Quick warning; this chapter is not graphic in nature but is one of the most upsetting and inhumane chapters in this book. I 100% do not condone anything these characters do. Please keep that in mind and click off if it is too mature.
Remember what I said about not being a fan of heights?
Well, I was currently about thirty-five thousand feet above the ground and my dissent would be half an hour of blistering hell. Just when I thought I was done with HALO and HAHO jumps, here I am.
The low background noise of the jet engines hummed so quietly they were almost out of mind. This was the little something Ashton and I had to take care of, and let me tell you, it was defiantly a big something. This was all about Ashton establishing the gauze of 'trust'. I help him out, then he'll help me out in Russia. He was a good manipulator, but I refused to fall for his tricks.
I smiled through my annoyance while handing a gin and tonic to the businessman in first-class who was typing away at his computer. Speaking in fluent French, I looked at the blonde woman sitting next to him, who was also on her laptop with a slightly furrowed brow. "Can I get you anything, ma'am?"
"A glass of red wine," her nasally tone responded simply without looking back up at me. I kept the smile on my face even though I was undeniably tempted to bash my head against the wall or use the gun between my legs to put a bullet trough my eye socket. I wasn't cut out for a social job like this.
"No problem," I pivoted and walked through the aisle to the back of the plane while resisting the urge to fix the navy blue ascot around my neck. Ashton's eyes darted up from the side counter where he was speedily typing on a laptop before anyone would get up to use the restroom and notice. He saw it was me with a simple glance and made the 'come here' motion with his right hand.
I stood next to him and reached for a bottle of wine in the grey cabinet above his head. "T-minus twenty seconds," he murmured deeply, the words echoing in my head like a loudspeaker.
"Gee, I can't wait," my words were dripping with sarcasm as I placed the bottle on the counter next to his muscular forearm.
"Not a fan of explosives? Or is it just the fact you have to be nice to people?" Ashton teased me mockingly. It had been two days since I cornered him in his apartment and my patience was wearing thin with this situation. It had been radio silence with Rick and Tyler as it would be for however long this operation took. I was left to the entertainment of Ashton in my apartment, having to leave his own to avoid Kavyat, who was undoubtedly searching high and low for the famed assassin by now. The only bright side was it gave us lots of time to perfect our fake identities and paper trails; government involved personas required a little more planning than most.
"People."
Not two seconds later, Ashton stood from the computer and pulled a brown bag from under one of the cheep airplane cabinets. "We are officially radio silent: the transponders, WiFi, radio, you name it. They're all off for good." He opened the bag and I removed the silenced pistol. My eyes darted to the aisle again to see no one was looking before I crossed the back cabin right next to the window and fired all six shots from the chamber, shattering the porthole window.
Like a moth to a flame, the air pressure of the cabin rushed out and the airbags dropped from the ceiling. The familiar ding of the announcer went over the plane's intercom as people's voices filled the air. "This is your captain speaking. Everything is under control, we are just making an unplanned landing. Please, remain in your seats and place the masks over your mouth and nose. Make sure to put your own on before assisting others; flight attendants will be around to help."
I slipped the gun into my waist and put the hem of my vest over it. Ashton was already walking down the aisles in an attempt to get everyone to put on their masks. Most people had done it automatically out of fear, but the stragglers were the ones he had to 'argue' with. I would put argue lightly though because no one ever argued with Ashton Naifeh.
