Shadow in the Dark - An Assassin's Tale

Hold still...don't breathe...

Slightly muffled through the wooden door I hear voices: A man, a woman, and another - the man I'm here for.

The man I'm here to kill.

Both feet braced against a wall, my left hand on a water pipe, I reach my right down my side to the 6 inch Buck special in a thigh-sheath - A custom finished knife, with a matte black phosphate finish.

After ensuring that the knife was in a good position, I moved my right hand to my left, holding the pipe with both hands now.

I didn't know what was happening behind that door, nor did I need to. I knew my target, his protection, and a preferred method of dispatch, that was enough. The client wanted it to be quiet, and unknown if at all possible.

The knife was not for him; no, he would take a method with more subtlety, more grace.

The voices drew their exchange to a close. As I was informed, the man and woman exited through one door, my target through another one.

I looked down, the knob turned...and then the door pulled open, revealing my target. He waved a hand behind him as he came through the door, indicating to his bodyguard that he wanted to be alone.

As soon as the door clicked shut, he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his jacket, lighting one and placing it between his lips.

I was slightly surprised, his doctor had insisted that he quit weeks ago, and his bodyguards had been given strict orders to not allow him any access to cigarettes.

"Fool," I thought, "That will be your undoing."

As he exhaled, leaning his head back, eyes closed in pleasure, I released my hands, resting my full weight on my feet on the wall, and my ankles on a sprinkler pipe.

I lowered myself down, soundlessly, until I was in front of him.

As he reached his hand back up to his mouth to take another drag from his cigarette, I reached out and grabbed his head, pulling it in to my shoulders.

With a slightly muffled grunt from him, I twisted sharply, and with a series of dullish cracks, I broke his neck.

As I lowered him to the floor, the still-lit cigarette fell from his now lifeless hand, shaking off some ashes as it hit the floor.

I snuffed it out, then threw it out of a nearby window, followed shortly by the pack I pulled out of his pocket. Just because I killed him, doesn't mean I didn't like him...no one needed to know his secret.

I dragged his corpse roughly thirty feet down the hall to the nearest set of stairs, then shoved him down headfirst, ensuring that his skull hit solidly against the wall at the next landing now.

As his corpse tumbled, I grunted out a yell, and his bodyguards promptly knocked on the door, shouting "Sir? Are you okay?"

When there was no answer, they knocked again, louder this time. After another pause, they broke the door down, coming through with weapons drawn and loaded, searching for an assailant.

It wouldn't help them, I was already as good as gone, hanging outside of the window where I had disposed of the cigarettes.

They would find their ill-fated charge at the bottom of a flight of stairs, bruised and a little bloody, with head injuries and a broken neck.

Dead.

They would assume that he had fallen down the stairs, crying out as he did so. They would never know why he had gone there alone.

Only he and I would.

I felt around with my left foot, knowing that there was a ledge nearby somewhere. Finding it, I began to climb down the outside of the building, grateful for the dry weather.

After I was down, and back at my car, I called it in.

"Complete success" I said.

From the other end of the line, a single word - "Good.", followed by a click, and the disconnected hum.

I drove off, throwing the ready-paid cell phone forward, in front of the tires of my car, crushing it as I went to pick up my payment from the drop-off point.

No trace.

Good job.