The Laughing Assassin [Assassin's Diary] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Online Free

She would have had to enter and leave the country the target was in at some point during the operation. No matter how good she was, killing someone from another country was nearly impossible.
    Until he found himself on the right track when he combed the airport security cameras for a week before and after the handful of jobs he was sure she actually performed were complete.
    First, he discovered that she used a fake passport on entrance to the USA, as he wasn’t able to find anything resembling her using the name she checked in with at her prior connections. He found a grainy photo from an airport security camera at ILM. She would have been coming back stateside from a job in the Ukraine, and he knew he had hit pay dirt. She left using the arrivals gate, and she didn’t fly back out for several months. So he knew she had a home based within the area for certain, but it gave him a start, as there were only a handful of passengers on the flight from Miami that continued to Wilmington.
    After eliminating the other travelers as his quarry, he saw she was slick enough to register a different name for the last connection. She made it appear as if her debarking alias was a local that had gotten off at her destination even while she checked back in and flew homeward under yet another assumed name. But with a bit of fact-checking, he found the real Susan Jennings who lived at 145 Sycamore Lane was nowhere near similar in appearance to the identity of the woman who flew into Miami. The actual Susan was a five-foot-ten-inch bottle blonde, and his prey was just over five feet and Afro-American to boot.
    But he was able to use profiling software based on the passport photo to unearth a driver’s license issued in North Carolina, and then he had her. The photos he found confirmed not only that she was the woman he sought, but that she was far from photogenic. But the last part had no bearing on what he needed her for.
    Even better, he next found tax records and zoning permits under the same owner. She was a small business proprietor for a bakery in a city along the North Carolina coast. After that point it was a cakewalk to dig up what he needed to know. He had finally tracked down one of the most feared women in the world. And after a peek at the time, it had only taken him ninety-eight days and thirty-two minutes. Jonah sent a message to Toro in part to gloat and asked him to come to his office. He had a flight to catch, and he needed Toro to get Dayna and Johannes on board as well.
    Toro cracked open the door. “So you found her?”
    “Yeah.” It was all he needed to say.
    “So am I doing the usual bag and tag?”
    “Not this time.” Toro cocked a brow, and Jonah could see the questions ready to fall from the other man’s lips. “I will go and retrieve her.” Toro had the right to look shocked. It was usually the other man’s job to go and proposition future agents.
    But this time, he wanted to be the one to meet her in the flesh. Jaden Bishop was one of the smartest women alive. The fact that he hunted her for three months and one week nonstop had his interest piqued. He had to find out if she was as smart as he thought she was, or if she was just that lucky.
    He knew one thing for sure. She was the one that botched the Jourdain job all of those years ago for his team’s recon. If nothing else, Jonah knew that simple fact was leverage he could utilize to his advantage. That was if, Jaden wasn’t jaded from years of for-hire murders and stealthy assassinations.
     
    * * * *
     
    Jaden watched as Krisliva walked to the front door of the bakery with a backpack slung over one shoulder headed for the college campus.
    “Make sure you’re back by seven tonight.” Kris gave a rushed agreement on the way out, and Jaden just hoped the girl wouldn’t forget.
    “I will. Oh yeah, by the way… I had a dream last night.”
    Not now, Jaden thought. I need this like I need another hole in the head.
    Kris had a tendency to see things