The Man between my crosshairs (girl X assassin)

Chapter 19/Submitting to Styles

A/N We are back. Settling down to a more normal routine of writing. Feels like a relationship sometimes - the wild zest of getting to know each other then relaxing into the less needy more blissful phase you know? hugs RK+Reb.

That night Zoe waited for Ryder to come back. She needed to do something to relax but he didn't turn up and she didn't want to feel needy enough to phone him to get him to come back. These AI pyscho therapists could be up all night nursing a machine going 'but I've started dreaming I married my factory and was standing over the body of my design team'.  When got back he could sleep in his room if he wanted. Zoe for some reason didn't want to go out and find someone else to replace him. Was also was a first and it disturbed her for a while. Looking out of the smoked glass window at the land drifting outside was somehow calming. 

When she woke up a message was lying in waiting for Zoe saying a robot was coming around to pick her up and take her to Styles. She got up. She changed into something more suited for her cover. While she did she texted Jerico. Jerico she noticed had already spent some of the advance money. This would be good. Now she had a spending trace, she could order some weapons under his name and have them delivered 'quietly' to him. After some easy to uncover attempts at hiding the digital transaction, it would be enough to convince the police he had planned the Styles hit. During this, she stopped. She felt this was somehow a mistake, like choosing a knife over a gun in a fight. Logically Jerico was an excellent choice for a goat. Yet something about him made her feel he wouldn't like it. This seemed strange, like the taste of unfamiliar fruit, it seemed bitter to her tongue.

"Jeeves what is that feeling when something bad happens to someone else but not to you and you still feel it?" Zoe said.

"Is madam thinking of feeling sorry for someone?" Said Jeeves as he turned around and Zoe stored a weapon in a secret compartment in him.

"No just checking the definition," said Zoe "words are like fleeing targets always running, zig- zagging making it harder to hit them."

Zoe wondered if she felt sorry for Jerico? She wasn't sure. She hadn't remembered feeling sorry for anyone before and so wasn't sure this was what she was really feeling now. She paused. She would frame Jerico but not actually use him, if she didn't need to. This was just reconnaissance in depth. If she could predict a good kill zone she could pretend to leave and then smuggle her self back and do a simple sniper job. At this she felt oddly better, less tense like something had lifted from her.

There was a knock at the door. Soon she and Jeeves had taken the elevator down. As she got to the street entrance she found Jerico was there straight from the shopping district. He was in a new grey black suit the colour of kohl he suited it. Zoe looked around and noticed Jerico's mother hiding in the distance. Both Zoe, Jerico and Jeeves then walked across the busy crowded street and entered the basement of Styles Towers.

*****

"I'm only here because Styles will shit himself when he works out who I am," said Jerico.

"OK. Well keep it professional.  to begin with,only speak, if you can contradict a fact, let me handle the other stuff. The more you listen the more evidence you have for your blog. Terms and conditions apply" Zoe said. While she spoke, She reached over and pulled a sales tag from Jerico's suit.

The street entrance was small but lead up to the second floor which opened out into an sleek corporate headquarters. Jerico tried not to be impressed or broadcast his contempt.

"but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful," said Jerico quietly.