The Tropic's Resort - I have a rendezvous with death. (private)

Simon sat in the darkness of his car looking at the laptop monitor on his lap. The glare of the gray screen bathed the features on his face making them washed out and void of any expression. The new Domicile assistant was forwarding information into his laptop and the details were popping up in overlapping windows. Surveillance photos, detailed synopsis of personal history, favorite haunts, illicit behavior but more importantly an itinerary dated for the current week and specifically, that particular evening. Simon blinked at the small voice speaking from his dashboard speakerphone.

'Mr. Huntington?'

Kenley's voice was as soothing as it was professional. She never referred to him by his first name, or by title, but always by his last name.


'Yes, Kenley?'

'That is all the information given on the mark. He is currently registered under the name of Joe Smith at the Tropics Resort. He has a luxury suite on the fourth floor and is accompanied by a young lady.'


'Not his wife, I'm assuming.' It wasn't a question. Simon clicked onto the family photo that showed a woman clearly in her forties and was anything but young.

'No, sir. She is not.'

Simon sighed the sigh of the bored and closed his laptop.
'Kenley?'

'Yes, Mr. Huntington?'


'How old are you?'

'I'm twenty four, sir.'

She was just about Carol's age but different in every way. From hair color, body type and demeanor. It was almost relaxing to have a professional secretary again.


'How long have you been doing this line of work?'

'Ten years, Mr. Huntington.'

Simon raised his eyebrows in surprise as she continued.

'My father's family is originally from here on the east coast. Brooklyn to be exact. Just a way of life.'


'Really.' Again, not a question. 'Thank you, Kenley.'

'Good luck, Mr. Huntington.'

Simon moved the closed laptop over to the passenger side seat and exited his new XF 4.2 V8 supercharged Jaguar that replaced the one that Ellis had wrecked in the Marina not far from where he was parked. It was ebony with charcoal seats and charcoal facia soft grain leather. It was next year's model and the leather felt like butter.

Simon stepped out wearing black BDU style pants tucked into high tread leather combat boots. His black fitted uniform armor shirt was warm enough for the chill of fall on the east coast but breathed enough to combat against sweating. He pulled out his black gloves and slipped them over his hands as the trunk popped open silently. Pulling out a long black case, he rested the case gently onto the asphalt of the street down from the Tropics Resort. Simon looked around as he popped the clamps and reached in for the STEYR HS50 long range rifle. It was preloaded and ready to rock. Shouldering the rifle, Simon lifted the case back into the trunk, and as an afterthought, took out his standard glock and extra clips.

Simon rolled his shoulders as he stepped into the darkness of the building shadows and trotted toward the Resort.

Ellis Duban 15 years ago
Ellis stepped out of her blending just as she approached the entrance of the underground parking lot for the exclusive Tropics Resort. She was wearing Gucci everest wedged, high heeled, black boots, black riding pants with suede knee pads along with a ribbed turtleneck and matching bomber jacket. The wedged boots had become her favorite though whatever it lacked in versatility, it made up for in style.

No one said you couldn't look good when you were out killing.

Reaching into the arm pocket of her jacket, Ellis pulled out her trademark red and white pack of cigarettes and silver lighter. Tucking the cigarette in between her red lips, she slowed her pace as she stood in front of the new resort. The flame from her cigarette lit her face in a soft, orange glow and with a resounding snap, put the lighter back in the zipped pocket.

Ellis inhaled deeply on her cigarette as she looked over the establishment. She cocked her head to the side and tried to appreciate the setting. It was simply a man made island.


'Huh', Ellis said aloud.

There was a covered walkway that lead across to the atoll with lush green scenery, even for this time of year on the east coast. The wind kicked up and blew a bit of her hair in her face, reminding her that she wasn't in the pacific but near the atlantic and it was fucking getting cold. Ellis pulled the errant piece of hair away from her face as she inhaled on the cigarette nestled neatly between her lips.


'Welp, people need killing,' she said without enthusiam. Ellis took a final, long pull on her cigarette and then flicked it off to her side as she blended back into the night and entered the Tropics Resort.
Simon Huntington 15 years ago
Procuring the suite across from the mark took exactly thirty seconds. Simon was clearing the patio of its furniture and the master bedroom of any obstruction to the window as he reflected on the ease of this particular event.

