THE ASSASSIN - AU/CC/Adult - Epilogue - 11/6/16

[Eva]

Very spooky!

Maria thinks she's safe, Liz and Max are thinking the same but are aware that something is off. Big time!

Can Michael save Maria before Valkyrie (could this be Isabel by the way?) gets her best shot? I know I used the word 'save'. A word that seems to be very contradictionary when you know his profession. But I choose that word with a reason. I really feel Michael needs answers. That need will become more important to him than killing her directly. And will that be the start of a road trip?

[sarammlover]

NOTHING is what it seems....my heart feels so bad for Maria.....she can't get a moment's peace and she has no idea why. I hope Michael can get Maria out safe. And I was thinking Isabel was Valkyrie too!

OOOH See you next sunday!

[Double Trouble]

begonia9508: Thanks!

The man wants answers and since Maria seems to be the only one who seems to have them so he can’t let her die.

Earth2Mama: He won’t rest until has has answers and if that means defying orders and running with his target, that’s what he’s gonna do. Valkyrie is also very good at her job, so what does that mean for them on the run? We’ll soon find out.

If it had been safe to reveal the truth, Max and Liz probably would’ve done just that. We’ll get more answers from them in time.

Natalie36: Thanks! There are a lot more to come!

Roswelllostcause: Their part in this will be revealed. Well, at this point he wants to keep her alive because she has the answers he wants.

L-J-L 76: Thanks! We’ll catch up with Max and Liz soon. Maria’s trust is shaky right now but Bane is one person she does not trust. What role do Max and Liz have in all of this? That has yet to be seen.

Eva: There are a lot of misconceptions here.

The word save is a bit contradictory, isn’t it? But, as you said, he wants answers and he won’t lose his potentially only chance at finally having them. Well, there’s just something about a road trip with these two, isn’t there? For him to save her they’re gonna have to go on the run.

Valkyrie’s identity has yet to be confirmed.

sarammlover: Nope, nothing at all. Perhaps between the two of them they’ll finally find the answers to their questions about their pasts. We’ll know in time if Isabel and Valkyrie are one and the same.


Part 6

Apartment of Max Evans and Liz Parker – Georgetown – December 2015

Maria sighed and closed the last drawer of the huge cabinet in the living room. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing to indicate what the man had said earlier was true. She looked at the clock on the DVD player behind her and sighed when she saw it was nearly midnight, yet she hadn’t slept one single minute.

Time to return to bed, she decided and went back to the guestroom quietly. She wouldn’t find any proof of a theory that wasn’t even true. Maybe tomorrow morning she would go to the police and tell them about the encounter with the man. Who knew what he was up to?

She entered her room and frowned when the screen of her cell was illuminated. Slowly – and with a sickening feeling in her gut – she lifted it from the bed to read the received message.

Cape Cod 2005 – we need to talk. Alone.

She stared at the short message. Short and to the point. That was so like the jerk she’d met; the jerk that had threatened her life and the lives of her friends. She punched in a smart reply but her finger hovered over the send button without pressing it. What if he really knew something? Hesitantly she deleted the message, one letter at a time. What if somehow he had the answers she was looking for?

Bane stopped at the dark staircase of his building when the cell in his hand buzzed. He opened the message she had sent.

When?

I knew you couldn’t leave it alone, lady, he thought and punched in a reply.

Now. Same place.

He ran down the last few steps, glancing at his wristwatch and realizing he was already running out of time. I need something faster, he mused when his eyes settled on his truck through the glass front door. With a short nod to himself, he readjusted the backpack and ran down into the basement garage where his motorcycle was parked.

She stared at the message as her stomach rolled nauseatingly. What if it was a trap? But why would he bother with that? He’d already made it clear he could get to her anytime and anyplace. She couldn’t risk him coming here and hurting her friends, especially not because of her. He had to know he couldn’t dangle a carrot like that and not get a response. Her need to know what had happened that day was too strong to be ignored, even in the face of potential danger.

Be there asap.

