“If you keep up your end of the bargain you will.”
“I did as your friend told me.”
“You did, but you didn’t think that was going to be the end of it. I need you to do one more thing.”
“I’m not doing anything else. Felicia will be after my blood already without me pissing her off any more.”
“I am banking on you having pissed her off. In fact I am hoping she comes to visit you.”
Trainer looked scared, he knew that if Felicia had a chance she would kill him or at least send Ionna to kill him. He had crossed the line telling the Police that it was Ionna that had shot him and she wouldn’t tolerate that level of disloyalty from him. Alexa placed a smart phone on the desk next to Trainers hospital bed.
“Whats that for?” he asked.
“When Felicia comes to visit you. I need you to get that as close as possible to her mobile phone for at least two minutes.”
“Why?” asked Trainer.
“You don’t need to worry why, just make sure you do it.”
“Okay.”
“And then I want you to tell her you know where I am.”
“Are you mad,” Trainer exclaimed.
Alexa passed Trainer a note with the address of an abandoned house in Leytonstone.
“Just tell her you know where I am and give her this address and with any luck she will send Ionna.”
“Ionna and her brother were the team she used to remove obstacles and given the fact you killed her brother will mean Ionna will want to make you suffer.”
“I am banking on it and if all goes to plan I will remove that threat as well.”
“Ionna is good at her job, she will be hard to beat.”
“Don’t worry about me Frank. Its all in hand. You just make sure you do as I ask.”
Fourty Six
Alexa had been checking the phone for the past hour. It had taken a couple of days but eventually Felicia had been to visit Trainer and he had given her the address to the house that Alexa had been squatting in since her visit to the hospital. Letitia had picked up the mobile phone that she had given Trainer and he had managed to get it nice and close to Felicia during her visit. Drew had uploaded an app he had created that kicked into life when the phone it was installed on was in close proximity to another mobile phone.
Drew was very proud of the app, it hunted out close mobile phones and cloned them so that anything that happened on the original phone also appeared on the hacked phone. What he really like was the fact that as they knew Felicia’s phone number he had built the app to stop hunting for any other phones once it had cloned the phone that was attached to Felicia’s number.
Alexa had picked up the phone from the safe house and returned to the house that she hoped would be the last place Ionna saw. She had got to the house by three PM, parking her car a couple of streets away so the neighbours didn’t become suspicious of a car they didn’t recognise. Another hour passed until the phone beeped with a WhatsApp message.
Alexa is squatting in an empty house at one Ellesmere Close, Leytonstone. Deal with her.
Alexa had spent the last two days familiarising herself with the layout of the house. Her Krav Maga training had taught her to be constantly assessing her surroundings and she needed to make sure that she knew the layout of the house like the back of her hand. She knew all the vantage points and exits. She just had to wait now for Ionna to arrive.
* * *
Ionna had parked her car two streets away, she didn’t want to attract any attention or for Alexa to hear her pull up in the car outside the house. The house was on the corner of the street with a gravel drive. The gravel ruled that out as an entry point it would make too much noise, she would need to find another way into the house. She walked around the corner until she found a fence that separated the garden from the street. It was solid enough and only six feet high. She clambered up and over with the ease of a cat. She landed in the flowers that aligned the fence and sat on her haunches for a few seconds. She was controlling her breathing but the effort to leap the fence had made her breath a little heavier and she took a few seconds to compose herself.
She started to walk slowly around the fence towards the house, she had seen the outside security light and knew that she would need to keep to the edge of the garden until she reached the house in case it was motion activated. As Ionna reached the corner of the house she could see the door that she assumed would lead into the kitchen. She paused and listened. There was silence apart from a few cat calls and the odd car on the main road between the house and Epping Forest.
She dropped to her haunches again and moved under the kitchen window and to the door. She took her tools from her inside jacket pocket and gently placed them into the lock of the door. It was a simple lock to release. She pulled on the handle and the white UPVC door opened slightly. Again she waited, if Alexa did know she was coming then she would surely wait in the kitchen for her. Nothing. She opened the door more, still nothing. Maybe this was going to be easier than she thought.
* * *
Alexa hadn’t heard anything up until the point the door handle had been pulled and the door opened slightly. She checked her grip on her silenced pistol and waited for Ionna to enter the house. From her position crouched down behind the kitchen central island she had the perfect position to watch as the door opened. As the door opened more she took aim and waited for a figure to enter through the door. Her breathing was becoming more difficult to control but she tried even harder to make sure it didn’t give away her position or the fact she was even in the room.
Ionna didn’t stand a chance. Alexa watched as the shadow came through the door. She could see the shape of the silencer and then the gun being held by a hand straight out in front of the person entering the house. It had to be Ionna. Alexa took aim at the shadow. She aimed for the thigh area. She didn’t want to kill her yet. She heard the sound from the silenced pistol and then the scream of pain from the shadowy figure as it dropped to the floor. Alexa heard as the gun hit the granite floor of the kitchen.
