Heartless

For this post I decided to share a bit of flash fiction I wrote recently. The inspiration came from one of the characters in the full length novel Magnetic that I'm currently writing. The little story popped out of me writing some back story. Enjoy.

Smooth and steady, the trigger flows. Not yet!

Not until it's perfect, only when it's perfect.

Perfection. It takes so much for perfection. Discipline, timing, planning, patience. All of these need to be in complete harmony for perfection to happen, especially patience. How I hate patience. Not hate hate, more like love to hate but I wish we never met. Sadly patience is what makes the best, The Best. As my mentor said 'If you not aiming to be the best, you're just waiting to die'. Alexandra never learned that lesson. She could have been the best but her timing was poor. Always relying more on luck than skill and precision. Only a heartbeat off when her luck ran out. I liked Alexandra.

"Mmma Ddaaaa-"

Smack

The butt end of a Sofia demands quiet, "Don't worry about daddy."

They can never seem to keep their mouth shut. Not even Chase. He opened his mouth once and some conniving whore stopped his heart. Chase lacked discipline but I'll miss him. He knew death was coming and lived well. Not like this rich POS. Probably wondering if daddy would be happier to have his son back or to end the drain on his bank account.

"Whaat ever yoou wann-"

One touch from Sofia has a profound effect on the tongue. Not yet.

I can feel how much Sofia craves silence, but that's not part of the plan. No plan is perfect but you always need to try. Waylon thought he had the perfect plan. He thought he predicted every possible mishap or chance encounter. I'll admit he came close to perfection in an imperfect world. The other Prisms say Waylon was stupid to take a rusty old knife in the heart.

Fools. The greatest Prism in the system wasn't killed because some junkie in a back alley, got the best of him. Impatience snuck up on him and shoved him down that alley without checking the shadows first. Impatience took his reflexes and made him attack a scared gasser before his eyes adjusted to the darkness, not stupidity.

"Pppplease Da Don't-"

Click

Sofia's hammer speaks silence, "Last reminder, distract me and I kill you."

Sweet Solaris, Sofia. You made the poor kid piss himself, and we aren't even here for him. Just needed to access the Personal Comm in his wrist. Personal Comms only had a range of about a foot which was great for linking two minds in close proximity. Not so great for linking with a mind in the building next door. Unless you had some way to boost the signal. No way this scared little dipshit has that kind of discipline. Even veteran prisms struggle to master it.

I'll have to link with him, pull his recent contacts, and establish the link myself. Not ideal but I planned for this contingency.

Sorry Sofia back to your holster, "Give me your wrist."

"Mmmy wrist? Whhyy?"

He's about to break. Can't have that or he'll start acting stupid, "You want to live through this right."

"Yyeah yeah. I, Yes sir."

"Then do as I say and keep your mouth shut." Only one person needs to die today.

"Good. Good." Now where is he? Where is your dad? Castor St Claire.

'Vinny baby. Where are you? You're late honey? My boys-'

Whoa, did not need to see that. Kinky little fuck.

Let's try this again, Castor Saint Claire. Lower power this time. Don't want to force the link just need to know his location.

Not in his room. Elevator, no. Ground floor? Please be the ground floor and not the tunnels. Focus focus, need to hurry. Okay not the tunnels. Front, back, side.

'Your craft is waiting out front Mr. S-'

Good Front. Slightly over 100 meters, too far for a pistol. Good thing Sofia's a freakin cannon, she can make that shot. Twenty seconds until he's on the street, time to move. Make it fifteen, I'll have to jog.

Thump-thump

Heart-rate's slightly elevated, no big deal.

Thump-thump

Adjust lenses to 150 meters, filter ambient light. Check for sentries, only two. They won't see us until it's too late. Sofia you're up. Line up the front door, reduce focus. Now steady. Steady.

Thump-thump

Slow and steady. Slow your heart, steady your hand. That's it.

Thump-

That's him Sofia, he's the target.

-Thump

Thump-

Wait for confirmation. Slow and steady.

-Thump

Thump-

There's Castor, and yup that's the target.

-Thump

Thump-

Now Sofia! Now! Crack

-Thump

Sweet Solaris Sofia, you didn't stop his heart you blew it to fucking pieces, "Haha, damn we're good."

Sentries caught us, ten seconds to engage. No time to destroy them, gonna need to disable.

'Emma you still in orbit?'

'Yes Captain.'

'How quickly can you lock onto my location?'

'My sensors have been tracking you since you enter the atmosphere.'

'Drop the mag shield and send a pulse to my location. Nothing big, two block radius max.'

'Without an electromagnetic shield I will need to break orbit.'

'I know, just do it!'

'And the Electromagnetic Pulse will disrupt all active Comms including-'

'Now!'

'Understood. Pulse arriving in three, twzzo, nzzzzz-'

Looks like my perfect plan went to shit like always.

"Exxcuse me. Siir," said Castor's kid.

"Huh, you're still here?"

Kid's growing a spine at least, "Did you just shoot someone?"

"Yeah."

Rage flared in the kid's eyes, "Why?"

"Relax kid, your father's fine. For now anyway."

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, fuck, "I thought you shot him?"

"No. I shot the man paid to kill him."

"Kill him? My dad's an accountant, who would want to kill an accountant?"

I really need to get off this roof, "Just tell your father the Oculus is watching him."

"Wait, what's your name?"

"Nex."

"Your name's Nex? Strange name. Sorry I didn't mean... I'm sorry."

One touch of Sofia should get things moving, "Leave now."