HiT 149: Anna Brookes First Chapter (17 page)

“FUCKING CUNT,” he’s yelling and I can see he’s hyperventilating. His body is going into shock. I want to make him hurt and I can’t have him passing out on me.

“Ethan, I can take my time. Let me get you a drink.” I go and get a bottle of water and unscrew it and hold it up to his lips. He is thrashing his head around refusing a drink. “Ethan, being dehydrated will hurt more. Take a drink,” he’s refusing and I can’t get any water down his throat. “Well I’ll be back soon Ethan” and with that I close the door and leave the steel box. I take my lap top out and get the surveillance going. There’s no disturbance around my cabin and I have a clear picture of what Ethan is doing in the steel box. He’s not doing much. There’s a huge hole where his left knee is supposed to be and he is whimpering like a wounded dog.

I make a call to my ‘Agent’ the phone rings twice and ‘Agent’ answers straight away.

“15”

“Agent I have a problem. Does Hit 149 have any other targets? Have Cleaner and Doctor on standby I’ll send you my co-ordinates for when they are required. Eta on target information?”

“4 hours” the call is disconnected. I send through my co-ordinates. It’s late now, the sun has gone down and I need to get ready for Anthony Mancini’s visit tomorrow. I check on the monitor and Ethan seems to be settled with a blown out knee. It’s been an hour since I’ve taken out his knee, its time I take the other one too.

I walk into the steel box and Ethan is not looking too well. “Come on Ethan, I have some adrenalin shots here that I’ll be happy to give you just to keep you alive so I can torture you a bit more. Now, I’ll have all the information I need within 4 hours but I would prefer to hear it from you. Has there been another hit organised on Ben?”

“Fuck you,” his voice doesn’t hold quite as much hate in it.

“Wrong answer Ethan” and with that I lift my gun and put a bullet in his right thigh.

“FUUUUCCCCKKKK JUST STOP,” his screams are falling on deaf ears, I really can tune out and not hear him.

“I can’t do that Ethan, I can make you hurt so much more though. I’ll give you half an hour and I’ll come back. Maybe this time I’ll shoot your dirty dick seeing as you like to rape women” and I turn and leave.

I watch from the laptop and Ethan is withering around. I don’t feel anything for him at all. Not one little bit of emotion. Its time I call Ben. I get to my phone and see no missed calls or messages. Agent hasn’t got my information yet. I dial Ben’s numbers.

“Baby girl, where the hell are you? Are you ok?” It’s been hours since I’ve left his house and he is most likely worried about me.

“Ben I’m fine. I need you to stay inside tonight. Please don’t go out anywhere and I’ll come to you tomorrow. Have you got your weapon on you?”

“What the hell is going on Anna? Ethan’s car was found on the side of the road, no one can get in contact with him, you disappeared for the day and now you’re asking me if I have my service weapon on me? I’m losing my damn mind Anna. I’m 30 seconds off jumping in my car and searching to find you” his voice is quivering but stern.

“Ben I asked you this morning to give me 24 hours. I promise you I will explain everything to you but for now please do as I ask.” My voice is almost begging him.

“I can’t do that Baby girl I need to see you and make sure you’re fine”

“I’m fine Ben, but I won’t be if I need to be worrying about you tonight.”

“I DON’T FUCKING BELIEVE YOU ANNA.” He’s pissed off now. I’m going to have to finish off Ethan and do what I have never done before. I’m going to have to get Ben and bring him back here and tell him everything. “Anna, I’m going to find you tonight. I’m coming to get you”

“No Ben. Stay put. I’ll come to you. If you want this Ben I will come and get you. You can’t drive your car. Be ready in 30 minutes” I wait for a few seconds for Ben to make his mind up.

“Ok” and he hangs up.

I go into Ethan and squat in front of him. Ethan is really not looking good. He’s losing a lot of blood and he looks like he may have only an hour to live. “Ethan are you going to tell me how many other hits there are on Ben or should I shoot your dick?”

Ethan is losing his battle with life and he is struggling to keep his eyes open. But he does manage to say “Fuck you.”

“I’m not going to shoot your dick Ethan” Ethan looks up at me and there is a glint of relief. In a heartbeat I raise my gun and shoot him in his lower stomach. That will make him go into shock now, and it’ll be extremely painful.

