I crawled closer and closer, waiting for them to decide to attack me. They buzzed by my head, a few landed briefly on my hands and arms, but no one stung...yet.
I made my way to the hive and perched next to it. This was it, I knew what I thought I should do, but this could go bad quickly. So far, the bees had left me alone but once I yanked the hive loose, I imagined I'd get their wings in a bunch.
I looked around, knowing I'd taken a while. No one was in the parking lot or seemed to notice me at all from the huge windows that had clear sight.
“We don't have all day.”
Wow, I really didn't like him, but he did have a point. Both shaking hands out, I grabbed the hive, turned my head away, with eyes squinted shut, and yanked it loose.
Hmmm, no stinging? I opened an eye the tiniest slit. It was idiotic really. Seeing the bees or not wouldn't change their mind about attacking me. And yet, I couldn't bring myself to fully look at the mad swarm that was surely about to vent their anger.
When I did look, I saw the bees were still calm. Huh?
“Come on!” Fate screamed from underneath.
I looked at his handsome face and I swung a leg, eying the distance between my foot and his head. Nope, not close enough. I guess he gets to keep his straight nose today.
I tucked the hive under one arm, expecting a full on attack at any moment and shimmied down awkwardly with only one free arm.
“Can you take it?” I asked, trying to hand him the hive so I could make the final jump down.
He stood back arms crossed. “Can't touch it.”
“Not even for a minute?”
“Not my choice. Right now, even if someone were to walk out here, right by this spot, they might notice me, but they wouldn't see you. If I touch that, which is part of your job, all bets are off. You stay to assignment and you’re shielded. It's when you step out of the boundaries that it can go badly.”
I huffed a bit and then looked at the hive. “I apologize for the jolt ahead of time.”
I jumped the five feet or so down and managed to hang onto it. I froze there in a squat as I waited for the mad swarm that would finally decide it was time to let me know they weren't happy about their relocation.
“You getting up?”
I looked under my arm where I had tucked it. The bees that were flying around followed me but none of them seemed overly upset, even after that jump. I stood slowly, not wanting to rock the hive.
The mark's convertible was sitting right under where the bees’ previous home had been. I could see an image, as clear as a photograph in my mind, of the hive sitting in his back seat.
My hands froze as I lifted the hive to put it exactly how I envisioned it and I froze. What exactly would this lead to? Not many people actually died from bee stings. It just sucked.
“Do. It.”
“Shut. Up.” I didn't bother looking at Fate. I just stood there. Could I really do this? It was rare, but there was still the chance I could be murdering this man.
And then, like a jolt to the system, more images of the people he'd abused flashed through my head. An older couple with bare cabinets.
I looked upward. “I don't know who's running this show, but you made your point. He's got it coming.”
I placed the hive onto the floor of the back seat of the open convertible and stepped back.
I looked over to Fate. “Now what?”
“We take a seat and watch the show. Make sure it goes smoothly.” He walked over and looked at the hive, still calm.
“I don't know if I want to see it.”
“You do the deed, you see it out.”
I blew out a long breath. I'd never intentionally hurt someone and, no matter who this person was and what he'd done, I'd still prefer not to see it happen.
“No one likes this part.”
And just like that, a little glimmer of the person he could be showed through a bit. Was it just me? I knew he made me more agitated. Maybe something about me triggered him as well.
He walked away without another word.
I headed over to a bench in front of the strip mall about fifty feet away. Fate found a spot about thirty feet down from me. I was glad for the distance.
A minute later, when the sound of thunder rumbled, I was glad I was under the overhang. My mark dashed out of the coffee shop just as the rain started. First thing he did was put the roof back up on his car.
I looked upward. “Nice touch.”
And then the mark got in the car. It didn't take long for the screams to start. Even from where I sat, I could see the cloud of bees swarm up in the car. That's when I really started wondering what I'd done.
I had a gut reaction to the pain I knew I'd inflicted. I leapt to my feet to go and help him, but Fate got to me first and wrapped a hand around my forearm.
“You can't.”
“What I can't do is this. Let go of me.” I tried to pull free but instead of making headway toward the car, I was being towed further away by Fate.
All I could do was watch. There was a big difference between wishing bad on someone who's done harm and inflicting it yourself. The magnitude of the difference was hitting me hard, right now. In theory, I could’ve hurt someone evil like this all day, everyday. The reality was a lot harder.
People heard the screams he was making even through the closed car and ran to help, but couldn't get the doors open.
They banged on the windows and screamed for him to unlock the doors. Someone screamed for a knife to cut the canvas top but by time one arrived, who knew how many times he'd been stung.
I couldn't break free of Fate but he'd stopped tugging me further away, so we stood there, arms outstretched in between us, as we both watched the horror of what unfolded.
“Will he die?” I asked.
“It takes ten bee stings per pound to kill a human. I'd guess he was about a hundred and eighty pounds. That hive probably had about 45,000 bees. Yeah, I'd say he's dead.”
“I just killed a man.”
“It'll get easier.”
“I hope not.”
He dropped his grip but it didn't matter now. I could hear the sirens of the ambulance as we walked toward my Honda. The good Samaritans had helped the man out of the car and laid him on the cement. His body didn't move. The stingers were so dense, patches of his arms appeared gray from a distance.
I could hear the people talking as we passed.
“What a fluke!”
“The hive must have dropped from that branch with the wind.”
“Can you believe what just happened?”
I imagined the coverage on the news later today, talking about the crazy coincidence of a hive dropping and lying dormant in the back of a man's car until he got in it. A freak accident, they'd call it.
It's what I would've thought, a week ago.
Now, I knew better.
Chapter Seven
Everyone scattered out of my way as I stormed into the office and headed directly for Harold's door. It was shut but I didn't bother to knock.
He looked up as I walked in, the door slamming into the wall in my wake. He pushed a hand through his hair, which just made it stick out more.
“This is the job?” I asked as I stopped on the other side of his desk. “I'm an assassin?” There was a chair but I ignored it, opting to pace instead. “You said right the wrongs of the universe! Not kill people!”
Harold held his hands up in front of him. “It won't always be killing.”
“How often? Every other time?”
“I don't know.”
Harold got up from his seat and went to shut the door. I guessed he didn't want everyone to hear me, but I personally didn't care. They could all hear as far as I was concerned.
“Oh good. You're here,” I heard Harold say and looked to see Fate walking into the room. Harold closed the door behind him.
I looked at the both of them now. “I'm not doing this job.”
“Can we discuss this calmly?”
I sat in the chair in front of his desk and took a deep breath, forcing myself to relax. “You want calm? This is me calmly telling you, I'm not doing that again.”