I never sat in the sun topless before. It felt a little weird, and though the sun was warm, a soft breeze kept me cool. The rush of the waves to the shore made for a soothing zen-like ambiance. I slathered the coconut scented sunscreen on extra-thick assuming sunburned tits would be annoying as hell. A big, floppy straw hat and oversized sunglasses helped obscure my features. I put my long, brown hair in a side-swept ponytail trailing over my left shoulder. Of course, any cameras that caught me would know I was female, but they wouldn’t have a clear shot of my face.
+++++Long Island, New York in mid-September was beautiful and empty. Too bad I wasn’t there to relax. Like most folks, I worked for a living, even if my job was outside the norm. Last night, about 2200 hours, I arrived at the so-called beach cottage the office sent me to. It was in the Hamptons, right on the water, had ten bedrooms, I don’t know how many toilets, and more rooms with sofas and chairs than my butt alone could wear out in a lifetime. Absent owners and the entire staff on vacation meant I had my choice of spaces in the five-car garage for the BMW the office gave me. I could get used to a sweet car like that real easy.
+++++A week ago, sitting in our Washington, D.C. building, my chief gave me the job saying, “I need you on this. The guys I’ve sent…they’ve failed. He’s seen them coming a mile away. This job needs a woman’s touch.”
+++++I had raised one eyebrow at Chief when he said that since I wasn’t the honey pot type. I had a professional rep for moving in the darkness, striking fast and lethal, then melting back into the grays and browns of the sketchy shadows. Still, if I wanted to keep getting a paycheck, I’d have to adapt. After studying the intel, I decided the easiest way to proceed would be to find a way to make broad daylight work for me.
+++++Anderson, one of the analysts, prepped the job. The day before my arrival in the Hamptons, he had given me the keys to the cover house’s front and back door, the remote for the garage, and the alarm codes. He added, “Use the green bedroom at the back of the house at the end of the west wing. It’s on the opposite side of the mark’s house and has a view of the ocean. That way the clean-up team knows exactly which one to scrub of evidence.”
+++++“Yeah, okay. Let’s go over the map of the grounds for that house and the one next door again. I need to fix it in my brain one more time.” I wasn’t any more nervous about that job than any other, but still…it didn’t hurt to go over the information one more time.
+++++Anderson punched up an overhead satellite photo, zooming in on the enormous house I would use to get close to the mark. The target presented as an unassuming Jewish restaurateur who went to synagogue every week, and was American as apple pie, except, he wasn’t. He was a first-generation Palestinian-American, who supplied money and explosives to the highest bidder. Surveillance also revealed that he left his home in disguise a couple of times a week to haunt strip clubs.
+++++“Okay,” Anderson said, “here is the property outline of the house you’ll use as base.” He drew a red line around the perimeter which included the beach aligned with the house. He tapped his screen and began drawing another line in bright green. “Here is the perimeter of the mark’s property next door.” He drew a line around the mansion complex just east of the base house and included the beach in front of that house. “Halabi doesn’t allow anyone uninvited on his beach. If he catches you there, he might call the police to remove you…but sometimes he walks down there and kicks people off himself. I’m not sure how you’ll know which choice he’ll make.”
+++++“Don’t worry, I got that covered,” I said. “I’ll give him every reason to come talk to me personally.”
+++++Anderson looked like he was going to ask me how but changed his mind. I guessed what he was thinking. When people physically described me, they rarely used the words beautiful or gorgeous. I got attractive, edgy, the occasional lovely, mainly from old ladies, but more often fit and nice looking. I guess Anderson didn’t want to point out that me in a swimsuit under an umbrella wasn’t likely to produce the results I wanted. And he was probably right.
+++++“Arrive quietly,” he continued, “and avoid his cameras. They’re marked in yellow on the map.”
+++++I took another look at the locations of the cameras. “None on the beach?”
+++++“Nope. Intel says his property cameras don’t cover the beach very well in any case.”
+++++“And you’re sure about the house camera’s blind spot here?” I pointed to a piece of the beach in front of the base house.”
+++++“Yup. Our people hacked in and viewed exactly what the cameras see. Don’t turn on any lights in the base house to alert him or his staff that anyone is there. That way when he comes to chase you off his beach, he won’t be sure of where you came from.”
+++++“Don’t you think it’s kinda obvious?”
+++++Anderson shrugged. “This is the only viable plan we have.”
+++++“I’ll make it work as long as you guys do your part.”
+++++“We’ll keep a high-altitude drone overhead. It has heat-sensing capabilities, and we’ll feed you as much intel as we can. The back-up team will follow your lead.”
+++++“Okay,” I said standing. “I’ll be on the road in a few minutes. Hopefully, I’ll be able to take care of the problem in the morning and be back here tomorrow evening.”

