(Warren)
The cool ventilation of the underground warehouse ruffled Warren's blue cotton shirt, caressing his sweat soaked skin. He wasn't sweating from a long run or an intense training session, but from thinking about his upcoming meeting with a beautiful arms dealer.
Warren held his comm up to the waist high scanner and it opened with a satisfying click, and a happy chime. Of course, she already knew he was coming or he would have been denied entry to the hallway. Even with his malware to hack through almost any lock, Warren knew Nakita possessed better security than almost anyone.
Warren's heart raced as the door hissed and opened, revealing a cosy apartment."One minut I vill be right out!" said a feminine voice in heavily accented Zrixian. Warren felt queazy, and took in deep calming breaths.
He scanned the spacious room, admiring the carved wooden dining table and the marble kitchen counter tops. The decor would have fit right in with a high ranking politician's mansion, and must have cost a fortune in crowns. Warren made his way over to a plush leather chair but didn't take a seat in the recliner. He knew he was allowed after their last meeting but refrained because of the sweat staining his cotton shirt.
With a hiss of air and a click, a tall woman strode into the room, her stunning white hair still wet from a shower. She grinned, showing off her perfectly straight teeth. In stark contrast to her snow white hair was her dark caramel skin.
Her sculpted cheeks and wide nose were absolutely stunning when framed by pure white hair. He stood there, his breath catching like some teenager in a cheesy film, unable to speak. "Warren, it'z a pleasure to see you againn." She said, happily, her Zrixian studded with a heavy Slax accent.
"Nakita, you look lovely tonight." Warren replied, flushing and hoping the compliment came off as sincere.
"Iz it night? I can neverr tell with zat pesky green barrier alwayz lighting up za over city."Nakita said, chuckling. Her hazel eyes flashed with amusement as they scanned Warren from head to toe, lingering on his flushing cheeks.
"Yeah, it really is confusing after coming from an actual planet with day and night."Warren said, not revealing which planet he came from. Nakita was a professional and so didn't bother asking the obvious question. However, Warren did wonder why she was holding the business meeting in her apartment instead of the warehouse. His cheeks flushed brighter at the thought of this going somewhere.
"Why za red cheekz? Vere you runnin all za way here?" Nakita asked, winking playfully. He flushed, damit, now she was just teasing him. "So, did you get the hardware I asked for?" Warren asked in Zrixian, looking anywhere but Nakita's bright hazel eyes, and full-lipped smile.
Nakita let out a melodic laugh and gestured him to follow her towards the back of the room.She reached out and pulled two sleek black suitcases from behind her plush couch. With a practiced hand, she set them on her expensive polished wooden table.
She opened the metal clasps, her callused slender fingers moving gracefully to produce a satisfying click. Settled in deep black foam sat the pieces of a sleek black cutting edge rifle and high-powered scope. It was disassembled, but Warren found everything there, every piece for the rifle.
She opened the second case, revealing a single black, five round magazine with an odd bronze cartridge protruding from the top. Two clear plastic bottles the length of the briefcase were filled with a clear liquid that looked like water.
"Did you get me water?" Warren asked, eying the liquid suspiciously. "No, zat iz hydro four." She paused in thought, gesturing wildly with one hand. "hydrofluoric acid. It vill dissolve metal and za polymer carbon of za stock and za scope of za rifle. All you need iz a plastic bin to place za weapon into." Nakita said with emphasis on the word plastic.
Warren smiled, finding her accent rather adorable. He could tell her he speaks native level Slax but that would reveal more about him than he wanted to share at this time. His skin was far too pale for a Slax, and too dark for a Zrixian, so that would make him stand out as a Salian or an Etrian.
If she learned he spoke Slax, she could make the logical conclusion he was Etrian, as they were staunch trading partners with the Slax, whereas Salia was a part of the Zrixian empire.
"That is better than my idea. I was planning on placing an incendiary grenade in the briefcases."Warren said truthfully. Nakita swore colourfully in her native Slax but cracked a smile at Warren despite the swear.
"Well, now you don't need to light an entire building on fire to destroy za weapon after you kill someone. Just place ze weapon in za plastic container and pour ze acid onto it. Za fumes are terrible, so I would recommend leaving ze room as quick as possible."Nakita said, as though she gave this talk to everyone buying weapons from her.
