Till Deceived Do We Part

I knew it was bad. Whatever Jake had said, whatever had been told, had Flint freaked. He was actually physically showing it, which was what gave it away to me. Flint was always composed, but now he was on edge, and from what? Some psycho knife wielding maniac? A threat to his personal status? No and no. He was un-composed because of a phone call. One measly phone call. And if he of all people, the second in command, was so freaked, how did Jake feel? How should I feel?

The thought of going through the crowd again brought instant dread to my mind. I learned quickly, however, that it had to be worse than what I had originally assumed, for everyone was moving out of the way. And why? Because of Flint. I knew him since I was child, and even I felt a shiver of fear for the way he was acting. I didn’t even know he could pull the “scary” vibe, I just figured Flint was Flint. Was this how his victims felt?

Dealing with the bouncers was even more interesting. One look from Flint and they were actually scrambling to give us our weapons back. Now this was service I could get used to. How come my glare didn’t work like that? I had always been proud of it, but now, now I felt insufficient.

I was patient to ask what had happened. Flint was taking it hard, so I gave him time. I waited ‘till we got into the car. And then until we were out of the neighbourhood, but once we reached the highway, my patience snapped.

“What happened?” Flint kept his eyes on the road, his knuckles turning white from his grip on the wheel. His jaw was clenched and his eyes... his eyes were furious? Upset? Scared?

“Flint, w-“

”Jake called a meeting.” I waited. When he spoke no more, I began again, my anger rising to the bait as it always did.

“But what happened?” If I thought my voice had a razor edge to it, it was nothing compared to his.

“Dammit! Just wait and see!” Now, this was where most girls would cower and sulk in a ball, either crying or fighting the urge. Me? My anger rose more, my eyes narrowed and my hand tightened on my gun. I didn’t think I could pull the trigger against Flint, due to some subconscious buried thought that I’m sure Jake planted, but it was an instinct, a habit.

I was going to snap at him, hit him, do something unpleasant, but I stopped when I saw his eyes. They were tight in the corners, but the dual emotions inside them caught most of my attention. Frustrated fear. What the hell was going on?

“At least Zane’s alive. And we have a name.”

“Doesn’t matter. Not anymore.”

I’ll admit it, I was scared. I was scared because whatever had happened, had Flint scared, had him almost to the point of shaking. If Flint was almost shaking, I wasn’t going to like it. So to say I was calm and composed when we entered the base would have been a lie. I may not have been at the same level of fear as Flint, but I wasn’t how I should have been.

Then there were the looks. I had always been subjected to odd looks, being one of the few females at the base and holding the reputation I did, but these looks... they were different. I couldn’t describe them, because they were such a large mix of emotions. It unnerved me.

“Isn’t there a meeting?” I asked, hurrying to catch up to Flint who was looking pointedly ahead, ignoring the many people in the entrance.

“Jake wishes to speak with us first.” Goody.

Flint said no more, and I didn’t bother to push him. My mind was too consumed to bother.

Jake didn’t call many meetings. Maybe around five a year, and out of the five, only a few were serious meetings. Most were just a change in rules or regulations, or an announcement on something new being added to the base. They were never serious, never important. This would be the second serious meeting within a week, which went to show how deep we were in.

On the few serious meetings we did have in the past, the majority of them he would call the tops first. The top assassins, myself included, weren’t just labelled that position because of our fighting and killing ability. No, it was more than that. It was the ability to think, to outsmart the opponent, to take on more than the odds, and still come out unscathed. It was the heart, the soul, that went into the kills. It was full out talent, in a sense.

It was also due to our out-of-the-box thinking methods. That would usually be the reason why Jake would talk to us, that and to include us in the loop first. That way, we could watch the reaction of everyone else and not be busy listening to him. You never know when someone may be betraying you.

Jake hadn’t called us first the last meeting, because, though it was serious, there was no real need to hear our output at the time. But apparently whatever was happening now, warranted our opinions.

Jake was sitting at his desk when Flint knocked and walked in. His hands were folded on the desk, and his eyes were staring blankly at a picture on the wall. Folders and papers were scattered across his desk, and crumpled paper balls littered the floor. Rings marred his eyes, and his lips were pressed in a thin line. I had never brought Jake’s age into my mind, but lately, I couldn’t help but notice. He was getting old, and when assassins get old, they tend to get wiped off the playing field. Not a happy thought.

