Me? A spy?!

[La_Reina]

closed for Scuttle Buttin'

"Ladies and Gentlemen I am proud to introduce the CEO of Trust Industries. The leading supplier of Money Management, consulting, and with this new merging of our company now Weapons Manufacturer. Embarking on a new path to help create weapons that are safe for our soldiers and safe for our environment. I'm proud to present Alakai Desiree' Rawlings or Kai as she likes to be called."

Everyone started clapping Kai stood up and smiled as she walked to the podium. "Thank you. As much as I love giving speeches," the crowd laughed. There were epic rumors of Kai not showing up to her her own party of honor, because she had to give a speech. She had even tried to get on the plane earlier and was stopped and brought back because Mark her personal assistant had "forgotten" her passport in the office. How convenient. "So I will make this short. Thank you Mr. Donahouse and your company for trusting Trust Industries with this contract that will help the economy with more jobs..." There was applause and Kai smiled looking slightly embarrassed. "...and well we all know. So without further ado let's eat and bring on the entertainment!"

Kai walked off the stage breathing hard. Her assistant helped her into her chair and a commedienne came onto the stage and had everyone laughing helping Kai to calm down. She was sure that it was planned that way for her comfort. The food was brought out and everyone had a lovely evening.

Later Kai was just happy to get into bed. She would have 3 days to enjoy the Bahamas, a little mini vacation, before having to get back to New York and start working 80 hours a week again. She needed this mini vacation. She deserved it. Kai gave her assistant the week off as well giving him strict instructions to not call her until Monday.

The following day was nice: sitting by the pool and just relaxing. That night she stayed up late drinking wine and reading by the fireplace. A beautiful evening. Kai glanced at the clock blinking twice trying to see the red numbers on it. She giggled seeing 3:22 in the morning. She needs to get some sleep ... riiiiight after this chapter. And after she refills this glass one more time. Kai passed the mirror and stopped looking at herself. She was long and curvy; something she hated. Most women would love the hour glass figure, but in her line of work how she was built was more of a distraction and usually a hindrance. Her legs were long, but her thighs were thick as well as her hips and bum. Her breasts were perky and a handful, but not much more than that. Her skin was a smooth light caramel thanks to rigorous treatments and good parentage. She looked at her light blue nightgown that trailed all the way to the floor. It hung to every curve on her body. She looked like a model instead of a businesswoman and she sighed angrily. If only they could see her brains and not her beauty than they could see how great she is; just like she done tonight.

"That's right. I did this!" She refilled her glass and took a big gulp knowing she was more than buzz, she was well on her way to being drunk. So when her door swung open she didn't scream, but just looked at the man blinking slowly. "Did I order room service?"

Kai:

 

[Scuttle Buttin']

Troy Malik, codename Orion, was a man that didn't exist. Great pains had been taken to erase virtually all official records, and given his life spent moving from foster home to foster home the chances were slim that anyone would remember him enough, much less care enough, to look into the matter too closely. The small apartment he owned in Manhattan had a name other than his on the title, and in reality it was just a place to keep some of his things. It was a slow year if he slept in it more than 60 nights during the year.

Like the man himself, the organization he worked for did not, officially, exist either. Referred to only as "Pandora," though whether or not they had a real name was a question no one really seemed to have an answer to, it was a secret government organization whose director reported only to the Director of Homeland Security. The general public did not know they existed, and only a small group of long-term Senators had an inkling of their existence. Even then, it was only so their funding, hidden in a number of different bills a number of different ways, would be sent through with ease when it came time for a vote. Pandora was the very definition of a shadow organization, the group all the conspiracy theorists told each other existed without having any idea that they were actually onto something.

Troy, now 28, had been with the organization for seven years. They began looking into him his senior year of high school, a star athlete in three sports including football, track, and wrestling, who also managed to keep high grades despite his turbulent living situation. For three years they followed him, looked into his background, and began the setup to erase his existence if he accepted their proposal. The girl he began seeing just after high school and up until the moment he became Orion was an agent of Pandora, sent in to make sure he developed no attachments to anyone else before they made their move on him. They'd learned their lesson decades earlier when they lost a couple promising agents to women.

Training had been extensive, intense, and lengthy. For nearly two full years, Troy was on obstacle courses, in combat classes, or in class rooms learning vital skills. Wilderness survival, weapons training, hand-to-hand combat, information absorption and retention, introduction to new technology, and learning a handful of useful foreign languages, including French, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Arabic. At the end of it, Troy Malik was more machine than man. He could disarm and render unconscious a group of four in under a minute. He could speak fluent Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, and was at a conversational level in French and Arabic.

