I kneeled down until I was eyelevel with the lock on the door. There were two targets inside that I was to bring back alive if possible, and everyone else was to die. I had joined The Academy when I was about thirteen years old, I wasn't exactly sure because those days had blended together, the ones where I had been on the run away from my crazy step mother and her punishments. The cops had picked me up and given me a choice much like Stanley Yelnats had during his sentencing, but mine was either go to court for the theft of something I had stolen to survive, or go to The Academy. Unlike Stanley, I hadn't had any expectations for my new place of dwelling.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think it was basically a spy school, and that I'd be beneficial, wanted, needed to someone, or something in my life. I sometimes wondered what would have happened to me had I stayed with my stepmother and crew, but I knew it would have more than likely ended in death, so I didn't worry about it too much.
When the lock clicked, barely audibly, I opened the door and slipped a hand inside. Someone noticed though because a throwing knife landed just an inch shy of where my hand had been. I shook my head in frustration and pulled the gun out from my hip strap, taking aim and firing towards the source of the knife without actually looking in the room. It was a risk, but then again my whole life was a risk. Every decision I made weighed on whether I stayed as valuable as I was now, or I became just like everyone else in the program. I heart the body hit the ground, and was thankful I had decided to put a silencer on the gun prior to coming to this job.
The door was inched far enough for me to actually go in, and so I did. The first thing I noticed was the dead henchman on the ground, the second thing I noticed were my targets. Two innocent kids locked up in a dog crate, being held for a very high ransom because the jackass who kidnapped them was too lazy to work like the rest of us. I turned my face away from the kids. I had no doubt they were safer in the crate until I could verify that all of the henchmen were down, and from my intel I had three to go. The radio on the executed man buzzed and a voice came over it asking for an update.
I picked it up and spoke into the receiver, "You're all screwed, but I'll give you a fair 20 second head start" I said, being mindful of my language for the little ears that were present.
I waited exactly 17 seconds before looking at the kids, one was a little girl the age of four and the other was her big brother at the age of seven. I nodded towards him, "Don't let your sister watch," I said, in a fair warning, and then the 20 seconds were up and the first dead man walking had entered the room.
He was sloppy and my gun killed him before he even got a chance to recognize a girl was the one behind this disturbance. The main guy who kidnapped the kids wasn't here, I knew, because he wouldn't dare put himself in danger. But these guys were replaceable. The third man was a little wiser, building his house of sticks rather than straw but it was still only a few punches that he got in before I managed to position myself just right to efficiently snap his neck. The fourth man came in as the third dropped, and with a quick calculation I did a cartwheel, meaning to use my heal blade to cut his throat, but he ducked and grabbed my arm, yanking on it and making me fall.
I tumbled gracefully between his legs and elbowed him in the jewels before putting my dagger into the side of his neck and ripping it out. It took a few seconds, but soon he was leaning over to die, and I shoved him a little to speed things up. The whole encounter had only lasted maybe two minutes, including the extra twenty seconds.
With a sigh I turned towards the kids, hoping they had remembered to keep their eyes shut. They had, and they hadn't yet opened them. I smiled despite the blood all over the floor, and while I felt bad, I knew they'd need to stay in the crate for a few more moments. I picked up a phone that had fallen on the ground and went to the recently called and dialed the only number available.
He picked up on the first ring, "Yea?"
"Hate to break it to you but your little henchman's suck, and now they're dead. There's a team that should be there to deal with you in about ten seconds," I said calmly.
The man wasted two seconds thinking, "Why did they send a little girl to do a man's job?" he didn't sound judgmental, in fact he sounded impressed.
"They sent me because I don't exist," I said and hung up as the other team arrived.
I turned towards the crate and unlocked it, "It's okay," I said, you're safe now.
Four years after I'd ran away, and I still felt jealous no one had done what I'm doing for these kids for me. But I swallowed the feeling back and did my job like I always did.
