//------------------------------// // Revelation // Story: The Conversion Bureau: A Man's Revenge // by no sh*t sherlock //------------------------------// It was time to leave. I packed my rifle into its case and collected the ejected casings from the roof top. The last 24 hours had been amazingly successful and personal record for quickest kills. David, Carly and Nick had all been scratched off the list. Jordan and Alisa were the only two left. I had chosen to go with a very loud plan in the PER's hotel room. It was more dramatic and struck fear in the hearts of the ponies, but it also, without doubt, alerted them that someone was definitely after them. And that's where things got difficult. After my bomb went off, the pegasus Jordan, along with another, ducked behind something in the kitchen. I popped the female that was with him, but he managed to scramble out of the room. Even worse, a unicorn was with them who teleported the moment it exploded. That was wasn't good. If Jordan got flying, it'd be tough, but I could still track him. As long as she had energy, this unicorn could hop away any time she wanted. Also, unicorns that knew how to teleport most likely knew some pretty powerful self defense spells. I'd need another plan to get her. However right now I needed to flee the scene. I took the service stairs quickly to the ground floor and walked calmly through the lobby. Even after years of conversion bureaus' there was still a pretty good amount of humans on the street. The people and ponies were and if any of them actually glanced at my rifle case, all they'd see was an musical instrument case. They were all rushing to get a look of what had happened a few streets away. My car was stashed in the garage in the same direction they were going, which was a major plus. All I had to do now was move at the same speed they did. When I neared my street, I easily slipped away from the crowd and continued calmly to my car. ************* The hallway of our hotel room was a blur as I ran down it. It seemed as if I'd teleported to the elevator doors. I smashed the control panel at least a dozen times, hitting both the up and down buttons. It didn't matter to me, I just needed to go somewhere. It had only been about ten seconds, but I couldn't take just standing still. I kicked open the door to the fire escape stairs and used them instead. I grabbed the railing as I descended to swing quickly around the turns. During the twenty-three flights of stairs I tried to wrapped my head around what had just happened. Nick was just walking forward and then "BOOM", he was gone. Christ, Carly was gone too! My best friend had been standing right next to me and I had left her in that room. I wanted to go back, I knew I should, but my legs kept taking me down the stairs. Alarms and flashing white lights were going off in the lobby and a few people were still evacuating. I followed them out the front doors and into the forming crowd of humans and ponies outside. I was covered in splinters and other debris from the explosion as well as Carly's blood. The mass of onlookers gave me a wide berth as I moved past them. They covered their mouths in shock and gave me frightened looks, but no one stopped me. I heard sirens in the distance and they were getting closer. I quickened my pace and tried to get as far from our building as I could. I didn't want a bunch of human authorities prodding me for answers on what happened. It was no secret that the police weren't fond of ponies and if they searched our apartment and found out I was a member of the PER, things would get really bad. Once I was a few blocks away, I desperately wanted to rest against the side of a building. But I knew I couldn't. Someone was after us and I had to get somewhere safe. The different PER groups within the city operated mostly independent from each other, but members were always welcomed in any of the groups. The closest one I knew of was about a mile away. This group was comprised of older members, mid thirties to forties. They were some of the first to join the PER and I was hoping they'd have some idea of what was going on. Later... "And that's when Carly was shot?" "Yeah." I said dryly. I was wrapping up the events that took place that morning. "And you were already gone when this happened?" A brown unicorn, Ryan, the leader of this group, pointed to Alisa. We both had the same idea to come here and she arrived shortly after I did. They had taken us into room deep inside of their building that had bricked up walls and no windows. She nodded. "I panicked and teleported to the roof. After that I couldn't focus and I was jumping all over the place." "Did you manage to get any glimpse at all of who was shooting at you?" He spoke to me again. I shook my head. "I just know the shot came through the window a few seconds after the bomb went off." Ryan pulled back and shared a worried look with the pony that was next to him. "Okay the way I see it there's two possibilities. First one is that some gun crazy human is just taking his violence out on ponies and it is unrelated to your last assignment." The way he spoke, I could tell even he didn't believe it one bit. "And the other?" Alisa said worriedly. He sighed. "The other is that someone has hired a hitman to track you down and kill you." He said bluntly. My heart sank and I felt like I was going to pass out. I closed my eyes and my head hung low as I tried to process the news. I couldn't believe and yet, it made perfect sense. We save a rich guy's son and suddenly David doesn't make it back home. Then the next day Nick and Carly get killed. This couldn't be random. Ryan was right someone was trying to kill us. "What?!" Alisa cried. She was taking this news a bit different than I was. " That's not true. That can't be true! How would you even know that. How could you know?!" There were tears in her eyes and her horn was lighting up. "Alisa, I'm very sorry about the death of your friends. We know how this feels." He pointed to his buddy. "We speak from experience." Alisa's crying stopped for a moment and I sat my head up waiting for him to elaborate. "A few months ago, two friends of ours from another group said they had some acquired some very high value targets. They said that converting them would do wonders for our cause. I could tell they were both pretty excited. So we both asked them if they would need our assistance, but they declined. Two days later we found out that their mission was successful and after another two days one of them was found tied up around a fire hydrant with two gunshot wound to the chest. The next day our other friend runs in here saying that some human fired at him with silenced pistol. And as hes telling us his story a bullet comes through the window and catches him in the side of his head. That's why we're talking in here. If it is the same person, and this is a big if, but if so, he knows where this place is." "Oh my god..." Alisa held her head in her hooves. "To be on the safe side we’ll get you two out of the city. On Friday we’ll have a convoy take you the countryside. Our group is quite a bit larger than yours, so you should have good protection." I took a deep breath and thanked him. This had already been the worst day of my life with everything going to shit in such a short amount of time. Thank Celestia Ryan was going to help us. I hoped at least that Alisa and I would be safe.