I don’t like this one bit. Traffic is bumper to bumper, and no matter how far I move I feel like I will never reach my destination, like those days when your teacher held you for an extra thirty seconds after the bell rings, and throws your schedule off. So now you’re the last person in the cafeteria line. This might be ten times worst, because the longer I’m in this car the worst I feel about this drop. I mean, the money drops locations are never this quick.
NEVER.
Usually, you have to wait 24hrs, sometimes even 32hrs before you get paid. So for the phone call to come through and m bad days of lunch I’m driving in this shitty traffic to get the rest of my money. Yes, contrary to popular belief, we don’t get paid before the job. Usually it’s a weird set up for us to pick up our money, I blame the movies.
One time I had to break into an apartment and retrieve my money from a window ac unit in the second bedroom. One pickup I had, if I didn’t open the briefcase locks in a particular order, the room would explode, the last time I work for the government. So I get to the train station, and I go to the fourth bathroom stall from the left (see what I mean).
I get there, and low and behold, my gut tightens up. Now I have a rule, always trust your gut. Most assassins have certain quirks that we use to assess a situation. or some it’s a pair of socks, some a rabbit’s foot (which is odd, because the rabbit is dead), some even take pics of the real family with them to decorate their work area. But every assassin has a quirk, and mine was going ape shit.
So instead of the fourth stall where I was supposed to find the place for the money drop, I go into the sixth stall, the handicap one, which is always the cleanest one for some reason. I lock the door and make my way into the ceiling panel. Low and behold when some old woman walks into the fourth stall, right passed the sign that says out-of-order, the Feds storm into the bathroom. I mean, they stormed the bathroom in some MIlitary titanium looking shit like they were expecting the Terminator. I’m not going to lie, it made me feel good inside. At least somebody around here knows who the fuck I am.
So after they beat granny up, and I do mean beat granny up. When they take her out, I crawl off into a ventilation shaft and end up in the airport break room. And I storm out, super pissed. Now you think I would get stopped and asked a lot of questions, but no, I grabbed some paper towels and bawled them up under my stomach. Everybody thought I was just another angry teen mom. Oh yeah, did I mention I’m only 17, don’t tell anyone.
So I finally get outside and I tell you, I am so pissed tears are streaming down my face uncontrollable. I couldn’t believe someone would set me up, and not just set me up but call the Feds. Now it’s one thing to set someone up, but the Feds. I mean, not the cops, but the Mother FUCKING ( eat your heart, bury you so deep that your soul can’t escape) FEDS. And for the record, nobody, and I mean nobody wants the FEDS around them, not even their kids.
So I hop on the phone and call my handler Sammie, she answers the phone with her heavy Bronx accent. What do you want, she says. I really hate how Caller ID has taken all the excitement and spontaneity out of phone calls. Anyway, I tell her my situation and she yells as loud as she possibly can, “What!!!!!”. She can’t believe they would cross someone with my reputation. I tell her I can’t believe it either. So I explain how the Feds storm the bathroom.
“Did they see you?”, she says. I try not to call her out when asks me the dumbest of questions, but that’s somewhat her thing. “No they didn’t see me, I climbed into the ceiling the minute I walked into the bathroom and waited for the fireworks.”
“The ceiling?”, she asks (see what I mean). “Yeah, the ceiling, I was up there for fifteen minutes; you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t wash their hands.” She tells me to stay focused, I think she can hear me crying, which scares me, I don’t want her getting any ideas (more on that later).
She wants to know details of the drop, and how I knew they were setting me up. I tell her I could feel it in my gut, and she says, well that’s stupid, what if was something you ate.” Mind you, this is a woman who reads her daily horoscope before peeing in the morning, but my stomach tightening is irrational. I tell her I need the buyer’s location. “Shooter you can’t?”, she says. “Like hell I can’t, you do your job and I’ll do mine. Now get me the information.”
She tries talking me down, “You do this and you’ll get,”—
“I know what I’m doing!”, I yell.
She tells me to give her a few minutes. She called me back within seconds with the buyer’s location and their wireless provider. God, I love cell phones. They make it so much easier to track people, even if they switch their SIM cards. So I get packed in 2 minutes, but it takes ten minutes to get a freaking, hold on. “TAXI!!!!” Finally, one of these yellow bumper cars decided to stop. The driver speeds off to O’hare.
I can’t think of anything in the back of the cab, except how much I hate this city. To be fair, I hate all cities. After 72 hrs we all really need a change of scenery or you turn into your parents. Why do you think the cavemen were nomads. But, what’s really bothering me is that I yelled at Sammie. Frank never yelled at her, he was so patient. If he was here, he would make me apologize. I call Sammie back and tell her I’m sorry. She tells me how she just wants me to understand the line I’m crossing. I tell her I understand. Go get ‘em Shooter.”, she says. This puts a smile on my face and suddenly I feel like killing bad guys.