Fragments Gallery
The Team
Golden beams of light filtered through the smoky air, drawing lines across the evening sky. The city outside the mansion was lit by thousands of fires as the people celebrated. Yet inside the mansion all seemed calm, the festivities doing little more than casting light against the windows. The mansion was silent, a harsh contrast to the noise coming from the surrounding city, it was almost as if the two places were separate worlds; distinctly different in every way.
Slowly the knob on the inside of the front door turned, the door opened and then swung shut. The man who entered carefully released the handle to soften the click of the mechanisms. He looked around the foyer, nodded, and then moved silently towards the back of the building.
The man checked the next room by holding a small mirror to the crack under the door. He slid the mirror back into a pocket on the front of his black vest before he gently pushed the door. It swung open silently. In the room beyond waited four other people. They were all dressed as he was; they all had long sleeved black shirts, black vests, baggy black pants and each had a black leather belt. From each belt hung a gun, belt knife, flashlight and various other small objects.
"There's no one unexpected here Sir," reported one of the others in a hushed tone as the man left the foyer and entered the room.
"The target?"
"In the study on the third floor. I watched as he entered the room but he wasn’t alone. From the sounds of it his companion was leaving soon though.”
"Very well, I'll take care of him and his companion if I must. You may begin."
"Yes, Sir."
The man moved to the end of the room and then stopped. He turned back and spoke again.
"Lieutenant."
"Yes Sir."
"Let's make this fast, get what we need then pack up. Meet me in the west garden when you’re done."
"Sir?"
"I think we have less time then we planned for."
"We'll keep it short Sir."
The commander nodded and then swept out the door at the far end of the room. It took him moments to find the staircase leading to the other floors and even less time to find the study. He listened at the door and was rewarded with a pair of voices. Silently he stepped away. That companion was still in there.
Instead of directly entering the study he slid into to room next to it, the trophy room. Carefully he unlatched the room’s sole window and checked down the outside wall and western garden down below. The windows on the wall were all closed except for the study window. The garden was empty.
That worked for him. He lifted himself out the window and swung from the ledge outside to the next window's ledge.
"When will they be here?" he heard a voice ask from inside the room. He knew that voice, it was his target.
"Knowing that group they're already down there," he knew that voice as well, it belonged to the new head of security for the mansion. He must have attached himself to the commander as a security escort.
"But the alarms haven't gone off!" protested the target.
"They'll have disabled those. Soon their commander will be up here to kill you," continued the other voice, "Of course they think that you'll be in sick in bed. So he'll be heading to your quarters on the fourth floor, I have a squad up there. They'll give him a warm welcome."
The commander listened impassively as he hung outside the window. His team had seen right through the ruse. The squad would never even know they'd come. However he had heard enough, he had a feeling that something was going to go wrong, that feeling that he was being watched. He didn’t like that feeling, he had to do his part of the job and get out.
He pulled the gun from its holster on his belt, checked the silencer, and looked inside the room. The target and his escort both had their backs to him. Ruefully he shook his head. It always seemed too easy but this was by far easier than usual. Sadly they wouldn't live to learn from their mistakes.
Barely pausing to aim he fired twice and then dropped to the ground below. He was done. His team emerged from the house a moment later.
“You got it?” asked the commander.
“Yes Sir.”
“Let’s go.”
A figure emerged from the growing shadows to watch as the team moved from sight. They had interesting techniques. Maybe they would be able help. Maybe this was the team he'd been looking for.