“Good morning beautiful.” My wife rolled over and pulled my pillow over her face growling at the sunshine beaming through the window. “Do I haaaave to go to work today? Can’t I just stay home with you today?” I pulled the pillow from her face and gave her a kiss, “Come on, you need to get ready for work.” She rolled out of our kingsize bed and slowly started her preparation ritual before work. I left her alone so she could get ready without distraction and went into the kitchen. The coffee pot beeped and the house smelled of freshly brewed Swedish coffee. I picked up a cup from one of the hooks above my coffee pot and poured it with just enough room for cream in sugar. As I was putting the finishing touches on my coffee, my wife walked out of the bedroom. “I don’t know how you drink that stuff, it’s gross.” She wasn’t a coffee drinker and couldn’t stand the smell of it. “Something has to wake the ideas up, this book isn’t going to finish itself you know?” She picked her purse up from the table and I handed her the keys to her car. “I know, I know, I’ll see you tonight when I get home. I love you.” She wrapped her arms around me and looked up for a kiss. “I love you too. Have a good day today, I’ll be here when you get home.” She let go and I opened the door for her watching as she left once again for another long day of work. I closed the door and walked back to pour more coffee and dress it to my liking. With a fresh cup and now alone for the rest of the day I made my way to my desk in our shared office. I turned on my TV monitor and pushed the power button on the side of my desktop computer, booting into a different hard drive. I got comfortable in my chair and waited for the slow process to finalize and load the user interface.
Boot commenced……
…….Loading…….
Connecting……..
Connection established to server….
/H.I.D.D.E.N. Enterprise\
LOGIN: Wraith
CODE: ****************
Online Status Broadcasted
TRANSMISSION INCOMING
“CC 250,000.00 for acceptance of the contract, details to be forwarded at a later time.”
{ACCEPT}
Bank Transfer Incoming…….
Balance: CC 250,000.00
Transfer Complete……..
It was odd for someone to pay upfront for a contract, they usually just supply the funds required to get the job done. I double-checked outside of the system to make sure the appropriate funds had been deposited, their payment cleared instantly. Whoever submitted this contract must want it done as soon as possible with no ties back to them. While waiting for more details to transmit in I felt the notches under my keyboard on the desk, reminding me that this isn’t the first time and this is how the bills get paid. I pulled out my tablet and loaded my writing so I could get some real work done. I turned on music from my phone and put my headphones in and began writing. Focusing on the epic fantasy novel that I had spent the past three years working on, it was almost done. Going through and making edits to bump up the word count and make scenes more visual for the reader.
“KNOCK KNOCK”
My focus was broken by someone at my door, “Hang on!” I shut the monitor off quickly and got up to get the door. I looked through the peephole before opening and no one was there. I opened the door and on the floor mat was a small document package. I picked it up and looked for a label for some sort of information before opening it. With no luck I brought it inside and took it to my desk, opening it with the letter opener I kept in another coffee cup. “Let us see who the lucky one is this time.” I pulled the files from the package and began to flip through them until I found the “Who, Where, When” section of the packet.
WHO:
Female
Blonde Hair
Brown Eyes
Approx Weight 125-135 lbs
Approx Height 5”4-5”6
Dress below the knees
Wearing Flats
WHERE:
1279 Main St.
Parking Garage
2nd floor
11:30 A.M. – 12:30 P.M.
Alone
WHEN:
Tomorrow
Reading through the rest of the information about the subject I felt a large amount of doubt in taking this contract. I had a set of rules and those who have used my services in the past know that I have certain standards for it. Under no circumstances is the subject a child. If it’s a woman, they certainly must deserve what’s going to happen to them. Not to say this wouldn’t be the first time I have been contracted a woman subject to deal with, but that was long before I was married. I put the doubt out of my mind and got my things ready for tomorrow. I went into my office closet and moved the clothes on the hangers forward. I pulled on the small piece of drywall that stuck out from the surface, pulling the false wall out. I had this safe installed before we moved in so I could make sure that my things were hidden. I know it’s not good to keep secrets and eventually it will stop. I moved the numerous banded stacks of cash aside and pulled out my custom pistol. I set it on the shelf in the closet and pulled out the three magazines that went with it as well as a box of ammunition. I reached inside the safe for my gloves and put them on before I went any further. I leaned against the wall and loaded bullet after bullet into the empty magazines. Setting those aside I picked up the pistol and dropped the magazine from it. I pulled each bullet and pressed it into the stack, thinking about what I was going to do tomorrow. I slid the magazine back into the pistol and pulled the slide back, loading a bullet into the chamber. I made sure the safety was on and set it down on the shelf in front of the safe with the other three magazines. I reached inside the safe and grabbed the empty duffle bag to load it with everything I would need. I pulled out the cash I put aside and sat it on the bottom, in case something goes wrong and I can never come back. I looked at the money for a moment and thought back to every single job that I had done to earn this much.
