Assassins (WIP)
She walked into the bus station, it was early, the sun was barely above the horizon. This was the first time she had been in one when she wasn’t killing someone. It felt like wearing shoes that were a size too small or pants that didn’t quite fit right. Nina tugged at the straps on the duffel bag on her back, it was chock full of weapons - she was on her way to a job, unfortunately because of some miscalculations and unfortunate hangovers this could be the last job she gets.
Nina hadn’t always been like this, she had been responsible well, a responsible killer. She did her research, found her marks and killed them according to the contracts. The problem was she got too good and that made her a little too cocky. She smiled to herself as she reminisced about her first couple of years going pro.
She laughed, the woman next to her in line gave her a sideways look - Nina could see her looking out of the corner of her eyes but never made contact - she could see the disdain the woman had for her but she didn’t care. Yeah, she was good, she had a lot of kills under her belt but because of all those kills if you don’t keep your ego in check it can bite you in the ass - and bite it did. Nina was a fan of the night kills, so when her adrenaline is pumping after a kill what a better way to work it off but dance and drink, sometimes there’d be some drugs but she didn’t need it - as long as she had something to drink she was fine. She doesn’t have a boss, just a one-time employer and hopefully she never sees them again, and if she does for the same contract then there is a bigger problem. Well, Nina started seeing some of her employers more than once and some of these employers are people you don’t even want to see a first time.
‘Next please’
‘Um yeah, let me get a one way ticket to New Hampshire please’
The young man behind the counter turned to type in some info into the computer,
‘$47.65 please’
Nina pulled out cash and dropped a $50, the young man took the money and gave her some change and dropped the ticket - he started to point to where she was going to go to take the bus but she had already grabbed the ticket and the change. She was kind of glad this happened - it wasn’t great that she was going to a job almost 2 weeks before to surveil before the target lands but apparently that is part of the cover. It also wasn’t great that she was supposed to spend an extra week after the target got there so it didn’t look suspicious that a hit was done right when they got there; so almost a month in the middle of nowhere. She was taking a bus to Boston then driving up into New Hampshire from there - the details were in a car parked at the bus station - so that made this whole trip one full long-ass day.
She made it outside to the line to get on the bus, the driver was already taking tickets and trying to coordinate the luggage that people were trying to put down by the under storage. Nina gave her ticket and held onto her duffel - nobody was getting her hands on this. She made her way onto the bus and found a seat between the back and the middle on the drivers side. The bus wasn’t full, a standard bus seats about 50 people, Nina counted 15. She sat on the outside seat and placed her duffel on the inside seat, this way some random wouldn’t touch the bag or suggest to move it. People continued to file on, Nina had pulled out her phone and started to look at some app, she barely noticed it and shut off her phone. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, she heard the clicking of the large doors under the bus then the heavy steps entering the bus, Nina opened one eye and looked over at the driver who was reaching over to shut the doors. The driver shut the door and picked up a mic,
‘Good morning folks, my name is Shelly. My job here is to get you from here to there. I am not here to take your bullshit and babysit you. There is no smoking, vaping, drinking, fucking or just general bullshit from you from here to there. This is a 5-ish hour bus ride. There is a bathroom out back that can handle your number ones just fine and your number two’s - too many number two’s and we’ll all be in a world of hurt. I will be stopping when I see a rest area so if you have to do a two, kindly hold it til then. Otherwise, be nice to one another, try not to walk around if you don’t need to and we’ll get there in no time - any questions?’
No hands went up in front of her, Nina looked back - a couple of people had headphones on and didn’t seem to be paying attention - the others were just staring blankly; no trouble on this trip? Shelly sat in the drivers seat, put the bus in gear and got the trip started.
