Chapter 2
The first time Sameen saw her, it was on an op in New Jersey. She wore a mask, and killed their number, causing them to fail their mission. If Sameen hadn’t seen her again less than twelve hours later casing a store and watching the owner inside like a hawk, with no mask to hide her very pretty face, then maybe Sameen wouldn’t have started to become fascinated.
Because she kept popping up.
She’d appear during missions, watching them, and when Sameen brought it up to Cole, he’s been pretty disturbed – the fact that he hadn’t seen her, Cole, someone she respected both as an agent and as a person, made Sameen suspect foul play, especially when no cameras caught her where Sameen had seen her. There was no way to identify her. Cole was her eyes and ears, but if only Sameen saw the woman, and something happened, then Sameen’s identity was gone. Cole was watching vigilantly now, kept an eye on her at all time – if this woman shot at her and hit somewhere vital, then Sameen would have to forget about pretending to be human.
“Shaw,” Cole’s voice came through her headpiece urgently, “Ice caps. You’re a polar bear.”
“What?” Sameen didn’t know what he meant. “Cole, what are you on about?” She peered through the sniper lens, following their number. “I’ve got the target in sight-”
“Shaw, we’ve been hacked! I can’t see you! Get out of there!” Her earpiece fizzled out.
Sameen was pulling the gun down in an instant, tucking it in its bag while turning around three hundred and sixty degrees – only to stop and raise her gun at one fourteen as she caught sight of the mysterious woman on another balcony, sniper gun at the ready. Shooting through the bag, the silenced shot flew through the air, pinging off the woman’s gun, putting her off balance and causing her to shoot – right at their number, who narrowly dodged assassination, unlike the poor mastiff on their lap. The woman dropped the gun, running. Sameen let off another shot, that one grazing her arm – but she got away.
Putting a finger to her ear, she turned on her earpiece, “Cole?”
“Shaw – are you okay? I’ve got visuals again-”
“It was the woman. She was trying to kill our target too.” At that, Shaw turned around, lining up her shot and firing, the number going down against the door he was banging on. Electronic locks – Cole loved them. “Dog’s dead.”
“We have to report her, Shaw.”
Sameen rolled her eyes, before putting the safety on the sniper, zipping the bag up and throwing it over her shoulder, walking towards the exit.
“You think I don’t know, Cole? Make a start on the report while I clean up.”
“Uh…I wouldn’t, Shaw,” Cole’s voice took on an odd tone, “There’s already a crew.” Sameen frowned, turning around, glancing over the balcony to the office – the blinds were closed, but she could see five heavily set figures.
“I have eyes on them. You think the woman was a hired gun in this?”
“It’s a possibility. I mean, it wasn’t that hard for us to find examples of his actions. Anyone could have figured out he was a terrorist playing by the books.”
Sameen eyed the office for a short while longer, before walking over to the other end of the building roof, crouching down beside a tiny splatter of blood. Reaching out, she smeared a little on her thumb, before bringing it to her lips. Immediately her eyes narrowed.
What is that? She thought to herself. It tasted of human, but there was a spark – a spark of something godly. A legacy, maybe? What pantheon though?
Her earpiece crackled. “Shaw?The hacker’s active again-” Cole shorted out, being replaced by a breathy female voice.
“Agent Sameen Shaw, Indigo Five Alpha. I thought it about time we met.”
Sameen’s face blanked, before she stood up. “Who are you?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m nobody,” she giggled, and it annoyed Sameen. “What about you, Sameen? Shaw’s not your real name, but unfortunately I like a mystery, so I haven’t bothered hacking into the ISA yet to find out…”
She didn’t know, Sameen realised all of a sudden. This woman – this human with a touch of something else, thought Sameen was actually human.
“Anyway. Shooting me wasn’t very nice, Shaw. I was doing your job for you. I get a big fat paycheck and you wouldn’t have had to do clean-up! It was a win-win situation.”
“You interfered in official government business,” Sameen replied, before heading to the door the woman had disappeared through, taking out her handgun and raising it as she opened the door. “You’re just a killer for hire.”
“Yes, I am. Though I do other things too.”
“Like what? Hacking?”
“Yes.” Sameen headed downstairs as she continued to talk. “It’s a surprisingly lucrative business. You should join me – we’d be unstoppable.”
Sameen snorted, checking the doors as she went down for signs of being broken in to – they were all bolted shut from the other side, with both electric and physical locks, despite this being a fire exit. She found her door quickly though, only two floors down.
“How about no?” Sameen muttered as she approached the only room with a light coming from the doorway, raising her gun, ready to shoot. A calm adrenaline thrummed through her veins, muscles ready to be used. She could hear breathing inside, hearing stretching. Pausing just outside the room, Sameen breathed in before ducking inside, eyes flickering from side to side, surveying the room. An open laptop with what looked like a copy of Cole’s feeds on it’s screen sat on a desk, turned towards the door. Sameen turned and immediately shot, only to burst a blow-up figure.
“Don’t be mean to Sonya. She’s just a distraction – you didn’t have to shoot her, you know,” the woman’s voice came through her ear, before the laptop screen flickered, her face appearing on it. Sameen approached, lowering her gun, only just realising then that the breathing was coming from the speakers. I should have realised there was feedback, she grimaced. She was too used to her damn earpiece.
The woman waved, “Hey sweetie.”
“Don’t call me sweetie,” Sameen replied. “Who are you?”
The woman smiled prettily. “People call me Root.”
Root. She finally had something to go on. “Where are you?”
Root pouted, “Oh, but that’s too easy. Why don’t, instead, you ask Cole something?”
“Like what?”
Root grinned, all teeth, “Like, where do the numbers come from? Goodbye Sameen – I hope we meet again soon!” She waved again cheerily before the screen went blank, and the laptop then set itself on fire.
“Dammit,” Sameen went forwards, trying to put it out before it permanently damaged itself.
“Shaw?” Cole’s voice was back in her ear. “Shaw? What happened? Where are you?”
“Her name is Root,” Sameen muttered, before finally putting the fire out. Shutting the laptop, she picked it up before making her way out of the building. “I have a present for you.”
“Oh, goodie. Is it destroyed?”
“Not completely.”
She could see him rolling his eyes, “Thank god for small mercies, then.” Now Sameen was rolling her eyes. It was a pet peeve of hers, one personal to her due to her heritage – for how could there be only one god?
“Let’s see if you can fix it first.”
She wouldn’t be mentioning their brief conversation until she had to.
Who cares where the numbers come from?