Come and Get Me

Find her. Kill her.

It was a simple agenda, but Gabriel still found himself repeating it in his head mindlessly as he walked towards her hotel. He liked to run down his plan of attack on his way to a hit, but that plan was usually far more elaborate. Usually, he had hours, if not days, to map out every detail. Usually, he had more information on the target - at the very least a picture of them and who ordered the hit.

Instead, he had nothing: no well-crafted plan, no time to come up with one, and no information about the target. He didn’t even know her name.

Nothing about this hit was usual.

“I know you’re supposed to be on break,” his boss had said when he called. “But we had an emergency pop up and you’re the only one close enough to make it.”

“No problem at all, boss,” Gabriel had replied. “What do you need me to do?”

“Room 215. Travelodge. As soon as possible. 30 minutes tops.”

“Now?” Gabriel asked, looking at his watch. It was 10:45, which meant he would need to make it by 11:15. Doable, but it would be cutting it close.

“Can you do it?” His boss’s response was deceptively phrased as a question, but Gabriel knew there was only one correct answer.

“Of course,” he replied, pushing aside the half-naked woman on top of him as he moved to stand up. “That just doesn’t give me much time to prepare.”

“Based on what they told me, you shouldn’t need much time. It should be an in and out job - they just need her taken out quickly and discretely.”

“Her?” he asked.

“Her. Is that going to be a problem?” his boss asked in a pointed tone.

“Not at all,” Gabriel replied. He had no problem with taking out women - he had done it before. It was just uncommon to have a female target. “Just make sure they have a car waiting for me in the parking lot.”

“I’ll leave your standard. The key will be in the typical place. They asked for a picture when you’re done.”

He heard a click as his boss hung up.

That was it? What did she look like? Was she alone? Was she armed? What should he expect? Who wanted her dead? What was her name?

He dismissed the urge to ask. His boss only had two rules - do what you’re told and don’t ask questions. He always told them he would tell them everything they needed to know. Asking questions wouldn’t get him any answers; it would only piss off his boss.

“Sorry Charlene,” he told the busty blonde still occupying his hotel bed, as he put his suit back on and grabbed his briefcase. “Duty calls.”

An exaggerated pout spread across his companion’s face. “Just when it was getting good.”

“I know babe,” he replied sympathetically, giving her a kiss. “The room’s already paid for. Order anything you want.”

“Are you coming back later tonight then?”

Gabriel shrugged. “If I don’t, don’t wait up for me. I’ll catch you the next time I’m in town.”

“Don’t make me wait so long between visits this time,” she cooed. “I start missing you too much.”

She was lying. It was this kind of unspoken game they played with each other. They pretended to actually enjoy each other’s company, when in reality they were both only interested in one thing about the other. Charlene wanted his money and the lifestyle that came with it, and Gabriel wanted the temporary peace of mind he found in the really good sex that Charlene was more than happy to provide. But he played along with Charlene’s phony professions of feelings for him. If it made her feel better about them using each other, so be it.

Gabriel slipped out of the room and walked towards the elevator. The Travelodge was not even a mile away, and the Las Vegas weather was warm and pleasant, so he could walk. On a busy Saturday night like tonight, no one would even notice him.

The massive fountains outside his hotel sent water skyrocketing into air, all set to some popular song. A crowd had gathered to watch the show, paying no mind to the man dressed in all black, walking like he had somewhere to be.

He checked his Rolex. 10:57.

Better get a move on.

Gabriel walked along the strip, past the showgirls in colorful feathered costumes, tourists snapping pictures, vendors trying to convince tourists to buy something. No one noticed him. No one even looked.

Perfect.

In his line of work, anonymity was safety. That was what the boss said when he first started the job. His company had no loyalties. A mafia group would hire them to take out a member of a rival group, and after they succeeded, the rival group would hire them to take out a member of the first group. Back and forth in perpetuity. The criminal underground didn’t get mad at his company - they were professionals. It was never personal, just business. So when people got upset, they got upset at the people behind the hit, not the nameless, faceless company that carried it out.

The real danger was in doing the hit itself. The target only had one goal: survival. Gabriel knew they would take his life in an instant to save theirs. And if he managed to outmaneuver the target, he still had to evade law enforcement and make sure to leave no trace. This was generally easy with a simple hit, but it got harder and harder the more proof of death someone wanted. The mafia always insisted on some severed body part as receipt of the kill.

So this hit wasn’t mafia.

All they wanted was a picture, which was simple enough. He thought back to his other female hits. Besides mafia members, the only other women he had killed were members of a drug trafficking ring, but they insisted on having one of their members come with to actually observe the kill. It definitely wasn’t them.

It didn’t really matter. The people he killed were never innocent. His company vetted them to make sure it wasn’t some jilted husband trying to take out his wife. He didn’t really need to know what she had done. He could rest easy with the knowledge that she had done something that his company deemed worthy of deserving their services.

But despite this reassurance, he continued to speculate about the mystery woman the entire short walk to the Travelodge. It was only once he arrived that he became solely focused on a way into the hotel. He could typically count on at least one person to be irresponsible about their security on vacation, so he decided to wait outside one of the doors, hoping to piggyback on someone going in or out.

He checked his watch again. 11:05.

Enough time to think up another plan if this doesn’t work.

Gabriel pulled a cigarette out from his pocket. He didn’t smoke, but it was a great excuse to linger outside without anyone suspecting him of anything. He stood with his lit cigarette, not smoking it, while brainstorming another way to get in the building by 11:15.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to think too long. A group of drunk people - a bachelor party from the looks of it - stumbled out of the building, letting him in. He quickly stomped out his cigarette and ducked inside.

