(little recap:

gets caught in the assassination of ala dawud

Omega training with jatf.

Things go wrong with the alpha trainer and calla escapes the jatf and flees to usa

sniper fight and steeling weapons from the aryan nation.

gets found out by the police in her apartment and flees

meets mox via darknet

mox helps with the base. she scouts the safehouse that is in the neighbour.

She bugs the car and find out that the man went to pentagon.

The man backtraces her and orders an assault to the base.

firefight in the base and calla escapes with motorsycle.

new york. new base->library

Calla gets c4 and attacts the facilities that she found out from the reporter of New York times.

She finds out about the experiments and Vinny coopers identity as dr. white.

and here we are

Chapter 23

The next morning

Pov Linda

I look around the burned yard and the bodies decorating it, thinking this must be Calla’s doing. Detective Anthony came with me, although he doesn’t have much jurisdictional powers here in New York, but he wanted to stay on this case. We heard about the reports that NYPD and FDNY received late at night and left right away.

He is surveying the yard with me while looking worriedly at the puddles and burned out boxes: “I hope that the fire department’s extinguishing job didn’t wash any evidence away.”

So he says but I doubt that there would be any evidence laying around here on the yard. We have already inspected the insides of the facilities but there weren’t anything of importance there. Everything of note had burned and the bodies were unidentifiable. Although, the body of the pregnant woman worries me.

“I think it about to be time where we change our priorities from Calla to whoever they are whom these facilities belonged to.” I say to Anthony.

He looks at me with a thoughtful expression and after a few moments of contemplating he responses:” Perhaps we have reached that point. Whatever this place was used for had to be illegal and immoral.” He says, obviously thinking about the burned pregnant woman that was strapped to a medical bed.

It’s a shame Calla made such a mess of this place. All the equipment here were so damaged and the computers were also burned so we couldn’t make anything out of them. But one thing is for sure, this place was used for research and a human research at that.

What we could find were burned x-rays of humans and broken medical equipment.

“We have to wait for the forensics to make sense about what we found and if they can identify any of the bodies” I say to him. The forensics team should get here soon but it’ll take a while before they can recover anything from the partly collapsed basement.

Two men comes over the police tape and the other one asks: “Have you found anything?” With an inquisitive gaze.

He has black hair combed back with a small lock of hair hanging above his green eyes and is wearing an expensive looking suit. The man that he is with looks to be thirty years while he looks to be forty. The other man has short ashen hair and blue eyes with a sleek looking body and face.

“And you are?” Anthony asks him and turns his gaze to look at the police men that let him to the scene, who only shrugs back at him, indicating that he has the authority to be here.

The suited man looks at Anthony with an annoyed gaze: “Gregory Wilson, I’m with the DOD” He answers while showing his ID card.

What does the department of defence want’s with this?

“Why is the DOD interested?” Anthony beats me to the punch.

The man, looking no longer as annoyed as before answers immediately: “A large scale gunfire happened at our capital and only days after that, this happens.” He says while indicating with his hands at the partly collapsed yard and the warehouse building that is barely standing.

Great. It seems like the US government has taken an interest with the incidents, meaning Calla is on their radar.

Simmons starts explaining what the police thinks has happened here, while I study the man that came with him. He doesn’t look like he is a normal pencil pusher from Pentagon so I start drawing conclusions. He is carrying a weapon but it is hidden under his jacket. I only caught a glimpse of it when they stepped over the police tape.

While Simmons explains, he keeps the details about Calla to himself. He only talks about a suspect he has chased from Washington to here.

After his explanations the duo from DOD heads inside the facilities through the partly collapsed stairway and disappears from our sight.

“I didn’t expect this to happen,” Simmons tells me as he is watching the two men starting to descent the stairs.

“Yeah, this may complicate things. But the goal should be to find the rest of this organization. We find them then we’ll probably find Calla as well.” I say to him.

He takes on a pondering expression and looks at me, figuring out should he say what he is about to say.

“You know, I’ve been thinking. As a detective I have little power elsewhere other than Washington DC and now that the DOD has taken an interest, that little power I had just grew smaller. You know the Interpol has asked for me to join them but..” He takes a pause, clearly thinking how he should phrase the end of that sentence.

“I feel the J.A.T.F. to be a better fit. After I left the military I felt like joining the police department was a good choice and it was, for a time. But the J.A.T.F. continues to fight the war against those who would seek to harm the world , the war I left behind. But I think I left that war behind too early. I don’t want to just to protect America, but everyone. Is there a chance for me to join the intelligence unit of J.A.T.F. as an agent?” He finishes.

