by Michael Todd
She pursed her lips, knowing he simply wanted to calm her down. He knew he wouldn’t get anything out of her with threats and stern voices. “I’ll send stuff when I’m ready. Talk to you later.”
Holly hung up before he could respond with any kind of rebuttal. She stood there for a moment and breathed heavily in and out of her nose. While she wasn’t sure if her anger toward the board was warranted, she didn’t give a fuck in that moment. They were the easiest and most deserving targets in her mind, and Rod was merely collateral damage.
When she had finally calmed, she slid her phone into her pocket and flung the FUBAR doors open. She waved her hand in the air as sand and dust swirled up around her. As she limped through into the low-lit room, a chorus of voices called, “Holly’s here!”
Instantly, her anger dissolved, and she smiled and nodded at the guys who stared at her in awe. “Aww, shucks, you assholes make me feel like I’m rolling into Cheers. So much love.”
One of the guys in the back lifted his glass. “For you, Holly…always.”
Paula stood at the end with her hands on her hips and yet again, gave a customer a hard time. “Last time I checked, Trevor, you left your balls with that girl from Minnesota, so don’t roll up here like you’re a hard-ass. When you retrieve those and dust them off, we can talk about your male patriarchal attitude. Until then, pretend your mouth has a fucking deadbolt and only I have the ability to unlock it.”
Everyone around them laughed and the man sat there silently for a moment. The patrons watched to see whether he would comply or blow. Suddenly, a smile smeared across his lips and he released a bellowed laugh. “You got it, Paula. And trust me, you can turn my deadbolt any damn time you want.”
Holly grinned as she walked toward her usual seat. JB stood behind the bar and slid two shots in front of her. She pulled her chair out and took a seat, her phone still in her back pocket. That, she decided, was where it would stay. If she took one more call from the company, she might lose her mind and end up back in the hospital, this time for a psych evaluation.
JB leaned on his hands against the bar top. “Hey there, kiddo. You look like you could use a couple of shots and I have a revolving forever tab for you at this place.”
She looked at the glasses. “You know me so well, JB. But I usually tend to do one at a time. Are you shooting with me?”
He shook his head. “This is a tradition of mine. A personal one, at least, especially when a mission goes a little wild like yours did. One of these is for the present and the other is for the past. You drink them and hope for a future not as bad as today and never as bad as the past.”
As he said “past,” he thumbed over his shoulder at the wall of pictures of the people who had lost their lives in the Zoo. Holly nodded and took one shot and then the other. As the second ran down her throat and warmed her chest, she closed her eyes. The future… How can I even ask for better? It should be a no brainer.
The sound of the stool beside her sliding out interrupted her thoughts. She opened her eyes as JB turned and poured a drink. Her gaze drifted to Dan for a moment, a little vague since she felt almost like she was still caught in her wishes for the future.
He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Hey there. I heard about your trip into the Zoo. I’m sorry about your loss.”
Holly’s gaze moved off into space. “Yeah. I guess you really don’t think it’ll be you until one day…well, it is. I guess it could have been worse, but that’s hard to see when the stink of the situation is still ripe in your nose.”
Dan glanced at JB, who pressed his lips together. They both knew Holly held it together by a thread at that point. She tried to be tough but in reality, she struggled really hard with what had happened to her team.
The man cleared his throat and smiled at JB as he took his drink. “Did you hear about the Heavy Metals who took out three dinos the other day?”
Holly knew Dan tried to change the subject in order to pull her out of her own head and she appreciated it. She shook her head and pushed the empty shot glasses to the side. “No. It sounds like they were in badass mode, though.”
Dan laughed. “More like wild ride mode. There were six team members and a mech but the dinos move too fast for the mech to catch up when it comes to swinging their limbs. The team simply blasted them, straight up. They flipped around in the jungle like circus freaks. In the end, they almost blew those dinos into a hundred pieces but still managed to keep all the sacs intact.”
She whistled. “That right there is one hell of a payday.”
He chuckled and sipped his drink. “Damn straight it is. And from what I was told, they recently returned from a six-man pick in a Pita patch. Talk about a retirement fund.”
Holly smiled and picked up the next drink JB placed in front of her. It was her usual, and the sweetness hit her lips comfortably—maybe too comfortably. She wasn’t sure that if she started drinking, she would find it in her to stop anytime soon.
Two mercenaries in fatigue pants and tight wifebeaters walked up to the bar and turned toward her. She looked at them awkwardly for a moment and raised her eyebrows. “What’s up, boys? Can I do something for you?”
They looked at one another and the older one cleared his throat. “We wanted you to know…”
The other nodded. “If you’re lookin’…”
The first man slid a card across the bar top toward her. “We know you aren’t bad. We know you are a damn good leader. We’d join up with you anytime.”
His companion slid his card to her as well. “And I’m sure there are plenty more standing in line.”
Holly looked at them and then at the cards before she moved her hands over them. The gesture touched her deeply, and tears pulled at the corners of her eyes. A lump filled her throat and she nodded, unable to say a word. They knew, though; she could see it in their eyes. They had lost many along the way.
