The assassin stood perfectly still watg the koi swim lazily in the dark pond. He admired their beauty, the quiet fluidity with which they moved beh the surface of the water. The pond was the color of onyx, its depths revealed by the refles of light from the mansion that stood just a few meters away. Around him a small army of garden robots moved silently, re-arranging rocks and raking sand. Their activities and the darkness remihe assassin of the bots in the desert all those years ago.
The events of the last few days were beginning to catch up with him. It was as though the ghosts of those he had killed, Kenzo Yamamoto, Professor Yao, the Russian Oleg Krachev and now this one who was soon to be dispatched to the great beyond, had possessed him. The ghosts were i on draining all the energy from his body.
The first two kills had given him no pleasure but he had felt his blood rad his adrenalin peak as he watched the Russian』s life leave him. The man had begged for his life even as he choked on his own blood. Yet, that had merely spurred the assassin on, the same way he had been psyched up when he』d strahe family』s pet dog at the age of eight. The dog had died with a lot more dignity. The assassihat he was just a few kills away from a well-earned rest, which he was going to spend in Shanghai, the other Shanghai. And the majeneral had promised a surprise. The assassin looked forward to it, knowing that it had to be something of siderable significe for the majeneral to mention it. What could it be? Female pany to apany him on those cold digital nights when the pixels etched themselves into his soul like fresh snow on a naked body?
He had been somewhat fused when the majeneral had interrupted his reverie, telling him of the ge of plan. The majeneral wanted a Japanese minister and a teenage Ameri girl dead and what the majeneral wanted he got as far as the assassin was ed. Once again, the assassin had turo the sario analysis AIs, trusting their judgment totally. The minister was most vulnerable at his house after midnight, the AIs had cluded unanimously. His Yakuza bodyguards generally left around 11.00PM, never later than midnight. How the AIs determihis, the assassin had no idea but he khe AIs had access to terabytes of voice, data, CCTV dumps and who knew what other kinds of information. From this fusion of disparate data they made their dedus in a way no human ever could. He had arranged for the AIs to disable the minister』s CCTV cameras temporarily at a specific time.
The assassihe unit curved around the back of his neck vibrate and he called up the visual image of the menu that administered the drugs that temporarily replenished his energy. He hadn』t used the feature for a while but this time his body told him he would . He made his sele a a twinge as the nanobots entered his system administering the chemicals. A wave of energy pulsed through his body and knowing the effects wouldn』t last long, the assassin moved purposefully towards the house. There was light seeping through the baly of the top-most floor. The assassin knew his quarry lay within, waiting to die.