Gaining entry to the fifth-floor apartment was child's play, every hab-tower supervisor had a master key and this tower's supervisor slept like the dead. Stepping into the collection of rooms I paused, senses reaching out. As an Eliminator, rebuilt from the DNA up to be superhuman, I can hear a pin drop in a crowded room, pick out a scent in the middle of a forest, see in the darkness of a deep cave. The soft breathing and calm heartbeat of a sleeping woman told me of my target's location and I carefully made my way towards the bedroom, checking each chamber I passed.
The muted humming of an active computer practically echoed around what appeared to be an office and I crossed to it, turning my head when I woke the screen to preserve my vision. A program was running, compiling lines of code into a virus file, but it was an open document in the background that caught my eye. I knew my target was designated a terrorist, I was told her plans revolved around tampering with the control systems for the city's growth-pods, but her documentation revealed her true madness, the virus being made to utterly destroy the vital machines.
Contemplating wrecking her computer I instead turned, letting out an unheard shriek of pain as my sight and hearing were suddenly overwhelmed. I had to rapidly blink to clear the spots from my gaze, my attention drawn to the woman now in the office doorway. A look of cold superiority was in my target's eyes as she opened a cabinet drawer and I twitched as I levelled the pistol retrieved from it at me.
It was only the presence of the computer behind me that stopped her from opening fire, she probably thought I was just a thief, but I wasn't so restrained. Lunging forward I let out a cry that should have stunned her, barrelling into her steady form a moment later. I was thrown by unexpected resistance, instead grabbing for the pistol, and staggered as a sharp knee drove the breath from my lungs.
"Amateur." The scorn was audible even to my recovering hearing and I glared at her as I gulped down air, careful to keep the computer directly behind me. "Stupid rank Eliminator amateur."
An unnatural frisson of fear went through me when she called me an Eliminator, my mind sharpening, and I ran an eye over her physique, noting the subtle improvements.
"Says the Eliminator who got spotted. You're not a terrorist are you? Which city are you from?"
The enemy Eliminator lazily shrugged, an easy grin on her face, but declined to answer my questions.
My mind raced as I considered the situation. Stopping the Eliminator was paramount, the city's future generations at stake, but survival was also a priority so that I could pass on what I'd learnt. I dove low in another charge, a hastily-fired bullet whizzing just above my head, and grappled her legs, using all of my enhanced strength to throw her over my shoulders. Cursing and the sound of shattering plastics had me smiling, the Eliminator having flown into her computer station, and I darted at her before she could get back to her feet, stiffened fingers crunching wetly into the flesh of her neck.
Panic replaced the coolness as she grasped her crushed windpipe, the pistol forgotten in her quest to live, and I stepped back after taking it, out of the way of her flailing. I was trained only to kill not injure and the injury I'd inflicted was a fatal one if my opponent was normal. As this one was an Eliminator though I had to watch, to make sure she was really down. After a while her gaze fell on me, pleading eyes locking directly onto mine, and I had to remind myself that she was a foreign agent, sent to end my city and its people.
Her hands eventually limply fell away from her neck, her eyes became blank. I strained my hearing, listening for the slightest hint of a heartbeat. Lying among the ruins of her computer she looked so normal, all her modifications amounting to nothing, and I wondered if I'd look the same one day.
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