Dreamsmith's Forge - The Assassin Chronicles: Showdown on New Haven (Part III)

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The Assassin Chronicles:

Showdown on New Haven (Part III)

New Haven. Blessed with an idyllic climate, picturesque mountains, ample beaches, and legendary surf. Known for its lively nightlife, entertainment, and many casinos. The tourist mecca of the rimward sectors.

Every year, millions of tourists from across the galaxy visit. Frequently rich tourists, looking for a good place to spend their cash. They arrive, spend, and leave.

It is no wonder that ships leaving New Haven are never attacked by pirates, as their occupants will have no doubt already blown their cash, but it is rather remarkable that inbound ships are never attacked.

Of course, such attacks would deter tourism, so it would be in the best interest of New Haven officials to keep their system clear of pirates. However, the space forces protecting New Haven are relatively small, and their services are almost never required.

Why then do the pirates ignore this juicy pie?

They don't, of course...

Hanson looked out the picture window of his office. The sun was setting over the Western Sea, which sparked as sunlight reflected off the moving waves. The lights of the city were starting to come on, an artificial twinkling to contrast with nature's spectacle. His eyes scanned the twinkling florescent and neon cityscape before him. From the perspective of his office, over two hundred stories high, Paradise City appeared to be laid out at his feet, his own personal possession, to be used as he saw fit. In this case, appearance was not far from truth.

As he stared out the window, he heard the door to his office open and someone enter. He did not turn to see who it was. He had no need. Only one person could enter his office unannounced. She would wait patiently until he said something, knowing better than to disturb his thoughts.

"I take it you have news."

"Yes. We had confirmed that the man known as Gold-Eye was looking for an assassin. We need hardly speculate why, or who his intended target is."

Hanson chuckled. "Indeed. But this I already knew."

"Yes sir. But it appears that that is all from my last report that was accurate. The rest was, unfortunately, premature. When the assassin know as Striper arrived, we naturally assumed she was here to take his contract. However, Striper has not made any attempt to contact Gold-Eye."

"That you could detect," Hanson interjected.

"I assure you, sir, we would have detected it. Besides, another assassin has arrived on New Haven, and she contacted Gold-Eye shortly after arriving, a short text-only message simply confirming her arrival on New Haven and that she will be meeting with him at the appointed time and place. No mention of when and where that would be, however."

"Do we know anything about this new arrival?"

"Yes sir. Her name is Suzuka, although she's better known in the underworld by the street-name 'Twilight'. Apparently that's when she prefers to do her killing."

"How poetic. So, how do you plan to handle the situation?"

"I think the time has come to put Gold-Eye out of our misery."

"We've tried that before," Hanson reminded her. "He's just a bit too paranoid and definitely too well guarded for that."

"Ordinarily, I would agree. However, the situation at hand opens some new possibilities."

Hanson continued to look out the window as she outlined her plan. By the time she left, he could barely contain a smile. At last, he would dominate this city, and this planet with it. He watched the last bit of brightness fade from the horizon where the sun had sunk beneath the waves. Twilight's end...

Suzuka sat before the computer in her hotel room, reviewing news clippings about recent events on New Haven. She had found over the years that getting familiar with recent events was often useful before meeting with a client. They were often relevant, especially since these days she wasn't bothered by smalltimers -- anyone who wanted and could afford her services was a major league player.

Of course, it didn't matter what planet you were on, newspapers were always inaccurate and distorted. However, one could glean useful information from the angle of the slant. Here, it was obvious that the same corporations that controlled the casinos were also controlling the news. This was hardly news to Suzuka, who was no stranger to New Haven or its politics. Given this, however, she was having trouble interpreting the slant of a particular story about interstellar piracy.

Naturally, on a planet dependent on the tourist trade, one would expect that the local media would want to portray the image that travel to and from the planet is safe. And certainly this story did that, saying that pirate activity was almost unheard of in this system. However, no matter how true that is, people still feel safer if they see space forces regularly patrolling the skies. So one would expect the people in power to campaign for more space forces, no matter whether they were necessary or not, right? So why was this article suggesting that space forces in the system should be reduced?

Her contemplation was interrupted by the alarm she had set. One hour to midnight. She put the computer to sleep, got up and began gathering her things. Two minutes later, she was striding out of the hotel into the streets.

She had allowed Striper to choose the time, but that left her the option of choosing the place. Where she went, Striper would have to follow, to be there when midnight came. Some of her victims had tried the same tactic, going to whatever stronghold they felt most secure in when the appointed time came. It never worked for them, but she was hoping she would make it work for her.

"Here, kitty kitty kitty..."

A look of irritation crossed Tikki's face, a face painted red with black stripes, as it always was when she made a kill. Her prey was going out for a late night stroll? She should have anticipated this. This was the first time she'd ever let prey know it was prey before the kill, but she should have guessed that something like this would occur. Her prey was beginning its run well before the pounce.

Tikki divided her concentration between tracking her prey and staying unseen. Her lips moved, silently mouthing a Tao chant while she slipped from shadow to shadow in pursuit of her prey. She stayed well back, out of direct sight, following her prey by scent.

As she followed, she attempted to determine where they were heading. The prey was heading into one of the less lively parts of the city, the area with all the museums. Like everything else in Paradise City, they were open day and night, but they were significantly less busy at night. Most people looked elsewhere for entertainment after dark. Was her prey looking for a quiet spot where they could face each other alone, without witnesses?

It had become impossible to hide in the crowd, seeing as how there wasn't any crowd anymore. This presented Tikki with little problem, however. Her natural ability to hide in shadows was formidable. Enhanced with Tao magic, she was virtually invisible. She began closing the distance between herself and her prey.

Suzuka entered the open square in the center of the museum district. There was a fountain in the center, surrounded by a square pool, with four obelisks, one at each corner. The obelisks had strange hieroglyphics on the sides, and each was topped by a pyramid shape, coming to a point a dozen feet in the air. Neither the height nor the lack of a flat surface on top stopped Suzuka from leaping into the air and landing deftly on the top of the obelisk, balancing effortlessly on the tip.

She turned and looked around the square. Too much open ground, well lit by moonlight, and no crowd to hide in. No matter how stealthy she was, there was no way Striper could approach her unseen here.

Suddenly, a shadow detached itself from the edge of the square and shot towards one of the other obelisks. One quick bounce, and it was on top of the obelisk. A figure cloaked in black, crouched down, hands and feet resting on the pyramid's four sides. The hood of the cloak fell back, revealing a face painted blood red, with black stripes in a pattern like the face of a tiger. The lips parted in a grin, revealing Ctarl-Ctarl fangs. "Twilight, you have been interesting prey, but all hunts must sometime end, one way or the other."

"Fine, let's end this, Striper. One way, or the other." Suzuka drew her sword, a huge instrument of death that was no less lethal for being made of wood. She had her own techniques, and her own type of magic, to see to that.

Striper looked up at the moon. When she looked back at Suzuka, her eyes were... different. She was growling, and seemed to be growing larger by the second. She screamed and leaped from her obelisk, straight at Suzuka. Her cloak shredded into pieces as she burst out of it, transforming in midair...