Viper: The Official Remaster

Chapter 14: King Kaiser

Thunder crashed across the black horizon as the lone vehicle screeched to a halt, the only sound emitting from the entire block being the haunting dance of rain tapping against the pavement. Jasmine Inari sat in silence, her fingers gripping the dark leather seats of the SUV in anticipation as the driver turned in his seat to offer her a pistol.

Her eyes shot to the eyeholes in his white mask, then to the weapon, before she waved it away.

White Mask: The whole building's gone dark. We don't know who's alive and who's not.

Lightning flickered a moment after, momentarily illuminating Jasmine's eyes as she pressed her mask to her face. Normally, she'd send a team in for recon, but this was a matter she decided to attend to personally. One that required blades. Not bullets.

White Mask: Let's leave... Whoever's in there...

His voice trailed off as a black and red kukri blade pressed against his mask, Jasmine effortlessly scratching the blade down the fiberglass before speaking coldly.

Jasmine: Another word, and I'll cut your tongue out.

Turning the blade away, the White Mask Captain opened the armored car door and stepped into the rain, then walked briskly into the building. The broken neon lights in the front door crackled with scattered voltage; it was a fitting omen of what had recently occurred.

"Ménage à Trois" was a nightclub owned by the Nikova Mafia, a growing syndicate that had been poking at the ribs of the Masks for several years. Sabotage and political corruption aided in giving power to the Nikova, while several Russian leaders themselves had been rumored to be under their protection and influence.

Fearing the Nikova Mafia was growing too quickly, several politicians had secretly contacted the Masks to eliminate one of the captains in exchange for a large, untraceable paycheck and temporary sanctity in the neighboring cities.

Jasmine Inari had initially declined, dismissing the Nikova Mafia as a nuisance and little more, her surprise and rage reaching an unshakeable degree when she'd found out one of her soldiers had accepted the contract behind her back, effectively turning rogue.

The assassination was to take place at the nightclub she was walking into.

She hadn't made it ten steps inside the nightclub before finding several corpses, both of them being Nikova members, decisively shot several times through the body each. A third, a woman in a skimpy pink dress, also had matching wounds; the Nikova whore had died with her own gun in hand. Bullet holes across the room suggested the rogue Mask had initially spared her, that mistake nearly costing him his life when she opened fire.

The dance floor was much of the same. Two dead members, with one lying collapsed over the phone of the club. A call for help never reached the Nikova.

Jasmine let out a breath, stepping over the bodies and walking across the barren dance floor. The bass drum of the club music continued to play, performing to an audience of the dead and dying. Bullet casing bounced on the floor, dribbling across the surface to the vibrations of the music.

Her earpiece buzzed with updates from the team she'd brought, each of them having been instructed to kill any Nikova members on sight, as well as to bring her the Mask that dared to go against her word. Her voice came low, a brittle whisper just barely making its way through the radio as she found the exit into the halls.

Jasmine: I'm approaching the back half of the club. Half of you, keep to the rooftops. To the other...

She rounded the corner, Jasmine's voice drifting into nothing as she stopped her pace... Her finger fell from her ear as her breath caught in her throat, Jasmine's eyes in disbelief at what she saw. Five bodies sprawled against the once-beige walls of the hallway, blood speckled and pooled across the concrete and floor alike.