ORIGIN: The Hollow Reaper

“Ghost, can you hear me?”

Michaelis heard the voice of a teenage girl through his earpiece.

“Loud and clear, pink.” Michaelis said while adjusting the tie looking at the mirror. A handsome young man of late twenties stared back at him.

“I do look good.” Michaelis grinned at his reflection.

“What was that, Ghost?”

“Nothing. Has the target entered the building yet?” Michaelis asked as he looked at his Rolex.

“Not yet but he will, in a couple of minutes.”

Pink was Michaelis wing-woman or wingman, in case Pink was using a voice modulator to sound like a girl.

In Michaelis' line of work, anonymity was extremely important. Until now, he didn't meet or know anything about Pink just as she didn't know anything about him, except his codename. The face in the mirror was just a disguise as Michaelis had never revealed his true face to anyone.

“Remember, the client wants you to eliminate the target before he gives the speech.”

“Roger!”

Michaelis took a last glance at the mirror and left the restroom. When he stepped out of the restroom, he was welcomed by a large crowd of rich people. Each woman seemed to wear designer clothes with accessories that were specially made for them while the majority of the men dressed in classic black tuxedos with white shirts and bow.

Michaelis would see the majority of their faces if he turned on the television or roaming through the streets as they were all celebrities, politicians, and famous sportsmen.

“Can you get me an autograph from Dicap?”

“Not for free.”

Michaelis put on his black sunglasses and pretended to be a security guard who he knocked down and left in the dumpster outside.

“Aw, come on Ghost, I don't have any money to give you.” Pink whined with a cute girlish voice.

“You should have saved your two hundred and fifty grand from the last job.” Michaelis said and walked around the place pretending to check the parameter.

Pink didn't reply as she (or he) knew that Michaelis wouldn't do anything for free.

In the world of assassins, Michaelis was a superstar and only a small number of people in the earth would hire an expensive hitman like him. He had hundred percent success rate, no other hitman in the world had such a record. Only a few of the law forces knew about his existence but they could only speculate as he never left any evidence or anything to put a file on him. And the only person who could prove his existence was Pink and if a wingman like her betrayed her partner, the dark world would put a bounty on her head and she would end up dead, so a person with 160 IQ level wouldn't do anything stupid like betraying him.

“Target has entered the building.” Pink said and he noticed the special forces from various countries entering the hall.

And after a while, Michaelis craned his neck and saw a simple looking old man entering the hall while armed guards surrounded him in a diamond formation. Many people in the gala looked at the simplicity with admiration. The target was a newly appointed Secretary of Defense of the United States of America. He was appointed after he helped rescued the U.S President from a scheme planned by the Vice President and the previous Secretary of Defense, an evil man who sent young American soldiers to the warfront only to relay the information over to the enemy side.

The target had received various prizes and awards including the Nobel prize for his courage and bravery in the flawless plans on how to rescue the U.S President. He was here to give a speech about 'ahimsa' and 'world peace' and Michaelis was here to make sure the entire world see the demise of the man.

However while everyone was looking at the target like he's the god of peace, Michaelis snickered inside because the face that the target was showing to the outside world was as fake as Michaelis' face. Michaelis had his own moral ethic, no matter the payment, he wouldn't kill an innocent man, and Secretary of Defense McAlister was not an innocent man.

Everyone thought Charles McAlister as the man who will bring the U.S Military to a greater height, but they failed to question how he survived while plotting on foiling the plans of the previous Secretary of Defense right under his nose. No matter how careful he planned, a ruthless man like Tony Hamilton would have killed him a long time ago to avoid anyone finding out about the scheme, but Charles McAlister survived.

Except the dark world, no one knew the real Charles McAlister. Tony Hamilton was only a Secretary of Defense for the outside world but the real mastermind behind him was none but Charles McAlister. His simplicity was just for show as he was the richest man in the world and he made his fortune by drug and human trafficking, yet the outside world didn't know this.

Since no one could prove him guilty, some rich fool from somewhere was paying Michaelis to take him out. As far as Michaelis was concerned, he was getting paid to take out dirt like him for a sweet amount of a million dollars.

“Tango two, take my position, loo break.” Michaelis spoke into his security guard walkie talkie.

“Copy that Tango one, on my way.” someone spoke through the walkie talkie but the walkie talkie was already in the flower vase.

Michaelis had done more hard assassinations than this one and compared to some of his hits, this was like a cakewalk to him. The reason for his perfect hundred percent success rate came from his extremely careful preparation. He would take only one or two jobs per year as he would take at least six months to prepare and plan his hit. If a typical hitman had a plan A and B. Michaelis had plans from letter A to Z and normally he would go for the simple plan rather than the complex one.

“I will reach my position in a hundred seconds.” Michaelis informed Pink and opened the staff only door.

“Roger that. No signs of people around the area.”

