Chapter 29 - The Montage.
This seemed too easy. She was near Long Beach, and she seemed to be mostly alone. I frowned, and got a read on her while stealthed by using Observe. Nothing outside of my expectations, really. Though after all, not everyone would be paranoid of being assassinated.
Suffice to say, the ocean will take good care of her. The next target was in Vegas. I snorted. Typical. Out of any place in Nevada, why not Vegas? I snuck on another plane, frowning as I realized I really must've been spotted back in Virginia, because there was almost no security here in comparison. I found my second target out for a late dinner. Odd. It was about 10 PM. A little late for dinner. I shrugged.
I'm sure his convenient disappearance could be explained. I knocked him out, and tossed his newly separated parts into a dumpster. Two out of eight, and it's just day one. How bad could it really get from here? I figure the most important figures would have the most security, though, so that could be a problem.
I slept the night away in an odd motel. I would've said it seemed really shady, but I think that goes without saying, in Vegas. My nightmares were worse than usual, but I think that comes with taking up the mantle of an assassin, even if it's for some supposed greater good.
The second day, I glanced at my list as I approached the airport. Next two were in Dallas. Fortunately, I got into a pretty early flight. I got to Dallas by noon. I found one eating lunch, meeting the same fate as the one eating his dinner last night. Death by dumpster.
The other one? I found them at a firing range. Go figure. It wasn't hard to slip in, just mess with his gun subtly enough when he went to take a leak. Misfired right in his face. If it didn't kill him, the Force Crush certainly did.
"Halfway through. There's no way I can cut this close at all. Two days in, four targets gone." I thought to myself as I boarded the next plane to Nashville, Tennessee. From here, it's New York City, Auburn in Maine, and Providence in Rhode Island. Honestly, as someone born and raised in America, it was always a strange thing to think about someone important in Rhode Island, much less the top of the list for powerful political figures.
It took me too long to find the person from Tennessee, so I just perched on top of their home until the following morning. I frowned. Maybe they're on vacation, which would be a problem. As soon as I came to that conclusion, and prepared to come back later in the week, a car pulled into the driveway, with just the person I wanted to see.
Unfortunately, there was someone with them. I hesitated for a moment, but did what had to be done. I couldn't waste more time, and I couldn't allow any witnesses before the week was up. Both of them were buried next to each other in their backyard. Fortunately, I didn't have to use much time on that, with Force powers. I wasn't about to deny the two, clearly husband and wife, a burial with each other. One may have been a political figure I needed gone, but the partner is an unfortunate loss.
But I moved on. One day wasted. Four days remaining, then I had to return as quickly as possible. I think at this point, I was a master at using stealth generators. Next up was New York. It wasn't hard to get there, surprisingly. It took me a good chunk of my day, but to usual standards, I would think it'd be more difficult. It was about noon when I got there. Fortunately, I had an address, or I'd have no hope of finding this guy in time.
I didn't see any family on his short description, so I found his apartment and did the stupid thing. I knocked. He peeked out, opening the door to peek around when he saw nobody. I decided to scare him a little. I used Bloodlust, but didn't disable stealth, so his instincts started screaming to run from what appeared to be nothing. He tried, but never got the chance. Knocked out before Force Crushed.
I quickly locked his apartment, and made my way back to the airport to get to Maine. It shouldn't be terrible from here.
I got to Maine without too much difficulty, thankfully, but Maine is where there were more difficulties. You know, Maine is wonderful as it comes out of spring, and into summer, but there were some real shitty people I almost ran into. I can't say that describes everyone from Maine, but it might've just been my luck. It looked like they were on their way out of town, though, and they were riding bicycles. Seriously? No helmets or anything. Follow your bike safety, kids. I may be a terrible person, but they're terrible role models.
Moments later, I was at the guy's front door, looking a little closer at his portfolio. I paled. Those guys that were leaving town, he was part of that group. I'm pretty sure I saw his face. I started jogging after them, barely catching up to them. Fortunately, they were terrible at using bicycles. Bullet dodged there. It was actually really easy to get rid of this guy, surprisingly. I thought they were gonna get more careful. One strong gust from Force Push, and he knocked his head a little too hard on the asphalt.
As I made my way to the airport, I noticed one tiny problem. The airport closed for some emergency. Oh. Right. I'm an idiot. There were witnesses. They're probably, by protocol, gonna initiate some investigation for days. "Shit." I cursed quietly, looking for another way out of town.
I looked through shop after shop, using Dominate Mind to get the answers I needed. No transport that doesn't check ID. Gods damnit, I needed to get to Rhode Island very soon. I sighed, glancing at a clock through a shop window. 5:47 PM. My mind was rushing, looking for a solution. As it was turning to seven, I realized I was stupid. I could just go to a store and find somewhere that sells a razor, and just shave. There was also a cosmetics shop down the street. I could buy hair dye, maybe give myself some different hair color for a while.
It turned to eight before I managed a really bad job of all of it. Tiny cuts from all the times my hands slipped while shaving, and the dye didn't have instructions, so I didn't even bother trying to wing it. I sighed. I'm just gonna have to Dominate Mind the hell out of this. I'm sure I'll be noticed, and people will have pictures of me all over social media by the time I finish the ride, but it'll work.
Then another thought occurred to me. Could I contact someone from my party from this far away? I mean, it was Maine to Virginia. It'd probably be a super weak link, but it'd never hurt to try. "Kara! Mana! Hazel! Someone, pick up please!" I tried shouting into my mind. That was a weird feeling. And oddly difficult. Is it possible to actually shout, shout in your mind?
