The Zodiac Assassins

Chapter 6

11 days until DdM

I growl, slamming the pillow against my ears and get up, thinking deeply about lobbing the phone across the room to see if it's anywhere near as flexible and immortal as it thinks it is. Yesterday, Pisces burst through the door, bellowing that we were going in today. So apparently, we're going into the field. Today.  I pull on some clothes and pad into the bathroom to switch my glasses for contact lenses. It helps when you don't have to worry about your glasses being smashed.

"Hi"

I shout and drop the bottle of solution, it spilling all over the floor.

"Oops" Aquarius grins and hands me the bottle. "Sorry about that."

"What are you doing here and how the heck did you get in?" I hiss, tapping my eyeball to adjust the contact.

"How can you do that?" Aquarius asks, coming to stand next to me. "I'd be terrified about blinding myself. Anyway, you asked why I was here. I've been told to come and collect you to take you down stairs for a fifteen minute breakfast before we are going to get in the van and leave for... where ever this guy is right now."

"Is that so" I say, blinking rapidly and screwing the cap back on the practically empty solution bottle. "I'll come down at my own leisure."

Aquarius laughs. "You say leisure weird. You say it like: 'lee-iss-ure'. It's really funny."

I sigh, putting away my stuff and jamming my feet into my boots, before sliding past her to get out of the room. She follows me down the corridor like a dog, only, a talking dog who won't shut up and by the time I've got to the dining room, I'm ready to throw myself into the wall like I nearly did with my phone. There isn't anyone here today.

"They're not up yet. You're the earliest probably" Aquarius sits down, taking out a banana from some random pocket I didn't know existed.

"So why'd you come to get me when you did?"

She shrugs. "I didn't think you'd be up already and that you'd take a bit of persuading to get up."

I sigh and grab a bowl of fruit.

"Italy is armed... with a pineapple." Aries comes up behind me, smirking, looking like a psychopath, all in black with slightly back-combed hair. I glare at her as she strides up to the counter, receives a bowl of porridge and sits down, drizzling so little syrup on it that it's not visible to the naked eye.

"Shut up" I mutter.

"Hey, we're killing someone today" she punches the air ecstatically, grinning like a creepypasta character. "Who's excited?"

I glance over at Aquarius who is hunched over her banana, eating it slowly and not making a sound. Is she afraid of Aries or something.

"I mean, personally, I'd totally prefer to rip out his stomach whilst he's awake, then chop of a number of body parts before removing his lungs, heart and brain, but electrocuting is okay I guess, it's just so un-imaginative really."

I don't spend long downstairs eating, but when I'm done, almost everyone is standing out in the lobby. Libra isn't there but someone comment that she's always late and she arrives as we're in the van. It takes half an hour to get to the Ellico main building and by then, we've formed a plan. We park just outside the back where there are no guards and we split up into three groups, two for distractions and as 'in-case-it-fails' and the other to kill, obviously lead by Pisces.

Cancer hooks one of her nails into the gap between the wall and an air vent whilst Pisces gathers together her equipment. By the time the other groups have moved round to the front, we're in the vent, Aries grumbling to herself about something or other and Cancer whispering things along.

"We need to get into his office okay?" she says without expecting an answer. "Once we get in their, we can rig up his chair with the electronics and..."

"And then he's dead" Pisces chuckles to herself which, in the echoing vent, sounds really sinister. "That's the best bit no."

"Queste persone sono pazzi" I mutter, 'these people are lunatics', turning to the side to avoid Aries' look of what has to be a cross between disgust and confusement.

"Italy, I'd prefer it if you could actually speak English for once" she says, turning back to the front. "None of us can understand what the fuck you're saying."

"That's the whole point."

"Seriously, ast, shut up."

I don't know what 'ast' means but on a single guess, I'd say it's some kind of offense in Welsh.

"Both of you shut it" Cancer says as politely as anyone can say 'shut up'. "I think we're getting close."

"How can we be getting close?" Aries demands. "We've been in here for like... two minutes. You don't get far into a two story building in two minutes."

"The office is on the ground floor for starters, and it's at the back so it should be somewhere around here" Pisces hisses from the front. "Anytime now so shut up."

"Oo, sorry" Aries raises one hand in a mock surrender and carries on moving. The vent opens up into something that can only be air conditioning and a hole opens in the floor, covered in a fine metal grid. And beneath it, a study.

"Okay" Pisces says, pulling off the grid cover and gently putting it to one side. "Lower me down."

Aries sighs and moves out into the wider space so she can tie a loop of rope we have around Pisces waist. When her feet brush the floor, we loosen the rope so she can walk around. There is a noise outside and Pisces freezes but it passes and she moved towards the chair behind the grand, oak desk. She threads the wire in her pocket around the edges and under the arms before carrying it across the floor to the wall and taping it in place. The walls are a light colour so she uses white tape and when she's finished, it's almost unseeable. She looks up and nods. Cancer grabs the rope and yanks, pulling her half way up the height of the room. Pisces is pulled up a bit more and as she starts to drag herself back through the grid, the door opens. I silently slide the grid back in place, hoping that it isn't heard. It isn't. Breathing heavily, Pisces starts to wire up her electronics set, puts on gloves and connects the wire. She manages to hold it together long enough for it to solder together before being pushed backwards into the metal wall. It makes a loud noise and the person in the room looks up.

Even if we hadn't been shown a picture of our target, Gordon Ellis, I would know that this was him. An air of importance and cockiness settles around him and his expensive suit. He narrows his eyes and then hollers to someone outside. The door opens again, this time it's someone who is clearly in the status of a guard. Ellis goes to stand by the window, hands folded behind his back as a couple more guards come in.

"I think there is an intruder" he says without turning. "There is definitely someone in this building, trying to steal my plans for Hygea."

"Um... sir" one of the guards says. "I've heard somewhere that it could destroy the world. That might be why they're here to steal the plans."

Gordon laughs, still refusing to turn. "No. It's going to reverse Global Warming, send us back to where we were before where there was snow every winter, boiling sun in the summer. It's going to take us back to a stable state. You've heard what scientists are saying haven't you? They're saying that if the world's temperature rises by another degree, we could be in danger of having droughts in places like Cardiff and Manchester. Cardiff and Manchester? I mean, come on. They have to be the wettest places in the northern hemisphere."

"What makes you think there are people here?"

"That" Gordon points and from where I'm sitting around the hole, I can tell that he can see the front of our van.

One of the guards moves forwards to get a better look and in doing so, he trips over the wire. There is a flash of yellow as he falls forwards and hits the chair. Gordon whips round, eyes wide, watching as he slowly disintegrates into ashes in front of the horrified other two guards.

"Fuck it" Aries hisses, unsheathing the knife in the belt. "Sorry Pisces." She cuts the wire, so quickly the electricity doesn't touch her, slides back the grid with a grinding noise and jumps down into the room below.