Assassin (6 page)

Case pulled out the roll of bills again and handed over a hefty sum for the illegal guns and ammunition. She also picked up a nice leather double holster that could be adjusted to situate the guns either at Rain's sides or upside-down across her back.

They left and headed back to the hotel. Rain unpacked her new belongings and Case started fiddling with the computer. In under an hour, Rain was outfitted with free Internet access, several e-mail accounts, a fax number, and an imported set of bookmarks from Case's browser for Rain to check out.

When she was done, Case pulled out a plain black karate uniform that had a sleeveless top, along with a black belt. She looked over at Rain and gestured to her bag.

"I wanna go down to the gym and have a workout. Haven't gotten the chance in a couple days. Why don't you pull out your new gear and join me?" Case offered.

"Sure. Love to."

Case brought out her new staff and Rain took the hint and tucked hers under her arm as well. They arrived in the gym and changed in the locker room. Rain had chosen a black gi too, but hers was long-sleeved. She tied her hair back and walked out with Case into the unused aerobics room. Case bowed before stepping onto the hardwood floor and Rain followed suit. Any place that was used as a training hall, whether it was an established dojang or not, should be shown respect.

Rain started in on a few warm-up exercises, mostly to get used to the feel of the crisp new uniform. Case's uniform was almost gray from use, but Rain could tell it was well cared for. As Case started to move through a series of jump kicks, punches, and other maneuvers, Rain lost concentration on her own activities.

The lack of sleeves on Case's uniform top showed her arms to advantage. The biceps and triceps were cut nicely and, as Case performed an elbow strike against the palm of her hand, they stood out in high relief against the black of the shirt. Rain shook her head and went back to her own warm-up routine before she got caught looking.

They settled down after about ten minutes and Case stood at attention before Rain and bowed.

"Sabum Nim. Since you have only studied Taekwondo, that's what we'll practice. And since you hold the higher rank, I yield seniority to you."

Rain nodded and naturally flowed into teacher mode. As a fifth-degree black belt in the Korean martial art of Taekwondo, she'd taught many classes and knew that if she ever decided to get out of the FBI gig, she could open her own dojang with no problem.

"Let's run through all the patterns from green belt to black belt and then we can spar a little."

Case nodded.

"Yes, Sabum Nim."

They distanced themselves from each other by about six feet and Rain called out the commands to begin the first pattern.

"Daeryon Jasae. Won-Hyo tul. Sijuk!"

They moved in perfect unison, following a tempo that was natural to the pattern's maneuvers, yelling out the kihaps at the appropriate times, and finishing in the same spot they'd started. Rain grinned and Case smiled back.

"That was good. Blue stripe's next."

They continued through each belt's patterns, until they'd exhausted Case's knowledge of the art. Then Rain had them face each other and they prepared to spar. They hadn't picked up any protective gear, but Rain figured they were both experienced enough to keep from really hurting each other.

They bowed and then stepped back into their fighting stances. Both of them had relaxed looks on their faces and when Rain called for them to start, Case's body fluidly sprang into motion. Rain blocked the immediate side kick that was aimed at her waist and blocked the follow-up turning kick that went directly for the side of her face, before Case returned her leg to the ground.

Rain danced forward and swept up an outside crescent kick towards Case's head, but Case ducked and spun to throw her own inside crescent kick at the still moving Rain. But Rain continued to spin with her kick and dropped her leg as she brought the other one up to throw a back kick which neatly landed in Case's unguarded stomach. They danced away from each other and then Case moved forward to attack again.

It was beautiful to watch. The martial art focused mostly on the use of the legs and between Rain's long ones and Case's short, but powerfully built ones, it was like watching a ballet. They jumped and spun, changed direction at the drop of a hat, and threw punches and blocks with negligent ease. Even though Case was only a first-degree black belt, her other training had made her technique more on par with a third-degree.

