Operation: One percent

Chapter 15

Note from the author > I have added a youtube video to enhance the reading experience of this chapter. 

Margaret

The adrenaline from Roxanna acted as a successful goalkeeper in not letting my sleep come to me so, I decided to take a walk at a nearby park. The cold breeze was pinching my cheeks.

The plants in Rintalis needed extraordinary effort to be grown. With the disappearance of bees, people had to manually pollinate flowers. Not to mention the constant care gardeners would provide with purified water as without it, even grass would soon wilt away. It seemed that we all existed by force. 

I missed looking at the moon, now displayed in full glory upon a starless sky. Constant clouds rarely dispersed, and I felt privileged to gaze upon it now. Shaped as the shield in my eyes, beautifully circular, I imagined it could somehow catch the poison of my heart, and absorb it, and somehow, it could turn it into the luminosity that adorned the moon when it appeared. Can I ever shine like that?

 The moon was the only thing that stayed the same after all this time and probably will continue to be the same even when I am gone. The notion gave me a weird sense of comfort.

What has my life turned into?

Using pills to escape the feelings of humanity just so I could be taking lives in my path, reducing myself to the essence of a mindless android in the process.

There was a time when I thought that I would never play this role of judge and jury, only to be interrupted by the thoughts of my daughter's body, swung over a shoulder over some man like she wasn't even human, but a bag. Ace is a mysterious and frightening man, and if I knew better, I would drop the mission. 

But I didn't know better. I wanted to see this mission to the end.

It was the only way to avenge her.

The cold wind made the hairs on my back stand up, and a reminder of post-off in 30 minutes vibrated on my device. The price tonight-3500 credits, which I didn't have. I moved my hand toward my pocket to take the pills.

"Taking in the breeze I see."

Before I could even react, a gunshot was fired, missing me by a second. I ran and hid behind a tree, only to be followed by a rain of bullets. My ears rang from the high blood pressure. Someone was missing me on purpose.

And that someone was definitely Ace.

"Good evening Margaret! Can't sleep?"

Did he figure me out already?

"Is that a way to greet a lady? Tsk tsk."

Steadying my hand on the grip of my daggers, I breathed in slowly, trying to figure out his distance and a position in getting him to talk more.

"You are a coward Margaret!"

Hearing it come from someone else made my blood boil in shame because it was true. 

"I am not the one with a gun pointing toward an unarmed woman."

I could hear him laughing.

"I am sure that you have something in your sleeve. Or should I say, on your leg?"

I clicked my tongue.

"So you are also a pervert. And they say that gentlemen are no longer around."

"I hope you got your prayers because I am not feeling generous to let you have your last words."