Red Lady

-17-

Eden

“I spy, with my little eyes, something-“

“If you say another word, Donavan, I will personally rip your head off. And don’t even say I can’t do it, because you don’t know what I’m capable of.”

Avian snickered as he saw Donavan’s challenging face from the rearview mirror. “I’d take her word for that; I’ve seen what she can do.”

The younger man turned to me, his face calculating as he looked me over. I continued to chew my gum while he mulled over his thoughts.

“You wouldn’t really, would you?”

I gave him a look, which caused him to turn around and shrink into the seat. I smirked in my victory, putting my arms behind my head. I had finally gotten fed up with this child’s antics, and put a stop to it, because I couldn’t deal with another two hours of him either singing ‘Ninety Nine Bottles of Beer on The Wall’, playing I Spy, or sighing out of boredom every three seconds. I would go insane. Alright, more insane than I already was.

I closed my eyes, willing myself to go to sleep so I wouldn’t have to endure the next two hours of silence, but decided against it when I felt Avian turning off. I sat up, although I had just gotten cozy, and stared hard into the back of Avian’s head.

“Where are we going?” I asked him, making Donavan look up and seeing that we were going off of our course. At least I wasn’t the only one who was confused.

“I need to pick up something.”

“Like what?”

“It’s a surprise.”

I glared at my cousin, with him just grinning at me in return. “You’re lucky you’re driving or I would shoot you. Assassins don’t like surprises Avian, of any kind.”

“You’ll like this one,” he announced, ignoring my death threat.

“Aren’t we the grumpy one,” the man in front of my mumbled, causing me to hit the back of his head.

“I don’t like being trapped in a car for days on end, so yes, it does make me a bit cranky.”

“A bit?” Irene interjected, turning her head to look back at me.

“I like you Irene, don’t make me put you on my list like these two idiots.”

“I could take you,” the petite girl said, smiling at me innocently. I smirked widely, enjoying the notion of having a fighting match with the woman. I would take her down fighting, and I always liked a little struggle.

“Maybe one day, little one,” I sighed wistfully, running my tongue over my top lip and teeth.

“We’re here,” Avian said, breaking the intense eye contact Irene and I were sharing. I looked from her amethyst eyes to the world outside the car. What lay in front of us was a simple house, smoke coming out of the chimney at the top. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously as an old man with a grey beard stepped out of the home with a duffle bag on his shoulder.

“Who is this man Avian?”

“A friend, everyone out.”

I obeyed his simple order, but took my pistol out and kept it safe in my hand, the safety off. The man came no closer, made no move as to scare us off. Smart of him.

Avian led our group over to him, I’m sure smiling that boyish smile like he always seemed to be. “Hello Geraldo.”

“Avian,” Geraldo greeted simply, nodding his head. His blue eyes turned to me, taking in my appearance as well as the weapon in my hand. “Is this for her?”

“That it is.”

My brows furrowed when I saw the old man smile wide at me and start to pull something out of the duffle bag. While he did this, his piercing eyes stayed locked on mine, talking to me and no one else. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Ms. Red Lady. I’ve heard many things about you.”

“All good, I hope,” I countered, although I could really care less if what he had heard was good or not.

“Nothing but praise, child.”

The thing that had been hidden in the bag finally became clear and my eyes widened in shock. I scanned every inch of what he was holding, thinking this too good to be true. “Is that Maria?”

Donavan snorted. “You named your gun?”

“A good gunman always names their favorite gun, trust their gun as if it was an actual person.”

“Maria was the only thing I could always count on,” I breathed, watching at the metal gleamed in the dim sun. I turned my attention to Avian, repeating my question.

“No, it’s not your original gun, but I tried my hardest to track down one exactly like it, and here we are.”

“Come take your gun, I promise I won’t bite.” Geraldo laughed at his own joke, motioning me over. While I was still on my guard with him, I walked towards him willingly, wanting to hold something so familiar in my hands. He handed it to me, and it was like going down memory lane. Everything was the same, I swear even some of the battle scars on the old thing looked the same.

