Better Off Dead: (Victor the Assassin 4)

by WOOD TOM

  She responded without pause because while outside the store there was no danger of being exposed. ‘He’s not going camping for the fun of it. I know that much.’

  ‘We can’t be sure he is going camping.’

  ‘Talk quieter,’ the male Dane said, and rolled over.

  The next day was the same: more waiting. During that time they had witnessed him buying used mobile phones from a market trader and top-up credit from two different stores. The Finn had point for the foot surveillance. She enjoyed watching the target from relatively close proximity. She enjoyed pitting her skills at remaining unseen against such a careful mark. She didn’t take risks, of course, however much she wanted to impress the others. Particularly the Swede, who aroused her and frustrated her in equal measure in those moments when she did not think of her boyfriend or the Swede’s lovely wife.

  The Finn wanted to be the one that ended this. Not necessarily with the kill itself, but by providing that advantage they had so far struggled to acquire. Perhaps, if she did not lose the target as the others often did, she would be led to somewhere that could be used as a strike point, or learn some extra intelligence that they could exploit to create one.

  Gunning him down on the street wasn’t their style. They wanted to live free and enjoy their hefty tax-free commissions. It was rare they even left a body behind. A combination of the Swede’s cocktails of flesh-dissolving enzymes and acids and the Finn’s willingness to use power tools ensured that after they had made a kill not enough of the target remained to be identified. They charged extra for such clean-ups, but would do it regardless. The Finn kept her thrill at putting to use circular saws and belt sanders a secret from the other three. As a girl, gutting reindeer had always been her favourite part of hunting with her father.

  She inspected such tools while following the target around a hardware and DIY superstore. They had a handheld circular saw produced by her preferred manufacturer on sale. It had a 1900mm blade and used 1300w of power. Fun times could be had with that, providing one wore the right protective clothing. So much mess.

  ‘He’s bought himself an oxyacetylene torch,’ she whispered into her lapel mike. ‘It’s a good one too.’

  The deep, sweet voice of the Swede responded in her ear: ‘What’s this guy up to? I know you’re going to say he’s preparing for a job.’

  ‘Maybe he’s building something.’

  ‘But what?’ the Swede said in return.

  She kept the target at the limits of her sight, and observed as he added a set of protective goggles, fuel tank and heavy-duty gloves to use with the cutting torch. He then went on to buy a small generator, diesel and a folding four-wheel trolley to transport his purchases. At the till, he spent a minute flirting with the much older woman who served him. The smile that lingered on her face long after he’d gone told the Finn she had enjoyed the experience.

  The Finn didn’t follow the target outside. She updated the Swede on his new acquisitions and the Danish man was put into rotation, wearing smart business clothes – the opposite of the casual jeans and leather jacket he’d worn the previous day. Though arguably more attractive than the Swede, the Dane didn’t endure in her fantasies. She didn’t feel that electricity between them. The Finn took her place at the radio to let the Swede sleep. She watched his chest rise and fall beneath the sleeping bag.

  While the male Dane kept them updated on the target’s movements, the female Dane drove the van around the city, always staying at least a street or two away from the target’s current whereabouts, but never staying so far away that they would be unable to exploit an opportunity. That opportunity never presented itself, of course; or more accurately the target never allowed himself to give one away.

  It must be exhausting, the Finn decided, to live such a careful existence wherein one’s guard never lowered and each and every movement not only had to be considered but executed with perfection. The Finn couldn’t do it, and she was thankful she didn’t have to. She would never work alone. It was suicide. There was safety in numbers. No individual, no matter how good, could be as effective as a team. They were about to prove that on this particular job.

  ‘I think we have something,’ the male Dane’s voice announced through the speaker.

  ‘Go on,’ she said.

  ‘He’s entered a storage facility.’

  The Finn’s back straightened. ‘Interesting.’

  ‘That’s what I thought.’

  ‘He’s spending a lot of time in the reception area.’

  ‘So he’s likely renting a unit.’