As soon as they exited the bus terminal, Nina pulled the hood up on her hoodie, put one hand on her bag and shut her eyes. She wasn’t fully sleeping, just between that plane of full resting sleep and awake - she could still feel the bumps of the bus as it made its way out of the bus terminal and onto the highway - she began reflecting about her last job; it was supposed to be easy, well easy is relative when it comes to contracts. She got a contract for another hitman that had really fucked up the last job, and by fucked up she meant that the hitman fucked the hit which is a big no-no, you don’t get close in fact they shouldn’t even see you until its too late. So this guy gets the contract, makes contact and starts to bang his hit. The problem is the contract expired and he never contacted his employer so they called her in to go check it out, Nina reported back and they gave her the go-ahead almost immediately. She knew it wasn’t going to be difficult, she knew the guy and knew where he was going to fuck up, when he was trying to get laid. So Nina followed him for a couple of days, figured out where and when he was doing the deed and then finally on the last day, when she was about to make the hit, the husband comes home and plugs the wife. In all the confusion the hitman got away so needless to say, Nina’s employer was not impressed, she’s a professional after all and these things shouldn’t happen but how could she have known? The husband was always going to be a wild card. Nina exhaled loudly through her nose, shifted in her seat, opened her eyes and looked out the window. The leftover drops from a passing rainstorm dribbled down the windows, she could see the Boston Harbor as they were coming up Interstate 93 as she looked over to her right, Shelly got on the mic,
‘Alright folks, that was a relatively unremarkable trip - there was the one incident at the rest stop in CT but we all made it. We’re about 10 minutes out, thanks for that. I’ll be pulling in, once I do that I’ll get your bags out and we’ll part ways. If you need directions for something specific come and talk to me or else enjoy Boston or wherever your headed towards.’
Nina continued to look out the window as Shelly was talking thinking about the next steps, she was going to meet with a contact, get some keys for a rental car then head up to the top of the state, Coos County, those were all the details that she had so far. She watched as Shelly pulled into the station and parked the bus then opened the door, everyone started to get up,
‘Alright everyone, I know it’s been a long trip but one at a time please.’
Nina looked back and people were already standing to get off the bus, she waited and motioned for people to just go by, she was in no rush.
The last person went by, she stood up and grabbed her duffel bag and walked down the aisle and out of the bus. She put it on her back like a back pack and walked towards the car rental area. As she made her way there she saw a young woman standing there with a sign that read, ‘Wildhorn’, her employer wasn’t going to use her real name and she had chosen something obscure enough that nobody was going to come up to the contact.
‘Hey, I’m Wildhorn’
The contact looked her up and down,
‘Where are you going?’
‘I was told Coos County and there would be a package to follow’
The contact looked around then back at Nina,
‘Follow me.’
They walked from the entrance to the car rental area to where the cars were, the contact reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of keys and handed them to Nina,
‘The car is gassed up and there’s money in the trunk for the duration of your trip for lodging and expenses. When the job is complete you’ll get your contract money. Also in the trunk are the details of the contract; the who what and where’s. There is a GPS in the car already set to where you are going so just follow that. You have a place booked for you for the next month in Mooresfield and that is where the GPS is taking you - you’re pretty close to Canada if that helps you out with the length of the drive from here. Any questions?’
Nina reached out and grabbed the set of keys in the contacts hand and hit the unlock button. The lights on a mid-size sedan had flashed and her hopes of a comfortable and somewhat enjoyable ride had quickly diminished when this basic cars lights had flashed. The contact saw the look on her face.
‘Did you think that your employer was going to splurge on something top of the line for you? They heard about your last couple of jobs and going out on a limb hiring for your is the least they could do so consider yourself lucky they took a chance on you.’
Nina looked back at the contact again, ‘you’re not wrong, as long as it gets me there I’ll be fine - plus I don’t want to attract too much attention.’
Nina started walking away and the contact called out,
‘Hey, not for nothing but I’ve heard about you for a long time - you’ve done good work but from what I hear in the inner circles is this is your last chance - don’t kill the messenger but if you fuck this up you may not like the results.’
Nina had stopped with her back towards the contact as she was telling her all this then turned around,
‘When I chose this life I’m lucky I made it this far - we’ll see what happens next.’
