"Code 94-23, located Ivan Braginsky, to be terminated in an hour." You muttered in monotone, no emotion and moved onwards like a robot, sifting through the trees and evaded contact from the three men who tended to the house. Sliding against the marble wall that ran around the house, protecting the large mansion from just anyone that would pass by, but you went to the back avoiding the gate for the obvious reasons; intending to enter the mansion from the back and scale the wall to enter from the roof. Sure, all this could've been done in a matter of minutes, but you had to continuously cover your tracks, unfortunately due to the mansion being so vast, you had to pace and stop, making sure to hide them. You would've just walked upon the ledge without much trouble; however, there were two of the three men that tended to the house walking about. In the entire excursion your arms were extended, balancing and specks of snow would collect and accumulate.
"iConfirmed, over,/i" a voice buzzed in through the small earpiece disguised as an ear muff.
"It's such a nice day out, the snow is softer than it usually is, I wish I could stroll with Natalia…"a voice commented from behind the wall, trying to make small talk with an unknown other. If anything the heart rate of the unknown other accelerated. "Shh, you shouldn't be saying that too loud, otherwise Mr. Braginsky will get angry for you fancying his sister." Replied a youth, the tone indicating pure fright.
You eventually lost interest of their conversation and moved onwards, not wanting to delay your mission any further than it will be. Alas making it from the back you moved back a few steps. Staring at the obstacle of the wall, you sighed and ran forward leaping like a leopard. Successfully jumping over the wall and you landed quietly to the other side. Your eyes instinctively looked side to side, assuring yourself the area was secured.
"The moment of truth, you were successful in the previous mission on the assault of America and China. Don't disappoint me now, Project 18." A different voice from your headset whispered, sending a jolt of excitement and fear, the emotions you always felt when hearing this voice speak to you. Being clad in an obsidian tight battle suit, you looked towards your gloved digits, staring at the silver tips that were the function to allow you to scale the wall, almost like the sticky function for an insect. Scaling the wall, swift and silent you made your way up then through the chimney you went, coming out to see an empty room.
iWhy so vacant?/i Your brows furrowed in brief confusion.
You contemplated until you realized you were on the third floor of this massive mansion. From a distance through numerous closed doors soft crackles of lit fireplaces made themselves known.
Damn it.
With irritation you proceeded onwards, deciding upon a good trek to saunter upon. Entering vacant hallways you were careful with each step you took, making sure each one wouldn't make a sound. Through the windows from either end, a faint glow of light reflecting off from the moon above would streak through, before you an outline of your shadow would be seen and you were quick to brace yourself against the cool walls. Every now and then you would have to readjust yourself for the occasional blockage of stands and largely hung portraits of posh-ly dressed men. Eventually you heard hushed whispers from below; two voices out of three that you could identify excluding their accents were young women, what you could make out though was a sort of feud.
"If only I understood the language, it'd be easier to know if they were suspicious." You muttered distastefully.
"They better not be." The same voice of anticipation growled from the intricate headset. The hairs of your neck arose. You then brought one hand upon your masked visage, the design resembled to that of a feline with the exception of your exposed jaw, your lips being pursed with slight agitation. "I won't fail you."
bThud thud thud thud…/b
Heavy steps could be heard from not far away, exhausted heaves of breaths followed after every breath, the hushed whispers you heard not too long ago increasing in volume. An obvious indication that the people, whoever they were, walked along with the possible target, were now making their way to this floor. Without a moment to lose, in a split second you disappeared into the shadows when three forms came into view, two of whom were young women, and another a towering male dressed heavily as if he were going to venture out into the wintery abyss.
"That's the target, he's there, he must be terminated." The authoritative voice hissed, jubilant joy nearly obvious with excitement. As a result rigid as you remained the excitement began to bubble within, the urge to kill was like a shot of cocaine, but you knew better. It wasn't the right time just yet. Moving now would only be consequential, even if you could handle all three you only could kill one of them – the target since that was your mission. For some reason you were strict in following missions, the Boss wouldn't have minded if you killed others, but you just couldn't bring yourself too. You were here for the objective solely and nothing more.
"He is there! Go! Project 18!" Refraining from being openly indignant, you ignored the voice knowing very well the consequences though you just didn't care. An efficient killer was what you were, thus will it always be till you die.
"Brother! I tire of you always ignoring us! Please live with us, we worry about you so much." One of the girls whined, coming from the shorter female with long luminous silver hair, her expression a mixture of desire and hope.
