I had spent the last 2 weeks setting up this hit. I had known the schedule of the Steward’s day for 3. I now walked unobtrusively up the stairs with almost nothing of weaponry on my person. I had worked in this building 7am to 4pm every weekday for the fore mentioned 2 weeks. So now all that was required was to get into the room full of construction equipment, hidden tools and set up before 9pm. Being it is only 1pm it seemed that time was not a problem. Actually boredom might be. I arrived on the 24th floor at around 1:45pm and started to search the large unfinished room with tools, scaffolding & other construction equipment lying in small or large, neat piles about half of this floor. The other half had already been completed & the workers were all heading home to their respective families. I started assembling the tools. That’s all I saw in them. Some tools could be used as weapons. But they still were tools

Comfortable with the area & sure that no one else was on this floor I started to pick out the hiding spots where I had so discretely placed the sniper rifle parts. Most were actually part of the equipment on the floor. The main barrel came out of the scaffolding near the door. The butt came from my partners’ toolbox. The needles were hidden, best of all, in side the radiator housing. The plasma motor & wheel housing motor were stashed away in an electric box actually charging on the house current. I set the parts one by one near the window I would use for his awakening. His last awakening. I sat & slowly disassembled & reassembled the gun several times.

Then I gathered the rest of my gear for the escape. This included taking apart the specially designed scaffolding & assembling the glider.

Lastly I assembled all those pieces for the finale in 6 hours. Then I set up the hiding spot. Lifting up the false (or at least unmounted column) and readied the firing bolts so that it could be quickly secured. Then I went into a corner pulling my small Moccasin 108 special and laid it at my feet, cleaned it again and dozed for 20 minutes in catnap fashion.

My biological clock was perfect & I awoke around 8:30. It was time to do the task at hand. I set the rifle with its tripod on the radiator housing facing the square below. The banners were set out in full regalia & the crowd was going wild with crowd enthusiasm set at a fevered pitch by well placed squads of "domino choirs". They were always there & designed to help orchestrate the mood to the desired tone & volume. There was little effort needed here today though. The crowd was ecstatic with hope for the new staff of city employees & the Steward most of all. Problem is that the Steward had little or no intent on assisting these people to gain the freedoms & thus the happiness that they sought. He was in fact preparing for a coup on the trilogy of government & expecting to have to squash these same people that cheered for him now. This was a dangerous man. He also believed he was not vulnerable. So did his constituents. 'That’s where I come in' he thought. I was of course paid for these hits but this one he would have done anyway. The Guild said this would happen the next day after the old king died. They were right as usual. This was a tyrant, a disease that needed to be extracted. So I was here to do it. His gun was that new sniper model that uses a needle that is forced through a succession of faster spinning wheels & ejected out the front of the barrel at faster speeds than those of the expanding gas bullets of yesteryear. What was even more interesting was it hit the target & within the first 2 inches would open like an old ceiling fan blade. As it traveled the last few inches it spun and ejected a poison into the body. It was not uncommon to change the poison formula to meet the occasion. This Steward would probably wish that the blade took his life. It would be far less destructive on his body & eliminate a lot of unnecessary pain.

It was coming up on 9:00pm when I set up the final parts & entered the cartridge with its three needles in it. They wanted me to take out two secondary targets. I didn’t see a problem. This gun was almost dead silent at this distance & I would have the necessary 5 seconds to carry out the full load if I were not spotted immediately after the first shot.

At precisely 9:00pm the new Steward stepped out into the balcony and a great roar came from the crowd. They really loved what he represented. Hope, hope for change and progress.

"We shall see" my superior had said at this. "He has plans we have separately confirmed. He intends a coup of the whole government. So the con-gloms have paid well for his removal. Do your best work here. We want the GUILD to get credit here so that the idiots that think that they are free to destroy our way of life think twice before doing so again".

He raised his gun to site along the barrel through the new scope. He saw the back up in the scope. A woman holding a tense, but stable pose less than twenty feet from him. "She can go home he thought".

He arched his back to softly stretch. Held his breath & started listening to his heartbeats. 1 - ta dup - 2 ta dup - 3 - ta dup - 4 - da - first trigger - dup - 4 - ta - mind blank - dup - 5 - ta dup - pull, move slightly, pull, move again pull

Backing up he knew that 2 targets at least would be confirmed kills. He disassembled the gun. Dropped the handle hard to the floor. It shattered as it was designed to into millions of fine chalky pieces. 'The new ceramics he grinned'.

Next he dropped the barrel down a hole that went all the way to the basement. One-thousand-three-hundred & twenty-seven feet. It would take at least two hours to find and extract it.

The other parts that wouldn't be mistaken for tools were likewise destroyed or hidden. Next he backed under the faux column. He lowered it to the floor and fired the nail-gun to make it appear solid as the one next to it. Then he sprayed the animal confusing sprays inside with him & through a small hole he had prepared by the fake electrical box. He sat back and started lowering his heartbeat and body temperature to the point that the basic machines wouldn't detect them. He estimated 4 hours to wait, set his biological clock & shut down the rest of the way. They came five minutes later

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3 hours, 59 minutes, 55 seconds, He started coming to awareness. No sounds. They had been there and gathered what they could. He was alone. His warning devices and senses were negative. The snooper robotic eye was silent in his ear adaptive. None had stayed to trap him.

He awoke fully and started cutting the wall to release him-self. Gathered his tools & glider. Assembled it the rest of the way. He removed one window from the far side of the floor. Placed the glider near the edge. Re-evaluated his situation. Checked his list. Immediately after strapping on the glider controls he jumped. It was a beautiful night.

He saw his target about five degrees to the right. He set his sites on the balcony of his hotel. A float was needed just before landing. Like the birds on a cliff landing to feed their chicks. He removed his coveralls and placed them and the gliders parts into the tub. Water poured on them plus a reactive made them dissolve and they went down the drain with the water.

A knock came on the door. He opened it to 'backup' from the Steward's balcony. She looked wonderful. He had his silk Tuxedo pants on under the overalls. He slipped on his jacket. She whispered "three" and they went toward the gathering downstairs in his honor. The Grande Ball Room as he recalled. She kissed him gently on the cheek and they entered the elevator. The doors closed.

[PIX]Kestral - finished January 8th, 2000 - Tell me fellows if you like this one.
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