After that ambush on the road leading to Los Angeles, Katie and Gadreel proceeded to attack a few more groups of Angels in the following week. Some of the attacks were successful. Katie was able to wipe out groups of Angels in small numbers, crippling them, having Gadreel absorb their essence, and retreating before reinforcements could arrive.
Other attacks were not so fortunate. Once, Katie set her eyes on one particular church. After silencing half a dozen sentries spread across the perimeter, she kicked the door of a church open with malicious intentions, only to find herself staring at dozens of Angels, all of them radiating more power than any Angel Katie had ever seen before.
It took Katie a while to realize that the Angels had discovered what the two of them were doing, and they set up an ambush and waited for them. That day turned out to be quite bloody. If Katie could die, she would’ve died, but since she couldn’t...the fight continued for a long time. When, after several hours of bloody combat, the Angels realized they couldn’t score the kill and they were just wasting their powers, they finally retreated out of the church to rethink their tactics.
Gadreel, unsurprisingly, left the church as soon as it became clear that this was a trap. Katie was just fine with that. When she went back to the Sunny Apartment Complex and rendezvoused with Gadreel, she had a wide smile on.
This was the thrill that Katie Lockwood lived on. The excitement of ambushing others and being ambushed by others. She really didn't give a damn which one it was.
Katie would love to keep this going for a while, but Gadreel was as cautious as always. The Angels, unsurprisingly, knew what the pair was up to. They would most likely be defensive, and proceeding with the hunt would be risky. Katie had the right to not care, but Gadreel...with the recent loots, he had become a lot more powerful, but he was still far from invincible or immortal.
Katie reluctantly agreed to Gadreel’s suggestion to put the hunt on hold for at least a few weeks. Killing Angels was getting a little boring anyway. Just as she was running out of things to do and the haunting apartment couldn’t satisfy anymore, Katie received a message from her handler.
John had a job for her.
Not feeling like driving herself, Katie hailed a taxi and gave the driver the address John sent her. She took the trip alone. From what she received from the handler, this mission should be a simple one, where Katie’s skills with the blade and her newly learned blood magic would be enough to handle things. And if they couldn’t protect her, well...even better! Either way, Gadreel’s presence was not needed.
The taxi made its way out of the city of Los Angeles. For at least twenty minutes, it drove across the open road where the taxi itself was the only traffic. There were only two people in the taxi car, Katie and the driver. The driver was silent most of the way.
Katie simply laid back in the backseat and stared out of the window in boredom. Most women in her position should be a little cautious, but not her.
Finally, after deviating from the main road for a while, the cab came to a stop in front of an enormous mansion that covered a substantial amount of land. It was surrounded by walls on all sides. Whoever owned this mansion obviously wanted some privacy...and security too.
With her heightened senses, Katie could see the sentries standing guard on towers and at the entrances alike, all of them armed to the teeth. There were at least two snipers hiding in the shadows, their weapons trained on Katie as she got off her ride.
Wow...whoever hired her already had their own share of firepower. In other words, she was hired to do something all the guards and snipers couldn’t do. Hmmm...perhaps this mission would be even more interesting than she previously thought!
But first things first...
Katie strolled to the driver’s seat and handed the taxi driver a one-hundred-dollar through the window. Just as she turned back and glanced at the gunmen, the taxi driver, not wanting to stay one more second in front of all the men with guns, pressed the gas pedal and cruised away as fast as his vehicle could take him.
That was fine...until Katie realized what was wrong with that picture. Wait...give me back my change you damn crook! The meter definitely didn't say one hundred bucks!
Katie pondered the idea of drawing her weapons and chasing after the driver. She wanted to make him pay for his insolence...although it was likely not intentional. Still, there were more important things to worry about. She was a professional, damn it! She needed to act like one!
Calm down, Katie...relax!
Sighing to herself, Katie ran her right hand through her short hair before turning and slowly approaching the entrance. She was greeted by a pair of bodyguards with submachine guns and bulletproof vests. Cute...as if a few machine guns could keep these men and their employer alive in this clusterfuck of a world.
“I am here to see Mr. Harrison Cull. He should be expecting me.”
