Chapter Three
In Which Something Goes Wrong
Vigilante! The snake in the night.
Draco hummed to himself as he swung the vial on its string, the air cold around him. There were ways to stay alive. He could apparate, maybe. Duck. Dodge. Put his faith in dumb luck.
The mission was extremely simple.
Information had been leaked -- a government intern had been persuaded to share knowledge. What was the term muggles used? Information superhighway. Can't stop the signal. Knowledge is information, information is data, and data should be free.
There was to be a secret meeting, between Rufus Scrimgeour and... well, someone, it was to be assumed. The intern had had no idea.
The danger, intelligence, and intrigue required to track down the exact time and place of the meeting had been repeatedly and pointedly pressed into him. And all he had to do was come along and drop the bomb.
So to speak.
If you mix three parts aniseed, two parts Nundu breath, four parts dragon's bile, and one part pureed eye of Ashwinder, then you get an enormous and instantaneous explosion. But if you mix three parts aniseed, two parts Nundu breath, and four parts dragon's bile, in which you suspend an extremely small but extremely strong glass bottle containing one part pureed eye of Ashwinder, then you can create a slightly delayed, but still enormous, explosion.
Glass clinked against glass as the small container knocked about inside the vial. Draco swallowed his heart nervously and tucked the vial into his sweaty palm, keeping his pale eyes on the house across the street.
Any second someone would arrive, and then --
Aha.
Vigilante! The snake in the night.
Draco walked calmly across the street. His pulse pounded in his ears as his footsteps echoed against the quiet storefronts around him. He wandered along, apparently aimless, staring into shop windows and gradually, gradually working his way towards the house with the green door.
Close enough now.
Weigh it carefully.
The impact against the glass would be enough force to break both the vial and the bottle suspended within, and that would be that.
Heave.
The string caught on his outstretched fingers, and the vial was brought to a short stop. The bottle inside of it, caught in the inexorable pull of momentum and force, rushed up to meet the bottom of the vial.
"Oh, shi-" he said, before the world went white.
Suicide mission.
Vigilante! The snake in the night.