NIGHT DROP( A Eric the Red thriller: Book 1)

Chapter two: When you move, fall like a Thunderbolt

He tied the boat to the dock and stepped out onto the dock, scanning the area for a couple of seconds before he continued up the steps. It had finally dawned on him that whoever she was working for could have left a backup team of shooters in place in case she had failed. He had to assume that the banker that he had terminated earlier had to be somehow connected to all this; maybe once he found out who the woman was in his room, he could finally get some answers to why the briefcase was so important.

Instead of heading back into the Thief, he walked up the boardwalk, stopped, and knelt down, pretending to tie his shoes. So far, he hadn't spotted a surveillance team tailing him; still, there could be a sniper on top of a hotel or building. Peering through the scope, he knew how the snipers operated, recording everything in their dope book.

After he sprinted and hailed a taxi as it drove up along the sidewalk, he grabbed the door and slid inside, slamming the door behind him. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his burner and entered a secure, encrypted ten-digit number. He held the phone up to his ear.

Three seconds later, a voice came on.

"Holiday,"

"We need to meet. I need some intel on this assassin who tried to snatch the briefcase from me," Eric told him as he gazed out the window.

"Where are you?"

"In a cab on my way."

"Lovenskiold Shooting range,"

Eric ended the call.

"Lovenskiold Shooting Range," Eric told the driver.

The cab sped down through the narrow streets, passing by spiraling skyscrapers that spiraled up to the sky, restaurants with people eating inside, and stores with tourists strolling along the sidewalk. Eric puts the burner back inside his pocket in his jacket. Still, he wondered how the assassin had gotten into his hotel room with no one seeing her. It had crossed his mind earlier that she could tail him, but he would have known if he had tailed.

A couple of minutes later, the cab pulls up to a halt outside the shooting range; he steps out and pays the driver with Euros. He surveils the range, seeing two vehicles parked outside the shop. Walking over to the shop door, he grabs the door handle and enters. The inside looked like an ordinary gun shop with racks of pistols, rifles, and snipers' rifles on them. But maybe that was the point

Holiday emerges from behind a hidden door behind the counter, his shoulder holster concealing his silenced Sig P365 and his Taran Tactical Combat Master. His expression hardened.

"Okay, let me look at the photo of the assassin that you snapped."

He reached into his pocket in his jacket, pulled out an iPhone, and handed it over to him as they strode behind the counter and entered a room filled with computer screens hung on the wall and what looked like a weapons vault behind him. It was a perfect front for the CIA off-book black box program that Holiday ran; nobody would ever expect a shooting range, and it also covered E14, a classified unit of the Norwegian intelligence service.

A few hours later, after running the photograph through the facial recognition software, Holiday finally got a match, and within seconds, a photograph flashed onto the screen with a name.

Emlin Fallen Medusa

Bingo, Holiday thought to himself as he clicked on the file.

Name: Emlin Fallen Medusa Code-name: Angel of death

Operational Status: assassin

Background: She is trained in every kind of weapon there is and kills her target from an extreme distance if necessary. She is also skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and she is extremely dangerous and efficient. 

Current employer: HeadShot

Eric froze for a second, staring wide-eyed at the photograph on the screen. It was the woman he had seen in his room. So she was an assassin for this headshot; his guess was they were the ones giving her the instructions.

"What do we know about Headshot? What would they want with the burner and the invitation to the private party?" Eric inquired as he walked back and forth.

"Not a lot, to be honest, only that they are effective and efficient assassination organizations. And that they have been credited for thousands of assassinations they have carried out over the years. He paused before he pressed on and then continued the poisoning of an ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, in London, Senator Shane Howard was killed by a 50 caliber round from an extreme distance  walking out of the Senate Heart building in  Washington DC, and many more to name," Holiday explained to him

"OK, what about the burner and this invite that assassin tired snatch from me?" Eric asked

"The banker must have been a middleman for HeadShot, maybe he funneling money through  various channels for them. My guess would be an untraceable unlimited black budget. The burner was probably how we got instructions as for the private party do what you best and infiltrate it but be careful," Holiday told him.