Rage and Ruin | 2

1 | 7

D E L P H I N I U M

      "Come in, come in," said a woman standing at the entrance of the event. She ushered the nine of us in quickly, trying to make room for more people to enter.

      Behind us, people were screaming insults about Harding and raising up handmade signs with their opinions written on them. His crimes had cost them taxpayer money; he'd essentially stolen from them.

      "Let's find our seats," Hunt suggested, turning away from the protestors.

      Following his instructions, we sat in an empty row of seats in the back. If there was an attempt on Harding's life, we didn't want to be too close. I glanced around at the people milling about, chattering with each other as they waited for Harding to get up on the podium. There was no immediate suspicions I had about anyone I saw. No familiar faces. I would recognize Benny's scarred face when I saw it. 

      As usual, I had my two knives strapped at my sides, but this time, they were joined by a concealed handgun. The attacker was most likely going to be using a gun from far away. The closest they'd be to Harding was twenty feet away in the crowd. If I was going to take the assassin out, I'd need a long-range weapon.

I crossed my legs, feeling uneasy. To appear more inconspicuous, I was wearing a short skirt and a nice blouse today. It felt wrong to not be wearing my usual black pants, boots and bodysuit. Gone was my belt that usually held my weapons. It felt wrong to look so normal when I was expecting an attempted murder here today.

Other people began finding their seats. I was sitting next to Jake with an empty seat on my other side. It made me feel oddly vulnerable.

      But I became even more on edge when a lanky man sat down in the empty seat. He wore a thick jacket even though it was humid today. Perfect to conceal a weapon. Without being too obvious about what I was doing, I ran my eyes down his body, trying to find any obvious signs of weaponry. There were none, but that didn't mean that he didn't have any.

      "Hot today, isn't it?" I asked him, making a show out of fanning my face with my hand.

      "It sure is," he agreed. I could see my reflection in his sunglasses.

      "Can you believe that I almost wore a jacket today?" Giving him a tinkling laugh, I said, "Sometimes I feel like I'm completely out of my mind."

      He gave a chuckle. "Really?" He ended up saying nothing more, but he unzipped his jacket when he thought I wasn't watching. I couldn't see anything unusual underneath it.

     Jake said to me in a low voice, "Is that him?"

     "I don't know. Keep an eye on him," I whispered and got up from my seat.

      In the back of the event there was a table set out with water cups to satisfy the hot guests. I'd have a better view of the crowd back there.

      I weaved between groups of people waiting for Harding to show. The lady serving the cups of water handed me one and I took it with a grateful smile. Looking over the brim of the cup as I sipped it, I surveyed the people around me.

     There was a short, burly man wearing a puffer jacket in the front row. But he sat with his wife and baby, so that put him lower on my list of suspects.

     A woman sat by herself in the third row. I noticed that she had a large purse sitting in the chair next to her. It could be holding any number of weapons.

     There was no sign of Benny. Even if I didn't know his face so well, I would have been able to find him. It was so scarred from the destruction I'd brought upon the fortress that it still would have stood out to me. He was not in the crowd.

      Although, I thought as I looked farther upward, he didn't have to be in the crowd to put a bullet in the senator. We were in the heart of the city. Skyscrapers covered in shining windows surrounded us on all sides. They reached up so high that the tops seemed to touch the clouds.

      It was plausible that he was in one of the buildings around us. He'd be far from the public eye and it would be much easier for him to hide. But he'd have a much longer range to shoot and he'd need to be much more accurate than if he was just sitting in the crowd.

      Knowing that he could be in any one of the numerous surrounding skyscrapers made me feel even more vulnerable. We were just ants on the ground, waiting to be stepped on.

      The crowd erupted in yells as Harding stepped into the podium. He was a massive man, in both height and girth. Harding seemed unfazed by the screaming crowd and the protestors.

      I trashed my empty water cup and went back to my seat. "Anything?" Jake asked quietly.

      "Nothing of immediate danger," I replied. "You?" He shook his head.

      Harding was beginning to address the crowd. "Hello, ladies and gentlemen of Boston. I know that you're all here to hear what I have to say for my unacceptable actions, and I won't waste any more of your time."

His voice, magnified by the microphone, echoed off of the building walls. If Benny really was in one of the buildings, he'd be able to hear every word.

The senator went on. "I just want to start by saying that from the bottom of my heart, I am deeply sorry." "I know that I essentially stole money from the city of Boston, meaning that I stole money from all of you. I had no right to do that. In the end, look where that got me." I'd never heard anything so fake in my life. He wasn't sorry for his actions, he was sorry for getting caught.

He spread his arms out widely to gesture the podium he stood at. A few mutters went through the crowd. His apology was flowery and he was saying all the right things. The question was, did he mean them?

"I have betrayed the trust of millions, and because of that, I am deeply embarrassed, guilty and ashamed. Because of my actions, my associates and my family are suffering. I can only hope that we can move on from this incident as I work to improve myself in the future."

The more he talked, the more I felt the tension rising. If something was going to happen, the time for it was getting closer and closer. A surprisingly chilly breeze blew my hair away from my face and made me cross my arms for warmth. I could feel my heart pounding all over my body.

"Though my actions might make it seem otherwise, I truly love this city," Harding said, oblivious to what was about to happen. "I want the best for it, and I'm so devastated that I made it suffer."

I felt the urge to stand up from my seat. The anticipation was killing me, and not knowing where the assassin was was making it even worse. He could be behind me, for all I knew.

I turned to look up all around us at the office buildings. Nothing seemed awry. The horrible feeling in my stomach didn't go away. My other teammates seemed to be feeling it too as they fidgeted and looked around nervously, waiting for something to happen. Hunt, Kane and Jake were the only ones who were completely composed and not exhibiting signs of being ready for an immediate fight.

"In the future, I will work towards proving that I deserve the senator position. I will make this city the most prosperous it's ever been."

I took in a shaky breath, feeling the planes of one of my knives strapped to my thigh. It did little to comfort me.

What would I do when I encountered Benny? Kill the only friend I'd had, the only person who still believed in me when I was at my worst? I'd mercilessly killed many people in my life, but I still had some semblance of a conscience left. Would it let me bury a dagger into Benny's chest?

Harding began to speak more powerfully and boldly now. "I will be better. Together, we will face a new day. We will face our other enemies and show them what can happen when we work together."

Then I heard the sound of distant gunfire, loud enough for me to not easily tell which direction it was coming from. Three shots rolled out. Shrill screams went though the terrified crowd.

      Everyone ducked for cover as two of the bullets met their mark. But the senator stood on the podium, shocked but unharmed.

      It was Damien Hunt who fell out of the chair onto his knees as his white shirt began to stain red.