The woman casually walked into the building nodding 'hello' to the man at the front desk. She wore a business suit with a briefcase to match. She strutted up to the elevator hitting the 'up' button. The elevator dinged and she stepped in casually listening to the elevator music. She reached the fifteenth floor and strolled into the room at the very end. When she stepped in she placed her briefcase on the provided desk and clicked it open. Pulling on gloves she grabbed little bugs placing them on picture frames, under the desk, and behind the t.v and coffee pot. She had no doubt they would be found very easily, but they were there as a diversion. She set the timer for an hour and a half from them and hooked them up to the curtains and outside the windows. Quickly running out of time she snapped her briefcase she briskly exited the room and continued down the hall. Upon reaching the elevator a couple exited to who she gave a brief nod before entering the elevator herself with a smirk.
Exactly one hour and twenty-five minutes later the same woman sat in the hotel across the street with a telescope aimed directly on the room. She had changed into a pair of leggings and a black tank top enjoying a bag of chips as she listened in on what was happening in the room.
"No!"
"That's why I didn't tell you."
"You risked his or her life for-"
"I risked their life to save many more."
"What an unfortunate turn of events that I will be reporting later."
And then the timer went off and an explosion sounded across the street. The room lit up in flames causing a chain reaction across the floor and then the rest of the building. The windows were shattered and screams could be heard from the street. The woman looked in her telescope to see the couple. The woman was unconscious, but the man was trying to drag the two of them out. When he collapsed, from exhaustion or pain she didn't know, a group of firemen made it to them and successfully pulled them out of the building, placing them in ambulances. The woman smirked before dialing a specific number in her phone.
"Hey, it's me. Phase one is complete. You won't believe what information I have for you."
Thousands of miles away sitting comfortably in an office was another woman with a smirk on her red-stained lips. The information she received had just solidified a phase of her plan that she thought she would have to scrap, but now that was the part she was going to focus on.
"Excellent."
Three years later the woman with the red-stained lips had relocated to small-town along with a couple of her team members. She had moved into a house close to the high school, living nearly two steps from the front door. Her associates, however, had moved in across the street from a cream-colored house with green shutters. They went undercover as a couple of women who just finished their term in the military and wanted to settle down peacefully. This cover gave them an excuse for any possible odd behavior and a conversation starter with their neighbors.
For years the two watched the family that lived across the street, noting every pivotal moment in their lives; from the birth of the children to their every firsts. They noted each child's personalities and friends, how they interacted with their family members. Every week they reported their information back to the red-stained lip woman who added every bit into a database; all of them having their own folder. What was interesting was the second daughter had the biggest folder.
While the two other siblings had fallen into a rhythmic routine, this young girl hadn't. The two other siblings did the same thing each day; they would go to school, go to their sporting events or other activités, hang out with their friends, then go home and spend time with their family. The second daughter would do the same except she would interact with different people and approach situations differently every time. It was obvious that she was advanced for her age when she held conversations with the two 'military' women. She was strong and intuitive, not crying when she broke an arm, yet also fight extensively to her moral beliefs. This concerned the red-stained lip woman. She knew the parents like the back of her, but that child was unpredictable.
This didn't stop her from scheming. She had located the rest of her teammates around the U.S specifically in places for the next phase. It would take a few years, but she planted her drugs in these areas, she made her people the witnesses and victims. Every piece of evidence, she planted, every link connecting that family to the crime, she placed. Every piece was aligned perfectly.
It was a week after every piece was placed that she decided to wait for the perfect moment in time to proceed with the final phase, but in the meantime, she continued to watch. For it being such a small town it was surprising that she hadn't bumped into her former workers, though she was very careful about that. She wasn't careful enough to not bump into the children, however.
Autumn was beautiful. Even though the town was far south the leaves changed colors adding a burst of life to the usually quiet town. It was on a Saturday that she had run into the second daughter, quite literally, on the street. At the time the girl was no older than eleven, but the town was safe enough for children to roam alone. When she turned around to meet the body that slammed into her the young girl seemed frazzled, yet youthfully beautiful. Her medium brown hair was in its, old, natural form of tight curls that flew around face in the wind. Her emerald green eyes shined bright in the daylight while her pink lips parted in slight surprise. The trademark beauty mark on her lip noticeable since she hadn't started wearing lipstick yet. She wore a green and white boating jacket with light blue jeans and converse.
"Sorry!" She exclaimed, "I'm supposed to meet my mom at her shop, but I lost track of time at the library".
"It's quite alright," her smooth, deeper voice reassured. "Where's her shop?"
"A few blocks up. The little cafe on the corner."
"I know the place. You know I was walking that way anyway, would you mind if I joined you on your walk?"
"Not at all." So the too trekked down the street. It was the first time she had an actual interaction with anyone from the family since she moved to the town and took the opportunity to gain more details.
"So it must be cool having your mom own a cafe."
"Oh, it is! I get to help her bake breads and cakes and don't tell anyone, but I sneak snacks and drinks from there all the time."
"My lips are sealed," she replied miming locking her lips with a slight smirk.
"If you don't mind me asking, what do you do?"
"Oh, I am the CEO of an international company. I usually work from home."
"That's cool. What's your office like?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you said that you usually work from home. That doesn't mean always. I assume because it is an international company that you go on business trips from time to time, but you have to have some branch over here or else you wouldn't be living here." The woman faltered in step for half a second. She finally understood the extent her teammates were talking about, the girl was very smart. She had picked up on small pieces that normally go unnoticed and the woman feared she would potentially be a problem in her plan.
"I have a small office in New Orleans."
"Oh how nice. My family loves New Orleans. We always visit there, especially for Mardi Gras."
"Sounds like you have a lot of fun."
"We do." There was a beat of silence. "So do you have kids?"
"Why would you ask that?"
"Well, you have a light tan line where a ring used to be and considering you are roughly my parents' age and living in a boring family town I assume you aren't here alone." Another thing to note.
"You are a very smart kid."
"No just observant." The cafe came into view, "this is my stop. It was nice talking to you."
"You as well." She continued to still down the street, discreetly looking over her shoulder, through the window of the cafe to see the young girl greet her mother. She pulled out her phone a dialed. "Hey, it's me. We're gonna have to update our plans. Why? Because their daughter is a lot smarter than anticipated. Keep a close eye on her, something tells me she's gonna be a problem."