Black Swan Chapter One Preview
Chapter One
The desert outside was dark and barren. The temperature had dropped when the sun had set some time ago, leaving a cold chill to linger in the night air. Alchemy had lost track of the time after the sun had disappeared behind the sand dunes in the horizon. Not that she could have seen it in the small, dilapidated wood and metal shack that she had chosen to take refuge in. She didn't normally hang out in barren wastelands like this, mind you. But she was on a job, and her profession required her to stay in rather...hostile...conditions. Unlike most girls her age, who were going to school to be hair-dressers, or fashion designers, or some completely useless job like that, she was sniping guys' heads off on the order of her superior. Keeping her profession in mind, the only guys that she targeted were the slime of society; drug cartel leaders, mafia leaders- the root of the whole problem. It was simple basics really: you take out the alpha, then the pack disperses. Tonight was the same concept. She had been given orders from her boss, Hector Javier, to observe a man by the name of Jordan Garcia. Records showed that Garcia was the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company in Phoenix, Arizona. For the past couple of months he had been suspected of supplying some of the drug cartels- including his own- with their fixes. How the leader of a drug cartel made it to the very top of a major corporation was beyond her knowledge. But he did, and he was more protected because of his position.
That was where Alchemy came in. It was her job to locate him and study him, and if she had enough evidence to convict him of his crimes, then she was permitted to neutralize him. That was why she was here in the middle of the desert, sitting in the dark shadows of this little shack. She had chosen this little shelter over two weeks ago, when she had taken the job. It was surprisingly spacious on the inside, considering its small appearance on the outside. A large torn blanket hung in the entryway, posing as a door. The only two windows in the little hut were boarded, save for the little gaps between the rotting boards. A rotted dresser sat against the wall across from where she sat, a few feet across from an equally rotted bed. Whoever had lived here before, had packed up and left in a hurry for reasons that were beyond her knowledge. She stayed in a corner, closest to one of the windows, checking her camera, observing the nocturnal world outside through the small gaps as she worked. All of the daytime creatures had long since found shelter for the night, leaving the desert to an array of both predator and prey that roamed the night. The only light that cut through the pitch dark was that of the moon, which had risen over the shadows some time ago. This was her world-had been such since she left home at the age of fourteen. When she was a kid living in the slums of Phoenix, she was forced to fight her way through her childhood. She had given up her schooling, everything from her life, just to escape an abusive household. Her father was the leader of one of the many drug cartels that all but ruled the streets of Phoenix, and mommy-dearest was right up there with him, supporting his every endeavor...
She shook her head, dispelling the old memories from her mind before they could go any farther. She was twenty-one years old now. She had been on her own for nearly seven years, save for the three years that she had been working for Hector. Hector Javier, by far the biggest grouch Alchemy had ever met, had been the only person that she could confide in after he found her half-dead in one of the many back alleys in Phoenix. She had been walking down one of the quieter streets in the city after her shift at a small diner when some thugs had jumped her and beaten her until she eventually lost her grip on consciousness. She shivered, grimacing, and immediately tamped down the memories of that night as a sharp buzz shot through her right ear. smiled, pressing the button on the tiny device in her ear,
“Talk to me, Hector.” She said curtly, examining the darkened desert. A low growl rumbled through the speaker,
“Black Swan, you know better than to call me that....” Ah, good ole Hector.
“What have you got?” She continued, ignoring the warning sound from her superior.
“The target is on the move, in a dune buggy, about several miles south-east from your position.” Hector spoke quickly before killing the connection. Alchemy sighed, lowering her hand from her ear. Yup, good ole Hector, always straight to the point. Sighing again, she pushed herself up on to her feet, dusting her backside off with her free hand. She wore black, though she dressed scantily; wearing a fishnet top under a cargo vest with a pair of dark grey trousers stuffed into a pair of hiking boots. She wore her heavily highlighted magenta hair up in a messy bun, her bangs pinned back with a bobby-pin. Despite the outrageous color choice of her hair, she would blend nicely into the night. She packed quickly, stuffing a military knife into her boot and another into its leather sheath that was strapped securely to her thigh before slipping the strap of her camera onto her shoulder. Quickly, she crossed the room to a small table that was set against the wall, grabbing her two guns that sat there and slipping them into their holsters under each of her arms. After checking that everything was in order, she left the small shelter, melting into the shadows of the night. She kept low to the ground, using the moonlight to guide her path. She had memorized the area well in her two week stay, and she was small in stature, so she could easily move to her target location without being spotted or heard. That was the last thing she needed here, if anything. Garcia had found a hideout in the nearby caves that were carved into the rock faces, where he thought he wouldn't be found by his enemies when they caught on to his schemes.
mused as she skimmed her surroundings, keeping low to the ground as she ran, minimizing her visibility all the more. She needed to hurry before Garcia decided to relocate from his current objective. But what was he coming to the rock face for, was beyond her knowledge. Surely a man like himself had other hideouts in the city rather than in the desert.
