Bounty

Chapter 3
Briefing

The next day, Alex found herself seated in the CEO’s office of Burg and Associates waiting for someone to come in and address her for her next bounty and to pay her for the last one. She sat idly in the arm chair in front of the large cedar desk that sat in the center of the room large enough to put at least six rooms as big as the one she’d slept in last night and then some. While she sat in the plush leather armchair she marveled at the office. There were big game heads mounted on the wall behind the desk. Deer, bears, a lion and even a few fish hung in permanent poses on their plagues high on the wall. A stuffed grizzly even stood at full attacking mode on a pedestal not far from where Alexa sat at that very moment. How real the thing looked, how life-like, spooked her a bit when she’d first came in but after about a fraction of a second her better judgment kicked in and she realized it was dead. But the eyes gazing right back into hers were enough to make her avert her gaze from them since the time she’d sat down. The chair she now sat in was a decorative statement all in itself. Fine leather made up the seat and back of the chair, while the matching cedar wood made its framework. Even the arm- rests were beautifully and carefully hand carved. Alexa ran the pads of her fingers along the carvings of the wood and found them to be symbols, of what she had no clue, and just as she was moving to get out of her seat for a better look the double doors behind her opened.
She stiffened in her chair, pushing the small of her back to the back of the seat and gripping the grooves in the end of the arm rests that seemed to fit her fingers perfectly. His smell met her nostrils right around the time that the sound of his Loafers sliding across the floor met her ears. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he passed her. His grey suit fit him in all the right places and the green shirt he wore under it set off the green in his eyes.
Alexa stifled the smile that threatened to break through her hardened and sarcastic façade. She’d seen him before, many times before actually. He always seemed to be at every stop she made; always there to do the debriefing for her last case and the briefing for the one she was about to embark on. She did allow herself a smirk though as he moved to sit on the edge of the large desk facing her.
He smiled a greeting to her, and those dimples sunk into his cappuccino colored cheeks. His cheekbones were high and his jaw line defined. The facial hair that formed the goatee mustache set was neat and formed around perfectly shaped lips. One thin line of hair traveled from his goatee to the under side of his bottom lip. His hair was wavy and thick, coming down to barely brush the collar of his button up shirt that was missing a tie and not buttoned completely. He was hot as the African sun and he knew it, which made him come across as cocky and arrogant but that was only because he was.
“Miss Jones,” he began his voice an odd mixture of bass and tenor. “Good to see you again.”
“Like-wise, I’m sure.” Alexa answered, meeting his eyes only for a second before allowing them to roam the sight that was his body momentarily. She crossed supple legs over each other at the knee and cocked her head to one side as she listened to him speak.
“So I heard that you ixnayed your bounty over in Eureka.” He crossed his arms in his lap, careful not to crease the pale folder in his left hand. “With a broad sword no-less.” He shook his head twice as if in some sort of disbelief or amazement. “Our best men used the most high – tech devices we had to track and kill these beasts over the course of nearly six months, and you come in with your eyes, ears and nose toting a broad sword and kill the whole pack in one night.”
Alexa had leaned over to one side of the chair while he was speaking and was now resting her weight on one elbow propped up on the right arm rest and was rubbing her fore and middle finger tips against her thumb absentmindedly. She rose both brows, trying not to look as proud as she felt.
“I’ve never seen it done. Quite impressive.”
“Well I try.” Alexa replied straightening herself in the chair once again. “So,” she began, having been previously bored with the small talk when he had begun it. “What you got in the folder for me, big guy?”
The smile he gave her was less a smile and more a smirk, a suggestive smirk, but he kept whatever it was he was thinking to himself and answered her question.
“Well first off your pay for the previous gig.” Sometimes it annoyed her that he referred to her line of business as “gigs”. She couldn’t tell if he took it lightly or he had a thing for music. She hoped, for his sake, that he just liked music. He reached into the folder and pulled out a plain white envelope that was thick with its contents. He handed it over to her and spoke as she opened it and peeked inside. “I think you’ll find that it’s all there.”
Her middle finger poked inside of the paper pouch and spread the hundred dollar bills, quickly and silently counting them twice until she had approved. She nodded and that gave him the signal to proceed with the briefing, which he did.
“Good then.” He stood and offered the folder to her, waiting for her to tuck the money into a pocket on the inner lining of her jacket before taking the folder and opening it. “Your mark is one, Benjamin Kahil.” He pressed the button on a laptop on the surface of the desk he had moved behind, and a picture popped up onto the projection screen loomed just over his head. The picture was a man’s mug shot. The only letters that meant anything to her were the ones that read “Kahil, Benjamin.” And even then she only glanced at them. His hair was dark brown and greasy, slicked back from more gel than the bottle should have been able to hold. His eyes were brown and the left one sported a shiner. Alexa figured that he must have caught that along with the bloody nose while fighting the cops who had arrested him. “Kahil was arrested for selling drugs to minors down in Calli. But some of his boys broke him out. We need him back for questioning, we’re thinking he works for the Kingpin around here and we need to shut him down. Your objective is to track down Kahil, bring him here for questioning and we’ll go from there. Got it?”
“Sure thing.” Alexa nodded not taking her eyes from the full frontal mug shot, trying to get the picture to stay in her mind even though she would carry one with her. “Just tell me where to go?”
“How good is your French?”