His first assignment, at age 23, had been the execution of a Canadian citizen Pandora had learned was working on the beginnings of a terrorist cell in Toronto, with their eyes on a future strike in New York within the next year. The strike was carried out with a speed and precision unexpected by Pandora, and Troy quickly found himself on tougher and tougher assignments.

Which eventually led him the extraction of an asset in the Chinese nuclear program who was believed to have been compromised...

-----------​

Troy was, luckily, in Manhattan when he got the call. His phone was of a brand that would be utterly unrecognizable to anyone outside of Pandora, and responded only to his thumb print and the pulse of blood therein. When he got the call he was at a pizzeria three blocks from Pandora's New York headquarters, and in the backseat of a black SUV flying through traffic within three minutes.

Upon being handed a file by a man he knew only as Cyclone, Troy opened it to find the face of Alakai Desiree' Rawlings, CEO of Trust Industries staring up at him. His eyes focused on her for a moment, memorizing her features, then went on to flip through the pages under the picture, skimming across the information contained within. CEO of a Consulting, Money Management, and now Weapons Manufacturing company, someone who has been obtaining information wanted by the government without even knowing she's doing it, and...

Brows arched, Troy looked up at the man in the dark suit sitting next to him, though he only got a silent look in reply. Dark eyes looked back down at the contents of the folder, skimming the rest of it before he closed it, handed it back to Cyclone, and lifted the metallic silver suitcase on the floor by his feet that contained his weapons and gear.

"We had a Shadow Team watching her," Cyclone said, referring to a team of agents that acted as bodyguards without the person they were protecting being aware of their presence, "But they went silent six - now seven - minutes ago. We think someone is moving on her, but we don't know who. We need to get her out, and to a safe house. Call us once you have her, and we'll give you further instructions."

Troy nodded and clipped the small earpiece - something akin to a Bluetooth headset, but three generations more advanced and not available to the public - onto his ear, which activated and greeted him in a female voice. In a holster on his side was a Beretta 92F, with two extra clips and a suppressor in the pockets of his black cargo pants. Tucked into a sheath at his back was a knife, with another smaller one around his ankle. He wore no body armor, most Pandora agents didn't because it reduced agility and maneuverability, and so the only thing on his torso was a simple white t-shirt and a lightweight black canvas jacket over it. His goal was to kill silently if he had to kill at all, and to otherwise be a ghost when he worked. Leaving behind shell casings and bullet holes was the thing he went to last, not first.

Within nine and a half minutes of receiving the call, the SUV was leaving the hotel behind and Troy had accessed a back door and was making his way up to the target's room. He met no resistance as he bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Arriving on her floor, he paused for a minute to listen against the door before opening it silently and stepping onto the plush carpet. Alert eyes danced, quickly identifying possible attack points - there were too damn many with a door on both sides at regular intervals, not to mention the elevator lobbies and corners leading to other hallways on this floor - and then he was on the move, swift steps carrying him towards her room.

Pausing at a corner, he stole a quick glance before moving around it. A man in a dark suit was slipping a card into the reader, and Troy was just able to catch sight of the ribbon attached to the small device that would allow him to open any door on the floor. Even without that, the man's build clearly gave him away as something more than a simple hotel worker. It was a good sign, though: They didn't have her, and he was in time to make sure they didn't.

Rounding the corner, he moved at a casual pace, trying his best to appear as simply a hotel customer headed to their room. The urge to pick up the pace was a strong one as he saw the light on the lock turn green, indicating that the door is free to be opened now, but he resisted. A surprise attack meant no chance to fight back, and with a unknowing civilian involved, there was too much of a wild card to take chances with. Especially when she wouldn't know who to trust, and Troy was not the most trustworthy-looking figure around.

Another half dozen steps brought him to behind the man, the door already open by the time he got there, and as the man's hand disappeared into his suit coat, no doubt for a weapon, Orion made his move. Pivoting on his heel, his hand slipped behind his back, and withdrew the knife held there. Muscles flexing, the point of the blade entered the back of the man's neck at the base of the skull, severing his brain stem and killing him instantly. Catching the body, he moved quickly into the room and kicked the door closed behind him, catching his first look at Kai, who was unfortunately not dressed to go.