"Yes! It would be good if you done so, brother. Please…" the taller one joined, her short locks shrouding her sadden optics, seeming to not want to reveal weakness to their brother. The male, however, remained adamant from their painful pleas; all you could do was watch and try to grasp an understanding as to why the girls' eyes were leaking. Emotions to you were incredibly foreign, from what you could recall emotions were taken out of you, yet the only emotion you could relate to was fear for it were the first emotion you could remember above all else from what seemed so long ago.
"I keep telling you, my lovely sisters, that I cannot and I beg that you no longer attempt to persuade me otherwise. I am fine by myself, please believe me," Your target explained; a smile across his face yet his tone was entirely questionable.
The response was not welcomed warmly by the two girls, who persisted to continue with protest… Hadn't they known that the man gave them a warning? You could feel the agitation radiate from the tall man, something you could instinctively pick up from your experiences with the Boss, if that had been you and the target your boss, you'd be locked up for a month with nothing, but bread and water. The target – Ivan Braginsky held himself calmly, somewhat surprising you as you observed diligently from the darkness. "My sisters, I am glad of your concern, but please drop it. Go home, it's getting late, we can talk about this another time." His voice was soft; the intimidation emphasized on the last two words finally sent the message home.
iYes, please, listen to him. Leave so I can be done with him./i You thought in irritation.
But no, they just had to CONTINUE in protest, my goodness you nearly wanted to snap, this slow progression pained you especially since you could hear fuzzy breaths of the Boss ring in your ears. He too was becoming impatient with these two girls. The more they protested the reply from your target appeared more strained. "Please go, I understand your concern, I truly do my dear sisters. You pain me when you worry too much over my well-being, but I promise you all is well. If things occur, I'll be sure to stop by." The patience in Ivan's tone was thinning, you thought he would've snapped, but the two sisters realized his irritation and left uttering words in another language.
Ivan sighed heavily then, turning around to walk further down the darkly ominous corridor to another set of stairs.
Yes, the game was on, you thought with an involuntary smirk playing upon your full lips.
"It is now the time." The voice chuckled.
Without wasting another moment, you emerged from the walls like a shadow, sauntering after your target a car length away with your hidden oculars closing in. Similar to that of a lion staring after its prey until it reached to its most vulnerable moment, just stalking till the moment was right to strike.
After what felt like eternity, you found yourself following the target to his bedroom; it appeared it was time for him to sleep. Yes, the vulnerable moment had presented itself! You could feel the kill happen already. The scenario already envisioned in mind. Sliding in you went to blend into the darkness, watching your prey complete his rituals which pretty much consisted of drinking four whole bottles of vodka in one sitting and a long sit upon his large chair, facing towards the window that was opened bringing in soft icy winds that weaved by, far enough to move his silver locks slightly.
His expression was thoughtful, deep into contemplation as his amethyst orbs stared listlessly at the falling snow, glittering like diamonds in the darkness of night, the light reflecting from the moon's illuminating shine. The entire time you remained restless in the corner you took to merge in, observing him with as much of a thoughtful expression compared to his, you couldn't understand him when you saw his emotionless visage break into that of pain. Not a pain that you enjoyed to witness from previous victims, though it was different compared to others, more agonizing than what you could imagine. For a split moment you thought you felt a sort of stirring within after watching him for so long although before you could even try to understand it, an electric shock passed throughout your form, making you stiffen while you held in the pain. Reflexively you placed a gloved hand to cradle the side of your head, the source in which the pain had come from, blasted chip. An infuriating mechanism they had implanted into you long ago.
"Project 18, focus." the boss's voice chastised, bringing you back to reality after the moment's distraction.
"Time to rest now," Ivan announced to no one, rising from his big chair and turned the fireplace on, bright flames coming to life as it danced. Taking a moment for the heat to overcome the chilliness from the room, he began to undress himself, removing his large coat and allowed it to hang upon the chair. Turning to one side the flame's light revealed his sculpted chest that completely contradicted his somewhat chubby face, but you ignored it and waited patiently. Next went his pants which revealed white boxers and surprisingly strong legs which compelled you to notice his arms that didn't fail to impress you.
If you were to be someone else on this mission you would've probably thought twice in taking it.