* * *
Ionna felt the pain before she heard the shot. Alexa had known she was coming and now she was lay on the kitchen floor with a bullet wound in her leg. She heard someone walking towards her and as the kitchen lights came on she could see it was Alexa.
“You wait for me,” Ionna said in broken english.
“It was quite easy really. Especially when I saw the text your boss sent you.”
“How you see text.”
Alexa walked the final few steps to where she was stood, kicked the pistol out of her reach and then bent down and showed her the phone.
“A nice little app on this phone makes sure I see everything that happens on Felicia’s phone.”
Ionna looked at the phone and then back up at Alexa.
“You kill me now.”
“No, not yet anyway. Can you stand.”
“Yes. Leg not bad.”
“Don’t try anything silly,” Alexa warned as she stooped down and offered her arm to Ionna. Ionna took Alexa’s arm and pulled herself up.
“You have bandage?”
“Use the towel,” Alexa replied as she backed away from Ionna to put some space between the two of them.
Ionna took the towel from the kitchen work surface.
“This towel is not big enough.”
“It’s all there is. So make it work.”
Ionna started to wave the towel around.
“I will bleed to death if I don’t stop the bleeding.”
“Stop waving it around and tie it round you leg.”
Alexa took a step towards Ionna, she wanted to stop her waving the towel around. As soon as she had took the step she was blinded as Ionna threw the towel in her face. Before she could remove the towel she felt a blow to her stomach that felt like it had pushed her internal organs through her back. She went to ground breathless and in pain. She still had hold of her gun, without looking she pointed it upwards and fired o
ff two shots.
Ionna saw the gun raise and dived behind the central kitchen island as two shots hit the ceiling, sending plaster spray over the kitchen island that she was taking cover behind. Silence fell over the kitchen, the only sounds was the breathing of the two occupants of the kitchen. Alexa was breathing heavily now. She was leaning against the opposite end of the kitchen island annoyed with herself that she had fell for Ionna’s tricks. Again it hadn’t gone as planned. All she wanted to do was wound Ionna, take her phone and then leave her for the police to find. She couldn’t help but start to doubt herself. Her breathing became erratic as the panic descended over her like a fog.
Why did it all keep going wrong.
Ionna scanned the floor, her gun was just to her right. She leaned lowly from behind her cover and touched her gun with her fingertips. She slowly dragged it towards her. When it was fully in reach she grabbed it and took cover again behind the kitchen island.
“I make death quick if you give up your gun.”
Alexa concentrated on bringing her breathing back under control.
“You assume I am the one going to die tonight.”
“It will be you. I hear the panic in your breathing. I am professional. You will die.”
“Let’s see shall we.”
She had controlled her breathing. She needed to get out from behind the kitchen island. She stood from behind her cover and fired off shots in the general direction of Ionna’s voice. As she emptied the magazine of the pistol she walked calmly from behind the kitchen island, through the door to her left and into the hallway. She knew Ionna would follow her but she had one last trick up her sleeve.
* * *
Ionna was about to move from her cover as she heard the first bullet hit the wall behind her followed by the air above her head being disturbed by bullets passing over her on a regular basis. She knew Alexa would be moving but she couldn’t risk breaking cover and getting shot again.
She waited a few seconds after the bullets had stopped before she looked around the corner of the kitchen island. Alexa was no longer in the room, she was more than likely making a run for it out of the only other exit from the house, the door out onto the gravel drive. Ionna stood from her cover and pointing the silenced pistol straight out in front of her Ionna started to make her way towards the door.
She was only two steps away from the door when she heard the clatter of metal on the granite floor. She looked down and saw it but it was too late. The blinding light hit her first and then the ear drum bursting bang came as a second wave of attack. She was completely disoriented. She knew she was back on the floor but she had no idea where in the kitchen she was or where the exits where. Worse still the shock-wave of the bang that had knocked her on her arse had also knocked her gun from her grip. She was defenceless.
* * *
Alexa had made it into the hallway. She didn’t wanted to use the flash bang grenade but she had no choice. She also knew that from the moment she threw it into the kitchen she had five minutes at the most to kill Ionna, get her phone and get out of the house. It would only take the local Police five minutes to arrive after the report from the neighbours of an explosion.
Eric had explained to her how to use the grenade. The intense light would render Ionna blind for approximately five seconds, after that her vision would start to come back. She had to kill her within the five seconds or it would turn into a fire fight.
Alexa pulled the pin on the grenade and threw it into the kitchen. She heard the clatter of the metal casing on the granite floor of the kitchen. She turned away, pulled her hoodie over her head, closed her eyes and covered her ears. She saw the change of light come from the kitchen and light up the hallway like it was fireworks night. Immediately after she heard the muffled bang. She knew she only had five seconds to find and kill Ionna. She started to count in her head.
One thousand one
She moved quickly to the kitchen door.
One thousand two
She looked around the kitchen for Ionna.
One thousand three
She was lay on the floor between the door and the kitchen island. As Alexa had expected, Ionna had been following her out of the kitchen when the flash bang went off.
One thousand four
Alexa raise her pistol and squeezed the trigger. A single shot to the stomach to disable her.
