Whack-A-Mole

Wearing her full Hidden Blades panoply of black armor with black mask, black gloves, and black boots, Stiletto slipped into Lavanitir Port City just as nightfall arrived, so there were plenty of shadows to sneak around in. Her suit helped her become one with the darkness, which was an asset in her particular business. Tonight she was here to hunt down, kidnap, and then extract a confession from a mole who had been stealing company secrets from Richmond LTD and selling them to a competitor for Jewels. Little did the mole know that his ill-gotten gains would only buy him a nicer burial place after she was finished with him. Before anything else happened, first she had to find the man, which was hard except for one detail.

The briefing mentioned that the mole was a habitual drinker and that he had a favorite bar in Lavanitir called The Captain's Mast. Stiletto would stake out that location and see who emerged from it. It could take awhile for the mole to emerge, so it was a good thing that she had no other business to attend to. Sneaking through the shadows, she found a blue neon sign in the shape of an anchor beneath the name THE CAPTAIN'S MAST emblazoned in gold letters. Stiletto slipped into an alley just in front of the bar and melted into the shadows... now the stakeout would begin.

-Three hours later-

Stiletto had been watching the bar from the side alley and spotted plenty of young twentysomethings stagger out of the front door while completely intoxicated. Her quarry was a moderately obese brown-haired man in his mid-fifties who wore a long white-sleeved shirt with a red tie under a brown vest with blue dress pants and black shoes. Stiletto continued to wait until her patience was rewarded when the man in question staggered out while singing a song about rum and sailing. He staggered away from the bar and down the street while wobbling and spinning but somehow staying on his feet. Stiletto followed him from the shadows... she was not going to let him get away so easily.

-Thirty minutes later-

Stiletto stalked the mole from the shadows and noticed that he was looking for an alley to relieve himself in because all of that alcohol was causing him distress. The huntress could hardly believe it. The man had staggered directly down a grimy back alley where the warehouse was located! He staggered behind a dumpster and let out a belch; moments later the sound of a fly unzipping could be heard. Stiletto seized this chance to catch the mole with his pants down, so to speak.

Blending with the shadows, she walked right by the oblivious urinating man and sneaked behind him. He had just finished doing his business and had zipped his pants up when a gloved hand was clamped over his mouth and he was put into a sleeper hold until he lost consciousness. A minute later the unconscious mole was dragged into Warehouse Number 2187 without leaving any evidence and without anyone spotting the abduction. No cameras or people had seen what transpired and Stiletto had left no footprints or fingerprints to be tracked by. The warehouse door was quietly shut and the two were alone with each other.

The Mole:

[Word Count: 550]
[Total Word Count: 550/1,500]

-Inside Warehouse Number 2187-

Stiletto had tied the unconscious man into a lone metal chair with a plastic sheet underneath and had gotten the video equipment operational. The laptop was connected to a digital camera on a stand that was now recording the proceedings that would soon take place. That was important because the employer wanted the mole's confession on camera and recorded for posterity. The laptop was a state-of-the-art model with encryption so that no outsiders could trace where the signal was coming from. That was good because privacy was needed for what came next... the warehouse walls were also soundproofed for this occasion.

The unconscious mole came to with a start, making the chair scrape against the concrete floor and rattling the plastic, thus alerting the huntress to the fact that he was awake. Stiletto brought out her Suppressed Handgun and strolled over to him, pressing the barrel against his forehead. It was time to get to work.

"Who are you? What do you want with me? I want answers!" The man bellowed at her.

"I want answers as well." The helmet's voice changer turned Stiletto's female voice into a synthesized male bass voice with no accent. She withdrew the barrel of her pistol and backhanded him with her free left hand. He recoiled from the impact and stared straight into her mask with a look of defiance. Stiletto backhanded him again with a forceful blow that almost knocked him over and drew her hand back as an obvious threat that the backhands would be repeated as often as necessary.

"I want answers." Stiletto's voice calmly repeated the demand. She had all night if that was what it took to get what her employer wanted.

"I'm Todd Ferrus. I... I work for Richmond LTD." He gave her. That was not enough. That was far from enough. She wanted to know what made him turn against Richmond LTD and start selling secrets to J&G, a competitor of her employer. Before setting out on this mission she had read the files of several employees with drinking problems and traced their incomes and expenses; she found that out of the fifteen of them, Mr. Ferrus was the one with the largest debt out of all of them because he had five-figure bar tabs in all of Earthland's major cities.

