SOMEONE WAS GETTING too close. that was all the information they’d provided her before releasing her to the world. this was meant to be a test of her abilities ---- the most promising pupil in the black widow program ---- and failure was not an option. her contacts reported that someone had been asking questions about the facility where the girls were being trained, and while that would have been enough to make said person a target ----it was rumored that something had been stolen; a shipment disrupted, and whatever it contained, her handlers wanted it back.
what she hadn’t been told, and hadn’t expected, was to find a woman at the end of her trail. this stranger would not be the first woman natalia had been tasked to kill, and she was certain she wouldn’t be the last. but now was not the time ----not in a worker’s cafe on a crowded street. today, she told herself, she’d simply observe.
few women sat in the stuffy room ----mostly men, filthy from their work and taking sanctuary in the restaurant during their breaks or before heading home to their families. it was strange for either of them to exist in this space, and yet her mark looked to be indifferent to the din around her.
she should be watching from afar, the trainee told herself, but curiosity had her in its grasp.