Kris DeLake - Spy to Die For

Skye should know, since she and Liora had tested together. Liora aced every assassin test. Skye rarely passed them. Often Skye forfeited them, unwilling to stalk someone and kill him in what she believed was cold blood.

The depth of her belief and that talent of hers which enabled her to see people clearly convinced the heads of the Guild to let her be a spy and nothing more. The Guild’s director, Kerani Ammons, actually told Skye that she was unusual, that they’d never had anyone like her before.

Skye felt good about that for a few days after it happened, and then she encountered the taunts of the other trainees. Assassins in training, like Liora, had made fun of Skye in ways that still carried pain whenever she thought of them.

Liora had no reason to be here. Skye always checked to see which assassins were nearby before she arrived anywhere. That way, she wouldn’t have one of those awkward “hello” moments that could derail a job—hers or the assassin’s.

It was common courtesy, and it was a routine that Skye followed religiously.

So did Liora. Or at least, that was what it seemed like. But as Skye thought about it, she realized that she hadn’t seen Liora’s name on a manifest in months. Liora had either been out of the game or stalking very big prey.

Or both.

Yet, if it were big prey, then Skye should have known about it. Shouldn’t she?

She slipped out of the line almost without thinking about it. She had discovered a lot of disturbing material in the last few months, things that pointed at some kind of plot against the Guild itself. She had sent some of the information back to the Guild and hadn’t received any response.

Of course, they didn’t owe her a response. They might have simply sent out some of their best operatives to investigate the threats.

Liora was one of their best operatives.

Liora was small and slender with short cropped black hair. One of Skye’s constant irritations growing up was that instructors—particularly early in a course—would confuse them. Apparently they looked enough alike that the instructors couldn’t see past the physical. If they had, they would have seen just how different both women were.

Both got good grades, but Liora always scored well on weapons use, hand-to-hand fighting, and willingness to go after an opponent. Skye’s hand-eye coordination wasn’t that good, so she and weapons didn’t always get along, and she would back off if she didn’t think she had a good reason to fight someone.

She had only fought Liora once, and had lost miserably. Liora didn’t have any empathy for her opponent, even though the fights were in class, and she had known her opponents for much of her life. Liora fought to win.

Skye would back down, which always got her poor marks. In mock fights, assassins were supposed to recognize that their lives were often on the line, just like their targets’ lives were. Skye couldn’t make that mental leap. She wasn’t sure if she could make it if her life really were in danger. So far, in all the years she had been working off her debt to the Guild, she hadn’t had to find out.

Skye wove through the crowd, careful to keep someone between herself and Liora. She wasn’t sure why she felt it imperative that Liora didn’t see her, but Skye trusted her gut. Her gut had gotten her into and out of serious situations before, often without harming anyone.

Something about Liora seemed off to her, but she wouldn’t be able to describe what that something was.

Liora made her way to the central concourse of Krell, doing her best to remain out of sight just like Skye was. Skye had no idea whom Liora was trying to avoid, but she thought someone else might be around. Or maybe she was trying to avoid the surveillance cameras which everyplace—including Krell—had in abundance.

The difference between Krell and most other places was that Krell never released its footage to the authorities—any authorities. Krell sat in the NetherRealm, the neutral space between several jurisdictions, and resolutely refused to join any of them for any reason.

Liora headed to the very bar that Skye and Jack had frequented the night before. Only Liora ducked inside.

Skye wasn’t sure how she could follow—Liora would recognize her after all. Then she saw where Liora sat, toward the back, facing the wall, obviously thinking more about going unseen and unrecognized than worrying about her own safety.

Odd. That went against training. But sometimes just acting on training alone allowed others to find Assassins Guild members. Maybe the improper position was more of Liora’s cover.

Skye elbowed her way to the bar. She ordered that same lemon fizzy thing she had ordered the night before. Only this time, she sat at the very edge of the bar, just behind an obese man who seemed to be a regular here. He had been in the very same spot nursing a different drink the night before.

Liora sat alone. Skye scanned the area including the concourse, looking for another familiar face. Through the open door, she saw one, but not one she expected.

She saw Jack.

He didn’t look inside the bar. Instead, he headed away from it, his movements furtive and odd. Her heart pounded. She both wanted him to look in her direction and she didn’t want him to. Her cheeks flushed.

She felt like a vulnerable teenager—or what she thought a vulnerable teenager must have felt like, because she had never been one. All those crushes, all those sleepless nights thinking about attractions and the opposite sex—she left all of that to girls like Liora. Skye had had secret crushes, but she had never acted on them and had always ignored them.

In some ways, she continued to do that now. She didn’t want to see Jack again. The night before, that marvelous night, had to become a memory. She couldn’t lose focus or she would make mistakes.

And mistakes would cost too much—either she would lose her life or she would lose her freedom, at least for another few years. She worried about that more than dying; she’d either be imprisoned, or demoted within the Guild and forced to stay there.

Jack had stopped just outside the Starcatcher. He looked a little lost. Was he searching for her?

She took a deep breath and made herself look away from him. What he thought no longer mattered. She was done with him. She had to be.

She focused on Liora. A beer sat in front of her, untouched. Then a man put his hand on her back in a familiar way as he sat across from her. He grinned as if he knew her—and he must have, because Liora hadn’t jumped when he touched her. Nor had she reacted in any other way.

He was slight with scruffy brown hair, and a jacket that he kept pulled around him. Among the shady characters who made their way around Krell, he looked shadier than usual. Or maybe Skye just thought that because he was with Liora.

Skye hoped Liora would continue to disregard protocol. Because if she did, then Skye could find out what was happening. She had an enhancement that allowed her to focus her hearing the way she could focus her vision. But the Assassins Guild had jammers that blocked such equipment.

Apparently Liora wasn’t using her jammer, because her voice became stronger as Skye focused on it.

“You’re late,” Liora said to the man.

He shrugged. “I didn’t think you cared.”

“My time is precious,” she said.

Skye frowned. She’d never heard an assassin have a conversation like this, but then, maybe Liora was playing a role to get close to this guy. Although why she would need role-playing was beyond Skye. If this guy was the target, he’d be pretty easy to take out.

Maybe he was supposed to lead her to the target.

“There are things about this job that make it difficult,” Liora said.