Chapter 8 - The Government's Secret : Part 1

Nightfall had settled over the burgeoning country. The foreboding feeling in people's hearts was being ignored as they continued their life in this world full of lies.

The lights were shining from the buildings all around the city. It made the town look lively despite the dark secret hidden all over. Shadows were hidden away from the beautiful deceitful lights.

By the time Adreanna reemerged from the shadow, a gun was already aimed at the oblivious politician. She settled down inside the ventilation system, her gun was poking from the gap beneath her.

The politician looked nervous, he was busy looking around as he destroyed all the paper in his hands with the paper shredder machine. The loud sound of the machine buzzing took over the little movement sound in the ventilation above his head.

No one was in the room aside from her target. It was way past the work time already. People were already leaving one by one, hurrying their steps to their home.

But some of them were still in the hallway, passing by. A couple of them glanced at the room the politician was in, oblivious by the fate of the person they sought would be by the end of the night.

Adreanna's breath stayed steady as she waited patiently. Her eyes were focusing on the man beneath her, unwavering. Her finger was already laid on the trigger, a single pull was all it took to finish her job.

She listened closely to her surroundings. The 19-year-old batted her eyelashes slowly, burning her gaze on the man like a hunter with her prey. Blue eyes shimmered within the darkness of the ventilation, haunting the room.

Just a couple more seconds. She should wait a little more.

Adreanna watched as the man trembled while doing his job. He was oddly tense. It was weird how his hand was shaking as he shredded the papers in his hand.

Was he aware of her presence?

No, she did not think so. If he really was aware, he would get out of the room already. He was scared of something else, something in the paper.

This intrigued her. The cold girl in her late teen tried to catch a glance at the paper. She caught some letters but it was vague. Well, there was only one way to find out, she should shoot him right n-

A loud ringtone suddenly rang through the ventilation. She jumped slightly at the sound, almost hitting her head at the sudden sound.

Realization hit her hard when she found out it was her own cellphone.

She quickly took out her handphone from her pocket, eyes squinting at the unknown number appearing on her screen. Adreanna did not have time to find out who it was and tried to turn it off.

Emphasis on the try.

The screen seemed to be glitching and she could not even shut it down. The ringtone was still playing loudly, adorning the room with its sound.

Sure as hell her target was aware of her presence now.

"Who- who's there?!" Her target wobbly shouted in the room. Eyes twitching around in fear.

She was alerted by her target's consciousness and smashed her handphone, sighing when the ringing finally seemed to stop. The screen turned black as she watched her phone die in her hand.

Until a voice note was played.

"Are you serious?" She whispered to her handphone harshly.

"Hey, uh, I know you might don't remember me, but I've been trying to text you for a week." A male voice played out.

She grunted when her target ran to the door. She put back her cellphone in her pocket and kicked the ventilation down, earning a loud noise as a result.

"Look, I know it's not a really good move to hack your phone- kind of invalidation of privacy actually." The voice still rolling from her phone as Adreanna went into action.

The deadly assassin dropped down to the floor with a loud thump and kicked a table, making it slide down right in front of her target. The table blocked the door as the man frantically turned to Adreanna and widened his eyes.

"But uh, I'm kind of out of idea on how to approach you- and um, I already went to your home a week ago- which I got your address from hacking, sorry, but you weren't there, so-" The voice note was still playing as she aimed her gun at the politician.

Adreanna's porcelain mask covered all her face, leaving the rest of her body covered with a black cloak. The red mask hauntingly stared down at her shaking target, lights bouncing off it.

"And then your brother opened the door and he kindly gave me your number-"

"What?" Adreanna snapped at the voice note upon hearing the statement, making the trembling politician jump.

"-which I can get by hacking actually, but I don't want to go that far so at least I got this number truthfully." The voice note continued.

She closed her eyes in irritation and pulled the trigger without giving a single glance at the politician. The poor man dropped down on the floor, mouth wide open with a hole in his forehead.

"So yeah, please contact me back. I- I want to thank you for saving me that day, I'm hoping we can get a coffee?" The recorded voice hesitantly asked.

"So um, goodbye! See you later, maybe." The voice note finally ended and Adreanna would lie if she was not at least a little bit relieved.

The assassin adjusted her red porcelain mask while looking at the dead man in front of her. A paper flew to her shoe, she raised an eyebrow and took it from the ground with her red-colored gloved hand.

Oh, it was the paper that the man was desperately trying to shred.

The paper was only halfway shredded, she looked around to find more paper but apparently, the one in her hand was the last one around. She looked back and scanned the paper in her hand.

It seemed that the governments were up to something again, huh?

The letters on the paper seemed to be talking about a new secret project. The ominous title was called 'Project DM-1'. The project was about hunting down some specific scientists and kept hidden 'The Dark Arrow'.

A sudden loud alarm rang through the building, alerting a lockdown. Adreanna rolled her eyes and folded the paper to put it in her pocket. She shot the window near her and jumped off the building.