Troy left the knife sticking out of the man's neck as he carelessly dropped him just inside the small entrance hall. He was on her in an instant, one large and scarred hand closing over her mouth to silence any scream she may have inside her, the other around the back of her neck to control her posture. He expected a bit of a fight with her, perhaps beating on his chest, maybe even hitting at the scarred and damaged flesh on his face and head, but he also knew it would be pointless for her. Not only did Troy stand 6'5" and outweigh her by at least 120 lbs, but his scarred appearance also hid a deeper secret: severe nerve damage, to the extent that the pain tolerance in most of his body was almost dangerously high. She could hit him with a lamp and he'd barely feel it. Her fists would be no problem.

Dark eyes took a quick survey of the room, and then focused on her own eyes, his voice low as he told her, "I'm Orion. That man was here to kill you, but he's not alone. You have a minute to get dressed and grab whatever you may need. You will not be able to come back to this room, so make it count. I will answer whatever questions I can, but we need to get out of here first. One minute."

He withdrew his hand from her mouth, watching her closely as he did, before saying finally, "Now. Go."

 

[La_Reina]

Her question was never answered as the man went inside his jacket. A letter? For me? At this time of night? Her mind was still foggy. She was still drunk? She didn't recognize why the man's eyes went wide and then ... lifeless. She had read about a man's eyes going lifeless in books, but to see it was unnerving. She blinked and the glass slipped from her fingers as she saw the end tip of a knife coming out the front of his throat. That shouldn't be there. Her brows furrowed. Her mouth opened, she took in deep breath as the body fell, and a man was coming at her. She backed up trying to escape, her gown too long getting tangled, she started to scream, his hand was on her lips crushing them. Tears welled up in her eyes. Oh dear God I'm going to die.

Her eyes never left his. They were so dark and cold. Mean. He killed someone and it didn't bother him. He didn't even think twice about it. He had killed a lot. And without remorse. This was a man used to killing and had no qualms about it. Kai started to shake and she pressed her fists against his chest. She tried hitting him, but her blows bounced off him and he didn't seem affected at all. She slapped him and she only saw a widening of his eyes. Kai started to say the Lord's Prayer even as she fought knowing with just a twist of his hands she was dead. Why would he want to kill her? Was he going to rape her? Kai fought harder, but to no avail.

His words took a long moment to sink in. She stopped fighting and stared at him. Even when his hands were off her face she just stared at him with tears in her eyes that didn't cascade down her cheeks. Finally his words sunk completely in. That man was after her and this killer was sent to help her. Who were they? Why? Did it have to do with the new weapons contract? But why? This wasn't a movie. This was unbelievable. This couldn't be happening.

Kai stood up and ran into her bedroom and into her adjoining bathroom. The alcohol couldn't stay in her stomach any longer not with everything that happened. She vomited it up until there was nothing left. She rinsed out her mouth and knew her minute was up, but she had to get dressed. She shimmied out of her gown grateful she had on panties, but wasn't wearing a bra. She didn't have time for a bra as she grabbed a hot pink shirt, the first thing she touched that stopped just above her belly button. She grabbed her nearest jeans and put them on as well. She slid her feet into boots that reached her knees. They were the only sort of athletic pair of shoes she owned. She grabbed a briefcase filled with her notes and her whole life in it. Every single piece of information she worked on in her career was in that briefcase and on her phone. Kai quickly grabbed that. Now what?

Kai glanced at her phone. She dialed 9-1-1. Then cursed. 9-1-1 wasn't the police number here. She looked to the phone that was on the stand looking at the emergency number. She had to get help. This was absurd. This man just murdered someone. She had to report this. Not go running with him. That was insane. She was dialing the number on the phone to report the whole thing; the murder, the attempted murder, and the possible almost kidnapping before her head cleared enough to tell her to get real help. That was what you were supposed to do right? Call the authorities.

 

[Scuttle Buttin']

Troy watched her disappear into the bathroom as the clock in his head continued counting away the seconds, knowing more would be coming if the man crumpled on the floor just inside the door wasn't working alone. It was as if an hourglass had been turned over the moment he plunged the knife into the back of her attacker's neck, and already there was much more sand at the bottom than the top. Time was of the essence, and he could hear her dinner making a return trip on the other side of the wall.

No time for this, he thought as he moved to the large window and glanced outside through the point where the drapes met. Nothing looked out of place, but if a team was moving up the hallway to her door right now there would be no reason why anything would. With a frustrated sigh he turned away from the window and glanced at his watch, growing anxious as the amount of time it was taking her. Quick steps were carrying him to the door she disappeared through when he heard the telltale click of the telephone receiver being lifted.

