Rogue Assassin

Madame H

Raven watched from nearby as Madame H and Pierce boarded the capsule and it was slowly carried upwards by the rotation of the enormous wheel. She was not happy.The two people were getting harder and harder to see as the capsule climbed higher and higher into the air and Raven got up to move to a better vantage point. Suddenly, she heard a noise that sent an electric jolt of adrenaline through her body. None of the surrounding pedestrians had heard it; it was, after all, no louder than a small polite cough. But to Raven, it was the unmistakable, silenced report of a high-powered rifle. Her eyes shot upwards and she saw the bullet hole in the toughened glass of the capsule that Madame H had been standing in far overhead. Without hesitating, she shed her long black overcoat and exposed the black leather body armour and tactical harness that she had been wearing underneath.She broke into a run, heading straight forth, the insistent bleep of Madam H's emergency signal sounding in her ear. On a distant rooftop, an observer peered through powerful binoculars at the scene that was unfolding below. He was completely bald but had a neatly shaved band of white hair that ran above his ears and around the back of his head, giving him an almost monkish appearance. He wore a small radio headset, which crackled into life as he lowered the binoculars to reveal his cold grey eyes. A voice reported in his ear: "Long shot one to control, secondary target is down, primary is in scope." "Hold fire, long shot one," "the man calmly instructed," but keep him targeted.He leaves here with us or he doesn't leave at all, understood? ' Roger that, holding on target, "the voice replied in his ear." "Long shot" Another voice cut into the channel, 'I have an unidentified tactically equipped female heading towards the target zone.' The man raised the binoculars again and scanned the area at the base of the wheel and instantly picked out a black-clad figure running at full tilt towards the structure.It would appear that we have flushed the wolf from the flock, "he said to himself with a thin smile. He raised the tiny microphone to his lips. "Control to all units." An unidentified female is the new primary target. Wait until she is clear of the crowd, then take her down. ' Several voices signalled their acknowledgement of the new order. The man pitched his binoculars upwards, focusing on the single figure left standing in the capsule that was now at the apex of its climb. Control to all aerial units, you may begin your approach. ' Raven felt a cold chill as she ran across the square towards the wheel.There was no mistaking the distinctive pulsing thump of helicopters, and they were getting closer all the time. And then something that sounded like an angry hornet buzzed past her ear, and she knew that she was now the sniper's target. She dived behind a nearby ticket booth, and the glass above her shattered into an explosion of tiny fragments. People were suddenly screaming and starting to run as more shots ricocheted noisily off the metal walkway, inches from her. There was no chance of spotting her unseen assailants. To do that, she would have to expose herself and, judging by the frequency of the shots, there was more than one shooter out there. The moment she stuck her head out to get a fix on their positions, it would be taken off.

She pulled a small grey cylinder from the webbing on her chest and struck it hard on the ground. The device ignited instantly, flooding the area with thick white smoke. Madame H felt a growing sense of helplessness; her only asset within S.H.I.E.L.D had just been murdered. Raven had been right: it was madness to allow herself to fall into this trap, but she had not been thinking of the risk, only of the note of desperation in her master's voice, and now she was paying the price. In their world, it was unusual to find someone that you could really trust, and those people became impossibly valuable. It was a weakness that whoever was responsible for this understood and wasclearly prepared to exploit. She knew that they wanted to take her alive – if not, she would already be dead – and that meant she had to try to escape. Capture was not an option for Madame H. She had too much to lose. She searched desperately for anything that might be of use, but found nothing. She could only wait and pray that Raven would be able to get to her. From far below, she could hear screams of panic. She dashed to the capsule's end and peered down towards the base of the thewheel, just in time to see the entire area filled with thick, billowing white smoke.She felt suddenly calm. If anyone could get her out of this, she could. A hint of movement caught her eye, and she turned to look up the river. Headingtowards the wheel, in tight tactical formation just a couple of metres above the surface of the water, were four black helicopters, and hanging from their sides were the unmistakable silhouettes of heavily armed soldiers. 'Whatever you're going to do, My little Raven, do it quickly,' Madame H muttered to herself.The bald man continued to watch through his binoculars as the figure dived for cover at the base of the wheel, shots peppering the structure she was hiding behind. "Watch your targets, long shot units," the man said calmly. "I would rather avoid civilian casualties if possible." Suddenly, the figure's position was engulfed in white smoke. "All units go to thermal imaging," the man instructed. Wait for her to break cover, then take your shots. ' As he watched, a tiny projectile trailing a thin line shot out of the cloud and struck the central hub of the wheel, fifty metres above. Moments later, the figure shot straight upwards out of the smoke, rocketing along the line she had just fired. "Long shot" three to control, she's moving too fast. I've got no shot, "the man's radio reported." "Stay on her," the man barked, a sudden edge of panic in his previously calm voice. Aerial units, hit that capsule NOW! ' Raven hit the curved steel of the Eye's hub at a run, her grappler line snapping back into its wrist-mounted housing. A shot ricocheted off the metal near her feet with a spark, and she dived forwards, rolling in the air, so she landed on her back, sliding towards the spokes of the massive wheel. She fired the grappler again, the mono filament cable snaking up towards Madame H's glass cage.The unit on her wrist bleeped to confirm a solid hit, and she pressed the controls to send herself rocketing skywards again. She slammed into the capsule hard, stretching desperately for the small metal rungs that ran up the side of it to the roof. She caught hold of one of the tiny handholds and swung free, more than a hundred metres above the cold grey waters of the Thames. Suddenly, she felt a searing pain in her thigh as one of the snipers nearly found his mark, leaving a deep graze that began to bleed profusely. She hauled herself up, trying to ignore the pain in her leg. Madame H stared at her from inside the capsule, a look of grave concern on his face. She reached the roof and tried to pull open the emergency access hatch, but it was firmly locked. She frantically searched the pouches on her harness for the gear that would let her blow the hatch, but froze as an enormous shadow fell across her and a huge gust of wind threatened to pluck her off her perch. Helicopters surrounded the pods on all sides; each one was filled with special