The Ashen Horse

She had flown into Atlanta last week. The week had been full of continuous scouting and patrolling. It felt good to be working again after taking several weeks off after the events in Salt Lake City. She had accepted this contract eagerly. It was honestly a sad tale in a way, a religious leader that had been reported to fondle young children. She took her art seriously and never wanted to belittle it too greatly, but every now and then she really did take pride in her work. This job would be a masterpiece.

The contract had come in from a several of the victims who had pooled their money. A nice hundred thousand US dollars were sitting in an account she would be given access to as soon as the job was confirmed complete. The clients were skittish, which was common in this world. Of course, anyone who worked in the recesses of the dark web were remarkably skittish. The clients demanded proof though before the account would be turned over. That meant pictures. Not her style, but the client got what they wanted.

It was an unfortunate tale, still. It would be nice if it wasn’t the typical Catholic priest, but alas it was. He wasn’t a priest anymore; he had risen the prominent position of bishop. It was rumored the Church fully knew about or suspected he previous deeds and promotion was a way to move him out of direct services. She didn’t understand those politics. It seemed to her that if the Church suspected they should have been proactive the other way around. But, then, the world didn’t make sense most of the time. The fact the Church ignored the situation opened plenty of opportunity for her.

She was unusually excited about this project. The opportunity was just too much to hope for. Ridding the world of someone that was despicable was not always enjoyable work. But she was going to take great pleasure in this task. There was a moment in there where she thought that might not be right, perhaps she was unbalanced as well. But still, she couldn’t help but smile as she sat across the street in a coffee shop, watching the Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The small deli wasn’t anything special, but it did provide a rather sweeping view of the entrance of the cathedral.

When she first accepted the contract, she got the notion that it would be incredibly fitting to do the work inside one of the churches the bishop frequented. She would become a little obsessed on doing it one of the most impeccable Church locations, one of the premiere cathedrals in the area. The opportunity seemed too fitting to let it go.

Thus, she silently sipped her coffee, silently smiling wider than she had in quite some time. It wouldn’t have been proper to say she was giddy like a schoolgirl. Although, it might be accurate. She had spent two weeks carefully plotting out his movements and tonight was the night. He would be arriving in several hours. She just had enough time to fully soak in the pure aroma of the coffee and let it coat her soul to a state of complete bliss. She took her coffee seriously it rose to a mythical existential experience for her.

She was already fully equipped for the night’s events. Unfortunately, she couldn’t walk around Atlanta with a katana on her back. It was unfortunate, this job really did demand the sword. But she was always pragmatic about the task at hand. This slime wasn’t worth getting caught over, and he wasn’t worth taking unnecessary risks for either. She had been carefully aware of making many precautions. She probably had cameras recording her right now, so she was in complete disguise.

The disguise consisted of a long black wig with gorgeous flowing locks. A golden necklace set with a ruby in the center, just enough to distract the observer from taking a good look at the rest of her. She also drew attention away from her by exposing a fair amount of cleavage, prospered up by the world’s greatest sports bra. She had spent two hours on the makeup, it reconstructed her face so that it virtually didn’t look like her at all. She now had contoured cheekbones, vibrant eyes, a flawlessly bridged nose. She was naturally beautiful, but with the proper makeup she became a beautifully different person.

She had knives scattered about her person, a normal occurrence for this type of night. A long fur overcloak sheltered her armed attire nicely. The fur also acted as a minor distraction from people. It wasn’t the typical flamboyant fur coat, but it was just a tad over subtle. Enough to catch the eye and then cause the person to disregard whoever was wearing it. The perfect disguise. Just some elitist snob drinking her coffee, nothing more. Although, she was a coffee snob, so perhaps they were half right. She was carrying a large dagger; it was almost a sword breaker. As large of a weapon as she dared to hide beneath the overcloak.

She paid as she exited. She would have loved to leave an excessive tip as the service had been wonderful. But nothing to bring attention or remembrance, so it was the standard 20%. Forgettable was a goal tonight. She walked to the cathedral and wandered into one of the seats in the middle of the sanctuary. Not in the back, not in the front, slightly in the middle, off to the side. Completely inconspicuous. There were several people in the church waiting for confession. She sat enough behind them so that they didn’t see her.

As the sanctuary emptied, she slipped into one of the empty confessionals. Sticking a small hidden camera outside the confessional, with a wide angel lens, she flipped open her smart phone and watched the entire sanctuary. She considered this cheating, it made it almost too easy. But using some of the latest technology made the work that much more efficient and safer. She had one other little piece of gear she planned to use tonight.

She had attached a small explosive on the power box outside the cathedral where the main power feed came into the building. A cellphone attached to the explosive would set it off. She had attached it to the wall looking like another nondescript electrical box. It wouldn’t do serious damage, if someone was standing next to it, they might be in danger, but the electrical connections were tucked into the alley anyway. It was just enough bang to take out the entire power to the building. A simple phone call should pitch the cathedral into blackness, and equally hopefully take out any cameras and security footage.

Simple plans. She had learned that simple plans usually paid the biggest dividends in the long haul. Nothing fanciful, just predictable outcomes. This wasn’t the flashy Hollywood style scenarios. This was just simple, well-executed, detailed planning. With simple plans. Which resulted in her waiting for the next two hours for the bishop to arrive. She was still smiling when he walked in the front doors. It was all she could do to contain the chuckle that wanted to escape her lips. Yes, she was as giddy as a schoolgirl. This truly was going to be glorious.

