#i6task2

[deadlyxkingsley-blog]

A Sense of Purpose || Self Para

Word Count: 1,502 Mentions: Hypoxia, Helix, Halogen Place: The Hamptons, NY Time: March 12th, 2013

More than three years had passed since Nina had been sent on her first mission and yet the memory still played itself in black and white through the assassin’s mind like the event had only taken place yesterday. She often found herself reminiscing the moment when she was alone and today just so happened to be one of those times.

“You ready?” Nathan asked as he greeted her, to which she answered with a confident nod. Carrying her rifle case in one hand, she walked to her chopper face down to avoid having her hair blown into a bird nest by the strong wind. The instruction for the mission was plain and simple: eliminate Dr. Emilia McCain – but Nina knew there would not be anything easy about the execution. The target was someone she had spoken to in person in more occasions that she’d like to admit. Mistress McCain had been among her father’s clients, back when Kingsley Medical had still belonged to its righteous owners, and according to her experience, the woman had always been a decent person – always paid the bill on time, helped provide their company with an extended network, and most importantly, never violated their terms and agreement. Why the agency assigned her to this mission, she could never know for sure, for asking questions was simply not in her nature, but the girl had her guess: they wanted her to show just how far she was willing to give up on her past to prove both her loyalty and capability – and you bet if that was really the case, she’d give them exactly what they were asking for.

The whole flight to their destination, Nina was reviewing the layout of the map over and over again. She would be stationed in an abandoned building a few blocks away from McCain’s resort in the Hamptons and it was up to her to pick which floor she believed would have the best line of sight to the target’s place. It was a solo mission and she had been told not to worry about making it look like anything but an assassination. Still, it went without saying that any sign of her existence where she mounted her weapon could be traced back to the agency and thus, assuming everything was going as planned, Nina would make sure she had taken all the necessary precautions before leaving.

Once she jumped out of the chopper, the doctor wasted no time to find the perfect spot to install her equipment. She had 20 minutes to get the job done until her ride came back – anything beyond that would result in desertion. During the briefing, Nina had been informed that the target had a plan to host a cocktail party in her backyard this evening. McCain would’ve made this too easy had she required everyone to stay outside, but unfortunately, knowing the nature of such events, it was very likely that she would need to go back and forth between greeting her guests at the venue and inside the resort, instead. Besides, the presence of crowd posed its own challenge for it meant Nina only got one shot that had to be very accurate in order to prevent any unwanted casualty and there was only a short window for her to pack things up before her location got compromised.

“Ready to open fire,” she whispered to her mic, reporting her progress to her pilot. It was her debut, after all, and anyone with more experience who was sent to keep an eye on her had all the reasons in the world to worry about her performance and want her to keep them updated. That being said, Nina didn’t plan to fail those who had faith in her. She was calm as usual, both arms embracing her first-ever rifle ­– which she later named after her mother – in a steady grip. Ten minutes had passed and even though people had begun to gather in the balcony, the target herself had not yet been seen. Thirteen minutes had passed and Nina started to be a little nervous, but then she heard Nathan whispering back, “Eleven o’clock, near the bar.” And there she spotted the other doctor walking through the crowd, speaking to other billionaires and yet, never stopped moving for more than a few seconds – just like Nina, Mrs. McCain looked somehow hurried.

It wasn’t until the woman stepped onto the small stage to the far east of the venue for reasons the assassin didn’t give two shits about that the agent found her opening. Gently touching the pad of her right index finger on her trigger, she realized she realized there was less than five minutes left. It appeared that her target was merely giving a welcoming speech, so unless Nina shot now, there probably wouldn’t be a second chance. Funny thing was, her only concern all this time had been whether or not the way she executed her mission would fulfil the agency’s expectation. She strangely felt no remorse when her bullet cracked her target’s skull open, destroying the beauty that had once been familiar to her. Although she was aware that this wasn’t how people should feel when they spilled blood for the first time, let alone that of someone they had interacted in person, Nina had been raised to get things done, so getting things done was the one thing that actually gave her the highest satisfaction in life, even if it meant she would have to get her hands dirty. That was the day when she once again found a sense of purpose, one she’d never thought would come in the form of something that was completely different than her old values as a doctor – something that was not, by any means, innocent called killing.

Securing Audrey back where it belonged, she was waiting for her exfiltration behind the wall she’d used as her cover when she saw something moved past her shoulder before eventually crashing into the metal door across of her, leaving a small round-shaped crack on its surface. In both panic and surprise, Nina’s reflex was to draw her rifle out again and stand up as she turned around to aim at whoever it was that had dared to startle her. Considering the bullet had come from a higher place, there was no way the shooter was among the party guests as the location of the resort itself was lower than Nina’s spot. It was only when another ammo was fired and scraped her right cheek that she saw her attacker, a person standing on top of a skyscraper two blocks from where she was. Further investigation through her scope revealed that they were wearing a black catsuit similar to her own whereas their face, too, was covered in a black balaclava. She’d heard about this rival organization called Valkyrie before, but could that be them? Nina couldn’t risk standing still for another peek as she saw her ride coming, the agent jumping for her life and screaming at Nathan, practically begging him to take her away from the battlefield as soon as possible.

A week had passed since the incident and surprisingly, the suits had yet expressed their dissatisfaction regarding her performance despite the mess she’d left behind. The brunette still found herself questioning why until Halogen showed up at the lab to bring her the answer. “You forgot this,” the older woman calmly broke the silence as she passed on this tiny velvet bag to which Nina responded with a confused frown. She said nothing, nonetheless, and simply followed through by opening the container. It was the bullet that had wounded her face – which, thanks to Macey’s stitching skill, would later heal without any marks left. “I was sent to retrieve it because the damn thing was covered in your blood. You would be surprised just how much information your DNA could spill to our enemies,” Nina stayed silent as Halogen highlighted her points, “Just try to be more careful next time.”

Piqued by curiosity, the researcher in her quickly made her way to the nearest electron microscope to inspect the clip as soon as her guest was out of sight. Unfortunately, any unique physical markings to identify where it came from had somehow been destroyed – probably a measure taken by whoever had been targeting her to make it untraceable. Further ballistic analysis didn’t provide any useful information either since the bullet turned out to be quite widely used among firearm enthusiasts. To this day, Nina still kept it as a memento in a small velvet blue box hidden in the drawer of her rifle rack. Anytime she needed to remind herself just how far she’d gone since that day, she would take it with her to the rooftop to smile at while she wondered how different her life would’ve been without the agency. She probably could never get a perfect closure, but she did hope that would be the last time she’d ever made a rookie mistake as grave as not paying enough attention to her surrounding.