“FUUUUCCCKKKK,” Ethan is trying to scream but it’s coming out like a cry from an animal.

“Now I’m going out for a little while Ethan, so when I come back, if you’re not dead then I’ll shoot your dick.”

I leave and I drive like a maniac to Ben’s. I get to his house in record time and I have my hand on the horn. Ben comes running out and stops as he opens the door and slides in.

“What the fuck happened to your face Anna?” My face is all inflamed, my left eye has bruised over and is just a small slit, my right cheek resembles a balloon.

“I’ll explain when we get to the cabin. Have you got your gun and ammunition?

“Uh, what?” he is still looking at my face and hasn’t quite understood my question to him.

“Have. You. Got. Your. Gun. And. Ammunition?” I say it slowly emphasising every word.

“Yes,” his eyes have not left mine but are holding questions he wants answered.

I drive well above the speed limit to get back to my cabin. Once we get there I stop Ben from leaving the car until I check the surveillance on my laptop. Only Ethan is there and he is looking like his organs are shutting down; there’s a very clear live feed of him struggling in the steel box. Ben can’t see him from the way I have the laptop positioned.

“Once we are inside I will explain everything. But don’t try to take me down Ben, You won’t be successful” Ben’s eyes widen, his mouth hangs open and he is frozen in the seat with shock as I pull my 2 Glocks out and put them in the waist band of my jeans. Ben eyes my babies and knows that these aren’t standard Government Issue guns; he carefully assesses them and knows these are custom made. They are gold with a pink mother of pearl grip, what department issues guns like that? No one! Ben continues to stare and then finally reaches for his weapon. “Don’t Ben. I don’t want to harm you,” his fingers twitch towards it but he decides against it. For once he is actually silent. He follows me inside the cabin. He is looking around and assesses the scene in front of him. Chairs upturned spots of blood on the floor near where Ethan raped me, a half roll of tape.

“Anna, I’m trying my hardest not to jump to any conclusions but what I’m seeing is not looking good for you. I see your face is beaten, there is blood on the floor, chairs up turned and you have 2 guns in your waistband. What the fuck his happening here?” He’s asking like a police officer questioning a suspect.

I gesture for Ben to follow me and I ease myself on the lounge, I’m very sore from Ethan. I still have my 2 Glocks in my waist band and I’m holding onto my laptop.

“Ben, there’s something I need to tell you”

Chapter 23

“What is it?” Ben sits on the single lounger opposite me. His eyes tell me that he is waiting for an explanation.

“My name is not Anna Moore.” I’ve never been so open with anyone in my life, except with Ethan but I really don’t count him because he’ll be dead soon. My façade has totally disappeared. I wait for a moment as I watch Ben’s reaction.

“Then who are you?”

“My name is Anna Brookes”

“What?” his eyes squint, and he is trying to know why that name is so familiar to him. I leave it for a few minutes and just when I’m about to start explaining, it dawns on him “As in Henry Brookes Chief of Police?”

“Yes” I straighten my back and watch Ben. He stands up and is pacing around the floor. I think that this is his nerves twitching because he does it often.

“You’re the girl with the golden aim.” This is a nickname I had never heard of before today. And now Ethan and Ben have said it to me.

“Yes” I remain quiet whilst he is pacing and now running his hands through his hair tugging on the ends. He looks totally confused.

“But you..... your Dad..... what...... I don’t understand,” he is struggling to put a sentence together. But stops as he says the last 3 words and comes and kneels in front of me.

“There’s more I need to tell you Ben”

“What? More? I.... what? I..... what?” he stands up straight in front of me and starts pacing again.

“Ben, you may know me as someone else”

This time he stops his pacing. He doesn’t move other than turn his body to face me, his face gives me no emotion and it’s all in his voice when he says “You’re not a government agent are you?”

“No I’m not”. I stand slowly raising my hands in surrender to show Ben I’m not a threat to him and I’m not going to hurt him. “You need to stay calm Ben, my professional name is...” I delay telling him by mere seconds and take a deep breath and on my exhale I finally say “15”

The explosion of emotions from Ben happened the moment I said my professional name out loud. He drew his gun and had it pointed to my chest. His face has anger, sorrow, hurt and mostly betrayal plastered all over it. I could see his eyes filling with tears. His body is going into shock and starting to shake. “15 is a myth”, he screams.

