Chapter Two
It didn’t matter how many times those business cards turned up, I was always unnerved by the ease with which The Guild found Charlotte.
After boxing up the dinner I’d spent an hour slaving over into matching plastic tubs, I lamented the loss of the cosy evening I’d had planned.
It wasn’t often that Charlotte and I had a chance to catch up, our shifts often colliding.
Why tonight? I tugged at the crotch of my jeans with a frown.
If I’d known we were going to be interrupted, I wouldn’t have agreed to let her edge me so—
“Ready to leave?”
I turned, Charlotte standing in the doorway of the kitchen. She had changed out of her working clothes, swapping them for a matching jogging set.
“Yeah,” I said, zipping up my lunch bag and shrugging it onto my shoulder. “What time is it?”
Both Charlotte and I dug our phones out in unison.
“Almost eight-thirty,” she replied.
“Ugh, it’s going to be a long night, isn’t it?” I muttered. Just as we always did whenever we were called upon, we both left our phones behind on the sideboard before heading out into the night.
We walked through the dark city streets, heading for the tube station. Charlotte wasn’t much in the mood for small talk, she rarely was before a job, and I allowed her the space to get her mind into the zone ahead of what awaited us.
The tube was mercifully quieter than I had expected, and we got a seat with ease.
I busied myself with people-watching whilst Charlotte stared out of the window.
There was nothing to see, just pitch black and her own reflection gazing back from the glass, and yet she was transfixed.
We arrived at our stop and I nudged her.
“We’re here. Come on.” My heart swelled as she let me take her hand, leading her from the train and out onto the platform.
This station was even quieter. At this time of night, there was nothing to draw crowds – no nightlife, just quiet residential streets and the occasional corner shop.
Charlotte and I walked in silence beside one another, only the thumping of our shoes on the pavement as we made the journey we each knew like the back of our hands.
Before long, the glow of a sign illuminated our paths and without a moment’s hesitation, Charlotte released my hand and pushed inside a corner shop.
The buzzer rang out, loud and jarring, drowning out the faint murmur of a radio playing.
The gentleman behind the till glanced up as we entered, his dark eyes studying us over the edge of his newspaper.
As quickly as he’d looked up, he returned his attention back to his paper and I followed Charlotte as we walked along a narrow aisle, crowded with rice, pasta, tins of beans…
She pushed through a beaded curtain into the storeroom, turning to trot down a set of rickety stairs into the basement of the shop. The air was damp and cold, but neither of us paid it any notice, instead striding to an ancient-looking lift, hidden away in a far corner behind some boxes of crisps.
This time I took the lead, dragging the rusted cage across with a loud screech and thumbing the call button.
The lift dinged, its display flickering to life above our heads, and the doors rolled open, stuttering and shunting as if it was a struggle to do so.
Charlotte and I stepped inside and as the doors quietly shut before us, she pressed a button labelled with a G.
The button illuminated, but Charlotte kept her thumb pressed into it a moment longer.
I watched as a mesh of light scanned her fingerprint and with a faint beep, the ancient lift jerked to life and began to descend.
I ran my hand through my hair, pushing it out of my face as we waited patiently for the lift to arrive at its destination.
After what felt like it should have been a journey to the very centre of the earth with the amount of time it took, the lift juddered to a stop and the doors rolled open to reveal a room – a sea of grey, with a set of metal lockers and a door.
Charlotte and I stepped out of the lift, the doors shutting behind us as the lift whirred, returning back to the surface.
At the lockers, I tapped a lengthy passcode into one of the keypads.
Another laser flickered to life, scanning my face, and then when the keypad beeped, I pressed my thumb against the glass screen.
“Welcome personnel 399, Relay,” a robotic voice said, the door of the locker clicking and swinging open.
Inside, I gathered together an ID card, a phone and a laptop bag, slinging it over my shoulder as I waited for Charlotte to access her locker just as I had done, but with one vital difference.
I watched with a dry mouth as she lifted the edge of her jumper, revealing a tattoo on her ribs – the symbol of Aquarius.
The keypad scanned it, the lasers darting this way and that before beeping once again.
“Welcome Agent Aquarius,” the voice greeted her.
