Falling for the Enemy || Captain America || Book 1

Chapter 41: I Call a Redo

"Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have eaten that slice of cheesecake," I chastise myself, using all my strength to squeeze my ass through the air vent and into the corridor "I mean seriously, I slack off on being an assassin for a few weeks or days... or was it months? Whatever! I slack off for a little while and I'm already putting weight back on. Honestly."

Truth be told I'm probably still the same size as before, I just need something to complain about while walking alone through an abandoned school corridor which is as quiet as the dead. Tightly gripping a single katana in my gloved right hand, I pause my cautious wondering when something winks at me in a reflection of the light.

Silently slamming my body against the wall, I eye where the glistening came from, my breath hitching higher than the Empire State building when my focus finds an empty bullet shell.

"Lillian? Lillian? You there? My boss wants a status report," Colton's voice is muffled and disoriented through the earpiece, my head recoiling at the loud static that accompanied it.

I scowl. "Well tell him if he asks for one more bloody status report I'll personally come out of the building and be sure to fully inform him of my status in a colourful and eccentric report."

The silence is not uncomfortable, yet pertains a certain degree of shock, amusement and bafflement. "I uh.... I'll inform him in those exact words. Oh, and we've run another heat scan of the building. Unfortunately, he's somehow got another hostage. We haven't identified who yet but we do know said hostage is a young child. Possibly between seven and eleven."

My back remains against the wall. "How did he smuggle another hostage into the building? Surely the NYPD isn't that oblivious. You must have picked up on a missing person during your heat scans at some stage or—"

"We've covered all the entrances, yet somehow there's now another hostage and what appears to be another target with the first man. Two targets with five hostages, one which owns an itchy trigger finger. We don't know how the second got—"

"This is a school right?"

The question throws him off for a few moments. "Yes...?"

"Have you covered the sewerage entrances and all entrances that lead to the basement and boiler room through the underground tunnelling? There's the old subway tunnels right? Please tell me you've blocked them off."

Silence.

I exhale sharply. "Seal them. We don't need any more hostages or idiots who think they're smart enough to outsmart an entire police squad and yours truly."

Turning my ear piece off, I meld into the shadows as I approach the bullet casing at a steady pace, only withdrawing from them when I pick up on no movement or sound in the surrounding vicinity. Crouching down, my fingers deftly brush against the cool metal surface, and I can almost hear the gunshot blast from the shot drilling into my ears. Standing up, the bullet case left where I found it, I decide to survey the area.

Shifted lockers. Cracked window. Combat boot scrapings across the floor.

I spin my head around, surveying behind me.

Crooked locker door. Small almost unnoticeable chipped off piece of wood from the bench outside the office.

"Signs of struggle..." I breathe, coming upon a small pool of blood splayed out on the edge of the wooden bench. Running my fingers through it and rubbing them against each other, I pull a Stark phone out of my left combat boot, holding it out and quietly asking "Jarv, set up a forensics scanner and use it to detect traces of this DNA throughout the room and as far as you can currently go. Also identify whether we're dealing with a wounded target or vic here."