“Show me your moves, ESMERALDA!”
Standing on one foot with my right foot resting on the frame of a window, my bow lying on my leg, I grin as I carefully watch the scene unfold through Gandiva’s telescopic sight.
The target is stunned on her feet, likely petrified in this bloodbath. The idiot stands a few metres in front of her, holding an iron stick. Heavily breathing, she is drenched in blood from head to toe, ruining the efforts we made to clean and iron her black suit.
Yet, she emerges unscathed… You did a good job, DIANA.
With a finger on the trigger, I aim for the target’s legs.
Toying with people like her has become a bad habit of mine.
I’ve wanted to wipe that condescending smile off her face since the moment I first laid eyes on her.
But just as I’m about to shoot, a low scratching sound nearby and the smell of smoke distract me.
I glance behind me.
I’m positioned in front of a small rectangular window in an office on the 10th floor of a building, overlooking the press conference taking place on the top floor of a slightly smaller building.
There is only a large desk with a computer and scattered folders filled with papers between me and the door.
With a single glance, my instincts tell me I can’t proceed with my mission.
“Finish the job,” I say with regret in my earphone.
“What’s going on, Schwa?”
I refrain from answering Abhi.
Someone else is there.
I thought I had exacted my revenge with the helicopter guys, but I may be proven wrong in a minute.
The door in front of me is suddenly blown away by the shell of a powerful shotgun.
Quickly changing my position, I hide behind the desk, waiting silently for the situation to clear.
“Good evening, Miss! What’s with this lack of greetings? I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” exclaims the deep and strong voice of a middle-aged man, sounding almost like a scolding uncle.
Does he know me? I mean… I must admit I’m somewhat famous in the underground world, but it’s been a while since my previous mission, and I didn’t expect anyone to be looking for me here.
“Who are you?” I ask cautiously.
“Oh, come on! You forgot about me! What a cruel girl you are, and here I thought we were like family!”
I raise an eyebrow, but I can’t seem to recall whose voice it belongs to.
I’ve seduced a bunch of dangerous guys for missions in the past, so I can’t keep track of them all.
“Where did we meet?” I ask, ready to jump and shoot.
Heavy footsteps and the jingling of metal echo in the office, stopping right in front of the desk.
“You killed some of my friends again, but I finally caught you, White Snake.”
All the hairs on my head stand on end.
Of all the names I could be associated with, that’s the one I despise the most.
I freeze, my head spinning. A series of hellish images dance before my eyes: scorching sun, dehydrated bodies, mouths filled with sand. The smell of dried earth and nauseating polluted water. Seeking refuge amidst piles of plastic garbage. Steeling minds and pulling triggers. Ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred thousand times. Machine guns, rifles, shotguns, knives, hands, flags, water. “Everything is a weapon in the Punjab desert…” The sound of heavy footsteps and the jingling of a metal chain. Shotgun shells clattering to the ground. Howling flamethrowers incinerating villages. The cries and wails of women and children. Stone structures bearing the word “school” exploding. The moon, a boat, a river, and smoke. Fireworks. Not wanting to hear any more, screams, running, diving into water, drowning, coughing, spitting, drying, crying, stealing food, vomiting, playing with snakes, falling from a plane with a bomb in hand, praying for the parachute to never open, wishing for a sudden and painless death.
How did he find me here? There were no traces of my presence left in this world.
“You…”
I hear the clicks of his shotgun reload just above my head.
If I don’t react now, he’ll blow the desk to pieces with me behind it.
“Your past will never leave you.”
But in the moment he casts this spell upon me, the floor suddenly crumbles and crashes with a deafening noise.
EPISODE 5: EPHEMERAL
Communications with Boobies have been cut off.
“Abhi, do you know what’s happening with her?” I ask.
“No idea. If there’s someone else in her building, they’re invisible to my heat signals. I’ll find a way to help her. You focus on getting rid of our target.”
ESMERALDA stands just a few metres in front of me. Her gaze is vacant now that everyone who defended her is dead, and killing her now almost seems unfair.
I slowly walk toward my knife, leaning forward to grab it—
BAM!
She pulls out her Beretta and points it at me threateningly.
She didn’t hit me, but I’m defenceless in such an open area.
“What do you want from me?” she demands.
“What?”
“I SAID, ‘WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!’ WHY CAN’T YOU LET ME KILL AN OLD FART WHO HAS NO FRIENDS, A MURDERER WHO KILLED HIS OWN SON?!”
What is she talking about? Did the old man kill his own son?
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I respond.
She fires a shot near my face. “STOP MESSING WITH ME! WHY DID YOU TRAP ME HERE? WHAT DO YOU WANT? WHY CAN’T YOU LET ME HAVE MY REVENGE? NOBODY CARES ABOUT THAT GUY!”
I place a hand on my chin and think hard about how to respond.
“We were offered a substantial sum of money for your head, nothing personal, really. If you had offered us more to kill the old man, we would have done it instead. But I doubt you can afford his fortune. Life is tough for broke people like us,” I shrug. I always dreamed of saying that 'nothing personal' catchphrase.
ESMERALDA becomes even more exasperated and cries, “WHY WOULD HE PAY YOU TO KILL ME? I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING TO HIM! HE KILLED HIS OWN SON AND PAYS TO KILL HIS DAUGHTER-IN-LAW! WHAT KIND OF HUMAN BEING IS THAT? PAYING FOR PEOPLE TO DIE?!!!”
“But isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?”
“What?” ESMERALDA’s face darkens.
“I mean, you’re putting a lot of money and energy into killing that old man, right? Even someone as clueless as me can figure that out. He may have killed his son, which is pretty messed up, but even if he hires someone else to do the dirty work, you’re no different from him. If you’re having regrets now, you should have thought about it before becoming the enemy of a billionaire who has all the resources to eliminate you. Revenge is such an outdated concept anyway; it’s only cool in anime.”
“You bitch! I’m going to shoot you down!”
I playfully juggle with my knife.
“I’m not scared of you, you know why? Because you’re an idiot. You could have killed me twice before when you fired those shots, but you didn’t. What were you hoping to learn from me? Absolutely nothing. There’s no need to threaten me with that cool gun you bought three months ago because you’ll never hit me with it. And even if you do manage to hit me, my partner with the sniper will kill you before you have a chance to revel in your criminal achievement.”
“You… You’re not as dumb as you pretend to be, are you?”
I try to hide my embarrassment with laughter. “Hahahahaha, yes, of course, I am. Please pay no attention…” I continue without giving her a chance to react. “Abhi, can you do it again?”
“Naturally.”
The lights go out.
Plunged back into darkness, ESMERALDA panics and blindly fires her gun.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
I click.
The lights come back on, and there is only one metre between me and my target.
“YOU FUCKING BITCH!”
She pulls the trigger only to hear the disappointing click of an empty magazine.
“You can’t even count to six,” I smirk, feeling proud of myself.
With a swift and precise movement, I slash in her direction.
Unexpectedly, she throws the gun at close range, hitting my nose with full force, stopping me in my tracks.
“HEY!” I scream.
Blood starts to trickle from my nose, and she seizes the opportunity to turn around and shamelessly run away.
“HEY! WHAT THE FUCK?! COME BACK!!!”
I throw my knife in her direction, hitting her shoulder and embedding itself neatly.
“AAAAH!”
She cries out, rolling forward due to the knife’s propulsion. But at that exact moment, my attention is diverted by a loud rumbling.
Looking across the broken window, the tower where Boobies was providing cover suddenly collapses.
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