Paper Crowns

Prologue

She stood in front of the tall mirror on the pale wall, eyeing her new look with a certain distaste.

The previously raven black hair where now a shade lighter with prominent grey lines running through with the cautious perfection of the age she was supposed to look. She had pulled them up into sinister bun, not one stray hair out of place: fitting the typical description of how agents looked like: a casual grey shirt with black dress pants making her seem sharp and prim. Even her twenty year old face was painstakingly modified to match the decades of age she had seemed to gain in one day; the crease lines painted in brown over her olive skin, cheeks gaunt, a striking contrast to her bright, alert eyes. Her contour palette had done her face well. She pulled out a few loose grey hairs, to match the frayed ends spraying out from the face now resting with a horrified expression on the cold marble floor.

"Impressive." She murmured in a low voice as she deliberated on strangely meticulous and hauntingly familiar resemblance.

She stepped over the pool of warm blood that lay around the grey haired head. The cold metal pressed against the pocket of her pants. Even he room she was in belonged to her. It had cemented walls and a strong smell of parchment and female perfume, Channel 5 to be specific. The room was dim, but lavishly ancient with a grandfather clock ticking and chiming on one edge. It was too large; with its attached bathroom and shelves of boring books, its walls printed with the success stories of the now dead agent.

She suddenly smiled. A devious terrible smile. The agency she had so long wanted to visit, she was standing in its largest room. It had always been the Asian agency: just that, no questions asked. But now she knew. Down to every detail; the secret whereabouts, the ins and out, the strong lineage of agents that ran this place. She was now one of them. Luckily, no one was ever going to ever catch the fake identity she was now living with such a strong resemblance. And as she had stripped the dead body of the small cell phone and the wireless earpiece, learnt who were the dead agent's friends and foes. But in her head, the plan was crystal clear with only one real enemy in front of the rest of the pawns.

This was like a game of chess. A clever game whose outcome was clear in her head. The battle plan was ready, the pawns ready to be played first. So many years of planning how to defeat the unbeatable, she realized the power a gun had over mankind. Such a small cost, just human blood.

But terrible things had happened. And terrible things had to be done. All for the greater good. Every knight on the defense line had to be slowly taken down until the King acquired his rightful place. Slowly, but they would get there.

Suddenly the ear piece she had connected to her own cell phone buzzed.

"Is the job done?"

His briskness was not surprising. He had been like that as long as she remembered, tough and silent, but a mastermind at work. Her lips swirled into a smile she had no control over.

"Of course. Did you think otherwise?"

And she herself was no less of devious planner. She observed, she knew what others hid, she knew where to poke, which bark to scratch. And most of all, she knew when to strike. Like a hungry snake with its eyes set of the prey, a trap so tight it was impossible to escape. She was perfect for the job. They adored her.

"Where are you?"

"In my room, where else?"

"And where is she?"

"On my floor, dead."

She threw the woman another fleeting glance, remembering how she had caught her on the blindside.