A Necessary Kill by James P. Sumner Page B

chair in the opposite corner by the window and sits down, crossing her legs with unnecessary exaggeration. “It’s just a body wrap, essentially. Like those fake tattoo sleeves you can get.”
    I sit back down on the bed facing her. I’m impressed with her commitment to the role, if nothing else. She still has a glimmer of insanity behind her eyes, but as I look at her now, she’s a far cry from the woman I rescued this morning. She looks normal… feminine—not a hint of the feral, twisted, killer I first saw.
    “So, talk me through the whole criminally insane thing. What was your reasoning behind it?”
    She shrugs. “I slipped up on a job and got caught.” She leans back in her chair as she speaks. “If I had been tried, I’d have been given the death penalty without question. I knew I needed to get out of it, and, if I could, I knew I needed to lay low. For a long time. I didn’t have a lawyer, but I’d watched enough TV to know that pleading insanity was probably my only option. I ran through the routine in my head over and over again. Then on my last court appearance before sentencing I got in character, and within minutes they sent me to Stonebanks in Baltimore.”
    I smile. “Well, I’ve seen you play the part, so I can understand their reaction…”
    “Once I was inside, I actually thought it could work quite well… I figured I could sneak out whenever I had a contract and hide out there between jobs. No one would ever think to look for me in an asylum, right?”
    I nod, understanding the logic. “Kinda like a Winter Soldier thing? Nice idea.”
    She frowns. “Who?”
    I really need to lay off the comic-slash-movie references when Josh isn’t here—it just confuses people…
    I shake my head. “Never mind. So what went wrong?”
    “It turns out I kinda played my part a little too well. They put me in solitary on a priority watch, which made it impossible for me to get out. Luckily, the last visit before my ass was hauled off to the funny farm was from my friend who managed to put the body wrap on me for the scars, so at least I could keep up the act once I was inside and be left alone. Not sure what I would’ve done long-term if you hadn’t come for me, though.”
    I shrug. “It’s been a stroke of luck for the both of us there, I think. But, ah… I gotta ask, seeing as we’ll be working together. The hit you got caught on… a guard in the asylum said you torched a retirement home full of old people. That’s a bit much, isn’t it? Even for someone in our line of work…”
    She smiles, like she’s forgiving my ignorance. “Yeah, I did torch a building full of old people. And that’s all anyone knows, officially.”
    I raise an eyebrow. “And unofficially?”
    “The care home I destroyed was a front for a pedophile ring, and it was full of child molesters. Every single one of those twisted fucks had spent their lives ruining other people’s and had gotten away with it. The father of a kid who killed himself after years of abuse spent thousands of dollars investigating it, and it led him to that retirement home. The job came to me, and I did it for free. And I hope each and every one of the sick bastards is still burning.”
    I clench my jaw muscles, empathetically angry at the thought of people being allowed to live after committing such atrocities. I also feel a swell of pride for Ruby, in a purely professional capacity. I’m pleased for her that she was able to use her abilities to take on what I would consider a noble cause and provide that grieving father with the closure he needed. It’s good for us to sometimes use our skills and our job to do something honorable and just. It’s a shame there aren’t more of us around who think the same way.
    I feel myself glaze over, lost in a moment of rage and understanding.
    “Are you… okay?”
    “Huh?” I snap back into the moment. “Yeah, I’m good—sorry. And I’m glad you’ve got my back on this. Don’t get me wrong, as