  ‘Again,’ the Dane said, ‘that was my take. Hang on… yes, he’s following an employee out. I can see keys and paperwork. He’s being taken to his unit.’ He couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice.

  The Finn clapped her palms together.

  ‘What is it?’ the Swede asked, stirring.

  The Finn smiled at him. He looked so cute and dishevelled. ‘We might have something.’

  The female Dane used a laptop to remote-hack into the storage company’s system and discovered some useful information. The unit rented was four hundred cubic feet in size and situated in the middle of a row of similarly sized units. There were over two hundred in total at the facility, all ground level. It was a typical facility – a chain – though not a high-end one. The security was adequate, but nothing special. There were a few cameras, but plenty of blind spots because they had used the minimum they could get away with. The target had signed a twelve-month agreement, which was standard, and registered under a different name than he was staying at the hotel with.

  ‘Check flight manifests,’ the Swede said.

  She did, and learned the target had an economy-class ticket booked for the day after he was due to check out of his hotel.

  ‘Check-out is at eleven hundred hours,’ she said. ‘His flight is at nineteen hundred the next day. Check-in two hours before that means thirty-one hours for him to hang around.’

  ‘Too long,’ the Swede muttered.

  The Dane said, ‘He’s going to stay at the storage facility. That’s why he has the camping equipment.’

  The Finn nodded. ‘He’s establishing a safe house. He’s not storing anything there. He’s keeping it stocked with the essentials so when he’s in town he has everything he needs to lie low.’

  ‘But why stay at a hotel for the past week if his intention was to set up a safe house?’

  The Finn shrugged. She didn’t know.

  The Swede clicked his fingers. ‘Because he’s coming back to town. He’s got a job lined up here. It must be a big one too, or one that is high risk. One where he wouldn’t be able to slip out of the city straight away and won’t be able to risk staying at a hotel or guesthouse. But now he’s set up a safe house, he can lie low there until the dust settles while the cops waste their time quizzing receptionists.’

  ‘Man, this guy is slippery,’ the Dane said.

  ‘Like an eel,’ the Finn added, impressed. ‘But in two days’ time he’s going to slither into a trap of his own making.’

  ‘You sound like you feel sorry for him.’

  ‘I do.’ She smiled. ‘Almost.’

  The target checked out of his hotel as scheduled. They followed him to the storage facility, as they had done twice before while he deposited his various purchases. This time he dropped off a small suitcase but then left.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ the Swede said, because the disappointment in the van was palpable. ‘We know he’s coming back.’

  ‘Patience,’ the Finn added.

  ‘Do we lie in wait for his return?’ the Danish woman asked. ‘He has the door secured with a state-of-the-art combination padlock, but give me a few minutes and I can crack it. Easy.’

  ‘No,’ her countryman replied. ‘He’s bound to have any number of anti-intrusion indicators on or around the door. We disturb the wrong mote of dust and he’ll know we’re inside.’

  The Swede said, ‘Plus, does anyone really want to trap themselv
es in a dark, confined space just waiting for him to return?’

  ‘Not my idea of a good time,’ the Finn answered.

  The Swede smiled at that, then said, ‘So, we’re agreed? We wait it out. He’ll come back at some point to sleep. He’s not going to stay awake for thirty hours straight when he doesn’t have to.’

  ‘How do we get the door open without him knowing about it?’ the male Dane asked.

  ‘We don’t need to,’ the Finn answered. ‘We stealth it into the facility, nice and slow and quiet. He won’t hear us coming if we keep it smooth. Obviously, he can’t engage the padlock while he’s inside the unit, so once we’re over the fence, he’s defenceless. One of us opens the unit’s door – so maybe two seconds. The other two breach, fast, flashlights on to locate him in the dark and blind him as he stirs. Then: bang bang. It’s over.’

  ‘Nice,’ the Swede said.

  Feeling warm from the praise, the Finn turned to the others. ‘So it’s settled?’ She raised a hand. ‘The storage facility is our strike point?’

