The Zodiac Assassins

Chapter 7

We stare on in what can probably be described as a look of horror as Aries hits the floor of the office, slamming the knife into the glossy oak of the table. She waits for her hair to settle on her back again and takes in the looks of shock around her.

"Hey. You must be this Gordon Ellis person I keep on hearing about."

Gordon flicks his gaze between her and the ashes of the soldier and back again.

Aries glances down at them. "Oh dear, poor guy must be having a hard day, being killed by a wire. Must be tough on him especially seeing as the wire isn't..." she treds on the wire and stands there for a while whilst nothing happens. "Electronic." She kicks the ashes and seats herself in the big chair, picking at the carefully placed wire and crosses her legs, propping one foot up against the black leather and resting one fishnet gloved hand on her black jeaned knee.

"I don't know who you are, or who you came from but I want you to get out of her right this minute" Gordon stutters, waving his hands in front of him for effect.

Aries shrugs and leans forwards a little. "Now, I heard that you had some big secret that you weren't going to share with the world. I was listening to it from the vent up there. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to know more about it." She bats her eyelashes innocently. "Pretty please."

Still gaping, Gordon motions with one hand to a guard who charges forwards, training his gun on Aries' forehead and resting it there. Aries leans back, yanks the knife out of the table and places it to the guards throat. His eyes widen and his gun slips from his hands.

"Pretty please Mr Ellis" Aries smiles. "I just want to know about this little project of yours."

Gordon doesn't do anything so Aries jams the knife through the throat of the guard. He chokes, spraying blood all over her face and crumples off the end of the knife, leaving half of his blood there too. The other one moves forwards, this time and few steps back. Aries laughs like a maniac, licking the blood off the knife and stands up. She sways a little and then launches herself forwards, kicking the gun out of the hand of the other guard and twisting his arms behind his back in a single move. The knife comes to rest above one of his shirt buttons where a small puddle of red appears.

"Come on now, you don't need to let this one die too do you?" Aries removes the knife a little and moves it up a bit. Then, she brings it down hard, severing the guard's arm off, revealing pearly white bone and pink meat. His eyes widen and he looks like he's about to scream but she shoves one of the tissues from the desk in his mouth and the still-born scream turns into a choke. "Please. He might die soon. The other one got it easy, a swift, nice death where as this one... he'll die slowly and it'll all be your fault. Do you really want that written on your grave?"

Gordon stutters something, staring at the blood, the guard, the ashes, the slit throat. "This is... this is..."

"Murder?" Aries nods, eyes wide with excitement. "Oh yes, there's nothing better than a little murder is there? I've been told what I am a number of times. There's nothing that you won't say that I've not heard before." She moves round the guard who is now scarily pale and places the knife against his other arm. "Now come on, you know you want to tell me just a little bit about this secret-global warming shit I've heard about. Although, we both know it has nothing to do with global warming don't we?" She brings the knife down hard again, removing the other arm. The guard chokes and faints backwards into her waiting arm. "Aww. Going so soon? You've missed out on the best bit."

Grinning wildly, she places the knife back to the spot of red on his torso, presses it in and scrapes down wards. "Ever wanted to see what the insides of a human look like Mr Ellis?" Torn edges of skin shrivel up, disintegrating in the tsunami of blood that spills out. Aries puts her hand inside the mess of flesh and pulls out a lump of something. She stands up, wiping her blood covered face with the back of her hand and surges forwards, pressing the tip of the knife against Gordon's chest. The spot appears again. "So. Are you going to tell me what I want or just some lie?" She shoves the guard's heart in his face. "You don't want to end up like poor Michael do you? Yes, I read his name tag."

"Okay, okay, okay" Gordon mutters. "You know that humans are about to be thrown into another war. You should do, tension is rising and some countries are preparing nuclear attacks to destroy the British Isles once and for all. The Hygea is a weapon that will prevent any nuclear attacks but destroy the rivalling country. If it isn't set off, then it'll be us, a bigger island, who will die."

Aries doesn't flinch, just forces the knife in deeper and the heart closer, almost brushing his cheek. "Yeah? And you have permission to just go and destroy some other, poor country do you?"

"No but people will see reason and fight with us to set it off when they find out what they're going to do to us" he stammers then turns his face to the side. "Guards."

The door bursts open and at least ten more guards dressed in black shirts and trousers and armed with guns arrive, staring at the mess, at the dead.

Aries steps away, removing the knife, leaving behind a huge spot of steadily growing crimson. "Thanks for that. Info really appreciated." She walks towards the door, past the number of guards who gawp and make way for her. At the last one she stops, takes his hand and places the heart into it. "This is your friends over there. Keep it safe for me okay?" she leaves him, retching and still gripping the heart, dripping blood, and leaves, closing the door behind her without a sound.