Gabriel took the stairs up a flight and walked down the hallway to room 215. 11:12.

Perfect.

It took him mere seconds to override the hotel lock. He stepped inside the room, highly alert and with his gun drawn.

A single light in the dingy hotel room illuminated a woman in the corner. She sat calmly on a chair, watching Gabriel as he entered.

An easy kill.

Gabriel instinctively went to fire his gun, but stopped.

Her eyes.

Her light caramel eyes seemed so pure, so innocent. He tried not to study the faces of the people he killed, but he found himself unable to resist staring at her long lashes, her dewy skin, her delicate lips, the dark hair that cascaded past her shoulders. She was clearly a woman, but she looked very young. Early twenties, maybe.

Was she even old enough to drink?

Her dress was white with a floral print and button-down top. It was modest and yet somehow sexier than the scantily-clad showgirls walking the strip. Gabriel felt like a fool gawking at her, but simultaneously found himself powerless to stop.

She also clearly knew he was coming. She didn’t move when he came in. She didn’t look remotely surprised.

“Don’t move,” he commanded, still pointing the gun at her.

“They sent you to kill me,” she stated calmly. Her voice was melodic, hypnotizing. She wasn’t asking him; she was merely stating a fact.

They stared at each other silently, frozen.

What was he waiting for? He had a clear shot.

The woman continued to give off the impression of being calm as they stared at each other. But as Gabriel looked at her more closely, he could see she was trembling. She must have been scared out of her mind.

And yet she stayed...

Gabriel felt himself wanting to break one of the most important rules of his job: don’t ask questions. He tried to suppress it, but he couldn’t.

“You knew I was coming,” he said to her.

She nodded.

“Why didn’t you run?”

“Would it have done any good?” she asked.

No, Gabriel answered in his head, it wouldn’t have. They had chased people across countries, continents...and his company had a 100% kill rate. Even a formidable opponent would stand no chance against them. Certainly not a dainty little co-ed who looked like she had never even seen a gun in her life, let alone used one.

“It’s going to hurt, isn’t it?” she whispered as he took a few steps forward. Gabriel froze again, paralyzed by the innocent question and the fear in her caramel, doe eyes, which she had now cast to the ground.

“It’s over quick,” he responded.

She nodded, then looked back at him. “I’m ready,” she told him, closing her eyes.

Gabriel approached her slowly. He had done hundreds of jobs, but this one felt different. He went to pull the trigger, finding himself unable to do it.

Fuck.

Changing plans, he quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe. He brought it on every mission - a combination fast-acting and slow-acting sedative. It was designed to knock someone out immediately and keep them out for a few hours, which was exactly what he wanted. He needed time to think.

Without thinking, he uncapped the needle and jabbed it into the woman’s neck. She gasped, reflexively grabbing at her throat, then looked to Gabriel with her mesmerizing eyes filled with uncertainty. Then, her eyelids began to droop until she finally collapsed on the floor.

Gabriel sighed.

What was wrong with him?

For someone who always had a plan, he was now scrambling to come up with things on the fly. They could kill him for something like this. All because some criminal batted her pretty brown eyes at him.

Putting his shame aside temporarily, he gave his boss a call.

“Well?” his boss answered.

“She’s not here,” Gabriel lied while staring at the body on the floor next to him.

His boss let out a faint sound of frustration. “Well...that’s disappointing. But not surprising. Thanks for trying, Gabriel. Enjoy your vacation. We’ll talk next week.”

“Thanks, boss,” Gabriel said, but his boss had already hung up. He looked at the woman’s body and sighed. Now he had to figure out how to get her out of here and where to go.

With minimal effort, he lifted her from the ground and draped her arm over his shoulder so it seemed as though he were helping her walk out of the room instead of basically just carrying her. Quickly, he thought up a cover story. They were a young couple in Vegas to celebrate their one-year anniversary. But she had a little too much to drink, so he had to help her back to the car to make their red-eye flight.

But as luck would have it, not a soul bothered them as they walked to the BMW parked in the Travelodge lot. Then again, people rarely doubted him when he wore an expensive suit and styled his hair, and he had learned how to exploit that unconscious bias very well. Gabriel unstuck the key from the underside of the vehicle and unlocked it, gently putting the woman in the passenger seat.

The purr of the engine made Gabriel want to test the limits of his rental, but the unconscious woman next to him made him think better of it. He didn’t need the risk of being pulled over and having to figure out how to explain the situation. He had been reckless enough by not killing the woman-now was the time to figure out how to cover his ass. So as soon as they had made it out of the city, Gabriel made a call.

His coworker, Levi, answered on the second ring. “Gabe? It’s like, past midnight.”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “Were you sleeping?”

“Well...no,” Levi admitted.

“Then what’s the problem?”

Levi sighed. He and Gabriel were about as good of friends as you could be in their line of work. They both worked for the same company, but where Gabriel was a field agent who performed the hits, Levi did support work behind the scenes - research, analysis, planning...he had saved Gabriel more than a few times. And Gabriel was hoping he could do it again.

“Do you still have that cabin in Northern Arizona?” Gabriel asked before Levi could respond to his other question.

“Please tell me you did not call me to do logistics on a booty call,” Levi replied, exasperated. “That is NOT my job.”

“Levi, it’s important.”

“Yes, yes. I still have the cabin. The code is still the same. Feel free to use it. But you had better replace the sheets when you’re done.”

Gabriel hung up, mildly irritated at Levi’s assumptions, but relieved to finally have a plan. He turned the radio on low as he headed for Levi’s cabin. It was actually a perfect place - quiet and secluded. There he could finally get to the bottom of all of this.