  The other three raised their hands in unanimous agreement.

  ‘But let’s make doubly sure every particular is solid,’ the male Dane said. ‘We need this to be one hundred per cent.’

  ‘Have we ever gone to work with anything less?’

  THREE

  Shortly after midnight they made their move. The night sky was clear. The air was warm. The male Dane stayed behind the wheel of the van, parked on the same side of the street as the storage facility, but between the wash of streetlamps and out of line of sight of the security cameras. At a distance, the vehicle looked parked and unoccupied. He was the getaway driver, providing surveillance and possible backup while the others were inside the facility. They all wore earpieces so he could warn them of anything happening outside that might compromise the job. It was unlikely. The storage unit was located in a quiet commercial area with all businesses closed at that time of night. Little traffic – whether pedestrians or vehicles – passed through the neighbourhood. The only people around were them and him.

  The Danish woman, Finn and Swede would complete the hit as the Finn had suggested – the Swede using his strength to open the door in the shortest possible time, the Finn as the shooter and the Dane watching their backs. The Finn had earned the role of killer as not only was she a fine shot but she was also considerably shorter than the other two team members. The Swede was the better marksman with small arms, but his height meant he was not the best choice. As the target would be prone, a tall shooter would find acquiring the target in the dark more difficult. A split-second delay could prove disastrous. Everyone was happy with their roles and knew what to do and when.

  The target had returned to his storage unit a few minutes before nine p.m. At ten, the staff manning the facility’s front desk packed up and went home. The team had no way of knowing how long it would be before the target went to sleep, but they figured waiting a couple of hours made sense, just to be certain.

  ‘He’s not going to sit in there reading a book,’ one of the Danes had said. ‘He’ll get his head down and get out as soon as possible. We know this guy doesn’t like to sit still. He knows he’s vulnerable in there.’

  After the kill was completed the storage locker would provide enough privacy for the Finn to go to work with power tools. The target even had a generator to plug them into.

  ‘Thoughtful,’ she had joked.

  They wore lightweight body armour under their jackets and were armed with suppressed pistols and several magazines of spare ammunition. They each carried their own preferred sidearm. No one was expecting anything more onerous than a double-tap to the head – certainly not a firefight – but it was essential to prepare for events beyond the worst-case scenario.

  The Dane moved towards the storage facility first and alone. The brim of her cap was pulled down low to shield her face and the hood from her jacket hid her hair. She had an aluminium ladder in her hands and a stepladder strapped to her back with bungee cords – purchased from the same store as their target. She rushed up to the facility’s gate, extended the ladder and hooked the support hooks on to the top of the gate. Both the ladder’s hooks and feet had been wrapped in foam. In seconds she had climbed over and dropped down to the other side. She wore athletic shoes with thick soles.

  She released the slipknot attaching a set of bolt croppers to her belt and used them to disable the gate’s lock. The locking bolt was only accessible from the inside.

  The stepladder – similarly silenced with foam – was set in place and she used the height it provided to reach a wall-mounted security camera. It covered the gate and space behind it. She coated the lens cover with black paint from a spray can.

  ‘Move,’ she whispered into her radio.

  The Finn pushed open the gate and hurried into the facility, followed by the Swede. While this happened the Dane used the stepladder and spray paint to disable more cameras. They failed to cover the whole facility, but could not be left operational. No risks. The camera recording her climbing over the gate had been unavoidable, but her identifying features were appropriately hidden and no record of the Finn or Swede would exist, nor of their activities within the facility’s boundary.

  The target’s unit sat in the approximate centre of a row of eight units – four units to the closest end, three to the furthest. They took up their positions. Their soft-soled shoes and skill at stealth ensured they made as close to no noise as was possible. The Swede took a parabolic microphone from his rucksack, held the earpiece in place and pointed the microphone at the unit’s doors. He listened for a moment, sweeping with the device.

