Two and Three
I might've overslept. The red digits of the alarm clock read "11:20" when I woke up and bright light was peering through gaps in the curtains. I rolled over laying on my back and my eyes blinked as they adjusted to it.
I was still in the shitty single bed room at the shitty motel on the edge of the city. I had wanted to continue working last night, but David had already given me everything I need to find the rest of my targets before I'd killed him, so I felt I deserved a little rest.
Things were actually going much better than I thought. I only had four targets left and had names and descriptions for each of them. If things continued at this pace, I could probably finish my task and have nearly one third million dollars in my metaphorical pocket. I figured I should call Mr. Stevens and let him know of my quick start on exacting his revenge.
I turned over to the night stand beside my bed and dialed the number. As it rang I noticed the two keycards on the stand. One was mine to the motel room. The other belonged to David and looking at it reminded me of where I had to go next.
"Hello?" A voice on the phone asked. I had Mr. Stevens personal number, but it wasn't him who answered. It was one of him associates, the one who had originally contacted me about his boss needing my assistance. I knew I could trust him to relay my simple message.
"One down, four to go." I said before hanging up.
I slid out of bed after the call, took a shower and got dressed. It was time to get back to things. I placed the correct card on the front desk as I checked out. Once I was in my car, I sat for a moment in the parking lot as I typed the address on David's key card into my GPS.
Half an hour later I was standing in front of the entrance to Fisher Tower, a decent sized apartment building. The black trunk containing my rifle and wheels and a handle and I was pulling it behind me like a suitcase.
I decided to bring it because my car wasn't close. I had the option of valet parking from the tower on mere presentation of the card. However I thought it best if I left it in a parking garage a few blocks away.
Now I only had my rifle, C4 and its needed triggering components in my backpack and a knife, just in case. When I showed my card to the pony at the front desk, he simply nodded and waved uninterested at me before he turned back to I walked to the rear of the building where the elevators were and pushed the up button.
****************************
"Alright the owner said he never saw David up here last night." I said to Carly as I walked back to her in the elevator. We were on the 44th floor of our apartment building. On this floor was a bar that we all knew David visited frequently when it was very late since he didn't have to leave the building. We I reached her, she tapped the 23 floor button.
"I know. Nick just called me and said they didn't come up here. He said they went to The Froggy Bottom." Carly said as he she hit the down button "We're going to meet Nick and Alisa in the lobby and spread out in tha area. "
"Why're we going back to the room?" I asked.
"I don't think its smart to jump to any conclusions, but I think we should have some protection while we're out there. "She said as the elevator came to a stop on our floor. We walked down the hallway to our room and collected four of our PER weapons from the countertop and placed them in saddle bags. Once we had filled up with enough darts, we left and headed back out.
However as we neared the elevator a carriage opened, revealing a lone human inside. I'd never seen him in the building before,and he was carrying a large black trunk behind him. He was probably new to the building and was one of the humans trying to take advantage of the drastically lowered rent. If one of my friends hadn't been missing, I might have thought about opportunities where we could welcome him to the wonderful pony world.
As we entered the carriage, he patted himself down and cursed and asked us, "Going down?" We both nodded and he shuffled his bulky trunk back into elevator with us.
We rode mostly in silence until we neared the bottom.
"So I think we should split up when we get there" Carly said. "You go with Nick and I'll search with Alisa."
I nodded. "Sounds good." I said as the door opened up to the lobby where they were waiting for us.
"I just.... I should've been with him." Nick said to me about 20 minutes later. We'd just left the Froggy Bottom with no more information on David's whereabouts than we came in. We'd asked around the street, knocked on doors and still nothing.
"It's alright, Nick. It's not your fault."
"I was with him, Jordan." He said, tearing up. "I should have kept an eye out for him." I didn't he know what else to say to him, so I remained quiet as we continued down on the sidewalk.
"I'm never drinking again." He groaned to himself.
Good idea, I thought. "You want to check down here?" I asked pointing to a dark alley. "Maybe he needed a place to pass out?" Nick nodded and we both to a left into the alley. We didn't make it far before we both froze in our tracks at what was sticking out from under a cardboard box and some old newspapers.
