Assassin Affairs (29 page)

“Perhaps
when in Rome, do as the Romans do, Karlee, or in this case London.”

“I do
feel a bit self-conscious having you all change your normal routine
on my account,” she said, admiring his build. “Maybe you
are right.”

“Girls,
girls, remove your suits! Our guest doesn't mind,” he shouted
out to them.

“I
believe that makes it your turn, Alexei,” she said, raising her
sunglasses and eying him intently.

He rose to
his feet and slipped off his trunks. Alexei was well-endowed, more so
than his loose-fitting swimsuit had let on, and he stood only inches
from her face. She moistened her lips, hesitated, then jumped into
the pool still wearing her swimsuit.

“Shy?”

“A
little,” she said.

“It
is fine. Nudity is optional, but I suspect you would love the sense
of freedom it would allow you.”

Karlee swam
a few laps, then climbed onto one of the floating rafts and watched
as the two girls rubbed tanning lotion on one another. It looked like
fun. Then she looked over at Alexei as he read a book. It was titled
“Willful Women”, and she suspected that was his preferred
type of companion.

After an
hour of basking in the sun, the girls brought out a cooler filled
with ice and drinks.

“Karlee,
come and get a cold drink!” he called out to her.

She swam to
the edge of the pool, slipped off her swimsuit and pitched it over by
her lounge chair. The three of them looked on attentively as she
climbed the ladder out of the water.

Alexei
smiled admiringly as he handed her a chilled drink and watched the
beads of water slide down over the curves of her nicely-figured body.
“How does it feel?”

“Cold.”

“No,
silly, I meant being naked in front of all of us.”

“You
were right, Alexei. It feels invigorating!”

He leaned
closer and whispered, “They're not really my nieces, you know.”

“Oh?”

“I
find it preferable to introduce them that way. It raises fewer
questions.”

“Like
when you introduce yourself as working for Interpol?”

“Exactly,
fewer questions. Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies.”

Karlee
remained discreetly silent, wanting to ask those questions.

“Claudette
and Roxanne are my interns, my trainees. I am known as the best at
what I do, and they are eager to learn the trade. It is a mutually
beneficial arrangement. Now make yourself comfortable. Lie down on
your lounge chair and relax.”

“Girls,
come over here and rub some of that lotion on our guest.”

“Oh,
no, that's okay. I can do it,” Karlee said.

“What
happened to 'when in Rome'? I insist. It's our way here. Go ahead,
girls.”

The pair
slowly began gently rubbing the soothing oils over all of Karlee's
pale flesh. It was as much fun as it had appeared to be when she'd
watched them earlier from the raft. She felt both surprised and
awkward as the sensual caressing began arousing her sexually. She
didn't know what to do, so just relaxed and enjoyed it.

“What's
going on here? Indoctrinating my newbie to your special training
program, Alexei?”

It was
Janine. She had just returned from her day-trip and was clearly
upset. As Karlee listened to her ranting at Alexei in a foreign
tongue, she determined that is was an Eastern European dialect that
sounded similar to German.

“Kristov
has pushed up the time table! He now says it has to be done by
tomorrow night!”

“Well,
that's just not possible. I don't see how we can make that happen
without exposing ourselves to too much risk,” he responded.

She paused
a moment as she looked around the pool area. “Maybe there's a
way.”

“Go
on, I'm listening.”

“What
if we use the girls?”

“They're
not ready yet. What if we use Karlee?” Alexei asked.

“She's
not ready yet either. So what do we do?”

“We
cancel the contract.”

“We
can't.”

“We
can; he's paid us half up front. He's broken the terms of the
agreement, so the deal is nullified and he loses his down payment,”
he added in a dismissive manner.

“I've
never walked away from a deal in my life,” Janine declared,
clearly indicating her sense of stress.

“Sometimes
it is best. You need to be more flexible, Janine. Who else could we
bring in? It would need to be someone we can trust implicitly.”

She went to
the cooler and retrieved a drink which seemed to calm her down, then
walked over and sat next to Karlee on the edge of her lounge chair as
the girls moved away.

