The Man between my crosshairs (girl X assassin)

Chapter 20/Mr Styles will see you now

Zoe walked into Harry's office had been looking around. She spotted two more robots which could act as security. The type which was hard to hack into but no weapons. Bullet proof glass on the inner side. A wall with some paintings of a large walking block. Another with a painting of a woman, the dead wife she guessed.

Styles had a large desk, unfortunately, he didn't sit with his back to the window. That would be too simple. Infront of the desk them stood the figure of Harry Styles. He was young but not a boy, he looked twenty three perhaps. Still virile but not inexperienced. He looked like peak Harry Styles. The Harry Styles just before the AI apocalypse. It was hard to believe he had seen all that and every year in between. He was like a time traveller but going the hard way on foot. He wore slacks and a shirt, his curly hair flicked back and cascading to his shoulder like a classical waterfall but of tresses.

"Mr Styles," said Zoe walking

"Miss Belle please called me Harry," said Harry smiling and holding out his hand. "welcome to Archigram."

They shook hands. 

"You must call me Zoe," said Zoe she took his hand and then Harry grabbed it put his other hand on hers and then pulled Zoe closer moving into Zoe's personal space.

"I can't say how honoured we are to have you here on our little planet," said Harry looking deeply into her eyes. She knew his accent was English. A voice from a distant past. Words spoke by the people of Shakespeare.

"Well you can't say how happy I am to be here," said Zoe.

 His face was angular with an easy smile and a strong chin. She looked closely into his green eyes. They made her feel flowery.  A living green like the hanging gardens of Babylon near the edge where hints of yellow roses leading to the blue edges line an cool pool around the garden. His hands were warm, strong.

"Your daughter says your a hard man to catch up with. You don't have a schedule so we should grab you when we could." said Ryder to Harry.

"She's right. I've had a long time to work out what works best and this is it" said Styles. As he spoke was a young man came in and hung around the edge of the room.

"This man is my son Alux. He is in charge of the orbital building site. We do like to keep things in the family" said Harry while he put his hands on Alux's shoulders.

At this the slightly shy retiring man came forward. He was in his thirties, he was young and showed many features of his father.

"Miss Belle," he said shaking Zoe's hand and catching Zoe's eye.

"Well now we have done the introductions. I thought it would be good to do a tour of my city and show Miss Belle what we do here. You good with that?" Styles said taking control.

"Cathy you should come as well. We have a lot to talk about" he added.

There was a tension between them and given the familiarity they found their way here easily.

With that, they followed Harry who strode to the elevator. Zoe was silent, she was trying to get a grip of her self. Styles was the target, but all she could do was think about ways of taking out the daughter. She felt a new kind of anger towards Ryder and couldn't understand why. She had been even planning on sleeping with him again and while he didn't know she felt he should had held on for her for some reason. Then Zoe realises she didn't have her mind on her job was the strangest notion. This was so not like her. She was an assassin one bullet away from being elite. What was wrong with her?

A robot called Electra issued them with hard hats. Then Harry herded them down to the elevator and they emerged on a floor above the street level.

Zoe was next to Ryder in the elevator. She noticed he was holding Cathy's hand. The sight was as welcome as a pig's first look at a sausage machine.

Zoe looked at Ryder "So Mr Ryder. What were you planning to do tonight? Go back to your hotel?"

'Wow' thought Zoe 'that was lame. That was lamer than a four legged octopus with a missing crutch. That was so lame made Charles Dickens' Tiny Tim look like a Olympic athlete. What is wrong with me?'

Cathy looked around.

"Yeah I nearly forgot you're at the same hotel. We should all do breakfast or something" said Cathy interrupting.

"After today I don't know where I'm going," Ryder said

"Yeah I know what you mean," said Zoe then thought 'did I actually said that? Now he knows I'm completely pathetic. Like when I have I ever said I know what you mean? That's like the dumbest thing I ever said and I've passed for people with an IQ which would make Melania Trump look like a child prodigy. That's like dumber than thinking if you swallowed a watermelon seed it would grow in your stomach. Why would I get a man like this stuck my brain worse than the lyrics to 'Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe"? He doesn't even rhyme!'

"Why don't we all do breakfast at the hotel," Ryder said "how about 8:00?"

"Sounds good" said Zoe.

Zoe found her self wanting to stab Cathy with her concealed blade and punch him. Zoe knew she was malfunctioning like a hacked robot. Surely she should hate him and just want to punch Cathy? Why did she dislike Cathy more for what Ryder did? Even for emotion this didn't make sense. Why was she feeling like this? She tried to get a hold of her self. She was an interstellar assassin for an organisation which was so feared even the mention of it's name would make grown cyborgs squeal like a seven year old fan girl. She had to get a grip.