Raymond Benson - 2012 - Hitman: Damnation

 
          
The
important thing was to keep Agent 47 alive.

 
          
That’s
what Diana
Burnwood
had told herself for years, even
though it wasn’t the Agency’s prime directive for handlers. The unwritten law
was that operators in the field had to be disavowed and abandoned if there was
the slightest danger of the Agency being compromised. And yet Diana had always
felt a connection to 47—as much as it was possible that anyone could bond with
the man. She wanted him to succeed in his various missions, and she took great
pains to watch his back. It was her job.

 
          
Well,
it was her job.

 
          
Diana
planned to disappear after the current hit was completed. She had no choice.
Considering what she was intending to do, the Agency would stop at nothing to
eliminate her. The escape route was in place and the travel plans were set in
stone. She would vanish for a while and then make her move. Returning to the
laboratory in Chicago would be terribly perilous, but it was absolutely
essential for her to snatch the “package” and spirit it away from the Agency.

 
          
The
trouble started when Benjamin Travis was appointed to be her superior. Diana
was immediately at odds with the guy. Although not the ultimate boss of the
International Contract Agency, Travis had proven himself to be a more than
competent manager. He was tough, opinionated, intelligent, and ambitious. It
was no wonder he had been promoted to his current position. Diana held no
grudge against the man for that.

 
          
What
she didn’t like about Travis was that he was an unethical and dangerous
asshole.

 
          
When
Diana had confronted him about his new classified pet project, noting that it
would cost many innocent lives, Travis scoffed and said, “Really?
This, coming from a handler of an assassin?
Give me a break,
Burnwood
. You alone have caused collateral damage in
the hundreds. Don’t go all high-and-mighty on me all of a sudden.”

 
          
Normally
she would have let it go and moved on. This time, however, the implications of
Travis’s venture were more than simply disturbing. In her opinion, the man was
threatening the integrity of the Agency.

 
          
Diana
was already working on the Himalayan assignment with 47 when she had decided to
take action. Originally she wanted to wait until the mission was completed, but
the situation had become too volatile. Something had to be done quickly, and
she had decided to risk her life to take the package and run. But first she had
to go off the grid for a while and carefully plan her next move.

 
          
Did
they realize she had betrayed them?
Most likely.
She
knew they would come for her at any moment. She should have left Paris hours
ago, but she owed it to 47 to see him through the current operation.

 
          
Finish
the job and then get out quickly.

 
          
She
opened her laptop and switched it on. The encryption software was already in
place; there was no way anyone could hack into her network. As she connected to
the satellite over Nepal, Diana checked the small video monitors once again.
The two miniature cameras she had installed in the hotel hallway outside her
room were undetectable and state of the art. They each pointed in an opposite
direction, so she could see anyone who happened to appear in the corridor. A
third camera, mounted near the elevators and stairwell, would alert her to any
newcomers on the floor. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but at least the three
monitors on the desk would give her fair warning should she come under attack.

 
          
The
comlink
securely connected to the satellite’s signal.
An image of a snowcapped mountain materialized on the laptop—
Kangchenjunga
, one of the most difficult climbs in the
Himalayas. Diana checked her watch. Just after six in the morning. That meant
it was close to one o’clock there. Nepal Standard Time was unusual in that it
was offset by forty-five minutes from Coordinated Universal Time. If she was
correct in her calculations, then 47 would be in place and waiting for her.

 
          
She
zoomed in to the blinking beacon on the side of the peak. The homer 47 carried
was undetectable to the naked eye but easily picked up by the satellite. Quite
ingenious, actually, Diana thought. The Agency did indeed have cool toys.

 
          
Another
marvel the satellite provided was the ability to analyze physical structures,
whether they were man-made or natural. In this case, the program detected where
the rock surface of the mountainside ended and the thick layers of snow began,
so that she could easily identify areas susceptible to avalanches.

 
          
“Hello,
47,” she said into her headset. “Do you read me?”

