Asset — an action adventure thriller
The temperature dropped at night. Moist air bathed the white streetlights in glowing halos.
If he squinted just right, the image would blur into a street scattered with pinpricks of stars.
He did.
It did.
“What are you thinking about?” Maddie asked.
Brill glanced over at her. Her red hair was dark in the white light. Good for making star halos.
Not so much for reality.
He stored away that tidbit of information for later.
Not her hair but the fact of the light.
“Humans only use one percent of the light spectrum,” he told her.
She nodded.
“I read that.”
“That means we can’t see ninety nine percent of the world around us.”
She nodded again, but didn’t say anything.
“That’s a lot of world to miss.”
“Do you see something?” she whispered.
Her hand worked the fabric on the inside of her coat. He could see the movement.
She was gripping and ungripping the handle on the pistol she had stored there.
Nerves.
Which made him wonder.
She had killed before.
He had seen it.
He knew her by reputation before he knew the person making it.
She had no reason to be nervous.
They were hidden in the shadows beyond the streetlights, blocked on one side by one hundred year old brick in an old building that had stood forever.
No one could see them from fifty percent of one direction.
The other wall blocked the rest.
The mouth of the narrow cobblestone street was nine feet across.
It could pass as an alley, except it led up the winding hill to a few dozen cafes that were closed for the night.
There were apartments above the café, but this wasn’t a tourist district and everything shut down at ten.
Lights out for the working man who had to be up with the sun.
No reason for her to be playing with the gun because they were hidden.
The spot was good, the target on approach, the operation planned.
It would be a simple two shot takedown.
Maddie would pull the trigger.
He would take any extras that might be with the mark, plus keep their route secure for a walk away.
There was a small car parked four blocks over, a five minute walk at normal speed.
It was aimed in a direction that would lead them out of town to a car park on the major highway where a second car waited.
It was a good plan.
A simple smash and grab was how she pitched it to him.
Easy payday.
Except she was fidgeting.
Which set off alarm bells in his gut.
Get ASSET and every other title in The Shadowboxer Files when you become a supporter on Patreon.
