Like A Virus

I am working on the next chapter of Winter Kill, but saw this prompt, so thought I’d do it. Here’s the prompt:

Your challenge today, should you accept it, is to explore your teenager and write your best Young Adult tale and see where it leads…or whatever/wherever the picture takes you. There are no word limits or requirements of any kind. Just see where the picture or genre takes you and have fun.

Here’s the picture:

Enjoy!

---

Eighteen years later…
“John. Status Report,” the voice crackled in his ear. Touching his earpiece, he cleared his throat.

“The place is still shut up. I’ve just completed a thermal scan. They’re still in there.”

~

“Copy,” the man acknowledged and turned to another person nearby. “John reports that they are still in there,” he reported.

The man he was talking to simply stood there, stroking his chin. After a moment, he looked at him. “Tell her,” he ordered.

He waited for him to say anything else but he didn’t. “Mr Kingsley?” He waited until he was looking at him before continuing. “Anyone else?”

“No-one else is needed. Now, do as I say.”

~

“Brown, clean up. Repeat: clean up,” the man said in her ear.

Ivanka Brown touched her earpiece. “Roger that,” she responded. Ivanka stood there, enveloped in the shadows. Reaching up behind her, she pulled her thin grey hood up over her head, covering the top half of her face in darkness. She gripped her two guns in both hands. Glancing up at the sky, a cloud momentarily blocked out the moon.

Ivanka sprinted across the roof and pushed herself off the edge. For a few seconds, she was up in the sky…

Then she dropped.

Curling her legs up underneath her, she rolled up into a ball. She caught a glimpse of people on the roof.

She landed and rolled into a defensive crouch. Ivanka quickly spotted the two people who were up there. Probably guarding the place, as the roof was the only entrance. She aimed one of her guns, with a silencer, and fired. With a startled cry, they dropped down. She went over and knelt down beside them, placing two fingers on their wrists between the bone and the tendon.

There was no pulse.

Standing up, she quickly located a door and opened it. She swiftly descended a staircase. Reaching the bottom of the staircase, she raised her hand and touched the middle finger on her glove, which activated a infra-red scanner sewn into her glove.

Nobody on this floor.

She touched the seam that connected the glove finger to the glove, which broadened the scan to the whole building.

Target was three floors below.

~

He cocked his rifle, and lay it on his lap. The room was dark. He slowed his breathing and listened.

Someone shifted slightly.

A cough.

A sneeze.

Crickets chirped.

Guns cocked.

Creak.

Huh?

The room suddenly fell silent. Even the crickets stopped chirping. He strained his ears.

Nothing.

A tiny waft of air.

Wha-?

Pfft. Pfft. Pfft.

Something pricked his forehead. A tingly feeling spread throughout his bed.

Then everything went dark.

~

She lowered one of her guns as she pulled a torch off of her belt. Shining it around the room, Ivanka studied everybody in the room. Grey metal darts with a skull and cross bones on them stuck out of everyone’s forehead.

She touched her earpiece. “Germs cleaned. Repeat: Germs cleaned.”

Her earpiece crackled. “Our anti-bacterial wash hasn’t quite worked.” Ivanka was always partially amused by their coded talk, but it was still an accurate description of her targets – they were deadly germs that spread like a virus, infecting their organisation, and the peaceful stabilisation of the world at large. She raised an eyebrow at the statement. Someone’s still alive? Ivanka remained silent, awaiting further details.

“Three rooms down. Germ cells are currently contained, but will be lethal if spread. Recommendation: immediate elimination.”

“Accepted.” Ivanka then turned off her torch, and pocketed it. Darkness wrapped itself around her like a cloak. She then reached inside a small pouch strapped to her belt, pulled out her night-vision glasses, and slipped them on.

“Unseen, but all-seeing.”

Agrippas’ monotonous voice echoed through her mind as she nimbly stepped over the bodies. Locating the door, she slipped out, and, sticking to the darkest shadows, drifted down the aisle.

