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Prelude
Carolyn rubbed her chin. She looked skeptical. “Are you 100% sure you can do it?”
Yusuf threw up is hands. “100%? I would have to lie, so no. But it’s not magic. I have hit targets in unknown territory at distances of more than a mile. Here we are talking about known conditions and around 400 yards. So…”
Carolyn still wasn’t convinced. “The target, as you say, is moving, and the entire purpose of the whole exercise is to not kill. I hope you fully comprehend that. So if you have any doubt, we should call it off and think of something else.”
He scoffed. “I don’t have doubts about my skills. I more have doubts about letting her get away and run off with Eve, under the protection of MI6, all the more. After all that she did. And honestly – I don’t think she is good for Eve.”
Carolyn frowned. “So you would rather kill her? Sounds like you and her are not all that different.”
“Oh please, Carolyn. Don’t compare me to, to this.” He had a painful, almost disgusted expression.
“Yusuf, Captain, please don’t forget I know all your records. You and her are very much the same, you merely worked for different people. There is little room for moralizing.” She leaned back on her bench, reached for her cup of tea and took a sip. “Not really hot anymore.”
Yusuf grinned. “Eve would…”
Carolyn interrupted him. “… warm her tea in the microwave.” She laughed. “I know. It was one of the first things I noticed about her, and it somehow stuck.”
“Look, Carolyn, I just don’t think that Villanelle is what Eve needs. It all feels very self destructive. As if the two are, I don’t know, eating each other’s souls, consuming each other.”
Now Carolyn laughed out loud. “We had a joint meeting with an MI6 therapist once. Eve told us she had said just that to Villanelle, while they were dancing somewhere, close up. Some kind of tea dance. Guess what Villanelle answered?”
Yusuf took a sip of beer and wiped the foam from his mouth. “No clue. Just tell me.”
“Eve said Villanelle’s voice suddenly was very soft and dreamy, that she sniffled a bit and almost whispered into her ear ‘sounds kind of nice’.”
“She still is a liar, a serial killer with anti social traits. She was profiled and diagnosed as …”
“… and Eve somehow managed to break through this wordy salad of clichés. Frankly, it’s all bullshit. She wasn’t born that way, and ever since she had met Eve all she wanted was change and get out and stop doing what she had been made to do all these years. She is disgusted by herself.”
Yusuf sighed. “I don’t really believe that. And there is the other little thing. As much as I’d want to see Villanelle being removed from the equation, I still hate to shoot at someone who is that important to a close friend.”
After another sip of tea Carolyn exhaled noisily. “Can you make up your mind, please? I’m also not fond of the situation, believe me. But it wasn’t my idea. Villanelle herself worked it out. Eve would be horrified, so Villanelle convinced me to keep her out of it. If all goes right, they will be reunited in witness protection. If it went wrong, Eve at least wouldn’t have to cope with the guilt.”
“Wow. Great. So her lover and two of her friends protect her by embedding her in a web of lies.”
With a weak, inviting gesture Carolyn said, irony in her voice, “Yusuf, welcome to MI6.”
“Okay then, let’s just do it. I’ll scout out the best position. Choice of ammunition is crucial, too. Sniper ammo generally isn’t exactly designed to not kill. We’ll also have to have a planning meeting with Villanelle. She’ll have to put on quite an act. Think she’s up to that?”
Now Carolyn almost spat out her tea. “Villanelle? She can be anything or anyone at an instant. You’ll never meet another actor like her.”
Yusuf raised his eyebrows and leaned a bit forward over the table. “Frankly, you don’t sound very neutral here, Carolyn. More like a proud mother praising every mediocre achievement of her daughter.”
“Well, you are not entirely off here, but there really is nothing mediocre about her.”
The Meeting
Villanelle opened the pub’s door and immediately seemed to command the space around her. Yusuf had to admit to himself that he was bewildered by her sheer presence. She looked around and locked eyes with him, walked up to the table where he sat and stretched out her right hand.
She flashed her most girlish and most winning smile. “So – you are the famous Yusuf! I’ve heard a lot about you, best SAS sniper ever? Impressive. And: a close friend of Eve. Even more impressive!”
Yusuf took her hand, and the firm grip wasn’t the only thing that surprised him. He immediately understood why Eve was taken. Taken for good. And beyond the charming smile, the girlish looks and behaviour, he sensed the presence of a bone hard warrior. Tall, athletic, uncompromising. Definitely someone he wouldn’t want to mess with.
He cleared his throat. “Vil… Villanelle. Nice to …” His voice sounded coarse and he had to swallow. “Villanelle – nice to finally meet you.”
She plopped down on the bench opposite him and looked to the bar. She noisily snipped two times with her raised hand to get the waiter’s attention, who immediately rushed to their table.
“Yes M’am? What may I get for you?”
