It was two days after the death of Luke, before I returned to London. I had remained in my bed in my apartment. Just staring at the ceiling. I didn’t feel remorse. I felt nothing. Not even for her. I didn’t care. I couldn’t get attached to anyone’s feeling. It was part of the job. I was a killer, not a sympathizer.
I walked into the office and over to my desk. I sat in my spinning chair and closed my eyes. Someone started tapping my leg. I slowly opened my eyes. I looked up to see a 9mm silencer attached to a Beretta 92FS staring me in the face.
“Sleeping on the job, I see,” The masked guy said. “You’re reflects are getting slow, Delilah.”
I smiled. “Check again.”
The masked man looked down to see a KSC Glock 17 aimed at his genitals. He exhaled and lowered his weapon.
“Hi, Aaron.”
He ripped his mask off his head. “Man, how did you know it was me?”
“Well, for one, you’re the only one brave enough to put a gun in my face,” I laughed.
Aaron chuckled. He leaned against my desk, partially sitting on it. “And two?”
“You’re the only guy I know that showers in Polo Blue cologne.” I sniffed.
He shook his head. “See, that’s why I need you to train me. They are never going to let me get out in the field if I make mistakes like that.”
I chuckled. “We’ll see.”
“So, did you see today’s paper?” he said, throwing The Sun on my desk.
I spun around to read it. The headline read “Von B OD’d”. Clever. The article spoke about how Princess Eliza’s family warned her about Von Burgeon and his drug usage. ‘Luckily, she decided not to party with him that night.’ The paper said.
“That’s funny.” I laughed.
“So, tell me.” Aaron smiled. “How did you do it?”
I motioned for him to come close so I could whisper it in his ear. “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”
He sucked his teeth and walk over to his desk, which is right across from mines. I laughed as I turned to my computer to check my emails. I clicked through the usual stuff. Nothing good. Wait, here’s something. It’s an encrypted message from one of my contacts.
From: You Know Who
To: You Know Why
Message: Great kill. Too bad you were caught on camera. Never underestimate habit. :P
Attached: A picture of me entering the Princess’ room.
Dammit. The cameras were supposed to be off. She always turns them off. I should have checked anyway. I shook my head. I deleted the message and saw another one from him. I opened and read it.
From: That Guy
To: That Girl
Message: Don’t worry. I took care of the camera. You’re out in the clear. The Company will never know. You are the best and we all know it. Keep up the good work. I always have an eye on you. I’ll be in touch.
I smiled to myself. I have never met this guy but he’s been my contact for as long as I’ve worked for The Company. He’s probably the only person I can trust, besides Aaron. But Aaron doesn’t really count. I’m not sure I fully trust him yet. Just trust him more than anyone else here. Aaron Porter moved to London about 5 years ago, and immediately started working for The Company. He’s not the field type. I mean, he has the look. The dirty blonde hair. The devilish smile. Average build. Brains. But he’s such a newbie. I took him on a mission once and he set off the alarms. I mean, how do you do that? He’s best on a computer. He can hack into anything at any time. My own little personal computer nerd.
I logged out and started to fall asleep again when my phone ranged. I almost fell out of my chair, annoyed. Who could this be calling right now?
“Hello,” I answered.
“Delilah. Great, you’re up.” The voice said. It was John, one of our supervisors. “Do you still want to upgrade to a level 1 case?”
“Of course, I do.” I said. “Who’s the target?”
“I can’t give you all the details just yet. Our client is keeping this one really hush hush.” He said. “Just know it’s big. Really big. I’m sending the email right now.”
I looked at my phone and saw a little envelope indicating I have mail. “Okay, I got it.”
“Now, you can’t mess this one up. You are the only one that can do this.” John told me. “Just follow the instruction in the email and good luck.”
“You got it. Thanks.” I said, hanging up the phone.
Oh. My. God. My first official level one case. My first real case. Not, okay you are working with him on this. Or, you are working with her. This is going to be my case. Mines. There was no way I’m messing this up. I don’t care who the target was, he was dead to me. That’s guaranteed. I don’t fail.
“Hey Aaron,” I taunted, waving my phone in front of me. “Guess who has a level one case?”
Aaron ran over to my desk, “No way.”
“Yes, way.” I laughed. “I’ve never been more excited about anything in my life.”
“Well, open it up.” He demanded. “I want to know who the target is.”
I bit my bottom lip and opened up the email. I moaned. There wasn’t much information.
From: J
To: D
Message: The information you inquire will be send to your phone today at 2:00pm. That is all.
That was it? All of it? There was nothing. Nothing at all. Who was I gonna kill, the Queen?
“So, who’s the target?” Aaron probed.
“I don’t know.” I frowned. “It doesn’t say.”
“What?” Aaron snatched my phone from my hand and read the message. “Well, don’t worry about it. It has to be big, if they won’t tell you right away.”
“Yea,” I whispered.
“We need to celebrate,” Aaron announced, pulling me from my chair. “Come on, girl. It’s not every day you get a big case on your birthday.”
I looked shocked, “You remembered?”
“Of course,” He said. “How can I forget my favorite girl’s birthday?”
“Shhh…” I teased. “People might start to think we’re dating.”
He blushed. We left and headed to the local outdoor pub for a few beers. We started talking about randomness. Nothing work related. Just regular stuff. I really don’t get to do this often, so I was really enjoying his company. It’s funny. Usually, I would be back at my apartment cleaning my gun. I thought that was normal. But this was nice. I kinda liked it. Then, we were interrupted by an email.
