Blogging From A to Z is a blog challenge where participants post a new item every day (except Sundays), where every item relates to the appropriate letter of the alphabet. You can find out more over at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com
Rating: PG
Word Count: 737
His enhanced reflexes let him dodge the first flurry of fists. Shame it didn’t work on the second. Zero grunted and staggered back, instinctively wiping at his nose with the back of his hand. Blood. Of course. Considering what a pain it’d been just to find this one, it hardly came as a surprise.
His enhanced reflexes let him dodge the first flurry of fists.
Shame it didn’t work on the second. Zero grunted and staggered
back, instinctively wiping at his nose with the back of his hand.
Blood. Of course. Considering what a pain it’d been just to find
this one, it hardly came as a surprise.
‘This one’ in question seemed just as staggered his blow landed
as Zero had when it connected. He stared, clutching a hand that now
sported scuffed, bleeding knuckles and clearly found himself
wondering if this had been a monumentally bad idea.
It wasn’t, at least as far as his demise would go. Zero had
already worked that out, and he couldn’t help respecting the
ones who went down fighting. It beat the surrender he usually got.
He could respect rebellion, the desperate, clawing urge not to die.
He’d be a hypocrite otherwise.
“Is—is there no kind of deal we could make?” The man tried to
back away but only found a wall behind him. Points off for lack of
spacial awareness. “I’m well off—“
“I know,” Zero said, flashing his best kind of smile, the one
that usually turned people pale. “And so are your enemies.”
To be fair, he was never entirely sure if it was the smile that paled
them, or the knowledge someone had more power than they did—and
that it wasn’t the big redhead in front of them who held it, but
someone far removed who they’d not only never meet, but never even
find out the identity of. Whichever it was, it had the desired
effect on his target: his face turned ashen, his shoulders slumped.
“Who—I mean—“
“Come on, Mr. Frost,” Zero said, deliberately flexing his hands.
“You know I can’t disclose that kind of confidential
information.”
“I’ll give you anything, I swear!” He was grasping at straws
now, his eyes darting across Zero’s body like he could find a weak
spot. “If you work for me, you tell me who paid you, I’ll pay
you double! Triple!”
“That’s very tempting, Mr. Frost.” Any second now. “But I’m
really not interested in working for the likes of you.”
Frost’s eyes narrowed; there was the mean, ferrety
expression so prevalent in his intel images. “You’re making a
grave mistake.”
“The only grave, Mr. Frost,” Zero said cheerily, leaning back
against one of the hall’s pillars with his arms folded across his
broad chest, “is the one you’re heading for. I’m not sure
being hired by you would have any long-term career prospects.”
The man stiffened. “What’re you talking about? You’re not
even armed—“
There it was. Took longer than Zero’d have liked too. Frost
swayed for a moment, then his eyes crossed and he was down, sprawling
with a thump across the tiled floor.
“And anyway,” Zero muttered, the fake smile sliding from his
face, “why would I want to be hired by someone who uses child
labour to build spaceships?” The idiot. Did he really think that
wouldn’t catch up with him eventually?
Evidently not, or his home security would have been significantly
better. Pathetic digital locks; he could have made an effort,
given Zero something to really try his skills. Still, easy ones were
better than living on rice and whatever he could scrounge from his
friend’s market stall.
Being a hitman might pay well, but only when there was work. And yet
it still managed to be a more palatable occupation than Frost’s had
been.
Zero knew all about child labour.
Sliding his hands into his pockets, he nonchalantly made his way
through the building. None of the security cameras would record him;
none of the locks would register his passing. Frost died from a
nasty case of food poisoning that would be corroborated by toxicology
reports, and no one would mourn his passing.
Particularly not the workers in the three huge factories whose
production was ceasing even as Zero left the mansion. They’d start
up again in two weeks, under new management and with better rates of
employment and pay, taken over by the consortium who’d hired him.
A consortium who knew better than to renege on part of their terms.
After all, he knew all about their operations too, and he could
easily extract revenge if his terms were broken, all without
reprisal.
The cameras might not see Zero, but his victims definitely did.
A truly cool post and a way cool hero in Zero! He might be a man for hire, but he's a man for hire with a purpose.
ReplyDelete~ We made it!!! ~
Visit me at: Life & Faith in Caneyhead
I am Ensign B of Tremps' Troops
with the A to Z Challenge