"Thank you Nakita, you are a big help."Warren said truthfully, for once shy when talking to someone.
"Enough with za acid, look at ze bullets. Ya asked for some armour piercing rounds, and I only supply ze best." Nakita said, her hazel eyes glimmering proudly. He glanced down at the magazine. The top cartridge looked like cracked bronze, split by thin layers of transparent, conductive green metal. Warren let out a whistle and glanced up at Nakita curiously.
"Damn, five art laced rounds must have been tough to get."Warren said, shutting each case with a comforting click. He turned from the two black cases and smiled at Nakita.
"Not az hard to get as two bottles of Hydrofluoric acid, ze people who use that stuff are surprisingly hard to bribe. By ze way, zat stuff gets on your fingers, It will melt them off, so be careful."Nakita said, her accent almost sounding like she was joking. She saw his expression of alarm and smiled reassuringly at him.
"Don't worry about me, I am just going to pour them in with the gun after i take the shot."Warren said, wincing after he revealed too much.
Warren's heart skipped a beat as she grinned at him happily."I'm not one to pry into the business of a customer, but I hope you don't let that weapon fall into the hands of the enforcers. They don't have the manufacture numbers on them, but there are only so many weapons dealers in the city that can procure that kind of hardware."Nakita said, raising one perfectly manicured brow. There was an oddity this time. She spoke perfect Zrixian as though she was faking the accent this whole time.
Warren laughed, and picked up both of the briefcases, each a comforting weight in his hands. One strand of his black hair fell over his bright eyes and Warren blew it away, smiling in what he hoped was a disarming manner.
"Dont worry, if I can't find a suitable plastic container to melt it, I will go to my first idea of using incendiary grenades."Warren said, with a confident grin."Should I be worried that you are not joking?" Nakita asked seriously, her eyes wide.
He stood there just looking at the beautiful woman, unsure of what to say, and she in turn stare back at him."What is it? It there something on my face?" She asked, reaching up to touch her smooth, dark skin, her fingers caressing her full lips. Warren shook himself from his trance," Sorry it's nothing, I was just lost in thought."Warren said, before turning to leave.
The door hissed open on remote control as he approached and Warren glanced over his shoulder at her one final time, engraving that stunning face into his memories. He was thinking he made an idiot of himself until he caught her watching him leave with her eyes firmly glued to his derriere. Well, she revealed she was far better at Zrixian than he initially thought, and even brought him back to her apartment.Warren grinned and couldn't help himself, maybe she liked him after all?
After the door hissed shut, Warren's thoughts changed from the lovely arms dealer to his upcoming mission. This would be a rushed job and Warren didn't like that. Only one night to find and execute a senator, of all things. That broke so many rules when it came to killing someone, Warren couldn't even count them all.
It usually would take weeks to both plan and set up a hit, not to mention planning the escape, but this was war. He would need to take the elevator from the sub city to the fifth floor on a highrise of the over city and wait for his mark to show up.
And doing that with two suspicious dark black briefcases was out of the question. However, it wasn't completely futile. Warren came up with an idea that might just as easily fail and get his cover blown rather than work. Warren found a piece of cardboard that someone might use to wrap a present and place both of the briefcases inside.
He wrapped the box with some bright bows and, for good measure, covered the box in a sprinkling of rainbow glitter. That might have been overdoing it, but warren wanted any security guard seeing this box to give it only the barest glance before letting it into the building.
With the foam and the rifle parts, the box was light. He could even shake it and not have the faintest idea of the contents. Even a discerning person wouldn't be able to guess it contained hydrofluoric acid.
His comm bussed, and Warren received a message from Villus. [The target is awake and moving around his estate. Be ready, if he stays on schedule, he will arrive at city hall within the next three hours.]
Warren dawned his disguise, then dressed in standard black pants and a brown cotton shirt before going down to direct delivery service. Direct was a service that promised rapid delivery by drone right to your room, and for a fee, they would even deliver within an hour.
Warren handed the box containing his weapon, and the acid to the kindly young lady named Katelyn. He gave her a charming smile.
