Gordian Slash
2009-05-28 08:48:43 UTC
In the daylight one could have seen the Great Prague Castle from where
she crouched, the verdigris hued domes of St. Vitas Cathedral rising
behind its walls. It was one of the largest in the world, where reclined
the crown jewels of Bohemian Kings and Holy Roman Emperors and other
such historically weighty stuff. At night through a haze of falling snow
and river mists, Lara could only see a swath of acheronic darkness and a
few dimly blinking street lights.
A light footfall crunched in the thin veneer of snow that had now
adhered to the cobbled street. The sound had come from the direction of
the metro stations exit. Lara shifted her gaze in that direction
without any betraying movement of her head or body.
Backlit by the wan glow from a distant yellow bulb, a tall thin
silhouette could be seen standing off-center in the street about a half
block away. Lara hissed between her teeth, an almost imperceptible sound
of disgust. How had it gotten that close before she saw it? It stood
very still, wrapped in layers of dark garments, its head and face hidden
by manifolds of woolen scarves. They did not much like the cold either.
Its head was cocked to one side in an attitude of bemused wariness, the
long-fingered hands hanging at its sides twitched every few seconds.
Just the one then.
Lara wanted to follow it back to its lair, which she was certain was in
the Old Town cadastral. That had been the whole point of the exercise.
It was clear, however, that the wraith was aware of her - if not of her
personally, then of a sense of something it did not like concerning the
area between it and the bridge. There was another bridge across the
Vitava, but it was over a mile away...
The silhouette darted forward a few steps, the movement looking like
nothing so much as a kind of mincing insectoid hop. Lara found herself
fascinated, the whole of her attention drawn to the figure despite her
native caution. She knew they could move very fast over short distances.
This one however seemed the personification of nervous uncertainty.
Another darting hop brought it to rest along the curbing a few dozen
yards away, its cloth wrapped head slowly turning from side to side like
the dish of a scanning radar. How they moved amongst the people of
Prague largely unnoticed was a constant amazement to her, so pronounced
were the differences in body language and poise.
A small drift of dust rained down on Lara. The woman looked at the
red-brown grit spattered across the sleeve of her jacket - it was clay,
glazed but so old it was turning to powder. Just like the tiles commonly
found in Central Europe on older buildings...
...roofs!
Throwing herself away from the building at her back, Lara executed a
full body roll out into the street. The velcro seals she had sewn into
the front of her coat tore away as she yanked the Skorpions free of
their harness, her thumbs snapping open the quick release clasps holding
them in place. She came up with a large long-barreled machine pistol in
each gloved hand, and aimed the weapons skywards.
There, on the side of the building, just below the roof tiles but still
above the higher windows, descended another cloak wrapped form. It slid
down the building in a spiders crawl, but faster...much faster. Long
fingers digging into plaster. The first one had been meant to distract
her, and had the falling dust not alerted her to the presence of its
conspirator the second one would have been right on top of her in
another few seconds. They were learning tactics!
The Skorpions stuttered death up into the night. There was surprisingly
little muzzle flash because of the bulky silencers, which also reduced
the pistols rapid reports to a loud pneumatic wheezing. Not exactly
silent...but nothing identifiable at a distance as gunfire either.
The one on the side of the building fell out of the air, plummeting to
smash down meatily on the cobbles below. If the Makarovs had not done
the job the fall certainly had, Lara had heard its neck snap from clear
out in the middle of the road. Wheeling around, Lara found the other
one almost upon her.
Very fast indeed!
She barely got the pistols lined up in time. Twin bursts of full auto
fire took the other one high in the torso...their bodies were different,
but not THAT different. The multiple hits flipped it over backwards. It
clawed the air, and thrashed violently as it fell into the grimy snow -
then lay still. Blood had sprayed from its wounds and patterned the snow
around it. Even rendered black by the darkness, the blood looked
deceptively human.
Lara scanned the street. It was as empty as before, the skirmish had not
attracted any unwanted attention. Returning one of the pistols to its
hanger under her coat, Lara flipped the selector over to single fire on
the other one and put a bullet into the heads of both the bodies. The
things where like wild hogs in that regard, they did not always know
when they were dead. She did not need one suddenly leaping for her
throat while she did what had to come next.
She hadnt expected to find anything useful on the bodies and she was
not disappointed. They had no papers, no money, no keys...none of the
portable ephemera of normal life. One had a folding knife with a
wickedly hooked blade, like a raptors claw. The other had small nylon
bag containing five gold teeth, all of different sizes, and a small pair
of needle-nose pliers. No clue to where they had come from or where they laired.
Nothing to lead Lara to Her.