The guards and securities were busy checking out the hot actresses and didn't notice him a bit.

The staff only room was just there for the securities to keep the belonging in the lockers and change their clothes after work.

“Fifth locker.”

There was a row of gym lockers before him as he looked at the fifth locker from the right and walked towards it.

“Is it in there?” Pink's curious voice rang in his ears.

“No.” Michaelis didn't open the locker but jumped on the locker and slid the ceiling above him as it opened like a door. Only the engineer who designed this five-star hotel and a few workers who knew about this until Michaelis hacked his computer and stole the original blueprints during the engineer's visit to Tahiti with his family. The engineer had no idea that Michaelis was the one who manipulated the travel agency data and selected him for the free trip program to Tahiti.

“Damn! I hope these rats didn't eat it.” Michaelis climbed the ceiling and closed the entrance but frowned when he saw the rats running through the vents before him.

“Eat what?”

“Tell you later, how's the parade going?” Michaelis whispered and crawled through the vents without making any noise.

“Now they are crossing the fifth avenue, five minutes till they reach your place!”

“Roger that! Going radio silence, catch you in the next job!”

“That much confidence huh? Alrighty, see you later, Ghost.” Pink disconnected the line while Michaelis set the three-minute timer in his watch.

After crawling through the vent for exactly one minute, Michaelis saw the familiar black bag that he left in the vent three months ago. Reaching the black bag, he brushed away the dust and slowly opened the zip to reveal the Kel tec rfb sniper rifle with a thermal scope. However, the sniper wasn't made of metal and regular parts but this rifle was custom made for him using nothing but plastic, so when the security firm scanned the place with metal detectors and everything, they couldn't find it. Since it was made of plastic, the rifle could only fire one bullet because the heat produced by firing the bullet would melt and damage the rifle and render it useless.

The bullet was made of a special type of plastic that could penetrate through the steel without making a noise. This rifle and bullet alone cost him two hundred grand. And besides the cost, he had only one shot to take out Charles McAlister and if he missed the shot, there wouldn't be a chance like this again and his reputation would be tainted.

“Four minutes more.” Michaelis turned on the thermal scope and aimed at the center of the hall where Charles McAlister would start his speech.

“God bless America!”

Michaelis heard Charles McAlister's voice through the speakers in the hall and aimed his cross-air at the head of the red figure in his thermal scope.

“Diddle, diddle, we are so little.”

The moment he said the word little, he pulled the trigger, and boom, a sound like a watermelon exploded echoed through the hall. However before even he could let a proud grin after his excellent bullseye, he felt a sense of a danger. Leaning to the left side, he barely saved himself from getting a hole drilled through his heart by a bullet.

“Shit! Pink, I've been compromised!” Michaelis said through his earpiece, but all he got was static noise as a response.

He crawled backwards and exited the vent, landing on the floor of the staff room. He took out two handguns from his hip holster. It was a SiG 312 with a range of nine millimeters and and a twelve round mag. He knew he had been compromised but still, he was calm and composed, he had already also planned for this type of scenario and he had already planned an escape route should this plan be initiated.

“He's in the staff room, find him!” he heard voices from outside the door.

'Shit!' Michaelis cursed in his mind, things weren't going exactly as he planned. Seems like he has to improvise. He also came to understand that there seemed to be another hitman with a job; Eliminate the Ghost.

“The Continental seems to haven't learnt their lesson from their history with John Wick, now they betray me too.” Michaelis said as he aimed both guns at the door waiting the security outside to bust in.

PA! PA!

Shooting down the first two security men who came inside the room, Michaelis swung a right hook at the jaw of the third man, incapacitating him for a few seconds, then he raised him in front of him as used him as a meat-shield while he shot at the other men at the back.

Gunshots rang in hall and the noisy cries from the crowd of people as well as the shouts from the military men made hearing any clear sound an impossible feat.

Emptying the mag of the handguns, Michaelis took out two short S-shaped knives with wooden handles; the Butterfly blades.

'My only way out is through the kitchen, but first I have to clear these guys before the military take actions or else I'm screwed.' Michaelis thought to himself as he improvised on a new escape plan.

With a speed on par with marathon runners, Michaelis dashed to a security man guarding the door, using the knife to graze the man's neck, he moved without sparing a second glance, he knew the guard was dead and he was just a few steps away from achieving success on his escape.

POP!

A popping sound was heard and Michaelis clutched his throat with both hands as his eyes widened in shock and horror. He had made a fatal mistake; he had forgotten about the second hitman in his haste to escape.

“Diddle diddle, Ghost was so little.” Pink's girlish voice sounded in his ear via the earpiece.

Michaelis' eyes showed unwillingness to die, but sadly that choice was no longer his. As his whole world around him turned white, he heard a sudden ding sound in his head.

«Ding! Reaper system activated!»