Vale

Chapter 5

            Run? Give up the job?

            Give back the money?

            I peek over the wall to see six guards patrolling the block roof, three the buttress, and another sniper looking over to this side of the estate while the one I saw some hours ago is overlooking the entrance area.

            Well, motherfuckers gonna have to drop.

            I estimate eight yards between the bell tower and myself so I gently slam my arm over the edge of the roof and plant it with my elbow, aiming to the best of my knowledge and firing at a fifty-two degree angle at the bell tower. My elbow and feet slip as the gears of my gauntlet propel the arrow forward but I catch myself and move my aim to the left by half an inch to fire again.

            It's only the snipers' outlines that I can see from here but I can make out one head bopping to the side and the other slip all the way down below the window frame so unless the two of them got busy in there it means they're fast asleep. Now for the nine guards on the roof...

            In my line of work there are refined jobs. Ones you plan for weeks and execute flawlessly within minutes without being detected or even suspected once. All the disguises are spot on, the guards patrol on a schedule and in a predictable patent, there are conveniently placed chest high walls everywhere, and even if your gauntlet jams or you forgot your ammo bag at home the infiltration goes on without a hitch and you're out before anyone notices your target's been in the bathroom for way too long.

            Some jobs, however, you end up jumping on the edge of the roof, grappling the two guards closes to you to each other and elbow them in the face, throw a discombobulator at the next two, sleep dart the fifth and the sixth, and by the time the other three standing on the buttress could do anything about it you body slam one, overdose another with sugar tulip powder, and choke out the third.

            Trying my damnedest to see out of my eyes when the sugar tulip dissolves further in the air I decide I can shame myself for how clunky this infiltration is going once I'm done with it, and keep going for now. It won't be long before someone looks up and sees the missing snipers in the tower.

            After sawing the roof open with nothing more than a wire and a blade I throw another discombobulator into the main body of the church and wait before descending with my handy grapple in hand. I'm down in time to hear the last of the bodies thud on the ground around em, and with a glance I make sure no sparkle set anything on fire, and that everyone's out cold.

            Good, those things cost three fortunes.

            The inmates in the cells are all fast out, the guards alone the walls slid down, and the five by the reception desk are flat on their backs.

            I leave my Rope of Descent behind.

            This time I take the stairs going down to what is the most claustrophobic cell block ever. Once I'm down, a hallway barely broader than their biggest guard's shoulder span opens in front of me with cells embedded into the walls, the bars sloppily stuck between the ground and the ceiling. More narrow hallways like this open after every five or six cells to both directions, every one of them lit worse than the previous.

            The ceiling goes only as high as the cells so you'd think this is a pretty straightforward setting but in its deign this place is a maze. The hallways go far into the darkness, I see lone guards walk down and turn at random corners, and of course it's not like the names of the inmates are written by the cell gates. If I only so much as miscalculate the turns I take I'll never find my way out of here without having to murder than what I was paid for.