Practice Makes Perfect

Previous Chapter: The Setup

We have pictures of several of the doubles (well, I suppose one might be the actual target), but haven’t yet got the definitive picture for comparisons.

Eric’s contacts have finally supplied the last component we needed to begin testing my plan. There are several elements, and we’ve already practiced a few of them while we were waiting, but now we can do a full dry run. Eric’s earlier research located a place for us to do the full test. Because we all want to be there, we’ve decided on a small gamble; hopefully we won’t miss our only chance to get the needed image of the target.

We assemble the components and head to the location. It’s out of the way and secluded, yet has matching features to the intended location. We set out with dry runs, doing timing, checking the view from various angles, who sees/hears what, when and where. I’m pleased Eric was able to find what we feel is a very similar car for the test. We run through the scenario a dozen times or so, all the way up to the final little bit. Then we go that last tiny amount. Looking over the results, we agree that the plan is solid. All we have to do is wait for the right conditions.

I start taking part in monitoring the target. It’s dull, like any stakeout, but I have things to think about now. So many, in fact, I have to be extra cautious not to miss anything when lost in thought. Finally, we get what we figure is the definitive picture of the target. It turns out we had captured his image before, just had no way of knowing at the time. Now we just need to wait for him to arrive at the location I’d identified earlier. We have lots of tedious false alarms. I'm unhappy because of the conditions I need to be in, but such is life as a contract killer.

Another evening, Isabel and I lay in bed talking.

Isabel says, “This job really had me doubting myself; I’m so glad Eric suggested I contact you. I was starting to get flashbacks to my first non-lure job. Even though I’d had some management experience, taking care of my own lure jobs, I felt a lot of pressure on my first ‘real’ job. I kept thinking of everything that could go wrong and was paranoid that I hadn’t covered all eventualities. I guess, when managing a lure operation, I had enough experience with someone else responsible to feel comfortable that my planning was thorough. That didn’t carry over, though, and I felt like a wreck.”

I ask, “What’s different with this job?”

“Due to internal politics, this one is quite important to me. It’s a ‘failure is not an option’ thing. When I first got here, I was sure I was going to solve the problem no one else had been able to. And in no time. Then, as week after week went by with nothing to show for it, those old doubts crept to the fore.”

She snuggles really close, wrapping her arms around me, “I’m so glad you found a way. Not only are you a great lover, you make me look great at my job.”

“Tell me about that first job.”

Isabel, “I’d been angling to get out of the lure ‘biz for a while. I’d been with the Agency for about six years. Eric was actually instrumental in the last push to free me from luring. He was a combat instructor when I was going through training. At that time there were only male trainers. All the trainers besides Eric were too touchy. Even though I wore the same shapeless training gear that everyone else wore, I was leered at most of the time. I really wanted to get good at hand-to-hand combat and was having lots of problems feeling challenged. The women in my class weren’t that interested in working extra and the men just wanted to wrestle with fantasies of it going further. I asked Eric, begged really, to give me extra help after hours.

“He wasn’t willing, in the beginning. I suspected at the time because I wasn’t much of a challenge. I had to nag him quite a while before he finally gave in. He cautioned me that if he took me on as a student he wouldn’t hold anything back. I told him that was exactly what I was looking for. I figured pretty early on he was gay, which was another reason I was so persistent. Knowing he wouldn’t try to come on to me was a really big deal back then. I hadn’t had the lure training and the skills to manage and direct that sort of attention.

“Later, Eric was a bodyguard for me when I was still a sex lure. I was after a target who was known to be quite violent when upset. Since the plan was to get him really upset, management felt they needed someone with hand-to-hand expertise as backup. It was then that we had a chance to talk; there is so much sitting around waiting when on a job.”

I nod. Figuring out how to stay alert during those periods is crucial to long-term success.

“It was quite amusing to me: back during training Eric was convinced I was interested in him, relationship-wise. He is quite handsome, of course, and lots of women were indeed after him, so initially my persistence seemed like I was coming on to him. When we finally started training together, he realized I wasn’t interested in him physically. He became a lot more relaxed around me. I never brought up his sexual orientation back then, but as we sat watching and waiting on the target, he apologized for his initial skepticism and stumbled over the explanation. I told him I figured it out already and it was fine with me. In fact it’s better for me, as I feel more secure with him, even compared to other women.”

I snuggle closer, grabbing some of her hair to play with.

“As we chatted and relaxed more, I told him how unhappy I was with the sex lure business and wanted out. Later he revealed he had his eye on Jeff but wasn’t sure if Jeff was interested in him. Jeff joined the Agency at the same time as I did and we had lots of classes together. I was sure he was gay, but hadn’t given any thought to who he might be attracted to. I really didn’t think much on that subject. Still don’t, really. In my naive way, I thought I could be a matchmaker and did subsequently work to get them together. Much later, I realized at most I might have accelerated things a little; they seem to be perfectly suited for one another.”

I comment, “They look like mismatched bookends, though. Short, blocky black guy and tall, blond, trim white guy. I guess opposites attract, eh?”

