Becoming His Assassin

6 - The Transformation Begins

Audrey

    Wearing Jason’s clothes and one of his old baseball hats, we left his house and climbed into his car.  I had no clue how long of a drive we had ahead of us, but it couldn’t be very far, since we were supposed to meet him at ten in the morning, and it was already nine-thirty.

    For the most part, I kept my head down, so nobody could see my face and let Luke know where I was.  To be honest, I was shocked he hadn’t tracked me down yet, and I expected to see his face, red with anger, at any given moment.

    After twenty-five minutes of driving, Jason parked in front of a small, run-down house.  It was an ugly shade of bluish-gray with black shutters, and the tiny front yard was completely overgrown.

    I followed Jason up the walkway, while nervously glancing around to make sure nobody was watching.  When we reached the front door, Jason did a weird knock on it, and I assumed it was something he did often.

    It wasn’t long before my old friend answered the door, and he was quick to pull me inside and give me a friendly hug.  I was surprised to see that Cedric’s appearance hadn’t changed at all.  He was still the same young, handsome guy that he had always been.

    After pulling away from the hug and shutting the front door, Cedric instructed us to follow him.  We walked from the front of the house to the back, then down a flight of stairs that opened up into a large basement.

    The walls were covered with monitors and screens of various sizes.  Some were obviously showing what his surveillance cameras were picking up, while others were hooked to an elaborate computer system.  What that guy could do with a computer never ceased to amaze me.  

    Cedric sat down on his plush computer chair, then he started typing on his keyboard, as he rushed to explain, “Audrey, I hope you don’t mind me taking the liberty to get a jump start on this.  After making several phone calls and doing some research, I think I’ve come up with the perfect new identity for you.”

    “Seriously!  That is the best news I’ve gotten in more than two years!” I gushed with a newfound excitement.  

    “Now, I need you to pay close attention to these instructions,” Cedric stated in all seriousness.

    Right away, I flashed a smirk his way and responded, “You have my full attention.”

    After a few more seconds of typing and a few clicks of his mouse, a driver's license popped up on one of the larger monitors.  As I looked at the photo, I noticed it was me, but I had black hair.  I quickly scanned the rest to see that my new name was going to be Katerina Zhelezkin, and it showed my address being in West Virginia.

    I was still looking at the screen, when I heard Cedric start explaining.  Without a second of hesitation, I turned my attention back to my friend and intently listened to what he had to say.

    “You are no longer Aubrey Clevenger, or whatever your married last name was.  Now, you are Katerina Zhelezkin, the daughter of a Russian immigrant, who moved here after being disowned by her parents.  If people question your olive skin, this is what you are to tell them.  Your mother got pregnant while vacationing in Thailand, and that’s why her parents disowned her,” he explained.

    Cedric took a breath of air, then he continued by saying, “The rest of your physical attributes are on point.  You have light colored eyes, a button nose, and the perfect spacing between your eyes.  As for your hair, it’s up to you whether you keep the light brown or dye it to black.  Personally, I would dye it to match the i.d.  Plus, that will make it harder for your husband to find you.”

    I flashed a little smile at Cedric and responded, “I already planned on dying my hair, I just hadn’t settled on a color until now.”

    “You have always been a smart one.  I don’t know how you made such a bad judgement call with that worthless husband of yours,” he grumbled with a hint of irritation evident in his voice.

    I simply looked down at the floor and mumbled, “I was a fool in love.  Believe me when I say, I won’t be making any more mistakes like that.”

    “Good!  Now, onto your finances.   I’ve already set up a new bank account under your new identity, and I have it set-up so I can move your money from your current account to the new one without your husband being able to easily trace where it went,” he proudly informed me with a smirk forming on his face.

    “How is that?” I curiously inquired.

    “It’s gonna be easy-peasy.  I’m gonna rewire it through several different accounts before it lands in your account.  Some will go into one account, while the rest goes into other accounts, then your money will bounce back and forth between them for the next four hours.  By the time he gets to the twentieth account, he will give up and look for a different way to locate you,” Cedric explained while exuding total confidence in his abilities.

    I was very impressed by what he could do.  I’d heard of people doing stuff like this, but it was usually on movies or t.v. shows.  Never had I personally known somebody who was able to do such a thing in real life.

    After I entered my bank info, I was able to watch Cedric move the money to different accounts on the other monitors.  It was truly amazing what he could do, and I was beyond grateful for his help.

    While his computer did the rest of the work for him, Cedric took the time to pull out a manila folder that had my new name on the tab.  When he opened it up, my new driver’s license was sitting on top, and he was quick to hand it over to me, then he went over the rest of the documents.  

    Cedric was very thorough with his work.  In the folder, I had a new birth certificate, passport, social security number, and an abundance of information pertaining to my dead mother and her family living in Mother Russia.  

    He also had a debit card for the new bank account and several credit cards in Katerina’s name.  I don’t know how he was able to put all of it together so fast, but I couldn’t have been happier about it.   

    Once Cedric had gone over everything, he offered to take me to an underground car selling ring, so I could get rid of my current car and get a different one under my new name.  I was quick to jump on that offer, then we set a time to meet back up later in the evening.

    Since we had several hours to kill before meeting back up with Cedric, Jason drove me to a smaller city over an hour away, so I could buy some new clothes and black hair dye.  Luckily, I had just under three hundred dollars in cash, or I wouldn’t have been able to buy anything until my money made it into my new bank account.

    To show my gratitude, I insisted we eat at the local steakhouse, and I paid for both of our meals.  Jason insisted it wasn’t necessary, but I refused to take no for a response.

    When we got back to Jason’s house, I had just enough time to carry my stuff inside and change into the black tube dress I had just bought, then it was time to leave again, so we could meet up with Cedric.  The only difference was... this time, we took my car, since I had every intention of selling it and buying a different one.