**************************
I hit the up button on the elevator again. I had already gone to the floor that was printed on the back of the card, but just as I was about to get out of the elevator, two ponies were coming towards me. Both of them fit my descriptions and I identified them as Carly and Jordan.
I decided to take the elevator back down with them, so I put on a show and acted like I needed to go back down. I could have killed both of them easily well before we reached the lobby, but I wasn't completely sure it could have been a clean get away. During the ride they were very clearly distressed about something. My guess was that they were nervous that David hadn't returned last night. They mentioned that they were all going to go look for him which gave me a golden opportunity to examine their room.
I walked through the hallway of the 23rd floor, nodding politely to a few ponies I passed. I examined the ceiling and found that were only cameras watching the elevator and fire escape. When I reached their room, I took a pair of gloves from my pocket and slipped them on. I took the key out, dropped into the slot and the door opened with no problem. I pulled in my gun case and rested it by the door as I stepped inside what the police call a PER den.
I'd been inside other ponies rooms and houses before, but this place was felt different to me. Most of it looked like it could belong to any other typical pony. Equestrian cuisine books were on their kitchen island. There was hay and other pieces of salad on the floor around the table, no chairs anywhere and different pony formal attire in the closets. However, there was no mistaking the things that the PER owned.
Cans of red spray paint they used to deface buildings with their message were under the kitchen sink. Equestrian magic books on different kinds of trap and combat spells lined a book shelf. A few of the higher level ones had "Property of Alisa Brooks" written on them. Conversion darts littered the top of one counter along with one of their weapons. For a brief moment I thought about taking it, but I didn't want that stuff leaking in my bag. However, something that actually shocked me was on the desk in one of the bedrooms.
There were pages and pages of full names. As I flipped through the sheets, one page had a small section that was circled in red. There was an arrow coming from the bubble and pointing to the words, "30 mile radius." There were a few of these names that had been gone over with a highlighter, but only one that had an 'X' next to it.
"Jeffrey Stevens." I read outloud. All of pages were a list of PER targets. Under the list were more pages except these had pictures on them. Most were stolen from class pictures or cut or circled from copies of family photos. All were of kids, the very oldest looking of them barely looking 14. "Jesus christ." I sighed, shaking my head.. At that moment I realized that when I killed these ponies, I would be helping out way more people than just Mr. Stevens. The PER couldn't be allowed to do this.
I tore myself away from the desk and got back to work. I searched looked around for something that I could use that matches the mental image of the plan I had. I found what I needed in the bathroom. A small brown wooden box was above the toilet's tank. I dumped out the tissue and soap that was inside and brought it into the living room. I placed it on the kitchen table and dragged both into the center of the floor living room floor. I stuck the remote detonator in the small block of C-4, activated it and placed it in the box. The prepaid cell phone went in as well. The finishing touch was their circled picture of Jeffrey that I placed on top.
With that done, I walked over the window and pulled open the curtains. I smiled at what was in front of me. Two streets down was a building whose roof rose almost exactly to the floor I was on. I could see a structure on top with a door. If I could get to the roof of that building, I'd have a direct line of sight over the smaller in building in between and into the room. It would be especially useful if my C-4 didn’t work as intended.
I realized that today my goal was the pegasi. If I triggered the C-4, they would undoubtedly know that someone was after them. If the pegasi managed to flee, there would be very little chance of picking up their tracks along with killing the unicorns. By the time I'd caught up to either race, the other would have ample to disappear.
With everything set up I got prepared to leave. I made a quick stop in the bedroom and stuffed the list and all of the maps and pictures on the desk into my bag. Someone needed to see these. The police proved ineffective at dealing with the PER problem time and again. On the other hand, the Human Liberation Front could be just as crazy as the PER, but I trusted them to actually act on the information I had over the rapidly dwindling police force.
When I had had everything I needed, I grabbed my weapon case and exited the PER den.
*************************
Carly unlocked the door and we all filed gloomily inside. We were stuck. We couldn't go to the police. Those human supremacist bastards would ask too many questions and if they found out we were PER, wed'd be screwed. However we knew couldn't move David's body without drawing attention and Non PER pony we brought in might start to wonder about the two bullet holes in his body. So for the time being, we left him there. It was so wrong, so disrespectful. Of course we were saddened and confused about our friend's death, but we were scared more than anything.
