Her ruined uniform had been dispensed with. Passing as a student here was simply not going to work when her face was plastered over the info-net. They would get nowhere with fingerprints, but if someone saw her now, she would be forced to make a run for it. Disguise was no longer useful, so she was in combat gear. Dressed in a tight-fitting bodysuit of composite armour, she walked nonchalantly down the corridors of the apartment block, looking for the right door. The lights had been off for over thirty minutes, so her targets would be asleep.
Finding the door of Mitsuko’s apartment, the assassin focused and teleported inside.
~~~
The bedroom door was not silent when it moved. The hinges were good, but not perfect. The mechanism which pulled the latch back made little creaks and groans when you turned the handle. And Nava was not asleep yet.
Mitsuko let out a little grumble, a tiny whimper, as Nava slipped out from under the sheets. The door stopped moving and Nava held her position, crouched beside the bed and ready to spring. She had excellent night vision, but the room was in pitch blackness. Almost. There was a little light coming around the cracked door from the lounge. Not much. Barely enough to notice, in fact, but it was there.
The door resumed its movement and, a second later, a shape became visible in the dim light. A humanoid shape. Nava was fairly sure what the shape looked like in full light, but right now it was a shadow against the night. Nava went for it anyway, bolting up and across the room to slam into the assassin. A shock of pain ran through Nava’s shoulder as she impacted the other girl. Armour. Nava was naked and the assassin was wearing body armour. Great. Nava locked her arms around her opponent’s torso and prepared to take the fight outside.
The assassin’s immediate response was to try to break the hold. It was a mistake. They were roughly evenly matched in strength and Nava had the advantage thanks to her hold. Nava twisted into the assassin’s body, used her hips as a lever, and tossed her opponent out through the doorway and into the lounge. She was aiming to do some damage with the throw, but the assassin managed to break the fall properly. Nava could see the girl move and it was clear that she was trained. Also, now that there was a little more light, it was clear that she was not wearing a helmet. Stepping forward, Nava stamped her foot down, her heel smashing into the girl’s face. And the assassin rolled away and into a standing position in one athletic move, putting a metre or so of distance between them. It was not unexpected, but this girl was tough.
‘You’re not getting to her,’ Nava said.
‘I could make do with you, traitorous bitch,’ the assassin replied.
Nava frowned, really frowned; that voice… Her eyes widened. ‘Maya?’ It was more of a whisper than anything, but the girl, Maya, seemed to hear it.
White teeth flashed in a vicious smile. ‘Goodbye, Nava.’ Maya slashed a hand out toward Nava in a chopping motion though she was too far away to hit anything. A small circle of white light left her hand and shot toward Nava. Nava fell backward, away from the Slice spell, the incandescent, magical blade sliding past her stomach with a few centimetres to spare. Nava’s left hand hit the carpet and pushed, and she was upright again, but Maya had taken the opportunity to dash toward the open bedroom door again. Then she let out a shriek as a disc just like the one she had thrown slashed through the left side of her neck above her armoured suit. Blood sprayed from the wound before she clamped a hand over it. She turned, blinking, and saw Nava coming at her with a cocked fist…
Nava’s fist passed through empty air and she had to catch her balance before turning to look at the bedroom door. ‘She’s gone,’ Nava said. ‘I’m going to come in there and turn the light on, okay? I’d like to avoid getting cut open when I do.’
‘Did I hit her?’ Mitsuko called back. ‘Lights. Full.’ Light filled the bedroom and Nava stepped into the doorway to see Mitsuko crouched at the foot of the bed.
‘You got her. Sliced her neck open. Probably hit at least a vein. She was bleeding badly.’
‘I can see that.’ Mitsuko waved a finger vaguely at Nava and Nava looked down to see the splashes of blood forming arcs across her chest. ‘Do you think she’s dead?’
Nava paused briefly, considering. She had an immediate answer to the question, but she was wondering whether lying might be a better option. Still, she was not the kind to gloss over unpleasant truths. ‘I doubt it. She had two hands, so she can probably work Active Recovery. She was able to teleport with a smashed nose and a major wound in her neck, so she’ll probably manage to cast the healing spell before she passes out from blood loss. The only way we’re going to kill her is if she dies in one hit.’
‘Oh.’
Nava turned and examined the blood dripping down the doorframe. ‘On the other hand, we’ve got some excellent genetic samples here which might be very useful in tracing her location. Call Courtney. Maybe we can track M– the assassin down tonight and end this.’
~~~
No such luck.
It turned out that Locate was a cantrip which Courtney knew and was,