She absently nods, then continues, “Like I said, Eric was instrumental in helping me break free of the lure aspect. He couldn’t help me with the inner doubts, though. I was paired with Jeff for my first job, so I wasn’t completely solo, but we were still rather junior. At least I felt confident Jeff had my back in case something went wrong, on the job or politically when it was done.

“It was a rush job – to exchange a briefcase. So simple on the surface. We’d discovered a spy network and turned one of its members. The turncoat told us a traitor was giving away our military codes to an adversary. We also got the time and place where the transfer was going to happen. Though senior management had already decided they were going to change all the codes, it would be really nice not to have to slam out those changes immediately. Also, it would be best to have the option to feed misinformation. My goal was to change the briefcase to one with invalid codes.”

Releasing her hair, I take her hand, absently kissing it while I consider how I would manage such a project.

“Because the window was so small – we only had two days to prepare, and the personnel so short – Jeff was the only other person they could supply that wasn’t known to the targets, management was very pessimistic anyone could succeed. Though I wasn’t their first choice, Eric convinced them to let me have a chance. Their attitude was there was little to lose, they could always round up everyone and keep the codes from getting out.

“Management was impressed when I started to develop plans and contingencies within minutes of being briefed. We had no idea what sort of briefcase, so had to have a large number of them prepared ahead of time. Also, we lacked knowledge of the precise moment of the exchange, only the approximate time. It was going to require a great deal of improvisation, another of the reasons that management was so pessimistic.

“Though intellectually I felt I’d thought the process out in detail and had all the options covered, emotionally I was convinced I hadn’t been thorough enough and there were long hours of nail biting. I did have to use several layers of fallback positions to make the substitution, but, for the most part, my angst was for nothing. I felt like I was sweating bullets, though Jeff insists I didn’t show how nervous I was. My successful handling of the job allowed the Agency to feed critical misinformation several times. And my being able to react so quickly caught the eye of several in senior management, so I was finally able to break out of the lure business for good.”

I turn off the light and we snuggle down under the covers. I pull her close and her torso lies half onto my chest. It really feels good to have her like this and I’m a little surprised that once again I’m able to enjoy her proximity without feeling the need to make it sexual.

...

Hopefully this isn’t also a false alarm. I get into my smelly position and wait for the word. The target is passing all the expected checkpoints. Maybe this will be the one. I really want it to be the one. I don’t want to do another week of this stinky business. The target’s car arrives in exactly the spot I predicted. There’s the tiny window when Eric can get a picture of the guy’s face. He and Jeff study it to be sure it is him.

I very carefully push up against the sewer cover. It’s a huge disk of iron. I’ve made sure it will move easily and silently. It takes a lot of muscle control to lift the disk and move it without it making any noise. The target always leaves a couple of heavies with the car. When we were testing earlier, I worked until neither Jeff, Eric or Isabel could hear me move the cover. The car is parked in exactly the same place every time. The critical element in this plan. I reach up under where the passenger sits, placing a series of shaped charges under the seats. They’re painted to look exactly like the dirty underside of the car. Even a close casual examination isn’t likely to note them. I activate the receivers on each. Then reverse the process with the sewer cover. I shimmy back down into the sewer water. I really hope this is the last time!

It’s generally about an hour before the target leaves. We hope to get a confirmation picture of his face before we commit. I finish my slog back to the surface. Strip my dirty clothes off and wipe down with some baby wipes. I’ve been increasingly careful not to splash as I move around in there. This time I think I’ve managed to keep from getting the crap (literally!) on me. I go to meet Isabel where she’s positioned with the transmitter. It’s a rarely populated stretch of road where the target always drives. The driver moves very fast through this section. It’s a classic location for an ambush. No doubt the driver is well aware of that. In this case he would have to outrun radio signals.

We hear from Eric and Jeff. They have their confirmation that the target is back in the car. As far as they can tell, he’s alone in the back seat. The shaped charges should take out the target without doing more than shattering the eardrums of the driver. The target is on his way. I look at Isabel and ask her if she wants to use the transmitter. She looks at it for a few seconds, then shakes her head. I wait until I can see the car and can be certain that there are no people in the danger zone (which is minimal because of the shaped charges) and set them off. Three, since we couldn’t be sure where he was going to sit; left, right and middle. The car does a short jump as smoke blasts out from underneath. There’s a small dark spot in the road where the charges went off. The beauty of shaped charges is the bulk of the energy is directed in the desired path. In our case it formed a jet of plasma that shot up through the armored bottom of the vehicle. Through the seat and into the target’s rear. Highly likely to be instantly fatal. In the event it isn’t instantaneous, the shock and trauma should finish him off within a couple of minutes. 

The driver is trained to hammer on the gas whenever anything unexpected happens and to start driving as erratically as he can without risking an accident. As he tears off around the corner, I’m sure my job is done. Though Isabel will want to verify through other means, I’m hoping she can delegate that to Jeff or Eric so we can spend at least a little time together.

...

Our romance was brief: an afternoon. I felt cheated physically, but emotionally I was satisfied. However, a small part of me is upset my obsession has been reset.

I just wish I’d been able to enjoy her scent.