I knew I could scream, because I was replicating a sound I already had memorized in my head, just replaying it. But shouting? I never got to finish. ::Cy? What's wrong? Are you okay?:: I heard Kara's voice.
"Oh, Kara, thank gods. I'm kinda stuck in Maine right now. I have one more person to get rid of. I need transportation. There's no ground transportation without ID, and they've shut down the airports. Can someone help? I don't know how long they'll be shut down for, and I need to get the final guy." I explained.
I could sense her glancing at the Pazaak player she uses as a mental shield. She frowned, but turned back to me.
::We'll send someone to help you out. He'll be there tomorrow morning.:: She promised. I sighed. "I have three days, as of tomorrow morning. So let's hope for the best." I finished. Kara nodded, raising her shields back up. I couldn't help but notice, when I taught her to shield her mind, she must've hung to every word, as I stared at a duplicate version of myself from that same night, and then moved out of her head, raising my own shields again.
I frowned, but levitated myself onto the tallest building, hiding out on its roof. I meditated until daybreak, then I heard a gunshot. I tried to center where I heard it from, and I quickly found it, rushing to where I heard it from. I quickly found someone robbing a store. I fried their cameras, stepping through the shattered glass door. "Hey asshole!" I said, deactivating stealth. They turned to me, eyes widening. "You." He whispered.
"Me." I confirmed, quickly equipping and turning on my lightsaber to deflect the bullet, and I used Stasis on the robber. "You know, I could just do the merciful thing, by killing you now. Or, I could leave you for the police to find." I told him. I considered it for a moment, then Revan appeared at my side.
"Don't waste your time playing games with this fool. He could easily sell out where we are if we don't kill him." He said coldly. As if to prove a point, he brought out a weird-looking dagger, and sliced the robber's throat, turning to me. "Stealth up. We need to get you to Rhode Island." He said, turning on his heel to leave.
I quickly turned on my stealth generator, and jogged to keep up with him. He stayed silent the entire drive, aside from asking precisely where we needed to go. As we arrived, I gaped in awe. This man took security seriously. I saw cameras, turrets, fucking laser doors, too! What the actual fuck? Revan frowned. "Good luck. You'll need it. I'll stay here as an escape route." He told me, pulling the car up to a nearby house.
I, while stealthed, got out, and slowly approached this guy's house. I even noticed pressure plates around, surely hooked up to some device. Eventually, I did find a button, hooked up to a speaker and microphone. I pressed it with Force Push, and I heard a shaky, creaky voice from the speaker. This dude sounded like an ancient version of JARVIS from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
When he got no response to his question that I totally didn't ignore, he asked again. "Is anyone there?" After a moment, the cameras panned over to the button. I pressed it again with the Force. It seemed like he wasn't going to budge. I didn't like the idea of using powers where he could likely find the source.
"You will come out here and check the button right now." I said, using Dominate Mind. "Sir," I heard through the speaker, "the button is malfunctioning. I am going to go fix it." I heard him say. "Well, get to it!" I heard some posh dude say in the background. I slid a thermal detonator out of my inventory, and waited. An elderly man emerged, with a kit to fix the system. I'm surprised he could stand up straight, considering how scrawny he looked. A flick to his knees could probably bring him down.
He arrived at the button, and I used Dominate Mind again. "You will go back inside, and press the button on this, and toss it at your employer." He took the thermal detonator, and shuffled back inside. After two minutes, the building exploded, and I rushed back to the car, hissing at Revan, telling him to get moving.
"How did you do it?" He asked as we entered New York, hours later. "Used my powers to force their butler outside, gave him a very powerful grenade, and used my powers to make him chuck it at the guy we wanted." Revan chuckled darkly at my response.
"That's what he gets for treating someone as lesser." He said. I smiled. "Agreed. How has planning been going? I'm sorry I haven't been there." I asked. "Nobody's been successful except for myself and Kara, as I predicted previously, though I'll credit Phoebe for trying. We have most of everything mapped out, we just need some finishing touches from you and Mana." He told me.
I nodded, and we sat in silence until we crossed the Maryland state line. "I didn't expect Kara to perform as she did. I'm genuinely impressed. You have a rather balanced team, and I respect you and your team." He said, breaking the silence. "Well, I think she's used to doing the unlikely, if we're to put everything into consideration. Also, if I didn't think she could do it, I wouldn't have told her to go." I told him. He nodded, and we were silent until we pulled into the base again, this time parking in the parking garage, and we took the elevator straight to the meeting room.
"Sorry to crash the party, Admiral, but we're back, and the mission's accomplished." Revan announced, striding into the room to reveal me, with my mostly healed cuts from my traumatizing attempt at shaving, otherwise completely unscathed. I waved, and Kara turned to look at me, leaping forward to hug me with a Force Jump, knocking me off my feet.
"I'm so glad you're alright." She said, trying to veil excitement. Then she noticed the change. "You shaved. You look good." She offered. I smiled, but Phoebus cut in. "I don't know about anyone else, but I'd say that dropped any hotness stat you may have down by at least twenty percent." He said lightheartedly.
I actually took a second to realize he was joking. After that, I smirked back at him. "You only say it because you're jealous I look better than you even after that." I shoot back.
"Ouch, that hurts right here." He said, placing his hand over his chest. I laugh, but Revan cuts in. "Alright, alright. Settle down, you two, we've got a plan to finish."
