Seduction in Verona

Bianca Collins

"They must be on the other side, Angelina," I say to my partner and sister.

We were observing the activity in an old aeronautical hangar, from afar camouflaged amid the endlessly falling snow, we could see that SISU intelligence was correct, they were selling weapons, we just needed to find out who they were.

My sister is the senior officer on this mission, she decides to crawl through the snow to get a better look; we had no orders to interfere with the negotiations, our only directive was to investigate who was responsible for selling and buying this shipment.

Our mission was purely reconnaissance, but if it were up to Angelina, she would end up delivering the shipment to our command, a director of SISU who doesn't inspire much confidence in me. With night vision, I monitor the main targets who could spot my sister approaching them if they paid a bit more attention.

Even though we have been highly trained since childhood when we were recruited from an orphanage in Sicily, I am panicked that something might happen to my only relative. I know we should not show any kind of emotion on a mission. But my sister is my weakness, without her, I would crumble and be lost.

"Angel, target approaching from your left," I say into my communicator.

I feel distressed upon noticing that a man in a heavy cold-weather coat was less than fifty yards from my sister.

"Hide."

I hear the communicator go silent, keeping my eyes glued to the scene unfolding from a distance. My sister, covered slightly with snow behind a small bush, watches as the man unzips and aims at the bush to pee. I draw my pistol and silencer, ready to aim at his head if necessary to protect my sister.

My breathing speeds up as I watch him look suspiciously at the mound of snow covering my sister's body. I take a deep breath when his attention shifts and he looks the other way. Another idiot emerges from the hangar and approaches him.

I can't hear what they're saying, but I relax a bit as they start to walk away.

I lay my head in the snow and breathed a sigh of relief; my sister was safe.

But the hollow sound startles me, and I see smoke coming from the barrel of the gun, observing the lifeless body in the middle of the snow. Anger and desperation begin to overwhelm me. I feel a burning desire to go over there and kill each one of them for killing my sister.

I can't let the pain of seeing Angel lifeless cloud my mind, I have to get out of here before I'm caught and killed, I have to get the information to our superiors. Through the binoculars, I could see that they were looking everywhere for someone else, but luckily, they didn't look in my direction.

I can't get a good view of Angel's killer, but I'm sure I'll find him and kill him without mercy.

"I promise you, Angel," I said, looking at his lifeless body in the middle of the pool of blood that stained the snow.

It was just another mission for SISU, but when I returned to Scotland, where a small annex of SISU's true identity is located, and presented myself to our superiors, there were differences in the information we had collected and what they had encrypted. There was suspicion and many questions about my sister's motives in approaching the targets. Since that wasn't our mission.

"You need to report to Moscow, Mr. Saveli demanded your presence," my superior said, looking at me with disdain.

I could see in the eyes of each person in that interrogation room that they didn't believe a word I had said. Then the thought Angel always expressed came to my mind as I handed over my credentials.

"We'll only serve as long as we're convenient to them, after that, we'll be discarded like trash that needs to be destroyed."

I remember this and hand my pistol over to the superior, who had a mocking look, which made me even more puzzled by it all.

I knew that as soon as I stepped out of that building, I would become a target. They would hunt me for getting too close to something I shouldn't have, and I had the feeling that my superiors knew exactly what was going on in Russia that night.

And to my sorrow, my sister wanted to show why she was so competent and always chosen for the various missions she undertook. Angela wanted to deliver good results to the command, but unfortunately, she lost her life in the process.

Leaving that building felt like a prelude to what my life would be if I didn't put into practice everything I had learned from them in the twenty years I've lived within the walls of SISU, being trained to be a deadly weapon.

As soon as I escape being run over, I leave the name Bianca Collins behind. With the help of a friend whom I had assisted some time ago, I become Laura Miller, an unemployed woman fleeing from a violent ex-partner.

There were several attempts on my life, but through agility and wit, I managed to escape all those who pursued me.

"Laura, I've got some information for you!"

One of my most reliable informants called on the disposable phone I had.

"Speak," I say, looking out at the landscape in Brussels.

The snow was falling, speckling the ground, leaving a romantic air over the city.

"I found information about a possible buyer from that night."

He says, and I move away from the window to pay closer attention to what he was saying.

"Verona, Italy, that's all I got, but I think it's the Don from that region who was there that night."

"Thanks, Jon, I owe you one!"

The phone is disconnected as quickly as I toss what was in my hand to the ground and destroy it to ensure I can't be tracked. I have a plan in mind; it's time to confront those who were in the hangar that night.

I'm not sure yet what I've gotten myself into, but I'll find out and avenge my sister's death.

Laura Miller

"I'm sorry, you don't qualify for any of our positions," the recruiter says, holding my resume in her hands.

Once again, I failed to secure a job that would even slightly help me get closer to my goals. My frustration is mounting as I struggle to achieve what I desire.

After managing to escape from Scotland, I was chased across various places, necessitating a change of name and life. My options were beginning to dwindle, and the money I had was running out. If I didn't find something soon, I would have to resort to means I wished to avoid.

I don't want to become a mercenary, even though I yearn for the heart of that bastard in the blue coat. I swallow my irritation at the woman's rejection, fighting the urge to smash my fist into her face to demonstrate just how capable I am for whatever role she had in mind for this selection process.

My irritation persists, haunted by the thoughts of every training session I endured, only