Not a mockingbird

[nale]

Stakeout


“Nomad here.” As the young woman crouched behind the bush acting as cover, her fingers slid over the medallion hanging from her neck. “I’m in position and I should be able to acquire the asset. Please confirm to proceed.”

The cool breeze contained the scent of salt, a cloud of mist forming as her warm breath met the chilly air. She ignored the taste of coldness in her mouth as she settled behind her temporary cover and waited for a reply.

The sending came more quickly than she had anticipated, her arms jerking as the voice suddenly sounded in her mind. Something she’ll never get used to.

Navvi, that you? A bit confused here. Didn’t you get reassigned to another mission? One where there is nothing to retrieve? Unless there is something you have encountered and of which I’ve missed an update of yours? Give me all the details of where you at, and stand by for my reply.

She froze in the darkness. What the hell? The Desk knew they had a runner out here, with approval of the Arm. She touched the piece around her neck again. “Stationed as requested nearby the Westward Eye. Downstairs is heavily guarded, but in and out aint impossible. Package can be extracted swiftly and back at you within three days. Like agreed.”

There…

Now what? Her gaze snapped at the backdoor of the establishment as it opened. Oh no, on top of everything? Really? She tapped the medallion again.

“Asset is on the move. I repeat, asset is on the move, headed towards the city. Do I stick or stand down?”

She bit her lower lip nervously as her target started to disappear in the night. Crap, by the time they answered it might be too late.


Nova slipped out of the shadows of her cover and went through Mulsantir’s Gate. Dark alleys stretched out before her like a maze. Through the rugged walls sounds of revelry and merriment echoed into the night. Whispers of some shady deal being made spilled through an open window above. But Nova was focused on her target, a high-ranking official who had valuable secrets on his liver, waiting to be used against the right entities. It had taken her two tendays to track him down and stalking him until a perfect opportunity would arise.

As usual, she kept a safe distance in order to avoid detection, but when the man turned down into a very narrow unpaved back alley, Nova hesitated. Usually when people do something like this, it often means they sense they are being followed. And still no word from the Desk. She shook her head. What a mess. She unhooked a small device from her belt that looked like a hand crossbow and fired the projectile aiming at a roof edge. With a soft thud the bolt penetrated the wood, and special handforged barbs ensured it was stuck. Nova pressed a button on her device and the cable connecting it with the bolt started winding up, lifting the lightweighted female to the roof level.

With practiced ease she swung to the overhang and disconnected the rope from the device. Peering through a crack between gutters and roof boards she was able to discern her target in company of a group of shady individuals. It appeared they were exchanging stuff, something that could pass for a scroll and a bag of coins. Dammit! Had she been too late? Did she have to stick with the scroll now, or the person who had handed it over? She hesitated to use the medallion once more, but the piece was getting exhausted and she had only one charge left. Forging a new one would take her too long, and it wasn’t exactly something she could do out here.

As the lot below split up, she decided to stick with the person she had been stalking for the past twenty days. Whatever was in that scroll could always be reproduced by him. But right even before he had made it out of the narrow back alley, he plunked down. The man’s body seemed to go into some kind of shock. Nova didn’t think twice but made her way down the same rope she had used to get up here. By the time she arrived, words came out slurred and unintelligible, his eyes looking around frantically. Crap! They had used poison on him! Quickly she went through a tiny box with vials that hung from her hip and poured some fluid in his mouth.

For a moment she thought she overheard the man’s heart racing as his body struggled to fight off the poison, but it was too powerful. His face turned pale. A final gasp for air and… he was gone. Nova looked up and down the alley. And so was the document, and the people responsible for all this.

She tested the lifeless hand for any hopeful signs one final time before she got up from the gravel path. This path would make too much noise when trying to follow them, and by the time she’d get back on the rooftops, they’d be gone. It would be better to get out of here before she was caught with the body. When she made it out of the alley she chose a different direction than the one she had arrived from, and went deeper into the city. This assignment was a mess, and still no word from the Desk.

Before stepping into the flickering torchlight of one of the main streets she had changed her outfit from form-fitting black in something more extravagant.

The city guards nodded at the blonde smiling bardess they encountered and whom strummed her lute with an entrancing melody. One even tossed a coin at her.

How about that!