She fell down from the high floor she was in, letting the wind blow her cloak off, revealing a black braided hair on display. She shot for the second time at another building with a rope gun and let the gun pull her up.

She dropped down at the edge of the rooftop and stared down at the building she was in. Police cars were scattered around as people gathered with phones in their hands, recording everything.

What a mess.

A man suddenly appeared beside her, as if he had just come out of nowhere. He joined Adreanna and looked down at the lockdown building. She was unfazed by the man's appearance and just letting him be.

The man wore a black mask that covered all of his head. He opened the mask and settled down beside Adreanna, letting an identical black hair like Adreanna's display.

"Not so slick today, huh?" Commented him.

Adreanna grumbled under her breath at her father's statement, resulting in a light chuckle from his father. His father moved closer to his daughter and ruffled her braided hair, making it look messy.

She stood still as her blue eyes kept watching the scene she just made. That damn voice note ruined her supposed to be a perfect kill.

✵✵✵✵✵✵

Around two weeks ago, before the tragedy of a famous politician who got shot to death in his own office, a guy around his late teen was just getting back from grocery shopping in peace.

He was kind, giving away his smile as people passed by him. Some girls squealed while they walked past him. The grocery bag in one of his hands swayed as he strolled down the street.

The brunette was humming down the song that blasted through his headphone. His leatherback hair danced with the vague wind as he took in his surroundings. It was a really nice day, the sun was following him while the clouds were getting on the bright star's way.

Though, as they said, all good things must come to an end.

A bunch of men in black came out of a dark street and approached him in silence. One of them made a signal with his head, telling him to follow them.

The brunette's lips grew thin and firm. He pushed his hair back from his forehead and made a quiet distress sound. He could feel his heart hammered in his chest as he silently followed them.

All the men were surrounding him. They walked together to an abandoned building nearby. He could feel his urge to run away but he knew he did not stand a chance at all.

The sound of creaking from the door was loud and clear. One of the men pushed him forward, making him stumble inside. He was already on razor's edge of panic as they closed the door behind him.

He was left standing while they all hovering over him, blocking the front door. One of them stepped forward with his hands in his pocket.

"Zack Rafflaze." The man stated, circling the late teen.

Zack's grey eyes twitched and followed the man's movement, trying to ignore the obvious knife in the man's hand. His eyes could not see anything but the threat all over him.

"We've been searching for you for months, hacker. Boss is worried about you, you know." The man continued and stopped right in front of Zack.

"Worried? She locked me in that house just to hack things. You mafias are the ones who kidnapped me, of course, I would run away." Zack ventured, hoping they won't notice his trembling voice.

The man put a hand on Zack's shoulder. The brunette was trying his best not to flinch from the touch. The hand on his right shoulder suddenly gripped him hard, making him grit his teeth.

"Well, she would like to 'kidnap' you back. Your skill is a great value for us." Said the mafia.

Zack's fists clenched, grey eyes pointedly stared at the man in front of him. Despite his trembling self, he mustered up his courage to answer the man in front of him.

"No."

The mafia raised an eyebrow. "No?"

Zack stayed still, grey eyes still glaring at the man. Lips curled over his teeth as the man in front of him went to kick his feet, making him stumble back harshly.

"Well, seems like words don't work for you." The man darted, signaling the rest of the mafia to come at Zack. "We just have to use force then." He finished his sentence and all hell went loose.

He was being held as the people around him kicked his ribs and legs. Zack was protecting his head with both of his hands while laying on the hard ground helplessly.

One of them held him by his collar and dragged him to the front door. He was desperately trying to get the man to let him go, struggling as doing so.

"Help! Someone help me!" Zack screamed on top of his lung in distress.

They tried to silence him by punching his stomach. Zack choked a couple of times, breath labored from the pain it caused.

"Loud." A monotone voice came from the corner of the room, making all of them snap their heads toward the voice.

A girl with black braided hair came into view, lazily stared down at Zack's being. Her blue eyes looked like she was just waking up from her nap.

"You're so loud." She pointed her finger at Zack.

One of the mafias moved towards her while smirking. "Hey there pretty, what are you doing here at this place."

"Napping." She answered truthfully.

"Well, you can take a nap at my place." He stood in front of her while his hand moved some of her hair from her face.

"I insist." He continued and forcedly gripped her hair a little.

Adreanna's emotionless blue eyes stared at the man. She just stood there like a statue while they both were having a staring contest.

"Run!" Zack yelled at her from afar, earning a punch from the mafia around him.

Adreanna turned her head over to Zack. "You were asking for help and now you're asking me to run?"

"They are dangerous, they are not at your level, go!" Zack desperately cried.

She tilted her head at him and scanned around. Her ocean eyes were watching the men around Zack and stopped at the mafia in front of her. She judgementally looked up and down at the man. The infamous assassin raised her eyebrows at the mafia.

"Yeah, you're right." She paused, eyes becoming sharp as she looked at Zack once more.

"They're not my level.." She finished her sentence and the man in front of her suddenly dropped down at her feet, unconscious.