“Only one shot.”, she shivered as the breeze caressed her bare face, which was half hidden behind her sniper. Her eyes were carefully watching him cleaning his guns in the hotel room in Paris – a place where they both had missions to complete. His – to kill her, hers – to kill him. Her eyes blurred with tears and she angrily wiped them away. She was strong – a killing machine.. that was her job, after all. But her mind couldn’t stop working over his chubby cute cheeks, his, now serious, look, his blonde hair and the formal blue shirt, which was now halfway ed. He look as if he was in deep deep thoughts.

 

“Central A to agent Bill, central A to agent Bill”, a cold voice broke off the silence and pierced her head as it boomed into her right headphone.

“What’s the matter?”, she whispered quietly in the little microphone, which was hidden at the collar of her jacket.

“____________, you have an hour to finish the mission, otherwise, we’ll just activate the bomb, which you’ll have to install in agent Lau’s apartment in 30 mins. End.”

 

There was no time – no time to wait, no time to hesitate. Her heart raced up and down as she looked through the hindsight at Henry’s place – he was still there but he was getting ready for sleep, checking all alarm systems he’d set down for the night. Of course he knew she was out there for him! He took off his shirt and finally put his gun on the bedside table, switching the lights off.

She sighed heavily and started packing her sniper back in her bag.

50 minutes to the end.

 

The lady checked her weapon for the last time and put enough bullets to defend herself. She knew she had to do this on her own in order to get to the higher place in the secret services. He was just another target, after all – she thought. But it wasn’t as easy as she wanted to be..

As she was walking across the street, the most painful memories hit her yet again. She was trying to earse them with years of training, forget them when she was nearly dead because of the hard daily routines, but Henry’s face seemed to always be there. A flashback to the good old days crossed her vision and she stopped at the street as the wind was caressing her face, blewing her hair at all directions.

She and him used to be very close.. dangerously close. At first they were strangers. Then they met at a meeting of the World’s Secret Service’s head-office, where agents from all over the world were gathered and given missions, in order to prevent some political scandals. He was constantly watching her. She smiled. He smiled back.

An year later, they knew that there was something between them, although they had to hide it from their head-offices. They had to meet secretly – at the worst bars of forgotten cities, in cars, parked at the edge of cliffs – they were always been watched. Then, after 2 years of passion, the final day had arrived – they were both called off to the head-offices and forced to kill each other as a mission – a mission for life. The one who survived could leave the current position and start living a whole new life – something that neither her, nor Henry wanted to.

Now, 3 years later, they were chasing each other for, it seemed as forever, and the big bosses were just enjoying the show. They were not just fighting because they were ordered to, they were fighting in order to live.

40 minutes left.

She shivered once again and felt a tear running down her face. She angrily wiped it away and suddenly realized she forgot to walk and was now staring at apartment number 4 – her target.

She shook her head, cleaning it from the memories, but she knew she couldn’t root them out of her heart.  Her footsteps were decisively stamping while she was going up through the emergency exit at the back of the grand hotel. It was still noisy, but here, the darkness could suffocate even the loudest noise. She breathed out and slowly entered the long hallway, searching for room 14 in the lightless isles.

 

35 minutes left.

She could feel the tension and the desperation building up as she stopped in front of a large wooden door with golden “14” on it. Her hear skipped a beat and she traced the numbers with her fingers.

“This is it. “, she whispered as she bended down and took out a card, which she used to open the door. The story of getting this card was so long and tragic itself, she thought. It was about a girl who had to kill innocent people… had to give bribes.. “At least he’ll die in his sleep.”

Her heart ached. How could she kill someone, the only one, she truly loved.

She sneaked into the room and entered the alarm code, deactivating half of the alarms in there.

 

30 minutes left.