“Sit.” He said, his voice barely audible. His eyes were still staring blankly at the photo as we sat. Flint remained stiff, and I leant forward. Jake was never this... short, this silent.

“Zane’s alive and we have a name.” I said, trying to shed some light onto this situation. Jake’s eyes now left the picture and zoned into my face. I held his gaze, his un-readable gaze.

“I made a mistake.” My frown deepened and Flint stiffened more. “The hits were piling up and even if we did manage to get through this, we never would have caught up. I had to do something.” His voice lost it’s confident, ending almost in a lost little kid’s voice. And out of all things, that was one my top ten frightening things. Jake just sounded so lost, so desperate. “I sent three teams out, all groups of five.”

“Safety in numbers.” Murmured Flint, which earned a slight nod from Jake.

“Within a hour, I had ten of the hits pulled amongst them. I called them in, no need to push my luck.” He fell silent for a moment. “I knew something was wrong. I felt it. Instinct, I suppose.” He looked at Flint’s eyes now. “Even as age grabs you, you don’t lose that gut level of instinct. It’s always there.” Flint nodded in agreement, more so to make Jake happy.

“Jake,” I said gently, or gently for me, at least. “What happened?”

“Dead. All dead. Fifteen assassins got killed in the period of half an hour. In half an hour, all their GPS’s went out, and all their cars were found with their bodies by the police. Thirty damn minutes!” He snapped, his anger now replacing his despair. It was normal. For us, anyways. As an assassin, you can’t show weakness. The opponents would eat you alive, so we learn to turn everything into anger. Into an emotion that will fuel our abilities.

“Shit. Who?” Flint cared who, I didn’t. Dead was dead, and none of the assassins had ever made a big impression on myself. What did bother me was the loss of numbers we just got dealt. And the fact that they managed to kill fifteen of our trained assassins, in half an hour. That was scary. That was messed.

Jake began to list of names slowly, his eyes closing as he did. He knew everyone by memory, knew their folders like he knew the handle of a gun. Jake was like that, he didn’t need to know all of that, but he did it anyway. To connect with us, to make us feel more like a family. It had never truly worked, but I suppose in some hidden sense, we all felt closer to Jake for it. We felt loyalty and companionship towards him, but that was Jake. He was like a father to us all.

“This is why we hit back harder. We have a name, it’s only a matter of time before we link it with another.” Jake turned to me now, and when I looked into his eyes, I realized that wasn’t all he had to say. What more was there?

Fifteen assassins dead was bad. It was frightening how a large part of our numbers had been taken out so fast, and that we could be next any moment. It was sad that so many of our allies, our co-workers in a sense, would never be around. Would never be there to pull a hit. But that was all it was, sad and bad. Not horrible, nothing to have Flint saying what we did didn’t matter. Nothing to have Jake looking the way he did. No, something else was up, and I had a horrible feeling I was about to find out.

“I’ve been going about this the wrong way. I made many mistakes in my time, but never one at this magnitude. I should have corrected it when I realized it... but I couldn’t bear that emotional level of pain. Now I have a lot of deaths on my shoulder to show for it. So it changes, now.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Flint said, his eyes level with Jake’s. “Dalton and Lincoln have been in hiding for a long time, there was nothing to do about it. Maybe if I had looked into it better when I was supposed to, this wouldn’t ha-“

”No!” Jake’s harsh voice cut off Flint, causing myself to jump a little. This wasn’t Jake. Even with his little anger attack on me about Dane, I didn’t believe he was capable of being angry at us. That was a rare occasion. Jake just didn’t do mad, it was basically a yearly occurrence. Once a year, something would set him off, then pfft. Nothing more until the next year. “This is not your fault, Flint. Don’t think otherwise. This is my base, everyone listen’s to my rules, my orders and my commands. So I take full responsibility. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Flint said, though through somewhat clenched teeth. Jake sized up Flint for at least a minute before turning away. This wasn’t good. I was the temperamental one, not Jake.

“Flint, what’s the biggest mistake an assassin can make?”

“Leaving an eye witness.” Jake shook his head. “Failing to kill?” Another shake.
“Leaking out information? Betraying their base?” More shakes. Even I thought what Flint did. Flint continued to frown, and it was like seeing the wheels in his head turning. He was trying to connect this question with what Jake had been saying, because Jake wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t related. “Making an attachment.” Flint said slowly, his eyes glancing briefly at me, and in his eyes, I saw a flicker of fear.

