I stalked my target from the rooftops. Armed with my binoculars and holo, I had tagged him and could easily follow him through the streets. I leaped and glided from roof to roof. I knew his regular routine by heart now after stalking him for two weeks. I don't do rush jobs. I want to know my target, where he goes, what he eats, his likes and dislikes. That way I'm able to plan the perfect kill without it raising any suspicion. 

The Boss had wanted me to act earlier, but I told him to let me do my job. I almost had my plan ready. That was until the sunlight caught the lens of my binoculars and reflected right in my victims face. He spun around and looked straight up, straight at me. There was something in his reaction I could not put my hands on. It was like he was expecting me. He shouted and pointed at me and that was my cue to leave. I quickly put my binoculars away in my backpack and started running. Right as I took my first jump from this roof to a lower roof three meters away, the access door behind me opened and armed men burst through.

They were here too fast. This wasn't right. He knew I was on his tail and they set me up. Did the sun really hit my lens and had it really reflected on him? The questions ran through my mind as moved across the roofs as fast as possible. My pursuers were hot on my tail, but they did not know these routes as I did. I sprinted towards another building which was actually a lot higher. It was a good thing I was in good shape because the men chasing me had received some additional training it seemed. While running, I grabbed my grapple gun, attached the cable I always carried in my suit and fired the weapon. Over the years, I had known how to shoot a grapple gun properly so it would attach on the first shot. It was completely different than any other weapon designed to kill. A thing which many people had trouble of understanding.

I fired the gun and it hooked on to the tall building. I quickly put the gun away, set the cable so it would reel me in and made the leap while praying the hold on it was strong enough. purple blasts whirred past my body. They all missed and the shots evaporated into thin air. damn plasma guns. The shots seemed like nothing as they would disappear, but if they hit a target, it would feel like you got hit by 10.000 volts. Thank god I was soaring through the air and was a difficult target to hit. It would not be long before I would hit the building I was attached to and I braced myself for impact. I was going too fast. With the speed of going up and forwards with the momentum I had given myself when jumping combined, meant I was not in control of the jump and this would hurt. I tried to spin myself around so I would be able to catch the impact with my legs but I spun around so much my shoulder hit the concrete first. A sharp pain erupted from the shoulder and I had to grit my teeth not to shout out in pain. That was if I even had a voice to shout out with. I stopped the cable reeling me in, trying to catch my breath and reposition myself in a proper way to scale the building. I looked behind me to see my pursuers standing beneath me on the rooftop I had just left. I was out of their reach for now, but it would not take them long to come over to this building. Now that I had the advantage, I had to keep on moving. I saluted them with my still functioning arm and reeled myself in, running up the side of the building again.

The wind in my hair was calming and eased the pain. My shoulder was probably dislocated and I prayed there would be nothing broken. It was my left shoulder though, a little bit of luck since I preferred to use my right arm. It was a miracle I made it safely up. I stared at the hook for a short moment. It was hanging by just one of the three claws behind an old ventilator. How it had not ripped through the moment my weight was hanging from it was a mystery to me. This chase was making me sloppy and it could cost me my life! I grabbed the hook and started running again, keeping my injured arm tight across my chest. I had to choose wisely now. They knew I was on top of this building but since they were not here yet, I could now get away without them knowing where to. I had to make it to my safe house even though I knew it would be compromised soon. Left it was. 

They had not been here yet. That was a good thing. I entered my safe house and glanced over at the healing machine in the corner. It was glowing blue and softly humming. For a moment I was tempted to use it to fix my shoulder but it would take to long. Instead, I just grabbed a syringe filled with a blue liquid and jabbed in my leg. This would keep the pain away for long enough. I examined my shoulder and as suspected it was dislocated. Now that the painkiller was doing its job I had to fix it. The doorpost looked tempting enough. I grabbed an old rag to put between my teeth and breathed calmly through my nose a few times before I slammed my shoulder into the doorpost. A sickening crunch and pain coursed throughout my body. I bit down hard on the rag trying to suppress a scream that would nonetheless never leave my throat. It had worked though. Next, I created a temporary sling for my arm. I grabbed the final pieces of gear I could use and filled my backpack with a couple of syringes with different kinds of fluids in them. It was all the time I had as I heard shouts and loud thumping coming from my front door. It was a heavy metal door with several locks on it, so it would take them a while to get through, giving me enough time to escape once more.

Once more I found myself up on the rooftop. I balanced on the edge of the building staring thirty stories down to the ground. The place where I did not belong. I heard the drones before I saw them. Military? My eyes shot up to the sky and my worst fears were confirmed. There was more going on than what I knew. This was not just me being discovered, but this was me being hunted by the government. This was my assassination. My feet started running again. I jumped, slid and hopped across the roof to another roof to the next building. From rooftop to balcony back to the roofs again. I could feel the heat on me. Their eyes everywhere. Had I officially gone from hunter to the hunted?

