Assassin Y

Chapter 4

I entered a small, white building on the outskirts of the city. Within these walls was your typical waiting room: several black chairs seated against a back wall, a small table with various issues of the newspaper, all a few weeks old. I'm surprised they still print those after all this time. I guess they're trying to prove that the reporters involved are still relevant, but since there are virtually no openings in the Online News Networks, they're doing the best they can. A receptionist sat behind a desk across from the back wall, her eyes looking through her glasses onto the documents on her desk. I had to take in my surroundings without glancing around nervously which I was tempted to do. I could sense that I was among one or two other assassins, the other few people were civilians. I approached the receptionist confidently as I had for the past three years. She didn't glance up when I stood in front of the desk nor did she acknowledge my presence until she saw the bolded Y on the cover of my folder. She glanced up briefly to verify my identity before pressing a button that opened a door at the end of the hallway, the elevator. You only go in there for special assignments and meetings with the Bosses. I gave her a quizzical look, but she was back to staring at her computer screens. I glanced around before passing the open doors. They slid shut and disappeared. I never liked the newer designs for these things; moving death traps if you ask me. A whirring noise filled the silence and the contraption began its ascent. When it finally stopped, I'd survived at least a dozen-floor journey. The door opened behind me into a dark board room.

"Oh look! She showed up. Took you long enough." A cynical voice came out of the darkness and reached for my ears.

"My apologies. I was never informed about this meeting." I stepped through the door only to hear it whir closed behind me. A spotlight hit an empty chair ahead of me. I noticed that only one other chair was occupied. The rest had holograms filling their seats, holograms with blurred faces to prevent anyone from being able to identify the faces of the Bosses. I hadn't been seated for a full minute before the light went out and the Holoprojector Wall turned itself on.

"You have been selected for a special assignment as you are our best and most trusted assassins." I could hardly make out who was sitting across from me but I knew the voice well enough to know that I was seated across from Alexander or Assassin A in formal work settings.

"Hold up! I understand me being chosen, but why didn't you choose one of the other Masters? 'Chose the best?' No, you threw away the best when you chose Assassin Y, second lowest in the agency!" Alex interrupted the Bosses, something I've never heard done before.

"Silence!" The voice echoed and if a pen had dropped, no one would have known because even pens know to obey the commands of the Bosses. To the Assassin community, the Bosses are like gods. They made themselves that way, so they can't be gods by their own logic. And either way, logic states that there is no supernatural being in charge of everything. I never really liked logic.

"Assassin Y was given her rank, not because of her skill level but because she is something different." I beamed with pride at Alex. "If the ranking system was based purely on skill level, she'd be higher in rank than you." Well, that's one way to shatter someone's ego, or paint a target over my head, or in this case, both. However, the look on his face was priceless, so I took full advantage of being able to appreciate the moment while it lingered. "Now, your assignment." An image of a person appeared on the wall. "Jolie, what is your analysis?" I looked the image over for a moment before settling on a conclusion.

"Okay, let's start with the obvious. He's tall, thin but well built. Evidence suggests he works out but not for the usual reasons. People don't just get that ripped anymore. My guess is he works somewhere that requires strength, but not so much that it gets in the way. The strength he possesses is fairly evenly distributed, my guess from running. Also, it can be deduced that his job requires subtlety due to the dark sunglasses, his posture, the direction he was glancing when the picture was taken, the jacket laying atop the back of his chair. The dark glasses and jacket suggest he's trying to keep a low profile which narrows down his job possibilities. His slightly hunched-over posture also suggests that he is hiding from someone or something. I'd guess someone since we are being hired to kill him no doubt. Oh! The coloring of his hair isn't actually blonde. He's covering the eyes because they'll give his identity away beyond a shadow of a doubt. He's an Agent, isn't he?" Assassin A let his doubt permeate the room through laughter.