freezer part of the fridge.

"Yea, I put it where nobody would think to look. As I said, it seemed important."

As Bean pulled out the files she and her mother brought, I grabbed mine out of the safe, and we proceeded to go through the pages. We found that the jobs we did very much coincided with each other. Some of the people that were a target were related or in some way knew each other. It seems our agency did not care at all as long as the money was right. We got half the pay for what the agency got but still more money than one person can deal with.

"I hate going through paperwork," I said, sighing. "I would rather them come in to try to kill me than to read one more sheet of paper."

Bean started laughing at me. "OMG, come on, it's not that bad."

"You don't understand Bean, most people that have the skills we have are all about action and not sitting looking for evidence or whatever." Samantha tossed another file on top of the pile.

So far we have found out that our company had a regular contract with The Organization. Can you believe that's what they called themselves?

"f**k all this crap. Let's get to the good stuff." I said, throwing another file on top of the pile and standing up out of my chair. I stretched my arms and my legs and let out a yawn. Then my ears began to ache from the noise.

Beep Beep Beep, alarms started blaring and roaring to life. "Someone is here," I said as I looked at the cameras and saw three black SUVs pull up outside.

"Well, I'll be damned. They're not that dumb after all. Looks like the militia has arrived."