by Pema Donyo
The Innocent Assassins
by Pema Donyo
Published by Astraea Press
www.astraeapress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.
THE INNOCENT ASSASSINS
Copyright © 2014 PEMA DONYO
ISBN 978-1-62135-308-9
Cover Art Designed by AM DESIGNS STUDIOS
To Mr. Mason, my fourth grade teacher and my first editor. You helped me discover my love for stories and I haven’t stopped writing them down since. I would also like to thank my family and friends, for always supporting me through all my plot ramblings and odd writing hours.
And, of course, to all my readers. This one’s for you.
CHAPTER ONE
There are three rules to staying an assassin at Covert Operatives: one, your parents must be deceased, two, your murder contracts must remain confidential, and three, you must be under the age of eighteen.
I slammed the door shut while my eyes scanned the room for an object to use.
"I know you're in there. I know who sent you after me!"
"Oh yeah?" My gaze flickered from the empty baby bassinet to the picture books on the floor. I resisted the urge to groan. Of all the rooms in this mansion, I picked the nursery?
"You can't kill me! The cops are coming." The voice on the other side of the door wavered even as I felt him trying to beat down the door on the other side. "You're only a kid!"
ZING.
A bullet whizzed past my neck, breaking a small hole in the door. I cringed. A chunk of hair fell from the bullet’s impact, the right side of my ponytail splayed on the floor. I'd just had a haircut!
"You are so paying for that." Enough was enough. I reloaded my gun and pushed back the door enough to buy a few more seconds of time. "No one calls me a kid."
"Yeah, well I—"
BANG.
I gazed down at the man dead in front of me. One hand rested on the doorknob, the other on the trigger of my gun. I frowned at the wound. It wasn't right on the heart. Darn, I wanted a clean shot.
The sound of scurrying boots up the stairs caught my attention. No time to worry about the aim now. My finger rested on the trigger, ready to shoot in self-defense. I lifted up the gun and pointed it in front of me.
A woman reached the top of the stairs and shrieked when she saw the man on the floor. She screamed even louder when she saw my gun, as if her screams would ward me away.
I sighed. "Sorry about this."
She started backing into a corner as I approached her. I dealt a powerful blow to one of the pressure points on her neck with just the right amount of pressure not to kill her. Immediately, her body curled up and her lips pressed shut as she crumpled to the floor.
I pointed my gun to the direction I wanted to go. I passed by the woman, who was now laying on the floor, unconscious and blissful. I winced. I hated when the family showed up. It made the entire mission messier. Still, a job was a job.
The chip in my ear started to buzz. I pressed on it with my free hand, still pointing the gun with my other hand on the way out. No one else was inside, but a CO agent could never be too careful.
"Coast is clear." A pause. "You're getting slow, Janey."
I pressed the earpiece to respond. "Yeah? Says the one who almost got us killed in Cairo last week."
I kicked open the door. My eyes scanned from side to side, checking to make sure I was safe. My finger rested on the trigger.
Within moments, I found myself pressed to the floor.
Adrian smiled above me while his hands pinned mine behind my back. So not safe with a gun in my hand.
"See what I mean? Getting slow." His hands drifted to my hips, and his mouth curved upward into an easy smirk above my lips.
I pulled away, leaving both of us gasping for breath. "Not fair," I grumbled. "You told me it was clear."
He took his hands off my wrists and stepped back. I stood up from the porch of the house.
"We can't just make out during every mission."
Adrian raised an eyebrow at me. "You didn't object during the last one."
I tried to stop a blush from creeping into my cheeks at the memory. "Well, it’s not happening again. It's dangerous. We have to stay alert."
He gestured to the silence of the night. The house was in the middle of nowhere, and not a single sound could be heard except crickets chirping from somewhere in the grass. "We're safe, Jane. I don't know if we're getting older or the assignments are getting easier."
I shivered in the cold night air and placed my gun back in its holster. A blue light blinked at the end of the plain, beckoning Adrian and me to follow. "Let's get out of here. No use sticking around."
Adrian took off his leather jacket and draped it over my shoulders. My hand still rested on my gun as my eyes struggled to see in the darkness. Huddled together, we walked toward the light.
I stopped. My heart thundered in my ears. I inclined my head to the left, and he nodded. No words were needed to interpret the signal.
Adrian broke off into a run toward the light as police sirens wailed in the air. Cars sped toward him, swerving around the edges of the suburban road.
A police motorcycle pulled up against one of the cars. Adrian ran forward and kicked off the policeman. He didn’t wait to hear the man’s cries of protest before jumping onto the motorcycle and zooming around back to me.
He held out his hand for me to grab. I gripped it and propelled my body forward onto the motorcycle. Steadying myself, I pulled my arms around his waist as he drove toward the light and away from the police.
Cars chased after us, nearly catching up to his breakneck speed. A BANG and a bullet whipped by my head. I kept my head low while I clung tighter to Adrian. The motorcycle’s speed threatened to pull me off the seat and send me hurtling off the bike.