The occupants, who had dutifully paid for their luxury suite, were unconscious and/or tied up in the bathroom. He had hit the gentleman rather hard not just to incapacitate him, but more out of annoyance that all it took was Simon uttering 'house keeping' to have him open the door. Apparently no one watched 'Dateline' anymore.

The man and his wife were in the large jacuzzi bathtub curled up nice and neat. The wife was scared out of her mind and gagged with a tube sock. Her husband was not only unconscious next to her but balding. Simon had put his finger to his lips and shushed the couple as he closed the bathroom door.

The suite was in perfect view of his mark's balcony. Just beyond the curtains he could see the edge of the master bedroom bed and silently he watched silhouettes walk past the sheers until finally two bodies fell onto the bed. Pulling a chair up, Simon sat comfortably down behind the dresser he had moved in front of the balcony door to support his rifle.

Simon preferred sniper kills rather than the up and personal kills Ellis took pleasure in doing. There was no real finesse in messy kills, snapped necks, or a knife to the kidneys. Sniping took precision, skill, and above all patience. So, with an extreme amount of patience, Simon propped his feet up onto the dresser next to his rifle and shrugged into the chair, waiting for Mr. Joe Smith, a.k.a. State Senator Gerald DeSmiths to finish schupting the 'not quite Mrs. Smith'.
Ellis Duban 15 years ago
Ellis turned her head to the side and inhaled deeply on her fourth unfiltered cigarette in sixteen minutes. It dangled from her dry lips, bobbing up and down with her words.

'Man...I need to stop smoking so much.'

Instead of blowing the smoke out, she let it drift around her words as she twisted the object in her arms until there was a satisfactory crack.

'They calm me though, you know?'

Ellis looked down at the dead security men guarding the door to the luxury suite. She half expected a response and smiled at the thought.

'Welp, ok. Here we go.' Ellis hefted the one security guard in her arms by his wrist and effortlessly pulled him over to the other by the elevator.

Ellis picked up the other guard and moved along the hallway slowly, admiring the tropical plants, warm tones and sand colored carpet which
was decorated in the same vain as the rest of the resort. She had decided against feeding on the guards and opted for quiet elimination, partly out of the need to be undetected, but mostly because she was wearing Gucci.

It was Gucci for god's sakes.

Ellis walked past the emergency stairs and continued on until she reached the floor's maintenance room. The door was nestled almost undetected at the far corner of the hallway and opened by gently pushing against the wall. Ellis shoved the two guards into the room as the smoke from her cigarette drifted up into her eyes. Once the men were disposed, she closed the door and took the cigarette out of her mouth and gave it a curious look.

'Ok...where the hell are the ashtrays?'

Ellis spun around trying to locate an ashtray until she remembered that the rest of the world frowned upon the habit and systematically removed all ashtrays, cigarette machines, and phone booths (for some reason) from the public eye. So instead of disposing of it properly, Ellis walked up to a potted palm tree and put out her cigarette in the soil.

Wiping her hands on the back of her pants,
Ellis returned to the door of the suite.
Victim 15 years ago
Gerald DeSmiths was a member of the United States Senate, chairman of the Energy committee, and a devout republican. He was also very insignificant in the grand scheme of things, so the hit on his life came at an enormous surprise.

Gerald rolled off the petite body and caught his breath with what most would call a 'shit eating grin'. In his early fifties extramarital affairs weren't exactly few and far between. In fact, he stayed in excellent shape just for evenings such as the one he was living. It would also help him stay alive just a few minutes longer than planned.

It was a sincere pleasure fucking the 'not Mrs. Smith', Gerald thought to himself as he watched the young beauty rise from the king sized bed and make her way to the bathroom. This one was professional, but not in the obvious sense. She had a career and was exceptionally good at it. Her place within Nachton's high society was a permanent fixture, so being able to bag the beauty was a notch on his belt, so to speak.

And Jesus she had a shapely ass.