It didn't take her long, twenty minutes at most, to find the designated rock face. Crouching low behind some dried shrubbery atop a nearby dune, she quickly slipped her camera from her shoulder and angled the scope toward the only light that was flickering in the darkness. A small camp-no doubt teeming with Jordan Garcia's gang of thugs. They were about a hundred yards out, but she could still make out their features. They were all sitting around a rather large campfire in an attempt to beat the chilled night air. Their mouths were moving as if they were speaking, and they were exchanging glances with one another as if it were private. Something that could be about Garcia. Ducking behind her camera, she switched it on and trained it on the campsite, zooming in until she could see the facial features of every thug facing her direction. She had inhanced the simple photography device to be enable it to take snap shots as clearly as if they were shot during the day. The tough looking guy in the middle of the formidable circle of twenty or so idiots wore a simple wife-beater and a pair of worn jeans. He had a bronze tan, most likely of Mexican descent, with dark brown facial hair lining his clenched jaw, disappearing under the light blue bandana that he had wrapped around his head. He was most likely the second-in-command in this particular cartel. From what she could see, all of them dawned the same tattoo; a snake wrapping around a dagger with the incription: .
She snorted, rolling her eyes at the irony of the tattoo's symbolism, “ Let justice prevail, my ass!” No doubt this was Jordan Garcia's gang. Quickly she snapped a couple of pictures. Bringing one hand to her ear pierce, she spoke in a hushed tone.
“Hector, do you read?”
“Dammit Black Swan! I am your superior. You are going to address me as such!” Hector barked into the speaker, the keening screech of the feedback hurting her ears.
She sighed, “Fine, fine, I have a report.”
Hector's tone seemed to change the moment she uttered those words when he spoke again in a much more calmed tone, “ Talk to me Black Swan.”
“I found a camp, full of gang members.”
There was a slight pause before he spoke again. “ You think they are Garcia's men?”
“Could be. They're talking about something...”
“Listen and record the conversation. Report to me as soon as you get something worth reviewing.” Hector ordered quickly before killing the connection again. She sighed before aiming the camera at a cactus that stood not too far away from the camp in the shadows. In addition to tuning up her camera for night shots, she implanted a dart shooter that fired tiny mics for just this such an occasion. Taking aim, she fired a dart-mic at the cactus, satisfied when static flooded her earpiece before a male's voice began to materialize through the haze of sound. Quickly, she aimed her camera back at the circle of thugs, listening as they conversed.
“What do you suppose we tell the boss?” The tall, lanky guy sitting next to the one in the middle said, looking around somewhat nervously. The one in the middle growled low in his throat, his teeth clenched, “We tell him that we found the guy in the cave, but we left him alive so that the boss himself could speak to him.”
Alchemy jerked her head up from the camera at the thug's statement, her brow creased in confusion. A man? In one of those caves. Had they taken a hostage for fear of being caught? Was the man a possible witness to Garcia's crimes? But then wouldn't Garcia know something about it? Judging from the goon's statement, the CEO obviously did not. Lifting herself up from her belly to her knees, she brought her hand to the earpiece,
“Red Devil, do you read?” She whispered, the tiny hairs on the back of her neck standing up, suddenly alert to the darkness around her. After a couple of seconds the older man spoke, the rough gravel in his tone making the device in Alchemy's ear vibrate.
“What have you got for me, Black Swan?”
“I think we're dealing with much more than just catching a drug dealer.” She spoke, keeping herself as low to the ground as possible while remaining on her knees. She heard a sharp curse from Hector's end before the old man spoke again, “Explain.”
Alchemy drew in a breath, ready to do just that, when pain suddenly exploded in her skull. Her vision blurred with the dizzying pain and she slumped to the cool sand beneath her. She had been hit! But how?! She needed to get the upperhand on her assailant before things got out of hand. Before she ended up like before...
Pushing those thoughts to the back of her rattled brain, she braced her hands under her, her arms like lead pipes dragging the ground, before trying to push herself up. This time a painful blow was delivered to her back, right between her shoulder blades, pinning her back down to the sandy ground. Her head bounced against the grands and the world was already spiralling out of existence, shadows creeping up from the corners of her vision before the sounds around her too faded into oblivion....
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Spain-1511