Ziccarra crouched behind the island in the middle of the kitchen with her palm pressed against the floor. She knew these floorboards when she first moved in; she went out of her way to study how they creaked to determine the direction someone was moving. At the time, Ariel thought she was insane, but now it seemed they’d come in handy. She was feeling for the vibrations; one vibration wasn’t good enough to decipher anything, but a quick and chaotic succession of them told her that multiple people were moving through the hallway at the same time.
She slid her goggles on to her face to confirm the mass of body heat mustering at her front door, this was it. It was subtle, but she could hear the device sliding inside her lock, popping the door. When she heard them inside the apartment, she pressed a button on her stereo remote and blasted death metal music to disorient them.
Remaining crouched, she bolted around the island before pulling up to turn on a light switch that flooded the entire room, temporarily blinding the four would-be assassins that’d entered the room.
Ziccarra activated her claws and lunge toward the closest assassin, and a squelch followed a quick pop as his body fell limp in front of her. One down, three to go. She quickly transitioned to the next, pushing on his back to try and force him into the knife she’d improved into a stake on the wall, but he caught himself, he thrust his elbow backwards connecting with Ziccarra in the face.
Instead of trying to catch herself she allowed herself to roll backwards, releasing her flashbang capsules that once again disoriented the assassin in front of her, one of the others tried to surround her from the right side, which forced her into a retreat behind the couch.
BOOM
In her prep time, she’d booby-trapped the TV stand and the leg of her living room couch with a fine explosive wire, barely visible with the naked eye and damn near impossible with the flood light shining everywhere.
The explosion tore the floor asunder, depositing debris and limbs into the apartment below them. ‘Sh!…t’ she grunted, pulling herself up from the floor, feeling the immediate recoil from the blast.
The small flames from the explosion were getting more significant; the floodlights and the smoke obscured her vision, but she could hear the grunting from one lone assassin. ‘Body language is key,’ She thought, rising from the ashes to near-perfect posture.
Her ears clicked, and not wasting a moment, she executed an evasive roll to move to dodge what could’ve been a fatal shot from a silenced pistol. Shooting a silenced pistol was strange, given that she’d just blown a hole in the apartment, and the police were very much on their way.
She’d managed to roll until she was able to reset herself back in the kitchen, her eyes darted toward the light switch; now, if she could turn off the floodlights, she could utilize her cloaking abilities to get the drop on him, but this range she risked taking a bullet; and given that she’d been essentially ground-hogging his chances of landing a fatal shot was that much higher.
“I’m surprised watching me brutally murder your friends didn’t shake your resolve at all.” She called out. There was a vibration in the floorboard; without hesitation, she jolted around the right side of the island, placing him in front of her now.
She could hear the people in the apartment below scurrying around, screaming, and the police sirens and flashing lights outside their windows. They were on the 5th floor, so it’d take a little bit of time for the cops to make it up here, but either way, time was running out for the both of them.
Elsewhere—The Estate
Around the table were seats filled by four men, and one empty seat was at the head of the table. No one said anything; a couple sat just looking at the empty chair. There was power in it’s absence, for the first time since it’s creation there was no Liafador Family representative in the Family Tree. There was power in the absent seat, and a family at this table could assume the role of the Liafadors once filled.
The Santiago Family, The second family sworn in and now the oldest, were favorites to inherit the role. The Purrazzo Family was new; they hadn’t been in the Tree more than a year but had a highly complex network of political affiliates. The Femi and Jackson families believed the seat was now cursed and pledged support for whoever took the mantle, but no one would move on it until they had confirmation that the Liafadors had been liquidated.
This was the power of the absent seat.
“We received word that Ramon Liafador has been killed.” Javier Santiago reported, but the news didn’t move anyone in the room. Ramon used to fill the absent seat, but at 78, he wasn’t hard to kill.
“…He’s the only one?” Zaire Femi murmured, a bit confounded. The might of all four families only yielded one death.
“Calm yourself. This is Ramon we’re talking about. That man would’ve likely had a contingency for this. Our victories will be few and far between, but they will be big.” Manuel Purrazzo chimed in to curb the mounting doubts.
“You feel like we made the right decision,” Femi asked again.
“It doesn’t matter the decision was made and is being carried out. Never in the history of this Family Tree have we cowered to anyone, and we will not begin to do so now.” Purrazzo continued.
“But the girl…”
“Is just a woman. A damn good assassin but just a woman.” Manuel rose from his seat, moved around the table, and sat at the head. “If you guys are going just to sit around waiting, I might as well carry on with our order of business.”
Javier Santiago scoffed at the arrogance but didn’t seem to mind a relatively new family assuming power.
