Alice's Point of View
Whore pizza!
That slut Teresa Tsai was trying to lure Alex with food. She wasn't slick; Alice was on to her.
The worst part? She couldn't even justify getting mad at her boyfriend. Alex had been good, making sure he wasn't alone with her. Well, eating lunch with Chip Lackland was probably punishment enough.
I can't afford to let this distract me right now. I've got to get my head in the game, she thought.
Dick had bat-phoned her and now she was on her first out of state hunt in years. The Rodriguez-Cooper campaign was about to make an extended stop in Charleston, South Carolina for a big rally, the perfect cover. Dahlia arranged a Corps safehouse for her and when RRC and company arrived Alice would be waiting like a spider in her web.
To save money and avoid an official record of her ever being there, Alice elected to drive. It was a straight shot down I-95 that took the better part of a day, plenty of time to think, to plan.
Her tentative target was Dean Cooper, husband and campaign manager to Rebecca Rodriguez-Cooper. He was absolutely vital to her presidential bid, or so Dick had briefed her over the phone. However, there was something else, something too sensitive to share anywhere but in person. The rookie seemed rattled. Alice didn't like it.
She was almost robbed in the parking lot of a gas station in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It was her own fault. Fort Benavidez, the Army base, was close, and Alex had warned her about the "dark energy" and "outlaw shit" that went down around Army bases. Hell, she'd discussed it with Gareth Hart! Alice's head should've been on a swivel, but she was so focused on big dangers that she forgot little ones.
When she noticed her gas tank was running low she stopped at an ATM to withdraw cash, something she'd forgotten to do back in Arlington. Alice used cash whenever possible on a hunt to reduce electronic evidence of her presence in any one location. Erasing evidence completely was impossible; cameras were everywhere, but it never hurt to limit one's exposure to scrutiny. Bank records were ironclad. Grainy security camera footage? Not so much.
While at the drive-through ATM, Alice noticed three strange men in loose, baggy clothing approaching her on foot. It was a hot day. The inappropriate-for-the-weather hoodies they were wearing jarred her danger sense and she peeled away before she could get her money.
Without even thinking about it, her personal firearm was out, a Sig Sauer P365 XL that felt perfect in her slender fingers. She clutched the weapon nervously until she managed to put some distance between herself and those men.
I'll never be a victim again, she vowed. The next ATM and next gas station were less isolated. As a hunter, Alice liked the solitude, but being caught alone out here was just too dangerous. It was late when she arrived at the Charleston safe house. RRC, and Dick, would be there tomorrow.
The next day, she elected to wear one of her "deniable" seduction outfits, just a tank top and jeans. The fact that the tank top showed a good bit of cleavage when she leaned forward and the jeans gave her a nice bubble butt silhouette? Purely coincidental, of course.
She met her contact in the lobby of a fancy hotel on Broad Street. "Dick, hey!" she greeted. Dick didn't look particularly pleased to see her. Well, he was gay. "Where's the target?" Alice got right down to business.
The rookie flinched. "Not here!" he whispered desperately. "I can introduce you to some people, but there is something we need to discuss in private, something big. We have time. We'll be here for three days."
Something was weird here. "Three days? RRC is running for president. Shouldn't it be more like three different cities in the same day rather than three days in the same city?"
Dick looked physically stricken. "That's what we need to talk about. There's an Aaron Hacker rally here tomorrow, dual rallies, in fact."
Alice wasn't following at all. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?"
He sighed audibly. "Things are going to get crazy with Hacker supporters and Rodriguez-Cooper supporters in close proximity. There was nearly a riot last time. We need to be ready."
Oh, good thinking! "That would be a great distraction, Dick, the perfect cover for our operation. Maybe you aren't such a rookie after all," she complimented him sincerely.
If anything, her praise made the twink even more uncomfortable. "Come on," he said tiredly. "I'll introduce you to Dean."
Alice pulled her shoulders back and fixed her posture to accentuate her bust. Perfect.
The target was a tall, balding, overweight man with reddish-blond hair. Potentially problematic, since such a man might not believe an attractive woman would actually be interested in him. I'll have to be subtle. "Nice to meet you, I'm Alice," she said professionally, offering her hand but not lingering too long when he clasped it in greeting.
"It's good to have you visit with us," the target said kindly. "Richard has told us so much about his sister. He's really done a lot of valuable work for us. You have a lot to be proud of."
"Oh, I'm very proud of my brother." She smiled and shifted her weight slightly. Just a glance at my tits, don't you want to?
Dean didn't take the bait. "This stop in Charleston is a bit of a break for us." He didn't sound as if he entirely approved. "But there is still a lot of work for me to do. If you'd excuse me?"
"Of course," Alice agreed. The target walked away on some errand or other.
Just like that? Alice was a bit put off. "He's heterosexual, but pointedly did not check me out," she complained to Dick.
"He's a good man," Dick said simply.
Alice rounded on him. "What did I tell you about developing feelings for targets? That includes friendship! Don't get too close!" she corrected him sternly. Still a rookie in so many ways...
"Yeah, yeah," Dick shrugged off her criticism, more fool he. "Let's go to my room. We need to have a talk."
"Ugh, fine."
Dick led the way. Once inside, he shut his door and locked it, looking around in paranoia, as if somebody could be listening in. He took a deep breath to steady himself. "RRC has been meeting Aaron Hacker, privately."
Alice blinked, not fully comprehending. "Meeting for what?"
"They're fucking Alice!" Dick's eyes were bugging out. There was visible perspiration on his brow. Every muscle in his body was strained and tight, like the strings of an overtuned violin.
Her mind didn't want to accept his words. The image was so absurd. "Are you sure?"
