The Complete Assassin Episode 7

The Complete Assassin Episode 7

It was a cold Saturday evening. She was not feeling too well but her boss did not welcome excuses. She had two weeks left till the end of the month after which she was going to resign her appointment with Shop-a-lot Stores. Already, Mr. Makinwa had been looking for ways to cut her off from her job or deduct from her salary. He did not want to risk being sued to court so he was watching and waiting for the slightest excuse to be rid of her. He would have to look and wait hard because she needed the money. More importantly, she needed the cover.

She rested her head on the counter and closed her eyes. She was not sleepy. Just tired. She could not wait for the days to roll by quickly and then move away from this place she had to hole herself in. Just as she began to unconsciously drift off into sleep, the buzzer woke her up. The buzzer sounded whenever the door was opened. She looked up to see a young middle aged man wearing a hood come into the store.  She was accustomed to folks in weird looking outfits in this part of the neighborhood. But something about this person made her feel uneasy.

The man approached her.

“Good evening sir. Is there anything I can help you with?” the lady asked politely.

The man’s eyes were blood red. He must have been smoking or worse. He looked uncomfortable. He looked left, right and left again. Then he put his hand into his side pocket, bringing out a gun.

“I want your money. All of it.”  The man said, pointing the gun at her and speaking very fast. He was trembling and unstable.

“Please, we don’t have any money here. Please. My manager just took all the money we made away.” The lady said, trembling.

“Are you mad? I said give me money! You want to die?” the man said, turning off the safety of the pistol he held and pointing it closer to her face.

His face seemed to have cleared and he looked more menacing and dangerous. If she did not oblige his request, she may not live the next couple of minutes. She glanced sideways without moving her head. The store was empty asides them.

“Okay, okay. Let me get the money.” She said and pressed a button to open the compartment where money made from sales was kept.

She began to arrange the money slowly, putting them in a duffel bag.

“Be fast. Quicker!” the man insisted.

She continued to put the money in the bag. Putting the last bundle of cash in the bag, she tied the bag and brought it up, attempting to hand it over. As the man stretched his free hand in order to snatch the bag, she reacted.

She threw the duffel bag at his face while simultaneously slapping the gun away from his hand. The gun fell to the ground and the money scattered everywhere on the floor. Within seconds, to his complete amazement and before he could react, the lady jumped across the counter standing face to face with him.

She punched him just below the ribs and gave him a strong kick to his groins. The kick took the wind out of him as he groaned and writhed on the floor, trying to catch his breath. The lady immediately went to her handbag, took out a handkerchief and picked up the gun. She pointed it at him and said very audibly,

“Hey. Shooo. Move.”  She commanded waving the gun at him and pointing to the door.

The man crawled out of the store, half running across the street.

She kept the gun, attended to a few customers, and then deleted the past twenty minutes of the CCTV recording in the store. As she was replacing the deleted memory, a call came into her phone. There was no number, caller ID, yet the phone kept ringing. Only one person called her in that manner. She picked the call.

“Hello. Your brother has finally made the move. He is a walking bomb and is danger to even himself, although he doesn’t know it. Tail him Stella. But be invisible. He is smart.”  The caller said.

“But Sensei, I just began this mission. And you know how I hate being in my brother’s affairs.”  Stella replied.

“This is not a request Knight. It is an order. General Shontel is on her way to relieve you. Your new mission is to make sure you cover Shadow Prime’s blind spot. The coordinates of his last location are waiting in your hotel room.”  Sensei said.

“Okay sensei. I will get on it right away.”  Stella replied.

“Good. And Stella, nice work with the burglar. Good to know you are still in fantastic shape.” Sensei said.

Stella looked around trying to see if Sensei was anywhere around, watching. How did he know about an incident that happened just a few minutes ago?

“Stop looking around Knight. I am miles away from you but my eyes are anywhere I want them to be. Commence your mission. Over and out!” Sensei said and the line went dead.

Stella heaved a sigh. She got out of the store and took a taxi to her hotel room. Her brother was in danger. She was going to make sure she did not lose the last member of her family.

*************

Sensei ended the call and put the phone beside him on the couch. He scratched his bare chin as he pondered over what his next line of action was going to be. He was still engrossed in thought when he was interrupted by Zeus, his virtual super computer. He was invisible but his presence was always felt in every cranny of the lodge. Only Sensei knew where Zeus’ hardware configuration was. It was safer that way.

“Evening Sensei. There is a Conference Video Call from The Guardians. What is your order sir?” Zeus said.

The Guardians was supposed to be a myth. The Guardians was made up of ten members representing each geo-continental region in the world. There were all serving Senseis and their sole responsibility was to ensure unity and prevent discord in the League of knights of the Shadow Organization.  They were so powerful that their strengths knew no bounds. They had connections in all spheres of the economy; political, social, and financial. And they were also deadly assassins. Very few people knew about their existence, but the rumor went round with a lot of people exaggerating and embellishing the facts. The next meeting was supposed to be in three weeks.

Sensei knew that something was amiss.

“Connect the call. Activate the cinematic view.”  Sensei ordered.

“Cinematic view activated. You know where to find me.” Zeus replied.

The lights in the room dimmed to its lowest possible, putting the room in semi-darkness. A large rectangular light shone from the overhead projector hanging from the wall, and unto the wall opposite him. He relaxed and waiting to the view to appear.

There were seven squares, each containing live feeds from each connected Sensei. Beside the seven squares, his image appeared on a bigger view. Sensei Magnum spoke. He represented the European Region and was the overall Sensei head.

“Welcome Sensei Marcus.  It became necessary to convene earlier than schedule because of the developments in the case of your Shadow Prime. He is in grave danger and if things go wrong, he may expose us to the outside world. This is why we are here. What did you intend to achieve by granting him freedom when you know how volatile his case is?” The overall head asked.

“Magnum sir, pardon my hasty decision. I deemed it fit to release him because he was getting to close. It was only a matter of time before he got to us. And it would have been worse if Steven had cause to rebel against the Shadow Code. You all know his abilities. I could not risk that. However I have put in place measures to make sure he doesn’t derail. Agent Stella his hot on his tail as we speak.”  Sensei Marcus explained.

“You put his sister on his trail? Is that a good move?” the Sensei from the Asian region asked.

“It was the best thing we could have done. He would sniff someone else a mile away. This was the best option.” Marcus replied.

“Okay then. We would be monitoring the situation closely. If we get uncomfortable with this arrangement we would come down hard on him. Have a good day Sensei.”  The head said and bowed in the screen.

Sensei Marcus bowed too and the other Senseis in the conference bowed.

The video conference ended and the room went dark again.

“Zeus, illuminate.”  Marcus said.

The room became brightly lit again. Sensei was worried. Was there something they were seeing that he wasn’t? He suddenly became agitated.

“Zeus, activate tracker on Shadow Prime.” Marcus commanded.

“Track mode activated.”  Zeus replied.

A mini screen on the wall lit up and what Sensei saw Steven doing shocked him to the bone.

TBC…

DROP YOUR COMMENT