---
ENDS PART TWO ( LC 9.2 )
she crouched, the verdigris hued domes of St. Vitas Cathedral rising
behind its walls. It was one of the largest in the world, where reclined
the crown jewels of Bohemian Kings and Holy Roman Emperors and other
such historically weighty stuff. At night through a haze of falling snow
and river mists, Lara could only see a swath of acheronic darkness and a
few dimly blinking street lights.
A light footfall crunched in the thin veneer of snow that had now
adhered to the cobbled street. The sound had come from the direction of
the metro stations exit. Lara shifted her gaze in that direction
without any betraying movement of her head or body.
Backlit by the wan glow from a distant yellow bulb, a tall thin
silhouette could be seen standing off-center in the street about a half
block away. Lara hissed between her teeth, an almost imperceptible sound
of disgust. How had it gotten that close before she saw it? It stood
very still, wrapped in layers of dark garments, its head and face hidden
by manifolds of woolen scarves. They did not much like the cold either.
Its head was cocked to one side in an attitude of bemused wariness, the
long-fingered hands hanging at its sides twitched every few seconds.
Just the one then.
Lara wanted to follow it back to its lair, which she was certain was in
the Old Town cadastral. That had been the whole point of the exercise.
It was clear, however, that the wraith was aware of her - if not of her
personally, then of a sense of something it did not like concerning the
area between it and the bridge. There was another bridge across the
Vitava, but it was over a mile away...
The silhouette darted forward a few steps, the movement looking like
nothing so much as a kind of mincing insectoid hop. Lara found herself
fascinated, the whole of her attention drawn to the figure despite her
native caution. She knew they could move very fast over short distances.
This one however seemed the personification of nervous uncertainty.
Another darting hop brought it to rest along the curbing a few dozen
yards away, its cloth wrapped head slowly turning from side to side like
the dish of a scanning radar. How they moved amongst the people of
Prague largely unnoticed was a constant amazement to her, so pronounced
were the differences in body language and poise.
A small drift of dust rained down on Lara. The woman looked at the
red-brown grit spattered across the sleeve of her jacket - it was clay,
glazed but so old it was turning to powder. Just like the tiles commonly
found in Central Europe on older buildings...
...roofs!
Throwing herself away from the building at her back, Lara executed a
full body roll out into the street. The velcro seals she had sewn into
the front of her coat tore away as she yanked the Skorpions free of
their harness, her thumbs snapping open the quick release clasps holding
them in place. She came up with a large long-barreled machine pistol in
each gloved hand, and aimed the weapons skywards.
There, on the side of the building, just below the roof tiles but still
above the higher windows, descended another cloak wrapped form. It slid
down the building in a spiders crawl, but faster...much faster. Long
fingers digging into plaster. The first one had been meant to distract
her, and had the falling dust not alerted her to the presence of its
conspirator the second one would have been right on top of her in
another few seconds. They were learning tactics!
The Skorpions stuttered death up into the night. There was surprisingly
little muzzle flash because of the bulky silencers, which also reduced
the pistols rapid reports to a loud pneumatic wheezing. Not exactly
silent...but nothing identifiable at a distance as gunfire either.
The one on the side of the building fell out of the air, plummeting to
smash down meatily on the cobbles below. If the Makarovs had not done
the job the fall certainly had, Lara had heard its neck snap from clear
out in the middle of the road. Wheeling around, Lara found the other
one almost upon her.
Very fast indeed!
She barely got the pistols lined up in time. Twin bursts of full auto
fire took the other one high in the torso...their bodies were different,
but not THAT different. The multiple hits flipped it over backwards. It
clawed the air, and thrashed violently as it fell into the grimy snow -
then lay still. Blood had sprayed from its wounds and patterned the snow
around it. Even rendered black by the darkness, the blood looked
deceptively human.
Lara scanned the street. It was as empty as before, the skirmish had not
attracted any unwanted attention. Returning one of the pistols to its
hanger under her coat, Lara flipped the selector over to single fire on
the other one and put a bullet into the heads of both the bodies. The
things where like wild hogs in that regard, they did not always know
when they were dead. She did not need one suddenly leaping for her
throat while she did what had to come next.
She hadnt expected to find anything useful on the bodies and she was
not disappointed. They had no papers, no money, no keys...none of the
portable ephemera of normal life. One had a folding knife with a
wickedly hooked blade, like a raptors claw. The other had small nylon
bag containing five gold teeth, all of different sizes, and a small pair
of needle-nose pliers. No clue to where they had come from or where they laired.
Nothing to lead Lara to Her.
---
ENDS PART TWO ( LC 9.2 )