  He nodded at the other two and mouthed, He’s asleep. Then he pointed to the right side of the door. The Finn and the Dane nodded back. The Finn shuffled over to the right and held up her pistol. Two seconds to get the door open, another one to acquire the target. No way he could wake up and react within three seconds, the Finn thought.

  The Swede set down the parabolic microphone and the Dane readied her gun: an FN P90 automatic weapon. A long sound suppressor was affixed to the muzzle. It was a beast of a machine, but only backup. The Finn would do the shooting with a .22 calibre Ruger pistol. The low powered slugs would still kill if they struck vital organs – which they would because the Finn was an expert shot – but they would stay inside the head or torso. No exit wound meant less mess. Less mess meant less evidence. They had rolls of plastic sheeting waiting in the van, ready to be unrolled before her power tools came out to play. The P90 was in case the Swede couldn’t get the door open. It seemed unlikely that the target could – or indeed would – secure the unit’s door from the inside, but they were taking no chances. If he had rigged some locking mechanism to the inside and the Swede could not wrench the door open within three seconds the Dane would hose the unit down. The P90’s magazine held fifty rounds that would be unleashed in a matter of seconds. Even with indirect fire, there was no way the target would survive.

  The mess would be absolute, which was why it was purely a backup plan. A nice, clean kill was how they preferred to operate, but with a target such as this they were prepared to accept that some corners might have to be cut.

  The P90 now clutched in both hands, the Dane nodded to confirm her readiness to the Finn and the Swede. He edged into position, squatted and took hold of the door. He nodded to the others. The Finn clicked on the red-dot optic of her pistol and the under-barrel flashlight.

  The Dane, gun in her right hand, held up three fingers of her left hand to the others. Then two.

  One.

  FOUR

  The Swede heaved open the rolling door, launching from a squat to standing, arms extending above his head, the metal creaking and clanging – loud and echoing.

  The beam from the Finn’s LED flashlight illuminated the inside of the storage unit – the camping supplies and equipment, gasoline and cutting torch and a man-sized shape in a sleeping bag in the far right corner.

  A Gemtech supp
ressor and naturally subsonic ammunition meant the Finn’s double tap was muted to two concentrated sneezes, inaudible beyond five metres. The sleeping bag rippled from the bullets’ impact.

  She stalked forwards into the unit, Ruger still up at eye level and aimed down at the prone target, seeking confirmation of the kill.

  ‘Wait,’ the Swede said from behind her before she could reach close enough to identify the target.

  She did as instructed, surprised at the volume of his voice and utterly trusting he was justified in his instruction.

  ‘It’s not him,’ the Swede said.

  The Finn could not see the body in the sleeping bag from her distance so he would not be able to either.

  ‘Left,’ the Swede said.

  She looked. ‘What the —’

  The unit’s walls were corrugated metal sheeting rising two and a half metres to the flat roof. Where the left wall met the floor was a hole, one metre square. The cut-out piece of metal lay on the floor next to it. Cut with the oxyacetylene torch.

  ‘Cover it,’ the Swede said as he moved forward into the unit.

  The Finn trained her gun on the hole, the beam of the flashlight showing the blackened edges where the metal had been scorched by the torch. The Swede kicked the sleeping bag twice, then knelt down to check what was inside.

  ‘Shit,’ he said, feeling pillows stuffed into the bag to create a man-sized shape. He felt something square and hard. A mobile phone, set to speaker, playing a sound file of recorded breathing.

  ‘He knew we were coming,’ the Swede said, a slight edge of fear in his voice. ‘He was waiting for us.’

  ‘Where is he?’ the Finn asked.

  The beam of the flashlight shone a little way through the hole in the wall and into the next unit, which seemed empty.

  The Swede pointed at the wall – at the next unit. Then he held out his left hand, palm down, and lowered it as he crouched into a squat, indicating for the Finn to do the same. She did, and the flashlight beam illuminated more of the unit beyond as his eye-level descended to see into it. It was as empty as it first appeared.