Target Assignment

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

12/10/97:

"Hey Oria," Fox said with a smile as I walked through the
front door of the house. He was punching over a PADD on the
table, one arm in his jacket and trying to work his other
arm in with out having to stop reading the PADD.

I smiled, setting my over night bag down on the couch. I was
coming back from a three day run at the House. Taking care
of a some of the business side of running the place, as well
as a few choice clients. "Good book?"

He chuckled, finally getting his other arm through the
jacket. "No, it's an invite," he said, walking over to me.

Pulling the PADD out of his hands, I scanned over it. It was
a very formal invitation to an opening of some kind of
research center in week. It was far enough out from the
local Mega-fold that it was a three day trip each way. Most
of the rest of it was a guess list, food list and who's
going to be speaking for the night as well as the next day.
I also notice that it was made out to Fox, and said he could
bring a guest.

As I looked up at him, he smiled back at me. "Want to go?"

I gave him a stern look. "You're actually going to go to
this?"

He nodded. "Yep, I admit it looks boring, but Rachel is
insisting that I go. It also gives me a chance to get the
_Falcon_ out in actual space, give her a few test runs to
check out the systems."

I handed the PADD back to him. "It's going to be at least a
week and a half. What about Naomi?"

He shrugged, "Newt can come along, though she'll have to
stay on the ship. I'm going to ask Ken to come along as well
so he can keep tutoring her."

Shaking my head, I smiled at his raw enthusiasm. "I'll think
it over."

Fox nodded and threw the PADD over his shoulder and on the
couch. "Thanks. You're the only one here right now. Ken and
Newt should be back in a few hours."

"Where are you going?"

He smiled again. "Milgrove finally decided to fly the
_Falcon_ a couple days ago. So we've been doing simulator
training. I'm going to ask her to come as well, so we can
try some actual deep space combat with a few decoys on the
way in."

I nodded, trying to act like I understood all that he just
said. His speaking was getting rapid fire again, the whole
sentence meshing into one incomprehensible word.

He smiled at me then slip out the front door and through the
T-curtain.

Shaking my head, I picked my bag up and started up the
stairs to my room. Halfway up I was stopped by a knock on
the door. With a sigh I went back down to the main room and
set my bag back down next to the door.

I opened it, expecting to see Rachel, or at least Page. I
was quite surprised to a white tiger on the far side of the
door. He gave me a quick once over with his eyes. "Oriana
Shripon?" He asked.

I nodded my head very slowly.

He pulled a business card out of his jacket pocket and
handed it to me. "You are to come with me."

I almost objected before I could even look at the card. When
I finally got a good look at it I nearly swallowed my
tongue. There was no text on the card, just the image of two
daggers crossed over a heart.

It was the summons of the Guild Elders, my guild Elders. The
first though that ran though my head was that they had
looked closer at what happened with me and Marn, and found
out what really happened. That didn't make sense though, if
they did find out they would just kill me, not summon me to
see them.

This had to be something worse then that.

I flipped the card over in my fingers then slipped it into
my pants pocket. "I'll get my coat."

The tiger nodded.

* * *

The Guild's headquarters is in the one place most people
would never expect to look for it. It's in a small building
complex situation about two hundred feet from one of the
entrances to the Hall. It was a place so absurd that on one
looking for the Guild ever actually though to look.

Think of the logic, why would one of the most hunted
criminal organizations in the Multi-verse be stupid enough
to be set up with in sight of the organization who wants to
stop them?

Same reason my House is a block from a Police Station.
People don't look in there own backyard.

The last time I had been there was almost half a year
before, when I had passed the review I was trying to fail.
Now the leaders of the Guild wanted to see me. I was still
listed as an Apprentice! It was unheard of for the Elders to
summon an Apprentice. Suddenly I wasn't sure if I should be
worried about being summon, or proud for the attention I
would get.

After thinking that though, I decided I should defiantly
worry about being summoned, as well as being worried for
myself for be so excited about it. As I though about it, I
was starting to get an idea of why they wanted to see me.

They had a contract on Fox and they wanted me to server it.

It was the only reason I could think of for them to ever
take an interest in me and if I was right, it meant things
where going to get a lot worse for me then they were from
just being in the Guild.

There was no way I was going to kill Fox. Even if it meant
my own death. If I was right and the Elders were assigning
me to kill him, I could not turn the job down. I wouldn't be
offered this job, I was being ordered to do it.