Another factor in his becoming a mole was that he had gambling debts in the hundreds of thousands of Jewels... 600,000 Jewels was the latest rough estimate. He had to be getting money from somewhere since his 70,000-Jewel a year middle management salary was not nearly enough to cover the enormous debt. Theories were not enough... she needed him to confess as much on camera.

"Why did you become a mole for J&G?" Stiletto asked calmly.

"If I tell you that, I'm dead!" He bellowed. Stiletto backhanded him twice and eventually drew blood, which he spit onto the plastic sheeting beneath him. In a manner of speaking, he was right. His chances of surviving the night were slim to none.

"Why did you become a mole for J&G?" Stiletto repeated the question.

"I... I can't tell you that! You know that as well as I do!" Ferrus answered. Stiletto wordlessly turned around, sauntered over to the table, grabbed a taser that had been left, and brought it over to the brown-haired man, jamming it against his large stomach. Stiletto the pulled the trigger and let the electricity flow through him.

Todd screamed and writhed in the chair until Stiletto's finger lifted from the trigger.

"Why did you become a mole for J&G?" Stiletto repeated once again. At the threat of being electrocuted again, all reluctance to speak evaporated.

"I...I became a mole for J&G because I owe money to people. Dangerous people. They're the kinda people you don't wanna owe money to!" He told her with fear on his voice. Stiletto was interested in what he had to say next.

"What kind of people?" Stiletto asked calmly. She made it a point to slowly put her finger inside the trigger guard so that the mole could see it.

"The Anlecottis. They run casinos all over Earthland. I-I ran up a four hundred thousand-Jewel bill in Capital Crocus and in here. I also owe two hundred thousand to the Corlones in Rose Garden!" He answered. Stiletto momentarily paused when she heard the name Corlone. It was the same last name that the recurring nuisance Francesca Corlone used.

"Did J&G offer you money in exchange for secrets?" Stiletto asked with the same calm voice they had been using for the entire session.

"Yes, yes they did! They paid me one hundred thousand Jewels for each big secret I sold. I paid back the Corlones and I'm working on paying off the Anlecottis!" He confessed to her. Stiletto removed the taser and strolled over to the laptop, where she stopped the video recording. She played it back to make sure she had everything. Every minute of the thirty-minute session was recorded and usable.

Stiletto's fingers danced across the keyboard as she sent the video to the client along with her location. Moments later she received an anonymous e-mail with some instructions.

"Remain where you are. Cleaners are on their way to take out the trash." It said. Stiletto deleted the mail, closed the laptop, and waited for the cleaners. Ferrus was sweating profusely because he knew the other shoe was about to drop. Stiletto remained calm and watched the mole to make sure he did not pull a last-second escape.

[Word Count: 925]
[Total Word Count: 1,475/1,500]

-One hour later-

The warehouse door opened and twelve men in all-black clothing with black balaclavas and silver masks with blue lenses entered the warehouse. Stiletto dispelled her handgun and watched their arrival with calm while Ferrus panicked. These men had to be the cleaners.

"We got the footage. Every last second of it's solid gold evidence. Good job." The leader of the cleaners, a man with a black helmet on, informed her in a deep bass voice attainable with the aid of a voice changer. One of the men pulled out a suppressed handgun and pressed it against the mole's head.

"What do you what to do?" The leader asked Stiletto.

"Do what you must. I do not care." Stiletto said calmly.

"Kill him." The leader ordered.

"No, wait-" Ferrus blurted out before two suppressed handgun shots ended his career as a mole. He slumped forward and did not stir. It was over.

"OK, we'll take it from here. We'll clean the place so thoroughly that no one will ever know any of this happened. Get going!" The leader said to Stiletto as the other cleaners began working. Stiletto turned to leave when she spoke.

"You may want to scrub away the urine on and near a dumpster in the alley." Stiletto advised him.

"Thanks for the tip." The leader thanked her before she went out the same door she came in. She shut the door behind her, slipped into the shadows, and eventually worked her way out of the city without anyone spotting her. No one ever knew she was there, and that was the way she liked it. Outside the city borders she disappeared into the night and began making her way to "home" while leaving no evidence or footprints, just like she had in Lavanitir when she had abducted the mole and took him to the warehouse.

[Word Count: 311]
[Total Word Count: 1,786/1,500]