Chapter Forty-Nine - James
I watch her from the roof. It surprises me that Sasha goes along. Then again. Girls. They have to do everything in pairs. That includes pissing and obtaining stolen micro-SD cards.
That’s the only drive the files could be on. I’ve ruled out all other options. I’ve known Harper’s had them since last summer when the Company briefed the assassins after she ran. She was a high-priority target. Not my target. I was busy with Merc last summer. I was busy with Tony last summer. I was not even remotely interested in hunting down the Admiral’s daughter and finding those files.
But Nick changed everything.
Nick found me in Colorado last March right after I killed my brother. The second I got out of my truck at the Burlington airport so Harrison could take me back to the OC after Tony’s hit, he was there. He called me James. He talked rational. He made his case. He made an offer. And I wouldn’t even have to kill anyone.
All I had to do was keep Harper alive until they made their move.
The Admiral was already sending me to the beach to take the edge off, so it was set. No changes had to be made until summer, and then he’d be in contact with Merc, who would be in contact with me.
We set up the secretary, we set up the fake lawyer names, we agreed to meet in July.
But this week something happened.
Sasha happened.
That’s when I lost control. Sasha.
And that kidnapping. Harper said the message she found on the phone at my desert house was from Nick, but it wasn’t Nick. The assassin Harper killed wasn’t working for Nick.
But the only thing on my mind right now are the files. I need those files to make a deal. Not a deal with Nick. Or Merc. Or the Admiral.
My deal.
A micro-SD card can be concealed in just about anything. It’s barely the size of a fingernail. The cursory checks were done early. Every time she left the apartment I searched. I looked every-fucking-where. A futile assignment because if someone wants to hide one of these micro cards, that fucker is gonna be hidden and there’s just no way around it. They are just too small.
Add in the fact that the files could’ve been transferred to paper, or flash drive, or hard drive and you can see the Company’s problem. Hell, who’s to say there aren’t hundreds of copies of these files floating around? Who’s to say Nick didn’t replicate the fuck out of them and spread them around.
I don’t think he did, mostly because he told me he didn’t when we first started working together. But also because it decreases his power if someone else gets a hold of them.
This was always my plan. I might’ve forgotten it for a while as my mind decompressed from the last mission, but this was always my plan. I was never here for Harper, I was always here for the files. Not officially. Sure, the Admiral knew he could count on me to keep an eye out for her if he put her in front of me. And I’m sure that’s why I was sent to the beach. I have kept an eye on her because of Nick’s job, but the Admiral is not pulling my strings. Not this time. Not ever again. He set me up.
I might be a lot of things, but forgiving is not one of them.
My mission with the Admiral started back on Six Day with Harper playing on the beach. We can change the world, he said. We can make it a better place, he promised. You can have my daughter and leave this the life of a killer behind, was his deal. The deal I earned. She’s mine. No matter what happens now, Harper Tate belongs to me.
But the one thing he never counted on was me walking away. I refused his offer back then, not because I’m a good guy, but because I’m a bad one. I am a killer. I was born to do this job. And while I do fully plan on keeping my prize, Harper is not enough to filter the cold blood running through my veins.
Sure, it took the Admiral ten years to figure me out. But the year Harper turned sixteen and I was not sent a plane ticket, he had me. She was my addiction by then. Regardless of how I claimed to loathe those birthdays, he finally figured out what motivated me.
His daughter and killing.
All the assassins had to be eliminated if he wanted to restructure the Company. And who better to kill Company assassins but another Company assassin on the inside? I did not lie to Harper. Nick, he was never on the list. Merc was, but I made sure he got away.
I was never on the list either, obviously, but you can bet your ass, I’m on someone’s list now. Sasha’s maybe. And I might even deserve to be on her list. Because that’s how it works, right? You get one guy to do all your dirty work and then you have only one witness to take care of when he’s done.
Him.
Me.
I’m the last assassin; I’m the last to die.
But Merc is still alive.
And Nick is still alive.
And Sasha is still alive.
And Harper is still alive.
There’s more than us still alive too. That kidnapper yesterday morning, for one.
But the Admiral’s order to assassinate the assassins was not my only job. I have lots of jobs. Lots of invested interests. Lots of plans that don’t include the Company.
My eyes dart around the alley as the girls cross, linger on some graffiti painted on the garage in front of Harper’s building, and then settle on my little partner-in-crime Smurf.
Sasha. I remember that message I got about her back in March now. It turns out Sasha really does have a dirty little secret. But she was set up too, so I’m totally on board with her trust issues. Because Sasha Cherlin was promised to Nicholas Tate and that’s why he was visiting her last year. The Admiral wanted her dead, but like Merc, Sasha is not one to lie down and just die. The Admiral left her out on the Colorado prairie to keep her away from Nick.
And even though I don’t know for sure that she was told to kill me when I showed up, I feel it to be true. And she failed, so it’s her turn to die instead.
I watch the girls enter the gate that leads to Harper’s back yard. She’s the only one in the basement, so she will be inside and have that card in about two minutes. I’m about to get up from the roof so I can intercept her on the way back inside my condo when my gaze settles on the graffiti again.
A mushroom.
My stomach flips and my heart gives off one solid thump before beginning to race.
The mushroom comes with a message. It always comes with a message. ‘Are you content now?’ said the Caterpillar, a quote from Alice in Wonderland, is written in a hippie style straight out of 1969.
I frantically search the alley, knowing I am too late because I’m on the roof, when he steps out from behind a truck parked a few spaces down. “Tet!” he calls and then laughs. “Tet, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. I thought we got that coming-back-from-the-dead stuff out of the way back at the gas station? No? You’re still recovering? Still on vacation?”
I think… for the first time in my life… I’m not sure what to do. So I start with his number. “One.”
He pounds his bare chest, bronzed to a golden tan from beach living. “The one and only One. Still alive. Still fighting the good fight. Still… winning.” He laughs again. “You’re a good dog, Tet. A very good dog. Dropping the bird at my feet like this.”
I’m confused.
He stops directly below me in the alley. “What’s wrong, Six? Having trouble recalling our deal? That’s OK,” he says, digging a phone out of his pocket and waving it up at me. “I’ve been sending you messages all along, buddy, you just weren’t getting them. Sorry about that.”
“I remember the deal,” I snarl. I remember most of the deal, anyway. “And the deal was I bring you the card. So why are you here?”
“Well, brother, excuse me for not trusting you, but we’re gonna need a new deal. I want something else you have. And it’s not the little girl and it’s not the Admiral’s daughter, either.” He pops off a salute, turns on his heel, and walks into Harper’s back yard.