One of the sentries glanced at Katie suspiciously. Gesturing his pal to keep an eye on Katie, he marched back to his sentry station and retrieved what seemed like a stack of information sheets. He flipped to one page and looked up at Katie once again.
“Katie Lockwood?”
“Yep. That’s me.” Katie threw her hands up casually.
The sentry glanced at the paper in his hand again before looking back up at Katie. There was a sense of doubt in his voice. “You don’t look like a mercenary.”
The sentry might just be a bodyguard right now, but he had seen a lot of things before earning this job. In fact, he had been a mercenary in the Middle East for a few years. He had seen female mercenaries and soldiers before, but all of them looked larger and stronger than Katie. And Katie’s skin...it was so soft and perfect that he couldn’t find any callus or scar on it. She looked more like an actress than a fighter.
As far as he could tell, Katie had never been in a fight before. Ever.
“I can beat you with my eyes closed.” The sentry concluded with disdain in his voice. Instead of doing his job, he decided to provoke Katie. “Go home, girl. This is not a job for you. Your handler must have made a mistake.”
Facing the doubts, Katie couldn’t do anything but give him a silent shrug. What could she say? Oh...you are wrong, and the data you have on me is also wrong. I can kill everyone in my twenty-meter radius before any of you can fire a shot? Nah...she was a damn professional! Something told her massacring her employer’s guards within five minutes of arriving wouldn’t be ideal for business or her reputation.
“Even if I’m not qualified, which I am, it is for your boss to decide.” As the sentries refused to move, Katie finally spoke up. Getting stopped at the door...that was a first for her. “Now, move along.”
The sentry looked at each other again before one of them gave the other a nod.
“You can go in.” He demanded. “But you can’t carry any weapons inside.”
Katie rolled his eyes. Once again, this was a first. Either the sentries were taking their jobs very seriously, or they were doing this because they were ordered to. Either way, she casually removed her jacket and started dumping the weapons she had on the ground. Perhaps this was a trap, but she never really relied on her weapon...except for her Knife. Even then, she was as deadly empty-handed as she was wielding a blade.
The sentries exchanged nervous glances at a small pile of weapons formed before Katie’s feet. Two handguns. A few hand grenades. Multiple magazines. Oh, and some sort of knife? The girl might not look dangerous, but she surely came prepared.
Then again, the fact that she allowed herself to be disarmed said a lot, and none of that anything good.
In the end, Katie spun in a circle to show that she was no longer armed. The sentries didn't bother to check if she hid anything beneath her tank top or in her jeans. Good for them, because otherwise Katie would consider forgetting about this job and being professional, cracking their heads open, and proceeding to murder everyone in this mansion. As soon as she was cleared, one of the sentries started taking Katie, who put her black leather jacket back on, into the mansion.
As they left, the other sentry picked up his phone and dialed a number.
If Katie was to describe the mansion in one world, it was magnificent. At the center of the mansion was a three-story tall house. There were entire gardens leading from the entrance at the wall to the buildings itself, tended by several gardeners and maids. A short distance away was a parking lot. Katie noticed nearly a dozen black SUVs spread across the parking lot. A few men were leaning against the cars and smoking. Unlike the guards in black, these men were in camouflage uniforms. Their weapons hang on their sides.
Two sentries in black stood guard at the door of the house. The man leading Katie in explained the situation to them, and the two sentries stepped to the side.
Katie entered the building and was led to the living room, where several men were sitting on sofas around an expensive glass table. One of the men was in his sixties and wearing a straight black suit. Part of his hair was silver. He had a warm smile on as he observed the others in the room talk.
It took Katie a while to recognize the old man as Harrison Cull, her potential employer.
The second man looked like Harrison, except he was a lot younger. Katie suspected that he was the man’s son. Like his father, he was also in a suit and wore a warm smile, but his social skills were obviously less refined. When she looked at his smile, all Katie could notice was how phony it looked.
The other two men were in camouflage uniforms. They were most likely mercenaries, probably hired for the same reason Katie was hired. Katie’s eyes quickly landed on the sidearms on their tactical belts. Wow...talk about unfair treatments! Why were they allowed to bring their weapons in?
