The China Chapter: The Assassin

The hooded figure sprinted through the narrow streets of what could be considered downtown in the small chinese city. True, she was chinese, but when you looked at the size of the country, every few hundred kilomentres was different, or at least it seemed so to her.

Dai Lu Han was determined to make the best of this mission. No, there was nothing special about it. She aced every task.

Her boss had called her that morning and pointed out an enemy. Before you could say 'murder,' Dai Lu was on the job. And this mission was her favouite type. The target was not known to hold any information that was valuable, so not even the slightest doubt about finishing him off.

Criminal number one. Dai Lu laughed, running her hand through her spiky black locks, died with blue and red and green and who knows what color as she stood aside from the throng of busy pedestrians, scanning through her preparation. This one was an absolute piece of cake. Tao Jie. All brawn, no brains. The organisation had tracked him down to a luxury villa on the outskirts of the town. 

Dai Lu stepped past several residential buildings to spot the building past a high, electric fence. She'd studied it's defenses in prior. Smirking, she pulled a small device out of her pocket and checking that no guards were around, planted it on one of the fence's poles. She slowly proceeded towards the back, flattening herself into the shadows whenever she glimpsed a flicker of movement. Her aim was to keep everyone ignorant, so she avoided tranquilizing any guards. Every few minutes, the guards would change positions, moving in a kind of circle around the condo. 

Taking the opportunity of the biggest gap between, Dai Lu pressed a button and climbed nimbly over the fence, instantly dropping to the plants below. Not even looking at the chrysanthemums she'd crushed, she glanced around at her surroundings. The house was two floors tall, with a balcony looking out onto the backyard. Tao's bedroom, of course.

Dai Lu crept into the house, slicing open the back window. At this time of the day, no one was supposed to be in except for the Tao. She was about to turn past a huge vase when she heard a cough. Quite gentle. Not Tao. She was not alone.

She slowly peered past the flowers. A woman was standing at the bottom of the staircase

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, carrying a gun. She was wearing a pantsuit and looked all businessy, but Dai Lu laughed inside her head. Women wore pantsuits to look like they were doing work, but it was one of the most impractica outfits to ever exist. 

Dai Lu took her seriously, though. If she was right and she was Tao's personal bodyguard, she had to have some skills.

But Dai Lu herself was a force to be reckoned with. She wasn't some guard. She was an assassin of the highest level.

Dai Lu leaped soundlessly at the woman. She whirled around and grabbed Dai Lu's hand that was reaching for her throat. 

She regretted it a minute later. Dai Lu, wanting exactly that, used the combined momentum to swing both her legs into the woman's thighs, toppling her onto the couch. The woman retaliated with the same level of silence, pushing Dai Lu onto the floor and pressing her gun to her forehead. Dai Lu smiled.

The woman froze. Dai Lu jerked her head at her own metal-tipped combat boots, slowly removing the gun from the woman's hand and holding it aside. The woman used the last of her energy to turn around and stare at the pointy metal tips. Dai Lu's right shoe tip.

The woman collapsed, and Dai Lu managed to catch her before she made a noise. She rested her on the couch, the serum in her shoe tip having done its work. The fellow guard would not be remembering anything.

Dai Lu crept up the stairs, careful not to make a sound. She quickly crossed the landing and peered through the door crack to see the man in the room sitting on his cushioned armchair facing the door.

Dai Lu casually opened the door, walked into the room and wrapped her able hands around the man's neck before he could produce a cry. She pressed a invisible skin-like sticker onto his neck, which had tiny needles that slightly punctured his skin. She pushed him onto the floor near the bathroom door.

But her work was still incomplete. She closed the balcony, and let the shower open. She threw a bathrobe onto the hooks on the wall, and spilled  some water around. She pressed his hand to his chest. She left a bottle of medicine near the corner of his desk.

Her jammer having replaced the CCTV footage with fake clips, she took the gun with her.

Dai Lu dropped the gun into the house of a local illegal arms dealer and called her boss.