“A little help here?” He yelled over the rev of the engine.
“Got it!” After a quick glance over my shoulder, I pulled out my gun and aimed it at the driver's seat. The window smashed as the bullet hit its target with perfect precision, right as the car skidded into the other police vehicle.
Adrian swore under his breath as another bullet hit his side mirror. He revved up the speed as our motorcycle closed in on the blue beacon.
I elbowed him. "Don't swear.”
He laughed. "Just take care of them!”
I gritted my teeth as he swerved through another sharp turn in the road. My fingers almost slipped from his waist. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and reached for the trigger.
I aimed the gun again and shot the remaining drivers of the police cars. It was like taking candy from a baby. The cars skidded into each other, each driver as incapable of dodging a bullet as the other. One of the cars burst into flames as two others smashed into it. The deafening roar of an explosion behind us caused Adrian to swear again.
"Gone!" I nearly screamed over the sound of the motorcycle speeding down the road. He seemed unfazed by the speed at which we were still going.
"They're gone. Slow down!" I gripped Adrian tighter as the wind whipped my hair in random directions. "You're going to get us killed."
He didn't, though. We raced down the road, the blue light coming closer and closer. He dodged each oncoming car with a sudden swerve and each group o
f pedestrians with a swift flick of his wrist on the steering. I managed to hold on for dear life. All these assassination missions, and I’m going to die by my boyfriend's driving – great.
But Adrian did manage to dodge all the other cars and people on the streets, because we pulled up to the blinking light within the next minute. He hopped off, gripped my hand, and pulled me after him.
I broke free from his hold and ran toward the chain-link fence. I jumped it in two steps. The crunch of Adrian’s boots hitting the metal fence fell right behind me.
I glanced back over at our safety beacon. All Covert Operatives missions provided a blue light agents could follow to get back to headquarters. But there was a time limit for each assignment. The blue light at the end of the alley grew dimmer and dimmer with each blink. We ran down toward the blue light of safety, the blue light of home, before it disappeared.
I pressed on the turquoise circle against the brick wall at the end of the alley. Adrian followed, and his fingerprint against the wall triggered the scanner to appear. I stepped toward it. The laser inspected my eye, and I stepped back so he could do the same. After a whir of approval, the door handle appeared.
We were in.
I pulled open the door and gestured for Adrian to enter. "Gentlemen first," I said in an exaggerated tone of condescension.
Adrian furrowed his brows at me, annoyed. Still, he stepped inside the white room and I followed him, then closed the door behind me.
As soon as we entered, his hand slipped into mine. The nerve. I swallowed hard and yanked my hand back. I could already envision his scowl. "Not here," I seethed.
Anonymous men in lab coats walked up to Adrian and I for the routine after-mission inspection. The huge staff of scientists at Covert Operatives made recognizing each doctor by name impossible. Before they took us our separate ways, Adrian's breath tickled my ear. "Meet me at the dock."
I gulped as I walked away from him. I didn't need to glance back and ask him what he planned to do. The memory of our last dock make-out session was still fresh in my mind.
One of the doctors guided me into a white room. He took my pulse and checked my reflexes, but all I could think about was Adrian. How did this boy expect us to keep meeting without getting caught? Weren't there security cameras on the dock? How had no one found out about us yet? Why didn’t I just stop making out with him already?
The routine check-up was over in no time, leaving me to sit on the patient exam bed while I waited for the results to come back. That’s odd. The results never took long. Footsteps approached the door, but this time it wasn't a doctor.
"Jane Lu." A woman in a tight black pantsuit entered the room. She nodded to me, then sat down at the chair next to my bed.
I'd never seen her before, but there were too many adults working behind the scenes of CO to know them all by name. The executives seemed just as anonymous to the operatives as the scientists who checked up on us after every mission.
Pantsuit Lady pursed her lips before speaking. The hallowed spaces of her cheeks elongated as she spoke. "Covert Operatives already knows about your secret."
My palms became sweaty. They know about Adrian. What were the punishments for CO agents having a relationship anyway? Were they going to kick me out? I bit my lip, questions on the tip of my tongue. There go the dock make-out sessions now.
"What are you talking about?" All right, Jane, play it cool. Play it cool. Maybe you forgot to reload your gun last time before you returned it. I mean, Marty was pretty strict with those rules about putting at least one bullet in the gun for the next assassin. I didn't see the reason why, since last year he'd been polishing one of the guns and accidentally shot off his big toe. He still had the habit of wearing flip-flops around the office for some reason. You’d think a man would learn.
"Agent Lu? Agent Lu, are you listening?" the woman pressed. Her expectant wide eyes locked with mine.
"Of course, totally." I took my mind off Marty's lack of toe and back to the conversation at hand. Maybe if I denied hooking up with Adrian, he would do the same and neither of us would get in trouble. There we go. Problem solved. More make-outs at the dock guaranteed.