After almost an hour, they both called a halt and then bowed to each other. A round of applause echoed through the gym and they noticed for the first time that they had quite an audience. Case shook her head and grinned and Rain tried not to blush.

One of the reasons Rain hadn't gone as far in her studies as her masters would have hoped was because she refused to enter any tournaments. She hated an audience. She was very glad she hadn't known the people were there or Case would probably have found her to be a much less formidable opponent. She had a tendency to freeze up when a lot of people were watching her demonstrate. Luckily, that never happened in real life situations, her adrenaline taking over before her phobia could.

"You're really good, Rain. Um, if you'd like, we could trade training. You could teach me more Taekwondo and I could train you in Jun Fan. I can't teach you any of the others because I'm not ranked high enough to do that, but I think one martial art at a time is enough."

Rain was glad Case had supplied that information. It was sort of an unwritten code that one did not pass on their knowledge of their art to just anybody, though many American students of the eastern disciplines hadn't seemed to catch on to that fact. It was an honor to be allowed to study the martial forms. Unfortunately, capitalism and the loophole created by the Equal Rights laws made it difficult for masters to turn down any prospective student simply because they felt like it, if that student happened to have the money to pay for lessons.

"Oh, I understand. I wouldn't train anyone who didn't follow the code. What is Jun Fan? I think I've heard of it, but I don't remember where."

"Oh it's the martial art system Bruce Lee came up with before he died. It's a combination of several martial arts forms along with a healthy dose of spiritualism and Bruce Lee's own personal style. My master certified me to teach it two years ago, but you'd be my first student."

"Well, I've taught classes before, but I've never actually had my own students, so you'd be my first, too."

"Cool. Then it's a deal?"

"Deal."

They changed clothes in the locker room and Case realized they'd never gotten around to using their staves. Well, there was always next time. They left the gym and headed back to their room. The workout had felt great and Case felt a lot more relaxed.

"You look a lot better," Rain remarked as they entered the hotel room.

"I've been a little stressed lately. Two jobs in three days is very unusual for me, especially when they're on opposite sides of the country. I haven't been able to have a good workout in almost a week and that always makes me tense."

"I know what you mean."

Case leaned back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She was suddenly very aware of the fact that she hadn't shared a room with anyone since the night before her eighteenth birthday. She surreptitiously glanced over at Rain, who was putting her things away and getting situated on her bed, and tried to decide how to handle the situation.

There were certain things she was used to doing that she'd never really thought about in terms of being in another's presence. Like the fact that she slept nude because she found clothing too restrictive. Or that anyone who was unfortunate enough to attempt to wake her usually ended up with a broken bone or two. Or the fact that she was pretty sure she had nightmares; she'd woken up many times with a scream dying on her lips. Though she could never remember the actual dreams, she had a pretty good idea of what they were about and it wasn't something she wanted to share with Rain.

She realized, a little too late, that she should have gotten them separate rooms. She knew she could just go down to the front desk and get another room, but then Rain would wonder what was going on and she didn't want to have to explain herself.

Case closed her eyes. Damn. Well, she'd just have to deal with it.

"Hey, mind if I turn on the TV? I'm not used to sleeping at night. When I worked for Rossi, my day didn't start 'til three in the afternoon," Rain broke into Case's thoughts.

Case opened her eyes and turned her head.

"Nah, go ahead. I'm a bit of a night person myself sometimes."

"Great. Thanks," Rain said, and reached for the remote control on the bedside cabinet.

She flicked the TV on and started channel surfing. Case watched as the channels flipped by. Rain would stay on a channel just long enough to follow what was being presented and then move on. It was hypnotic and made her sleepy. After a few minutes, Case turned over and faced the wall, closing her eyes. She would just get through this first night and then make sure they got separate rooms next time.

CHAPTER 7

CASE OPENED HER eyes and looked around. What...? She was standing next to the bed. Then she heard a groan and a cough. Oh shit... She peeked over the foot of the bed and saw Rain, as the woman got back to her feet.

