Knife in the Dark

Paranoid

Paranoid is the word to describe the authorities. Paranoid to the point of insanity.

When we were all brought to Cloud, we were immediately put into training. We all grew up together and became good enough at our skills to be sent on missions. At the start it was just simply 'escort this person' or 'look after this person', but then it became more serious.

When the serious missions started I was removed from the mobile team. So I stayed and continue to practice with my knives while all the others went off and assassinated the government's enemies. I was never fully alone. There was always one or two others who weren't on the particular mission, but they would still go anyway, the only person I never got to spend time with training was Voulge, as she was seen as the star of our show, and was always required for her skills in the field.

One day, every one of us was called into this big room, well it was massive for me, with a ceiling 10 metres above my head, but judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, this was totally normal, so I drew the conclusion that this was the place they went to receive missions.

The room had lovely soft chairs facing towards a tall table where a man sat behind a placard reading 'Espingarda' which, from my small knowledge of Portuguese, meant Gun. When we had all taken a seat, the man rose and stalked around the room.

"Pleased to meet you all, now there is a special assignment for you all," The man spoke with a deep voice, speaking clearly through his strong accent. "You are required to find and kill a man by the name of Archibald Stoll, dictator of Milona. He is in the most secure building in the world, called The Cube, you have two hours and then we are going to bomb it, with or without you out of it."

We were all hustled into a plane and flown to Milona's capital, Eujusa. We were dropped onto the top the building, which was designed as a giant cube. We made our way into the ceiling ducts and crept along it, remaining silent and never ceasing in our run towards the centre. While the others continued on towards Archibald, Sling, myself and Glaive, the only people with ranged weapons, took it upon ourselves to kill every guard in the vicinity. I used up all my knives, killing all of them, I never got anything less than a head shot, which killed them all instantly, not giving them any chance for them to cry out. The only thing that could give away that they were even dead was the blood that splattered out onto the diorite tiles which line the floor of the first floor. Once all of the guards were killed, all three of us collected our weapons and got into position.

Below sat Mr Stoll on his throne like seat, completely unaware of the death of the guards. As we all got into position, the vent at the end of the hall fell out, revealing Voulge followed by the others. They spanned out, making their way towards Archibald, making sure to tread carefully and scan their surroundings to check for hidden traps, which there were a couple of. They reached a point where lasers spanned out all over the room, making it impossible for them to pass. Sling quickly disabled the laser field so the others were able to progress. The next few seconds happened in a blur. Sling shot a rock, which hit a vase at the end of the hall, making Archibald stand up, about to walk towards it when Rapier stabbed him in the back, not enough to kill him but enough to make him stumble. Loch then attacked, striking him over the neck with his axe, cleaving the ruler's head clean off his shoulders, which rolled away from the slumped body.

The nine people present in that room immediately looked for the best exit out, turning towards the high ceiling. Each one of us picked a pillar and began scaling the pillars, using the elaborate carvings as handholds. We reached the top floor and ran through the closest doors to us. There were meetings in them but they were quickly dealt with. After collecting my knives out of everyone's bodies, I located the air vent. We only killed these people to get out, which I found a waste, but it is better than trying to climb up smooth walls of the ventilation shafts.