“This is a very good gun, I know why you are so attached to it. I have used it religiously myself, one of my best guns.”

I looked at him, our blue eyes locking and a familiar emotion crossed his eyes, an emptiness I was too familiar with. “You were once an assassin yourself, were you not?”

Geraldo grinned ear to ear, laughing joyously. “I cannot hide it from you; those of the same trade can spot each other from a mile away. Yes, I was once an assassin, and I am glad that I can hand my most precious weapon to someone like you.”

“It is time we should be going Eden.”

I nodded, not taking my eyes off of the man in front of me. He took one of my hands in his, bringing it back up to his lips. “I hope that we will meet again.”

“Until then.”

I turned around, starting to walk back to the vehicle, when Geraldo called my name. I looked at him, and his face was blank. “Good luck with your mission.”

I nodded at him. “Thank you.”

He stood there as we drove away, and I watched his form become smaller and smaller until I could no longer see his form. I looked down at my hands, seeing them shaking slightly. Seeing Geraldo made reality crash around me, and I, for the first time, realized how dangerous this really was, how many lives I was risking. But in the process, I would be saving so many more.

I was brought out of my thoughts when Donavan jumped over his seat, landing with a thump right next to me. He grinned a sexy smile at me, throwing his arm over my shoulder. “This ride will be so much better like this.”

“You shouldn’t taunt a woman who had a gun pointed so innocently at your side.”

“I know where I’d want my gun to be,” the man said, trailing his fingers up my covered thigh. Sighing, I hit the back of his neck at just the right spot, and he slouched into the seat, unconscious.

“I didn’t even know that was possible,” Irene said from the front, seeing what I did. I smiled at her.

“It comes in pretty handy.”

-------------------

Dominic

My fingers typed rapidly at the keys on my keyboard, almost as fast as the movement of my eyes as I read the screen in front of me. With special FBI access, I had acquired the private files of each person that I had called only a couple of days ago. Most of them were the same, men who had been thrown out of what military position they had been at with dishonorable discharge. It didn’t take the Irish government long to find them and recruit them to start the undercover school.

Then there was Jocasta Still’s file, or rather, lack thereof. It was the smallest history record that I had ever seen in my life. People in witness protection had more information than this woman did.

She was a forty two year old woman, one who had grown up in Korea and left at the age of eighteen, changing it to the one that she had now. It didn’t even have the woman’s original name, for goodness sake! The only thing that she had on her criminal record was some form of abuse, because she had beaten her mother and father when she was angered.

I leaned back into my chair, running my hand through my hair yet again. Why had they picked her, of all people out there? There wasn’t a single thing here, besides the abuse, which would have signified she would be good for the team the Irish were putting together. It just didn’t make sense.

The phone ringing pulled me out of my thoughts and I picked it up immediately. “Special Agent Dominic Ramirez.”

“Hello Mr. Ramirez,” a female voice purred, one that was familiar. Speak of the devil, huh?

“Ms. Still, what can I do for you?”

“It seems I’m here to help you this time, Special Agent.”

“And how is that?”

“I know exactly where Eden is, and where she is headed. The girl was always predictable, but dangerous.”

I quickly took out a pad of paper and a pen, waiting to write down the information. “Go ahead.”

“Right now I would assume she is already in Quebec, on the trail of Alexander Major, or Sanchez, whatever he goes by now.”

She continued to disclose the rest of the information, except where she was at the moment. I was about to tell her thank you and hang up, but her words stopped me.

“I would hurry and get a quick squad up to Quebec, before she is gone.”

“I assure you, we will catch her before she gets a change to leave.”

Her bell like laugh sent and unpleasant shiver down my spine. “Not before she leaves the country, my dear officer, before she’s dead and gone.” I didn’t have time to respond before the phone went dead.

The way she had said it, dead and gone, made me uneasy. And I had a pretty good idea on who had ordered to make sure of her disposal. Taking my notes, I grabbed my coat and went to go find Myers and give him the new lead.