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. And he seems to have the wrong picture about what we do. The J.A.T.F. was originally created by some of the larger powers between the nations to ensure that they won’t go war with each other as the conflicts grew more frequent. But nowadays it fights against the numerous terrorist and paramilitary organizations that threaten the countries involved but on top of that we also protect the interest of the countries that has joined and contributed for us against the other nations who remain independent with their military.

I have to think about this and take it to the higher ups, if I come to the decision of recommending him.

“I cannot give you an answer right now. And you know, we aren’t some heroes of justice. There have been many operations launched against other nations if they have threatened the interests of our member countries?” I say to him. In case I recommend his joining to General Raven, I don’t want him to regret that decision.

Library

Pov Calla

I’ve been going through the external hard-drive I took but haven't found anything yet. Most of its contents are encrypted and it takes a lot of time for me to crack them, if I even manage to do that.

I’ve been thinking about what I have learned. It seems I’m one of these subjects. I was born in a laboratory and my body has been manipulated somehow when my mother still carried me. They made me different, from what I understood, both mentally and physically.

Is this the reason why killing has always been easy to me?

Or did that come from how I was raised?

I have put a lot of thought into this, and decided not to mind what I am too much.

They created me. But I won’t allow for them to control me.

I will learn more in time but now I will concentrate on the presence.

Like it says on one of the books:’ Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.’

I think some bald dude named Buddha said that.

And the present moment for me is to make the head of this ‘Vinny’ go pop.

I’ll make a hole with a 7.62mm diameter on his forehead and an exit wound with 150mm on the back of his head.

It would be great if I had the .50 cal though…

There wouldn’t be a head after getting hit by that.

When I do get I, I will call it ‘limb remover 2000’ no matter what its real model is.

But back to Vinny, I have to scout out the UN building for any good sniper spots in the vicinity. And more ammo for the sniper and my pistol would be nice, as I’m starting to run low.

I thought about how I have been operating lately, and came to the conclusion that I could play this a little differently. Now I have been getting intel, and acting on it right away. Well, that’s how I have been trained, but now I’m seeing a more safer option, though it will take more time.

I will kill Vinny instead of questioning him, because although he would hold some answers for me, it would be difficult getting close to him. And lately I have noticed that when I go looking for answers, I find more questions instead.

They play the long game, so I’ll do that too. After Vinny, I’ll start laying low, getting more contacts in the underworld and hopefully intelligence society. And when doing that, I keep decrypting the hard drive I took from the facility. The encryption on the thing is hard as hell so it will take a while. I’ll ask Mox if he can get his hands on to some fancy software that would hasten the process.

And after Vinny is gone, it will hopefully ruin or hamper their plans on making more soldiers like me. Or should I say assassins?

*ring ring*

Huh?

The phone Mox gave me for contacting him is ringing so I pick it up from the table where the computer is on.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Hey Calla. Listen, I’ll be needing that favor a little sooner than I hoped for.” He says to me.

We agreed that I would ‘owe him one’ whatever that means. It seems it means a favor. I am in his debt and I know that.

“What is it?”

“I’m selling something and I don’t trust the buyers that much so it’ll be great if you could cover me?” He says to me.

It sounds fair to me so I agree:” Okay. When and where?”

“Tomorrow. I’ll come to pick you up at noon.” He answers to me. I end the call now that the conversation ended and all related information has been passed, and start cleaning my pistol.

I really need more ammo.

…

Next day

I have been preparing for Mox’s arrival. I'm wearing a long black coat over a grey t-shirt and dark jeans. I’ll be only taking my pistol with few extra mags with me, along with my knife.

As always, when preparing for an op, the clothes, weapons and gear I take is one of the most important decisions in the op. Though I have a few rules of thumb I go by: never wear anything that is brighter than the floor, don’t take too much weapons so that they don’t affect mobility too much, and always, always keep one knife on you hidden.

I wonder what kind of people the buyers are, and what Mox is selling for that matter. He should soon be here so I keep an eye on the monitors that are showing the feed from the street while I make my last preparations.

I’m still a bit bothered about yesterday’s findings although I decided not to mind them. Everything will become clear if I bide my time and collect information before I act.

Well no matter, I’ll concentrate on Mox’s problem for now. He has helped me a lot so it’s no bother for me. I see from the feed that a black car pulls in front of the library, so I start making my way out.

I descent the narrow stairs and walk in between the bookshelves to get to the main door. Once I’m out I see that Mox is driving the car.

I get to the free front seat and ask Mox: “So who are the buyers you are so afraid of?”

He starts driving and while looking at the road he answers me: “I’m not exactly sure who they are either, but I know I don’t trust them. I’m selling them a painting but a lot of the buyers for art are international criminal organizations or arms dealers. They use art as currency. Easier to smuggle a painting than few millions cash across the border, you see.” He explains to me.

Arms dealers?

That would be awesome!

