9 – Drive

The engine roared into life, and the back tyre spun against the tarmac, leaving a long trail of rubber as Leah skidded off.

She weaved in and out of traffic, paying little attention to the direction she wad heading in, instead focusing only on what was directly in front of her.

Of course it had been too good to last. How could it ever have failed to be anything but? She just didn’t expect her dad to find out first. Honestly, she worked with a bunch of government agents whose job is was to track down criminals. And her dad, a major criminal kingpin, had been the one to figure it out. How bad were her colleagues at their jobs if they let this one get past them.

But then again, she had only taken the job because legally shooting people is a lot more fun than shooting people illegally. And besides, there was a damn good pay check involved.

The city flashed by as she sped past buildings, cars and pedestrians. She wondered if anyone else was having troubles in their life. Probably. It was a big city after all. Problems of her exact nature though? That was almost certainly exclusive to her.

The wind was cold on her skin as it rushed past, she hadn’t grabbed a jacket when she ran out, just her helmet. Her hand were almost frozen to the handles as she gunned it over the bridge.

Roadworks, what a surprise. Ignoring the slow signs, she weaved round the cones, and came up to the peak of the bridge.

Something bright yellow stepped out from behind a cone, a long cable coiled around his shoulder.

‘Shit’

It was the only thought she had time for, as she swerved, and the bike went too far to the ground. They both tumbled, the bridge immediately taking the skin off her forearm as she skidded along, one foot trapped under the bike. Leah struggled to slow herself down, losing more skin in the effort, as the bike slid into the roadworks, scattering cones and people alike.

Leah saw what the roadworks were for a second before the inevitable happened. They were replacing the railings on the side of the bridge.

Both her and the bike shot through the gap, the brightly lit concrete turning into dark rushing water. It was strange, how weightless she was, how time seemed to slow as she fell, how everything fell away as the lights of the bridge got further and further away.

The bike crashed into the water first, sending up a spray to cover her and she crashed into it a mere second after. Even through the helmet, she could feel the impact of the water, and the second impact as she slammed into her bike. The darkness slipped over her and consumed her, just like the water did.

99. Don’t Wait Up

Leah carefully arranged her shirt so that you couldn’t tell the gun was sitting in the small of her back, and then tugged the front down so that people would be drawn to looking at her cleavage, rather than anywhere else.

Hearing the honk of a horn outside, she grabbed her purse off the table and stuffed it into her pocket as she flung the jacket from the back of her chair over her shoulders.

Running down the stairs, and flew past her dad and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Don’t wait up!” She called back to him.

“Just a minute young lady, where are you going?” He called back to her.

“Out!” She replied, as she waved back at him and closed the front door.

The car was waiting just outside as she bundled into the back and said “Go, go go! Hit the gas!” to the driver.

Her dad managed to reach the front door and look out after the car as it sped away from the house.

“Nice timing. How did you get your dad to agree?”

“I didn’t I failed to tell him anything about where I was going or who with.”

“What did you tell him?”

“To not wait up.”

84. Clueless

“So we have a cigarette butt which has given us a DNA sample, but not hits in any of the databases. A scrap of fabric which looks like part of a shirt, but a mass produced one which anyone could buy from their local Primark and a drop of oil. So where does that leave us?”

“Without a clue I would say.” Leah leaned back in her chair and put a cigarette into her mouth.

Chris reached over and took it out. “No smoking in the office, how many times do I have to say it?”

“At least once more.” Leah crossed her arms and gave him a look.

“We know that someone was there. And I consider it pretty unlikely that someone would be there by chance. We were careful setting up that drop, and we choose that location because it was remote. Someone must have been there to spy. The question is who or what agency?”

“Why do you think it’s an agency?”

“Because I can’t see any solo individuals or smaller parties slipping under our radar. We swept that place before and after.”

“Maybe someone was there earlier in the day?”

“The cigarette was still warm when we found it.”

“And it was cold out that night. It was definitely smoked very soon before we found it. Let’s go over the schedule again of what happened. See where and when someone might have been able to get through.”
It didn’t help. Natasha even drew a diagram up on their whiteboard.

“Yup. We’re clueless.” Leah said unhelpfully when she was finished.

68. Passion

Leah tapped her finger’s against her chin. “Tall, dark haired and handsome.”

“Well ain’t that a fucking cliché.”

“I like what I like, what can I say.” She shrugged.

Liam scribbled that answer down in the magazine. Okay, next question. “What are your hobbies?”

“Guns and cards.”

“I said hobbies, not lifestyle choices.”

Leah kicked the bedside table and gave his arm a knock. “Ow! Careful, Or I’ll get the nurse back in here.”