Seeing Katie enter, the four men stopped talking and turned to her.
“Katie Lockwood, right?” Harrison’s son raised his eyebrow as his eyes scanned Katie from top to bottom. “Your handler put in a few good words for you. Apparently, you have a habit of handling things with brute force. Brutal, yet effective.”
Katie chuckled. She didn't realize John thought so highly of her! Perhaps she should pay him a visit sometime soon and personally thank him for his compliments…
But what came next made her a lot less...chuckly.
“But it seems like your reputation is overblown. You may go now, Ms. Lockwood. Your service is no longer required.”
Ok...that didn't go great as far as interviews went. “Uh…” Katie glanced across the expressions of the men. “Can I know why? I mean...I did come all the way here, so...is it my appearance?” She tapped her chin. “Am I too pretty to be a good fighter? If so, then I really don’t know if I should feel insulted or happy...”
Suddenly, one of the camouflaged men stood up. As he got to his feet, it seemed like he was a few inches short of two meters tall, and Katie secretly suspected at least half as wide as he was tall. That was an exaggeration, of course. Still, he looked like a giant in front of Katie.
“Let me tell you why, little girl.” The large man grumbled. “Look, I know you may be a good killer. Maybe even a good assassin. Let me guess...you kill people by taking them by surprise? Maybe strip naked and mount them before stabbing or shooting them when they’re too busy touching you? That’s the only way someone as small as you can kill people.”
“But guess what? This mission is not one of those easy kills against idiots who are incapable of turning their eyes away from pretty girls. Not at all. What this mission requires is tough people who can work as a team! It is guys who can take a bullet in the chest and keep moving! A thing as tender and soft as you...you’ll just get yourself killed and risk everyone around you! I’m just doing you a favor!”
“Uh…” Katie stared at the giant in amazement. Absolutely astonishing. Almost every single word he said about her was wrong. That by itself was quite a feat. She turned back to the younger member of the Cull family and snickered. “What’s up with this guy? Took too much testosterone?”
The giant growled in an attempt to terrify Katie. It...really could’ve gone better. The young Cull raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised by the courage Katie demonstrated in front of someone who could gut her like a fish.
“Mr. Lester Moss here is the leader of the mercenary group War Wolves.” He explained why the man was so aggressive toward Katie. “We hired him and his entire team at the cost of 1 million dollars for each person. For a woman of your track record...if the records are indeed true, then we were willing to offer you 2 million dollars for your service. He just found this out not long ago.”
“Oh…” That explained a lot. Jealousy was a sin. “And I’m going to assume if I’m not hired, that budget will go to this steroid addict over there and his band of idiots?”
“Indeed.” The young man’s toyful smile widened. “This is why Mr. Steroid addict...I mean Mr. Moss proposed a test. I ordered the sentries at the door to insult you and try to take your weapons. You gave away your weapons and entered an unfamiliar area without a second thought.”
His ‘slip-up’ with the tongue was definitely on purpose. 100%.
“A soldier’s weapon is his life.” Moss added. He wasn’t happy about Katie’s nicknames for him at all, and he was all too excited to use this chance to retaliate. “We were updated on how you reacted at the door. If it was my boys at the door, they would’ve thrown punches already. Yet you were too much of a pussy to do anything when people are insulting you to your face! And you gave away your weapons like a damn idiot! What if your handler was compromised and it's a squad of gunmen here, waiting for you to arrive so they can gun you down? For someone in this line of work, your lack of caution is truly concerning.”
“Wait, let me get this straight…” At this point, Katie felt like her brain was too slow to catch up with what was happening. “You went through all that trouble...to test me? And now you think I’m not aggressive or daring enough for whatever job you have in mind?”
“Essentially, yes.” The young Cull nodded. But even as he said that, the playful smile on his lips never disappeared. Just like his father, he observed this heated exchange in a laid-back and relaxed manner.
“Fair enough. Although I do think you people are overthinking things...” The brunette nodded slowly. In that case…perhaps it was time to prove to everyone in the room how vicious and aggressive she could be.
