The Assassin's Assistant

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

My job was simple. Or at least, it was supposed to be.

All I had to do was shut off the cameras. I had done harder things before, so you’d expect everything to work out fine. Britt had never mentioned staff members in the control room.

There was only one person in it, but he was huge. The man was a ton of bricks, and had to be almost seven feet of pure muscle. I was strong, but there was no way I’d stand a chance against him. Britt had given me a gun, but I refused to use it; I would not shoot anybody. Still, I had to get him out of that room. He was watching the camera feed, so he couldn’t see me looking through the small window in the door, but he was close enough to hear if I opened it.

If I were Lux, I could just snap his neck and be done with it. If I were Britt, I’d be able to build a sleeping dart out of an old pipe and a lemon. I very well couldn’t kill somebody, and I wasn’t that crafty, either. ‘Well, what can you do, Jason?’ An idea popped into my head. ‘I can persuade like a pro.’

I had been on my high school debate team for all three years that I went and had only lost twice. It’s not hard, really. All you have to do is use logic to build up your argument while crushing that of your opponent’s. My skill had come in handy in college, convincing teachers to give me extra assignment time or getting librarians to let me work in the library late. With a white lie or two, maybe I could trick the guard.

Before I could form any sensible doubt in my plan, I knocked on the door. The security guard walked over to the window and looked at me. “What do you want, kid?”

What did I want? I had seen a yellow bus in front of the bank headquarters, and a high school-aged group walking around, getting a tour. I was in college, but should be in high school. It wouldn’t be a far stretch. “I was with my class on a fieldtrip here, and I got a little lost. I don’t know where they are, so I thought you’d be able to help me out.”

The man looked at me skeptically, “They weren’t supposed to be touring on this floor.”

I shrugged, “I wouldn’t know, I was a few floors down when we got separated. I figured they had moved up, so I went up to the next floor and ran into an employee. He wasn’t much help, just told me to come up here, and said the person here would help me.”

“Of course they did,” he sighed. It was obvious he thought low of his fellow workers, because he fully believed their laziness in my lie.

He opened the door and gestured for me to come in. I followed, my mind reeling. Yeah, I had gotten into the room, but what good would that do with him here?

The man picked up a walkie-talkie. “Heather? You with the school group?” he was silent for a moment, then said, “Yeah, I have a kid here, says he got separated from the group,” again a moment of pause, then he looked at me. “Mmm, okay, I’ll bring him.” The man put down his walkie-talkie and nodded in the direction of the door, “Follow.”

I couldn’t leave. We’d arrive at the group and the teacher would know that I’m not a student. The entire plan would be ruined, and I’d probably end up captured. And, I was going to try my best to not do that.

The guy walked out into the doorway. I launched at the door and slammed it into his head. I winced as the crack of contact rang out. The guard crippled onto the floor, knocked out. I dragged him back into the guard room and shut the door. My hands flew across the panel, shutting down floor after floor of cameras, until they were all off. Then, I went over to the electricity control panel, conveniently placed in the same room, and blinked the lights on all of the floors. Some people would mistake this for fuse issues, or just a jolt, but Britt knew it was her signal; No one can see you now. Do what needs to get done.