"Fucking hell," he muttered as he entered her bedroom to find her fingers working the keypad on the phone. He was next to her in a second and a half, a large hand closing on the phone's base and pulling swiftly, snapping the phone line out of the wall with ease. The phone tumbled to the floor as he simply released it, the same hand reaching out and closing on her arm.

"There is no time, Miss Rawlings. If you want to be alive five minutes from now, you will do exactly as I say. We must go."

He glanced quickly around, the briefcase on the bed the only thing that seemed as if it might contain important information, and he lifted it with is free hand. "Is this," he said, indicating it with a nod of the head, "Everything you need? Anything you leave in this room, you'll never see again. If there's something you'll need, something that cannot fall into the wrong hands, you have-"

His words were cut off by a knock at the door, two strong raps that froze him. Cursing under his breath, he leaned close and spoke in a low voice in her ear, "Grab what you need, silently, and meet me there. If you're not out by that door in ten seconds then I'm carrying you out of here. Neither of us want that. Go, now."

He left the room as swiftly as he entered, pausing just outside the doorway to pull his gun and screw a suppressor onto the barrel. With silent steps he approached the door and then leaned to look through the peephole, finding two men dressed identical to the dead one by his feet waiting on the other side.

So he's not alone. Fuck.

He stayed at the door a moment, judging their position through the warped view of the peep hole. Taking two steps back, he fired two quick shots through the door where their heads should be, listening for the thud of their bodies on the other side. He hated leaving behind bullet holes, but two on one with a reluctant civilian made the situation less than ideal.

"We have to go," he called to her, tucking the gun into his belt in the back, "Right now."

 

[La_Reina]

Kai was just about to push the last number when the phone was ripped from the wall. Her mouth hung open and she stared at the killer with huge eyes. It didn't even look like he tried hard or put any effort into it. He just picked up the phone, pulled, and that was it. He was strong. Very strong. Her thoughts were confirmed when she felt his grip on her arm. Kai nodded at his warning. She would do anything to live and she would say anything at this point to just not die. Kai started to ask a question, but a knock had him stopping and she followed his lead. He gave her a final warning and exited the room.

Should I scream for help? Should I use my cell phone and call someone? Kai still had her cell in her hand. She glanced around the room and grabbed one of her small travel bags and stuffed clothes into it. She wasn't drunk, having thrown up, but still tipsy and everything seemed to be a blur. She could only concentrate on one thing at a time and right now it screamed for her to grab some clothes. She zipped up the bag and saw her favorite leather jacket. It was a short piece that always made her feel sexy and bad ass; that jacket gave her confidence. She put it on feeling more like herself. A confident savvy woman who could handle anything life threw at her.

If you ever heard a silencer you know that's it's not really quiet and it's not like the movies. It doesn't sound like a woosh of air. Once you heard that sound you know exactly what it is. Kai doesn't shoot guns, but she did bring in a new weapon contract which meant she spent a lot of time getting personal with various weapons. So she knew that sound. Her vision narrowed to a point and the blood rush to her ears as she slung the bag onto her back. She took a step and another and another until she was in the doorway of the bedroom. Her eyes fell on the killer with her briefcase and a gun in his hand. As if she was moving in slow motion Kai turned towards the door and saw two bullet holes. Oh dear God he's killed again!

Kai jumped when he spoke to her. I can't go with him! "Look you have all my work. Everything is in there. It's not coded or anything. I promise I won't tell them about you. Just please, don't kill me. Let me go. You don't need me." Kai felt shaky as she watched him come towards her. She backpedaled but he was fast. Another thing she learned about him. She stared into those hard, dead, cold, so dark a brown they seemed black eyes. She saw death, a killer, and she tried to look like he wasn't scaring the shit out of her. "If it's money. I can get you money. Wire it anywhere you want. Please. I'm begging you please."

 

[Scuttle Buttin']

His patience, and their time, had reached the end. There were now three bodies, two with holes in their head, which meant bullet fragments and potentially someone hearing the shots, the discovery of their bodies soon, and a hotel full of people that would quickly be alarmed and on the lookout for anything suspicious. Things weren't out of control yet, but they were much closer than Troy liked them to be.

It was all he could do not to roll her eyes at the offer of money, and with the distance between them quickly evaporating he grabbed her arm while his other hand pulled the door open. Two crumpled bodies, dressed identically to the man who had a knife through his brain stem before he knew what happened, were revealed when the door opened. Dark eyes took a final glance at the room behind him, making sure nothing besides the bodies was left behind to indicate he was there, and then he stepped out, pulling her along with him as if her weight was a mere inconvenience for him.