"I understand you attempt to keep CO from knowing something, but we were already informed about this vital piece of information. We know it is of great importance to you.”
“Importance?” Yikes. Maybe Adrian had told CO about us. How could he? Getting us both in trouble… I clenched my fist, crinkling the exam bed tissue around me. No more make-out sessions for him. My lips were sealed.
"Your first foster parents told us."
My jaw went slack. Um, since when did Adrian call up our first foster home and tell the owners about how we were hooking up? Talk about awkward.
"How does my foster home know about who I'm making out with?"
Pantsuit Lady drew back. Her long face stretched further as she raised her brows to the tops of her forehead. “Excuse me?”
Oh no. I let out a nervous laugh. Rewind, rewind. "I mean... did I say making out with? Ha, ha." I rubbed the back of my neck in an offhand motion. "I meant to say my health records! I thought you were here to give me the results of my check-up."
She blinked twice.
I faked a cough.
Pantsuit seemed flushed, but believed my explanation. She waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, I talked to the doctor. All results are good; all vitals are normal." She cleared her throat. "CO knows your birthday is September sixth, not December eighth.”
"Oh, that's what this is about?" I leaned my elbows against my knees and rested my chin in my palms. Relief washed over me. "I know the year I was born. I don't know my real birthday, like month and day wise. I didn't know it was important."
The lady smoothed her skirt and pulled her mouth into a tight line. It wasn't even a smile; it was a look which said, "You are so stupid girl; how are you an elite assassin at CO?"
Instead of admitting this, she sighed, "Your last mission is going to come earlier than expected, so CO has readjusted your schedule to fit the mission before September sixth.”
"What do you mean 'readjusted’? Why would my schedule change?" My fall schedule revolved around attending concerts with Emma in LA and book signings with Lucy in New York City. It was all planned. There was no way I was missing out on those.
"Your contract is ending on September sixth." Pantsuit gave me another tight-lipped stare worthy of that game show host for Weakest Link. "Then you are eighteen. Your time as an employee of CO can end."
"Wait, I stop killing people September sixth?"
The woman winced at the word "kill." Jeez, for people working in the world's leading contract killer organization, all the adults working for CO sure were touchy. "The correct term is ‘closing contracts,’ and yes, you can choose to end your contract on September sixth. You know the rule: all employees must be under the age of eighteen..."
"...unless we continue to work as executives instead of assassins."
Pantsuit beamed at my ability to finish her sentence. "Yes, and everyone at CO hopes sincerely you will consider applying for an executive position. The applications may be competitive, but the rewards are—"
"No thanks." I shook my head. Wow, I'd forgotten about my contract ending. The whole Adrian mess had been on my mind, and all the missions, and finally seeing my favorite band in concert… I guess I hadn't thought about my eighteenth birthday in a while. "I'm not staying with CO."
The woman sighed again, but nodded with acceptance. "Completely understandable. Most do not stay, and CO wishes you the best of luck in the world. As you know, you will have the option of selecting a college from CO's list. CO will pay your full expenses for the next four years. You will be given an annual pension of fifty thousand for the next ten years after you graduate from college. A more detailed packet of instructions..." Pantsuit rifled through her bag and brought out a folder. "...is inside."
After pressing the folder into my hands, she gave me a curt nod and opened the door to
leave. But she paused in the doorway. Pantsuit inclined her head in my direction. "One more matter. I would stay with Covert Operatives if I were you." Her lips pressed tightly together, all expression devoid from her face. "The world out there is dangerous. Covert Operatives will keep you employed, paid, and safe. There is no downside to staying with Covert Operatives."
I opened my mouth to protest, but she cut me off. "Don't respond now. Think about it.”
The door closed behind her with a click. Her heels tapped on worn linoleum tiles as she walked down the hallway.
I glanced at the folder in my hands and blanched. The cover showed a sun with a smiley face on it, and rainbows covered the rest of the folder. The title screamed "PLANNING YOUR RETIREMENT" in big, bold Times New Roman font.
Jeez, you'd think the world's largest assassin corporation could've managed at least a classy retirement folder.
****
"You can't leave, Janey."
Adrian's hands rested on my shoulders while he pressed a kiss to my neck. I bit back a moan and tried to keep my control over the conversation. Not surprisingly, the golden boy's mouth proved rather distracting in this endeavor.
"I already told you; my mind is made up." I closed my eyes and let my body melt against his. How one person could make me feel so wonderful, I would never understand.
“Made up about what?” Adrian's mouth pulled away from my neck and my whole body tensed. It was like alarms rung in my head, a warning to keep this boy close.
“I’m going to leave Covert Operatives after my contract is complete. It’s simple.” I shrugged. “I’ll serve the last mission with you, talk to CO executives about my college placement, and pursue a degree in English.”
“You almost sound like you’re making sense.”
Excuse me? “What about my plan doesn’t make sense?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Adrian deadpanned. He looked past me at the water before us. “Maybe the part where you leave CO?"