Unable to meet his bright eyes, she flushed, glancing at the box and asked in a shy tone, "Would you like quick delivery to your apartment, Brad? It's only five crowns more." Warren smiled kindly, " Yes thankyou, I would love that. I am hoping it can reach home before my niece wakes." Warren said, sticking his hands into his pockets and rocking back on his heels.
"Oh, don't worry about that. With our rapid service, we will have it to your apartment within the hour."The young woman said quickly, pulling her dark brown hair behind her right ear. She batted her lashes at him, revealing bright green eyes that were both curious and shy.Warren paid for the extra fee, and taking his receipt, he left the delivery office.
It was a risk to expose his face in a building that had cameras in every corner, but Warren wasn't that worried. The lenses over his eyes, the makeup shading his skin, which was stained a dark bronze as well as the perfect blond wig, should hide his real identity.
This was the persona of one Brad Heller, and it would cease to exist after Warren took a single shot from his five-story hotel. During the walk to the street, he wonder what Katlyn might think when the enforcers came knocking on her place of work to question her. What would she say when they grilled her about Brad heller? Would they try to put her in a crime for delivering the weapon right to his room?
With a commute on a shuttle that lasted thirty minutes, he ruminated on that thought.Warren arrived at his very brief residence, pushing aside the unhelpful thought to focus. The receptionist at the bottom floor waved at him as he walked into the lobby floor and he waved back.As before, Warren kept in character, never taking off his mask in the premises of the twenty story hotel.
From there, Warren headed up to his fifth story room overlooking the street, and the stairs leading up to city hall. He entered his room and, as if on cue, the whirring of a drone came from the balcony. There was no thunk, but after a few seconds of whirring, the sound disappear as the drone left. He locked the front door behind him and checked every nook and cranny of his sparsely furnished hotel room.
Sure there was a queen sized bed, a couch and a wall that could turn into a tv but that was the extent of the room's luxury. He had forgone a tub for the corner room and so he had to suffer just a shower instead. Warren shook his head, it's not like he was planning to stay in this room at all. Now in a relatively safe space, he checked his comm. The time read four am, and he was greeted with a missed call notification from Villus.
Instead, there was a blinking message. [Target is in a red and black sports car. Hurry, he is leaving early, he should arrive at the city hall in about forty minutes!] attached to the text was a photo of a tall man with a balding head of greying hair, bright green eyes and a mustache that looked more like a rats tail on his face.The text sounded frantic and Warren grinned as he thought of how anxious Villus must be to lose this opportunity.
He took in a deep breath. It was almost time and Warren hadn't even sighted in the rifle's scope yet. That should only take about twenty minutes with his state-of-the-art app installed on his comm and a bullet that was actually a laser pointer.
He pushed aside the shade, wincing at the bright green light stinging his eyes. Warren grinned when he was greeted by an open view for several hundred yards down the street and a brightly wrapped package on his small balcony.
In the distance, he could see a building crowd at the base of the five story courthouse despite the early hour of the morning. Parked at the end of the street were two news vans hurriedly assembling their cameras. He took the package inside, shutting the blinds before opening the box.
Warren worked on autopilot. He assembled the rifle, oiling each part as he slid the weapon together piece by piece. It was so engrained into his muscle memories that Warren was comfortable reading Villuse's message while he slid the parts together.
That would have been easier, but Warren wasn't willing to take the risk. Sure, he could do it, but that didn't mean he would. He would only have one shot at senator Sergile, and he would be damned if he missed when the stakes were so high. This was one of the politicians responsible for the fall of Etria, and Warren would not miss because of laziness.
He slid the bolt into the rifle, adding oil, sliding it back and forth several times and admiring the smooth glide. Nakita was right, this rifle was top of the line. He pulled the table over to the window and lined it up, giving himself a clean line of fire to the city hall about four hundred yards down the street. To test the angle, he lay on the table and was happy to see an unobstructed view of the street for several hundred yards.
Warren slid the sliding door open just enough to allow room for the point of his rifle to stick out. The main issue of this shot would be the racket his rifle made when he took the shot.He would only have minutes before enforcers arrived on the scene, and in that time he would need to vanish.