The thoughts left my mind and I finished packing my duffle bag, setting another change of clothes on top of everything inside of it. I made sure if it was opened the cash and pistol wouldn’t be seen at first unless someone dug under the clothes. With those, I had a mask that I had worn for every job I have ever done. I shoved the duffle bag under the shelves on the floor, closed the safe and put the false wall back in. I pushed the clothes that hung in the closet back up against it. My wife never comes in here so I really didn’t have anything to worry about, she calls it my “Man Closet”. I shut the door and sat back down at my desk and turned my monitor back on. The rhythmic flash of the dots on my screen made me think again, that maybe this was a job I should decline, turn it over to someone else. I started to realize that maybe I wasn’t the person I used to be anymore. I thought of a phrase one of my cousins said when I was growing up. “Quit before you’re forced to quit.” This stuck with me my entire life and I think that this may just be my last contract. I force crashed the hard drive to drop the connection instantly and booted into my regular hard drive. I folded up my tablet back into its case and set it aside, working from my desktop for the rest of the day. The thoughts kept creeping back into my mind, maybe this was something more serious.
I left it alone for the night and tried to put on a better face to my wife so she didn’t know something was getting to me. “You’re being weird, what’s wrong?” Dinner was done and we were sitting on the couch for the rest of the night, my blank stare at the television in our living room showed the thoughts in my head. “It’s nothing darling, I’m just stuck on problem with my book and I am still trying to figure it out. I’m sure I will see the solution tomorrow when I sit back down with fresh eyes.” She chuckled a little bit, giving me some relief that she wasn’t on to anything, “That book is going to make you have a heart attack with the amount of stress it causes.” I laughed with her and nodded my head, “You’re probably right honestly.” The conversation ended with that and we sat for only a half-hour longer while I rubbed her feet. When our show ended she got up and went into the bedroom to get ready for bed as I closed the house and locked the doors.
The next morning was the same as the day before, I got up and made coffee as she got ready for work. “Alright give me the truth, how do I look?” I turned around to see her in a business suit with her hair done up more so than normal. “You look stunning my love, I’m sure they will be blown away with your business plan.” She turned off the bedroom light and grabbed her purse from the table. “You always know the right words to say don’t you?” I brushed off her shoulders and adjusted her collar slightly. “That’s why you married a writer darling.” I grabbed her keys and opened the door, walking outside with her. “What is this? You haven’t walked me out in a long time.” I took a deep breath of the fresh morning air and let it out as we walked. “I just want you to have the best possible day that you can and not worry about a single thing.” She turned around and wrapped her arms around me like she always does and then pushed off and looked up at me. “What’s going on.” It was a statement more than a question, “Nothing my love, I promise nothing is going on.” She squinted her eyes at me and then got on her toes for a kiss. “I love you”, I gave her a kiss and she sat back down on her feet, “I love you too.” I opened her car door and helped her in so she didn’t wrinkle her suit. “I think I may go to the marina later on today and take a walk if I can’t get past this block in my book.” She reached forward with two fingers and gently pinched my stomach. “Sitting at that desk all day has made you a little soft sweety.” I sucked my stomach in and handed the keys over to her. “Alright I get it, I’m getting pudgy, geez, i’ll take a few more walks during the day.” She laughed and we exchange I love you one last time while she closed the door. I stood outside and waved to her as she backed out of the driveway and went down the street.