They turned and walked away, but three more men waited behind them. The one in the front was middle-aged with a broad chest and scars over his shoulders. He put his hand out and motioned for her to stand. Holly did so without thought and tried desperately to hold her emotions back. The man leaned down and wrapped his arms around her to give her a tight hug.
He whispered as he pulled back, “We drink tonight in the memory of your guys. Trigger was a friend, and Aki was a warrior. The damn Zoo always takes the best of us.”
Holly whispered lightly under her breath, “Amen.”
The man released her and the others hugged her too and empathized with the loss of her team. JB watched carefully and saw the strain on her face as she fought to hold the emotion back. It was too much, though, and as a single tear rolled down her cheek, she searched frantically for him. She knew she couldn’t hold it much longer and didn’t want to lose it in front of the crowd.
JB walked around the bar and grabbed her hand to pull her behind him. “Come on, I need to show you something.”
She gripped his hand tightly and directed her gaze to the floor, unable to meet the eyes around her. They turned the corner and walked down the hall. When she entered his office and heard the click as the door shut, she exhaled a deep, ragged breath and allowed the floodgates to open. JB hurried over, pulled her against him, and held her tightly. Her body shook as she sobbed and let it out so she wouldn’t have to ever again.
He rested his chin on the top of her head as she leaned the side of her face on his chest. “I know I’ve said this in stories, but I want to say it again. Being in the Zoo is one of the hardest things that anyone can face. It forces you to see the truth about yourself—and to see the truth about others. And worst of all, it forces you to see the truth about mortality and how fragile our lives and our planet really are.”
Holly sniffled. “It’s a bitch.”
JB chuckled, pulled back, and held her shoulders. “It is a bitch, but you, my dear, have metal in your bones. You are a tough-ass bitch and you more than proved that when you brought everyone you could out
of there.”
Holly nodded, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and sniffled. “I feel more like I have Jello in my bones right now.”
He laughed and turned to grab a tissue off his desk and hand it to her. “We all feel that way from time to time.”
She wiped her face and drew in a deep breath as she looked at the ceiling. When her head lowered, she wiped her hand across the stains on the front of his light-blue button-up. “I’m sorry about your shirt.”
He glanced down and gestured at the small closet in the corner. “Not a problem. I have another one.”
Holly chuckled and strolled over to the picture of JB on the wall from when he had first started work in the Zoo. She turned to say something but stopped and watched as he removed his shirt and hung it in his closet. He pulled out another and pushed his arms through the sleeves. She narrowed her eyes and watched his muscles tighten and contract. It wasn’t a sexual stare, though. It was a scientific observation. He looked almost as if he had rewound the clock—he really did look years younger than he actually was.
Chapter Three
The birds soared high over the packed cafés in the center of Paris. Men stopped in their tracks and trailed their gaze over her. They started at the ground, where her six-inch stiletto heels clicked as she sauntered down the sidewalk. Her toned calves tightened with each step and her thighs were firm and strong. The hem of her dress fell about three inches below her ass and the fabric tugged and hugged every curve of her body. Her long blonde hair sparkled in the sunlight and swished back and forth across her back like she was in a commercial.
Billie stopped on the corner and pulled her Dior sunglasses down her nose, pursed her red, pouty lips, and winked at the men. Her gesture casual and confident, she pushed her glasses up and allowed a cocky smirk to cross her lips. With her elite clothing, sunglasses, and perfectly manicured nails that matched the deep red-wine color of her Dior clutch, she attracted a lot of attention, both from men and women.
She set her meal down on the small brasserie table and sat, crossed her legs, and draped the napkin carefully across her bare thighs. Her shielded gaze roved the streets and tables around her as she picked at her food. Playfully, she sucked on the end of a strawberry and watched as the doors to a government building across the street swung open. Her movements paused as a tall, attractive man with dark, sculpted hair and a very expensive black, tailored suit strutted out. He handed a file to a young woman who followed him and stopped to take a deep breath of the fresh Paris air.
He walked on, stepped off the curb, and slid into the back seat of a dark sedan with tinted windows. The driver shut his door and climbed into the driver’s seat. Hickok popped the remains of the strawberry into her mouth and closed the lid of the box. She stood, gathered her things, and discarded the leftovers in the trash can as she left the area.
She moved quickly but nonchalantly away from the café. When she cut down a side street, she picked up the pace and soon reached a small side door with no markings. She pulled her glasses down her nose and looked back and forth before she stepped inside and slammed the door behind her.
Billie shook her head as she removed her sunglasses and put them in her purse. “Money laundering, blackmail, corruption of government officials, drug trafficking, murder, and the list goes on and on. You may not have ever been on one of my hit lists with the old bosses, but you are quite the douche waffle.”
As she reached the stairwell, she held the railing for support and removed her heels. She hurried up the steps in her bare feet and made her way to the top floor condo. With a key attached to a small golden-heart keychain, she let herself in, closed and locked the door behind her, and tossed her shoes to the right.
Hickok put her fingers to her lips and chuckled as they struck a woman hunched in the corner, already dead. “Slept your way to the top, didn’t you Stephanie?”
