Never Again

Chapter 22

Katie's - POV

The same driver from yesterday was the one to come and pick me up bright and early in the morning. As I was being driven to the airport I heard a lot of people talking about how one of the most influential and powerful businessman was killed earlier this morning. The realisation of who exactly I had killed didn't make me feel any sympathy for him in the slightest.

I pitied all the people who knew nothing of what he was doing and how he was actually a horrible man who would do anything to get what he wanted, including torture and even go as far as murdering innocent people.

I was glad that I had rid the world of that despicable human being. His actions were irredeemable and showed cowardice, ending up with him getting his comeuppance in the end. Although no one knew what he did and would prbably never know, at least no one else would suffer at his hand ever again.

We arrived at the plane after what felt like only a few minutes. When we got on board I decided that I needed to go to sleep as I didn't get much the night before; for obvious reasons. I quickly fell into a dreamless sleep and was out before we had even left the tarmac.

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I was woken up by the plane touching down on the ground back home. Getting out of the airport was extremely quick as we didn't have to go through any security or get any bags. My mind kept drifting back to the mission from yestarday and how successful I was. The fact that I completed it so early and with utter ease was something that even Dr. Rodriguez would have to be impressed and proud of. A beaming smile crossed my face as I remained still, silently watching the outside roll past as we went down the motorway. I was extremely glad that the driver wasn't trying to speak to me at all as I didn't want to be debriefed or make idle conversation right now. I wanted to bask in the feeling of glory that came with completing my first mission with no issues.

We arrived quickly back at the Academy with Drew waiting for me at the entrance.

"Welcome back," She said, with a kind smile. "You did extremely well."

"Thanks." I said, beaming with pride.

"We have a bit of time to go back to your room so you can tell me all of the things that happened before you have to report to Dr. Rodriguez," She said, taking my arm and walking me back to my room. "You can tell me all about it when we get back there."

"Okay." I said, letting myself get dragged along back to the room, merrily.

Drew was constantly surprised and impressed by my feat after I had provided a detailed explanation of what had occured. Reminiscing about the events of last night almost made it feel like a dream. Like it wasn't something that I had done by myself, but instead, someone else was in control of my body as I carried out the mission.

"Well shit," Drew said after I finished telling her about all I had done. "You did way better than I did on my first mission."

"Really? No way!" I couldn't have done something better than Drew. She was too good at everything she did compared to everyone here. Including me.

"Oh definitely," She said, lightly laughing. "My first mission was a complete mess. I was lucky to have completed it at all."

I was sure that she was over-exaggerating but she had never lied to me. So I could only take her word for it being the truth, somehow, anyway.

"You have to get going now," Drew said, checking the clock. "You've got to speak to Ana now."

"See you later." I said as I left the room, giving her a side hug on the way out.

"Bye." I heard her say from behind me as I exited.

Walking through the hallways was different from usual today because of the amount of people going on their first mission. I came back so early that I must've been the first one to complete the mission out of all the first years.

I was pulled from my thoughts as I heard the door in front of me open up, signifying that I had arrived at Dr.Rodriguez's office. In front of me she stood, a calm look on her face. She wasn't giving anything away, which made my confidence, which had been sky high, plummet into extreme nervousness.

"Come in." She said, walking away from the door and back to her desk.

I walked into the room, noticing that when she walked away she left the door open. As it was unusual for her I took the initiative and shut the door behind me. When I turned back I glimpsed a ghost of a smile on her face before it quickly vanished. She nodded towards the chair in front of her for me to sit down.

"You did well," She said, "Better than any of the others out on missions right now."

I felt elated that I was being acknowledged by her and praised. I couldn't remember seeing her praise anyone in all the time I'd been here.

"I got video recordings of what happened because of cameras we had stationed all around the house," I was surprised that they had set up something like that as I didn't remember seeing anything out of the ordinary. "So I was able to watch the whole thing."

"If you could get someone close enough to put all those cameras there then why don't you just take out the targets if they're that important then?" I asked, curious as to why they did this.

"I'm sure there are a lot more experienced people here who would've been a more sure success compared to me and all of the people going on their first missions."

"We don't set up equipment in every target's house. Only the ones that I think are going to be best." She said, watching for my reaction. "Secondly, this is a test. Obviously we could take them out way before but those people aren't going to be around forever so we need others to come through and take some of the responsibility. If we find someone better than the rest then it's an even bigger win for everyone involved." She paused, leaning forward before continuing. Her voice dropping to an icy cold that sent  a shiver down my spine. "Thirdly, don't question me. Ever."

Her gaze froze me to the spot, the spell only disengaging itself once she leaned back into her chair, acting as if nothing had happened.

"Yes Dr.Rodriguez." I answered stiffly.

Recently I had noticed that I was having more and more moments where I was sure of myself and confident in my abilities and the people around me. While having those were very good, I needed to remember where my place in this whole system was.

The moments where I didn't question myself allowed me to pose questions to others, like Dr.Rodriguez, which in turn allowed me to learn more and grow as an assassin. Because the moments where I held no faith in myself were growing less and less frequent. I was sure that it would only take a short while longer before I was able to fully believe in myself and what the others around me had to say. Allowing me to grow to my full potential at an even faster speed.