From: Unknown Sender
To: Unknown Receiver
Subject: OP-1D-P
Message:asldfjhludy asjhlfu ansdkfuldhf djfsdlfh
Attached File: Encryption Unknown
“Aaron,” I whispered, showing him the message.
“Nice algorithm.” He uttered. “Give me a sec.”
He pulled his mini laptop out and attached my phone to it. He typed a few stokes and handed me the phone back.
“That was kinda easy.” He laughed.
I laughed. Nerd. I read the message. ‘Will text you the target later. Read attached file for case details.’ Sigh. Of course. It can never be simple. Might kill the sender, just for fun. I opened the attached file. It read:
Assignment: One Direction
Location: Sofitel St. James Hotel, London, England
When: In Three Days
Case: High Profile – Level 1, P3 (Public/Painful/Priority)
“One Direction,” I whispered. “What’s that?”
“Not what? Who?” Aaron replied. “You don’t know who they are?”
I looked confused. Aaron looked at me, like I was a little green Martian.
“Were you living under a rock?” He chuckled. “They are just the biggest boyband to come out of UK…and Ireland.”
“A boyband?” I frowned. “Are you serious? I thought it was gonna be someone important like the Queen, a prime minister…or at least the U.S. President. Not some stupid band.”
Aaron stared at me, blinking wildly. Then, he stopped a few local teens that were passing us. “Hey, have you ladies heard about One Direction?”
Their faces lit up and started rambling about these five guys in this band. One with curly hair and cute dimples. Some Irish guy with a great smile. A carrot guy who’s funny. A baby possum with huge hair. And their perfect dad. Apparently. They went on about video diaries, an x-factor, something called the in-betweeners dance, cats and spoons. They went on and on and still I had no idea what they were talking about.
“Thank you, ladies.” Aaron laughed.
They walked off, still talking about some coming up concert.
“Okay, maybe they are kinda big.” I rolled my eyes. “Well, can I see your computer to look them up?”
“Sure,” Aaron replied. He slid his computer across the table.
I scrolled through several sites researching this group for about an hour. Evidently, they were on this show called the X-Factor. Started as soloist, formed a group, lost and were still signed. Not gonna lie, they do have a massive fan base. Their fans have this thing called the One Direction Infection that claims that you will fall in love with them if you ever see, hear, touch or talk to them. Thank god, I don’t have that. Sounds stupid. Anyway, according to the girls, there are five guys. So, I build a quick reference about each to remember them easier.
Louis Tomlinson, current age 20, the funny one who is often mischievous. He’s also the oldest one. Nickname is Boobear. Biggest fear, birds.
Liam Payne, current age 19, the smart one who acts like the oldest. Nickname is Daddy Directioner. Biggest fear, spoons.
Zayn Malik, current age 19, the vain smoker with the most tattoos. Nickname is Bradford Badboy. Biggest fear, everything from the dark to heights to water.
Niall Horan, current age 19, the blonde Irish one who loves to eat. Nickname is Nialler. Biggest fear, tight spaces and birds.
Harry Styles, current age 18, the flirt with four nipples who loves cats. He’s also the baby of the group. Nickname is Hazza. Biggest fear, snakes.
My head was spinning with all the details the fans knew about these guys. This one band. It’s like they did all the research for me. Except, I still didn’t know which guy was my target. I was a little troubled. They were still kids. But I couldn’t ask questions. Questions get you killed. Didn’t matter. I don’t fail. It was going to be cake.
“I doubt any of them is the actual target.” Aaron announced. “Just like the Paris case.”
“You’re probably right,” I said. “It’s probably their agent or manager. I still need to do more research, either way.”
“Yeah and I have to get back, too.” Aaron said, as he packed up his laptop. “I gotta run tech for that Russian thing.”
I stood up and gave him a hug. He whistled for a taxi and left for the office. I headed back to my apartment and spread across my bed. I pulled up YouTube on my laptop and search ‘One Direction’. There were millions of videos. The most popular seem to be the video dairies. I remember the girls talking about that. I watch all of them. Extremely silly fellas. I also watch of few of their music videos. Pretty good. Not really sure if I would listen to it, but I could see why girls liked them. They were likeable. I received a phone call later that night. It was Aaron.
“What are you doing?” He asked.
“Watching a few of these diaries things,” I told him.
“Such a professional.” He chuckled. “I left a present at your door.”
I stood up and grabbed my gun. I strolled over to the door and looked through the peephole. There was a pink unmarked box with a white bow in front of my door. The hallway looked clear.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s not a bomb, Delilah. You can put your gun away.” He joked.
I hesitated, “Are you watching me?”
“Of course not.” He sighed. “I just know you. Now go get it.”
I gradually opened my door, looking down the hall, and brought the box inside. It was very heavy for its size.
“You know I don’t like surprises.” I groaned.
“You’ll like this one, I promise.”
I placed my gun on the table and ripped off the bow. I tugged the box top off. Then, I saw it and smiled to myself. It was a small round red velvet birthday cake that read ‘Happy 19th Delilah’.
“How sweet,” I flushed. “Thank you, Aaron.”
“Anything for you. Now get some sleep, you got a big day coming up. I’ll check in with you tomorrow.” He finished and hung up.
I cut a slice of my cake and put the rest in the freezer. I went back to my laptop and watched a few more videos. I started to wonder, while I down that soft, moist loaf: What if one of these boys was the target? They are so young. Who would want them dead? If not them, who around them needs to be eliminated? Why Now? So many unanswered questions. I tried to forget about it. Questions get you killed. I began drifting off to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a new day. I’m going to meet my new assignment. Hmm. If they are that crazy in their videos, how they are in real life?