Minutes later Ivan went to bed, making you having to wait a good thirty minutes before continuing with the mission, assuring yourself that he had fallen asleep. Ignoring the further urgings of your Boss you finally arose from the dark corner. Pacing towards his resting form, feeling the warmth of the moon's pale shine fall upon your shoulders, revealing how metallic your black battle suit appeared to be. Nearing closer your steps was short and focused like a trapeze artist. Slowly and carefully you climbed onto the bed, raising one hand above your head with the silver tips suddenly becoming sharp, almost like claws. "Go," you heard the Boss breath heavily and without a moment's hesitation you began your strike until…
iFuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuzzzzzzbuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzbb bbbbbtttttbuuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzz zzzzbbbbbbbttttttfuuuuuuzzzz z./i
"NO! WHAT HAPPENED!?' your boss screamed at the top of his lungs, jumping up from his seat when the camera that was implanted in your mask dispersed into flickering images of fuzz. Slamming his fist against the wall he heard a fuzzy groan from his headset. Alarmed he grasped his headset closer to his ears. He had been watching the entire time on your mission, staying behind the computer screen with much anticipation and admired your every moment. When you had gotten upon the bed, he stared at Ivan's resting face from beneath large covers until the screen went out.
Son of a bitch! Project 18! Do you hear me!? PROJECT 18!" He shouted into the microphone, nothing came in response instead of a soft buzzing sound. The door from behind him slammed open to reveal an exhausted scientist with his tired eyes wide like saucers, staring at the Boss to the screen several times before he could register what had occurred. "Is… is… s-she?" the clipboard in his hand fell to the floor clattering.
"NOOOOO!" wailed Boss, tearing off the headset and tossing it violently against the floor with great anger pulsing throughout him.
"Auuggggghhhhh!" your gloved claws came downward like a whip, the air a sharp whisper, barely gracing his cheek till you felt something hard slam to the side of your head. The force caused you to fly off to the side and slam against the wall. You dropped like a rock. Your sight had blurred, in fact it became blurred and fuzzed too, your sight wasn't at all normal actually. You saw things like one would see from a computer. Random numbers and letters strolling down from your sight yet it sparked, blurred, and fuzzed. You could feel the chip that was implanted on the side of your head send random bursts of shock throughout your form. This proved a nuisance since now you couldn't move… completely immobilized.
What had happened?
You wondered, trying to bring yourself together in spite of the pain, forcing your body to twitch in hopes for regaining movement.
A large shadow fell upon you then, bright orbs staring down at you eerily, a dark aura wrapping about you with fear, you could feel Ivan come to his knees with a pipe in hand where he had practically materialized it from thin air. The weapon you assumed he used to assault you with.
Oh my, what do we have here?" he spoke, his Russian accent strong with a hint of forced kindness, though you knew well it was just to torture you.
"I come to sense another malignant presence aside from mine and it had made me suspicious. I thought it was just from my sister, Natalia, but I knew it was nothing compared to this."
His hand with the metal pipe inched towards you, your hidden eyes widened from behind the mask, but the movement of your brows revealed to Ivan that you were in slight shock. His lips turned into a grin.
"Who are you, why are you here?" his face inched closer to yours, you being able to smell his breath that was somewhat strong of alcohol. You could feel your stomach turn. All the while you simply stared at the metal pipe, trying to regain movement under the pressure of your target now becoming the predator.
"You can speak, little one." Ivan went, raising the metal pipe upwards.
You shook your head in response, you weren't able to move your lips, electrical shocks from the broken chip were beating you in the battle of your body's control. Ivan hadn't noticed that yet, but that didn't halt him from raising his pipe above his head in the same fashion you had your gloved claw which was now retracted to mere silver tips.
"I guess if you won't talk, I'll beat you till you say something." The grin turned into a smug smile, eerie and terrifying. Bringing the pipe downwards toward your side, the shock halted momently, allowing you to move just in the nick of time and you were quick to get a swipe at him, knocking the metal pipe far away from the both of you to grasp. "No!" Ivan went, grasping his face in an attempt to stop the stinging from your attack. He went to look over you now, and you were once again immobilized. Twitching violently from the broken chip, Ivan had finally took notice of it since you landed in a position that would reveal it, he stared in mild concern as he went towards you cradling your head in his large hands.
"A drone," those words rose anger within you, but you were near in going out, giving a final violent twitch, your oculars rolled to the back of your head and out you went. Lingering words reached you before you fell in complete darkness.
"Who are you?" Ivan muttered. His face hovered above you. Unfortunately all you could see was a distorted image.
In the quick sand of a bleak abyss, your body would involuntarily continue its violent spasm.
"I… I… don't know… Who am I?"
An inquiry that would in time be answered.