“All in favor of Purrazzo Rule say aye” Eddie Jackson called out, the room boomed with a resounding ‘Aye’ and with that the Purrazzo Family became the ‘Root’ of the Family Tree.
“And my first order of business is to cease this nonsense and have everyone join me in the foyer for drinks and cigars!” Manuel proclaimed, dismissing the other two family members but specifically asking Javier Santiago to stay behind for a private conversation.
“Javier, I know your family has been second for a long time. I need to ask you. Do you have an issue with me taking over as the ‘root’”
It caused Javier to chuckle, the truth was Javier Santiago was incredibly shrewd, he’d been playing 4D chess since the injunction was filed on the Liafador Family. His assassins weren’t actively looking for the Liafadors, but the other families were. He wasn’t sitting at the head of the table Manuel Purrazzo was, these moves laid the groundwork for a plan he developed decades prior, now the time to enact them had come—he need only to be patient.
“Hermano. I cannot think of a more suitable leader. You will inject this place with new and innovative ideas. I cannot wait to see them come to fruition.” Javier said, patting Manuel on his shoulder.
“Oh, but word of advice. I would not underestimate the power of that Liafador. She killed 44 of this family’s best assassins, and she didn’t even use her blade.” Javier patted him on the shoulder once more and started to join the others in the foyer, but Manuel stopped him.
“What’s so impressive about the blade.”
“Ahh, that’s right. You didn’t show up at our quarterly development seminar. I will spare you the longer story and give you the long version. Back in the early 1600s, there was a decorated warrior whom many people referred to as the Shogun. Around the time the European foreigners arrived in Japan, he was all but forced out of his position; he turned to a life of crime. Founded the basis for how we conduct our business. He sat symbolically speaking where you now sit, on that there throne. Legend has it that he forged a blade so terrifying that it had the power to steal life from his enemies. Even more important, it could transfer the Shogun’s soul to other people. He could've returned as anyone throughout history. Y'know if you believe those types of things”
Manuel cut in with a pretentious scoff. “…And you think that somehow she is this legendary Shogun?”
“It is just a legend.”
“What’s the name of this blade?”
——-
“Ziccarra!” Ariel’s voice from the locked bedroom broke the stalemate between her and the pistol-toting assassin. His attention went directly toward the bedroom door concealing Ariel, which forced Ziccarra into a precarious situation.
‘What do I have left?’ She thought, feeling around her belt for more capsules, but she had none; as she tried to figure out her next move, the universe ironically supplied one. A shot rang out from the would be assassin to a police officer who unfortunately breached the doorway only to be hit, his back-up finally took down the would be assassin.
Once the police had taken control of the scene and cordoned their apartment off, Ziccarra knew they’d ask questions, questions she couldn’t answer at the moment. A small part of her wanted to slip out while they were tending to Ariel, but doing so risked putting Ariel in danger, too. Not to mention, even with the police currently investigating things, they weren’t entirely in the clear there could be other assassins
“H-hey, we have to go,” Ziccarra said, tugging Ariel’s arm.“W-what do you mean we have to go. I’m not going anywhere with you. There are limbs and blood and fire all over our apartment from people who have tried to kill you. I thought you were like some petty thief but you're an assassin.” Ziccarra’s eyes narrowed as Ariel at least had enough respect to keep her voice down.
“Ok. Two things. It will look suspicious that the hard drive you helped me steal from them is in your computer.”
Ariel clearly hadn’t thought about it, that alone was enough to sway her, but out of curiosity she waited for the #2.
“And 2. I’m a f%#$ Assassin.” Ziccarra grabbed Ariel by the arm, activated the cloak on her bodysuit, and vanished from eyesight. She caught a glimpse of the family insignia burned onto the forearm of one of the limbs being collected. ‘Purrazzo,’ she internalized.
Not all of the assassins who attacked her were part of the Family Tree, but this person was sent in to confirm the kill. ‘Interesting.
When they were far enough away, Ziccarra deactivated her cloak as they sat and waited for a bus. The early morning cold set in and neither of them were dressed for the weather.
“W-what’re we going to do now.” Ariel asked through her chattering teeth. She had to tap Ziccarra’s shoulders as she’d zoned out.
“You’re going to go to this address and stay there until I contact you. I mean it. The people there are going to take care of you. Just tell them Ziccarra sent you.” She said, handing her a piece of paper with an address on it.
“Also take this phone. No numbers are programmed into it, but it’s the phone I will call you on.”
“W-who are they?” Ariel asked as the bus appeared at the traffic light.
“They’re my fake family. They helped me set up a life outside my actual life. They’ll take care of you, I promise.”
“What are you going to do?”
.jpg)
Log in to comment