When I walked back inside I went directly into our office and grabbed the duffle bag from the closet. I reached under the clothes and pulled out the information packet. Reading through the files one last time before I fully commit to this. I must admit, I went through the packet for a few hours until I realized that the clock read 10:00 A.M. and I needed to get ready to go. I didn’t even turn on my desktop this morning and I only had one cup of coffee. I put the packet back into the duffle and went into the bedroom to get dressed. I put my regular day to day clothes on, left my phone on the nightstand and put my wedding ring on top of it. I took one last look around the house before I left, in my heart I felt like this was going to be the last time I was here. I was packed, out the door by, into my black Impala and pulling out of the driveway by 10:15. I knew my wife was going to be busy today and wouldn’t be able to talk during her lunch, her meeting was going to take all day. I drove across town to the industrial park in fifteen minutes where the rest of my past life lived. I pulled into the abandoned area and drove up to the garage door and opened it with the remote in my bag. I pulled in and closed it behind me. Parking the impala next to my old Tahoe that now had a layer of dust caked on it. I opened the back of my SUV and put the duffle bag inside of it and opened it. I pulled out the clothes and my pistol and set them aside. I turned around and walked to a storage cabinet that housed the rest of my weapons. I surveyed the arsenal that was in front of me and decided that if something was going to go wrong, I wanted to be quiet about it. I left the Cheytac in its spot and gave it a pat on the barrel, “Sorry buddy, not this time.” I reached next to it and pulled up my HKMP7 and five magazines to go with it, the suppressor was already on it. I reached down and grabbed the ammo can and walked back to the SUV. I glanced down at my watch and it read 10:45 A.M. by the time I finished loading the magazines. I opened the gas tank and pulled the nozzle from the pump that was inside the garage and filled the tank. This building had previously been a Semi-Truck repair shop so it came fully equipped to work inside during the winter season when it was snowing. The handle snapped down when it finished, I put the nozzle back and closed the tank cover. I opened the driver door and flipped down the vizor for my keys. I slid the key into the ignition and turned it over, the engine fired up instantly, “I can always rely on you working when I need to.” I let it warm up as I changed clothes, leaving them on my workbench. I grabbed my pistol and slid it into the build in leg holster on my pants and shoved the magazines into their place on my other leg. I picked up the MP7 and shoved a magazine into it and pulled back the slide, putting a round in the chamber. I took the other four magazines and put them into the magazine sleeves on my jacket. I closed the back hatch and climbed into the driver’s seat, setting the MP7 on a magnetic bar that I had positioned under the steering wheel.
I opened the garage with the remote that was on the visor and pulled the mask over my face. I was cautious when leaving the industrial park to make sure I wasn’t being watched or followed. The windows had dark tint on it and I knew no one would be able to see inside. The clock read 11:05 when I got back onto the main streets, the location where I was going was only 15 minutes away. This would give me time to get inside the parking garage and get set up. I knew the garage pretty well, there was only one level above the ground floor and it connected to a building through a bridge over the road. The ground floor parking was used for county vehicles but the second floor was free to anyone. The bridge was the only way into the buildings for security reasons, you needed a key card to get into the bridge to cross over. I turned off onto main street and cruised at a slower pace until I reached the parking garage. I pulled off the road and drove inside, going up the ramp and doing a lap around the second floor for a perfect parking spot. There was a normal amount of cars parked for the week, I chose my spot and backed in across from the bridge, giving me a clear line of sight. My watch read 11:20 once I was parked and settled into position.
The next ten minutes felt like hours, it had been a while since I took a contract, I was starting to have doubts. I heard a loud rumble coming from the lower level as it climbed the ramp. I checked my watch, 11:30, it was time to go to work. Before I got out of my truck I waited for the car on the ramp to come up and park. My target hadn’t come into the garage yet, I turned the SUV on and sat waiting. From the lower level came an old model El Camino, blacked out just like mine. My heart began racing, I had heard before about contracts being assigned to two people at once to ensure it was completed. The old car parked right next to the bridge exit, backing in the same way I had. Looking across at it, its windshield was just as dark, but I felt whoever was inside of it was staring at me. The door at the far end of the bridge opened and two women walked out, casually walking and chatting. As they got closer I confirmed that one of them was my target. I couldn’t make out the other one at first, she had her head turned while walking. The door to the El Camino opened and that’s when I noticed its hood ornament, it was a gavel, the one that a judge would use. It finally hit me, that was the contractor that went by “Judge”. I threw the SUV into drive and hit the gas, coming around the upper level. I got closer and saw the driver get out and pull a modified handgun from behind his back and point it at the woman who was behind my target. When I got around I saw the other woman’s face, it was my wife. I threw the truck into park and opened the door, leveling my MP7 across the door, opening fire at the other contractor. He got one shot off, hitting my windshield. “GET DOWN!” My wife and my target didn’t even realize what was happening until the bullets started flying. The other contractor ducked behind his car as I moved around my door and grabbed the women, “Get in the back!” My wife quickly moved behind me and my target gave me resistance. “GET IN!” The other contractor moved from behind his car, firing with haste as his bullets hit the side of my SUV. My target ducked lower and ran behind me, getting into the back with my wife. I backed up towards the SUV while firing single rounds, three of them hitting the other contractor in the chest, stopping him as the bullets hit the plate carrier he had on. I climbed in and hit the gas, turning down the ramp and blowing through the gate arm to leave.
