A Not-So Relaxing Day at the Beach

Katherina Degard remembers the day that started the mission that caused her to lose him.

           I laughed, smiling at his James Bond impressions. "Vodka martini, shaken not stirred," he said with an accent not even close to British. He made a face that was supposed to be 007's smirk, and I laughed even harder.

          "Alright, you win. You know how easy it is to get me to laugh. But, I bet 007 can't beat me in a race to the snack shack!" I shouted and ran off. "Hey, not fair, Kathy! Not fair!" he shouted and ran after me.

          The soothing ocean wind blasted against my face. The sound of seagulls cawing filled the air. It was a beautiful day in Malibu.

         "Got you!" he shouted as he tackled me down against the sand. I tried to get up and continue the race, but he pulled me down again. I laughed once more, and he took advantage of my distraction and ran.

          After a while, I regained my balance and ran after him. By the time I got there, he already had bought the ice-cream and found us a table.

         "The name's Bond, James Bond, and I beat you after all," he said, handing me my usual mint-chocolate-chip ice cream cone. "That's 'cuz you tackled me down. Scared that you were gonna lose much?" I teased. "Scared? I face the most dangerous villains ever. I face the most deathly beautiful girls armed with guns and knives. Scared of you? Never," he said.

         "All right then, Mr. Bond. Like I totally believe what you are saying," I said. Suddenly, a burst of gunfire rang out. The peaceful scene turned into chaos. People screamed and ran for cover. 911 was immediately dialed, but it was obvious they weren't going to get here in time.

          He pulled me under the table. "All right, judging from the firing, there should only be four gunmen. Jugding from the reaction and hiding, they each cover one of the exits. You take the ones to the north and east. I'll take the ones to the south and west. Got it?" he asked, pulling out a gun from under his shirt. "Yeah," I also pulled out a gun. "And for good luck..." I kissed him. It was something we did before every dangerous mission.

         Getting out from under the table, we each fired a shot at the gunmen's thighs. They let at out scream as it hit them. Then, we parted and went to take out our two guys.

         The guy to the east was down, adding pressure to his wound. He was panicking. I rolled my eyes. People like that should never take on jobs like these. They're too weak.

         Unfortunately, the gunman to the north was strong and furious as an enraged bull. He went at me with full force. I managed to kick his head before he got to me, but it still wasn't enough. I would had killed him with a shot, but Aces agents weren't allowed to kill people when we weren't assigned to cases or knew for sure they were sent to kill us. He came at me again. I punched his nose, hoping to break it. I only slightly damaged it. Then, he took me by the throat and threw me to the wall. I slammed into it hard and slid down, groaning. He was strong, too strong to be a crazy average gunman.

          He came at me again, probably ready to deliever the final blow. I searched around for my gun, but I must had misplaced it when I went flying. He was nearing... I looked around, desparatly trying to find a weapon of some sorts. He was about to punch me when I took the glass flower vase next to me and slammed it on his head. It shattered into a million pieces but not before making my would-be-killer dazed. He stumbled to the side.

          Then, he raised up his fist. I got up quickly, hoping that he wasn't consious enough to aim at me. Before he could react, I punched the base of his neck, wondering if I had enough strenght left to make him unconcious. He groaned and went out cold.

          I sighed, relieved that it was over, and looked over to see how my boyfriend was doing. He saw me looking at him and called me over. I joined him, confused at what was so important.

          "Kathy, I think you might want to see this. I found it in his pocket," he said and showed me a paper. My picture was on it. "Objective: Kill Katherina Degard," it read. 
           I looked at it, speechless. They had been after me afterall. This person had wanted me dead so much that they didn't care if they killed other people during the process. I didn't remember what I had done. The past missions had been a success, and all my enemies and their contacts were either eliminated or behind bars. This was my first time I had assassins come after me.

          "Kathy, I think we should head back to base now. It's not safe for you here," he said, grabbing my hand. "Yeah...sure..." I  agreed. He kissed my cheek. "Everything will turn out okay as usual. We'll figure out who sent these guys after you and get revenge. Darrell will hack into the security cameras and remove all evidence that we were even here. The police will never believe that two teens took out these guys," he said, leading me out of there and towards our car (technically yes, we weren't allowed to drive, but being an Aces agents had its priviliges).

           The people in the shack slowly came out of their places. As we started our car, we could hear police sirens coming around the corner. I wanted to believe that the police would take care of everything, but they wouldn't. This was a dangerous world we lived in, and dangerous was something that described Aces... Once again, this started a whole new mission for us agents at the Diamonds Division. Little had I known that this mission would make me lose him.