Diavolo

eighteen - 12

"What do you mean change of plan?" Gabe shout whispered through the radio.

"What do you think it means genius?" I retorted. Throughout his training, Gabe has been taught to memorise a plan and execute it. Being a tier-one operator he hates it when things don't go to plan but he also has to remember to expect the unexpected.

"Don't place the explosives down, rendezvous on the second floor," I said gesturing Theo and the girl to follow me towards the back of the room.

"Why didn't you kill me." She asked, such a simple question that I couldn't answer.

I wasn't shocked to hear that come out of her mouth, I would've asked the same thing. "I needed you alive." I simply replied, "What's your name?"

She tore her eyes away from my gaze and looked at the ground, "I...I don't have one," She mumbled.

Both Theo and I shared a look between us, "What do you mean?" Theo questioned taking the words out of my mouth.

"I mean that nobody here has names, we're known by numbers. Mine is 12." She shrugged.

"Then who's Jake?" I asked causing her to tense up.

"Jake." She said through her gritted teeth, "...is Master's son. The precious golden boy."

"Sounds like a dick," I muttered nudging her shoulder.

"Like father like son," She spat.

"So you were born here?" Theo asked crossing his arms over his chests.

"No, I remembered being bought here at a young age but I don't really remember the rest, we were brainwashed into forgetting our own name, our own family, our own childhood. He told us this is our home and this is our family." She replied fidgeting with the end of her sweater.

I didn't realise I had baled my hands into a fist until I felt the sharp pain of my fingernails digging into the palms of my hand, "Son of a bitch," I whispered.

Our heads snapped in unison to the vent as Gabe crawled out of it followed by Robin, "So you going to tell me what the hell caused you to change this whole mission which we've been planning for the past week," He whispered loudly storming towards me.

I squinted my eyes at him, "Do I have to remind you that we're in a building full of assassins?"

He closed the gap between us, "We had a plan LeToya, you can't go calling it off whenever you want to, you'll get people killed." 

"I'm not having this conversation with you, are you going to back me or not because either way, I'm doing this with or without you Gabe."

"Who's the girl?" Robin asked breaking the tension.

"She stumbled into us," I replied.

"And you didn't kill her?" Gabe asked in disbelief.

"No. I didn't. She's going to help us." 

"I am?" The girl asked in confusion.

"Yes, now where can I find this master of yours," I asked spinning a knife in my hand.

"I'll show you," she replied linking her arm in mine causing me to jump in surprise. "He sleeps in his room on the far end of this corridor." She pointed, "But two guards are normally positioned outside his door."

We stayed silently behind the corner with our backs pressed against the wall, "I got the one on the left, Theo you get the one on the right?" I turned my head towards him.

He nodded, "Got your six."

A genuine smile appeared on my face as I recalled our old catchphrase, "Got your six partner."

Slowly walking towards the two men, we walked side by side with our assault rifles raised. By the time the men noticed us walking towards them, they were no longer breathing. Theo turned the doorknob quietly whilst I waved for the others to come. Inside was a large dark room almost pitched black, I could make out the small handgun on the bedside table of the old man's bed glistening as the moonlight hits the metal. I carefully walked over and emptied the magazine into my pocket. Then pressed the blade of my knife into his neck which caused him to spring into action, his eyes snapped open and his hand immediately went to my wrist.

"Don't try anything stupid Ivanov, this knife is pressed against your carotid artery...you know the one that delivers blood to your brain? You should know this, it's basic human anatomy..." I shrugged.

"You have some nerve showing up here, " He croaked out whilst reaching for his gun with his other hand. 

"You can try, but you'll find that there's no ammo in your gun," I said as he retracts his hand from the gun. "You're going to call for an emergency meeting or I could blow this place down right now by the press of a button."

His eyes widened even further, at this point I thought his eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets, I tightened two zip ties on his wrists and dragged him by his collar like the dog he is. 

His eyes landed on the girl, "предатель!  I give you a home and this is what you do to me?" He shouted squirming under my hold. (Traitor)

"This isn't my home, you took that from me!" She replied as Robin puts a protective arm around her shoulder holding her close.

I sent my fist into his ugly face, "You don't speak to her, understood?"

He nodded, proceeding to shuffle towards his desk and pressing the orange button. Suddenly a bright red light started flashing in every room and corridor whilst white noise filled our ears along with loud thumping footsteps like a herd of elephants outside.

Minutes later I dragged him towards the meeting room and kicked the double doors open, earning the attention of every assassin in the room. As my eyes scanned the room I could see children from the age of 8 to around the age of 19 making my blood boil even further. 

"Everyone here speak English?" I asked whilst everyone nodded. "Good because my Russian isn't as good as it used to be."

"You really want to die don't you?" Asked a blonde boy with dark eyes.

"Ahh, you must be Jake," I said plastering a fake smile on my face.

"And you must be the walking piggy bank." He smirked.

"Clever boy." I cooed taking the gun out of my waistband and shooting him in the leg. He yelled in agony as his father squirmed again under my hold. "Oh sorry, I forgot about the rule of 'no weapons in the meeting room.' Tell me who actually wants to stay here in the Ivanov house, raise your hands."

Young Ivanov raised his shaky hand, whilst everyone else sat looking at the ground,  "Good because this place is going to blow in about.." I paused and checked my watch, ".. 10 minutes."

We all got the children to line up in single file as we made a run for the exit where two large vans parked, Gabe, 12 and I took one van, Theo and Zara took the other with the children in the back. The Ivanov's were left in the building thinking it was going to blow up but in fact, no explosives were planted in that building and the Russian intelligence were about to pick them up.

Gabe took a sharp turn onto the highway as we ventured towards Ana's safe house.