Panopticon

Epilogue

As the rotor blades churned through the North Sea air, the criminal allowed herself a smile.

It should never have gone this far, of course. The girl had been one of a number from the village that Alice had entertained, until pressure from above made her ditch them. Isra, most of all, had been learning too much. The syndicate believed in its members dealing with their own problems, but as the brother also worked for them Alice had made him responsible for her silence. It was just as much his problem, after all.

He had tried to warn the girl away from his paymaster, Alice had been bemused to hear through Isra’s sobs, out of some protective instinct. He couldn’t leave their business himself, not without being silenced, but he had tried his best to keep his family separate. It was sweet how the girl thought he was attacking her, when really his threats had her best interests at heart. He couldn’t tell her the real reason Alice was dangerous, not without bringing death upon them both, but the poor fool had tried his best.

Samir had failed in this, with his naïve sister oblivious, and he’d also failed when commanded to silence her. Even with his own life on the line, he’d been too weak to harm the girl. In the end, Alice had sent more men to force his hand, but even then it was said Samir didn’t stay to watch. He was too weak, too disloyal. She would have had his eyes, if his sister hadn’t got to him first.

Isra had killed many of her men, starting with the pair sent to break her. She’d been ready for her to go to the police, reporting this as just another a hate crime, but the local cops were all on the same payroll that Alice was; they would look busy, but their leads would all mysteriously dry up. What she hadn’t been prepared for was this, the girl taking justice into her own hands. It had nearly destroyed her. At first it seemed that Isra was taking revenge on the wrong people, whilst Alice was left unscathed, but her one-time lover had been hurt just as much. Her carefully organised network of employees, implanted in every area of village life, was decimated in a few days. She was ruined.

It had been a humiliation, and this vengeance was her last chance to regain some honour. Alice’s superiors had made that very clear. There was now no question that the girl was her problem, and hers alone. In truth, though, she was also slightly proud at Isra’s success. She had no feelings for the girl, of course, and never had, but she was more than capable of professional admiration. If only her own operatives were this lethal.

Accordingly, taking the girl out had been easier said than done. With the local judiciary and a good number of convicts under their thumb, the syndicate had successfully silenced a number of jailbirds, but the scale of Isra’s crimes made her harder to reach. She was kept in solitary confinement, and had made short work of the one hitman Alice had snuck through.

Then, just as the task seemed impossible, they’d put the girl in the lion’s den. Surrounded by killers every bit as prolific as she was, Alice didn’t even need to do the deed herself: she just had to set Isra free, and they’d happily do the job for her. It had taken time to train as a helicopter pilot, her cover for this sabotage, but getting hired by Charon had been surprisingly easy. For such a dangerous trip to the middle of nowhere, there had hardly been many applicants.

“We’re almost there,” she told her passengers, knowing that they barely remembered her face. After this she would vanish, return to the village or take a new posting with the syndicate. She’d listened to Charon’s speech, and revelled in how little her employer understood. Famous criminals were just the tip of the iceberg; the most clumsy, not the most dangerous. The true threats came from the shadows.

There were fewer guests for the return journey. That had been unfortunate, and she regretted so much collateral damage; Alice was a killer when she had to be, but meaningless bloodshed was not something she enjoyed. For her, everything was business. She’d tried to complete the plan earlier, on one of Charon’s solo trips to the island, but her application had come too late. At least this was just a few experts, and not the general public. That would have been a massacre.

In the end, though, it was probably for the best: more visitors meant more suspects when it came to the breakout, and that suited Alice just fine. With a case this confused, the truth was as good as buried. She would see Isra buried too, to be sure the job was done, and then this chapter of her life could come to a close. With all the trouble it had brought her, she felt that an enormous weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Alice would go back to work, and forget all about it. This would become just another in a list of her successful hits, and lose any special significance. In a few years, in fact, the girl herself would fade from her mind.

She might not even remember her name.