“I’ll have a double Cappuccino and a double Scotch.”
“My pleasure. Which Scotch would you…”
Villanelle made a dismissive gesture. “Macallan, if you have it?”
The waiter looked puzzled and tried to match Villanelle's less than luxurious military style outfit with her outrageously luxurious order. “Are you sure? It is a bit on the expensive…”
“Don’t worry. I’m fine.”
Yusuf couldn’t suppress a grin. This one had style and wanted to make a point. Villanelle looked him straight in the eyes. She was all sober business now, her face unreadable and her voice neutral, with a distant hint of danger in it.
“Now, Yusuf, still have any doubts about my acting abilities?” Her face switched from neutral to be very careful about what you say now.
He defiantly raised both his hands. “Oh no. I get it. Really. Carolyn already briefed me.”
“Speaking of Carolyn, where is she? She’s never late.”
“I wasn’t.” The voice came from the neighbouring compartment. Carolyn moved around the corner and looked at both of them. “I wouldn’t have missed this little show for anything!”
Yusuf glowered at her. “I really begin to hate you!” He felt a hard kick to his legs under the table. Villanelle looked at him with narrowed eyes and an ironic smirk. Her voice was in a girlish mode again. “Hey soldier. Professional!”
Carolyn squeezed herself onto the bench next to Villanelle, who made space for her. “Enough playtime for now. Let’s get down to business. My first question to you, Vil: are you really sure to pull this through? Frankly, there is no guarantee you will survive.”
“Pfft. Who do you think you are talking to? You know the story of my life. There has never been a guarantee that I’d be around the next week. And the odds are getting worse every day now. This here is a possibility to change that. I’m willing to take the risk. It’s a controlled risk.”
Yusuf rested his head on both his fists. “For who?”
“What? You still have to ask that? For her, of course?”
“To be blunt, I never understood that, never was sure if this all is about love or some kind of unhealthy compulsive obsession.”
With an earnest expression and calm but gravely serious voice Villanelle asked “Be honest: have you ever loved someone so deeply, truly, badly, also painfully, that you would have given your life for them any second? Experienced that someone loves you infinitely more than even your own mother and you had no doubt at all about that ever?”
Yusuf looked clueless. “I, I don’t know what to answer to that. Sure I’d give my life to save a loved one.”
Villanelle lifted her chin a bit. “See, here’s the news my friend: dying for someone is easy. Changing your entire life to live a new life with someone is the hard part.”
Carolyn sat on the bench, relaxed, leaning back, arms crossed in front of her chest. She then reached out for her glass and took a sip of Guinness. “I must say I’m still enjoying the show.”
Villanelle mildly elbowed her. “Carolyn! This is not a show, it is about our life here, about me risking my fucking life for Eve!”
Carolyn gently placed her right hand over Villanelle’s left hand that rested on the table. “I know, darling. I’m just sick with worries that you might not get out of it after all. And deliberately hurting you tears my heart apart.”
Villanelle turned to her and looked at her softly, almost lovingly. “It will be fine Carolyn. We are all professionals, right? Besides: I have been injured before. I have been shot and tortured and even my beloved Eve almost stabbed me to death.”
Yusuf felt delusional. Carolyn and Villanelle really looked like mother and daughter. Their closeness already was puzzling information. And Villanelle had been nearly stabbed to death by the love of her life? By Eve, of all people? The gentle, chaotic fuzzy-headed Eve? Did he know Eve at all? He suddenly remembered how Eve took the steak knife in Paris, claiming that it had protected her before. So there was something to it? Carolyn’s voice interrupted his brooding.
“All right, then. Let’s get down to business. It’s a complex operation, and timing is everything.”
Villanelle shoved Carolyn aside. “Gotta go to the bathroom first.” When she returned, her blond mane was bound back in a tight bun. She looked serious now, all girlishness gone. But after she had settled next to Carolyn again she pointed with her chin at Yusuf and smiled a little.
“Okay then, Mr. sniper. Give me your best shot. Ever. I mean it.”
“I’ll try.”
Villanelle waved her index finger in front of his face. “Nowhere nearly good enough. You and I will spend some quality time on the long distance sniper range, and I expect you to be so much better than me that I’ll limp away in embarrassment with my tail between my legs. Otherwise we call this off. Carolyn will organize that. Will you Carolyn?”
Carolyn was caught off guard. “Erm, well, I…”
“Thank you Carolyn! I knew I could count on you!”
Yusuf snorted. It suddenly was very clear who was the real boss here. He never expected to see anyone to effortlessly commandeer Carolyn around. He looked at Carolyn, eyebrows raised, without saying anything.
Carolyn sighed. “Oh well, I guess I can arrange something. I’ll have to call in a few favors. Normally we can’t bring in civilians.”