Looking back in my rear view I saw my wife and my target sitting as low as they can in the back seat. They were in shock, they had no idea what was going on or what they had just been through. Police sirens began going off in the distance but not before I saw the El Camino come flying out of the parking garage just before I made the turn to head back to the industrial park. I pushed down on the gas harder to make the light before it turned red. The El Camino began closing the gap and ran the red light, whatever just happened must have been a two part contract, something that never happens. I kept putting distance between us until I made it out to the industrial park. He slowed down and didn’t go down the road that led back to my hideout. I pushed the garage door opener on my visor and pulled into the garage and then closed it again. “OUT! My wife began to fumble her hands for the door handle, my target sat still. I flung open my door and then the back door, grabbing my target by the back of her neck, dragging her body from the back. “Who are you!” My wife had finally gotten her feet to work and started looking around, mumbling something that I couldn’t understand. My target started to struggle to break free from my grip, “I won’t ask again!” I let go of her and pulled my handgun out, pointing it at her head. She straightened her posture and fixed her hair as my wife came around the SUV. “This isn’t how it was supposed to happen.” I was starting to get aggravated with the situation. “WHAT was supposed to happen then!” She looked over at my wife that was now standing only a few feet from her. “She was supposed to distract you, you were the target.” I couldn’t believe it, the hit on my target was a bait to draw me out from hiding so another hit could be carried out on me. “Who did you hire, who was that in the garage!?” I pressed the handgun against her forehead. “You know exactly who that is, you abandoned him, you left him for dead and vanished! You betrayed your partner!” I lowered the handgun and took a few steps back, my wife was looking at me, the pieces started to come together for her and I could see it in her face, she knew it was me.
My wife looked over the impala that was in the garage, slowly pointing at it and then at me. “Is this…. Are you…?” My target began to speak again “This man is-” I raised my handgun again and got right next to her, pressing it into her forehead. “Another word and I’ll cut your tongue out.” My target realized what this meant to me and wanted to make sure that my life was ruined. “Your-” I grabbed the back of her head and slammed it into the side of the SUV, knocking her unconscious. Her body slumped to the floor as my wife gasped for air in shock. “Please don’t hurt me.” I looked over to my wife who was visibly shaking. “I won’t.” I went to the cage where the rest of my weapons were and opened it, I reached on the side and grabbed another bullet proof vest. I walked back over to my wife, “Arms up, put this on,” I slid the vest over her body and strapped it to her chest. She stood there like a child on the first day of school, confused and scared. “You can sit on that chair over there.” I pointed to the chair sitting beside the impala. I went to my work bench and grabbed some rope and duct tape. I picked up my target and tied her hands and feet together and taped her mouth shut. I put her by the garage door and went back to my wife, she jerked her legs away from me as I got close. “I need you to listen to me ok? We are going to get out of this alive, I promise you.” The masking of my voice was no comfort to her, but the way I spoke, made her feel at ease. “O-Ok” I looked around the garage to see if there was some way to get a better view of what was going on outside. I knew this guy was going to notice the cameras and stay out of sight of them. I decided that it was a better idea to go outside and face him, rather than wait inside. I looked over to my wife who was terrified, I couldn’t put her through the rest of this. I went back to my work bench and pulled out a flip phone from a drawer and hit speed dial #9. A man in a thick Russian accent answered “Dah?” Looking at my wife I knew we couldn’t ever have a life here together anymore. “Set sail for new horizons.” The other end hung up and I put the phone back into the drawer.