***

The ride out to the Hamptons was uneventful, and I entered the house without incident. Using only a pen light, I made my way to the green bedroom to unpack my gear, laying it across one half of the king-sized bed. Once again, I took inventory then prepped for the first half of my task.
+++++That night, under a cloud-covered moon and dressed in gray camo, I snuck out of the base house crept to the beach in front of it. Moving quickly, yet cautiously, I made my way to across the sand to the bottom of Halabi’s path to the beach from his house. The tech team had encased a camera in a piece of driftwood. Lying almost flat, I wiggled forward and set it to view anyone coming down the path. After that, I returned to the base house and got a good night’s sleep.
+++++Sunlight woke me before my alarm the next morning. For breakfast, I ate two energy bars and drank cold coffee from a thermos not wanting to use the kitchen and risk leaving evidence behind. After confirming Halabi’s presence with two of his bodyguards via the tech team and their heat-sensing drone, I prepped to head to the beach planning my arrival for ten a.m. A conduction receiver/mike sat in my mouth on my gumline. I carried a beach chair and a bag with bottle of white wine refilled with sparkling apple juice. In the bag I also had a plastic wineglass, towels, a tablet, more sunscreen, and of course, my weapons. The private beach sloped downhill from the houses and the calm water had only a few boats bobbing in the distance. Seagulls appeared to be the only sounds of life.
+++++I kept my back to the mark’s house as I set up the low-slung beach chair on his portion of the beach and arranged my stuff. A throwaway .22 with its suppressor, the assassin’s favorite weapon, went between the layers of a towel set on the sand and within easy reach. Next, I arranged the bottle of wine and the plastic glass. Standing, I made a show of taking off my sarong, dropping in on the sand, then removed my bikini top, which I hung off the back of the chair allowing the two tiny, black triangles to flutter in the breeze. A black scrap of fabric did little to hide my ass or crotch.
+++++I stretched and bent with my ass pointed at the mark’s house giving anyone watching a good view of my butt. With my face under the brim of a hat, and head ducked, I turned to face the house rummaging in my bag, then finally producing the bottle of sunscreen. I remained facing the house and kneeled to massage more lotion onto my chest, nice and slow, just like in porn movies. Blech. None of that was my idea of sexy.
+++++Once settled in my chair, I pulled up the camera’s app on my tablet and activated it. I opened a music video app to hide the camera app, just like a school kid hiding whatever game they played when they were supposed to be working in class. The ear buds were actually sound amplifiers with the hope that I’d notice anyone sneaking up on me. Then I waited. It didn’t take long.
+++++Within fifteen minutes my screen showed a figure standing at the top of the path, fists on his hips, looking in my direction. At that distance, he wasn’t close enough yet for me to make a positive ID. Stretching my legs, I spread my thighs some and contacted both Tech and my ground team. “I think I’ve got him hooked. Figure at the top of the path.”
+++++“AI confirms,” Anderson said. “Show time.”
+++++Our chief’s voice came on the line. “Back up team, move in.” I pictured Chief, at his workstation, watching the feeds on a screen. Probably one from the drone, and one from the driftwood camera. Of course, the entire office saw me topless. I wasn’t exactly a modest person, but I wasn’t an exhibitionist either. I pushed that from my mind and focused.
+++++“Roger that,” came a reply from Carly on the backup team. “We’re moving in.” With her were three other team members. Within moments, she reported, “We’re in position, and ready to rock and roll.”
+++++All the way from the road in front of the house, I heard four Harley Davidson motorcycles, technically louder than was street legal, moving to a position in front of the mark’s house. The plan was for the team to pull into Halabi’s driveway, make a commotion, and draw any attention to themselves as potential threats. Our two guys were supposed to pretend to be arguing and even begin punching to keep the bodyguards alert in their direction. Hopefully, that would leave me clear to do my work.