Even with the best sound suppressor money could buy, there was no way he could break the laws of physics and avoid the crack of a supersonic bullet. Warren slid a plastic bin next to the couch and gingerly place two bottles of highly corrosive liquid next to it.
He felt bad for the horrendous fumes that would permeate the room, destroying the decor, as the owner of the hotel didn't deserve that. That would happen after he split the rifle into two parts and then dumped the hydrofluoric acid into the plastic bin. Warren did not know where Nakita procured the acid but was happy to have it, as after the weapon took a bath it would be an unrecognisable heap.
Warren got to work sighting in his new weapon. He got lost in the process, feeling like he was back under the supervision of instructor Trey. Warren's chest tightened as he remembered the instructor disappearing in a flash of blood and fire. His comm beeped, and Warren wiped away moisture from his eyes. Another beep, this time more urgent.
Warren verified the message and confirmed the target was five minutes out. He slid the magazine into the gun, tapping the clip twice to reassure himself it was secure. He slid the bolt, marveling at the smooth, effortless glide as he pushed a live round into the chamber. He lay on the table, cradling the stock into the crook of his shoulder, resting the bipod on the table and took in deep calming breaths.
His hands were steady as he slid the front end of the suppressor just out of the glass door, but not far enough for someone on the street to see. The scope brought the image of the front steps leading to the city hall into extreme detail once he put his eye to the telescopic sight. He could see the two enforces on either side of the front door with their pitch black combat armour, and their mat black assault rifles.
Despite the slowly growing crowd of protestors out, the two enforcers didn't move from their posts. Warrens heart beat slowed with each breath until his scope didn't sway. A red and black sports car drove along the street, undeterred by the massing protestors.
Several groups of people with bulky old style cameras and recording devices stepped from the crowd, no doubt waiting to ask the senator questions.Warren could guess what they might ask, like do you support the torcher the Devali did? And what do you think of the growing tensions with the Slax?
He would have smiled, but there was no room for excitement when preparing for a shot. The enforcers pushed through the crowd of protestors to the covered red and black sports car making a path for the Senator. They held the crowd at bay and only then did the driver's door open.
Warren could see his balding pate through the passenger window but was weary of the glass deflecting the bullet and not killing him. A slim senator in his sixties stepped from the sports car holding a leather briefcase and wearing a ten thousand crown three piece suit. He smiled his winning smile to the crowd and stood there to answer the reporter's questions.
For one long moment, Warren hesitated, his sights on the center of the man's back. Was this the right thing to do? This was one of the people that helped annihilate the Secari and conquer Etria. What would Nakita think when she read the news in the morning? She would know that it was Warren, as the evidence left in the room would be unmistakable.
With that thought in mind, Warren placed the sight on the man's bald spot at his cranium and slowly began squeezing the trigger. This was war, and he needed to be ruthless.
The only mercy he would show this man was a painless death. The gun kicked him so hard that he slid back on the smooth surface of the table, the rifle cracking loudly. When he re-found his target in the scope; the man had already fallen to the steps in an expanding pool of blood.
The two enforcers were standing over him, shielding his body with their own and aiming their rifles outwards, searching for him. They would be yelling shooter! And senator down! The fact they were covering his body didn't matter, as there was a shower of blood still drifting in the air and brain matter showered over the frozen onlookers. In moments, their shock would fade enough for the frantic panic to set in and they would bolt.
Warren calmly stood, dawning a pair of plastic gloves. He shut the blinds and with practiced ease, unscrewed the hot barrel and still warm suppressor. He placed them in the bin and uncapped the two bottles of acid. He gagged at the smell but poured the two bottles of liquid over the gun, filling the bottom tenth of the bin.
That done, Warren glanced at the already sanitized black cases and the acid bottles. He wiped the table down quickly but thoroughly and then headed for the door. All in all, it took him under thirty seconds to finish up with disposing of the evidence that could ever link him or Nakita to the shooting of Senator Sergile.
Warren, carrying nothing, walked calmly down the hall after placing a do not disturb sign on his door and enter the elevator. When asked what the hell was going on by a concerned receptionist, Brad Heller could only shrug worriedly.
He headed for the elevator leading from the lobby to the corridors of the Undercity. Once down there, he could easily get rid of his disguise and then find a new apartment far away from her, under a new name and new look.