I walked back over to my SUV and reached inside, pushing the door opener on the visor. I walked around and picked up my target, putting her limp body over my left shoulder. My wife started to say something but the sound of the roller door drowned out everything else. Once it stopped rolling up I heard the El Caminos engine rumbling from down the road. I walked outside into the middle of the street, giving him a perfect view of me. The loud engine thundered as it idled forward toward me, coming to a slow halt only a few yards away from me. The door opened and I heard a loud voice. “Let her go and we will call it even.” I had my handgun behind my back, he had his left hand on top of his door and his right hand was out of sight. “Why was I set up? Why was my wife bait!” I saw his hand clench the frame of his door window. “You knew this was going to happen one day, you couldn’t hide forever.” His mask was impacted by one of the rounds I shot at him in the garage during the exchange. “Why does it matter? What happened in the past is the past, let it go and move on.” He shook his head in disagreement. “Drop her and let’s settle this once and for all.” I couldn’t believe that after all this time, he wanted some sort of revenge for everything. “Fine, here you go.” I walked forward and dumped my target’s body onto the hood of his car, breaking the gavel that sat as the ornament. I turned around and walked away, looking into the garage I could see my wife pointing at me. I turned, lifted my hand gun, leveled it with both hands and aimed right for the impact mark in his face mask. The hammer slammed forward as the slide flew backwards, releasing a single shell casing into the air as the bullet landed its mark, breaking the mask and penetrating his flesh on the left side of his cheek. His hands flew up to his face as he hit the ground, struggling and eventually becoming still. I heard sirens in the distance starting to get close.
I walked back inside the garage and went to the locked cabinet next to the one with all my weapons. My wife walked up next to me as she watched me dial in the lock combination, it was our anniversary of our first date. Her hand reached up and landed on my arm, she knew it was me. “What’s the plan?” I stopped and took a deep breath, “I’m sorry you got involved in this, you were never supposed to know.” I took off my mask and looked down at her, she was smiling. “We will figure it out, we always do. Now what’s next?” I opened the cabinet and pulled out large puddy bricks. “We burn it to the ground. The keys are in the car, pull it outside and go behind the building and sit and wait for me there.” She tapped on her chest on the vest. “Yeah you can take that off now. Oh and grab the duffle bag in the back of the SUV and put it in the car.” She unstrapped it and dropped it on the floor, “I’ll be outback.” She hurried and did as I said then got into the car and pulled out of the garage. I set the putty bricks on the work bench until the cabinet was empty. I looked around the garage that had housed the darker side of my life for so long. “Well if I’m going to go out, might as well be with a bang.” I began sticking the bricks all around the garage, covering all the walls to make sure the building fell into a burning pile. I closed up my old SUV and gave it a pat on the hood, “Thanks for seeing me through everything doloris.” I opened the gas tank and shoved a rag inside. I grabbed the full gas cans and started covering everything in the garage until it was soaked. I pushed the garage door button on the back wall and opened the back door behind the building. “I’ll drive.” My wife got out and went to the passenger side. I reached inside my jacket pocket for my single last lucky cigarette, pulled out my zippo and struck it, lighting the cigarette while taking a deep breath. “So long sanctuary….” I flicked the cigarette inside the back door, lighting the gasoline as it hit the ground. I climbed into the impala and began driving off. I handed my wife a small remote from the other side of my jacket in my pocket. “Lift handle, flip the switch under it, squeeze handle and push the button on the top with your thumb.” She did it in that exact order. “Nothing happened?” I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the smoke billowing out of it. “Give it a second, C4 has a time delay sometimes.” I looked over to her and her eyes got wide. “What’s C4?” As she finished saying that, my old life was blown out of existence. “WHOAH!” She turned around and looked back to see the fireball go up in the sky as multiple explosions went off. “So remember that book I wrote about the contract killer? The first one that got my name out there to the public?” She looked at me with caution in her face. “Don’t tell me those stories are true….” I didn’t say a word, I just sat there with a grin on my face. “I can’t believe I married a writer.”
COPYRIGHT NOTICE!
© Trenton Stalnaker and Around the block and on the bus, 2014-20–. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Trenton Stalnaker and Around the block and on the bus with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Around the block and on the bus. 