"Hey sweetie, my boss told me I'll have to leave town to go to a conference, I should be home in a few days!" Jessica leaned against the doorframe of my office, smiling at me brightly. As always, her makeup was perfect, her long blonde hair pulled into a professional yet stylish ponytail.
I stood to give her a kiss. "Call me when you're on the way home, sweetheart. I'll make dinner for when you get back!" Behind me, the excel sheets blinked on my computer steadily, from the boring accounting job I did from home. Mostly freelance, to give me plenty of time to enjoy my fabulous wife.
Jessica leaned down into the kiss, her bubblegum-flavored lips brushing against mine. Despite the professional makeup, she always had a top layer of bubblegum lip gloss over her lipstick, because she'd loved the flavor since she was little. Finding different color shades of bubblegum lip gloss to gift her every so often was the highlight of every month.
Jessica whispered in my ear. "It will be in Toronto, if you want me to pick up anything for you, just text, babe. Boss said not to tell many people, it's a big client, but if you want anything at all, don't hesitate." Her lips brushed against my earlobe in a final kiss before she flounced upstairs to grab her always-ready suitcase, leaving me feeling weak in the knees.
As soon as her car pulled out, heading towards the airport, I locked all the doors. Safety first, even if she came home having forgotten something, she'd push the buzzer or type our special code in the alarm. Jessica always stressed that she wanted me safe whenever she had to leave.
Inside my office, I pulled the door closed, locking it behind me, and then put in a code Jessica didn't know about. On my windows, reflective, explosion-proof glass slid down. Over the door, more fortified glass. Lowering from the ceiling were three new computer screens, one with more accounts, including the private charter to Toronto, and the money Jessica would need to schmooze up with her target. One screen showed the map, the little flicker of Jessica's tracker, carefully hidden in her neck years before we'd met, indicating where she was. Five minutes from the plane, now.
The third screen...It showed a pasty old man, his white skin hanging flaccid on his face. His eyes were small and beady, and sweat clung permanently to his jowls. His grey hair was brushed carefully over a growing bald spot, and his mouth was full of fake white teeth.
He was a monster. His company only used cheap labor in far away countries, breaking up unions with guns. His current wife was 40 years younger than he was, and she was barely allowed to go in public. All his prior wives had died under mysterious circumstances.
He needed to die, and Jessica was the best...
But I was worried. Lately, I'd been slipping Jessica safer missions, but as her handler, I couldn't make it obvious. I couldn't let her know I was the one holding her back. She'd complained about it right before I found this mission, but even still I worried.
And I couldn't admit I was worried, because Jessica didn't know I was her handler. Didn't know that I knew she was an assassin. To all outsiders, she was a high ranking sales executive, who DID go to big conferences in the industry, who had even given a TED talk on marketing to a younger audience. And to all outsiders, I was an accountant, a short and chubby little woman who was hired freelance to clean up accounts after people quit, or died, or just made mistakes.
Lying to each other was the worst part.
I hadn't even known I was her handler until after our wedding, we had both been so careful. I would never schedule dates to be when "Assassin J" was out of town, because I had to be available for J's needs. And Jessica wouldn't schedule dates for when she was gone, because she wasn't there.
It wasn't until I'd checked the tracking on "J" right after sending them on an emergency mission, and Jessica having to leave suddenly to go to "an emergency sales meeting" that I'd felt the inkling of suspicion, and checking "J's" tracker, I'd seen them hurtling towards the airport away from my house.
And then Jessica having the sheer balls to ask her handler to make sure her new wife was protected while Assassin J was away. Not enough balls to invite me to the wedding, not that her shadowy handler would even go, but enough balls to ask me to protect her wife.
On the screen, Jessica's tracker blipped, the plane was taking off. I counted down in my head. In roughly three minutes, she would call her handler.
The phone blared and the headset with the voice modifier dropped down from the ceiling. I popped it over my head and clicked the "accept call" button.
Jessica's voice came cheerfully through the headset.
"Hey Boss! So I read the file, anything I need to know?"
I looked at my own file carefully. "Well, J, the target has fairly heavy security with him at all times, except when he's in his Penthouse suite. However, they will be patrolling the outside of the suite, the floors above and below, and the hotel lobby. When you reach location, you will be invited to the same hotel - you're staying two floors below him, and a dress will be provided. There is a conference and a sales pitch meeting to attend, red tie, try to schmooze to him like he was a normal client. If you're lucky, he'll invite you to his room.
"If his wife is there, knock her out gently, and then help get her out and to your room after the target is taken care of. She isn't the one who hired us, but our client has provided her with documents, money, and a plane ticket to make her escape.
"And stay safe, I don't want to tell your wife that you got hurt making a sale."
Jessica's breathy laugh came through the headset. "I would never worry her! You're still protecting our house, right? I know she thinks I worry too much, but in our industry, we make so many enemies."
I chuckled as well. "Your wife is as safe as possible, she activated the security as soon as you were out the door. And it would take someone exceptionally clever to find out who you are, J, I only learned your identity when you told me your wife's name, someone else would have to work VERY hard to find you."
I couldn't see it, but I knew Jessica was nodding. "Thank you, Boss. I'll have to call her when I land, she is bad about asking for gifts, and I want to get her something, and Toronto...hmm."
My face flushed a bit with pleasure, though Jessica couldn't see. "Well, J, the maple syrup is always good, but if you're looking for something a bit fancier, I hear there is a shoe museum in Toronto you can visit, or the baseball team is quite popular."
Jessica's voice came back a bit muffled, as if she was hiding a smile behind her hand. "PFFF, well I don't know about shoes, but baseball...I'll keep that in mind."
I grinned as we ended the conversation. As her boss, I could suggest things. As her wife, I felt guilty, even if the Blue Jays were my favorite team.
As her wife, I pulled out my phone, and sent a quick text, "See you when you're home! I don't know what I want, just get me syrup or something! <3"
Three days later, Jessica was on the plane home. Her mission had been a success. The old man's young wife was currently starting a new life in Paris, where one of my agents was helping her settle in. The old man's death hadn't hit the news yet, but that stood to reason, his body had disappeared without a trace from a penthouse apartment, surrounded by guards, at the same time as his young wife did. For all intents and purposes, it looked like the two had gone off somewhere. I knew his body wouldn't be found for a long while, it had been on a third plane, where it had been wrapped in chains, then dropped casually into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
My handler computers were tucked away. My cell phone was in my pocket, the handler phone app (which automatically activated voice masking when a call came to that number) quiet as Jessica pulled closer.
In the oven, I was cooking a nice baked chicken, a potato casserole, and Jessica's favorite, garlic roasted brussels sprouts.
Even my accounting client was happy, I'd fixed an error that was causing miscalculations of over a thousand dollars, and had identified the bug in his program that had been causing it.
And best of all, I'd found a black bubblegum lipgloss, which I'd carefully wrapped in a tiny box, with a bright pink ribbon, for Jessica when she came home.
When she was ready to tell me her job, I was ready to tell her mine. But in the meantime, we were happy.
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