Page 3 of Undercover Savior

“Take the first shot as soon as you’ve got it,” I heard Periscope say through my comms earpiece. Who the fuck did she think she was talking to? I was one of the best snipers in Unit 23, an elite team within SIS—the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service—whose primary mission objective was assassination. And I wasn’t one of the best—I wasthebest—and she damn well knew it. “Savior? Copy?”

“Shut the fuck up,” I seethed, pulling the trigger the very instant I knew I’d hit the gunman right between the eyes. A quickpfftwas all he heard. It might not even have registered. No audible crack since I only used subsonic bullets.

I was about to take the second shot when two things stopped me. First, I was sure I knew the woman whose life I was about to end. Second, I could see shadowy figures approaching from the edge of the parking lot where one victim lay dead on the ground and the other stood frozen and in shock.

“Bloody fucking hell,” I muttered, slamming my foot on the gas after jumping into my waiting SUV and racing over to the woman, who was bent over, losing the contents of her stomach. I got out, grabbed her around the waist, and shoved her inside. I climbed in after her, barely getting the door closed before I spun my vehicle in the opposite direction and sped out of the parking lot.

“Get down on the floor!” I shouted. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”

“Savior,do you copy?” I heard Periscope say through the comms.

“Copy,” I responded.

“The cleanup crew is going in now. They’re saying there’s only one victim—the gunman.” She sounded out of breath. “Where is the other target?”

“With me.”

“What’s going on, Savior?”

“I’ll handle it,” I said right before powering off my headset.

“Who the fuck are you?” asked the woman holding onto the seat as I careened from outside the castle gates through the streets of Edinburgh.

I didn’t respond. My mind was still reeling from what I’d just done, acting entirely out of instinct.

Her name, Sullivan Rivers, was unique enough that when I heard it, I recognized it immediately. Then, when I looked through the scope and prepared to take the shot, I was certain she was the same girl whose pigtails I used to pull when we were in primary school. Our families had been neighbors for a brieftime twenty years ago, when we spent a few months living in Ballater outside Balmoral Castle. While the time had been brief, I never forgot her.

Glancing in her direction now, our eyes met, and I knew I hadn’t been wrong. The girl I used to call Sully was on the floor of my SUV rather than lying dead on a parking lot’s pavement—and as soon as word of what I’d done got back to my boss, I’d be in a fuck of a lot of trouble.

I returned my eyes to the road but could feel her studying me. I hardly resembled the scrawny boy she’d once known, and my given name—David Evans—was commonplace enough that if I divulged what it was, I doubted she’d make the connection.

As for my appearance, my previously white-blond hair had turned darker, my body filled out, and rather than being a few inches shorter than her like I was then, I now had at least a foot on her.

The other thing that had changed between the last time she saw me and now was that my heart had turned black as coal. That’s what happened to people in my line of work. It didn’t matter that I rid the world of another piece-of-shit criminal with every bullet I fired. I shot to kill. Period. I’d lost track of my body count a long time ago.

And yet, they called me Savior. Tonight, it fit. I’d chosen to save Sullivan’s life rather than take it. God knew what had possessed me to do it. I’d never disregarded a direct order. I was duty bound to assassinate those who posed a threat to the United Kingdom and its citizens.

Tonight, Sullivan River’s life had been spared while the man who meant to kill her had suffered the fate. No doubt, in the coming days or weeks, I’d receive another assignment with the same anticipated outcome. It was, after all, what I was paid to do. That was if I still had a job.

“Can I get up now?” she asked.

“Not yet,” I said, glancing down at the woman whose face had turned a putrid shade of green.

“Unless you have something I can empty the rest of the contents of my stomach into, you’re going to regret making me wait.”

We were now far enough away from the Royal Mile that I would’ve picked up on a tail. However, that didn’t mean one wouldn’t materialize.

“Stay put,” I said, making another turn, this one unplanned.

“Is it really necessary for you to still have your hand on that gun?”

“Until I know you’re unarmed, it absolutely is.”

“Did you get a look at what I’m wearing? Where would I have a weapon?”

I pulled into the underground car park of a nondescript building owned by one of my closest friends, a man I knew I could trust to help me determine the next best course of action when I informed him of the split-second decision I’d made tonight.

When I didn’t see his vehicle, I got out of mine and sent him a text, alerting him of my arrival, saying I had someone with me and I’d explain everything later.

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