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Friday Feb. 14th 2020, 9:00PM
California - U.S

1

"REMEMBER YOU only have an hour. We'll be back in an hour" The pilot of the helicopter said to him as he drove the helicopter away from their landing point. The air agitated by the wings of the helicopter blew on his trenchcoat making it flap. The breeze kind of reminded him of his first day in training

This place is not for weaklings. There are a hundred of you now but mark my words, in 5 years none of you will remain

And their instructor didn't lie. 80% of the recruits had given up after a year. 10% the next year and 6 walked away the year after that. Only four remained. They were drilled hard that's for sure.

But the five years of rigorous training under Sentinel wasn't his problem now. His problem was his mission and his mission was that he had to eliminate high profile target Danilo Antonelli. Italian arms dealer. He read in the mission files that he was in California to meet Borislav Kozlov. The meeting was to take place at Dominum Hotel at 9:30 pm. It was a popular hotel that hosted many important names. The Russian and the Italian would fit right in. But his mission was this : Find Danilo, tail him to the meeting, eavesdrop on their conversation and listen for important information that may help their investigation and then eliminate the target.

He walked along the sidewalk briefcase in hand. He tipped his hat with his gloved hands a little bit to make sure it covered his eyes. He took in the city. Surprising how beautiful a city could look at night if the nightlights were arranged properly and were the right colour.

Thank goodness they dropped me so close to the hotel, he thought as he took a left and beheld the massive hotel. 'Dominum hotel' was the first thing you'd see with a quick glance as the words in upper case were hung at the top of the building. Then if you tilted your head downwards a little you'd see the luxurious cars parked in the tarred compound and the well designed fountain at the center of the compound. Only after gawking the hotel will you notice the people and buildings around it. It was unusually deserted today aside from the hotel security guards at the massive gate and few people being checked in. He quickly counted. 15 hotel security guards at and around the gate, 23 people being checked in as he joined in to be the 24th. That was a little display of the results of hardcore training. When it was his turn the security guard doing the searching asked him for his briefcase and seized more than collected it from him. He clicked the briefcase open.

"Hey, you're not allowed to do that" he said
"Sorry sir it's security protocol. We're on high alert so we have to check every single person and object that comes into this place"
He noticed the uneasiness of the security guard which he hid quite well. In fact a normal civilian wouldn't have noticed how soaked the insides of his shoes were. Because a normal person wouldn't have looked at his hands and seen the trembling of his index finger, wouldn't notice the slight twitch on corner of his left cheek as he talked and his occasional spin of the head as he talked. This is probably this guard's first time at the gate. Didn't look experienced at all. Probably in his early twenties. He'd seen an opening and decided to capitalize on it
"No I don't care about your security protocol. Is this how you treat loyal customers. Huh. You embarrass them in front of your hotel?"
"No sir I......"
"I promise you I'll have a word with the manager about this"
Another one of the guards walked to the gate after hearing the hubbub. This one looked experienced. Was quite old. Mid forties if he had to guess
"Good evening sir"
Then the guard shifted his gaze to the young one and took the briefcase from him.
"Leave...