Gerald threw his legs over the side of the bed and sat up with a back cracking stretch. Slapping his hands on the tops of his thighs, the good Senator stood and crossed the room to the patio door. This wasn't his first time visiting the Resort, new though it was. The minute it opened he procured a suite and kept it on retainer for just this sort of rendezvous. It was handy and much more convenient to use rather than his Nachton penthouse. Paying for it was a breeze; money siphoned off from his personal account and recorded as business ventures. Meetings. Conventions. Appearances. Fucking hot pieces of ass fit right in nicely.

Senator DeSmiths pulled open the patio door and let the chilled breeze cool the thin sheet of sweat on his body. The sheers from the designer curtains blew back with the wind and draped along his back only to puff up again and billow in the air. The patio was a good distance away from the suites across his allowing for a beautiful view of the water while enjoying the architecture of the property. Gerald sighed as he listened to the shower in the bathroom turn on.

Looking over his shoulder he tried to see the shapely young body through the open door of the bathroom. He thought for a moment he felt the heat of the hot water through the door on his bare skin even though it was clear across the room. Gerald looked back out the patio and smiled as the sheer drape caught on something and hung behind him. So caught up in his good fortune and the afterglow of mediocre sex, Gerald didn't seem to notice.


'What a perfect place for a rendezvous,' he murmured out loud to himself.

'Isn't it?'

The buttery smooth voice of a woman echoed in his right ear. His eyes looked to his right and followed the hung drape that cascaded over someone unexpected. A woman.

Gerald blinked curiously not at the dark haired woman in his suite, but down the barrel of the gun she was holding an inch from his forehead. Naked, cold and suddenly shriveled up like a sweet pickle, Senator DeSmiths opened his mouth to scream and the woman put the barrel of the gun neatly into his mouth.

'Hey, thanks,' she said as the sound of a bullet exploded in his head.
Simon Huntington 15 years ago
Simon picked absently at his nail with the double edge carbon steel blade wickedly named 'The Devil's Elbow'. It was six inches overall but was bent at the base of the blade and was perfect for up close defense (or offense). He cleaned the thumbnail of his left hand as he stared off just beyond his feet which were still propped up on the dresser in front of him.

He was recalling his last conversation with Ellis, how her aura had become a tangible almost live being. How it reached out with its ethereal fingers and encompassed the both of them in her aura, his mingling with hers. Every one of her emotions was easily sensed and it pulsated within the aura like a spiritual lie detector. Part of him wanted to feel it again, to be lost in it. He could feel it, even now, whispers of it crossing over him, reminding him of her presence and it frightened him as well as aroused him.

Simon's fingers ceased moving as he recalled that feeling, his eyes drifting up out the patio window. He felt the chilled breeze roll in from the waterfront and absently he reached up with the hand wielding the knife and scratched the itch niggling at the base of his brain. The flash of moonlight reflected off the blade and finally his eyes helped his brain focus on that tell-tale itch.


'Wh-...shit!'

Leaning forward he put his right eye behind the scope of his rifle and centered his view on the Senator's back and just beyond him...Ellis.

Simon took careful aim and fired.
Victim 15 years ago
Not one but two loud blasts passed his ear and Gerald felt his body be pushed to the side, back over to the king sized bed and, painfully, over it. Survival was a funny thing, Gerald thought briefly to himself as he lay tangled in the sheets of the bed. He was stunned into paralysis at just missing meeting death, who apparently had green eyes, but the crashing of glass flying across the room and bodies hitting the floor just passed the bed with a rage of cursing was enough of a jolt to realize that leaving was probably a good idea.

His black slacks had been cast away along with his date's dress and the rest of his clothes on the floor next to him. Quickly he grabbed them and tried to slip them on while stepping on broken glass. As he fought with the pant legs, his attention strayed at what appeared to be a male and female fighting angrily on the floor.

'God...damn.' The female voice hissed out. 'No you don't!'

There was a loud thump as the male tried to stand and reach out to Gerald who fell back down to the ground to escape his clutches.

'Ellis...get off!'

'No! He's my kill. Mine!'

That was enough for Gerald to snap out of his startled gaping, put on his slacks, and get the fuck out of the room. With a quick glance at the bathroom door, Gerald wished his date good luck and ran out of the bedroom.
Ellis Duban 15 years ago
Perception shouldn't have to work with focus, Ellis angrily thought to herself. It should just always be there, in full strength, despite what she was concentrating on - through emotional tirades, arousal or hate. It should be like 'spider sense'. They were super human, weren't there? Fucking superheroes.

