The night was still, dark and moonless. Neither of the two moons were overhead, as the first had set several hours before and the other was in its wane.

That didn't matter, as the guards around the mansion wore highly advanced nightgoggles and the scopes on their gun were made to work in both night and day.

Even with their powerful goggles, they still failed to miss the two shadows that moved up past the grounds to the house, moving from shadow to shadow, shrub to shrub. It was one hour before dawn, the night was old, and the temperature was dropping steadily. Those guards outside couldn't see far past their clouding breaths, advanced nightgoggles or not, and one of the shadows detached from the shadow of a bush just as one guard yawned widely.

That shadow moved across the lawn quickly, barely made out to be a faintly humanoid figure, and stopped at a tiny outpost. There, the figure bent and clipped several wires, looping a feed into the surveillance cameras that would last three minutes. Finishing the job, the figure fixed a cut wire and breathed several words into his comlink, alerting his partner.

In another bush at the other side of the house, another figure scurried across the lawn, inconspicuous as a mouse, and in several short seconds had scrambled up the side of the house, finding nearly invisible handholds in the grey stone.

The mansion itself was heavily guarded, with bars and locks on every window, and a guard on every balcony. The room the figure wanted didn't have a balcony, but that wasn't the aim.

Reaching a tiny bathroom window connected to the target's balcony-less bedroom, the shadow disabled the motion-detecting alarm and picked the rather simple lock.

Climbing through the window deemed too small for someone to fit through, the figure slid to the floor. The window was too small for a man, but for a slim-hipped, flexible woman, it was no great feat. Rubbing hips and shoulders, she set a covered ear against the bathroom door, and, after detecting no one awake in the room, eased the door open, lifting up so it wouldn't creak.

Scanning the room quickly, she spotted her target, a large lump on the four-post bed under the covers. The target's stomach protruded up as he slept, looking like a miniature mountain.

Stalking over to the bed, the figure moved very quickly, taking out a tiny polyester parcel and slipping a polyester glove onto one hand, over another glove. Using tweezers in her second-gloved hand, she carefully took out a large pill of perchloric acid.

Moving fast as the tweezers dissolved in her hand, she touched it to the target's lips, her lips curling in disgust as the solution immediately started dissolving skin and bone.

The target's eyes fluttered open to the pain, and she hit him across the head, causing him to fall back, unconscious but wreathing as the perchloric acid dissolved him. Inarticulate groans started from his half-dissolved throat, and she looked away in disgust, trying hard not to gag at the smell of burnt and peeling flesh.

Removing her glove, the figure carefully put it into the parcel with the nearly dissolved tweezers, and silently slipped back into the bathroom.

After reactivating the motion detector, she locked the window, then moved back into the bedroom. Going to one of the windows, the figure carefully began to unlock it, disabling every tedious alarm, sweat beading her covered brow as the shadow near the outpost whispered the three minutes was almost up.

Finishing with the window, she climbed out, and, hanging over the sill, closed the window. Climbing back down the wall, the figure jumped down to the ground, landing silently and gracefully on her feet, and rejoined the shadows, meeting up with the other living shadow just as the change of guards came, marking the day to begin.

Later that day, as the two figures were eating lunch in a deli, dressed in street clothes, it was announced that business tycoon Fred Randolph O'Conny had been murdered by unknown assailants in the dead of night. It was not mentioned that he profited from graft and skimming, or that he raped little girls and boys on a regular basis, or that those little boys and girls, none over ten, were disposed of quickly afterwards, to be sold as slaves in the booming black market. He was called a great man, and a huge reward was posted for any information on the assailants.

A day later, the two assassins collected their money for the job and went on to their next assignment. It was on the same planet, but on the other side of the world. They didn't worry about being caught for their crime.

The murder case soon dissolved from lack of evidence, and while some money was given out for information, it turned out to be completely bogus.

Freddy Rudolph O'Conny's murder was never solved.