+++++The male figure at the back of the house began to walk along the beach path at a leisurely pace. He wore light-colored linen pants rolled at the ankles and a loose, casual, button-down shirt. Short, dark, curly hair, a dark mustache. Casual shoes on his feet. Kind of duck-footed, he didn’t move like a bodyguard or security person would, still my adrenalin increased while I strained to make my own confirmation. Though I trusted Anderson, I didn’t absolutely trust technology, so I kept my eyes glued to the screen, zooming in as best I could.
+++++About halfway down the path to my chair, I confirmed identity to my satisfaction, left the app recording and downloading to the office in real time but switched the screen to a music video. I listened for his footfalls while speaking low into my conduction mike hardly moving my lips. “Nearly to me.”
+++++In my head Anderson’s voice said, “Heat sensors show the bodyguards in the front of the house dealing with the distraction. You’re clear to proceed.”
+++++I bopped my head a little in time to the music, and even though my heart raced, I forced my muscles to remain relaxed. Just a young airhead sunning herself on the beach, not a care in the world. And there he was, a man who had every reason to be wary of any stranger, who damn well knew he was a target for assassination, thinking because I was female and nearly naked, I was harmless. What a moron.
+++++“Miss? Miss, you can’t be here, this is a private beach.” He stood slightly behind me just out of my line of vision.
+++++I ignored him, my eyes glued to the tablet screen singing a little, seemingly lost in the music.
+++++He called louder. “Miss, you can’t be here.”
+++++I turned my head to see him, pretended to startle, and fell out of my chair. I ended up kneeling low in the sand facing him with my knees spread. The bathing suit bottom was so small, there had been no question about waxing a few days ago. As planned, my gun was perfectly within reach. “Oh, you surprised me!” I pressed my hand to my chest and tossed the tablet to the chair. I looked over his shoulder and saw no one at the back of the house, and best as I could tell, no one in the windows.
+++++I put both hands on my thighs, so as not to obstruct his view, and made my sweetest smile at the ugly, motherfucking, terrorist killer. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Surly, you don’t mind little old me here, do you?” When his expression didn’t change, I pouted. “I guess I’ll have to go,” I said reaching for the towel like I was going to gather it up.
+++++He planted his feet more firmly into the sand widening his stance in a show of authority. “Yes, you do,” he said not once looking me in the face.
+++++One thing I learned right from the beginning, was draw, aim, fire. No hesitation—right in the center of his forehead—and he fell back eyes wide open. I lunged forward, put one more in his brain for good measure—never leave it to chance—and scrambled for my stuff.
+++++Sarong knotted around my chest, and everything else in the bag. The gun stayed in my hand, though I unscrewed and stowed the suppressor. I grabbed the chair and raced back to the base house. All the while, Chief gave instructions to Carley and her team to hold position a little longer.
+++++I had already packed the car so I had no need to re-enter the house. Pausing only to toss everything into the trunk, I took off the sarong, drew on a black T-shirt and loose, elastic-waist, black shorts, hit the remote for the garage door, and left. Not exactly racing, no point in drawing attention, but I didn’t dawdle either.
+++++Anderson came on the line. “Good work. There’s been no alarm yet. Just released Carley’s team. They’ll catch up to you on the road.”
+++++“And you guys will erase the camera footage?”
+++++“For sure. Already on it.”
+++++Yup. Just one more day where I earned my paycheck.

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CJ Grant

After a career which included writing for technical manuals and marketing pieces, CJ Grant turned her attention to short fiction. She loves the freedom to write anything she wants and is fascinated with good people who do bad and bad people who do good. She runs a literary writing group at the high school where she works and enjoys participating in community arts events.

Latest posts by CJ Grant (see all)

• Like Only a Woman Can - June 3, 2021
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