Chapter 2
******
"You seem tense Linda. Why is that?" He used that disgusting high pitched voice he was always using for her name that she hated so much. He sneered, "I can sense every emotion right out of your dirty basic-angel body Linda and you know me well, one thing I hate is lies. Liiieesss. So tell me, is it done? Or do I need to replace you?... I hear delinquent teenage angels are rife this time of year… It'll be nice to have young blood on the job, don't you think?"
Linda gritted her teeth,
"It is done sire. I have delivered it to her and it's only a matter of time till Ayra Sharma falls." She managed as she stood in front of the dark figure.
She didn't dare look up for too long, the little she could see of his hideous scars was enough. And the example he had made of the ones before her right in her presence was always fresh in her memory whenever she came to this place. He was the most evil, most despicable being that existed in Niem history and she knew that not just because the history books said so.
His defeat by the hand of Mia Sharma, the most secretly famous battle angel had left him far more bitter and vengeful than one could think possible. Cyprus had not heard the last of him. Oh Cyprus, beautiful Cyprus, he smirked.
"Fail me once and I will have your head!" He thundered out of the blue, shocking Linda to her bone.
She shook like a leaf as she stammered:
"Oh great Tamak your reign is prominent. S-supreme, above all."
He smiled, his teeth white against the blackness of his form. He waved his hand dismissively and Linda closed her eyes; in an instant she was pulled back into her realm.
"Hhhhnnnnn" she gasped for air as she stood up from the pool of blood she had submerged herself in to manifest into the realm that Tamak was. Dripping from her body was the blood of those who had failed to comply with her schemes; she had killed them with her own hands.
"Who does he think he is?" she gasped, still trying to catch her breath, "He is lucky I can't access my powers in that detestable realm of his." she screeched, striking every object in her way with her power of lightning as she went.
"Nouova!" Suddenly the blood on her body disappeared and she appeared in a stunning black dress. Fitting, she thought. After all they would all be mourning soon. She stopped in front of her wall and with a flick of her wrist, a moving image appeared.
"Zidia, Issak, Blossom. This is an important message. Make sure you don't get discovered. She is just a teenage girl, although very smart, but don't test me, if you are discovered by her I will strike you on the spot. Am I clear?" Her voice was like glass scraping on glass – sharp, disturbing and efficiently passing the message across.
"Yes. We already have eyes on the prey; she won't be getting away from us today." Zidia responded as she geared up, flinching at Linda voice.
Liquidators as Linda usually referred to them, were an underground group of assassins whose jobs were to terminate beings posing as a threat to their master.
Their task today was to assassinate Ayra Sharma and make it look like an accident. This wasn't their first job; they had done lots of dirty work for Linda, but this in particular seemed very important and it had to happen without triggering the attention of the public. Imagine people hearing that an angel, fresh out of battle school, disappeared on her first day, hashtag burn – on the rulers of course.
"Good, liquidators." Wardwill muttered a half smile crossing her lips, "That would be all for now. The moon, the stars and the sun's blessings are with you."
******
"How many miles are we from the target?" Issak queried.
"Closer than you think, here have a look." Blossom handed the tablet over to Issak.
"We strike when she boards the teleporter."
"We can't," Zidia snapped. "She is in the public, this is an underground mission remember? We are meant to make this look like an accident."
"More reason we strike when she is at the station, to make it look like it is the fault of the station operator." Issak explained, rattled.
"Uh– fine!" Zidia conceded glaring at Issak.
"As entertaining as the atmosphere between you two, our target has entered the station: time for us to strike." Blossom interrupted them as she stationed their jet over the roof of the station. Of course no one could see it.
"I'll be placing a force field and a time freeze channel on this building in two minutes. I'll be communicating with you two through these metaverse pods. She tossed the pods to Issak, who tossed a set to Zidia. "Put them on. We only have five minutes to complete the mission and to leave the station; you both have three minutes to execute the mission, one minute to get back to the rooftop and we have one minute to leave this vicinity undetected. Lastly, Issak…please don't do anything stupid."
