Full of Grit pt. 5

Don’t Mess Up The Surveillance Op

Got a job to do. A job for Miss Edith. Side job. Side eye. Setting up. Humming 867 5 309, 867 5 309 under my breath. Got myself nicely situated in room 309. Listening to Edith’s target in 311. He’s in the bathroom. Showering. I'm on the other side of that wall. Focusing my attention. Getting to know him. Will follow him around like a puppy once he leaves his room. Just listening, watching, filing away. 

Target stops showering, is still in bathroom. Cluttering about. Swears once. Probably nicked himself shaving. What lovely thin walls we have. Can hear all his throw away sounds of routines and daily living. Getting intimate with his procedures. So far, nothing out of the ordinary.

Stomp, stomp, stompity, stomp, two people walk by 309. Gallop? Stampede? A bloke talking excitedly about some unmissable opportunity. His words echoing all over the corridor. Playing ping pong with the walls. Distracting my marble, breaking my concentration. Shut up. Seriously, shut up. Hearing key rattling close by. No, no, don’t do that, stomp on. Don’t fuck up my listening post.

Target has left bathroom? Target is still where he’s supposed to be? Fuck, I don’t know. Taking a calming breath. Leaning in. Concentrating, tuning out everything but me ears. 

“Barbara, please! Let me explain!” 

Himmelarschundzwirn! 

It’s not my target, it’s loud bloke one door down. Must be in 313. Begging his bitch for something. Hear a female voice talking. Can’t make out her words. Apparently Miss Barbara knows how to use indoor voice. 

“I just need one more chance!”

Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. Bloke is not shutting up. Begging Barbara. Fucking up a perfectly good surveilance op. Making some really bad decisions. I’m out of 309, passing 311, stopping in front of 313. Listening. Hearing her speak now.

“You keep saying that, Paul. I don’t believe you anymore. Just stop it.”

Yeah, I’m with you, Miss Barbara. Stop it, Paul. Paul doesn’t stop.

“This time it’s different! You have got to believe me. I just need the three mil. Please?”

Hear a door close inside the room. Followed by banging on it. “Come on Barb, open up! Barbara, don’t do that to me. Come out of there!” 

Enough. Patience eroded, Gedult gerissen, perdiendo la paciencia. Slipping into the room. Paul doesn’t notice me. He’s still begging at the bathroom door. Stand behind him, grab him by the scruff and move my kukri nicely left to right across his throat. Make a second mouth to shut up the first. Paul gushes, pulses, gurgles, drops. I guide him gently to the ground. Ahh. Blissful silence. 

“Paul? Are you still there?” 

No Miss Barbara, Paul is gone. Ceased to make ruckus of any kind. Shut up for good. Maybe singing with the angles in another dimension, but here he is yappin’ no more.

I’m leaving 313, going back to my listening post. Cleaning my kukri in the bathroom, as quietly as possible. Practically hearing Arthur in the back of my head. Grif, just look at the mess you made. Grif, haven’t you shed enough blood already? Grif, stop randomly killing our guests. Blah, blah, blah.

Wasn’t random. Bloke had it coming. What’s the saying? Hättest du geschwiegen, wärst du noch als Philosoph durchgegangen. Don’t know about philosopher, but alive? Yeah. If you had stayed quiet, you would still be alive. But no, fucker had to be a noisy numbnuts. Fucker had to turn himself into one of my monkeys. C’est la vie. Or more, c’est la mort.

Listening to target. Finally being able to concentrate again. He’s walking, no he’s pacing. Back and forth, back and forth. Lighter clicks. Pressing my nose to the connection door slit. Yep. Tobacco smoke. Target must be nervous. More pacing.

Marrow shaking scream, courtesy of Miss Barbara. Guess she finally made it out of that bathroom. Target stops in his tracks. Listening to target listening. Silence for several moments. Tension mounting in 311. Then, a door opening and closing quietly farther down. Staccato steps lift wards. No wailing, no calling for help, no other noises. Hm. Interesting. Maybe, just maybe I did a good deed? You’re welcome Miss Barbara.

Target moves again. More bathroom sounds. Soon after movement and door sounds. Target is leaving his room. I head out of mine. See target on his way to the lift. Inhale his cheap cologne. Follow him like the shadow I am.