Mox glances at my direction and panickily yells “No! I recognize that look. They are my customers, not your new victims of robbery.”

Shit, he noticed.

“Alright alright. But if things go wrong you have no problems with me taking what I want from them?” I ask him.

He glances at me again before turning to look at the road while turning the car to an industrial area:” Do what you want then, as long you keep me safe. But I already told you I’m not sure who they are. They could very well be just private art collectors or something. I just have never dealt with them before and neither has any of my associates, so I took you along.”

Well, I hope they are arms dealers. And if they are and the business with Mox goes well I can always buy from them rather than steal. Although I’m starting to run low on cash if I decide to buy large quantities of weapons.

Mox pulls the car in front of a large building that looks like an abandoned factory and gets of the car. I follow his lead and step outside. Mox walks to the trunk and opens it. From there he takes a wooden crate that isn’t very thick but is about one meter in length and width. Just big enough to fit a painting.

I survey my surroundings and see that the buyers are already here. They are probably inside the building but I can see some movement in the windows and at the roof.

I guess they either didn’t trust Mox like he didn’t trust them or they are planning something.

We head towards the door that is to our left on the side of the building and enter. We arrive in a corridor with offices on each side. We keep walking straight, heading towards the factory area, but before we arrive there we turn left and enter a large room with nothing but support pillars and windows on one wall.

There is a group of five men waiting for us, all of them wearing suits, but one of them stands out from the rest. His suit is clearly more well-made and his stature looks like that of a leader.

He is a black man and is at least two meters tall and about twenty-five to thirty years old. I cannot see if he is carrying a weapon but the other four who are with him seem to be. I can see that their jackets bulge a bit under their armpits so they probably have pistols hidden there.

Five here and when we walked outside I spotted four more. They are probably keeping an eye on the area so that there won’t be any interruptions.

“You must be Mox.” the leader like man states with a very low voice.

“That I am. And you must be Darrel. I brought the painting as we agreed. Now show me the money.” Mox says, eager to go straight for the business but this ‘Darrel’ doesn’t answer and instead looks at me.

We stare each other for a few seconds before he brakes the silence: “I see you brought someone with you. Who is she?” Darrel says.

Mox glances at me and then back to the buyer: “She’s my muscle. Are we doing this or what?” Mox says, still eager to be done with this and leave.

Darrel continues to study me before he speaks: “You know. We have some sources at the police and the word is, they are looking for a young blue-eyed girl with a blond hair. She is suspected to be involved in the shootings in Washington and the events that took place last night. I know little about what happened last night as the police is keeping it under wraps but rumors say, that government people showed upas well. You don’t happen to be her now would ya?” He asks, looking directly at me still.

“And if I were?” I say my first words to the man while moving my hand closer to my pistol that is tucked in my jeans.

“If you were, I’d say that you have my respect about what you have done. I know not of your motivations or what the people you are after have done but never the less, I wouldn’t want to be on your bad side. To evade the police while continuing to look for trouble is praise-worthy.” He says to me.

I just got praised.

I wipe the smile that involuntarily came to my face and answer with a simple nod, not confirming or denying his allegations. Though I’m pretty sure that he already figured it out.

He turns to look at Mox: “And to think I’d get to meet you so soon. How small the world is.”

‘How small the world is’? Was that supposed to be a question? I don’t get it.

Mox answers the man while he starts opening the wooden crate: “Small indeed. Can we get to business?”

With a small chuckle Darrel answers:” Of course.”

They show the money to Mox and one of the men starts inspecting the painting. It takes ten or so minutes but everything seems to be in order as they hand out the money to Mox.

“You don’t happen to be up for some work, by the way?” Darrel turns to me when his and Mox’s business has ended.

Work?

Money would be nice, and so would more connections but operation ‘killVinny’ takes priority at the moment.

“Perhaps, but I have something to do before that.” I say to him. His offer is tempting to say the least. When I said I’m going to lay low, I meant that I’ll stop actively hunting the Caturix and just take my time with them. Other work is most welcome, but I do intend to find out about their business before I accept. If they are in human trafficking or something like that, I’d rather stay out of it.

It would just remind me too much of my not so distant past where I was just a weapon, a product.

He smiles at me: “Great. Then here’s my card.” He says, as he hands me a card with nothing more than a number written on it.

I give my thanks to him as I take it, while Mox is already turning to leave.

We exit the building, and head towards the car, while I’m still keeping myself at ready if something unexpected comes.

“Well that went well.” Mox says as he takes the driver seat: “But I would be careful if I were you if you are planning to take the job. We don’t know anything about them.” He warns me.

I know that though. But this first meeting with them left a good impression of them and I will ask some information if and when I contact him.

But The next thing on my ‘to do list’ is the operation ‘killVinny’ so that takes precedence.

I’ll start planning tonight.