The Zodiac Assassins

Chapter 1

My name is Gemini.

Okay, that's not my real name, but I can't tell anyone my real name. Gemini is just a code name I've adapted to as have the other eleven people in this room. We're all sitting on benches, staring at the front of the room where a simple wooden stage and podium are set up. We're all different really; all have no idea why we're here but if I can guess one thing, I'd guess that we're all assassins.

There's a girl sitting on the same bench as me dressed in a black t-shirt and two-toned leggings. One leg is red tartan, the other is black. Her dark brown hair is cropped to just below her shoulders and the ends flick out a little at the bottom. She looks bored, head resting on one hand, staring off into the distance with eyes that look like they're about to close. Slowly, she starts drumming her fingers on her chin and tapping one of her black booted feet. One of her fingers brushes the ring in her lip and she stops tapping and starts rotating it in an almost thoughtful way. She catches my eye and gives me a death stare before going back to tapping. If looks could kill as much as the knife in her belt looks like it can, I'd be dead.

On my other side is another girl holding a pink Samsung and tapping at it with long, pastel blue coloured nails, decorated with silver gemstones. She has bronde hair in a perfect side plait, adorned with three large flower clips in pink, purple and cream. Unlike the other girl, she looks happy, possibly reading on the phone, nodding every so often or exhaling air quickly. Her shirt is pink and with it, she's wearing a maroon skating skirt and black leggings with pumps. She's tall. I can tell that even when she's sitting down. A lot taller than me and the other girl. She bats long eyelashes over blue eyes, peers over the top of her phone and then goes back to reading.

A small man with circular spectacles, a shrunken head and the start of a long beard comes out from a curtain, onto the stage and stands behind the podium.

"Hello" he says in a tiny, wheezy, rasping English voice. "Thank you for all coming here today to discus the matters at hand."

A boy in the corner with short red and black hair stands up. "I think we all want to know why we're here" he says in a drowsy way. "We've all been called from god knows where on this planet, to come here today for a meeting we know nothing about."

"Yes, yes, yes" the man says. "Lets first address smaller matters. I'm Mr Mayhew, nothing to do with anything but getting information across to you all. I'm sorry, I have to do this, but I need to take a register so please can you stand up when I say your name?" No one says anything so he sighs, nods and looks down onto one of his sheets of paper. "Erm... Aries?"

The girl with the two-toned leggings stands up huffily, glaring around the room at everyone's faces. "Yup, here." She's got an obvious Welsh accent that almost sounds dainty coming out of her."

"Taurus?"

A boy right at the front stands up, chewing on something. He's dark with darker hair and an accent I can't quite place.

"Gemini"

I breath out fast and stand up, responding to my code name. "Si"

Aries snickers. "In this country we say 'yes' Italy."

I shrug and sit down again, resting my head in my hands on the back of one of the seats. Mayhew goes through the rest of the names, the girl with the phone being Cancer and with everyone being present. There wasn't any need to do the register in the first place. The man can obviously count to twelve. As I listen to the voices, I make out various accents. We're all from different places, not all of them I can name: Virgo is Chinese, Sagittarius from Scotland, Capricorn is from America, Aquarius sounds Mancunian, Pisces is definitely Irish and Scorpio, the boy with red and black hair, is probably from somewhere near Australia. The only two I can't pinpoint are Taurus, Cancer, Leo and Libra.

"Now to discuss main business" Mayhew says, shuffling some papers.

"About time" Aries mutters under her breath.

"This man" Mayhew points to the curtain behind him which lights up with an image of a fat and greedy looking man with no hair and a stubbly face. "Is Gordon Ellis. Manager of Ellico, a mass production industry for companies around the world. For the past few years, we've been keeping track of him, watching his every move..."

"What, even when he goes to the toilet?" Pisces cries, raising her hand and waving it frantically. Sagittarius slaps his forehead silently.

Mayhew sighs and shakes his head. "Anyway. Recently, he has started work on a bomb we are called the 'Distruttore di Mondi'."  I lean forwards, suddenly interested. It isn't ever day you find things called 'the Destroyer of Worlds.' "We think that if he finalises his plans for it and makes it, the energy and supplies used to make it would leave the world in famine with no energy so no running taps. Then, when he goes to test it, it will release an explosion so big it could wipe humanity off the face of the Earth in weeks." There is a shocked mutter that ripples round us.
"We need you to kill him. We're calling it the 'Zodiac Assassination' or just 'Zodiac', hence why you're all named after star signs. It'll be a hard job; he's always guarded, but we think that if you all work together, you could pull it off."

"So" Libra stands up, clasping her hands behind her back and pulling strands of jet black hair towards her back. "When is he going to set off this bomb thing, I'm presuming it's a bomb?"

Mayhew sighs. "That's the thing. You have a fortnight to kill him and save the Earth. Can you do it?"

Capricorn launches himself out of his seat. "We're all assassins. We probably won't work well together but I say, we can do it."

Mayhew nods, satisfied. "Great, now go. We have rooms for you in this building and a planning room. We need you to get started as soon as possible."

Was it okay? I'm still not sure if I'm going to continue writing so if you think I should then please comment.