15. Brian

FIFTEEN

brian

Two weeks later. The day of the hit.

Mina is waiting when I get to our dungeon room carrying a package, and a flat cardboard box, along with a bag with some other supplies.

“I want to go,” Mina says.

I shake my head. “You can come with me tonight, when the building blows.”

“But what’s the point? It’s going to be boring. Nothing’s gonna happen. I don’t even get to go inside.”

I level a glare at her, and she crosses her arms over her chest like a petulant teenager whining about curfew.

“I would never take you out for your first time if there was any chance something could happen to you. It’s way too early in your training.”

“Do I at least get to wear weapons like a badass?”

I chuckle. “Yes, you get to wear weapons like a badass. And Kevlar, like me.”

I know she wants to ask why we’re going to be wearing full assassination gear if it’s a distance kill, but I like to have my bases covered. We’ll be out and about together near a lot of people, and I have a few enemies out in the world. The last thing I need is someone to think my guard isn’t up and go in for an easy kill. And I definitely can’t risk it with Mina.

“What’s in the box?” she asks.

“A special delivery. It’s what’s getting me into the building to set up the bomb.”

Mina sits on the edge of the bed and watches me while I work. Two days ago, I ordered a Longines watch to be delivered with expedited delivery and a signature to Mr. Stryker on the top floor. The extravagance of the gift will ensure I’m able to get on the elevator and up to the top floor for the signature. But it’s not so extravagant as to raise questions.

I just got finished impersonating a delivery driver and stealing the package and a scanner off the truck less than an hour ago. This particular delivery is scheduled for the very end of the day so Todd will never know it was there. I almost shot him for having the name, Todd .

I’ll have the package in the hands of the target and it’ll be off Todd’s list of deliveries before he needs to know it was ever there.

The guard at the Stryker building should remember me from several weeks ago when I last delivered a package and planted the listening devices.

I use a the knife from the side of my boot and remove the packaging label, careful to slice beneath into the first layer of box so as not to rip the label.

“Bring me the laptop,” I say without looking up from my work.

Mina brings the laptop off the corner desk. I’ve already got it hooked up to the printer and the blank label in the machine. I log in, load the label making software, and create a reasonable-looking fake. It just has to be visually passable, it doesn’t have to be scannable.

“There’s packing tape in the bag, set up that box for me,” I say, while I finish the label.

“I didn’t know I was going to be doing assassin secretarial work,” she snarks.

“Gotta crawl before you can walk, pet.”

This box is much bigger than the one with the delivery, and it’s how I’m getting the bomb in. I go into the supply closet and bring out all the materials I’ve gathered. I assemble the bomb and place it gently inside the larger box.

I affix my new decoy label to the actual package being delivered and slip it inside. I add a small surveillance camera and packing peanuts, then seal up the outer box and tape the original label to the top.

Mina follows me out to the car.

“I’ll be back for you at seven thirty. Be ready to go.”

“Hey, man,” The guard says when I stroll into the lobby an hour later. He’s blond with stubble on his face and a name tag that says “Teddy.” He clearly recognizes me from last time. That’s good.

“I’ve got a special delivery for Mr. Stryker in the C Suites. It requires his signature.”

I pull out the scanner and scan the real label on the outside of the larger box and show the screen to Teddy. He checks for the sender and the recipient’s name. And then he waves me on to the elevators. “I’ll tell Mr. Stryker you’re on your way up.”

“Thanks.” Then I notice the yellow caution tape in front of one of the sets of elevators. “Elevator down?” I ask. I hate when I have to behave like an idiot to pull data points out of people.

“Yeah, happened just after lunch. We can’t get anybody out to fix it until tomorrow. You can imagine what a pain in the ass it is to manage a building like this with only one working elevator. Lots of people grumbling and taking the stairs today. We’re lucky the fire marshal didn’t shut us down, but they’re too busy setting up for the parade.”

“You going to that?” I ask. I fucking hate small talk, but not acting interested in other people’s lives makes you look like a sociopath, and it’s probably not the best look when I’m trying to plant a bomb.

“Yeah, Me and my kid. You?”

I smile broadly. “Wife and two kids. We’re bringing them. They’re super excited. Should be a great time.” I plaster on a giant cheesy grin like some schmuck who’s got nothing more exciting than Fourth of July fireworks going on in his life.

“Great, maybe I’ll see you there!”

“Maybe!” I chirp back like a jovial dumbass, and then I get the hell away from him and onto the one remaining working elevator as quickly as I can.

I ride up to the top floor and then slip down the emergency stairs to thirteen. The last time I was here, I picked this spot because it’s been gutted and has nobody on it right now. It’s close enough to the top floor to be able to take out my targets without actually having to get too close to them.

I learned while staking out the listening devices that the project to remodel this floor is on hold until the fall, which makes it even more perfect as there’s no chance of running into construction workers.

They can remodel all they want to, but they’ll never get tenants on this floor. Most tall buildings don’t have a thirteenth floor. They just skip it and go to the next number, but this building is different.

They’ll have to renumber the floors and skip thirteen. People are still stupidly superstitious. Though to be fair, I’m planting a bomb on the thirteenth floor, so maybe their paranoia about these things is sound.

I quickly rip open the box and set the bomb in the proper location directly under the conference room. We’ll start the timer with a remote from the car later tonight. I take the mini camera out of the box and get it set up. We’ll be able to monitor from a distance so I can make sure everything runs according to plan.

I take the smaller package out and go back up the stairs. It might be quicker to jump on the elevator, but the last thing I need is for Teddy to glance over at the wrong time and wonder why the light for thirteen is on.

I deliver the package, get Stryker to sign for it, and mark it delivered in the system. As I get back on the elevator, I think it’s such a shame that beautiful watch is going to blow up with the building. Such a waste of four thousand bucks. Fuck it. I’ll expense it to the client. He can afford it.