She was surprised when two other priests entered right behind him. She let out a mental sigh, she was never one that enjoyed the collateral damage. But she also wasn’t going to miss this opportunity either. She had spent too much time carefully scouting his routes and patterns this last week. She was also running out of time; tonight, was the night. Besides, they probably knew the type of man he was, right? Maybe they were guilty as well. They probably were after all. The smile slowly crept back across her face. Perhaps this wasn’t an unfortunate event, but rather an opportunity.

Still, she would give it a minute to see if they were with him or just arrived at the same time. Maybe they would break off and go about their own thing. That might also be dangerous because that risked them coming back in or asking questions when the power went out. Even so, she still hated anyone she perceived as being potentially innocent. There was a reason she took the contracts she took; they were all guilty of significant crimes or causes that people were willing to pay extensive sums of money to rid the world of them. No one spent a hundred thousand dollars to get rid of someone that they didn’t really want to die.

All three stopped in the middle of the sanctuary and all took seats in different rows in a mini circle. They were quietly conversing. She waited. Perhaps the two priests would depart. She didn’t want to rush this, but she knew if all three of them got up together, her hand would be forced.

A grueling, slow, and tedious hour passed as they quietly talked. She had considered she probably should have put some listening devices in the sanctuary. Then again, she might just capture an hour-long conversation about weather and football. Perhaps it was better she couldn’t hear them.

It happened too quickly, as it always does. All three of them abruptly stood up and shook hands, and then as one they turned and started for the door. She was almost caught off guard, but five seconds in she had placed a call to her manufactured explosive. Wonder of wonder, it worked as planned, the entire church went dark. She had of course been sitting in darkness for the last four hours, even her camera watching on her smartphone had been dimmed to barely to impact her night vision.

She soared, flying, out of the confessional. Three blades left her fingers the minute she had cleared the cloth hanging over her hiding place. She sprung onto the pews in a dead run with three more throwing knives gliding away from her. She had time to launch one last knife as she approached them. The dagger was out of its sheaf as she jumped off the pew and crashed into the priest who was the unfortune one to be in the rear.

The other two had screamed as the throwing knives had taken them in the back and the side, the poor priest in the rear hadn’t been targeted. The filthy child molester, how she thought of him, was on his knees desperately trying to reach the knives stuck in his back. The more he twisted his arms around and tried to grasp at them, he just couldn’t reach. Perhaps with a little more exercise and a little less gut he might have made it there, but there was no amount of exercise in the next two minutes that was going to get him there.

The priest in the rear had just enough time to turn his head and look at her before the dagger went right through his left eye and into the back of his head. No scream would leave his mouth. Perhaps he was aware of what happened, or maybe his brain never did fully register what exactly had happened before everything went mercifully black. They crashed to the floor, as she pushed off his collapsing body, she landed on her in a crouched and rolled. She came up right next to the adjacent pews and pushed off them with one leg as she propelled herself at the other two.

The other priest had watched what she had done and was in a full sprint toward the entrance. Another throwing knife went right into the back of the knee as she charged. His leg unwillingly buckled when the blade hit, and he went sprawling across the stone floor. He made it to his knees still partially running when the blade went into the back of his neck. His spinal cord cut the paralysis dropped him onto the cold floor. He couldn’t even feel the three more quick stabs that went into both his lungs.

The bishop who had missed most of the early events because he was on his knees trying to get the blades out of his back, saw everything that just had transpired. He had gone a ghostly white, and although the throwing knives protruding from his back were quite a bit more than an annoyance. His thoughts were not on the pain. He looked ghastly, like he had already been dead for days.

“What are you? What are you doing here? Why?” He quivered the words out.

“It is your fault they had to die. I wasn’t here for them. Only for you. There are several children that you might know. They all wanted me to say hello. Hello Charley.” She did laugh now. It was just a quick chuckle. Perhaps it was because she really was enjoying herself too much. Perhaps it was she noticed the urine flowing down the front of his suit pants. It seemed fitting to her, that he should die the coward he was.

As she casually walked toward him, three more blades gracefully sailed into his chest. To his credit he didn’t try to run, he just stared at her. It was like he simply couldn’t accept the reality of the situation. Or perhaps he was totally immobilized with utter fear. The fear that completely exhausts a man. She didn’t know what he was experiencing. But she looked him right in the eye as she swung the long dagger with all her might.

She sighed with frustration. It didn’t do the kind of clean work the katana would have done. She had to hack a bit to get the head off. It wasn’t clean work, but it got the job done. With all three bodies laying on the cold stone floor she immediately went to work. She returned to the two peppered with throwing knives and recovered them all. Cleaning the blood carefully on the clothes of the fallen priest. She left the body of the priests alone, only taking care to make sure everything was recovered. The bishop, however, was not so fortunate as she carved a large X across his chest with the dagger. Another pointless mark, but it somehow felt right. She was crossing this man off the list, in the most literal way. He would never come near a child again.

After carving the X, she placed the head right in the center. It seemed appropriate. The X, it appeared, truly did mark the spot. How very appropriate.

Tasks complete, she walked over to where she had left the camera, still stuck covertly outside the confessional. She pocketed it and carefully slipped out a side door into the back alley. Meandering through back alleys and staying away from any cameras, she made her way back to where she had parked many blocks away. She drove carefully away.

Stopping in the middle of an abandoned parking lot on a deserted side of the town. She selected a couple of transfer options on her smartphone and transferred the encrypted video from an unknown account to another unknown account. She popped the burner SIM card out and was crushed it with the blunt end of her dagger. She threw it outside her window.

She pulled out of the desolate area and started driving to her hotel. She was really looking forward to the bath she had planned for tonight.

Image Credit:

Found on Pinterest via Ander Serna

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/309763280593772463/

Artist: Bogdan Marica ("BogdanMRK")

Title: "The Bounty Hunter"