He was well built with a round face and solid jaws. He remained anonymous and liked to be called Peter. His green eyes were glued to the huge screens before him. The supercomputers in his room were custom made and a too very fantastic creation with parts handpicked by him. He was the best possible hacker but the only fact was that he never literally worked after a mishap five years ago. He typed few code snippets as the screens turned colours from black to grey. He smiled with satisfaction as he could access any system anywhere within seconds. The one before him intrigued as he hit open a digital diary that was encrypted with a high level security. He managed to decrypt the file and began to skim through it…. He was tall for an average Indian and his complexion was extremely fair. I tailed him carefully keeping a safe distance. He would often stop and look over his shoulder but all he could see was my silhouette. I felt some inner fears whether my footsteps were heard in the snow. My breathing got heavy as the hunting seemed endless and it was exhilarating. I was the best but following the parallel enemy was close to impossible and that was my assignment. I had to check my weapon time to time as my intuition bothered me that day.
She never had any name but was identified by an eight digit code that was very much dynamic. She once admired beauty and its perception. She was just programmed to kill and her brain was under someone else’s control. She was always a killing machine trained to obey commands and none of her actions were voluntary. She positioned herself among the shadows with her periscope looking onto her target. This time she was to take a close shot on the target.
With the sky turning black from mellow orange, he felt the heat turning to coldness. The glow of the stars overhead seemed bleak. He sat cross-legged flicking few pebbles onto the placid waters. With his thoughts irregular he observed the turbulence as he flicked the pebbles into the water. It was their mistake to train her everything and to believe she is a loose canon and a hopeless disciple. They had believed she was into just her own world. Now he knew she would be coming back for the people who believed her to be a fool to gun them down. End was inevitable unless a human who is as powerful as her eliminates her, he spoke to himself as thunder rumbled above.
She had sapphire blue eyes that glowed in the dark. Her blonde hair was let loose and it fell on her shoulders. The cold winds made her hair get tousled and she adjusted them as she lay flat observing the target. The wind was not favourable that day as the trajectory of the bullet remained unpredictable. She wanted it done today as she would never probably get a close chance like that day in near future. She was using some advanced tools to predict the wind speed and pattern. Emotions for the first time after decades turmoiled her concentration. The sullen sky above made her thoughts wander. She knew the bullet that pierced through her chest and the way she lay there in the deserted land in a puddle of blood. She tried to shrug away the thoughts but they continued to haunt her and she cursed herself. The coldness in her eyes suddenly transformed to kindness as she was looking at the stars above. She wanted to cry out aloud but it was impossible. She remembered how her heartbeat dropped gradually and the way her life ended. She remembered those mirages and being transported in the thin air. She felt how weightless her body felt and the journey was endless as she crossed tunnels after tunnels. Finally she reached a large room that was suspended in thin air. She saw the satans were dancing and partying. She received orders from the satan heads to kill all the demon hunters on earth for exchange of another chance at life. Killing wasn’t new for her as it was her profession from childhood. In her previous life she killed on contracts to unkown organisations just to finally be backstabbed by the same organisations. Now she possibly had the rarest opportunity any human would ever have. She immediately agreed and signed an agreement with the satans. Now she had a complete human form and all her needs such as food and money were funded by the satans. She just lost her previous identity and that too wasn’t new for a born assassin. She wondered what happened to her other team members. All of them were taken to a deserted land in helicopters and she was shot dead. It was five years since she had come back to earth after the incident and all the while she tried to trace their whereabouts but in vain.
Peter was going through the pages of the digital diary but after that page everything was in a different language. He believed that he had seen the same language and in a way felt associated with it. After the accident his memories played tantrums and he couldn’t recollect anything accurately. It was the last page that caught his eye. There were two sets of photos on them. The photos on the top were blood stained ones, probably shot dead. The photos on the bottom were passport sized ones and there was his photo among them. On the bottom of the page there was coordinate position based on latitude and longitude. He quickly entered them in his satnav system and noted down the directions to the place whatever it was. Peter equipped himself with his pistol and started his car. He followed the directions and it took him to a completely abandoned street with dilapidated buildings. He wore a mask on his face and stepped cautiously. His cat like eyes had a 360 degree view and his eyes were trained to detect even the slightest danger or abnormality. His eyes caught sight of the silhouette on the tenth floor of the building in the opposite side two blocks away from whee he was. His rubber shoes never made any noise as was climbing the stairs to the fifth floor.
The man sitting by the lake was worried about the murder of the members of his organization. The organization was reduced to nothing over the past five years by her. He remembered taking her away as a kid to a distant land away from her parents and training her day and night. She was the best sniper he had trained and was better than any women in hand combat that he has come across. Their organization was into demon hunting and had the largest contract for it on earth. His days were numbered and he knew it. He remembered taking her away, above the cliff dragging her all along. He was the one who shot her through the chest and he didn’t have the courage to drop her down the cliff. So he left her there to die on her own.
Peter reached the tenth floor and there he found her flat on the ground adjusting the rifle. She sensed someone standing behind her. It took her less than two seconds for to turn up and give a kick to his lower abdomen. Though the kick didn’t create much impact it made Peter to move back. This gave her time to stand up on the ground. She tried to kick him on his groin but Peter defended the kick. Peter pushed her slightly backward and placed his right leg behind her left leg and sweeped her leg off the floor bringing her down. In the impact her hood uncovered revealing her face. Peter stood still on seeing her face. The pondside where they sat and the skies that glittered above. Everything enshrouded him as he was to spell her name….
She removed his mask and stood motionless as she felt an electric shock through her.
By M Siva Aravindan
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