What really frightened us was the fact that we had absolutely no idea who had done it. Granted, it could have just been a case of a human exerting more senseless violence on another living creature. Celestia knows that happens far too often. But the fact that we had just done the first of many planned jobs had us feeling paranoid.
“I need some water.” Alisa said distraughtly as she headed for our kitchen.
"We have to contact the other PER groups." Nick said flatly turning to Carly. "Tell them we need assistance."
"We don't need to call anyone." She shook her head trying to ease us. "We have no idea what's going on right now and I don't think the first thing we should do is panic and make a mountain out of a molehill
"Carly, are you kidding me? David is dead!" Nick shouted. "He's still rotting in that alleyway where someone executed him! We need some help. I don't want to run to the other bigger PER groups, but this is beyond us.”
"Calm down Nick!" She said firmly. "We're not dealing with some contract killer or hitman or whatever. We all know humans are becoming more desperate and violent, but an excecution is not what's happening here. Most likely a someone was waiting for an easy target to victimize. Along comes David and they try to mug him. Maybe something went wrong and they ended up killing him. Thats the most plausible scenario."
"But Carly I-"
"Umm excuse me guys, but...where's the table?" Alisa interrupted. We all turned around. She was levitating her glass in her hand, standing in front of where our table used to be. Nothing but a few pieces of salad lined the ground where it once was. I took a quick look around and found it.
“There." I pointed with a hoof to the center of our living room area. I frowned. "I didn't move it, did any of you?" Everyone shook their heads slowly in response.
It seemed as if the moment we noticed the tables change in position, a wooden box on the top began vibrating.
*Hrmmmm Hrmmmm*
"What the?" Alisa said. She started to move forward but Nick stopped her.
"It's sounds like a cellphone." He said and looked to each of us with a worried expression. "None of us own a cellphone, so If one of you has been keeping a vibrator, just admit it now.”
*Hrmmmm Hrmmmmm*
He started moving slowly closer to it, stepping very lightly and watching his path.
"Nick, what are you doing!?" Carly asked and tried to move up with him.
"No!" Nick warned and waved a hoof motioning for her to stop. "You guys get back, I’ll check this out."
The three of us retreated back to the door as Nick reached the table. He stood on his hindlegs and rose up to the box.
*Hrmmmm Hrmmmm*
He stared at something on the top for minute before sliding a piece of paper off and holding it up to us. I swallowed down fear when I saw the photo of Jeffrey Stevens. He placed the picture on the table then lifted the top to the box.
I heard two things before the explosion: Nick gasping and three loud rapid beeps.
It happened very fast. There was Nick, the table and the box in front of him one second and a bright flash of light the next. There was a deafening 'BANG' as a bright light seemed to engulf Nick until he disappeared. I felt a strong pressure that caused me to fall over and a great heat on my body for a split second. A few moments after it happened Carly grabbed me and dragged me behind our kitchen island.
I wasn't moving and she shook me to get me to respond. Her hair was covered in splinters and blood dripped down her face. It couldn't tell if it was hers or Nick's.
"...............Jordan! JORDAN!" She said shaking me as the ringing in my ears faded. She was crying.
"I'm alright, I'm okay." I said. "Wheres Alisa?"
"She teleported!” Carly said tears in her eyes and panicking. "We got to go too!"
"Alright just- just give me a second." I breathed heavily. She stood me up onto the counter and I leaned on it to catch my breath. Carly looked around at the destroyed room in front of her. I was recovering from the shock when I noticed something next to me. A green dot snaked across the marble and crawled up Carly's body, stopping once it reached her neck. I took a peek out of the window to see a black figure on a roof top about two buildings away.
I saw a small flash of light that was followed immediately by the glass in our window shattering. I ducked down quickly, realizing it was a gunshot, when I felt something wet and heard a thump.
I opened my eyes and screamed in horror at the sight of Carly’s body next to me.
“Carly?” I shook her shoulders in an attempt to wake her up. I knew it was futile as there was a large area of her neck that had been blown open and looked like a blood soaked washcloth. “Carly! Oh God!” I screamed as scrambled over to the exit. She was dead!, I cried as I ran out of the door.