She shook her head as she put her clutch down on the table and drew a deep breath. “Too bad it was the wrong top.”
With a vague shrug, she turned and moved down the hallway to the first door on the right. Inside, she went past the large poster bed to the window where a large, very new, and very nice rifle stood propped against the wall. She twisted the handle on the window and pushed to crack it open slightly. Satisfied with the width of the aperture, she knelt on one knee and raised the rifle to the gap, looked through the sight, and swung the barrel to align it farther down the street.
Billie pulled her head back and began to dial the scope in. She tilted her face toward the door as if she were still talking to the dead woman. “That’s right, Stephanie. I’ve had it out for you for a while but never had the right moment to act on it. Sleeping your way to the top is not the crime, although I have to say a strong-willed woman doesn’t need to wave her vagina around like a surrender flag. Still, we all do what we need to do. No, your true crimes lay with what you did behind the scenes. Number one would be bribery. Those government officials killed over two hundred people because of you, and their blood was all over your hands.”
She looked into the sight to ensure that everything was correct. A quick glance confirmed the position of the car and she shook her head. “And exactly like your friend there, you added coercion, selling secrets to another government, and murder by your own hands. I would say you’ve had this coming for a long time. I’m shocked you didn’t look behind you when you heard the floor creak. I would have turned and shot if I knew my past was so soaked in blood.”
With another shrug, she lowered her head to the rifle and closed one eye as she waited. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…”
Her finger positioned itself on the trigger. “If I should die before I wake…”
She released a long, deep breath and squeezed. Through the back window of the car that idled in front of the government building, she saw the dark-haired man jerk slightly. She imagined the chunks of his brain and skull splatter across back of the front seats as his body fell forward into the car. A small bullet hole through the window was visible although it was supposed to be bulletproof. Of course, technology was far too advanced to not have engineered rounds that would pierce it easily.
Hickok pulled the rifle back and broke it down quickly to place the pieces in a large black case. She closed and locked it, stood, and tossed it on the bed. Screams erupted in the street and she grinned. The driver had flung himself out of the vehicle in a panic and fled in the other direction, leaving the door wide open. When passersby noticed the open door, they also saw the grim evidence of the victim’s death and realized that the echo of a shot they’d heard had been from closer than they had imagined.
She had gotten used to things like that over the years, even though most of the kills she had done had been at close range and in secret. This one, though, needed to be done, and it needed to be in the open. Not only had he gotten what he deserved, but his death also sent a message to the people who employed or worked with him. Those who were evil don’t last long in that world, no matter how hard they try. There is always someone smarter and more on point than they will ever be. In that moment, it was her, and she thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.
Billie drew a deep breath, removed the wig, and dropped it on the bed. She eased off the knit cap she’d worn beneath it and pulled the pin from her hair before she shook her head back and forth. From the bag at her feet, she retrieved a pile of clothes, walked back out into the room, and looked at the dead body, her head tilted to the side. She stood at the edge of the puddle of blood and dragged the tight spandex dress up and over her head.
With a careless gesture, she discarded it on the body and removed the diamond earrings with a smile. “I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
The red lace bra joined the pile. “I have to admit, it was definitely fun being you for a moment. Blondes really do get all the attention. It’s nuts. I think your dresses are a little tight, though. I mean, what the fuck do you wear to grocery shop? I would break my neck bending down
to get the pasta off the bottom shelf.”
She chuckled as she walked into the bedroom and dressed in the clothes from the bag. Her long legs fit perfectly in a pair of high-fashion black palazzo pants with a large black bow around the waist. She buttoned her white blouse and tucked it in tightly, then undid only the first two buttons.
Hickok strode to the mirror, pulled her hair back into a bun, and used several pins to capture every stray hair. She lifted the knit cap and pulled it tightly over her head. After a quick shake of her head, she grabbed a short, bobbed black wig from the bag and slid it on. She pulled down on the bluntly cut black bangs and leaned forward to use her ring finger to rub off the smudged eyeliner under her right eye.
That done, she dumped the contents of the clutch into her larger strapless purse and threw the first one into the dresser where she’d found it. She scrabbled in the bag for her tube of bright red lipstick and applied it firmly across her lips. Billie pressed her lips together, looked in the mirror, and blew herself a kiss followed by a cocky smile. She slid her feet into the pointy-toed flats and repacked her bag, making sure to put the blonde wig inside.
Satisfied with her appearance, she withdrew a black box with a screen from her duffle and pressed a couple of buttons. She tucked her purse under her arm and snatched a pack of cigarettes from the counter as she walked out of the condo and down the stairs. This time, she used the front door, slid her black, large-rimmed glasses onto her face, and lit a cigarette before she walked down the steps and out onto the sidewalk. As she sauntered down the street, she knew that she looked like a model straight out of the pages of some high-fashion magazine. That was normal for Paris, though, so she drew a lot less attention.
When she’d walked about a block, she glanced at her watch and continued as she puffed on her cigarette. She smiled, yawned slightly, and covered her mouth before she fiddled in her purse. “I doubt heaven will take your soul, bitch.”
