The betrayal Chapter 19 snippet

The planet Haven was one giant bloody wanker, Major Graham Benton reflected with a frown. His handpicked team had arrived two days ago waiting on Almir’s arrival, and he couldn’t wait to leave. Spitting on the muddy, clay ground, he looked up at the cloudy sky above and groaned his displeasure.

As far as he was concerned, there was nothing that redeemed this planet from being a hellhole. If there ever was a place that screamed “smuggler,” he mused, then this was the place. All he had seen on the damned planet were dirty streets, rain, petroleum powered ground cars and strip clubs.
For a planet as rich as this damn place was, he thought as he spat again, it sure has a funny way of showing it.

“Major,” Captain Abigail Channon walked up to stand beside him on the busy sidewalk. Wearing civilian clothes like he was, no one would have suspected she was a trained assassin. “We’ve established a watch over the secondary target.”

He felt a smile form on his face as he contemplated what she was telling him. The secondary target, while nominally an Intelligence agent, had spent too much time with the smugglers, making him slow and lazy. Benton doubted the target would ever know that he was being watched, and that suited him just fine.

Looking over at Channon, he thought about her service record. No one would ever think that she was as experienced as she was, he thought, due to her youth. Having grown a reputation in Intelligence as a prolific assassin, she had moved up the rank with unerring efficiency. In fact, until Almir had come along, she had been the best assassin in Intelligence.

“I don’t want the target lost,” he said. “That’s our ticket to Almir when she arrives.”

Channon look at him, her dyed hair looking dull in the cloudy sky. Worn in a loose, shoulder-length ponytail, she moved with the grace of a cobra ready to strike. With her athletic form lacking an ounce of fat, Benton would put her up against anyone, but Almir, in hand to hand combat.

“I’ll take care of it personally, sir,”

Reflecting on the reason they were there, Benton shook his head. Hating that bitch Almir had been easy, he thought, from the very first time she had shown up on Arlington! A damned gladiator slave, her very presence was nauseating! Where they allowing the weak to influence them so much that a former slave could be admitted into Intelligence?

“Don’t let me down, Channing,” he said with a sigh. “Almir must die, or we die! That was the agreement I had when I came out her-and I for one like breathing.”

Spitting on the ground in disgust, his mind started to wander back in time. He had caught her alone in the mess hall, he remembered, and he had three of his friends with him. It would have been a perfect time to jump her, especially after she had finished her final exam and had really pissed off Reyes really good. The old man, he thought, had wanted to kill for her over a week and he should’ve done it for her. Determined to get her to strike a superior officer, he and his friends had goaded her like hell. He had gotten close, God how close he had gotten to get the damned bitch, he reflected, only to have Reyes call her away on a mission!

Where she saved the damned President, he thought sourly.

“At least we have two to three days to prepare for her arrival,” Channon said.

“True,” Benton sighed. “Then we can prepare a nice surprise for our dear friend Captain Almir.”

Then the damned woman became a virtual God around there, Benton felt the hate rising in his body, remembering how President Damon had promoted her higher then his rank. But not anymore! She won’t live to see another day, if I have anything to say about it!

“Not a moment too soon,” Channon echoes his sentiments, having grown to hate Haven as much as he did. How was it, she wondered, that they always ended up on a **** hole when someone needed to be killed. “I can’t wait to get off this bloody rock.”

“This planet is a damned bloody wanker for sure,” Benton said, an evil grin spreading across his face. “However, all we need to do is last a couple more days. Then we’ll have both of ‘em dead and be back home for good.”