Licensed to Kill

Chapter 6

Alana's black car pulled up alongside the curb just before five o'clock, her lights off again. It was still dark out with just the faintest sign of dawn approaching. The birds hadn't even begun to chirp yet.

I peeked out through a sliver in the curtains, surveying the street for anything that looked suspicious. When I was sure that it was safe, I used a silencer and shattered my phone with a single shot. The tie was severed. A.R.T. would soon be in search of me, too.

I made a run for it, hurrying to get into the car, and Alana wasted no time, flooring the accelerator before I'd even shut the door.

"The backpack on the floor is everything you'll need," she said, keeping her eyes on the road as we raced down residential streets to the smaller London City Airport.

I loved her way of thinking, knowing she was taking me to LCY because the first airport A.R.T. would check would be Heathrow.

"There's a ticket for a flight to Paris," Alana continued while I sifted through the backpack's contents. "It leaves in less than an hour. You'll have a twenty-two-minute layover at Orly and then fly to Berlin. After that, the rest is up to you."

She'd already done so much more than I would've asked. I definitely owed her one, whether she said so or not.

Inside the backpack, Alana had also included the phone I knew would be there, as well as new credit cards, approximately two-thousand dollars in various currencies, two pistols, and several extra boxes of bullets.

I took a look at my new passport and identification. She'd used an older photo of me from when my hair was a lot longer.

"How does it feel to be Sofia Cortez now?" Alana asked while I scanned over my new international government clearance that was so prominent that I could literally waltz into the Oval Office with it.

"I don't know yet," I said in a fake Spanish accent that sounded authentic enough to both of us.

My credentials said that I was a high-ranking official with the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia – Spain's equivalent of the C.I.A.

"Oh, cool. I live in Madrid," I noted, nodding in approval. "I always wanted to go to Madrid."

Alana did her famous eye-roll as she pulled into the departures lane. "Barcelona is so much better, Tali."

We came to a stop below the British Airways sign and I collected my bags, trying to mentally brace myself for the international chase that was sure to ensue once I set foot inside the airport.

"Take care of yourself, alright?" Alana looked at me with serious eyes, knowing full well how dangerous this could be for me. "Don't you dare come back in a body bag. You hear me? I'll have to beat your dead agent ass."

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. "I'll be fine. Thank you for everything."

We hugged one last time and I was out the door, walking into an uncertain fate.

Alana had done one hell of a good job on my identification. I didn't have a single hiccup on my way to the plane in London or in Paris. Everything was going smoothly so far, though I knew for a fact that Lancaster was flipping literal shit back at A.R.T.

By the time I landed in Berlin, I was sure Brit and my team back home had heard of my sudden disappearance. No doubt, Megan would be worried sick and Matt would be arguing his way up the chain of command, demanding to head up the investigation into my disappearance. I hated doing this to them, knowing how much it was going to fuck with their emotions. Especially Matt. Ever since that one night we'd shared, his whole attitude towards me had changed. He'd been so overprotective, almost to the point that I wanted to deck him sometimes. I knew he was losing his shit over the news.