“I
could probably talk Randolph into helping if the money is right,”
she said, continuing to speak in the foreign language.

“Could
he get here in time?” Alexei wondered aloud, switching back to
English.

“If
he left right away.”

“If
Kristov agrees to triple the fee, we will do it. That is a fair
amount considering the added personnel and risk.”

Meanwhile,
Randolph and Kristie were busy stateside practicing on the shooting
range. As soon as Kristov had agreed to the new terms, Randolph's
phone rang. It seemed like he and his sister were speaking in sibling
code from what Kris could hear. When the call concluded, he was
evasive with details but revealed that he had to catch the next
flight out for London.

“Why?”
his new fiancée persisted in inquiring. She gradually got bits
and pieces out of him, learning that Alexei had at one time been an
agent for MI-6, the United Kingdom's CIA. Randolph's secret had been
that he and Janine had worked off-the-books for them as well as
taking independent contracts from some powerful European families and
special interest groups of questionable repute.

“Honeybuns,
if you and your sister and my sister are all in this together, I'm
damn sure not sitting it out! Consider it a training mission. I'll
have all three of you there covering my ass. How much safer could a
risky operation be? I already have my passport and bet I can be
packed and ready to go before you are! Should I pack my gun?”

“No
gun; it would draw unwanted attention and arouse suspicion. I'll get
what I need over there. You're not ready yet, neither is your sister.
You two can lounge around the pool together and go into the city to
shop.”

They packed
light and caught the next flight out. It was late evening when they
arrived at the castle and their entire group was soon relaxing in
their swimsuits poolside with a nightcap.

Kristov had
been intending to eliminate the cell of a powerful Iranian nemesis
named Feroze, along with his group of devoted Middle Eastern
followers that had all taken up residence in the outlying areas of
London. Somehow Feroze had gotten wind of the impending attack and
had decided on a preemptive strike against Alexei.

Alexei had
installed an elaborate alarm system on the outlying grounds of the
estate, and something tripped the alarm just as a shot rang out. He
dove for the ground and a bullet grazed his forehead, shattering a
nearby urn. Everyone dashed indoors; the guests followed the others
into the basement where there was a full armory of advanced weaponry.

The interns
picked up Uzis, Randolph and Kristie snared a couple of sniper rifles
from storage, and everyone else secured several grenades and pistols
along with multiple boxes of ammunition. Alexei handed out
night-vision goggles. This wasn't the first time the castle had been
attacked and they were well prepared. It would be a night to remember
as both Kristie and Randolph headed to one of the rooftop towers.
Alexei remotely activated exterior booby-traps. To a casual observer,
it would have appeared that the swimsuit-clad group was grossly
inferior compared to the bearded, terrorist-camp-trained Islamists.

The
firefight rapidly intensified, with multiple explosions from grenades
and booby-traps. Armor-piercing gunfire punctured the windows and
riddled the walls. Each of the interns returned fire from their
respective windows.

“Hey
guys,” called out Claudette over the noise of the shooting,
“this would make a great movie scene, the bikini crowd against
the well-armed terrorists!”

The
fighting escalated and one of the bullets pierced the wall and hit
her squarely in the head, splitting open her skull and killing her
instantly. Alexei took a round in his ass. A short time later,
Roxanne took a fatal hit.

Kris and
Randolph worked together targeting men from a cubbyhole in the tower.
“Take out that one by the tree, honey,” Randolph
requested.

Kris closed
one eye as she took aim and slowly squeezed the trigger. The bearded
character fell over. “That one was for you, Honeybuns,”
she proudly declared. “You get that fat one over by the big
bush for me.”

As he took
aim, one of the terrorists lobbed a hand grenade at the tower. It
missed, but exploded close enough to cause some minor scrapes.

A moment
later Randolph fired and the fat one's head exploded. “My gift
to you, sweetheart.”

“Thanks,
lover. I think I'd like another,” she replied. “Damn,
that tall one just got through a downstairs window!”

