The Target

Chapter Thirteen

Devika

The overall atmosphere of the safe house seemed to have shifted; even Simon's frosty demeanor towards her warmed up a little after Kas told them she'd agreed to join them.

She trained harder than ever, for hours, until her muscles screamed with pain. After she couldn't do any more, she would lay flat, throbbing, in a pool of sweat on the gym floor. She needed to make sure she was in top physical condition for this. It was the one thing she felt like she had control over.

She accompanied Kas to the work room often, just to watch him work on a computer while she doodled in the notebook he'd given her. He'd glance over from time to time, his eyes sparkling in the blue light of the screen, flashing her a smile and complimenting her work.

It felt strange to have so much unstructured time. Time where she could just... Do what she wanted. She wasn't allowed to leave the safe house yet, but rather than making her feel trapped, she still felt a thousand times freer than she'd ever felt at Yago's compound.

A while ago, Kas had asked her to map the inside of the compound for him, so he could get an idea of the building's shape. "I have a remote drone that I use to fly over the city, mapping out locations," he explained. "I can program the drone to look out for buildings with certain shapes. If we can get your drawing to scale enough, we might be able to find it."

She'd drawn and re-drawn everything out for him, using a scale measurement and ruler to stay as accurate as possible. It was difficult to remember the sizes of some of the rooms, but she tried her hardest. After all, this place had been her "home" for the last 10+ years. She knew it pretty well.

She flipped open to her latest diagram, setting it on the computer table next to the keyboard. "I think this one is the best I can do," she said modestly. Looking at the compound from above like this, with its little labeled rooms, made it all seem so small. Maybe it was.

"The entryway is here," she pointed. "It's the only exit, as well. It's guarded by guys with guns. To open the door, you need to do a fingerprint scan. Both ways. Only Yago and his assistants can open it; cleaning people, cooks, and other people have to be let in."

Kas nodded, brow furrowed. "So once you enter, what do you see?"

She closed her eyes, trying to imagine she'd just entered from completing a task. She was always dropped off and picked up blind – a hood went over her head and she was driven to and from general locations. The hood was usually whooshed off her head at the front entrance to the building. The armed guards would nod slightly to Gideon. Gideon would use the fingerprint scanner to enter, leading her firmly by a hand clamped around her elbow.

The entryway was cool, with a white tile floor and white walls. There were some metal file boxes build into the left wall, and a wire laundry hamper in the corner. Otherwise, the room was cold and bare. Here, Gideon would make her strip, searching her from head to toe to make sure that she wasn't bringing back anything she wasn't supposed to be. He'd shake out her clothes, check under the soles of her shoes, and even check inside her with a gloved hand. Her training clothes would be deposited in the laundry hamper in the corner, and she'd be led, shivering, through another fingerprint-scanned door into the main hallway. The first door on the left was the file room, where security footage was monitored and assassin and target files were kept. The file room had another door which led to a lounge room, where they would relax and watch TV or eat after working up an appetite torturing the trainees.

Back in the main hallway, the first door on the right was Yago's quarters: a gothic-inspired spacious bedroom with a gas-lit fireplace, large canopy bed draped in decadent fabrics and cushions, his personal desk, and reclining chairs and sofas. He also had a mahogany liquor cabinet and minifridge which he indulged in most nights. Aside from the Chapel, which thankfully wasn't used often, Yago's bedroom was the scariest place to Devika. She was called into it often, summoned in the nighttime like an on-call escort.

Further down the hallway were the assassins' room on the left, with an inner door leading into an open shower and bathroom area. There was no privacy anywhere; they were made to go to the bathroom, shower, eat, and sleep perpetually in each other's company... like barn animals. Across from where they slept was the cafeteria room, which contained a long metal table with chairs and a small attached kitchen. Food would appear through one window, and they would deposit their empty containers in one next to that. She never saw the faces of the cooks: she could only see their white-gloved hands, shoving trays and medicine at her.

At the end of the hall was a double door leading to the cavernous gym. That was where they spend most of their time: all-day training, every day, using the various exercise machines and equipment. Adjoining the gym was one bathroom – for Yago's assistants' use only – and, of course, the Chapel.

That was the extent of what she could see whenever she was inside the building. She explained all this to Kas, who lightly brushed his pencil over her drawing as she spoke, feeling the outlines of the rooms. Amy entered at that moment, joining their huddle, peering over Kas's shoulder. She was dressed in loose-fitting lounge clothes and holding a mug of instant coffee, and she gave Devika a friendly wink when she caught her eye.

Kas's shoulders were slumped, tired. "It's basically a rectangle. Except for this part over here, it looks like," he mused, tracing the outline of the Chapel and bathroom, then bringing the pencil up to run the eraser against his bottom lip in concentration. Devika caught herself staring at his lips, remembering how soft and yet firm and decisive they'd felt on hers. She could feel a blush creeping up from under her collar, and she quickly looked back to the diagram.

Amy sighed. "That'll make it hard to find from the air, then." She glanced at Devika. "No windows, anywhere? Are you sure?"

"Positive," Devika affirmed. "But it wasn't underground. Just... windowless. Even from the outside, the walls were just smooth concrete. Just the front door."

Kas bit his lip as he studied the picture. "Hang on," he said suddenly. "You said there were cooks, right?" He was staring intently at the cafeteria room and its attached kitchen of unknown proportions.

"Yeah, twice a day."

"How did they get in? Did you ever see them enter through the front entryway?"

"No." Though the assassins were often confined to either their quarters or the gym, she'd been a favorite of Yago's. He'd often pull her out of training during the daytime when the mood struck him, either to go to his bedroom or to help him work on something in the file room. She'd been there so long that she'd been out in the building at nearly every time of day. She'd never seen a soul besides other assassins, Yago, his assistants, and occasionally an armed guard or his chief security officer.

"That must mean there's a door here." Amy pointed to the kitchen.

Kas smiled slyly. "Another entrance. Well, that's something that we have working in our favor, at least." He flopped the notebook onto the desk with a decisive thud, stood, and stretched. His shirt hiked up, revealing his midriff and the trail of hair leading to the waistband of his jeans. Devika's breath caught in her throat, immediately followed by a wave of shame. Why couldn't she stop looking at him like this? Wanting to touch him? Wanting him to touch her?

Oblivious to her staring, or perhaps just pretending to be, Kas ran a hand over his white hair to flatten it. She could see black roots starting to peek through his thick hair. "Devika, are you up for some sparring training? We'll need you to be at your best," he said. "And we both know I can teach you a thing about sparring," he added with a smirk.

Amy straightened up, glancing between Kas and Devika. "I'll leave you both to that," she said. "I'm going to see how Simon's coming along with the... You know." She playfully punched Kas in the shoulder before walking across to the corner of the room. On the table were a microscope, sets of test tubes, a Bunsen burner, and other things that Devika hadn't noticed before in the murky darkness of the room. She watched as Amy flicked on a desk lamp, illuminating whatever science experiment was in progress. Kas draped an arm around her shoulder and turned her away towards the door, with a mischievous, "That over there is a surprise. No peeking yet until it's finished."

"For who?" Devika asked, confused.

Kas's twinkling dark eyes suddenly turned serious: flat and black. "For Yago."