Collateral

Around one o’clock, Rose watches from her van as a few men dressed in black sneak into the residence. She wakes up Sophia by grabbing her by the shoulder and shaking her.

“What’s going on, Rose?”

But Rose puts her finger on her lips, gesturing for Sophia to be silent. Then she points at the men sneaking up to the house. She notices they are wearing black suits. Looks like standard hired security. One of the men stands out. He is wearing black like the rest, but unlike the ski masks the rest are wearing, he wears a metal mask.

“Should we do something?” Sophia asks.

Rose climbs to the back of the van and picks up her drone.

“I am gonna release this drone and listen in on them.”

She passes the controller to Sophia. She looks at Rose in confusion.

“Why are you giving this to me? Don’t you need the controller to fly the drone?”

“Nah, don’t worry, I can control it with my eye implant.” Rose taps her cybernetic eye with two fingers. “You can hold the controller so that you can follow along.”

After the drone flies into the residence, Rose and Sophia follow what’s happening inside. Like a fly on the wall.

Mr Dietrich walks down the stairs in his pyjamas, holding a shotgun.

“What are you doing in my house?” He yells at the masked men.

The man with the metal mask steps forward.

“Our employers are appalled at your lack of progress. So we send a spy to follow you. It turns out you made contact with the target and neglected to tell us. We are here to find out why.”

Mr Dietrich looks confused.

“I can promise you I haven’t made contact with the target at all. My partner had a lead, but someone killed him before sharing it with me.”

“Yes, and the contact checked in at the same hotel he was staying at.”

One of the men shows Mr Dietrich something on his phone.

“Look, my partner died there. She probably killed him. I had no idea he was dead until that woman showed up earlier.”

“What woman?”

“Well, a girl scout came over selling cookies, and—”

The metal-faced man shoots Mr Dietrich in the leg.

“I heard enough. Let’s take him back to base.”

The men start to leave, and Rose recalls the drone.

“What now?” Sophia asks.

“Well, now it is time to have some fun.”

She taps twice on her eye implant, and it spins to life. The van shakes as the rooftop of the van opens and reveals a big energy cannon. Rose feels adrenaline rushing to her head. This is the first time using the gun. And the fact that she can control it with her mind, she just has to think about where to shoot and it hits, just makes her feel giddy. Like a kid playing their first shooter game.

Let’s start with the lowest setting. A small charged energy shot. One of the men exits the house, and Rose puts a small energy shot between his eyes. His head explodes in a rain of blood, and a smile forms on Rose’s face.

“What the hell Rose,” Sophia yells. “You just killed that guy!”

Rose ignores her and focuses on the front door. The metal-masked man walks out, and then two henchmen walk out dragging Mr Dietrish between them.

Rose smiles. She turns the energy cannon to max capacity and fires at the house. The building explodes in a ball of fire, and glass and shrapnel fly everywhere. The men fall over.

“So, now we can interrogate the target. If he is still alive.”

Rose jumps out of the van and runs to the house. Sophia follows her in panic.

“Rose, what the hell. You just killed a bunch of defenceless people. And for what? So we could interrogate some injured guy?”

“Nobody is innocent, Sophia. Remember, they were tracking me down. This was just self-defence.”

“No, it wasn’t. They were people, Rose. They probably have families who are going to grieve for them.”

Rose walks up to the first injured henchman. He is dragging himself forward with his arms, clearly in pain. His body is pierced with different shrapnel, both wood and glass.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Sophia asks.

“Nope,” Rose laughs. She puts her gun to his head, and can’t help but smile when she pulls the trigger, and turns his head into paste.

She walks up to the next henchman. Sophia is pulling on her arm trying to stop her. But she is determined and puts a bullet in the second man’s head too. She walks over to the metal-masked man, and before she can pull the trigger, he whispers something.

“Rose …”

Rose kneels down next to him and removes his mask. Behind the mask, she sees the face of her older brother. Blood is dripping from his mouth.

“Tom! What are you doing here? Are you a fixer now.”

Tom sighs. “I was trying to track down the woman who destroyed my family’s company. The only thing I knew was her name was Sidney Kelly, and she was linked to a fixer named Arthur Johnson. I hired a hacker to track her down, but it all got a bit out of hand.”

Rose stares at her brother.

“It was you, wasn’t it? You are Sidney Kelly. I should have known. You always ruin everything.”

Rose shakes her head. “Nice seeing you again big brother.” as she puts a bullet between his eyes.