She sent the text and got her things together before creeping out of her room. She wrote out a note and left it on the kitchen counter next to the coffee pot, knowing it didn’t matter which of them got up first, it would be their first stop. She paused at the front door, staring at the keypad next to it, biting her bottom lip as she struggled to remember the code they had given her. She quickly punched it in to disarm it and then punched it in again, waiting for the beep that would give her thirty seconds to exit and close the door before it armed.

Hopefully ‘asap’ was soon enough, he thought and hit the kicked the engine to life. The engine awoke with a loud growl and then continued with a steady grumbling while he adjusted his helmet. Pushing off the stand, he began to roll out. As soon as the automatic door was rolled up half way, he drove out of the garage and into the night, going way over the speed limit.

Maria stepped out of the cab after paying the fare, walking up to the trailhead and drawing in a slow deep breath before taking that all important first step. She had been so rattled after their earlier encounter that she couldn’t remember exactly what part of the trail she’d been on when they met. She just kept walking, knowing somehow that he’d already be there. Her heart hammered so hard she was surprised she hadn’t collapsed yet. Fear was a powerful thing, she mused, her eyes darting through the trees that lined the trail and became dense the further she walked. It just wasn’t powerful enough to keep her from doing something so stupid. She jumped at every little sound and she couldn’t stop the hysterical laugh that bubbled up as she pictured all the stupid movies where some woman was being chased and she tripped over anything and nothing. She just knew if he chased her that’s what she’d end up doing.

Bane leaned against a tree in the shadows, watching as she slowly got closer. Her body language spoke of fear all the way, yet she was here to meet a man who had claimed to be hired kill her. He didn’t know if she was brave or overly stupid.

When she was close enough, he straightened a bit and gave her a little whistle, which he knew would startle her again.

She jumped and nearly tripped over her own feet before she caught herself. “Why do you have to creep around like that?!” She was sure her heart was gonna pound right out of her chest at any moment.

He didn’t say anything, just waited for her to get closer.

And as seemed to be normal, every time she got around him she couldn’t seem to keep her mouth shut. “Lurking around in the shadows, sending text messages in the middle of the night to arrange secret meetings... do you have any other bad habits I need to be aware of?”

“Long list, lady.” As soon as she entered the shadowed area, he wrapped his large hand around her lower arm and dragged her along with him, further away from the trail.

“Hey!” she shouted indignantly. “What’re you doing? Where are you taking me?” She leaned back and dug her heels into the soft dirt as he left the trail and was suddenly silenced when he unexpectedly released her and she fell on her ass.

Before she could utter a word he grabbed her arm again and hauled her onto her feet. “Resistance is a waste of time. Now come on!”

She couldn’t help resisting. It just wasn’t in her to back down and docilely follow along while some stranger dragged her off into the woods to do God knows what to her. “I don’t know what kind of women you’re used to dealing with, asshole, but I’m not gonna just do whatever you want because you say so.” She jerked against his hold in vain, easily seeing that it was only irritating him further.

“I deal with two kinds of women,” he spun around and faced her, their noses almost touching. “Both fall on their knees, but only one of them gets a bullet in the head.” When her face turned into a disgusted grimace, he grinned, satisfied.

“If those are my only two options, I’ll just take the bullet, thank you very much,” she bit out.

“There are two options I’m offering you, Blondie. Either you stop yelling like a lunatic so everyone can hear you or you’ll be dead in a blink.”

“As opposed to what exactly? A long slow death?”

He didn’t answer the question when his senses caught something else – someone else. His eyes hadn’t seen a person; it was more like the reflection of the moonlight on something that hadn’t been there before.

Slowly he tugged on the woman next to him, bringing her behind him and walking backwards slowly without making a sound.

“You have to be the worst assassin ever,” she muttered, confused by his behavior.

Maybe he should cut her tongue out, he mused as he walked towards his motorcycle. She could still communicate with him via paper and it would save him a lot of nerves.

“Y’know, I’ve seen a lot of movies with assassins, hit men, hired killers, whatever you wanna call yourself, and I’ve never once seen one who behaves as erratically as you do.” She frowned when in spite of his annoyance he didn’t say anything. She could feel the tension in him and it didn’t make much sense to her. He was acting as if he was watching for someone, and not someone he wanted to see. Her eyes suddenly widened and she poked him, hard. “Who’s out there?”