"Yes!" Dick was somehow whispering and shouting at the same time. "I picked her up from one of her meetings, once, and when I didn't talk she decided I was trustworthy enough to be her driver to her little play dates with Hitler. RRC doesn't have a license, you know."
Alice filed away that little tidbit of information. So RRC didn't drive? She'd be less mobile and dependent on others. It was a vulnerability she could exploit. "Is that why they keep holding rallies in the same city?" It made a strange sort of sense. The South Carolina primary was over. Why would she be here otherwise?
Dick looked down in thought. "Probably, yeah. Only, listen to this. She usually goes to him, but tomorrow he's coming to her. My job is to keep everyone away from her hotel room."
"That's perfect, Dick! She'll be busy fucking. There might be a riot outside. Her husband will be alone and vulnerable. I can kill him quietly and slip out like I was never there at all."
"No! No! No!" Dick repeated emphatically. "Don't you get it? This is bigger than a campaign. Hacker and Rodriguez-Cooper know each other, intimately."
"And?"
"And it's not just fucking, okay? They're close, like they've known each other for a while. What if this is, I don't know, an act? Like they are playing good guys vs. bad guys on tv."
Alice clicked her tongue. "Of course it is, Dick. A lot of politics is theater. They pretend to hate each other on DNN but go get lunch together afterward. I've seen it before."
"It's deeper than that!" Dick insisted. "You know what I think? I think the whole thing has been planned, right from the start. Rebecca isn't trying to win. Running for president barely interests her. It's like she knows she's gonna lose in November, like the whole thing has been arranged by the Illuminati or something. We've had sixteen years of Democrats. Now it's the Republicans' turn!"
Dick was clearly cracking under the stress of a long term infiltration assignment. "Illuminati? Dick, be reasonable."
"I am being reasonable!" he said unreasonably. "The world is going to shit and everybody knows a big war is right around the corner. We just don't know exactly when and where. They need a war, something big to get everyone focused on, to get them to accept the way things are. What better way than to have a Republican war-monger win in a landslide? I'm telling you, this goes deep!"
Alice sighed in exasperation. "What do you want me to do, Dick?"
"Get evidence! I can hide you in the closet of Rebecca's room. You get proof she is fucking Aaron Hacker and send it to Dahlia. Let her decide what to do with it. We could also...tell Dean he's being cheated on. Wouldn't him filing for divorce and quitting her campaign be just as good as him dying?" Dick looked at her hopefully.
It would be much easier to just kill the guy, but Dick was literally begging. Was she going soft? "Fine, we'll do it your way," she agreed.
***
Surreptitiously entering Rebecca's hotel room was easy enough. Alice even had time to set up several cameras ahead of time. Accomplishing her mission without a kill would be inconvenient, but she could just rape somebody later if she had to.
She heard a door open followed by wet sounds. Alice peered out of her vantage point in the closet. Getting this close was a risk, but if she was going to bring this to Dahlia she needed to make sure.
Sure enough, Aaron Hacker was making out with Rebecca Rodriguez-Cooper. The man was a good foot taller than her and had to lean down. "You're such a bad girl, Becky," he teased her.
Becky? She went by "Becky" in real life?
"Bad for you, Aaron." There was laughter in her voice.
He smacked her ass, hard. She just giggled. "What about your husband?" he asked.
Becky didn't hesitate or look guilty at all. "He barely fucks me. If he won't do his job, how can he complain if a better man does it for him?"
Hacker pushed her down on the bed, pinning her down on her stomach. "I'm better, huh?" he demanded roughly.
"Soooo much better." Hacker smacked her ass again and started ripping off her clothes. One hand gripped her firmly on the back of her neck, holding her in place, while the other stripped her.
"Take me, Aaron," Becky begged. "Take what's yours!"
Alice's angle of observation was less than ideal. Hacker's back was to her and she couldn't get a positive visual identification. The only thing she could see was his bare ass as he pounded his fellow politician from behind. Hopefully the cameras could see more.
What followed was uncomfortable to say the least. Hacker was early forties and Rodriguez-Cooper mid thirties, and they weren't shy at all about the sounds the made. She moaned like a whore and he grunted like the hairless ape he was.
Seeing how other people fuck, Alice wouldn't say "make love" to describe this, was always surreal to her. To her eyes, it was like they were performing in a porn movie with no audience (that they knew of). There was no real sensuality or eroticism. Hacker just pounded her as hard as he could. Becky wasn't complaining, though.
Hacker was still a middle-aged man, and tired eventually. After a few minutes he flipped her on her back and his pace slowed down considerably. Alice's angle didn't improve. He still had his back to the closet she was hiding in. At least he kept his shirt on.
I really don't want the image of Aaron Hacker naked in my brain, she thought. In fact, she stopped looking directly at the man's bare ass and hairy balls as he pumped into Rebecca.
Wrap it up already, would you?
"I want you to cum on my face, Aaron!" Rebecca's legs were in air and that was all Alice could see of her.
The grunting and moaning and wet sounds increased in tempo until, mercifully, he pulled out, lurched forward, and jacked off until he splattered RRC in cum. She acted like he was doing her a favor and smiled up at him, almost innocently.
"Will you be able to stay long, baby?" she asked as she lounged on the bed, basking in the afterglow.
Aaron grunted, already pulling his pants back on. "Afraid not, Becky. We've got an appointment in Raleigh tomorrow, you know how it is."
"But it's like I can barely see you!" Rebecca whined. "Don't you miss me?"
Hacker held up his hands and turned. "Of course I do, but we've got a schedule. I'll see you in Ohio later this month."
Got you, Alice thought in triumph. That was definitely him.
She wiped off her face and got on her tiptoes to kiss him. "I can't wait until you win. Then I can divorce that loser and we can get married!"