She silently walked around at the grand room, slightly sighing at the view of Paris – a city with millions of lights that she couldn’t even enjoy. Her hands roamed through her bag and put out a small bomb, which she had to put under the table – something that was done by her billions of times. But this time it was different. Her eyes blurred again. She bended down and hooked the little mechanism under the coffee table. Her fingers were trembling but the signal in her headphone was telling her that she had no time.

“Cleared.”, she whispered as quiet as she could in the microphone and activated the bomb.  

 

25 minutes left.

A slight click next to her head made her freeze and gulp.

“Don’t move.”, Henry’s cold voice pierced her sensitive hearing. He slowly bended down, his gun still next to her head, ready to shoot. The cold steal, which she knew so well, was frightening right now. His hands searched through her jacket, then through her clothes as she tried to talk but he only leaned the muzzle closer.

 

“Shh..”, he took her hands and made her walk on her 4 foot towards the bathroom with him after her – the only place that couldn’t be seen from the windows. However, he didn’t put the lights on as he locked the door and pushed her to the sink, holding his gun right in front of her face.

 

15 minutes left.

“You won’t kill me”, her voice broke the silence as she heard his hard breathing. Although it was dark as , she could see his hands trembling. She sat on the edge of the bathtube and smiled coldly, “I know it.”

“Don’t be that sure”, he talked back, tracking her with the muzzle. “So.. you came for me..”, he smiled almost mockingly, “After all that time..”

She tensed up. Her hands were fast to find the muzzle, putting the gun down. Henry couldn’t explain why he didn’t shoot her right away – the one who was about a step ahead in their game.

“After all that time..”, she whispered, gripping his shirt, bending closer and closer. Neither of them felt insecure, although one had to die. Her hand caressed the skin of his pretty face. He seemed to had lost some weight and he wasn’t that chubby. He was now an all grown up man. His hands were hanging at his both sides. “All that time”, she traced Henry’s jawline, his hair.

 

10 minutes left.

DANG.

The gun hit the floor as his hands cupped her face but she was fast to come out of his grip and take the weapon off the ground. In a matter of second he turned out to be the victim. Her hands were shaking hard, her tears were rolling down as she couldn’t stop them.

 

“Please.. “ , his whisper pierced her heart – a heart that was made to kill.

Agent Lau took a step towards her.

Another one.

One more and he had already trapped her against the wall, both hands on the two sides of her head.

 

5 minutes.

“We’ll both die.” – as if they didn’t know it.

He took the gun off her hands as she didn’t fight for it at all and put it at the back of his black jeans. She grabbed a hold at his shirt.

“Please, save me..”, she cried, trembling, “I’m sick of being used..”.

His thumbs were on her face as the good old times. She felt his hot breath, warm soft lips caressing her cheeks and wiping away her terrified tears. When did she become so weak? She turned her head to find his lips. The darkness was still filling the room as the seconds of the very last minute started running out.

50… Her fingers tangled in his soft blond hair.

40.. The kiss became deeper, passionate.

30.. Henry’s hands cupped her tired face and didn’t leave it.

20…

10..

 

A loud explosion voiced the streets in Paris’s centre, big fireballs shoot out the windows, which were falling off in pieces. People were screaming, firefighters were trying to turn out the huge fire which almost destroyed the grand hotel. All the news programs were telling about a mysterious explosion in the middle of the city of lights. There were no evidences of terrorist attack, no signs of some kind of crime.

 

Far away, hours later, a TV was speaking.

“The explosion was the biggest in this area and the firefighters fought the fire with hours.”

She turned the TV off and bended her head back at Henry’s shoulder, as he was already asleep. The lights of the city shone at the little tracker at her hand. A whole new life was waiting for them.

She slowly got up and went by the window, throwing the small device at the road, where it was probably smashed by the severe traffic. Then she went back to the sofa, kissing the lips of the creature next to her, emptying the clip of the gun. A bullet fell in her lap and she took it in her hand.

“Only one shot.”, she sadly laughed.

 

Meanwhile, two head-offices were meeting up again, after 3 years, to find out where their best agents could be.