My heart is beating out of my chest but I haven’t drawn my weapon. I’m not a threat to Ben and he isn’t a threat to me. He is purely in shock. I stand in front of him with his weapon pointing squarely at my chest knowing in my heart that he will not pull the trigger. He is confused and in a state of disbelief but I know he will not harm me, because I know I will not harm him.

“15 is a myth,” he screams his last sentence again. “NO - why the fuck are you saying that Anna?”

“My Professional name is 15.”

“Stop saying that. 15 is a ghost. 15 is not real. 15 is a ....................” he trails off but his weapon is still pointing to my chest. I see he has frozen and doesn’t know what else to say.

“15 is an assassin Ben, I am 15.”

“You can’t be 15 Anna because if you are I need to arrest you and I don’t know that I can”.

I take a step towards him and see he is holding on to his weapon so tightly and his finger is twitching over the trigger. I take a deep breath and take one more step; I can tell by his eyes that he is struggling over what to do so I take my final step. The gun is on my chest pointing directly in front of my heart. One bullet is all it takes and I will die. I slowly reach my hand up and place it on Ben’s hand holding the gun. My eyes never leaving Ben’s face, he has tears coming down his face and looks so conflicted and torn. I gently push the gun from my chest until his hand is beside his body and I remove my hand from his whilst we stand toe to toe just looking at each other.

“I...... I’m confused Anna. Why are you here?”

“Ben you need to know that I’m not going to hurt you, but I need you to listen. First though I need to go check on Ethan.”

“What the fuck? Ethan is here? What have you done to him?” He raises his weapon again.

“If you know who I am Ben and you have heard the stories, then you know what I am capable of. I told you, I’m not going to hurt you. I need you to stay here whilst I check on Ethan and I will explain everything to you.” Ben lowers his weapon and I stand back and get my silencer from where I left it before I went to get Ben from his house. Ben watches me with alarm and suspicion. I walk towards the steel box and enter my code. Thankfully Ben doesn’t follow me and he stays in the lounge. Well I hope he does because it looks like Ethan is taking his final breaths. I go over to the cabinet and get the adrenalin shot and stab him in the chest.

Ethan shoots up and screams out in pain. “Now Ethan, I have plenty of adrenalin here so that I can keep you alive just long enough to make you suffer. You know the answer I want so tell me before my contact calls me and I will put one final bullet in you. To your brain and end your suffering. If my contact calls me before you say anything, I will draw this process out until you are begging me to end your life and just when you think you can’t handle any more I will fuck you over by keeping you alive until eventually every organ shuts down and you take your last painful breath. Now TELL ME!!!!” I spit the last words out so angry at Ethan. Pathetic excuse for a man, as much as I want to kill him I also want him caked in his own putrid body fluid and I want him bleeding out and I want him to suffer for all he has done to me.

“1 more” his breath is laboured, the adrenalin only doing so much. He struggles to say those 2 words but finally gets them out.

“Just one more?” I stand tall and ask him, he nods his head weakly.

“Please,” his breath is difficult and laboured, “kill me”.

I smile at him and draw my weapon

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” Ben is at the door to the steel box. He is looking between Ethan and me and looks like he is glued to the spot.

“Ben, please go back out. I won’t kill Ethan but...” I trail off and turn to Ethan and shoot his groin.

“FUCK!” Ben screams. What’s interesting is he doesn’t raise his weapon to me he is just rooted on the same spot tugging at his hair.

“Ben there is more to this situation then you are aware of and Ethan just told me the last piece of the puzzle. Leave him and go back to the lounge room, he’ll be dead soon. His body is shutting down and I have had to give him adrenalin to keep him alive so I could get the information I need. But now, I’m going to let him die in the most painful way. He will bleed out slowly and his organs are already shutting down. “Good bye Ethan, thank you for the information you have been a great help.” Ethan’s body is totally slumped, his erratic breathing is barely audible and his eyes have rolled into the back of his head. Ben and I stand there as we watch Ethan struggle to take breaths.

“I can’t watch this,” Ben turns and leaves.

I stand and watch Ethan’s breathing become more and more difficult.

One shallow breath.

A long pause.

A second shallow breath.