Rain kept a wary few feet between them as she stood up.

"You awake?"

Case nodded.

"Good. I wanted to know if you were interested in breakfast."

Case smiled.

"Yeah." She looked at the ground where Rain had been, then back up at Rain's face. "You tried to wake me up, huh?"

"Yeah. Sorry if I caught you by surprise."

"I should've warned you. Don't touch me unless I know it's coming. If you need to wake me up, throw a pillow at me. It'll hurt less. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Gave my reflexes a good check-up."

Rain grinned and Case's apologetic look was replaced with a small smirk.

"Come on, let's go get breakfast."

They left the room and went to the dining area, which was set up with muffins, little boxes of cereal, and plastic bowls and spoons, as well as cups for juice, milk, and coffee. They fixed a couple trays for themselves, and found a table where they could sit and eat.

They didn't talk. Rain was still mulling over all the info she'd picked up from observing the compact woman, hearing both what Case said and what she didn't say with equal clarity. With that little display of hair trigger defenses, Rain was now positive that Case had grown up in a very abusive environment. What form that abuse took, she didn't know, but it had obviously gone on for so long that it was now a part of Case.

Rain decided the next time she made contact with Dawson, she would include reports of abuse against a juvenile Case in her request for a work-up on the woman. The more she knew, the easier it would be to get inside Case's defenses. A seemingly stray comment could help Case feel more at ease with her and then it would just be a matter of asking the right questions to get the information she needed. Rain needed to establish, without a doubt, that Carlotti was the brains behind the organization, that even though he didn't pull the trigger himself, the trigger didn't get pulled without his knowledge and consent. Case was that trigger and, with luck, Rain would be able to use her to tie the whole thing up in under a year.

Case, on the other hand, was trying to figure out how to teach Rain to be a good hit woman. Most of what she'd taught herself she felt had been common sense. Wear gloves, don't leave witnesses, don't care about the people you kill, make sure the weapon you use can't be traced to you through forensics or a paper trail.

She'd begun her martial arts training to learn how to use her body. Stealth was a handy skill, and controlling one's muscles was part and parcel of all martial arts. She'd also wanted to be able to handle herself even without a weapon, in case a job went bad, but in addition to learning how to use her body as a weapon, she'd also been taught how to use other objects in both defensive and offensive way. Luckily, Rain was already a martial arts master, so she wouldn't have to deal with that aspect of the 'training.'

Case set aside her empty bowl and glanced at Rain's profile. She was staring out one of the windows, a look of intense concentration on her face. Case thought she was quite beautiful. She also thought Rain was more intelligent than she seemed to be letting on. That was probably a product of having worked for Rossi as his bodyguard. You were supposed to act like furniture in most situations. Letting anyone know you were paying attention was asking for trouble.

At least Rain seemed to be a willing student. Case thought about that. Maybe she was too willing. Case shook her head slightly. Rain was probably just happy to have gotten a raise. She'd learn more about Rain as time went on. Right now, she needed to get them started on their day and she'd promised a visit to a firing range.

"Hey, you done?"

Rain brought her attention back to the table.

"Yeah, you ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's get out of here."

They cleaned up their dishes and went back to their room. Case took a quick shower and changed out of the clothes she'd slept in the night before. She started packing up her bag and looked over at Rain watching her.

"You all set to check out of here?"

"We're not coming back?" Rain asked, a little surprised.

"No. It's a good idea to move on after a job. Plus, I really don't like L.A."

Rain got up and put away her new laptop and pulled the tags off her new clothes before folding them up and stuffing them into the new travel bag she now owned. The clothes she'd worn the day before were the only things that had followed her into this new life she'd started. It was a strange feeling.

"So, where are we going after this?"

"I wanna hit a range and then return that rental. After that, is there any place you've been wanting to visit, but never got the chance?"