I was starting to wish I had come armed, but silly me, I
never bother to actually hide some weaponry in my clothing.
I should have at least brought my needler, but I was a
wasn't thinking clear enough at the time.

The tiger finally leaded me to a simple unmarked door in the
back of the building. It looked like it was a janitors
closet, nothing special, not like anyone important was
behind it.

"You can enter now," the tiger said, stepping back a few
feet.

Taking a few sort deep breaths, I clenched my teeth, opened
the door and stepped inside. I excepted something like a
large dark room with a huge podium, torches flicking in the
corner, oily smoke filling the room hiding the faces of the
Elders. There bodies in darkness there shadows flicking on
the back wall with dark booming voices.

It was an office, well light with a row of windows along one
wall. The walls painted plain white with a few pictures and
other things hanging on it. Three desks were set in a U
around the perimeter of the room. The Elders weren't exactly
old, a women and two men, all looking like they were in
there mid-forties. All three were human and each was dressed
in a normal looking suit.

I couldn't help it, I tried, I really did! I just burst out
laughing. There was nothing mysterious, or special about
them, they were just three people running what amounted to a
business.

The three of them looked at each other, and the one in the
middle desk shook his head. "Not what you expected Ms.
Shripon?"

I shook my head, raining in my laughter, but still smiling.
"I'm sorry," I gasped out.

"It's all right," the women, she was on the left side of the
room, said. "That is the point. Who would expect three
business people as the leaders of this Guild?"

I nodded, finally controlling myself. "No one I would
presume."

"Yes," The third Elder said, "please be seated."

There was only one seat in the room. Just a few feet inside
the door set so that I could see each of them with out
moving to much, but in full view of all of them.

"Do you know why you are hear?" The center one asked.

"I would guess that you want me to kill Fox."

The three of them shared a few glances. "Actually no," the
center said, "we never force a contract if it's a relation."

"Oh," was about all I could say, at a loss for why they
would want me here.

"We wish to offer you a contract in person," the lady to my
left explained.

I raised my ears slightly, this was something special. They
Elders don't offer a contract, they give you one.

They all saw my reaction. "Normally we would never offer
something like this to Apprentice, let along one who hasn't
taken a contract yet, but we've found that you will be in
the best position for this quite soon."

"What exactly do you want?"

The second male Elder, the one on my right said, answered.
"The contract is on Dr. Verden Grafrin, and it's only a
possible kill."

The women Elder continued his explanation. "We believe that
Dr. Grafrin is responsible for infecting the third world to
contract the Plague."

"We want you to confirm his actions." The middle Elder, I
was stating to think of him as there leader, continued. "If
he did let this Plague loss you are to kill him."

I gulped, my tail nearly tying itself in a knot from how
much I was twisting it. I hated the idea of killing, it
sickened me, I still had nightmares about the last time.
Somehow though, somewhere in the back of my mind, I could
fell anger growing. If he had done this and I could find
proof that he did commit, at it's most basic level, an act
of genocide, I would be more then willing to kill him for
it.

That scared me, more then a little bit. "Why me?" I
whispered out.

"We have been informed about your upcoming trip to the Krein
moon base. This is where he is located and the base is
heavily guarded. You will be allowed inside..." his voice
trailed off as I waved for him to stop. The Krein base was
where Fox had just been invited to.

"Fox just asked me to go with him less then an hour ago. How
can you know that already?" As I though about it, I
remembered something else. "The date on the invitation was
just a few hours ago. Fox probably got it just a few minutes
before I got back home. How can you know that already?"

The three looked at each other, suddenly worried. "Someone
came and told us about it. Yesterday. He said that both of
you were going there and to offer you this contract."

I closed my eyes, I could see what was about to happen. "Who
was it?"

"A human, said his name was Burke."

I hated to be right like that. "I see... I know Burke, he's
a pest."

The Elder to my right asked, "So you won't take the
contract?"

I slighted my eyes just slightly and glared at him. "I'll do
it," I said, before quite realizing that I did.

The Elder nodded, sliding back in his chair.

I relaxed, hating myself again. I didn't know why I had just
said that... then in a flash, I did. I may not liking being
a killer, but I was an assassin. An ascension who was quite
happy to do her job for some short of justice.

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.
'Milgrove' is (C) 1997 by J. 'Packrat' McCoy, and is used
with permission.