Instead of answering, he pushed her back against the next tree. One hand over her mouth, he faced her, staring into her eyes until her panic faded and she focused on him. Slowly, he brought a finger against his lips and waited until she nodded slightly.

What was going on? Was there another killer out there? If their joint purpose was to see her dead, why bother fighting over her? She fought to hold in the hysterical giggle she could feel bubbling up. Sure, she’d imagined two guys fighting over her, what girl hadn’t, but really, this wasn’t the scenario her mind had come up with. She could just picture it... two heavily armed men, both hired to kill her, facing off at twenty paces and firing. She lost control of the giggle and had to bury her face against him to keep it from drawing attention to them. Somewhere in the back of her mind she noticed the way he smelled, the way he felt pressed up against her, and even as part of her reacted to that, the other part revolted at the fact that he could draw that type of reaction from her.

He tugged at the back of her neck to get her attention back and when she focused her eyes on him he pointed at a parked motorcycle. Then he gave her a sign to run to a group of trees close by while he made a run for the vehicle.

Maria stared at him, trying to make sense of the hand signals he was making. Did he think everyone went to assassin school? How was she supposed to know what the hell he was telling her to do? Her eyebrows lifted when he repeated the gestures and after a moment understanding dawned on her and she nodded.

Bane leaned around the tree to glance in the distance. Valkyrie had taken her position. He knew it and the smallest mistake would end the life of the woman in front of him. His gaze swept over her and he silently cursed the bright jacket she was wearing. Could she be any more obvious? He shrugged his leather jacket off and pulled his black sweater over his head.

“What are you doing now?” she hissed.

He glared at her when she opened her mouth again and he shook his head sharply when he started to peel her out of her jacket.

Maria smacked his hand away. “What’re you - “

His hand tightened around the fabric when she spoke again. With force he jerked the cloth from her shoulders and then shoved his sweater in her hand, nudging her in the direction she was supposed to go.

Oh. Relief flooded through her when she realized what he had been trying to do. Without another word she pulled the sweater on over her head and hurried along the tree line, hoping she was doing this evasion thing correctly as she headed for the spot he had indicated.

Bane watched her and when he was sure she was in a heavily shadowed spot he sprinted to his bike, kicking the engine to life and driving in a different direction first, seeing if anyone would follow him.

Valkyrie watched from her position, tracking the woman’s movements through the night vision scope until she reached a stand of trees that were too thick and blocked her from sight. She wasn’t interested in wounding the target; she was looking for the kill shot. Fast. Clean. Done. She was confused by Bane’s involvement with the target. In all the time she’d known him she’d never known him to make such a crucial mistake. Why? What was it about this woman that had caused him to stray from his normal behavior pattern?

He made a detour through the park, knowing his actions would confuse the other assassin. When he passed the zone where he had left his target, he turned sharply, looking at her over his shoulder.

Maria screamed when something exploded close to her and she inhaled sharply, knowing it was now or never. She ran to him, taking his hand and hopping on the back of the bike. She’d often wondered what it was like to ride one of the machines but she’d never known anyone who owned one. Uncle Reggie wouldn’t have approved. Suddenly she wondered why she’d spent so much time worrying about what her uncle would or wouldn’t have approved of. She was well over the age of consent and she’d allowed him to dictate the majority of her life. Somehow she’d never considered this to be the way she’d be introduced to motorcycle riding.

“Final warning, Bane.” Valkyrie relaxed and leaned back slightly as she followed their route through the scope of her rifle. What was going on? Bane could’ve easily evaded her, but he’d made it a point to come back and collect the woman before disappearing down the trail. From her position she had a clear line of sight. He was taking proper evasive maneuvers, but she could take the shot and take out at least one of them. But something wasn’t right. There was more to this situation and she needed to learn more before pursuing them.