"Well I'm offended!" Issak said, his hand over his heart.
"This seems easy." Zidia muttered, "I'll go first." Then she pushed Issak aside and jumped down from the jet.
"She didn't!" Issak gasped, looking down at her as she landed easily.
"It's always a competition between you both." Blossom sighed before connecting herself to the operating system of the jet.
"Don't blame me, she is the dramatic one." Issak retorted before jumping.
"Guess we've all started our jobs. Yo Siri, connect me fast!" Blossom yelled before going into cyber-trans. A state that allowed her to control everything tech with her sub-consciousness.
"Force field is active and running, time freeze channel starting about now. Remember guys, don't fuck this up." Blossom communicated through the pods.
"I'm in." Issak muttered as he approached the escalator. He could see everyone frozen mid-action. He moved swiftly as he wondered – like he always did when in a time freeze – what happened to teleporter angels who were in the middle of teleporting.
"Have any idea where Zidia is Blossom?" Issak asked,
"I'm right behind you idiot, keep moving." Zidia snapped as she appeared right behind Issak with an evil grin.
"You finally decided to show up your majesty, where have you been?" Issak sneered.
"Destroying evidence, of course your pea brain wouldn't know what that is. You know, I've been trailing behind you since you stepped into the building and you didn't notice. I could have easily killed you. Lucky you aren't my target. Pray you never are 'cause if you are, it'll be the fastest job I'll ever complete." Zidia bragged as they headed toward the teleportation pods – built for angels that had not yet attained the level of teleportation. Issak just rolled his eyes.
"Quick tip, our target is in the fifth teleporting pod." Blossom informed them.
"Ah, this brings back memories; I can remember our first job" Issak recalled, a smile on his face, still yet moving swiftly.
"Yes, you almost fucked it up." Zidia muttered.
"What the shit? A dead end." Zidia exclaimed, slowing.
"Blossom there is a huge door in front of us. I think it's about time to get useful." Issak muttered urgently.
"Access denied!" Zidia exclaimed along with the door as they stood in front of it, "Blossom what's going on?"
"I'm working on it."
"Can you go any faster?"
"I said I am working on it!" Blossom yelled.
"Done." she muttered a second later as the door pinged in its robotic voice,
"Access granted."
Then it opened, giving them access to Ayra's pod. Frozen in front of them was Ayra Sharma, their target. She looked so innocent and was so young, Issak couldn't help but wonder why Linda was after her. When she'd told them the girl was a teenager he hadn't thought she meant an actual teenager, he'd thought maybe someone in her thirties – anyone who was younger than 100 years old in Cyprus was typically considered quite young.
"Where are the arrows?" Zidia asked not missing a beat and pulling Issak from his thoughts.
"They're right here." He tapped the quiver at his hip.
"Hand them over." Zidia muttered, hand outstretched, her eyes calculating angles.
"Here you go. Since you're the pro." Issak replied as he placed the slim quiver gently in her hand, sarcasm heavy in his voice.
"The sun, the moon and the stars… Mortirir…" Zidia chanted, invoking death.
"What are you doing?" Issak yelled.
"Taking out the target." Zidia replied as she continued chanting the spell.
"You can't use such spells here! Do you want to have us killed? This isn't Niem!"
Zidia giggled – very unlike her.
"Gotcha."
Issak's frantic face fell, in its place an annoyed expression.
"The spell is just to control the arrows and make them strike on command after we're gone. Kinda like a remote control."
Issak just shook his head, taking a deep breath as Zidia checked the arrows.
"Blos you should've seen the expression on his face." Zidia gave a small laugh as she took out the arrows and the quiver morphed into a bow, "Imagine using a Morte spell in Cyprus. It basically wakes the elders bro."
