Gray Ghost - License to Kill

Chapter 6 - License to kill

After Smoke, every two to three weeks I would get another assignment. With each assignment, I became less and less emotional about the job. I became desensitized and the passion and fire that once drove me to protect the helpless was dwindling. And on top of that, I was isolated with no family and friends. If I was going to continue doing this, I was going to need to establish some sense of normalcy.

I had been following Stephanie around for quite some time, just watching over her. I felt as if I was stalking her, as I was watching her but could not approach her. She was doing pretty good for herself and had opened her own beauty supply store. Her schedule was routine.

She arrived at her store about 7:15 every morning. She was alone in the store until 8am when another employee would arrive. At 9am she would make her bank run to deposit the previous day's receipts. She worked until about 2pm when an employee would come in and work until closing. She was an easy target if anybody ever wanted to rob her.

She would go for drinks with some girl friends every Thursday after she closed the store. She would get the same apple martini and an appetizer. She rarely ever had company at her house, except this one male that would come every so often driving a black Mercedes.

As I said, I felt like I was stalking her. It was my only way of feeling connected to her and making sure she was safe. The more I became detached from Control, the stronger my desire to reach out to her became.

Like normal she arrived about 7:15 that morning. As she was unlocking her door, I walked up behind her. I startled her and she turned and pulled a gun on me.

'Wait" I said throwing my hands up. She realized it was me and she just paused. There was an awkward moment of silence.

"Get the hell away from me" she said as she broke the silence. She unlocked the door and walked in trying to close it on me. I grabbed the door handle before she could pull it shut.

"No, wait listen," I pleaded with her.

"Let my damn door go and go back to wherever you came from" she stated in anger.

"Please, let me come in and explain to you, I really need to explain and talk to you" I said pleading my case.

"There is nothing to explain" she said as she again tried to pull the door shut.

This exchange went back and forth. I thought she would be upset at me for everything she heard, so I was not shocked at her reaction. She finally relented, and let me in.

"I got a few minutes before my store opens; you better make it quick" she said to me with her arms crossed.

"First, I need to let you know that I did not break out of jail" I said to her.

"Stew, the damn footage of you running out of the jail was all over the news" stop lying to me.

"Well, technically I didn't break out, it's complicated. Let me explain" I said to her.

"What I am about to tell you can never be repeated" I said to her making her promise not to ever repeat this conversation.

I realized the story I was about to tell her was going to be very hard for somebody to believe. Who would believe some cloak and dagger story about a mysterious, covert law enforcement group that operated outside of the law. This covert operation that was going around torturing and killing criminals all in the name of public safety.

That was going to be a hard story for me to sell to anybody. But I had to try and explain it to her to get her to believe me. This was no easy task. I was about to go against everything Command has discussed.