ASMSG Scifi Fantasy Paranormal Emagazine August 2014 | Page 30

SFP Indie Issue 3
targets assigned by the Syndicate and carried out by
policemen who worked for the Agency.
We arrived in the lobby of the apartment building
about twenty minutes later and the entire lobby was
adorned with shimmering crystals that reflected the lights
in the ceiling. I came across a mirror that rested between
two elevator doors and I couldn't even recognize myself
anymore. My cheeks were sunken in and my raven black
hair rested in an unkempt fashion atop my head. The
image actually made me realize that I was hungry and
hadn't taken the opportunity to eat anything since
yesterday. Kara had mentioned the fact that she felt that
there was something wrong with me, like maybe I was
depressed and starving myself. I had assured her that was
not the case, assured her, not myself.
"Are you all right?" Thom interrupted my selfloathing as his reflection stepped closer to mine. He
looked much healthier than I did, with his plump cheeks
and red hair that was combed back and held in place with
product. We looked like opposing sides of the same coin.
Our black jackets hung off of us and dangled at an angle
behind us. It was the fashion of the day, but it was a
useless design beyond that. The elevator dinged and the
doors opened, drawing my attention to the fact that I had
been staring at our reflections and failed to answer Thom's
question.
"I'm fine," I lied. The truth was that I was tired of
waking up each day for a job that I hated. I knew that I
should not have those thoughts about my job, not because
it shouldn't be true, but because my programming was
supposed to have removed those types of thinking from
my mind. A certain amount of fear resided because of that
knowledge, something I would have to take to the grave, I
figured. No need to show the Agency that I was flawed or
else risk losing everything, which wasn't much to be
honest. I only had my sister, Kara. It was a cardinal sin
within the Agency to maintain contact with our families. I
did so in secret and kept it to myself. I had only shared my
secret with one other person, Thom, whom I trusted most.
We entered the elevator and I watched as he pressed
the touch screen and typed in the number sixteen which
would lead us to that floor. I could feel the gentle rise of
the elevator beneath my feet and if I struggled to listen I
could hear a slight whirring sound that emanated from
outside pulleys and cables guiding us to our destination.
The stop was just as subtle as the rise had been and the
doors opened automatically to reveal a lavish hallway
adorned with framed paintings of the men and women
who had owned the apartments, I was certain that more
than one of them had been members of the Syndicate
themselves. I wondered how many of them had died by a
policeman's gauntlet.
Those questions would have to wait until later.
We moved through the hallway to the door that led
into the suite where Ms. Taggert was reported to live. I
noticed instantly that the door was slightly ajar. This had
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not been the case a few hours ago when we originally
scoped the area. I made a nod towards Thom to silently
alert him to what I had seen and he shook his head in
acknowledgment. This could mean one of two things,
either she was home and neglected to close the door
properly, or another policeman had been assigned to the
case. There were only a few times that I could recall
multiple policemen being tasked with the same target,
usually that was reserved for severe cases where the
Syndicate feared the person was a flight risk. Usually a
single policeman was assigned a job and was only relieved
if he could not get it done.
I reached down to the silver gauntlet that resided on
my right wrist and used the touchscreen to adjust the dial
setting. The gauntlet was powered and controlled through
small needles that were injected into my skin which
connected to the nearest nerve endings in my muscle
tissue. This allowed me to control the rate of fire much
like a person can control their grip on an object. The
nerves would receive stimuli from the brain and trigger
whatever effect the person desired. The electronic
impulses from the brain also allowed a