Chapter 4: Mister Smiley

Be very wary of a man who never stops smiling

The man with the smiling masked travelled across the rooftops. His thin body bouncing from roof, to wall, to blimp, to sign. He landed on the side of what was once the Gherkin and opened a window revealing the black room within. He swung his body inside in front of the city’s most influential and powerful database. He grabbed an old iron key from his pocket and placed it into the lock on the keyboard and turned.

The machine lit up and steam spewed from the sides, a great concoction of noise erupted forth as the database activated. SMILEY then looked for his target. The cowboy, he didn’t know his name, all he did know was that the last assassin got caught up in his music. He had to do this job himself. He scanned cameras and pictures and receipts, he looked through plane records and shipyard records, he looked for anomalies people coming for reasons which stood out.

He found nearly 100 people who stood out and 12 people with almost no data at all, complete anomalies apart from their description “We’re here to do a job” and pictures of people in completely black clothing. He focused on the 100 and their anomalies, looking for what made them stand out. Most of them frequented the same bar he was just at, after removing these targets he had his final hit.

Annabelle Brook

Karra Fraser

Kusti Elliot

Leigen

Monosperanza Varillas

Ruthanne Doncaster

 

These were his targets, they were all recorded leaving Pennsylvania, America after being gathered from all over the country. He recognised Kusti as his current target, he also recognised however that these people were all very dangerous. They threatened the new way things were and that was unacceptable. He gathered all the data related to Kusti and found his ship, “The Jubilee” it was logged as a Man-O-War ship.

 

Smiley removed the key and placed it back in his pocket as he printed the reports on his targets, if they were friends of Kusti then they had to be eliminated as well. The way Kusti touched people was deadly. His music made everyone open their hearts, long exposure meant that eventually that heart would stay open. The world around them was as delicate as the intricate machinery that ran every air-ship, he had to make sure that Kusti never got to his show.

 

SMILEY collected the reports glancing over everyone and then headed to the window, that’s when he felt it. The reverberations in the ground, the sensation of amplified guitar. He climbed onto the side of the building and using his clutching leg braces hung there while he closed the window. He then bounced from window to rooftop, using his hands to feel the reverberations and then cartwheeled forward, he needed to zone in on his target and if the report wasn’t enough the noise gave him a straight path.

He hopped and skipped from rooftop to blimp, eventually he came to the dock and looked around, he didn’t know the exact bay and by now the music had stopped, he looked for the Jubilee and saw it mighty and proud, standing out from the freighters and smaller more dull cargo ships which littered the port.

SMILEY clambered his thin frame over to the nearest decent point and jumped, allowing his body to flip from the dive and his leg braces absorb the impact. He moved from the alley to the crowds making his way towards the Jubilee. He reached the ship easily and began climbing the staircase, which was when he saw a shining bald head with a black spider web over the majority of it.

“You’re not welcome here, a*****e”

“Take your sorry a*s back down that staircase, one more step and you’ll have 11 knives in all the places you don’t want knives”

SMILEY took note of the man he was one of the twelve blanks, he assumed the other 11 knives he was on about where the other people here to “Just do a job” He realised that these people were anomalies, he didn’t know their skills and if no information can be found on them whatsoever then he better avoid them at all costs he turned around and headed down the ramp, he would not be able to get any information from the boat, he did know however that all he had to do to find them, was listen.

SMILEY bounded forward, leaping just before the crowds and barrelled from ship to wall till he had vanished into the great skyscrapers.

Reviews

[Karen Redburn]

Oh and here is our nemesis? Or is Smiley the good guy? I don't know, but this is very well written and it was easy for me to picture this guy bouncing along walls and up to rooftops. Now the guy who just wants to play music and heal the world has his antagonist? Nice job, will get to the next two chapters soon!