Ellis' perception picked up the figure across the patio just as her finger pulled back on the trigger of her .38. With her liquid speed she pushed the Senator to the side and redirected her gun, firing it off. The incoming bullet skimmed off of hers as she turned to the side, dodging it easily. She felt the whiff of air pass her face as it made its way into and through the bathroom wall behind her. The crash of glass from the bathroom made her turn her head, especially when it was followed by a female shriek and ended with more glass flying into her face, pushing her onto the ground and sending her gun out of reach.

She knew exactly who it was but a half second too late. Ellis took the brunt of the hit in her mid section and it knocked the air out of her. They scrambled, limbs tangled together as the new addition to the room posed a serious threat to her kill.


'God damn...,' was all she could grunt out as Simon's long leg flashed in front of her as he climbed up off the floor toward the Senator. 'No you don't!'

Ellis grabbed his leg and pulled hard, knocking him back down to the ground. She began to climb up his back in hopes to get past him when he yelled out to get off him.


'No! He's my kill, ' she hissed. 'Mine!'

Simon had begun to rise up again onto his knees when Ellis catapulted herself forward and knocked him back to the ground. Her gun lay just out of reach in front of them and they bit and pulled at one another to get to it, helplessly watching the Senator beat it out of the room.
Simon Huntington 15 years ago
Simon squeezed off one round from his rifle, kicked back the chair behind him, took two steps back and was out the patio door in half a second. His arm clipped the opened patio door in the Senators room, shattering it and sending shards of glass into the room and into Ellis' face.

Seeing her in the cross hairs of his rifle should not have been a surprise. The presence of her aura had been so strong that he should have realized she was nearby. He felt her surprise well up into anger as he shoved her to the ground, thanking god that whatever had distracted her just enough to not move out of the way. Immediately he opened up his perception and felt the presence of the female, but no one else. Ellis had apparently taken care of the Senator's two guards that were posted outside the room. The female in bathroom would have to wait, but she would undoubtedly be silenced permanently.

Simon got up on a foot and turned toward the Senator, only to have his leg pulled, knocking him off balance and slamming his knee onto the ground.


'Ellis...get off!' His knee throbbed in pain as she climbed up his back.

'No! He's my kill, ' s
he hissed. 'Mine!'

He could see her gun just out of their reach and the stunned Senator finally figured out why they were both there and ran out of the room.


'Damnit Ellis, he's running...oof!' Ellis' agility put her over his shoulders in a second, keeping him off balance and lunged for her gun. Just as the Senator made it through the bedroom door, she grabbed her gun and got up on her feet to follow. Simon pulled out his gun from his waist band and the two of them pushed through the door.

The living room area of the suite was decorated in the same tropical theme with patio styled but very high end furniture. Ellis aimed her gun and fired just as he got to her, knocking her to the side. Her bullet went wild above the Senator's head who was running with his arms up. Simon raised his gun and she reached out and grabbed his as he grabbed hers and they both began shooting wildly, their bullets passing through the living room wall into the hallway. They both stood there almost in a dance position - their chests pressed together as their free hands grappled with the other. He tried flipping her but she just used her agility to off set his throw and finally the Senator made it out of the suite.

Pushing her, Simon crossed the living room with Ellis right behind him.
Victim 15 years ago
Gerald was amazed he made it out of the suite alive, but was equally surprised to find the hallway empty. Both his bodyguards were gone. Stunned he fell back against the elevator call button, pressing it but stupidly ran past the doors and down the hallway in search of his men. As he turned the corner he heard more gunfire and the bullets penetrated the wall above the elevator doors.

Unknown to him, and his killers, the bullets grazed the cables holding the elevator car and frayed the lines. Gerald continued down the hallway to the dead end and he fell back against the wall, pushing against the hidden door. He was pushed to the side as his men came falling out of the door and fell to his feet.

