Target Down - The Ghost Assassin

Milan

Milan, Italy.

This is the place to be with its promise to its visitor of awe inspiring beauty and captivating sites and impressive nightlife.

The vivacious city is the home of not only high-end designer ware boutiques, quaint cafes, mouth watering local cuisine and attractive contemporary architecture, enough to make tourists drool over the cameras clutched in their hands and eyes darting back and forth not quite sure what to snap at first, but also home to extravagant, outdoor, crowd drawing parties, the kind dj'd by the likes of Tiesto and Van Dyk.

Tonight was one such night where parties lit up the night sky. The crowds in the once open garden square washing back and forth like waves during a high tide as the laser lights hypnotically strobe in time with the music blasting from a podium in the centre of the square and into the sea of vibrating dancers surrounding it, creating a well mantained chaos of energized enthusiasm.

On a balcony overlooking the successful chaos, a group of Armani suited up men and the odd latex, skin wrapped women lounged around holding champagne flutes and cutting the ends off of tgick cuban cigars while seeming to wait for something.

Robust security guards dressed in black suit trousers and matching golf shirts with the sponsors logo glowing loud and proud printed on their backs and neatly tucked in at their belts, stationed at the stair cases leading to the balcony, stopping the random stragglers trying their luck at becoming a VIP.

Two familiar faces appear at the top of the stair case on the balcony and are then quietly ushered as they make their way over to a set of couches with an open view of the ocean torrent below.

A tall slender man  with well trimmed and styled blonde curls, stern brow line and a stong nose which draws your eyes down to a pair of enticing lips framed by an angular and lightly stubbled jawline, dressed in a midnight blue suit tailored to pefection. His black shirt, unbuttoned at the first two buttons, his blazer open and pinned back by two skimpy clad beauties has his one ankle hap hazardly resting on his one knee. With a waving  motion and a grin on his face, he invites the two familiar faces to join him and another, more significant looking, man on the couches as well as some more ladies for entertainment.

The blonde man extends an arm over in the direction of the man sitting beside him as he introduces him to the two familiar faces. The three shake hands, smile and nod and the two take their seats on the couches as the women move provocatively into place.

The four men slink into a familiar comfort with each other while they watch both the crowd below as well as their summoned entertainment. Soon laughing with each other and sharing knowing winks and head nods in their silent communications.

Time goes by slowly but sure enough the perfectly tailored man slides to the edge of the couch and nods to the other three men. Getting up he makes his way passed his guests giving them a hand shake and slight squeeze to their shoulder, encouraging them to enjoy the rest of their evening, as he ushers the two tag-a-long young women who were glued to his side on the couch, passed security and down the stair case.

The three exit out an inconspicuous back entrance and step out into a pallidly lit alley way where a limousine awaits them. The man with his head now thrown back in joyous laughter at something one of the young women, wrapped in one of his arms, has managed to say close enough to his ear for him to hear, he tightens his grip on the woman and looks at her with desire overtaking his laugh and pulls her closer to demand a kiss from her lips.

The other young woman clinging to his other arm runs a hand through the opened buttons of his shirt and seductively traces her finger across his bare chest, successfully gaining his attention as he guides the woman he's just kissed into the limousine and claims her lips in turn.

As their kiss ends and his hand entices her to climb into the limousine too, his grip on her shudders for a second before his hand is removed from her altogether. The woman spins her head in his direction just in time to see that her handsome escourt is now unnaturally crumbling backwards towards the ground. The thud of him hitting the road muffled by the beats still reverberating from the building behind them. Her hands shake their way to cover her mouth as her screams of utter terror are absorbed by the loud ambiance of the open air rave.

The young woman who had slid into their awaiting limousine, exits, her screams mimicking that of the woman still standing next to the open door of the limousine.

After the driver throws open his door, he begins shouting urgent pleas into his hand held radio as he rounds the front of the vehicle and ascends to his knees next to his employer.

It didn't take long for his pleas to be heard as the doors leading into the alley way explodes open as a number of burly men dressed as security along with the now dead mans other couch companion come rushing to assist.

Someone had just attacked a member of the Rossi family. One of the most powerful families and not just in Italy.

Angelo Rossi, had no choice in backing away from the scene of his brother laying dead in the insignificant alley way as his security detail drag him back into the building through the same doors that brought him to this horror. Not sure if the threat was over or not.

Forced backwards with reddened eyes, tears staining his face, Angelo, shouts out all his promises of revenge at his dead brother just laying there watering the tarred road in a pool of red bodily liquid.

Another target went down without the immediate world around them so much as flinching as the party raged on.