before they reached the city, no.
But I could be right on their tails.
Instead of overthinking it any further, I sprung myself into action, heading for the highway – the only way in or out. As the car ate up the miles, I replayed everything in my head again, going all the way back to getting this job in the first place.
Yes, I understood wanting May and Amelia out of the way, unable to smile for pictures and give interviews that could ruin a political campaign. But… killing them?
With a bomb?
That felt a little extreme to me.
The more I thought about it, the more it tugged at me – we were going into this missing some important detail I couldn’t quite pinpoint.
I pulled out my cell to dial Alicia, and put a little more pressure on the gas pedal.
Something was wrong here… I could just feel it.
This little situation was not what it seemed.
***
Not everybody who came to the Garden left with the same damage.
Yes, there was a certain amount of indoctrination enmeshed with what we did, to the point that there wasn't a whole lot of choice involved.
Even for the most strong-willed.
You did what you were told or you lost your life.
Those were the only two choices when it really came down to it.
But where the difference came in was in the jobs - in the tasks we were assigned, good bad and ugly. Like the ones that required you to take someone's life.
Some of us… enjoyed it.
And I'm not talking about people who deserved that shit.
Sure, there were child molesters and dictators, murderers, drug lords, and the like.
But… there were also the resistance leaders, the whistleblowers, the innocent people just trying to do good by others, and live right. There were the loved ones of the people who were the real targets, lives taken as a way of control and revenge. There were the bystanders… people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, while we did whatever it took to accomplish our mission.
The inherent goodness of a person, whether or not they had anything to do with it, it didn't matter. They were just an accepted risk.
Collateral damage was inconsequential, as long as the mission was completed. It took a real psychopath to decide that all these people weighed the same on the conscious.
Me?
It fucked my head up.
Maybe that's why it felt so important to me, to find May and Amelia and keep them safe. For all those innocents I hadn’t been able to. They weren't bad people, but life had placed them at the unfortunate mercy of one.
Even before I pulled into Vegas, the traffic had picked up, making my pace a lot slower. Still, I had the benefit of the tracker which had stopped moving now, giving me an opportunity catch up.
Or… walk into a trap Tamra had set because she found the tracker and was anticipating my arrival.
I couldn’t let the possibility of that hinder me though.
All I could do was stay alert, and be prepared for whatever might get thrown at me. I was about a mile away from the tracker’s location when my phone rang.
It was Alicia, calling me back.
She wasn't very happy I’d lost my mark, but nobody was anticipating a bomb, so there was only so much annoyance she could throw my way for something that caught us all off guard.
“Are you back in Vegas yet?” she asked, even though she already had that answer.
I was wearing a tracker too, for safety purposes in case I got into some shit I couldn't get out of. At least my team would have a place to start looking.
“Yeah,” I said. “I'm getting ready to pull up on the tracker.”
“Good. You need to be prepared for anything. We’re on standby to assist.”
“I don't need it,” I argued. “The only reason they got away from me was because I didn’t know to anticipate a damn bomb.”
“Yeah, and the only reason the rose got away from you in the first place was because you didn’t think to anticipate her. Sounds to me like you need a little more training when you get back.”
“Haha boss lady,” I told her, my tone dry. “I don’t need more training. More like more information,” I quipped. “I told you, something about all this smells funny.”
“I’m looking into it,” she assured. “I haven’t found anything that would have clued us into this, or that causes any alarm yet. But I’m keeping an eye out, and keeping that team