Bane slowed the machine as soon as he was sure they were out of range. The woman at his back was stiff and every risky maneuver could drop them both from the machine under them. He pulled a little navigation device from his pocket, hitting the screen a few times until the coordinates for the closest safe house appeared.

He was always prepared, had several places to go within a radius of 100 miles in case he ever had to make a quick escape.

Behind him Maria was shaking as she held onto him tightly. Fear, the cold, adrenaline, she couldn’t pinpoint exactly which of them was causing her to shake. She had no idea where he was taking her and she wasn’t sure how safe she was with him, but at the moment she didn’t really have much of a choice.

They drove for nearly 90 minutes before a red neon sign for a motel appeared on the otherwise empty street. Bane turned into its driveway and parked the motorbike in the parking lot that wasn’t visible from the street. He waited until she climbed down with shaking legs before he did the same.

“Where are we?” She looked around, trying without success to determine their location.

“At a motel,” he stated simply and went for the room he had rented last week, pulling the keys from his pocket. He heard her steps behind him and he stopped her when they reached the edge of the building. “Wait here until I give you the sign to follow.”

“You can’t possibly think anyone would want to surprise you at this dump,” she grumbled under her breath.

Pressing her against the wall harshly, he glared at her with his patience seconds from snapping. “Stay here,” he growled dangerously.

“No problem,” she bit out.

He let go of her and glanced along the open walkway that ran in front of the rooms before making his way over to the one he had rented. Slowly, he pulled the handgun complete with silencer from the inside of his leather jacket and leaned against the wall next to the door. He used the key and shoved the door wide open with one hard push of his hand.

Remaining in that position for a moment he listened for any sounds and when he was sure there was nothing, he went inside to make a sweep of the rooms.

Maria waited while he secured the room or whatever he was doing, crossing her arms over her chest in an attempt to ward off the freezing wind that had picked up the further north they moved. At least she thought they had moved north. It could’ve been east, she mused. It would be colder closer to the ocean too.

A whistle carried to her after a minute and she turned the corner to see him standing out on the walkway again, nodding into the room.

“Great, I don’t even warrant that stupid nickname. Now you’re just gonna whistle at me like a damn dog,” she muttered, but moved towards him anyway.

Why hadn’t he just killed her and moved the fuck on? She was a risk on two legs – she couldn’t even keep her freaking mouth closed for two minutes!!!

“Just for the record I don’t appreciate you dragging me to this cheap motel.” She squeezed past him and stepped into the room. Okay, maybe looks were deceiving, she thought as she looked around. It wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t that good either, but it wasn’t the worst place she’d ever seen.

“You know what?” He went after her, pissed off. “If you wanna behave like a fuckin’ princess then you’re free to go. Maybe you can survive another day without my help if that’s enough for you. I’m fed up with you bitching and talking all the fuckin’ time!! I’m not here to be nice or to make sure you have it all warm and cozy.”

He shrugged out of his leather jacket and pulled the black tee shirt over his head, his movements jerky. “I’m takin’ a fuckin’ shower. Make up your mind, the door’s wide open so either you go, and good luck stayin’ alive, or you stay and play by my rules.”

“Yeah? Well, maybe I will.”

“Whatever,” he slammed the bathroom door shut behind him, enjoying the silence.

Maria looked around the room, making a face at the single bed that dominated the space. She walked over and sat on the bed, picking up the phone book on the table that served as a nightstand and glancing over it. She opened the cover and searched the map on the inside. Well, she had been close. He had taken them northeast.

Should she stay or go? She had no idea what to do. She’d never been in a situation like this. Two people trying to kill her, and now one of them was suddenly trying to save her. It didn’t make any sense and she still couldn’t figure out who would want to kill her anyway. She listened to the sounds of the shower. Other than the water running there wasn’t really any other sounds. No singing, no radio, no nothing. He was probably one of those solitary people who were content to listen to the silence for days on end. He probably even went days without talking to anyone else.

Bane took his time in the shower, letting the warm water heat his chilled body. He rested one hand on the tiles in front of him, his head bent under the spray. There wasn’t a sound from the other side of the door so either she had really left or she was quiet for once. He hoped for the last because despite his silent wish to be left in peace, he knew he would be out looking for her if she was stupid enough to really leave.