There were three arrows and each had a unique color. The arrows' content could disintegrate any solid substance they came in contact with. The first was pink. It was going to be used on the outer layer of the pod.
The second arrow was crimson and its job was meant for the target, as for the third arrow, aurantiacus, its job was to clean up and make the mission seem like an accident.
"Aixecar!" Zidia's eyes started to glow bright red as she chanted, suddenly she and the arrows started to levitate. "The sun, moon and stars." Zidia chanted as she struck the first arrow. She chanted again, The second arrow moved even faster than the first.
And then Zidia was on her feet and running. It was done. Now all that was left was for them to leave the building.
"That was quick. What about the third one?" Issak queried, hot on her heels.
"That's what the fake Morte spell was for. We have to leave immediately. I don't think we have much time left. Blossom!"
"Already on it, I'll have you on the jet in… aboouut– wait. Are you guys beside each other? I so don't want a repeat of last time." Blossom dead-panned.
Zidia rolled her eyes as she jumped up a verandah railing.
"Yeah we are." Issak grunted as he landed beside her.
"Good!" Blossom clicked the teleporting button as she spotted them.
There was an almost explosive screech as they were teleported back to the jet. Time freeze and teleportation didn't work well together.
"Wow, that was intense!" Issak exclaimed, stumbling in.
"Where is the third arrow?" Blossom asked.
"Here." Zidia produced it out of thin air.
"Put it in the socket over there, we'll have to fire it from over here." Blossom ordered still in cyber-trans as she continued operating on the virtual monitor in front of her. She was a vision to behold as always; glowing blue, eyes closed, her body looking like a machine.
"Siri, how much time do we have to leave the building undetected?" Zidia asked absentmindedly.
"I have calculated and by my calculations, we have approximately one hundred and ten seconds to leave the building undetected."
1:50 appeared on the virtual monitor as Siri communicated through the speakers.
"Alright, but Siri you could have just said one minute and fifty seconds. I think I'll have Blos work on your operating system soon." Zidia muttered.
"No thanks, I am fine." Siri snapped.
"I really don't know why we need this primitive OS anyway, we have Blos." Issak murmured.
"Enough tech talk nerds, fasten your seatbelts." Blossom laughed, knowing that was usually their line as she was the nerd in the trio. Zidia patted Blossom on her shoulder in mock solidarity before they all burst into laughter.
"Okay, Zi do me a favor and actually fasten your seatbelt. This ride is going to be fast and intense. That goes for you too Issak."
"Already seated and buckled in." Issak grinned.
"Siri commence countdown and take us out of here at hyper speed immediately you finish the countdown." Blos ordered.
"Where do I take you?" Siri asked.
"Anywhere safe."
"On it. Initiating countdown."
Zidia did a 180 turn, "Ordrenar." she whispered authoritatively and the third arrow was gone below. Another turn and she was doing a quick one out of the force field before Siri's countdown from five.
Five… four… three… two…
One.
Beep,
Beep,
Boom.
The arrow exploded and immediately the engine of the jet began transporting at the speed of light.
"We've arrived at our destination, somewhere safe." Muttered Siri.
"Blossom, could you tell your machine friend right here to call Linda?" Zidia announced, "I don't speak to primitive OSs."
"Rude!" Siri snapped "I won't have you refer to me as a machine friend, I am an efficient O.S and I am much more advanced than your brain cells so next time– "
"Bitch I'm a frigging angel, I dunno whatever shit Blos has fed you with but know your damn place!
"Damn! Guess whose 'brain cells' just got roasted by an O.S? Not me." Issak mocked.
"Oh please you tw– three." Blossom interrupted. "Siri, just place the call."
"Good job liquidators." Linda announced.
"The job's done Linda, now how do we get our payment?" Zidia questioned without wit.
"Check your E wallet fool." Linda retorted then turned to Blossom, "That will be all for now. And again, good work Liquidators."