The Hitman’s Retirement – Chapter II

II. The Target

It was after 8:00 PM by the time they returned to the hotel.  Tony waited patiently for Cheyenne to climb into bed.  Part of her residual army training made her an early bird and Tony was counting on her going to bed early.  Tonight though, she did not.  Much to his surprise she was still wide awake at 10:00 PM.

Even his tolerance and patience were being exceeded while he waited for her to doze off. Instead of being able to locate the target’s house during the day he had to spend the time retrieving data from the broken phone.  Which meant he was going to have to find it for the first time in the dark of the night.  Doable but sloppy work.  But it had to be done that night.  Cheyenne was expecting for the two to get up and get an early start to the Park. 

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The Hitman’s Retirement – Chapter I

 I. The Reconnect

Tony looked at his watch.  It was only 4 minutes since the last time he snuck a glance.  In between time checks he would glare at his brother-in-law.  Thanks to Jackson, he spent the afternoon attempting to salvage his work phone.  He managed to turn it on and retrieve most of the files he needed.  But he had to buy another phone to transfer all the data to which created a data trail.  Any type of trail is sloppy work.

Plus, he had the added pressure to do all this while keeping Cheyenne in the dark about how important the phone was for his assignment.  She didn’t know anything about the job he was contracted to do.  There was no way he could tell her now.  How would that go?  “Oh, by the way, honey, you know how you think I work on wall street?  I don’t. I have killed a stock broker before but you don’t need to know about that.  The important thing to remember is I love you and I am changing my whole life because of you.  Isn’t that great news?”

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Can there only be one truth?

Ten years ago, actor Jesse Eisenberg was interviewed by Romina Puga. This has become a legendary interview of sorts and clips are still circulating demonizing the actor and victimizing the interviewer. Neither side is represented well. She claims he was mocking and demeaning. He claims he thought it was all a joke. Should be easy enough to determine who is telling the truth since it is on video but even with that it is not that simple.

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Practice makes…more practice

I enjoy public speaking. But I don’t get to do it enough so I have set about creating ways to practice. My hope is to one day find a way to make a living using the skill. Until then, I keep thinking of ways to develop the skill. One way I have started this summer is by doing live video chats and other video spots on social media. I don’t expect anyone to notice the videos but when they do I’m not sure how to follow-up.

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Story behind the Post – The Hitman’s Phone

July was a 5-Saturday month. Which means in June, I was scrambling for a story. I had a few ideas but which one to pursue? One day while on a break from work, I took my daily walk down the sidewalk. There in the gutter was a phone. It was cracked and had definitely seen better days. Instead of picking it up, I left it there thinking someone may come looking for it. Of course, I took a picture of it. Then I forgot about it. It was gone by my next walk the following morning.

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