With that she opened the trunk of the rental car, took stock of the items the contact talked to her about, it all checked out. There was about $50k there, should be more than enough for what she needed and a dossier for the job. She put the duffel bag in the trunk, shut it, got in the car and started it. Just as the contact said the GPS was set to her location, the Mooresfield Inn -
‘sounds lovely’ she thought to herself. With that she back out and started on the trip up to what could be her last job ever.
As Nina was driving she was getting closer to Moorsefield, the GPS told her that after she got off the highway it was going to be at least another hour until she arrived at the Moorsefield Inn. She couldn’t remember the last time that she had been at a job that was so remote or even when she had willingly chosen to be at a remote location on her own. Ever since she got through the White Mountains, she hadn’t seen many people and she had an inkling it was going to continue to be like this and possibly less people. The GPS told her that she would be getting off the highway and taking a state road which would lead her into Moorsefield.
She pressed on an about an hour later, after seeing nothing else but trees and mountains she could see the makings of a small town as she crested over a hill. As she was coming into town there was a river to her left which had run a pretty long way. She had noticed some dirt driveways which abutted the river as she was driving and how nice sitting on a porch at night listening to the rushing river might not have been a bad idea thing or even sitting by a fire outside but she wasn’t sure she could do it. She continued to drive and there were more houses, some were in a dilapidated condition and some looked brand new - some folks didn’t really care one way or the other. As she drove this eventually opened up into the town but she would’t be going into the town just yet as the GPS was taking her left from the houses, Moorsefield Inn was just on the outskirts. She made it to the inn, turned off the car got out and stretched. She turned around and looked and could still see the town from where she was, it was walking distance from the inn so that made things a little bit easier for her. She walked around to the back of the car, opened the trunk and grabbed her duffel of guns and the extra bag her employer packed for her and walked to the reception area of the inn.
Nina opened the door, the sound of a cow mooing signified her arrival. Nina looked up at the unusual entrance tone but figured it was typical for the area. She looked around as she entered, the room was small but full of character. There was wood paneling all around, orange shag carpeting with a throw rug thrown over it. A small seating area with a coffee maker and no coffee pot but they did have an electric kettle so points there. She turned and saw the person behind the desk - what she assumed was a younger person, a girl, definitely younger than her with their head down doing some kind of puzzle it looked like; Nina cleared her throat.
‘Hello?’
No response - she moved closer to the desk and leaned against it looking at what the girl was working on - looks like a crossword,
‘The answer to 22 across is Van Gogh, artist that leans more to the right. He famously cut off his left ear.’
The girl looked up at Nina, ‘thanks, I suppose you’re checking in?’ She turned around and grabbed the only slip and key on the wall, ‘this must be you…Nina?’
‘Yeah, that’s me.’
‘Driver’s license please.’
Nina got our her license and gave it to the girl, ‘what’s your name?’
The girl looked at her apprehensively, ‘Simone’
‘Hi Simone, I’m of course, Nina - I’ll be here for the next month so good to meet you.’
Nina figured that the person at the desk would be good to get information from if necessary so best to get one her good side now.
‘Nina Perkins - ok, I’ve got you here for one month, seriously? You want to be here for one month - I barely want be here now.’
‘I’m on a working vacation if you could call it that. I needed somewhere quiet to go and this seemed pretty quiet.’
‘What do you do for work?’
‘I’m an accountant’
‘For who?’
‘A bank’
‘For how long’
’10 years’
‘Sounds boring’
‘If you love what you do, you never work Simone’
‘I guess that sounds right - so you can do that from here?’
‘Its just spreadsheets and numbers so I can do it from anywhere - I just needed to get out of the city for awhile.’
‘Fair enough.’
‘What about you - is this what you do?’
Simone seemed reserved about answering, ‘this is my family’s inn I just help out after school and on the weekends - its so boring but my parents have other jobs and do maintenance here.’
‘Ok, but what do you want to do?’
‘I haven’t really thought about it?’
‘Well you have time, tell you what - why don’t you think about it and we can talk some more - can I get my key its been a long day.’
Simone smiled at her and Nina smiled back, ‘we don’t really get too many people in here and they just go to their rooms, thanks for talking to me.’