She wandered around the small space, her eyes moving over the minimal furnishings and the tacky wallpaper. She should be at home, sleeping in her nice comfortable bed. But here she was, basically in the middle of nowhere, stuck in this room with a man who had been paid to kill her. The only reason she was still alive was because he wanted answers. Answers she couldn’t give him. If she did, what reason did he have to keep her alive?

Her body stiffened when the bathroom door opened and he stepped out in his boxer briefs only. He looked at her back, waiting to see if she would have anything to say, but to his surprise she remained silent and so did he while he walked further into the room to pull a few items out of his backpack in an attempt to secure the room for the night.

She waited for him to speak but wasn’t surprised when he didn’t. He probably thought she should just keep her mouth shut and do whatever he told her to do. Yeah, well, maybe she should, maybe she had no other choice, but she wanted some answers too. Of course, she had a feeling he wasn’t going to give her any answers if she didn’t provide some for him.

Bane watched her from the corner of his eye while he prepared the mobile warning system for the door. Her body language as well as her hesitant movements spoke louder than her words. Despite her feisty behavior there was fear thrumming through her, but she tried to keep it under control. “You should sleep,” he said while he wrapped a little wire around the doorknob.

Sleep, she thought. Would she ever be able to sleep again? She had a feeling she’d never feel safe again. What good would it do to argue with him? He had the upper hand and he knew it. She nodded and curled up on the far side of the bed, as close to the edge and as far from him as possible. Her hand curled around the only weapon available to her – a heavy figurine that had been sitting on the nightstand – and she held it close to her body.

He stood after fixing everything on the door and moved to check the windows. This damn hole would only work for tonight. In the morning they would move further away from DC, he decided and turned, finding her in the bed, her body shaking.

Great, he ran a hand over his face in frustration and forced himself over to her spot, noticing the small golden statue in her hands. “Lady,” he said quietly and wrapped his hand around it to pull it from her, “you’re not gonna hurt anyone with this thing.”

Maria tried in vain to tighten her grip around the figurine but her fingers were shaking so badly he pried it from them with little effort. She felt like she was trapped in a nightmare and no matter how much she wanted to she just couldn’t wake up.

He placed the figurine back on the nightstand and then used his arms under her legs and neck to move her further onto the bed. “Sleep,” he said and got up to move to the armchair next to the door, gin in hand while he relaxed in the seat.

If only it was that easy. How was she supposed to sleep with an armed gunman sitting less than ten feet from her?


Bane’s apartment – Washington, DC

Valkyrie looked around the shadowed interior of the sparsely furnished apartment. The rooms Bane called home lacked warmth and showed little evidence of use. It wasn’t expensive by any means, but it sufficed. A bed and a bathroom, that was about all he seemed to need. She moved through the rooms, wrinkling her nose at the mattress on the floor of the living room and wondering why he’d bothered getting a place that had more than a single room. Every other room was completely barren and showed no signs of habitation.

He lived and worked from the main room. There was a small table in the corner, one of the legs resting on a folded up newspaper to make up for the deficiency created by the shorter leg. Had it been her, the table never would’ve made it through the front door. But Bane did things his own way and he didn’t make excuses or apologies. Her gaze finally moved on from the offensive paper wedge and locked on the 7-inch serrated steel blade pinning a sheaf of papers to its surface.

The man loved his toys, she thought as she pulled the knife free of the table and tossed it end over end while using the fingertips of her free hand to separate the pages and scan over them. He had copies of a police report, evidence photographs, and judging by the notations scrawled in every available inch of column space, a lot of questions too. She shuffled the photographs and paused on one of Senator Halverson, the man unsmiling as he usually was, even at a wedding. He was younger in the shot, eight, maybe even ten years.

Her eyes moved over the questions in the margin. There were two distinct styles of handwriting, one of them clearly belonging to a woman. She turned the photograph sideways and squinted in an effort to make out Bane’s nearly illegible scrawl. She sighed and shook her head when she couldn’t make heads or tails of the questions and she shuffled through more of the photographs.