One thousand five
Her five seconds where up. Ionnas vision would be returning, she wanted her to see the person who took her life from her. She moved in and stood over Ionna as she held writhed in pain and tried to stem the flow of blood from the wound in her stomach.
“This is for all the girls you have killed, especially Tracey Hind,” Alexa said as she stared directly into Ionnas eyes. She lifted the gun once more and pressed it against her forehead. Alexa squeezed the trigger and Ionnas life was extinguished.She patted Ionna down to find her phone, she needed it for the next and final phase of her plan. She pressed the home button but it needed a passcode. Maybe it had fingerprint recognition. Alexa didn’t know much about smart phones but she had listened as Drew had bored her and Letitia to tears telling them about the cool new features of the latest phones. Hopefully Ionna’s phone was one of the them. She took the limp right hand of Ionna and held the thumb against the home button of the phone. She had assumed the right hand as it was the one that Ionna held her gun in. Her assumption was right. The screen with all the apps on appeared. Alexa scrolled through all of the contacts and found the one for Felicia.
It’s done.
Did she suffer.
Yes.
Good. Meet me at the docks at eleven PM tomorrow. Our new shipment will be arriving. Stay out of sight until then.
Alexa put the phone in her pocket and left the kitchen through the door into the garden. She climbed over the fence into the street. Pulling her hoodie up over her head she started to calmly walked away from the house. She had only been walking a few seconds when she felt a strange sensation in her stomach, it rose in a wave up her throat and without any warning she vomited warm fluid onto the ground. She wasn’t a killer and the last time she had killed she passed out in the arms of Letitia. One more kill and it would be all over. She needed to get back to the safe house and make sure she was ready for Felicia.
* * *
* * *
Letitia was nervous, she was pacing the floor of the lounge. Wall to wall in front of the sofa.
“If you keep pacing like this you are going to wear out the carpet,” Drew.
He was as nervous as Letitia was, he was just trying to stay strong for her sake. They had got the text from Alexa a couple of hours after she had picked up the phone from them.
Ionna is coming tonight
It was now four AM on Saturday morning and they hadn’t heard anything.
“I am going over to the house,” said Letitia as she stopped pacing and headed towards the door.
“No you can’t,” urged Drew.
“But what if she is lying dying in the house?”
“Then there is nothing you can do. Ionna may even be waiting to see if anyone else turns up and you could end up dead as well.”
“I know but...” Letitia stopped as she heard the front door open and close.
“Alexa,” Letitia shouted.
The door to the lounge opened and Alexa walked in, her hoodie still over her head. Letitia ran over to her and slowly pulled the hood down. She looked directly into Alexa’s blue eyes.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes I am fine,” replied Alexa.
“She has been pacing up and down that same bit of carpet since you sent us the text,” said Drew.
Alexa returned Letitia’s gaze and then kissed her.
“I am fine. I need some sleep. Lets all get some sleep, we have to be ready for tomorrow night.”
“Whats tomorrow night?” asked Drew.
“A new shipment of girls is coming in and Felicia will be there and so will we.”
&nbs
p; Alexa took Letitia by the hand and led her out of the lounge and upstairs. She was drained physically and mentally and needed to recover before the final kill.
Fourty Seven
Alexa was always an early riser and despite the events of the night before she was awake at six-thirty AM. Her sleep had been fitful as images of the night before kept visiting her in her sleep. Images filled with the blank stare of death that had greeted her after putting a bullet through the forehead of Ionna. She wasn’t a born killer but events throughout her life had culminated in her having to kill and she wasn’t going to shy away from the final task of killing Felicia and exposing her trafficking ring. She rose from bed leaving Letitia to sleep, showered and descended the stairs to the kitchen. She made herself a coffee and some toast. She wasn’t a big breakfast fan but she didn’t know if she would be able to eat regularly today and so forced herself to eat two slices of toast.
Alexa had sent a text to Trainer on her way back to the house asking which docks Felicia took delivery of her girls. He had sent her a text back while she was having breakfast with the location and she now needed to get there and make sure she knew the layout.
* * *
Alexa had spent the morning walking around the docks familiarising herself with the layout. It was a small dock that served a set of warehouses. The single jetty bobbed up and down with the ebb and flow of the tide of the river Thames. It didn’t look well looked after and it didn’t look like it was used very often. Alexa thought it was the ideal place to bring in a boat load of girls. The single jetty would make it easier to find the ideal spot to watch proceedings tonight. Eric had provided her with a set of night vision goggles if she needed them. There was ample lights but these may not be on tonight, Felicia wouldn’t want to draw attention to the fact that the jetty was being used.
She walked back to the bank of the Thames from the jetty and started to look for a vantage point from where she could watch the proceedings.
* * *
Letitia had woke a few hours after Alexa, showered and then had breakfast. Drew didn’t rise until after lunch. They both sat in the lounge waiting for Alexa to return, there was nothing they could do for now and Alexa had left them a note telling them she would be back in the afternoon. It was one PM before they heard the door to the house open and close and Alexa walked into the lounge.
Recompense Page 13