The drones were chasing me, following me and just a bit too late I realized they were herding me. I stood upon the top of a big internet multinational building. The tech giant of the web. I let myself catch a breath before scanning my surroundings. It was a flat roof, no air vents or anything. This building was state of the art. A helicopter landing pad and even a small rooftop garden. It was gigantic and I couldn't recall ever coming up here. The drones kept buzzing around me and every time I would run the would force me to stop by flying in front of me preventing me from going anywhere. I grunted and stared at the only access door this place had. It was my only escape but also the one spot from where the military would be coming from. these fucking herding drones wouldn't let me go anywhere! More had come and I was surrounded by five of those things now. They had no weapons, were only designed to keep prisoners in tow and it worked. Slowly I back away. As long as I moved slow and backward they seemed to not do anything. Finally, I stopped and sat back down on the edge of the building with my eyes fixed on the door. There was nothing I could jump to, grab on to or glide to. I should have been terrified, scared and petrified and yet I felt as calm as I always did. As if this was part of the plan. But the plan was never to get caught, never to let myself be seen or discovered. Then why was I not scared of my own demise?

The drones around me closed in. Their annoying buzzing sound made me want to swat them down one by one but that was nearly impossible. They were fast and nimble and recognized any weapon straight away. It didn't take long for the door to open. I was herded here for a reason. They had come prepared and had planned this from the very start.

"Subject D-047E5. Your time has come." I stared at my contact. He was different now. His teeth were fine and he was wearing government clothes. with an emblem I recognized all too well. the orphanage, a government experimenting playground. I raised my eyebrow at him and he just flashed me a smile. Behind him were three other men, heavily armed with their guns aimed at me.

"Really girl, it's been a pleasure of working with you but the headquarters have decided to take you out of operation. Don't take it personally. It happens with all of the subjects eventually." He stepped closer and I slowly got back up on my feet. The drones left me and landed between my contact and his three little helpers.

[what about my target.] I signed to him. He lowered his gun and stared at me with an amused smile. 

"Always the workaholic aren't you. The target will be taken care off by me after I handle this."

My holo buzzed and I took a quick glance at it. My contact, or assassinator now, just waited patiently. He was clearly in no rush to execute me. A little surprised I read the message and when it dawned on me what was going on, a smile started to form on my lips. That's why I didn't feel scared or threatened. 

[Let me tell you a little story.] I reached behind my ear and felt the metallic bump in my head. I pressed it and next to it a small card ejected from my skull. the moment I grabbed it all became clear and I started laughing soundlessly. I threw the damn thing on the ground right before my feet. My contact stared at it, confusion sprawled all over his face. That was until he realized what it was and with a look of surprise and fear he gazed back up at me again. That was the moment he knew I had played him. Heck, I even played myself. The chip was a memory chip, implanted by myself to make me oblivious to the plan. I had known they were hunting me. I knew my contact had a contract to kill me and in order to prevent that from happening I had devised up a plan to save myself and to still be able to kill my target.

[Do you know who played who? Maybe you should check if my target is still alive. I think you know the answer.]  Furiously he took a look at his holo while the grin on my face only grew bigger. 

"You killed him?! For someone who hates technology, you sure make a lot of use of it E5. I never did expect you to actually use a memory chip on yourself. So tell me, why did you never fix your voice while you were at it?"

It had been easy to kill my target. The man always took the same cab home with the same driver. How stupid could one be? All I had to do was to make sure that cab would never drive again. As it had turned on the floating highway, the systems reset causing the engines to fail and making it crash on the ground. Add a giant explosion to the mix thanks to some of my chemicals and voila. Easy peasy, not a challenge. The real challenge though had been to make sure my contact had no idea what was going on. So I had to move and act fast to set up a scheme al while maintaining my own rituals so he did not get suspicious. When my plan was set all that remained was to make me forget and reset my brain to just after the meeting with the Boss. That's where the memory chip came into play. If I did not know of the plan, I could not give myself away.

[You still don't get it? I hate technology, but that doesn't mean I don't use it to my advantages when needed. That would be foolish, give me a weak spot. Something I was taught not to have. Maybe you should have paid better attention to me. But you're too late now. Just remember, it's nothing personal. If you'll excuse me, I have a bounty to claim and after, a headquarters to ruin. I will not let myself be assassinated by them just because I have become too good.]  

I simply waved and kicked the chip towards him. Even though my shoulder still hurt like a bitch, I just had to swallow the pain and go with it. Before my contact could react, I turned around and leaped off the edge and opened my wingsuit. As soon as the wind got hold of the suit, a loud explosion and a green cloud erupted from the rooftop.

Never get attached to people you know. You might need to kill them. Another important rule in my life.

If the explosion did not kill them, the poison would. Not such a clean kill as I would prefer, but this one was a little rushed. Just like I had to rush the death of my target. Not my finest work but it had to do. As the wind carried me like a bird I looked for a safe place to land. Wingsuits were fun, but not my preferred method of moving around. especially not in the city where the wind was unpredictable. I managed to steer myself to a much lower rooftop and with a loud and painful crash I smacked down on the concrete.

My plan?

1: Collect my bounty from the Boss.

2: Go to my headquarters and 'convince' them to drop their little play to kill me.

3: depending on the results of number 2, either keep doing what I do or become an enemy of the government and take them down. It might be fun to expose their little experiments to the public.

My name is Subject D-047E5. The silent killer. But hey... maybe I would like to have real name for once.