“You bring that fucking bint back in here and I will personally see that you enter this hospital as a patient and not a visitor. And they are my hobbies. Guns and cards are my passion and have been from a young age. I just have the fortune that they come up a lot in my life naturally.”

“You sure that’s fortune, or do you just hang around with people that like to gamble?”

“Maybe I have the misfortune to be around people that need to get shot a lot.”

“Aww, I think someone’s getting to excited about having visitors. Let me just call the nurse to give you a nice relaxing shot of morphine.”

Leah reached forward and grabbed his collar. “You even go near that call button and I will show you how passionate I can get about getting my way!”

57. Shut Up

57. Shut Up (30/10/11)

Natasha flipped the folder back closed, pulled away from the table and left the interrogation room. That was all very calm. Slamming the same folder down and smacking into her chair with and exasperated sigh was less so.

“That’s it. I can’t crack him.”

Chris was looking at the footage from the CCTV cameras in the room. “This is irritating.”

They continued discussing the case as Leah looked at the camera, noticed a particular object on the desk, then looked back to the camera.

“Do you mind if I have a go?” She piped up.

Natasha did a double take. Paused for a bit, thinking it over. “Sure. Go for it.”

Leah got up, and unplugged the phone from the end of the table, and took it into the interview room with her. Natasha continued to talk the case over with Chris whilst keeping half an eye of the camera screens. She didn’t really expect anything to come of this, but it was good to see how the newbie would deal with him.

After a while she noticed that Leah had put the phone down on one end of the table, and was proceeding to play cards with the suspect. It wasn’t something she’d expected, but wasn’t harmful either. The sound was turned down so she couldn’t hear what they were saying. So it did come as a shock when Leah picked up the phone and smacked the suspect round the head with it.

Natasha and Chris both ran into room, Chris pulling Leah back as to their surprise the suspect yelled, “I’ll tell you what you want, just get her away from me!”

Chris pulled Leah out the room, who didn’t resist, as Natasha took over with the suspect. Chris looked at her in disbelief as she pulled out a cigarette.

“What the hell was that?”

“He wouldn’t shut up.”

30. Like Glass

30. Like Glass (11/02/10)

“A human life is like glass, so ephemeral, so delicate. It can be snatched away at any moment.”

Leah rolled her eyes and went back to working on her bindings. She couldn’t tell whether it was better or worse when people, especially the villains, waxed philosophy. It was good because it usually meant that they would get distracted and give her time to do things, like currently freeing herself of these handcuffs, but bad because villains have never made good philosophers. She was not in this job to get lectured.

There! The handcuffs unlocked with a soft click, and she arranged them so that it would still look like she was captured, but she could actually get up whenever she felt like it. Being tied up with just a pair of handcuffs was an insult to her skill.

“And now I wonder, how should your life be taken? Should it even be taken yet? So many choices, but I do have the time.”

Leah looked at him with bored eyes. “You don’t actually.”

The man evidently wasn’t used to this sort of response. “What did you say?”

“I said: you don’t actually. You’re really only got about 5…4…3..”

At that point a large section of the wall near to where the villain was seated was blown apart. Leah calmly shook off the handcuffs, got up and walked over to the hole.

“You guys are early.”

The dust cleared to see Tam hovering over the guy, clapping him in a pair of handcuffs. He was stunned and bewildered, but still able to talk. “Who are you people?”

Leah smirked. “You said humans were like glass? We’re the ones forged from steel.”

8. House with a Picket Fence

8. House With a Picket Fence (01/02/10)

Leah stood on the balcony of the warehouse, looking down at the men scrabbling around as they unloaded the shipment of guns that had just come in. “Oh, there you are.” Leah turned her head towards the voice, and saw Marianna coming towards her. “Hi, what’s up?”

Marianna leaned against the railing next to her, “Oh nothing much. Your dad’s looking for you but in a roundabout sort of way.”

“Ah, he can wait. As far as he knows I could be at work.”

“Hm.” She agreed in a non-committal way. “Why did you go work for the government? I mean you are the daughter of a crime lord, and do they even know that for that matter?”

“I don’t think they do know.” Leah said, as she took another draft from whatever was in the bottle she was holding. “And I took the job because it interested me. Where else could I travel the world and get paid to shoot people?”

“But you still keep up with things here. You could have just left no one would have blamed you. You could have just gone, started your own life and gotten your house with a picket fence.”

“Heh, you always say things in such a weird way. I like what I’m doing now, and if I left I’d miss you guys. Besides, the picket fence is overrated.”

“Leah!” A voice bellowed from below. She looked down to her dad standing there. “Yeah, I’m coming.” ‘House with a picket fence? Nah, this is much more fun.’