Villanelle scoffed in comical despair. “Carolyn! Really? Did you just call me a civilian?”
“Sorry, I mean, it’s just…”
“Relax. It was just a joke. But arrange something. Even for the best this shot is a challenge, and being at the receiving end I’d really very much like to minimize the risk. I usually avoid painting a target on my back.”
Yusuf made a ‘hm’ sound. “You know what, actually that isn’t a bad idea. We’ll aim at the least vulnerable part of your shoulder. And we could mark the ideal point with IR or UV paint visible only through an appropriate IR or UV LASER guided night scope.”
“Glad you got what I meant,” Villanelle said.
Carolyn switched to scolding mother. “Goodness, Villanelle. Once in a while you can admit that other people also have good ideas.”
“Okay – it definitely is a really good idea.”
“Thank you,” Yusuf said.
Villanelle grinned. “Which I, of course, triggered.”
Yusuf rolled his eyes. “Everything always is about you, lady, right?”
Villanelle clicked her tongue. “I don’t know. Is it? What or who is this meeting about, again? Who are you going to shoot at? Who had the idea? Who’s life is at stake?”
They both looked at Carolyn who visibly suppressed an outburst. She raised a hand. “Don’t look at me. At the end of the day she is right. Yusuf – get used to it. She has that tendency to almost always be right and always be a step ahead. I learned that the hard way. Caused me some real headache. Quite literally.”
When Yusuf frowned, Villanelle rotated her hand, suggesting to wait a moment while she chewed on a cracker. “Stuff that happened in Cuba.”
Yusuf slowly shook his head. “That isn’t really helpful. Do I even want to know?”
Villanelle just shrugged nonchalantly and took another cracker. With a dismissive gesture Carolyn suggested “Probably not. After all for this mission we rely on your mental stability.”
Villanelle was the first to leave their meeting while Carolyn and Yusuf ordered another round of drinks. Carolyn stayed with her Guinness, and Yusuf ordered Gin Tonic. He turned the glass in his hand, ice cubes clanking.
“Why are you doing all this, Carolyn? Why protect her?”
“As strange as it might seem: I really do like her. And I like Eve. Maybe they can have what I never had. What almost no-one ever has.”
“And what is that? Happiness?”
“Oh, I certainly hope for them to find happiness, but that’s not what I meant.”
“But?”
“Freedom. Villanelle has this absolute inner freedom, and she opened her inner sanctuary up to Eve. I’m an old spy. I thought I have seen everything when it comes to people. This is fundamentally different. Beyond everything anyone casually calls love.”
“And Eve?”
“Eve gave up everything, I mean absolutely everything, just to be with her. Not only husband, house and job. It goes down to every concept she had about reality or even about herself. All those two need and want is each other.”
Yusuf hummed skeptically. “Sounds like a folie a deux thing.”
“Right. Doesn’t it? But it isn’t. That’s the whole point! As I said, it is fundamentally different. They are the one and only example I ever saw for what might be rightfully called ‘true love’. For them there is no compromise anymore, no limit.”
Yusuf looked flabbergasted. “Carolyn! There is a really deep romantic streak in you. I had no idea!”
“You know nothing about me, young man. Let’s get this done. The two are the rarest of species. They deserve our protection.” She looked at him seriously and spoke with a grave voice when she said “And Yusuf, to make this very clear: failure is not an option.”
Yusuf nodded. He swallowed. “Noted. I know what I am dealing with now. And to also make this clear: I’m in it for Eve. Not for you, not for Villanelle.”
“Understood. I’m not important, but you should get used to the idea that Eve and Villanelle are not really two people anymore. They are one and the same.”
The Best Shot
Carolyn stood on top of the Tower Hotel with night vision binoculars. She had a clear view of the Dixie Queen that just had undocked and slowly moved towards the Tower Bridge which had begun to open. Their time window was extremely narrow. A few minutes at best. And Eve had to be convinced that Villanelle was able to kill-off the heads of one of the most powerful crime syndicates in history with bare hands in less than three minutes.
The time crept. Minutes felt like hours. This was a mission unlike any other for Carolyn. Normally she wasn’t personally involved, but she eventually had to admit to herself that she cared for these two as much as she cared for her own daughter. She didn’t allow herself to think ‘maybe more’, but the thought constantly and annoyingly lingered in the background of her mind. She suddenly had to think of Kenny and felt his absence as physical pain. She whimpered quietly, lowered the binoculars and wiped tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. At least nobody saw her like that. She was acutely aware that loosing one of those two girls would push her over the cliff, would finally break her. It would be too much.
“Come on, darling, you can make it.” She stiffened, focused again, and was surprised when anxiety once more crept up in her as the boat slowly floated towards the bridge. Then they came out of the door and stepped onto the well lit front deck.