The fellow
caught Karlee by surprise and the two ended up in a life-or-death
struggle. Her years of martial arts training made the cuss look like
a piker as his neck snapped and he fell dead.

The combat
seemed to last for an eternity, but the tide of the battle slowly
shifted to the English and the Americans. Silence eventually overtook
the scene as all the attackers became still.

“Is
everyone okay?” Alexei shouted out, attempting to see who had
survived.

The interns
had been the only ones lost, and all the others emerged with
superficial wounds, mostly from hand grenade shrapnel. It was a
gruesome scene, bodies and blood everywhere, broken-out windows,
newly-ventilated walls, and everyone limping and nursing their fresh
wounds as they regrouped in the basement.

“I'm
going to miss the girls. They were the best nieces ever,” pined
Alexei.

“What
do we do now?” asked Kris. “Call the police?”

“No,
we make it look as though this never happened. The nearest neighbor
is too far away to have heard anything. We'll bury the bodies, cover
them with lye so they'll rot away faster, repair the outside
structure, and go on as if we are on holiday. So Karlee and Kristie,
do you both still want to pursue this line of work?” Alexei
asked.

They both
smiled and said, “More than ever!” They were hooked on
the adrenaline high.

“I
could use a new pair of nieces if you two are interested. Janine can
tell you it's the best training place in the free world,” he
said.

“That's
true,” Janine added. “You girls should seriously consider
it. It's a great offer! Alexei trained me.”

“I'll
think about it,” said Karlee.

“No
thanks,” chimed in Kristie. “I don't want to be away from
Randolph, and I need to get back to my acting career. We start
filming for our new season in a few months.”

“It's
all a question of priorities, I guess,” said Randolph.

“Well,
there's one more reason, too. I hadn't planned on announcing it like
this, but now is as good a time as any I suppose. I'm pregnant!”
Kris announced to everyone's shock.

“You're
what?!” responded both her fiancé and her sister.

“I
just found out last week.”

“Did
you stop taking precautions just because you are engaged, sis? You
can't count on Randolph staying around. You should have used
protection!”

“Hey,
I'm not going anywhere, and I'm happy. I'm going to be a dad!”
he said with a grin. “Let's set an early wedding date, my
love.”

“I'm
not like you, Karlee! I don't believe in abortions or euthanasia like
you do. Life is God's most precious gift to us. If mom had felt like
you do, you wouldn't even be here. She told me you were an accident!”
Kris snarled.

“The
world has over seven billion people; that's about three billion too
many, sis! I also believe in assisted-suicides. As a society, we
treat our pets better than we treat our sick and elderly! Drinking
water will be to the next century what oil is to this one. These
terrorists will destroy our environment! The world's surroundings
won't be tolerable for humans living in the future! I would never
want to subject my kids to any of that, so I'll never have any!”

“Alright,
alright, ladies! Let's stop the bickering!” insisted Alexei.
“We're all upset and not thinking straight. The world now has a
dozen less bad people in it, so we all can be thankful for that.
Let's be even more thankful that those of us who are still here have
survived the night!”

They all
promptly agreed as they gathered up the bodies and mopped up the
scene, finishing off a few whose wounds had not yet been fatal, and
scrubbed the blood stains from their skin. Randolph and Kris chatted
as they stacked some of the corpses.

“What's
with your sister, Kris? Why's she so upset we're gonna have a kid?”

“She's
had some bad experiences in her life that she's never been willing to
talk about. We're alike in some ways, yet so different in others. My
life is like an open book, hers is closed.”

“I'm
just glad you're you and so not her. Still, with things the way they
are, you shouldn't be so much an open book anymore, hon.”

“Randolph,
who are we inviting to the wedding?”

“I
hadn't thought about thought that; your parents maybe. You never talk
about them.”

“What
about your parents? You never talk about them either.” There
was a pregnant pause as they finished stacking the bodies.

“That's
kinda weird, huh? Maybe we should talk about it,” she said.

“Yeah,
maybe. When?”

“Later?”