Twenty years ago:

“Avery, do you remember what we told you?” Donna Lennox asked, brushing loose strands of brown hair back from her face.

Twelve-year-old Avery Lennox nodded, her face devoid of expression. She didn’t want her parents to know how scared she was or that she had any doubts. Returning her mother’s intense gaze, she lifted her chin.

“Never hesitate. Make a decision and follow through with it. Double check your surroundings. Move with precision, and never let your foe know that you are scared,” she repeated.

“That’s right,” her father said with a proud smile. “Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by anything other than your mission.”

“I won’t,” Avery promised.

“Good luck, sweetheart. We know you’ll do the best you can,” her mother added, giving her a hug.

Avery allowed herself to enjoy her mom’s embrace for a moment, then gripped the ball in her hands and ran out onto the field. Dropping the soccer ball to the ground, she executed the moves she and her dad had been practicing. Three girls ran over to join her, and Avery ruthlessly pushed down her nervousness.

She was in another new city with new kids, a new school, and a new home. Her parents did the best they could to give her a normal life. Playing sports was one of their concessions.

For the next two hours, Avery focused on her mission: kicking the other team’s butt… without being too greedy about it. By the end of the last quarter, she was glowing, and the other girls on her team were energized by the six-point lead.

When the final whistle blew, Avery turned to her parents with a huge grin and lifted her arms up victoriously. Her team surrounded her, but Avery’s shining eyes were on the grinning faces of her parents. She turned when her teammate Kassy called her name.

Kassy’s eyes widened with shock when Avery suddenly jerked and stumbled into her, the glimmer of excitement fading as Avery felt something warm and wet seeping through the fingers of her left hand as it touched her side.

She looked down, and her legs trembled as she noticed the bright red blood saturating her shirt. The numbness was giving way to intense, burning pain. Avery distantly noted the screams that filled the air as Kassy’s fist clenched around the fabric of Avery’s long-sleeved soccer jersey and the girl’s weight pulled them both to the ground.

“Get down! Get down! Shooter! Everyone, GET DOWN!”

Avery rolled onto her back, pressing her hand against the wound in her side the way her mom had taught her to do if she didn’t have anything else to apply pressure with. She could hear screams, yelling, and sirens wailing, an odd cacophony against the stillness of the blue sky above her. She turned her head toward the bleachers where her parents had been watching her play.

They were the only ones still on the bleachers. She knew it was them by their matching black coats. Her father’s upper body was leaning awkwardly against the seat behind him. Her mother struggled to push herself up from where she was lying on the plank between two rows of seats.

Avery’s eyes followed the man walking toward her parents. Unlike everyone else, he didn’t appear alarmed. She took in every detail of his features: his exclusive, name-brand sunglasses; the thin scar on his clean-shaven jaw; his black hair and high cheekbones; the European cut of his clothing; and his Italian-made shoes, possibly size eleven. He wasn’t American. His left ring finger glinted with a gold ring—not a wedding ring—it was decorated with the head of a lion with red ruby eyes—no, not a lion—an intricate series of connecting circles—infinity.

The man paused by her father and aimed his gun. The barrel looked funny. Silencer—9mm handgun.

A silencer is used to reduce sound intensity and minimize flash by cooling the propellant gases, she remembered.

The man turned the weapon toward her mother. He said something to her mom. Avery followed the motion of his lips, picking out several words—spoken in a language she was still learning: Croatian. She mentally put together the pieces she understood to find the meaning of his speech—betrayal comes with a price. You should not have had a child. She led me straight to you.

Her mother turned her head and looked at Avery, her eyes flashing with pain, grief, and regret. Avery didn’t close her eyes when the man pulled the trigger. She saw her mother’s head jerk to the side before her body collapsed back between the seats.

The man turned his head and looked at Avery. She returned his gaze with unblinking eyes devoid of emotion. The man must have thought she was dead because he slid the pistol under his coat and walked away from Avery’s murdered parents. The first responders arrived on the scene and no one stopped him as he continued along the nature trail that wound through the park. To them, he was an elegantly dressed foreign businessman, not a rampaging madman.

Leaving her alive would be the man’s fatal mistake. Avery was weak and seriously injured, her blood soaking the ground along with Kassy’s, but still alive, and she had been studying and memorizing every detail of his appearance. She replayed the incident over and over in her head to make sure she would never forget any critical detail. Someday she would hunt that man down, and when she looked him in the eye during his last moments, she would have no doubt that she was killing the guilty man.

Beside her, Avery heard Kassy’s mother hysterically wailing. Two men rushed over to them. Avery tensed, but otherwise remained still as they passed by her and went to Kassy.

“She’s gone,” the uniformed man leaning over Kassy said.

“No! My baby…. My baby…. Oh, God, no!” Kassy’s mother sobbed uncontrollably.

Avery forced herself to remain still when she felt fingers against her throat. The uniformed man leaning over her released a hissing breath. He turned her head and looked into her eyes. She tried not to blink against the blinding light of the sun, but her eyelids slowly lowered.

“This one is still alive! Get the stretcher over here.”

“Helicopter ETA one minute.”

Overhead, a shadow blocked the sun. For a brief moment, Avery looked into the compassionate eyes of the EMT bending over her. Her lips moved, but no sound came out. Her mind registered that this man’s eyes were too compassionate for him to be a cold-blooded killer. Then she remembered the expressions in her parents’ eyes and their training.

No, even killers could make you think they cared if they were trained well enough.

A new sound could be heard above the crying. She heard voices in the background, and the man was replaced by a woman. Avery looked into the woman’s blue eyes. Now this was what she was expecting to see: distant and detached eyes with no emotion reflected in them.

“Targets?” the woman asked as she took over from the EMT.

“Targets? Oh, you mean victims? This girl and the other one who was standing next to her. The other girl didn’t make it. They have her mother over at the ambulance. There was also a man and a woman in the stands,” the man continued with a shake of his head. “When will the nut cases just decide to take themselves out instead of innocent bystanders?”

“Load her in the helicopter and alert the hospital that we are transporting one in critical condition and two fatalities,” the woman ordered.

“What unit are you with? That looks like a military medevac. Which hospital are you taking her to?” the startled EMT suddenly demanded, growing uneasy.

“The child is under our jurisdiction now,” the woman replied.

Avery could feel her body shutting down even as her mind balked at the woman’s statement. Danger—she was in danger. The man in black was out there. He would find out she was still alive and come to finish the mission. That was what spies and assassins did when they missed their target.

She needed to stay alert. He would come for her. Her parents were always prepared in case they needed to escape. They had warned her that something like this might happen and that she should always be ready. They had trained her and tried to give her a normal life, but they had lived on the run, always looking over their shoulders—until today. Today, they had been looking at her, and it had gotten them killed.

She was the child they had never wanted to have. They were the lovers who weren’t supposed to fall in love for real.

Even as the drugs were administered and her eyes closed, Avery was already formulating a plan. She would escape. There was a safe house. There was always a safe house—for people like herself and her parents.