Noir Frontier

Sip of Death

"Is everything good down there?" Jasmine said as she watches Shem, Zariah, and one other suited man enter the giant, castle-esque mansion their target was hosting; a personal party for his son's birthday.

"Yeah we're good, just now making it to the lobby. This party is kinda crazy." Shem gazed at the pretty women and sparkly drinks, battling the urge to run over and take the whole bowl of punch.

Zariah fixed her necktie and tugged on Shem's suit. "You HAVE to lock in, we're too close to be acting like children!"

"Okay okay okay, locked in." He slapped his own face and got serious.

Jasmine turned the diopter dial on the infrared to zoom in on the trio. They walked up the stairs to meet their unfortunate prey.

Halfway up the stairs, the suited man was greeted by a middle aged white guy.  "HEY, MAURICE, long time no see! Glad you could make it."

They gave each other a firm handshake and continued up the stairs, with Shem and Zariah trailing behind.

"I'm surprised myself I could make it Ogilvie, but as your good friend, I could never miss your son's 10th birthday."

As they chattered up a storm, the two escorts analyzed the room, searching for any possible extra escape routes. Suddenly, they came to a halt.

"Care to join me and my family for our dinner? I'd hate to leave you out for this wonderous occasion!" Ogilvie offered a hand to Maurice, pointing his other hand in the direction of a room with quiet converse. Maurice benevolently accepted his graciousness, and walked with him into the room. The two young teens followed them into the room where several other nicely dressed men and women sat.

'Hm, five men, seven women, two kids. One by the door with a weird vibe. This should be quick and easy.' Zariah thought to herself.

Shem and Zariah stood a few meters away from the table, closer to a long stand that had a crap ton of food on it.

"Maybe I can take a COUPLE grapes.. that's okay right? Right Zariah??" He side eyed Zariah awaiting her approval. "You know what? I'ma take them anyways," which he quickly picked and devoured them.

"You didn't even give me the chance- actually, I don't care at all." Zariah sighed and waited for an opportunity.

"If one of you two don't mind, could you drop a cube of sugar in my tea please? It's awfully bitter despite all the sweetner I already put in it..." Maurice handed out his cup to the pair.

Zariah saw this as the perfect opportunity to begin their master assassination. Before arriving to the party, she made a toxin that shut down organs at an extremely small dose, only taking 50 mg to kill a single human. Shem would be the one to give the target the poison though.

"Go ahead Shem, you can handle it." She nudged him on and he nodded his head. Seconds later, he took the cup and brought it back over to the counter where all the spices and sweetners were. In a couple quick motions, he dropped a tiny blob of the toxin out of vial hidden in his sleeve.

"Would you like for me to mix it up sir?" Shem inquired to Ogilvie.

"Yes please," he coughed a bit "these old hands lack the finesse I used to have for stirring tea." He chuckled to himself.

Shem did just that, and served the man back his petite cup. He slowly walked back over to Zariah and gave her a little wink, before returning to his position beside her.

Jasmine looked through the lens of the binoculars and watched as the middled aged government official drank from the poison and fell over almost immediately.

"They finally did it!! Now we can regroup and lea-"

A dark figure had grabbed the back of their neck and slammed her against the ground.

"I knew I could feel one of you pesky frauds nearby. Two more in the house too... must be with you." Their voice was distorted, like more than one person was speaking at once.

"Let..go!" Jasmine struggled greatly against the figure's surprisingly tight grip lifitng her off her feet.

As Ogilvie fell out of his seat, started foaming from the mouth, and convulsing frantically, Zariah rushed over to them. In the midst of the chaos, Shem slid out of the room perfectly silent. The man standing by the door followed him silently too.

"Stand back! I got something that might be able to save him!"

The children and women cried as their beloved father and husband was dying right in front of them. Maurice stood over his body trying to obstruct the view from his family. Of course, Zariah never intended on saving the man, but she had to put on a show to make things more believable. She pulled out a small pouch that held a few first-aid tools and a syringe. She pulled on the plunger into a tiny vial of fentanyl and slowly injected it directly into Ogilvie's arm.

"Hopefully this will keep him alive," Zariah said as she carefully put the syringe and vial back into the pouch.

Zariah knew damn well that she just ended that man but at least he stopped shaking so much.

Not even five seconds later, Shem came crashing through the door with the incredible force one can only describe as unreal, flying across the room past the mourning crowd.

"I knew something was off about you two but I wasn't so sure. But this? This confirms ALL my suspicions." The tall man's eyes started glowing as a gavel the size of a sledgehammer materialized in his hand.

Zariah's wings and other pair of arms bursted out if her suit, revealing her power. She dropped the body harshly and began levitating.

"Maurice, find somewhere to hide unless you want to die," she yelled at him "and Shem! Get your ass up!"

Shem got up from the floor slowly and shook his head. "That fucking hurt!" He pulled a dagger made of a crimson liquid from his palm and prepared to fight the assailant.

The earpierce in Zariah's ear beeped quietly as she tried contacting Jas.

"Jas, you were supposed to be our lookout, what's going on? Jasmine?!"