 
          
“Loud
and clear,”
came
the reply. There was no inflection of
warmth or pleasure that he had recognized her refined British accent.
Typical of the
hitman
.
He was a
man of few words and absolutely no emotion.

 
          
“Is
the target in place?” she asked.

 
          
“Can’t
you see them?”

 
          
She
moved the camera down the cliff and spotted the Chinese climbing party, some
six or seven hundred feet below 47’s perch.

 
          
“Affirmative.
How was the climb?”

 
          
“Cold.”

 
          
“All
your
carabiners
and belay devices worked all right?”

 
          
“Yes.”

 
          
“Have
you done much mountain climbing, 47?”

 
          
“Where
do I place the boomer?”

 
          
She
smiled to herself. Agent 47 always cut to the chase. “The computer is
calculating that as we speak. Wait … okay, here it is. You’re very close.
Move about forty yards to the east.
You’ll find yourself on
a ledge of what looks like ice, but it’s really very compact snow. That’ll do
nicely, and it’s right over the target’s head.”

 
          
“I
see what you mean. Give me a few minutes to work my way over there.”

 
          
Diana
watched the tiny figure use a rope, a pickax, and a series of
carabiners
to maneuver sideways across the face of the
cliff. She admired how 47 seemed to be able to do anything. He was a superb
athlete, trained to work in all the elements. Of course, he was genetically
engineered to be a superman of sorts. Diana often wondered how strong his
tolerance for pain and fatigue really was. The climb must have been terribly
difficult, especially alone. Luckily, he wasn’t so high in altitude that the
helicopter she had arranged to pick him up couldn’t reach him. If he had been
another thousand feet farther up, 47 would have had to descend
Kangchenjunga
the hard way.

 
          
Then
she saw them.

 
          
Diana
furrowed her brow and squinted. She quickly maneuvered the mouse and zoomed in
closer.

 
          
Two men.
Almost directly above 47.

 
          
“47,
I see two hostiles, maybe two hundred feet at one o’clock.” She focused the
camera on the men as tightly as it would go. “They’re Chinese, all right.”

 
          
“I’m
not surprised,” 47 said. “I suspected the target sent a scouting party up the
mountain to precede his own expedition. He wanted to make sure the path was
safe. They don’t like Nam Vo too much around here. Do they see me?”

 
          
“I
can’t tell. I don’t think so … Wait—they’re on the move. They must know you’re
there.”

 
          
“How
much time do I have before they’re within shooting range?”

 
          
“Plenty.
Just get the boomer in place and get the hell out
of there. The helicopter will—”

 
          
A
movement on one of the camera monitors caught her attention. Someone had come
out of the elevator on her floor. No—two
someones
.
They paused for a moment as the stairwell door opened and two more men came
into view. They were dressed in suits and appeared to be ordinary businessmen,
until one of them dropped a large bag on the floor and opened it.

 
          
“Diana?”
47 asked. “Are you there?”

 
          
“Hold
on a second, 47,” she snapped.

 
          
One
of the men pulled out four Kevlar vests, which the quartet began to don.

 
          
No!

 
          
The
Agency had found her.

 
          
No
time to lose. She immediately severed the satellite link, pulled the plug on
her laptop, and rose from the desk.

 
          
The
men on the monitor armed themselves with assault rifles, M16s from the look of
them.

 
          
Diana
quickly grabbed her laptop and small traveling bag, which was packed and ready
to go. She moved to the fire-escape window, opened it, and tossed the computer
outside. The machine fell six floors and smashed to pieces on the ground below.
She glanced back at the monitors on the desk and saw that the men were creeping
quietly toward her room. Diana then tossed her bag out the window and watched
it drop to the pavement. No damage; there was nothing inside but clothes,
passports, and money.

 
          
As
the men kicked in the hotel-room door, Diana was already out on the fire-escape
landing. The tall redhead, dressed in an expensive Versace suit, scampered in
her bare feet down the metal stairs toward the street below. She heard shouts
above her.

 
          
Faster!