“What the hell,” she whispered when she spotted someone who looked exactly like Bane in one of the shots. She pulled the photograph free and held it up to study it. Like the senator, he was much younger, but it was him. There was no mistaking those features. She collected the rest of the photographs and the reports and shoved them into her backpack, carefully lifting out another bag and sitting it on the table before sliding her arms through the straps once more.

She would have to examine the items later. First she had to be certain there was nothing to be found by anyone else who might enter his lair. She searched the apartment carefully to avoid missing anything that might be of importance. There was nothing that might indicate who he was, what he did for a living, or who he might have connections to. They were alike in that aspect. They had no connections to anyone, inside or outside of their work. They were loners.

They were the kind of people no one would ever miss when their number was up. The mark they would leave on the world had an anonymous signature and when they were gone there would be no ceremony, no acknowledgment, and no goodbyes. There wouldn’t even be a headstone to attest to the fact that they had lived. They would simply vanish.

When she finished her search she reached for the bag she had left sitting on the table, unzipping it and slowly lifting out the incendiary devices one by one. She had spent an enormous amount of time working on them in her spare time over the years, learning what it took to start a fire and leave no evidence behind to show it was anything more than an accident. There were many things to account for in setting an ‘accidental’ fire. Burn patterns, how hot the fire burned, point of origin, the path the fire took… so many things to be aware of. She had finally succeeded and she had more than one kill that had been taken out in an unexplained fire.

She didn’t get any particular enjoyment from fire, no thrill in watching things burn, but there were times when it was the best way to carry out a hit and keep the heat off of The Circle. She preferred the distance and anonymity of her sniper rifle, but there were occasions when they had specific requests as to how a target was to be taken out. Close contact hits were the ones she hated the most. She could carry them out, and had more than once, but she despised them.

She placed the tiny devices strategically before removing the batteries from the smoke alarms in all of the rooms but one and replacing them with dead ones. She had no intention of killing everyone on the tenth floor. She just wanted to remove any traces of him before someone was sent to search his apartment. Bane was good at his job and he’d managed to survive. She knew he had left the photographs and reports out for her to find and there was a reason behind that decision. He did nothing spontaneously.

Checking the devices once more, verifying they were set to the correct frequency and determining that they were, she moved to the balcony and stepped out onto the rooftop. She reached for the small device hidden in one of her pockets, pressing the pad of her thumb to the fingerprint scanner to activate it. The screen turned green, indicating that the counter on the incendiary devices had been tripped and she had one minute to make her escape.

She made her descent with thirteen seconds to spare. She collected her gear and stowed it away in her backpack before disappearing into the shadows. Before climbing on the motorcycle she had left a couple of blocks away she glanced up at the tenth floor in the distance, seeing the telltale signs of the fire as it began its feeding frenzy.

[Earth2Mama]

How could he leave that stuff laying around in his apartment?! WTF?!

Now, Valkyrie has the photos and documents. What the hell is she going to do with it?

[Roswelllostcause]

I still have no clue what the heck is going on! This getting more and more confusing!

[L-J-L 76]

I still have no clue what the heck is going on! This getting more and more confusing!

I am agreeing with Roswelllostcause. I am so confused here.


From:
L-J-L 76

[begonia9508]

I still have no clue what the heck is going on! This getting more and more confusing!

Oh yes! I think so too and Maria is damm' courageous, with her ways of talking to him because he doesn't seem to be the patient guy...

Anyway waiting for more! excellent EVE

[Eva]

She knew he had left the photographs and reports out for her to find and there was a reason behind that decision. He did nothing spontaneously.

True! But why does he want her to know? This story replaces one question with a billion other ones. And I like it!

[sarammlover]

Michael is buying himself some time....and Maria too I guess. Let's see what this Valkryie can do now!!!! Its so intriguing and I can't wait for more!!!!

[keepsmiling7]

So much going on......
Poor Liz..........will she trapped??
Can't wait to see more and what happens next.
Carolyn