‘Of course Simone, think on that and we’ll talk later.’
‘Oh hey, I forgot to tell you, all the rooms are around back’ she leaned back and grabbed the key hanging on the wall, your basic key but it had a wooden evergreen attached to it - ‘they are separate little cottages - there’s 8 total so you just have to pull your car around back and you’ll see it - it’s like a little horseshoe and parking is on the side of each one. There are two other cabins taken, I think they are hiking somewhere locally and I haven’t seen them much so it’ll be quiet enough for you’
‘Thanks Simone’
Nina grabbed the key, opened the door - the cow mooed again and she headed off to her room for the next month.
Nina got to her car looked at the slip of paper and it told her that her room was ‘4’, she backed the car out and headed to her new home for the next month.
Nina pulled her car in front of the little cottage, ‘cute’ she said out loud. She got out of the car, grabbed her duffel and other pack and made her way to the front door of the cottage and opened it up, she she shut the door and locked it. It was a small open concept cottage, there was a wood stove directly in the center of the cottage with a small stack of wood on the wall. There were two doors directly in front of her, she could see a shower which deduced that this was most likely the bathroom. Then right next to it was the bedroom, she could see a dresser upon against the wall and the corner of a window. To her right was a small kitchenette with a all the fixings, it even had a decent size refrigerator so she would have to make her way in town later to get some food. She walked into the bedroom to see where she would be sleeping and if there was any closet space to store her things. She walked in and dropped her stuff on the bed, pulled out her phone, decent signal surprisingly. She still had her VPN because you could never be too sure. She looked in the closet, it was small but she didn’t have that many clothes. In fact, she had more guns and other accessories than she had clothes with her. She hung up the scant amount of clothes that she had, put the duffel on the floor of the closet and then shut the door. She grabbed the dossier that her contact had given her and walked out of the bedroom to the kitchenette. She tossed them on the little table then walked over to the sink, she turned on the faucet to see what the water flow was like, steady. She grabbed a cup and filled it up then sat at the table and opened up the dossier.
‘Jonathan Connors Age 46. Looks like he owns the towns store and deli but it also doubles as a bar after 2pm. Our friend Jonathan has been in Moorsefield for about 15 years now, came on the scene out of nowhere and bought up the store after the previous owner went bankrupt during the ’08 recession. He put some money into it and and added the bar and put in a deli as well - the town is small but people from other places heard about it and frequent it so it thrives.’
Nina pushed the dossier aside, how he came about the money is another story. According to the dossier her and Jonathan share a similar employer - well Jonathan previously did. He did a job for their mutual employer back in ’08 and didn’t end up giving him all the money back that eventually went to the bar. He disappeared up here and nobody could find him until recently someone was traveling and stumbled into his little heaven - not sure if he knew or not but it was about to come to an end. Nina pulled out his picture,
‘it’s a shame, he’s kind of cute.’
She put the picture back in, look a little more deeply at the file, his name was William Davis but of course when you dirty like he did you need to re-invent yourself and get a new identity. She looked at his picture again then closed the file, took a sip of water then headed back to the bedroom. She opened the closet and tucked the dossier into her duffel, not that anyone would come in here but she needed to make sure that nobody found it. She also needed to find a hardware store in town, there was a lock on the door but she wanted to get a deadbolt to further secure this place. She stood up and walked over to the bed where the other pack was and opened it up - there were 5 stacks of crisp 100 dollar bills equalling up to 50k, she peeled off two of the hundred dollar bills to get some of the essentials from in-town. She grabbed the cottage key and took it off the key ring then placed it along with her car key - she wasn’t going to carry around two sets of keys for a month - especially one that had a big wooden tree attached to it. With the keys fixed up and some cash in her pocket she walked back to the bedroom, this was a recon to get some food and other stuff but she should still be armed. She went into her duffel and grabbed her trusty 9mm along with the lower back holster - she also grabbed her automatic knife and slipped that into her pocket. She wasn’t expecting trouble but you never know. She closed the duffel, shut the closet and shut the bedroom door. She headed out the front door, locked it then walked into town.