Inside Charlotte’s locker was a similar ID card and phone, but where I only required a small bag, she had a holdall.
She dragged it out, heaving it onto her shoulder before moving to the door.
She swiped her card and when it beeped, she stepped aside, allowing me to do the same.
Another set of shrill beeps and the door mechanism released.
We hurried inside and as the lock clicked back into place behind us, the halogen lights overhead flickering to life.
The tension that had followed us from our flat dissipated, finally safe from onlookers.
Here it was just us, except we weren’t Charlotte and Freddie any longer.
She was Agent Aquarius, one of the twelve zodiac assassins employed by The Guild, and I was known by my codename Relay, her private intelligence operative.
I was a second set of eyes and ears and there wasn’t a single soul on this earth I would rather be so for than her.
“It’s been a while, hm?” she said, throwing her holdall down onto a sofa and dragging her sweatshirt off.
“I can only assume we’re here because they’ve got a lead on the target,” I replied, undressing. Inside my backpack was a whole new outfit – a shirt and tie, trousers and shoes – in the standard plain black as was customary.
For months now we had been tracking the very same target that had caught the interest of MI6 – Ian Keller, the kingpin.
It wasn’t the first time Charlotte’s worlds had blended this way.
Naturally those who MI6 investigated often ended up on The Guild’s list. So far, he had managed to evade even us though.
I hoped tonight was about to change that.
“You mean you don’t already know what we’re here for?” Charlotte teased with a smirk. “I thought you were supposed to be the intelligence?”
I cast her a playfully sour expression. “You know as well as I do that’s not how this works.
” Against my will, my eyes dropped to take in her body, bared to me.
The lust I had shelved from earlier in the evening returned in a rush and I spun on my heel, keen not to get too drawn into staring at what I couldn’t have… Not yet at least.
Just as I had an outfit issued to me, so did Charlotte, but hers was far more elaborate.
All black, she was dressed in expensive combat gear.
Unlike how the media liked to portray female assassins, there was no skintight leather, no impracticality in the name of looking good – her outfit screamed utility.
Charlotte wasn’t here to be sexy, she wasn’t here to play, she was here to kill.
It didn’t matter what she looked like. Whoever saw her in this getup would not live to tell the tale, that was for sure.
I watched her strapping her Kevlar bodysuit into place, the hook and loop straps loud in the stillness of the room and I swallowed.
It didn’t matter how many times I had seen her like this, I was worried for her.
She was given a fresh suit for every mission, but I couldn’t help but remember all the times I had seen those panels scuffed, riddled with bullet holes, splattered in blood…
“Be careful, won’t you?” I said, my voice sounding tight.
Charlotte caught my eye, her expression softening. “Always.” She shook her arms and legs, stretching them back and forth as she got comfortable before snatching up the mission docket that was awaiting her at the centre of the coffee table. “Now, let’s see what we’ve got.”
I dragged my laptop from my bag and sat on the sofa, resting it on my knees.
As Charlotte read her mission guidelines, my fingers tapped against the keys.
The security clearances took some time, the sooner I started, the better.
Whilst the laptop processed the information I was feeding it, I grabbed my earpiece and wiggled it into my ear.
Charlotte had her own wired into her helmet, but for now it was sitting beside me on the sofa.
“Huh.”
My eyes jumped up, surprised to see a frown marring her pretty face. “What is it?”
“This isn’t the mission docket. Apparently, I’ve got a new pilot.”
“A pilot? So you’re not staying in London tonight, then.”
“Seems not.”
Before Charlotte could elaborate, the lift began to whir on the other side of the door and we glanced at one another. She dropped the folder down with a slap, her hand finding the pistol strapped to her waist.
“That’ll be him,” she muttered, tense and prepared. Her eyes fixed on the door as she awaited the arrival of our newest coworker.
After a moment or two of silence, we heard faint beeping as someone accessed a locker. Metal clanged and the door slammed. I sucked in a breath, holding it as an ID card was swiped through the locking mechanism on the other side.
“Welcome personnel 965, Hangman.”
Hangman? My stomach lurched but I fought to keep myself calm and composed as the door clicked and opened. In a flash, Charlotte had her gun trained on the doorway, that familiar steely expression on her face.