“You are a ghost. You must become one with the darkness – melt into the shadows. Invisible. Silent. Toxic. Deadly.”

~

He drew his jacket closer around himself.

I would really love it if I could be in a hiding place for once that wasn’t so damn cold!

Gritting his teeth to hopefully prevent them chattering, he embraced himself – and trying to ignore the fact that his hands had just gone numb. “Oh, Rollins, what have you gotten yourself into?” he muttered to himself. I really do wish that these assassins would just leave me alone. But, I guess I accepted it when I eventually stood up. I wonder if I’ve wasted the past two years, though? Nobody seems to have heeded what I’ve been saying and doing.

A door burst open. Rollins pressed himself further into the corner. Please don’t find me. Please! There was a click and a beam of light shone directly on him. He brought his hands up to cover his face, desperately wishing that he could melt into the wall. He swallowed. Oh, dammit…

“Dad?” A voice whispered. Hoarse. Hopeful, but wary. I know that voice. It’s…

“Karen?” A sob. A limp. Then he felt someone collapse in his arms. He wrapped his arms around her, resting a hand on her hair. “You shouldn’t be here,” he whispered sharply, though he was reluctant to have her leave. “You shouldn’t have left the others.”

She pulled away, the beam from the torch allowing him to see her tear-streaked cheeks. Mate, she looks so much like her mother. “Daddy, they’re coming!”

BANG!

BANG!

A scream.

“I stole a teleporter earlier today,” Karen whispered, desperation ringing in her voice. “Let’s get out!”

Footsteps were getting closer. Voices were growing louder. Rollins took hold of his daughter’s hands. They were trembling like leaves. Karen relaxed as his hands enveloped hers.

“My dear…go.” A stunned silence was the only answer. “I was only relevant until I could procure the information. Take this,” and he quickly slipped a small pencil into her hands.

“No!”

“Deliver it to Debreli in Region 64 – he’s already waiting for a contact. Tell him he’ll know what to do when he reads the ReNA,” and Rollins tapped the pencil.

“Da-”

“Now!”

Karen threw her arms around him. ” ‘Bye,” she whispered in his ear, her voice cracking. He squeezed her tighter, scared to speak.

“I’m going to miss you,” he finally choked out. She pulled away and he saw something else in her hand. Pointed at him. Cold metal.

His blood went cold.

She pulled the trigger.

~

His eyes went wide as a rage of emotions surge through them. Confusion. Betrayal. Anger. Fear.

“Why?” he whispered, raw. Vulnerable.

His eyes rolled back and he slumped forwards.

Vulnerable…

Ivanka’s mind replayed every emotion that surged through him as she stared at the blood dripping from his forehead. A pang of guilt gripped her as she thought of the raw anger that shone in his eyes.

She shoved it down as her eyes drifted down to her hand where the pencil, or ReNA, rested in her palm. She thought of his hands over hers, trusting who he thought was his daughter…

Ivanka pulled out a device and turned it off. It turned off the holographic and voice disguise and she then pushed herself off the ground. Ivanka then took a good look at the ReNA. She took a deep breath and tried to remember everything she had learnt in Technology about the ReNA. The title ReNA was derived from RNA, or ribonucleic acid, which helped constitute the four major macromolecules essential for all known forms of life. The RNA was a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes, which the ReNA’s purpose was modeled on. The ReNA was a small variant of a USB that was disguised as a pencil. The ReNA stored information such as blueprints, diagrams, and text, which was triple encrypted and then as soon as it was uploaded onto another database, the information was decoded with a password.

And this ReNA was a digital goldmine.

So mission accomplished…I guess.

---

https://maplesswanderer.wordpress.com/2020/01/28/daily-writing-prompt-28/

*coughs awkwardly* So, before you grab your axe and demanded to know what this has to do with Young Adult, the assassin Ivanka Brown is an 18 year old.

Well, it’s not EXACTLY like the photo, but hey! Whatever.

And this is an excerpt from a book of mine published on Amazon called Zion. You can check out the book by clicking here.

Have a great day/night!

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