Both body guards were dead, their heads flopping in an unnatural position on top of their broken necks. Gerald let out a muffled squeal as he stumbled over them back toward the elevators. He rounded the corner just in time to see both his assailants fall out of the suite door on the opposite side of the elevator doors which were opening.

Gerald ran toward the doors, his eyes on the man and woman as they watched him make it to the doors before they could raise their guns again.

'Shit. No!' They both yelled out at the same time as Gerald turned and entered the opened doors to the elevator car.

Only the elevator car wasn't there.

In the time it took for Gerald to make it down the hallway and the two killers to fall out of the suite door, the cable holding the car continued to fray and finally separated, plunging the car back down the four floors to the bottom. Gerald, in his haste, failed to notice this as he turned and fell down the elevator shaft in front of the man and woman.

Gerald DeSmiths fell down the four floors and landed on top of the elevator car. The last thing the good Senator heard was his neck snapping, killing him instantly.
Ellis Duban 15 years ago
Ellis and Simon laid on the ground in front of the suite door in stunned silence. The elevator door had opened and much to their surprise, the elevator car was not there. Gerald DeSmiths did not notice this, she was fairly certain, because he ran into the elevator and disappeared down the shaft.

'Wait...did he just...?' Ellis began to ask as she looked over at Simon.

'I think so,' Simon replied.

Frantically they both stood, rushed over to the elevator doors and peered down into the shaft. Gerald DeSmith laid quite dead and in an unnatural position on top of the elevator car. Ellis looked up and saw the snapped cable dangling quietly, swaying to and fro.

'Well, nuts.' Ellis snorted and then turned to watch Simon slowly put his gun away, glaring at her. She opened her mouth to say something but was rudely interrupted by the shrill screaming of Gerald's date standing in the doorway. Ellis recognized her immediately.

It was Tai's girlfriend, Shiroi Yuukaku.
Yuu 15 years ago
Yuu looked at herself in the mirror and kept telling herself that sleeping with the married Senator was a good idea. She looked at her reflected naked body and then rolled her eyes.

Who was she kidding? She wasted this body on that old piece of meat.

Granted that piece of meat was politically connected, ambitious, and could directly influence her career. On the other meaty hand, he was married, old, and not Tai. When did whoring yourself out to further your career got to be a good idea with tainted results?

When was it not?

With a disgusted sigh Yuu walked over to the glass shower and marveled at the ingenuity of coffin like bathrooms. It was partitioned off from the large sunken tub and was at least four hundred square feet, surrounded by glass with eight inlaid shower heads that moved up and down. A colossal waste of water, but definitely something she was having installed in her home. Yuu stepped inside and turned on the water, letting the steam fill up the large bathroom. Once scalding hot enough to burn the top layer of her skin away, Yuu closed the shower door and let the water run over her body.

Standing in the middle Yuu began to methodically cleanse her body of the Senator's touch. Her eyes glazed over as she thought about what she had just done and not for the first time. She had been sleeping with the Senator off and on since meeting him at one of the District Attorney's parties. Yuu in Versace and the Senator in Armani. At least he dressed well.

Yuu considered the frailty, and stupidity, of her actions when the glass door of the shower shattered into a thousand pieces, spraying her naked body with shards of glass, slashing her in a dozen places with superficial cuts.

With a shriek she cowered in the corner of the shower, her arms covering her head as the sound of glass shattering happened again, only it wasn't in the bathroom, it was outside in the bedroom. Yuu sat terrified, listening to the commotion happening in the other room. Voices, as clear as a bell, could be heard.


'Ellis...get off!'

'No! He's my kill. Mine!'

Slowly Yuu stood, her body shaking despite the scalding hot water. There were more gunshots that were eventually followed by silence. But despite the noise there was one thing on her mind and it kept repeating itself.

Get the fuck out of there.

'Move, Yuu.' She muttered to herself, but was still moving at a turtle's pace. 'Move!'

The sound of her voice jolted her back to reality and she ran through the glass, cutting her feet. She ignored the pain and grabbed her bathrobe, slipping it on as she peered out of the bathroom.

Nothing.

Quickly Yuu padded out into the living room and made a break for the door. She had marveled at how beautifully decorated the suite was, but ironically she ignored it all and the fact that she was leaving a trail of small bloody footprints on the sand colored carpet. She cinched her bathrobe closed and ran for the opened door.

