Cake and Eat It…

She smiled humourlessly.

‘Ah, well,’ admitted Daisy. ‘I can see why I might have called in sick a few times then.’

‘The Sisterhood frowns on people who survive suicide missions,’
Caroline explained in the most patronising voice Daisy had heard since her third-year Economics teacher. ‘Firstly it causes problems with the Admin department, payouts to people’s families needing to be retrieved, that sort of thing.’

‘I can see that would be a problem,’ said Daisy, looking for an exit.

Caroline was clearly tipsy with power; it had gone straight to her head. She always had been a cheap drunk.

‘But the most important reason,’ Caroline continued, ‘is that it looks bad when the target keeps surviving and so does the assassin.’

The penny dropped.

‘Panix,’ said Daisy, guessing the person in question.

‘Panix,’ Caroline confirmed. ‘We sent you out to kill him tonight. You only winged him.’

Which explained why he was so pissed off, mused Daisy. Her imagination rallied for a brief moment, while the orderly part of her brain tried desperately to work out a way to extricate herself from this mess. ‘But if he’s hurt and pissed off, he’s less effective. I’ve actually neutralised him.’
She smiled at that one. Maybe they’d buy it.

‘We don’t want neutral. We want dead.’

Ker-ching! No Sale. Daisy’s face fell again. This was getting her nowhere.

‘This shouldn’t be that hard,’ said Caroline, pacing from side-to-side. ‘He’s a justifiable target; head of the research facility.’

‘Yes,’ asked Daisy, racking her memory. All she came up with was an image of a woman drooling into a bucket.

‘We’ve lost fourteen people to that bastard and his re-education programme.’

‘But he was only a guard-’

‘Never heard of promotion,’ snapped Caroline. ‘Never heard of turning women into mindless baby-machines; fodder for their indoctrination schemes?’