5 October 2012
River let out a sigh as she fiddled with the dart in her hands, the speck of red at the tip. She really wasn’t all that surprised, considering who it was who messed up the plan in the first place. It was a futile attempt anyway.
Her dark eyes surveyed the board on the opposite side of the room, with a picture of a young woman the same age as her, hanging where the bullseye was. Her smile was obviously faked, and her eyes full of deceit.
The target.
She put up her feet on the desk, her black laced boots scattering the papers that had been neatly stacked. She threw the dart, and completely missed the board; it clattered to the floor, resting amongst the rubbish that was strewn over the blue-green carpet.
“Of course,” she said to herself, “it would have worked if only SHE hadn’t bloody told her. She just had to tell HER, of all people, and then it all fell apart. Oh, I hope Ian didn’t catch up with her.” She let out a low chuckle. She was in fact hoping that Ian DID catch up with the girl. That way, everything could carry on as planned, and the grift could continue.
She turned on the radio with a remote from her desk, and sat back in her armchair as the mellow guitar began to play, a light voice singing over it. The traffic outside her office window was light too, since it was only the beginning of the afternoon rush hour. Soon though, she knew, drivers would start to curse each other for their apparent lack of ability.
‘Another futile attempt, perhaps,’ she thought with a cold smile. She picked up a second dart, squeezing the flight together, showing an image of a dragon, red in colour. She threw this dart as well, this time striking a single nineteen, the same number birthdays she’d seen. She put down her feet as she took off her jacket, a white and black coloured half-sleeve, and put it behind her back.
River caught her reflection in a hand mirror on the desk, which she then picked up and examined.
'God, I look a mess,' she mused, looking at her father’s eyes. There were bags under them, proof of the long morning she’d had. Her sleek brown hair was tied in a ponytail. Her body resembled her mother’s, neither pretty, nor ugly. Somewhere in the middle.
Like the position she was in at that moment.
‘For Christ’s sake, that COW! She had to go and screw it up. All she had to do was keep her mouth shut, but nooo, she went and told her bloody lesbian sister. The one who’s seeing the target…’ She hit her head against the desk in frustration.
The phone near her head began to vibrate. She raised her head, and saw that Ian was ringing her.
“Yeah?”
‘“River, get ready. I’m heading over.”’
“What? Why?”
‘“We’ve got the cops on the way. We’ve got five mins, max.”’
“Oh, that’s just frigging amazing. Lemme guess. SHE rang ’em?”
‘“Yep. See ya soon.”’
River got up quickly, and put a few things into a grey rucksack. It was mainly another set of clothes, her kit and her iPhone. She picked up the dart from the floor, pulled out the one from the board, and threw them together with one from the desk into the rucksack. She then added a few documents from the desk, put on her jacket, and then lit a match.
“And then there was fire,” she said with a dark smile as she threw the match towards the curtains. They were alight immediately. There was no way in hell that the cops were going to find out who SHE was. If there’s no trace, there’s no evidence. No evidence meant she couldn’t be found.
She raced down the hallway, vaulting over the handrail into the stairwell. She landed a little awkwardly, but continued out on to the light road the moment smoke escaped out of her window.
River got out her phone, and rang Ian.
“Where the hell are you?!” she yelled.
‘“Traffic’s a damn nightmare,”’ he answered. The window from above exploded. ‘“What the hell was that?”’
“I lit up the flat,” River said bluntly.
‘“Well that was smart. That cost us a damned fortune!”’
“Hey, YOU’RE the one who taught me to light a safe-house if I’m compromised, right?”
‘“Good point. Hey, I’m over here!”’ A horn sounded in front of River. She jogged over, threw her bag into the boot, and jumped into the back seat.
“Buckle in. We’re heading over to Cardiff.”
River clicked the belt in, and leant back as the cops shot past their car.
The plan was back on.
Dart • Opuss № I