She came to a screeching halt and screamed again. Two people were in her way and they weren't the body guards. It was a man and a woman who both turned to look at her from their perch in front of the opened elevator.

Her hands were covering her mouth and she lowered them, blurting out with wide shocked eyes. The man was tall, handsome and armed, but painfully familiar.


'...Simon?' Yuu managed to squeak out, right before the woman raised her gun and pointed it in the little spot in between her eyes.
Simon Huntington 15 years ago
'Miss Yuukaku?'

He had only gotten a chance to see her backside, such as it was, during the Senator's romp and after they were completed with their coupling. Simon never considered the woman with the Senator, therefore never really looked at her. But now he was and now, he was both surprised and confused.

'Wait a minute,' he said to Ellis who was preparing to blow the back of Miss Yuukaku's head back into the living room of the suite. Simon put his hand up and touched Ellis' wrist.

'Wait for what, are you kidding me?'

'Why is she here?' Simon looked at Ellis, ignoring the crying assistant district attorney. 'And why did we both get this job?' Ellis gave Simon an incredulous look, but he saw her mind working out the problem.

There was a clear double booking since they both knew who was in charge of the hired killings in Nachton. Only one man who enlisted the clan exclusively and after the change in leadership, had only double booked once before. Simon figured that had something to do with Ellis, but now?


Simon lifted his chin in Miss Yuukaku's direction and Ellis nodded, lowering her gun. In unison they muttered what both were thinking.

'She's the target.'

Ellis holstered her own gun and walked passed the little asian woman.

'Come on,' Simon said and grabbed Miss Yuukaku, Yuu he seemed to recall, by the arm roughly. He could already hear the commotion their shooting was causing and his perception picked up the racing heartbeats of people coming up the emergency stairs. It was time to go.
Yuu 15 years ago
'What do you mean I'm the target? Where's Gerald?'

Yuu was being unceremoniously man handled back into the suite by one Simon Huntington. A friend of her best friend Dani and apparently a hired killer a fact that she guessed, but didn't really take seriously when she first met him. Her ability to read someone was something she'd usually be proud of, but at the moment it was terrifying her.


'Where are you taking me?'

If they were going to kill her, he would have let the woman, Ellis she thought her name was, do it already. Someone had put a hit out on Gerald DeSmith but apparently they're thinking that it should have been her. Yuu gulped.

'What do you mean I'm the target? Why am I a target? And where is Gerald?'

The Ellis woman was waiting for them in the bedroom where Simon immediately picked her up and threw Yuu over his shoulder. Yuu immediately realized that her feet were bleeding.

'Gerald had to catch that elevator and someone wants you dead, honey.'

Yuu tried to swivel around Simon's shoulders to look her in the face.
'Who are you?'

'We're friends', Simon answered as he walked through the shattered patio doors.


'No, you're killers. Hired killers.'

'Well if you knew the answer, why'd you ask?' Ellis replied laughing. 'Taking her home?'

Yuu felt the chill from the waterfront on her wet skin as Simon and Ellis finished their conversation.

'Yeah. You going to go see him first?'

'Oh I'm going to go kill him.'

'Don't kill him, just wait for me.'

'Fine.'


'See who?' Yuu asked, then demanded to know, 'Wait, where are you taking me? This is felony kidnapping.'

'No sweet pea, this is us, saving your life.' Ellis stepped back into Yuu's line of vision and gave her a sarcastic grin. Then, much to Yuu's dismay, disappeared.


'Where...where'd she go? Simon, let me down. Please...don't do this.'

But he must have, Yuu thought. Well, it was the last thing she thought just before Simon lept off the fourth floor balcony into the landscaped property below. The jolt of the landing rattled her jaw and knocked the wind out of her.

In hindsight Yuu would question the path her life was taking her and decide that it was most inappropriate. What would follow in the coming days, even hours, would change everything for her. She'd think back on this, after waking up from being thrown to and fro on the back of a handsome killer, and wonder if maybe she shouldn't have gone to medical school instead.

((Yuu, Simon, Ellis - out))

Continued in Stuck in a moment and Wanna be a rock star