Power Play

Chapter 4: Simon

Chapter 4: Simon

Simon Terroft was standing on a rooftop overlooking a parking lot where five members of a gang called the Rippers stood, waiting. Among them was their leader, a man in his early thirties who of course was known only as Jack. Simon had never really known if it was supposed to be a joke, or if the leader actually thought going by Jack the Ripper made him seem more impressive, but he didn't really care. As a freak, it took a lot more to impress him than that. Of course, the gang didn't know he was a freak, nor did they even know what a freak was. Which was a good thing, because if they'd known he'd have had to kill them, and living people tended to pay a lot better than dead ones.

For a moment Simon just stood there, studying the surrounding area, wanting to be sure that all the members of the gang were out in the open, where he could see them. Finally satisfied, he walked over to the side of the roof and dropped into the shadows along the side of the building, landing smoothly on his feet and immediately heading for the parking lot.

The members of the gang were talking to each other, but the instant they caught sight of him they fell silent. Their leader Jack stepped forward to face him as he approached. "The mysterious assassin. How'd it go?" Jack asked, as if he didn't already know.

"The leader of the Blades is dead. I made sure it looked as if the Vipers did it, as you requested. No one will be able to trace it to you." Simon replied evenly, though he was certain Jack had checked on it well before this meeting.

"Good. Very good. You don't disappoint," Jack said, a smile on his face.

"I also don't come cheap. You owe me twenty-five grand," Simon told him.

"Yeah, well, there's a problem with that. See, you're now the only person outside of our gang who can connect Marco's death with us, and we've decided that we don't want to pay. So, since you were stupid enough to come without backup, there's one easy way to take care of both problems," Jack responded, smoothly drawing a pistol from the back waistband of his pants and pointing it at Simon's head.

"You sure you want to do that? It's not too late to pay me," Simon stated, not moving a muscle.

"Yeah, I'm sure, but thanks for the offer," Jack replied, moving a step closer. "Got any last words?"

Simon did a little calculation as he studied Jack. The man was a little under ten feet away, and he needed to move just slow enough for Jack to still catch a glimpse of the motion. Enough that while Jack would believe he was amazingly fast, the man's own disbelief and doubt would still be enough to convince him that he'd seen a human moving, just a really quick one. Simon needed to make sure it wasn't clearly supernatural, while still moving quickly enough that Jack didn't have a chance to get off a shot, because a healing bullet wound would sort of be a dead giveaway.

"Yeah, I do, actually," Simon started, and then he was in motion. His speed kicked in to precisely the amount he wanted as he took off towards Jack. Over fractions of a second he could see the man's eyes widen, see his finger beginning to tighten over the trigger, but Simon had timed things perfectly. Just before the pressure on the trigger reached the firing threshold, Simon's left hand closed around Jack's wrist, his right hand closing over the gun itself. He was able to extract the weapon smoothly from the man's grasp before he could get a shot off. Even as Simon rotated the gun in his right hand, he used his other hand to jerk Jack off balance, and then quickly threw his left arm around the man, both spinning him and drawing his body back against Simon's at the same time. Less than a second later he had his chest against Jack's back and his left arm locked around the man's throat, holding him as a shield in front of him as he finished adjusting his grip on the gun, his finger coming to rest over its trigger.