Wouldn’t Eve get suspicious? It was such a stupid thing to do given the circumstances. But no: Eve apparently just was happy to see Villanelle alive, albeit smudgy, seemingly blood stained and with hair in disarray. They hugged, and Villanelle turned her back to the southern side of the Thames, just as planned.
Carolyn stopped breathing and closed her eyes for a moment. What must it feel like to deliberately turn your back to a waiting sniper? To knowingly get shot? When she opened her eyes again and looked through the binoculars she saw Villanelle and Eve still in tight embrace, and Villanelle, with her chin on Eve’s shoulder, looked directly at her. She knew her position, she knew what would come, and her eyes were wide open. Villanelle smiled and even winked at the invisible Carolyn before closing her eyes. Then she was hit. Carolyn saw the projectile going right through her. Villanelle barely winced. With a sniper wound in her shoulder she shoved Eve over the railing and jumped into the river herself while Yusuf fired a few extra rounds around them.
A few seconds later Carolyn activated her headset that directly connected her to Yusuf. “Yusuf – what’s happening? The water is so murky, I can’t see anything. Oh wait – Eve just came up. One of the boat teams already throw her a rescue ring. But what about Vil?”
“Looks like a clean hit to the shoulder, perhaps the shoulder blade, but not the joint and no critical organs. I have no… okay, just got a text note from the diving team. They have her. She’ll need stitches, antibiotics and a few weeks rest. She should be fine.”
Carolyn sighed with relief. “Jolly good!” She now, for the time being, was more concerned about Eve, but there was a strategy for everything.
Waking up
Eve woke up in hospital the next afternoon. Her head felt heavy and cloudy. Her eyes were burning and seemed to be glued shut. She groaned. Someone grabbed her hand. Eve managed to open her eyes. Her hand was cupped by a beloved familiar brown hand. She looked up. “Elena? What the…”
“Shush dear. I heard what happened. Carolyn called me and I immediately came.”
“This time I really lost her.”
“Listen, I never understood the thing between you and her, but who am I to judge? You love her, and you and I are friends, so I guess I’ll have to accept that, right?”
“Loved. Past tense. You should have known her. Maybe you would understand.”
“Well, I actually do know her a bit.”
“Knew, if anything.”
Elena looked inappropriately happy when she said “Oh come on, get out of the bed. I have to show you something.” Eve was too weak to protest and also too weak to stand. Elena caught her when her legs failed, sat her on the bed and fetched a wheelchair from the other side of the room. A moment later Elena swiftly pushed Eve through a long corridor. Eve was confused.
“Lena – where are we?”
“Royal Navy Hospital. MI6 have their own station here.”
“Why am I here?”
“Patience, Eve. Just a moment. I promise you will feel better soon.”
“I won’t. There is nothing anymore, just empty…”
Elena pushed her through the swing doors of the ICU, beyond the fat red letters that screamed AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY.
Directly in front of her was a large bed, surrounded by beeping and blinking medical equipment attached to a human being, barely visible under covers and behind breathing mask and cables and pipes and a green bandana around the head. A pair of eyes slowly opened above the breathing mask and looked directly at her. Eve almost fainted when she felt like drowning in the familiar watery dark green gaze. She couldn’t see a grin, but she clearly felt it in her chest. Eve jumped out of her wheelchair like a frolicking puppy, and nobody could keep her from instantly rushing to the side of the bed. She pulled off the breathing mask and kissed Villanelle on her blueish lips, only stopping when Villanelle gasped for air.
“Hi Eve,” Villanelle whispered weakly and managed to pull off a mere shadow of her usual naughty grin. She wheezed heavily. “Happy rebirth, Eve!”
Eve kissed her again. Her voice was almost drowned out by her own tears and snot. “You are such an asshole.”
“Eve?”
“Hm?”
“I love you, too.” The last word tapered away and she seemed to have fallen asleep.
Eve gently stroked her cheek. “I also love you, you fool. I’d die for you.”
A tiny smile got painted onto Villanelle’s lips, and she ever so slightly squeezed Eve’s hand. “Well, yesterday I actually did die for you.”
Eve felt tears gushing down her cheeks like tiny, hot waterfalls. She sobbed silently and clenched Villanelle’s hand. Her legs were shaking. Behind her Elena approached with the wheelchair.
“Here Eve – sit down.”
Eve dropped herself into the chair without letting go of Villanelle’s hand. She would never let it go again! She leaned over to her beloved and gently laid her head on her chest. Eve’s panic and anxiety slowly receded when she heard and felt Villanelles strong and steady heartbeat. She felt Villanelle’s other hand on her head, weakly stroking her hair, her neck, where it finally stayed. They both slowly drifted away into a blissful state of half conscious day-dreaming.
“Evie?”
“Yes, love?”
“Could we stay like that forever?”
“If it’s up to me – deal, darling.”
“Nice.”