“Yes. Growing close to another. I treated this like a home, and I cherish the ones close to me. You two and Zane the most. You know it. I know it. And they know it. That was my first mistake.” I went to interrupt, but Jake didn’t allow that. “My second mistake was looking at Zane’s disappearance like that. When an assassin disappears we set up a body search mission, doing so without risking our own lives.” Anger rose in me and again I went to interrupt him, but Jake sent me such a look that it felt like a cat caught my tongue.

“Zane is like a son to me, but I shouldn’t have risked other assassins, mainly you two, for his life. In doing so, I gave Dalton and Lincoln the perfect opportunity to strike. They knew I would, and I went along with their plan. Now we have one missing top, one dead safe-house guy and fifteen dead assassins. Not to mention one betraying old ally and two stressed-to-the-max tops.”

“I understand what you’re saying,” Flint said slowly, “which doesn’t necessarily mean I agree, but I understand. However, what I don’t get is how our information we found would be un-important.” I nodded in agreement to Flint, seeing as Jake was still sending me that stay quiet vibe.

“We’re doing this the old way. We’re after Dalton and Lincoln, and the fact they have Zane doesn’t matter. We’re taking this slow, which means one name, and the fact that Zane is alive doesn’t matter. We’re waiting till they either slip up or come in the open. We’re not making any more moves to save him, nor are we going to gather information. They’ll get impatient, and until they do, we’ll do nothing.”

I blinked. And blinked again. No! Jake couldn’t be saying what I thought he said. I’ve known Zane since I was little, I couldn’t just leave him to be tortured to death! I couldn’t, I wouldn’t. Zane wouldn’t allow that to happen me, and I was damn sure I wasn’t going to let it happen to him.

I remember the time when I was twelve and Zane was fifteen. He had gotten caught doing some stupid tricks with a gun. While no one got hurt, the rule no playing with guns had been in effect, so needless to say, Zane had gotten in trouble. Grounded for one week. No tv, no shooting ranges, no play fighting, no lessons, and no out-doors. Quite harsh, but effective. Once you got the grounding once, you never wanted to get it again.

I had been going for a walk in the forest, when Zane decided to join me. I didn’t care about whether or not get got into deeper shit, so I allowed him to come. What did I care? If anything I found it amusing. The forest soon got boring, and I made my way over to one of the cliffs. It had always amused me, yet frightened me at the same time. I’m not the biggest fan of heights. So having the fun of playing on it, and the thrill of the fear of it, was like an aphrodisiac to me. Zane tagged along, mainly because he didn’t want to go sit in his room again.

Zane soon found out that if he dared me to do something, I would do it. I would never chicken out, and he found this highly amusing. On the sixth dare, I accidentally ended up slamming into the one wall of a ledge. No harm, only a small scratch... or so I, and Zane thought. It wasn’t until I began walking away, toward where Zane was, that I heard it. A soft rumbling then a crash. I faintly recall Zane’s voice yelling, but once I looked up, everything around my disappeared, for a very large boulder had been heading toward me. I know if I hadn’t been trained by Jake, that I would be dead now. But as it was, I managed to get out of the way, mostly. The rock had caught on some other rocks of the side, in a wall effect. So the boulder crashed down on my legs, but not to its full pressure. The wall held most of it. In the end, I only had a sprained ankle.

Zane tried to pull me out, but had no success. He was a scrawny fifteen year old, and looking back on his pictures, I have to laugh. So Zane did the only thing he could do; he told Jake. Even though that meant he got in more trouble, and had to confess to everything he did. If it had been Flint, he would have left me. But not Zane. Zane would never leave a man, or in this case, woman, behind. That was Zane, even if it meant worse consequences for him.

I couldn’t leave Zane behind, and I didn’t care if it brought my own death and more death around me, for I would, and will, never forgive myself if I never got to see Zane’s smile again.

“No!” I said, standing up, letting my chair fall back from the momentum. “We can’t just leave him there! It’s Zane, Zane! He would never do that to us, and you expect me to just... to just wait? To wait it out, as he gets the life slowly beaten out of him? You expect me to allow my companion, my friend, my brother to just rot in who knows where?! No! I don’t care what you say, Jake, because I will not just sit around here and wait!” Jake’s eyes were cool and still emotionless. Flint was strangely silent, but I was sure his eyes agreed with me.

“No, Andrayka, I don’t expect you to just sit around here and do nothing.” I waited for the catch. “You two are bigger targets than the rest, which is why you’re both being sent away in the morning.”