Chapter 18

Wednesday late afternoon

Near Ben’s House

Harborton Washington

Mei was wondering to herself how easy it would be to get away with a double homicide. No, her target was in no danger. She had very explicit instructions that he was to come to no harm. Not that that was really her field of expertise anyway. But these two imbeciles with her were jumping on her last nerve and were about to become a crime statistic.

They were parked just down the street from their target, a single white male in his 40’s named Ben Clarkson. They were in a dark blue Chevy Impala rental car. The Chevy was all she could get on short notice that was relatively non descript. Although, with her and the 2 lunkheads inside they weren’t exactly inconspicuous.

Lunkhead one in the back seat was nattering on about American football to Lunkhead two who was in the front passenger seat and had his head stuck in a porno he was watching on his cell phone while trying to hide what he was doing from her. Why her handler had insisted they all stick together was beyond her. The Lunkhead twins were supposed to do a simple material snatch and she was supposed to do a behavioral evaluation (what that exactly meant she wasn’t quite sure). Mei guessed it was because none of them had ever done anything quite like this before and they were not in a high risk environment. Or maybe it was just because her handler thought the Lunkhead duo needed an adult babysitter. The worst that could happen was that a local yokel would pull up and ask what they were doing. She had Realtor credentials that she could flash and a cover story about house inspections that should get them by if needed, although it was getting closer to dark and they’d have to come up with a better cover story at night.

She hoped it wouldn’t come to that though. It had taken their support team a few hours to get details on the target and by the time they had got here they had missed their first chance at a break in while he was in school, Now they were just hoping for a window of opportunity. When they arrived there was already a small red car, a strangely colored station wagon and an old blue Jeep Cherokee at the target’s house, so it was looking pretty unlikely that they’d have a chance of getting in ... She would have just waited until tomorrow, but for whatever reason this weird op was a very high priority. No matter, she also still had to figure out a way of getting close to the target to do her ‘behavioral evaluation’ and maybe today’s observation would give her an idea.

Finally, After nearly an hour of sitting just around the corner, there was movement at the target’s house.

“Someone’s coming out!” said Lunkhead one from the backseat, interrupting his fervent analysis of why the Seattle Seahawks would never win another Super Bowl.

“Thank you for the play-by-play Captain Obvious” Mei said under her breath in Mandarin as they watched a stunning woman with mid length dark mahogany hair in her early twenties and a younger slender brunette walk excitedly down the slate walkway arm in arm. They hugged, squealed in excitement about something and climbed into the odd colored wagon. They backed out of the drive and drove sedately off around the corner.

“Hey wait a minute! Wasn’t that the hot barista from that old coffee shop?” said Lunkhead two from the passenger seat. “I’d never forget her, I think she was into me!” he said breathlessly.

“If by ‘into you’ you mean, she wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire, then yeah I think that’s her.” said Lunkhead one. “We stop by there every time we head out to the coast for a pickup and she’s never even looked at you Cassanova.” he added with a snort.

“Well I can feel her look at my ass when I walk away. It’s demeaning I tell you. Makes me feel like a piece of meat.” Lunkhead two said with an offended look.

Mei could feel her eyes roll so hard that she thought they’d click together when they hit the top of her skull. “I think what you are feeling is probably hemorrhoids. Now focus you two!” she snapped to end the discussion.

Maybe she could work with this though. “Okay, can you imbeciles at least tell me if she works there pretty regularly?” she addressed to them both.

“Hey! I resemble that remark!” said Lunkhead one.

“Me too!” added Lunkhead two.

“Well?” asked Mei again, tapping her fingernails impatiently against the steering wheel.

Maybe sensing that his ultimate demise was forthcoming Lunkhead two said, “Uh sorry ... yeah she’s been there every time we’ve stopped for coffee at about lunch time.

These two weren’t the brightest candles on the cake but even they knew that pissing off the Ice Queen was not a wise career move or good for one’s long term health.

“Hey there’s someone else coming out,” this time the narration was supplied by Lunkhead two.

Mei just squeezed her eyes tightly shut for a second hoping to avoid the moron inspired migraine she could feel approaching. When she opened them she saw another gorgeous young woman, this one a busty long legged blond, bounding across the yard toward the little red car. There was something about this one that was different though. As she swung the door open to get in, Mei watched the blond freeze and then look directly at her. Mei’s blood ran cold as she felt the gaze of an apex predator. Once, while on an assignment in Cambodia she had been relieving herself next to a jungle trail when she looked up into the golden gaze of a huge tiger crouched down in the grass almost at her feet. This was just like that, only worse. Mei nearly wet herself again. She couldn’t have gotten a good look at Mei! They were two blocks away and looking through heavily tinted windows. Still, all she wanted to do at that instant was run, and nothing had frightened Mei like this since that tiger in the grass. Luckily, the blond sniffed the air, then stretched and slid with a boneless feline grace into the little car and drove off, the radio loudly playing some sort of Kpop, the notes trailing behind her.

“Damn. I’m going to have to be careful if that one’s around,” Mei said to herself in Mandarin.

They waited silently for another 10 minutes or so when the front door creaked open yet again.

“Hey...” Lunkhead two was preparing to add his thoughtful commentary, when out of the corner of his eye he caught the blur of steel and felt an icy, razor sharp edge against his throat.

“Don’t” said Mei softly as she held the 4 inch curved blade of her Karambit under Lunkhead two’s chin.

Lunkhead two would have gulped if he wasn’t afraid that he’d lose his adam’s apple. Thankfully for the sake of his life and their security deposit on the rental car, Mei was distracted as she saw a man exit the house in running clothes.

“It couldn’t be!” She exclaimed in Mandarin. It looked like the man from her dreams was running down the street almost straight for them.

She fought the urge to duck but at the same time she couldn’t stop herself from staring as he ran by their car, his muscular legs flashing in the dusky light. It had to be some sort of weird coincidence, yet she knew in her core, it wasn’t.

Mei tried to calm herself as she re-sheathed her blade in her thigh holster under her short black skirt. After a few minutes of deep breathing she looked up to see the Lunkhead twins staring at her with goggle eyes.

“Not. A. Word.” she said huskily as the two dropped their gaze from her and suddenly found the surrounding neighborhood a very interesting place to observe. “Okay, he’s probably gone for at least 20 minutes. You have 10 to get in and out. Either of you fuck this up and I’ll have both your balls for very small coin purses.” Mei added as she smoothly whipped the rental car around to park directly in front of the target’s house.