Short Stories

The Hitman

Of all the people I've killed, Speedsters are probably the easiest. It's a shame I don't encounter many, the job would be so much easier. Just a bit of well-placed garrote wire and a little encouragement is all you needed. I contemplated this as I fled. Now Farseers, they're harder. Especially in politics, the only Farseers worth their salt were so paranoid. They'd spend every spare moment gazing into the future, if something happened that they didn't like, such as being sniped from a rooftop, they could prepare for it in the appropriate manner. However there is one flaw in their abilities. They can only see one future, so the moment they do something different from that future, the future changes. Which is the only reason I have a chance at all. For example, what say someone sees that in their grand speech they're doing, that they'll be shot exactly three minutes in. They would probably remember something like that, and so exactly three minutes in, they might duck. But the moment they duck, the future that they foresaw becomes different to the current reality, giving me an opening to change something up like, for example, blowing up the entire stage. If any of that seemed confusing to you then don't worry, because it is confusing. But that's why it's my job.

I ran. Senator Birro's special personnel would be able to judge the flight of that shot. I needed to get away ASAP. Already I heard sirens, though the authorities would gather around the explosion site. I finished folding my rifle and quickly stopped to tuck it into my pack, I whipped off my black cap and jacket as well, revealing a casual t-shirt underneath. Turning both cap and jacket inside out, I now looked like a regular everyday citizen. 'I've just finished eating lunch,' I thought to myself, 'I am a content man on his way to his car to drive home after an arduous day of shopping with the missus. Oh? What's this? Policemen of some kind? They look in a hurry, well being the law abiding citizen that I am I'm just going to step aside and let them pass. And hope like hell none of them can see through my jacket to the pistol I have concealed in my left pocket. Well, I haven't been arrested, guess I'm sweet!' I watched them go, turning into the building I had come out of moments before. I walked around the city for another five minutes to where I'd parked my car, then got in, pulled out into the traffic and then stopped. The traffic was grid-locked. I sighed and shook my head, some young punk had probably been speeding again and caused an accident, kids these days have no sense of responsibility.

"I thought," Mr. Five said to me in that calm, emotionless voice of his, "that I asked for his head. Instead you mock me with... this. Please do tell us Mr. Bill, why we shouldn't just end you right now." I looked up at the five shadowed figures sitting above me, god they scared me. Five of the most powerful crime lords from around the world, allied to form The League. Just The League. You didn't need to elaborate when you were a criminal organisation big enough to threaten global superpowers. The League was headed by five men, known simply as Mr. One, Mrs. Two, Mrs. Three, Mr. Four and Mr. Five, and I was one of the few people who had ever met them in the flesh and walked out alive. "Sirs. Unfortunately I was unable to recover his head. This here, however, is a piece of truck." "So?" Came the reply, this time from Mrs. Three. She had a distinctive Bharian accent, which made her words short and sharp, and she sometimes had trouble with consonants, "We ask for head, not truck!" I paused, then went on. "The truck that this metal plate came from was parked almost fifty meters from the explosion which I used to kill Senator Birro. As you can see, the damage dealt to this plate is severe, and so the reason I could not bring back a head is because there wasn't anything left." The Five nodded. They'd already figured it out the moment I showed them the metal, it had simply been a way to start off the meeting. "In the future," Mrs. Two this time, of all of the Five, I think I liked her the best (or rather, feared her the least), simply because she sounded like she had some emotion and warmth in her voice, not the cold hard voice of the other four. "It might prove beneficial for your position if we received what we asked for. When we ask for a head, you give us a head. Otherwise we might just need to take yours instead, and I do hate wasting such high quality resources." So much for warmth. I nodded, to not do so would be to die, then commented "I will revise my strategy for tackling Farseers." Already my mind whizzed, trying to think of something. Poison? Perhaps. It couldn't be anything immediate, it would have to either be something they could never expect, or something they couldn't prevent. I stopped thinking about it, in the presence of The Five was not a good place to get lost in thought. Mr. One spoke next, "Are you willing to take on your next assignment?" I nodded, "Yes Sirs."