Pulling her down the hallway with him, he shoved the briefcase into her hand so he'd have his other free, and then he reached into an inner pocket of his jacket and withdrew a pair of sunglasses that, upon close inspection, would seem to be a little thicker than your average sunglasses. Slipping them on, he reached into a different pocket and withdrew a phone, pressing his thumb flat to the screen. It came to life in his hand, dialing the number he needed automatically as he pulled her into the stairwell with him.

Half dragging, half carrying her along behind him, he listened as the voice on the other end told him the type of car he'd be looking for and where it would be located in the garage before he responded simply with, "I have the package. Kill it." A swipe of his thumb across the screen ended the call and the phone disappeared back into his pocket. They weren't going all the way to the ground floor, thankfully, and just as they reached the parking garage the power went out, throwing everything into darkness. Emergency lights began to flicker to life all through the building, and then themselves went out only a moment later. Behind the glasses he wore, his eyes peered out into a world illuminated an unnatural green, the lenses of his night vision goggles so thin that the term "goggles" didn't truly apply.

The car was parked four spots from the door. Reaching over the wall in front of it, he pulled the keys off the adhesive that kept them in place and hit the button that unlocked all the doors. Less than a minute later, he had her in the passenger seat, the doors locking as the car was shifted from park, and he was driving with headlights off out of the parking garage of the hotel.

Removing the glasses, he turned on the headlights as they hit the street and melted into the New York traffic, heading for a Connecticut safe house for the night. With the exception of the phone call, he'd been silent from the time they left her room until they entered the car, ignoring any pleas or protests she may have voiced, and it is only when they are leaving the hotel behind that he finally breaks his silence.

"Those men were sent to kill you. I was sent to make sure that did not happen. We're going to a safe house for the night, and we'll likely be moving again tomorrow. We're not sure who they are, who they work for, but they took out a team we had protecting you so they're clearly well-trained. And they're not going to stop now that we have you."

His eyes had strayed from the road only to search the rear view mirror for a moment, memorizing the cars behind them every few seconds to make sure they weren't being followed. So far, he detected no tail. Only once he was relatively certain of this did he allow himself to look at her in the seat next to him, his voice softening a bit.

"I'm sorry we had to take you that way, but there was no time to warn you. You're safe with me, okay? I'm not letting anything happen to you."

 

[La_Reina]

He didn't answer her. Just grabbed her and pull her to the door. She gave a small scream as she saw the dead bodies. She knew they were dead. She saw the bullet holes, but to see an actual dead person and the blood. So much blood. She stumbled over the bodies and if the Killer wasn't holding her up she would have fallen. She thought she heard something behind her like a door opening hearing her scream and the sound of a muffled gun, but wasn't sure. They were in a stairway and she was trying her best not to panic. It was hard. Getting very hard with every step they took and she was being pulled from the safety of her room that she realized she was being kidnapped. Or was it adult napped. She felt herself start to giggle and it wasn't a sound she had heard come from her ever. She was losing it.

They were heading down the stairs when she distinctly heard him say, 'Kill it.' Kai tried to stop thinking he meant kill her. He pulled her down two steps. She was going to scream for help when the lights went out. Than she just screamed out of surprise and fright. Was she shot? Is this how it felt? Was she shot in the head and that's why she can't see? She didn't feel pain, maybe it was shock. Dear God she was dead. Than the door opened and there was just enough light on small generator powered emergency lights that she realized she wasn't dead or dying.

He pushed her into the passenger seat and went around the car. Kai actually tried to open the door, but at first couldn't find the handle. It was one of those expensive cars that thought it was cute to make the handle look like it blended in with the rest of the car and not in the middle of the door, but lower down. By the time she found it the killer was in the car and turned on the ignition. The car automatically locked the doors and they were taking off. Her chance of escape gone.

She tried to memorize where they were going. He hadn't blindfolded her or do anything that would be akin to a kidnapping. She was confused. What the hell was going on? Who was this guy?

He finally spoke tearing Kai from her task of memorizing the highway they were on and where they were heading. "A safe house where? Who are you? Name? Rank? Something? Who's we? Why me? What's going on?" Kai was impressed she hadn't started crying though she deeply wanted too. She was so confused and she didn't know what to think. Should she trust this guy?

"Okay let's say you really are here to protect me? I'm in the Bahamas? You sound American so I'm to assume you are. Are you with the government? Why were you watching me?" Kai was trying. She was trying to believe him. This was all so weird and stupid and way over her head. She couldn't comprehend her life was ending up like this. She needed answers. Something she could understand. Anything.